Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biofunctional upconversion nanoparticles for cancer theranostics

X NIR spectral bands, which enabled my colleagues and me to address the main limitation of photodynamic therapy (PDT), shallow treatment depths. Indeed, the conversion of deeply-penetrating near-infrared to visible light allows photosensitisation of such potent PDT agents, as fluorescent protein KillerRed and Rose Bengal. In the first paper, we have demonstrated the PDT therapeutic efficacy of a water-soluble photosensitiser protein KillerRed coupled to UCNP covalently. The spectral overlap between the UCNP emission and KillerRed absorption ensured the efficient energy transfer, leading to reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation upon the excitation at 980 nm, which exerted toxicity to MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Cross-comparison between the conventional KillerRed and UCNP-mediated KillerRed PDT treatment of cancer cells buried under 1-cm muscle tissue clearly demonstrated superiority of KillerRed-UCNP photosensitisation by the NIR light, with no detectable PDT effect in the case of KillerRed photosensitised by a yellow laser. In the second paper, we have reported a facile strategy to assemble PDT nanocomposites functionalised for cancer targeting, based on the coating of UCNP with a silica layer encapsulating the Rose Bengal photosensitiser and bioconjugation to antibodies through a bifunctional fusion protein consisting of a solid-binding peptide linker (L) genetically fused to Streptococcus Protein G’ (PG). The fusion protein (Linker-Protein G, LPG) mediates the functionalisation of silica-coated UCNPs with cancer cell antibodies allowing for specific target recognition and delivery. The resulting nanocomposites were shown to target cancer cells specifically, generate intracellular reactive oxygen species under 980-nm excitation, and induce NIR-triggered phototoxicity to suppress cancer cell growth in vitro. In the third paper, the effect of protein corona formation on UCNPs coated with positively(polyethylenimine), negatively(polyacrylic acid) charged and nearly neutral (polyethylene glycol) polymers was investigated. Our protein assaying study corroborated the TEM observation, showing profound effect of the UCNP-polymer surface charge: UCNP-polyethylenimine acquired four-fold of protein content as compared to the other coatings. The composition of protein binding to UCNP is notably influenced by the surface charges of the UCNP-polymer. We also found that the protein corona inhibited the cell binding and cellular uptake of UCNPs coated with positive and
Lipid Messenger Phosphatidylinositol-4,5-Bisphosphate Is Increased by Both PPARα Activators and Inhibitors: Relevance for Intestinal Cell Differentiation

Simple Summary Fibrates, such as fenofibrate, are widely used drugs for dyslipidaemia treatment. It is known that they activate peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα) which serves as a lipid sensor in the organism. This article addresses how activators and inhibitor of the PPARα could affect differentiation of intestinal cells. Carcinogenesis is a disruption of normal differentiation process and colorectal carcinoma is the third most common cancer in terms of incidence, but the secondp in terms of mortality. One of the important signalling pathways in intestinal cell differentiation as well as carcinogenesis is PI3K/Akt/PTEN. We showed that PPARα activators as well as inhibitor affected the levels of one member of this pathway called phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate. This molecule is important for formation of microvilli, the essential structures of fully differentiated intestinal cells. Abstract We investigated the effects of PPARα activators fenofibrate and WY-14643 as well as the PPARα inhibitor GW6471 on the PI3K/Akt/PTEN pathway of intestinal cell differentiation. Our previous study showed that all these compounds increased the expression of villin, a specific marker of intestinal cell differentiation in HT-29 and Caco2 cells. Our current results confirmed the central role of lipid messenger phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2), a known player in brush border formation, in mediating the effects of tested PPARα ligands. Although all tested compounds increased its levels, surprisingly, each of them affected different PIP2-metabolizing enzymes, especially the levels of PIP5K1C and PTEN. Moreover, we found a positive relationship between the expression of PPARα itself and PIP2 as well as PIP5K1C. By contrast, PPARα was negatively correlated with PTEN. However, the expression of antigens of interest was independent of PPARα subcellular localization, suggesting that it is not directly involved in their regulation. In colorectal carcinoma tissues we found a decrease in PTEN expression, which was accompanied by a change in its subcellular localization. This change was also observed for the regulatory subunit of PI3K. Taken together, our data revealed that fenofibrate, WY-14643, and GW6471 affected different members of the PI3K/Akt/PTEN pathway. However, these effects were PPARα-independent.
Optimal Cyber Security Placement Schemes for Smart City Infrastructures

The conceptual evolution of smart cities is highly motivated by the advancement of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The purpose of a smart city is to facilitate the best quality of life to its inhabitants. Its implementation has to be supported by the compliant utilities and networked infrastructures. In the current world, it can only be achieved by applying ICTs in an extensive manner. The move towards the smart city’s seamless connectivity widens the scope of cyber security concerns. Smart city infrastructures to face a high risk of targeted attacks due to extended cyber-physical vulnerabilities. This creates many challenging research issues relevant to the design and implementation of cyber security solutions. Networks associated with city infrastructures vary from a small indoor one to a large geographically distributed one. The context of a network is an essential consideration for security solutions. This thesis investigates a set of optimal security placement problems for enhancing monitoring in smart city infrastructures. It develops solutions to such placement problems from a resource management perspective. Economy and quality-of-security service (QoSS) are two major design goals. Such goals are translated into three basic performance metrics: (i) coverage, (ii) tolerance, and (iii) latency. This thesis studies security placement problems pertaining to three different types of networks: (i) wireless sensor network (WSN), (ii) supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) backbone, and (iii) advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) wide area network (WAN). In a smart city, WSNs are deployed to support real time monitoring and safety alert (RTMSA) applications. They are highly resource constrained networks. For WSNs, placement problems for an internally configured security monitor named watchdog have been studied. On the other hand, a smart grid is a key driver for smart cities. SCADA and AMI are two major components of a smart grid. They are associated with two different types of geographically distributed networks. For SCADA backbones, placement problems for a specially designed security device named trust system have been studied. For AMIWANs, placement problems for a cloud-based managed security service have been studied. This thesis proposes a number of promising solution schemes to such placement problems. It includes evaluation results that demonstrate the enhancements of the proposed schemes.
West Nile Virus Occurrence and Ecological Niche Modeling in Wild Bird Species and Mosquito Vectors: An Active Surveillance Program in the Peloponnese Region of Greece

West Nile Virus (WNV) is maintained in nature in a bird-mosquito cycle and human infections follow a seasonal pattern, favored by climatic conditions. Peloponnese Region, located in Southern Greece, initiated an active WNV surveillance program to protect public health during 2019–2020. The project included monitoring of avian hosts and mosquito vectors, while sampling locations were prioritized after consideration of WNV circulation in birds, mosquitos and humans during previous seasons. Biological materials were collected from 493 wild birds of 25 species and 678 mosquito pools, which were molecularly screened for WNV presence. In this case, 14 environmental variables were associated with WNV detection in wild birds and mosquitos by using two separate MaxEnt models. Viral RNA was not detected in the target species during 2019, although in 2020, it was reported on 46 wild birds of ten species and 22 mosquito pools (Culex pipiens and Aedes albopictus). Altitude and land uses were significant predictors for both models and in fact, suitable conditions for virus occurrence were identified in low altitude zones. Bird- and mosquito-based surveillance systems yielded similar results and allowed for targeted vector control applications in cases of increased virus activity. Human cases were not reported on Peloponnese in 2020.
Alone in a Group Ten Characteristics of the Live Online Critique

The design critique or crit, as it is commonly known, is a prominent educational practice that involves a design tutor guiding and prompting a student to develop design expertise. Although it has become a contested practice often criticized for its teacher-dominated approaches and asymmetrical power relations, it remains at the heart of architectural education. This paper is focused on an undergraduate blended architecture studio in South Africa, that allows students to study whilst working, through online learning engagements, combined with occasional on-campus blocks and office mentorship. This experiment was conducted well ahead of the recent pandemic which led to a sudden online pivot of educational spaces and practices. It explores the characteristics of the live online crit, mediated through a webinar platform. The research instruments include online surveys completed by students, graduates, and design tutors, as well as a focus group interview conducted with the graduates only. Through a thematic analysis of the data, we discovered ten characteristics of the live online crit namely that it is internet-reliant, participant-invisible, ubiquitous, media-intensive, multi-communicational, formal, accessible, work-focused, resource-saving, and inclusive. These results are timeous, given the current reliance on live online learning practices, in response to the regular need for social distancing.
Cluster-Assembled Nanoporous Super-Hydrophilic Smart Surfaces for On-Target Capturing and Processing of Biological Samples for Multi-Dimensional MALDI-MS

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) on cluster-assembled super-hydrophilic nanoporous titania films deposited on hydrophobic conductive-polymer substrates feature a unique combination of surface properties that significantly improve the possibilities of capturing and processing biological samples before and during the MALDI-MS analysis without changing the selected sample target (multi-dimensional MALDI-MS). In contrast to pure hydrophobic surfaces, such films promote a remarkable biologically active film porosity at the nanoscale due to the soft assembling of ultrafine atomic clusters. This unique combination of nanoscale porosity and super-hydrophilicity provides room for effective sample capturing, while the hydrophilic-hydrophobic discontinuity at the border of the dot-patterned film acts as a wettability-driven containment for sample/reagent droplets. In the present work, we evaluate the performance of such advanced surface engineered reactive containments for their benefit in protein sample processing and characterization. We shortly discuss the advantages resulting from the introduction of the described chips in the MALDI-MS workflow in the healthcare/clinical context and in MALDI-MS bioimaging (MALDI-MSI).
MEANING AND EMBODIMENT IN RITUAL PRACTICE

The article explores the interaction of verbal and nonverbal semantic levels in the performance of Christian ritual. The article maps the distinction between theoretical and performative knowledge onto Barnard and Teasdale’s Interacting Cognitive Systems model to give a (partial) account of how meaning emerges in ritual participation. With Christian ritual, both know-how and know-that are needed. Above all, it is their interaction that generate the richness of meaning in ritual performance. Three core claims are made. First, many contemporary concepts of ritual have at least one ﬂaw in that they do not grasp the relationality between verbal and non-verbal, wherein both dimensions have a semantic integrity of their own. Second, there is an ideological valuation of the semantic levels. The experiential level is not only meaningful in its own right, but the fundamental ground of spiritual knowing. Third, combining learning styles and kinds of attention can be valuable for eliciting the full semantic richness of ritual participation.
A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW ON RECENT NOVEL FOOD AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS OF FLAXSEED: 2014 ONWARDS

Flaxseed or linseed is an oilseed obtained from a herb known as flax plant. It is a valuable source of various bio-active components such as omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, protein, lignan, dietary fibre and phytochemicals. The in-vivo, in-vitro studies and researches on human subjects conducted throughout the globe on health benefits associated with consumption of various forms of flaxseed are discussed in detail in this review. It provides an insight on recent developments and potential applications on employability of flaxseeds in whole, powdered, oil or flour form in an array food products and industrial applications. The details pertaining to novel health benefits associated with the flaxseed and information related to commercially available flaxseed based/ enriched product is also the salient feature of the review. Here, we have provided state of the art recent comprehensive information post the first detailed review published pertaining to flaxseed as a modern food in 2014.
The validation of the Perceived Surveillance Scale

Data-driven practices, such as personalized communication, computational advertising, and algorithmic decision making, are now commonplace. However, they have been criticized for (mis)uses of personal data and invasions of people’s privacy. Recently, scholars have started to examine the concept of perceived surveillance to obtain more insight into the perceptions and effectiveness of data-driven communication. Despite the growing research interest in perceived surveillance, there is no validated scale to measure this concept. This study aimed to validate the Perceived Surveillance Scale. The reliability and validity of the scale were tested in two surveys (N = 137 and N = 1,008) and one experiment (N = 527). In all three studies, the scale showed good reliability. Regarding construct validity, the results showed that, as expected, the Perceived Surveillance Scale was positively related to privacy concerns, privacy risk perception, perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, creepiness, surveillance concerns, and perceived personalization. In line with the predictions, the scale was negatively related to personalization attitudes. The Perceived Surveillance Scale can assess differences in perceptions of or responses to data-driven communication in different communication domains.
A deep learning approach based defect visualization in pulsed thermography

<span lang="EN-US">Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) is very essential in measuring the properties of materials and in turn detect flaws and irregularities. Pulsed thermography (PT) is one of the advanced NDE technique which is used for detecting and characterizing subsurface defects. Recently many methods have been reported to enhance the signal and defect visibility in PT. In this paper, a novel unsupervised deep learning-based auto-encoder (AE) approach is proposed for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and visualize the defects clearly. A detailed theoretical background of AE and its application to PT is discussed. The SNR and defect detectability results are compared with the existing approaches namely, higher order statistics (HOS), principal component thermography (PCT) and partial least square regression (PLSR) thermography. Experimental results show that AE approach provides better SNR at the cost of defect detectability. </span><br /><div id="ext-mouse-move" style="display: none;"> </div><div id="ext-mouse-down" style="display: none;"> </div><div id="ext-mouse-up" style="display: none;"> </div>
Generalized Analytical Model for Enzymatic BioFET Transistors

Software tools that are able to simulate the functionality or interactions of an enzyme biosensor with Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS), or any Field Effect Transistor (FET) as transducer, represent a gap in the market. Bio-devices, or Enzyme-FET, cannot be simulated by Atlas or equivalent software. This paper resolves this issue for the enzymatic block coupled with FETs’ role within biosensors. The first block has the concentration of biological analyte as the input signal and concentration of ions from the enzymatic reaction as the output signal. The modeling begins from the Michaelis–Menten formalism and analyzes the time dependence of the product concentrations that become the input signal for the next FET block. Comparisons within experimental data are provided. The analytical model proposed in this paper represents a general analytical tool in the design stage for enzymatic transistors used in clinical practices.
“Neither it had social work components nor experiential”: Students' perspectives of online fieldwork practice during COVID‐19 in India

Abstract This paper explores social work students' perspectives of online fieldwork practice that emerged due to sudden disruption in field placement as a result of the outbreak of COVID‐19 in India. We have recruited and interviewed 32 Master's students from five north‐Indian universities to participate in the research. The study's findings highlight ill‐equipped agencies lacking social work components in online/virtual field placement. Also, ethical dilemmas in working virtually, disconnectedness from the field, and superficial supervision were experienced by the students. The study result implies the urgent need to develop and innovate a pedagogical approach to deal with uncertainties and crises like the COVID‐19.
Strong anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of Lucilia cuprina maggots’ excretion/secretion and its effect on viral entry and notch pathway in vitro: First work

The global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 requires new lines of treatment to hinder viral entry and pathogenesis. Lucilia cuprina maggots’ excretion/secretion (E/S) contains proteases and antioxidants, among other active ingredients that contribute to its antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral activity. This study aims to assess the potential effects of E/S on the entry and molecular pathogenesis of a SARS-CoV-2 isolate “NRC-03-nhCoV” in vitro for the ﬁrst time. E/S was obtained from the collected maggots of L. cuprina that were maintained under controlled laboratory conditions. The E/S was used to treat VERO-E6 cells infected with SARS-CoV-2. The predicted antiviral activity of the E/S and the expression of the Notch pathway and viral pathogenesis-related genes were assessed at three time points. E/S showed potential antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 (IC50 = 0.324 µg/ml) with a high selectivity index value (SI = 572.997). Serine protease present in E/S was predicted to interact with transmembrane protease, serine 2 and cathepsin B. E/S was able to signiﬁcantly downregulate Notch-related genes, SUMO1, and TDG in SARS-CoV-2-infected cells, shifting their expression toward levels of the control. Therefore, E/S of L. cuprina maggots is a potential strong inhibitor for SARS-CoV-2. © 2022. Mohammad R. K. Abdel-Samad et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Teaching Practicum During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Comparison of the Practices in Different Countries

Today, many countries ensure that student teachers get into the real classrooms, practice in there, spend more time and translate theoretical knowledge into practice in schools during Initial Teacher Education. So that they can receive stronger support in the practicum process, and they can develop themselves. However, schools have been closed in so many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic preventions. Therefore, countries have rearranged the teaching practicum process. The aim of this study, which was carried out with a systematic review, is to comparatively examine the teaching practicum processes of different countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a systematic review made according to certain criteria, teaching practicum in the COVID-19 in the countries of Australia, Canada (Ontario State), England, Greece, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Portugal, South Africa, Turkey, the United States of America (New York State) and Zimbabwe were examined. According to the findings, it has been seen that some countries have removed or stretched the teaching practicum requirement during the COVID-19, while some countries have carried out online teaching practicum (i) in K-12 schools, (ii) with peer learning, or (iii) using VR technology, and one country re-opened the schools after a short closure.
How to achieve exceptional points in coupled resonators using a gyrator or PT-symmetry, and in a time-modulated single resonator: high sensitivity to perturbations

We study the rise of exceptional points of degeneracy (EPD) in various distinct circuit configurations such as gyrator-based coupled resonators, coupled resonators with PT-symmetry, and in a single resonator with a time-varying component. In particular, we analyze their high sensitivity to changes in resistance, capacitance, and inductance and show the high sensitivity of the resonance frequency to perturbations. We also investigate stability and instability conditions for these configurations; for example, the effect of losses in the gyrator-based circuit leads to instability, and it may break the symmetry in the PT-symmetry-based circuit, also resulting in instabilities. Instability in the PT-symmetry circuit is also generated by breaking PT-symmetry when one element (e.g., a capacitor) is perturbed due to sensing. We have turned this instability “inconvenience” to an advantage, and we investigate the effect of nonlinear gain in the PT-symmetry coupled-resonator circuit and how this leads to an oscillator with oscillation frequency very sensitive to perturbation. The circuits studied in this paper have the potential to lead the way for a more efficient generation of high-sensitivity sensors that can detect very small changes in chemical, biological, or physical quantities.