Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Towards classroom inclusivity: exploring K-12 teachers’ sensitivity to cultural diversity (Hacia la inclusividad en el aula: explorando la sensibilidad a la diversidad cultural del profesorado de K-12)

ABSTRACT The study explored teachers’ awareness of classroom cultural diversity using a cross-sectional survey and thematic content document analysis of Ghana’s inclusive education policy and teacher professional development manuals to explore teachers’ cultural diversity awareness. 219 K-12 teachers completed the survey. The study found that teachers are culturally sensitive to working with culturally diverse families and the use of non-standard English. However, most of the teachers have limited general cultural diversity awareness of their classrooms. Consequently, teachers are less culturally sensitive to using multicultural teaching methods and creating a multicultural classroom environment. Further, teachers are less culturally responsive in their assessment practices. Our study also revealed that although teachers were introduced to multicultural education during their initial teacher training programme, within their schools, there was limited ongoing teacher professional development on multicultural education. Results from the thematic content document analysis of the inclusion policy showed that within Ghanaian schools, there are no practical guidelines on how in-service teachers and pre-service teachers can be supported to address cultural diversities in the classroom and schooling contexts.
A modified Fletcher-Reeves-Type derivative-free method for symmetric nonlinearequations

In this paper, we propose a descent derivative-free method for solving symmetric nonlinear equations. The method is an extension of the modified Fletcher-Reeves (MFR) method proposed by Zhang, Zhou and Li [25] to symmetric nonlinear equations. It can be applied to solve large-scale symmetric nonlinear equations due to lower storage requirement. An attractive property of the method is that the directions generated by the method are descent for the residual function. By the use of some backtracking line search technique, the generated sequence of function values is decreasing. Under appropriate conditions, we show that the proposed method is globally convergent. The preliminary numerical results show that the method is practically effective.
Convective Boundary Layer Depth: Improved Measurement by Doppler Radar Wind Profiler Using Fuzzy Logic Methods

Abstract A new method for estimating the mixing depth of the atmosphere's convective boundary layer is developed for use with wind-profiling radars. This method applies “fuzzy logic” methods to give an improved determination of the atmospheric signal in radar spectra. The method then applies fuzzy logic again to calculate the depth of the convective boundary layer, using vertical profiles of both radar-derived signal-to-noise ratio and variance of vertical velocity. A comparison with independent boundary layer depth observations at two radar wind profiler sites shows that the new method gives significantly more accurate estimates of the boundary layer depth (correlation coefficients of 0.91 and 0.96) than does a standard method (correlation coefficients of 0.14 and 0.80). Also, the new method reduces the absolute error of the mixing-depth estimates to a level similar to the vertical range resolution of the profilers.
Effect of spray aeration on unregulated drinking water disinfection byproducts

Spray aeration is a comparatively low‐cost option to reduce trihalomethane (THM) concentrations in distribution system storage. The effect of spray aeration on unregulated, toxic disinfection by‐products was investigated in a bench‐scale apparatus in closed‐tank and open‐tank experiments. In the closed‐tank experiments, initially over 90% of THMs, trichloroacetonitrile, and chloropicrin were removed, while 36% of dihaloacetonitriles were removed. However, due to the buildup of concentrations in the tank headspace, removal rates for all compounds decreased significantly with time, falling to 44% removal of THMs, 76% removal of trichloroacetonitrile, and 58% removal of chloropicrin. Removal of dihaloacetonitriles decreased to zero. In the open‐tank experiments, THM removal rates were high and did not decrease with time. Considering the results with open and closed tanks as approximate bounds for performance expected under real‐world conditions in storage tanks, the findings suggest that spray aeration may not significantly reduce haloacetonitrile‐related toxicity while halonitromethane‐related toxicity may be reduced.
Free Choice in Quantum Theory: A p-adic View

In this paper, it is rigorously proven that since observational data (i.e., numerical values of physical quantities) are rational numbers only due to inevitably nonzero measurements errors, the conclusion about whether Nature at the smallest scales is discrete or continuous, random and chaotic, or strictly deterministic, solely depends on experimentalist’s free choice of the metrics (real or p-adic) he chooses to process the observational data. The main mathematical tools are p-adic 1-Lipschitz maps (which therefore are continuous with respect to the p-adic metric). The maps are exactly the ones defined by sequential Mealy machines (rather than by cellular automata) and therefore are causal functions over discrete time. A wide class of the maps can naturally be expanded to continuous real functions, so the maps may serve as mathematical models of open physical systems both over discrete and over continuous time. For these models, wave functions are constructed, entropic uncertainty relation is proven, and no hidden parameters are assumed. The paper is motivated by the ideas of I. Volovich on p-adic mathematical physics, by G. ‘t Hooft’s cellular automaton interpretation of quantum mechanics, and to some extent, by recent papers on superdeterminism by J. Hance, S. Hossenfelder, and T. Palmer.
Risk Factors for Glucose 6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase and COVID-19 Disease—A Retrospective Study at a Major Saudi Tertiary Center

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) insufficiency is a common enzymatic defect worldwide; it affects over 400 million people and is associated with various disorders. Recent research suggests that G6PD-deficient cells are susceptible to infection by human coronaviruses, as the G6PD enzyme is involved in the metabolism of oxidative stress, which may enhance COVID-19 mortality. This retrospective study aimed to examine the effect of COVID-19 on patients with G6PD deficiency by comparing the laboratory parameters of patients with G6PD enzyme deficiency alone, COVID-19 alone, and those with both COVID-19 and G6PD enzyme deficiency treated at a major Saudi tertiary center. The results indicated significant differences in hematological and biochemical parameters between the three patient groups, indicating that COVID-19 may influence these parameters, and that they could be used to measure the severity of COVID-19 disease. Moreover, this study suggests that patients with G6PD enzyme deficiency may be at higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes. Although the study is limited by the lack of a random selection method for group membership, the Kruskal–Wallis H-test was used to statistical assess the data. The study’s findings can enhance the understanding of the relation between COVID-19 infected and G6PD-deficiency patients and inform clinical decision making for an improved patient outcome.
Impact of servant leadership on innovative work behaviour: a moderation mediation analysis

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to investigate the effect the servant leadership on innovative work behaviour (IWB) of teachers. Besides this, the mediating effect of ambidexterity on enhancing IWB and moderating role of gender has also been investigated.Design/methodology/approachVariance-based SEM has been used for testing the proposed structural model with a sample of 350 college teachers.FindingsFindings of the study revealed that servant leadership positively influences IWB. Additionally, IWB can be augmented with the presence of individual ambidexterity.Originality/valueAs per our knowledge, the present study is the first of its kind that makes an additional contribution to the IWB literature by investigating a partial mediating role of individual ambidexterity on the relationship between servant leadership and IWB.
Epidemics with carriers: The large population approximation

This paper applies the constant population approximation to the study of epidemics which involve more than a single type of infective. An example of this would be a situation in which both clinically infected individuals and subclinically infected individuals or carriers are present. We derive equations for the expected numbers of clinically infected individuals and carriers at any time t for the model with zero latent period and infectious periods having negative exponential distributions. From these equations we derive conditions under which a unimodal incidence curve can result, and expressions for the expected total epidemic size.
Organization of Tropical Convection in Low Vertical Wind Shears: The Role of Cold Pools

Abstract An investigation is conducted to document the role convectively generated cold pools play in determining the spatial organization of tropical deep convection. Using a high-resolution cloud-resolving model, the evolution of cold pools produced by deep convection is examined, in the situation of limited large-scale wind shear, and a homogeneous underlying sea surface temperature. Ignoring the cold pools resulting from multiple deep convective events, the mean model cold pool attained a minimum temperature and water vapor mixing ratio depression of 1 K and 1.5 g kg−1, respectively; a horizontal velocity increase of 4.8 m s−1; and the latent and sensible heat fluxes are increased by a factor of 1.9 and 2.6, respectively. The cold pools had a mean lifetime of approximately 2.5 h and attained maximum radii ranging from 3 to 18 km, with a mean of 8.6 km. Taking the organization of convection into account, these figures are consistent with observational studies of convective wakes. The composite cold poo.
Histopathological and Molecular Characterization of Heterophyids in Fish and Attitude Towards Parasitic Zoonosis among Residents in Kafrelsheikh Governorate, Egypt

Heterophyiasis is a wide-spread yet under-recognized public health issue in Egypt, especially in regions close to major northern Lakes as Kafrelsheikh Governorate, Egypt. The current study aimed to utilize molecular and histopathological techniques to detect encysted metacercariae (EMC) of Heterophyids in mullet (n= 50) and tilapia (n= 50) fish and describe their pathological effect on fish meat quality. Also, knowledge, attitude and practices (KAPs) related to fish-borne parasitic zoonoses among 100 residents in Kafrelsheikh Governorate were also investigated. The overall prevalence of EMC infection in examined fish was 32% (32/100): 44% (22/50) in mullet and 20% (10/50) in tilapia fish samples. The EMC were 3 times more likely detected in mullet fish compared to tilapia fish (OR= 3.1, P = 0.01). The heterophyids EMC were molecularly confirmed in 32% (16/50) and 18% (9/50) of mullet and tilapia fish samples, respectively. The EMC infection in fish was associated with muscle degeneration, fragmentation, and hyalinization, and mononuclear cell infiltrations, were morphological characteristics of EMC-infected muscles. In mullet fish the lesions were more severe and the EMC were embedded in intermuscular fat. These pathological lesions highlight the poor meat quality of infected fish especially mullet species. Only few residents (14%) had knowledge about Heterophyiasis in the study area. Residents also reported many risk practices as consuming fresh without prior freezing (92.7%), salting fish for less than 10 days (50%), and cooking fish for less than 10 min (2.3%). Health education for residents and infection control in fish are mandate preventive measures in the study area.
General coupled-mode analysis of Cerenkov-radiation-type second-harmonic generation in channel and fiber waveguides

Coupled-mode analysis of Cerenkov-radiation-type second-harmonic generation, using channel and fiber waveguides, is presented from the viewpoint of device design. Nonlinear coupled-mode equations generally applicable for various waveguide configurations are derived and solved by considering the effects of pump-power depletion, waveguide loss, and effects of nonlinear gratings. Analytical expressions for the conversion efficiency as well as the near- and far-field radiation patterns are given, and the physical implications are discussed. The approximate results calculated for typical device configurations are summarized in graphic form, with normalized parameters. Guidelines for optimum design are given. >
The Importance of Detecting, Quantifying, and Characterizing Exosomes as a New Diagnostic/Prognostic Approach for Tumor Patients

Simple Summary Clinical oncology urgently needs more specific and helpful new biomarkers to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer. Research of the last decade proposes extracellular vesicles, particularly exosomes, as a natural source of new biomarkers; since tumors massively release them, they circulate through the body and can be detected and characterized in plasma samples of tumor patients. After a decade of up-and-coming pre-clinical research, the results of the few clinical studies have provided some exciting data supporting the use of exosomes, at least in the follow-up of tumor patients. However, the most convincing data have taught us that, on the one hand, circulating exosomes deliver known tumor markers, such as PSA; on the other hand, the exosome plasmatic levels in tumor patients consistently exceed those of normal controls. This information will be extremely useful in the clinical management of tumor patients. Abstract Exosomes are extracellular vesicles (EVs) of nanometric size studied for their role in tumor pathogenesis and progression and as a new source of tumor biomarkers. The clinical studies have provided encouraging but probably unexpected results, including the exosome plasmatic levels’ clinical relevance and well-known biomarkers’ overexpression on the circulating EVs. The technical approach to obtaining EVs includes methods to physically purify EVs and characterize EVs, such as Nanosight Tracking Analysis (NTA), immunocapture-based ELISA, and nano-scale flow cytometry. Based on the above approaches, some clinical investigations have been performed on patients with different tumors, providing exciting and promising results. Here we emphasize data showing that exosome plasmatic levels are consistently higher in tumor patients than in controls and that plasmatic exosomes express well-known tumor markers (e.g., PSA and CEA), proteins with enzymatic activity, and nucleic acids. However, we also know that tumor microenvironment acidity is a key factor in influencing both the amount and the characteristics of the exosome released by tumor cells. In fact, acidity significantly increases exosome release by tumor cells, which correlates with the number of exosomes that circulate through the body of a tumor patient.
Viscosity and structure of CaO–Al2O3–TiO2-based mold fluxes with various CaO/Al2O3 mass ratios

The effects of CaO/Al2O3 mass ratio on the viscosity and structure of new CaO–Al2O3–TiO2-based fluorine-free mold fluxes for high titanium steel are investigated by viscometer, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and Raman spectroscopy. When the CaO/Al2O3 mass ratio increased from 0.6 to 1.4, the viscosities and activation energies reduced from 0.43 to 0.10 Pa·s and 127.8–74.2 kJ·mol−1, respectively. While the break temperatures raised from 1385 to 1507 K. Moreover, according to MD simulation results, the concentration of high coordination of Al–O and Ti–O bonds decreased, and the complex structure units of Q3, Q4 and Q5 turned to the simple structure units of Q0, Q1 and Q2. Raman spectra suggested that the concentrations of Ti–O–Ti(Al) linkage and Q2(Si-O−) decreased significantly, but the concentration of Q1(Si–O−) increased. Therefore, CaO/Al2O3 could simplify the network structure and decrease the viscosity of new CaO–Al2O3–TiO2-based fluorine-free mold fluxes for high titanium steel.
Limited diversity of epibiont bdelloid rotifers and no pattern of codiversification with the highly diverse endemic amphipods of a coastal zone of Lake Baikal

Abstract An extreme radiation of hundreds of species of different groups of animals occurred in Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia; among them, amphipods represent one of the most remarkable groups of invertebrates with about 350 endemic species. Amphipods host associated epibiont rotifers, and the aim of the study is to explore the possibility that bdelloid rotifers living as epibionts on amphipods in Lake Baikal coevolved with their hosts and diversified with species-specific host–epibiont associations. We sampled 148 individual amphipods belonging to 16 species and isolated all epibiont bdelloids from them, discovering that only one bdelloid species, Embata parasitica, lives associated with at least six amphipod species belonging to three different families. Similar to what is known in most other bdelloid species, the morphospecies Embata parasitica from Lake Baikal is likely to be a complex of cryptic species, as suggested by the high genetic diversity we found in one mitochondrial marker sequenced from several animals. Yet none of the divergent genetic lineages seemed to be associated to only one or a few amphipod species. In addition, nine bdelloid species were found living in the lake, increasing the known diversity of the area to 12 bdelloid species.
Annona crassiflora Mart. Fruit Peel Polyphenols Preserve Cardiac Antioxidant Defense and Reduce Oxidative Damage in Hyperlipidemic Mice

Dyslipidemia and oxidative stress are directly related to the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. Annona crassiflora Mart. (ACM) has been traditionally used in folk medicine to alleviate inflammation and pain. This plant is rich in polyphenols, which exhibit high antioxidant capacity. The present study aimed to elucidate the antioxidant properties of ACM in the heart of hyperlipidemic mice. The animals were orally administered either a crude ethanol extract (CEAc) or a polyphenols-rich fraction (PFAc) obtained from ACM fruit peel. There were correlations between blood and fecal biochemical data with cardiac oxidative stress biomarkers. Here, the pre-treatment with CEAc for 12 d led to an increase in glutathione content (GSH) and a reduction in the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase. Moreover, PFAc was found to enhance the total antioxidant capacity as well as GSH, SOD and CAT activities, which were reduced by Triton WR-1339-induced hyperlipidemia. Moreover, the administration of PFAc before the treatment resulted in a decrease in protein carbonylation and lipid peroxidation levels, as well as a reduction in the activities of glutathione reductase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. ACM fruit peel showed improvement in the glutathione system, mainly its polyphenols-rich fraction, indicating a potential cardioprotective antioxidant usage of this plant extract.
The Role of Nrf2/sMAF Signalling in Retina Ageing and Retinal Diseases

Age-related diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and age-related macular disease, have become increasingly prominent as the population ages. Oxygen is essential for living organisms, but it may also cause disease when it is transformed into reactive oxygen species via biological processes in cells. Most of the production of ROS occurs in mitochondrial complexes I and III. The accumulation of ROS in cells causes oxidative stress, which plays a crucial role in human ageing and many diseases. Nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a key antioxidant transcription factor that plays a central role in many diseases and ageing in general. It regulates many downstream antioxidative enzymes when cells are exposed to oxidative stress. A basic-region leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor, MAF, specifically the small MAF subfamily (sMAFs), forms heterodimers with Nrf2, which bind with Maf-recognition elements (MAREs) in response to oxidative stress. The role of this complex in the human retina remains unclear. This review summarises the current knowledge about Nrf2 and its downstream signalling, especially its cofactor—MAF, in ageing and diseases, with a focus on the retina. Since Nrf2 is the master regulator of redox homeostasis in cells, we hypothesise that targeting Nrf2 is a promising therapeutic approach for many age-related diseases.
Application of cubic constraint approximation in the recursive design of FIR filters subject to output envelope constraints

The smoothing function used in the constraint approximation plays an important role in the adaptive envelope-constrained (EC) filtering algorithms presented. In this paper, a cubic smoothing function is proposed to implement the constraint approximation and the simplified line search technique is introduced to speed up the convergence rate. It is shown that the performance of the adaptive EC filtering algorithms can be greatly improved due to the use of the cubic constraint approximation and simplified line searches. In particular, the second-order convergence is established for the Newton-Raphson type algorithm. Numerical results are included to illustrate the effectiveness of these adaptive EC filtering algorithms.
Clustering Analysis of Seismicity in the Anatolian Region with Implications for Seismic Hazard

The Anatolian region is one of the most seismically active tectonic settings in the world. Here, we perform a clustering analysis of Turkish seismicity using an updated version of the Turkish Homogenized Earthquake Catalogue (TURHEC), which contains the recent developments of the still ongoing Kahramanmaraş seismic sequence. We show that some statistical properties of seismic activity are related to the regional seismogenic potential. Mapping the local and global coefficients of variation of inter-event times of crustal seismicity which occurred during the last three decades, we find that territories prone to major seismic events during the last century usually host globally clustered and locally Poissonian seismic activity. We suggest that regions with seismicity associated with higher values of the global coefficient of variation of inter-event times, CV, are likely to be more prone to hosting large earthquakes in the near future than other regions characterized by lower values, if their largest seismic events have the same magnitude. If our hypothesis is confirmed, clustering properties should be considered as a possible additional information source for the assessment of seismic hazard. We also find positive correlations between global clustering properties, the maximum magnitude and the seismic rate, while the b-value of the Gutenberg–Richter law is weakly correlated with them. Finally, we identify possible changes in such parameters before and during the 2023 Kahramanmaraş seismic sequence.