Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative Evaluation of the Antimicrobial Effect of Mangosteen, Triphala, Chitosan, and 2% Chlorhexidine on Mono- and Dual-Species Biofilms of – and Candida albicans: An in Vitro Study

Objective: The purpose of this in vitro study was to compare the antimicrobial effectiveness of 2% chlorhexidine gel, 0.5% chitosan, ethanol extract of mangosteen pericarp, and Triphala used as intracanal medicaments against Enterococcus faecalis and Candida albicans in mono- and dual-species biofilms. Methods: Bioactive components in the ethanol extract of mangosteen pericarp and Triphala were evaluated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). Quantitative assessment of the biofilm formations of E. faecalis and C. albicans and as a dual-species in the presence of test medicaments was carried out using a crystal violet (CV) assay in a microtiter plate. Following this, 246 single-rooted premolar teeth were collected, and root specimens were prepared. C. albicans and E. faecalis mono- and dual-species biofilms were grown in the root specimens. At the end of 21 days, the samples were divided into five groups and subjected to different types of medicaments: Control group- distilled water; Chlorhexidine group- 2% chlorhexidine gel; Chitosan group- 0.5% chitosan; Mangosteen group- ethanol extract of mangosteen pericarp; and Triphala group- ethanol extract of Triphala. Colony-forming units (CFUs) were assessed on the first and fifth day after medicament placement. Results: Microbial population reduction was measured by one-way analysis of variance, followed by post-hoc Tukey’s multiple comparison test (P<0.05). Chlorhexidine showed maximum log reduction in CFUs of microorganisms, followed by chitosan, which showed a similar log reduction (P>0.05) for both mono- and dual-species biofilms. However, in the mangosteen and Triphala extract groups, the CFU/mL for dual-species on both days did not have a significant reduction in count (P<0.05) when compared to chlorhexidine and chitosan. Conclusion: Chlorhexidine showed maximum antimicrobial activity, followed by chitosan, on both mono- and dual-species biofilms. Mangosteen and Triphala had good antimicrobial action on the mono-species biofilm.
Barriers to Directly Observed Treatment for Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Patients in Nepal - Qualitative Study

Introduction: To prevent the multi drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is important to adhere long duration of drug regimen. There are many factors or barriers that are likely to affect adherence to the long treatment regimen. Objectives: To find out the barriers for adherence to MDR –TB treatment. Methods: The study was conducted as an institutional based qualitative study, using a convenient sampling technique. Data was collected from 50 current MDR-TB patients by trained field health workers using semi structured interviewer administered questionnaire in all regions in Nepal. Twenty five focus group discussions (FGD) were also conducted with MDR-TB patients, cured MDR-TB patients, DOTS Committee Members, health workers and close relatives of MDR-TB patients to supplement the findings. Results: Out of 50 respondents 19 were females and 31 were males. Their age varied from 22 years to 61 years. Majority of patients had a previous history of irregular TB treatment. Forty out of fifty patients (80%) were living in either rented houses or hostels (in Mid Western Region). Knowledge about TB and MDR-TB was satisfactory in majority of participants in both studies. Majority of participants were satisfied with facilities and services provided by MDR-TB clinics. There is a very little stigma associated with MDR-TB in Nepal. FGD revealed the onset of MDR-TB was attributed to causes such as smoking, alcohol abuse, poor nutrition, and contact with TB patients. Lack of money to go to health facility daily for treatment was reported as major barriers to adhere to MDR-TB treatment. Conclusion: Financial constraints were the major barrier for these patients. To sustain proper MDRTB programme, Government of Nepal and other organization should provide social support to these patients.
The stories of women, by women, married to male ministry leaders

ABSTRACT This qualitative research study captured the narratives of women married to men in ministry leadership roles. Although much empirical research has been published on the effects of stress on men and women in full-time ministry, few studies have explored personal narratives of the ministry wife or the effects on her family. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the satisfaction, expectations, fears, regrets, and insights of the fishbowl life through exploring wives’ narratives. Twenty-six ministers’ wives volunteered to participate using a confidential, semi-structured interview of seven open-ended questions. The three primary themes that emerged through the transparency of their stories were (I) shared fears, (II) strain and satisfaction, and (III) (dis)connection in the role of minister's wife. Implications of these findings are discussed to illuminate opportunities for enhanced support and intervention for women married to men in ministerial leadership.
Attitude Estimation Algorithm of Portable Mobile Robot Based on Complementary Filter

In robot inertial navigation systems, to deal with the problems of drift and noise in the gyroscope and accelerometer and the high computational cost when using extended Kalman filter (EKF) and particle filter (PF), a complementary filtering algorithm is utilized. By combining the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) multi-sensor signals, the attitude data are corrected, and the high-precision attitude angles are obtained. In this paper, the quaternion algorithm is used to describe the attitude motion, and the process of attitude estimation is analyzed in detail. Moreover, the models of the sensor and system are given. Ultimately, the attitude angles are estimated by using the quaternion extended Kalman filter, linear complementary filter, and Mahony complementary filter, respectively. The experimental results show that the Mahony complementary filtering algorithm has less computational cost than the extended Kalman filtering algorithm, while the attitude estimation accuracy of these two algorithms is similar, which reveals that Mahony complementary filtering is more suitable for low-cost embedded systems.
A FPGA-PC Based Acoustic Emission System with Logarithmic Preamplifier for Fracture Monitoring

Acoustic emission (AE) is one of the most used nondestructive technique since it offers a great potential due to its ability of quantitative evaluation such as source location and source characterization. A common set of recorded acoustic emission signals has an extraordinarily wide dynamic range. Thus, the input gain of the A/D converter plays a key role due in information loss considering limitation of high signal amplitudes and domination of quantization noise at low levels. The usage of a logarithmic preamplifier extends the dynamic range of conventional A/D converters, thus increases the accuracy and signal-to-noise ratio of weak acoustic emission signals.
A 2.4–4-GHz Wideband 7-Bit Phase Shifter With Low RMS Phase/Amplitude Error in 0.5-μm GaAs Technology

This article presents a 2.4–4-GHz wideband 7-bit switch-type phase shifter (STPS) with a switch driver. Three switch-type phase shifting topologies are employed for the design of the phase shifter (PS), including the switched <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L/C$ </tex-math></inline-formula> structure, T-type structure, and high-/low-pass network. For minimizing the phase and amplitude deviations, an improved T-type structure with a switched filter structure has been proposed to boost the performance of the PS. Besides, a phase compensation cell also has been adapted to further decrease the phase error of the STPS. Based on the topology choice of each cell and the amplitude compensation among cells, a systematic design method is developed to extend the bandwidth of the PS. The proposed 7-bit STPS was implemented in the 0.5-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> GaAs pHEMT process. The measured root-mean-square (rms) phase error of the proposed STPS is less than 3.1° from 2.4 to 4 GHz and less than 1.5° at 2.8–3.7 GHz. The average insertion loss (IL) is 4.5–4.9 dB with an rms amplitude error of less than 0.34 dB. IP<sub>1 dB</sub> is about 30 dBm. To the best of our knowledge, this PS achieves the highest resolution and the lowest rms amplitude error among the published GaAs/GaN PSs over a similar frequency band. The IL, bandwidth, and rms phase error of the proposed PS also show good performance.
Saturated Pool Boiling Mechanisms During Single Bubble Heat Transfer: Comparison at Two Wall Superheats

A study of single bubbles growing on a microscale heater array kept at nominally constant temperature was performed. The behavior of bubbles nucleating at a single site at two different temperatures (22.5 K and 27.5 K superheat) is compared for saturated pool boiling of FC-72 at 1 atm. It is concluded that energy is transferred from the surface through similar heat transfer mechanisms at both superheats. Microlayer evaporation was observed to play a minor role in the overall heat transfer, with microconvection/transient conduction being the dominant mechanism. Evaluation of various heat transfer models are made.
Painéis MDF produzidos com resina poliuretana à base de óleo de mamona

This study aimed at evaluating the feasibility of manufacturing MDF panels with Pinus caribaea and Eucalyptus grandis wood species, and mono and bi-component castor oil based polyurethane resins, according to the Euro MDF Board (EMB/IS-2:1995) standard. With results from preliminary tests, panels developed with both resins were prepared with different parameters of fabrication. Except for values of water absorption after 24 hours by materials made with Eucalyptus grandis timber, all other response variables met the requirements of the European standard, which demonstrates the potential of engineered materials. Considering the significantly higher values obtained by the mechanical properties along with excessive amounts of water absorption, contributing to eventual manufacturing of fiberboards on an industrial scale, further research should be developed aiming to test new values for fabrication parameters, which may, in turn, allow for the eduction of the resin contents.
Multiple Teacher Distillation for Robust and Greener Models

The language models nowadays are in the center of natural language processing progress. These models are mostly of significant size. There are successful attempts to reduce them, but at least some of these attempts rely on randomness. We propose a novel distillation procedure leveraging on multiple teachers usage which alleviates random seed dependency and makes the models more robust. We show that this procedure applied to TinyBERT and DistilBERT models improves their worst case results up to 2% while keeping almost the same best-case ones. The latter fact keeps true with a constraint on computational time, which is important to lessen the carbon footprint. In addition, we present the results of an application of the proposed procedure to a computer vision model ResNet, which shows that the statement keeps true in this totally different domain.
A Bifactor Approximation Algorithm for Cloudlet Placement in Edge Computing

Emerging applications with low-latency requirements such as real-time analytics, immersive media applications, and intelligent virtual assistants have rendered Edge Computing as a critical computing infrastructure. Existing studies have explored the cloudlet placement problem in a homogeneous scenario with different goals such as latency minimization, load balancing, energy efficiency, and placement cost minimization. However, placing cloudlets in a highly heterogeneous deployment scenario considering the next-generation 5G networks and IoT applications is still an open challenge. The novel requirements of these applications indicate that there is still a gap in ensuring low-latency service guarantees when deploying cloudlets. Furthermore, deploying cloudlets in a cost-effective manner and ensuring full coverage for all users in edge computing are other critical conflicting issues. In this article, we address these issues by designing a bifactor approximation algorithm to solve the heterogeneous cloudlet placement problem to guarantee a bounded latency and placement cost, while fully mapping user applications to appropriate cloudlets. We first formulate the problem as a multi-objective integer programming model and show that it is a computationally NP-hard problem. We then propose a bifactor approximation algorithm, ACP, to tackle its intractability. We investigate the effectiveness of ACP by performing extensive theoretical analysis and experiments on multiple deployment scenarios based on New York City OpenData. We prove that ACP provides a (2,4)-approximation ratio for the latency and the placement cost. The experimental results show that ACP obtains near-optimal results in a polynomial running time making it suitable for both short-term and long-term cloudlet placement in heterogeneous deployment scenarios.
Blood Pressure Regulating and Antioxidant Potentials of Theobroma Cacao Pod Husk Protein Hydrolysates

Background: Agrowastes like Theobroma cacao (Cocoa) pod husk can be used to prepare bioactive peptides with various bio-functionalities. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate antioxidant and angiotensin converting enzyme I (ACE) inhibitory peptides contained in Theobroma cacao (cocoa) pod husks – an agro-waste. Methods: Protein isolated from cocoa pod husk was enzymatically digested with alcalase, pepsin, and trypsin. ACE inhibition, kinetics of ACE inhibition, and antioxidant properties of the cocoa pod husks hydrolysates were evaluated in vitro. Results: Trypsin and alcalase hydrolysates displayed higher peptide yields (63.1% and 61.2%) than pepsin hydrolysate (61.2%). However, no significant difference (P>0.05) was observed in the degree of hydrolysis (DH) of the three proteases on cocoa pod husk protein. Methionine, lysine, and cysteine were the amino acid residues presented in cocoa pod husk hydrolysates. A concentration-dependent ACE inhibition by cocoa pod husk hydrolysates was observed. The highest ACE inhibitions of 84.4%, 81.5%, and 73.5% were obtained at 2.0 mg/mL of pepsin, trypsin, and alcalase hydrolysates, respectively, with the minimum IC50 value of 0.36 mg/mL obtained for trypsin hydrolysate. An uncompetitive and mixed-type inhibition was obtained from double reciprocal plots of alcalase and pepsin as well as trypsin cocoa pod husk protein hydrolysates. The Ki values of ACE inhibition for pepsin, trypsin, and alcalase hydrolysates were 3.05, 2.19, and 3.57 mg/mL, respectively. A concentration-dependent increase in the scavenging of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and superoxide radicals as well as ferric reducing antioxidant power were recorded for the cocoa pod husk hydrolysates. Conclusion: Trypsin and alcalase cocoa pod husk protein hydrolysates could be an effective source of a natural ACE inhibitor and antioxidant.
Chemical Composition and Insecticidal Potential of Six Essential Oils from Morocco against Dactylopius opuntiae (Cockerell) under Field and Laboratory Conditions

Simple Summary The prickly pear Opuntia ficus-indica L. has an important economic role as a source of food for human consumption, for cosmetic and pharmaceutical purposes, and as fodder for livestock in Morocco. This crop is now attacked by a new sap-sucking insect pest, the wild-scale Dactylopius opuntiae (Cockerell). The aim of this study was to investigate the insecticidal potential of essential oils as alternative to synthetic insecticides for the control of D. opuntiae nymphs and adult females under laboratory and field conditions. Results revealed that Mentha pulegium and Origanum vulgare oils provided a rich source of bioactive compounds and exhibited high contact toxicity against D. opuntiae. In addition, M. pulegium and O. vulgaris oils applied in combination with black soap induced the highest toxic activity on adult females under field conditions. Abstract The carmine cochineal Dactylopius opuntiae (Cockerell) is the major insect pest of the prickly-pear cactus Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) in Morocco. The present study investigated the insecticidal activities of six essential oils (EOs) against nymphs and adult females of D. opuntiae applied singly or in combination with a detergent under laboratory and field conditions. Under laboratory conditions, M. pulegium and O. vulgare L. essential oils showed a high level of insecticidal activity at 5%, with 98% and 92% females’ mortality, respectively, 5 days after treatments. The M. pulegium and O. vulgaris oils at 5% applied in combination with black soap at (60 g/L) induced the highest toxic activity on adult females, 100% and 96% at 5 days after treatments, respectively. Under field conditions, M. pulegium and O. vulgare oils at 5% in combination with black soap (60 g/L) showed the highest adult female mortalities with 96.33 and 92.56%, respectively, 7 days after the first application. The double application of M. pulegium oil at 5% significantly increased the mortality of adult females up to 91%, 5 days after the second spray. GC-MS analysis revealed that the most abundant constituent of M. pulegium and O. vulgare oils was pulegone (84.69%) and durenol (76.53%), respectively. These findings showed that the use of M. pulegium and O. vulgare in combination with black soap or in double sprays could be incorporated in the management package for the control of the wild cochineal D. opuntiae, as a safe and natural alternative to chemical insecticides.
Energy management and vehicle synthesis

The major drivers in the development of launch vehicles for the twenty-first century are reduction in cost of vehicles and operations, continuous reusability, mission abort capability with vehicle recovery, and readiness. One approach to the design of such vehicles is to emphasize energy management and propulsion as being the principal means of improvements given the available industrial capability and the required freedom in selecting configuration concept geometries. A methodology has been developed for the rational synthesis of vehicles based on the setting up and utilization of available data and projections, and a reference vehicle. The application of the methodology is illustrated for a single stage to orbit (SSTO) with various limits for the use of airbreathing propulsion.
SALES EXPERIMENT OF A NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER: "PAY WHAT YOU WANT"

Digitalization poses great challenges for companies and especially for newspaper publishers. Due to the large number of digital competitors on the advertising market, media companies are forced to proactively win customers. A major German media company has thus dared to experiment and put the question of pricing for booking newspaper advertising in the hands of its customers. With the so-called "pay what you want" (PWYW) payment model, customers can be won and additional budgets spent. This paper explores the question of whether PWYW is a suitable sales model for newspaper companies and which factors have an influence. The results of the interviews with those involved show solutions, opportunities, problems and that additional turnover can be generated.
Comparison of MicroRNA Profiles in Extracellular Vesicles from Small and Large Goat Follicular Fluid

Simple Summary Ovarian follicular development is associated with ovulation and is further related to litter size in goats. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from miRNAs within follicular fluid undergo dynamic changes, and, together with follicle growth, may be considered as potential regulators of follicular development. However, the function and changes in EVs remain ambiguous. Here, we identified miRNA changes in EVs from small to large goat follicular fluid. Using bioinformatics tools, we demonstrated the existence of differentially expressed miRNAs in EVs from follicles of different sizes that are responsible for an altered biological effect. This study contributes to a better understanding of follicular development in goats. Abstract Extracellular vesicles (EVs), which exist in the follicular fluid of ruminant ovaries, are considered as cargo carriers for the transfer of biomolecules to recipient cells. However, the functions and changes in EVs in antral follicles remain ambiguous. In the present study, we isolated and characterized EVs from goat follicular fluid by means of differential ultracentrifugation and Western blotting of marker proteins. Bioinformatics tools were used to detect miRNA expression levels in EVs. Different miRNA expression patterns of EVs exist in small to large follicles. Thirteen differentially expressed miRNAs (seven upregulated and six downregulated) were identified and used for analysis. A total of 1948 predicted target genes of 13 miRNAs were mapped to signaling pathways, and three significantly enriched pathways (FoxO, MAPK, and PI3K-AKT signaling pathways) were involved in follicular development, as revealed by KEGG enrichment analysis. Our findings suggest that EVs in follicular fluid play biofunctional roles during follicular development in goats.
A Multi-Model Approach to Implement a Dynamic Shelf Life Criterion in Meat Supply Chains

The high perishability of fresh meat results in short sales and consumption periods, which can lead to high amounts of food waste, especially when a fixed best-before date is stated. Thus, the aim of this study was the development of a real-time dynamic shelf-life criterion (DSLC) for fresh pork filets based on a multi-model approach combining predictive microbiology and sensory modeling. Therefore, 647 samples of ma-packed pork loin were investigated in isothermal and non-isothermal storage trials. For the identification of the most suitable spoilage predictors, typical meat quality parameters (pH-value, color, texture, and sensory characteristics) as well as microbial contamination (total viable count, Pseudomonas spp., lactic acid bacteria, Brochothrix thermosphacta, Enterobacteriaceae) were analyzed at specific investigation points. Dynamic modeling was conducted using a combination of the modified Gompertz model (microbial data) or a linear approach (sensory data) and the Arrhenius model. Based on these models, a four-point scale grading system for the DSLC was developed to predict the product status and shelf-life as a function of temperature data in the supply chain. The applicability of the DSLC was validated in a pilot study under real chain conditions and showed an accurate real-time prediction of the product status.