Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pattern Reconflgurable Printed Antennas with High Gain and Broadband

This paper presents a wideband printed tapered slot antenna with pattern recon- flgurability. The antenna consists of four tapered slots, a reconflgurable microstrip-to-slotline transition, and four PIN diodes. Four agile endflre radiation patterns are realized with the mea- sured relative impedance bandwidth of 71.3%. The gains for the four directions are all higher than 6.4dBi at the center frequency of 2.4GHz. Good patterns are maintained at the four re- conflgurable directions in a wideband. To further enhance the gain, the zero-index-metamaterial (ZIM) units are loaded in the tapered slot. The simulation results show that extra gains of 1.4 to 1.7dBi can be obtained within the center band from 2.2GHz to 2.6GHz. 1. INTRODUCTION Reconflgurable antennas with adjusting beams are demanded in the wireless communication systems such as small base stations. Adjusting beam antenna can provide pattern diversity, which results in improving signal to noise ratio and the capacity of the wireless communication systems. Planar printed antennas are preferred because of the low cost, low proflle and easiness to be integrated with switches of PIN diodes and RF-MEMS. Most of the reported pattern reconflgurable antennas have narrow bandwidth which could not satisfy the rapidly growing bandwidth requirement of the modern communication systems. In (1{3), broadband pattern reconflgurable monopoles antennas are proposed, and the relative bandwidths are 29%, 55.7% and 66.7%, respectively. However, there are only two or three reconflgurable radiation patterns and the gains are no more than 6dBi. Ref. (4) presents a printed Yagi antenna with six adjustable beam directions. A tie-shape dipole with the two arms being printed on the opposite side of the dielectric-slab is adopted as the driven element to extend the bandwidth. Six PIN diode switches are attached between the ground and the driven dipole on the ground to control the radiation directions. The bandwidth of the re∞ection coe-cient less than 10dB is 400MHz, and the gains are all 7.5dBi on the six adjustable radiation directions. Wideband pattern reconflgurable Vivaldi tapered slot antennas are proposed in (5{7). Three difierent radiation patterns, including one omnidirectional and two endflre patterns are realized. The relative bandwidths are about 50% to 60% and the gains are less than 6.5dBi. Most of the above mentioned designs include extra DC isolation structures, which add the complexity to the antennas. In this paper, a broadband pattern reconflgurable tapered slot antenna is designed with four adjustable endflre directions. The antenna is coupling fed by a microstrip feedline. The four beam directions around 360 - are controlled by four PIN diodes without extra bias circuits being required. This pattern reconflgurable antenna has wideband from 1.5GHz to 3.3GHz and high gain of 6.8dBi at the center frequency of 2.4GHz. The further approaches of gain enhancement are discussed by using zero-index metamaterial (ZIM).
A Guide to Cleaner Electrodermal Activity Measurements

Valid electrodermal measurements ensure the integrity of client assessment and biofeedback training. Accurate measurements require understanding of the signal and potential artifacts (sources of contamination) and developing “bulletproof procedures. ” Peper, Shaffer, and Lin have recommended the following guidelines for ensuring accurate psychophysiological monitoring: (a) understand the physiological mechanisms that generate the signal, (b) always record and inspect the raw signal because this will allow you to identify artifact, (c) question whether displayed values make sense (e.g., skin conductance levels that rapidly fluctuate, exceed 40 μS/cm2, or fall below 1 μS/cm2 should be suspect in a client who is sitting quietly), (d) recognize the appearance of common artifacts and how they alter derived measurements, and (e) intentionally create artifacts so that you can better recognize them (e.g., rhythmically move the fingers attached to a skin sensor, loosening or tightening the sensors if they are attac.
Preparation and Characterization of 3D-Printed Biobased Composites Containing Micro- or Nanocrystalline Cellulose

Stereolithography (SLA), one of the seven different 3D printing technologies, uses photosensitive resins to create high-resolution parts. Although SLA offers many advantages for medical applications, the lack of biocompatible and biobased resins limits its utilization. Thus, the development of new materials is essential. This work aims at designing, developing, and fully characterizing a bio-resin system (made of poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) and acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (AESO)), filled with micro- or nanocellulose crystals (MCC and CNC), suitable for 3D printing. The unfilled resin system containing 80 wt. % AESO was identified as the best resin mixture, having a biobased content of 68.8%, while ensuring viscosity values suitable for the 3D printing process (>1.5 Pa s). The printed samples showed a 93% swelling decrease in water, as well as increased tensile strength (4.4 ± 0.2 MPa) and elongation at break (25% ± 2.3%). Furthermore, the incorporation of MCC and CNC remarkably increased the tensile strength and Young’s modulus of the cured network, thus indicating a strong reinforcing effect exerted by the fillers. Lastly, the presence of the fillers did not affect the UV-light penetration, and the printed parts showed a high quality, thus proving their potential for precise applications.
IMASHEDU: Intelligent MAshups for EDUcation - Towards a Data Mining Approach

: Nowadays, technological tools greatly support the work of teaching-learning tasks. In this sense, there are various sources of information from which teachers and students rely on to complement their academic activities. Content is sought on the web, significantly updated and easy to understand, generally in the form of videos. As people progress in their learning, they face terms, concepts, and topics that they are not familiar with them. However, those topics are included in the video. In this context, a complex process is generated of alternating sections of the video with other sources of information that explain the related topics and contribute to the understanding of the topic discussed. In this regard, and considering the possibility of systematically consuming information from various sources, it is necessary to build a method and an application that orchestrates the contents of these sources in a convenient, fast and automatic way, according to the person's learning. This proposal contemplates the development of a Mashup. This mashup integrates different data sources in a single graphical interface. Also, it is considered the construction of a core software solution based on text mining techniques. This solution allows extracting the textual content from videos and identifying the terms that could support the knowledge of the topic. It would significantly contribute to the fact that related topics are presented unified in the same interface. At the same time, the learning experience is greatly improved, avoiding losing the common thread of the observed video. Therefore, this article presents a process of orchestrating various data sources in a Web Mashup application. It includes videos available on YouTube channels, with other sources (e.g., Wikipedia, Pinterest) that help understand the topic better, generating hypertext references based on the generation of terms through text mining techniques. A Mathematics Learning mashup has been built to show the proposal’s feasibility.
The quality of a professional portfolio career in the post-industrial era

ABSTRACT Post-industrial society has witnessed trends according to which the labour market has become more flexible, services have expanded and immaterial work and horizontal work organisation has emerged, shaping professions in respect to the employment and work they can offer. An outcome of these trends is a portfolio career, an employment pattern based on holding down multiple jobs, which increases the variation in the quality of career trajectories. Portfolio careers, however, are shaped at the intersection of industry and profession. This article studies the quality of a professional portfolio career by investigating the employment pattern and the task profile. Two case studies, one involving business consulting professionals and the other professionals in the creative industry, are investigated. The study is based on the analysis of interview data. For both professional groups, the quality of employment was impaired by the insecurity inherent in a portfolio career, but the quality of the professional profile of tasks was relatively adequate. For the consulting professionals studied, the quality of the task profile is due to the coherent but multidisciplinary continuum of tasks, which in turn is due to the market-based service industry. For the professionals in the creative industry, the profile consisted of professional tasks and tasks external to the profession, which is due to underemployment in the industry.
Endothelin‐1 via ETA receptor activation promotes renal iron deposition in murine models of iron overload

Renal iron deposition correlates with elevated plasma ET‐1 in patients and mouse model of sickle cell disease (SCD). Additionally, excessive renal iron accumulation in sickle cell mice (HbSS) is ameliorated by ETA receptor antagonism. Thus, we hypothesized that ET‐1 via ETA receptor activity leads to dysfunctional renal iron trafficking, promoting iron accumulation in the kidney. We conducted time‐ and concentration‐dependent in vitro studies on mouse proximal tubule (PT) cells and observed that ET‐1/ ETA signaling promotes cellular iron uptake (by increasing transferrin receptor 1 expression) and inhibits cellular iron removal pathways (65% reduction of ferroportin‐1 (FPN‐1) and doubled hepcidin (Hamp) expression). In vivo studies demonstrated that altered expression of iron transporters in PT of male HbSS mice was consistent with iron accumulation phenotype. ETA receptor blockade attenuated expression of the cellular iron uptake mediator, DMT‐1, and also decreased renal iron accumulation (1.43±0.06 vs. 2.62±0.12; p=0.097) by preserving FPN‐1, reducing Hamp expression, and increasing urinary iron excretion (10.9±1.0 vs 6.4±1.2 μg/24h; p=0.010). To determine the long‐term effect of ET‐1 on chronic renal iron accumulation, we generated HbSS mice lacking ET‐1 in vascular endothelial cells mice (HbSS VEET KO; using Tie‐2 Cre). There were no differences in anemia status between 20 weeks old male HbSS VEET KO and flox mice. However, plasma iron concentration (117.3±4.3 vs. 103.9±4.3 μg/dl, p=0.04) and urinary iron excretion (10.4±1.9 vs. 7.4±1.1 μg/24h; p=0.059) were elevated and renal iron deposition attenuated (24.3±1.3 vs. 33.8±2.3; p=0.008) in HbSS VEET KO mice. To further elucidate ET‐1/ETA receptor‐mediated renal iron accumulation already observed with pharmacological and genetic approaches in HbSS mice, using PEPCK Cre we generated PT specific ETA receptor knockout (PT ETA KO) mice. At baseline, 16 weeks old male and female PT ETA KO mice presented with higher plasma iron concentration (1.0±0.2 vs. 0.5±0.1 μg/ml; p=0.03) and urinary iron excretion (4.5±0.7 vs. 1.7±0.5 μg/24h; p=0.002), whereas renal iron deposition remained unchanged (2.26±0.48 vs. 2.44±0.73 Kpix/ μm; p=0.85). To induce hemolysis with acute iron overload, mice were injected with phenylhydrazine (PhZ, 40 mg/kg, IP; 2 consecutive days) or saline. PhZ significantly reduced hemoglobin in both PT ETA KO and littermate controls when compared to saline injected mice. Moreover, PT ETA KO mice given PhZ had increased plasma iron concentration (4.4±0.3 vs. 3.0±0.5 μg/ml; p=0.03) and urinary iron excretion (5.6±0.7 vs. 3.4±0.7 μg/24h; p=0.05) and decreased renal iron accumulation (0.50±0.22 vs. 0.90±0.20; p=0.011) when compared with saline injected KO control mice. Together, these data demonstrate that ET‐1, via ETA receptor activity, contributes to renal iron accumulation in murine models of iron overload.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AWARENESS OF SOCIAL SERVICE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

This study aimed to determine the sustainable development awareness of the students studying in the social service program and to explain the factors that predict it. A survey method was used. Data were gathered with a scale called the "Sustainable Development Awareness Scale” developed by Ozturk-Demirbas (2011). Participants consisted of 55 students studying in the second year of the social service undergraduate program of a state university in Turkey. The measurement tool was applied to the students in an online environment in the first quarter of 2022. It was concluded that sustainable development awareness levels of social service undergraduate students are high in terms of environmental ethics, social factors, and total points and medium in terms of environmental-economic as measured in pre-service teachers in many other studies. Social service students' awareness of sustainable development was higher in the first two dimensions of the scale and lower in the third dimension when compared to the others. It has been revealed that the experiences during the normal flow of life do not have sufficient effect on this awareness. It is an important necessity for students to take action so that they can have concrete experiences in social responsibility projects and gain awareness of sustainable development. Article visualizations:
Modeling basal angiosperm floral phyllotaxis

ABSTRACT Abstract: We have developed mathematical models that accurately reproduce the floral meristems of seven angiosperm species from the ANA grade (Amborellales and Austrobaileyales). This allowed us to shed new light on the main problems posed by their phyllotaxis, such as whether it is whorled or spiral (in Nuphar), the origin of organ dédoublement or post-meristematic development.
Global DNA Methylation and mRNA-miRNA Variations Activated by Heat Shock Boost Early Microspore Embryogenesis in Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)

Microspore culture, a type of haploid breeding, is extensively used in the cultivation of cruciferous crops such as cabbage. Heat shock (HS) treatment is essential to improve the embryo rate during the culture process; however, its molecular role in boosting early microspore embryogenesis (ME) remains unknown. Here we combined DNA methylation levels, miRNAs, and transcriptome profiles in isolated microspores of cabbage ‘01-88’ under HS (32 °C for 24 h) and normal temperature (25 °C for 24 h) to investigate the regulatory roles of DNA methylation and miRNA in early ME. Global methylation levels were significantly different in the two pre-treatments, and 508 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were identified; 59.92% of DMRs were correlated with transcripts, and 39.43% of miRNA locus were associated with methylation levels. Significantly, the association analysis revealed that 31 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were targeted by methylation and miRNA and were mainly involved in the reactive oxygen species (ROS) response and abscisic acid (ABA) signaling, indicating that HS induced DNA methylation, and miRNA might affect ME by influencing ROS and ABA. This study revealed that DNA methylation and miRNA interfered with ME by modulating key genes and pathways, which could broaden our understanding of the molecular regulation of ME induced by HS pre-treatment.
Link-based Traffic Estimation and Simulation for Road Networks using Electronic Registration Identification data

Traffic estimation and traffic simulation are essential parts of the intelligent transportation system. In recent years, massive traffic data has brought many data-based traffic estimation methods, but few are utilized in traffic simulation. The cause is that the data-based traffic simulation has high requirements for data quality, needing the trip information of all vehicles, not met by common traffic data. Fortunately, the electronic registration identification (ERI) data of the vehicle can satisfy. Therefore, we utilize ERI data to study the traffic estimation and simulation for the road network. The core of this research is the travel time estimation model, which is constructed by combining traffic theory models and the deep neural network. The traffic theory models are a group of linear models, which represent the relationship between traffic flow or traffic density and travel time. The deep neural network can extract the temporal and spatial characteristics of the road network traffic by Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD) and Graph Convolutional Network (GCN), respectively. We named the travel time estimation model MGCN. Then, we employed MGCN for traffic simulation. In the experiment section, we employed Chongqing ERI data to verify the research content. Compared with some baseline methods, our method is superior in travel time estimation and traffic simulation.
Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding Retirement in Gauteng Schools

The focus of this study is on the exploration and description of the teachers’ perceptions regarding retirement in Gauteng schools. As a result of qualitative research method through literature review and interviews which were used in collecting data from the teachers as participants, the results revealed that teachers from the sample size are aware of their retirement times. But this came with mixed perceptions of what to expect and the level of readiness differed, due to lack of informed guideline, including anything that prepares them for their retirement. Based on the above results, it can thus be recommended that the Department of Education in South Africa, should conduct yearly workshops to make teachers aware of what retirement entails. This will help teachers to prepare themselves in advance for retirement. Received: 22 March 2022 / Accepted: 26 April 2022 / Published: 5 May 2022
Evaluating Autostereoscopy (AlioscopyTM) Use for Anatomy Education

Traditional anatomy learning relies on models and cadaveric specimens that are time and resource intensive to produce, which compromises their accessibility. To mitigate this, the use of three‐dimensional visualization technology (3DVT) to learn anatomy has substantially increased. Still, learning in an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment may pose new challenges, including increased self‐reported levels of cognitive load and cybersickness likely due to its immersive nature that isolates the learner from their surroundings. Autostereoscopy is a novel and potential solution, as it provides a headset‐free stereoscopic view of a three‐dimensional (3D) model. There is, however, a paucity of information about the use and educational efficacy of autostereoscopic 3DVT. The purpose of this study is to examine the strengths and limitations of implementing a non‐immersive autostereoscopic (AlioscopyTM) screen for learning anatomy.
Energy Performance Modeling of an Office Building and Its Evaluation – Post-Occupancy Evaluation and Energy Efficiency of the Building

Energy performance modelling can provide insights into the effi- ciency and sustainability of commercial buildings, and also the achievement of certification standards such as USGBC LEED. However, the results from the modelling must be validated via a post-construction evaluation, which quanti- fies any discrepancies between the predicted energy usage and the actual energy consumed. In this study, an existing office building was examined to test how well the model predicts energy usage. The results from the model were com- pared with the actual usage of gas and electricity over two years (2010-2011). Our study showed a 123% higher gas usage, and a 36% lower electricity, com- pared with the simulation. This difference presents that occupant behaviour and building construction practices have significant impact on the energy usage of a building. For instance, the large discrepancy among gas usage is due to the office building's thermal envelope, which identifies the spots at which heat leaks out of the building, thereby forcing the heating unit to work more. Additionally, the post occupancy evaluation study identified that indoor envi- ronmental conditions impact on energy consumption of the building.
Outage Performance of Cross-Packet HARQ

As opposed to hybrid automatic repeat request with incremental redundancy (HARQ-IR) that all the resources are occupied to resend the redundant information, cross-packet HARQ (XP-HARQ) allows the introduction of new information into retransmissions to substantially exploit the remaining resources. This letter provides a profound investigation into the outage performance of XP-HARQ. In particular, the exact outage expression of XP-HARQ is derived if the maximum number of transmissions is two, and tight outage bounds are obtained for more than two transmissions. Moreover, the asymptotic outage analysis of XP-HARQ in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime is carried out not only to simplify the outage expression, but also to show that full time diversity is achievable by XP-HARQ. The simulation results are eventually presented for verifications.
Supplementing a Phytogenic Feed Additive Modulates the Risk of Subacute Rumen Acidosis, Rumen Fermentation and Systemic Inflammation in Cattle Fed Acidogenic Diets

Simple Summary The present study evaluated the hypothesis that phytogenic supplementation in the diet will reduce the negative impacts of subacute ruminal acidosis and modulate rumen fermentation. A control group of cows with no supplementation was compared to a group supplemented with 0.04% (DM basis) of a phytogenic feed additive. We observed that after the high-concentrate diet was implemented with the phytogenic blend based on L-menthol, thymol, eugenol, mint oil (Mentha arvensis) and cloves powder (Syzygium aromaticum), the mean ruminal pH increased and the time for pH to reach below 5.8 decreased during the last two weeks of the experiment. Phytogenic feed supplementation also increased ruminal acetate and butyrate and reduced propionate, promoting more stable rumen fermentation compared to no supplementation (Control). Acute phase proteins decreased with the phytogenic feed additive from week 3 of high concentrate feeding. Nevertheless, liver enzymes did not seem to be affected by supplementation. Our study demonstrated that acidogenic diets supplemented with a phytogenic compound can reduce the risk of subacute ruminal acidosis. Abstract Feeding with high-concentrate diets increases the risk of subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA). This experiment was conducted to evaluate whether supplementing a phytogenic feed additive based on L-menthol, thymol, eugenol, mint oil (Mentha arvensis) and cloves powder (Syzygium aromaticum) (PHY) can amend the ruminal fermentation profile, modulate the risk of SARA and reduce inflammation in cattle. The experiment was designed as a crossover design with nine non-lactating Holstein cows, and was conducted in two experimental runs. In each run, cows were fed a 100% forage diet one week (wk 0), and were then transitioned stepwise over one week (0 to 65% concentrate, wk adapt.) to a high concentrate diet that was fed for 4 weeks. Animals were fed diets either with PHY or without (CON). The PHY group had an increased ruminal pH compared to CON, reduced time to pH < 5.8 in wk 3, which tended to decrease further in wk 4, reduced the ruminal concentration of D-lactate, and tended to decrease total lactate (wk 3). In wk 2, PHY increased acetate, butyrate, isobutyrate, isovalerate, and the acetate to propionate ratio compared to CON. Phytogenic supplementation reduced inflammation compared to CON in wk 3. Overall, PHY had beneficial effects on ruminal fermentation, reduced inflammation, and modulated the risk of SARA starting from wk 3 of supplementation.