Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis, growth and characterization of Oxine and Resorcinol doped m-Dinitrobenzene NLO active crystals

: Nonlinear optical active single crystals of Oxine and Resorcinol doped mDinitrobenzenecrystals have been grown from saturated solution with methanolsolvent by slow evaporation solution growth technique at room temperature. Thegrown Oxine and Resorcinol doped DNB crystals were characterized by powder XRDanalysis, UV-Vis spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy and Second Harmonic Generation(SHG) studies. The crystalline nature of the materials has been confirmed by powder XRaydiffraction method. To know the optical transparency and lower cutoff wavelengthof the doped DNB crystals, the UV-Vis absorption and transmission spectra wererecorded. Functional groups were identified by FTIR spectroscopy. The SHG efficiencyof crystals estimated by Kurtz-Perry powder technique was found to be four timeslarger than that of urea and almost five times equal to that of urea respectively.
Simulation and optimization of a soft gamma-ray concentrator using thin film multilayer structures

We are reporting the investigation result of using multilayer thin film structures for channeling and concentrating soft gamma rays with energies greater than 100 keV, beyond the reach of current grazing-incidence hard X-ray mirrors. This will enable future telescopes for higher energies with same mission parameters already proven by NuSTAR. A suitable arrangement of bent multilayer structures of alternating low and high-density materials will channel soft gamma-ray photons via total external reflection and then concentrate the incident radiation to a point. We present the latest results of producing Ir/Si and W/Si multilayers with the required thicknesses and smoothness by using magnetron sputter technique. In addition to experimental works, we have been working on gamma-ray tracking model of the concentrator by IDL, making use of optical properties calculated by the IMD software. This modeling allows us to calculate efficiency and track photon for different energy bands and materials and compare them with experimental result. Also, we describe combine concentrator modeling result and detector simulation by MEGAlib to archive a complete package of gamma-ray telescope simulation. This technology offers the potential for soft gamma-ray telescopes with focal lengths of less than 10 m, removing the need for formation flying spacecraft and providing greatly increased sensitivity for modest cost and complexity and opening the field up to balloon-borne instruments.
Expression of polycomb protein BMI‐1 maintains the plasticity of basal bronchial epithelial cells

The airway epithelium is altered in respiratory disease and is thought to contribute to disease etiology. A caveat to disease research is that the technique of isolation of bronchial epithelial cells from patients is invasive and cells have a limited lifespan. The aim of this study was to extensively characterize the plasticity of primary human bronchial epithelial cells that have been engineered to delay cell senescence including the ability of these cells to differentiate. Cells were engineered to express BMI‐1 or hTERT using viral vector systems. Cells were characterized at passage (p) early (p5), mid (p10), and late (p15) stage for: BMI‐1, p16, and CK14 protein expression, viability and the ability to differentiate at air–liquid interface (ALI), using a range of techniques including immunohistochemistry (IHC), immunofluorescence (IF), transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), MUC5AC and beta tubulin (BTUB) staining. BMI‐1‐expressing cells maintained elevated levels of the BMI‐1 protein and the epithelial marker CK14 and showed a suppression of p16. BMI‐1‐expressing cells had a viability advantage, differentiated at ALI, and had a normal karyotype. In contrast, hTERT‐expressing cells had a reduced viability, showed limited differentiation, and had an abnormal karyotype. We therefore provide extensive characterization of the plasticity of BMI‐1 expressing cells in the context of the ALI model. These cells retain properties of wild‐type cells and may be useful to characterize respiratory disease mechanisms in vitro over sustained periods.
Brain Functional Changes before, during, and after Clinical Pain

This study used an emerging brain imaging technique, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to investigate functional brain activation and connectivity that modulates sometimes traumatic pain experience in a clinical setting. Hemodynamic responses were recorded at bilateral somatosensory (S1) and prefrontal cortices (PFCs) from 12 patients with dentin hypersensitivity in a dental chair before, during, and after clinical pain. Clinical dental pain was triggered with 20 consecutive descending cold stimulations (32° to 0°C) to the affected teeth. We used a partial least squares path modeling framework to link patients’ clinical pain experience with recorded hemodynamic responses at sequential stages and baseline resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). Hemodynamic responses at PFC/S1 were sequentially elicited by expectation, cold detection, and pain perception at a high-level coefficient (coefficients: 0.92, 0.98, and 0.99, P < 0.05). We found that the pain ratings were positively affected only at a moderate level of coefficients by such sequence of functional activation (coefficient: 0.52, P < 0.05) and the baseline PFC-S1 RSFC (coefficient: 0.59, P < 0.05). Furthermore, when the dental pain had finally subsided, the PFC increased its functional connection with the affected S1 orofacial region contralateral to the pain stimulus and, in contrast, decreased with the ipsilateral homuncular S1 regions (P < 0.05). Our study indicated for the first time that patients’ clinical pain experience in the dental chair can be predicted concomitantly by their baseline functional connectivity between S1 and PFC, as well as their sequence of ongoing hemodynamic responses. In addition, this linked cascade of events had immediate after-effects on the patients’ brain connectivity, even when clinical pain had already ceased. Our findings offer a better understating of the ongoing impact of affective and sensory experience in the brain before, during, and after clinical dental pain.
Wake structure and kinematics in two insectivorous bats

We compare kinematics and wake structure over a range of flight speeds (4.0–8.2 m s−1) for two bats that pursue insect prey aerially, Tadarida brasiliensis and Myotis velifer. Body mass and wingspan are similar in these species, but M. velifer has broader wings and lower wing loading. By using high-speed videography and particle image velocimetry of steady flight in a wind tunnel, we show that three-dimensional kinematics and wake structure are similar in the two species at the higher speeds studied, but differ at lower speeds. At lower speeds, the two species show significant differences in mean angle of attack, body–wingtip distance and sweep angle. The distinct body vortex seen at low speed in T. brasiliensis and other bats studied to date is considerably weaker or absent in M. velifer. We suggest that this could be influenced by morphology: (i) the narrower thorax in this species probably reduces the body-induced discontinuity in circulation between the two wings and (ii) the wing loading is lower, hence the lift coefficient required for weight support is lower. As a result, in M. velifer, there may be a decreased disruption in the lift generation between the body and the wing, and the strength of the characteristic root vortex is greatly diminished, both suggesting increased flight efficiency. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight’.
Chronic electromyograms in treadmill running SOD1 mice reveal early changes in muscle activation

The present study demonstrates that electromyograms (EMGs) obtained during locomotor activity in mice were effective for identification of early physiological markers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). These measures could be used to evaluate therapeutic intervention strategies in animal models of ALS. Several parameters of locomotor activity were shifted early in the disease time course in SOD1G93A mice, especially when the treadmill was inclined, including intermuscular phase, burst skew and amplitude of the locomotor bursts. The results of the present study indicate that early compensatory changes may be taking place within the neural network controlling locomotor activity, including spinal interneurons. Locomotor EMGs could have potential use as a clinical diagnostic tool.
A qualitative analysis of multi-level barriers to HIV testing among women in Lebanon

Abstract While the number of HIV cases in the Middle East and North Africa region is low compared to other regions, recent studies show that incidence is increasing especially among high-risk populations; in particular, little is known about women and HIV in the region. Through semi-structured interviews with sexual healthcare providers and staff at non-governmental organisations, we sought to understand barriers to HIV testing among women in Lebanon. Using snowball sampling, key informants were recruited from greater Beirut (12 physicians, 9 non-governmental organisation staff). Data were analysed using a grounded theory framework. Findings identified barriers to HIV testing among women at each level of an adapted social-ecological model (i.e. social-cultural barriers, policy barriers, interpersonal healthcare provider barriers and intrapersonal barriers). Primary findings include the culture of sex as taboo; lack of sexual health education among women; fear of disclosing HIV testing and diagnosis; financial barriers linked to stigmatising insurance policies; and provider attitudes towards women. Findings can be used to inform HIV-related sexual health interventions at multiple levels for women in Lebanon and the greater region.
A novel reverse osmosis membrane modified by polyvinyl alcohol with maleic anhydride crosslinking

In the era of increasing energy crisis, it is inevitable to decrease process energy consumption to increase process viability and curtail green-house gas emission. The Reverse Osmosis plant requires significant energy to transfer water overcoming the osmotic pressure. This paper focuses on increasing the water flux for Thin Film Composite Reverse Osmosis (TFC RO) membrane without compromising salt rejection performance leading to the environmentally friendly and economically attractive process. The virgin TFC RO membrane was exposed to solution of sodium hypochlorite of concentration 2000 mg l−1 for 1 h to activate the surface of the membrane, followed by the treatment with the mixture of polyvinyl alcohol and maleic anhydride with varying concentrations for 1 h and curing in the oven at 80 °C temperature for 10 min. Out of all the treated membranes, the membrane treated with 2000 mg l−1 polyvinyl alcohol and 1000 mg l−1 maleic anhydride demonstrated the highest salt rejection of 96.83 % with 2% increase as compared to the virgin TFC RO membrane. The water flux of the membrane was around 44% higher than the virgin TFC RO membrane. The membrane samples were characterized by atomic force micrographs, ATR-FTIR, Nuclear magnetic resonance and Dynamic mechanical analysis.
Application of Homogeneous and Inhomogeneous Two-Phase Models to a Cavitating Tip Leakage Vortex on a NACA0009 Hydrofoil

Two-phase modeling plays an important role for the correct prediction of cavitation phenomena. However, the computational effort grows with increasing complexity of the model. Consequently, complex models should only be applied if they lead to a significant improvement of the results. In the scope of this study, homogeneous and inhomogeneous models are applied to a cavitating tip leakage vortex on a NACA0009 hydrofoil at 10° incidence angle. Two different cavitation model constants from literature are applied for the homogeneous model. For the inhomogeneous approach, the impact of bubble size diameter is investigated. Furthermore, a constant drag coefficient 0.44 is compared to Schiller Naumann drag model. The results indicate that for the presented case, the inhomogeneous model does not lead to a significant improvement of the simulation results, which can be explained by a low Stokes number due to small bubble diameters. All investigated setups show similar results, which underline that the homogeneous model is sufficient to resolve the present cloud cavitation as well as the cavitating tip separation and tip leakage vortex.
Transient P2X7 Receptor Antagonism Produces Lasting Reductions in Spontaneous Seizures and Gliosis in Experimental Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Neuroinflammation is thought to contribute to the pathogenesis and maintenance of temporal lobe epilepsy, but the underlying cell and molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. The P2X7 receptor is an ionotropic receptor predominantly expressed on the surface of microglia, although neuronal expression has also been reported. The receptor is activated by the release of ATP from intracellular sources that occurs during neurodegeneration, leading to microglial activation and inflammasome-mediated interleukin 1β release that contributes to neuroinflammation. Using a reporter mouse in which green fluorescent protein is induced in response to the transcription of P2rx7, we show that expression of the receptor is selectively increased in CA1 pyramidal and dentate granule neurons, as well as in microglia in mice that developed epilepsy after intra-amygdala kainic acid-induced status epilepticus. P2X7 receptor levels were increased in hippocampal subfields in the mice and in resected hippocampus from patients with pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy. Cells transcribing P2rx7 in hippocampal slices from epileptic mice displayed enhanced agonist-evoked P2X7 receptor currents, and synaptosomes from these animals showed increased P2X7 receptor levels and altered calcium responses. A 5 d treatment of epileptic mice with systemic injections of the centrally available, potent, and specific P2X7 receptor antagonist JNJ-47965567 (30 mg/kg) significantly reduced spontaneous seizures during continuous video-EEG monitoring that persisted beyond the time of drug presence in the brain. Hippocampal sections from JNJ-47965567-treated animals obtained >5 d after treatment ceased displayed strongly reduced microgliosis and astrogliosis. The present study suggests that targeting the P2X7 receptor has anticonvulsant and possibly disease-modifying effects in experimental epilepsy. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common and drug-resistant form of epilepsy in adults. Neuroinflammation is implicated as a pathomechanism, but the upstream mechanisms driving gliosis and how important this is for seizures remain unclear. In our study, we show that the ATP-gated P2X7 receptor is upregulated in experimental epilepsy and resected hippocampus from epilepsy patients. Targeting the receptor with a new centrally available antagonist, JNJ-47965567, suppressed epileptic seizures well beyond the time of treatment and reduced underlying gliosis in the hippocampus. The findings suggest a potential disease-modifying treatment for epilepsy based on targeting the P2X7 receptor.
The Consideration of Socioeconomic Determinants in Prevention of Traditional Male Circumcision Deaths and Complications

The responsiveness to socioeconomic determinants is perceived as highly crucial in preventing the high mortality and morbidity rates of traditional male circumcision initiates in the Eastern Cape, a province in South Africa. The study sought to describe social determinants and explore economic determinants related to traditional circumcision of boys from 12 to 18 years of age in Libode rural communities in Eastern Cape Province. From the results of a descriptive cross-sectional survey (n = 1,036), 956 (92.2%) boys preferred traditional male circumcision because of associated social determinants which included the variables for the attainment of social manhood values and benefits; 403 (38.9%) wanted to attain community respect; 347 (33.5%) wanted the accepted traditional male circumcision for hygienic purposes. The findings from the exploratory focus group discussions were revolving around variables associated with poverty, unemployment, and illegal actions to gain money. The three negative economic determinants were yielded as themes: (a) commercialization and profitmaking, (b) poverty and unemployment, (c) taking health risk for cheaper practices, and the last theme was the (d) actions suggested to prevent the problem. The study concluded with discussion and recommendations based on a developed strategic circumcision health promotion program which is considerate of socioeconomic determinants.
Textual Query of Personal Photos Facilitated by Large-Scale Web Data

The rapid popularization of digital cameras and mobile phone cameras has led to an explosive growth of personal photo collections by consumers. In this paper, we present a real-time textual query-based personal photo retrieval system by leveraging millions of Web images and their associated rich textual descriptions (captions, categories, etc.). After a user provides a textual query (e.g., "water”), our system exploits the inverted file to automatically find the positive Web images that are related to the textual query "water” as well as the negative Web images that are irrelevant to the textual query. Based on these automatically retrieved relevant and irrelevant Web images, we employ three simple but effective classification methods, k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN), decision stumps, and linear SVM, to rank personal photos. To further improve the photo retrieval performance, we propose two relevance feedback methods via cross-domain learning, which effectively utilize both the Web images and personal images. In particular, our proposed cross-domain learning methods can learn robust classifiers with only a very limited amount of labeled personal photos from the user by leveraging the prelearned linear SVM classifiers in real time. We further propose an incremental cross-domain learning method in order to significantly accelerate the relevance feedback process on large consumer photo databases. Extensive experiments on two consumer photo data sets demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our system, which is also inherently not limited by any predefined lexicon.
A Complex Estimation Function based on Community Reputation for On-line Transaction Systems

Abstract A reputation management system is crucial in online transaction systems, in which a reputation function is its central component. We propose a generalized set-theoretic reputation function in this paper, which can be configured to meet various assessment requirements of a wide range of reputation scenarios encountered in online transaction nowadays. We analyze and verify tolerance of this reputation function against various socio-communal reputation attacks. We find the function to be dynamic, customizable and tolerant against different attacks. As such it can serve well in many online transaction systems such as e-commerce websites, online group activities, and P2P systems.
A Dynamic Verification Model based on Information Flow Constraint

Abstract After analyzing the common attacks for some software systems, a dynamic software behavior verification model related with the unchecked input data based on software analysis and dynamic slicing technology is proposed. Regarding a statement as a basic analysis unit, and the information flow as the main behavior of the software, the direction of the information flow of each statement is defined as its behavior specification, the information flow verification problem is converted into the verification for assigning variable address's validation. During the execution, behavior of the statements that use untrusted variable is monitored to verify whether the address modified by the statements belongs to the specification or not. If it is consistent with the specification, the execution of the statement is permitted. Based on the behavior model proposed, a method of extracting of the behavior specification was researched and a method of dynamic verification was designed. In order to prove for efficiency.
Rigorous Clinical Trial Design in Public Health Emergencies Is Essential

Randomized clinical trials are the most reliable approaches to evaluating the effects of new treatments and vaccines. During the 2014-2015 West African Ebola epidemic, many argued that such trials were neither ethical nor feasible in an environment of limited health infrastructure and severe disease with a high fatality rate. Consensus among the numerous organizations providing help to the affected areas was never achieved, resulting in fragmented collaboration, delayed study initiation, and ultimately failure to provide definitive evidence on the efficacy of treatments and vaccines. Randomized trials were in fact approved by local ethics boards and initiated, demonstrating that randomized trials, even in such difficult circumstances, are feasible. Improved planning and collaboration among research and humanitarian organizations, and affected communities, in the interepidemic periods are needed to ensure that questions regarding the efficacy of vaccines and treatments can be definitively answered during future public health emergencies.
Task experience influences coordinative structures and performance variables in learning a slalom ski‐simulator task

The experiment investigated the progressions of the qualitative and quantitative changes in the movement dynamics of learning the ski‐simulator as a function of prior‐related task experience. The focus was the differential timescales of change in the candidate collective variable, neuromuscular synergies, joint motions, and task outcome as a function of learning over 7 days of practice. Half of the novice participants revealed in day 1 a transition of in‐phase to anti‐phase coupling of center of mass (CoM)‐platform motion whereas the remaining novices and experienced group all produced on the first trial an anti‐phase CoM‐platform coupling. The experienced group also had initially greater amplitude and velocity of platform motion—a performance advantage over the novice group that was reduced but not eliminated with 7 days of practice. The novice participants who had an in‐phase CoM‐platform coupling on the initial trials of day 1 also showed the most restricted platform motion in those trials. Prior‐related practice experience differentially influenced the learning of the task as evidenced by both the qualitative organization and the quantitative motion properties of the individual degrees of freedom (dof) to meet the task demands. The findings provide further evidence to the proposition that CoM‐platform coupling is a candidate collective variable in the ski‐simulator task that provides organization and boundary conditions to the motions of the individual joint dof and their couplings.