Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toxicity Assessment of Industrial- and Sunscreen-derived ZnO Nanoparticles

of a thesis at the University of Miami. Thesis supervised by Professor Sung Hee Joo. No. of pages in text. (94) The aim of the present case study is investigating the toxic effects derived from nanosized zinc oxide nanoparticles toward the marine life. In particular, the present study evaluates for the first time the growth inhibition induced by both industrial-derived and sunscreen self-extracted zinc oxide nanoparticles on the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. The experiments, performed at the Environmental Engineering Laboratory of the University of Miami, showed that the toxic effects induced by nano-ZnO were influenced by the type of nanoparticle, as well as their concentration in aqueous media and the exposure time. Specifically, smaller, industrial-derived nano-ZnO induced a greater growth inhibition compared to sunscreen-derived ones, especially at lower nanoparticle concentration in the aqueous media. This behavior might indicate that at higher nanoparticle concentration the toxicity is controlled by nanoparticle aggregation (regardless of nanoparticle size), whereas at lower nanoparticle concentration the toxicity is influenced by the nanoparticle size, as well as nanoparticle type and exposure time. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Sung Hee Joo, for her guidance, support, valuable discussions and insightful comments during my MS studies here at the University of Miami. I wish to thank Seokju Seo who helped me conducting experiments and I also wish to express my appreciation to Andrea Galletti, Maria Arguelles, Kusumitha Perera, and all my classmates met this year at the University of Miami for their support and friendship. I wish to thank my parents for their love and full support from Italy during this year, as well as Daniele Gasparri, Laura Khammash and all of my friends from the University of Bologna. Finally I would like to greatly acknowledge my committee members, Professor Joo (University of Miami), Professor Englehardt (University of Miami), and Professor Bolognesi (University of Bologna).
Evaluation and Discussion of Genetics Content in Museums

BackgroundGenetics literacy is crucial for making informed personal decisions. With rapid advances in genetic technology, a foundational understanding of genetics is now more important than ever for meaningful engagement with questions surrounding health, privacy, and policy. However, genetic content engagement barriers, including geographic unavailability, lack of prior education, and misleading media narratives, can make it difficult to reach diverse populations. Furthermore, with growing mistrust in science and genetic information, interventions to improve genetics literacy, particularly to those beyond a K – 12 classroom, require an approach centered on building science trust and self-efficacy. ResultsFor the meta-analysis, we found genetics content in 88 of the 691 museums queried, typically in science (n=37) and natural history (n=25) exhibits. While genetics content was present in 42 states, there were large portions of the country that were more than 150 miles away from any museum featuring genetics. We found a high concentration of genetics content in sponsored exhibits and a low concentration of content within children’s museums, reinforcing narratives of genetic technology as product and genetics as difficult, respectively. In framing devices, museums fell into one of three categories. Museums with the meta-narrative “Genetics is Fun” focused on interactivity and volunteer facilitation, and emphasized specific inherited traits and genetics tools and technology. Museums highlighting the meta-narrative “Genetics is Relevant” highlighted DNA basics and health testing. Finally, museums with the meta-narrative “Genetics is Discovery” featured heavy use of fishbowl-style genetics labs, highly visible museum collections, and an emphasis on visitor participation in science research. ConclusionWhile each of these meta-narratives leads to high engagement with genetics topics, they also all lead to construction of different personal identities around these topics. For example, watching a diverse set of scientists work in a fishbowl lab broadens definitions of who can be a scientist, but active participation in a genetics experiment through volunteer facilitation builds science self-efficacy. Furthermore, narratives focusing on technological breakthroughs alone may inadvertently send a message that genetics is complex and impersonal. Exhibit creators should consider the design ramifications of each of these choices when creating an impactful genetics exhibit.
Healthcare resource utilization and costs associated with hyperkalemia in a large managed care population

Hyperkalemia is a serious metabolic condition and can lead to life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death. Guideline-directed medications that affect the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone axis can increase serum potassium and may limit their use. Hyperkalemia has been shown to drive healthcare resource utilization (HRU) and costs for patients with cardiorenal conditions. To describe hyperkalemic patient characteristics and quantify patient HRU and costs relative to normokalemic patients from a large US health plan. A retrospective cohort study that identified and evaluated a hyperkalemic patient population from a large administrative claims database. The observation period was 1 January 2015 to 31 May 2018, with a 1-year follow-up period after the index date (the earliest service/claim with evidence of hyperkalemia). Primary patient outcomes included inpatient admissions, emergency department (ED) visits, primary care physician (PCP)/specialist visits, length of stay (LOS) and associated medical and pharmacy costs. This hyperkalemic cohort was stratified by renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitor (RAASi) utilization and chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage for the economic analysis. 86,129 adult patients with hyperkalemia were evaluated in the study cohort (median age: 69 years). There were more males [45,155 (52%)], with the majority of patients located in the Southern United States [45,541 (51%)] and a 70/30 split of Medicare to a commercial health plan. Most patients had CKD, hypertension and hyperlipidemia; ≥80% of the patients had ≥4 comorbidities. Over 40% of patients were not receiving RAASi therapy, and potassium binder use was low (<5%). Patients using optimal-dose RAASi with proportion of days covered ≥80% were observed to have the lowest HRU for inpatient admissions, ED and PCP visits and LOS days. Hyperkalemia is associated with substantial HRU and costs. The development of a quality improvement program structured around the management of hyperkalemia in individuals with heart failure, diabetes and/or CKD may be necessary.
Seasonality, Intensity, and Duration of Rainfall Extremes Change in a Warmer Climate

Precipitation extremes are expected to intensify under climate change with consequent impacts in flooding and ecosystem functioning. Here we use station data and high‐resolution simulations from the WRF convection permitting climate model (∼4 km, 1 h) over the US to assess future changes in hourly precipitation extremes. It is demonstrated that hourly precipitation extremes and storm depths are expected to intensify under climate change and what is now a 20‐year rainfall will become a 7‐year rainfall on average for ∼ 75% of gridpoints over the US. This intensification is mostly expressed as an increase in rainfall tail heaviness. Statistically significant changes in the seasonality and duration of rainfall extremes are also exhibited over ∼ 95% of the domain. Our results suggest more non‐linear future precipitation extremes with shorter spell duration that are distributed more uniformly throughout the year.
Selecting CMIP6-Based Future Climate Scenarios for Impact and Adaptation Studies

Climate change impact assessment studies often use future projections of only a few global climate models (GCMs) due to limited research resources. Here we develop a novel method to select a small subset of GCMs that widely capture the uncertainty range of large ensemble. By applying this method, we select a subset of five GCM projections from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) ensemble for impact and adaptation studies in Japan. At first, we omit GCMs whose global warming projections have been evaluated to be overestimated in the recent literature. Then, we select a subset of five GCMs that widely captures the uncertainty ranges for 8 climate variables and have good performances in present-climate simulations. These selected GCM simulations will be used to provide better climate scenarios for impact and adaptation studies than those in the previous impact assessment project. (Citation: Shiogama, H., N. N. Ishizaki, N. Hanasaki, K. Takahashi, S. Emori, R. Ito, T. Nakaegawa, I. Takayabu, Y. Hijioka, Y. N. Takayabu, and R. Shibuya, 2021: Selecting CMIP6based future climate scenarios for impact and adaptation studies. SOLA, 17, 57−62, doi:10.2151/sola.2021-009.)
Spice Use among Adolescents in the United States: A National Profile of Synthetic Cannabinoid Users

Abstract Objective To provide an updated profile of school-aged synthetic cannabinoid users in the U.S. by examining the factors associated with synthetic cannabinoid (SC) use. Methods Data from the 2015 and 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YBRS)—a nationally-representative survey of high school youths in the U.S.—is analyzed using bivariate analyses and logistic regression models to examine the factors associated with lifetime, experimental, and persistent synthetic cannabinoid use. Results 8.0% of respondents reported any SC use; however, fewer than half of these users (3.6% of the sample) reported use three or more times. Older youths, males, and lesbian, gay and bisexual youths are more likely to report both lifetime and persistent use. Asian youths are less likely to report ever using SC than White and African American youths, while Hispanic youths are more likely to report lifetime and persistent use. Poor academic performance and using other substances are positively associated with lifetime and persistent use. Conclusions Researchers should continue to examine the factors associated with SC use, particularly the influence of age and sexual orientation, as well as patterns of continuation and desistance over time. Policy makers and practitioners should target at-risk groups with evidence-based substance use prevention programs and practices, and they should continue to raise awareness regarding the legal, medical, and social risks associated with SC use.
Torque and Inductances Estimation for Finite Model Predictive Control of Highly Utilized Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors

For many permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive applications (e.g., traction or automation), precise torque control is desired. Classically, this is based on extensive offline motor identification, e.g., by direct mapping of torque–flux–current look-up tables. In contrast, this article proposes a torque estimation method based on online differential inductances identification in combination with a data-driven finite-control-set (FCS) model predictive current control (MPCC). This scheme does not require offline identification or expert motor design knowledge. The required flux maps are determined by integrating the differential inductances in the left $i_{\mathrm{d}}$–$i_{\mathrm{q}}$ half-plane. By considering varying differential inductances, the proposed method is ideally suited for highly utilized PMSM with significant (cross-) saturation effects where estimation models with constant inductances fail. For the identification of the differential inductances, the system excitation, based on the FCS-MPCC working principle, is utilized. Consequently, no additional signal injection is required and the estimation scheme is applicable in the entire speed range. With this method, an open-loop torque control can be realized without knowledge of exact motor parameters except the permanent magnet flux linkage as a datasheet parameter. Extensive experimental investigations on a highly utilized PMSM in the entire speed range including standstill prove the performance of the proposed approach.
Development of a Surrogate Turbulent Transport Model and Its Usefulness in Transport Simulations

For accelerating a transport simulation with an advanced physics turbulent transport model like TGLF, we have been developing a surrogate model that mimics the behavior of the model based on a neural network model. With a steady-state transport solver GOTRESS used, the surrogate model has shown its ability to successfully predict temperature profiles almost equivalent to those by TGLF. The performance of the surrogate model is improved by optimizing hyperparameters and eliminating outliers from training data. Extrapolability of the optimized model is examined by changing the normalized temperature gradient. The objective is to better investigate the nature of the model in addition to measuring its utility in transport simulations. The versatile model, which has been trained with data of multiple cases, is developed applicable to many situations. It shows the same reproducibility as the model specific to each individual case, a fact which unveils great potential of the surrogate model in transport simulations.
Pengaruh Loyalitas dan Fanatisme Supporter pada Klub terhadap Keputusan Pembelian Merchandise Orisinal: Studi pada Supporter Persela Lamongan

This study aims to investigate the effect of loyalty and fanaticism on supporters’ loyalty in purchasing original merchandise. Fanaticism was proposed to mediate the effect of loyalty on purchase. About 100 samples from supporters of Persela Lamongan football club were used to test the proposed model. Data were collected by questionnaire and tested its validity and reliability. We apply Partial Least Square (PLS) method to test the hypothesis. Based on the research results, it could be concluded that fanaticism did not affect purchasing decisions. Meanwhile, it had been proven that supporter loyalty had a positive effect on fanaticism, supporter loyalty had a significant positive effect on purchasing decisions. It means that fanaticism was not able to strengthen the influence of supporter loyalty on purchasing decisions.
Doping, Contact and Interface Engineering of Two‐Dimensional Layered Transition Metal Dichalcogenides Transistors

Owing to an ultrathin body, atomic scale smoothness, dangling bond‐free surface, and sizable bandgap, transistors based on two‐dimensional (2D) layered semiconductors show the potential of scalability down to the nanoscale, high‐density three‐dimensional integration, and superior performance in terms of better electrostatic control and smaller power consumption compared with conventional three‐dimensional semiconductors (Si, Ge, and III‐V compound materials). To apply 2D layered materials into complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor logic circuits, it is important to modulate the carrier type and density in a controllable manner, and engineer the contact (between metal electrode and 2D semiconductor) and the interface (between dielectrics and semiconducting channel) to get close to their intrinsic carrier mobility. In this review, the most widely studied 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) are focused on, and an overview of recent progress on doping, contact, and interface engineering of the TMD‐based field‐effect transistors is provided.
Bioswitchable Antibacterial Coatings Enable Self‐Sterilization of Implantable Healthcare Dressings

Healthcare‐acquired bacterial infections are a threat to public health. Therefore, development of self‐sterilizing implantable dressing materials is in increasing demand. Herein, a series of quaternized triblock copolymers, namely, QP‐b‐PCL‐b‐QPs, are synthesized and self‐assembled into reverse micelles (RMs) in tetrahydrofuran. The RMs contain biocompatible poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) blocks in the shell to render biosafety and responsiveness, and biocidal quaternary blocks in the core to render antibacterial activity. In the presence of bacterial lipase, the biodegradable PCL blocks are hydrolyzed, resulting in the responsive release of quaternary biocidal agents (QBAs) to enable self‐sterilization. The RMs can be facilely impregnated into commercial gelatin sponge (GS) to fabricate RM2‐coated GS, which impose potent antibacterial activity in the presence of lipase. Compared to Gram‐negative P. aeruginosa, the Gram‐positive S. aureus and B. subtilis are more susceptible to QBAs released from RM2‐coated GS. The in vivo antibacterial assays and histological analyses further confirm the validity of RM2‐coated GS in reducing bacterial infection in mice model. These results, taken together, provide a promising strategy for the development of bioswitchable self‐sterilizing dressing materials to reduce healthcare‐acquired bacterial infections.
Using Evolutionary Trees for the Colorectal Cancer Prognosis Prediction

The measurement of tree similarity based on structure comparison has been long used in diverse fields. We applied the evolutionary tree method to study the cancer genome. Cancer evolutionary trees, representing cancer diversity, provide information on the clonal evolution and the clinical outcome of cancer patients. This study considered 107 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients who received deep targeted sequencing of cancer tissues. The evolutionary trees of individual cancer patients were reconstructed from genome sequencing data based on variant allele frequencies (VAFs) of point mutations and small insertions or deletions (indels). The main purpose of this study was to predict cancer recurrence. We mapped the structure of a cancer evolutionary tree to a rooted tree and developed a canonical-form transformation for solving tree isomorphism to ensure that each patient has a unique tree structure. We proposed an algorithm for comparing tree similarity in terms of cost calculation between evolutionary structure trees. The cost was calculated using the node position, tree size (or number of nodes), tree height, node depth, number of descendants of the node (the size of the subtree with the node as a root), and relationship of the node with other nodes. After tree similarity comparison, the cancer patients were clustered into two groups through k-means clustering. The clustering information indicated that the evolutionary structure trees were associated with gender and tumor invasion stage. Several machine-learning strategies including random forest, support vector machine (SVM), bagging, and boosting were used to predict cancer recurrence in these patients. Our results revealed that combining the clustering information of evolutionary structure trees increased the prediction performance compared with using clinical information alone, and tree similarity comparison can help in the prognostic analysis of cancer patients.
Urgency of LiFePO 4 as cathode material for Li-ion batteries

The energy crisis involving depletion of fossil fuel resource is not the sole driving force for developing renewable energy technologies. Another driving force is the ever increasing concerns on the air quality of our planet, associated with the continuous and dramatic increase of the concentration of greenhouse gas (mainly carbon dioxide) emissions. The internal combustion engine is a major source of distributed CO 2 emissions caused by combustion of gasoline derived largely from fossil fuel. Another major source of CO 2 is the combustion of fossil fuels to produce electricity. New technologies for generating electricity from sources that do not emit CO 2 , such as water, solar, wind, and nuclear, together with the advent of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and even all-electric vehicles (EVs), offer the potential of alleviating our present problem. Therefore, the relevant technologies in LiFePO 4 as cathode material for Li-ion batteries suitable to the friendly environment are reviewed aim to provide the vital information about the growing field for energies to minimize the potential environmental risks.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BACTERIAL COMMUNITIES DETERMINED BY CULTURE-DEPENDENT AND-INDEPENDENT APPROACHES IN OIL PALM PLANTED ON TROPICAL PEATLAND

A combination of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-based method and sequencing technologies have initiated a new era of soil microbial ecology to examine the patterns of bacterial communities in tropical peatland. The aims of the study are to verify and compare the bacterial communities in a 12-year-old oil palm plantation on peat of Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia using culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches. The bacterial diversity identified from both approaches were amplified using 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) (341/907) primer, sequenced and analysed. This resulted in recovering a total of 227 bacterial isolates belonging to four major phyla accumulated from 22 genera. Meanwhile, about 216 denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) bands were excised, which corresponded to 195 different bacterial species from 20 different phyla by culture-independent method. Although both approaches detected a total of four predominant bacterial phyla (Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes), in general, different taxonomic sequences were targeted by each method. In comparison to culture-dependent, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-DGGE method identified a higher rate of bacterial diversity and richness and also detected non-culturable bacteria. Thus, this suggests that culture-independent method was showed to be more efficient on the bacterial diversity identification that will lead towards unravelling the hidden bacterial species associated with agricultural practices carried out in Southeast Asia peatland.
Measures of chronic heart failure as the markers of cognitive dysfunction in patients with coronary heart disease complicated by circulatory failure

Cil: Zkoumat vztah mezi morfologickými a funkcnimi změnami mozku versus ejekcni frakci leve komory a funkcni třidou chronickeho srdecniho selhani. Material a metody: U 54 pacientů s chronickým srdecnim selhanim třidy II-IV ischemicke etiologie byly provedeny kognitivni testy, echokardiograficke vysetřeni a vysetřeni mozku nuklearni magnetickou rezonanci. Výsledky: Se zvysujici se funkcni třidou chronickeho srdecniho selhani lze pozorovat nižsi kognitivni skore V a VII podle Wechslerovy skaly, řidsi sedou hmotu v parietalnim laloku, mensi objem hipokampu, nižsi difuzni koeficient molekul vody v sede hmotě parietalni a okcipitalni oblasti a mensi siřku dolnich stopek středniho mozku. Srovnavaci analýza parametrů centralni nervove soustavy u pacientů s chronickým srdecnim selhanim a různými hodnotami ejekcni frakce leve komory neprokazala statisticky významne rozdily. Zavěr: Nase výsledky potvrzuji význam funkcni třidy chronickeho srdecniho selhani jako ukazatele kognitivni dysfunkce a patologických změn v sede i bile hmotě, zatimco ejekcni frakce leve komory je zjevně meně užitecným parametrem. © 2021, CKS.