Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Determinants of the Severity of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is an emerging pathogen, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a global pandemic. We aim to summarize current evidence regarding the risk of death and the severity of COVID-19 as well as risk factors for severe COVID-19.Methods: The PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases as well as some Chinese databases were searched for clinical and epidemiological studies on COVID-19. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine COVID-19-related death and risk factors for the severity of COVID-19.Results: A total of 55 studies fulfilled the criteria for this review. The case fatality risk ranged from 0 to 61.5%, with a pooled estimate of 3.3%. The risks of ICU admission, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)and severe COVID-19 were 24.9%, 20.9% and 26.6%, respectively. Factors related to the risk of severe COVID-19 were older age (MD=10.09, 95% CI:7.03, 13.16), male sex (OR=1.62, 95% CI:1.32, 1.99), hypertension (OR=2.34, 95% CI:1.47, 3.73), diabetes (OR=2.25, 95% CI:1.68, 3.03), chronic renal disease (OR=3.60, 95% CI:1.53, 8.46), heart disease (OR=2.76, 95% CI:1.78, 4.30), respiratory disease (OR=3.74, 95% CI:2.15, 6.49), cerebrovascular disease (OR=2.21, 95% CI:1.23, 3.98), higher D-dimer levels (SMD=0.62, 95% CI:0.28, 0.96), and higher IL-6 levels (SMD=2.21, 95% CI:0.11, 4.31). However, liver disease (OR=0.63, 95% CI: 0.36, 1.10) was found to be a nonsignificant predictor of the severity of COVID-19.Conclusions: The case fatality risk of COVID-19 and the risk of severe manifestations were not very high, and variances in the study designs and regions led to high heterogeneity among the studies. Male sex, older age, comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and cerebrovascular disease could increase the risk of developing a severe case of COVID-19. Laboratory parameters, such as D-dimer and IL-6 levels, could affect the prognosis of COVID-19.
The Needles and Shoots Structure Variability of Polish Populations of Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) at a 50-Years-Old Provenance Experiment in Central Poland

The analysis of population variability usually concerns the adaptability of trees to changing climatic conditions and their timber production possibilities. It is already known that several phenotypic and genotypic features determine the adaptation possibilities of a population and every population of a given species may have different adaptability to climatic conditions. The assimilation apparatus is an important phenotypic feature that has a large impact on the functioning of tree organisms and their adaptability. Scots pine, which covers vast areas of Europe, is a very important species in the context of ecosystems’ sustainability preservation, especially in the era of global warming. Therefore, in our research, the inter-population and individual variability of morpho-anatomical features of shoots and needles were analyzed. Nine national origins of Scots pine (three populations each from northern, western, and central Poland), which are a part of a 50-year provenance experiment, were compared. Fragments of one-year-old shoots (5 cm long) with needles were collected from the top parts of tree crowns. An extensive analysis of the morphological parameters of the needles (length and width, density, dry mass) and the anatomical features of the shoots (thickness, the share of bark, wood, and pith) was performed. Our surveys showed that the differences between populations are much greater than between regions. The western pine populations, which have shown the highest volume of wood per ha, had the thickest shoots but the lowest dry mass. The northern populations, highly valued for the very good technical quality of wood, had thin shoots. Pine trees from central Poland had the highest density and dry mass of needles and the highest share of wood in shoots.
Efeito de malhas de controle de velocidade de geradores síncronos distribuídos em curvas de desempenho de funções de proteção anti-ilhamento

The accuracy of anti-islanding protection performance is essential to operational safety into distributed generation systems (DG). Among the factors that can interfere effectiveness of such protection functions, the governor related to the synchronous generator is the focus on this paper. Islanding simulations have performed using different governor controls, and frequency-based relays performances have evaluated by the performance curves tool. The results have shown that the characteristic of the system load is a significant factor in the frequency function performance when droop control has implemented in a synchronous diesel generator. Resumo: O desempenho adequado de funções de proteção anti-ilhamento é fundamental à segurança operacional de sistemas com geração distribúıda (GD). Dentre os fatores que podem interferir na eficácia de tais funções, o sistema de regulação de velocidade associado ao gerador śıncrono é objeto de estudo deste trabalho. Simulações de ilhamento são realizadas diante da implementação de distintas estruturas de controle de velocidade, e o comportamento de funções de proteção baseadas em medidas de frequência é avaliado pela ferramenta de curvas de desempenho. Os resultados indicaram que a caracteŕıstica da carga do sistema é fator preponderante no desempenho de funções de frequência quando implementado o regulador de velocidade do tipo droop em um gerador śıncrono a diesel.
“I can’t live like that”: Reflections of caregiver distress from caring for an individual with problematic substance use

Background: The impact of addiction extends beyond the individual using a substance. Caring for an individual with addiction creates persistent stressful circumstances that cause worry, anger, depression, shame, guilt, anxiety, and behavioral problems within the family unit.The aim of the study: The paper aims to explore the psychological impact when caring for individuals with active addictions and self-care strategies caregivers employ.Methods: The study adopted an exploratory qualitative design and used purposeful sampling to recruit study participants through posters, word-of-mouth, and e-mail. Study participants were required to have a family member living with addiction and not be active substance users themselves. In-depth individual interviews were conducted among 21 participants to gather their experiences, meanings, and interpretation of how it feels to provide care for a family member suffering from addiction and substance use.Results: Three themes, whose overarching focus is the pains that living and caring for a family with addiction caused the participants, are discussed. These included 1) caring experiences, 2) factors shaping caring experiences, and 3) self-care strategies.Conclusion: The stress associated with caring for individuals with addictions impacts the caregiver’s physical and mental health. Specific care modalities targeting caregivers need to be developed to address the health impact and to support self-care.
Interactions of Alkyl Gallates with SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease: A Molecular Docking Approach

Ten natural and semi-synthetic compounds (gallic acid and alkyl gallates) were investigated by in silico methods in order to evaluate their potential inhibitory activity against SAR-CoV-2 using the X-ray structure of SARS-CoV-2 main protease bound to Boceprevir at 1.45 Å (PDB ID: 6WNP). The evaluation of drug-likeness in terms of Lipinski’s Rule of Five and docking results in terms of docking score and interactions with the amino acids residues from the active binding site of the target protein were reported.
Determining Predictive Factors of Para-aortic Lymph Node Involvement in Low-grade Endometrial Cancer

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine predictive factors of para-aortic lymph node (PALN) involvement in low-grade endometrial cancer of endometrioid type. These factors may influence treatment algorithms and determine the extent of lymph node dissection in patients with low grade endometrial cancer. Our hypothesis was that tumor size, location, and depth of myometrium invasion may be independent predictors of PALN involvement in low grade endometrial cancer. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on patients with grades 1 or 2 endometrial cancer of endometroid type who underwent hysterectomy with lymph node removal from January 1, 2004 to August 1, 2014. Data was evaluated using independent t-tests, Mann Whitney U test, and chi square tests. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated for tumor size, location, and myometrium invasion in association with PALN and pelvic lymph node (PLN) involvement. Results: A total of 259 patients met the inclusion criteria. Tumor size was not significantly different between positive and negative PALN samples (4.5cm vs 3.5cm, respectively; p=0.29). Location was not significantly different among positive and negative PALN groups, as the majority of patients in both groups had tumors in the fundal region (75% vs 70.5%, respectively; p=1.00). Myometrial invasion was not significantly different between positive and negative PALN groups (48% vs 28%, respectively; p=0.14). Myometrial invasion was significantly different among positive and negative PLN groups (71% vs 26%, respectively. p<0.001). Lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) demonstrated a significant association with both positive PALN and PLN groups (100% vs 22.31%, and 81.25% vs 19.67%, respectively; p=0.003, <0.001). Conclusions: LVSI may be an independent predictor of both PALN and PLN involvement in low grade endometrial tumors. It remains unclear whether tumor size, location, and myometrial invasion can be used to predict para-aortic nodal involvement in these cases.
Complaints of Paediatric Patients After Dental Treatment Under General Anaesthesia I: Pain. A Prospective Observational Study.

Background: Dental treatment under general anaesthesia for children is a useful option in behaviour management. However, this treatment modality may also be accompanied by considerable postoperative pain. We aimed to specify factors related to postoperative pain and those that alleviate complaints. Methods: Children treated in general anaesthesia and their parents voluntarily participated in the study. Pain was reported daily by children using Wong Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale and by caregivers, using a yes/no questionnaire during hospitalization and throughout the postoperative week. The relation of patient and operation linked factors were evaluated in accordance with the duration and severity of pain. Results: Based on children’s responses and parental feedback, no significant difference was found in pain level between extraction and non-extraction cases. Intraoperative local anaesthesia did not influence pain during hospitalization. Compared to other analgesics postoperative intravenous opioid administration was more effective in pain management. Older patients reported more durable and severe pain during the postoperative week. Treatment time, airway management and the class of extracted primary tooth (molar, anterior) significantly influenced pain during postoperative week. Additionally, parental questionnaires revealed correlation between gender and postoperative pain.Conclusion: Few of the influencing factors are alterable, but with precise and meticulous treatment planning postoperative pain, thereby the distress on families may be reduced.
On the suppression of quantum oscillations and the choice of site energies in electronic excitation transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson trimer

Energy transfer in the photosynthetic Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex of Green Sulfur Bacteria is studied theoretically taking all three subunits (monomers) of the FMO trimer and the recently found eighth bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecule into account. We find that in all considered cases there is very little transfer between the monomers. Since it is believed that the eighth BChl is located near the main light harvesting antenna we look at the differences in transfer between the situation when BChl 8 is initially excited and the usually considered case when BChl 1 or 6 is initially excited. We find strong differences in the transfer dynamics, both qualitatively and quantitatively. When the excited state dynamics is initialized at site eight of the FMO complex, we see a slow exponential-like decay of the excitation. This is in contrast to the oscillations and a relatively fast transfer that occurs when only seven sites or initialization at sites 1 or 6 is considered. Additionally we show that differences in the values of the electronic transition energies found in the literature lead to a large difference in the transfer dynamics.
Detection of Unit of Measure Inconsistency by Means of a Machine Learning Model

The evaluation of sensor reliability is fundamental for all types of energy systems. Regardless of the environment in which a sensor is installed, only a reliable measurement can lead to optimal decisions about system operation and health state. In fact, a faulty sensor may provide misleading information for decision making, at the expense of business interruption and maintenance-related costs. In the literature, several checks are performed in order to detect sensor faults, such as out of range, stuck signal, dithering, standard deviation, trend coherence, spike and bias. However, process anomalies have been rarely investigated, though they often introduce errors whereby the unit of measure of a sensor is wrongly assumed. In this paper such a situation is named Unit of Measure Inconsistency (UMI). To this aim, the authors exploit a Machine Learning model, namely a Support Vector Machine, by considering four different approaches for UMI detection and analyzing two field datasets acquired from Siemens gas turbines. Among all tested approaches, the Radial Basis Function with One-vs-One decomposition proved to be the most effective approach, since it demonstrated its effectiveness and robustness in the majority of the analyses. Thanks to the selected approach, the actual information regarding sensor unit of measure can be provided and further sensor and engine diagnoses can be safely performed.
Mejoramiento del algoritmo ADR en una red de internet de las cosas LoRaWAN usando aprendizaje de máquina

: The Internet of Things (IoT) is an enabling paradigm for Industry 4.0, where sensors and actuators connect to the Internet. The protocol LoRaWAN (Long Range Area Network) is one of the most used in the IoT, and its primary objective is to transmit sensor information over long distances with minimal energy consumption. This protocol implements Adaptive Data Rate scheme to optimize the energy consumed per node, which, when evaluated through exhaustive simulations in Omnet ++, has exhibited opportunities for improvement in convergence time.
Marine Annelida of India: taxonomy and status evaluation and an updated checklist

We present an updated checklist of marine annelids from the Indian subcontinent. Records of annelid species were obtained from published and grey literatures and online databases. Our review of annelid publications was restricted to the Indian continental shelf region. This paper also discusses the taxonomic status of marine annelid species recorded from this region and problems that impede its research. The updated list comprises of 727 species belonging to 334 genera and 72 families. A total of 152 species have their type locality in India including 88 species that are endemic to the region. The current checklist indicates that 25% (183 species) of the records are questionable and require further examination. Our results highlight that marine annelid richness of the Indian sub-continent is underestimated with many of the native undescribed species being most likely concealed under ‘erroneous’ or ‘cosmopolitan’ records. With a combination of factors that include a lack of experts, funding, and failure to update regional literature has resulted in an incomplete state of knowledge for the marine annelid biodiversity from this region. Therefore, there is an urgent need for extensive and intensive sampling to discover new species, conduct detailed re-examinations of doubtful records and, collaborate within the local and international institutes and organizations to improve the regional biodiversity studies.
Monitoring Forest Fire using Geo-Spatial Information Techniques and Spatial Statistics: One Case Study of Forest fire in Margalla Hills, Islamabad, Pakistan

Background Understanding the spatial patterns of forest ﬁres is of key importance for ﬁre risk management with ecological implications. Fire occurrence, which may result from the presence of an ignition source and the conditions necessary for a fire to spread, is an essential component of fire risk assessment. Methods The aim of this research was to develop a methodology for analyzing spatial patterns of forest ﬁre danger with a case study of tropical forest fire at Margalla Hills, Islamabad, Pakistan. A geospatial technique was applied to explore inﬂuencing factors including climate, vegetation, topography, human activities, and 299 ﬁre locations. We investigated the spatial extent of burned areas using Landsat data and determined how these factors inﬂuenced the severity rating of ﬁres in these forests. The importance of these factors on forest ﬁres was analyzed and assessed using logistic and stepwise regression methods. Results The findings showed that as the number of total days since the start of fire has increased, the burned areas increased at a rate of 25.848 ha / day (R 2 = 0.98). The average quarterly mean wind speed, forest density, distance to roads and average quarterly maximum temperature were highly correlated to the daily severity rating of forest fires. Only the average quarterly maximum temperature and forest density affected the size of the burnt areas. Fire maps indicate that 22% of forests are at the high and very high level (> 0.65), 25% at the low level (0.45-0.65), and 53% at the very low level (0.25 – 0.45). Conclusion Through spatial analysis, it is found that most forest fires happened in less populated areas and at a long distance from roads, but some climatic and human activities could have influenced fire growth. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that geospatial information technique is useful for exploring forest fire and their spatial distribution.
Synthesis of MFe2O4 (M: Cu, Mn, Co, Ni) magnetic nanoparticles and their efficient catalytic role in nitrophenol reduction

ABSTRACT In this work, transition metal mixed ferrites (MFe2O4 (M: Cu, Mn, Co, Ni)) magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been synthesised via co-precipitation method and annealed at 800°C. These synthesised metal ferrite MNPs were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) for their structural, surface morphological and magnetic properties, respectively. The catalytic efficiency of the synthesised ferrite MNPs was explored for the reduction of nitrophenols. Cu doped ferrite MNPs demonstrated excellent catalytic activity (more than 90% reduction) as compared to other metal mixed ferrite MNPs which may be due to the soft behaviour of Cu and better separation efficiency of the electron-hole pairs. The kinetics of the catalytic reaction followed pseudo first-order and the average values of the first-order rate constant for CuFe2O4, MnFe2O4, CoFe2O4 and NiFe2O4 were observed to be 0.0031 s−1, 0.0013 s−1, 0.0011 s−1 and 0.0007 s−1, respectively. These results confirm the catalytic activities of metal ferrite MNPs in the order of CuFe2O4 > MnFe2O4> CoFe2O4 > NiFe2O4.
Long Range Polymer Chain Dynamics Studied by Fluorescence Quenching

Over the years, fluorescence quenching experiments have provided a robust analytical means to retrieve information about the internal dynamics of macromolecules in general and the long range polymer chain dynamics (LRPCD) of linear chains in particular. This report reviews the results obtained to date with the two main fluorescence experiments based on collisional quenching that have been used over the years to describe LRPCD. These experiments involve the labeling of a chain with dyes and quenchers either at the ends of a monodisperse chain for fluorescence quenching end-to-end cyclization (fqEEC) experiments or randomly along a polydisperse chain for fluorescence decay analysis with the fluorescence blob model (FBM). The advantages and disadvantages of these two types of experiments are discussed as well as their range of applications and applicability to the field of protein folding. In particular, this Perspective illustrates how fqEEc experiments are being applied to probe loop formation in polypepti.
The slow and the quick anion conductance in whole guard cells: their voltage-dependent alternation, and the modulation of their activities by abscisic acid and C02

We explored the functioning of the slowly activating anion conductance, S-type or SLAC, and of the quickly activating anion conductance, R-type or QUAC, in whole guard cells of Vicia faba L. ; details of QUAC activity had not previously been demonstrated in guard cells possessing their walls. The discontinuous single-electrode voltage-clamp method was used to re cord current responses to voltage pulses and voltage ramps as well as the free-running membrane voltage. At all voltages tested between -200 and 60 mV, SLAC activated with two components, one had a time constant similar to 7 s, the other similar to 40 s. The current voltage relationship resembled that obtained by patch clamp experiments. In pulse experiments and 1 -s ramps, QUAC activity appeared with half-maximum activation near -50 mV and full activation above -10 mV; it inactivated with a half-time of approximately 10 s. Inactivation of QUAC at -40 mV led to the appearance of SLAC. After deactivation of SLAC at -200 mV, QUAC could be activated again. We concluded that voltage-dependent interchanges between SLAC and QUAC had occurred. Frequently, SLAC and QUAC were active simultaneously in the same cell. Abscisic acid (ABA, 20 (iM) activated SLAC as well as QUAC. External Ca2+ was not required, but enhanced the activation of QUAC. Rises in the partial pressure of C02, in the range between 0 and 700 (ibar, caused rapid and reversible increases in the activity of SLAC (and outward currents of K+). QUAC also responded to C02, however in an unpredictable manner (either by increased or by decreased activity). Oscillations in the free-running membrane voltage arose either spontane ously or after changes in C02. They were correlated with periodic activations and inactivations of QUAC and required the simultaneous activity of an electrogenic pump.
Modeling and Simulation of Nine-Phase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor

: To study the operation characteristics of the nine-phase PMSM (Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor), this paper derived the Clarke transformation matrix of the nine-phase PMSM with the winding 3Y shifted by 20° via analyzing the harmonic subspace of the multi-phase PMSM, and further obtained its mathematical model under the rotating coordinate system. Then, a nine-phase PMSM based on the proposed model was built in SIMULINK and the operation mode of starting, braking and phase missing is simulated. The simulation results show that the nine-phase PMSM has good dynamic performance and steady-state performance, which also verifies the correctness and rationality of the motor model.