Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bioavailability Enhancement Techniques for Poorly Aqueous Soluble Drugs and Therapeutics

The low water solubility of pharmacoactive molecules limits their pharmacological potential, but the solubility parameter cannot compromise, and so different approaches are employed to enhance their bioavailability. Pharmaceutically active molecules with low solubility convey a higher risk of failure for drug innovation and development. Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and several other parameters, such as drug distribution, protein binding and absorption, are majorly affected by their solubility. Among all pharmaceutical dosage forms, oral dosage forms cover more than 50%, and the drug molecule should be water-soluble. For good therapeutic activity by the drug molecule on the target site, solubility and bioavailability are crucial factors. The pharmaceutical industry’s screening programs identified that around 40% of new chemical entities (NCEs) face various difficulties at the formulation and development stages. These pharmaceuticals demonstrate less solubility and bioavailability. Enhancement of the bioavailability and solubility of drugs is a significant challenge in the area of pharmaceutical formulations. According to the Classification of Biopharmaceutics, Class II and IV drugs (APIs) exhibit poor solubility, lower bioavailability, and less dissolution. Various technologies are discussed in this article to improve the solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs, for example, the complexation of active molecules, the utilization of emulsion formation, micelles, microemulsions, cosolvents, polymeric micelle preparation, particle size reduction technologies, pharmaceutical salts, prodrugs, the solid-state alternation technique, soft gel technology, drug nanocrystals, solid dispersion methods, crystal engineering techniques and nanomorph technology. This review mainly describes several other advanced methodologies for solubility and bioavailability enhancement, such as crystal engineering, micronization, solid dispersions, nano sizing, the use of cyclodextrins, solid lipid nanoparticles, colloidal drug delivery systems and drug conjugates, referring to a number of appropriate research reports.
Acceptability and Feasibility of Community Management of Ear Patients through Tele-otology Services in Outskirts of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

INTRODUCTION: Tele-otology is one of the least explored areas of telehealth in Nepal. The objective image findings and live virtual specialist consultation using synchronous data exchange can address the different barriers to basic otological care in low-resource settings like Nepal. This study was conducted to explore the acceptability and feasibility of community management of ear patients through tele-otology. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at a tertiary level ENT hospital in Bhaktapur and three outreach clinics of the hospital in the periphery of Kathmandu valley from 1st April to 31st May 2021. Trained community ear health workers (CEHWs) used mobile data in fields and communicated with ENT consultants at the base hospital with fiber-to-the-home internet connection for teleconsultation. The satisfaction was measured using a 5-point Likert scale. RESULTS: This study has shown satisfactory acceptance among beneficiaries and service providers. The sound quality rating was 4.5±0.8 at field-site and 4.5±0.9 at base hospital. The video quality ratings were 4.4±0.8 and 4.0±1.1 at field-site and base hospital, respectively; this difference was statistically significant (p=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: With trained grassroots level workers and quality internet connections, tele-otology can play a significant role in the early identification and diagnosis of ear diseases, including middle ear pathologies, as well as bridging the ear care service gap in resource constraints settings like Nepal.
Belin/Ambrósio Enhanced Ectasia Display in cataract surgery and relation to final visual acuity

Objective: To analyze and describe the coefficients found on maximum Ambrósio Relational Thickness- Maximum (ART-Max) and Belin/Ambrósio Enhanced Ectasia Display total deviation (BAD-D) in eyes with normal corneal topography subjected to cataract surgery with premium intraocular lens implantation and correlated these data with final visual acuity. Methods: ART-Max and BAD-D data from 103 eyes of patients subjected to implantation of diffractive bifocal intraocular lens, with normal corneal topography who achieved visual acuity of 20/20
Wireless Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

In the current contribution, we examine the feasibility of fully-energy-autonomous operation of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) through wireless energy harvesting (EH) from incident information signals. Towards this, we first identify the main RIS energy-consuming components and present a suitable and accurate energy-consumption model that is based on the recently proposed integrated controller architecture and includes the energy consumption needed for channel estimation. Building on this model, we introduce a novel RIS architecture that enables EH through RIS unit-cell (UC) splitting. Subsequently, we introduce an EH policy, where a subset of the UCs is used for beamsteering, while the remaining UCs absorb energy. In particular, we formulate a subset al.ocation optimization problem that aims at maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver without violating the RIS’s energy consumption demands. As a problem solution, we present low-complexity heuristic algorithms. The presented numerical results reveal the feasibility of the proposed architecture and the efficiency of the presented algorithms with respect to both the optimal and very high-complexity brute-force approach and the one corresponding to random subset selection. Furthermore, the results reveal how important the placement of the RIS as close to the transmitter as possible is, for increasing the harvesting effectiveness.
Co‐occurrence of browning and oligotrophication in a boreal stream network

The relative supply of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) to freshwater ecosystems is of fundamental importance to aquatic productivity, nutrient cycling, and food web dynamics. In northern landscapes, ongoing climate change, as well as legacies from atmospheric deposition, have the potential to drive changes in how these elements are recycled on land and exported to streams. While it is well established that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations have increased in many high latitude streams, the simultaneous trends for N and P and the ratios among these resources, are not well documented. We used data from 13 sites in a boreal stream network to analyze decadal‐scale changes in dissolved inorganic N (DIN), dissolved organic N (DON), and dissolved inorganic P (DIP) concentrations and partition these trends seasonally. We observed widespread declines for DIP and DIN in streams, regardless of catchment characteristics. DIN decline was strongest during the growing season, and together with increases in DOC/DON at several sites, suggests increasing N retention by plants and soil microbes across this landscape. By contrast, declines for DIP occurred primarily during late autumn and winter, indicating that key biogeochemical changes are also occurring during non‐growing season. Linking these trends to increases in DOC concentration in streams revealed changes in the ratio of energy to nutrient supply for the majority of sites, becoming richer in carbon and poorer in limiting nutrients over time. Overall, our observations from this stream network point to ongoing oligotrophication, with possible consequences for aquatic ecosystems in boreal landscapes.
A Review on Metamaterial Application in Microstrip and Substrate Integrated Waveguide Antenna Designs

|Metamaterials are arti(cid:12)cially con(cid:12)gured composite materials exhibiting unique characteristics such as negative eﬀective permittivity and permeability. Due to these distinctive characteristics, metamaterials have drawn special attention in designing novel antenna structures and improving antenna performances. The application of metamaterial in antenna technology signi(cid:12)cantly brings miniaturization to the antenna structure, enhances the impedance bandwidth, gain, and eﬃciency of the antenna as well as improves isolation between the MIMO antenna elements. The substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) reduces the conductor and dielectric loss, and surface wave excitations in the antennas. Although an overview of the performance enhancement of microstrip patch antennas under the in(cid:13)uence of metamaterial has been incorporated in this article, the authors have put more eﬀort in presenting a detailed study on working mechanism of metamaterial-based SIW antennas. Thus, a detailed review of the novel designs of metamaterial-inspired SIW cavity-backed slot antennas (CBSA), leaky-wave antennas (LWA), aperture antennas, and H -plane horn antennas has been included. The theoretical background of the metamaterials characteristics has been presented. Moreover, the working principles of metamaterial-based SIW CBSAs, SIW LWAs, SIW aperture antennas, and SIW H -plane horn antennas have been thoroughly outlined in obtaining antenna miniaturization, gain enhancement, beam steering through frequency scanning, polarization (cid:13)exibility, bandwidth broadening, and isolation improvement. Besides this, a study has also been included in eliminating the limitations of SIW on-chip antennas such as narrow bandwidth, low gain, and eﬃciency by including metamaterial/metasurface in the antenna designs. Although the emphasis has been given to elaborating the attractive antenna performances, some design limitations have also been identi(cid:12)ed, and those need further investigation. This survey brings up not only the conceptual framework of the attractive characteristics of metamaterial, the design methodology of the non-resonant type metamaterial in the SIW environment, and the working principles of metamaterial-inspired SIW antennas but also the design limitations. Thus, consideration can be given to this article as the potential design guidelines of the metamaterial-based SIW antennas, and possible ideas can be obtained for doing further advanced research on the identi(cid:12)ed research gaps.
Air Flow Regimes and Thermal Comfort in Vehicle Cabin Considering Solar Radiation

Thermal comfort in vehicle cabin can affect drivers and passenger’s health, performance and comfort. Due to spatial and temporal variation of state variables and boundary conditions in the vehicle cabin , the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) does not have to be designed to provide a uniform environment, especially because of individual differences regarding to physiological and psychological response, clothing insulation, activity, air temperature and air movement preference, etc. The main objective of this research is to study the air flow regimes and thermal comfort in vehicle cabin using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. For this purpose, the CFD software from ANSYS Inc., called FLUENT 17.2, is employed. In which the solar load model is embedded s2s (surface to surface) as a solar radiation model. The CFD modeling techniques solved the continuity, momentum and energy conservation equations in addition to standard k – e model equations for turbulence closure (The use K-epsilon turbulence mode was recommended as it had been widely tested and investigated in the seventies of last century). Meshing is processed around 4.0 million unstructured tetra-elements approximately. The performance of the air conditioning system is characterized by airflow regimes (air temperature, air velocity, relative humidity, PMV and PPD contours), the present work is focus on the effect of air terminal shape of Hvac system, two configurations are used case (1) and case (2). Case (1) is the existing design of air terminals of the Hvac system of the selected car (Skoda Superb), the air terminals are in rectangular shape. While case (2) are in circle shape
Design of Approximate Explicit Model Predictive Controller using Parametric Optimization

This paper introduces a new technique, called state-parameterized nonlinear programming control (sp-NLPC), for designing a feedback controller that can stabilize intrinsically unstable nonlinear dynamical systems using parametric optimization. Stability-preserving constraints are included in the optimization problem solved offline by the predictive parameterized Pareto genetic algorithm (P3GA), a constrained nonlinear parametric optimization algorithm. The optimal control policy is approximated from P3GA output using radial basis function (RBF) metamodeling. The sp-NLPC technique requires fewer assumptions and is more data-efficient than alternative methods. Two nonlinear systems (single and double inverted pendulums on a cart) are used as benchmarking problems. Performance and computational efficiency are compared to several competing control design techniques. Results show that sp-NLPC outperforms and is more efficient than competing methods. A qualitative investigation on phase plane analysis for the controlled systems is presented to ensure stability. The approximating state-dependent solution for the control input lends itself to application of control design for multi-fidelity models and control co-design (CCD). Such extensions are discussed as part of future work.
The Black-Box Deconstruction of Dynamic Sustainable Development Ability Driving Environmental Performance of Manufacturing Enterprises

Based on the conceptual model of the black-box deconstruction of dynamic sustainable development ability driving environmental performance of manufacturing enterprises, the nonparametric percentile bootstrap method based on deviation correction is used to demonstrate the theoretical hypothesis and empirically deconstruct the black-box of dynamic sustainable development driving environmental performance. Empirical results show that (1) dynamic sustainable development ability has a positive influence on environmental performance; (2) green resource integration ability, green duality, low-carbon manufacturing practice, and green intelligence capital play mediating roles in the influence of dynamic sustainable development ability on environmental performance; and (3) environmental regulation positively moderates the mediating mechanism of green resource integration ability, green duality, low-carbon manufacturing practice, and green intelligence capital of the relationships between dynamic sustainable development ability and environmental performance.
Artificial potential function guidance for autonomous in-space operations

Dedicated to My parents who brought me into this world and My friends, family, and colleagues who opened my eyes to it. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my advisor, Dr. Norman Fitz-Coy, I would like to convey my gratitude. Few graduate students have the opportunity to work with, not for, an advisor that encourages freedom and creativity in the search for a pragmatic solution and uniquely challenges them beyond what they think is possible. He also taught me many lessons beyond the curriculum and for those I am grateful. Without his guidance this dissertation would never have come to fruition. Many thanks also go out to my supervisory committee, Drs. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge my brother J Bradley Tatsch for everything that he has done to make this dream a reality. Without his assistance my undergraduate and graduate experiences would have never gotten off the ground. I am forever grateful for all that he has done for me.
Effects of age on the hippocampus and verbal memory in adults with autism spectrum disorder: Longitudinal versus cross‐sectional findings

Research studying aging in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is growing, but longitudinal work is needed. Autistic adults have increased risk of dementia, altered hippocampal volumes and fornix integrity, and verbal memory difficulties compared with neurotypical (NT) adults. This study examined longitudinal aging in middle‐age adults with ASD versus a matched NT group, and compared findings with cross‐sectional age effects across a broad adult age range. Participants were 194 adults with (n = 106; 74 male) and without (n = 88; 52 male) ASD, ages 18–71. Participants (n = 45; 40–70 age range) with two visits (2–3 years apart) were included in a longitudinal analysis. Hippocampal volume, fornix fractional anisotropy (FA), and verbal memory were measured via T1‐weighted MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, respectively. Longitudinal mixed models were used for hippocampal system variables and reliable change index categories were used for Auditory Verbal Learning Test analyses. Multivariate regression was used for cross‐sectional analyses. Middle‐age adults with ASD had greater longitudinal hippocampal volume loss and were more likely to show clinically meaningful decline in short‐term memory, compared with NT. In contrast, cross‐sectional associations between increasing age and worsening short‐term memory were identified in NT, but not autistic adults. Reduced fornix FA and long‐term memory in ASD were found across the broad cross‐sectional age range. These preliminary longitudinal findings suggest accelerated hippocampal volume loss in ASD and slightly higher rates of clinically‐meaningful decline in verbal short‐term memory. Contradictory cross‐sectional and longitudinal results underscore the importance of longitudinal aging research in autistic adults.
Series-Parallel Multiresonant Switched-Capacitor Converters and the Optimal Operation Region

In this article, series-parallel (SP) multiresonant switched-capacitor converters (MRSCCs) are proposed by incorporating resonant tanks into the traditional SP switched-capacitor converter (SCC) and adopting the on-time fixed frequency modulation. Compared to the traditional SP SCC with hard-switched operation, high transient current spike and inability for lossless voltage regulation, the proposed SP-MRSCC in the optimal operation region owns the merits of soft-switching operation, complete soft-charging feature, low transient current spike, as well as continuous, wide and efficient voltage-gain variation range even at light-load condition. A comprehensive analysis of operation principle, boundary conditions and component stress in four operation modes is provided to assist converter operation and design in the optimal operation region. On one hand, the upper limit of a defined loaded quality factor Qcrit is derived to avoid the appearance of a knee in the gain curve. On the other hand, the current overlapped region—that is, modes 1 and 2—is found to have better operation performance with wider voltage-gain-variation range and lower component stress. On the basis, the synchronous SP-MRSCC is proposed to reduce the conduction loss significantly in high-order circuit and step-down applications. A quantitative comparison between the proposed SP-MRSCC and other counterparts is given to outstand the aforementioned advantages. A 100W 4X SP-MRSCC prototype was designed and tested to verify the above analyses, which has the potential to be utilized for connecting 12V and 48V dc buses between traditional and future data centers.
Preparation and Optimization of Naringin Oral Nanocarrier: In Vitro Characterization and Antibacterial Activity

Naringin (NG), is a poorly water-soluble flavonoid that has reported to possess a variety of therapeutic efficacies. The present research work is designed to prepare and optimize Naringin hybrid nanoparticles (NG-HNs) using lipid (A), chitosan (B), and D-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate (C). The formulations were optimized using a Box–Behnken Design (BBD), and the selection of optimized composition (NG-HNop) was carried out on the basis of low particle size (Y1) and high entrapment efficiency (Y2) using the point prediction method. The selected NG-HNop was further evaluated in order to study permeation, drug release, antimicrobial and antioxidant effect, and cell viability. The optimized nanoparticles (NG-HNop) showed a particle size and entrapment efficiency of 246 ± 8.3 nm and 83.5 ± 2.1%, with a polydispersibility index (PDI) of 0.23 and a Zeta potential of + 18.1 mV, indicating high stability. The optimized NG-HNop exhibited better drug release (89.62 ± 4.54%) and enhanced permeation (3.7 folds). A significant improvement in the antimicrobial activity was achieved against Escherichia coli with respect to Staphylococcus aureus with the hybrid nanoparticles. They also exhibited better activity in the tested cell line. On the basis of the study results, hybrid nanoparticles of Naringin are an alternative oral delivery method for treating cancer cells.
The global prevalence of Cryptosporidium in sheep: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Abstract Cryptosporidium spp. are important pathogens with some species causing diarrhoea in humans and animals. Sheep are one of the most common potential hosts for various Cryptosporidium spp. The prevalence of Cryptosporidium in sheep globally was evaluated from published information including molecular data via meta-analysis. In total, 126 datasets from 41 countries were included for final quantitative analysis. Sheep aged <3 months had a significantly higher prevalence (27.8%; 3284/11 938) than those at the age of 3–12 and >12 months. The prevalence of Cryptosporidium in sheep with diarrhoea of 35.4% (844/1915) was higher than in sheep that did not show diarrhoea (11.3%; 176/1691). Fourteen Cryptosporidium species/genotypes were detected in sheep globally. The proportion of subgenotype family XIIa of Cryptosporidium ubiquitum was 90.0% (216/240); the proportions of subgenotypes IIdA20G1 and IIaA15G2R1 of Cryptosporidium parvum were 15.4% (62/402) and 19.7% (79/402). The results indicate that C. parvum is the dominant species in Europe while Cryptosporidium xiaoi is the dominant species in Oceania, Asia and Africa and C. ubiquitum is the dominant species in North America and South America. Subgenotype family IIa of C. parvum is particularly widespread among sheep worldwide. The results highlight the role of sheep as a reservoir host for zoonotic cryptosporidia and the need for further study of prevalence, transmission and control of this pathogen in sheep.
Analysis of Common-Mode Noise and Mixed-Mode Differential-Mode Noise in Dual Active Bridge Converter

The dual active bridge (DAB) converter is one of the widely explored topologies in recent years due to its remarkable features, such as inherent soft-switching characteristics, galvanic isolation, and high power density. However, the conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) analysis of the DAB converter is seldom reported. In this article, the common-mode (CM) and the differential-mode (DM) equivalent circuits of the isolated DAB converter are presented to understand the propagation mechanisms of the conducted EMI noise in the converter. In particular, the mixed-mode DM (MMDM) noise component of the DM noise is quantified for the DAB converter. Furthermore, an experimental measurement method based on an external impedance-matched circuit is proposed to quantify the DM current due to capacitive coupling between the primary and secondary windings of the transformer. The quantified MMDM noise and the DM noise through the transformer are estimated using the proposed equivalent circuits in MATLAB-Simulink and validated experimentally on a prototype DAB converter.