Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Elucidating the Pivotal Neuroimmunomodulation of Stem Cells in Spinal Cord Injury Repair

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a distressing incident with abrupt onset of the motor as well as sensory dysfunction, and most often, the injury occurs as result of high-energy or velocity accidents as well as contact sports and falls in the elderly. The key challenges associated with nerve repair are the lack of self-repair as well as neurotrophic factors and primary and secondary neuronal apoptosis, as well as factors that prevent the regeneration of axons locally. Neurons that survive the initial traumatic damage may be lost due to pathogenic activities like neuroinflammation and apoptosis. Implanted stem cells are capable of differentiating into neural cells that replace injured cells as well as offer local neurotrophic factors that aid neuroprotection, immunomodulation, axonal sprouting, axonal regeneration, and remyelination. At the microenvironment of SCI, stem cells are capable of producing growth factors like brain-derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor which triggers neuronal survival as well as axonal regrowth. Although stem cells have proven to be of therapeutic value in SCI, the major disadvantage of some of the cell types is the risk for tumorigenicity due to the contamination of undifferentiated cells prior to transplantation. Local administration of stem cells via either direct cellular injection into the spinal cord parenchyma or intrathecal administration into the subarachnoid space is currently the best transplantation modality for stem cells during SCI.
A Systemic Review on the Association Between Infertility and Sexual Dysfunction Among Women Utilizing Female Sexual Function Index as a Measuring Tool

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention describes infertility as the inability to conceive after one year or longer with adequate unprotected sex. Infertility affects both females and males, interfering with their everyday lives and significantly impacting their mental health. Sexual dysfunction is defined as an alteration of the sexual response cycle phases, preventing satisfaction during sexual activity. The prevalence of sexual dysfunction in the United States is high, with about 10%-52% among men and 25%-63% among women. Different scales can measure sexual satisfaction and double as a tool to diagnose sexual dysfunction. The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) is the gold standard for diagnosing sexual dysfunction in women. Overall, fertile women had a higher score on the FSFI than infertile women; however, both groups showed sexual dysfunctions even if the fertile group was classified as a mild disorder. The most common disorders were disorders of desire and lubrication. Desire and arousal dysfunction appeared more common in participants with secondary infertility, while lubrication dysfunctions were more common in older participants. In the future, it will be important to evaluate other factors that affect sexual function and fertility including mental health, male health, and couple factors.
Chemical properties of vermicompost "teas"

1Área de Nutrición Vegetal. Colegio de Postgraduados Campus Montecillo. Postgrado en Edafología. Carretera México-Texcoco km 36.5, Montecillo, Texcoco, Estado de México. C. P. 56230. Tel. 595 95 101 98. Ext. 1262 (gonzalez.karla@colpos.mx), (marinie@colpos.mx), (tlibia@colpos.mx). 2Postgrado en Agroecología. Colegio de Postgraduados Campus Montecillo. Ext. 1741 (sanchezej@colpos.mx) 3Postgrado en Socioeconomía, Estadística e Informática. Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Montecillo. Ext. 1414 (jlgcue@colpos.mx) §Autora para correspondencia: marinie@colpos.mx.
Hepatotoxicity Secondary to Levofloxacin Use

Levofloxacin is a broad-spectrum antibiotic that is used in the treatment of many infections. A rare adverse drug reaction following the use of levofloxacin is drug-induced liver injury. The exact mechanism behind fluoroquinolone-induced liver injury is unknown, but many severe, sometimes fatal hepatotoxicity cases are reported. Current recommendations advise clinicians to discontinue levofloxacin immediately if the patient develops signs and symptoms of hepatitis. This case report presents a 79-year-old male who was prescribed levofloxacin 500 mg by mouth daily for seven days. The patient had a past medical history of dementia, seizures, cerebral vascular accident, pulmonary fibrosis, and chronic kidney disease. Upon admission, the patient began to show signs and symptoms of liver injury. We hereby present a case report and a review of significant literature on levofloxacin-induced liver injury.
Influence of ZnO and Pt Nanoparticles on Cucumber Yielding Capacity and Fruit Quality

The influence of ZnO and Pt nanoparticles’ suspensions (5 mg/kg of soil) on the yielding capacity and fruit quality of Cucumissativus L. was studied. We found out that the soil amended with ZnO nanoparticle suspension enhanced cucumber yielding capacity by 36 %, and the fruits had more carotene, zinc and iron compared to the control. The soil amended with Pt nanoparticles did not influence cucumber yielding capacity, and the fruits contained more carotene and zinc. ICP-MS results showed that nanoparticles’ influence at the concentration under study did not result in accumulation of ZnO and Pt nanoparticles in fruits.
Earnings Equality in Teams with Common Microgeographic Origins: Evidence from Laoxiang Guanxi in Chinese Beauty Salons

This paper demonstrates that coworkers with the same microgeographic origin split economically significant rewards more equally than other teams. We provide three unique contributions through our empirical setting of coworkers bargaining over team commissions in 32 beauty salons in Beijing, China. First, we show that worker teams with a common hometown value equality more than other teams, and that this result cannot be fully explained by common language, ethnicity, or nationality, and is unlikely to be explained by preexisting friendships. We instead argue this equality preference is consistent with the social identity of common microgeographic origins referred to in China as “laoxiang guanxi. ” Second, we show that this social-identity favoritism exists even in the presence of status dynamics such as age, gender, and rank differences. Teams with a common hometown show more equal pay splits regardless of other team characteristics. Finally, we show that this split equality is not achieved by relationships developed through repeated teamwork. Our paper shows that, when worker teams are allowed discretion for collective decision-making such as the allocation of tasks or rewards, social identity is likely to play a key role in the bargaining process.
Effect of Equity on Financial Performance among Small Business Firms in East Africa Countries

Small business firms are an essential force of the financial system and the catalyst of the economic development not only for developed countries but also contribute to the developing countries. This study determined the effect of equity on financial performance among small business firms in East Africa Countries (EAC). The study adopted a panel data research design and cross sectional survey research design where by secondary data were used. The population applied on the financial records of the 2,868 from 2016/17 2018/19 financial years (Annual Data). The sample size of the study was 828 observations from 296 small business firms registered as manufacturing service. Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya, Morogoro and Dodoma Regions were purposively sampled to be used as research locations of this study. Random sampling procedure was used to select small business firms registered as manufacturing service for all 6 Regions. The data collected from different reliable sources which included the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO) and Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA). Results revealed that, the equity had statistically negative influence on the financial performance among small business firms of EAC in terms of Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) and Return on Equity (ROE) with PValues -0.001 and -0.14 respectively and a significant positive influence on the financial performance of small and business firms of EAC in terms of Return on Assets (ROA) with PValue 0.001. The study recommends small business firms to consider the essential determinants like size of the business which influence the financial performance among small business firms and minimize liquidation risk.
Ionic origin of a negative capacitance in lead halide perovskites

The origin of a negative capacitance observed in perovskite solar cells at intermediate and low frequencies remains unclear. Low trap density macroscopic single crystal MAPbBr3 perovskites, prepared by means of an inverse temperature crystallization technique, with symmetric Au contacts is used to avoid the influence of defects and provide the information ongoing staunchly in the perovskite material. It is shown that the inductive behavior is dominant in the frequency range where capacitance possesses negative values. Accordingly, a model for the calculation of inductive elements and the description of their origin is presented. It is shown that, at high bias, there are two bias‐dependent inductive elements, which corresponds to two different components of vacancy‐assisted ionic diffusion in perovskite crystals, originating from Br– and MA+ ions.
Ticks on wild boar in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (Spain) are infected with spotted fever group rickettsiae.

Tick-borne pathogens (TBPs) constitute an emerging public health concern favoured by multidimensional global changes. Amongst these, increase and spread of wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations are of special concern, since this species can act as reservoir of zoonotic pathogens and promote tick abundance. Thus, we aimed to make a first assessment of the risk by TBPs resulting from wild boar and ticks in the vicinity of a highly populated area. Between 2014 and 2016, we collected spleen samples and 2256 ticks from 261 wild boars (out of 438 inspected) in the metropolitan area of Barcelona (MAB; northeast Spain). We morphologically identified four tick species: Hyalomma lusitanicum (infestation prevalence: 33.6%), Dermacentor marginatus (26.9%), Rhipicephalus sanguineus -sensu lato- (18.9%) and Rhipicephalus bursa (0.2%). Ticks were pooled according to species and individual host. A total of 180 tick pools and 167 spleen samples were screened by real-time PCR and/or reverse line blot hybridization assay for Ehrlichia sp. , Anaplasma sp. , Babesia sp. , Rickettsia sp. , Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and Coxiella burnetii. Seventy-two out of the 180 tick pools were positive to Rickettsia spp. (minimum prevalence of 8.7%), including Rickettsia massiliae, Rickettsia slovaca and Rickettsia raoultii. We did not detect Rickettsia spp. in wild boar spleens, nor other TBPs in ticks or wild boars. Since the ticks identified can bite humans and the recorded spotted fever group rickettsiae (SFG) are zoonotic pathogens, there is a risk of SFG rickettsiae transmission for MAB inhabitants. Our results suggest a broader distribution of Hyalomma lusitanicum, competent vector for the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, than previously known. Wild boar is not a Rickettsia spp. reservoir according to the spleen negative results. However, its abundance could favour tick life cycle and abundance and its proximity to humans could promote the infection risk by Rickettsia spp. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Internal manipulation of perceptual representations in human flexible cognition: A computational model

Executive functions represent a set of processes in goal-directed cognition that depend on integrated cortical-basal ganglia brain systems and form the basis of flexible human behaviour. Several computational models have been proposed for studying cognitive flexibility as a key executive function and the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST) that represents an important neuropsychological tool to investigate it. These models clarify important aspects that underlie cognitive flexibility, particularly decision-making, motor response, and feedback-dependent learning processes. However, several studies suggest that the categorisation processes involved in the solution of the WCST include an additional computational stage of category representation that supports the other processes. Surprisingly, all models of the WCST ignore this fundamental stage and they assume that decision making directly triggers actions. Thus, we propose a novel hypothesis where the key mechanisms of cognitive flexibility and goal-directed behaviour rely on the acquisition of suitable representations of percepts and their top-down internal manipulation. Moreover, we propose a neuro-inspired computational model to operationalise this hypothesis. The capacity of the model to support cognitive flexibility was validated by systematically reproducing and interpreting the behaviour exhibited in the WCST by young and old healthy adults, and by frontal and Parkinson patients. The results corroborate and further articulate the hypothesis that the internal manipulation of representations is a core process in goal-directed flexible cognition.
Enhanced Biodegradation of Spent Engine Oil Contaminated Soil using Organic Wastes

Physical and chemical methods of remediating contaminated soils are less environment-friendly compared to the biodegradation method. This study investigated the ability of selected organic wastes to enhance biodegradation of Spent Engine Oil (SEO) contaminated soil. One kilogram of uncontaminated soil was thoroughly mixed with 10% (w/v) SEO in seven treatments with two replicates. Spent Fruit Residues (SFR), Cassava Peel (CP) and a combination of Bean Husk and Chromolaena odorata (BHC) were added at 10% and 20% (w/w), with an untreated control. Total Heterotrophic Bacterial Count (THBC), Total Fungal Count (TFC), Total Hydrocarbon Degrading Bacterial Count (THDBC) and Total Hydrocarbon Degrading Fungal Count (THDFC) of the contaminated and uncontaminated soils were determined using standard microbiological methods. Isolates were screened for SEO utilization using 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol indicator. Hydrocarbon contents of the soils were determined using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis. The THBC ranged from 1.3x10 6 to 2.9x10 6 CFU/g, TFC ranged from 5.4x10 4 to 2.0x10 5 CFU/g, THDBC ranged from 0.5x10 3 to 1.9x10 4 CFU/g while THDFC ranged from 2.0x10 3 to 1.0x10 4 CFU/g. The isolated bacteria were Pseudomonas spp. , Bacillus spp. , Klebsiella spp. , Proteus mirabilis , Burkholderia cepacia , Micrococcus luteus , Providencia rettgeri , Enterococcus faecalis , Streptococcus bovis and Enterobacter cloacae while the isolated fungi were Candida spp. , Aspergillus niger , Saccharomyces cerevisae , Penicillium chrysogenum and Trichophyton sp. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Aspergillus niger utilized the oil better than other isolates with absorbance of 0.26 and 0.49 at 600 nm, respectively. The GC-MS revealed that SFR 20% (w/w) treatment had the highest percentage degradation of 70.5%. This study confirms that spent fruit residues can enhance biodegradation of spent engine oil contaminated soil.
Estimation of Carbon Footprint of Residential Building in Warm Humid Climate of India through BIM

In recent years Asian Nations showed concern over the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of their civil infrastructure. This study presents a contextual investigation of a residential apartment complex in the territory of the southern part of India. The LCA is performed through Building Information Modelling (BIM) software embedded with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) of materials utilized in construction, transportation of materials and operational energy use throughout the building lifecycle. The results of the study illustrate that cement is the material that most contributes to carbon emissions among the other materials looked at in this study. The operational stage contributed the highest amount of carbon emissions. This study emphasizes variation in the LCA results based on the selection of a combination of definite software-database combinations and manual-database computations used. For this, three LCA databases were adopted (GaBi database and ecoinvent databases through One Click LCA software), and the ICE database was used for manual calculations. The ICE database showed realistic value comparing the GaBi and ecoinvent databases. The findings of this study are valuable for the policymakers and practitioners to accomplish optimization of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions over the building life cycle.
Effects of Temperature and Layer Thicknesses on Drying Kinetics of Coconut Residue

In this study, coconut residue were dried as single layers with thickness of 7.5, 10, and 12.5 mm in drying air temperatures of 55, 65 and 75°C in a laboratory scale tray dryer. The effect of drying air temperature and thickness on the drying characteristics was determined. A non-linear regression procedure was used to fit experimental moisture loss data using three empirical models, namely, Newton, Henderson and Pabis, and Page. The Page model showed an excellent fit to predict drying behavior of the coconut residue because this model gave the highest coefficient of determination (R2) and the lowest chi-square (c2) and root mean square error (RMSE). The 3-D response surface plot and the contour plot derived from the mathematical models were applied to determine drying parameter prediction equations.The Response surface analysis (3-D) showing the effect of temperature (°C) and layer thickness (L) on the response in the change in drying rate (k) and drying index (n) of Page model during hot air drying, was found to be in close agreement with the value predicted by the model. Moisture transfer from coconut residue was described by applying the Fick’s diffusion model, and the effective diffusivity (Deff) changes between 0.99-4.17x10 -10 m2 s-1 and the activation energy of moisture diffusion during drying was found to be 12.04 to 44.22 kJ mol -1
The corrosion of carbon steel in nitrate hydrates used as phase change materials

Corrosion behaviour of mild carbon steel was studied in five assumed phase change materials: magnesium nitrate hexahydrate, magnesium nitrate hexahydrate with the addition of magnesium hydroxide (0.5 wt%) and strontium hydroxide (0.5 wt%), respectively, at 90 °C; calcium nitrate tetrahydrate at 50 °C and a mixture of magnesium nitrate hexahydrate and calcium nitrate tetrahydrate (1:1) at 72 °C. Corrosion rate was studied via mass loss and the steel specimens were analysed after the study. The corrosion rate of steel specimens is over recommended limit except of the mixture Mg(NO3)2 · 6 H2O − Ca(NO3)2 · 4 H2O (1:1). Steel can be used for the long‐term service in this mixture while in the other cases it can be used only with caution based on the specific application.
Nematodes of Proceratophrys ararype (Anura: Odontophrynidae), an endemic frog from the Araripe Plateau, northeastern Brazil

Parasites are an important component of the global biomass, having significant roles in several regulatory mechanisms in the ecosystem. Parasitism is one of the most common ecological interactions on the planet. Studies have shown that the helminth fauna of only 8% of amphibian species in Brazil have been studied, and this percentage is lower for the Odontophrynidae family, with only four of the 50 species kown to occur in Brazil having been investigated. Here, we present the helminth fauna of Proceratophrys ararype, an anuran endemic to the “Brejo de Altitude” Chapada do Araripe (Araripe Plateau), northeastern Brazil. The infection parameters analyzed were prevalence, mean intensity of infection and mean abundance of parasites. We used the Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient to check the correlations between the abundance of the parasites with the snout-vent length (SVL) of hosts. To verify the degree of aggregation of parasites in hosts, we used the dispersion index. Out of 40 specimens examined, 19 specimens were infected with at least one parasite. The overall prevalence was 47.5% with a mean infection intensity of 18.93 ± 10.77. The endoparasitic community associated with P. ararype consisted of six species of parasites, with Falcaustra mascula having the highest prevalence (25%). Most parasites had a uniform dispersion index in the hosts and their abundance was unrelated to host size. Here, we also present a compilation of all parasites associated with host species of the genus Proceratophrys from South America. Overall, we found 23 species of parasites associated with five host species (P. ararype, P. appendiculata, P. boiei, P. cristiceps, P. mantiqueira). Of these, two species of parasites (Oswaldocruzia mazzai and Strongyloides sp.) represent new records for the genus Proceratophrys. Our results demonstrate the lack of studies on amphibian helminth fauna and fill an important knowledge gap on the diversity of parasites of Proceratophrys ararype, an endemic frog from the Araripe Plateau, northeastern Brazil.
Learning Binary Trees by Argmin Differentiation

We address the problem of learning binary decision trees that partition data for some downstream task. We propose to learn discrete parameters (i.e., for tree traversals and node pruning) and continuous parameters (i.e., for tree split functions and prediction functions) simultaneously using argmin differentiation. We do so by sparsely re-laxing a mixed-integer program for the discrete parameters, to allow gradients to pass through the program to continuous parameters. We derive customized algorithms to efﬁciently compute the forward and backward passes. This means that our tree learning procedure can be used as an (implicit) layer in arbitrary deep networks, and can be optimized with arbitrary loss functions. We demonstrate that our approach produces binary trees that are competitive with existing single tree and ensemble approaches, in both supervised and unsupervised settings. Further, apart from greedy approaches (which do not have competitive accuracies), our method is faster to train than all other tree-learning baselines we compare with. The code for reproducing the re-sults is available at https://github.com/ vzantedeschi/LatentTrees .
A critical review of life cycle assessment studies of woody biomass conversion to sugars

Woody biomass could potentially become a viable raw material for the future sustainable chemical industry. For this, a suitable regulatory framework must exist, that would create favourable economic conditions for wood biorefineries. Such policies must be developed on the basis of scientific evidence—in this case, data supporting the environmental advantages of the bio-based feedstocks to the chemical industry. The most suitable methodology for comprehensive evaluation of environmental performance of technologies is life cycle assessment (LCA). In this review, the available LCA studies of woody biomass fractionation and conversion to bulk chemical feedstocks are critically evaluated. It has been revealed that the majority of the openly available studies do not contain transparent inventory data and, therefore, cannot be verified or re-used; studies containing inventory data are reported in this review. The lack of inventory data also prevents comparison between studies of the same processes performed with different evaluation methods or using different system boundaries. Recommendations are proposed on how to overcome issues of commercial data sensitivity by using black-box modelling when reporting environmental information. From several comparable LCA studies, it has been concluded that today the most environmentally favourable technology for wood biomass fractionation is organosolv. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bio-derived and bioinspired sustainable advanced materials for emerging technologies (part 1)’.