Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preparation and Characterization of Multimodal Hybrid Organic Preparation and Characterization of Multimodal Hybrid Organic and Inorganic Nanocrystals of Camptothecin and Gold and Inorganic Nanocrystals of Camptothecin and Gold

We demonstrate a novel inorganic-organic crystalline nanoconstruct, where gold atoms were imbedded in the crystal lattices as defects of camptothecin nanocrystals, suggesting its potential use as simultaneous agents for cancer therapy and bioimaging. The incorporation of gold, a potential computed tomography (CT) contrast agent, in the nanocrystals of camptothecin was detected by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and further quanti ﬁ ed by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometers (ICP-OES). Due to gold's high attenuation coef ﬁ cient, only a relatively small amount needs to be present in order to create a good noise-to-contrast ratio in CT imaging. The imbedded gold atoms and clusters are expected to share the same biological fate as the camptothecin nanocrystals, reaching and accumulating in tumor site due to the enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect.
Security Hardening of Industrial Control Systems through Attribute Based Access Control

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) form a part of nations’ critical infrastructure. ICS comprises Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) and other components. In an innovative and connected world, the vulnerabilities in ICS components can be exploited. Authentication and access control stand as the first level of defense for protecting ICS from cyberattacks. We demonstrate in our lab that PLC is prone to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Subsequently, an attribute-based access control mechanism is implemented to harden the security of PLC. The demonstration of the security hardened system showcases that PLC is no longer susceptible. Furthermore, the Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) is used to analyze the behavior of security hardened systems and provide formal assurance.
Astronomical and atmospheric impacts on deep-sea hydrothermal vent invertebrates

Ocean tides and winter surface storms are among the main factors driving the dynamics and spatial structure of marine coastal species, but the understanding of their impact on deep-sea and hydrothermal vent communities is still limited. Multidisciplinary deep-sea observatories offer an essential tool to study behavioural rhythms and interactions between hydrothermal community dynamics and environmental fluctuations. Here, we investigated whether species associated with a Ridgeia piscesae tubeworm vent assemblage respond to local ocean dynamics. By tracking variations in vent macrofaunal abundance at different temporal scales, we provide the first evidence that tides and winter surface storms influence the distribution patterns of mobile and non-symbiotic hydrothermal species (i.e. pycnogonids Sericosura sp. and Polynoidae polychaetes) at more than 2 km depth. Local ocean dynamics affected the mixing between hydrothermal fluid inputs and surrounding seawater, modifying the environmental conditions in vent habitats. We suggest that hydrothermal species respond to these habitat modifications by adjusting their behaviour to ensure optimal living conditions. This behaviour may reflect a specific adaptation of vent species to their highly variable habitat.
Comprehensive CG-SENSE reconstruction of SMS-EPI

A 2D CG-SENSE framework is proposed aiming at an integrated treatment of the main error sources in SMS-EPI reconstruction. Our pipeline jointly estimates the sensitivity profiles, Nyquist ghosting parameters, and image to be unfolded. In addition, an artifact-SNR tradeoff is established at a pixel level. Assessment by a phantom experiment has shown that all the main functionalities of the method do help diminish reconstruction artifacts. Stable results have been obtained when applying the framework in a large cohort of motion corrupted fMRI and DWI neonatal studies
Effects of a sprinkler and cool cell combined system on cooling water usage, bird performance, and indoor environment of broiler houses

Climate change is having negative effects on water availability and is a serious challenge to food production around the world. Water scarcity has become a major threat to society, agriculture, and freshwater ecosystems, and the situation is expected to worsen as climate change continues. Sustainability and water efficiency are critical to a poultry industry faced with global production concerns including increased demands for high-quality, affordable animal protein and greater environmental pressures resulting from rising global temperatures, flock heat stress, and limits on water availability. To address these concerns, a commercial sprinkler system used in combination with a cool cell system was evaluated against a cool cell-only system for two summer flocks at Mississippi State University to determine effects of sprinkler technology on cooling water usage, broiler performance, and in-house environments. Environmental and production data were calculated and recorded throughout the flocks. The combination house exhibited a 1.7°C (3°F) ( P =0.08) increase in average temperature, numerically lower average humidity ( P =0.054), and a 64% (62,039 liters/flock) reduction in average cooling water usage over the cool cell-only house. Litter moisture for the combination house tended to be numerically lower but showed no significant difference at several time points between and across flocks ( P =0.11-0.16). Findings are similar to previous reported research and offer additional confirmation that sprinklers in conjunction with cool cells maintain broiler performance while reducing cooling water use, thus lessening the threat to the economic and environmental sustainability of the poultry industry and improving its water efficiency efforts.
Significance of having a large sound dataset for pig cough classification

Continuous monitoring of the respiratory health status of pigs by means of automated detection of respiratory symptoms offer a solution to treat animals in an early stage of disease development, and consequently reduces the use of antimicrobials. Lately, pig cough classification for respiratory health monitoring using sound has caught the attention of the research community. This study examines the challenges involved in scaling the cough classification solution to newer farms with different acoustical properties. The results show that the models developed on a dataset captured in a certain acoustic condition fail to generalize across different farms with different acoustics. Experiments indicate that the performance can drop by almost 27 percentage points. The usage of a large sound dataset improves to model the realistic variations that are present in the data and avoids having a model bias for a certain acoustic condition. The model performance increases from 80% to 92.4% when samples size is increased from 10,000 to 400,000 samples. We conclude that the size and the acoustical diversity of the sound dataset plays a vital role in achieving a reliable cough classification model.
Quality of Service Policy Management over a DiffServ Network

—This paper proposes a QoS network architecture, which provides a complete top-to-bottom policy definition approach. IETF’s Differentiated Services (DiffServ) architecture and mechanisms are used here as a framework for a Quality of Service implementation. Commands and high level policies (SLA – Service Level Agreement, and TCS – Traffic Conditioning Specifications) are initially defined using XML, then stored in a LDAP repository for further reference, and mapped to a platform-independent Policy Information Base (PIB) for distribution using the COPS protocol. An extensible framework of service classes helps classifying traffic and aggregating flows with similar requirements, providing them the adequate share of network resources. The architecture is scalable and may be adopted in large networks.
Interstitial Hydrogen in Fe = V Superstructures: Lattice Site Location and Thermal Vibration

We report real space location of hydrogen in single crystalline Fe = V superstructures. Anisotropic strain is quantified versus hydrogen concentration by using the yield of backscattered primary 2 MeV 4 He ions for incidence in different crystallographic directions. From a comparison of ion channeling in combination with 1 H ð 15 N ; αγ Þ 12 C nuclear reaction analysis and Monte Carlo simulations we show that hydrogen is located in octahedral z sites and quantify its vibrational amplitude of 0.2 Å. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127. 136102
How does the type of exploration-noise affect returns and exploration on Reinforcement Learning benchmarks?

—Deep Reinforcement Learning has shown promising results but remains sensitive to many parameters. Depending on the environment some algorithms work better than others. Each algorithm defaults to a speciﬁc type of exploration noise. We investigate whether continuous-control environments react differently to different types of noise. We show that for rollouts of purely random policies, sampling actions from different types of noise, Gaussian and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck, the type of noise has a strong impact on both the achieved episode returns and the exploration, measured in terms of state space coverage. Our experiments show that there is no uniquely preferable exploration noise and that in one type of environments exploration and returns are positively correlated, while in the other type more exploration reduces the achieved returns. We also ﬁnd that similar exploration can be achieved by different types of noise, but that the cost can be highly different. Our results also support claims that the choice of exploration measure matters.
Diagnostic Value of Serum Adenosine Deaminase in Myelodysplastic Syndromes: an Observational Study.

BACKGROUND This study aimed to explore the diagnostic value of serum adenosine deaminase (ADA) in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and identify potential risk factors for MDS. METHODS Eighty patients with MDS and 80 healthy individuals were included. The serum ADA level was found to be significantly higher in patients with MDS compared with that of healthy controls (p = 0.014). RESULTS The receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) for ADA had an area under curve (AUC) of 0.807 (p = 0.0018). Serum ADA level of 4.5 U/L had a sensitivity of 71.43% and specificity of 80% for MDS diagnosis. The multivariate analysis showed hemoglobin (Hb, OR = 1.322, 95% CI: 1.035 - 2.323, p = 0.039), prothrombin time (PT, OR = 1.524, 95% CI: 1.156 - 3.280, p = 0.042), fibrinogen (OR = 1.335, 95% CI: 1.022 - 2.775, p = 0.027), calculated international normalized ration (INR, OR = 2.212, 95% CI: 1.320 - 3.085, p = 0.038), D-dimer (OR = 2.043, 95% CI: 1.623 - 4.293, p = 0.038), fibrin degradation product (FDP, OR = 2.525, 95% CI: 1.129 - 3.340, p = 0.029), and serum ADA (OR = 2.057, 95% CI: 1.248 - 3.572, p = 0.033) were independently associated with MDS. CONCLUSIONS Serum ADA might be a potential biomarker in the diagnosis of MDS. Serum ADA level, Hb level, PT, fibrinogen level, INR, D-dimer, and FDPs were independent risk factors of MDS.
Vertical distribution patterns of organic carbon and its isotopic composition in typical soil types in Guizhou karst areas of Southwest China

Taking two typical soil types (limestone soil and yellow soil) in Guizhou karst areas of Southwest China as test objects, this paper measured their pH value and organic carbon content as well as the carbon isotopic composition of dominant plant species foliage and litter and of soil organic matter (SOM), aimed to approach the vertical distribution patterns of soil organic carbon (SOC) and its stable isotopic composition (δ13Csoc) in the profiles of these two soil types. Limestone soil had a higher content of SOC, as compared with yellow soil. The SOC content in the profiles of limestone soil and yellow soil varied in the range of 3.6-69.8 and 2.4-51.2 g·kg-1, respectively. The SOC in yellow soil and yellow limestone soil mainly enriched in the 0-20 cm layer, while that in the 0-60 cm profile of black limestone soil decreased gradually with depth. The δ13Csoc in the profiles of black limestone soil and yellow soil ranged from -22.9‰ to -21.5‰ and from -25.6‰ to -22.4‰, respectively. The δ13Csoc in yellow soil increased with increasing soil depth, whereas that in limestone soil was generally high in surface layer, increased rapidly down to a depth of about 20 cm, and then decreased slowly. Compared with other soils, yellow limestone soil had a wider variation range of δ13Csoc (-23.7‰ to -18.2‰) in the profile, and the δ13C (δ13Cmax-δ13Cmin) value of SOM was 5.5‰. The δ13Csoc in limestone soil profile had a wider variation range than that in yellow soil profile during the process of litter degrading into surface soil organic matter. The δ13Csoc increased by 2.6‰-3.0‰ in yellow soil profile and by 5.5‰-6.3‰ in limestone soil profile. The results suggested that the changes in δ13Csoc and SOC content with depth in different soil profiles could provide information about the input of plant residue and its degradation and accumulation in soil, and help to reveal the mechanism of soil carbon cycle and to understand the soil formation process.
Ef ﬁ cacy of cilostazol on platelet reactivity and cardiovascular outcomes in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: insights from a meta-analysis of randomised trials

Background: Cilostazol overcomes high on-treatment platelet reactivity (HTPR) and reduces adverse cardiovascular (CV) outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, the role for triple antiplatelet therapy (TAPT) with cilostazol in addition to aspirin and clopidogrel after PCI is not well defined. Methods: We conducted a MEDLINE/EMBASE/ CENTRAL search for randomised trials, until May 2014, evaluating TAPT compared with dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) of aspirin and clopidogrel alone in patients undergoing PCI and reporting platelet reactivity and/or CV outcomes. The primary platelet reactivity outcome was differences in platelet reactivity unit (PRU) with secondary outcomes of %platelet inhibition and rate of HTPR. The primary CV outcome was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), with secondary outcomes of death, cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis (ST), target lesion revascularisation (TLR) and target vessel revascularisation (TVR) as well as safety outcomes of bleeding and drug discontinuations. Results: In 17 trials that evaluated platelet reactivity outcomes, the mean PRU value was 47.73 units lower with TAPT versus DAPT (95% CI − 61.41 to − 34.04, p<0.0001; mean PRU 182.90 vs 232.65). TAPT also increased platelet inhibition by 12.71% (95% CI 10.76 to 14.67, p<0.0001), and led to a 60% reduction in the risk of HTPR (relative risk=0.40; 95% CI 0.30 to 0.53) compared with DAPT. Moreover, among the 34 trials that evaluated CV outcomes, TAPT reduced the risk of MACE (incident rate ratio (IRR)=0.68; 95% CI 0.60 to 0.78), TLR (IRR=0.57; 95% CI 0.44 to 0.73), TVR (IRR=0.69; 95% CI 0.59 to 0.81) and ST (IRR=0.63; 95% CI 0.40 to 0.98) with no difference for other outcomes including bleeding, even in trials using drug-eluting stents. Drug discontinuation due to adverse effects was, however, higher with TAPT vs DAPT (IRR=1.59; 95% CI 1.32 to 1.91). Conclusions: In patients undergoing PCI, addition of cilostazol to DAPT results in decreased platelet reactivity and a significant reduction in CV outcomes including ST, even in the drug-eluting stent era.
Eﬃcient Heuristic Policy Optimisation for a Challenging Strategic Card Game (cid:63)

Turn-based multi-action adversarial games are challenging scenarios in which each player turn consists of a sequence of atomic actions. The order in which an AI agent runs these atomic actions may hugely impact the outcome of the turn. One of the main challenges of game artiﬁcial intelligence is to design a heuristic function to help agents to select the optimal turn to play, given a particular state of the game. In this paper, we report results using the recently developed N-Tuple Ban-dit Evolutionary Algorithm to tune the heuristic function parameters. For evaluation, we measure how the tuned heuristic function aﬀects the performance of the state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithm Online Evolution Planning. The multi-action adversarial strategy card game Legends of Code and Magic was used as a testbed. Results indicate that the N-Tuple Bandit Evolutionary Algorithm can eﬀectively tune the heuristic function parameters to improve the performance of the agent.
Digital Commons @ University of South Florida Digital Commons @ University of South Florida

This is the final article in a four part series reviewing the influence of humor and laughter on physiological and psychological well-being. This final article reviews the evidence for the effect of sense of humor, exposure to a humor stimulus and laughter on various immune system components, with a focus on the effects of laughter on natural killer cell cytotoxicity.
Exploring the Connection Between Relaxed Myosin States and the Anrep Effect

The Anrep effect is an adaptive response that increases left ventricular contractility following an acute rise in afterload. Although the mechanistic origin remains undefined, recent findings suggest a two-phase activation of resting myosin for contraction, involving strain-sensitive and posttranslational phases. We propose that this mobilization represents a transition among the relaxed states of myosin—specifically, from the super-relaxed (SRX) to the disordered-relaxed (DRX)—with DRX myosin ready to participate in force generation. This hypothesis offers a unified explanation that connects myosin’s SRX-DRX equilibrium and the Anrep effect as parts of a singular phenomenon. We underscore the significance of this equilibrium in modulating contractility, primarily studied in the context of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common inherited cardiomyopathy associated with diastolic dysfunction, hypercontractility, and left ventricular hypertrophy. As we posit that the cellular basis of the Anrep effect relies on a two-phased transition of myosin from the SRX to the contraction-ready DRX configuration, any dysregulation in this equilibrium may result in the pathological manifestation of the Anrep phenomenon. For instance, in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, hypercontractility is linked to a considerable shift of myosin to the DRX state, implying a persistent activation of the Anrep effect. These valuable insights call for additional research to uncover a clinical Anrep fingerprint in pathological states. Here, we demonstrate through noninvasive echocardiographic pressure-volume measurements that this fingerprint is evident in 12 patients with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy before septal myocardial ablation. This unique signature is characterized by enhanced contractility, indicated by a leftward shift and steepening of the end-systolic pressure-volume relationship, and a prolonged systolic ejection time adjusted for heart rate, which reverses post-procedure. The clinical application of this concept has potential implications beyond hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, extending to other genetic cardiomyopathies and even noncongenital heart diseases with complex etiologies across a broad spectrum of left ventricular ejection fractions.
vPLC: A scalable PLC testbed for IIoT security research

The rapid expansion of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has brought forward critical research challenges concerning scalability, robustness, and security. Traditional IIoT infrastructures, confined to lab environments with a limited number of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), hamper large-scale research due to cost and scalability constraints. We propose a solution in the form of a highly scalable virtual PLC (vPLC) for IIoT applications. Our vPLC, as a software-as-a-service (SaaS), can generate hundreds of thousands of virtual PLC instances to simulate a large-scale IIoT network. The vPLC mimics the functionalities of an actual PLC by learning protocol semantics from network dumps of real PLCs and generating PLC templates. This ability allows users to initiate various PLC instances, thereby accurately replicating PLC functionalities like session initiation and control logic handling. In essence, our vPLC serves as an economical, scalable, and flexible research tool that enhances IIoT research and paves the way for advanced applications such as forensic analysis and threat intelligence within IIoT.
Forest Dynamics and the Analysis of a Reaction-Diffusion Forest Model

In this research, we study the dynamics of ecological models governed by differential equations. Ecology provides insight into the interaction between forest organisms, and interrelated processes regarding flora, fauna, and numerous other species. In particular, the results support population thresholds necessary for survival in some instances. Subsequently, we explore the response of mangroves of different regions to natural calamities and man-made disasters. A reaction-diffusion model has been developed to see the dynamics of the tidal woods and wetlands. Sundarbans, the largest mangrove of Bangladesh, are victim to a vast amount of hazardous events. This mathematical study of mangroves is unprecedented in such a manner. Furthermore, we continue the study of a forest ecosystem governed by an age-structured parabolic-ordinary system. We study some properties of an abstract parabolic equation, the dynamical system, and the limit sets. The model demonstrates a Lyapunov function which denotes some vital properties of the limit sets. GANIT J. Bangladesh Math. Soc. 43.1 (2023) 26- 36
Fractional order predictive sliding-mode control for a class of nonlinear input-delay systems: singular and non-singular approach

ABSTRACT Nonlinear models of physical systems usually suffer from input delay and external disturbances. Moreover, when a delayed state is in the input signal gain, it can be non-singular or singular. So, designing a robust controller in a nonlinear system with input and state delay, suitable for non-singular and singular input signal gain, is imperative. The main contribution of our study is to design a new state feedback fractional order predictive sliding mode control (FOPSMC) procedure which not only guarantees the stability of a nonlinear system with known constant input and state delay but also controls the output signal to the desired value. Firstly, a predictor is designed for the system to achieve an input-delay-free one. Then, a state feedback FOPSMC is proposed based on a fractional order sliding signal for a nonlinear system with non-singular control gain. Also, a state feedback FOPSMC and a fractional order sliding mode observer (FOSMO) for the virtual disturbance are designed for singular control gain situation. It is proved analytically, through the Lyapunov stability criteria, that both control procedures can stabilise the system and can control the output signal to the desired value, effectively. Finally, the simulation results verify the effectiveness of the analytical achievements.
MINDBOT: DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A MIND-CONTROLLED EDUCATIONAL ROBOT TOY FOR DISABLED CHILDREN

The mindBot robot is a new educational robot toy that can be controlled by brain signals and voice commands. It was evaluated with children with disabilities as well as healthy children as the potential users. The most significant challenge was the size of the used Emotiv Insight electroencephalogram headset when adjusting it on the children’s’ heads. Despite all the challenges, the mindBot robot is a promising technology that could be fun and educational for disabled children. The 11 participants took 36 minutes to finish all tasks on average. This includes the time they spent setting up the robot for the first time, putting on the headset, learning how to use the robot, and using the main educational features. The System Usability Scale usability score for the robot is 71.13, which is considered to be the score of good. The future stages of improving the mindBot includes adding more mobility capabilities and adding the feature of educational assessment.