Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Atomistic insight into novel co-delivery of doxorubicin and paclitaxel using fullerene modified by dimethyl acrylamide trimethyl chitosan: A computational study

Background: The distribution of drugs could not be controlled in the conventional drug delivery system. This has led to the development of a smart nanoparticle-based drug delivery system, known as smart drug delivery systems. In cancer research, novel biocompatible nanocarriers have received much attention for various ranges of anticancer drugs.In the current study, the effect of a novel co-polymer "dimethyl acrylamide-trimethyl chitosan" was investigated on drug delivery of doxorubicin and paclitaxel utilizing modified fullerene nanocarrier. This study was performed via molecular dynamics simulation based on acidic pH sensitivity of the cancer microenvironment. Furthermore, hydrogen bonds, diffusion coefficient, gyration radius, and drug-carrier interaction energies were investigated here. Interestingly, a simultaneous pH and temperature-sensitive system was proposed for paclitaxel and doxorubicin for a co-polymer. A pH-sensitive and temperature-sensitive copolymer was used based on trimethyl chitosan and dimethyl acrylamide, respectively. In such a dualistic approach, co-polymer makes an excellent option to have two properties in one bio-polymer. Results: The results suggest the dramatic and indisputable role of the co-polymer in the release of doxorubicin and paclitaxel in cancerous tissues, as well as an increased biocompatibility and drug uptake in a neutral state. The validation test was performed by repeated simulations of a similar article. The results are very close to those of the reference paper . Conclusions: Overall, conjugated fullerene and dimethyl acrylamide-trimethyl chitosan (DMAA-TMC) as carriers can be a good proposition for loading, delivery, and release of anti-cancer drugs based on a pH/temperature-sensitive smart drug delivery system.
The impact of the spatial qualities of the workplace on architects' job satisfaction

Undoubtedly Job satisfaction among architects is necessary to create a healthy work environment and in turn supports the creation of meaningful built environments. This paper examines the phenomenon of job satisfaction amongst architects and the factors that significantly influence it in the context of Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. A descriptive survey in the form of a questionnaire and structured interviews was utilized to form a comprehensive methodology for investigation, which was conducted in 2009. In total, three hundred questionnaires were administered, addressing architects working in both private and public sectors, while twelve interviews were conducted, with six for each sector. Preliminary findings indicate that job satisfaction has been rated to be relatively high amongst Belfast architects. Factors identified as particularly significant include control over thermal conditions, acoustics, views, lighting, and ergonomics.
Diesel Precursors Via Catalytic Hydrothermal Deoxygenation of Aqueous Canola Oil Emulsion

Aqueous extraction for protein isolation from oilseeds is a promising alternative to the conventional hexane-based solvent extraction widely used in the industry. However, during aqueous extraction, a stable oil-inwater emulsion is produced that results in decreased oil yield. We demonstrated the conversion of this aqueous extract into renewable hydrocarbons on 20%w/w Ni/C at 315 C and at an initial hydrogen headspace pressure of 1.95 MPa. Moderate yield (>50%) and selectivity (~70%) of hydrocarbons within the diesel range were obtained within 12 hours of reaction without additional external hydrogen input. It was also shown that a prolonged experimental run at 305 C can result in near-complete conversion of triacylglycerol oil into diesel-range hydrocarbons (70%) and oxygenates (9%) with selectivity of ~80%. Although the study demonstrates for the first time the possibility of integrating aqueous extraction of protein with renewable diesel production in a hydrothermal medium, the limitations and challenges experienced during this initial study justify additional work that is presently underway.
CAP-EOM-CCSD Method with Smooth Voronoi CAP for Metastable Electronic States in Molecular Clusters

The complex absorbing potential (CAP) approach offers a practical tool for characterization of energies and lifetimes of metastable electronic states, such as temporary anions and core ionized states. Here, we present an implementation of the smooth Voronoi CAP combined with equation-of-motion coupled cluster with single and double substitutions method for metastable states. The performance of the smooth Voronoi and a standard box CAPs is compared for different classes of systems: resonances in isolated molecules and in molecular clusters. The results of the benchmark calculations indicate that the choice of the CAP shape should be guided by the character of the metastable states. While Voronoi CAPs yield stable results in the case of a resonance localized on one molecule, their performance in the cases of states delocalized over two or more molecular species can deteriorate due to the CAP leaking into the vacuum region between the moieties.
Written Corrective Feedback on the Use of Conjunctions among Malaysian ESL Learners

: This mixed - methods study explored the influence of metalinguistic corrective feedback on thirty Malaysian ESL learners’ appropriate and inappropriate use of conjunctions in their writing practice. Data were derived from three sources: students’ essays, questionnaires and semi - structured interviews. The categories of conjunctions explored in this study were additive conjunctions, causal conjunctions, temporal conjunctions, and adversative conjunctions. The percentages of appropriate and inappropriate use of conjunctions were tabulated based on three writing assignments (expository essay, cause and effect essay, and problem - solution essay). The results showed a positive influence of metalinguistic corrective feedback on the ESL learners’ use of conjunctions. The findings from the survey questionnaire revealed positive perceptions in three main aspects: the helpfulness and preferences of coded metalinguistic corrective feedback and their feelings receiving the feedback. Additionally, the efficacy of metalinguistic corrective feedback was explored in the questionnaire and interviews with the feedback perceived as a mediator tool, a trigger for noticing, a correction aid for conjunctions use in writing and as a tool to promote independent learning.
Mathematics Achievement: The Relationship between Student Engagement, Parental Involvement, and Peer Influence

Mathematics is an important subject as a skill and foundation to further learning at the university level. In this regard, the engagement of students in the learning of mathematics is required so that mathematical knowledge and skills can be learned and mastered as much as possible. Previous study showed that student engagement, parental involvement, and peer influence affect mathematics achievement at a university. The purpose of this is to examine the relationship between mathematics achievement, the three aspect of student engagement, parental involvement, and peer influence. Data were collected from a total sample of 284 undergraduate students at a private university in Malaysia. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were used to analyse the data. Mathematics achievement was positively related to cognitive engagement and affective engagement, while behavioural engagement did not affect their achievement. Parental involvement and peer influence, on the other hand, are negatively related with mathematics achievement. More studies that concentrated on the relationship between parental involvement, peer influence, and student engagement in the future are encouraged to establish students' engagement in mathematics learning that vital to increase their mathematics achievement. A qualitative study should be considered in order to obtain more information from respondents.
Concept and Technology Exploration for Transparent Hearing

Abstract : Modern militaries are challenged to physically protect open-field personnel from a great variety of life and effectiveness threats, including chemical, biological, laser, ballistic, and percussive weapons. Many chemical and biological threats require covering all orifices, including the ears, to achieve minimal protection. Additionally, warfighting involves operating in very close proximity to loud equipment, from which the noise can degrade an individual 5 auditory perception, and over time can degrade general performance. Common hearing protection and occlusion isolates the warfighter from the environment, deflating situational awareness, confidence, and effectiveness, thus putting the warfighter at high risk and compromising his ability to detect and assess threats. Often, soldiers are so uncomfortable with the isolation of hearing protection that they will choose to go without hearing protection and expose themselves to painful and harmful noise, which can result in deafness and reduced effectiveness as warfighters. This effort includes a survey of relevant head-borne hear-through auditory systems, a selection of approaches to a transparent hearing solution, implementation of the approaches, and evaluation.
An ethnography of students' extensive use of computers and digital technologies within further education classrooms

This thesis analyses how the extensive use of networked computers, which were the primary classroom learning resource for three Level 3 cohorts of Further Education students, impacted on how the students approached the academic elements of their coursework. Using an ethnographic methodology the students were followed as they progressed over one academic year, to identify how they engaged with their learning and used the technologies over this period. The study of students’ classroom academic and literacy practices when using the new digital technologies of computers and the Internet as resources in post-compulsory education is a relatively neglected area. At a time when there is the continued call for the increased use of these technologies across the curricula, this ethnography offers an insight into students’ responses to the technologies and how these significant educational resources can also divide the classroom into both educational and social-leisure spaces. What became apparent over the year was students’ superficial level of engagement with online research resources and how that information was then processed. Students’ use of software to manipulate digital text bypassed any evidencing of intermediary cognitive processes, therefore at times idea generation, critical development and level of ownership became challenging to identify. Notably, students’ extensive use of computers resulted in their gaze being primarily directed to their computer monitors and despite the sociality amongst students for non-educational activities, both in and out of the classrooms, the benefits of peer discussion and interaction for learning was absent due to this level of academic isolation. Students’ use of the technologies for either educational or social-leisure use was reflective of the learning conditions and what affected their levels of motivation and attention. For a number of students, their excessive use of the classroom computers to access online social-leisure resources came at a cost to their grades and their ambitions for progression had to be reduced. There is no doubting the value of computers and the Internet as classroom learning resources, however, this research identifies that they are certainly not a quick panacea for education. The evidence illustrates that to attain the potential they offer, there needs to be relative adjustments to pedagogy and learning cultures and how students conceptualise the space of computer-resourced classrooms.
How to Re-Engineer Your Performance Management Process

This text sets out to offer a practical, hands-on approach to re-engineering the performance management process in order to ensure true effectiveness. The book draws on real case studies of work with Hay clients in the US, UK and other Western European countries. It is written primarily for users of performance management, ie, all line managers and employees. The author stresses that for performance management to be fully effective it has to be a collaborative exercise between managers and staff: it is not, or should not be, a process which is "done to you"; everybody should accept the responsibility of making it work. The first part of the text deals with the current state of play with the use of performance management in organizations in the US and Western Europe. It defines performance management, assesses how well it is doing, how organizations are changing and discusses the implications of these organizational changes on traditional approaches to performance management. The second part of the book outlines the steps to be taken to re-engineer the traditional approach into a more effective performance management process.
Characterization of PtFD1, a bZIP transcription factor using transgenic poplars

Title of Thesis: CHARACTERIZATION OF PTFD1, A BZIP TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR USING TRANSGENIC POPLARS Minggang Wu, Master of Science, 2006 Thesis Directed By: Associate Professor Gary D. Coleman Department of Natural Resource Science and Landscape Architecture Dormancy is an adaptive mechanism that enables plants to survive unfavorable environmental conditions and resume growth when the conditions become favorable again. Bud formation is the morphological event associated with bud dormancy. The research presented in this thesis focuses on the role of PtFD1, a bZIP transcription factor, in apical bud development in poplar. This research included the construction of binary Agrobacterium vectors for the overexpressing of PtFD1 and for down regulation or silencing of PtFD1 expression using RNAi technology. These vectors were used to create transgenic poplars (Populus alba×Populus tremula) with altered expression of PtFD1. The overexpression of PtFD1 prevented apical bud development while apical bud development appeared normal in PtFD1 RNAi expressing plants. Flowering was also induced in long days in poplars overexpressing PtFD1. Anatomical studies indicate that overexpression of PtFD1 impinges on bud scale development during short day induced bud formation. CHARACTERIZATION OF PTFD1, A BZIP TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR USING TRANSGENIC POPLARS
Lai

Background. The main study objective was to investigate cholesterol treatment practices of primary care physicians in a managed care setting. Methods. The study was a retrospective review of data with a quasiexperimental design. The National Cholesterol Education Program–Adult Treatment Panel II (NCEP-ATP II) guidelines were used as the reference for conducting a measurement model in the study. Data were randomly selected via a systematic probability sampling method from a health maintenance organization (HMO) capitated risk-based contracting medical clinic in southern Florida. Results. Of the 348 patients selected for the study, 224 (65%) needed either dietary therapy (n = 106) or drug therapy (n =118). However, only 16 patients (13.6%) had ever had cholesterol-lowering drug regimens prescribed during the 5-year study period. Conclusions. Our findings indicate that (1) primary care physicians have poorly adopted the cholesterol management practice recommended by NCEP guidelines and need to improve their recognition and treatment of hypercholesterolemia; and (2) the problem of underutilizing prescription medications may be associated with risk-sharing capitation arrangements between physicians and third-party insurers. From the Department of Pharmacy Administration, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Reprint requests to L. Leanne Lai, PhD, Nova Southeastern University, Department of Pharmacy Administration, 3200 S University Dr, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33328. Lai et al • TREATMENT OF HYPERLIPIDEMIA IN AN HMO 283 284 March 2000 • SOUTHERN MEDICAL JOURNAL • Vol. 93, No. 3 care physicians’ clinical judgments and practices in treating hypercholesterolemia, with emphasis on the HMO managed care setting.
Impact of Propensity to Trust on Academic Success of Student-Athletes: Implications for Student-Athlete Academic Support in Higher Education

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was founded in 1906to protect young people from dangerous and exploitive practices (NCAA.org, n.d.), in response to a movement emphasizing the dangers of football and calling for regulation to safeguard college participants. The simple regulations protecting students who are athletes (student–athletes) enforced by the NCAA at its inception have evolved into a complex set of rules, regulations, and eligibility standards. Regulations now fully established include the requirement that institutions engaging in NCAA Division I college sports monitor the academic progress and success of their student–athletes.
MEAN AND TURBULENT FLOW CHARACTERISTICS IN SUPERCRITICAL NARROW OPEN CHANNEL FLOWS: EFFECT OF FROUDE NUMBER

Sedimentation threatens the sustainability of many reservoirs worldwide. The need for active sediment handling such as sediment routing using Sediment Bypass Tunnels (SBT) or Sediment Flushing Channels (SFC) will consequently increase considerably in the future to maintain reservoir storage capacities as well as to restore sediment connectivity. However, highly sediment-laden high-speed flows can cause severe hydro-abrasion at such hydraulic structures. To shed more light on the hydro-abrasion phenomenon in high-speed flows, a systematical experimental investigation on the physical processes of (I) turbulent flow characteristics, (II) bed load particle motion, (III) hydro-abrasive wear, and (IV) their interrelations in supercritical narrow open channel flows is conducted in the framework of a PhD thesis at VAW of ETH Zurich. The present study deals with the former (I). Streamwise and vertical flow velocities were measured using 2D Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) at a large number of verticals across the flume width over a fixed-concrete bed in a laboratory flume representing a straight SBT section. Approach flow Froude numbers were Fo = 2 and 4. The results show that the log-law applies in the wall region reaching up to z/h = 0.3, and the mean velocity patterns undulate across the flume, indicating the presence of counter-rotating secondary currents occurring at low aspect ratios below the critical value of 4 5. These currents cause re-distribution of turbulence intensity and Reynolds shear stress across the flume. The present findings give an insight on where sediment transport, and hence hydro-abrasion, are concentrated and finally contribute to a better understanding of the abrasion mechanics and to the development of a mechanistic abrasion model for prediction and design purposes.
CORSICA: A comprehensive simulation of toroidal magnetic-fusion devices. Final report to the LDRD Program

In 1992, our group began exploring the requirements for a comprehensive simulation code for toroidal magnetic fusion experiments. There were several motivations for taking this step. First, the new machines being designed were much larger and more expensive than current experiments. Second, these new designs called for much more sophisticated control of the plasma shape and position, as well as the distributions of energy, mass, and current within the plasma. These factors alone made it clear that a comprehensive simulation capability would be an extremely valuable tool for machine design. The final motivating factor was that the national Numerical Tokamak Project (NTP) had recently received High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Grand Challenge funding to model turbulent transport in tokamaks, raising the possibility that first-principles simulations of this process might be practical in the near future. We felt that the best way to capitalize on this development was to integrate the resulting turbulence simulation codes into a comprehensive simulation. Such simulations must include the effects of many microscopic length- and time-scales. In order to do a comprehensive simulation efficiently, the length- and time- scale disparities must be exploited. We proposed to do this by coupling the average or quasistatic effects from the fast time-scales to a slow-time-scale transport code for the macroscopic plasma evolution. In FY93-FY96 we received funding to investigate algorithms for computationally coupling such disparate-scale simulations and to implement these algorithms in a prototype simulation code, dubbed CORSICA. Work on algorithms and test cases proceeded in parallel, with the algorithms being incorporated into CORSICA as they became mature. In this report we discuss the methods and algorithms, the CORSICA code, its applications, and our plans for the future.
Jump Contagion among Stock Market Indices: Evidence from Option Markets

This paper explores the contagious propagation of jumps among international stock market indices by exploiting a rich panel of stock and options data. We propose a multivariate option pricing model designed to allow for, but not superimpose, time and space amplification of jumps in option markets. We develop a semi-parametric estimation procedure employing a continuum of moments conditions in GMM with implied states. We introduce a partial-information approach to reduce the computational complexity arising in the multivariate setting, derive the asymptotic properties of our estimators, and analyze their finite-sample performance. Our empirical results reveal evidence of jump contagion in option markets, both from the US to Europe and vice versa, with the US leading the UK and standing on equal footing with Germany. We illustrate the importance of capturing jump contagion for risk management, option pricing, and scenario analysis.
HYPOGLYCEMIC AND HYPOLIPIDEMIC EFFECTS OF SPIRULINA PLATENSIS, PHYCOCYANIN, PHYCOCYANOPEPTIDE AND PHYCOCYANOBILIN ON MALE DIABETIC RATS

This study aimed to evaluate hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activities of Spirulina Platensis and its bioactive components (phycocyanin (PC), phycocyanopeptide (PCP) and phycocyanobilin (PCB)) on male diabetic Rats compared to controls and glibenclamide drug. For this reason, male Albino rats were equally divided into seven groups designated as normal control, diabetic control, diabetic + glibenclamide (Glyburide) drug (600 µg kg−1 body weight), diabetic + Spirulina biomass suspension (50 mg/ml/ kg−1 body weight), diabetic + phycocyanin (50 mg kg−1 body weight), diabetic + phycocyanopeptide (49 mg kg−1 body weight) and diabetic + phycocyanobilin (982 µg kg−1 body weight). The results show a statistically significant reduction (P < 0.05) level of fasting blood glucose, insulin resistance and lipids levels in diabetic animals administration with Spirulina Platensis, phycocyanin, phycocyanopeptide and phycocyanobilin compared with diabetic control. Also, there were an increase in HDL–cholesterol levels and β-cell function in these treatments. Histopathologically, diabetic rats treated with spirulina, PC, PCP induced a slight improve of pancreatic cells and an obvious recovery of pancreatic cells. The expression of insulin secretion from cells (β-cells) of diabetic rats was improved in the groups treated with Spirulina, phycocyanin, phycocyanopeptide. While, diabetic rats treated with phycocyanobilin recorded insulin levels lower than them. From this study it can be concluded that Spirulina Platensis, phycocyanin, phycocyanopeptide and phycocyanobilin possessed hypoglycemic, insulin sensitivity and hypolipidemic effects. Hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of Spirulina Platensis may be attributed to phenolic compounds and phycocyanin. The antidiabetic effect of PC is most likely due to its ability to reduction of insulin resistance, enhance β-cell function and recovery of β-cells. The effect of PC may be attributed to selenium-binding phycocyanopeptide or/ and phycocyanobilin responsible for the antioxidant activity and chromium-binding phycocyanopeptide which activates insulin receptors.