Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
5. COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION IN MICRO CREDIT AS A TOOL OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT – By Bhandari N. Author(s)

This article is about community mobilization in micro credit as a tool of women empowerment. It argues that women empowerment is a process and community mobilization is a tool for women empowerment process through micro credit programs. This article is based on the views of selected key informants’ information through participation observation and a case study at Mahadevsthan Village in Dhading. Three local NGO managers and their three beneficiaries were conveniently selected for the sampling purpose. The main argument of the article shows that most of the females who received microcredit finally got socio economic empowerment through acquiring the access to capital, control over resources, self-esteem, confidence, decision making power.
Westernization of self-perception in modern affluent Indonesian school children

Background Subjective Social Status is used as an important predictor for psychological and physiological findings, most commonly measuredwith theMacArthur Scale (Ladder Test). Previous studies have shown that this test fits better in Western cultures. The idea of a social ladder itself and ranking oneself “higher” or “lower” is a concept that accords to the Western thinking. Objectives Wehypothesize that in a culturewhere only the elites have adapted to aWestern lifestyle, the test results reflect a higher level of accuracy for this stratum.We also expect that self-perception differs per sex. Sample and Methods We implemented the Ladder Test in a study of Indonesian schoolchildren aged between 5 and 13 years (boys N = 369, girls N= 364) from non-private and private schools in Kupang in 2020. Results Our analysis showed that the Ladder Test results were according to the Western expectations only for the private school, as the Ladder Scores significantly decreased with age (LM: p = 0.04). The Ladder Test results are best explained by “Education Father” for the non-private school pupils (p = 0.01) and all boys (p = 0.04), by “School Grades” for the private school cohort (p = 0.06) and by “Household Score” for girls (p =0.09). Conclusion This finding indicates that the concept of ranking oneself “high” or “low” on a social ladder is strongly implicatedwithWestern ideas. A ladder implies social movement by “climbing” up or down. According to that, reflection of self-perception is influenced by culture.
PDMS-based microfluidic devices using commoditized PCBs as masters with no specialized equipment required

Designed printed circuit boards (PCBs) are alternative substrates for master mold construction of microfluidic devices. However, the rough supportive material molds rough replicas and causes difficulty in device sealing. To overcome this difficulty, a copper layer is used to generate a smooth surface. Some other researchers have used thermoplastic elastomers, which are typically much easier to bond, instead of the general polymer polydimethysiloxane (PDMS). This study presents an extremely simple approach for fabricating PDMS-based microfluidic devices using PCBs as masters. Unlike those reported in the previous studies, commoditized PCBs fabricated at a common PCB manufactory were directly used as the master molds. Two layers of semi-cured silicone of a distinct base to curing agent ratios were bonded together by additional curing. Efficient bonding was accomplished and avoided insufficient adhesion due to the rough surfaces of the PDMS replicas. Highly monodisperse droplets with polydispersity values smaller than 1% were stably formed using the easy fabricated devices. Essential operations in droplet microfluidics were reliably conducted in the PDMS-based devices. Moreover, the droplets were orderly sorted by the microstructures in the fabricated multi-height devices. The fabrication process provided a simple, convenient and reliable approach to prepare the general polymer PDMS-based microfluidic devices with a minimal requirement for equipment.
Effect of chronic administration of nicorandil (a potassium channel activator) on body weight of two different experimental animal species

Potassium channel openers/activators are a distinct class of drugs used in wide variety of clinical conditions. These drugs are available in the global pharmaceutical market for more than two decades. Nicorandil being the prototype of this class is used for the management and long-term prophylaxis of chronic stable angina pectoris. It is also believed that nicorandil has potential use in the management of hypertension of various etiologies, myocardial salvage in myocardial infarction (MI), congestive heart failure(CHF), alopecia, bronchial asthma, urinary urge incontinence, premature labor, peripheral vascular diseases (Raynaud's, cerebrovascular) and penile erection disorders.
Effect of Si doping and sunlight concentration on the performance of InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells

Abstract. For intermediate band solar cells, the control of the carrier filling ratio in intermediate band is important to achieve high efficiency. We have investigated the effect of carrier doping of InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs) with Si and sunlight concentration on the quantum dots solar cell (QDSC) characteristics. The prefilling by Si doping of InAs/GaAs QDs was performed using two methods: modulation or δ-doping and direct doping. A gradual recovery in the open-circuit voltage with increasing Si doping concentration was observed, and it suggested a decrease of recombination via Si-doped QD states. Under high-concentrated sunlight illumination, QD states were additionally filled with photocarriers, and the open-circuit voltage increased nonlinearly with concentration ratio in both the nondoped and Si-doped QDSCs.
Enhancing the Surface Properties and Structure of MWNTs by Effective Ion Beam Irradiation

The effects of irradiating multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) with 100 keV He ions on the surface morphology were examined. Due to irradiation effects, the tube diameter reduced as revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Raman spectroscopy was used to investigate MWNTs by analyzing the principal bands in the spectra of virgin and radiated MWNT specimens. The effects of irradiation fluences on the disorder (D-band) and the graphite (G-band) modes were investigated. The possibility and prospects of using ion irradiation for controlling the wettability of the MWNT surface were investigated. The irradiation facility produces an MWNT coating that is either hydrophobic or hydrophilic to certain liquids. This analysis demonstrates that ion beam irradiation could be used as an alternative tool to change the structure of CNT and enhancing their wettability application, especially in water treatment. According to Raman spectra, when the fluence increases, the MWNTs become disordered due to the defect produced. The amorphous state of MWNTs could be attained with greater ion irradiation fluences.
Innovative sandwich assay with dual optical and SERS sensing mechanisms for bacterial detection

The increased incidence of food pathogen outbreaks placed a new emphasis on the requirement of a rapid, sensitive, and reliable detection method for pathogens in food samples. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a technique that tremendously enhances the weak Raman scattering of an analyte by using a metallic nano-substrate. Herein, we developed an innovative SERS sandwich assay which is based on 3-mercaptophenylboronic acid (3-MPBA) as a capturer and reporter for the detection of bacteria. Using Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes as model bacteria, we have identified a unique bacterial SERS signal upon the interaction between the captured bacteria, 3-MBPA and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which was used as the base for reliable detection of bacteria using SERS mapping. Both optical and chemical (SERS mapping) imaging were used as mechanisms for bacterial detection and quantification. Our assay achieved sensitive and reliable detection of as low as 102 CFU mL−1 for Salmonella with great capability for quantification. The total analytical time for optical detection is 1.25 hours and for SERS imaging is 3 hours. Our assay represents an innovative platform for rapid, sensitive and reliable detection of total bacteria for an array of industrial applications.
Musk (Moschus moschiferus) Attenuates Changes in Main Olfactory Bulb of Depressed Mice: Behavioral, Biochemical, and Histopathological Evidence

Background Musk (Moschus moschiferus) has been described to have a significant impact on the central nervous system, as well as anticonvulsion and antidepressant effects. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of musk in alleviating alterations induced in olfactory bulb of depressed mice exposed to chronic stress and identify the mechanism behind it. Methods Fifty male albino mice were divided into five groups (n = 10 each): control, musk, chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS), fluoxetine-treated, and musk-treated groups were included in this study. Behavioral changes and serum levels of corticosterone and proinflammatory cytokines included tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin 6, and oxidant/antioxidant profile were assessed at the end of the experiment. Main olfactory bulb (MOB) has been processed for histopathological examination. Gene expression of caspase-3, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and Ki67 were assessed in the MOB using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results The study showed that musk inhalation significantly reduced (p < 0.001) corticosterone level, immobility time, inflammatory cytokines, and oxidative stress markers in CUMS-exposed mice compared to the untreated CUMS group. Musk lessened CUMS-associated neuronal alterations in the MOB and significantly reduced apoptosis and enhanced neural cell proliferation (p < 0.001) comparable to fluoxetine. Musk significantly enhanced the level of antioxidants in the serum and significantly reduced inflammatory cytokines. The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity of musk and its constituents seemed to be behind its neuroprotective effect observed in this study. Conclusion Musk effectively ameliorated the chronic stress–induced behavioral, biochemical, and neuronal structural changes in MOB mostly through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect.
Development and Validation of a Patient-Reported Outcome Scale for Tension-Type Headache

Objective: To validate a patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure for patients with tension-type headache (TTH). Methods: Literature analysis, interview, and group discussion were performed to develop an initial TTH-PRO. Thereafter, the initial scale was pre-evaluation in a small range of patients with TTH, and the expert panel made necessary adjustments based on the content feedback. The clinical test was carried out by using the adjusted initial scale. Based on the test results, the items were screened by the method of classical test theory to form the final scale, and the performance evaluation indicators such as validity, reliability, and responsiveness of the final scale were tested. Results: The final formed TTH-PRO scale contained three domains, six dimensions, and 30 items. The split-half reliability, Cronbach's α coefficients, and construct validity of the scale were acceptable, as was feasibility. The responsiveness in the physiological domain was fair, but the overall responsiveness still needed further clinical validation. Conclusions:The TTH-PRO scale has been developed with extensive patient input and demonstrates evidence for reliability and validity. It is complementary to existing evaluation indicators of TTH, emphasizing the patient's experience. Further studies are needed to optimize its items and to verify its clinical applicability for population in more regions and countries.
Extended Ensemble Filter for High-dimensional Nonlinear State Space Models

There are several functional forms for non-linear dynamical filters. Extended Kalman filters are algorithms that are used to estimate more accurate values of unknown quantities of internal dynamical systems from a sequence of noisy observation measured over a period of time. This filtering process becomes computationally expensive when subjected to high dimensional data which consequently has a negative impact on the filter performance in real time. This is because integration of the equation of evolution of covariances is extremely costly, especially when the dimension of the problem is huge which is the case in numerical weather prediction. This study has developed a new filter, the First order Extended Ensemble Filter (FoEEF), with a new extended innovation process to improve on the measurement and be able to estimate the state value of high dimensional data. We propose to estimate the covariances empirically, which lends the filter amenable to large dimensional models. The new filter is derived from stochastic state-space models and its performance is tested using Lorenz 63 system of ordinary differential equations and Matlab software. *Corresponding author: E-mail: oriema@gmail.com; Robert et al.; JAMCS, 36(5): 84-97, 2021; Article no.JAMCS. 69688 The performance of the newly developed filter is then compared with the performances of three other filters, that is, Bootstrap particle Filter (BPF), First order Extended Kalman Bucy Filter (FoEKBF) and Second order Extended Kalman Bucy Filter (SoEKBF). The performance of the FoEEF improves with the increase in ensemble size. Even with as low number of ensembles as 40, the FoEEF performs as good as the FoEKBF and SoEKBF. This shows, that the proposed filter can register a good performance when used in high-dimensional state-space models.
Do Not Tell Me More; You Are Honest: A Preconceived Honesty Bias

According to the previous literature, only a few papers found better accuracy than a chance to detect dishonesty, even when more information and verbal cues (VCs) improve precision in detecting dishonesty. A new classification of dishonesty profiles has recently been published, allowing us to study if this low success rate happens for all people or if some people have higher predictive ability. This paper aims to examine if (dis)honest people can detect better/worse (un)ethical behavior of others. With this in mind, we designed one experiment using videos from one of the most popular TV shows in the UK where contestants make a (dis)honesty decision upon gaining or sharing a certain amount of money. Our participants from an online MTurk sample (N = 1,582) had to determine under different conditions whether the contestants would act in an (dis)honest way. Three significant results emerged from these two experiments. First, accuracy in detecting (dis)honesty is not different than chance, but submaximizers (compared to maximizers) and radical dishonest people (compare to non-radicals) are better at detecting honesty, while there is no difference in detecting dishonesty. Second, more information and VCs improve precision in detecting dishonesty, but honesty is better detected using only non-verbal cues (NVCs). Finally, a preconceived honesty bias improves specificity (honesty detection accuracy) and worsens sensitivity (dishonesty detection accuracy).
Tuned bidirectional encoder representations from transformers for fake news detection

Received Jan 20, 2021 Revised Apr 10, 2021 Accepted Apr 12, 2021 Online medias are currently the dominant source of Information due to not being limited by time and place, fast and wide distributions. However, inaccurate news, or often referred as fake news is a major problem in news dissemination for online medias. Inaccurate news is information that is not true, that is engineered to cover the real information and has no factual basis. Usually, inaccurate news is made in the form of news that has mass appeal and is presented in the guise of genuine and legitimate news nuances to deceive or change the reader's mind or opinion. Identification of inaccurate news from real news can be done with natural language processing (NLP) technologies. In this paper, we proposed bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) for inaccurate news identification. BERT is a language model based on deep learning technologies and it has found effective for many NLP tasks. In this study, we use transfer learning and fine-tuning to adapt BERT for inaccurate news identification. The experiments show that our method could achieve accuracy of 99.23%, recall 99.46%, precision 98.86%, and F-Score of 99.15%. It is largely better than traditional method for the same tasks.
EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF SYSTEMIC ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW INTERVENÇÕES EDUCATIVAS NO CONTEXTO DA HIPERTENSÃO ARTERIAL SISTÊMICA: UMA REVISÃO SISTEMÁTICA INTERVENCIONES EDUCATIVAS EN EL CONTEXTO DE LA HIPERTENSIÓN ARTERIAL SISTÉMICA: UNA REVISIÓN SISTEMA

Systemic arterial hypertension is one of the biggest causes of morbidity in the world and is considered one of the main risk factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases. This paper aims to systematically review the educational interventions developed in health services and in the community and their role in preventing and controlling hypertension. For that, a systematic review was carried out in the LILACS, MEDLINE and SciELO databases, considering works without time and language restrictions. The interventions that showed the most satisfactory results used more interactive strategies with the use of sharing experiences, active participation and education based on the assistance and partnership model. Educational interventions can increase knowledge about hypertension, help with treatment adherence, provide improvements related to the patient's clinical conditions and reduce blood pressure levels.
EVALUATING SURFACE MESH RECONSTRUCTION OF OPEN SCENES

Abstract. This paper addresses the evaluation of algorithms reconstructing a watertight surface from a point cloud acquired on an open scene. The objective is to set a rigorous protocol measuring the quality of the reconstruction and to propose a quality metric that is informative with respect to the various qualities that such an algorithm should have, and in particular its capacity to interpolate and extrapolate accurately. Our approach aims at being more informative and rigorous than previous works on this topic. In addition, we use publicly available data and our implementation is open-source. We argue that a rigorous evaluation of surface reconstruction of open scenes needs to be performed on synthetic data where a perfect continuous ground truth surface is available, so we developed our own LiDAR simulator of which we give a description in the present paper.
3D host cell and pathogen-based bioassay development for testing anti-tuberculosis (TB) drug response and modeling immunodeficiency

Abstract Tuberculosis (TB) is a global health threat that affects 10 million people worldwide. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) remains one of the major contributors to the reactivation of asymptomatic latent tuberculosis (LTBI). Over the recent years, there has been a significant focus in developing in-vitro 3D models mimicking early events of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) pathogenesis, especially formation of the granuloma. However, these models are low throughput and require extracellular matrix. In this article, we report the generation of a matrix-free 3D model, using THP-1 human monocyte/macrophage cells and mCherry-expressing Mycobacterium bovis BCG (Bacilli Camille Guérin), henceforth referred as 3D spheroids, to study the host cell-bacterial interactions. Using mCherry-intensity-based tracking, we monitored the kinetics of BCG growth in the 3D spheroids. We also demonstrate the application of the 3D spheroids for testing anti-TB compounds such as isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RIF), as well as a host-directed drug, everolimus (EVR) as single and combinational treatments. We further established a dual infection 3D spheroid model by coinfecting THP-1 macrophages with BCG mCherry and pseudotype HIV. In this HIV-TB co-infection model, we found an increase in BCG mCherry growth within the 3D spheroids infected with HIV pseudotype. The degree of disruption of the granuloma was proportional to the virus titers used for co-infection. In summary, this 3D spheroid assay is an useful tool to screen anti-TB response of potential candidate drugs and can be adopted to model HIV-TB interactions.
Asynchronous event feature generation and tracking based on gradient descriptor for event cameras

Recently, the event camera has become a popular and promising vision sensor in the research of simultaneous localization and mapping and computer vision owing to its advantages: low latency, high dynamic range, and high temporal resolution. As a basic part of the feature-based SLAM system, the feature tracking method using event cameras is still an open question. In this article, we present a novel asynchronous event feature generation and tracking algorithm operating directly on event-streams to fully utilize the natural asynchronism of event cameras. The proposed algorithm consists of an event-corner detection unit, a descriptor construction unit, and an event feature tracking unit. The event-corner detection unit addresses a fast and asynchronous corner detector to extract event-corners from event-streams. For the descriptor construction unit, we propose a novel asynchronous gradient descriptor inspired by the scale-invariant feature transform descriptor, which helps to achieve quantitative measurement of similarity between event feature pairs. The construction of the gradient descriptor can be decomposed into three stages: speed-invariant time surface maintenance and extraction, principal orientation calculation, and descriptor generation. The event feature tracking unit combines the constructed gradient descriptor and an event feature matching method to achieve asynchronous feature tracking. We implement the proposed algorithm in C++ and evaluate it on a public event dataset. The experimental results show that our proposed method achieves improvement in terms of tracking accuracy and real-time performance when compared with the state-of-the-art asynchronous event-corner tracker and with no compromise on the feature tracking lifetime.
Efficacy of Glucans on Growth Variables, Antioxidant Potential, and Immunity of Growing Rabbits

The goal of this study was to see how dietary -glucan (BG) supplementation affected growth performance, blood biochemicals, and antioxidant capacity in growing NZWrabbits. 75 NZW rabbit females, 6 weeks old, with an average live body weight of 845.3735. 23 g. Rabbits were distributed into five experimental groups at random (fifteen rabbits in each group). The control group (G1) received only the basal diet, while the G2, G3, G4, and G5 groups received the basal diet supplemented with BG at 0.5,1.0,1.5, and 2.0 g/kg diet, respectively. Growth performance parameters, blood biochemical, and antioxidant enzymes, and immunity markers in the hepatic tissues were determined. Results show that all BG supplements developed (P<0.05) final weight, and gain without any effects on feed efficiency, and viability, and decreased (P<0.05) concentration of glucose, total cholesterol, and triglycerides. The effect of BG on serum activity of ALT and AST was not significant. Dietary BG supplementation increased (P<0.05) SOD, CAT, and GPx levels, and decreased (P<0.05) MDA levels in hepatic tissues. Percentage of NBT and ACP level increased (P<0.05) BG groups (G2-G5) in comparing with G1.The current study concludes that β-glucans represent a promising factor for improving antioxidant capacity, immunity, and lipid profile as well as promoting growth performance of growing rabbits, without adverse effects on liver and kidney function and protein metabolism.