Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impacts of Retail Tariff Design on Electric Vehicle Charging for Commercial Customers

Power engineers have examined the potential impacts on the electric grid of high electric vehicle (EV) adoption, while energy economists have shown issues with modern electricity retail tariff design. However, little work has shown how customer decisions regarding their tariff and optimizing EV charging costs could affect the utility and the customer. If commercial customers can optimize their charging profile, how do different tariff structures affect local distribution system voltage, utility cost recovery, and customer bills? To answer this question, we model commercial customers optimizing their EV charging to minimize costs using real-world tariffs. Then, we model the voltage impacts of customers charging EVs on a realistic distribution feeder. Finally, we calculate the costs of EV charging for customers and the distribution utility. We find that current tariff designs do not support large-scale deployments of EVs without system upgrades or additional control measures. We also find that customers can reduce costs nearly 15% by switching retail tariffs, leading to a potential revenue gap for the utility. Finally, we show that new power subscription-based tariffs are less efficient than traditional demand charge-based tariffs, and instead, designing tariffs for load optimization can reduce costs for both the customer and the utility.
Emergency medicine education via the micro-course and flipped classroom-reform of medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic

The “micro-course” and “flipped classroom” are emerging tools for medical education but little is known about their utility for emergency medicine teaching. The suitability of the micro-course combined with flipped classroom is investigated for delivery of an emergency medicine course in West Anhui Health Vocational College. Students from Class A and Class B of the Clinical Department of West Anhui Health Vocational College, Grade 2000, were assigned to experimental (micro-course plus flipped classroom, n = 102) and control (traditional, didactic teaching, n = 104) groups, respectively. The effectiveness of teaching was assessed by theoretical tests and questionnaires at the end of the course. Theory test results were significantly better for the experimental group than for controls (t = 3.122, P < .01). General satisfaction of students who had participated in the micro-course plus flipped classroom exceeded that of those who had received traditional teaching. Enthusiasm, efficiency, and learning facility was self-reported to be enhanced by students in the experimental group relative to controls. Use of the micro-course combined with flipped classroom successfully increased the outcome of emergency medicine teaching and may be considered as an approach to reform emergency medicine teaching in medical colleges and universities.
Impacts of tropospheric ozone on semi-natural ecosystems

Experimental work on the effects of air pollutants such as ozone on seminatural ecosystems is somewhat limited, and not much of the knowledge of such systems derives from community level studies. The overall aim of this study was to better understand the impacts of elevated ozone on seminatural ecosystems. Effects of ozone were studied on a seminatural grassland at High Keenley Fell in the Northern Pennines. The grassland of the study had been fumigated with elevated ozone concentrations in a free air fumigation gradient system for two years. Elevated ozone reduced the aboveground biomass of forbs and certain forb species such as Ranunculacae and Rhinanthus minor. A multivariate analysis showed that next to ozone other environmental factors such as nitrate, calcium and soil water content were also accountable for the species variation. Furthermore, a reduction in ozone concentrations was found within the canopy, and the elevated ozone concentrations led to an increased stomatal closure in Briza media and Trifolium repens. Effects of ozone on a mire ecosystem were studied at the University of Newcastle field station Close House, Northumberland. Lowland mire community mesocosms had been exposed to elevated ozone concentrations in open-top chambers for three years. The biomass of the key species Eriophorum vaginatum declined and methane emissions were reduced by ozone, and so was the available ammonium in the soil water. In a separate litter experiment (litter of E. vaginatum), in which the litter was soaked with ozone-treated soil water, the microbial respiration was also negatively affected.
Cortical field maps across human sensory cortex

Cortical processing pathways for sensory information in the mammalian brain tend to be organized into topographical representations that encode various fundamental sensory dimensions. Numerous laboratories have now shown how these representations are organized into numerous cortical field maps (CMFs) across visual and auditory cortex, with each CFM supporting a specialized computation or set of computations that underlie the associated perceptual behaviors. An individual CFM is defined by two orthogonal topographical gradients that reflect two essential aspects of feature space for that sense. Multiple adjacent CFMs are then organized across visual and auditory cortex into macrostructural patterns termed cloverleaf clusters. CFMs within cloverleaf clusters are thought to share properties such as receptive field distribution, cortical magnification, and processing specialization. Recent measurements point to the likely existence of CFMs in the other senses, as well, with topographical representations of at least one sensory dimension demonstrated in somatosensory, gustatory, and possibly olfactory cortical pathways. Here we discuss the evidence for CFM and cloverleaf cluster organization across human sensory cortex as well as approaches used to identify such organizational patterns. Knowledge of how these topographical representations are organized across cortex provides us with insight into how our conscious perceptions are created from our basic sensory inputs. In addition, studying how these representations change during development, trauma, and disease serves as an important tool for developing improvements in clinical therapies and rehabilitation for sensory deficits.
Explore the relationship between middle school teachers’ self-efficacy and collaborative lesson planning through a questionnaire method

In Chinese schools, teachers usually gather together to prepare lessons and discuss teaching goals, methods, progress, and so on, in order to achieve better teaching results. This is called “Collective Lesson Preparation”, abbreviated as CLP. Several researchers have studied the relationship between self-efficacy and various teaching practices, yet less attention has been given to the specific relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and CLP. Therefore, this study explored the relationship between CLP and self-efficacy by designing and distributing questionnaires and conducting Pearson correlation analysis on the questionnaire data. Research has found that there is a highly significant positive correlation (r=0.296, p=0.000) between middle school teachers’ involvement in CLP and their self-efficacy. Specifically, out of the seven dimensions of CLP, only CLP topic and content showed no significant correlation, while the other 5 dimensions, CLP environment, team, process, guidance, and mechanism, all have an extremely significant positive correlation with self-efficacy. This indicates that when middle school teachers participate in CLP, the environment, team, process, leadership, and mechanism of CLP are all correlated with their high self-efficacy. In the future, schools and teachers can focus on improving the CLP method, which may not only enhance teaching effectiveness but also improve teachers’ self-efficacy.
A Fermentation State Marker Rule Design Task in Metabolic Engineering

There are several ways in which mathematical modeling is used in fermentation control, but mechanistic mathematical genome-scale models of metabolism within the cell have not been applied or implemented so far. As part of the metabolic engineering task setting, we propose that metabolite fluxes and/or biomass growth rate be used to search for a fermentation steady state marker rule. During fermentation, the bioreactor control system can automatically detect the desired steady state using a logical marker rule. The marker rule identification can be also integrated with the production growth coupling approach, as presented in this study. A design of strain with marker rule is demonstrated on genome scale metabolic model iML1515 of Escherichia coli MG1655 proposing two gene deletions enabling a measurable marker rule for succinate production using glucose as a substrate. The marker rule example at glucose consumption 10.0 is: IF (specific growth rate μ is above 0.060 h−1, AND CO2 production under 1.0, AND ethanol production above 5.5), THEN succinate production is within the range 8.2–10, where all metabolic fluxes units are mmol ∗ gDW−1 ∗ h−1. An objective function for application in metabolic engineering, including productivity features and rule detecting sensor set characterizing parameters, is proposed. Two-phase approach to implementing marker rules in the cultivation control system is presented to avoid the need for a modeler during production.
The Challenge to Stabilize, Extract and Analyze Urinary Cell-Free DNA (ucfDNA) during Clinical Routine

Highlights - Model system using urine spiked with synthetic cfDNA reference standard to compare various urine-stabilizing buffers under different storage conditions in analogy to the clinical setting. - Direct preservation with UAS showed the best results, ensuring sufficient ucfDNA quality for downstream analysis. - Specific detection of the EGFR variant T790M using ddPCR. Abstract Background: The “Liquid Biopsy” has become a powerful tool for cancer research during the last decade. Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) that originates from tumors has emerged as one of the most promising analytes. In contrast to plasma-derived cfDNA, only a few studies have investigated urinary cfDNA. One reason might be rapid degradation and hence inadequate concentrations for downstream analysis. In this study, we examined the stability of cfDNA in urine using different methods of preservation under various storage conditions. Methodology: To mimic patient samples, a pool of healthy male and female urine donors was spiked with a synthetic cfDNA reference standard (fragment size 170 bp) containing the T790M mutation in the EGFR gene. Spiked samples were preserved with three different buffers and with no buffer over four different storage periods (0 h; 4 h; 12 h; 24 h) at room temperature vs. 4 °C. The preservatives used were Urinary Analyte Stabilizer (UAS, Novosanis, Wijnegem, Belgium), Urine Conditioning Buffer (UCB, Zymo, Freiburg, Germany) and a self-prepared buffer called “AlloU”. CfDNA was extracted using the QIAamp MinElute ccfDNA Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). CfDNA concentration was measured using the Qubit™ 4 fluorometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA). Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) was used for detection and quantification of the T790M mutation. Results: Almost no spiked cfDNA was recoverable from samples with no preservation buffer and the T790M variant was not detectable in these samples. These findings indicate that cfDNA was degraded below the detection limit by urinary nucleases. Stabilizing buffers showed varying efficiency in preventing this degradation. The most effective stabilizing buffer under all storage conditions was the UAS, enabling adequate recovery of the T790M variant using ddPCR. Conclusion: From a technical point of view, stabilizing buffers and adequate storage conditions are a prerequisite for translation of urinary cfDNA diagnostics into clinical routine.
Age-related impairments and influence of visual feedback when learning to stand with unexpected sensorimotor delays

Background While standing upright, the brain must accurately accommodate for delays between sensory feedback and self-generated motor commands. Natural aging may limit adaptation to sensorimotor delays due to age-related decline in sensory acuity, neuromuscular capacity and cognitive function. This study examined balance learning in young and older adults as they stood with robot-induced sensorimotor delays. Methods A cohort of community dwelling young (mean = 23.6 years, N = 20) and older adults (mean = 70.1 years, N = 20) participated in this balance learning study. Participants stood on a robotic balance simulator which was used to artificially impose a 250 ms delay into their control of standing. Young and older adults practiced to balance with the imposed delay either with or without visual feedback (i.e., eyes open or closed), resulting in four training groups. We assessed their balance behavior and performance (i.e., variability in postural sway and ability to maintain upright posture) before, during and after training. We further evaluated whether training benefits gained in one visual condition transferred to the untrained condition. Results All participants, regardless of age or visual training condition, improved their balance performance through training to stand with the imposed delay. Compared to young adults, however, older adults had larger postural oscillations at all stages of the experiments, exhibited less relative learning to balance with the delay and had slower rates of balance improvement. Visual feedback was not required to learn to stand with the imposed delay, but it had a modest effect on the amount of time participants could remain upright. For all groups, balance improvements gained from training in one visual condition transferred to the untrained visual condition. Conclusion Our study reveals that while advanced age partially impairs balance learning, the older nervous system maintains the ability to recalibrate motor control to stand with initially destabilizing sensorimotor delays under differing visual feedback conditions.
An Update on Protein Kinases as Therapeutic Targets—Part II: Peptides as Allosteric Protein Kinase C Modulators Targeting Protein–Protein Interactions

Human protein kinases are highly-sought-after drug targets, historically harnessed for treating cancer, cardiovascular disease, and an increasing number of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. Most current treatments involve small molecule protein kinase inhibitors that interact orthosterically with the protein kinase ATP-binding pocket. As a result, these compounds are often poorly selective and highly toxic. Part I of this series reviews the role of PKC isoforms in various human diseases, featuring cancer and cardiovascular disease, as well as translational examples of PKC modulation applied to human health and disease. In the present Part II, we discuss alternative allosteric binding mechanisms for targeting PKC, as well as novel drug platforms, such as modified peptides. A major goal is to design protein kinase modulators with enhanced selectivity and improved pharmacological properties. To this end, we use molecular docking analysis to predict the mechanisms of action for inhibitor–kinase interactions that can facilitate the development of next-generation PKC modulators.
Prevalence, mechanical transmission and impact of environmental conditions on cucumber mosaic disease in Sindh

Cucumber mosaic virus (Genus: Cucumovirus, Family: Bromoviridae) is major pathogen of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) in Pakistan and may cause up to 100 % losses. Therefore, this survey based study was planned to determine the disease intensity in fields, mechanical transmission for confirmation of virus and analysis of influence of environmental conditions on the disease development. The disease was monitored on 30 plants at each site in district Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar, Thatta and Shaheed Benazirabad. There were seven sites at each district for observations. Metrological data collected from Regional Agro Metrological Centre, ARI Tandojam Sindh was correlated with the disease intensity. The disease incidence was ranging, 4077, 3770, 63100 and 3090%, at district Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar, Thatta and Shaheed Benazirabad, respectively. District wise, there was highly significant variation among incidence of cucumber mosaic disease (Df= 3, F= 20.59, P= 0.0000). Maximum disease incidence was recorded at Thatta (81.0%). However, overall severity of cucumber mosaic in all the surveyed districts was 2-score. On mechanical inoculation, after 15 days necrotic lesions were only found on the leaves of Chenopodium amaranticolor inoculated with sap of symptomatic leaves. Maximum, minimum temperature (°C) and evaporation showed significant relation (r= 0.883, P= 0.0053, r= 0.664, P= 0.0482 and r= 0.827, P= 0.0119, respectively) only with the disease incidence but not with severity. Cloudiness was highly significantly related with disease severity (r= 0.975, P= 0.0002) but there was non-significant relationship with disease incidence (r= 0.600, P= 0.0705).
The Rate of Return on Education for Wage Employed Workers in Malawi: Evidence from Integrated Household Survey

: This empirical study utilizes data obtained from the recent Malawi Integrated Household Survey to estimate the rates of returns on education in the context of wage employment. The calculations are conducted using the basic and extended Mincerian earning functions. The results suggest that, on average, an increase of one year in schooling is associated with a 5% increase in lifetime earnings. The findings align with the assumptions and conclusions documented in analogous investigations. Moreover, there exists empirical evidence indicating that the returns on investment in education increase proportionally with the amount of education attained. The research revealed that there exists a marginal disparity in the educational return between male and female workers, with males exhibiting a slightly greater rate. The presented empirical evidence offers policy makers a foundation for endorsing investments in higher education due to its potential for generating better returns. Additionally, it supports the advocacy for poverty alleviation measures that prioritize education as a solution to livelihood difficulties.
The Impact of Globalisation on International Relations

: Globalisation refers to the process of increasing interconnectedness and interdependence among countries, economies, societies, and cultures around the world. The driving force of globalisation is the advancements in technology, transportation, and communication, which have made it easier for people, goods, services, capital, and ideas to move across borders. This interconnectedness has equally impacted international relations and brought new perspectives and approaches worldwide. This essay will argue the shift in international relationships caused by globalisation.
Characterization of the planar differential mobility analyzer (DMA P5): resolving power, transmission efficiency and its application to atmospheric relevant cluster measurements

Abstract. The planar differential mobility analyzer (DMA), functioning as a particle sizer, exhibits superior transmission and selection accuracy at ambient pressure relative to its cylindrical counterparts. It also presents integration potential with atmospheric pressure interface mass spectrometry (API-MS) for enhanced cluster detection with an additional ion mobility dimension. In this study, the performance of a commercially available planar DMA (DMA P5) was evaluated. The device is capable of sizing particles below 3.9 nm, with larger sizes measurable through a sheath gas flow restrictor. The resolving power was appraised under various recirculation arrangements, including suction and counterflow modes along with different sheath flow rates, using electrosprayed tetra-alkyl ammonium salts. The peak resolving powers for tetrahexylammonium (THA+) achieved in suction and counterflow modes were 61.6 and 84.6, respectively. The DMA P5 offers a sizing resolution that is 5 to 16 times greater than that of cylindrical DMAs. Resolving power displayed a near-linear relationship with the square root of the applied voltage (VDMA) in counterflow mode. Conversely, the resolving power for THA+ ceased its linear enhancement with VDMA beyond a VDMA of 3554.3 V, entering a plateau which is ascribed to the perturbations in sample flow impacting the laminar nature of sheath flow. The DMA P5 transmission efficiency reaches 54.3 %, markedly surpassing that of conventional DMAs by nearly 1 order of magnitude. Moreover, the mobility spectrum of various electrosprayed tetra-alkyl ammonium salts and the mass-to-charge versus mobility 2D spectrum of sulfuric acid clusters were characterized using the DMA P5 MS system.
Faulting and strain partitioning in Jamaica from GPS and structural data: Implications for Gonave and Hispaniola microplate kinematics, northern Caribbean

We use block modeling of GPS site velocities from Jamaica and nearby islands, including Hispaniola, to test alternative plate boundary geometries for deformation in Jamaica and estimate slip rates along the island’s major fault zones. Relative to the Caribbean plate, GPS sites in northern Jamaica move 6.0±0.5 mm yr to the WSW, constituting a lower bound on the motion of the Gônave microplate across its southern boundary in Jamaica. Obliquely convergent motion of all 30 GPS sites on and near Jamaica relative to the island’s ~E-Wtrending strike-slip faults may be partitioned into 2.6±0.6 mm yr of ~N-S shortening across submarine faults south of Jamaica and 5-6 mm yr of E-W motion. Guided by geologic and seismic information about the strikes and locations of faults in Jamaica, inverse block modeling of the regional GPS velocities rejects plate boundary configurations that presume either a narrow plate boundary in Jamaica or deformation concentrated across a restraining bend defined by the topographically high Blue Mountains of eastern Jamaica. The best-fitting models instead place most deformation on faults in central Jamaica. The 4-5 mm yr slip rate we estimate for the Plantain Garden fault and Blue Mountain restraining bend of southeastern Jamaica implies significant seismic hazard for the nearby capital of Kingston.
KAVRAMSAL DEĞİŞİM YAKLAŞIMI İLE ISI SICAKLIK KONUSU ÖĞRETİMİNİN BEŞİNCİ SINIF ÖĞRENCİLERİNİN KAVRAMSAL ANLAMALARINA ETKİSİ

Bu calismanin amaci kavramsal degisim yaklasimina dayali isi sicaklik konusu ogretiminin besinci sinif ogrencilerinin kavramsal anlamalarina etkisi incelemektir. Bu calisma kavramsal degisim yaklasiminin 5E ogrenme modeline dayali olarak isi sicaklik konusu icin uygulamasini icermektedir. Calisma Balikesir ili Altieylul ilcesinde bulunan orta duzeyde bir ortaokulun 5. siniflarindan birinde ogrenim goren 23 ogrenci ile yurutulmustur . Arastirmada isi sicaklik kavramlarinin gunluk hayatta kullanimi ile ilgili hazirlanan isi sicaklik metni ve isi sicaklik konusu ile ilgili yanlis kavramlari tespit etmek icin kavramsal anlama testi kullanilmistir. Isi sicaklik metni ve kavramsal anlama testi ogretim oncesinde on test ve sonrasinda son test olarak ogrencilere uygulanmis ve testlerden alinan puanlar SPSS 20.0 paket programi ile analiz edilmistir. Ogrencilerin isi sicaklik metni ve kavramsal anlama testi on test ve son test puanlari arasinda anlamli bir fark bulundugu gorulmustur.