Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Micelle silymarin supplementation to sows' diet from day 109 of gestation to entire lactation period enhances reproductive performance, and affects serum hormones and metabolites.

The aim of the present study was to explore the influences of varying doses of micelle silymarin (0, 0.05%, 0.1%, and 0.2%) supplementation on sows' feed intake, milk yields, serum hormones, and litter growth using 40 multiparous sows (Landrace × Yorkshire, parity from 3-5) from the109 th prenatal day to the 21 st postnatal day. Each treatment included 10 sows and each sow was used as an experimental unit. On weaning day, litter weight and litter weight gain were linearly improved (P < 0.01, both), corresponding to the increasing dose of silymarin micelle in the diet. Also, litter weight, litter weight gain, and average daily gain (ADG) of piglets born to treated sows exceeded (P < 0.05) those of offspring from the control sows (0% micelle silymarin). Feed intake in week1, week2, and the entire lactation period were increased (linear, P < 0.01) as micelle silymarin dose increased. Body weight (BW) loss of sows during lactation was linearly reduced (P = 0.003) with the increasing amounts of micelle silymarin. Average daily milk yields during lactation were also linearly increased (P = 0.002) in treated sows, exceeding (P = 0.046) that of control sows. Also, uniform increases were observed (P = 0.037) in fat content in milk produced by treated sows on d 14 of lactation. Epinephrine concentrations and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activity in sow serum on d 21 postpartum were linearly declined (P = 0.010) as micelle silymarin dose increased, and were both declined (P < 0.05) in treated sows compared with the control. In addition, treated sows' serum had higher activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) at parturition and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), lower oxidized glutathione (GSSG) concentrations, and GSSG/GSH (glutathione) ratio (all, P < 0.01) on d 21 of lactation. Moreover, offspring from micelle silymarin-treated sows tended to (0.05 < P <0.1) have higher serum catalase (CAT) activity and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) concentrations. Taken together, the results showed that sows fed increasing levels of micelle silymarin from the109 th prenatal day to the 21 st postnatal day had an incremental dose-dependent effect on higher feed intake, diminished BW loss, greater milk yields, and greater litter weight at weaning, and 0.2% of micelle silymarin could be optimal to achieve the better effect.
Comparison of the Usability of Eye Drop Aids and the Conventional Bottle

(1) Background: Eye drops are the most common route of administration for ophthalmic medications. Administering drops can be a major hurdle for patients, potentially resulting in noncompliance and treatment failure. The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy and safety of two different aids and the conventional bottle for eye drop instillation; (2) Methods: An interventional crossover study involving standard eye drop bottle, Opticare aid and Autodrop aid. The study included healthy subjects without a history of regular eye drop use; (3) Results: Twenty-six subjects were enrolled. Of those subjects, 96% and 92% were able to assemble the eye drop bottle into the Autodrop and the Opticare aids, respectively. Subjective assessment indicated that Autodrop was significantly easier to assemble than Opticare (95% CI: −1.6802 to −0.1659, p = 0.02). When using either aid, there was no contamination of the bottle tip, which occurred in 46% of subjects when no aid was used (p = 0.0005). Fewer drops were expelled when using the conventional bottle as compared to the aids (p = 0.05 compared to Autodrop, p = 0.1 compared to Opticare); (4) Conclusions: Autodrop and Opticare can assist patients with eye drop placement. These aids completely prevented bottle tip contamination, which was frequently observed when the conventional bottle was used alone.
The Influence of Hydrogen Bond Donors on the CO2 Absorption Mechanism by the Bio-Phenol-Based Deep Eutectic Solvents

Recently, deep eutectic solvents (DESs), a new type of solvent, have been studied widely for CO2 capture. In this work, the anion-functionalized deep eutectic solvents composed of phenol-based ionic liquids (ILs) and hydrogen bond donors (HBDs) ethylene glycol (EG) or 4-methylimidazole (4CH3-Im) were synthesized for CO2 capture. The phenol-based ILs used in this study were prepared from bio-derived phenols carvacrol (Car) and thymol (Thy). The CO2 absorption capacities of the DESs were determined. The absorption mechanisms by the DESs were also studied using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and mass spectroscopy. Interestingly, the results indicated that CO2 reacted with both the phenolic anions and EG, generating the phenol-based carbonates and the EG-based carbonates, when CO2 interacted with the DESs formed by the ILs and EG. However, CO2 only reacted with the phenolic anions when the DESs formed by the ILs and 4CH3-Im. The results indicated that the HBDs impacted greatly on the CO2 absorption mechanism, suggesting the mechanism can be tuned by changing the HBDs, and the different reaction pathways may be due to the steric hinderance differences of the functional groups of the HBDs.
Effect of different levels of planting distances, irrigation and fertigation on quality characters of main & ratoon banana crop cv.Grand Naine

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different levels of planting distances, irrigation and fertigation levels on quality characters of the main & ratoon banana crops cv. Grand Naine (Musa AAA). Main and ratoon crops grown at the widest planting distance 1.75 x 1.75 m showed significantly better fruit quality characters. Application of irrigation at a rate of 764.30 mm per year during main crop substantially improved fruit quality characters. In the ratoon crop, irrigation at a rate of 1187.10 mm per year was observed to be most economical and effective in getting the best fruit quality.In the both main and ratoon crops, 80 per cent of the recommended fertigation dose (160 N:32 P :192 K g per plant per year) performed well in respect of fruit quality characters. Hence, fertigation with 80 per cent of the recommended dose was found to be optimum and economical. Main and ratoon crops grown under different treatment combinations (using drip and fertigation system) were superior to the crop grown under the control treatment (using surface irrigation and conventional application of solid fertilizers) as regards to most fruit quality parameters. The treatment combination D1 x I1 x F3 in the main crop improved most of the fruit quality characters. The treatment combination D1 x I2 x F3 maintained medium level of ratoon crop fruit quality characters.
An Approach to Estimate the Shear Strength of Rice Stem using a Fuzzy Logic Model

In this study, a fuzzy logic model was developed to estimate the optimum shear strength of rice stem. The input parameters of the fuzzy model were stem moisture content, internode position and cutting blade loading rate. In order to write the fuzzy rules for the first linguistic variable, stem moisture content, four membership functions namely, very low (0-15), low (10-40), medium (35-65), and high (60-80), in terms of wet basis percentage were defined. Three membership functions including low (0-30), middle (25-70) and high (65-120) were considered for the second linguistic variable, stem internode position, all in cm. In the case of the third linguistic variable, cutting blade loading rate, three membership functions including low (0-5), medium (4-10) and high (9-15), were assigned in terms of mm/min. Three membership functions were also assigned to the output of the fuzzy system that was shearing energy, including low (0-150), middle (140-300), and high (280-450) in terms of mJ. In order to validate the fuzzy model, the shearing energy of rice stems obtained through primary experimental treatments were assessed and compared with those values acquired using the fuzzy logic rules. The results showed that the fuzzy model used in this study had an acceptable predictive ability to estimate the level of shear strength of rice stem. The model accuracy to range the shear strength of rice stem was 86%, 97% and 91%, respectively in high, middle and low ranges of shearing energy.
Exploring Openness and Connectedness During Online Learning

Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for open and distance learning (ODL). Past studies investigate the perception of ODL based on learner-to-learner engagement, leaner-to-instructor engagement and learner-to-content engagement. Nevertheless, lack of study conducted to explore ways to boost students’ motivation during ODL. This study is necessary to investigate strategies to boost students’ motivation during ODL. By exploring the openness and connectedness of the students during ODL, it gives significant information to the instructors and learners. The findings of this study assist the instructors in developing meaningful learning content, establish high engagement with the learner and learners will discover that a good relationship with their peers makes them more motivated during ODL. To answer the research questions, quantitative method was employed. Instrument is developed from the past literatures to find out how openness and connectedness is displayed during ODL65 undergraduate and postgraduate students responded to online close-ended questionnaire. Findings demonstrate that students perceived that high level of openness during ODL is demonstrated by learner-to-learner engagement and leaner-to-instructor engagement. Meanwhile, connectedness is displayed in ODL through learner-to-content engagement. Also, the students put learner-to-learner engagement as top factor to enrich openness during ODL and eventually boost their motivation. By referring to the findings, it is suggested that future research investigate more efforts and initiatives to establish and sustain openness and connectedness in online learning. The globalization process has made Internet as an essential medium to almost all aspects including professional and personal networks to provide information sources, news and learning materials
Plate Waste in School Nutrition Programs Final Report to Congress

This report fulfills a request by the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations (H.R. 106-619). USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) reviewed the literature on plate waste in school nutrition programs, particularly the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), to determine the level of plate waste in these programs, factors that contribute to plate waste, and strategies that may reduce waste. The best national estimate available indicates that about 12 percent of calories from food served to students under the NSLP go uneaten. The estimate is derived from a large, nationally representative study conducted in 1991-92 and, therefore, may not reflect current conditions in schools. Some plate waste is inevitable. Nevertheless, reducing plate waste could make program operations more efficient and lower costs. Possible causes of plate waste include wide variation in student appetites and energy needs, differences between meals served and student preferences, scheduling constraints that interfere with meal consumption or result in meals being served when children are less hungry, and availability of substitute foods from competing sources. The review identified possible strategies for reducing plate waste, such as using the offer versus serve provision for meal service, rescheduling lunch hours, improving the quality and condition of food, tailoring serving sizes to student appetites via self-service, and providing nutrition education.
Laser Irradiation of a Bio-Waste Derived Carbon Unlocks Performance Enhancement in Secondary Lithium Batteries

Pyrolyzed carbons from bio-waste sources are renewable nanomaterials for sustainable negative electrodes in Li- and Na-ion batteries. Here, carbon derived from a hazelnut shell has been obtained by hydrothermal processing of the bio-waste followed by thermal treatments and laser irradiation in liquid. A non-focused nanosecond pulsed laser source has been used to irradiate pyrolyzed carbon particles suspended in acetonitrile to modify the surface and morphology. Morphological, structural, and compositional changes have been investigated by microscopy, spectroscopy, and diffraction to compare the materials properties after thermal treatments as well as before and after the irradiation. Laser irradiation in acetonitrile induces remarkable alteration in the nanomorphology, increase in the surface area and nitrogen enrichment of the carbon surfaces. These materials alterations are beneficial for the electrochemical performance in lithium half cells as proved by galvanostatic cycling at room temperature.
Clinical and genomic findings in brain heterotopia: Report of a pediatric patient cohort from Romania

Brain heterotopia is a group of rare malformations with a heterogeneous phenotype, ranging from asymptomatic to a severe clinical picture (drug-resistant epilepsy, severe developmental delay). The etiology is multifactorial, including both genetic and environmental factors. In the present study, a cohort of 15 pediatric patients with brain heterotopia were investigated by clinical examination, electroencephalographic studies, brain imaging, and genomic tests. Most of the patients had epileptic seizures, often difficult to control with one antiepileptic drug; another frequent characteristic in the cohort was developmental delay or intellectual disability, in some cases associated with behavioral problems. The genomic studies revealed an interstitial 22q11.2 microduplication, an anomaly not reported previously in heterotopia patients. Comparing the cohort of the present study with that of a previous series of heterotopia patients, both adult and pediatric, similar aspects, such as the high frequency of drug-resistant epilepsy were observed as well as some differences, such as no systemic malformations and no cases with fatal evolution. The current findings add new data to existing knowledge on a rare heterogeneous disorder. The detailed clinical description, including the epilepsy phenotypes, and genomic profiles bring new insights into a group of disorders, yet to be fully understood.
FABRICATION OF A ROBOTIC HAND USING RAPID PROTOTYPING

In this paper, the application of Rapid Prototyping in the fabrication of a robotic hand is presented. Using the Selective Laser Sintering Sinterstation 2000 of DTM Corporation of Austin, TX, prototypes of mechanical joints were fabricated experimentally. The designs of these component joints were then used to fabricate the articulated structure of one four degree of freedom finger of a five-fingered robotic hand. This robotic finger and joints have been fabricated in one step, without requiring assembly while maintaining their desired mobility.
Local Electrode Atom Probes for 3-D Metrology

Imago Scientific Instruments is developing its Local Electrode Atom Probe (LEAP®) microscope for use in semiconductor, data storage, and other nanotechnology industries to provide 3-D atomic-scale metrology. The LEAP microscope achieves true 3-D atomic-scale analysis by using a high electric field to remove individual atoms from material surfaces and a position-sensitive detector to record information that reveals the atoms’ position and identity. The LEAP microscope represents a new class of tool for atomic-scale characterization whose analytical capabilities surpass those of currently employed metrology tools. The LEAP microscope’s atom-by-atom analysis achieves higher spatial resolution and greater sensitivity than TEM, and provides lateral spatial resolution that is not available by SIMS. Specific industry needs that may be addressed by the LEAP microscope are quantitative analysis of dopant distributions in ultra-shallow junctions, purity/interface structures of ultra-thin dielectrics, and multilayer thin film structure in read/write head and storage media technology. This paper presents results of LEAP analysis of buried interfaces in electronic materials to show the unique nature of the analytical information provided by the technique and the potential benefit to industry of developing a metrology tool based on LEAP technology.
Asphalt Binder Contribution to Mixture Workability and Application of Asphalt Lubricity Test to Estimate Compactability Temperatures for Warm-Mix Asphalt

The disconnect between estimated compaction temperatures on the basis of viscosity and behavior observed in laboratory- and field-compacted mixes indicates that the sole use of viscosity is insufficient to characterize the role of the asphalt binder in mixture compaction. The asphalt lubricity test was presented as a complement or replacement to viscosity on the basis of the concept that it was necessary to measure the properties of binders in thin films to relate better to compaction of mixes and to detect the effects of warm-mix asphalt (WMA) additives. To assess the value of the asphalt lubricity test, the relative contributions of lubricity, viscosity, and aggregate gradation on mixture workability at different levels of compactive effort were studied with statistical analysis. The mixes included fine and coarse gradations prepared with various conventional and WMA-modified binders, compacted at a range of temperatures representative of those used for WMA. Results indicated that gradation and binder lubricity contributed significantly to mixture workability at conditions of lower temperature, lower density, or both. The effects of viscosity were found to be insignificant. Aggregate gradation was found to be the most influential factor, which indicated that, for some mixes, use of WMA additives was not always necessary to improve laboratory compaction. To support selection of compaction temperatures on the basis of binder properties, a method was presented to apply the asphalt lubricity test to estimate minimum WMA compaction temperatures.
Meteorological Drought Analysis and Return Periods over North and West Africa and Linkage with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

Droughts are one of the world’s most destructive natural disasters. In large regions of Africa, droughts can have strong environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Understanding the mechanism that drives drought and predicting its variability is important for enhancing early warning and disaster risk management. Taking North and West Africa as the study area, this study adopted multi-source data and various statistical analysis methods, such as the joint probability density function (JPDF), to study the meteorological drought and return years across a long term (1982–2018). The standardized precipitation index (SPI) was used to evaluate the large-scale spatiotemporal drought characteristics at 1–12-month timescales. The intensity, severity, and duration of drought in the study area were evaluated using SPI–12. At the same time, the JPDF was used to determine the return year and identify the intensity, duration, and severity of drought. The Mann-Kendall method was used to test the trend of SPI and annual precipitation at 1–12-month timescales. The pattern of drought occurrence and its correlation with climate factors were analyzed. The results showed that the drought magnitude (DM) of the study area was the highest in 2008–2010, 2000–2003, and 1984–1987, with the values of 5.361, 2.792, and 2.187, respectively, and the drought lasting for three years in each of the three periods. At the same time, the lowest DM was found in 1997–1998, 1993–1994, and 1991–1992, with DM values of 0.113, 0.658, and 0.727, respectively, with a duration of one year each time. It was confirmed that the probability of return to drought was higher when the duration of drought was shorter, with short droughts occurring more regularly, but not all severe droughts hit after longer time intervals. Beyond this, we discovered a direct connection between drought and the North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI) over Morocco, Algeria, and the sub-Saharan countries, and some slight indications that drought is linked with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) over Guinea, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria.
Economic Burden of Pneumococcal Disease in Individuals Aged 15 Years and Older in the Liguria Region of Italy

Despite the availability of vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae, the global incidence and economic cost of pneumococcal disease (PD) among adults is still high. This retrospective cohort analysis estimated the cost of emergency department (ED) visits/hospitalizations associated with non-invasive pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease among individuals ≥15 years of age in the Liguria region of Italy during 2012–2018. Data from the Liguria Region Administrative Health Databases and the Ligurian Chronic Condition Data Warehouse were used, including hospital admission date, length of stay, discharge date, outpatient visits, and laboratory/imaging procedures. A ≥30-day gap between two events defined a new episode, and patients with ≥1 ED or inpatient claim for PD were identified. The total mean annual number of hospitalizations for PD was 13,450, costing ~€49 million per year. Pneumonia accounted for the majority of hospitalization costs. The median annual cost of hospitalization for all-cause pneumonia was €38,416,440 (per-capita cost: €26.78) and was €30,353,928 (per-capita cost: €20.88) for pneumococcal and unspecified pneumonia. The total number and associated costs of ED visits/hospitalizations generally increased over the study period. PD still incurs high economic costs in adults in the Liguria region of Italy.
New and Innovative Concrete Pavements with Structural Dome Formwork System

The concrete pavement industry is actively seeking new and modern solutions to the construction of more economical, more sustainable, and more durable roads. One innovative product being evaluated for use in pavement applications consists of interlocking modular, dome-shaped plastic units that serve as a permanent formwork. The result is a concrete slab with a system of interconnected vaultlike voids below the surface. The dome shape is capable of providing carrying capacities equivalent to those of conventional slabs but requires less concrete to do so and also provides additional drainage and ventilation benefits. To evaluate the feasibility of using this structural dome formwork system in road and highway applications, a collaborative research effort was undertaken. As part of this study, a full-scale, instrumented trial section was built for testing and evaluation in an accelerated loading scenario. Details about the design and construction of the experimental pavement sections are presented. A preliminary evaluation of pavement performance during the first year of service is provided as well as discussion about this product's feasibility as pavement technology. The results obtained to date suggest that this technology has great potential in concrete pavement applications. The trial pavement sections are performing well after more than 1 year of service and are carrying heavily loaded aggregate trucks in the harsh Canadian climate. More than 1.34 million cumulative equivalent single-axle loads have been applied to the pavement to date without any significant pavement degradation. The findings obtained also indicate that the dome-shaped technology can provide significant material and cost savings as compared with conventional jointed plain concrete pavements.