Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Precipitin Reaction

THE precipitin reaction is also known as the “biological reaction” for proteins; it enables us to distinguish between proteins by using the animal body as a test-tube, and to establish differences between them which no other form of test-tube will detect. It is best known as a means for distinguishing human from other forms of blood. The procedure is briefly to inject an animal (usually a rabbit) repeatedly with a foreign protein; the serum of that animal then gives a precipitate with that protein, but with no other. So if the material injected is human blood, a precipitate is produced when the serum of the blood of the rabbit is added to human blood, or at any rate to the blood of the group of animals (the higher apes) to which man belongs, but not with any other sort of blood. The reaction is of value in forensic medicine, and it is also of value to the zoologist, as it enables him to demonstrate the blood-relationships of animals, and by the amount of precipitate to ascertain the degree of the relationship in figures.
Head-Mounted Eye Tracking of a Chimpanzee under Naturalistic Conditions

This study offers a new method for examining the bodily, manual, and eye movements of a chimpanzee at the micro-level. A female chimpanzee wore a lightweight head-mounted eye tracker (60 Hz) on her head while engaging in daily interactions with the human experimenter. The eye tracker recorded her eye movements accurately while the chimpanzee freely moved her head, hands, and body. Three video cameras recorded the bodily and manual movements of the chimpanzee from multiple angles. We examined how the chimpanzee viewed the experimenter in this interactive setting and how the eye movements were related to the ongoing interactive contexts and actions. We prepared two experimentally defined contexts in each session: a face-to-face greeting phase upon the appearance of the experimenter in the experimental room, and a subsequent face-to-face task phase that included manual gestures and fruit rewards. Overall, the general viewing pattern of the chimpanzee, measured in terms of duration of individual fixations, length of individual saccades, and total viewing duration of the experimenter’s face/body, was very similar to that observed in previous eye-tracking studies that used non-interactive situations, despite the differences in the experimental settings. However, the chimpanzee viewed the experimenter and the scene objects differently depending on the ongoing context and actions. The chimpanzee viewed the experimenter’s face and body during the greeting phase, but viewed the experimenter’s face and hands as well as the fruit reward during the task phase. These differences can be explained by the differential bodily/manual actions produced by the chimpanzee and the experimenter during each experimental phase (i.e., greeting gestures, task cueing). Additionally, the chimpanzee’s viewing pattern varied depending on the identity of the experimenter (i.e., the chimpanzee’s prior experience with the experimenter). These methods and results offer new possibilities for examining the natural gaze behavior of chimpanzees.
A low complexity edge-preserved image compression algorithm for LCD overdrive

Overdrive technique is mandatory for liquid crystal display (LCD) to mitigate the motion blur phenomenon. As the display resolution increases, the image data should be highly compressed to reduce the usages of frame memory and bandwidth. Since current high quality compression algorithms inevitably require large embedded memory (line buffer) and complex computations, a low complexity line-buffer-free edge-preserved compression algorithm is proposed in this paper to reserve the edge information for overdrive technique of LCD. Performance evaluations show that the proposed edge-preserved compression achieves above 20% PSNR improvements as compared to the conventional DPCM compression up to 6:1 compression ratio.
Dual Burden of Malnutrition Among Adolescents of Smallholder Coffee Farming Households of Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia

Background: Substantial evidence is emerging on the coexistence of double burden of malnutrition on adolescents of low-income countries, shaping the health challenges of the upcoming adult generation for the worst. Whether nutritional status markers of adolescents in the cash crop setting are on par with economic gains remains uncertain. Thus, we investigated the nutritional outcomes of adolescents and their determinants in coffee farming households. Methods: The survey was carried out in 3 top coffee-producing districts of Jimma Zone, Ethiopia. Five hundred fifty mothers/caregivers and their respective adolescents were selected using multistage random sampling. Anthropometric data were converted into height-for-age and body-mass-index-for-age Z scores using WHO Anthroplus software and analyzed by SPSS for windows. Results: Prevalence of thinness, stunting, and overweight/obesity were 11.6%, 15.6%, and 7.1%, respectively. The odds of stunting among adolescents in households in the lowest wealth tertile was nearly 6-fold higher compared to the highest tertile (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 5.6 [2.6-12]). Conversely, the odds of overweight/obesity was higher among adolescents in the households in the middle wealth tertile (AOR = 2.72 [1.08-6.86]) compared to the highest tertile. Adolescents living in households with low-dependent age-groups were more than twice likely to be overweight/obese (AOR = 2.58 [1.06-6.24]). Conclusion: The current study revealed the presence of substantial dual burden of malnutrition. In such a setting, it is critical to draw a fine line and trade-off for eliminating morbidity and mortality of undernutrition, without triggering the risk of overweight/obesity.
Quantitation of lysolipids, fatty acids, and phospholipase A2 activity and correlation with membrane polarity

Acrylodan-labeled rat-intestinal fatty acid binding protein, ADIFAB, binds both of lysophosphatidylcholines (LPC) and FA. Binding displaces Acrylodan and its fluorescence peak shifts from 432 to 505 nm. A fluorescence assay that relies on this shift is presented for quantitating LPC, FA, and phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activity in phospholipid bilayers in absolute units of μM/min/mg of enzyme. This is a development over an earlier assay that took into account only FA binding. Activities of bee venom PLA2 on dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dioleylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) bilayers were measured. Standard pH-Stat assays validated the present assay. Products increase linearly with time for about one minute in DOPC and five minutes in DPPC corresponding to completion of 5 to 8% hydrolysis in DOPC and 20% in DPPC. Membrane polarity and microviscosity measured using electron spin resonance (ESR) exhibited discontinuities at compositions that mimicked similar percentages of hydrolysis products in the respective bilayers. The observed hydrolysis rate decrease following the initial linear period thus correlates to changes in membrane polarity. The ability of the assay to yield actual product concentrations, reveal structure in the reaction progress curves, and interpretation in light of the ESR data bring insight into the shape of the reaction curve.
Effectiveness of nystatin in polysymptomatic patients. A randomized, double-blind trial with nystatin versus placebo in general practice.

BACKGROUND Antifungal therapy has been claimed to be effective in polysymptomatic patients with diffuse symptoms from multiple body systems and even well defined diseases, traditionally not related to fungi. Hypersensitivity to fungus proteins and mycotoxins has been proposed as the cause. METHODS We conducted a 4-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 116 individuals selected by a 7-item questionnaire to determine whether the antifungal agent nystatin given orally was superior to placebo. At the onset of the study, the patients were free to select either their regular diet or a sugar- and yeast-free diet, which resulted in four different subgroups: nystatin + diet (ND); placebo + diet (PD); nystatin (N); and placebo (P). RESULTS Nystatin was significantly better than placebo in reduction of the overall symptom score (P < 0.003). In six of the 45 individually recorded symptoms, the improvement was significant (P < 0.01). All three active treatment groups reduced their overall symptom scores significantly (P < 0.0001), while the placebo regimen had no effect (P = 0.83). The benefit of diet was significant within both the nystatin (ND > N) and the placebo groups (PD > P). CONCLUSIONS Nystatin is superior to placebo in reducing localized and systemic symptoms in individuals with presumed fungus hypersensitivity as selected by a 7-item questionnaire. This superiority is probably enhanced even further by a sugar- and yeast-free diet.
Oxygen-generating Hybrid Polymeric Nanoparticles with Encapsulated Doxorubicin and Chlorin e6 for Trimodal Imaging-Guided Combined Chemo-Photodynamic Therapy

The combination of chemotherapy with photodynamic therapy (PDT) has attracted broad attention as it can overcome limitations of conventional chemo-treatment by using different modes of action. However, the efficacy of PDT to treat solid tumors is severely affected by hypoxia in tumors. Methods: In this study, we developed oxygen-generating theranostic nanoparticles (CDM NPs) by hierarchically assembling doxorubicin (DOX), chlorin e6 (Ce6) and colloidal manganese dioxide (MnO2) with poly (ε-caprolactone-co-lactide)-b-poly (ethylene glycol)-b-poly (ε-caprolactone-co-lactide) for treating breast cancer. The in vitro and in vivo antitumor efficacy and imaging performance were investigated. Results: The theranostic nanoparticles showed high stability and biocompatibility both in vitro and in vivo. MnO2 within the nanoparticles could trigger decomposition of excessive endogenous H2O2 in the tumor microenvironment to generate oxygen in-situ to relieve tumor hypoxia. With enhanced oxygen generation, the PDT effect was significantly improved under laser-irradiation. More importantly, this effect together with that of DOX was able to dramatically promote the combined chemotherapy-PDT efficacy of CDM NPs in an MCF-7 tumor-bearing mouse model. Furthermore, the real-time tumor accumulation of the nanocomposites could be monitored by fluorescence imaging, photoacoustic (PA) imaging and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Conclusion: The designed CDM NPs are expected to provide an alternative way of improving antitumor efficacy by combined chemo-PDT further enhanced by oxygen generation, and would have broad applications in cancer theranostics.
Handling Users Local Contexts in Web 2.0

Creating, updating, and aggregating Web contents from different sources (e.g., Web users and sites) form the core idea of the Web 2.0. However, Web users originate from different communities, and follow their own semantics (referred to as local contexts in this paper) to represent and interpret Web contents. Therefore, several discrepancies could rise up between the semantics of Web authors and readers. In this paper, we present several Web 2.0 scenarios, and illustrate the possible challenges and trends to handle the local contexts of Web users in these scenarios.
Use of an Integrated Research-Practice Partnership to Improve Outcomes of a Community-Based Strength-Training Program for Older Adults: Reach and Effect of Lifelong Improvements through Fitness Together (LIFT)

Only 17% of older adults meet the recommendations for two days of full body strength training that is associated with improved functional fitness; reduced risk of falls; and reduced morbidity and mortality rates. Community-based interventions are recommended as they provide supportive infrastructure to reach older adults and impact strength training behaviors. Scalability and sustainability of these interventions is directly linked with setting-level buy-in. Adapting an intervention through an integrated research–practice partnership may improve individual and setting-level outcomes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the initial reach and effect of a locally adapted, health educator-led strength-training intervention; Lifelong Improvements through Fitness Together (LIFT). LIFT was compared to an evidence-based exercise program, Stay Strong; Stay Healthy (SSSH). Intervention dose and mode were the same for LIFT and SSSH, but LIFT included behavioral change strategies. Older adult functional fitness was assessed before and after the 8-week strength training intervention. Health educators who delivered LIFT and SSSH were able to reach 80 and 33 participants, respectively. Participants in LIFT were able to significantly improve in all functional fitness measures whereas SSSH participants were only able to significantly improve in 5 of the 7 functional fitness measures. In conclusion, this study provides preliminary evidence that the locally adapted program reached more individuals and had improvements in functional fitness.
Tool materials influence on surface roughness and oversize in machining glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (GFR-PP) composites

ABSTRACT Glass fiber reinforced Polypropylene (GFR-PP) is used in manufacturing industries like bicycles, auto bodies, aircraft, and civil applications due to superior properties. Machining of fiber-reinforced plastics is problematic especially when drilling due to their inherent in-homogeneity, anisotropy and limited plastic deformation. Drilling is often required to facilitate the assembly of the parts to get the final products. Surface quality in drilled composites is an essential design characteristic in many situations, such as accurate fits, aesthetic requirements, etc. The present work deals with detailed investigation on the influence of tool materials and machining parameters during drilling of GFR-PP composite material. The study mainly focused on machined surface quality such as surface roughness of the drilled hole and dimensional inaccuracies such as oversize of the hole. The better dimensional and surface quality of drilled hole is observed from solid carbide drill with a spindle speed of 2500 rpm and a feed rate of 0.05 mm/rev. Regression model is developed using experimental data for estimating the surface roughness and oversize. The developed model has high R-sq value which shows the strong relationship between the model and the response variables. The effect of drilling process parameters and associated interactions are discussed in detail.
Asbestos‐associated genome‐wide DNA methylation changes in lung cancer

Previous studies have revealed a robust association between exposure to asbestos and human lung cancer. Accumulating evidence has highlighted the role of epigenome deregulation in the mechanism of carcinogen‐induced malignancies. We examined the impact of asbestos on DNA methylation. Our genome‐wide studies (using Illumina HumanMethylation450K BeadChip) of lung cancer tissue and paired normal lung from 28 asbestos‐exposed or non‐exposed patients, mostly smokers, revealed distinctive DNA methylation changes. We identified a number of differentially methylated regions (DMR) and differentially variable, differentially methylated CpGs (DVMC), with individual CpGs further validated by pyrosequencing in an independent series of 91 non‐small cell lung cancer and paired normal lung. We discovered and validated BEND4, ZSCAN31 and GPR135 as significantly hypermethylated in lung cancer. DMRs in genes such as RARB (FDR 1.1 × 10−19, mean change in beta [Δ] −0.09), GPR135 (FDR 1.87 × 10−8, mean Δ −0.09) and TPO (FDR 8.58 × 10−5, mean Δ −0.11), and DVMCs in NPTN, NRG2, GLT25D2 and TRPC3 (all with p <0.05, t‐test) were significantly associated with asbestos exposure status in exposed versus non‐exposed lung tumors. Hypomethylation was characteristic to DVMCs in lung cancer tissue from asbestos‐exposed subjects. When DVMCs related to asbestos or smoking were analyzed, 96% of the elements were unique to either of the exposures, consistent with the concept that the methylation changes in tumors may be specific for risk factors. In conclusion, we identified novel DNA methylation changes associated with lung tumors and asbestos exposure, suggesting that changes may be present in causal pathway from asbestos exposure to lung cancer.
The Health and Social Impacts of Easy Access to Alcohol and Exposure to Alcohol Advertisements Among Women of Childbearing Age in Urban and Rural South Africa.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of easy access to alcohol and exposure to alcohol advertisements on women's alcohol consumption, reproductive history, and health and social outcomes in an urban and rural site in South Africa. METHOD Trained fieldworkers conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,018 women of childbearing age in the Moot, Mamelodi, and Eesterus areas of the City of Tshwane (Gauteng province) and in the rural Cederberg, Bergrivier, and Swartland municipalities (Western Cape province), recruited through random sampling and stratified cluster random sampling, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted, stratified according to the urban and rural sites and controlled for four demographic factors. RESULTS In Tshwane, complications in the last pregnancy (odds ratio [OR] = 7.84, 95% CI [1.77, 34.80]), interpartner binge drinking (OR = 6.50, 95% CI [3.85, 10.94]), and community drinking (OR = 7.92, 95% CI [4.59, 13.65]) were positively associated with alcohol accessibility. Interpartner violence (OR = 4.16, 95% CI [1.99, 8.70]) and community drinking (OR = 3.39, 95% CI [2.07, 5.53]) were positively associated with exposure to alcohol advertisements. In Western Cape, community drinking (OR = 10.26, 95% CI [4.02, 26.20]) was positively associated with alcohol accessibility, whereas ability to pay for health care (OR = 0.48, 95% CI [0.24, 0.96]) was inversely associated. Hazardous drinking on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; OR = 2.26, 95% CI [1.03, 4.95]) and CAGE (OR = 4.51, 95% CI [1.30, 15.61]), interpartner violence (OR = 1.69, 95% CI [1.04, 2.76]), and community drinking (OR = 3.39, 95% CI [2.07, 5.53]) were positively associated with exposure to alcohol advertisements. CONCLUSION Easy access to alcohol and exposure to alcohol advertisements are positively associated with adverse health and social outcomes. Although further studies are needed, these findings lend support to emphasizing upstream policy interventions to limit access to alcohol and advertisements.
Fertaric Acid Protects from Octylphenol-Related Hepatotoxicity in Rats: Biochemical, Molecular, and Histopathological Studies

ABSTRACT The endocrine-disrupting chemical 4-tert-octylphenol (OP) can mimic estrogen and testosterone hormones and threaten health; fertaric acid (FA) is a hydroxycinnamic acid found in grapefruit. This study aimed to investigate whether FA has a protective effect on 4-tert-octylphenol–related hepatotoxicity. Thirty male albino rats were divided into 5 equal groups of 6 rats each as follows: control group—administrated orally with 1 ml saline 3 days/week for 4 weeks; corn oil group—administrated orally with 1 ml corn oil 3 days/week for 4 weeks; FA-treated group—administrated orally with FA (45 mg /kg body weight) dissolved in saline 3 days/week for 4 weeks; OP-treated group—administrated orally with OP (40 mg /kg body weight) dissolved in corn oil 3 days/week for 4 weeks; FA + OP–treated group—administrated orally with FA (45 mg /kg body weight) dissolved in saline 3 days/week for 4 weeks then administrated orally with OP (40 mg/kg body weight) dissolved in corn oil 3 days/week for another 4 weeks. The results obtained showed that OP-exposed rats had significant increase in serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, γ-glutamyl transferase, lactate dehydrogenase, bilirubin, serum and liver tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β and malondialdehyde, serum interleukin-6 and interleukin-10 and significant decrease in serum alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, serum and liver superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase. OP caused an inhibitory action on the gene expression of liver proteins. Rats treated with FA before OP exposure had near-normal values. In addition, FA prevented the degradation of liver deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and DNA reformation occurred. In conclusion, FA protects from dangerous OP-related hepatic effects, and these results were supported by molecular and histological investigations.
Pouteria torta : a native species of the Brazilian Cerrado as a bioindicator of glyphosate action

In Brazil, the expansion of agricultural activity and the associated indiscriminate use of herbicides such as glyphosate is directly related to the loss of biodiversity in the Cerrado. The identification of plant species as bioindicators of herbicide action, especially species native to the area, can help in monitoring the impacts of xenobiotics in the remaining Cerrado. Thus, this study was designed to evaluate the possible use of the native Cerrado species Pouteria torta as a bioindicator of glyphosate action via changes in physiological performance. At 16 months after sowing, the effect of glyphosate was evaluated by applying the following doses: 0 (control), 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1200 g a.e. ha-1. In response to glyphosate, P. torta exhibited reductions in photosynthesis and chloroplastid pigment content, as well as accumulation of shikimic acid and the occurrence of chlorosis and necrosis. These changes demonstrate the high sensitivity of P. torta to glyphosate and its potential for use as a bioindicator of this herbicide.
Locating in fingerprint space: wireless indoor localization with little human intervention

Indoor localization is of great importance for a range of pervasive applications, attracting many research efforts in the past decades. Most radio-based solutions require a process of site survey, in which radio signatures of an interested area are annotated with their real recorded locations. Site survey involves intensive costs on manpower and time, limiting the applicable buildings of wireless localization worldwide. In this study, we investigate novel sensors integrated in modern mobile phones and leverage user motions to construct the radio map of a floor plan, which is previously obtained only by site survey. On this basis, we design LiFS, an indoor localization system based on off-the-shelf WiFi infrastructure and mobile phones. LiFS is deployed in an office building covering over 1600m2, and its deployment is easy and rapid since little human intervention is needed. In LiFS, the calibration of fingerprints is crowdsourced and automatic. Experiment results show that LiFS achieves comparable location accuracy to previous approaches even without site survey.
Ebook Uses and Class Performance in a College Course

This research explores ebook use among undergraduate students, drawing from the technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine ebook usage and adoption. Undergraduates enrolled in a large course at a mid-western university in the United States completed surveys at the beginning and the end of the semester. A great amount of variance was found in ebook use. A small number of students made a large number of highlights, while the majority of students only made a small number of highlights. A majority of students did not utilize the note and bookmark features. Additionally, we found that perceived usefulness of ebooks positively predicted ebook views and perceived ease of use positively predicted ebook highlights. eBook views were also found to positively predict academic performance. Implications of the findings are discussed.