Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Circular Economy, International Cooperation, and Solid Waste Management: A Development Project in La Paz (Bolivia)

This paper introduces the preliminary results of a development project focused on waste recycling and recovery in La Paz (Bolivia). The aim is to share best practices and to present real-world challenges when implementing appropriate waste management systems in developing countries. Environmental pollution, social inequality, lack of resources, and economic discrepancies are challenges still present in the 21st century, and a global call-for-action is needed to support sustainable development. The project “LaPazRecicla”, financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, provides perspectives that are potentially useful for policy-makers, waste management practitioners, and circular economy visionaries. The article aims to present the effective contribution of the practical actions to the local municipality, and to introduce the reason for why theoretical methods were employed to support the project. The outcomes provided two main indications: on one hand, cooperation among interdisciplinary actors and financial support can give the chance of improvement, suggesting international donors should continue in this direction; on the other, political instability, lack of local technical knowledge, and the absence of planning for a long-term period makes these actions unsuitable for tangible change. Global reflections are required in order to measure the potential benefits of small-scale projects, evaluating the time needed to move towards a sustainable future in low-income countries.
Topographic Controls on Stomatal and Mesophyll Limitations to Photosynthesis in Two Subalpine Conifers

Premise of research. Leaf stomatal and mesophyll conductances limit photosynthesis and influence water use efficiency. Few studies have quantified the relative limitations imposed by these CO2 diffusion pathways on photosynthesis in mature conifer trees under natural conditions. Here, we report observations of stomatal and mesophyll conductance changes during seasonal drying across contrasting topographic positions in two Rocky Mountain conifers. We predicted that topographic controls on soil water availability and energy balance would determine limitations to photosynthesis by mesophyll conductance across conifer species with contrasting patterns of stomatal and hydraulic traits. Methodology. Concurrent measurements of leaf gas exchange and carbon isotope discrimination were used to estimate stomatal (gs) and mesophyll (gm) conductance in branches of an isohydric species, lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), and an anisohydric species, Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), in the central Rocky Mountains. Quantitative limitation analysis of photosynthesis (A) was then performed using data from CO2 response curves. Pivotal results. Stomatal conductance imposed greater limitations on photosynthesis (42%–67%) than mesophyll conductance (5%–17%), but no significant differences in gm were observed between the two conifer species. At the mesic lower hillslope position, A, gs, and gm increased during the growing season despite declines in soil moisture. In contrast, at the drier upper hillslope position, declines in soil moisture and increases in air temperature during the growing season are correlated with reductions in gs but not with A or gm. Conclusions. Adjustments in gm played a potentially important role in sustaining photosynthesis and improving plant water use efficiency when stomatal conductance decreased with water limitation during the growing season at the research site. Sustained gm with seasonal drought may be an important mechanism allowing conifers to survive and maintain competitive dominance in low-resource habitats.
fNIRS brain measures of ongoing nociception during surgical incisions under anesthesia

Abstract Significance: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has evaluated pain in awake and anesthetized states. Aim: We evaluated fNIRS signals under general anesthesia in patients undergoing knee surgery for anterior cruciate ligament repair. Approach: Patients were split into groups: those with regional nerve block (NB) and those without (non-NB). Continuous fNIRS measures came from three regions: the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), known to be involved in evaluation of nociception, the lateral prefrontal cortex (BA9), and the polar frontal cortex (BA10), both involved in higher cortical functions (such as cognition and emotion). Results: Our results show three significant differences in fNIRS signals to incision procedures between groups: (1) NB compared with non-NB was associated with a greater net positive hemodynamic response to pain procedures in S1; (2) dynamic correlation between the prefrontal cortex (PreFC) and S1 within 1 min of painful procedures are anticorrelated in NB while positively correlated in non-NB; and (3) hemodynamic measures of activation were similar at two separate time points during surgery (i.e., first and last incisions) in PreFC and S1 but showed significant differences in their overlap. Comparing pain levels immediately after surgery and during discharge from postoperative care revealed no significant differences in the pain levels between NB and non-NB. Conclusion: Our data suggest multiple pain events that occur during surgery using devised algorithms could potentially give a measure of “pain load. ” This may allow for evaluation of central sensitization (i.e., a heightened state of the nervous system where noxious and non-noxious stimuli is perceived as painful) to postoperative pain levels and the resulting analgesic consumption. This evaluation could potentially predict postsurgical chronic neuropathic pain.
Recovery Degree in Pediatric Patients with Antecedent Severe Traumatic Brain Injury in Mexico

Aims: To determine the recovery degree in pediatric patients with antecedent severe traumatic brain injury. Study Design: Prospective, analytical and relational. Place and Duration of Study: Pediatrics Intensive Care Area of ​​the “Hospital para el Niño Poblano” from March 2014 to February 2015. Methodology: Patients aged 2 to 192 months, both sexes, with antecedent severe traumatic brain injury. The degree of recovery was determined with the Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) at hospital discharge and one year after. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used data analysis. Results: The study consisted of 23 patients, of which 69.56% were men. The mean age was 73.17±50.33 months. The predominant age group was middle childhood (34.78%). The main mechanism of injury was run over by a vehicle (39.13%). The group of toddler remained hospitalized for 17.50±8.58 days. Moreover, GOS at hospital discharge (p=0.391) and at one year (p=0.789) was not associated with sex. Additionally, an association of GOS at hospital discharge was found with GOS at one year of care (p=0.003), with greater improvement being observed, in those cases with less initial damage brain. Conclusion: The degree of recovery at one year after hospital discharge in pediatric patients with antecedent severe traumatic brain injury is associated with the degree of recovery at hospital discharge. Middle childhood, being the group at greatest risk. The complications can reduce the recovery of the patient. Rehabilitation therapy provided by the public health services and the family is of vital importance.
Review on State-of-the-Art Unidirectional Non-Isolated Power Factor Correction Converters for Short-/Long-Distance Electric Vehicles

Electrification of the transportation sector has originated a worldwide demand towards green-based refueling infrastructure modernization. Global researches and efforts have been pondered to promote optimal Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations. The EV power electronic systems can be classified into three main divisions: power charging station configuration (e.g., Level 1 (i.e., slow-speed charger), Level 2 (i.e., fast-speed charger), and Level 3 (i.e., ultra-fast speed charger)), the electric drive system, and the auxiliary EV loads. This paper emphasizes the recent development in Power Factor Correction (PFC) converters in the on-board charger system for short-distance EVs (e.g., e-bikes, e-trikes, e-rickshaw, and golf carts) and long-distance EVs (passenger e-cars, e-trucks, and e-buses). The EV battery voltage mainly ranges between 36 V and 900 V based on the EV application. The on-board battery charger consists of either a single-stage converter (a PFC converter that meets the demands of both the supply-side and the battery-side) or a two-stage converter (a PFC converter that meets the supply-side requirements and a DC-DC converter that meets the battery-side requirements). This paper focuses on the single-phase unidirectional non-isolated PFC converters for on-board battery chargers (i.e., Level 1 and Level 2 charging infrastructure). A comprehensive classification is provided for the PFC converters with two main categories: (1) the fundamental PFC topologies (i.e., Buck, Boost, Buck-Boost, SEPIC, Ćuk, and Zeta converters) and (2) the modified PFC topologies (i.e., improved power quality PFC converters derived from the fundamental topologies). This paper provides a review of up-to-date publications for PFC converters in short-/long-distance EV applications.
Urea-based nitrogen fertilization in agriculture: a key source of N2O emissions and recent development in mitigating strategies

ABSTRACT Agricultural land occupies nearly half of the earth’s surface, and farming activities account for nearly 60% of total anthropogenic N2O emissions. The manufactured nitrogen (N) fertilizers applied to soils are major sources of N2O emissions from agricultural systems. Among the synthetic N fertilizers, urea has the highest nitrogen content of all solid nitrogenous fertilizers and accounts for 66% of global synthetic N fertilizer use. Hence, efficient urea-N management is imperative for global N2O abatement. This review provides an update on advances in N2O-generating pathways, microbial mechanisms, abiotic and biotic regulating factors, and mitigation strategies. Nitrification inhibitors have been extensively studied as strategies to mitigate soil N2O emissions by decreasing nitrification and denitrification processes. Controlled/slow-release fertilizer formulations have been used widely to enhance fertilizer N use efficiency by regulating the release rates of N from fertilizer. Additionally, biochar, microbial inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), biological nitrification inhibitors (BNIs) and biological denitrification inhibitors (BDIs) may enable the development of novel and environment‐friendly strategies for practicable N2O mitigation in future.
The effect of diabetes on mid-term survival of open heart surgery patients aged over 70 years

ABSTRACT Aim : To determine the effect of diabetes on mid-term survival rates of the patients over 70 years of age who underwent an open heart surgery. Material and Method: Patients who underwent an open heart surgery between November 2016 and May 2019 in our center included in this retrospective study. The patients younger than 70 years were excluded. Patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 included diabetic patients, Group 2 included non-diabetic patients. The patients who were followed-up for less than 24 months were excluded. Results : A total 389 patients were evaluated and 93 (23.9%) patients aged over 70 years were included in this retrospective study. Group 1 included 36 (38.7%) type 2 diabetic patients and Group 2 included 57 (61.3%) non-diabetic patients. The general mean follow-up time was 48.25±10.42 months (range between 30.83-77.07 months). The number of emergency operations was significantly higher in non-diabetic patients group (p= 0.005). The mortality rates were similar in both groups (30.55% in Group1, 35.08% Group 2, p= 0.652). The survival times of the groups were also similar (63.49±3.42 months in diabetic patients, 59.40±2.67 months in non-diabetic patients group, p= 0.254). Conclusion : Diabetes mellitus has no effect on the mid-term survival rates of the older patients who underwent open heart surgery.
Blackout Model with Reactive Power and Voltage and Its Self-organized Criticality

Based on existing blackout models and voltage steady stability theory, a new blackout model is presented. The model has the voltage steady stability analysis function module and can analyze and reveal self-organized criticality in power grid evolution from the reactive power and voltage viewpoint. The constructed voltage analysis module includes three kinds of methods: the critical voltage analysis algorithm, the reactive power and voltage mode shape algorithm based on ordinary and optimal power flow respectively, where the last algorithm is the extension of the second one, and would be more convincing in the assessment of voltage stability. Simulation on IEEE 30-bus system shows that the proposed model can practically describe the dynamics process of operation and construction of power grid, reflect totally the trend of power loss and voltage stability margin and therefore assess the level of security operation of power grid from reactive power and voltage.
Pneumonia and COVID-19 Classification in Chest X-rays Using Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Networks (Faster R-CNN)

Chest X-rays have been a subject of deep learning applications on medical images forthe high expectations of their evidence in assessing pulmonary diseases. Whereas thearising of COVID-19 or 2019 novel coronavirus in December 2019 have prioritizedresearch on pulmonary diseases diagnosis and prognosis, especially using artificialintelligence (AI) and Deep Learning (DL). For this sake, we extend the work ondetecting pneumonia using Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Networks(Faster R-CNN) by applying Faster R-CNN to the detection of Pneumonia and COVID-19 in Chest X-ray images using several datasets involving COVID-19 images. Differentcombinations of training scenarios in addition to internal and external testing atdifferent objectiveness thresholds, epochs counts, and lengths yielded variant results.Our results comply with the state of the art of Faster-RCNN in pneumonia detection butdo not show promising results in COVID-19 detection as a standalone model. Futurework may emphasize introducing segmentation to the model pipeline, adding asecondary classification stage, and even engaging other medical data to improve theperformance and constitute a robust Faster R-CNN-based prediction model.
Gauging the Sustainability of Corporatized State-Owned Enterprises (Soes) In Pakistan

Purpose: In accordance with the Washington Consensus, most developing countries were forced to privatize state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Corporatization and partial privatization emerged as two alternative possibilities for any government in circumstances where full privatization was not practicable. Pakistan followed suit and began the partial privatization and corporatization of SOEs working in its economy. This research examines whether Pakistan's corporatization or partial privatization policies have improved the profitability of these state-owned enterprises. Design/Methodology/Approach: If so, what variables contributed to this improvement in profitability, as measured by Return on Assets and Earnings per Share. The paper used data from 1990 to 2015 of thirteen SOEs, largely from the energy sector, that have been corporatized by partial privatization through stock market or other mechanisms. Findings: Results exhibit that the primary criteria strongly related with increased performance of corporatized SOEs, according to our findings, are the appointment of non-government directors by companies and persistently positive Gross Domestic Product of the economy. On the other hand, debt commitments, ownership, and size of an SOE are all weak or insignificant variables in determining whether an SOE should be corporatized. Implications/Originality/Value: Due to their strategic significance, the energy industry should continue to be governed and regulated by the government, but with a greater percentage of non-nominated members on their boards of directors to maintain corporate governance.
A Sight of the Diagnostic Value of Aberrant Cell-Free DNA Methylation in Lung Cancer

Background Lung cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide. As one of the liquid biopsy analytes, alternations in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) methylation could function as promising biomarkers for lung cancer detection. Methods In this study, differential methylation analysis was performed to identify candidate markers, and lasso regression with 10-fold cross-validation (CV) was used to establish the diagnostic marker panel. The performance of the binary classifier was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the precision-recall (PR) curve. Results We identified 4072 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) based on cfDNA methylation data, and then a 10-DMR marker panel was established. The panel achieved an area under the ROC curve (AUROC) of 0.922 and an area under the PR curve (AUPR) of 0.899 in a cfDNA cohort containing 29 lung cancer and 74 normal samples, showing outstanding performance. Besides, the cfDNA-derived markers also performed well in primary tissue datasets, which were more robust than the tissue-derived markers. Conclusion Our study suggested that the 10-DMR marker panel attained high accuracy and robustness and may function as a novel and promising target for lung cancer detection.
Computational Modeling of Macrophage Iron Sequestration during Host Defense against Aspergillus

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is a major cause of death among immunosuppressed individuals despite the best available therapy. Depriving the pathogen of iron is an essential component of host defense in this infection, but the mechanisms by which the host achieves this are complex. ABSTRACT Iron is essential to the virulence of Aspergillus species, and restricting iron availability is a critical mechanism of antimicrobial host defense. Macrophages recruited to the site of infection are at the crux of this process, employing multiple intersecting mechanisms to orchestrate iron sequestration from pathogens. To gain an integrated understanding of how this is achieved in aspergillosis, we generated a transcriptomic time series of the response of human monocyte-derived macrophages to Aspergillus and used this and the available literature to construct a mechanistic computational model of iron handling of macrophages during this infection. We found an overwhelming macrophage response beginning 2 to 4 h after exposure to the fungus, which included upregulated transcription of iron import proteins transferrin receptor-1, divalent metal transporter-1, and ZIP family transporters, and downregulated transcription of the iron exporter ferroportin. The computational model, based on a discrete dynamical systems framework, consisted of 21 3-state nodes, and was validated with additional experimental data that were not used in model generation. The model accurately captures the steady state and the trajectories of most of the quantitatively measured nodes. In the experimental data, we surprisingly found that transferrin receptor-1 upregulation preceded the induction of inflammatory cytokines, a feature that deviated from model predictions. Model simulations suggested that direct induction of transferrin receptor-1 (TfR1) after fungal recognition, independent of the iron regulatory protein-labile iron pool (IRP-LIP) system, explains this finding. We anticipate that this model will contribute to a quantitative understanding of iron regulation as a fundamental host defense mechanism during aspergillosis. IMPORTANCE Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is a major cause of death among immunosuppressed individuals despite the best available therapy. Depriving the pathogen of iron is an essential component of host defense in this infection, but the mechanisms by which the host achieves this are complex. To understand how recruited macrophages mediate iron deprivation during the infection, we developed and validated a mechanistic computational model that integrates the available information in the field. The insights provided by this approach can help in designing iron modulation therapies as anti-fungal treatments.
Cross-cultural translation and adaptation of Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Multiple Myeloma tool – MM1 and LEU3 – for Portuguese

ABSTRACT Objective To describe of the translation from English to Portuguese and adaption process of subitems of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Multiple Myeloma. Methods In the first phase, translations from English into Portuguese of two subitems of Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Multiple Myeloma were performed. Subsequently, a consensus and back translation were conducted, and, finally, translation and back translations were reviewed by four independent bilingual experts. In the second phase, the translated subitems were applied, along with a questionnaire, to 10 native Portuguese speakers patients with multiple myeloma. Results There was a recognition of the translation process in its first version applied to 10 patients with multiple myeloma, whose reported no difficult to understand the translated and validated instrument. Patients also did not find the content irrelevant or offensive, and they did not suggested changes. Conclusion The subitems of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Multiple Myeloma were translated from English into Portuguese following the proposed methodology and there was not need of readjustments. This process allowed this instrument of quality of life, which is widely known to be beneficial in the management of patients with multiple myeloma, to be used among our population.
Modeling, Optimization, and Analysis of Segmented Stator Flux Switching Linear Hybrid Excited Machine for Electric Power Train

This article proposes a segmented and double stator flux switching linear hybrid excited machine (SDSFSLHEM). To reduce the machine’s iron loss and overall cost, the proposed SDSFSLHEM utilizes a segmented stator. At both ends of the mover, assistant teeth compensate for the unbalance in the three-phase flux, which is a common problem in linear machines. Field excitation (FE) is used, which adds flux regulation capability to the proposed machine and allows it to operate at a wide range of speeds. A magnetic equivalent model (MEM) is used to find the best coil combination and no-load flux linkage, to reduce computational time. The leading design parameters of the machine are globally optimized by multiobjective genetic global optimization, while keeping the slot area, electric, and magnetic loadings constant. The optimization improved peak-to-peak flux linkage by 12%, thrust force by 34.7%, thrust ripples by 17.97%, and detent force by 10.07%. Compared to the flux switching permanent magnet (PM) machine proposed in the literature, the proposed machine reduces the volume of the PM by 39.18% and provides 31.2% higher thrust force and thrust density.
Superfund Groundwater—Super‐Forgotten or Super‐Forbidden?

This column reviews the general features of PHT3D Version 2, a reactive multicomponent transport model that couples the geochemical modeling software PHREEQC-2 (Parkhurst and Appelo 1999) with three-dimensional groundwater ﬂow and transport simulators MODFLOW-2000 and MT3DMS (Zheng and Wang 1999). The original version of PHT3D was developed by Henning Prommer and Version 2 by Henning Prommer and Vincent Post (Prommer and Post 2010). More detailed information about PHT3D is available at the website http://www.pht3d. org.Thereviewwasconducted separately by two review-ers. This column is presented in two parts.