Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Climatic Variation on Gas Exchange and Chlorophyll a Fluorescence in Tabebuia roseoalba and Handroanthus heptaphyllus (Bignoniaceae)

Climatic variation throughout the day influences the ecophysiological performance of plants at different growth stages and phases. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the effect of climatic variation on ecophysiological aspects of T. roseoalba and H. heptaphyllus at different hours of the day and indicate the ideal time for measuring ecophysiological variables in these species. The research was carried out in a greenhouse at the forest nursery of the Federal University of Paraíba, Campus II, in the municipality of Areia, Paraíba state, Northeastern Brazil. The experimental design was completely randomized, consisting of 10 evaluation times throughout the day (from 8 am to 5 pm), with 1 h hour interval between each evaluation. Temperature and air relative humidity inside and outside the greenhouse were evaluated to understand the effect on gas exchange (net assimilation rate of CO2, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, internal concentration of CO2, and vapor-pressure deficit) and chlorophyll a fluorescence (initial, maximum, and variable fluorescence, photochemical quenching, and electron transport rate). Data were submitted to canonical correlation analysis and principal component analysis to verify the relationship between climatic HIGHLIGHTS • Climatic conditions influence the physiological mechanisms of species. • High irradiance and air temperature reduce photosynthetic performance of species. • The highest physiological performance of the species is between 8 am and 9 am. Ribeiro, J.E. S. ; et al. 2 Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology. Vol.65: e22210338, 2022 www.scielo. br/babt and ecophysiological variables. For both species, higher correlation was found between internal and external relative humidity with all the ecophysiological variables analyzed, except for initial fluorescence. Thus, climatic factors influenced the photosynthetic performance of T. roseoalba and H. heptaphyllus plants, and 8 am to 9 am is indicated for carrying out ecophysiological evaluations in both species.
Manufacturing and Separation Characteristics of Hemodialysis Membranes to Improve Toxin Removal Rate

With the recently growing interest in health care, hemodialysis is being performed not only to treat patients with renal disease but also to improve blood circulation. At present, filters used for hemodialysis are manufactured only in certain countries, and all other countries must rely on imports. In this study, polyethersulfone (PES), which has excellent blood compatibility, was used as the main material to develop hemodialysis membranes for hemodialysis filters, and these hemodialysis membranes were prepared by adding a hydrophilic polymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and varying the type of nonsolvent during the manufacturing process to improve the toxin removal rate and biocompatibility. The addition of PVP was confirmed through attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), and the structure of the membranes depending on the nonsolvent was analyzed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) images. The contact angle results indicated that the hydrophilicity of the membrane surface was improved as the concentration of PVP increased. The results of the toxin filtration efficiency experiment using urea, creatinine, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) confirmed removal rates of 58.8% and 56.87%, respectively, and a protein loss of less than 8%. Also, cell viability was over 90% at the PVP concentration of 2% or higher. A preliminary study was conducted on the improvement of toxin filtration efficiency and the development potential of these hemodialysis membranes with excellent biocompatibility.
High-Sensitivity Troponin: A Review on Characteristics, Assessment, and Clinical Implications

The use of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) assays has become part of the daily practice in most of the laboratories worldwide in the initial evaluation of the typical chest pain. Due to their early surge, the use of hs-cTn may reduce the time needed to recognise myocardial infarctions (MI), which is vital for the patients presenting in the emergency departments for chest pain. The latest European Society of Cardiology Guidelines did not only recognise their central role in the diagnosis algorithm but also recommended their use for rapid rule-in/rule-out of MI. High-sensitivity cardiac troponins are also powerful prognostic markers for long-term events and mortality, not only in a wide spectrum of other cardiovascular diseases (CVD) but also in several non-CVD pathologies. Moreover, these biomarkers became a powerful tool in special populations, such as paediatric patients and, most recently, COVID-19 patients. Although highly investigated, the assessment and interpretation of the hs-cTn changes are still challenging in the patients with basal elevation such as CKD or critically ill patients. Moreover, there are still various analytical characteristics not completely understood, such as circadian or sex variability, with major clinical implications. In this context, the present review focuses on summarizing the most recent research in the current use of hs-cTn, with a main consideration for its role in the diagnosis of MI but also its prognostic value. We have also carefully selected the most important studies regarding the challenges faced by clinicians from different specialties in the correct interpretation of this biomarker. Moreover, future perspectives have been proposed and analysed, as more research and cross-disciplinary collaboration are necessary to improve their performance.
Europeans Have Larger Testes than Sub-Saharan Africans but Lower Testosterone Levels

Species and subspecies differ substantially in the size of their testicles. A study has found differences in average testis size when comparing Europeans and Northeast Asians. Other studies have found differences in testosterone levels between Blacks, Whites and Northeast Asians. We sought to replicate and extend these findings in a dataset of 4,462 US soldiers (the Vietnam Experience Study). We find that those of Sub-Saharan African descent (Blacks, n = 525) average smaller testes than those of European descent (Whites, n = 3,654), d = 0.24, while Blacks average higher testosterone levels, d = 0.11. These patterns are not explained by differences in age, weight, or height. We discuss these findings in terms of evolutionary theory of sperm competition and mating systems. These differences are thought to relate to life history speed differences, especially regarding mating patterns. A more polygynous mating pattern is associated with smaller testes and high testosterone, whereas a more competitive/free mating pattern is associated with larger testes, helping with semen production and thus sperm competition. These findings are consistent with how individual level differences in ejaculate quality relate to life history speed.
Fairness, Transparency and Attitude towards Tax Evasion amongst Owners of SMEs

Tax evasion amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a global concern. While the social-psychological aspect has been explored, its influence on tax evasion in SMEs is still inconclusive. This study examines the effect of fairness and transparency on the attitude towards tax evasion amongst the owners of SMEs. A mixed-mode survey was used in obtaining data from four populous divisions of Sarawak, Malaysia. Random sampling was employed in selecting the potential respondents from the service sector. Data from 91 useable questionnaires were analysed using Smart-PLS 3.0. The results revealed that distributive fairness and distributive fiscal transparency have significant negative effects on SME owners’ attitudes towards tax evasion. On the other hand, general fairness and informational transparency were insignificant. These findings may benefit the tax authority and policymakers in formulating appropriatestrategies to curb erosion of income tax revenue from tax evasion. The findings also contribute to the paucity of literature about the significance ofthe social-psychological aspect in minimizing tax evasion.
Timing of Debt Maturity Structure: Evidence From Public and Private Debt Securities Issued By Malaysian and Singaporean Non-Financial Listed Firms

This study examined the causal factors concerning the timing of debt maturity structure issuance for public and private debt securities in Malaysia and Singapore. Data of 1,157 Malaysian and Singaporean listed firms were utilised between 1996 and 2019. The two-step system generalised moment (GMM) method showed that macroeconomic factors such as inflation and excess bond return are crucial in influencing Malaysia's issuance of long-term private debt securities. There was also evidence that inflation explained the issuance of longterm private debt securities in Singapore. Firms preferred to issue fewer long-term private debt securities when inflation is high. Furthermore, it was found that Malaysian firms issued public and private debt securities and Singaporean firms issued private debt securities successfully time their debt maturity structure. This study's findings offered several policy implications as they helped firms identify the proper time to issue the debt maturity structure of public and private debt securities. This identification contributed to achieving an optimal debt maturity structure, maximising the firms’ value, healthy business environment and stable economic growth.
Managing the Conflict between Economic and Social Factors in a Lean Context

The Lean approach has been a huge success in various public and private entities throughout the world over the last few decades. However, there are still expected needs regarding the social climate to improve working conditions of the employees. This paper presents the conflict between economic and social factors, which has a huge effect on staff involvement and motivation. This article is based on a descriptive investigation that involved 130 people. According to survey data, more than 60% of individuals believe that Lean degrades social factors, particularly in impoverished nations. A case study was conducted to present a real-life example of Lean’s negative effects on working conditions. This example clearly demonstrates the influence of Lean on ergonomics, safety, and environment (ESE). This paper allows for a better understanding of the negative effects of Lean on social factors and business performance.
Small Sat at 30: Trends, Patterns, and Discoveries

Thirty years of the SmallSat Conference have produced a wealth of papers spanning technical, business, and market topics relevant to small satellites. Thanks to the online availability of every paper going back to the first SmallSat Conference in 1987, it is possible to analyze the proceedings of the conference to ascertain industry trends, development patterns, and technical discoveries. How has the focus of technology and mission paper topics changed over three decades? How has the participation of organizations, and the ratio of education, commercial, military, civil, and domestic/international involvement evolved? In this paper we provide the results of our analysis, ranging from the expected (Sir Martin Sweeting holds the record for most papers authored) to the surprising (Utah State University is the only organization to have published a paper in all 29 previous conferences). Through the data we can discern the era of “Faster, Cheaper, Better”, the introduction of “Operationally Responsive Space”, the advent of CubeSats, and the ongoing search for the holy grail of modularity. We see great successes like Orbital's Pegasus and Surrey's DMC, and the heartbreaking demise of industry pioneers like AeroAstro. Reviewing this storied history, it is clear that some topics continue to be of interest three decades later even as technology has evolved and the world has changed. Through this historical analysis, we hope the reader will be able to draw from the lessons learned, avoid the failures of the past, and enable new and exciting successes in the next thirty years of small satellite development.
Consumer preference structure of online privacy concerns in an IoT environment

Due to the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and IoT environments, various concerns have been raised regarding personal information infringement and leakage. To establish a policy for addressing this issue, it is essential to estimate the damage caused by personal information infringement and leakage and decide upon an appropriate policy direction that reflects consumer’s value of their personal information. Therefore, we first estimated how much consumers value each type of personal information using contingent valuation method and assigning a monetary value to each information type. Second, we analyzed consumers’ preference for conditions in which they will provide personal information. A conjoint analysis was used to discover consumer preference concerning the various attributes of the conditions and a mixed logit model was used for the empirical analysis. The results of the analysis show that consumers valued personal information related to private life the most, at approximately USD 110 on average. We also found that demographic variables such as gender and income level affect personal information values. The results of the attributes required to provide personal information analysis found that opt-in was preferred to opt-out and that consumers preferred having optimal authority to control their personal information, rather than whole authority. These results show that consumers are willing to provide their personal information when an adequate reward is given. Therefore, formulating policy direction to establish a confidential market for trading personal information rather than unconditional personal information protection is required.
Test Case Prioritization Using Partial Attention

Test case prioritization (TCP) aims to reorder the regression test suite with a goal of increasing the fault detection rate. Various TCP techniques have been proposed based on different prioritization strategies. Among them, the greedy-based techniques are the most widely-used TCP techniques. However, existing greedy-based techniques usually reorder all candidate test cases in prioritization iterations, resulting in both efficiency and effectiveness problems. In this paper, we propose a generic partial attention mechanism, which adopts the previous priority values (i.e., the number of additionally-covered code units) to avoid considering all candidate test cases. Incorporating the mechanism with the additional-greedy strategy, we implement a novel coverage-based TCP technique based on partition ordering (OCP). OCP first groups the candidate test cases into different partitions and updates the partitions on the descending order. We conduct a comprehensive experiment on 19 versions of Java programs and 30 versions of C programs to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of OCP with six state-of-the-art TCP techniques: total-greedy, additional-greedy, lexicographical-greedy, unify-greedy, art-based, and search-based. The experimental results show that OCP achieves a better fault detection rate than the state-of-the-arts. Moreover, the time costs of OCP are found to achieve 85%-99% improvement than most state-of-the-arts.
Isolation and identification of parasite Entamobea histolytica and Giardia lamblia from Euphrates river in AL-Nasiriyah city - southern Iraq

The current study was conducted in four stations on the banks of the Euphrates River for a full year from September (2020) to August (2021) for the purpose of diagnosing parasites Entamobea histolytica and Giardia lamblia . Water samples were taken in clean and sterile plastic bottles and transported to the laboratory. The sedimentation method for parasites and the loglual ioden method were used to diagnose the parasite. Entamobea histolytica parasite was isolated from station (st1) with a percentage of 18%, and (st2) it accounted for 39%,in while station (st3 )the precentage reached to 43%, Howeber station (st4) respictibely to 29%. The Giardia lamblia parasite was the least prevalent in the Euphrates River in station (st1), with apercent of 11.1%, in station (st2) reachd to 19%, but in station (st3) reached to25.6%, but in station (st4) was not found ,The results of the study also showed a concordance between air and water temperature in all study stations, the air temperature ranged between (37-16)°C and the water temperature ranged between (32-17)°C ,The statistical ftanalysis showed that there were significant differences ((P<0.05) between water and air temperatures in the four stations according to the months of the year.
Plasma Interleukin-33 Cannot Predict Hip Osteonecrosis in Patients With Sickle Cell Disease: A Case-Control Study

Background Plasma interleukin-33 (IL-33), a cytokine associated with inflammatory and autoimmune disease, has been described to be significantly raised in osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) and hence was recommended for use as a marker for ONFH. The concentration of plasma interleukin-33 level has not been estimated in any studies conducted in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD); hence, we investigated the levels of plasma interleukin-33 in patients with sickle cell disease with or without ONFH to assess whether it can be used as a marker for the early detection of ONFH in this disease also. Methods Forty-four consecutive patients with sickle cell disease with osteonecrosis of the femoral head and matched controls without ONFH were evaluated for plasma interleukin-33 levels by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). All patients were confirmed for sickle cell disease using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). ONFH was diagnosed in patients with sickle cell disease using clinical-radiological findings. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using the IL-33 level as the dependent variable. Results Plasma IL-33 levels were comparable in 44 patients with sickle cell disease with osteonecrosis of the femoral head as compared with 24 patients with sickle cell disease without ONFH (2.05 ± 4.57 pg/mL versus 1.50 ± 2.89 pg/mL, p-value = 0.590). There was no significant difference in IL-33 levels in different stages of avascular necrosis (AVN). Conclusions Plasma interleukin-33 levels cannot act as a marker of ONFH as were being considered in idiopathic ONFH or ONFH caused by other causes such as trauma and chronic steroid or alcohol usage.
Anti-Diabetic Effects of Ethanol Extract from Sanghuangporous vaninii in High-Fat/Sucrose Diet and Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Mice by Modulating Gut Microbiota

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) may lead to abnormally elevated blood glucose, lipid metabolism disorder, and low-grade inflammation. Besides, the development of T2DM is always accompanied by gut microbiota dysbiosis and metabolic dysfunction. In this study, the T2DM mice model was established by feeding a high-fat/sucrose diet combined with injecting a low dose of streptozotocin. Additionally, the effects of oral administration of ethanol extract from Sanghuangporous vaninii (SVE) on T2DM and its complications (including hypoglycemia, hyperlipidemia, inflammation, and gut microbiota dysbiosis) were investigated. The results showed SVE could improve body weight, glycolipid metabolism, and inflammation-related parameters. Besides, SVE intervention effectively ameliorated the diabetes-induced pancreas and jejunum injury. Furthermore, SVE intervention significantly increased the relative abundances of Akkermansia, Dubosiella, Bacteroides, and Parabacteroides, and decreased the levels of Lactobacillus, Flavonifractor, Odoribacter, and Desulfovibrio compared to the model group (LDA > 3.0, p < 0.05). Metabolic function prediction of the intestinal microbiota by PICRUSt revealed that glycerolipid metabolism, insulin signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and fatty acid degradation were enriched in the diabetic mice treated with SVE. Moreover, the integrative analysis indicated that the key intestinal microbial phylotypes in response to SVE intervention were strongly correlated with glucose and lipid metabolism-associated biochemical parameters. These findings demonstrated that SVE has the potential to alleviate T2DM and its complications by modulating the gut microbiota imbalance.
The interchange in art-psychotherapy

This paper addresses theories pertaining to what could be said of the state of mind of the creator in the art-making phase of art therapy, by reference to the interchange with the looking/talking phase. I pursue this exploration of the interchange within the concept of the triangular relationship: creator-artwork-viewer, as well as the three ‘waves’ of art therapy theory and practice. I conclude by making use of mathematical abstraction to describe the recursive sequence of art-making and looking/talking about the art, to pose questions about what might be occurring during these processes and which it is hoped could serve as a framework for further investigations from various theoretical standpoints.
Upper Rectal Cancer: Benefit After Preoperative Chemoradiation Versus Upfront Surgery?

Purpose: Upper rectal cancer management is controversial. The present series reports the outcomes of treatment comparing neoadjuvant chemoradiation (NCRT) versus upfront surgery. 1.2. Methods and materials: In this retrospective study we enrolled patients with upper rectal or sigmoid junction locally advanced tumors (stages II-III). At the first Institution patients received NCRT followed by surgery (study group); at the second Institution patients were referred to upfront surgery (control group). Overall survival was the main endpoint of the analysis. Local relapse and other clinical variables were also analyzed. 1.3. Results: Fifty patients in the study group and 32 patients in the control group were analyzed. In the NCRT group there were more N-positive patients (p<0.001); T-stage was similar for both groups. All surgical procedures were performed with R0 margins. Among NCRT patients, in seven cases (14%) complete pathologic response was found. In 27 cases (54%) downstaging in T-stage was achieved. Comparing OS between NCRT and control group there was no significant difference at five years: 84% for NCRT group and 79% for control group (p 0.37). In univariate analysis, clinical T-stage had a statistically significant impact on survival. Patients with cT3 disease did better than patients with cT4 (p = 0.014). Two cases of G4 toxicity were observed and only one case of local relapse was observed in NCRT group. 1.4. Conclusion: NCRT achieved a high rate of downstaging alongside tolerable toxicity profile, but did not affect survival outcome in this selected group, as compared to surgery alone.