Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Urban intensity and flower community structure drive monkey beetle assemblage in Cape Town

Background: Urban landscapes present an important opportunity for pollinator conservation, but little is known about the status and distribution of pollinator populations in urban habitats in Africa. This represents a major gap in the development of a global understanding of urban pollinators – particularly from the rapidly urbanising context. This study uses a speciose clade of flower-visiting beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Hopliini) to explore patterns of pollinator distribution in a major metropolitan area in South Africa. Objectives: We investigated community composition across gradients of urban intensity (defined according to the percentage of soil-sealing within 1 km2 of each sampling location) and socio-economic status to determine pollinator responses to these urban landscape effects. Methods: A selection of 142 sites were surveyed twice in the austral spring seasons of 2018 and 2019. Data were collected on habitat structure, flower diversity, and pollinator diversity. Results: The study found that different feeding guilds of monkey beetles favoured different levels of urban intensity and that beetle richness significantly correlated with flower richness. It did not, however, correlate with diversity indicating that abundance is less impacted than the number of species present. Monkey beetles with moderate sensitivity to urban intensity benefitted from the presence of preferred species of flowers. Conclusion: Overall, the findings demonstrate the importance of plant community assemblage in supporting urban monkey beetles. We recommend landscaping with preferred flower species in urban parks to support urban pollinators.
Morphological screens using aged primary adult neuronal, microglial, and astrocytic cultures to find novel neurotherapeutics

The average age of a patient with neurotraumatic injuries or neurodegenerative diseases has been increasing worldwide. The preclinical live animal models used for neurotrauma and neurodegenerative diseases are typically young adults, failing to represent the age of humans in the clinic. This dichotomy in age between human populations and animal models is likely to impede the understanding of the pathological mechanisms of most neurological disorders and the translation of their respective promising therapies. This lack of cohesion between animal models and patients in the clinic begins prior to in vivo testing, it starts during the in vitro drug screening phase. Conventional screening methods typically involve the use of stem cell derived neural cells, with some researchers using embryonic derived neural cells instead. These cells lack the fundamental characteristics present in aged neural cells, such as age-induced changes in process length and branching in microglia and how astrocytes respond to various insults. Various technologies and techniques have been developed recently that can help researchers use age-appropriate neural cells for their drug discovery endeavors. The use of age-appropriate neural cells during screening phases is hypothesized to significantly increase the translation rate of the hits to the geriatric patients suffering from neurotraumatic and neurodegenerative diseases.
Circularly Polarized Lunar Regolith Simulant Antenna for Future Communication and Remote Sensing in Lunar Environment

This letter presents a novel substrate with lunar regolith simulant as a major material that closely resembles the properties of the lunar regolith. It aims to support the realization of antennas as telecommunication and remote sensing infrastructures that can serve communication and lunar observation services on the moon. Lunar regolith simulant substrate has a low-measured dielectric constant $({{\varepsilon }_r})$ of 2.08 and a dissipation factor (tan-δ) of 0.00527. The 2 × 2 CP antennas work at a center frequency of 6.175 GHz, use two-staked substrates, the serial-sequential-rotation (SSR) technique, and have a total size of 70 × 70 × 4 mm3. The antenna has a measured broad impedance bandwidth of 1.98 GHz (32%), an axial ratio bandwidth of 1.06 GHz (17%), and a peak gain of 11.6 dBic. The measured half beamwidth in the E-plane and H-plane are achieved at 82° and 81°, respectively. The antenna in full circularly polarized polarimetric modes is subjected to experimental scattering tests for the applications of communication and remote sensing. The measured scattering matrix is identical to the theoretical scattering matrix. The result shows that the lunar regolith has great potential as an antenna substrate to support future telecommunication and remote sensing infrastructure in the lunar environment.
Tree Failure Assessment of London Plane (Platanus × acerifolia (Aiton) Willd.) Street Trees in Nanjing City

The London plane (Platanus × acerifolia (Aiton) Willd. ) street tree is a symbolic tree species in Nanjing City, which is known as the “city card”. However, accidents such as street trees falling over cars, affecting traffic, and hurting people have seriously affected the daily lives of citizens. Thus, it is of vital significance to accurately assess the potential for tree failure in London plane street trees in Nanjing City. This study comprehensively considers the growth condition of London plane street trees and their impact on traffic, establishes a scientific street tree failure assessment scheme that contains eight characteristics, creates a tree failure assessment database by thoroughly collecting data on trees, and develops a tree failure assessment model based on factor analysis and k-means clustering. The assessment results show that street trees that pose a high or medium potential for failure are present in proportions of 4.47% and 34.85%, respectively, and are mostly found in Gulou District, Xuanwu District, and Qinhuai District. The average tree failure score of London plane street trees on Changjiang Road in Xuanwu District is the highest, while the road with the lowest tree failure score is Mufu East Road in Gulou District. The results will provide a scientific basis for the maintenance of London plane street trees in Nanjing City and have reference significance for other street tree failure assessment studies.
Spongin as a Unique 3D Template for the Development of Functional Iron-Based Composites Using Biomimetic Approach In Vitro

Marine sponges of the subclass Keratosa originated on our planet about 900 million years ago and represent evolutionarily ancient and hierarchically structured biological materials. One of them, proteinaceous spongin, is responsible for the formation of 3D structured fibrous skeletons and remains enigmatic with complex chemistry. The objective of this study was to investigate the interaction of spongin with iron ions in a marine environment due to biocorrosion, leading to the occurrence of lepidocrocite. For this purpose, a biomimetic approach for the development of a new lepidocrocite-containing 3D spongin scaffold under laboratory conditions at 24 °C using artificial seawater and iron is described for the first time. This method helps to obtain a new composite as “Iron-Spongin”, which was characterized by infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetry. Furthermore, sophisticated techniques such as X-ray fluorescence, microscope technique, and X-Ray diffraction were used to determine the structure. This research proposed a corresponding mechanism of lepidocrocite formation, which may be connected with the spongin amino acids functional groups. Moreover, the potential application of the biocomposite as an electrochemical dopamine sensor is proposed. The conducted research not only shows the mechanism or sensor properties of “Iron-spongin” but also opens the door to other applications of these multifunctional materials.
Optimizing Simultaneous Lightwave Information and Power Transfer Under Practical Indoor Mobility With Reinforcement Learning

This article investigates reinforcement learning (RL)-based solutions for optimizing resource allocations in simultaneous lightwave information and power transfer (SLIPT) under practical indoor mobility. Encountering the challenges of excessive outages and intermittent channels posed by practical mobility, the reinforcer for agent training is endowed with the tradeoff between energy efficiency and communication quality. Accordingly, two typical RL categories, i.e., value-based tabular RL and policy gradient-based deep RL are imposed and compared through several numerical examinations regarding information-power transfer balance, generalization ability, and complexity. The vanilla tabular RL is demonstrated to outperform the gradient-based deep RL and should be prioritized in practice if feasible.
The remote impacts of a Western Pacific tropical cyclone

Abstract : The short term teleconnections arising from an individual tropical cyclone in tne western Pacific (typhoon Seth, October 1994) were examined using an operational global data assimilation system and numerical weather prediction model. During the data assimilation, the model's initial conditions were modified using a tropical cyclone bogusing procedure that either maintained or eliminated the individual storm. These different initial conditions were used in six extended-range forecasts of about 3.5 weeks duration. Three of these forecasts simulated the atmosphere with tne tropical cyclone and three without the storm. The ensemble average differences between the forecasts with the storm and those without it were used to infer the global teleconnection response to the tropical cyclone. This response was dominated by a strong and persistent Rossby wave train that extended from east Asia across the North Pacific into North America. This wave train was initiated when an anticyclonic circulation formed near Japan as the tropical cyclone approached the east Asian jet. The anticyclone formation was primarily the result of two factors: (1) vortex stretching; and (2) absolute vorticity advection as divergent outflow from the tropical cyclone crossed the large absolute vorticity gradient of the east Asian jet. The wave response was quasi-stationary. However, the basic wave train (i.e., the teleconnection pattern) developed within a week due to a relatively rapid eastward propagation of wave energy across the North Pacific and North America. In regions of strong jet flow, this propagation tended to parallel the flow while in regions of weaker flow, the propagation had stronger poleward or equatorward components. The wave train intensified well after the tropical cyclone and the initial wave formation process had dissipated.
Human Activity Recognition via Score Level Fusion of Wi-Fi CSI Signals

Wi-Fi signals are ubiquitous and provide a convenient, covert, and non-invasive means of recognizing human activity, which is particularly useful for healthcare monitoring. In this study, we investigate a score-level fusion structure for human activity recognition using the Wi-Fi channel state information (CSI) signals. The raw CSI signals undergo an important preprocessing stage before being classified using conventional classifiers at the first level. The output scores of two conventional classifiers are then fused via an analytic network that does not require iterative search for learning. Our experimental results show that the fusion provides good generalization and a shorter learning processing time compared with state-of-the-art networks.
Acquired cystic kidney disease in patients on maintenance hemodialysis, prevalence and associated factors: a cross-sectional study

Introduction Acquired Cystic Kidney Disease (ACKD) is a known complication in patients on maintenance hemodialysis, and it is associated with a high risk of malignant transformation. There is a paucity of data on ACKD in sub-Saharan Africa. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with acquired cystic kidney disease in patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Methods patients on maintenance hemodialysis were screened for ACKD. Patients with hereditary cystic kidney disease were excluded. Renal ultrasounds were performed by two radiologists. ACKD was defined as 3 or more bilateral renal cysts in a small or normal size kidney. Associated factors were determined using logistic regression. A p-value <0.05 was significant. Results a total of 158 participants were enrolled and 61.4% (97) were male. Their mean (SD) age was 45.8 (14.9) years. The median dialysis vintage was 33.5 [10.7-63.2] months. The mean (SD) length of the kidneys was 85.1 (17.5) mm on the left and 81.2 (17.1) mm on the right. The prevalence of ACKD was 31.6% (n=50). Septated cysts (4), calcification of the wall of the cysts (2), irregular thick calcified wall (1), septated cysts with calcification (1) and hemorrhagic cyst (1) cysts were also observed. Dialysis vintage > 36 months (OR 7.1, 95% CI: 3.3 - 15.5) and male sex (OR 2.6, 95% CI: 1.2-5.6) were independently associated with ACKD. Conclusion the prevalence of ACKD is high in a population of Cameroonians on maintenance. This result calls for the implementation of strategies to screen for the condition and its complications.
Exploring the use of a technology scouting methodology to integrate innovative solutions from startups into an aerospace industry

Abstract. Technological innovation is extremely important in the industrial world, as it allows companies to remain competitive and improve the efficiency, productivity, and sustainability of their activities. Companies that invest in technological innovation can obtain numerous advantages, including improved product quality, cost reduction, greater flexibility, and the ability to quickly respond to customer needs. An approach to open innovation that has become widespread in recent years is to conduct technology scouting through the vast array of solutions provided by innovative startups. With a large number of startups proposing new technologies in aerospace sector, could be challenging for companies to identify the most promising solutions. Therefore, a structured methodology for evaluating technology proposed by startups is essential to ensure the identification and implementation of the best solutions and the effective allocation of resources. This paper presents a case study that describes the process of technology scouting proposed by startups within an aerospace industry company, based on a company-defined roadmap.
Improving the Classification Ability of Delegating Classifiers Using Different Supervised Machine Learning Algorithms

Cancer Classification & Prediction Is Vitally Important for Cancer Diagnosis. DNA Microarray Technology Has Provided Genetic Data That Has Facilitated Scientists Perform Cancer Research. Traditional Methods of Classification Have Certain Limitations E.G. Traditionally A Proposed DSS Uses A Single Classifier at A Time for Classification or Prediction Purposes. To Increase Classification Accuracy, Reject Option Classifiers Has Been Proposed in Machine Learning Literature. In A Reject Option Classifier, A Rejection Region Is Defined and The Samples Fall in That Region Are Not Classified by The Classifier. The Unclassifiable Samples Are Rejected by Classifier in Order to Improve Classifier’s Accuracy. However, These Rejections Affect the Prediction Rate of The Classifier as Well. To Overcome the Problem of Low Prediction Rates by Increased Rejection of Samples by A Single Classifier, the “Delegating Classifiers” Provide Better Accuracy at Less Rejection Rate. Different Classifiers Such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), K Nearest Neighbor (KNN) Etc. Have Been Proposed. Moreover, Traditionally, Same Learner Is Used As “Delegated” And “Delegating” Classifier. This Research Has Investigated the Effects of Using Different Machine Learning Classifiers in Both of The Delegated and Delegating Classifiers, And the Results Obtained Showed That Proposed Method Gives High Accuracy and Increases the Prediction Rate.
Vision-Based Traffic Accident Detection and Anticipation: A Survey

Traffic accident detection and anticipation is an obstinate road safety problem and painstaking efforts have been devoted. With the rapid growth of video data, Vision-based Traffic Accident Detection and Anticipation (named Vision-TAD and Vision-TAA) become the last one-mile problem for safe driving and surveillance safety. However, the long-tailed, unbalanced, highly dynamic, complex, and uncertain properties of traffic accidents form the Out-of-Distribution (OOD) feature for Vision-TAD and Vision-TAA. Current AI development may focus on these OOD but important problems. What has been done for Vision-TAD and Vision-TAA? What direction we should focus on in the future for this problem? A comprehensive survey is important. We present the first survey on Vision-TAD in the deep learning era and the first-ever survey for Vision-TAA. The pros and cons of each research prototype are discussed in detail during the investigation. In addition, we also provide a critical review of 31 publicly available benchmarks and related evaluation metrics. Through this survey, we want to spawn new insights and open possible trends for Vision-TAD and Vision-TAA tasks.
Should I Stay, Should I Go Back or Should I Move Further? Contrasting Answers under Diverse Migration Regimes

Abstract EU integration, the process of EU enlargement and further visa liberalisation have encouraged increased population movements across Europe, some of which have taken new forms compared to previous migration waves. In particular, some destination countries have experienced high levels of temporary migration from poorer parts of Europe. Using a new set of survey data, we seek to obtain a deeper understanding of the factors affecting migration decisions by comparing migrants from three different sending countries in three destination countries under different migration regimes Poles in the UK, Romanians in Italy and Serbs in Austria. The surveys were conducted in 2011 and 2012 and cover migrants who migrated between 2004 and 2012, which for Polish migrants in the UK corresponds to a phase with free mobility and full access to the labour market; for Romanian migrants in Italy it coincides first with visa liberalisation and then with full access to the labour market starting with Romania’s EU accession in 2007; lastly, for Serbian migrants in Austria this includes a visa liberalisation regime from 2010 onwards. The surveys undertaken in the different (host) countries were using an almost identical methodology, thereby allowing for a direct comparison of the factors underlying the decision to migrate. Thus, migration preferences with regard to permanent, return and out-migration under different migration regimes, restrictive versus free mobility, could be analysed. At individual country level results show the weaker preference for permanent migration amongst the highest skilled which points to a lower attachment to a particular destination country. Furthermore, a change in the migration regime towards freer mobility contributes to the intensification of temporary and outward mobility among the highly skilled.
Evaluation of a Clinical Outcome of Resistant Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease after Treatment with Full Thickness Endoscopic Device

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the most prevalent gastric disorders, defined as a condition in which reflux of gastric and duodenal contents back into esophagus causing troublesome symptoms and complications impairing quality of life. To evaluate clinical efficacy of endosural suturing using gastroscope for patients with resistant GERD. This study is a prospective study. This study was carried out at Gastroenterology outpatient's clinic, endoscopic center of Ain Shams University Hospitals. The study was performed from September 2019 to December 2020. 25 adult patients having resistant GERD or Hiatus hernia. In our results we found that there was highly statistically significant difference according to symptoms grade between before treatment and after treatment. In our study we cleared that according to CBC, the mean of Hb 12.89 (± 0.80 SD), the mean of RDW 13.40 (±0.95 SD), the mean of platelets (*1000) 239.76 (± 60.37 SD), mean of RBCs 5.19 (± 0.51 SD). In study in our hands we found that there is highly statistically significant according to hill grade between before treatment and after treatment. Our study has shown that endoscopic suturing of the gastroesophageal junction has significant improvements in reflux control that is sustained to 6 months and significant improvement in quality of life after procedure and significant reduction in symptoms severity after procedure.
Effect of Polydopamine and Curcumin on Physicochemical and Mechanical Properties of Polymeric Blends

In this study, we prepared composites made from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), sodium alginate (SA), curcumin (Cur), and polydopamine (PD). The film-forming properties of the composites were researched for potential wound-healing applications. The structures of the polymer blends and composites were studied by FTIR spectroscopy and microscopic observations (AFM and SEM). The mechanical properties were measured using a Zwick Roell testing machine. It was observed that the formation of a polymeric film based on the blend of polyvinyl alcohol and sodium alginate led to the generation of pores. The presence of curcumin in the composite resulted in the alteration of the blend properties. After solvent evaporation, the polymeric blend of PVA, SA, and curcumin formed a stable polymeric film, but the film showed poor mechanical properties. The addition of polydopamine led to an improvement in the mechanical strength of the film and an increase in its surface roughness. A polymeric film of sodium alginate presented the highest surface roughness value among all the studied specimens (66.6 nm), whereas polyvinyl alcohol showed the lowest value (1.60 nm). The roughness of the composites made of PVA/SA/Cur and PVA/SA/Cur/PD showed a value of about 25 nm. Sodium alginate showed the highest values of Young’s modulus (4.10 GPa), stress (32.73 N), and tensile strength (98.48 MPa). The addition of PD to PVA/SA/Cur led to an improvement in the mechanical properties. Improved mechanical properties and appropriate surface roughness may suggest that prepared blends can be used for the preparation of wound-healing materials.