Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structure and properties of recycled bamboo fiber reinforced chemically functionalized ethylene propylene rubber composites

Recycled bamboo fiber-reinforced chemically functionalized ethylene propylene rubber (R-BMBF/CF-EPR) composites have been developed by extrusion and injection molding by Palsule process without any fiber treatment and without compatibilizer. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows good R-BMBF/CF-EPR interfacial adhesion in the composites, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) confirms that esterification and the hydrogen bonding between functional groups of CF-EPR and of R-BMBF impart this interfacial adhesion. Mechanical, dynamic mechanical, and thermal properties and the effect of water absorption on tensile properties of the composites have been evaluated. Tensile properties of the 15/85, 25/75, and 35/65 R-BMBF/CF-EPR composites are higher than those of CF-EPR and increase with increasing R-BMBF in the composites. Storage modulus and loss modulus of the composites increase with increasing fiber contents in them but decrease with increasing temperature. Water-absorbed wet composites show thickness swelling and reduced tensile properties relative to the respective dry composites but higher tensile properties than the dry CF-EPR. Thermal stability and degradation of the composites is also reported.
The Relationship Between Promoter Methylation of RASSF1A Gene and Prognosis of Patients Affected with Breast Cancer in Khuzestan Province

Background DNA methylation is one of the most frequent molecular changes that are associated with human cancers. Tumor suppressor genes are the important targets of hypermethylation in breast cancer and thus may result in cancer by deregulation of cell growth and division.Objectives The purpose of this research was to compare the methylation pattern of the RASSF1A gene in cancerous and normal tissues.Methods Twenty breast cancer patients with known clinicopathologic characteristics and 20 healthy women as control were studied for analysis of the methylation status of the RASSF1A gene promoter by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MS-PCR) technique.Results The findings showed that the frequency of RASSF1A promoter methylation was in 15% of tumor tissues and 5% of normal tissues. These results indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship between the RASSF1A promoter methylation status of tumor tissues and normal tissues (P > 0.05). Conclusions Until now, the evidence for powerful methylation biomarkers is still incomplete and the recognized biomarkers require further validation.
FPGA implementation of wearable ECG system for detection premature ventricular contraction

In recent years, wearable electrocardiogram system (WES) has entered the technology market, allowing physicians to instantaneously know about the patient's condition. Hardware is required for creating a wearable and portable electrocardiogram (ECG) system. Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) provide fast test capability and have sufficient flexibility to implement new algorithms. In this study, with regard to the fact that wearable tools of power consumption, accuracy of detection, and price of chips are significant factors in their performance, premature ventricular contractions (PVC) arrhythmic detection and algorithms of the electrocardiogram are studied by presenting three various algorithms in time domain, frequency and time combination of frequency as well as their implementation on FPGA. For each of the three algorithms in this design, the support vector machine(SVM) and the naive bayes(NB) were used after the ECG signal pre-processing and the extraction of the appropriate features of the two classes and the data were categorized as normal and PVC. Extracting features was conducted by the reconfiguration PAT algorithm in the time domain, the Haar wavelet algorithm in the frequency domain and combining these two algorithms. The desired algorithms were tested by the MIT-BIH database and the system performance is achieved with 99% accuracy using SVM. The best algorithm for a WES was obtained in terms of power, price, detection time, accuracy, and sensitivity of the reconfiguration of PAT algorithm on implementation of SPARTAN6 with a performance of 13.6u.
Molecular analysis of Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus from outbreak in Turkey during 2010-2012

The aim of the study is to determine the epizootiology of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in Turkey during 2010-2012, using molecular genotyping. Samples of blood (n=193), swab (n=7) and tissue (n=374) were collected from sheep (n=473) and goats (n=101) suspected of having PPRV infection from an outbreak in 50 provinces of Turkey during 2010–2012. These samples (n=574) were tested using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and real-time reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) targeting selected parts of the fusion (F) and the nucleocapsid (N) genes. Positivity ratios were 35.5%, 39.3%, and 44.4% with regards to RT-PCR targeting the F and the N genes, and RT-Qpcr targeting the latter gene (N), respectively. The overall positivity rate was 45.8%. For sequence analyses, F-gene (n=53) and N-gene (n=60) positive samples representing different provinces were selected. After phylogenetic analysis, the circulating PPRV was located in lineage IV according to two gene regions. The F-gene partial sequence analysis at the nucleotide level showed 98.2-100% resemblence among 53 for F-gene, and 97.9-98.9% and 91.3-92.4% to Turkey2000 and Nigeria75/1 sequences, respectively. The N-gene partial sequence analysis at the nucleotide level showed 94.2-100% resemblence among 60 for N-gene, and 94.2-98.3% and 89.3-90.9% to Turkey2000 and Nigeria75/1 sequences, respectively. The result of this study indicates that PPRV infection is enzootic in Turkey, and belongs to the lineage IV, which is present in three haplogroup. The phylogenic analysis indicates the spread of the virus is associated with unauthorized movement of stock.
Effect of selenium and nano-selenium on cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in albino rats

Cisplatin is commonly used as a chemotherapeutic agent useful in the treatment of several forms of cancer, but its use is limited due to the undesirable side effects of nephrotoxicity. Most of the previous researches found a positive effect of using selenium as an antioxidant on the toxicity of cisplatin during short term administrations although the recommended dose regimen of cisplatin in chemotherapy is multiple successive administration every three or four weeks depending on the type of the tumor. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of long term usage of selenium or nano-selenium on cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in albino rats. forty rats were divided into equal four groups, 1st group as a control injected with normal saline, 2nd group injected with cisplatin 6 mg/kg every 21 days for 70 days (experimental period), 3rd group injected with cisplatin 6 mg/kg plus intramuscular injection 0.1 mg/kg selenium in the form of sodium selenite every 3 days during the experimental period, the 4th group injected with cisplatin 6 mg/kg plus intramuscular injection 0.1 mg/kg nano-selenium every 3 days during the experimental period. The results indicated that selenium or nano-selenium exerted an antioxidant effect through increasing the level of antioxidant enzymes in both serum and kidney tissue, while, it shows a negative effect on kidney function through increasing serum urea and creatinine concentrations and causing abnormal morphology of kidney tissue for rats treated with cisplatin during experimental period.
Is it Different (?): The Socio-Emotional Competence of the Javanese Children Based on Gender

The socio-emotional competence is the ability to understand, manage, and express the social and emotional aspects. This ability gives a chance for individual achieving a good result through learning, relationship building, problem solving, and adapting to the environment. It is influenced by some main factors, such as social interaction, friends, family, and culture. The purpose of this research was to identify different socio-emotional competence of Javanese children based on their gender. The subject in this research was 101 Javanese students aged 10-13 years who were at the 4th to 6t grades and live in Malang and Madiun. The research used purposive sampling technique measured using the competence of socioemotional scale for children. Hypothesis testing in this research used independent sample t-test technique. The result showed that the socio-emotional competence of the Javanese children tend to be in a high level, which is 96,03%. It was also found that there is no difference in the socio-emotional competence of the Javanese children based on.
Una revisión sistemática sobre gamificación, motivación y aprendizaje en universitarios

Los materiales educativos gamificados ponen el acento en la experiencia interactiva del sujeto, en su implicación y toma de decisiones autónoma con relación al objeto de conocimiento, información que no recibe de forma homogénea y pasiva, sino que lo construye a través de la acción personalizada del juego en un entorno digitalizado. La gamificación en educación superior puede aportar a los estudiantes mejores oportunidades para desarrollar habilidades de compromiso, aumentando su motivación y haciéndoles más interesados por lo que están aprendiendo. El propósito de esta revisión es recoger información, sintetizar e integrar los trabajos publicados sobre la influencia de la gamificación con la motivación y el aprendizaje del alumnado. Con ello, se pretende establecer el estado actual de conocimiento sobre gamificación en educación superior, lo que permitirá un mejor planteamiento de futuras líneas de investigación. Se identificaron estudios representativos a través de una búsqueda sistemática en 4 bases de datos: EBSCO SPORTDISCUS, SCOPUS, ISI y SCHOLAR GOOGLE, extrayéndose datos sobre el diseño del estudio, participantes, variables, instrumentos y resultados. Se incluyeron 22 estudios, 19 originales y 3 revisiones de la literatura. La evidencia inicial indica que la gamificación en educación superior motiva al alumnado y mejora su aprendizaje, aportando a los estudiantes universitarios mejores oportunidades para desarrollar habilidades de compromiso. El uso de PBL (Points, Badges y Leaderboards mejora la motivación y se considera como una adecuada combinación de mecánicas en la implementación de cualquier proceso de gamificación en enseñanza superior Se señalan pautas para mantener la motivación y favorecer el aprendizaje en el alumnado.
Reef Mapping Using Different Seabed Automatic Classification Tools

There is a great demand to develop new acoustic techniques to efficiently map the seabed and automate the interpretation of acoustic, sedimentological, and imaging data sets, eliminating subjectivity. Here, we evaluate the potential, limitations and complementariety of distinct supervised and automatic classification techniques in the mapping of reefs by comparing these results with a reference map. The study was carried out in the Abrolhos Continental Shelf (Eastern Brazilian Continental Margin) using a multibeam echosounder and side scan sonar (SSS) dataset. Two automatic supervised techniques were applied. A reference map was derived by detailed manual interpretation carried out by three experts. The two supervised classification techniques were: benthic terrain modeler (BTM), a morphometric classification with focus on spatial analyses of the bathymetric grid derivatives, and object-based image analysis (OBIA), a segmentation applied to the backscatter data from the SSS mosaic. Both automatic techniques obtained similar values of reef coverage area, but overestimated the reef area when compared with the reference map. The agreement between BTM and OBIA results and the reference map was 69% and 67%, respectively. Disagreement was mainly due to quantity of reef (both methods over-estimated reef), while the disagreement in spatial allocation was relatively low, it indicates that both methods are reasonable representation of the spatial patterns of reef. Efficient mapping of reef in the wider area of the Abrolhos Continental Shelf will be best achieved by a further development of automatic methods tested against reference maps obained from representative areas of the seabed. By combining the results of the two automatic methods, it was possible to create an ensemble map, which achieved better agreement with the reference dataset.
A framework for deriving drought indicators from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)

Abstract. Identifying and quantifying drought in retrospective is a necessity for better understanding drought conditions and the propagation of drought through the hydrological cycle and eventually for developing forecast systems. Hydrological droughts refer to water deficits in surface and subsurface storage, and since these are difficult to monitor at larger scales, several studies have suggested exploiting total water storage data from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite gravity mission to analyze them. This has led to the development of GRACE-based drought indicators. However, it is unclear how the ubiquitous presence of climate-related or anthropogenic water storage trends found within GRACE analyses masks drought signals. Thus, this study aims to better understand how drought signals propagate through GRACE drought indicators in the presence of linear trends, constant accelerations, and GRACE-specific spatial noise. Synthetic data are constructed and existing indicators are modified to possibly improve drought detection. Our results indicate that while the choice of the indicator should be application-dependent, large differences in robustness can be observed. We found a modified, temporally accumulated version of the Zhao et al. ( 2017 ) indicator particularly robust under realistic simulations. We show that linear trends and constant accelerations seen in GRACE data tend to mask drought signals in indicators and that different spatial averaging methods required to suppress the spatially correlated GRACE noise affect the outcome. Finally, we identify and analyze two droughts in South Africa using real GRACE data and the modified indicators.
Inspecting Driving Forces of Business Cycles in Korea

This paper sets up a new Keynesian model with external habit to explore the role of each shock over business cycles in Korea. The estimated model via maximum likelihood shows that the productivity shock plays a pivotal role in explaining the output variations before and after the financial crisis since mid-1970s. It also shows that the model with external habit is more successful in explaining the business cycles in Korea after the Asian financial crisis than the model without habit. The monetary policy shock which dominates by accounting for more than 70 percent of the unconditional variance of the inflation rate before the financial crisis is less important in the inflation rate fluctuations after the financial crisis. This partly reflects the regime change of the monetary policy to the inflation targeting rule after the financial crisis.
Single Mothers’ Attachment Styles and Personality Influences on Child Psychopathology

Abstract This study investigated the effects of single mothers’ attachment styles, demographic variables and personality traits in the explanation of variations for children metal health problems based on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results showed that mother’s attachment styles, demographic variables and mother’s personality traits explain 88.8% of child’s psychopathology variations in this study. Mother’s attachment styles, demographic variables and mother’s personality traits have . 711, . 100 and . 682 path coefficients with child’s psychopathology in this study respectively. All subscales of mother’s attachment styles and mother’s personality traits and child’s age had significantly indirect effects on child’s psychopathology in this sample.
The role of PTSD and TBI in post-deployment sleep outcomes

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to evaluate the main and interaction effects of PTSD and TBI on sleep outcomes in veterans. Post-deployment combat veterans (N = 293, 87.37% male) completed clinical interviews to determine diagnosis and severity of PTSD and deployment TBI history, as well as subjective measures of sleep quality, sleep duration, and restedness. Sleep-related medical diagnoses were extracted from electronic medical records for all participants. PTSD and TBI were each associated with poorer ratings of sleep quality, restedness, shorter sleep duration, and greater incidence of clinically diagnosed sleep disorders. Analyses indicated main effects of PTSD on sleep quality (p < .001), but no main effects of TBI. PTSD severity was significantly associated with poorer sleep quality (p < .001), restedness (p = .018), and shorter sleep duration (p = .015). TBI severity was significantly associated with restedness beyond PTSD severity (p = .036). There were no interaction effects between diagnostic or severity variables. PTSD severity is a driving factor for subjective ratings of sleep disturbance beyond PTSD diagnosis as well as TBI diagnosis and severity. Despite this, poor sleep was apparent throughout the sample, which suggests post-deployment service members may globally benefit from routine screening of sleep problems and increased emphasis on sleep hygiene.
Nanotopography enhances dynamic remodeling of tight junction proteins through cytosolic complexes

The epithelial tight junction regulates barrier function and is responsive to extracellular stimuli. Here we demonstrated that contact of synthetic surfaces with defined nanotopography at the apical surface of epithelial monolayers increased paracellular permeability of macromolecules. To monitor changes in tight junction morphology in live cells, we fluorescently tagged the scaffold protein zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) through CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing. Contact between cells and nanostructured surfaces destabilized junction-associated ZO-1 and promoted its arrangement into highly dynamic non-junctional cytosolic complexes that averaged ∼2 μm in diameter. Junction-associated ZO-1 rapidly remodeled, and we also observed the direct transformation of cytosolic complexes into junction-like structures. Claudin-family tight junction transmembrane proteins and F-actin also were associated with these ZO-1 containing cytosolic complexes. These data suggest that the cytosolic structures are novel intermediates formed in response to nanotopographic cues that facilitate rapid tight junction remodeling in order to regulate paracellular permeability.
FRI0355 Il-17a up-regulation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells co-cultured with autologous skin fibroblasts is associated with down-regulation of pro-fibrotic mediators and increased fibroblast apoptosis

Background IL-17A has been implicated in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc) (1). We previously showed that skewed peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from SSc patients can induce Fas-mediated apoptosis in co-cultured autologous skin fibrobalsts (2). Objectives We therefore aimed to investigate IL-17A expression and effects in these co-cultures. Methods PBMCs and skin fibroblasts from 5 dcSSc patients with disease duration <3 years were co-cultured up to 10 days in presence of hrIL-2 [20 U/ml] in a 1:10 ratio, as previously described. IL17A, IL17RA, CXCL1, CCL2, CCL3, TGFBR2, SMAD3, CTGF, COL1A1, COL3A1 mRNA expression was assessed by Sybr Green real-time PCR. Chemokine production was further investigated at the protein level by multiple suspension immunoassay. In subset experiments, co-cultures were treated with either IL-17A or IL-17A plus anti-IL17 receptor A neutralizing monoclonal antobodies (anti-IL-17RA mAb), then cells were stained with Annexin V, anti-IL17RA, and anti-FAS antibodies and were investigated by flow-citometry. Results IL17A mRNA in co-cultured PBMCs was increased by 11.5 fold (p<0.01), and IL17RA by 4.3 fold (p<0.05) in co-cultured fibroblasts. CXCL-11, CCL2, and CCL3 were also up-regulated at both mRNA (11.9 fold, 773.3 fold, and 29 fold, respectively; p<0.05) and protein level (8.9 fold, 11.2 fold, and 252.4 fold, respectively; p<0.05). Profibrotic mediators, such as COL1A1, COL3A1, and CTGF mRNA expression in co-cultured fibroblasts was reduced to 0.33 fold, 0.24 fold, and 0.31 fold, respectively (p<0.05). This effects were associated with mRNA down-regulation of two key effectors of TGF-β signaling, TGFBR2 and SMAD3 to 0.59 and 0.79 fold, respectively. At flow cytometry analysis, we observed a reduction in co-cultured fibroblasts apoptosis by adding IL-17RA neutralizing mAb to IL-17A treated cells (39% to 16.8%; p<0.05), as compared to controls treated with IL-17A and isotype controls. Moreover, IL17RA mAb addition also reduced Fas expression in co-cultured fibroblasts as compared to IL-17A treated cells (47.7% to 10.6%; p<0.05). Conclusions Our results support the role of IL-17A in the pathogenesis of SSc. Furthermore, here we first show that IL-17A up-regulation in co-cultured PBMCs might play antifibrotic effects in autologous skin fibroblasts and might be implicated in fibroblast apoptosis, interphering with the FAS/FASL pathway. References Brembilla NC, Chizzolini C. T cell abnormalities in systemic sclerosis with a focus on Th17 cells. Eur Cytokine Netw 2012; 23: 128–39. De Palma R et al. Peripheral T cells from patients with early systemic sclerosis kill autologous fibroblasts in co-culture: is T-cell response aimed to play a protective role? Rheumatology (Oxford) 2010; 49: 1257–66. Disclosure of Interest None declared
Risk-Shifting, Regulation and Government Assistance

This paper examines an episode when policy response to a financial crisis effectively incentivized financial institutions to reallocate their portfolios toward safe assets. Following a shift to a regime of enhanced regulation and scaled-down public assistance during the savings and loan crisis in 1989, I find that thrifts with a high probability of failure increased their composition of safe assets relative to thrifts with a low probability of failure. The findings also show a shift to safe assets among stock thrifts relative to mutual thrifts, thereby providing evidence of risk-shifting from equity-holders to debt-holders of stock thrifts prior to the regulatory reforms. These findings suggest that for recent policies aimed at reducing moral hazard to succeed (such as the Orderly Liquidation Authority under Title II of the Dodd-Frank Act), credible signals around government assistance should be provided to shareholders of financial institutions. To identify the effect of the policy change I develop a new Bayesian estimation method for causal studies.