Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Essential Oil Analysis of Micromeria nubigena H.B.K. and its Antimicrobial Activity

Abstract Water-distilled essential oil from leaves and flowers of Micromeria nubigena H.B. K. (Lamiaceae) were analyzed by GC and GC/MS systems. The major components identified were thymol (36.9%), carvacrol (16.7%), pulegone (10.8%), caryophyllene oxide (4.6%) and (E)-phytol (3.2%). The major volatiles released by β-glucosidase treatment of the aqueous plant residue were (Z)-3-hexenol (31.2%), (Z)-2-hexenol (18.3%) and δ—cadinene (3.4%). The oil showed significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and antifungal activity against Candida albicans, Botrytis cinerea and Aspergillus niger, while the β-glucosidase-liberated fraction was inactive.
Leaf traits predict global patterns in the structure and flammability of forest litter beds

Fallen plant material such as leaves, needles and branches form litter beds which strongly influence fire ignition and spread. Traits of the dominant species influence litter flammability directly by determining how individual leaves burn and indirectly through the structure of the litter bed. However, we are yet to determine the relative importance of these different drivers across a range of plant species from different biomes. We undertook a meta‐analysis, combining leaf trait, litter structure and flammability data for 106 species from North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The dataset encompassed broad‐leaved and coniferous species from seven different experimental studies. Relationships between leaf traits, litter structure and key flammability metrics—sustainability, combustibility and consumability—were analysed using bivariate and piecewise structural equation modelling (SEM). Traits which characterise the three‐dimensional nature of the leaf and how much space a leaf occupies showed much stronger associations to litter structure and flammability than other morphological traits. Leaf curl, surface area to volume ratio (SAV) and SLA predominately influence litter flammability indirectly via litter structure with SLA being the only leaf trait which had a negative direct effect on flame duration. Packing ratio and bulk density were influenced by different combinations of leaf traits and, in turn, they aligned with different flammability metrics. Bulk density predicted flame spread rate and flame duration whereas packing ratio predicted consumption. Synthesis. We identified key leaf and litter traits which influence different components of litter bed flammability. Importantly, we show that the effects of these leaf and litter traits are consistent across a wide range of taxa and biomes. Our study represents a significant step towards developing trait‐based models for predicting surface wildfire behaviour. Such models will more flexibly accommodate future shifts in the composition of plant species triggered by altered fire regimes and climate change.
Horses and worthwhile causes: Exploring equine-assisted learning at Dune Lakes Horse Inspired Learning Centre in Aotearoa New Zealand

INTRODUCTION: Equine-assisted therapies and trauma-informed interventions have become increasingly popular with a growing literature suggesting that people can deeply relate to experiential work with horses, where silence, emotional growth, reflection and acceptance are prioritised over talking about problems.APPROACH: This research, undertaken at a rural learning and retreat centre near Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand, examines how practitioners tailor equine-assisted interventions (EAI) and sheds light into values, theories and frameworks that underpin their work. The study is based on personal and professional experiences of four practitioners who engage in equine- assisted learning.FINDINGS AND APPLICATION: Findings are drawn from the thematic analysis of the transcripts of four semi-structured interviews, highlighting the process of facilitating post- traumatic growth in a professional, supportive and client-centred environment involving a facilitator, a horse, and a person keen to improve the quality of their life. Application of this modality, particularly when working with clients with complex trauma, is explored with a special emphasis on the relevance of involvement of animals in social work practice.
Aluminum Group Extraction with Benzoic Acid – Acetic Acid Crossed Type Calix[4]arene Derivatives

A calix[4]arene carboxylic acid derivative alternatively possessing benzoic acid and two acetic acid groups has been prepared to investigate the extraction behavior for the aluminum group of metals, such as aluminum, gallium, and indium from nitrate and chloride media and to compare with the tetraacetic acid derivative. The present extraction reagent exhibits a simple ion-exchange mechanism for all metals. Both extractants show that the selectivity series is In > Ga >> Al in nitrate media, while Ga > In >> Al is found for chloride media due to complexation of indium with chloride anions. The stoichiometry of the gallium complex with both extractants, determined by the continuous variation method, was determined to be 1 : 1. The complexation site of the present extractant for gallium was also determined using 1 H-NMR spectroscopy. The extraction ability and separation efficiency of both extractants for the three metal ions were estimated by using the half pH values. Stripping of the metal ions loaded on the present extractant with hydrochloric acid was also investigated.
Restrictive and expansive participation in companies’ activities: A case study of bricklaying and automation technology apprentices in Switzerland

ABSTRACT Based on qualitative research on bricklaying and automation technology apprentices in Switzerland, this paper examines apprentices’ experiences of participating in their company’s production activities and becoming members of their community of practice, and the influence of these experiences on the development of their occupational identity. Participation in activity and training is organised in various ways in different training companies, and expansive–restrictive participation models help in understanding the importance of workplace learning for apprentices’ training experience and the development of their occupational identity. The results show that in learning situations characterised by expansive participation, apprentices have substantial responsibility and autonomy throughout their apprenticeship, together with guidance adapted to their needs. Apprentices are highly self-confident and adopt agentic actions aimed at increasing the variety and complexity of tasks and their own autonomy. In restrictive participation, in contrast, apprentices are often poorly integrated into the community of practice and feel devalued as aspiring professionals. These apprentices primarily develop agentic actions to improve their participation in company activities and their apprenticeship, but they are largely unable to develop their skills or become independent in performing complex tasks, and they are limited in their ability to construct a vocational identity.
A Prospective Study on [68Ga]-PSMA PET/CT Imaging in Newly Diagnosed Intermediate- and High-Risk Prostate Cancer.

Objectives Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) ligand positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is an emerging modality to detect metastatic disease in patients with prostate cancer (PCa). This prospective study aimed to evaluate the role of [68Ga]-PSMA PET/CT in the initial workup of intermediate and high-risk PCa. Methods Twenty-five patients with newly transrectal ultrasound biopsy-proven, untreated intermediate- and high-risk PCa (mean age, 68.5±6.2 years; range 55-83 years) were enrolled in this prospective study between September 2018 and June 2020 and underwent a [68Ga]-PSMA PET/CT examination. All images were analyzed both visually and semiquantitatively by measuring the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of the primary prostatic tumor and metastatic lesions. The diagnostic sensitivity of [68Ga]-PSMA PET/CT for the diagnosis of PCa was established by histopathology as the reference standard. The associations between SUVmax of the primary tumors and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, Gleason scores (GSs), and metastatic extent of the disease were studied. Results All patients had a positive [68Ga]-PSMA PET/CT exam. Seventeen patients (58%) showed [68Ga]-PSMA avidity in both prostate lobes and 8 (32%) had unilateral uptake. SUVmax in the primary tumor significantly correlated with serum PSA values (r=0.57, P=0.003). PSMA PET/CT depicted regional lymph node metastases in 32% of patients, distant lymph node metastases in 20%, osseous metastases in 16% and pulmonary metastases in 8% of patients. Sixty percent of PSMA-positive bone metastases and 21.4% of intraprostatic tumoral lesions were missed on the contemporaneous bone scintigraphy and magnetic resonance imaging, respectively. Conclusion [68Ga]-PSMA PET/CT shows promise as a valuable imaging modality with high diagnostic sensitivity in the setting of intermediate and high-risk PCa. Moreover, the SUVmax of the primary tumor has a positive correlation with PSA levels at the time of the scan.
A Real-Time Observation Approach for Assessing the Impact of Social Media on Students’ Academic Performance

The increase in the use of social media among students has led to investigation on its effect on academic performance. Existing studies conducted on this subject matter showed two contradictory opinions among researchers. While some researchers agreed that social media has negative impact on the students’ academic performance, others concluded that it has positive impact on the students’ academic performance. However, these studies relied on surveys carried out using questionnaires, which provide approximate estimates. In this study, a real-time observation approach devoid from the use of questionnaire was proposed. In addition, a time management equation was developed to further evaluate the impact of social media on the students’ academic performance. The results from the study showed that the use of social media has significant negative effect on the academic performance of the students.
‘Stepping on the teacher’s toes’: student teachers’ experience of a one-year postgraduate teacher training programme

ABSTRACT Student teachers engaging in periods of training in the classroom, supported by experienced mentors, is an accepted model for teacher training. This qualitative study adopted a descriptive phenomenological approach to establish the lived experience of a group of postgraduate primary student teachers across their teacher training year. A community of practice theoretical lens was applied and findings suggested that in some cases student teachers can be regarded as legitimate peripheral participants (LPP) in a primary school context and learning gains made. However, learning and successful outcomes were still shown to take place even when the student teachers might not be regarded as LLPs. There are therefore limitations to the community of practice model. Attention paid to student teachers’ individual circumstances might better contribute to their self-efficacy and subsequent motivation to enter the teaching profession. There are implications for mentor training and further research.
Use of Anti-Epileptic Drugs During Adjuvant Chemo-Radiotherapy is Associated with Increased Mortality in Patients with Glioblastoma: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

BackgroundThere are emerging but inconsistent evidences about anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) as radiosensitizers to improve survival in glioblastoma (GBM) patients. We conducted a population-based study to evaluate the impact of concurrent AED during post-operative chemo-radiotherapy (CCRT) on outcome.Methods1057 GBM patients were identified by National Health Insurance Research Database and Cancer Registry in 2008-2015. Eligible criteria included those receiving surgery, adjuvant RT and temozolomide (TMZ), and without other cancer diagnoses. Survival between patients taking concurrent AED for 14 days or more during CCRT (AED group) and those who did not (non-AED group) were compared, and subgroup analyses for valproic acid (VPA), levetiracetam (LEV), and phenytoin were performed. Multivariate analyses were used to adjust for confounding factors. ResultsThere were 642 patients in the AED group while 415 in the non-AED group. The demographic data was balanced except trend of more patients in the AED group had previous drug history of AEDs. (22.6% vs 18%, p=0.078). Overall, the AED group had significantly increased risk of mortality (HR=1.18, p=0.016). In subgroup analyses, the significant detrimental effect was demonstrated in VPA (HR=1.29, p=0.0002), but not in LEV (HR=1.18, p=0.079) and phenytoin (HR = 0.98, p=0.862). When stratified by sex and age, this detrimental effect was seen in male and patients less than 65 years old in the VPA group.Conclusion:Survival was not improved and even worse in patients with AEDs during CCRT in this nationwide population-based study. Our real-world data did not support prophylactic use of AEDs for GBM.
Using Facebook and Instagram to Recruit Web Survey Participants: A Step-by-Step Guide and Application

In many countries and contexts, survey researchers are facing decreasing response rates and increasing survey costs. Data collection is even more complex and expensive when rare or hard-to-reach populations are to be sampled and surveyed. In such cases alternative sampling and recruiting approaches are usually needed, including non-probability and online convenience sampling. A rather novel approach to recruiting rare populations for online and mobile-device surveys uses advertisements on social media networks. This paper provides a step-by-step guide on how to recruit web-survey participants via ads on Facebook and Instagram – two of the largest social networks worldwide. Researchers may use this paper as a starting point for setting up their own recruiting campaigns. Moreover, the paper describes the results of fieldwork for a research project in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and queer (LGBTQ) web-survey participants in Germany were recruited via ads on social media.
Fragmentation in Seagrass Canopies Can Alter Hydrodynamics and Sediment Deposition Rates

Seagrasses are valuable coastal ecosystems that protect the seabed from waves and currents. They are threatened by predominately anthropogenic activities which are causing their decline in many regions, often converting large continuous meadows into highly fragmented ones with gaps or bare sand interspersed within the meadows. To evaluate the impact fragmentation is having on the meadows’ capacity to attenuate waves, the hydrodynamics in four meadows with different fragmentation were studied by measuring wave velocity and turbulent kinetic energy. In our study area, as gap size increases, both the turbulent kinetic energy and wave velocity increase in the center of the gaps. However, although wave attenuation varied between the different fragmentation levels, no clear trend was found for wave attenuation or the level of fragmentation. Simply put, neither wave velocity nor turbulent kinetic energy presented significant trends with the fragmentation levels of the canopy on larger scales. Therefore, within the spatial and temporal limitation of this study, fragmentation on a landscape scale did not affect the hydrodynamics within the gaps. Furthermore, as with hydrodynamics, sedimentation rates also increased with gap size, but did not show differences at the landscape level with the fragmentation levels of the meadows.
Separation and Determination of the Major Active Components in Tibetan Folk Medicinal Species Swertia franchetiana by HPLC with DAD

Abstract A sensitive and specific reversed‐phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP‐HPLC) method with diode array detection (DAD) was established for the quantitative determination of the nine active components, namely, swertiamarin (SWM, 1), mangiferin (MA, 2), gentipicroside (GE, 3), sweroside (SWO, 4), isoorientin (IS, 5), swertisin (SWS, 6), swertianolin (SWN, 7), 7‐O‐[α‐L‐rhamnopyranosyl‐ 1→2)‐β‐D‐xylopyranosyl]‐1,8‐dihydroxy‐3‐methoxyxanthone (RX, 8), and bellidifolin (BE, 9) used as the external standard, in Tibetan folk medicinal species Swertia franchetiana. Based on the baseline chromatographic separation of most components from the methanolic extract of Swertia franchetiana on a reversed‐phase Eclipse XDB‐C8 column with water‐acetonitrile‐formic acid as mobile phase, the nine components were identified by comparison with standard samples and qualified by using the external standard method with DAD at 254 nm. The correlation coefficients of all the calibration curves were found to be higher than 0.9980. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the peak areas and retention times for the nine standards were less than 2.07% and 2.86%, respectively.
THE INFLUENCE OF KNOWLEDGE, INVESTMENT MOTIVATION AND INVESTMENT UNDERSTANDING ON STUDENT INTEREST TO INVEST IN THE CAPITAL MARKET

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of understanding on investment interest in the capital market, to determine the effect of investment motivation on investment interest in the capital market and to determine the effect of understanding investment on investment interest in the capital market. The population in this study were ITB - AAS Indonesia students. The sample in this study were 243 students. Collecting data by distributing questionnaires. The data analysis used is multiple linear regression analysis, Anova test, partial test, and model accuracy test. The results of the analysis of this study are understanding investment, investment knowledge, and investment motivation partial and simultaneously influence the interest in investing in the capital market. Keywords: Knowledge, Motivation, Interest, Investment, Capital Market
Transformation of the Photoacoustic Signal after Treatment of Barley Leaves with Methylviologen or High Temperatures

Abstract— The photoacoustic (PA) signal at the modulation frequency of 35 Hz was studied in MV‐treated barley leaves or leaves preheated at different temperatures. Saturating illumination enhanced the magnitude of the PA signal in MV‐treated leaves in contrast with the opposite result usually found in untreated intact leaves where saturating illumination abolishes the photobaric component of the PA signal due to oxygen evolution and thus decreases the total PA signal. A linear relationship was found between the changes induced by continuous background light in the negative response of PA signal to saturating light in intact leaves and in the positive response in MV‐treated leaves. A linear relationship was also observed in MV‐treated leaves between the positive changes in the PA signal and the changes in the rate of electron transport through photosystem II (PSII) calculated from chlorophyll fluorescence data. The conclusion was drawn that only the thermal component contributes to the PA signal measured at low modulated frequency in MV‐treated leaves because the enhanced O2 uptake provides a zero net oxygen exchange by superimposing with O2 evolution. The leaves preheated at temperatures above 43°C demonstrated the positive response of the PA signal to saturating light at 35 Hz. In leaves preheated at 41.5°C, the first and second saturating pulses induced the enhancement of PA signal, whereas other pulses decreased the PA signal due to onset of oxygen evolution. The energy storage activity measured in the absence of oxygen evolution in heat‐treated leaves is proposed to be associated with cyclic electron transport activities around PSII and PSI.
The prevalence of severe grief reactions after bereavement and their associations with mental health, physical health, and health service utilization: a population-based study

ABSTRACT Background: Previous research has shown that bereaved individuals are at risk of developing physical and mental health problems. However, knowledge is scarce about the associations between severe grief reactions after bereavement and physical and mental health problems and the use of health services. Objectives: The present study sought to investigate the prevalence of severe grief reactions and to study the associations of severe grief reactions with mental and physical health and health care utilization. Method: The sample comprised 20,453 adults aged 40 and above (mean age = 57.2 years, SD = 11.3 years, 52.4% female) who participated in the seventh wave of the Tromsø study. Severe grief was assessed with one question asking whether the respondent has experienced the death of a loved one and currently has difficulty accepting the loss, yearns for the deceased, and experiences intense emotional pain related to the loss. Furthermore, participants answered questions about their current physical health, mental health (Hopkins Symptom Checklist – 10), and the use of health services in the past year. Results: Overall, 5.2% of the participants reported severe grief after a loss in childhood, 25.9% after bereavement in adulthood and 4.1% after bereavement in the previous year. Female gender, higher age, living without a partner, non-Norwegian ethnicity, and lower socio-economic status were associated with severe grief. Severe grief reactions were negatively related to self-reported health, predicted positively current levels of depression and anxiety, and were positively associated with the use of health services. Effect sizes were small. Gender differences in the use of health services were observed. Conclusion: Severe grief reactions are common in individuals aged 40 and older and associated with self-reported physical and mental health problems as well as increased use of health services. Health service providers should be attentive to possible severe grief in connection with health complaints. HIGHLIGHTS: • In a population-based study of adults aged 40 and older, approximately one third reported that they experience severe grief after the loss of a loved one. • Grief was associated with physical and mental health problems and increased use of health services.
ANALYSIS OF HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER DURING COMBINED MICROWAVE CONVECTIVE SPOUTED-BED DRYING

Heat and mass transfer phenomena during the combined microwave-convective batch spouted bed drying are analyzed. Wheat was chosen as a test material. The governing equations, including consideration of internal heat generation and thermodiffusion are formulated and solved using the numerical method of lines. The model allowed variable material transport and dielectric properties. The parameters investigated include electric field strength, electromagnetic field frequency, inlet air temperature, and superficial air velocity. Representative drying and temperature curves as well as moisture and temperature profiles are presented and discussed.
Information Technology, Business Strategy and the Reassignment of Work from In-House Employees to Agency Temps

Though we now understand how information technology (IT) influences <i>work</i>, we know much less about how it reshapes the actual <i>relationship</i> between workers and their employers. That is, to what extent do employers deploy new technologies towards the erosion of traditional employment relationships? This study relies on a cross-section of British workplaces to provide statistical evidence that IT actually facilitates managers’ <i>reassignment</i> of work once done by in-house employees to those working instead for a staffing agency, an effect that trebles in magnitude where managers have simultaneously cut employment. Furthermore, IT differentially serves opposing business strategies. Whereas employers electing to compete on price rather than quality are more likely to reassign work, managers enacting quality-centred strategies are more likely to rely on IT to <i>avert</i> work reassignment. The findings demonstrate that new technologies may facilitate this form of externalisation, but they do not unilaterally drive it. The estimates also illuminate IT’s indirect impact on workers via managers’ use of it as a tool for restructuring employment.