Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative assessment of aerosol optical properties over a mega city and an adjacent urban area in India

The present work revolves around the comparative analysis of aerosol optical properties in a mega city, Delhi and in a nearby urban area, Rohtak. It is pertinent to note that despite of the close proximity and similar meteorological conditions, the two study locations show significant differences in aerosol characteristics. The study is conducted using ground based Sky-radiometer measurements for a period of one year. The mean annual Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) at 500 nm over Delhi and Rohtak is observed to be 1.01 and 0.73 respectively, with correlation coefficient of 0.67 and mean absolute difference of 0.51. The magnitude of AOD in Delhi is higher than in Rohtak throughout the year, except in post-monsoon season. The difference in Angstrom exponent (alpha) between the stations is minimal. However, lower magnitude of alpha is observed in Rohtak, indicating presence of more concentration of coarse-mode particles. Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) also shows seasonal variation with significantly lower values in Delhi throughout the year, indicating contribution of absorbing type of aerosols (like black carbon). The volume concentration in fine-size is found to be higher in Delhi than in Rohtak, indicating combined effect of dust, vehicular, biomass burning and industrial emissions. The aerosol classification via relationship between AOD and alpha shows that urban/biomass burning (U/B) aerosols are dominant in Delhi and mixed type (MT) aerosols in Rohtak during winter and pre-monsoon.
Propeller^Wing Integration for Minimum Induced Loss

An analysis of propeller-win g combinations in inviscid incompressible flow reveals some of the fundamental interactions which affect the performance of an installed propulsion system. A generalized version of Munk's stagger theorem is used in a rapid, approximate calculation of optimal lift distributions and installed efficiency. Results indicate that the distribution of lift over the wing which maximizes overall efficiency differs markedly from elliptic loading. Swirl recovery by the wing leads to increments in net propeller efficiency of 6% in example cases. The maximum installed efficiency is computed for single-rotation (up-inboard and up-outboard designs) and counter-rotating systems. Results suggest that some of the performance advantages attributed to counterrotation may be less dramatic for well-integrated wing-propeller designs than for isolated systems. Nomenclature An = amplitude of nth harmonic of wing lift & = wing aspect ratio b = wingspan c =wing chord CL =wing lift coefficient CT = thrust coefficient, =ir2T/pw2R4 D =drag IU,IW = definite integrals, Eqs. (10) and (11), respectively / = advance ratio, = irU00/uR I = section lift L =lift N = number of blades Obj = objective function Q = propeller torque R = propeller radius r - radial coordinate T = thrust Uw = freestream velocity u = axial perturbation velocity V = induced velocity vt = tangential induced velocity w = induced downwash x = stream wise coordinate y = spanwise coordinate . Vprop = spanwise location of propeller F = circulation 6 =dimensionless spanwise coordinate K =Goldstein's radial velocity correction X =Lagrange multiplier p = density Subscripts int = interference component = wing w = propeller
Oxytocin Protects Against Isoproterenol-Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy by Inhibiting PI3K/AKT Pathway via a lncRNA GAS5/miR-375-3p/KLF4-Dependent Mechanism

Cardiac hypertrophy is caused by cardiac volume or pressure overload conditions and ultimately leads to contractile dysfunction and heart failure. Oxytocin (OT), an endocrine nonapeptide, has been identified as a cardiovascular homeostatic hormone with anti-hypertrophic effects. However, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role and mechanism of OT in cardiac hypertrophy. The rats with cardiac hypertrophy induced by isoproterenol (ISO) were treated with or without oxytocin. Cardiac functional parameters were analyzed by echocardiography. The changes in cell surface area were observed using wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) or immunofluorescence staining. The expressions of cardiac hypertrophy markers (B-Natriuretic Peptide, BNP and β-myosin heavy chain, β-MHC), long non-coding RNA Growth (LcRNA) Arrest-Specific transcript 5 (lncRNA GAS5), miR-375-3p, and Kruppel-like factor 4 (Klf4) were detected by qRT-PCR. KLF4 protein and PI3K/AKT pathway related proteins were detected by Western blot. The interactions among lncRNA GAS5, miR-375-3p, and Klf4 were verified by dual-luciferase reporter assays. The findings showed that OT significantly attenuated cardiac hypertrophy, increased expressions of lncRNA GAS5 and KLF4, and decreased miR-375-3p expression. In vitro studies demonstrated that either knock-down of lncRNA GAS5 or Klf4, or over-expression of miR-375-3p blunted the anti-hypertrophic effects of OT. Moreover, down-regulation of lncRNA GAS5 promoted the expression of miR-375-3p and inhibited KLF4 expression. Similarly, over-expression of miR-375-3p decreased the expression of KLF4. Dual-luciferase reporter assays validated that lncRNA GAS5 could sponge miR-375-3p and Klf4 was a direct target gene of miR-375-3p. In addition, OT could inactivate PI3K/AKT pathway. The functional rescue experiments further identified OT regulated PI3K/AKT pathway through lncRNA GAS5/miR-375-3p/KLF4 axis. In summary, our study demonstrates that OT ameliorates cardiac hypertrophy by inhibiting PI3K/AKT pathway via lncRNA GAS5/miR-375-3p/KLF4 axis.
Expression and clinical significance of BDH1 in liver cancer

Abstract Liver cancer is a deadly disease with generally poor patient outcomes. BDH1 is a key enzyme that regulates the metabolism and synthesis of ketone bodies. This study sought to explore the prognostic relevance of BDH1 mRNA expression in liver cancer. We utilized the Cancer Genome Atlas datasets to analyze the relationship between BDH1 expression and clinical outcomes. We used Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox analyses to explore the relevance of BDH1 mRNA levels to patient prognosis. Further gene set enrichment analysis was conducted as a means of comparing differences in gene expression as a function of BDH1 expression. Liver cancer samples exhibited significantly decreased BDH1 mRNA expression, and that this downregulation was correlated with a number of clinicopathological variables including gender, histologic grade, stage, TNM classification, and both overall and relapse-free survival. We further determined that BDH1 mRNA expression was an independent predictor of liver cancer patient prognosis. A subsequent gene set enrichment analysis found genes affected by BDH1 expression to be those enriched in pathways relating to MYC and wnt/β-catenin signaling. Our preliminary findings demonstrate for the first time that low expression of BDH1 mRNA is a potentially valuable independent prognostic indicator for liver cancer detection.
Impact of COVID‐19 on wild meat trade in Nigerian markets

NatureHeritage, Jersey, Jersey Department of Natural Sciences, School of Science and the Environment, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), CIFOR Headquarters, Bogor, Indonesia Department of Fisheries, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria Department of Forestry and Wildlife, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria Institute for Development, Ecology, Conservation and Cooperation, Rome, Italy Department of Applied and Environmental Biology, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt, Nigeria Département de Zoologie et Biologie Animale, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Lomé, Lomé, Togo Ecologia Applicata Italia, Palermo, Italy Ecolobby, Rome, Italy
A Truck Scheduling System Improves Efficiency in the Forest Industries

Timber transport plays an important part in the overall operational costs of forest industries. Depending on their size, typical large forest firms move between 500,000 and 3,000,000 cubic meters a year, with transportation budgets ranging from US $5 to 20 million. We developed an operative and computerized system, ASICAM, based on a simulation process with heuristic rules, to support daily truck scheduling decisions. It can be used on any personal computer and runs for about three minutes on a PC 486 for larger problems. ASICAM has been implemented in eight of the largest forest firms in Chile, reducing costs and improving overall operation and work efficiency.
Development of Virtual Lab Media to Improve Student’s Critical Thinking Ability

This study aims to generate media Virtual Lab on the basis of electrical materials that meet the criteria are valid instructional media, practical, and effective . The population in this study was the Airport Electrical Engineering class class XVII semester I, while the research subjects of the validity trial were Unimed physics lecturers and the subjects of the implementation of Virtual Lab learning media were the Airport Electrical Engineering class XVII, totaling 24 people and the Airport Electrical Engineering level III and XIV. 46 people . The procedure for developing Media Virtual Lab using the Research and Development Method initiated by Borg and Gall which consisted of research and information collecting, planning, developing preliminary forms of product, preliminary field testing, main product revision, main field testing, operational product revision, operational field testing, final product revision, and dissemination and implementation. The instruments used in this research are validity questionnaires to see the validity of the Virtual Lab media , lecturer and student response questionnaires to see the practicality of Virtual Lab media on basic electrical materials and pretest and posttest instruments to see the effectiveness of Virtual Lab Media . From the research results, it can be concluded that the Virtual Lab Media Development with an average value of 78.76% for media validation results while 78.86% for material expert validation results, both of which are categorized as quite valid and can be used but minor revisions. Practical response of Virtual Lab Media by lecturers with an average value of 86.1% which is categorized as very practical, while by students 82.94% for small groups and 77.33% for large groups which are quite practical. The effectiveness of Media Virtual Lab shows N-Gain with a value of 0.61 which is considered effective on basic electrical materials .
Microdome-Tunable Graphene/Carbon Nanotubes Pressure Sensors Based on Polystyrene Array for Wearable Electronics

Resistive pressure sensors are appealing due to having several advantages, such as simple reading mechanisms, simple construction, and quick dynamic response. Achieving a constantly changeable microstructure of sensing materials is critical for the flexible pressure sensor and remains a difficulty. Herein, a flexible, tunable resistive pressure sensors is developed via simple, low-cost microsphere self-assembly and graphene/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) solution drop coating. The sensor uses polystyrene (PS) microspheres to construct an interlocked dome microstructure with graphene/CNTs as a conductive filler. The results indicate that the interlocked microdome-type pressure sensor has better sensitivity than the single microdome-type and single planar-type without surface microstructure. The pressure sensor’s sensitivity can be adjusted by varying the diameter of PS microspheres. In addition, the resistance of the sensor is also tunable by adjusting the number of graphene/CNT conductive coating layers. The developed flexible pressure sensor effectively detected human finger bending, demonstrating tremendous potential in human motion monitoring.
Measurement of dielectric absorption of capacitors and analysis of its effects on VCOs

In the integrators applied in A-to-D converters, smart sensors and other processing circuits, the accuracy is directly limited by the performance of the integrating element: the capacitor. An important nonideality of the capacitors concerns the short-term effects of dielectric absorption. This paper presents an accurate method to measure these short-term effects and discusses the measurement results for standard industrial capacitors, MOS and junction capacitors, parasitic capacitors of assembling materials and coaxial-cable capacitors. The special precautions to be taken to obtain the required accuracy for very short measurement times are also discussed. It is shown that the dielectric absorption of a commonly used polycarbonate capacitor causes a nonlinearity of 0.6% for a VCO in the frequency range from 1 kHz to 100 kHz. A very large dielectric-absorption effect has been found for commonly used epoxy printed-circuit boards, which means that special care has to be taken when this material is applied in accurate VCOs.
The Influence of Transformational Leadership on Employee Performance Through Work Climate and Organizational Commitment

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of transformational leadership on employee performance with work climate and organizational commitment as mediating variables. The research is conducted in the Ministry of Education of Timor-Leste. The population of this study was 765 employees in the Ministry of Education. The hypothesis testing is conducted using Smart-PLS 3.0. The results showed that transformational leadership had no effect on employee performance. The results showed that the work climate and organizational commitment play a full role in mediating the effect of transformational leadership on employee performance. This research is based on the inconsistency result of the previous studies on the effect of transformational leadership on employee performance. The inconsistency of the results of previous studies is a gap in this study. This research will integrate the work climate and organizational commitment as a mediating role in the influence of transformational leadership on employee performance.
Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy in Right Eye and Choroidal Neovascular Membrane in Myopic Left Eye: Case Report

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a common cause of vision loss. Axial myopia has been considered to be protective against DR although it is equivocal. We report a 61-year-old diabetic female patient presented with worsening vision in both eyes. Spherical equivalent refractive errors were +2.00 diopters on the right eye and -13.00 diopters on the left eye. Fundus examination revealed proliferative DR on the right eye and no signs of DR, but hemorrhage due to myopic choroidal neovascularization on the left eye. This case shows that expression of DR may differ according to the refractive status of the eye.
Exploring the Effect of Corporate Governance on the Audit Effort: The Case of Greek Port Authorities

: Purpose: The goal of this paper is to investigate the impact of corporate governance on the implementation of internal audits (ΙΑ) in the Greek public sector. Internal audit services have been adopted as a major strategy by the management of public organizations over the last decade in order to achieve their objectives in an efficient and effective manner. Under this framework, the present research investigates how the Board of Directors’ williness, support, and implementation of IA, improve public governance. Design/methodology/approach: Data for the study were gathered from the annual financial reports of 13 Port Authorities which have the legal status of Societies Anonymes, between 2012 and 2020. In the regression analysis, audit effort (audit team size) was chosen as dependent variable and as independent variables, the Board of Directors’ size, the BIG 5 audit firms and the implementation of internal audit function.To estimate internal audit economic models, various quantitative approaches such as ordinary least squares, weights least squares, fixed effect, and random effect were used. Findings: According to our findings, IA plays a crucial role in the corporate governance system by providing a systematic disciplined approach to monitoring public organizations’ policies and procedures and influencing their value. Organizations that completely outsource their IA have been influenced positively in terms of good governance. The high quality of outsourcing IA, has an impact on external auditors’ audit services, since external auditors adjust their strategy based on IA reports. Practical Implications: In case of Port Authorities, audit’s quality in both internal and external services affects their economic growth and investors’ attraction, since it enhances the transparency and accountability of financial reports. Originality/value: information and data of IA’ effects on public governance and vice versa. Few researchers focus their studies on IA in public sector.
OVPD: OLED manufacturing coming of age

In this paper achievements utilising Organic Vapor Phase Deposition (OVPD) are reviewed and presented together with recent results. Organic thin films could be deposited with a high degree of accuracy and reproducibility. Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) were compared to devices manufactured with conventional techniques and showed similar or even slightly better performance. The combination of OVPD with Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) technology results in manufacturing equipment with vast potential for cost effective manufacturing of OLED displays commercially competitive to LCD.
Habitat availability determines food chain length and interaction strength in food webs of a large lowland river

Many large rivers used for navigation have lost their hydromorphological heterogeneity, which has led to the widespread loss of native biodiversity and the concurrent establishment of non‐native communities. While the effects on biodiversity are well‐described, we know little about how the loss of natural habitats and the restructuring of communities cumulate into effects on riverine food webs. We constructed binary and ingestion webs for benthic macroinvertebrates and their resources in the Elbe River (Germany) and compared if food chain length, food web complexity, robustness, ingestion rates, and consumer‐resource interaction strength differ among three shoreline engineering practices. Food webs at profoundly altered shorelines were significantly less complex and had significantly shorter food chains than the food web at the semi‐natural shoreline. However, food web robustness to a simulated loss of species was comparable at all shorelines. Total ingestion rates were up to eight times lower at highly altered shorelines due to significantly lower ingestion rates by native species. Predator–prey interaction strength was comparable among shorelines due to higher shares of non‐native predators, indicating that non‐native predators can be functionally equivalent to native predators. We attributed the observed food web differences to the absence of complex habitats at profoundly altered shorelines and the accompanied absence of specialized consumers. Our study provides empirical evidence that hydromorphological modifications reduce the efficiency of food webs to control organic matter dynamics and may ultimately affect the provisioning of riverine ecosystem services.
RESPONSE OF CROP YIELD TO PREDICTED CHANGES IN CLIMATE AND ATMOSPHERIC CO2 USING SIMULATION

ABSTRACT Soybean growth and yield for 19 locations in southeastern U.S.A. were simulated for 30 years (1951-80) of climate data. Three different climate change scenarios, with and without supplemental irrigation, were used with the SOYGRO crop model. The three climate scenarios were standard historic data and two scenarios based on changes predicted by two general circulation models (GCM) for a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Results were analyzed for four different conditions; normal weather, doubled CO2 alone, climate change alone, and the combined effect of climate change and doubled CO2. Results indicate 1) yields vary widely with climate scenario; 2) increased water use and irrigation need for the combined case of doubled CO2 and climate change; and 3) simulation is a useful tool for this type of study.
Treatment and survival outcome of older women with primary breast cancer: a retrospective study of single center

Background: Changes in biological features and functional status make management decisions for older women with primary breast cancer more complicated and challenging. We aimed to give an overview of clinicopathological characteristics and survival outcome of older breast cancer patients based on the current treatment strategies. Methods: A total of 14,870 patients diagnosed with primary invasive breast cancer in Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center (FUSCC) from 2008–2016 were involved in this study. Based on the age at diagnosis, patients were divided into younger group (<65 years) and older group ( ≥ 65 years). Clinicopathological and treatment data were retrospectively analyzed between two groups. Propensity scores matching was utilized for comparison of overall survival in patients received different therapeutic options. Results: Comparing with the younger patients, older patients showed higher Age-adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Score (ACCI) scores (P<0.001), less lymph node (LN) metastasis (P=0.009) and advanced tumor stage (P=0.038), with larger proportion of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive (P<0.001) and epidermal growth factor receptor-2 negative (P<0.001) tumors. As for treatment patterns, older patients were likely to receive mastectomy (84.5% vs. 76.8%) and axillary LN dissection directly (48.9% vs. 46.2%) for surgical intervention. The data showed a preference of less intensive regimens among patients received chemotherapy, with less recipe of anthracycline (51.5% vs. 73.7%) and more capecitabine (10.7% vs. 0.08%) alone usage. Multivariate Cox analysis revealed that adjuvant chemotherapy (HR 0.58, 95% CI: 0.42–0.81, P=0.002) was independently correlated with better overall survival. Such survival benefit (HR 0.60, 95% CI: 0.39–0.94, P=0.025) was also observed in propensity score-matched cohort. Subgroup analysis of matched patient suggested that patients with higher ACCI score (HR 0.47, 95% CI: 0.25–0.89, P=0.021) and larger tumor size (HR 0.51, 95% CI: 0.28–0.90, P=0.021) would benefit from receipt of chemotherapy. Conclusions: Older breast cancer patients showed less aggressive biological characteristics at diagnosis. Besides an intensive surgical preference, older women received adjuvant chemotherapy tend to have moderate regimens in current clinical practice. Given the overall survival benefits, addition of chemotherapy in adjuvant therapy of older patients needs to be considered, especially for older patients with large tumor.
Creating Digital Stories: A Case Study of Turkish Preschool Environmental Education

This study examined an integration of digital stories in teaching environmental concepts to preschool children aged 3-6 in Turkey. The participants were the forth-grade preservice teachers who used a variety of activities to implement environmental education plans. Structured questionnaires were employed as the main data collection tool. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework served as a springboard to analyze the data. The findings of this study demonstrate that creating and implementing digital stories in the preschool curriculum can enhance students' learning outcomes. Also the digital stories can be handled as a teaching method in the preschool period. As a result, the integration of technology with pedagogy and content in preschool education has demonstrated the importance of TPACK.