Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolution of Dioctahedral Vermiculite in Geological Environments—An Experimental Approach

Dioctahedral vermiculite commonly occurs in soils and fresh sediments, but has not been reported in sedimentary rocks. Little is known of the evolution of this mineral during diagenesis. According to the available literature, dioctahedral vermiculite is likely to exhibit strong potential for selective sorption and fixation of K+ involving interlayer dehydration and collapse. he objective of the present study was to investigate the influence of K+ saturation and seawater treatments on the structure o dioctahedral vermiculite. Due to the fact that no dioctahedral vermiculite standard reference material was available, a natural sample of soil clay containing dioctahedral vermiculite was used in the study. The clay was saturated with K+ using different protocols simulating natural processes taking place in soils and marine environments. The solid products of the experiments were analyzed for potassium content using flame photometry. The effect of the treatments used on the structure of dioctahedral vermiculite was studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The percentages of the collapsed interlayers were estimated by modeling the XRD patterns based on a whole-pattern multi-specimen modeling technique. All the treatments involving K+ saturation caused K+ fixation and irreversible collapse (i.e. contraction to 10 Å) of at least a portion of the hydrated (vermiculitic) interlayers. Air drying of the K+-saturated samples greatly enhanced the degree of the collapse. The results obtained gave no clear answer as to whether time had had a significant effect on the degree to which irreversible collapse occurred. Selective sorption of K+ from artificial seawater was observed. These results clearly indicate that collapse of dioctahedral vermiculite is likely to occur in soils during weathering and in sediments during early diagenesis. Both processes need to be taken into consideration in sedimentary basin studies.
PROTEIN AND PEPTIDE BASED DRUG DELIVERY: PHARMACEUTICAL APPROACHES

Protein and peptide are last three decades therapeutic peptides and proteins have risen in prominence as potential drug of future. Polymers of protein consist of amino acids covalently linked by peptide bonds. Peptides are small proteins composed of up to a couple of dozen amino acids proteins are rapidly degraded by digestive enzymes. Till recently, injections remain the foremost common means for administering these protein and peptide drugs. In the other routes that have been tried with varying degrees of success are the oral, buccal, intranasal, pulmonary, transdermal, ocular and rectal. In this review, the aim is to specialise in the varied routes and approaches for delivery of Peptide and protein drugs. The Continuous efforts are focussed for formulation of this therapeutics into safe and effective delivery systems. In this review briefly describes the possible methods for the delivery of protein and peptide drugs through various routes.
Mitigating Children’s Pain and Anxiety during Blood Draw Using Social Robots

Young pediatric patients who undergo venipuncture or capillary blood sampling often experience high levels of pain and anxiety. This often results in distressed young patients and their parents, increased treatment times, and a higher workload for healthcare professionals. Social robots are a new and promising tool to mitigate children’s pain and anxiety. This study aims to purposefully design and test a social robot for mitigating stress and anxiety during blood draw of children. We first programmed a social robot based on the requirements expressed by experienced healthcare professionals during focus group sessions. Next, we designed a randomized controlled experiment in which the social robot was applied as a distraction method to measure its capacity to mitigate pain and anxiety in children during blood draw in a children’s hospital setting. Children who interacted with the robot showed significantly lower levels of anxiety before actual blood collection, compared to children who received regular medical treatment. Children in the middle classes of primary school (aged 6–9) seemed especially sensitive to the robot’s ability to mitigate pain and anxiety before blood draw. Children’s parents overall expressed strong positive attitudes toward the use and effectiveness of the social robot for mitigating pain and anxiety. The results of this study demonstrate that social robots can be considered a new and effective tool for lowering children’s anxiety prior to the distressing medical procedure of blood collection.
Joint Manifestations in Children with Familial Mediterranean Fever in Armenia: Clinical and Genetic Characteristics

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal-recessive autoinflammatory disease in the group of Hereditary periodic fever syndromes (HPFS), characterized by recurrent, self-limited attacks of fever and polyserositis, which last 2-4 days. It manifests mainly in childhood and often has early onset, resolve without sequels. Genetic testing of FMF is efficient and allows diagnosing of atypical cases. FMF is a significant health care problem in Armenia because of high frequency of carriers of MEFV mutations 1:3 - 4 (0.21) and marked FMF prevalence 54.7 per 10`000 of the total population. Articular symptoms are found in about 45% of cases. They usually manifest as acute recurrent arthritis (ARA) or arthralgia, but more rarely also chronic arthritis can be found. We aimed to investigate clinical and genetic characteristics of the joint manifestations in Armenian children with FMF. The charts of all 715 patients with proven diagnosis of FMF at the National Pediatric Center (NPC) for FMF were reviewed for joint manifestations. The diagnosis of FMF and disease severity were determined according to the Tel-Hashomer criteria and molecular-genetic detection of 12 MEFV mutations common for Armenians. The characteristics of joint manifestations and overall FMF disease were then compared to MEFV mutation analysis. There were 438 boys and 277 girls with an age at diagnosis between 3 months and 17 years (mean age: 8.64±0.17). Joint involvement was observed in 56.4% of all 715 cases. The manifestation was ARA in 30.5%, arthralgia in 21.2% and chronic arthritis (CA) in 4.7%, which would also qualify for a diagnosis of JIA. The frequency of ARA was associated with M694V mutation, mainly M694V homozygous and M694V heterozygous genotypes. The risk of CA depended on MEFV genotype of the FMF patients and was the highest in M694Vheterozygotes and M694Vhomozygotes. M694V heterozygous genotype was noticed significantly more frequently among FMF patients with spondyloarthritis in comparison to those without it. The probability of the development of CA among FMF patients without M694V mutation was significantly higher also in heterozygotes in comparison to compound-heterozygotes. We concluded, that the frequency of joint involvement among Armenian pediatric FMF patients was high - 56.4%, especially for CA. Chronic arthritis may be the first manifestation of FMF and occurred usually in patients with severe M694V mutations. Patients of Armenian origin with refractory arthritis should be asked for isolated febrile attacks, hemorrhagic vasculitis, episodes of pleuritis and family history to rule out FMF.
Comparative Study of Different Products of Carbamazepine Tablets Available in Iraqi Market

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a widely used antiepileptic drug to control grand mal epilepsy, as well as for the treatment of peripheral neuralgia. According to the biopharmaceutical classification system (BCS), CBZ is considered a class II drug. CBZ is characterized by a slow and irregular gastrointestinal absorption, with irregular oral bioavailability; due to its low water solubility. Therefore, the release of the drug from the dosage form (tablets in this study) and the subsequent step of dissolution represent the most important parameters that decide whether a sufficient plasma concentration will be achieved or not. In the current study, the FTIR study for the pure API, CBZ, and the different commercially available brands of CBZ conventional tablets, available in the Iraqi drug market (Mosul city as an example), were examined. Subsequently, various quality control parameters such as the weight variation, content uniformity, friability, and hardness of the conventional CBZ tablets were conducted. Moreover, the disintegration and the dissolution tests of the different brands of CBZ available in the Iraqi drug market were performed.
Involvement of Parents in Remote Learning of Children amid COVID-19 Crisis in the Philippines: A Transcendental Phenomenology

This paper aimed to explore how parents give meaning to their involvement in the remote learning of their children amid the COVID-19 crisis. Based on Husserlian transcendental approach in phenomenology, the researcher sought to explore the world of 12 parents, specifically mothers, from Mindanao, Philippines through online interviews. The result revealed 36 significant statements forming four emergent themes. These themes underscore the experience of parental involvement in the remote learning of their children amid crisis as 1. ) journeying through a myriad of changes; 2. ) connecting with the child physically and emotionally; 3. ) experiencing multifaceted difficulties in the process; and 4. ) responding to the call of new challenges of parenting. These themes are further elaborated through textural and structural descriptions. A statement of the essence of the lived experience of parents as a result of intuitive integration is offered. Aside from theoretical contributions, the outcomes gained in this paper offer several future practical insights for crisis planning in education.
LOTE learning motivation in multilingual workplace

This study aims to investigate the LOTE learning motivation profiles of adult learners at a multilingual workplace and the interplay of multilevel factors affecting LOTE learning motivation. To address the research objectives, we undertook this case study on a Spanish bank subsidiary in China by conducting semi-structured interviews with three senior managers at varying LOTE language proficiency levels. Premised on a person-in-context relational perspective, interview data analysis revealed the participants LOTE motivation change trajectories resulting from the dynamic interplay of related factors. Further analysis of the narratives identified the interplay between key contextual and individual factors affecting the participants’ LOTE learning motivation at different levels, namely social cultural and institutional. The results emphasise the person-in-institutional context relation and the significance of team climate, language beliefs and identity in influencing LOTE learning motivation
Improving Tornado Warning Communication for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences

Although specialized personal and residential Deaf warning technologies exist, receipt and comprehension of tornado warning information from local television is often delayed or misunderstood because of closed-captioning deficiencies. In order to suggest improvements for the communication of tornado warnings to Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HoH) audiences, interviews and a focus group were conducted within the active tornado counties of Alabama. D/HoH individuals generally use more information sources than the hearing population to better understand their risk. Protective action decision-making by our sample was characterized by more hesitation, uncertainty, and indecision than in the hearing population. The most common suggestion for improving tornado-warning communication was to have an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter shown on screen with a local television meteorologist during a tornado warning. A split-screen television product with an ASL interpreter in a remote studio was prototyped showing that this type of live broadcast is possible for local tornado-warning coverage. Several screen formats were evaluated by a focus group with the conclusion that the ASL interpreter should be on the left side of the screen without obscuring any part of the weather broadcast. The split-screen product with an ASL interpreter resulted in full access to all broadcast information, the ability to make immediate safety decisions, and was welcomed with excitement by the focus-group participants. This modification, along with the education and preparedness efforts of the National Weather Service, help remedy the information gaps and comprehension delays of this underserved population.
Student Achievement Analysis: Implementation of Discovery-based Virtual Learning in Culinary Academy

Organizing learning from home in an emergency of the spread of Covid -19. It requires educators to use creative learning models that focus on students, one of which is Discovery-based Virtual Learning (DVL). This study aims to analyze the effect of using DVL on student achievement. This study used a 2x2 factorial design. This research's data analysis technique is divided into two types, namely the prerequisite analysis test and hypothesis testing. The research results concluded that students who learn with DVL are significantly higher than Direct Instruction (DI). The next result is that students who have high initial knowledge get high learning achievement scores. Meanwhile, this study's results also showed a significant interaction between the learning model and initial knowledge of student achievement in foodborne disease competencies.
Esl Teacher’s Knowledge and Readiness on the Implementation of School-Based Assessment (SBA) in Malaysian Primary School

In line with the Malaysian education transformation effort to keep up with the current nation needs, a new assessment approach has been implemented on early 2011 namely the school-based assessment or widely known as SBA. Nevertheless, after few years of its implementation, the SBA has caused rippled among educational stakeholders especially the educators. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to identify the English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers’ knowledge and readiness in regard to SBA in Sabah primary schools. A survey was conducted to 100 ESL primary school teachers in one of the states in Malaysia, Sabah. The data were collected using questionnaire and then analysed using descriptive analysis. Based on the findings, majority of the respondents are highly knowledgeable in regards to SBA implementation in English class. Similarly, the findings also indicated that majority of the respondents show positive level of readiness to implement SBA for English class in primary schools. Results of this study are able to give relevant picture to policy makers and Malaysian Ministry of Education on the current states of ESL teachers’ knowledge and readiness in regards to SBA implementation after being introduced in 2011.
Novel approach to percolation threshold on electrical conductivity of carbon nanotube reinforced nanocomposites

To date, most analytical models used to calculate electrical conductivity in carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced nanocomposites are not able to predict electrical properties for contents much higher than the percolation threshold. This is because these models do not take into account many critical factors, such as nanotube waviness, dispersion state and process parameters. In the present paper, a novel analytical model based on an equivalent percolation threshold concept, valid for all CNT contents, is developed for this approach. To achieve this, the influence of all these factors has been investigated and several experimental tests have been conducted in order to validate the model. The electrical conductivity varies by several orders of magnitude depending on the value of these parameters, increasing with carbon nanotube content and aspect ratio and decreasing with its waviness. From experimental data, it is found that the waviness increases with carbon nanotube content. Besides, functionalization also causes a local distortion of CNTs, producing more entanglement. When comparing two different dispersion procedures, calendering and toroidal milling, it is noticed that the first method has a greater stretching effect because the shear forces induced are much higher, causing the breakage of carbon nanotubes.
The Burden of Anemia in Pregnancy Among Women Attending the Antenatal Clinics in Mkuranga District, Tanzania

Introduction: The burden of anemia in pregnancy is of global health importance. Tanzania is no exception. Its effects vary from one region to another due to the differing causes. Overall, it is a significant cause of maternal mortality. This study sought to assess the prevalence and factors associated with anemia among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic (ANC) in the Mkuranga district of the Pwani region of Tanzania. Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted among 418 pregnant women aged 15–49 years attending the Mkuranga District Hospital and Kilimahewa Health Center. The outcome variable of interest was anemia in pregnancy defined as a hemoglobin concentration of 11 g/dl or less. Data was collected using face-to-face interviews with a standardized pretested questionnaire, and through blood samples collected for hemoglobin testing. Descriptive analysis was used to determine the prevalence of anemia while multiple logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with anemia in pregnancy. Results: Anemia was prevalent among 83.5% of pregnant women attending the two major ANCs in Mkuranga district. Categorically, the hemoglobin of 16.3% of the included women was normal, 51.9% had moderate anemia, 24.4% had mild anemia, and 7.2% had severe anemia. Factors associated with anemia included being in the third trimester (AOR = 2.87, p = 0.026), not consuming vegetables (AOR = 2.62, p = 0.008), meat (AOR = 2.71, p = 0.003), eggs (AOR = 2.98, p = 0.002), and fish (AOR = 2.38, p = 0.005). The finding of unadjusted analysis revealed that women with inadequate minimum dietary diversity were having significantly greater odds of being anemic as compared with those with adequate dietary diversity (OR = 1.94, P = 0.016). Conclusion: More than 80% of pregnant women attending ANC in Mkuranga districts were anemic. Such unprecedented burden of anemia is associated with several factors, which include poor dietary practices such as not consuming iron-rich foods, for example vegetables, meat, eggs, and fish. Women in their third trimester were also more likely to suffer from anemia. This unprecedented burden of anemia in pregnancy can be addressed if efforts to improve feeding practices and early monitoring at the ANCs are sustained.
The Influence of Brand Trust, Brand Familiarity, and Brand Experience on Brand Attachments

The development of technology in the automotive world today has progressed very rapidly. Thus, automotive companies must compete in winning market share in Indonesia. Business competition brings companies competing to produce products that consumers need and want. This study aims to determine the effect of brand trust on brand attachment, brand familiarity on brand attachment, and brand experience on brand attachment. Sampling using a purposive sampling technique. The data collection instrument used a questionnaire with a Likert scale. The questionnaire has been tested and has met the validity and reliability requirements. Data analysis was performed using multiple linear regression analysis. The results of data analysis show that brand trust has a positive effect on brand attachment, brand familiarity has a positive effect on brand attachment, and brand experience has a positive effect on brand attachment. Thus it can be concluded that brand trust, brand familiarity, and brand experience significantly influence brand attachment partially.
Exploratory Study on Self-Fulfillment Effect of Self-Designing Process in Adaptive Customization Services

Abstract Services for self-designing, or adaptive customization services, have become dominant in virtual marketplaces and are believed to create additional values both for the company as well as for the customer. While most research focused on the value from the services’ outputs , this research attempts to address the customer-perceived value deriving from the process of the services, and focuses on the self-fulfillment effect of the involved mental processing. An online survey was administered with 313 U.S. shoppers. In the results, participants using adaptive customization services reported higher self-fulfillment perceptions, than did those not using the services. Furthermore, both the self-fulfillment perceptions (i.e., autonomy and competence) significantly increased perceived design utility. The results suggest that the process of adaptive customization services should be strategically managed to improve the customers’ positive mental states that subsequently improve the perceived value of the output designs. Implications and suggestions for future studies are dsicussed.
Using Synchronous Online Discussion to Develop EFL Learners’ Productive Skills : A Case Study

This study aims to investigate the effects of synchronous online discussions in foreign language classrooms, using a control group (face-to-face oral role play) and an experimental group (synchronous online discussion), on the development of English productive skills, such as speaking and writing. The case study employed a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. Thirty students from Danang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy participated in the research project. Data were collected includes pre- and post- treatment tests at the beginning and at the end of the semester, pre- and post-questionnaires; and semi-structured interviews. Results derived from a t-test analysis revealed that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in either speaking or writing proficiency at the end of the semester. However, both groups showed a significant gain in speaking and writing proficiency between the beginning and the end of the semester. Statistics indicated significant levels between pre- and post-treatment scores reached by the nonsynchronous computer mediated communication role play and the synchronous computer meddiated communication chat groups.
Investigation on Teardrop Connection of Rack Clad Building

A rack clad building (RCB) is a kind of storage system where the raking forms part of the structure. The larger size of the RCB structure makes it dissimilar to the typical storage system. To enhance the lateral stability and the moment capacity in the unbraced down aisle direction, different types of connections are used in the rack clad building history. Teardrop connection which is one of the connection systems of the RCB, is a boltless connection where tabs used as connectors, are entered into the perforated hole of the cold formed column. The moment capacity, rotational stiffness, rotational capacity of the teardrop connection are the parameters that determine the efficiency in controlling the sway limitation in the down-aisle direction. There is limited research on the investigation of the mechanical behaviors and the design of teardrop connections. On this account, it is imperative to disclose the vital parameters related to the performance of the connector. This paper reviews the existing methods such as different types of experimental studies, finite element analysis, analytical model, component method which are used in determining the stiffness and the capacity of the connection. Finally, the influence of the geometric characteristics of the components such as thickness of the column, height of the beam, number of tabs, welding position of the beam to beam end connector, on the performance of the joint, has been presented in this paper.