Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scanning and Immunohistochemical Study on the Effect of Tacrolimus on the lingual mucosa of Albino Rats

Aim: The present investigation aimed to evaluate the immunosuppressive drug (Tacrolimus) effect of on the lingual mucosa through histological examination, immunohistochemical detection of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and scanning electron microscopic examination. Materials & Methods: Twenty rats were utilized in this study. The rats were distributed into two groups (10 animals each); group 1: rats served as control, group 2: rats were administrated daily oral dose of tacrolimus (0.5 mg/kg body weight). At the end of the experiment, the animals of the different groups were sacrificed, the lingual mucosa specimens were dissected out and prepared to be stained with H&E for histological evaluation and for immunohistochemical detection of PCNA. Statistical analysis of data was carried out using one way ANOVA followed by T-test to compare between the groups under study. The differences were considered significant at p value < 0.05. Tongue samples from each group were prepared to be scanned under scanning electron microscope. Results: The H&E stained lingual specimens of group I revealed normal histological structure of surface epithelium and underlying lamina propria of both dorsal and ventral surfaces of the tongue while g roup II treated with tacrolimus revealed histopathological changes of both surfaces of the tongue. The immunohistochemical localization of PCNA showed negative to weak positive staining reaction of PCNA of the epithelial surface of the tongues. The scanning electron micrographs of the dorsal surface of the tongues of tacrolimus treated rats revealed atrophic changes. Conclusion: Tacrolimus administration showed structural and ultrastructural histological changes in the lingual mucosa and cause alteration in the taste sensation.
Authentic Leadership: A Quantitative Study of the Effect of Authentic Leadership on Group Cohesion and Work Engagement in Student Organizations in Mexico

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop an empirical investigation and discover quantitative evidence for the relationship between authentic leadership, group cohesion, and work engagement. Theoretical framework: Authentic leadership has caught researchers’ attention, and it has gained recognition and position within leadership studies. The authentic leadership construct includes four dimensions: (a) self-awareness, which refers to how leaders understand their strengths and weaknesses and the motives they exposure to others; (b) balance processing, which refers to how leaders analyze all relevant data before coming to a decision; (c) internalized moral perspective, which refers to how leaders make decisions based on values and high internal ethical standards; and (d) relational transparency, which refers to how leaders are open in presenting one’s true self to others. Methods: Utilizing previously validated instruments, the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ; Walumbwa et al., 2008), the Perceived Cohesion Scale (PCS; Bollen & Hoyle, 1990), and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). This study explored whether or not a relationship exists between authentic leadership behaviors of the leader (as perceived by the group members) and group cohesion and work engagement (as reported by the group members) within the Mexican context. Results and conclusions: Using a sample of 226 participants who are members of student organizations (N = 226), it was clearly demonstrated that there is a positive relationship between the authentic leadership behaviors of the leader and the members’ group cohesion (r = .56, β = .54, p = .000) and that there is a positive relationship between the authentic leadership behaviors of the leader and the members’ work engagement (r = .54, β = .54, p = .000). The study’s findings demonstrate the need to advance the research of authentic leadership in Mexico and Latin America. Findings implication: Authentic leadership’s predictive capacity it is still in the developmental phase. The study’s findings offer more evidence and new data to scholars in the leadership field that will help them better analyze the relationship that exists between authentic leadership, group cohesion, and work engagement. Uniqueness/ value: This study represents one of the first investigations of authentic leadership in Mexico and Latin America, and it has some leadership implications within teams and small groups.
A collection of novel Lotus japonicus LORE1 mutants perturbed in the nodulation program induced by the Agrobacterium pusense strain IRBG74

The Lotus japonicus population carrying new Lotus retrotransposon 1 (LORE1) insertions represents a valuable biological resource for genetic research. New insertions were generated by activation of the endogenous retroelement LORE1a in the germline of the G329-3 plant line and arranged in a 2-D system for reverse genetics. LORE1 mutants identified in this collection contributes substantially to characterize candidate genes involved in symbiotic association of L. japonicus with its cognate symbiont, the nitrogen-fixing bacteria Mesorhizobium loti that infects root nodules intracellularly. In this study we aimed to identify novel players in the poorly explored intercellular infection induced by Agrobacterium pusense IRBG74 sp. For this purpose, a forward screen of > 200,000 LORE1 seedlings, obtained from bulk propagation of G329-3 plants, inoculated with IRBG74 was performed. Plants with perturbed nodulation were scored and the offspring were further tested on plates to confirm the symbiotic phenotype. A total of 110 Lotus mutants with impaired nodulation after inoculation with IRBG74 were obtained. A comparative analysis of nodulation kinetics in a subset of 20 mutants showed that most of the lines were predominantly affected in nodulation by IRBG74. Interestingly, additional defects in the main root growth were observed in some mutant lines. Sequencing of LORE1 flanking regions in 47 mutants revealed that 92 Lotus genes were disrupted by novel LORE1 insertions in these lines. In the IM-S34 mutant, one of the insertions was located in the 5´UTR of the LotjaGi5g1v0179800 gene, which encodes the AUTOPHAGY9 protein. Additional mutant alleles, named atg9-2 and atg9-3, were obtained in the reverse genetic collection. Nodule formation was significantly reduced in these mutant alleles after M. loti and IRBG74 inoculation, confirming the effectiveness of the mutant screening. This study describes an effective forward genetic approach to obtain novel mutants in Lotus with a phenotype of interest and to identify the causative gene(s).
Stakeholders’ Perceptions About a Destination Management Organization (DMO): A Case Study in Chimborazo, Ecuador

A Destination Management Organization (DMO) is an entity destined to make operative, administrative, organizational, and strategic decisions to maintain a coordinated management of the process associated with the design, marketing, and commercialization of the destination. This study aimed to identify the stakeholders’ perceptions about the Chimborazo DMO, located in the Andean region of Ecuador. Therefore, three focal groups of stakeholders were selected (local residents, tourists, and business owners) and a questionnaire was applied using a 5-point Likert scale. A Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to determine the reliability of the data obtained and a Chi-square contingency analysis was performed between the stakeholder groups to identify if the perception about the role and effectiveness of the Chimborazo DMO differs in dependence of the stakeholder group. Our results evidence that the stakeholders considered in this study have a positive opinion about the role of the DMO in the development, being the main common aspect identified: the need for an adequate promotion of the Chimborazo province. The information generated here could be useful to generate policies that benefit the Chimborazo tourism sector and serve as the basis for further work dealing with the stakeholder’s identification and the assessment of the DMO influence in the territory development. Received: 26 May 2023 / Accepted: 28 December 2023 / Published: 5 January 2024
The hedgehog and the fox; the history of victimisation surveys from a Trans-Atlantic perspective

In his PhD thesis defended at the University of Versailles on November 12, 2014, Matthieu de Castelbajac traces back the early history of victimisation surveys in the USA and Europe with a focus on the National Crime Victims Surveys in the USA (starting in 1973), the Dutch Victimisation Survey (1973), the British Crime Survey (1982) and The International Crime Victims Survey (1988) (Castelbajac 2014). The present chapter is largely based on this study, supplemented by additions considerations regarding the Dutch survey and the ICVS. Firstly, we will try to understand why the American studies in the early 1970s developed into the first ever full-fledged survey, whereas earlier, similar attempts in Scandinavia did not get off the ground. What explains this change of fortune of crime surveys? Next we will analyse in some detail the original ideas behind the American survey and how these have shaped the National Crime Victim Survey (NCVS) ever since. In the third paragraph we will discuss the different trajectory of the first victimisation surveys in Europe and how these have meandered into many different directions over the years. Finally, we will reflect on the foiled plans of the European Commission for an EU wide comparative survey. 2
False Face Must Hide What the False Heart Doth Know: Review and Model of Workplace Microaggression

Microaggression contains elements of workplace aggression, bullying, incivility, stigmatization, and ostracism. We argue that studies of the phenomenon should be broadened to cover all workplace members. Anyone with distinctly different ascribed status, physical and/or psychological characteristics from the mainstream may be subjected to negative micro-acts. We address two questions of concern: Why microaggression has not been recognized to be as problematic in “normalized” work settings as with bullying and harassment, and how workers exposed to such micro-aggressive acts might respond. Theories of signal detection and coordinated management of meaning are used to explain how targets attribute the reasons for these negative acts, and manage to either mitigate or prevent them. We suggest ways of reducing the prevalence of microaggression by coordinating the management of meaning between the perceiver-as-target and the perpetrator. This leads to adaptive coping (Marrs, 2012) and fosters supportive workplace climates (Kim et al., 2018). Implications for workplace practices and policies are provided.
Navigating the ICI Combination Treatment Journey: Patterns of Response and Progression to First-Line ICI-Based Combination Treatment in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in combination with tyrosine kinase inhibitors or other ICIs has significantly improved the prognosis for patients with mccRCC. This marks a major milestone in the treatment of mccRCC. Nonetheless, most patients will discontinue first-line therapy. In this narrative review, we analyze the different patterns of treatment discontinuation in the four pivotal phase III trials that have shown an improvement in overall survival in mccRCC first-line therapy, starting from 1 January 2017 to 1 June 2023. We highlight the different discontinuation scenarios and their influences on subsequent treatment options, aiming to provide more data to clinicians to navigate a complex decision-making process through a narrative review approach. We have identified several causes for discontinuations for patients treated with ICI-based combinations, such as interruption for drug-related adverse events, ICI treatment completion, treatment discontinuation due to complete response or maximum clinical benefit, or due to progression (pseudoprogression, systemic progression, and oligoprogression); for each case, an extensive analysis of the trials and current medical review has been conducted.
Experiences of Belonging and Islamophobia among Hijabi Muslim College Students in the United States

Abstract:Students from marginalized religious backgrounds face myriad challenges on college and university campuses, and negative effects are especially pronounced for Muslim students. Wearing hijab can put college students at a greater risk of marginalization amidst a climate of Islamophobia. Although there is a growing body of research on Muslim college student experiences, there is a more limited exploration of hijabi students’ experiences. In this exploratory online survey study (n=41), we sought to understand experiences of belonging and Islamophobia among hijabi Muslim students across the United States. We adopted a critical quantitative approach, specifically interested in the connection of hijabi students’ sense of belonging, social adjustment, and experiences of microaggressions to their adherence to the Islamic dress code, membership in a Muslim student organization (MSA), and identifying with a minoritized racial group. We found that more modest dress was associated with lower perceived support from peers and faculty, while reported microaggressions were negatively related to faculty empathy. The strongest effects were involvement in MSA on social adjustment, and having a white identity on perceived faculty support. This study contributes to our understanding of the role of student affairs professionals, faculty, and higher education administrators in supporting hijabi students to succeed as their whole authentic selves.
Treatment of agricultural wastewater with constructed wetlands

TREATMENT OF AGRICULTURAL WASTEWATER WITH CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS By Umesh Adhikari Animal manure contains essential plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium along with high number of bacteria, viruses and parasites. Pollutants contained in manure enter water bodies both as diffuse or non-point source and as point source from concentrated livestock production systems. Pathogens may flow to the water bodies when manure is applied to fields prior to rainfall. Nutrients that reach water bodies cause eutrophication and pathogens pose health risk. Two separate studies were conducted to evaluate the applicability of constructed wetlands in treating pollutants originating from animal manure. One constructed wetland system was spiked with high number of E. coli and bacteriophage P22 for a short period of time to simulated tiledrain flow and the number of E. coli and bacteriophage P22 in the effluent were monitored in winter and summer seasons. The other constructed wetland system was continuously supplied with diluted dairy wastewater and removal of pollutants and recovery of nutrients were measured. On average, 0.54 and 0.69 log reduction of E. coli were obtained in summer and winter months, respectively from the surface flow (SF) wetlands subjected to pulse loading. With similar loading, 3.16 and 1.23 log reduction of E. coli were obtained from subsurface flow (SSF) wetlands in summer and winter months, respectively. E. coli removal in subsurface flow wetland was higher than in surface flow wetland in both seasons. Two models one based on the convection dispersion equation (CDE) and the other based on colloid filtration theory did not adequately describe E. coli removal in constructed wetlands. Higher removal of bacteriophage P22 was observed in both SF and SSF wetlands in both winter and summer months in the wetlands subjected to pulse loading. P22 removal rates in SSF wetlands were 41 times the removal rate in SF wetlands in winter and 19 times in summer. The CDE model could accurately describe bacteriophage P22 removal in constructed wetlands. In the wetland systems that were subjected to continuous manure loading, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and E. coli in influent and effluent were measured. Duckweed was harvested every week to explore the nutrient recovery potential. Average COD, TN and TP removal obtained in surface flow wetlands from dairy wastewater were 28%, 28% and 16% respectively. Average annual mass removal of COD, TN and TP in the wetlands were 2137 g COD/m/year, 149.5 g N/m/year and 10.3 g P/m/year, respectively. First order removal model that includes background concentration was found more suitable than first order model or DUBWAT model for predicting effluent COD, TN and TP removal in constructed wetlands. On average, 0.3 log reduction of E. coli was obtained across all the wetlands. Average N and P recovered by harvesting duckweed across all the wetlands were 22.4 g N/m/year and 5.6 P/m/year, respectively.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Uterine Prolapse in Achham District, Nepal

Uterine Prolapse (UP) is one of the hidden morbidities that do not lead to death, but women suffer from severe lifelong disabilities. In Nepal, the prevalence of UP in women varies from 10 to 40% due to several underlying causes. Therefore, the main aim of the study was to identify the prevalence and associated risk factors of UP. This community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 300 married women aged 18 and over in four villages of Kamal Bazar Municipality, Achham, who suffered from UP. The random sampling technique was used to collect the data. The samples were selected using multistage sampling technique. The structured interview questionnaire was used and the face-to-face interview was conducted. The data were analyzed using MS-Excel and SPSS version 23. The statistical tests used were binary logistic regression, univariate and multivariate logistic regression. The prevalence of UP was 33.7%. In the multivariate analysis, participants aged 20-30 were forty one times more likely to suffer from UP than older participants of 50-60 {aOR 41.86 (95% CI; 14.31-122.45)}, were seven times more likely to have not attended health facilities for Antenatal Checkup/Postnatal Checkup (ANC/PNC) {aOR 7.10 (95% CI; 3.53-14.26)}, were less likely to have institutional delivery {aOR 0.13 (95% CI; 0.05-0.31)} and were three times more likely to have high Body Mass Index (BMI) {aOR 3.97 (95% CI; 1.81-8.71)}. Thus, the participants who hadn’t attended ANC/PNC checkups, had given birth at home, or had a high BMI, were more likely to have suffered from UP. Education is necessary to make people aware of UP at an early age and its impact is seen among people of a lower age inthe area.
Adaptive graph-guided joint soft clustering and distribution alignment for cross-load and cross-device rotating machinery fault transfer diagnosis

Domain adaptation (DA) is an effective solution for addressing the domain shift problem. However, existing DA techniques usually directly match the distributions of the data in the original feature space, where some of the features may be distorted by a large domain shift. Besides, geometric and clustering structures of the data, which play a significant role in revealing hidden failure patterns, are not considered in traditional DA methods. To tackle the above issues, a new joint soft clustering and distribution alignment with graph embedding (JSCDA-GE) method is proposed. Specifically, weighted subspace alignment is proposed to align bases of source and target subspaces by combining instance reweighting and subspace alignment strategies. Then, JSCDA-GE formulates an objective function by incorporating dynamic distribution alignment, soft large margin clustering, and GE in a unified structural risk minimization framework. Ultimately, JSCDA-GE aims to learn a generalization classifier for fault diagnosis. Its effectiveness and superiority have been confirmed through 36 tasks on 2 bearing databases.
Psychological Empowerment Link Using Employee Performance and Organizational Commitment on the Generation Gap: PLS-MGA Analysis

The generation gap is critical, especially when employees do not agree about some terms that affect their completion of tasks. This issue is debated in organizations, causing incompatibilities between human resource management and development structures. Hence, these constraints led this study to measure the differences shown by generations X and Y, and how they impact the relationship between psychological empowerment, employee performance, and organizational commitment. This research used questionnaires and in-depth interviews as the main procedures for collecting and obtaining data—196 items of data were received from the Malaysian Islamic Finance Agency. SmartPLS software was used to test the research hypotheses and the differences between the two groups are Gen X and Y (PLS-MGA). The results of the PLS-MGA test confirmed that, in the relationship of psychological empowerment and job performance alone, it was found there was a generational difference between X and Y (p-value < 0.05). However, while running the hypothesis test (using the bootstrapping test), it was found that both hypotheses are acceptable, which shows the relationship between psychological empowerment and job performance based on two different groups, namely Gen Y = t-statistic (10.961) and Gen X = t-statistic (11.993). Thus, H1 is supported. Meanwhile, the relationship between psychological empowerment and organizational commitment is based on two different groups, namely Gen Y = t-statistic (8.675) and Gen X = t-statistic (8.349), which means H2 is also supported. Consequently, it is hoped that the findings of this study will serve as essential guidance for employers in both the public and private sectors. Human resource management teams can use the findings to understand the natural complexity of psychological empowerment constructs in realizing the challenges and difficulties in predicting organizational goals, in terms of job performance and organizational commitment.
Occurrence, Antimicrobial Resistance, and Virulence Profiles of Salmonella Serovars Isolated from Wild Reptiles in South Africa

Reptiles are carriers of an array of microorganisms, including significant zoonotic bacteria of the genus Salmonella, which cause a disease referred to as salmonellosis that affects both animals and humans. This study investigated the occurrence of Salmonella serovars in wild reptiles at Timbavati Private Game Reserve in Limpopo Province, South Africa, and examined their virulence and antimicrobial resistance gene profiles. A total of 19 wild reptiles were sampled, which resulted in 30 presumptive Salmonella isolates. The isolates were identified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by amplifying the invA gene and were further confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Salmonella serovars were detected in chameleons (36.8%), lizards (31.6%), snakes (15.8%), and tortoises (15.8%). The use of 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Salamae (30%), S. enterica subsp. enterica (16.7%), S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium (13.3%), and S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar Indiana (13.3%) were the four most common subspecies among the investigated 30 isolates. Detected virulence genes included pagN (100%), hilA (96.7%), ssrB (96.7%), prgH (86.7%), and marT (86.7%). The isolates exhibited resistance to nalidixic acid (43.3%) and kanamycin (43.3%), followed by streptomycin (16.7%) and ciprofloxacin (3.3%). Antibiotic-resistant genes were detected as follows: strA, strB, qnrA, qnrS, parC, aadA, aac(6′)-Ib, and aac(6′)-Ib-cr at 33.3%, 6.7%, 16.7, 13.3%, 10%, 23.3%, 6.7%, and 10%, respectively. The findings highlight the necessity of educational initiatives aimed at reducing reptile-related infections. Effective antibiotic treatment appears promising for infection, given the minimal drug resistance observed in reptile Salmonella serovars in the current study.