Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recent Advances of Mechanical Engineering Applications in Medicine and Biology

Background: Mechanics is an area of science dealing with the behavior of physical bodies (solids and fluids) undergoing action of forces, it comprised of statics, kinetics and kinematics. The advances and research in Applied Mechanics has wide application in almost fields of study including medicine and biology. In this paper, the relationship between mechanical engineering and medicine and biological sciences is investigated based on its application in these two sacred fields. Some emergent mechanical techniques applied in medical sciences and practices are presented. Methods: Emerging applications of mechanical engineering in medical and biological sciences are presented and investigated including: biomechanics, nanomechanics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Results: This review article presents some recent advances of mechanical engineering applications in medicine and biology. Specifically, this work focuses on three major subjects of interests: Biomechanics that is increasingly being recognized as an important application of mechanical fundamentals in biomedical and biological sciences and practices, biomechanics can play a crucial role in both injury prevention as well as performance enhancement of living systems. Novel techniques of nanomechanics including: Carbon nanotubes applications in therapy, DNA recognition, immunology and antiviral resistance. Nanorobotics that combines between nanotechnology, mechanics and new biomaterials to design and develop nanorobots based bacteria and biochips; these nanoscale robots can be involved in biomedical applications, particularly for the treatment of cancer, cerebral aneurysm treatment, kidney stones removal surgery, treatment of pathology, elimination of defected parts in the DNA structure, and some other treatments to save human lives. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools that contribute on the understanding of blood flows, human organs dynamics and surgical options simulation. Conclusion: Recent advances of mechanical applications in medicine and biology are carried out in this review, such as biomechanics, nanomechanics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). As perspectives, mechanical scholars and engineers can involve these cited applications in their researches to solve many problems and issues that doctors and biologists cannot.
Exploring Aspects of a Faculty Digital Learning Channel: The Case of Eclips

—In recent years, video tutorials have become an important tool to enhance active student learning. They are considered to be an effective and efﬁcient instrument to enhance the progression of students. In 2016, the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Antwerp formulated a vision on technology-enhanced learning, with a strong focus on the creation and the use of both course speciﬁc and integrative video tutorials. To make the tutorials available to students throughout their entire study career, the faculty started in 2017 with the development of a faculty-wide learning channel, called Eclips. The platform offers students the opportunity to prepare for a lecture, revise learning content and ﬁll knowledge gaps across the curriculum. Besides enhancing the pedagogical project by means of the student channel, (sub)channels were deﬁned in 2018 for two additional target groups: the pre-students and the alumni. This enables the channel to support two other aspects of the academic mission of a faculty: the dissemination of knowledge and the interaction with the broader environment.
WIDER Working Paper 2018/26 Contract farming in Mozambique Implications on gender inequalities within and across rural households

: This paper analyses the implication of contract farming on gender inequalities in rural Mozambique. Contract farming is often considered one of the major tools of agribusiness development: it broadly includes those arrangements under which producers commit to provide a pre-defined quantity of crop to a buyer firm. This paper exploits a panel dataset (2002–05) collected by the Mozambican Ministry of Agriculture among a nationally representative sample of rural households to explore contracts’ implications for gender equality, both across and within households. We look both at the participation of female-headed households in contracts, and at the impact of establishing a contract on a set of intra-household women empowerment indicators. Concerning the first, our results confirm a selection out of contracts in rural households where a woman is the household’s head. With regard to the second, we may expect contrasting effects to be at work: on the one hand, the consequences of increased income relaxing the budget constraint, while, on the other, the effects of an intra-household shift towards men’s control over assets. We find different results according to the indicator used: after controlling for selection bias, we find no effect on control over land, but a negative effect on women’s access to extension services.
A preliminary exploration of frameworks for building artists’ resilience

It is well known in the literature that artists face particular challenges when attempting to establish a viable and sustainable career in the creative industries. Given extant research points to the precariousness of careers in the creative and performing arts, the capacity to be resilient, confident and determined appears to play a major influence on the extent to which graduates are successful. While the concept of resilience, for example, is well understood and taught in such areas as teacher training, it has received virtually no research attention or focus in the area of the creative and performing arts. This paper contextualises these various issues, argues the need for new research, and proposes that higher education providers should revisit their curricula in order to place a greater emphasis on the mental strength that graduates will require as they transition towards a career in the creative industries.
Monocytic Cells Induction of Apoptosis by HIV-1-Infected

We have previously described a soluble 6000-Da peptide produced by an HIV-1-infected human macrophage cell line, clone 43 HIV , which induces apoptosis in T and B cells. We have identiﬁed this factor as the novel cDNA clone FL14676485 that encodes for the human hypothetical protein, FLJ21908. The FL14676485 cDNA clone was isolated from a 43 HIV (cid:1) ZAP Escherichia coli expression library and screened with a panel of rabbit and mouse anti-apoptotic Abs. We transfected the FL14676485 clone into Bosc cells and non-HIV-1-infected 43 cells. Western blot analysis of lysates from the FL14676485-transfected 43 cells and Bosc cells using anti-proapoptotic factor Abs revealed a protein with a molecular mass of 66 kDa corresponding to the size of the full-length gene product of the FL14676485 clone, while Western blot of the supernatant demonstrated a doublet of 46-kDa and 6000-Da peptide that corresponds to our previously described proapoptotic factor. Primary HIV-1 BaL -infected monocytes also produce the FLJ21908 protein. Supernatants from these transfected cells induced apoptosis in PBMC, CD4 (cid:2) , and CD8 (cid:2) T and B cells similar to the activity of our previously described proapoptotic factor. PCR analysis of 43 cells and 43 HIV cells revealed a base pair fragment of 420 bp corresponding to the FL14676485 gene product in 43 HIV cells, but not in 43 cells. The FLJ21908 protein induces apoptosis through activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3. We have further demonstrated that the FLJ21908 protein has apoptotic activity in the SH-SY5Y neuronal cell line and can be detected in brain and lymph tissue from
Spore Germination and Outgrowth Spore Detection and Functional Analyses of Bacillus anthracis Monoclonal Antibodies for

All members of the Bacillus genus produce endospores as part of their life cycle; however, it is not possible to determine the identity of spores by casual or morphological examination. The 2001 anthrax attacks demonstrated a need for fast, dependable methods for detecting Bacillus anthracis spores in vitro and in vivo. We have developed a variety of isotypes and speciﬁcities of mAbs that were able to distinguish B. anthracis spores from other Bacillus spores. The majority of Abs were directed toward BclA, a major component of the exosporium, although other components were also distinguished. These Abs did not react with vegetative forms. Some Abs distinguished B. anthracis spores from spores of distantly related species in a highly speciﬁc manner, whereas others discriminated among strains that are the closest relatives of B. anthracis . These Abs provide a rapid and reliable means of identifying B. anthracis spores, for probing the structure and function of the exosporium, and in the analysis of the life cycle of B. anthracis . The Journal of Immunology, 2006, 176: 6076–6084. controller. Images were acquired at 1-s intervals, and Openlab imaging software (Improvision) was used to measure morphological changes with time.
Shoot through time-based controlled pulse generation for Z-source inverter

Abstract Due to higher fluctuation and frequent shutdown of the power supplies, the inverter circuit operates successfully in the different application such as home appliances, renewable energyand conversion to provide the uninterrupted power supply. The Z-source inverter (ZSI) plays a significant role to provide the AC output voltage by proper triggering of switches. Due to improper triggering of the switches, the inverter circuit suffers from harmonic, switching loss, minimum energy output. To overcome the sedisadvantages, the appropriate modulation technique utilizes the inverter circuit for controlling the output voltage. During approximation of the reference voltage with switching pulses of the inverter, high total harmonic distortion (THD), and ripples are occurred. These ripples largely affect the overall performance of the inverter and response for heat generation. Due to switching stress, the inverter circuit becomes damages. To overcome these limitations, the shoot through time-based controlled pulse generation is proposed for Z-source inverter. Here, new controlling technique integrates with space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) in ZSI to reduce the ripples and harmonics significantly. An improved SVPWM is applied in this work to control the shoot through time and to provide the output with less THD.
A novel power harmonic analysis method based on Nuttall-Kaiser combination window double spectrum interpolated FFT algorithm

Abstract Harmonics pose a great threat to safe and economical operation of power grids. Therefore, it is critical to detect harmonic parameters accurately to design harmonic compensation equipment. The fast Fourier transform (FFT) is widely used for electrical popular power harmonics analysis. However, the barrier effect produced by the algorithm itself and spectrum leakage caused by asynchronous sampling often affects the harmonic analysis accuracy. This paper examines a new approach for harmonic analysis based on deducing the modifier formulas of frequency, phase angle, and amplitude, utilizing the Nuttall-Kaiser window double spectrum line interpolation method, which overcomes the shortcomings in traditional FFT harmonic calculations. The proposed approach is verified numerically and experimentally to be accurate and reliable.
Self-aligning behaviour of a passively yawing floating offshore wind turbine

ABSTRACT Floating offshore wind turbines are a promising concept for expanding offshore wind energy. In comparison with fix-founded offshore wind turbines, the overall costs are less dependent on water depths, which leads to a variety of potential locations and markets worldwide. Furthermore, floating platforms allow for new structural designs with the potential to save material and installation costs. In this paper, a self-aligning platform equipped with a 6 MW turbine is presented. The platform is moored on a single point and uses a turret buoy to be able to rotate freely around its anchor point. A downwind rotor and an airfoil-shaped tower induce self-aligning turning moments to passively follow changes of the wind direction. The first order boundary element method panMARE is used to simulate the motion behaviour considering aerodynamic, hydrodynamic and mooring loads. The self-aligning capability is demonstrated under partial turbine load for steady and dynamic conditions with waves and current.
Improvement of RF Wireless Power Transmission Using a Circularly Polarized Retrodirective Antenna Array with EBG Structures

This paper presents the performance improvement of a circularly polarized (CP) retrodirective array (RDA) through the suppression of mutual coupling effects. The RDA is designed based on CP Koch-shaped patch antenna elements with an inter-element spacing as small as 0.4 λ for a compact size ( λ is the wavelength in free space at the designed frequency of 5.2 GHz). Electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structures are applied to reduce the mutual coupling between the antenna elements, thus improving the circular polarization characteristic of the RDA. Two CP RDAs with EBGs, in the case 5 × 5 and 10 × 10 arrays, are used as wireless power transmitters to transmit a total power of 50 W. A receiver is located at a distance of 1 m away from the transmitter to harvest the transmitted power. At the broadside direction, the simulated results demonstrate that the received powers are improved by approximately 11.32% and 12.45% when using the 5 × 5 and 10 × 10 CP RDAs with the EBGs, respectively, as the transmitters.
M Theory on AdS p × S 11 − p and Superconformal Field Theories

We study the large N limit of the interacting superconformal ﬁeld theories associated with N M5 branes or M2 branes using the recently proposed relation between these theories and M theory on AdS spaces. We ﬁrst analyze the spectrum of chiral operators of the 6d (0 , 2) theory associated with M5 branes in ﬂat space, and ﬁnd full agreement with earlier results obtained using its DLCQ description as quantum mechanics on a moduli space of instantons. We then perform a similar analysis for the D N type 6d (0 , 2) theories associated with M5 branes at an R 5 /Z 2 singularity, and for the 3d N = 8 superconformal ﬁeld theories associated with M2 branes in ﬂat space and at an R 8 /Z 2 singularity respectively. Little is known about these three theories, and our study yields for the ﬁrst time their spectrum of chiral operators (in the large N limit).
Statistical Approach to Study the Ambient Air Quality Parameters in Bileipada, Keonjhar, Odisha, India

Monitoring and assessment of ambient air quality within a definite interval of time is the only way to find out the existing atmospheric conditions and the source of emissions. The monitoring of different parameters such as PM 10 , PM 2.5 , SO 2 and NO 2 were carried out for a period of three years covering all seasons starting from March, 2013 to Feb’ 2016. The total collection and monitoring methods were executed as per the standard methods of CPCB. For better analysis one-way and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test has been applied to different monitored results based on different monitoring stations and seasons. In two-way ANOVA test for stations, the F values computed as 34.028, 35.362, 34.113 and 29.090 for PM 10 , PM 2.5 , SO 2 and NO 2 respectively are found to be highly significant (at P<0.01). Further due to variations in seasons the F were values computed to be 280.290 (PM 10 ), 225.626 (PM 2.5 ), 306.569 (SO 2 ) and 100.281 (NO 2 ) which indicate that there is a significant variation in different parameters. This study can provide a platform to new researcher in the field of air quality monitoring in other areas.
Necrosis-induced apoptosis promotes regeneration in Drosophila

Regeneration is a complex process that requires a coordinated genetic response to 21 tissue loss. Signals from dying cells are crucial to this process and are best understood 22 in the context of regeneration following programmed cell death, like apoptosis. 23 Conversely, regeneration following unregulated forms of death such as necrosis have yet to be fully explored. Here we have developed a method to investigate regeneration 25 following necrosis using the Drosophila wing imaginal disc. We show that necrosis 26 stimulates regeneration at an equivalent level to that of apoptosis-mediated cell death 27 and activates a similar response at the wound edge involving localized JNK signaling. 28 Unexpectedly however, necrosis also results in significant apoptosis far from the site of 29 ablation, which we have termed necrosis-induced apoptosis (NiA). This apoptosis 30 occurs independent of changes at the wound edge and importantly does not rely on 31 JNK signaling. Furthermore, we find that blocking NiA limits proliferation and 32 subsequently inhibits regeneration, suggesting that tissues damaged by necrosis can 33 activate programmed cell death at a distance from the injury to promote regeneration.
Effect of Sodium Butyrate on Â«-Fetoprotein GÃ¨neExpression in Rat Hepatoma Cells in Vitro1

Sodium butyrate has been reported to induce cellular differ entiation and reduce the tumorigenicity of certain tumor cells. We have examined the effects of butyrate on a-fetoprotein (AFP) gene expression in 7777 and McA-RH8994 rat hepatoma cells and have found that nontoxic concentrations of the drug de crease AFP mRNA levels in both cell lines. However, McA-RH8994 requires a 10-fold lower concentration (0.5 mw) of butyrate to affect a 50% reduction in AFP mRNA levels within 48 h. At 2 raw, sodium butyrate reduces AFP mRNA levels in McA-RH8994 cells by at least 90% after 48 h, while having little effect on the expression of either the 7S RNA or Harvey-ras genes. Time-course studies show that the effect of butyrate on McA-RH8994 AFP mRNA levels is immediate and is accom panied by an accumulation of cells in the G,/G0 phase of the cell cycle. Sodium butyrate was found to reduce AFP mRNA levels in both dexamethasone-treated 7777 and McA-RH8994 cells; dexamethasone decreases AFP mRNA levels in the former cell line and increases AFP mRNA levels in the latter. Therefore, it is unlikely that butyrate acts simply by reducing the dexametha sone receptor concentration in 7777 cells.
Planetary Radar

Planetary radar observations o ﬀ er the potential for probing the properties of characteristics of solid bodies throughout the inner solar system and at least as far as the orbit of Saturn. In addition to the direct scientiﬁc value, precise orbital determina-tions can be obtained from planetary radar observations, which are in turn valuable for mission planning or spacecraft navigation and planetary defense. The next-generation Very Large Array would not have to be equipped with a transmitter to be an important asset in the world’s planetary radar infrastructure. Bistatic radar, in which one antenna transmits (e.g., Arecibo or Goldstone) and another receives, are used commonly today, with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) serving as a receiver. The improved sensitivity of the ngVLA relative to the GBT would improve the signal-to-noise ratios on many targets and increase the accessible volume speciﬁcally for asteroids. Goldstone-ngVLA bistatic observations would have the potential of rivaling the sensitivity of Arecibo, but with much wider sky access.
Silencing of estrogen receptor β promotes the invasion and migration of osteosarcoma cells through activating Wnt signaling pathway

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the speci ﬁ c roles of estrogen receptor β (ER β ) on the invasion and migration of osteosarcoma (OS) cells and explore the regulatory mechanisms relating with Wnt signaling pathway. Methods: The expression of ER β was detected in human OS tissues by quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. U2-OS cells were transfected with siRNA-ER β (si-ER β ) to downregulate ER β and treated with FH535 to inhibit Wnt signaling. The migration and invasion ability was detected by scratch and transwell assay, respectively. The expression of β -catenin, MMP-7, and MMP-9 was detected by Western blot. Subcutaneous tumor-bearing model was established by injection of U2-OS cells into mice, and the tumor volumes were measured. Orthotopic transplantation model was established by transplantation of tumor tissues into the liver of mice, and the metastatic tumors were counted. Results: ER β was downregulated in human OS tissues and U2-OS cells. The transfection of si-ER β signi ﬁ cantly increased the scratch healing rate; the number of invasion cells; and the expression of β -catenin, MMP-7, and MMP-9 in U2-OS cells. The injection of si-ER β transfected U2-OS cells into mice signi ﬁ cantly increased the subcutaneous tumor volume; the expression of β -catenin, MMP-7, and MMP-9; and the number of metastatic tumors in liver tissues. The promoting effects of si-ER β on the invasion and migration of U2-OS cells were signi ﬁ cantly reversed by FH535 in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion: Silencing of ER β promotes the invasion and migration of OS cells via activating Wnt signaling pathway.
Gynecology Case Heterotopic Pregnancy following Ovulation Induction: A Case Report

Clomiphene Citrate which increases the rate of twinning could be associated with a heterotopic pregnancy rate of 1/900. We present the case of a 25-year-old Moroccan woman who developed a simultaneous extra- and intrauterine pregnancy after ovulation induction with Clomiphene Citrate. An urgent mini- laparotomy was performed confirming a preruptured ectopic pregnancy in the right fallopian tube. Preservation of the intrauterine pregnancy was obtained until 41 weeks with vaginal delivery of a healthy boy. Citrate (100 mg/ day) starting on day 2 of the cycle and continued with recombinant FSH on day 7. Transvaginal ultrasound on day 12 showed 2 good size follicles in the right ovary; the left ovary contained one good size follicle in addition to other small follicles less than 10 mm. Endometrium was 12 mm thick. She was given HCG on day 12 and was advised for natural intercourse on day 13. Her next presentation was at 6 weeks of amenorrhea with a chief symptom of lower abdominal pain. On admission, patient was conscious, coherent with pulse 108/min, blood pressure 110/80 mmHg; mild tenderness was found on deep palpation of the right lower abdominal quadrant. Pelvic examination revealed an enlarged uterus corresponding to 6 weeks of pregnancy, with no bleeding. Transvaginal ultrasound showed an intrauterine gestational sac with fetal pole and visible fetal heartbeat. A small amount of free fluid was seen in the pouch of Douglas. Given her history of fertility treatment and her physical examination findings, adnexal areas were evaluated with particular detail. A second gestational sac with fetal pole and cardiac activity, adjacent to the right ovary, was visualized, suggestive of heterotopic pregnancy (Figure 1). Her haemoglobin was 10.1 g/dL with a normal white blood cell count and platelet count. Patient was consented for an operative laparotomy few hours later. Per operatively, a total of 80 ml of hemoperitoneum was aspirated. The uterus was enlarged according to the gestational age; left annex