Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The influence of climate change on short duration rainfall in the Western Cape

The Western Cape has been subject to extreme rainfall storms in the last decade, which has been responsible for millions of Rands worth of damage to public infrastructure and human settlements. Current climate model projections under climate change suggest that the Western Cape can expect greater rainfall intensities, with magnitude of rainfall events increasing, but the frequency of occurrence of events decreasing. The aim of this research is to assess if historical short duration rainfall data provides any evidence to support increasing intensities in rainfall in the Western Cape. Short duration rainfall data (< 24 hours), consisting of digitised autographicand automatic weather station data (AWS), was selected from the South African Weather Services’ database for the Western Cape and wider South African region, in order to combine the data for an extension of the effective record length. Numerous difficulties were encountered with the data that required the application of editing and quality control procedures. The digitised autographic data contained many errors and generally compared poorly to standard gauge daily rainfall totals of the same period. After the application of editing and quality control procedures, seven stations were selected and their autographic and AWS data was combined for further detailed analysis. Analysis was divided into two sections, one for the analysis of the magnitude of the rainfall, the other for the frequency of occurrence of rainfall events. For the magnitude analysis, nonstationary extreme value theory was applied by implementing a parametric and non-parametric non-stationary approach to both the generalised extreme value distribution (GEV) with an annual maximum series, and a generalised Pareto distribution with a peaks over threshold series. The parametric approach entailed fitting linear models to the parameters of the extreme value distributions, and the non-parametric approach tested if return levels of the distributions remained constant over a moving window period. The frequency analysis entailed the recording of the annual number of rainfall events exceeding predetermined threshold values. For the magnitude analysis, the parametric approach only produced two stations with significant non-stationarity and only for the GEV, whilst the non-stationary approach produced results that can indicate non-parametric behaviour, but this was most likely because of the combination of autographic and AWS data. The frequency analysis produced results that indicated no observable results for some stations, while others produced trends that are consistent with a change from the autographic to AWS data. This lead to the conclusion that with the available data, no clear or significant evidence supporting increasing intensities or any other change in short duration rainfall was found regarding the magnitude and frequency of occurrence of rainfall events. vii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za viii Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Immunomodulatory and Antioxidant Properties of Ipomoea batatas Flour and Extracts Obtained by Green Extraction

Sweet potato (SP), Ipomoea batatas Lam, belongs to the Convolvulaceae family. It produces edible storage roots. Currently, orange varieties contribute to improving food systems and managing vitamin A deficiency. Processing of this food crop into flour allows better conservation. However, nutrition health data regarding SP flour obtained by green extraction remains scarce. In this study, we therefore explored its phytochemistry and its associated bioactivity potential for human health. We analyzed the nutritional composition of orange flesh sweet potato (OFSP) flour and assessed the antioxidant (free radical scavenging) and immunomodulatory (on inflammatory murine macrophages) properties of the extract. More specifically, we measured the impact of OFSP flour extract on mediators such as Nitric Oxide (NO) and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-alpha), Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 (MCP-1), and Prostaglandin-E2 (PGE-2). Our results indicated significant fiber, mineral, beta-carotene, and polyphenols content in the extracts, and antioxidant and immunomodulatory bioactivities were also demonstrated with a concentration-dependent inhibition of cytokine production. Taken together, our results suggest that Ipomoea batatas flour could, in addition to being a good source of energy and beta-carotene provitamin A, constitute a food of interest for the prophylaxis of metabolic diseases associated with an underlying low-grade inflammatory state.
Phase history decomposition for efficient scatterer classification in SAR imagery

Abstract : A new theory and algorithm for scatterer classification in SAR imagery is presented. The automated classification process is operationally efficient compared to existing image segmentation methods requiring human supervision. The algorithm reconstructs coarse resolution subimages from subdomains of the SAR phase history. It analyzes local peaks in the subimages to determine locations and geometric shapes of scatterers in the scene. Scatterer locations are indicated by the presence of a stable peak in all subimages for a given subaperture, while scatterer shapes are indicated by changes in pixel intensity. A new multi-peak model is developed from physical models of electromagnetic scattering to predict how pixel intensities behave for different scatterer shapes. The algorithm uses a least squares classifier to match observed pixel behavior to the model. Classification accuracy improves with increasing fractional bandwidth and is subject to the high-frequency and wide-aperture approximations of the multi-peak model. For superior computational efficiency, an integrated fast SAR imaging technique is developed to combine the coarse resolution subimages into a final SAR image having fine resolution. Finally, classification results are overlaid on the SAR image so that analysts can deduce the significance of the scatterer shape information within the image context.
Channel form, flow and sediment transport in a step-pool stream

The influence of channel morphology and hydraulics on sediment transport within steep upland streams is investigated. Step-pools are the most common bedform in such streams. Bedload transport processes operating in a perennial step-pool stream in central England are established using magnetically-tagged particles and bedload pit samplers. Water-surface slope in two step-pool streams is monitored in detail. Water-surface slope measurements show that step-pool bedforms cause large spatial variations in flow depth during floods, and that the temporal variation of watersurface slope during a flood wave differs diametrically from the pattern found in lowgradient rivers that have little roughness. These results demonstrate that it is difficult to estimate the forces acting on the streambed in steep, rough streams and, therefore, conventionally established flow variables cannot be used to predict bedload transport . rates in step-pool channels. Particle tracing experiments are used to determine the control that step-pool morphology and flow hycfraulics have on particle displacements. Step-pool streams exhibit smaller particle travel distance per flood event than low-gradient rivers. This difference reflects the greater flow resistance and bed rugosity of step-pool streams. Bed morphology dictates flood particle displacement at step-pool bedform scale. It is shown that entrainment, pool export rates and transport distances of coarse sediment are dependent on downstream step dimensions, step permeability and pool form. Large variations in bedload transport rates at any given flow strength are associated with variable sediment supply, and particle tracing demonstrates that sediment availability is controlled at unit pool scale. Bedload consists of fine gravel moving over a stable bed surface at low discharges, while, at higher discharges, bedload coarsens, approaching the size of the pool bed material as the bed surface is partially mobilized. Step framework clasts are stable features of the streambed. Results from this study are incorporated into a descriptive model of discharge-related bedload transport phases in step-pool streams.
Field spectroscopy and spectral reflectance modelling of Calluna vulgaris

Boreal peatlands store carbon sequestered from the atmosphere over millennia and the importance of this and the other ecosystem services these areas provide is now widely recognised. However, a changing climate will affect these environments and, consequently, the services they provide to the global population. The rate and direction of environmental change to peatlands is currently unclear and they have not yet been included in many climate models. This may in part be due to the ecological heterogeneity and spatial extent of these areas and the sparse sampling survey methods currently adopted. Hyperspectral remote sensing from satellite platforms may in future offer an approach to surveying and do so at the high spectral and spatial resolutions necessary to infer ecological change in these peatlands. However, work is required to develop methods of analysis to determine if hyperspectral data can be used to measure the overstorey vegetation of these areas. This will require an understanding of how annual and inter-annual cyclical changes affect the peatland plant canopy reflectances that would be recorded by hyperspectral sensors and how these reflectances can be related to state variable of interest to climate scientists, ecologists and peatland managers. There are significant areas of peatland within Scotland and, as it is towards the southern extreme of the boreal peatlands, these may be an early indicator of environment change to the wider boreal region. Calluna vulgaris, a hardy dwarf shrub, is the dominant overstorey species over much of these peatlands and could
Synaptic expression of TAR-DNA-binding protein 43 in the mouse spinal cord determined using super-resolution microscopy

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is characterised by a loss of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord that is preceded by early-stage changes in synapses that may be associated with TAR-DNA-Binding Protein 43 (TDP-43) pathology. Cellular inclusions of hyperphosphorylated TDP-43 (pTDP-43) are a key hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases such ALS. However, there has been little characterisation of the synaptic expression of TDP-43 inside subpopulations of spinal cord synapses. This study utilises a range of high-resolution and super-resolution microscopy techniques with immunolabelling, as well as an aptamer-based TDP-43 labelling strategy visualised with single-molecule localisation microscopy, to characterise and quantify the presence of pTDP-43 in populations of excitatory synapses near where motor neurons reside in the lateral ventral horn of the mouse lumbar spinal cord. We observe that TDP-43 is expressed in approximately half of spinal cord synapses as nanoscale clusters. Synaptic TDP-43 clusters are found most abundantly at synapses associated with VGLUT1-positive presynaptic terminals, compared to VGLUT2-associated synapses. Our nanoscopy techniques showed no difference in the subsynaptic expression of pTDP-43 in the ALS mouse model, SOD1G93a, compared to healthy controls, despite prominent structural deficits in VGLUT1-associated synapses in SOD1G93a mice. This research characterises the basic synaptic expression of TDP-43 with nanoscale precision and provides a framework with which to investigate the potential relationship between TDP-43 pathology and synaptic pathology in neurodegenerative diseases.
Defining values in place: A practical application for visitor management in protected areas

This paper explores a value specification option to better meet a core information need in protected area management for recreation and conservation. It does not debate the meaning or definition of values, but instead identifies a perspective on values that is aimed at meeting practical conservation management needs. The first part of that perspective involves extracting from the wider values discourse some working pragmatic definition of what ‘Conservation Values’ are. The second involves clarifying how the priority attributes and features of conservation values could be considered management ‘assets. ’ Then it describes how the Department of Conservation (DOC) in New Zealand is beginning to implement value-in-place specifications through its Visitor Asset Management System (VAMS). Future directions required to advance this implementation further through a wider range of conservation value considerations are discussed.
Blood metabolomics and impacted cellular mechanisms during transition into lactation in dairy cows that develop metritis.

The objective of this study was to identify metabolites associated with metritis and use them for identification of cellular mechanisms affected during transition into lactation. Holstein cows (n = 104) had blood collected in the prepartum period (d 14 ± 6), at calving (d 0), and at the day of metritis diagnosis (d 7 ± 2). Cows with reddish or brownish, watery, and fetid discharge were diagnosed with metritis (n = 52). Cows with metritis were paired with herdmates without metritis (n = 52) based on days in milk. The metabolome of plasma samples was evaluated using untargeted gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Univariate analyses included t-tests and fold change analyses. Metabolites with false discovery rate adjusted P ≤ 0.10 on t-tests were used for partial least squares - discriminant analysis PLS-DA coupled with permutational analysis using 2,000 permutations. Metabolites with false discovery rate adjusted P ≤ 0.10 on t-tests were also used for enriched pathway analyses and identification of cellular processes. Cows that developed metritis had affected cellular processes associated with lower amino acid metabolism in the prepartum period, greater lipolysis, cell death, and oxidative stress at calving and at metritis diagnosis, and greater leukocyte activation at calving, but lower immune cell activation at metritis diagnosis. In summary, cows that developed metritis had plasma metabolomic changes associated with greater lipolysis, oxidative stress, and a dysregulated immune response which may predispose cows to metritis development.
Breast feeding Status of Infants Born in a Baby Friendly Hospital Up to 180 days of life

Background : Initiation of breast-feeding (BF) within 1 hour after birth has been associated with reduced neonatal mortality. Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative has profound effects on appropriate practice of BF and thus helps to reduce infant mortality and morbidity. Objective : This study was conducted in the Department of Gynae and Obstetrics and Department of Paediatrics of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital (ShMCH), Dhaka, to observe the rate of exclusive breast feeding and home-based compliance. Methodology : Hundred (100) term babies of normal birth weight irrespective of sex, born in ShSMCH by normal vaginal delivery (NVD) or caesarian section were included. Data was collected from the mother with a pretested questionnaire at the postnatal period, at 6th week, 14th week and 6th month (180 days) of age. Result : The mean age of studied newborn (100) was 20±19.5 hours. All the infants started breast feeding after birth and among them 56% initiated with in 1 hour. Difficulty in breast feeding was found in 36(36.0%) infants, which was resolved mostly (94%) by nurse. Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) was found in 100% of infants during discharge from hospital. During 1st and 2nd follow up we found 95 (95.0%) and 89 (89.0%) infants respectively were exclusively breastfed. In 3rd follow up at completed 6th month (180 days) 78 (78.0%) infants were exclusively breast fed. In our study 5 (5%) and 6 (6%) infants received supplementary food in 1st follow up and in 2nd follow up respectively. In the last follow up the number were 11 (11%) and the total number was 22 (22%). Conclusion : Exclusive breast feeding up to completion of 6 months (180 days) was found in 78.0% of infants. Maternal and relative’s misperception of baby’s crying due to insufficient breast milk and joining to job outside home were the causes of introduction of formula milk in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd visit respectively. Northern International Medical College Journal Vol. 12 No.2 Jan 2021, Page 530-534
Pulmonary Toxicity of Simulated Lunar and Martian Dusts Intratracheally Instilled into Mice

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is contemplating sending humans to Mars and to the Moon for further exploration. Equipment designated for these extraterrestrial bases will require testing in simulated Martian or lunar environments. The properties of Hawaiian and San Francisco Mountain volcanic ashes make them suitable to be used in these test environments as Martian and lunar dust simulants, respectively. The present toxicity study was conducted to address NASA's concern about the health risk of dust exposures in the test facilities. In addition, the results obtained on these simulants can be used to design a toxicity study of actual moon dust and Martian dust, which will probably be available in a few years. Respirable portions of lunar soil simulant (LSS) and Martian soil simulant (MSS) were separated from their respective raw materials. These soil simulants, together- with fine titanium dioxide (negative control for fibrogenesis in mice), and crystalline silica (positive control) were each intratracheally instilled in saline to groups of 4 male mice (C57BL/6J, 2-3 months old) at 0.1 mg/mouse (LD) or lmg/mouse (HD). The lungs were harvested 7 or 90 days after the single dust treatment for histopathological examination. Lungs of the LSS-LD groups on either the 7- or 90-day study showed no evidence of inflammation, edema, or fibrosis. Clumps of particles and an increased number of macrophages, visible in the lungs examined after 7 days, were absent after 90 days. The LSS-HD-7d group showed mild to moderate alveolitis with neutrophilic and lymphocytic infiltration, and mild perivascular and peribronchiolar inflammation. The LSS-HD-90d group showed signs of chronic inflammation: septal thickening, mild perivascular and peribronchiolar inflammation, mild alveolitis and some fibrosis. Foci of particle-laden macrophages (PLMs) were still visible. Lungs of the MSS-LD-7d group revealed mild focal intraalveolar inflammation with neutrophilic and lymphocytic infiltration, and mild perivascular and peribronchiolar inflammation. The MSS-LD-90d group showed PLMs and scattered foci of mild fibrosis. The MSS-HD-7d group showed large foci of PLMs, intraalveolar debris, mild to moderate focal alveolitis, and mild to moderate perivascular and peribronchiolar inflammation. The MSS-HD-90d group showed focal chronic mild to moderate alveolitis and fibrosis. To mimic the oxidative and reactive properties of Martian surface dust in the test animals, groups of 4 mice were exposed to ozone (0.5 ppm for 3 hours) prior to instillation of the MSS. Lung lesions in the MSS groups were more severe with the ozone pretreatment. The O3-MSS-HD-90d group had wide spread intraalveolar debris, focal moderate alveolitis and fibrosis. The results for the titanium dioxide and quartz controls were consistent with the known pulmonary toxicity of these compounds. The overall severity of toxic injury to the lungs was TiO2
Sprayed PAA-CaO2 nanoparticles combined with calcium ions and reactive oxygen species for antibacterial and wound healing

Abstract The most common socioeconomic healthcare issues in clinical are burns, surgical incisions and other skin injuries. Skin lesion healing can be achieved with nanomedicines and other drug application techniques. This study developed a nano-spray based on cross-linked amorphous calcium peroxide (CaO2) nanoparticles of polyacrylic acid (PAA) for treating skin wounds (PAA-CaO2 nanoparticles). CaO2 serves as a ‘drug’ precursor, steadily and continuously releasing calcium ions (Ca2+) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) under mildly acidic conditions, while PAA-CaO2 nanoparticles exhibited good spray behavior in aqueous form. Tests demonstrated that PAA-CaO2 nanoparticles exhibited low cytotoxicity and allowed L929 cells proliferation and migration in vitro. The effectiveness of PAA-CaO2 nanoparticles in promoting wound healing and inhibiting bacterial growth in vivo was assessed in SD rats using full-thickness skin defect and Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus)-infected wound models based thereon. The results revealed that PAA-CaO2 nanoparticles demonstrated significant advantages in both aspects. Notably, the infected rats’ skin defects healed in 12 days. The benefits are linked to the functional role of Ca2+ coalesces with H2O2 as known antibacterial and healing-promoted agents. Therefore, we developed nanoscale PAA-CaO2 sprays to prevent bacterial development and heal skin lesions.
Radiomic analysis of abdominal organs during sepsis of digestive origin in a French intensive care unit

Background Sepsis is a severe and common cause of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). Radiomic analysis (RA) may predict organ failure and patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to assess a model of RA and to evaluate its performance in predicting in-ICU mortality and acute kidney injury (AKI) during abdominal sepsis. Methods This single-center, retrospective study included patients admitted to the ICU for abdominal sepsis. To predict in-ICU mortality or AKI, elastic net regularized logistic regression and the random forest algorithm were used in a five-fold cross-validation set repeated 10 times. Results Fifty-five patients were included. In-ICU mortality was 25.5%, and 76.4% of patients developed AKI. To predict in-ICU mortality, elastic net and random forest models, respectively, achieved areas under the curve (AUCs) of 0.48 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.43–0.54) and 0.51 (95% CI, 0.46–0.57) and were not improved combined with Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II. To predict AKI with RA, the AUC was 0.71 (95% CI, 0.66–0.77) for elastic net and 0.69 (95% CI, 0.64–0.74) for random forest, and these were improved combined with SAPS II, respectively; AUC of 0.94 (95% CI, 0.91–0.96) and 0.75 (95% CI, 0.70–0.80) for elastic net and random forest, respectively. Conclusions This study suggests that RA has poor predictive performance for in-ICU mortality but good predictive performance for AKI in patients with abdominal sepsis. A secondary validation cohort is needed to confirm these results and the assessed model.