Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fabrication of a label-free electrochemical immunosensor using a redox active ferrocenyl dendrimer

We report an IgG (=immunoglobulin) electrochemical immunosensor using a newly synthesized redox-active ferrocenyl dendrimer of generation 2 (G2Fc) as a voltammetric transducer. The ferrocenyl dendrimer N(CH2CH2C(O)NHCH2CH2NHC(O)Fe(η5-C5H4)(η5-C5H5))(CH2CH2N(CH2CH2C(O)NHCH2CH2NHC(O)Fe(η5-C5H4)(η5-C5H5))2)2 (G2Fc) was used as a functional moiety to immobilize the antibody on the surface of the electrode. A sandwich immunosensor of the type IgG/Bovine serum albumin (BSA)/anti-IgG/G2Fc/glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was fabricated. The electrochemical properties of G2Fc were thoroughly studied in aqueous and non-aqueous electrolytes with varying scan rates. The incubation time was optimized for better analytical performance of the immunosensor. It is found that the developed amperometric immunosensor is sensitive to a concentration of IgG as low as 2 ng mL−1.
The Lithospheric Architecture of Australia From Seismic Receiver Functions

In the past decade, mounting evidence has pointed to complex, layered structure within and at the base of the mantle lithosphere of tectonically quiescent continental interiors. Sometimes referred to as negative velocity gradients or midlithospheric discontinuities (MLDs), the origin of intralithospheric layering has prompted considerable discussion, particularly as to how they may result from continent formation and/or evolution. Previous Sp receiver function analysis in Australia (Ford et al., 2010, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2010.10.007) found evidence for complex lithospheric layering beneath permanent stations located within the North, South, and West Australian Cratons and characterized these as MLDs. This study provides an update to the original study by Ford et al. (2010, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2010.10.007). Sp receiver function results are presented for 34 permanent, broadband stations. We observe the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) on the eastern margin of the continent, at depths of 75–85 km. The cratonic core of Australia has discontinuities within the lithosphere, with no observable LAB. On the western margin of the continent, we observe several stations with an ambiguous phase that may correspond to an MLD or the LAB. We also observe multiple negative phases at most stations, suggesting a complex and heterogeneous lithosphere. Australian MLDs are likely linked to the presence of hydrous minerals in the midlithosphere and may result from ancient processes such as subduction, plume interaction, or melt infiltration from the paleo‐LAB.
Natural Hydrogels, the Interesting Carriers for Herbal Extracts

ABSTRACT Hydrogels with unique 3D networks and the stimuli-responsive feature can act as smart carriers of different bioactive compounds such as herbal extracts. While herbal extracts have abundant health benefits, sensitivity to environment and process conditions, limit their applications. Encapsulation in hydrogel not only protects them from external adverse effects but also provides controlled release behavior. This review focuses on important aspects of hydrogels, including classification and production techniques involving chemical and physical methods with highlighting natural hydrogels which are more preferably in the food industry, stimuli-responsive behavior, release mechanisms of active compounds, and their biological fate.
Anchoring Sweden’s Downsized Military – People’s Attitude to, Knowledge About, and Trust in Our Military Defense

The hypothesis was that post-Cold War downsizing of the military defense is associated with low levels of public anchoring, and that better anchoring is associated with a perception of a better performance by the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) and with a SAF connection and military experience. An additional research question concerned the level of concordance between the military and political elites and the population on these issues. A questionnaire was sent to 3,000 randomly selected residents. The results showed that post-Cold War downsizing was only partly associated with low levels of anchoring. Better anchoring was associated with a perception of a better performance by the SAF and with SAF connection and experience. There was significant concordance between the elites and the public. The study shows that anchoring is best supported by increased communication of the results and benefits of the military defense to all subgroups of the population.
Field Observation Evidence for Kink Points in the Vertical Kinetic Energy Flux Profiles of Wind‐Blown Sand Over Gobi and Its Significance

Wind‐blown sand over Gobi can cause severe sand abrasion. The vertical flux profiles, especially that of the kinetic energy (KE), determine the erosion intensity. However, the vertical distribution of the KE flux of wind‐blown sand over Gobi remains poorly understood. Here, we report comprehensive field‐based measurements of the vertical flux profiles of wind‐blown sand over three typical Gobi surfaces during four transport events. The results show that unlike the exponential decrease in the particle count flux with height, the KE flux profile curve was non‐monotonic and could be well fitted by a Pearson VII function. The height where the maximum KE flux density occurred (kink points) ranged from 0.09 to 0.15 m above the ground. In addition, the non‐monotonic KE flux profiles primarily emerged during periods of strong transport and were mainly caused by large saltating sand particles due to their high KE as they rebounded from the grain‐bed collision.
Microfacies Characterizations and Paleoenvironment of Upper Part of Qamchuqa Formation from Chwarqauran Section, Sulaimaniyia Area, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

The Qamchuqa Formation was studied in Chwarqauran section, Sulaimanyia, Kurdistan region, Northeastern Iraq. The lithology of the formation contains limestone throughout the whole section except for one bed of dolomite at the Middle part. Twenty-four slides were prepared from 24 rock samples that were taken from this section to discriminate the petrography and fossil content. The petrographic study shows four main microfacies including lime mudstone, wackestone, packstone, and floatstone. Additionally, there are four sub microfacies: bioclast wackestone, miliolid wackestone, bioclast packstone and orbitolinid packstone. However, the fossil content shows the abundance of benthic foraminifera against the planktonic. All the microfacies indicate facies zone 7, 8 and 9A which reflect deposition in the platform interior between the tidal flat to the mid ramp and back reef environment
Systematic Literature Review on Smart Mobility: A Framework for Future “Quantitative” Developments

This work aims to reorganize theoretical and empirical research on smart mobility through the systematic literature review approach. The research goal is to reach an extended and shared definition of smart mobility using the cluster analysis. The article provides a summary of the state of the art that can have broader impacts in determining new angles for approaching research. In particular, the results will be a reference for future quantitative developments for the authors who are working on the construction of a territorial measurement model of the smartness degree, helping them in identifying performance indicators consistent with the definition proposed.
In Operando Self‐Healing of Perovskite Electrocatalysts: A Case Study of SrCoO3 for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

This research was undertaken with the assistance of the UNSW Australia SPF01 funding (S.C.S.). The authors acknowledge generous allocations of supercomputing time at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre via the Australian National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS project fr2) and the Energy and Resources Merit Allocation Scheme of the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre (project pawsey0111). In addition, the research reported in this publication was supported by funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). For computer time, this research used the resources of the Supercomputing Laboratory at the KAUST.
Dickeya dianthicola Is Not Vectored by Two Common Insect Pests of Potato

Dickeya dianthicola (Samson) is an important pathogen causing blackleg disease of potato. Previous work suggested that insects might vector species of Pectobacteriaceae between plants but no conclusive work has confirmed this. Green peach aphids (Myzus persicae Sulzer) and Colorado potato beetles (Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say) are aggressive potato pests and related to known vectors of several species of bacteria other than D. dianthicola. This study sought to determine whether these insects vector D. dianthicola for potato infection. Neither insect species showed olfactory discrimination based on the presence of infection in laboratory tests but beetles were repelled by uninfected foliage treated with 2,3-butanediol, a primary Dickeya metabolite. Beetle recruitment to plants was not affected by their infection status; however, aphids preferred uninfected foliage when conspecifics were present. In the laboratory, neither insect acquired or transmitted D. dianthicola through feeding. In the field, neither insect’s abundance was significantly correlated with disease spread. Overall, this study did not find indications that D. dianthicola is vectored by the tested insect species. Therefore, efforts to limit Dickeya spread should focus on sanitation, water management, and seed screening—not on the control of these insect species. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .
Grid Impacts of Uncoordinated Fast Charging of Electric Ferry

The battery energy storage system (BESS) is an indispensable part of an electric fleet (EF) which needs to be charged by electricity from local grid when the fleet is in the dockyard. The uncoordinated fast charging of BESS in Grid to Ferry (G2F) mode imposes sudden increments of load in the power grid, which is analyzed by a simulated model of grid connected marine load. The probable impact on system stability is examined by MATLAB Simulink and Power World Simulator based models. According to simulation results for IEEE 5 bus system, voltage unbalance factors are 0.01% and 200% for all buses at fundamental and third harmonics frequencies, respectively. The total harmonic distortion (THD) at fundamental frequency becomes 0.16%, 0.16%, and 0.18%, respectively, for three cases. The transient, voltage reactive power (V-Q), and voltage real power (V-P) sensitivity analysis are performed for 7 bus system with load increment contingencies. According to simulation results, the V-Q sensitivity for the assigned contingency is increased by the addition of a shunt generator to the load bus with lowest bus voltage. In case of V-P sensitivity for the selected contingency, the load buses share power among them, and the nose point is attained at maximum shift of power with high V-Q sensitivity.
A Dual Active Bridge DC–DC-Based Single Stage AC–DC Converter With Seamless Mode Transition and High Power Factor

In this article, a dual active bridge (DAB) based single-stage isolated ac–dc converter is studied. By analyzing the root mean square value of the leakage inductor current, the high-frequency transformer turns ratio is optimized for higher conversion efficiency. Three operating modes of the DAB converter are utilized in the control strategy. The current and the voltage waveforms of these operating modes are analyzed. The control variables, including the phase-shift ratio ϕ, the primary side duty cycle d1, and the secondary side duty cycle d2 are combined based on instantaneous calculation according to achieve boundary zero voltage switching (ZVS). The mode transition is seamless while the switching frequency is constant. Furthermore, the magnetizing inductor of the transformer is designed to help the secondary side switches to achieve ZVS. ZVS conditions and parameter design are given in this article. Besides, a 1 kW prototype was fabricated to verify the effectiveness of the design and the control strategy.
Design and validation of learning trajectory-based assessments for computational thinking in upper elementary grades

ABSTRACT Background & Context: We describe the rationale, design, and initial validation of computational thinking (CT) assessments to pair with curricular lessons that integrate fractions and CT. Objective: We used cognitive models of CT (learning trajectories; LTs) to design assessments and obtained evidence to support a validity argument Method: We used the LTs and evidence-centered design to develop assessments that 144 Grade 3 and Grade 4 elementary students completed following the integrated instruction. We analyzed data using multiple psychometric approaches. Findings: The design approach and data analysis suggest that the assessments are well-suited to evaluate students’ CT knowledge, skills and abilities across multiple LTs. Implications: We show how to use LTs to design assessments that can yield valid inferences about students’ CT competencies; these methods can be adopted and extended by others to create additional assessments that can advance computer science education.
Zinc-biofortified lettuce in aeroponic system

Abstract Zinc (Zn) deficiency can be mitigated by several procedures, including food biofortification. Agronomic biofortification is a process that aims to increase the concentration of mineral elements in plants through fertilization. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the possibility of producing zinc-biofortified curly lettuce in an aeroponic system and to establish the appropriate zinc dose to be used. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse under aeroponic system, with the Filó lettuce cultivar. The treatments consisted of four doses of Zn (25, 50, 75 and 100 μmol L−1 of Zn), plus the control (0 μmol L−1 of Zn). The source of Zn used was ZnSO4.7H2O. The experiment was set up in a completely randomized design with four repetitions. The nutrient solution was changed once a week and monitored daily by measuring the pH. Thirty-seven days after transplantation, the following variables were evaluated: fresh shoot mass, dry mass of leaves, stem and root system, Zn concentrations and accumulation in leaves, stem and root, shoot and root system ratio, total root length, specific root surface area and total root volume. No symptoms of Zn toxicity were seen the plants. The greatest accumulation of Zn occurred in the roots, followed by the leaves and stem. Lettuce shoot mass increased to 224.19 g with increasing Zn concentration in the solution to 47.2 μmol. Under the conditions of study, the curly lettuce cultivar can be considered biofortified with 50 μmol L−1 of Zn, without affecting the productive characteristics of the crop.
Building an Adversarial Attack Hat to Fool Facial Recognition

The use of deep learning for human identification and object detection is becoming ever more prevalent in the surveillance industry. These systems have been trained to identify human body’s or faces with a high degree of accuracy. However, there have been successful attempts to fool these systems with different techniques called adversarial attacks. This paper presents an adversarial attack using infrared light on facial recognition systems. The relevance of this research is to exploit the physical downfalls of deep neural networks. This demonstration of weakness within these systems are in hopes that this research will be used in the future to improve the training models for object recognition. A research outline on infrared light and facial recognition are presented within this paper. A detailed analyzation of the current design phase and future steps of the of the project are presented including initial testing of the device. Any challenges are explored and evaluated such that the deliverables of the project remain consistent to its timeline. The project specifications may be subject to change overtime based on the outcomes of testing stages.
A New Non-Linear Joint Model for RF Energy Harvesters in Wireless Networks

Many previous works have treated the conversion efficiency of an energy harvester as a constant or a non-linear function of input power, ignoring the non-linear effect of the operating frequency. Such assumption may lead to erroneous performance analysis or improper resource allocation. In this article, a novel model is proposed to capture the non-linearity of the conversion efficiency as a function of the frequency and power. The paper first exploits the practical harvesters in the literature to model the conversion efficiency as a function of frequency at fixed power. Based on the shape of the efficiency curve, two categories of harvesters are referred to as Type-I and Type-II. The best-fit model for each category is selected based on the adjusted R-square test. Next, these models are extended to jointly consider both power and frequency dependencies. Using these models, the performances of broad-band simultaneous wireless information and power transfer and OFDM hybrid access point are analysed and optimized. Iterative algorithms are used to find low-complexity solutions. Moreover, the impact of the non-linear conversion efficiency on the average battery life in LoRaWAN is analysed. Our results highlight the significant impact of using the joint model of conversion efficiency.
Karyology of Rhodeus amarus (Block, 1782) (Teleostei, Acheilognathidae) from Turkey

The aim of this study was to determine chromosomal characteristics of Rhodeus amarus (Block, 1782) from Turkey by conventional procedures (Giemsa, C-banding and Ag-NOR staining). Metaphase chromosomes were obtained from the head kidney cells. The diploid number was found as 48 and the fundamental number as 76. Chromosomes were morphologically characterized as metacentric (four pairs), submetacentric (10 pairs) and subtelo-acrocentric (10 pairs). C-bands were found to occur on the pericentromeric regions of most of the chromosomes and a single AgNOR was observed on Silver stained metaphases. The results may expand the knowledge on chromosomal features of bitterlings.
Critical View on Buffer Layer Formation and Monolayer Graphene Properties in High-Temperature Sublimation

In this work we have critically reviewed the processes in high-temperature sublimation growth of graphene in Ar atmosphere using closed graphite crucible. Special focus is put on buffer layer formation and free charge carrier properties of monolayer graphene and quasi-freestanding monolayer graphene on 4H–SiC. We show that by introducing Ar at higher temperatures, TAr, one can shift the formation of the buffer layer to higher temperatures for both n-type and semi-insulating substrates. A scenario explaining the observed suppressed formation of buffer layer at higher TAr is proposed and discussed. Increased TAr is also shown to reduce the sp3 hybridization content and defect densities in the buffer layer on n-type conductive substrates. Growth on semi-insulating substrates results in ordered buffer layer with significantly improved structural properties, for which TAr plays only a minor role. The free charge density and mobility parameters of monolayer graphene and quasi-freestanding monolayer graphene with different TAr and different environmental treatment conditions are determined by contactless terahertz optical Hall effect. An efficient annealing of donors on and near the SiC surface is suggested to take place for intrinsic monolayer graphene grown at 2000 ∘C, and which is found to be independent of TAr. Higher TAr leads to higher free charge carrier mobility parameters in both intrinsically n-type and ambient p-type doped monolayer graphene. TAr is also found to have a profound effect on the free hole parameters of quasi-freestanding monolayer graphene. These findings are discussed in view of interface and buffer layer properties in order to construct a comprehensive picture of high-temperature sublimation growth and provide guidance for growth parameters optimization depending on the targeted graphene application.
Uncertainty Representation of Natural Frequency for Laminated Composite Cylindrical Shells Considering Probabilistic and Interval Variables

Due to manufacturing errors, inaccurate measurement and working conditions changes, there are many uncertainties in laminated composite cylindrical shells, which causes the variation of vibration characteristics, and has an important influence on the overall performance. Therefore, an uncertainty representation methodology of natural frequency for laminated composite cylindrical shells is proposed, which considers probabilistic and interval variables simultaneously. The input interval variables are converted into a probabilistic density function or cumulative distribution function based on a four statistical moments method, and a unified probabilistic uncertainty analysis method is proposed to calculate the uncertainty of natural frequency. An adaptive Kriging surrogate model considering probabilistic uncertainty variables is established to accurately represent the natural frequency of laminated composite cylindrical shells. Finally, the dimensionless natural frequency of three-layer, five-layer and seven-layer laminated composite cylindrical shells with uncertainty input parameters is accurately represented. Compared with the Monte Carlo Simulation results, the mean error and standard deviation error are reduced to less than 0.07% and 4.7%, respectively, and the execution number of calculation function is significantly decreased, which fully proves the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The Pooled Cut-off Point of Waist Circumference as Core Component of Metabolic Syndrome Diagnosis among the Iranian Population: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Introduction: According to a nationwide study, one-third of the Iranian population suffer from metabolic syndrome (MetS). The most controversial criteria for the diagnosis of MetS is central obesity which would be defined by waist circumference (WC) and needed to be gender and ethnic-specific. There are several national studies that reported different cut-offs for WC so the present study aimed to do a systematic review and meta-analysis to achieve an overall statistical estimate of WC for the Iranian population. Method: A comprehensive search was conducted in international databases from inception to June 2020. The search keywords were waist circumference AND metabolic syndrome AND cut AND Iran. We used the QUADAS-2 tool for quality assessment and the HSROC model for estimating pooled specificity, sensitivity, and the cut-off point from included studies in R software. Results: A total of 3571 studies were evaluated and 24 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Finally, 8 studies were included. All the studies were cross-sectional. Studies with missing MetS prevalence were excluded. Most of the studies had an unclear risk of bias in patient selection. There was a wide variation among reported cut-offs for WC from national and original studies. The Pooled cut-off points of WC for the diagnosis of MetS was 90.55 cm (95%CI: 90.51-90.60) in men and 89.24 cm (95%CI: 89.13-89.36) in women. The pooled sensitivity and specificity in men were 0.67 and 0.68, respectively and the pooled sensitivity and specificity in women were 0.61 and 0.57, respectively. Conclusion: Our results were highly consistent with the only national study and the only consensus about WC cut-off. Further nationwide studies are suggested to be involved in a Mata-analysis for calculating more precise WC cut-off.