Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PROTECTIVE ROLE OF HARUNGANA MADAGASCARIENSIS LAM. EX POIR. (HYPERICACEAE) ETHANOL LEAVE EXTRACT ON HEMATOLOGY AND SERUM PROTEIN LEVELS IN PHENYLHYDRAZINE-INDUCED ANAEMIA

Different parts of Harungana madagascariensis (HM) have been used to treat various kinds of diseases in traditional medicine especially around West Africa but no literature has been cited using its ethanol leaf extract to alleviate hemolytic anaemia. The aim of this study therefore, was to investigate the activities of the ethanol leaf extract of HM on some haematological parameters and protein levels in phenylhydrazine(PHZ)-induced anaemic male Wistar rats. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of the leaf extract confirmed alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponnins, anthraquinone, glycosides, etc. and absence of steroids. Acute toxicity test of the extract of HM was done in Wistar rats to 4800 mg/kg. Forty male rats (weighing between 150-230 g) were randomly grouped into 5. Group 1 served as normal control and received distilled water, Group 2 negative control and animals were given a single dose of PHZ (40 mg/kg) b/w intraperitoneally. Group 3 received HM extract at 1500 mg/kg/day orally only, while Groups 4 and 5 respectively received 1500 mg/kg (low dose, LD) and 3000 mg/kg (high dose, HD) of HM orally after challenge with single dose of 40 mg/kg PHZ intraperitoneally. The treatments lasted for 28 days. Animals were anesthetized post-treatment and blood was collected from each rat through the retrobulbar plexus for estimation of hematological parameters and protein levels respectively. Acute toxicity study showed an LD50 at 4639.80 mg/kg. In the extract-treated groups, RBC count, PCV, Hb concentration, MCHC, MCH, WBC count, platelet count and plateletcrit were significantly increased (p<0.001) while MCV, MPV, P-LCR, PDW significantly reduced (p<0.001) when compared with the anaemic control group. Serum proteins were significantly increased (p<0.001) in the extract-treated groups compared to anaemic group. In conclusion, the oral administration of ethanol leaf extract of Harungana madagascariensis can be said to have anti-anaemic potentials.
Compliance To Hand Hygiene Standards Amongst Health Care Providers In Selected Public Hospitals In Uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Hand hygiene is a simple act of hand cleansing and the most effective measure of decreasing healthcare-associated infections among the health care workers. The infections not only lengthen the hospitalization period but also increase financial burden to individual, family and a country at large for example in Europe approximately €13–24 billion is spent annually. Hand hygiene compliance has remained unacceptably as low as 40% worldwide with the developing countries reporting a lower percentage. The broad objective of this study was to determine the level of compliance with hand hygiene standards amongst the health care providers in selected public hospitals in Uasin Gishu County. The study used the cross-sectional study design. The lower level health facilities were selected randomly while higher level health facilities were selected purposively. Sample size determination was done using Fisher’s (1999) formula and Cochran’s correction formula was used due to the population of health workers being below 10,000. A total of 301 sample size was arrived at and additional ten percent of the 301 sample size was included to accommodate for attrition hence having a total sample size of 331 respondents. The Simple random sampling technique was used to identify the 331 health care providers taking into consideration the use of probability proportionate to sample size technique in obtaining the number of health care providers from each health facility. The Data collection instruments included a self-administered questionnaire and observational checklist. Quantitative Data analysis was carried out by utilizing the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20. The findings revealed a compliance rate of 49.8%. Pearson’s test of correlation revealed that the main determinants of compliance with hand hygiene standards were professional cadre (r=014; P=0.015), training (r=0.371; P=<0.01) level of education (r= 0.168; P=0.004), availability of clean running water (r=0.271; P=<0.01) and hand washing soap (r=0.168; P=0.003). The study recommends that the policy makers and health stakeholders need to come up with a policy that ensures that the health care workers adhere to hand hygiene standards and ensure adequate provision of hand hygiene facilities so as to enhance compliance with hand hygiene standards.
ANTI-BIOFILM ACTIVITY EVALUATION AND MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDY OF SOME 2(3-PYRIDYL)-THIAZOLYL-1,3,4-OXADIAZOLINES

Among the most promising unconventional targets for the development of new antimicrobial drugs is bacterial adherence and biofilm formation. This study is focused on the evaluation of a series of 2(3-pyridyl)-thiazolyl-1,3,4-oxadiazolines as bacterial biofilm inhibitors against a panel of Gram-positive bacterial strains. Some of these compounds showed interesting activity against biofilm formation of the Staphylococcus aureus strain. A preliminary study of the mechanism of action was carried out by a molecular docking assay between the compounds and the Sortase A enzyme. The connection between the docking results obtained and the anti-biofilm activity suggested that the tested compounds could have as potential mechanism of action the inhibition of Sortase A.
Carbon Farming and Soil Organic Carbon Pools under Different Land Use and Cropping Systems in Alfisols

The quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) pools and carbon farming potential of any land use and cropping systems are important indicators of productivity, profitability, and sustainability of that system. The objective of our present study was to evaluate the spatial and depth-wise distribution of SOC pools (active-C and passive-C) and carbon farming potential of major cropping and land use systems in Alfisols under southern agro climatic zone of Andhra Pradesh, India. We quantified active-C, passive-C pools, and SOC status in 19 different land use and cropping systems. The results indicated that SOC status and carbon farming potential were highest (P< 0.001) under forest land use (13.96 g kg and 62.19 Mg ha) followed by mango orchards (> 15 years age) relatively less than 23.6%, and on par with sugarcane-vegetables 25.2%, and paddytomato 23.1 %. The lowest (P< 0.001) was recorded under rainfed groundnut 77.5%, followed by sugarcane-sugarcane 73.3%. The active-C pool was significantly (P< 0.001) higher in forest land use (8.79 g kg) followed by sugarcane-vegetables (8.3 g kg). The passive-C pool was higher (P< 0.001) under forest land use (7.98 g kg), on par with mango orchards> 15 years age (7.49 g kg) and followed by paddy-tomato (5.69 g kg) and sugarcane-paddy (5.12 g kg). The lowest (P<0.001) active and passive-C pools belonged to rainfed groundnut, current fallow lands, and sugarcane-sugarcane cropping systems. Of all the studied land use and cropping systems, carbon farming potential was higher under forest land use followed by mango orchards > 15 years age, sugarcanevegetables and paddy-tomato cropping systems. The potential was medium under paddygroundnut, groundnut-tomato/vegetables, tomato-vegetables, perennial fodder plantations, casuarina and eucalyptus plantations and sugarcane-paddy cropping systems, while it was low under paddy-paddy, groundnut-groundnut, flower crops and cultivable wastes and very low under rainfed groundnut, current fallow lands, and sugarcane-sugarcane cropping systems. Thus, the present study emphasizes on the carbon farming potential, which could act as an indicator for sustainability of the different land use and cropping systems under southern agro-climatic zone.
Utility of the Sputum Cytology Applying MGG and Pap stains in Monitoring Sudanese Patients Complaining of Bronchial Asthma

Objectives: This is a case control study aimed at detecting cytological changes in diagnosed asthmatic patients, using sputum samples collected and stained by cytological methods. Materials and methods: The study was carried out on 80 individuals, of whom 30 were normal as controls, and 50 were asthmatic patients. Along with clinical data cytological, patterns in asthmatic patients were mapped using two stains, Papaniclauo (PAP) and May-Grunwald Giemsa (MGG). Results: Inflammatory response changes were reported in 18 cases (36%) compared with 4 controls (13%). Inflammatory responses with metaplasia and metaplasia changes without inflammatory response were seen within these 18 cases, with asthmatic patients with 27 cases (54%) and 2 cases (4%) respectively, (p < 0. 01). Inflammatory response, both with and without metaplasia, was reported in 32 (64%;p <0.05) asthmatic patients suffering from environmental allergens with respiratory co-infections. Inflammation with metaplasia was also found to be significantly higher (p < 0.05) in females. The PAP stain gave excellent and clear results for screening of sputum. Conclusion: Sputum cytology is a valuable tool. The PAP stain is suggested to be used as a cytological stain over the MGG stain. Further research is needed to confirm our findings and then to determine whether the assessment of cytological patterns in sputum of asthmatic patients is useful or not for the routine monitoring of asthmatic patients.
Generalist consumption modelling and prey switching: A case study of insectivorous bats in cacao plantations

Predation is essential in the regulation of ecosystems, with predators having a profound effect on the population dynamics of their prey. The consumption of a predator per unit time as a function of prey availability, known as their functional response, has a rich research history within ecology. Furthermore, this functional response can indicate whether a predator is likely to switch from its preferred prey as its availability decreases. Generalist predators feed on multiple prey species and switch between alternative prey. This introduces a significant challenge when modelling predator-prey relationships. Traditionally, studies have focussed only on the relationship between a generalist predator and a single species of its prey. However, excluding all possible prey from their consumption analysis results in misleading conclusions on the effect generalist predators have on the populations of their prey. Therefore, developing consumption models that take all prey species into account can provide an accurate understanding of the predator’s functional responses and the conditions under which they exhibit prey switching. Using Bayesian methods, we fitted a multi species functional response (MSFR) model to consumption data of a generalist insectivorous bat, Rhinolophus alcyone, feeding on five orders of arthropods. Data on arthropod abundance and consumption, via DNA metabarcoding, was collected from sixteen cacao plantations of varying vegetation structure. Comparing the results of the MSFR model to a single species approach demonstrates the importance of including all possible prey when investigating the consumption of a generalist predator. Focussing on one taxon resulted in unfeasibly large parameter values, which would generate misleading conclusions on the predator-prey relationship. Using the MSFR, the proportion of orders within the predicted diet were close to that of the real diet, ascertained through DNA metabarcoding. Results of the model demonstrate a high degree of prey
Trace fluorine substituted calcium deficient hydroxyapatite with excellent osteoblastic activity and antibacterial ability

In natural metabolic apatite, defects play an important role in osteoblastic activity and have attracted considerable interest in biomaterials chemistry. In the present study, we have synthesized a trace fluorine substituted calcium deficient hydroxyapatite, which exhibited excellent osteoblastic activity as well as high antibacterial ability. The Ca(II) vacancy and related defects in the crystal lattice are characterized by high-resolution TEM and crystal models. It was found that calcium deficient hydroxyapatite with fluorine at a molar ratio of 0.02 exhibited a unique microstructure and corresponding properties, including high antibacterial activity, maximum adsorption of proteins, superior biocompatibility, excellent osteoblastic cell attachment, proliferation, and differentiation, and upregulated osteogenesis-related gene expressions. It is suggested that the trace fluorine induced Ca(II) vacancy and lattice defects result in the formation of a net dipole moment, changes of potential energy levels, and stronger acid sites for the necessary bioactive centers, which may induce the antibacterial ability and excellent osteoblastic activity. These results might reveal the influential role of trace fluorine in the unique crystal structure and bioactivity of biological hydroxyapatite, and furthermore suggest the promising application of trace fluorine hydroxyapatite in biomedical materials.
Enade : are the students motivated to take the test ?

Objective: Based on the assumptions of theoretical and sociocognitive approaches, this study aimed to identify the levels of motivation of Accountancy students to take the Enade (National Exam for the Assessment of Student Performance), with and without the provision of extrinsic motivation mechanisms. Descriptive research with a quantitative approach, performed through a survey of 1,082 students from 122 Brazilian institutions. Method: This is a descriptive research with a quantitative approach, carried out by means of a survey. To test if there were significant differences in the levels of student motivation, with and without the provision of motivation mechanisms to take the Enade, the nonparametric Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests were used. Results: It was verified that the motivation levels of the students investigated to take the Enade 2015 are statistically inferior to their motivation to take the Accountancy program. The results pointed out that the supply of stimuli, whether the registration of the score on the degree; use of the score for admission to graduate studies; use of the score for public examinations or for the CFC professional qualification examination, as a reward for these students, positively affects the intention (motivation) to take the Enade. Contributions: Considering that Enade has been consolidated as a large-scale assessment in Brazil, adjustments that help to make the system more accurate are important. The findings of this study suggest that the use of the students’ Enade score in post-college stages may serve as a stimulus for them to focus more on the assessment, reducing the resistance, the “boycotts” and making the exam results more precise, especially in the Accountancy course, which ranks fourth in number of enrollments in Brazil, and because the students are subject to another evaluation for professional practice, the Proficiency Examination.
Osseous Pathological Changes
in the White-Tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)
in its Central European Habitat

The aim of our research was to examine bone health in white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) that died in the years 2010-2016. The research was conducted on 37 complete skeletons of eagles that came from the territories of Poland and Germany. CT and digital radiography were used in the research, and anatomical and histological analyses were carried out. We described macroscopic bone lesions in 14 birds. The most frequently found forms of pathological changes were osteophytes, which formed mainly in pelvic limbs. They were found less frequently in certain wing bones, as well as the clavicle and the sternum. In four cases, proliferative bone lesions were accompanied by osteoarthritis. Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) was diagnosed in six birds, including one in the early stages of the disease. The lesions were found in most cases in the knee joint area and affected mainly the proximal epiphysis of the tibiotarsal bone. In one bird, a macroscopic presentation typical of osteomyelitis was observed on the tarsometatarsal bone, which might have been associated with its fracture and lysis. There was also one case of lesions typical of osteosarcoma. The analysis of individual bones of each skeleton revealed that bones from pelvic limbs more often underwent pathological changes, especially the tibiotarsus and associated joints. However, it is difficult to accept this observation as a rule without research on larger material. One cannot exclude the possibility that some types of changes in bones, such as osteosarcoma and OCD, may result from poisoning with heavy metals, particularly cadmium.
Experimental Study on Propane/Air Flame Propagation Characteristics in a Disc-Like Gap Chamber

ABSTRACT A disc-like gap chamber was developed to investigate the microscale effects on flame propagation characteristics in closed chamber, which is very important to understand the combustion process in micro internal combustion engines. Under initially normal pressure and temperature, the morphology and evolution of outwardly propagating flame, the flammable limit, flame speed and flame instability of propane-air flames influenced by gap width and equivalence ratio were experimentally studied. The results show that, as the gap width nearly equals to the quenching distance, the sustained propagation was possible only with rich flames. The smooth flames and wrinkled flames were observed. It clearly shows that the flame wrinkles developed gradually instead of instantaneously. The flame speed was slower in the 2.0 mm gap chamber than in a conventional combustion bomb, and the flame speed decreased with the increase of flame radius. As a result, the flame acceleration was not observed in present experiments. With the smaller gap width, the wrinkled flame occurred early, and the flame speed was slower. Due to the geometry of disc-like gap chamber, simple theoretical analysis indicates that the heat loss and elevated pressure play important roles in reducing flame speed.
Características agronômicas e qualidade fisiológica de sementes de soja em função da adubação foliar com boro e zinco

Diversos fatores podem influenciar o desenvolvimento e a produção da cultura da soja, podendo-se destacar principalmente a deficiência nutricional e a qualidade fisiológica das sementes. Desta forma, a presente pesquisa objetivou avaliar os teores foliares nutricionais, os componentes da produção e a produtividade de sementes de soja, além da qualidade fisiológica das sementes em função da adubação foliar com Boro (B) e Zinco (Zn). O delineamento experimental foi o de blocos casualizados, com 10 tratamentos e 4 repetições. Os tratamentos foram constituídos pela aplicação foliar, de diferentes dosagens de B e Zn combinadas ou não na cultura da soja. Constatou-se que as diferentes combinações e dosagens de B e Zn, aplicados via foliar na cultura da soja não melhoraram os teores foliares nutricionais, os componentes da produção e produtividade de sementes da soja, assim como a qualidade fisiológica das sementes.
Targeting versus Tailoring Educational Videos for Encouraging Deceased Organ Donor Registration in Black-Owned Barbershops

In the U.S., black men are at highest risk for requiring kidney transplants but are among those least likely to register for organ donation. Prior outreach used videos culturally targeted for Black communities, yet registration rates remain insufficient to meet demand. Therefore, we assessed whether generic versus videos culturally targeted or personally tailored based on prior organ donation beliefs differentially increase organ donor registration. In a randomized controlled trial, 1,353 participants in Black-owned barbershops viewed generic, targeted, or tailored videos about organ donation. Logistic regression models assessed the relative impact of videos on: 1) immediate organ donor registration, 2) taking brochures, and 3) change in organ donation willingness stage of change from baseline. Randomization yielded approximately equal groups related to demographics and baseline willingness and beliefs. Neither targeted nor tailored videos differentially affected registration compared with the generic video, but participants in targeted and tailored groups were more likely to take brochures. Targeted (OR = 1.74) and tailored (OR = 1.57) videos were associated with incremental increases in organ donation willingness stage of change compared to the generic video. Distributing culturally targeted and individually tailored videos increased organ donor willingness stage of change among Black men in Black-owned barbershops but was insufficient for encouraging registration. Abbreviations: CI – confidence interval; DMV – Department of Motor Vehicles; BOBs – Black-owned barbershops; ODBI – organ donation belief index; ODWS – organ donation willingness stage of change; OR – odds ratio
Formation process and properties of hydrogen-producing granular sludge in UASB reactor

The granular sludge of microbial fermentation systems includes various biomass-degrading enzymes and different microflora, which have significant impacts on the degradation of biomass and the stability of the system. An up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor was used to grow hydrogen-producing granular sludge. The results showed that the formation of the granular sludge underwent four stages, i.e., flocculation of the sludge, formation of the flocculent sludge, swelling of the flocculent sludge, and formation of the granular sludge. The formed granular sludge mostly had regular spherical and ellipsoidal shapes with a fractal dimension of 2.08±0.4; the settling velocities were 0.84 cm/s to 1.96 cm/s in water, the porosity was 0.67-0.95. The shear sensitivity (Kss) of the granular sludge was 0.1152. The granular sludge had a culture cycle of approximately 70 d and a hydrogen yield of 1.09 mol H2/mol glucose. Keywords: Anaerobic fermentation, UASB reactor, granular sludge, hydrogen DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe. 20181105.4255 Citation: Yin L L, Liu S, Wang M Y, Ju W C, Wei D H, Li W Z. Formation process and properties of hydrogen-producing granular sludge in UASB reactor. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(5): 224–229.
Cross-Dataset Collaborative Learning for Semantic Segmentation

Semantic segmentation is an important task for scene understanding in self-driving cars and robotics, which aims to assign dense labels for all pixels in the image. Existing work typically improves semantic segmentation performance by exploring different network architectures on a target dataset. Little attention has been paid to build a unified system by simultaneously learning from multiple datasets due to the inherent distribution shift across different datasets. In this paper, we propose a simple, flexible, and general method for semantic segmentation, termed Cross-Dataset Collaborative Learning (CDCL). Our goal is to train a unified model for improving the performance in each dataset by leveraging information from all the datasets. Specifically, we first introduce a family of Dataset-Aware Blocks (DAB) as the fundamental computing units of the network, which help capture homogeneous convolutional representations and heterogeneous statistics across different datasets. Second, we present a Dataset Alternation Training (DAT) mechanism to facilitate the collaborative optimization procedure. We conduct extensive evaluations on diverse semantic segmentation datasets for autonomous driving. Experiments demonstrate that our method consistently achieves notable improvements over prior single-dataset and cross-dataset training methods without introducing extra FLOPs. Particularly, with the same architecture of PSPNet (ResNet-18), our method outperforms the single-dataset baseline by 5.65\%, 6.57\%, and 5.79\% mIoU on the validation sets of Cityscapes, BDD100K, CamVid, respectively. We also apply CDCL for point cloud 3D semantic segmentation and achieve improved performance, which further validates the superiority and generality of our method. Code and models will be released.