Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Carboniferous-Permian Transition in the Robledo Mountains, Southern New Mexico: An Overview

This volume presents eight articles on the Pennsylvanian-Permian geology and paleontology of the Robledo Mountains in Doña Ana County, southern New Mexico. The reported research resulted from a federally-funded study of the trace fossils in and around the Prehistoric Trackways National Monument (PTNM). We divide the overview by the main topics addressed—stratigraphy, sedimentology, paleobotany, micropaleontology, biostratigraphy and ichnology―and draw attention to the most significant research results. These indicate that the identification of glacio-eustatically driven sedimentary cyclicity in the Robledos Lower Permian strata, paralleling that seen in mid-continent and Appalachian basin cyclothems of Pennsylvanian age, is problematic. There may be some kind of allocyclic signature in the Robledo sections, but autocyclic drivers clearly were important forces in the local Early Permian sedimentary history. The red-bed fossil assemblages in the PTNM were early fit into a rather simple model of intertidal flat depositional environments, but studies here indicate much greater depositional complexity, and identify what are likely a mosaic of local paleonenvironments and taphonomic settings in which the trace fossils and red-bed plant assemblages accumulated. The Early Permian geological record indicates episodically increasing seasonality and climatic dryness around the equatorial regions of central and western Pangea, a trend that began in the late Middle Pennsylvanian. During this period of warming, terrestrial floras became increasingly heterogeneous spatially, and the Robledo paleofloras fit that pattern. Precise and extensive age data for the Hueco Group section based on non-fusulinid and fusulinid foraminiferans indicate that the base of the Leonardian (Artinskian) is very close to the base of the Robledo Mountains Formation. This means the upper part of the local Hueco section is Leonardian, not Wolfcampian as long supposed.
Isolation and Characterization of an Adenine-Utilizing, Anaerobic Sporeformer, Clostridium purinolyticum sp. nov.

Strains of anaerobic, sporeforming bacteria were isolated by using adenine as a carbon and energy source. Strain WA-1 could utilize all naturally occurring purines, as well as such products of purine degradation as glycine and some of its derivatives, as substrates. The products formed were acetate, formate, carbon dioxide, and ammonia. The organism depended strictly on the availability of selenium compounds for growth. Selenite and molybdate supplementation of the medium promoted the formation of active formate dehydrogenase and xanthine dehydrogenase. The molar growth yield on adenine or hypoxanthine was 10.0 g of dry weight per mol of substrate. The organism's doubling time was 80 min when the strain was grown at its optimum temperature, 36°C. The organism had a guanine plus cytosine content of 29 mol% (by the thermal denaturation method). It shared similarities with Clostridium acidiurici and “C. cylindrosporum” (not on the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names), but it could be differentiated from these by deoxyribonucleic acid-deoxyribonucleic acid homology. Therefore, it is described as a new species, Clostridium purinolyticum. The ability of the type strain, WA-1 (DSM 1384), to grow on adenine and glycine was the most significant difference between it and the two above-mentioned species.
Coding and Analysing Behaviour Strategies of Instructors in University Science Laboratories to Improve Science Teachers Training.

The intention of this study was to determine how science instructors in the university laboratories spend time on instruction. The study, was guided by three research questions and two hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study employed a non-participant observation case study design. 48 instructors teaching lower and higher levels practical courses in Botany, Microbiology, Zoology, Chemistry, Physics, and Geology in Faculty of Science of Delta State University constituted the sample. A behaviour checklist called Science Laboratory Interaction Categories (SLIC) was the instrument used for data collection. A major finding of the study showed that science instructors spend most of the instructional time on; Demonstration of Procedure, Shows, Transmits, Listens and Non-lesson related behaviours resulting in less investigative teaching. Another finding of the study shows that among the six science disciplines the data revealed significant differences for all the instructor behaviours. It was concluded that the observation of what science instructors do in the university laboratories can be a source of valid information on how to improve science education in the universities and science teachers training for other levels of education and institutions.
Reading Strategies in Foreign Language Academic Reading: A Qualitative Investigation

The purpose of this study was to investigate how EFL undergraduate students do to improve their reading comprehension, solve the problems encountered while reading, and overcome comprehension failures. This paper presents a qualitative investigation designed to provide a clear picture of the strategies used by those students in their academic reading. A semi-structured interview served as the main source of data. Thirty-nine students from four different government universities participated in the study. The transcribed interview data was analyzed with ‘open and axial coding’ techniques. The data analyses revealed two main emergent categories of reading strategies: 1) strategies for comprehending reading texts (SCT); and 2) strategies for enhancing textual comprehension (SETC) with altogether 39 individual reading strategies. The implications of the findings for language teaching and learning are discussed.
Course Development Process: Design and Production of Teaching Material at the FernUniversitaet and the Open Universiteit. A Comparison between Two European Universities.

This paper presents a comparative study of the ways teaching material is designed in two European distance universities, the German FernUniversitaet and the Dutch Open Universiteit. It analyzes how the material is designed and produced, and it outlines the pedagogical and methodological issues that are the foundations for these practices. Moreover, this paper shows how the institutional constraints at work in these universities have affected pedagogical conception and practices. Each setting represents a particular model: a classical university operating at a distance (the FernUniversitaet) and an open and flexible institution (the Open Universiteit). Cet article presente une etude comparee des modes de conception et de production du materiel d'enseignement a distance dans deux universites a distance europeennes, la FernUniversitaet allemande et l'Open Universiteit hollandaise. Il analyse en detail les modalites et les fonctionnements specifiques a chacune de ces deux institutions et montre comment les concepts pedagogiques et methodologiques determinent les pratiques de conception et de production de materiel d'enseignement. Enfin, l'article souligne le poids des contraintes institutionnelles sur les conceptions pedagogiques elles-memes. Chacune des ces universites semble en effet incarner un modele particulier: une universite classique mais a distance pour le cas de la FernUniversitaet, une universite ouverte et a distance pour l'Open Universiteit.
Physico-chemical and functional characteristics of date fruits from different Phoenix species (Arecaceae)

Introduction. The genus Phoenix has 13 species. Dates from P. dactylifera and P. the- ophrasti are the only ones that have been characterised so far. The aim of our study was to evaluate the physico-chemical and functional characteristics of date fruits in the Khalal and Rutab stages of P. loureiroi, P. canariensis, P. reclinata and P. roebelenii, and compare them with P. dactylifera. Materials and methods. Two samples of 15 date fruits in the Khalal stage and another 15 date fruits in the Rutab stage were chosen from each species for analyses and quality parameters.Results and discussion. Significant differences in the measured parameters were observed among the dif- ferent species. Dates of P. dactylifera were larger than those of the other species and had the lowest (seed weight/fruit weight) proportion. In the Khalal stage, dates from P. canariensis and P. dac- tylifera were yellow, P. loureiroi and P. reclinata were dark yellow to orange, and those of P. roe- belenii were brown purple. Dates of P. dactylifera (Rutab stage) showed higher sugar and lower organicacidcontentsthanthoseoftheotherdates.DatesofP. reclinata,P. roebeleniiandP. canar- iensis presented values of antioxidant activity and total phenols in the Khalal stage that were very high compared with those of P. dactylifera. These species are used as ornamental palms but their fruits are consumed locally as food. These dates presented high nutritional quality and can be used as novel foods for different purposes, such as snacks or food fortification, especially due to their high value in functional properties. Spain / Phoenix / fruits / antioxidants / phenolic content / organic acids / sugars Caracteristiques physico-chimiques et fonctionnelles des dattes de differentes especes de Phoenix (Arecaceae).
Zinc oxide nanoparticles fabricated in the porous silica matrix by the sublimation method

The nanocomposite - nanoporous silica (SBA-16) containing ZnO quantum dots - was fabricated by the sublimation method. This novel route of synthesizing ZnO nanoparticles implies physical sorption of zinc acetylacetonate precursor into the matrix pores from the gaseous phase, hydrolysis of the precursor, and thermal decomposition of the product with formation of ZnO nanoclusters directly inside the pores. The nanocomposite was characterized by XRD, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, and photoluminescence spectroscopy methods. We observed the blue shift of the ultraviolet luminescence of nanocomposite as compared to the luminescence of ZnO nanopowder as well as the decrease of the linewidth of the ultraviolet luminescence line, which points to the encapsulation of ZnO nanoparticles in the silica pores and narrowing of their size distribution.
Title Pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin Dosing Strategies to Enhance Sustained Virologic Response Permalink

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects about 170 million people worldwide and is the most common chronic blood borne infection in the United States. Since the advent of blood screening protocols in the early 1990s, injection drug use has become the leading cause of infection. Hepatitis C can have both hepatic and nonhepatic manifestations of infection. Hepatic manifestations include hepatic fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure. The standard treatment for chronic HCV is combination therapy with pegylated interferon-α and ribavirin. Although pegylated interferon and ribavirin has been used against HCV for close to a decade, advances in therapy have centered on doses and treatment durations. There has been increasing interest in applying on-treatment response or viral kinetics to predict antiviral response rates and shape therapeutic intervention. Protease inhibitors are a promising adjuvant to combination therapy, but their efficacy and safety are still under investigation.
Diversity of pit building antlions (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae) and their potential preys in the sudano Guinean zone of Cameroon

In Ngaoundere, within the sudano Guinean highlands, during dry season, some xerophilous insects are abundant. These insect may play a role as bio indicator to characterize the global warming. The present investigation in among preliminary steps to identify insects adapted to survive in dry season and some environmental factors impacting their presence. Using pit builder ant lions as model, the present research pointed out that 4 pit builder ant lions species occurred in the studied area: Myrmeleon quinquemaculatus (Hagen, 1853), Myrmeleon obscurus (Rambur, 1842), Hagenomyia tristis (Walker, 1853) and Myrmeleon sp. The most abundant specie was H. tristis representing 60.34% of the adults emerging from larvae collected and reared. These larvae are abundant when the weather is hot and dry and also when the day length increases. Use of pit fall trap to investigate potential prey of these sit and wait predators released that among the terrestrial fauna, the ant Myrmicaria opaciventris (Emery, 1893) is the main potential prey of ant lion larvae representing 40% of the overall preys trapped.
THE EQUILIBRIUM TIDE IN VISCOELASTIC PARTS OF PLANETS

Earth-like planets have viscoelastic mantles, whereas giant planets may have viscoelastic cores. As for the fluid parts of a body, the tidal dissipation of such solid regions, gravitationally perturbed by a companion body, highly depends on the tidal frequency, as well as on the rheology. Therefore, modelling tidal interactions presents a high interest to provide constraints on planet properties, and to understand their history and their evolution. Here, we examine the equilibrium tide in the solid core of a planet, taking into account the presence of a fluid envelope. We explain how to obtain the different Love numbers that describe its deformation. Next, we discuss how the quality factor Q depends on the chosen viscoelastic model. Finally, we show how the results may be implemented to describe the dynamical evolution of planetary systems.
EFFICACY OF COSUPPLEMENTATION THERAPY WITH VITAMINS B9, B12, AND D ON ENDOTHELIAL DYSFUNCTION IN STREPTOZOTOCIN-INDUCED DIABETIC RATS

Objective: This study evaluated the effects of Vitamins D, B9, and B12 given individually or combined in ameliorating some biochemical parameters related to endothelial dysfunction in diabetic rats.Methods: A total of 50 Sprague-Dawley male rats were divided into five groups: Control, diabetic, diabetic received Vitamin D, diabetic received Vitamins B9 and B12, and diabetic received Vitamins B9, B12, and D. At the end of 6 weeks, the rats were sacrificed and a set of assays was carried out to determine: Fasting blood sugar (FBS), lipid profile, nitric oxide (NO), homocysteine (Hcy), malondialdehyde (MDA), and serum levels of Vitamins B9, B12, and D.Results: Diabetic rat received Vitamin D and diabetic rat received Vitamins B9 and B12 had a significant decline in the levels of FBS, lipid profile, and Hcy with reduced MDA (p<0.05) release but significant increase in NO level. On the same hand, diabetic rat received combined supplementation of Vitamins B9, B12, and D had more pronounced effect (p<0.00). Conclusion: Given these findings, the combined vitamins therapy had antiatherosclerotic effects by inhibiting lipid peroxidation and stimulating NO production, resulting in amelioration the endothelial dysfunction in diabetic rat.
Equity versus equality norms of justice and organisational commitment: the moderating role of gender

Abstract In the current study, using a sample of 467 employees from Ireland, we examined the effects of distributive justice perceptions, based on equity versus equality principles, on two forms of employee commitment: affective and normative. Furthermore, we also tested whether employees’ gender moderated the relationships between these two distributive justice perceptions and the two forms of commitment. Results indicated that equity perceptions positively influenced both forms of commitment and equality perceptions positively influenced only normative commitment. Additionally, results revealed that women reported greater affective and normative commitments than men when equity perceptions were higher than when they were lower. Gender did not moderate the relationship between equality perceptions and normative commitment. Women, however, reported lower affective commitment than men when equality perceptions were lower; there were no differences between men and women on affective commitment when equality perceptions were higher. Implications are discussed.
A BIOLOGICAL RHYTHM-GUIDED APPROACH TO DRUG DELIVERY: CHRONOPHARMACEUTICS

Chronotherapeutics refers to a treatment method in which in-vivo drug availability is timed to match rhythms of disease, in order to optimize therapeutic outcomes and minimize side effects. It is based on the observation that there is an interdependent relationship between peak-to-trough rhythmic activity in disease symptoms and risk factors, pharmacologic sensitivity, and pharmacokinetics of many drugs. The specific time that patients take their medication is very important as it has significant impact on treatment success. Optimal clinical outcome cannot be achieved if drug plasma concentrations are constant. If symptoms of a disease display circadian variation, drug release should also vary over time. Chronopharmaceutical drug delivery system are gaining importance in the field of pharmaceutical technology as these systems deliver the right dose at specific time at a specific site. Some of the disease conditions wherein chronotherapeutics are promising include duodenal ulcer, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, asthma, diabetes, neurological disorder, cancer, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. Various technologies such as time-controlled, pulsed, triggered and programmed drug delivery devices have been developed and extensively studied in recent years for chronopharmaceutical drug delivery. The present article covers findings about the effects of biorhythms on various disorders, and their implications for drug therapy are discussed. Here we also reviewed the design of novel chronopharmaceutical drug delivery systems that might be able to release the therapeutic agents at predetermined intervals. Pharmaceutical Sciences
A Positive Solution For a Nonlocal Boundary Value Problem

In this work, we apply Guo-Krasnosel’skii fixed point theorem and use the appropriate Green’s function in the study of existence of positive solution for the three point boundary value problem: u 00 + g(t)f (u) = 0, 0 < t < 1 u(0) = u 0 (0), u(1) = u 0 ( )
Critical-point thermodynamics of fluids without hole-particle symmetry

We have examined an infinite class of fluids which exhibit a liquid‐vapor critical point, with regard to corrections to thermodynamic scaling of critical phenomena. These ``penetrable‐sphere models'' possess an underlying bilateral symmetry in their equivalent binary fluid mixture versions. After postulating a suitable scaling for these mixtures, we show that the transciption to the penetrable‐sphere models produces a generalization of the conventional pure‐fluid scaled equation of state. Some leading corrections to the scaled form of thermodynamic properties are derived and tabulated. These corrections are presented in a form that makes no explicit reference to their modelistic source, so in fact they may apply to real substances.
The project IOΣTO as a contribution to the enhancement of sheep breeding in mountain areas of Sardinia.

The authors describe several phases of a project aiming at the production, evaluation and enhancement of a new meat foodstuff, the suckling lamb obtained by crossing Ovis aries with Ovis g musimon. This crossbred was mentioned since the first century A.C. , and nowadays its birth is still possible in natural environment, where sheep farms are close to the mouflon habitat. This foodstuff could be proposed as a gastronomic attraction in the naturalistic mountain areas of Sardinia. The research has a dual purpose: (i) to stimulate the regional sheep farming, which is undergoi ng an economic crisis, despite its great productive potential; and (ii) to establish a stronger link between animal husbandry and tourism, the two most important sections of the Sardinian economy. The project started with the registration of a trademark, IOΣ TO. Later, it was followed by the birth of the crossbred lambs, the analysis of reproductive and productive parameters, the sensorial and chemical examination of meat, the training of traceability methods and finally the marketing analysis. The letter Σ, included in the trademark name, has a symbolic meaning, because the project brings together several partners such as University (conception and implementation), sheep breeders (production), restaurant tenants (marketing) and public bodies (sponsoring and assistance).
AN OPEN-LABELED, MULTICENTRIC, POST-MARKETING SURVEILLANCE (PMS) TO SUBSTANTIATE THE SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF SINAREST SYRUP IN PATIENTS OF COMMON COLD.

Background: The common cold and other viral airway infections are highly prevalent in the population, and their treatment often requires the use of medications for symptomatic relief. Paracetamol is as an analgesic and antipyretic; chlorphenamine is an antihistamine; and phenylephrine, a vasoconstrictor and decongestant. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a fixed-dose combination of paracetamol, chlorphenamine and phenylephrine in the symptomatic treatment of the common cold and flu-like syndrome in adults. Methods: 220 patients aged above 2 years with weight between weight of 8 to 40 kg who had moderate to severe flu-like syndrome or common cold. After clinical examination, patients were randomly assigned to receive the fixed-dose combination for 5 days. The efficacy endpoint was the sum of the scores symptoms on a scale. To evaluate safety, the occurrence of adverse events was measured. Results: Mean age was 10.82 (± 6.48) years in the treatment group. There were 115 females and 95 males in the treatment group. The overall symptom scores revealed a significantly greater reduction from baseline till the end of the study. (p = 0.015). the adverse events were mild to moderate and none required discontinuation of the study medication. Conclusion: A fixed-dose combination syrup formulation of paracetamol, chlorphenamine and phenylephrine was safe and more effective than placebo in the symptomatic treatment of the common cold or flu-like syndrome in adults.
Implications of Combining Ability among the Single Cross Hybrids for Yield and Quality Attributes in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Brinjal (Solanum melongenaL. 2n=2x=24) is one of the most popular and commercially cultivated, annual, herbaceous vegetable, grown in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide (Kumar et al., 2012). It is estimated that the total brinjal area and production in India were0.71 million hectares and 13.5 million tonnes, respectively (Anonymous, 2014). In most of the countries, brinjal is the major component of the human diet. It is rich source of protein, P, Fe, Ca, K, Mg, Na and fibre (Nyadanu and Lowor, 2015). It has medicinal value for asthma, allergic rhinitis, constipation, skin infections, joint pains, dyspepsia and rheumatic diseases (Nwodo et al., 2011).