Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Saffron, Its Active Components, and Their Association with DNA and Histone Modification: A Narrative Review of Current Knowledge

Intensive screening for better and safer medications to treat diseases such as cancer and inflammatory diseases continue, and some phytochemicals have been discovered to have anti-cancer and many therapeutical activities. Among the traditionally used spices, Crocus sativus (saffron) and its principal bioactive constituents have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and chemopreventive properties against multiple malignancies. Early reports have shown that the epigenetic profiles of healthy and tumor cells vary significantly in the context of different epigenetic factors. Multiple components, such as carotenoids as bioactive dietary phytochemicals, can directly or indirectly regulate epigenetic factors and alter gene expression profiles. Previous reports have shown the interaction between active saffron compounds with linker histone H1. Other reports have shown that high concentrations of saffron bind to the minor groove of calf thymus DNA, resulting in specific structural changes from B- to C-form of DNA. Moreover, the interaction of crocin G-quadruplex was reported. A recent in silico study has shown that residues of SIRT1 interact with saffron bio-active compounds and might enhance SIRT1 activation. Other reports have shown that the treatment of Saffron bio-active compounds increases γH2AX, decreases HDAC1 and phosphorylated histone H3 (p-H3). However, the question that still remains to be addressed how saffron triggers various epigenetic changes? Therefore, this review discusses the literature published till 2022 regarding saffron as dietary components and its impact on epigenetic mechanisms. Novel bioactive compounds such as saffron components that lead to epigenetic alterations might be a valuable strategy as an adjuvant therapeutic drug.
An Agent-Based Framework for Policy Simulation: Modeling Heterogeneous Behaviors With Modified Sigmoid Function and Evolutionary Training

This article proposes an agent-based policy simulation framework that can be applied to the cases satisfying: 1) the agents try to maximize some intertemporal preference and 2) the impacts of different factors on agents’ behavioral tendency are monotonic. By combining the simulation and optimization methods, this framework balances the flexibility and validity of agent-based models (ABMs): the sigmoid function is modified and used to model agents’ decision-making rules, and the evolutionary training method is used to calibrate agents’ behavioral parameters. Based on an example for the emission trading scheme, the application of the framework is presented and evaluated in detail.
Associations between parenthood, relationship, and sexual satisfaction in sex therapy patients

Abstract:Parenthood has often been associated with lower levels of relationship and sexual satisfaction. However, this effect has rarely been studied beyond transition to parenthood and/or in clinical samples and few studies have examined parenthood as a moderator between relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine whether parenthood (being a parent or not) acts as a moderator of the relationship between relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction among women and men consulting in sex therapy (n = 219). Results indicated that mothers report lower levels of relationship satisfaction compared to non-parent women, whereas no difference was found for sexual satisfaction. Results also showed that parenthood acts as a moderator between relationship and sexual satisfaction, with differing effects for men and women. More precisely, relationship satisfaction was associated with increased sexual satisfaction in men and in non-parent women only. For mothers, relationship satisfaction was not linked to sexual satisfaction. Findings suggest that relationship satisfaction is lower in mothers compared to non-parent women and is also unrelated to sexual satisfaction in mothers, indicating specificities regarding sexual satisfaction and its correlates in others. These results have implications, particularly for interventions with mothers attending sex therapy.
Folded ESIW Bandpass Filter With Inverters Based on Short-Circuits Along the Folding Gap

The benefits of empty substrate integrated waveguide (ESIW) are already well-known and contrasted in the literature, as well as the benefits of designing filters and other devices according to this technology. Recently, the Folded-ESIW (FESIW) has been presented, that halves the width of the original ESIW waveguide and maintains the cross-section area with good performance indexes and a similar bandwidth. This paper discusses three alternatives to design bandpass filters based on FESIW using irises, vertical cylindrical soldered posts or short-circuits along the folding gap. The most robust and effective way of manufacturing them is objectively determined. A prototype example is, for the first time, completely designed, manufactured and measured, with results of 3.71% fractional bandwidth at the central frequency of 14 GHz, 1.39 dB of filter insertion loss and Q-factor around 1300; this proves the feasibility and reliability of this new type of filters in comparison with other filters based on similar topologies.
IL-Functionalized Mg3Al-LDH as New Efficient Adsorbent for Pd Recovery from Aqueous Solutions

Palladium is a noble metal of the platinum group metals (PGMs) with a high value and major industrial applications. Due to the scarce palladium resources, researchers’ attention is currently focused on Pd ions recovery from secondary sources. Regarding the recovery process from aqueous solutions, many methods were studied, amongst which adsorption process gained a special attention due to its clear advantages. Moreover, the efficiency and the selectivity of an adsorbent material can be further improved by functionalization of various solid supports. In this context, the present work aims at the synthesis and characterization of Mg3Al-LDH and its functionalization with ionic liquid (IL) (Methyltrialkylammonium chloride) to obtain adsorbent materials with high efficiency in Pd removal from aqueous solutions. The maximum adsorption capacity developed by Mg3Al-LDH is 142.9 mg Pd. , and depending on the functionalization method used (sonication and co-synthesis, respectively) the maximum adsorption capacity increases considerably, qmax-Mg3Al IL-US = 227.3 mg/g and qmax-Mg3Al IL-COS = 277.8 mg/g.
Etiology, Diagnosis, Complications, and Management of Acute Otitis Media in Children

Acute otitis media (AOM) is the most common infectious disease encountered by children under the age of two years and the most common cause of antibiotic use in children in the United States. AOM causes irritability, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, imbalance, and dizziness in patients, especially young children. This assessment was conducted to measure the effectiveness of surgical interventions in treating AOM. We reviewed the present findings regarding the etiology, clinical presentations, diagnosis, treatment, and surgical treatment of complications of AOM. Pain associated with AOM (otalgia) can be severe enough to cause parents to seek treatment for their infants or children. Various suggested measures have been used to treat AOM; antibiotic treatment with amoxicillin is still the treatment of choice for AOM, yet other antibiotics may be used in cases of allergy to penicillin or recent use of amoxicillin. Surgical intervention has been introduced and studied as a diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive measure for AOM; nevertheless, a few studies have shown that surgical interventions are beneficial in treating and preventing AOM compared to the common practice of using antibiotics. Overdiagnosis of AOM is widespread, leading to injudicious antibiotic use, which contributes to antibiotic resistance. Further management should be determined together with the parent, particularly if observation is the primary intervention.
An Evaluation of the Quality of Plain Radiograph Interpretations by Radiology Trainees: A Single Institution Experience

Introduction: The primary communication between the radiologist and referrer is through the radiological report. However, there are incidents of misinterpretation during radiologist training. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the accuracy level and incidence of interpretation errors for plain radiographs among radiology trainees at our institution. Materials and Methods: The present study retrospectively reviewed 508 reported plain radiographs for one year, and two radiologists subsequently evaluated these plain radiographs. The initial diagnosis by the trainee was compared with the radiologists’ evaluation, and the results were categorized as either ‘accurate’, ‘minor discrepancy’, or ‘major discrepancy’. The data were analyzed concerning the overall performance, year of trainee, anatomic area, patient age group, and radiograph type. A chi-square test was performed, with p < 0.05 indicating statistical significance. Results: The overall accuracy rate was 69%, with minor and major discrepancy rates of 21% and 10%, respectively. There was an insignificant increase in overall accuracy with increased years of training, despite a reduction to 58% accuracy among Year 3 trainees. The accuracy level increased between Year 1, Year 2 and Year 4 by 70%, 71% and 75%, respectively (p > 0.05). The accuracy rates for both the adult and pediatric age groups were not statistically significant. The mobile radiographs showed lower accuracy rate of reporting than the plain radiographs. Conclusion: The radiological trainee interpretations for plain radiographs had an average rating with low discrepancy rates. The Year 3 trainees had the lowest accuracy compared to the other trainee groups. However, the present study suggests the need for further research to determine if the current outcomes are outliers or are indicative of a real phenomenon.
Production technology, efficiency, and productivity of cereal farms: Prospects for enhancing farm performance in Ghana

Over the past three decades, the cereal subsector in Ghana has contributed immensely to food security in the country. However, limited evidence exists on the production performance of this subsector, particularly in terms of heterogeneities across agro-ecological zones. This paper analyzes the production technology and performance of the cereal subsector in Ghana using a nationally representative data set from 26,449 cereal farms and the meta-stochastic frontier approach. The empirical results suggest that the estimated factor inputs contribute substantially to cereal output, with land and seed exerting the highest impacts across all agro-ecological zones. The evidence further shows that the agro-ecology of cereal farms plays a crucial role in the performance of the subsector. The mean technical efficiency estimates strongly suggest that cereal farms in all agro-ecologies exhibit some degrees of production inefficiency. The findings further reveal total output from the meta-frontier to be much superior to those generated by cereal farms in all agro-ecologies of Ghana, indicating the existence of opportunities for cereal output gains in all agro-ecologies. We find heterogeneities in farm management practices and production technology across the various crops and agro-ecological zones to be relevant sources for cereal productivity growth in Ghana.
Exploring Indian Views on the underrepresentation of female teenagers in STEM

Only 15% to 20% of tenured faculty at Indian universities are women, while 14% of employed researchers in STEM fields are women. To investigate reasons for this problem, the present research study was conducted to gather data for Indian respondents’ perceptions of the reasons for understanding of the women underrepresentation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields, focusing on female teenagers. The study asked respondents to rate the overall underrepresentation and the importance of different factors on a scale of 1 to 7, along with their own explanations and suggestions. The study found that the most important factor to explain the underrepresentation was Poverty, followed by Parent’s Traditional values. In contrast, the least important factors were Feminine Attributes and the idea that female teenagers wanted to avoid the male field, while Absorb Stereotypes (the idea that female teenagers subconsciously take in stereotypes of STEM being a male field), Teacher’s Discouragement and Less Confidence were given ratings closer to the middle. Additional factors suggested by respondents included females having to take care of family responsibilities and lack of role models in STEM fields. This suggests Indians have increased awareness of the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields.
Artificial neural networks approach for prediction of axial loading capacity of circular normal strength concrete columns confined by both transverse steel reinforcement and carbon fiber reinforced polymer wraps

A few empirical models for the axial loading capacity (ALC) of circular normal strength concrete (NSC) columns wrapped by carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets and interior transverse steel reinforcement (TSR) (CSC columns) are available in the literature. The deficiency of those models is that they were proposed based on a small number of tests by considering limited parameters of CSC columns. Therefore, the main aim of the current investigation is to propose the improved empirical models for the ALC of CSC columns by including the interaction mechanism between TSR and FRP confining behavior. To secure this aim, a general regression analysis technique and artificial neural networks (NNs) on the experimental outcomes of 76 CSC columns collected from the previous investigations were employed. The proposed NN model was adjusted for the different number of hidden layers and neurons to achieve an optimized model. The suggested NN and empirical models portrayed a close agreement with the testing database with R2 = 0.998 and R2 = 0.892, respectively. The NN model reported a higher accuracy than the theoretical model. The comparative investigation solidly authenticated the superiority and accuracy of the anticipated strength models for CSC columns.
Long‐term variability in spawning stock age structure influences climate–recruitment link for Barents Sea cod

Abstract Fish populations may spawn a vast number of offspring, while only a small and highly variable fraction of a new cohort survives long enough to enter into the fisheries as recruits. It is intuitive that the size and state of the spawning stock, the adult part of the fish population, is important for recruitment. Additionally, environmental conditions can greatly influence survival through vulnerable early life stages until recruitment. To understand what regulates recruitment, an essential part of fish population dynamics, it is thus necessary to explain the impact of fluctuations in both spawning stock and environment, including interactions. Here, we examine if the connection between the environment and recruitment is affected by the state of the spawning stock, including biomass, mean age and age diversity. Specifically, we re‐evaluate the hypothesis stating that recruitment from a spawning stock dominated by young fish and few age classes is more vulnerable to environmental fluctuations. We expand upon earlier work on the Barents Sea stock of Atlantic cod, now with data series extended in time both backwards and forwards to cover the period 1922–2019. While our findings are correlative and cannot prove a specific cause and effect mechanism, they support earlier work and strengthen the evidence for the hypothesis above. Furthermore, this study supports that advice to fisheries management should include considerations of environmental status.
Resource Availability Affects Seasonal Trajectories of Population-Level Learning

Environmental effects on learning are well known, such as cognition that is mediated by nutritional consumption. Less known is how seasonally variable environments affect phenological trajectories of learning. Here, we test the hypothesis that nutritional availability affects seasonal trajectories of population-level learning in species with developmentally plastic cognition. We test this in bumble bees (Apidae: Bombus), a clade of eusocial insects that produce individuals at different time points across their reproductive season and exhibit organ developmental plasticity in response to nutritional consumption. To accomplish this, we develop a theoretical model that simulates learning development across a reproductive season for a colony parameterized with observed life history data. Our model finds two qualitative seasonal trajectories of learning: (1) an increase in learning across the season and (2) no change in learning across the season. We also find these two qualitative trajectories revealed by empirical learning data; the proportion of workers successfully completing a learning test increases across a season for two bumble bee species (Bombus auricomus, Bombus pensylvanicus) but does not change for another three (Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus impatiens). This study supports the novel consideration that resources affect seasonal trajectories of population-level learning in species with developmentally plastic cognition.
The Black Hole in IC 1459 from Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Ionized Gas Disk

The peculiar elliptical galaxy IC 1459 (MV = -21.19, D = 16.5 h-1 Mpc) has a fast counterrotating stellar core, stellar shells and ripples, a blue nuclear point source, and strong radio core emission. We present results of a detailed Hubble Space Telescope study of IC 1459, and in particular its central gas disk, aimed at constraining the central mass distribution. We obtained WFPC2 narrowband imaging centered on the Hα+[N II] emission lines to determine the flux distribution of the gas emission at small radii, and we obtained FOS spectra at six aperture positions along the major axis to sample the gas kinematics. We construct dynamical models for the Hα+[N II] and Hβ kinematics that include a supermassive black hole and in which the stellar mass distribution is constrained by the observed surface brightness distribution and ground-based stellar kinematics. In one set of models we assume that the gas rotates on circular orbits in an infinitesimally thin disk. Such models adequately reproduce the observed gas fluxes and kinematics. The steepness of the observed rotation velocity gradient implies that a black hole must be present. There are some differences between the fluxes and kinematics for the various line species that we observe in the wavelength range 4569–6819 Å. Species with higher critical densities generally have a flux distribution that is more concentrated toward the nucleus, and have observed velocities that are higher. This can be attributed qualitatively to the presence of the black hole. There is some evidence that the gas in the central few arcsec has a certain amount of asymmetric drift, and we therefore construct alternative models in which the gas resides in collisionless cloudlets that move isotropically. All models are consistent with a black hole mass in the range M• = 1–4 × 108 M⊙, and models without a black hole are always ruled out at high confidence. The implied ratio of black holes mass to galaxy mass is in the range 0.4–1.5 × 10-3, which is not inconsistent with results obtained for other galaxies. These results for the peculiar galaxy IC 1459 and its black hole add an interesting data point for studies on the nature of galactic nuclei.
Heterogeneity in High School Career and Technical Education Outcomes

High school Career and Technical Education (CTE) has received increased attention from policymakers and researchers in recent years. This study fills a needed gap in the growing research base by examining heterogeneity within the wide range of programs falling under the broad moniker of CTE, highlighting the need for nuance in research and policy conversations that often consider CTE as monolithic. Using student-level course-taking records, unemployment insurance, and National Student Clearinghouse data, we examine outcomes including earnings, postsecondary education, and poverty avoidance. We find substantial differences for students in fields as diverse as health care, Information Technology (IT), and construction. We also highlight heterogeneity for student populations historically overrepresented in CTE, and we find large differences in outcomes for CTE students, particularly by gender.
Molecular Insights into Innate Immune Response in Captive Koala Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Co-Infected with Multiple Koala Retrovirus Subtypes

Koala retrovirus (KoRV) exists in both endogenous and exogenous forms and has appeared as a major threat to koala health and conservation. Currently, there are twelve identified KoRV subtypes: an endogenous subtype (KoRV-A) and eleven exogenous subtypes (KoRV-B to -I, KoRV-K, -L, and -M). However, information about subtype-related immune responses in koalas against multiple KoRV infections is limited. In this study, we investigated KoRV-subtype (A, B, C, D, and F)-related immunophenotypic changes, including CD4, CD8b, IFN-γ, IL-6, and IL-10 mRNA expression, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from captive koalas (n = 37) infected with multiple KoRV subtypes (KoRV-A to F) reared in seven Japanese zoos. Based on KoRV subtype infection profiles, no significant difference in CD4 and CD8b mRNA expression was observed in the study populations. Based on the different KoRV subtype infections, we found that the IFN-γ mRNA expression in koala PMBCs differs insignificantly (p = 0.0534). In addition, IL-6 and IL-10 mRNA expression also did not vary significantly in koala PBMCs based on KoRV subtype differences. We also investigated the Toll-like receptors (TLRs) response, including TLR2–10, and TLR13 mRNA in koala PBMCs infected with multiple KoRV subtypes. Significant differential expression of TLR5, 7, 9, 10, and 13 mRNA was observed in the PBMCs from koalas infected with different KoRV subtypes. Therefore, based on the findings of this study, it is assumed that co-infection of multiple KoRV subtypes might modify the host innate immune response, including IFN-γ and TLRs responses. However, to have a more clear understanding regarding the effect of multiple KoRV subtypes on host cytokines and TLR response and pathogenesis, further large-scale studies including the koalas negative for KoRV and koalas infected with other KoRV subtypes (KoRV-A to -I, KoRV-K, -L and -M) are required.