Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Anti-Sickling Polyherbal Mixture on Haematological Indices in Normal and Anaemia-Induced Rabbits

Some plants used in the management of sickle cell disease (SCD) have been shown to increase gelling time of sickle cell blood and inhibits sickling in vitro, reversal of sickling, inhibiting osmotically induced haemolysis of erythrocytes, membrane stabilization. Plants such as Sorghum bicolar, Phyllanthus amarus, U. afzelii, Securidaca longipedunculata, Momordica charantia, Dalium guineense have been found to exhibit anti-sickling properties. The polyherbal combination of these drugs was used in this study for the investigation of the effects of anti-sickling polyherbal mixture on haematological indices in rabbits. Sixty (60) New Zealand rabbits weighing 1200g ±200g, conducted in duplicate and designated experiment X (normal rabbits) and Y (anaemia induced using Cadmium 2mg/kg +10 mg/Kg body weight phenylhydrazine for 15 days). Both groups were further subdivided into four groups (A-D) with 5 animals each, administered saline substitute, different grades of polyherbal mixtures for 8 weeks. Blood sample (2mls) was collected into Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid (EDTA) bottles for full blood count. The results in the experiment (X) showed significant increase in WBC (103/μl) count across the groups (B=8.15±0.33; C=9.3±0.74; D=9.8±0.59) compared to the control group (A=7.25±0.44) (p<0.05). RBC (106/μl) count showed insignificant increase in group B (5.1±0.20) and C (5.6±0.450), decrease level in D (4.4±0.26) compared to control A (4.8±0.29) (p<0.05). Hb(g/dl) and HCT (%) showed similar pattern with insignificant increased levels across all treatment groups (B=14.8±0.59, 43.4±1.74; C=15.5±0.78, 45.8±3.; D=14.2±0.85, 43.7±2.62) compared to control A (13.6±0.68; 41.5±2.49) respectively. Platelets showed significant increase in group B and C (286±17.16 and 286±17.16) compared to control A (244±9.76) with significant decrease in group D (226±18.08) (p<0.05). In experiment (Y), WBC count showed significant increase across all treatment groups (B= 6.4±0.26 C= 6.8±0.54 D =10.6±0.64) compared to control (A= 4±0.24) (p<0.05). RBC (106/μl) count in control A gave (2.5±0.15), insignificant increase in B (3.1±0.12) with significant increase in group C (3.5±0.28) and insignificant decrease in D (2.2±0.13) (p<0.05). Higher level of Hb (g/dL) was seen in group B and C (B= 8.4±0.34; C= 9.1±0.46), while D (7.7±0.46) had a slightly elevated value compared to the control A (7.1±0.36) (p<0.05). HCT (%) showed significant increase across the groups (B=26±1.04; C=28±2.24; D=24±1.44) (p<0.05) compared to control A (18±1.08). Red cell indices showed some degree of derangement across the study groups. Findings in this study suggest that polyherbal mixture have a positive effect on the haemoglobin, red blood cells, packed cell volume and white blood cell count of the rabbits in a dose dependent manner.
The role of education in cognitive functions among middle-age and older patients with untreated obstructive sleep apnea

Objective The goal of the current study was to examine the interaction between educational level and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), one of the most under diagnosed sleep disorders, on cognitive functions such as verbal fluency, psychomotor vigilance, executive functions, visuospatial ability, and attention span. Material and Methods One hundred and nine participants (47 controls and 62 untreated OSA patients) participated in the study and completed the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, WAIS-III digit span and block design, semantic and phonemic fluency tests, and a psychomotor vigilance task. Subjective sleep and health measures were assessed. Results In semantic fluency and visuospatial ability tasks, patients with higher education performed better than patients with lower education and controls with lower education. This difference in moderation effects was not observed for vigilance, phonemic fluency, attention span, or executive functions although education was a significant predictor for all cognitive tasks. Conclusion Higher education may have contributed to cognitive reserve in OSA patients (but not for controls) as reflected in better semantic fluency and visuospatial ability. This benefit of higher education contributing to larger cognitive reserve in patients with OSA helped buffer the deficits for some cognitive functions but not for others. This may indicate that this buffer is not limitless because when the cognitive demand gets higher the educational buffer no longer works.
Unmanned Amphibian Vehicle

Moving from water to land or vice versa, is a tough problem for a robot, because it has to completely change its gait and adapt to the new environment, without stopping. Animals deal with this problem by using sensory inputs as switches, which turn different neural control mechanisms on or off. These in turn are transformed into complex and coordinated movements in the body. The aim of this project is to develop a mobile robot, which can propel both in land and water. A robot could be a mechanical device, a manipulator designed to perform many different tasks and capable of repeated, variable programming. To perform its assigned tasks, the robot moves parts, objects, tools, and special devices by means of programmed motions and points.
Supporting high-quality teaching in higher education through the HowUTeach self-reflection tool

This article introduces the development of the self-reflection tool HowUTeach for higher education teachers. HowUTeach is a research-based self-assessment tool created primarily for teachers in both science universities and universities of applied sciences. The purpose of HowUTeach is to increase teachers’ awareness of their teaching and thereby enhance individual self-reflection relating to work and well-being. HowUTeach uses responses to a questionnaire as a base to generate feedback that includes descriptions of different teaching dimensions as well as ideas on how to develop and improve teaching practices. This article defines these dimensions and presents the idea of counter feedback. The results from the pilot tests of HowUTeach were promising, and teachers identified that the instrument advanced their teaching practices. The tool is now being developed further.
GENDERIZING CONSEQUENCES OF FAMILY POLICIES IN POLAND IN 2010S: A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

The aim of this paper is to analyze four reforms introduced in the Polish family system in the 2010s. The reforms were introduced as an answer to a problem of very low fertility rates, as well as instruments helping women in achieving their work-life balance. The reforms are analyzed here in terms of their (de)genderization effects on Polish mothers and fathers. The use of a genderization-degenderization axis shows that the gendered division of domestic and care work is not challenged by the reforms, but it is rather reinforced by them. It is also doubtful if the reforms will manage to reverse current demographic trends.
Students’ responses to authentic assessment designed to develop commitment to performing at their best

ABSTRACT Engineering educators should motivate and support students in developing not only technical competence but also professional competence including commitment to excellence. We developed an authentic assessment to improve students’ understanding of the importance of ‘perfection’ in engineering – whereby 50% good enough will not be acceptable in industry. Subsequently we aimed to motivate them to practise performing at their best when they practice engineering. Students in a third-year mechanical and mechatronic engineering unit completed a team design project designed with authentic assessment features to replicate industry expectations and a novel marking scheme to encourage the pursuit of excellence. We report mixed responses from students. Students’ ratings of their levels of effort on this assessment indicate that many perceived a positive influence on their effort. However, students’ comments included several that were consistent with students experiencing the assessment as alienating.
Recognition and assessment of different factors which affect flicker in wind turbines

Similar to other distributed generation sources, wind turbines cause power quality disturbances (PQDs) issues in power systems. One of the most important PQDs that has bad effects on sensitive loads is flicker. In this study, an algorithm is presented for assessment and recognition of different factors causing flicker of wind turbines. Some aerodynamic factors (wind shear and tower shadow) and some mechanical factors (blade pitching errors, gearbox tooth crash and turbine blade break down) are modelled using fixed speed wind turbines. Then, wavelet transform and S-transform are used to extract some dominant features voltage. Then, in order to avoid large dimension of feature vector, Relieff feature selection method is applied to extracted features. The probabilistic neural network (PNN) is used to classify above-mentioned factors. The only adjusted parameter of the PNN classifier is determined by using the particle swarm optimisation technique. Moreover, the short-term severity of flicker (Pst) is calculated for each type of fault as extra features to increase the severability of extracted features. Results show that the classifier can detect different causes of flicker event with high detection accuracy.
Channel modeling for 60 GHz Body Area Networks

The smart environments and the connected human seems to be the future of wireless communications. The development of new frequency bands in the millimeter range will allow us to create high data rate communications which will led to the Wireless Body Environment Networks. In this kind of scenarios, it is expected that the user and the environment will interact. In order to develop such new applications, it is necessary to first study the propagation mechanisms and then, the communication channel underlying body centric environments. This thesis treats of channel models for 60 GHz Body Area Networks and more particularly of three kinds of scenarios: (i) the communication between an external base station and a worn node (off-body); (ii) the communication between two worn nodes (on-body); the communication between an external base station and a hand-held device (near-body). An indoor off-body channel model is numerically proposed and implemented. The model is based on the IEEE 802.11ad indoor standard channel at 60 GHz and a fast computation solution of the scattering of a plane wave by a circular cylinder. The model is developed for two orthogonal polarizations and the communications performances are studied. The on-body propagation is studied for two different configurations: line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight communications on the body. These scenarios led to different solutions for the channel knowing as, respectively, Norton’s equations and creeping formulations. These solutions are obtained using simplified geometries which has been experimentally validated. Further, in order to improve the propagation on the human body, a technique using metallic plates has been proposed. This technique has been theoretically studied using Milligton’s equations and experimentally assessed on a flat phantom with the properties of the human skin. The proposed method allows to save up to 20 dB. Finally, the near-body communication scenario has been introduced and studied. The near-body region is extended from 5 to 30 cm away of the user body which corresponds to the arm’s reach and models a handheld device. A numerical algorithm has been proposed to model indoor near-body environments. Also, a special has been given to statistical body shadowing. It has been shown that the fading follows a Two-Wave Diffuse Power distribution.
Revisión de herramientas de asistencia en la selección de soluciones constructivas sostenibles de edificación

This paper presents a survey of the state-of-the-art in tools to assist in the selection of sustainable building assemblies based on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The tools are analysed to identify the characteristics that make them suitable to assist in the early phases of design. In a first phase of analysis, the existing tools are classified. In a second phase of analysis, the tools found to be more suitable to assist in building design are further analysed, by describing their advantages and limitations. In conclusion, a list of guidelines for the development of a Spanish tool to assist building designers in the selection of sustainable building assemblies is proposed.
Numerical Investigation of Aerodynamic and Stability Behavior of Corrugated Airfoils at Low Reynolds Number

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The cellularisation of mammalian myotubes by myoseverin.

Urodele amphibians display a remarkable ability to regenerate and are the only adult vertebrates able to regenerate their limbs. In mammals the capacity for regeneration is greatly curtailed and an important aspect of this is thought to be the plasticity of the differentiated state. On amputation of a newt limb, mature differentiated cell types at the site of injury are able to dedifferentiate to produce a mass of proliferating cells which will eventually re-differentiate to form the tissues of the regenerate. These events are absent in mammals where an inflammatory response predominates. Skeletal muscle is widely used as a model system for the study of dedifferentiation events in limb regeneration. Skeletal muscle myoblasts withdraw from the cell cycle and fuse to form multinucleate myotubes during differentiation, providing a striking differentiated phenotype. These multinucleate cells undergo conversion to mononucleate cells, referred to as cellularisation, during limb regeneration in urodeles. In recent years, a number of experimental tools to reverse differentiation of mammalian myotubes in vitro have been reported, one of which is myoseverin, a small microtubule-binding molecule isolated from a combinatorial chemical library by its ability to induce cellularisation of multinucleate myotubes. The work in this thesis has further investigated the mechanism of action of myoseverin, assessing to what extent the molecule can be said to initiate a programme in mammalian cells characteristic of that involved in urodele regeneration. Time-lapse microscopy has made possible observation of the process of cellularisation at a single cell level, and of the resulting mononucleate progeny, to determine the fate of these cells following cellularisation, while microarray analysis enabled evaluation of'events at a molecular level. These experiments revealed a significant role for microtubules in the mechanism of cellularisation and have highlighted cellularisation as a necessary, but not sufficient, aspect of the complex process of dedifferentiation.
Estimation of SEA Loss Factors by Using Partial FEM Model (Proposal of "FEM-SEA")

This paper presents a method by using FEM for estimating SEA coupling loss factors, which is called “FEM-SEA”. The FEM-SEA is a tool for designing structure in detail although analytical SEA can not reach the detail design. The FEM-SEA requires a FEM model which is corresponded to a part of structures including the junction and the neighbor subsystems. The FEM calculation in carried out to entimate internal and coupling loss factors. The nature of the FEM-SEA is dependent on the boundary conditions of the FEM model which are connected with the other subsystems in the whole system. Two kinds of the boundary conditions are discussed to show that the estimating loss factors are not dependent on the conditions at least in the same applicapability as the analytical SEA. Further, it is also shown that the FEM-SEA can be applied more widely than the analytical SEA in case that the boundary condition set is similar to the actual conditions with the other subsystems. As a result, the FEM-SEA supplies the capability to design structure in detail and to apply widely than the analytical SEA does.
Moisture content limit of iron ore fines for the prevention on liquefication in bulk carriers

In 2013, over 500 million tonnes of Iron Ore Fines (IOF) were transported around the world using bulk carriers, more than any other unrefined mineral. Since the holds of bulk carriers have not been designed to carry liquid, if liquefaction of IOF or other minerals occur it can cause the vessel carrying the cargo to list or even capsize. Since 2006, there have been at least eight reported bulk carrier incidents possibly caused by the iron ore cargo shifting. Currently, the only available parameter used to prevent this from occurring is the Transportable Moisture Limit (TML). The TML is the maximum gross water content that certain mineral cargoes may contain, while being loaded in bulk carriers, without being at risk of liquefying during transportation. The objective of this study is to compare the three test methods stated in the 2013 International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes Code (IMSBC Code), which are used to determine the TML of IOF. They are the Proctor/Fagerberg, Flow Table and Penetration test methods. The study also covers recent developments and advancements made in the field, which includes the Modified Proctor/Fagerberg test along with goethite content provisions, which are included in the 2013 draft individual schedule for IOF, and to be amended in the 2015 IMSBC Code. This study shows that the three test methods, stated in the 2013 IMSBC Code, which are used to determine the TML of minerals, are not appropriate for testing of IOF and that recent developments, such as the Modified Proctor/Fagerberg test along with goethite content provisions, permits IOF to be transported at higher moisture contents than if one of the previous three test methods were used.
Wideband coupler of folded half mode substrate integrated waveguide design with combined microstrip and stripline feed

This article presents the 90° hybrid directional 3‐dB coupler design with a wideband performance. The main part of the proposed coupler is built on a folded half‐mode substrate integrated waveguide (FHMSIW) structure and the feed is composed of microstrip line and stripline. The FHMSIW is implemented by PCB technology which possesses the merits of compact size, low cost, light weight, low profile, high power handling capability, easy integration with planar transmission line, and possibly low insertion losses. In designing the circuit's feed, a quarter‐wavelength stripline is placed between the coupler's main part and each microstrip I/O port. The stripline works as an impedance transformer, which increases circuit's bandwidth (BW) and reduces the reflection. The acquired fractional bandwidth (FBW) is 47.2% with the coupler's central frequency set to 4.5 GHz. The averaged transmission and coupling losses are around 1 dB and the isolation is better than 20 dB. Experiment is conducted to validate the circuit performance. The measured data are in good agreements with the simulated ones. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:1139–1141, 2016
Folate Transport and One-Carbon Metabolism in Targeted Therapies of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Simple Summary New therapies are urgently needed for ovarian cancer, the most lethal malignancy in women. To identify new approaches for targeting ovarian cancer, metabolic vulnerabilities must be discovered and strategies for the selective delivery of therapeutic agents must be established. New approaches that are tumor-selective and that facilitate the internalization of novel drugs or provide targets for therapy are being developed for treating ovarian cancer involving folate receptors and the proton-coupled folate transporter. New drugs are being discovered that target key metabolic processes in tumors and neighboring immune cells which contribute to tumor progression. In this review, we describe the remarkable advances in this rapidly evolving area and their extraordinary potential to improve the lives of women diagnosed with this devastating disease. Abstract New therapies are urgently needed for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), the most lethal gynecologic malignancy. To identify new approaches for targeting EOC, metabolic vulnerabilities must be discovered and strategies for the selective delivery of therapeutic agents must be established. Folate receptor (FR) α and the proton-coupled folate transporter (PCFT) are expressed in the majority of EOCs. FRβ is expressed on tumor-associated macrophages, a major infiltrating immune population in EOC. One-carbon (C1) metabolism is partitioned between the cytosol and mitochondria and is important for the synthesis of nucleotides, amino acids, glutathione, and other critical metabolites. Novel inhibitors are being developed with the potential for therapeutic targeting of tumors via FRs and the PCFT, as well as for inhibiting C1 metabolism. In this review, we summarize these exciting new developments in targeted therapies for both tumors and the tumor microenvironment in EOC.
Transcriptome Analysis Reveals Candidate Genes Involved in Light-Induced Primordium Differentiation in Pleurotus eryngii

Pleurotus eryngii, a highly valued edible fungus, is one of the major commercially cultivated mushrooms in China. The development of P. eryngii, especially during the stage of primordium differentiation, is easily affected by light. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the response of primordium differentiation to light remains unknown. In the present study, primordium expression profiles under blue-light stimulation, red-light stimulation, and exposure to darkness were compared using high-throughput sequencing. A total of 16,321 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified from three comparisons. GO enrichment analysis showed that a large number of DEGs were related to light stimulation and amino acid biosynthesis. KEGG analyses demonstrated that the MAPK signaling pathway, oxidative phosphorylation pathway, and RNA transport were most active during primordium differentiation. Furthermore, it was predicted that the blue-light photoreceptor WC-1 and Deoxyribodipyrimidine photolyase PHR play important roles in the primordium differentiation of P. eryngii. Taken together, the results of this study provide a speculative mechanism that light induces primordium differentiation and a foundation for further research on fruiting body development in P. eryngii.