Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving the effectiveness of e-learning implementation in the School of Engineering at Tripoli University

The study is concerned with generating recommendations for the development of e- learning strategy at the School of Engineering at Tripoli University in Libya. They are based on the identified barriers to the successful e-learning implementation in the institution after the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the questionnaires developed using SmartSurvey software package. The barriers were classified in three main categories: technical, cultural and mismanagement. These barriers were compared with those from Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries (as close culture) and UK (as international culture and developed country). Then a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) model for the diagnostic of the current stage of e-learning performance in the institution is developed. The user-centred design and action research approach are used for the design, development and implementation of an e-learning package for a module studied by Year 4 students from School of Engineering at Tripoli University. The e-learning packages played a supporting role in the delivery of the chosen module therefore the blended learning approach contributed to the improvement of the quality for the teaching and learning processes. A novel I-CUBE model which can be used for the development of teaching and learning activities in a digital era is proposed. The sources of information for the proposed model are: quantitative and qualitative analysis of the stakeholders answers; conclusions for the (SWOT) analysis; researcher’s reflections of the design, development and implementation of the e-learning package, study of the relevant educational publications and researcher’s personal experience. There are several common opinions about the factors influencing the successful e-learning implementation so it is possible to make correlations between the stakeholders’ points of view and to construct the surfaces which are included in the I-CUBE model. A set of institutional, pedagogical and technological recommendations for the development of e-learning strategy in the School of Engineering at Tripoli University are formulated. These are derived from the analysis of barriers and SWOT model related to the successful e-learning implementation in Libyan Higher Education Institutes (LHEIs). Also the aspects included in the proposed novel I-CUBE model for the development of teaching and learning activities, the researcher’s personal experience as a student and lecturer at Tripoli University and as a PhD student at the University of Huddersfield in UK are also considered. The implementation of these recommendations will enable the enhancement of students’ learning experience and staff satisfaction through technology-based education addressing the flexible and diverse learning community’s needs.
An electrical power system for CubeSats

The advent of CubeSats has provided a platform for relatively low-budget programmes to realise space missions. In South Africa, Stellenbosch University and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology have impressive space programmes and have been involved in numerous successful satellite launches. A number of CubeSat projects are currently in progress and commercial-grade Attitude Determination and Control Systems (ADCS), and communications modules, are being developed by the respective universities. The development of a CubeSat-compatible Electrical Power System remains absent, and would be beneficial to future satellite activity here in South Africa. In this thesis, some fundamental aspects of electronic design for space applications is looked at, including but not limited to radiation e↵ects on MOSFET devices; this poses one of the greatest challenges to space-based power systems. To this extent, the di↵erent radiation-induced e↵ects and their implications are looked at, and mitigation strategies are discussed. A review of current commercial modules is performed and their design and performance evaluated. A few shortcomings of current systems are noted and corresponding design changes are suggested; in some instances these changes add complexity, but they are shown to introduce appreciable system reliability. A single Li-Ion cell configuration is proposed that uses a 3.7 V nominal bus voltage. Individual battery charge regulation introduces minor ine ciencies, but allows isolation of cells from the pack in the case of cell failure or degradation. A further advantage is the possibility for multiple energy storage media on the same power bus, allowing for EPS-related technology demonstrations, with an assurance of minimum system capabilities. The design of each subsystem is discussed and its respective failure modes identified. A limited number of single points of failure are noted and the mitigation strategies taken are discussed. An initial hardware prototype is developed that is used to test and characterise system performance. Although a few minor modifications are needed, the overall system is shown to function as designed and the concepts used are proven. i Overall system design is concluded to be reliable and e cient, with a few hardwarebased recommendations made to bring its power capabilities in line with current offerings and, indeed, the initial specifications. Active Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) functionality is tested under a variety of irradiance and temperature conditions and although performance is not yet optimal, control stability and the possibility for high conversion e ciency is demonstrated. Additional software development is still required to fully optimise the system. Nevertheless, after further testing, performance characterisation and full environmental qualification, it is anticipated that the goal of producing a realistic alternative to commercial-grade EPS modules will be met.
Differences in Optimal Platelet Reactivity after Potent P2Y12 Inhibitor Treatment in Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

Background: East Asian patients receiving treatment with the potent P2Y12 inhibitors prasugrel or ticagrelor experience more potent platelet inhibition than with clopidogrel. Methods: This study investigated differences in OPR rates with reduced doses of prasugrel (n = 38) or ticagrelor (n = 40) for maintenance therapy in 118 Korean ACS patients who had undergone PCI, in comparison to conventional-dose clopidogrel (n = 40). We assessed drug responses at one- and three-months post-PCI with VerifyNow and multiple electrode aggregometry assays. Results: At the one-month period, patients receiving standard-dose prasugrel or ticagrelor had lower platelet reactivity as determined by the three assays than those receiving the conventional dose of clopidogrel (VN: p = 0.000; MEA: p = 0.000; LTA: p = 0.000). At the 3-month point, platelet reactivity was lower in those receiving reduced-dose prasugrel or ticagrelor than the clopidogrel-treated patients (VN: p = 0.000; MEA: p = 0.012; LTA: p = 0.002). Prasugrel resulted in significantly lower platelet inhibition than ticagrelor as determined by VN and LTA (VN: p = 0.000; LTA: p = 0.003). At three months, there was a significant overall difference in OPR among the three groups when measured by VN (p < 0.001), but not when measured by MEA (p = 0.596). OPR in the reduced-dose prasugrel group was not significantly different to the clopidogrel group at three months (VN: p = 0.180; MEA: p = 0.711). OPR in the reduced-dose ticagrelor group was similar to clopidogrel as determined by MEA at three months, but was different when assessed by VN (VN: p = 0.000; MEA: p = 0.540). Compared to standard-dose, the reduced-dose prasugrel OPR rate was significantly increased (VN: p = 0.008; MEA: p = 0.020). Conclusions: OPR values for reduced-dose prasugrel and conventional-dose clopidogrel at three months were similar but higher than for reduced-dose ticagrelor as determined by VN, but no differences were noted by MEA. The MEA assay might have less sensitivity and consistency than the VN assay. Further studies are needed to explore this discrepancy.
Place-based Industrial Policy and Changes in the Manufacturing Sector in North-East India

Place-based or location-based policies are policy instruments used in addressing the challenges of economic inequalities and disparities across underperforming areas and disadvantaged regions. The eight states in North-East India (NEI) are behind other states in various spheres of economic development, particularly in terms of their contribution to India’s manufacturing sector. Based on the data from Annual Survey of Industries at disaggregated (two-digit) level, this study examines the changes in the manufacturing landscape in the region during the period of implementation of place-based industrial policy from 1997–1998 to 2016–2017. Using structural ratios and technical coefficients, location quotient and kinked exponential model, the study presents the changing profile of manufacturing industries in the region for the period under study. The performance of NEI’s manufacturing sector is explained in terms of rising capital intensity, falling employment and increased labour productivity. Though there is a visible shift from industries manufacturing food products towards chemicals and non-metallic minerals, the region’s industrial base remains less diversified and lacks capital goods production.
Germacrene A Synthases for Sesquiterpene Lactone Biosynthesis Are Expressed in Vascular Parenchyma Cells Neighboring Laticifers in Lettuce

Sesquiterpene lactone (STL) and natural rubber (NR) are characteristic isoprenoids in lettuce (Lactuca sativa). Both STL and NR co-accumulate in laticifers, pipe-like structures located along the vasculature. NR-biosynthetic genes are exclusively expressed in laticifers, but cell-type specific expression of STL-biosynthetic genes has not been studied. Here, we examined the expression pattern of germacrene A synthase (LsGAS), which catalyzes the first step in STL biosynthesis in lettuce. Quantitative PCR and Illumina read mapping revealed that the transcripts of two GAS isoforms (LsGAS1/LsGAS2) are expressed two orders of magnitude (~100–200) higher in stems than laticifers. This result implies that the cellular site for LsGAS1/2 expression is not in laticifers. To gain more insights, promoters of LsGAS1/2 were cloned and fused to β-glucuronidase (GUS), followed by transformations of lettuce with these promoter-GUS constructs. In in situ GUS assays, the GUS expression driven by the LsGAS1/2 promoters was tightly associated with vascular bundles. High-resolution microsections showed that GUS signals are not present in laticifers but are detected in the vascular parenchyma cells neighboring the laticifers. These results suggest that expression of LsGAS1/2 occurs in the parenchyma cells neighboring laticifers, while the resulting STL metabolites accumulate in laticifers. It can be inferred that active metabolite-trafficking occurs from the parenchyma cells to laticifers in lettuce.
Knowledge and Awareness about the Importance of Stem Cells in Dentistry: A Survey

Background: Stem cells, the hero of regenerative medicine, are self renewable and has the potential to regenerate. Dental stem cells have proven to be an excellent source for mesenchymal cells. Dental mesenchymal cells can be applied for the replacement of dental and oral tissues against various tissue-damaging conditions including dental caries and periodontitis as well as for systemic regulation of excessive inflammation in immune disorders, such as autoimmune diseases and hypersensitivity. In this study, a survey was conducted among the dental students of a private dental hospital regarding their awareness about stem cell therapy used in dentistry. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted with the help of a questionnaire which was circulated with the help of social media and the internet. The target population were the dental practitioners and students of Saveetha Dental College. The questionnaire consisted of 15 questions that tested their knowledge and awareness regarding stem cell therapy in dentistry. Results: A majority of the undergraduate dental students were aware of basics in stem cell therapy in dentistry. The majority were willing to practice regenerative therapy in future or invest for the same in one way or the other. The overall response of and the percent analysis were calculated for each question. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the dental students of Saveetha dental college have sufficient knowledge and awareness regarding dental stem cells. Practice of dental stem cell therapy may be a big step now but is definitely going to be an advantage in the future.
Acute aortic occlusion associated with COVID‐19: A rare complication of a not so rare disease

Recent literature has reported a high prevalence of thrombotic events associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) responsible for causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) infection. Although venous thromboembolism complications have been well studied, arterial thrombosis is less well described. Our aim is to describe acute aortoiliac occlusion (AAO), itself a rare condition, as a complication of COVID‐19 infection and review existing literature regarding its presentation and available treatment modalities. Over a 2‐week span in late 2021, 2 patients with recent COVID‐19 infection presented to our tertiary care hospital with AAO. Each case was treated with a multimodal therapeutic approach, including vascular interventional radiology guided thrombolysis, vascular surgical approach, and systemic anticoagulation. Although two separate primary approaches were taken, each resulted in high morbidity and death in both cases. Acute aortic occlusion is a rare disease associated with high morbidity and mortality. COVID‐19 has further been associated with arterial thromboembolic complications, including AAO, as presented here. More research is needed to identify patients at highest risk of developing arterial thromboembolic disease after COVID‐19 infection as well as to determine ideal therapeutic options in order to improve the exceedingly high morbidity and mortality associated with this complication.
A Figure of Merit for Selection of the Best Family of SiC Power MOSFETs

This paper proposes a criterion to select the best family of commercial SiC power metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) that provides the highest quality and reliability. Applying a recently published integrated-charge method, a newly proposed figure of merit is correlated to the density of near-interface traps that degrade the quality and reliability of SiC MOSFETs. The applicability of the proposed figure of merit is experimentally demonstrated with the most widely used and commercially available planar and trench MOSFETs from different manufacturers.
A 26–40 GHz Wideband Power Amplifier With Transformer-Based High-Order Matching Networks in 28-nm CMOS FD-SOI

This letter presents a wideband two-stage full Ka-band power amplifier (PA) with transformer-based matching networks (TMNs) in 28-nm CMOS fully depleted silicon on insulator (FD-SOI) technology. By considering the loss of the transformer, which has usually been ignored in previous works, methods to compensate for the nonflat gain in TMNs are studied and based on that, the initial guess for wideband TMNs design is extracted. Wideband performance in terms of gain and output power is delivered by designing wideband TMNs in the PA design and frequency-independent optimum load selection for the power cell. Measurement results show that the PA achieves 19 dB maximum gain with 13.8 GHz (42%) 3-dB bandwidth (BW), 16.1 dBm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{P}_{\mathbf {out-1dB}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with 13 GHz 1-dB BW, 17.1 dBm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{P}_{\mathbf {sat}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with 12 GHz 1-dB BW, and 25.3% peak power-added efficiency.
The Opportunity for Partner Industry Knowledge Sharing within Audit Offices and Audit Quality

: We conjecture that a greater opportunity for audit partners to share personal industry knowledge with each other within audit offices benefits audit quality. Using recently available Form AP data, we analyze each partner’s client portfolio and construct measures of the extent to which partners within the same audit office share similar industry knowledge and specialization, and how diffused this industry specific knowledge is shared across partners. We find negative associations between shared industry knowledge and both restatement likelihood and absolute abnormal accruals. In further cross-sectional analyses, we find that shared industry knowledge benefits audit quality for all but a partner’s largest client in offices that are either the overall city-level industry leader or not. However, for partners’ largest clients, the opportunity for industry knowledge sharing is associated with audit quality only when the office is also the city-level industry leader. This indicates an interplay between our novel constructs of the opportunity for partner industry knowledge sharing and extant constructs of city-level auditor office industry leadership. Taken together, our evidence is consistent with audit quality benefiting when there is a greater opportunity for partner industry knowledge sharing within audit offices.
COVID‐19 and health in children and adolescents in the US: A narrative systematic review

Abstract In the United States, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic necessitated nationwide closures of kindergarten through twelfth grade (K‐12) schools. Stay‐at‐home orders and social distancing mandates were also implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID‐19. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the existing literature on how COVID‐19 impacted K‐12 students' eating patterns, physical activity, and sleep in the United States. Utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a literature search was conducted between October and December 2021. Inclusion criteria were studies focused on COVID‐19 and eating patterns, physical activity, and sleep in students enrolled in K‐12 schools since March 2020. International studies were excluded. Mixed findings were observed for eating patterns whereby the consumption of unhealthful savory and sweet items and healthful snacks (e.g., fruit and vegetables) increased. Reductions in physical activity and disrupted sleep routines were also observed. Heterogeneity in methodological procedures may limit the generalizability of these findings. In the United States, preliminary data suggest that select health‐promoting behaviors were negatively impacted by the COVID‐19 pandemic. Given that prolonged unhealthful eating patterns, physical inactivity, and poor sleep contribute to chronic disease risk, initiatives that increase health‐promoting behaviors are warranted.
Feasibility and Tolerance of Apatinib plus PD-1 Inhibitors for Previously Treated Advanced Gastric Cancer: A Real-World Exploratory Study

Background Apatinib is established to be the standard of care as third-line therapy for patients with previously treated advanced gastric cancer (GC). Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockades also exhibited promising efficacy and safety for patients with treatment-refractory advanced GC. Objective This study was to explore the feasibility and tolerance of apatinib plus PD-1 inhibitors for patients with previously treated advanced GC. Methods This study was performed as a real-world study; patients with advanced GC who were treated with previous systemic chemotherapy were screened retrospectively. Eligible patients were administered with apatinib combined with PD-1 blockade treatment. Efficacy of the patients was assessed with the change of target lesion using radiological evidence according to RECIST 1.1 criteria, and follow-up was carried out regularly. A safety profile was collected and documented during the combination treatment. Univariate analysis based on baseline characteristic subgroup was implemented in univariate analysis to identify the potential factor that might contribute to progression-free survival (PFS). Results Between August 2018 and October 2021, a total of 39 patients with advanced GC or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma participated in this study consecutively and all the patients were available for efficacy and safety assessment. The best overall response during apatinib plus PD-1 blockade administration exhibited that PR was observed in 8 patients, SD was noted in 19 patients, and PD was found in 12 patients, which yielded an ORR of 20.5% (95% CI: 9.3%-36.5%), and DCR was 69.2% (95% CI: 52.4%-83.0%). Furthermore, the relatively enough follow-up had resulted in the mature PFS and overall survival (OS) data, suggesting that the median PFS of the 39 patients with advanced GC was 3.9 months (95% CI: 2.74-5.06). Additionally, the median OS of the 39 patients with advanced GC was 7.8 months (95% CI: 4.82-10.78). Furthermore, the most common adverse reactions of the 39 patients who received apatinib plus PD-1 blockades treatment were fatigue (61.5%), nausea and vomiting (56.4%), diarrhea (48.7%), hypertension (46.2%), hand-foot syndrome (38.5%), and rash (28.2%). Furthermore, performance status was independently associated with PFS of apatinib plus PD-1 inhibitor combination administration in baseline characteristic subgroup analysis. Conclusion Apatinib plus PD-1 inhibitors exhibited promising effectiveness and acceptable tolerance for previously treated advanced GC preliminarily. And this conclusion should be confirmed in clinical trials in the future.
Intervertebral Disc Degeneration and Low Back Pain Depends on Duration and Magnitude of Axial Compression

Purpose The pathological role of axial stress in intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is controversial, and there was no quantified study until now. Here, we tried to clarify the correlation between IDD or low back pain (LBP) and axial stress at different duration and magnitude in vitro and in vivo. Method In vitro, the gene expression of aggrecan, matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP3), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), and substance P (SP) was measured when nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) were compressed under gradual severity. In vivo, a measurable Ilizarov-type compression apparatus was established for single coccygeal (Co) intervertebral disc (IVD) compression of Co7-8 in mouse. Gradient stress was placed at 0.4 Mpa (mild), 0.8 Mpa (moderate), and 1.2 Mpa (severe) for three days to investigate the effect of the magnitude of axial stress. Additionally, mild compression with 3, 7, and 14 days was used to determine the effect of the duration of axial stress. Subsequently, we evaluated the severity of IDD and LBP by radiological X-ray film; histological examination with H&E staining; immunohistochemical analysis with collagen II, aggrecan, and CGRP staining; and western blot analysis with collagen II, aggrecan, MMP-3, and interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Results When NPCs suffered gradual increased mechanical stress, the cells exhibited gradual downregulated expression of extracellular matrix (ECM)-related gene of aggrecan, upregulated expression of IDD-related gene of MMP3, and LBP-related gene of CGRP and SP. In the meantime, with different magnitudes of axial stress, the IVD showed progressively severe IDD and LBP, with gradual narrowing intervertebral height, destruction of IVD anatomy, decreased ECM, and increased catabolic factors and proalgesic peptides. Conclusion Axial compression is one of the critical pathological factors to cause IDD and LBP, and there was a strong positive correlation depended on the duration and magnitude of compression.