Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Textural and chemical properties of activated carbon prepared from tropical peat soil by chemical activation method

Activated carbon (AC) was produced via phosphoric acid (H3PO4) and zinc chloride (ZnCl2) chemical activation methods at 500 °C for 3 h. Tropical peat soil was used as a carbon precursor. The effects of activating agent concentrations on the microstructure and chemical properties of activated carbon were studied. Activated carbon with a high BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) specific surface area (SBET) and a high total pore volume (Vpore) was produced using a 30% H3PO4 chemical activation method. The SBET and Vpore of the activated carbon at this condition were 1974 m2/g and 1.41 cm3/g, respectively. However, the activated carbon prepared using ZnCl2 activation only had a SBET of 794 m2/g and a Vpore of 0.11 cm3/g. The nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms of both activated carbons exhibited a combination of Type I and Type II isotherms, due to the simultaneous presence of micro- and mesopores structures. The microcrystallinity of the activated carbons was characterized using an X-ray diffractometer and a Raman Spectroscopy, respectively. The activated carbon produced using H3PO4 activation had higher crystalline properties than the activated carbon prepared using ZnCl2 activation. Thus, this article demonstrates the potential of tropical peat soil as a precursor of AC production.
Effect of Ultrasound-Guided Thoracocentesis on Clinical and Physiological Outcomes in Mechanically Ventilated Patients

Background: Pleural effusions are common in critically ill patients, causes are multifactorial. Mechanical ventilation and critical illness lead to disturbance of the normal physiological processes which regulate pleural fluid homeostasis. Ultrasound can detect small volume of pleural effusion up to 20 mL. Aim of the work: We investigated the influence of large pleural effusion drainage on oxygenation, hemodynamics, and respiratory mechanics in mechanically ventilated patients. Methodology: We performed a prospective observational study on 65 mechanically ventilated patients examining the effects of large pleural fluid drainage on oxygenation; PaO2/FiO2 and Respiratory mechanics; peak inspiratory pressures, plateau pressures, dynamic compliance and total PEEP. Hemodynamics and complications also recorded at baseline, 6 h and 24 h after drainage. Results: Among 65 patients, the mean volume of effusion drained was (1868 ± 640) ml at 24 h. Uncomplicated pneumothorax occurred in two patients. When compared baseline; 6 h and 24 h after drainage,PaO2/FiO2 ratio significantly improved (196.69 ± 34.27, 227.02 ± 35.81, 269.78 ± 48.39; p<0.001), with a decrease in peak inspiratory pressure (38.23 ± 5.71, 34.14 ± 4.70, 29.89 ± 4.58 cm H2O, p<0.001) and plateau pressures (21.06 ± 3.47, 18.77 ± 3.17, 15.49 ± 2.91 cm H2O, p<0.001) and a large increase in dynamic compliance (17.48 ± 4.12, 21.79 ± 4.47, 26.77 ± 4.94 ml/cm H2O, p<0.001). Hemodynamics were not changed by drainage apart from respiratory rate which decreased significantly (19.4 ± 5.5, 17.4 ± 5, 16.5 ± 6.8 breaths/min, P=0.019). Conclusions: Ultrasound pleural effusion drainage in mechanically ventilated patients is safe. It appears to ameliorate oxygenation and respiratory mechanics and reducing the respiratory rate without affecting hemodynamics.
Blanco THE HYDROCLIMATOLOGY OF GORGONA ISLAND : SEASONAL AND ENSO-RELATED

Most small watersheds in the Tropical Eastern Pacific remain ungauged, and discharge analyses using gauge and simulated data have been published only for a few large rivers. I analyzed a 20-yr record of rainfall and stream discharge from Gorgona Island, a natural national park located 30 km offshore in the Pacific Ocean of Colombia to explore intraand inter-annual patterns and drivers. Gorgona Island receives > 6.600 mm of annual rainfall thus feeding numerous permanent streams. Inter Tropical Convergence Zone-driven seasonal rainfall patterns (unimodal) were consistent regardless of interannual variability. However, a large yearly variation was observed between May and August. Monthly and annual rainfall in Gorgona Island was greater than at a neighboring continental-coastal area, suggesting the occurrence of orographic and convective rain. El Niño Southern Oscillation slightly influenced interannual variation in rainfall, but it strongly influenced stream discharge. The importance of the Chocó Jet Current and Meso-Scale Stationary Systems is discussed.
Sales Drive Advertising Expenditures: Evidence for Consumer Packaged and Durable Goods in Germany

The relation between sales and advertising is both complex and diverse. Whether advertising activities drive orfollow sales is still unclear. We uncover this relation distinguishing between consumer packaged goods (CPG)and durable consumer goods (DCG) industries. We fit vector autoregressive models to sales and advertisingexpenditures of four CPG and three DCG industries in Germany from 1991 q1 to 2009 q4. Findings reveal thatadvertising expenditures do not increase total sales of industries according to the distribution hypothesis.According to the deterministic view, advertising budgeting is often influenced by previous sales and partly byfuture sales expectations. We conclude that past sales and partly sales expectations may change company andmarketing goals that eventually affect the use of strategic communication instruments such as advertising.
Emerging Issue of Escherichia Coli Resistance: A Threat to Public Health

Over the past decade, extensive use of antibiotics in veterinary and humans contributed to bacterial resistance in the environment. The contribution of resistant bacterial strains in the environment occurred through feces, excreta of animals and humans. The enormous intake of antibiotics have resulted resistance in the normal microbiota of gastrointestinal tract (GIT) among healthy humans [1]. Furthermore, veterinarians used broad spectrum antibiotics for pets’ safety [2]. In the present editorial, we tried to document the resistance of E. coli to various antibiotics with special reference to animals and humans.
Impact of plant genotype and nitrogen level on rice growth response to inoculation with Azospirillum sp. strain B510 under paddy field conditions

Abstract Twenty rice cultivars, including three genetically-distinct groups (japonica, indica-1, and indica-2), were evaluated for their response to inoculation with Azospirillum sp. strain B510 in paddy fields with standard nitrogen (SN) and low nitrogen (LN) fertilization. In the SN field, the tiller numbers in most indica-2 cultivars, 37 days after transplanting (DAT), were significantly increased by the B510 inoculation, whereas those in 4 japonica cultivars were significantly decreased. A similar growth response was observed in the LN field, although the impacts of the B510 inoculation were more varied than in the SN field. At 58 DAT, the tiller numbers in most cultivars were lower or unaffected by the B510 inoculation under both SN and LN conditions, except that the tiller number of the Nipponbare cultivar, which is classified as japonica, was significantly higher in the LN field only. These results suggest that the effects of inoculation with Azospirillum sp. strain B510 on the growth of rice plants, especially on tiller numbers at the early growth stage, vary depending on the rice genotype, as well as nitrogen level. Therefore, the plant genotypes, growth stages, and fertilization managements must be considered when a plant-associated bacterium is evaluated for beneficial effects under field conditions.
Physical and chemical characteristics of abraded seed coating particles

As a result of the dressing process, storage conditions, handling, and transport before the drilling and breaking of seeds, differing amounts of dust particles can be produced during seed drilling. In this study, more information about the dust drift risk in Belgium and the chemical and physical characteristics of particles abraded from pesticide-coated seeds was gathered to better understand the complex phenomenon of dust drift and for the development of predictive dust drift models.
Why the Lutein Source in Eye Vitamins Matters

Eye care professionals are increasingly recommending eye vitamins to patients because a growing body of scientific evidence supports the benefits of good nutrition to reduce the risk for certain eye conditions and improve visual function. Eye care professionals expect that the eye vitamins they recommend will benefit the patients they serve. However, in order for ocular supplements to provide eye health benefits, the essential nutrients, including lutein, in eye vitamins should be bioavailable—so that they will be able to be delivered to the beneficial sites of action. Measurement of lutein and zeaxanthin in the macula via macular pigment optical density (MPOD) can help confirm the bioavailabilty of a lutein ingredient and indicate whether patients are getting enough lutein and zeaxanthin through their diet or supplementation regimen.
Production and Optimization of Amylase and Glucoamylase from Aspergillus Niger under Solid State Fermentation for Effective Production of Glucose Syrup

The continual demand for sugars and coupled with the chemical hazards associated with chemically produced syrup had led to the development of enzymatic technology which has increased the production of glucose syrups most especially using enzymes from microbial origin. The aim of this work was to isolate, screen and optimized the best cultural condition that can lead to the production of glucose syrups from Nigeria cassava starch using enzymes produced by soil microorganisms. Also to determine proximate and physiochemical properties of the glucose syrup produced from yellow and white maize using microbial enzymes. The results obtained from the preliminary screening showed that most of the isolates obtained were Aspergillus niger. It was observed that Aspergillus niger had the largest zone of amylase activity of 35.0 mm when compared to Fusarium pallidorosium that had the lowest (5.0 mm). The optimal conditions for enzyme production; temperature, incubation period, inoculum concentration, and pH were 30 oC, 5 days, 1 × 106 CFU/ml, and pH of 5 respectively for the production of glucoamylase and amylase. Generally, strain AMO1 was observed to produced more glucoamylase when compare to amylase production. The crude protein, the colour, viscosity, ash content, reducing sugar content, pH and carbohydrate contents of the syrup from yellow maize were more than that of the syrup from white maize.
Update on Gastric Cancer Epidemiology and Risk Factors

Gastric adenocarcinoma is the most common gastric tumor. It is the fifth most common cancer worldwide after lung cancer, breast, colo rectal and prostate cancer. Long considered enigmatic, its epidemiology has changed over time. In fact, the incidence of distal gastric cancer has declined while that of the cardia was stable or increased. This cancer is multifactorial but reducing the incidence of distal cancer is particularly attributed to advances in the treatment of H. pylori infection. In this review, we analyzed the available data concerning the changing epidemiology of gastric cancer and the main risk factors. The incidence of distal cancer is definitely declining due to the control of Helicobacter pylori infection. Proximal gastric cancer and cardia cancer is particularly due to smoking, overweight.
Effect of Manure and Foliar Application of Growth Regulators on Lentil (Lens Culinaris) Performance in Semi-Arid Highland Environment

Abstract Semi-arid environments are characterized by low soil organic matter, lack of sufficient precipitation and occurrence of high temperatures at the terminal of growing season. Effects of foliar application of salicylic acid (SA) and ascorbic acid (AS) during vegetative and reproductive stages at three farmyard manure (FYM) rates (zero (FYM1), 15 (FYM2), 30 (FYM3)t·ha-1) were studied on the growth and yield components of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) under supplemental irrigation of semi-arid highland in the north-west of Iran. The results revealed that application of farmyard manure especially at high level could significantly increase the morp-ho-physiological traits such as plant height, first pod height, plant canopy spread, rooting depth, the number of root nodules, ground cover, chlorophyll content and relative water content. Although improving effects of SA and AS on growth parameter were less than FYM, plants treated with SA showed better performance than plants treated with AS. A similar status was observed for grain yield and yield component. So the highest grain yield was recorded at FYM by foliar application of SA. It can be concluded that FYM3 as the most promising manure application rate was adopted to improve both root and total above-ground plant growth. Also this work highlights the importance of exogenous application of growth regulators in lentil cropping systems in semi-arid region with the Mediterranean climate.
An Evaluation of Methods for the Extraction of Multiword Expressions

This paper focuses on the evaluation of some methods for the automatic acquisition of Multiword Expressions (MWEs). First we investigate the hypothesis that MWEs can be detected solely by the distinct statistical properties of their component words, regardless of their type, comparing 3 statistical measures: Mutual Information, χ and Permutation Entropy. Moreover, we also look at the impact that the addition of type-specific linguistic information has on the performance of these methods.
MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTIC OF ANAPLASMA MARGINALE IN CARRIER CATTLE

Background: Anaplasmosis belongs to the complex of several tick-borne diseases and can cause diseases in the livestock with high economical losses. Cattle that recover from acute infection become carriers and the parasite can persist most probably for the lifetime in the blood. The aim of the present study was the determination of the persistently infected cattle in a region of Iran with the previous history of acute anaplasmosis. Methods: One hundred and fifty blood samples and corresponding blood smears of cattle without any signs of diseases were prepared from a region in Isfahan/ Iran with the previous history of acute anaplasmosis from March 2007 to July 2007 for cross sectional study of carriers of Anaplasma . The blood smears were first screened by Giemsa staining, the extracted DNA from blood cells were analyzed by Anaplasma marginale specific nested PCR, and PCR-RFLP using primers derived from 16S rRNA gene and restriction endonuclease Bst1107 I. Results : Anaplasma like structures could be identified in the limited amount of erythrocytes of 75 blood smears. In these samples, the percentage of erythrocytes harboring Anaplasma like structures varied from 10 -3 % to 10 -2 %. Nested-PCR and PCR-RFLP analysis showed 58 A. marginale positive cases within 75 Anaplasma suspected blood samples. In 150 total blood samples, 50% were A. marinale positive. Conclusion: Our results revealed that the traditional Giemsa staining method is not applicable for the determination of the persistently infected cattle. In addition, the results showed that the carrier animals must be widespread in the Anaplasma endemic areas in Iran.
Environmental Policy in Developing Countries: A Dynamic Analysis

A dynamic model is constructed of the environmental policy formulation process in a stylized developing country (DC). The paper analyzes the employment and output effects of three pollution control policies. These policies embody different assumptions about the DC government's ability to commit to its announced course of action. The timepath of the government's policy variable is characterized. Optimality calls for an activist policy, irrespective of the length of time to which the government can commit to its announced policy. However, the effects of this activist policy depend fundamentally on the government's period of commitment. Copyright 1998 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
SEMANTIC-BASED E-GOVERNMENT FRAMEWORK BASED ON DOMAIN ONTOLOGIES : A CASE OF KUWAIT REGION

Accessibility of information in the web is the main feature in knowledge acquisition. Ontology is an explicit specification of conceptualization. It defines the terms with specified relationships between them, and can interpret by both humans and computers. Currently, E-Government is facing several problems relating for integration of the information systems, extraction, and representation across heterogeneous organizations. In Addition, e-government is the civil and political conduct of the government, which involves using information and communication technologies (ICT). Therefore, e-government services need to provide information where format and methods of delivery adapt according to the users and situations. In recent years, semantic Web technologies based on ontology have brought about promising solutions to the above engineering problems. In this paper, we propose a semantic-based framework for e-government. In addition, the platform Protégé for semantic ontology development is introduce. We proposed ontological model for the Education ministry domain and Medicine ministry domain. The Web Ontology Language (OWL) represents this ontology, which is the standard language for the semantic web. Moreover, it was testing in proposed semantic framework. The ontology will be useful in the knowledge of the e-government semantic integration, and semantic Web applications.
A Probabilistic Retrieval Model for Word Spotting Based on Direct Attribute Prediction

In recent years CNNs took over in various fields of computer vision. Adapted to document image analysis, they achieved state-of-the-art performance in word spotting by predicting word string embeddings. One prominent embedding splits a given string in temporal pyramidal regions of character occurrences, namely the Pyramidal Histogram of Characters (PHOC). This string embedding can be interpreted as a binary attribute representation. In this work we present a new approach for ranking retrieval lists originally proposed for zero-shot learning where attribute representations play an important role. Instead of a distance-based matching of the predicted string embedding, we compute the posterior probability of the attribute representation given a word image which can be interpreted as a posterior of the query. We can show that this probabilistic ranking improves word spotting performance, especially in the query-by-string scenario.
Dynamic integration of conceptual information during learning

The development and application of concepts is a critical component of cognition. Although concepts can be formed on the basis of simple perceptual or semantic features, conceptual representations can also capitalize on similarities across feature relationships. By representing these types of higher-order relationships, concepts can simplify the learning problem and facilitate decisions. Despite this, little is known about the neural mechanisms that support the construction and deployment of these kinds of higher-order concepts during learning. To address this question, we combined a carefully designed associative learning task with computational model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were scanned as they learned and made decisions about sixteen pairs of cues and associated outcomes. Associations were structured such that individual cues shared feature relationships, operationalized as shared patterns of cue pair-outcome associations. In order to capture the large number of possible conceptual representational structures that participants might employ and to evaluate how conceptual representations are used during learning, we leveraged a well-specified Bayesian computational model of category learning [1]. Behavioral and model-based results revealed that participants who displayed a tendency to link experiences in memory benefitted from faster learning rates, suggesting that the use of the conceptual structure in the task facilitated decisions about cue pair-outcome associations. Model-based fMRI analyses revealed that trial-by-trial integration of cue information into higher-order conceptual representations was supported by an anterior temporal (AT) network of regions previously implicated in representing complex conjunctions of features and meaning-based information.
Antihyperglycemic, Antihyperlipidemic and Antiapoptotic Activities of Micromelum minutum Seeds in Diabetic Rats

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common chronic diseases in the whole world. It is a complex, multi-factorial disease which affects the quality, quantity, and style of an individual’s life. The Micromelum minutum (Family Rutaceae) is a small shrub growing widely in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. In the present study the evaluation of the anti-hyperglycemic, anti-hyperlipidemic and anti-apoptotic activities of Micromelum minutum seeds ethanolic extract in diabetic rats was done. After 30 days of administration the dose (100 mg/kg body weight (bwt) of ethanolic extract of the Micromelum minutum seeds and 25 mg/kg bwt Microminutinin coumarin there was a significant decrease in serum glucose levels; while following two months of administration of the same doses of the seeds extract and coumarin induced a significant decrease in the cholesterol, triglycerides and low density lipoprotein (LDL) levels and increase in the high density lipoprotein (HDL) level. The treatment with Micromelum minutum seeds extract and its coumarin ingredient to diabetic rats increased p53 expression while decreased bcl-2 expression. Histopathological investigation revealed that Micromelum minutum seeds ethanolic extract (100 mg/kg) and Microminutinin coumarin (25 mg/kg bwt) treatment also increased the number of pancreas β-cells as compared to that of diabetic animals. In conclusion, Micromelum minutum seeds ethanolic extract had anti-hyperglycemic, anti-hyperlipidemic and anti-apoptotic activities and all these activities are related to Microminutinin coumarin ingredient of the plant seeds.
A Self-Tuning Impedance Controller for Autonomous Robotic Manipulation

Complex interactions with unstructured environments require the application of appropriate restoring forces in response to the imposed displacements. Impedance control techniques provide effective solutions to achieve this, however, their quasi-static performance is highly dependent on the choice of parameters, i.e. stiffness and damping. In most cases, such parameters are previously selected by robot programmers to achieve a desired response, which limits the adaptation capability of robots to varying task conditions. To improve the generality of interaction planning through task-dependent regulation of the parameters, this paper introduces a novel self-regulating impedance controller. The regulation of the parameters is achieved based on the robot's local sensory data, and on an interaction expectancy value. This value combines the interaction values from the robot state machine and visual feedback, to authorize the autonomous tuning of the impedance parameters in selective Cartesian axes. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated experimentally in a debris removal task.
Clinical Outcomes of Snuggle up Position Using Positioning Aids for Preterm (27-32 Weeks) Infants

ABSTRACTBackground: Preterm birth, if not actively managed with developmental supportive care, can significantly contribute to neurodevelopmental compromise. Use of appropriate positioning aids helps with mimicking the intrauterine environment and facilitating neuromuscular development. Herein, we aimed to determine the effectiveness of snuggle up positioning aids on clinical outcomes of preterm ( 0.05). Conclusion: Use of snuggle up position with positioning aids increased stability of physiological parameters and weight gain and reduced duration of NICU stay. Thus, the use of positioning aids for preterm infants is recommended to facilitate their growth and clinical outcomes.