Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antimalarial Activity and Phytochemical Profile of Ethanolic and Aqueous Extracts of Bidara Laut (Strychnos ligustrina Blum) Wood

1) This study aimed to determine the antimalarial effect of the Strychnos ligustrina (SLW) wood extracts and to analyze its phytochemicals. The SLW powder samples were macerated with 100% ethanol (E100), 75% ethanol (E75), 50% ethanol (E50), 25% ethanol (E25), and aqueous (A100). The extracts were analyzed by LCMS/MS, and its in-vitro antimalarial activity was tested with Plasmodium falciparum. The results showed that the extract yields of E100, E75, E50, E25, and A100 were 4.3, 5.2, 5.3, 4.7, and 3.6%, respectively. The antimalarial activities of the A100, E25, E50, and E75 extracts were classified as active with IC50 values of 38.6, 42.6, 42.9, and 43.7 μg/mL, respectively. But, the antimalarial activity of the E100 extract was classified as slightly active with IC50 values of 87.4 μg/mL. The dominant compounds contained in the extracts of A100, E25, E50, E75, and E100 was the alkaloid compound, namely brucine with relative concentrations of 24.96, 24.55, 21.33, 11.79, and 11.62%, respectively.
Two sides of the working alliance: A qualitative study from the perspective of both probationers and probation officers

The probationer–probation officer working alliance plays an important role in the outcome of probation supervision. This study explored the development of the working alliance between probationers and probation officers in the Netherlands, from the perspective of both probationers and probation officers. More specifically, we explored the significance of different aspects of the working alliance at the start of probation supervision and after a three-month period, as well as the role played by critical incidents during the supervisory process and their subsequent effect on the working alliance. Overall, the study showed that clarity over goals and restrictions was initially the most salient issue for both parties, and that after a three-month period the working alliance evolved into a trusting relationship. Several incidents were identified, probationers identified more positive moments and less negative moments than their PO counterparts. If these types of incidents are managed accordingly by the probation officer, then they can ultimately serve to strengthen the relationship.
The prediction method of radio wave propagation phase based on parabolic equation

For radio wave propagation in complex environments such as atmospheric duct and irregular terrain,the prediction method of the phase of radio wave propagation is studied and presented based on the parabolic equation method.This method is validated by comparison with the results of geometric optics two ray model for radio propagation in free space on the surface of a perfectly conducting plane.Finally the effects of atmospheric duct on the propagation of pulse signal is analyzed by phase and magnitude predicted with this method.
Development of the in vitro gas production technique to assess degradability of forages by ruminants

The influence of microbial activity on the pattern of gas production and the possibility of developing a protocol for standardising the microbial activity of ruminal fluid were investigated (chapter 2). Firstly, ruminal fluid was diluted 1:2, 1:5, 1:9 and 1:20 (v/v) with buffer solution and the in vitro gas production from cellulose, glucose, hay and ryegrass studied. Gas production at 4, 24 and 120h were significantly decreased as the ratio of buffer solution to ruminal fluid increased. For each substrate, incubation with ruminal fluid diluted 1:2 (v/v) gave a higher (P<0.05) asymptotic value 'B', rate 'C 'of gas production and lower lag time than when incubated in the 1:5, 1:9 and 1:20 dilutions. Secondly, the effect of frequency of ovine ruminal sampling on microbial activity and substrate fermentation was investigated. The bacterial DM, bacterial absorbance and blank's gas volume were significantly affected by daily sampling of ruminal fluid. Daily sampling of rumen fluid did not significantly affect the gas production degradability parameters (B, C and Lag) until the bacterial DM fell below 0.09 g DM / 10 cm 3 strained rumen fluid. Bacterial DM was strongly related to the absorbance of ruminal fluid (R 2 = 0.99, p<0.001), suggesting that standardisation of the level of microbial activity between days and laboratory can be achieved by estimating the bacterial DM from the absorbance of the strained ruminal fluid. The influence of donor diet on initial microbial concentration and gas production degradability was studied (chapter 3). Bacterial DM, bacterial absorbance and the blanks' gas volume increased significantly as the ratio of sheep pellet to hay increased. The gas production degradability parameters (B, C and Lag) were also affected by changing the donor diet ratio of sheep pellets and hay. NDF digestibility of
A Ferroptosis-Related Genes Model Allows for Prognosis and Treatment Stratification of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Bioinformatics Analysis and Experimental Verification

Introduction Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a malignant tumor characterized by poor prognosis and difficult treatment. Ferroptosis is a relatively new form of programmed cell death that involved in cancer development and therapy resistance. Studies have shown that targeted ferroptosis may be a novel option for the treatment of ccRCC, but key genes and their roles between ferroptosis and ccRCC are limited so far. This study aims to develop a ccRCC stratified model based on ferroptosis-related genes to provide a reference for the prognosis prediction and the individualized treatment of ccRCC. Materials and Methods The mRNAs expression data of ccRCC and FRGs were obtained from TCGA and FerrDb database, respectively. Through multiple analysis, a 4-FRG based prognostic stratified model was constructed and its predictive performance was validated through various methods. Then, a nomogram based on the model was constructed and ccRCC patients stratified by the model were analyzed for tumor microenvironment, immune infiltration, sensitivity for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs)/traditional anti-tumor therapy and tumor mutation burden (TMB). Functional enrichment analysis was performed to explore potential biological pathways. Finally, we verified our model by RT-qPCR, siRNA transfection, scratch assay and CCK-8 assay. Results In this study, the stratified model and a model-based nomogram can accurately predict the prognosis of ccRCC patients in TCGA database. The patients stratified by the model showed different tumor microenvironments, immune infiltration, TMB, resistance to traditional and ICIs therapy, and sensitivity to ferroptosis. Functional enrichment analysis suggested several biological pathways related to the process and prognosis of ccRCC. RT-qPCR confirmed the differential expression of ferroptosis-related genes. Scratch assay and CCK-8 assay indicated the promotion effects of CD44 on the proliferation and migration of ccRCC. Conclusion In this study, we established a novel ccRCC stratified model based on FRGs, which can accurately predict the prognosis of ccRCC patients and provide a reference for clinical individualized treatment.
Factors Influencing Customers Loyalty Towards Electronic Commerce

Long term growth of any firm is depends upon profitability. Customer retention and customer loyalty is very important for growth of any firm. The objective of this paper is to identify the factors which influence the customer’s loyalty towards business to customer (B2C) electronic commerce (E -Commerce) and mediating effects of customer satisfaction and trust on customer loyalty. The results of the study showed that user interface quality has positive significant effect on customer satisfaction and trust. Information quality has significant effect on customer satisfaction but not on trust. Privacy and security has also not significant towards customer satisfaction but significant to trust. Customer satisfaction and trust are positively related with each other and mediating the customer loyalty with determinants of service quality. Result of regression analysis shows that dependent variable e-commerce loyalty is influenced by e-customer satisfaction and e-trust. It is cleared that electronic customer satisfaction (ECS) and electronic trust (ET) are direct antecedents of electronic customer loyalty (ECL) towards B2C E-Commerce.
Audit Quality: An Analysis of Audit Partner Cultural Proximity to Client Executives

Abstract We find that cultural proximity between auditors and CFOs is associated with audit quality. We use recent mandated PCAOB disclosures of engagement audit partners to construct cultural proximity between engagement audit partners and client executives. Building on an extensive literature on homophily in social connections, we hypothesize that when an engagement audit partner is culturally close to client executives, the accounting negotiation is more efficient, resulting in higher audit quality. Consistent with this prediction, we find that audited earnings are of higher quality when the engagement audit partner is culturally close to the CFO. We, however, do not find similar evidence when the engagement audit partner is culturally close to the CEO. Our findings are consistent across several alternative measures of audit quality and cultural proximity. These findings suggest that interpersonal factors from the auditor–client relationship are important for audit outcomes. Our study supports the PCAOB’s position that mandatory disclosures of engagement audit partner identity are helpful in understanding audit quality.
No-Reference Image Quality Assessment via Multibranch Convolutional Neural Networks

No-reference image quality assessment (NR-IQA) aims to evaluate image quality without using the original reference images. Since the early NR-IQA methods based on distortion types were only applicable to specific distortion scenarios, and lack of practicality, it is challenging to designing a universal NR-IQA method. In this article, a multibranch convolutional neural network (MB-CNN) based NR-IQA method is proposed, which includes a spatial-domain feature extractor, a gradient-domain feature extractor, and a weight mechanism. The spatial-domain feature extractor aims to extract the distortion features from the spatial domain. The gradient-domain feature extractor is used to guide the spatial-domain feature extractor to pay more attention to the distortions of the structure information. Particularly, the spatial-domain feature extractor uses the hierarchical feature merge module to realize multiscale feature representation, and the gradient-domain feature extractor uses pyramidal convolution to extract the multiscale structure information of the distorted image. In addition, a position vector is proposed to build the weight mechanism by considering the position relationships between patches and its entire image for improving the final prediction performance. We conduct the experiments on five representative databases: LIVE, TID2013, CSIQ, LIVE MD and Waterloo Exploration Database, and the experimental results show that the proposed NR-IQA method achieves the state-of-the-art performance, which demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed NR-IQA method. The code ofthe proposed MB-CNN will be released at https://github.com/NUIST-Videocoding/MB-CNN.
The Impact of Religion and Social Support on Self-Reported Happiness in Latin American Immigrants in Spain

The Latin American immigrant population in Spain is growing year after year. The aim of this study is to describe how religious coping mechanisms, religiosity, acculturation and social support act in the prediction of happiness within the group of Latin American immigrants with Christian beliefs in Spain. Previous studies indicate that religious practice can be a factor that favors the perception of well-being and happiness in people. It is considered that the existence of close sources of support act as a key resource in facing stressful situations. A questionnaire consisting of 36 items was administered to a sample made up of 206 subjects of different Latin American nationalities who were going through a migration process. It was observed that religiosity, social support, religious coping mechanisms and gender were related to the perception of happiness. The results underline the importance of considering religiosity and social support together while intervening to improve the perception of happiness of Latin American immigrants in Spain.
Detection of traits in students with suicidal tendencies on Internet applying Web Mining

This article presents an Internet data analysis model based on Web Mining with the aim to find knowledge about large amounts of data in cyberspace. To test the proposed method, suicide web pages were analyzed as a study case to identify and detect traits in students with suicidal tendencies. The procedure considers a Web Scraper to locate and download information from the Internet, as well as Natural Language Processing techniques to retrieve the words. To explore the information, a dataset based on Dynamic Tables and Semantic Ontologies was constructed, specifying the predictive variables in young people with suicidal inclination. Finally, to evaluate the efficiency of the model, Machine Learning and Deep Learning algorithms were used. It should be noticed that the procedures for the construction of the dataset (using Genetic Algorithms) and obtaining the knowledge (using Parallel Computing and Acceleration with GPU) were optimized. The results reveal an accuracy of 96.28% on the detection of characteristics in adolescents with suicidal tendencies, reaching the best result through a Recurrent Neural Network with 98% accuracy. It is inferred that the model is viable to establish bases on mechanisms of action and prevention of suicidal behaviors, which can be implemented in educational institutions or different social actors. Este artículo presenta un modelo de análisis de datos en Internet basado en Minería Web con el objetivo de encontrar conocimiento sobre grandes cantidades de datos en el ciberespacio. A fin de probar el método propuesto, se analizaron páginas web sobre el suicidio como caso de estudio con la intención de identificar y detectar rasgos en estudiantes con tendencias suicidas. El procedimiento considera un Web Scraper para localizar y descargar información de Internet, así como técnicas de Procesamiento de Lenguaje Natural para la recuperación de los vocablos. Con el propósito de explorar la información, se construyó un conjunto de datos basado en Tablas Dinámicas y Ontologías Semánticas, especificando las variables predictivas en jóvenes con inclinación suicida. Por último, para evaluar la eficiencia del modelo se utilizaron algoritmos de Aprendizaje de Máquina y Aprendizaje Profundo. Cabe destacar que se optimizaron los procedimientos para la construcción del dataset (utilizando Algoritmos Genéticos) y obtención del conocimiento empleando Cómputo Paralelo y Aceleración con Unidades de Procesamientos de Grafico (GPU). Los resultados revelan una precisión del 96,28% sobre la detección de las características en adolescentes con tendencia suicida, alcanzando el mejor resultado a través de una Red Neuronal Recurrente con un 98% de precisión. De donde se infiere que el modelo es viable para establecer bases sobre mecanismos de actuación y prevención de comportamientos suicidas, que pueden ser implementados en instituciones educativas o distintos actores de la sociedad.
Terrestrial Free Space Optical Communication Systems Availability based on Meteorological Visibility Data for South Africa

 Abstract—In spite of the numerous advantages of employing free space optical (FSO) communication systems as viable complementary platforms for next-generation networks, the presence of atmospheric disturbances such as fog and scintillations are major sources of signal impairment which degrade system performance. Consequently, it becomes imperative to investigate and contextualize the unique climatic conditions in those locations where FSO links are to be deployed. Statistical evaluation of meteorological visibility data collected for various cities in South Africa is thus hereby employed in estimating the availability performance of FSO links transmitting at both 850 nm and 1550 nm. It is determined that the cities of Mbombela and Cape Town have the lowest performance due to the high occurrence of fog events as compared to other regions in South Africa. During foggy periods, FSO links in Mbombela and Cape Town would have availabilities of ~99.6% for link distances of 500 and 600 metres, respectively. The bit error rate (BER) estimations of intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) FSO links in the presence of weak atmospheric turbulence were also investigated for the identified locations during foggy weather; with the cities of Mafikeng and Kimberley showing the lowest BER performances because of their high wind velocities, altitudes and refractive index values. In order to obtain a BER of 10-6, receive signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) values ranging from ~46 to ~51 dB are required for FSO links deployed for data transmission in the various cities investigated in this work.
Preliminary Outcomes from an Intensive Multidisciplinary Pain Program in a Veteran’s Administration Hospital: A Pilot Study

Abstract Chronic pain is a leading cause of lost productivity, disability payments, and health care utilization among the Veteran population. As such, there is interest in chronic pain treatments that address not only physical functioning and pain, but also psychological functioning and pain-related beliefs. One such treatment that has been explored is multidisciplinary team treatments. This pilot study aimed to determine whether a multidisciplinary treatment program for chronic pain would be effective in a sample of primarily rural-based Veterans. Seventy Veterans completed multidisciplinary chronic pain treatment, which consisted of 3–5 hours of pain related services per week for twelve weeks with providers from seven different disciplines. Veterans took standardized pre- and post-test measures of functioning, pain, pain-related beliefs, and mood. The program was highly acceptable and feasible to both Veterans and medical providers. Participants reported statistically significant improvements in average pain level following the intervention and improvements in pain related beliefs, pain-related catastrophizing, pain-related self-efficacy, mood symptoms and increased activity engagement. The program was highly acceptable to participants and feasible to a rural VA medical center, as evidenced by high completion rates. Future research is needed for cost-benefit analysis of the multidisciplinary program compared to less time-intensive pain related services (e.g. CBT-CP), post-intervention pain-related health care utilization, and the role of pain-related beliefs in treatment outcomes.
A Review on the Application of PD-1 Blockade in EBV-Associated Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Immunotherapy

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) linked with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is considered to be one of the most prevalent head and neck malignancies in East and Southeast Asia. Although radiotherapy and chemotherapy are effective treatments for NPC, they have immunosuppressive effects. Immunotherapy has got considerable attention of clinicians for cancer treatment in recent years due to proven success of PD-1/PD-L 1 inhibition in solid tumors trials. The distinct immunological environment of EBV-associated NPC presents a reasonable therapeutic target for PD-1/PD-L 1 inhibition. Immune checkpoint blockade therapy targeting the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L 1) receptors have shown efficacy in early phase I clinical trials, with ongoing phase III clinical trials. Herein, we have extensively addressed the role of the PD-1/PD-L1 axis in the immunotherapy of EBV-associated NPC. Immunotherapeutic strategies are anticipated to enter mainstream clinical practise and provide long-term remissions in patients with severe NPC.
Effects of Surface Wave Breaking Caused by Internal Solitary Waves in SAR Altimeter: Sentinel-3 Copernicus Products and Advanced New Products

We address surface wave breaking caused by oceanic Internal Solitary Waves (ISWs) and how ISWs are manifested in the SAR altimeter onboard Sentinel-3A and -3B satellites by means of their effects in Significant Wave Height (SWH). Two different regions of the ocean are selected, namely the tropical Atlantic Ocean off the Amazon shelf and the Banda Sea in the Indian Ocean, where there are scenes of Sentinel-3 OLCI acquired simultaneously with an along-track SAR mode altimeter, which include signatures of large amplitude ISWs. New data of unfocused SAR (UF-SAR 20 Hz) and fully focused SAR (FF-SAR 160 Hz) modes are analyzed, which are retracked in full range and over a reduced range of bins (truncation carried out dynamically ten gates away from the estimated epoch position). At first order, in scales of 1–3 km, a strong decrease in the normalized radar cross section (NRCS) over the rough part of the ISWs is observed followed by a small increase in the smooth part relative to the unperturbed ocean background. A second order ISW signature, in scales of 20 km, is noted: the SWH is attenuated after the passage of an ISW, considering length scales of about 10 km before and after the ISW crest. The SWH signatures are unique in showing that the surface wave energy does not return to its unperturbed level after the passage of an ISW, admittedly because intense meter-scale wave breaking results in surface wave energy dissipation. Furthermore, Sentinel-2 MSI images are analyzed and provide insights into this same phenomenon: white-capping resulting in a radiance increase at all (visible) wavelengths. Modulation of breaking waves owing to ISWs is demonstrated by estimates of the fraction of breaking waves in the presence of internal waves.
Parameter Estimation in PMCW MIMO Radar Systems With Few-Bit Quantized Observations

We consider the problem of target parameter estimation in phase modulated continuous wave (PMCW) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar systems with quantized observations. We derive the Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) for jointly estimating targets’ amplitudes, time delays, Doppler shifts, and directions. The derived bound provides an efficient method to analyze the estimation performance achieved by different quantization schemes. We also devise the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator for the considered parameters, and a direct grid-based method (DGM) is introduced to obtain the ML estimates. To obtain the ML estimates more efficiently, a two-stage scheme is proposed. In the proposed scheme, we first formulate the estimation problem as a sparse signal recovery problem and modify the sparse learning via iterative minimization (SLIM) approach to solve it. Next, a RELAX-based iterative algorithm is proposed to refine the estimates. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can approach the CRB. Simulation results also show that using quantized observations does not affect the estimation performance significantly when the targets’ amplitudes are similar.