Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MICROBIOLOGICAL CONTENTS AND ANTIBACTERIAL POTENTIAL OF ORTHOSIPHON STAMINEUS BENTH AT DIFFERENT POSTHARVEST MATURITY STAGES GROWN ON PEAT SOIL

Orthosiphon stamineus Benth or misai kucing is widely used in Malaysia and the Southeast Asia as medicinal herb known for its health benefits. In this study, O. stamineus was planted and harvested by following Malaysian Good Agricultural Practices (MyGAP) at peat soil field plot at MARDI Station Pontian, Johor. O. stamineus was harvested at different maturity stages of 8, 10, 12 and 14 weeks after planting. In the preliminary studies, a total of 24 samples of stems and leaves parts of O. stamineus were dried and subjected to microbiological analysis to evaluate possible source of contamination. Subsequently, 56 samples of O. stamineus methanolic extracts (stems and leaves parts) were investigated by using the disc diffusion method and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) against Escherichia coli, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Salmonella Typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Listeria monocytogenes, respectively. Satisfactory microbiological results have been shown during all postharvest maturity stages at the Pontian plot, based on national and international herbal standards. Findings also exhibited greater inhibitory effects of O. stamineus extracts against the Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Gram negative bacteria, Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Interestingly, the leaves methanolic extracts showed better microbiological contents and antibacterial properties in week 10 of maturity stages, respectively. The strongest antibacterial activity was recorded by the leaves extracts of O. stamineus with the highest zone of inhibition of 13.4 mm and MIC value 1.56 mg/mL against S. aureus. The presence of rosmarinic acid compound found in the leaves extracts was believed to be the key predominant factor. The study indicated that O. stamineus Benth has the economic potential to be developed into natural antibacterial agents towards shelf life extension and food safety.
Effective monitoring of diabetic patients on progressive chronic kidney disease among patients attending diabetic clinic at Muhimbili National Hospital, Tanzania

Background: Diabetic Kidney Disease is a complication of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) following the natural history of diabetes. Worldwide up to 40 % of patients with diabetes mellitus will develop Diabetic Kidney Disease. Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines recommends monitoring for proteinuria, blood sugar, renal functions and blood pressure in the patients with DM so that progression to complications including renal failure is prevented. Our study aimed to audit on effective monitoring of progressive chronic kidney disease among patients attending diabetic clinic at Muhimbili National Hospital. Material and methods: This was a retrospective clinical audit which included patients who attended diabetic clinic at Muhimbili National Hospital in 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2017. Simple random sampling technique using software called OpenEpi Random Program was used to get the sample of 120 patients. Patients with missing clinical notes were excluded from the audit. Records of the clinical notes, socio-demographic characteristics and investigations of the selected patients were retrieved from the Jeeva system and recorded using a structured questionnaire. We analyzed our data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 Results: One hundred and fourteen DM patents records were reviewed. Around 79% of the patients involved in the study were aged above 45years, 60% were females. Majority had type 2 DM (76.3%). Minority i.e. 15/114 (13.2%) of the patients had their urine for protein checked in the year 2017 as well as serum creatinine in the last 3months. Seven percent had HbA1c test done i.e. 8/114 (7%). Blood pressure was monitored in 72.8% (83/114) of the patients. Only16 out of 66 patients (24.2%) had blood pressure controlled. Majority of the patients 10/15 (66.7%) who had renal functions records had normal eGFR. Findings on monitoring for proteinuria, renal functions, control of HbA1c and Blood pressure control were all below audit standards. Conclusion: Our study found that there is generally poor monitoring of diabetic outpatient for progressive chronic kidney disease when compared to the KDOQI standards which calls the health care providers to adhere on set SOPs according to the guidelines available aiming at improving services and quality of life to diabetic patient.
GENDER AND ADOPTION OF IMPROVED TECHNOLOGIES BY SMALLHOLDER RICE FARMERS IN ABIA STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined gender and adoption of improved technologies by smallholder rice farmers in Abia State, Nigeria. Data collected by questionnaire administered on a simple random sample of 144 farmers were subjected to descriptive statistical and regression analyses. Results indicated that improved seeds and puddling were adopted by both farmer groups while minimum tillage was at the level of awareness for each group. Age, educational level, access to credit and extension services, and farm size affected technology adoption by the male farmers while educational level, extension services, access to credit and farm size determined adoption by the female farmers. Results indicated a lower rate of adoption of the improved rice production technologies among the female farmers and a low level of entrepreneurship among the two farmer groups. These results indicate the existence of opportunities for increased rice yield through the deployment of improved production technologies targeted at increasing the capacity of the farmers to narrow the gap between current and potential rice yields. Policies and programmes to tackle gender related problems that hinder access to and efficient use of resources and for increasing farmer innovation capacity and entrepreneurship through increased education, training, enhanced formation of farmers’ groups and optimal policies on the delivery of extension services will be helpful.
The Prevalence of Underweight and Overweight and the Influential Factors in the Adolescent Students in Finote Selam Town in Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Article type: Research Paper Introduction: Adolescence is the transition from childhood to adulthood, which occurs within the age range of 10-19 years. The present study aimed to assess the nutritional status and influential factors in the adolescent students of Finote Selam town in Ethiopia in 2018. Methods: This school-based, cross-sectional study was conducted on 437 adolescent students, who were selected via stratified simple random sampling. Data analysis was performed in the EPI Info version 7 and SPSS version 20 using binary logistic regression to identify the influential factors in the underweight students. In addition, crude and adjusted odds ratios with 95% significance level were used to measure the strength of the associations, and statistical significance was considered at the P-value of less than 0.05. Results: The total prevalence of underweight, normal weight, and overweight in the adolescent students in Finote Selam town was 46.2%, 51.0%, and 2.7%, respectively. Significant associations were observed between underweight and the male gender, living in rural areas, having illiterate fathers and uneducated mothers, and the family size of larger than or equal to five (P<0.05). Conclusion: According to the results, underweight was the most prevalent issue in the study area. The most influential factors in this regard were gender, place of residence, parental education level, family size, and occupation status of the father. Therefore, the impact of these factors should be further investigated to develop strategies for the reduction of malnutrition in Finote Selam town. Article History: Received: 16 Jan 2020 Accepted: 18 May 2020 Published: 30 Jun 2020
Use of computational fluid dynamics tools to calculate the dispersion of gas and aerosol emissions in conditions of a complex terrain

ANSYS FLUENT tools were used as part of a standard turbulence k-ε model to simulate the air flow around a number of typical obstacles (a solid cube, a solid hemisphere, and a 2D hill) which form a potential terrain in the NPP emission dispersion area and roughly correspond to the geometry of the buildings and structures within this area. For reproducibility, a non-uniform spatial grid is plotted in the computational region which condenses near the obstacle surface and the outer boundaries. The dimensions and the positions of the obstacles were chosen such that to ensure their best possible coincidence with the conditions of the published experiments. The result of simulating the velocity and direction of the air flow as the whole shows a good agreement with the data from the wind tunnel experiments in the areas in front of and over the obstacle, as well as in its air shadow. Typical accelerated flow, vortex, and reverse flow areas are reproduced reliably. There are variances observed only in the local heavy turbulence regions in the obstacle’s air shadow near the ground surface. All this indicates that it is possible to model in full scale the dispersion of the NPP emissions taking into account the peculiarities of the plant site terrain and the major onsite structures to determine more accurately the personnel and public exposure dose.
Evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of gene xpert analysis in pediatric pulmonary tuberculosis: a prospective clinical study in North-Western India

Tuberculosis (TB) is infectious microbial disease (caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis) which is one of the top ten causes of death in the world as per the global Tuberculosis Report, published by the World Health Organization (WHO). The children with TB account for about 1.2 million and associated mortality of 170,000 per year. The TB is a global burden with 33.3 % of the world’s population infected. The 11% of 9 million TB cases are reported to occur in children. In India, as many as 500 children die of TB each year, and more than threequarters of every 1 million children suffer from TB each year. The clinical presentation of TB, particularly in young children, is subtle and often unrecognizable. Discrete changes such as weight loss or lack of weight ABSTRACT
The Greta Thunberg Effect: Familiarity with Greta Thunberg predicts intentions to engage in climate activism in the United States

Despite Greta Thunberg's popularity, research has yet to investigate her impact on the public's willingness to take collective action on climate change. Using cross-sectional data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults ( N = 1,303), we investigate the “Greta Thunberg Effect, ” or whether exposure to Greta Thunberg predicts collective efficacy and intentions to engage in collective action. We find that those who are more familiar with Greta Thunberg have higher intentions of taking collective actions to reduce global warming and that stronger collective efficacy beliefs mediate this relationship. This association between familiarity with Greta Thunberg, collective efficacy beliefs, and collective action intentions is present even after accounting for re-spondents’ overall support for climate activism. Moderated mediation models testing age and political ideology as moderators of the “Greta Thunberg Effect” indicate that although the indirect effect of familiarity with Greta Thunberg via collective efficacy is present across all age-groups, and across the political spectrum, it may be stronger among those who identify as more liberal (than conservative). Our findings suggest that young public figures like Greta Thunberg may motivate collective action across the U.S. public, but their effect may be stronger among those with a shared political ideology. Implications for future research and for broadening climate activists’ ap-peals across the political spectrum are discussed.
The Missing “Cycle” Part and Other Thoughts on the Global Financial Cycle

The paper studies co-movement in capital flows, which gives rise to a phenomenon dubbed the global financial cycle. It first estimates a global common factor in capital flows using a factor model and draws inferences of its quantitative importance. Then the paper studies the cyclical properties of the extracted factor and concludes that, in general, its importance for capital flows is relatively limited. This may suggest that the Mundell-Fleming trilemma (as opposed to dilemma) still describes the trade-off faced by policymakers, and domestic policies play the primary role in maintaining macroeconomic stability.
Integrating conformational and protonation equilibria in biomolecular modeling

Author(s): Kim, Meekyum Olivia | Abstract: Due to high sensitivity of biomolecular systems to the electrostatic environments, coupled treatment of conformational and protonation equilibria is required for an accurate characterization of true ensemble of a given system. The research presented in this dissertation examines the effects of conformational and protonation equilibria of varying extent on diverse aspects of computational biomolecular modeling, as introduced in Chapter 1. The effects of protonation and stereoisomerism of two histidines on virtual screening against the M. tuberculosis enzyme RmlC are presented in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, conformational flexibility of three M. tuberculosis prenyl synthases is probed using molecular dynamics simulations, with implications for computer-aided drug discovery effort for the new generation antibacterial and antivirulence therapeutics. Chapters 4 and 5 consider the conformational and protonation equilibria simultaneously by utilizing constant pH molecular dynamics, in which fluctuations in both conformation and protonation state are possible. In Chapter 4, a computational protocol utilizing constant pH molecular dynamics to compute pH- dependent binding free energies is presented. The methodology is further applied to protein-ligand complexes in Chapter 5, where the thermodynamic linkage between protonation equilibria, conformational dynamics, and inhibitor binding is illustrated
Determining Community Lifestyle in Sumatra Island during COVID-19 Pandemic Time

COVID-19 is a contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. This study aims to look at factors related to the lifestyle of people on the island of Sumatra during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used a cross-sectional design with 2020 respondents with age criteria over 16 who lived on the island of Sumatra. The questionnaire in this study was in the form of an e-survey using Google form media and distributed through social media (WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram). Chi-square test was used to analyze the relationship between lifestyle factors in men and women with a level of P < 0.05 and the logistic regression analysis test. The results of this study indicate that there was significant relationship between men and women on smoking behavior (odds ratio [OR] = 142.286; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 10.134–1997.783), duration of physical activity (OR = 0.473; 95% CI: 0.359–0.624), food consumption (OR = 3.356; 95% CI: 1.672–6.737), salt consumption (OR = 1.596; 95% CI: 1.131–2.251), oil consumption (OR = 1.463; 95% CI: 1.043–2.050), water consumption (OR = 0.652; 95% CI: 0.475–0.895), and hand washing (OR = 4.130; 95% CI: 1.567–10.883). The community is expected to reduce smoking habits, adopt a healthy lifestyle by doing physical activity, consuming salt, oil, and air according to balanced nutrition and implementing hand habits to prevent the impact of COVID-19.
The Promotion of Exclusive Breastfeeding in Preterm Infants using Cup Feeding: A Literature Review

Exclusive breastfeeding of newborns during the first six months of life has been widely recommended by the World Health Organisation and United Nations Children’s Fund as a global life-saving infant and young child feeding practice. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of cup feeding in promoting exclusive breastfeeding in preterm infants compared to bottle feeding. A literature review of ten studies (mainly systematic reviews of randomised control trials) primarily located using the EBSCOhost database was carried out. The main findings of the review suggest that cup feeding when compared to bottle feeding leads to reduced negative sucking behaviours, long hospital stays, and inability to maintain exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) after discharge from hospital.
Profile of Trace Elements in Selected Medicinal Plants of North East India

Trace elements like Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn and major elements K and Ca were quantified in ten selected medicinal plants of North East India by using Proton Induced X- ray Emission (PIXE) technique. No toxic heavy metals such as As, Hg, Pb and Cd were detected. The concentration (ppm) of the elements in the studied plants was found to be as follows: manganese(10 to1800 ), iron(27 to 836), copper(6 to140), zinc(10 to 160), potassium(14120 to 76950) and calcium(1660 to 32030). The levels of trace metals present in the plants was found to be beyond the safety standards of WHO in edible plants but around the permissible range for consumed medicinal herbs as defined for different countries.
Is Bethesda classification sufficient to predict thyroid cancer in endemic regions?

Corresponding author / Sorumlu yazar: Bahar Canbay Torun Address / Adres: Haseki Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi, Genel Cerrahi Kliniği, İstanbul, Türkiye E-mail: baharcanbay@gmail.com � Ethics Committee Approval: This study was approved by Non-pharmacological Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Haseki Training and Research Hospital (569-2017). All procedures in this study involving human participants were performed in accordance with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments. Etik Kurul Onayı: Bu çalışma Haseki Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Etik Kurulu (569/18.10.2017) tarafından onaylandı. İnsan katılımcıların katıldığı çalışmalardaki tüm prosedürler, 1964 Helsinki Deklarasyonu ve daha sonra yapılan değişiklikler uyarınca gerçekleştirilmiştir. � Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest was declared by the authors. Çıkar Çatışması: Yazarlar çıkar çatışması bildirmemişlerdir. � Financial Disclosure: The authors declared that this study has received no financial support. Finansal Destek: Yazarlar bu çalışma için finansal destek almadıklarını beyan etmişlerdir. � Published: 9/30/2020 Yayın Tarihi: 30.09. 2020
Comparison Study between Antioxidants Therapy and Diet Therapy in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Patients

Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common liver disease that can progress to cirrhosis. Vitamin E and C can be used in its treatment owing to their antioxidant effects. Prescriptive diet therapy also seems to have a promising effect in Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) management. Aim of the work: This study aims to investigate that the effect of therapeutic diets with some natural foods rich in Vitamin C and E on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Subject and methods: This cross-sectional study including 90 patients who were divided into three groups (30 in each). The first group (nutritional therapy group) received nutritional therapy according Individualized nutritional therapy only, the second group (Vitamin C group) received nutritional therapy combined with doth of vitamin C (430 mg), while the third group (Vitamin E group) received nutritional therapy combined with high doth of vitamin E (50mg) Follow-up continued for 3month. Results: There were significant improvement in ALT, AST, hemoglobin, glucose, weight, body mass index (BMI), muscles, fats, target Body Weight (TBW), Waist-Hip Ratio (WHR) and ultrasonography findings after treatment of NAFLD with vitamin E and C and the diet therapy in comparison with their value before treatment. In addition, there were highly statistically significant differences between both vitamin E and C and the diet therapy group. Conclusion: Vitamin E and C as well as prescriptive diet therapy induced significant improvement in hepatic condition in NAFLD patients in terms of biochemical, anthropometric measurements and ultrasonography findings; however Vitamin E and C had more significant results compared to the nutritional therapy group.
Grafting studies of tomato with wild Solanum rootstocks

A grafting study was conducted with three rootstocks viz., Solanum torvum, Solanum sisymbrifolium and Solanum capsicoides and two scion viz., TNAU tomato hybrid CO 3 and Shivam. Among the rootstocks Solanum capsicoides took less time to germinate and germination percentage was more in Solanum sisymbrifolium both at 15 and 25 days after sowing. Success percentage was more in graft combination of Shivam with Solanum sisymbrifolium on 30th and 45th day. The highest plant height was observed in Shivam grafted with Solanum torvum rootstock, whereas total number of branches per plant, days to first flowering, per cent fruit set and yield per plant was high in TNAU tomato hybrid CO 3 grafted with Solanum sisymbrifolium rootstock. Days to fifty percent flowering and fruit weight was positive in non-grafted Shivam compared to other treatments. Days to first fruit set was observed earlier in non-grafted tomato hybrid CO 3. The combination of TNAU tomato hybrid CO 3 grafted with Solanum sisymbrifolium rootstock performed well under field condition for yield and yield contributing characters.
An Effective Path-aware Approach for Keyword Search over Data Graphs

 Abstract —Keyword Search is known as a user-friendly alternative for structured languages to retrieve information from graph-structured data. Efficient retrieving of relevant answers to a keyword query and effective ranking of these answers according to their relevance are two main challenges in the keyword search over graph-structured data. In this paper, a novel scoring function is proposed, which utilizes both the textual and structural features of answers in order to produce a more accurate order of answers. In addition, a query processing algorithm is developed based on information spreading technique to enumerate answers in approximate order. This algorithm is further improved by allowing a skewed development toward more promising paths and enables a more efficient processing of keyword queries. Performance evaluation through extensive experiments on a standard benchmark of three real-world datasets shows the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithms.
The study of colour changes under artificial weathering of light red meranti and yellow balau wood from Shorea genus

The study of colour changes under artificial weathering of light red meranti and yellow balau wood from Shorea genus. This paper deals with the change in colour of selected tropical wood species from Shorea genus such as light red meranti and yellow balau. The artificial weathering method was used to determine the colour stability of wood surface. The used ageing method consisted of alternating soaking wood in water, drying at a temperature of 70°C and UV irradiation exposure. The colour changes were evaluated using CIE L*C*h system. Changes of particular colour parameters (lightness L*, chroma C*, hue h) were determine as well as the total colour change ΔE*. The results showed that tested species of wood change their colour similarly under the influence of the artificial weathering (the changes in the tested wood appearance occurred in similar scope). Surfaces of tested wood species initially became darker and then lighter. The largest changes in intensity of the colour of wood took place at the beginning of artificial weathering process. The intensity of changes decreased with the progress of aging process.