Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antioxidant potential of a soft cheese (paneer) supplemented with the extracts of date (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cultivars and its whey

Objective The present study was conducted to evaluate the antioxidant potential of paneer, a soft cheese supplemented with various water soluble date extracts during storage. Further, the whey obtained from all the paneer samples was also investigated for its antioxidant potential. Methods The date cultivars were evaluated for their physico-chemical characteristics and date extracts were assessed for their antioxidant potential. Physico-chemical evaluation, microbiological quality and further antioxidant potential of the prepared paneer were carried out during storage period (0 to 8 days, 5°C). Results All the date extracts were found to have considerable antioxidant activity due to presence of total phenolics and flavonoids. Owing to the presence of phenolics and flavoinds in date extracts, supplemented paneer showed higher trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity, reducing power and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity than control paneer. Paneer supplemented with Rabi extracts had the highest total phenolics (190.7 μg gallic acid equivalent/g paneer), DPPH radical scavenging activity (928.1 μmol equivalent of Trolx/g paneer) and trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (9.2 μmol equivalent of Trolx/g paneer). The whey obtained from control paneer showed lower values of total phenolics, total flavonoids, DPPH, trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity and reducing power as compared to the values of whey obtained from paneer supplemented with date extracts. Conclusion Paneer supplemented with date extracts and its whey may offer potent antioxidant activity.
Studies of Neotropical Goodyerinae (Orchidaceae) 5

Abstract Continuing studies of neotropical Goodyerinae reveal new distributional records for Aspidogyne umbraticola and Microchilus familiaris. The synonymy of Aspidogyne querceticola is elaborated upon. One new combination, Aspidogyne clavigera var. rhodostachys is proposed, as well as four new species of Microchilus, viz. M. boyacanus, M. callejasii, M. quetamensis, and M. schneidert. Physurus debilis and Spiranthes pedicellata are lectotypified.
Magnetized Decaying Turbulence in the Compressible Taylor-Green Vortex

Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence affects both terrestrial and astrophysical plasmas. The properties of magnetized turbulence must be better understood to more accurately characterize these systems. This work presents ideal MHD simulations of the compressible Taylor-Green vortex under a range of initial sub-sonic Mach numbers and magnetic field strengths. We find that regardless of the initial field strength, the magnetic energy becomes dominant over the kinetic energy on all scales after at most several dynamical times. The spectral indices of the kinetic and magnetic energy spectra become shallower than $k^{-5/3}$ over time and generally fluctuate. Using a shell-to-shell energy transfer analysis framework, we find that the magnetic fields facilitate a significant amount of the energy flux and that the kinetic energy cascade is suppressed. Moreover, we observe non-local energy transfer from the large scale kinetic energy to intermediate and small scale magnetic energy via magnetic tension. We conclude that even in intermittently or singularly driven weakly magnetized systems, the dynamical effects of magnetic fields cannot be neglected.
Why Does the Fed Move Markets so Much? A Model of Monetary Policy and Time-Varying Risk Aversion

We build a new model integrating a work-horse New Keynesian model with investor risk aversion that moves with the business cycle. We show that the same habit preferences that explain the equity volatility puzzle in quarterly data also naturally explain the large high-frequency stock response to Federal Funds rate surprises. In the model, a surprise increase in the short-term interest rate lowers output and consumption relative to habit, thereby raising risk aversion and amplifying the fall in stocks. The model explains the positive correlation between changes in breakeven inflation and stock returns around monetary policy announcements with long-term inflation news.
The split of a fricative merger due to dialect contact and societal changes: A sociophonetic study on Andalusian Spanish read-speech

Abstract In line with a growing body of literature suggesting that mergers are reversible given the adequate dialect contact and social context, the present study examines the phonetic split of the Andalusian Spanish merger of ceceo into the Castilian Spanish feature of distinción. Specifically, the study analyzes 19,420 coronal fricatives produced by 80 Western Andalusian speakers from the city of Huelva and the nearby town of Lepe using a reading passage and wordlist. The analyses find that leaders of this change are younger speakers, women, those with more educational attainment, those of service and professional occupations, and those from Huelva. The implications are that large-scale societal changes have allowed for the split of the ceceo merger into distinción in both speech communities, albeit at different rates of change due to their unique socioeconomic histories, demonstrating that a split is possible given the right social context.
Man vs. Machine Learning: The Term Structure of Earnings Expectations and Conditional Biases

We use machine learning to construct a statistically optimal and unbiased benchmark for firms' earnings expectations. We show that analyst expectations are on average biased upwards, and that this bias exhibits substantial time-series and cross-sectional variation. On average, the bias increases in the forecast horizon, and analysts revise their expectations downwards as earnings announcement dates approach. We find that analysts' biases are associated with negative cross-sectional return predictability, and the short legs of many anomalies consist of firms for which the analysts' forecasts are excessively optimistic relative to our benchmark. Managers of companies with the greatest upward biased earnings forecasts are more likely to issue stocks.
Venture Capitalists and COVID-19

Abstract We survey over 1,000 venture capitalists (VCs) on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their decisions and investments. Despite the historical importance of in-person meetings, VCs do not report difficulty finding quality entrepreneurs or major changes in time allocation. They do report difficulty in evaluating deals, more investor-friendly terms, and a decreased investment rate, with about one-sixth of VCs reporting pressure from limited partners to conserve capital. Although aggregate returns are largely unchanged, there is high dispersion both within and across funds. A follow-up survey shows faster-than-expected recovery in deal volume, terms, and returns.
Farmer-based dynamics in tissue culture banana technology adoption: a socio-economic perspective among small holder farmers in Uganda

The rates at which tissue-culture banana technology at smallholder farmer level in Uganda are adopted have reduced since the late 1990s. The study assessed the socio-economic factors influencing adoption of this technology by smallholder farmers. A survey on 280 smallholder farmers sampled from Western Uganda was conducted and responses were subjected to principal component analyses. There are evidences of very low levels of adoption of the tissue culture banana technology. There is a mix between households that completely reject tissue culture banana technology, and others growing diminutive amounts of tissue culture bananas alongside non-tissue culture banana varieties. The scale of production and productivity of non-tissue banana varieties significantly exceeds that of tissue culture bananas (83%: 17%). While expected yield from a banana production technology is a precursor to its adoption, demographic and management characteristics shape the practices that enhance the yield of tissue culture banana technology (p ≤ 0.05) and subsequent decision to adopt or reject tissue culture banana technology. A systems-wide approach is needed to develop mechanisms that would stimulate smallholder farmers to adopt the technology in order to realize the immense potential of tissue-culture banana technology. Key words: tissue culture banana; adoption, rejection, socio-economic, banana yield, a systems wide approach.
COVID-19: an opportunity for African governments to rethink social welfare benefits and protection

The emergence of COVID-19 in December 2019 has highlighted several lessons about Public health emergencies. One important lesson is on the role of social welfare benefits and protection in the overall management of public health emergencies. The absence of a functional and digitalized social welfare system in Africa may render ineffective public health measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The social determinant of disease illustrates the nexus between poverty and health outcomes. Therefore, COVID-19 is an opportunity for African governments to rethink their stance on social welfare benefits and protection; and adopt mechanisms that protect the most vulnerable.
Family-Centered Social Cognitive Factors Preventing Primary Tooth Caries in Children Based on Intervention Mapping Approach

Background Given the increasing prevalence of primary tooth caries in Iran and the importance of providing evidence- and theory-based family-centered prevention programs, the present study is aimed at determining the family-centered social cognitive factors preventing deciduous tooth caries among children using the intervention mapping protocol. Methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 240 Iranian mothers in Ilam who were randomly selected to participate in the study. The data were collected using a self-designed questionnaire including items on demographic information and social cognitive constructs (knowledge, attitude, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, practice guidance, perceived self-efficacy, behavior intention, subjective norms, and social norms). The questionnaire was completed by mothers, and the data were analyzed by performing one-way analysis of variance and linear regression. Results The results obtained from linear regression analysis showed that perceived self-efficacy (B = 0.295, p < 0.001), perceived barriers (B = 0.084, p < 0.028), practice guidance (B = 0.774, p < 0.001), and social norms (B = 0.137, p < 0.020) accounted for 71% of the behavioral intention variance and were the most important predictors for preventing primary tooth caries among children. Conclusion The findings suggest that perceived self-efficacy, perceived barriers, practice guidance, and social norms are essential for developing family-centered programs to prevent primary tooth caries in children.
CORnet: Modeling the Neural Mechanisms of Core Object Recognition

Deep artificial neural networks with spatially repeated processing (a.k.a., deep convolutional ANNs) have been established as the best class of candidate models of visual processing in primate ventral visual processing stream. Over the past five years, these ANNs have evolved from a simple feedforward eight-layer architecture in AlexNet to extremely deep and branching NAS-Net architectures, demonstrating increasingly better object categorization performance and increasingly better explanatory power of both neural and behavioral responses. However, from the neuroscientist’s point of view, the relationship between such very deep architectures and the ventral visual pathway is incomplete in at least two ways. On the one hand, current state-of-the-art ANNs appear to be too complex (e.g., now over 100 levels) compared with the relatively shallow cortical hierarchy (4-8 levels), which makes it difficult to map their elements to those in the ventral visual stream and to understand what they are doing. On the other hand, current state-of-the-art ANNs appear to be not complex enough in that they lack recurrent connections and the resulting neural response dynamics that are commonplace in the ventral visual stream. Here we describe our ongoing efforts to resolve both of these issues by developing a “CORnet” family of deep neural network architectures. Rather than just seeking high object recognition performance (as the state-of-the-art ANNs above), we instead try to reduce the model family to its most important elements and then gradually build new ANNs with recurrent and skip connections while monitoring both performance and the match between each new CORnet model and a large body of primate brain and behavioral data. We report here that our current best ANN model derived from this approach (CORnet-S) is among the top models on Brain-Score, a composite benchmark for comparing models to the brain, but is simpler than other deep ANNs in terms of the number of convolutions performed along the longest path of information processing in the model. All CORnet models are available at github.com/dicarlolab/CORnet, and we plan to up-date this manuscript and the available models in this family as they are produced.
Rosmarinic Acid Enriched Fraction from Perilla frutescens Leaves Strongly Protects Indomethacin-Induced Gastric Ulcer in Rats

Gastric ulcers are a common problem in upper gastrointestinal tract (GI) disorders. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are one of the most aggressive factors leading to inducing gastric ulcers. Natural products with lower toxicity and safety are currently sought as a potential source to minimize the effect of the gastric ulcers. Perilla frutescens or Nga-mon (in Thai) leaves are rich in rosmarinic acid (RA), which has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer effects. This study investigates the protective effect of ethanolic extract (EE) and aqueous fraction (AF) from Perilla frutescens leaves, which are rich in RA, on indomethacin- (IND-) induced gastric ulcer in a rat model. The EE at the doses of 50 and 500 mg/kg body weight, AF at the doses of 50, 250, and 500 mg/kg body weight, or famotidine (a standard drug) were administered for 14 days prior to ulcer induction. The ulceration was performed by intragastric administration of IND. Gross gastric ulcers and biological and histological parameters were examined. The pretreatment with AF had more significant effects than EE, including reduced ulcer index, decreased gastric secretion volume and decreased acidity, but it had an elevated gastric pH relative to the IND-induced gastric ulcer. In a histopathological study, the EE and AF decreased mucosal ulcer, inflammatory infiltration, and degenerative lining cells. The IND-induced expression of inflammatory mediators was significantly attenuated with EE and AF. The experiment also remarkably showed the preservation of mucus and apoptosis protection of EE and AF on a gastric mucosal ulcer. The findings demonstrated that the EE and AF of perilla leaves were capable of protecting the stomach against gastric ulcers induced by IND through anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic mechanisms that should be further investigated. It is suggested that Perilla frutescens leaf could be a potential alternative source of RA as a therapeutic agent and food supplement for NSAID-induced gastric injuries.
Profil clinique, biologique et radiologique des patients Algériens hospitalisés pour COVID-19: données préliminaires

Introduction Aucune étude antérieure n’a élaboré le profil des patients Algériens hospitalisés pour COVID-19. L’objectif de cette étude était de déterminer le profil clinique, biologique et tomodensitométrique des patients Algériens hospitalisés pour COVID-19. Méthodes Une étude prospective était menée auprès des patients hospitalisés pour COVID-19 (période: 19 mars-30 avril 2020). Les données cliniques, biologiques et radiologiques, le type de traitement reçu et la durée de l’hospitalisation étaient notés. Résultats Le profil clinique des 86 patients atteints de COVID-19 était un homme non-fumeur, âgé de 53 ans, qui était dans 42% des cas en contact avec un cas suspect/confirmé de COVID-19 et ayant une comorbidité dans 70% des cas (hypertension artérielle, diabète sucré, pathologie respiratoire chronique et allergie, cardiopathie). Les plaintes cliniques étaient dominées par la triade «asthénie-fièvre-toux» dans plus de 70% des cas. Les anomalies biologiques les plus fréquentes étaient: syndrome inflammatoire biologique (90,1%), basocytémie (70,8%), lymphopénie (53,3%), augmentation de la lactico-deshydrogénase (52,2%), anémie (38,7%), augmentation de la phosphokinase (28,8%) et cytolyse hépatique (27,6%). Les signes tomodensitométriques les plus fréquents étaient: verre dépoli (91,8%), condensations alvéolaires (61,2%), verre dépoli en plage (60,0%), et verre dépoli nodulaire (55,3%). Un traitement à base de «chloroquine, azithromycine, zinc, vitamine C, enoxaparine, double antibiothérapie et ± corticoïdes» était prescrit chez 34,9% des patients. La moyenne de la durée d’hospitalisation était de 7±3 jours. Conclusion La connaissance des profils des formes modérées et sévères du COVID-19 contribuerait à faire progresser les stratégies de contrôle de l’infection en Algérie.
Upgrading of Deficient Disturbed Regions in Precast RC beams with Near Surface Mounted (NSM) Steel Bars

An experimental study has been conducted to explore the response of self-compacting RC drop in- beams retrofitted with NSM steel bars under short-term static loading. Eleven specimens have been tested in this program, each of (200x400x1600 mm) dimensions with two values of (a/d), namely (1.0 and 1.5). Two of these beams have been considered as reference beams (efficiently reinforced). Three beams with reduced reinforcement, two with deficient main nib steel, while the third with reduced steel in hanger. The rest have been upgraded with different arrangements to retire the expected drop in strength. It was found that reduction of nib reinforcements to the half, results in decreasing load failure of about (11% & 5%) for (a/d) values of (1 and 1.5) respectively. Also, it is observed that retrofitting the nib region with horizontal NSM steel bars led to increase the failure load capacity by about (28.7%) for (a/d) =1. While, the enhancement in strength for specimen with (a/d) =1.5 was about (24%). The increase in the strength capacity for upgraded hanger regions vertical and inclined bars for a/d (1) was about (21.4% and 14.2%) respectively.
Vegetation, floristic composition and structure of a tropical montane forest in Cameroon

Background: The Rumpi Hills Forest Reserve (RHFR) is a montane forest area in south-western Cameroon. Although RHFR is presumed to be rich in biodiversity and vegetation types, little information exists regarding its floristic composition and vegetation patterns.Objectives: Our goal was to characterise vegetation patterns in the reserve and to understand how elevation influences distributions and diversity of species. We aimed to provide a first detailed plant species inventory for this important forest area, as well as basic information on forest structure.Method: We characterised floristic composition and vegetation patterns of the reserve in 25 1-ha plots along an elevational gradient from 50 m to 1778 m. In each plot, trees and lianas of diameter at breast height (dbh) ≥ 10 cm were measured; shrubs 10 cm were measured in nested plots of 0.01 ha.Results: In all, 16 761 trees, shrubs and lianas with dbh ≥ 1 cm were censused, representing 71 families, 279 genera and 617 morphospecies. Floristic composition ranged from 94 to 132 species, with a mean of 117.5 species per hectare in lowland forest (50 m – 200 m) and 36–41 species, with a mean of 38.5 species per hectare in montane cloud forest (1600 m – 1778 m) near the summit of Mount Rata. Two-way indicator species analysis classified the 25 plots into six vegetation types corresponding to lowland evergreen rainforest, lowland evergreen rainforest on basalt rocks, middle-elevation evergreen forest, submontane forest, transitional submontane forest and montane cloud forest. In all, 0.006% of the reserve was included in our sample plots. Detrended correspondence analysis highlighted the importance of elevation in shaping vegetation patterns.Conclusion: The RHFR is composed of different vegetation types, which show impressive variation in terms of structure, species composition and diversity. The detailed, fine-scale inventory data obtained in this study could be useful in planning efficient management of this and other montane tropical forests.
Poisoning causing the decline in South-East Asia’s largest vulture population

Summary Cambodia supports populations of three Critically Endangered vulture species that are believed to have become isolated from the rest of the species’ global range. Until recently Cambodia’s vulture populations had remained stable. However a recent spike in the number of reports of the use of poisons in hunting practices suggests the need to re-evaluate the conservation situation in Cambodia. Population trend analysis showed that since 2010 populations of the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis and Red-headed Vulture Sarcogyps calvus have declined, while the Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris may also have started to decline since 2013. These trends are supported by evidence of reduced nesting success. A survey of veterinary drug availability revealed that diclofenac, the non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug responsible for vulture declines in South Asia was not available for sale in any of the 74 pharmacies surveyed. However, a poisoned Slender-billed Vulture tested positive for carbofuran in toxicology tests. This provides the first evidence of a vulture mortality resulting from carbofuran in Cambodia. The findings suggest the urgent need to tackle use of carbamate pesticides in hunting. Proposed conservation actions are: a) prevention of poisoning through national bans on harmful carbamate pesticides and diclofenac and education campaigns to reduce demand and use; b) training of personnel in priority protected areas in detection and response to poisoning incidents; c) maintenance of a safe and reliable food source through vulture restaurants to ensure short-term survival, and d) protection and restoration of large areas of deciduous dipterocarp forests to enable long-term species recovery.
Auxin and Salicylic acid Nanoformulations for Mitigating Droughtstress in Tomato (Lycopersiconesculentum L.)

Tomato is adapted to a wide range of climatic conditions but most sensitive to water stress, especially at the flowering stage, causing drastic yield reduction. In the present study, a pot culture experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and salicylic acid (SA) nanoformulations against drought effects in tomato during flowering stage. The drought was imposed at 50% flowering by withholding irrigation, and foliar application of nanoformulations was given when the reduction in soil moisture reaches 20 percent. The treatments include NAA (20 & 40 ppm), salicylic acid (50 & 100 ppm), and NAA (20 ppm) + salicylic acid (50 ppm) as straight and nanoformulations along with a control. Observations done on first, second and third day after foliar application revealed a significant increase in chlorophyll index, relative water content, membrane stability index, and chlorophyll stability index due to the application of nanoformulation of NAA + salicylic acid in the plants under drought. The results indicated the efficacy of nanoformulation of NAA + salicylic acid in ameliorating the deteriorative effects of drought in tomato by improving the physiological traits compared to the application of the NAA and salicylic acid as straight formulations.