Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a Renal Transplant Patient

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Transplant patients are particularly at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 because of their immunosuppressed state, and they have the propensity to develop opportunistic infections. The pre-immunosuppressed state, along with other existing comorbidities, can influence the outcomes of COVID-19 in transplant patients. We describe a case of a renal transplant patient who developed COVID-19. Real-time nucleic acid testing (NAT) should be done in deceased and living donors. The most common management strategy is the modification of immunosuppression along with current experimental strategies for COVID-19.
The effect of MnSO4 and unrefined sea salt on bioethanol production by lignocellulose degradation of oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) using Phlebia sp. MG-60

This study aimed to determine the effects of MnSO4 and sea salt against the degradation lignocellulose and ethanol production generated from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches (OPEFB) using Phlebia sp. MG-60. The factorial experiment in a randomized block design was used, consists of two factors: MnSO4 concentration (0, 300, and 600 mg/L), sea salt concentration (0%, 3%, and 5% (w/v). The results revealed that the addition of MnSO4 and sea salt to substrate, and its interaction were significantly different (ρ value < 0.05) on the change of total soluble phenols (mg/g), total reducing sugar (mg/g), pH, lignin concentration (%), weight loss (%) and ethanol concentration (%). The best treatment from this study was obtained from the addition of MnSO4 300mg/l, sea salt 3% incubated for 20 days. This treatment has the highest value of total reducing sugars (22.471 mg/g), total soluble phenols (0.334 mg/g), weight loss (16.23%), ethanol (0.71%), lignin (19.17%) and pH (6.1).
Developmental Effect of the XmnI Site on Gγ-Globin Gene Expression Among Newborn Hb F-Malta-I [Gγ117(G19)His→Arg, CAT→CGT] Heterozygotes and Adult β+-Thalassemia Homozygotes

Hb F-Malta-I [Gγ117(19)His→Arg, CAT→CGT] is a stable and benign variant of Hb F found in 1.8% of Maltese newborn. We studied 120 Hb F-Malta-I heterozygotes and four Hb F‐Malta-I homozygotes. The mean proportion of Gγ-F-Malta-I in Hb F was 0.26 ± 0.03 for the Hb F-Malta-I heterozygotes and 0.58 ± 0.06 for the Hb F-Malta-I homozygotes. The Hb F-Malta-I allele was shown to occur on a background of the common Mediterranean haplotype Va [+ + − − − − − + + −]. Furthermore, the common Mediterranean haplotypes Va, IIIb [− + + + − + + + + −], I [+ + − − − − − + + +] and II [− + − + + − + + + +] accounted for most (66.2%) of the wild-type alleles among the tested Hb F-Malta-I heterozygotes. Different genotypes at the 5′ ϵ HincII, Gγ and Aγ HindIII, and 3′ψβ HincII sites (but not at the 5′ Gγ XmnI site) were found to be linked to significant variations in the proportion of Gγ-F-Malta-I and Gγ-globins in the Hb F of newborn Hb F-Malta-I heterozygotes. Moreover, the 5′ Gγ XmnI site was found to be associated with variations in Hb F and Gγ-globin levels in a population of adult Maltese β-thalassemia (thal) homozygotes. This implies that a determinant linked to the XmnI site which effects Gγ-globin gene expression is active in anemic adults but not in normal infants.
An Analysis on Mission Statements of Turkish Primary Schools: Similarities and Differences

Mission statements are increasingly becoming an inevitable component of educational institutions. The main reason behind this can be attributed to the fact that they are determinants for the accreditation of schools in today’s competitive educational arena. Thus, gaining an insight into the emphasized concepts in mission statements of primary schools is essential since primary schools are the places where the education starts for every single individual. In this regard, the aim of this study is to provide a document analysis of mission statements of Turkish public primary schools which are governed by the Ministry of National Education. To achieve this, mission statements of 500 primary schools across Turkey were compiled; particularly schools from the Western and the Eastern parts of the country were randomly selected and included in the analysis. As well as the comparison between mission statements of schools located in two opposite sides of the country, a special attention was paid to whether any reference to language teaching and learning was available in the mission statements. The whole data were analysed via content analysis. The results give in-depth information about common and differing points among mission statements. The most common mission was found to be educating individuals who valued Ataturk’s principles and reforms underpinning the Turkish education system. Besides, a number of distinct missions were detected with regard to some targeted personality traits between the most cited points in missions of the Eastern and the Western schools. In terms of foreign language education, only a few references were revealed in mission statements of primary schools in Turkey.
The Role of Social Capital for Short-Video Platform Users’ Travel Intentions: SEM and Fsqca Findings

This study examined the antecedents of travel intentions in the context of Chinese short-video platforms. Based on a review of the literature on travel intentions, we proposed an integrated model containing determinants of social capital and an elaboration likelihood model. In total, the data from 496 valid questionnaires were analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The SEM findings revealed that the determinants of social capital influenced the characteristics of tourist-generated content (TGC), which in turn affected users’ travel intentions. Homophily and interpersonal influence were direct antecedents of travel intentions, whereas tie strength non-significantly affected travel intentions. The fsQCA results revealed four configurations of the determinants of social capital and TGC characteristics required to achieve a high level of travel intention. Source credibility was discovered to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for travel intention. These findings offer insights for both academics and tourism marketers.
Chapter 10. Chemometrics as a Green Analytical Tool

Chemometrics is a very important technique for green analytical chemistry. In this chapter, after describing briefly the history of chemometrics in green chemistry and its application to green analytical chemistry, the complexity of datasets, the design of experiments (DOE) and pre-processing methods, which provide basic knowledge for chemometrics, are outlined. Various methodologies of chemometrics are then introduced, which are classified into unsupervised pattern recognition, such as hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), and supervised pattern recognition, such as multiple linear regression (MLR), principal component regression (PCR) and partial least-squares regression (PLSR). Finally, some examples of applications of spectroscopy–chemometrics research are described, such as the application of moving window partial least-squares regression (MWPLSR) to in vivo non-invasive monitoring of blood glucose by near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and a Raman imaging study of the aggregation of lycopene in vivo in tomato.
Induction of embryogenesis in callus from immature embryos of Persea americana

Both the external morphology and internal anatomy of developing somatic embryoids and plantlets of Persea americana (avocados) were studied. The embryogenic callus, which is embryoidal in origin, was made up of normal parenchymatous tissue toward the centre of a clump of cells and numerous proembryoidal cells on the periphery of the callus mass. Embryogenesis appeared to begin in single cells on the periphery of the callus and from cells on the surface of existing proembryoids. Embryo initials could be recognised by their conspicuous starch contents and by their thickened walls, which lack plasmodesmata. Cell divisions occurred in cells with thickened walls to give rise to globular proembryoids. Proembryoids developed into heart-shaped, torpedo-shaped and cotyledonary embryoids and finally into complete plantlets.
Opinions of parents on social media shares about children

With the increased use of smart phones, social media apps are now only a touch away. Our country is at the top in the social media usage rankings. Social media apps easily accessed by adults have also increased the frequency of shares posted by parents about their children on their social media accounts. This study aimed to determine the opinions of parents on the shares they post on social media about their children. This research was based on phenomenological research design which is one of the qualitative research approaches. The study was carried out with the participation of 42 parents, including 28 mothers and 14 fathers who have a child aged 0-8. An interview form was developed by the researchers with the aim to obtain data from the study. The findings obtained from the interviews conducted with the participant parents showed that 15 of them do not post social media content about their children, while 27 of them do share social media content about their children. However, of all the participant parents, 20 asserted that posts about children should not be shared on social media, whereas the other 20 stated that such posts should be shared, and 2 of them said that they do not have any opinion. In this context, it can be recommended to train parents about internet literacy.
Exposure to Submicron Particles and Estimation of the Dose Received by Children in School and Non-School Environments

In the present study, the daily dose in terms of submicron particle surface area received by children attending schools located in three different areas (rural, suburban, and urban), characterized by different outdoor concentrations, was evaluated. For this purpose, the exposure to submicron particle concentration levels of the children were measured through a direct exposure assessment approach. In particular, measurements of particle number and lung-deposited surface area concentrations at “personal scale” of 60 children were performed through a handheld particle counter to obtain exposure data in the different microenvironments they resided. Such data were combined with the time–activity pattern data, characteristics of each child, and inhalation rates (related to the activity performed) to obtain the total daily dose in terms of particle surface area. The highest daily dose was estimated for children attending the schools located in the urban and suburban areas (>1000 mm2), whereas the lowest value was estimated for children attending the school located in a rural area (646 mm2). Non-school indoor environments were recognized as the most influential in terms of children’s exposure and, thus, of received dose (>70%), whereas school environments contribute not significantly to the children daily dose, with dose fractions of 15–19% for schools located in urban and suburban areas and just 6% for the rural one. Therefore, the study clearly demonstrates that, whatever the school location, the children daily dose cannot be determined on the basis of the exposures in outdoor or school environments, but a direct assessment able to investigate the exposure of children during indoor environment is essential.
Human Activity Discovery and Recognition Using Probabilistic Finite-State Automata

Ambient assisted living and smart home technologies are a good way to take care of dependent people whose number will increase in the future. They allow the discovery and the recognition of human’s activities of daily living (ADLs) in order to take care of people by keeping them in their home. In order to consider the human behavior nondeterminism, probabilistic approaches are used despite difficulties encountered in model generation and probabilistic indicators computing. In this article, a global method based on probabilistic finite-state automata and the definition of the normalized likelihood and perplexity is proposed to manage ADLs discovery and recognition. In order to reduce the computational complexity, some results about a simplified normalized likelihood computation are proved. A real case study showing the efficiency of the proposed method is discussed. Note to Practitioners—This article is motivated by the problem of the automatic recognition of activities that are daily performed by elderly or disabled people in a smart dwelling. The set of activities to be recognized is defined by a medical staff (e.g., to prepare meal, to do housework, to take leisure, etc.) and correspond to pathologies that have to be monitored by doctors (e.g., loss of memory, loss of mobility, etc.). The proposed method is based on a systematic procedure of offline construction of a model for each activity to be monitored (the activity discovering step). The online recognition of activities actually performed (the activity recognition step) is afterward based on these models of activities. Since the human behavior is nondeterministic, and may even be irrational, probabilistic activity models are built from a learning database. In the same way, probabilistic indicators are used for determining online the most probable activities actually performed. The efficiency of the proposed approach is illustrated through a case study performed in a smart living lab.
An Improved Bat Algorithm for More Efficient and Faster Maximum Power Point Tracking for a Photovoltaic System Under Partial Shading Conditions

Solar modules under partial shading (PS) conditions will result in power and voltage characteristic curves (P-VCC) having multiple peaks. If the maximum power point cannot be obtained, the output power of the solar modules will be greatly reduced. Hence, there have been various maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control methods developed to address this problem. One alternative is to employ the meta-heuristic approach (MHA) to track the global maximum power point (GMPP). Recently, a new MHA called Bat Algorithm (BA) has performed well in the MPPT. Nevertheless, BA may fail to track the GMPP when there are some local maximum power points (LMPPs) close to the GMPP. Also, the tracking time needs to be further reduced to accommodate rapidly changing irradiance. Therefore, a combination of BA with the abandonment mechanism of Cuckoo Search (CS) is proposed to improve the tracking performance of the BA. Both simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method, as compared to BA, yields better accuracy and an improvement of convergence speed of about 35% for various P-VCCs can be achieved. Moreover, the MBA has also been tested against some of the state-of-the-art MPPT algorithms such as Particle Swarm Optimization and Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO), and the results showed the superiority of the proposed method.
Ageing and environmental factors affect PCR success in wolf (Canis lupus) excremental DNA samples

Individual genotypes determined from noninvasive DNA samples (typically extracted from shed hairs or scats) are used to estimate population size in monitoring projects of elusive species. However, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) success rates usually are lower, and genotyping errors higher than in standard population genetic surveys, due to DNA degradation or contamination in aged field samples. In this study, we evaluate the results of common garden experiments showing that DNA degradation is significant in wolf (Canis lupus) scats older than 3 days, and it is enhanced in scats in direct contact with soil. A storage test showed that samples kept frozen in 95% ethanol performed better compared to other methods. However, variance of PCR success among samples was high, independent on sample age or storage condition. The detrimental consequences of DNA degradation can be avoided by collecting scat samples as fresh as possible, and implementing efficient multitube procedures and stringent quality control of the laboratory results. Efficient multitube procedures can produce reliable data, like in this study, which showed that the consensus genotypes obtained from excremental DNA exactly matched distinct reference genotypes obtained from wolf blood samples.
Temporal changes in digestive enzyme activities in the gastrointestinal tract of European eel (Anguilla anguilla) (Linneo 1758) following feeding

Changes occurring after feeding in the digestive enzyme activities of European eel were investigated to provide some insights into the digestive physiology of this fish. Total and specific proteases, amylase and lipase activities were measured using standard biochemical assays over a 24 h cycle in fed eels, compared to starved ones, under the same rearing conditions. In the gastrointestinal tract of fed eels quantitative changes started 4 h after feeding and continued later on; conversely, in starved eels enzyme activities remained unchanged over time. In fed eels, total and specific protease activities showed an overall increasing trend in the intestine, while in the stomach they progressively decreased to values 22–50% lower than those measured at the pre-feeding time; this behaviour probably reflected the progression of digesta along the intestinal tract. The prolonged secretory response of European eel to food ingestion proved its extended activity in the digestive process.
Nanoparticle Emission and Characterization from Pre-Dried Lignite and Bituminous Coal Co-Combustion

Nowadays, the high share of electricity production from renewables drives coal-fired power plants to adopt a more flexible operation scheme and, at the same time, maintain flue gas emissions within respective standards. A 500 kWth pulverized coal furnace was used to study pre-dried lignite combustion or co-combustion as an available option for these plants. Bituminous coal from Czech Republic and pre-dried lignite from Greece were blended for the experiments. Particle emissions measurements with a heated Electrical Low Pressure Impactor (ELPI+) and Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) analyses were performed. The effect of the pre-dried lignite proportions in the fuel feed and the combustion conditions regarding the combustion air staging were the two parameters selected for this study. Skeletal density values were measured from the cyclone prior to the impactor. Results are depicted with respect to the aerodynamic and Stokes diameter for impactor stages. The presence of pre-dried lignite in the fuel blend lowers the particle matter (PM) PM2.5, PM1 and PM0.1 emissions, thus having a positive impact on ESP’s fractional and overall efficiency. The staged combustion air feed reduces the particle emissions in all cases. Sulfur content follows a pattern of higher concentration values for finer particles.
Spatial variability and major controlling factors of CO2 sink strength in Asian terrestrial ecosystems: evidence from eddy covariance data

Asian terrestrial ecosystems cover an extensive area characterized by a large variety in climates and ecosystem properties. The observations of ecosystem CO2 flux in this area are increasing both in duration and spatial density, but no synthesis has yet been conducted. We surveyed CO2 flux observation data obtained by eddy covariance methods at 49 sites in terrestrial Asia. The measurements at most sites (44 of 49) began after 2000. The net ecosystem uptake of CO2 (NEE) varied greatly among sites and years and averaged −132.6±73.7, −250.1±206.1, and −180.1±361.7 g C m−2 yr−1, in boreal, temperate, and tropical Asia, respectively, and the coefficient of variation among sites increased from boreal to tropical Asia. The site‐averaged annual NEE was correlated linearly with the mean annual temperature (Tair) and also correlated logarithmically with the precipitation. Multiple regression analysis and stepwise analysis indicated that photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) and Tair were the most significant predictors of the annual NEE. The study results suggest that Asian terrestrial ecosystems are currently significant net CO2 sinks and that the sink strength is largely controlled by temperature, moisture, and light conditions.
High‐speed cinematographic analysis of the movement of Chlamydomonas

Using high-speed microcinematography (100–500 f/s) the movement of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant 622 E has been studied with frame-by-frame analysis. The stigma lies in the cell equator, displaced out of the flagellar plane anticlockwise by an angle of about 45°. During forward movement the cells rotate anticlockwise about their long axis with a frequency of 1.4–2 Hz (maximum 2.5 Hz). The rotation is caused by a lateral component of 3-dimensional beating of the flagella during the effective strokes. The helical swimming path is a result of an unequal flagellar beating. This is normally synchronous, but synchrony is interrupted from time to time by an additional beat of the outward directed flagellum, in our study one after about every twenty beats on average. These results are discussed and compared with the results published by other groups.
The effects of gap creation on competitive interactions: separating changes in overall intensity from relative rankings

A central assumption of disturbance ecology equates gap creation with the reduction of overall competitive intensity. I develop the idea that gap creation, due to changes in addition to biomass removal, could also alter the relative competitive rankings among species. I present a quantitative review using meta-analysis in which I separate the effect of gap creation from the effect of competition for species characteristic of different disturbance regimes. Twenty-one studies (with a total of 136 comparisons) directly examined species competitive abilities under gap (disturbed) and matrix (undisturbed) conditions. Overall competitive intensity generally declined in gap conditions, although species characteristic of gap areas responded more strongly to gap creation than did species characteristic of undisturbed matrix areas. Under matrix conditions, matrix species were less affected by competition than gap species, supporting one widespread assumption. However, under gap conditions, matrix and gap species were inhibited to a similar degree by neighbor biomass. These results suggest that gap creation, in addition to decreasing overall competitive intensity, may affect species competitive rankings, possibly due to changes in the environment where the interactions occur.
Violent Videogames, Telepresence, Presumed Influence, and Support for Taking Restrictive and Protective Actions

This study examines the perceived impact of violent videogames from an influence of presumed influence perspective. The role of perceived telepresence and the amount of time spent playing violent videogames in influencing people’s beliefs about the effects of such games were hypothesized and tested. Results of data collected from a random sample of 528 respondents in China showed that playing violent videogames was significantly related to perceived telepresence. Furthermore, perceived telepresence was found to be the strongest predictor of the presumed influence of violent videogames on others. Finally, the presumed influence of violent videogames was positively correlated with the intention to take actions to protect others from the harms of such games.