Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antioxidants and Mineral Contents of Chicory as Coffee Additive

In this study, roots of Turkish origin wild chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) genotypes were investigated for total flavonoid and phenolic contents, radical cation scavenging activity (ABTS), Free radical scavenging activity (DPPH), and radical, mineral content. These characteristics were also compared with other coffee varieties. The total flavonoid and phenolic contents ranged between 0.290-4.350 mg QE/g dry weight (DW) and 0.943-13.860 mg GAE/g DW. The DPPH was listed here from high to low value: raw coffee beans = roasted coffee beans > roasted fruits of turpentine tree > instant coffee = roots of chicory. The content of P, Ca, Mg, Zn, B, Cr, Co and Mo ranged between 0.71-2.78%, 0.25-0.46%, 7.29-20.66, 4.44-11.07, 0.40-1.67, 0.49-5.48 and 5.69-14.46 ppm, respectively. As a result, chicory roots exhibited low antioxidant activity, but higher mineral content compared to the other tested coffee varieties which indicates that chicory could be used a coffee additive.
COVID-19 and Green Housing: A Review of Relevant Literature

This review presents an analysis of three hypotheses. The articles provide a specific perspective on green housing before, during, and post COVID-19. The validations of these hypotheses were performed by analyzing the scientific literature worldwide and by adding a statistical analysis of appropriate articles from the Scopus database. The purpose of this review is to overview the research written on housing developments during the upsurge of COVID-19 along with the responses from the green building sector, because this field appears to be rapidly emerging by the sheer volume of research studies currently undertaken. Foremost peer-reviewed journals covering construction, urban studies, real estate, energy, civil engineering, buildings, indoor air, management, economics, business, environmental studies, and environmental sciences that were published last year were selected for review. The review was conducted by applying a combination of various keywords and the criteria for paper selection, including sustainable building, green construction, green building, resource-efficient, a building’s lifecycle, COVID-19, energy, water, consumption, health effects, comfort, occupant behaviors, policy, economy, Industry 5.0, energy-efficient retrofitting, and profit. Two, innovative elements in this study stand out when comparing it with the most advanced research on green housing before, during, and after COVID-19. The first innovation relates to the integrated analyses of COVID-19 pandemic, housing policies of countries and cities pertinent to COVID-19 that impact green housing and the wellbeing of their residents as well as the impact made by residents and a housing policy on the dispersion of COVID-19. This research additionally establishes that a green building analysis is markedly more effective when the analysis comprehensively covers the life process of a green building, the participating interest groups that have their own goals they wish to implement, the COVID-19 situation, and the external micro- and macro-level environments as a singular entity.
Cross-linguistic differences affect emotion and emotion-laden word processing: Evidence from Polish-English and Romanian-English bilinguals

Aims: We study how emotions are represented in Polish-English and Romanian-English bilinguals, whose respective languages either mostly share emotion lexicon (Romanian-English) or not (Polish-English). We test to what extent such variance in lexical proximity between the two bilingual groups affects their decisions about emotional word content. Methodology: In a masked priming paradigm, participants viewed prime-target adjective pairs, and judged whether the target adjective was positive or negative in meaning. Primes and targets either named (emotion word) or evoked (emotion-laden word) emotions, and were either related – that is, belonged to one word type (emotion or emotion-laden) – or unrelated. Data and analysis: Behavioural data were analysed using linear mixed-effects models, with within-subject fixed effects of language, word type, valence and relatedness, and their interactions. Findings/conclusions: We found processing facilitation of emotion-laden rather than emotion words in both participant groups, irrespective of language of operation. Emotion target adjectives, particularly of negative valence, tended to slow down responses of Polish-English bilinguals in their first language. In the Romanian-English group, emotion target adjectives were recognized with lower accuracy in the second language. This pattern of results suggests that affective responsiveness is modulated by the lexical proximity between the first language and second language. Originality: Extending bilingual emotion research, this study tests how emotions are represented in languages that vary in lexical proximity with English: Polish and Romanian. We demonstrate that cross-linguistic differences between the respective languages of a bilingual impact emotional meaning processing in the first and second language. Significance/implications: We provide support for the emotion context-of-learning theory, language-specific episodic trace theory and the sense model in bilingualism, showing that cross-linguistic differences between the first and second language modulate emotion and emotion-laden word processing. Our findings also demonstrate that the distinction between the emotion and emotion-laden words is not as universal as previously assumed.
Progress in Black Titania: A New Material for Advanced Photocatalysis

The photocatalytic activity of TiO2 has aroused a broad range of research effort since 1972. Although TiO2 has a very high efficiency in utilizing ultraviolet light, its overall solar activity is very limited due to its wide bandgap (≈3.0−3.2 eV). This is a bottleneck for TiO2 to be applied in the areas ranging from visible‐light photocatalysis and photovoltaics to photo‐electrochemistry and sensors. Recently, the emergence of black TiO2 nanomaterial has triggered world‐wide research interest, because of its substantially enhanced solar absorption and the improved photocatalytic activities. Here, a variety of synthetic strategies of black TiO2 are outlined, and the structural and chemical features, band structures and electronic properties of the black TiO2 nanomaterials are described in details, along with their photocatalytic performances as well as some other new applications.
Teleworking from a Near-Home Shared Office in Mexico City -A Discrete Choice Experiment on Office Workers

Teleworking from home during the COVID-19 pandemic has faced challenges specific to cities of emerging economies —e.g. lack of access to internet. This paper points out that these challenges may be overcome if teleworking is performed from a shared office located within reasonable commuting time from a worker’s home. In November and December 2019, a sample of office workers in Mexico City was presented to a discrete choice experiment (DCE) describing alternatives under which they may choose teleworking two days a week from a shared office. Commuting time to shared offices is an attribute taking four values —within 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or 60 minutes walking distance from a worker’s home. Availability of spaces to park bikes is another attribute. The price attribute is described as the amount that would be cut from worker’s monthly paycheck. Based on random parameter logit specifications, willingness to pay (WTP) for teleworking from a shared office two days a week is estimated at (2019) MXP 1,460 (USD 76.68) on a monthly basis. Average value of one-hour of commuting time is estimated at MXP 73.75 (USD 3.87). Average WTP for bike parking is MXP 280 (USD 14.07) on a monthly basis.
Comparative Assessment of Troponin T, Atrial Natriuretic Peptide, B-type Natriuretic Peptide and Echocardiography in the Diagnosis of Cardiac and Renal Disorders in Canine

Background: Canine cardiovascular problems are commonly seen in veterinary medicine. Cardiac abnormalities in canine can be diagnosed by various means like electrochardiography, radiography, blood pressure measurement, echocardiography and biomarkers like troponins and peptides specific for heart.Methods: The present study was conducted to evaluate different biomarkers such as cardiac troponin T (cTnT), atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) for the diagnosis of cardiac diseases in comparison to echocardiography in canine. A total of 40 cases were included in the study, out of which 26 cases found to be positive for cardiac affections as confirmed by echocardiographic examination. Result: The serum concentration of cTnT and BNP were found significantly (P less than 0.05) elevated in dogs having cardiac as well as cardiac along with renal affections. ANP values were significantly (P less than 0.05) increased in dogs having both cardiac and renal diseases as compared to dogs with cardiac diseases only. Biomarkers like cTnT, ANP and BNP were compared with echocardiography (gold standard). The BNP was having the highest sensitivity (88.46%) and specificity (78.57%) as compared to cTnT and ANP. From the study, it is concluded that BNP can be used as suitable biomarker than cTnT and ANP for the diagnosis of cardiac diseases in canine. It can be used as a biomarker for cardiac diseases under field conditions where facilities for echocardiography are not available.
Behavioral effects of sub-anesthetic ketamine in a go/no-go task

While psychedelic agents are known to have powerful, but largely unexplained, effects on contents of consciousness, there is an increasing interest in the potential clinical usefulness of such drugs for therapy, and legalization is discussed in some countries. Thus, it is relevant to study the effects of psychedelic compounds not only on experience, but also on behavioral performance.Seven healthy participants performed a motor response inhibition task before, during, and after sub-anesthetic doses of intravenously administered ketamine. The infusion rate was individually adjusted to produce noticeable subjective psychedelic effects.We observed no statistically significant impact of sub-anesthetic ketamine on reaction times, omission errors, or post error slowing, relative to the preceding drug-free condition. However, we did observe significant correlations between performance impairment and self-reported, subjective altered states of consciousness, specifically experience of “anxiety” and “complex imagery. ”Considering the limited number of participants and large variation in strength of self-reported experiences, further studies with wider ranges of ketamine doses and behavioral tasks are needed to determine the presence and strength of potential behavioral effects.
Home Energy Management System Embedded with a Multi-Objective Demand Response Optimization Model to Benefit Customers and Operators

This paper proposes a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) that optimizes the load demand and distributed energy resources. The optimal demand/generation profile is presented while considering utility price signal, customer satisfaction, and distribution transformer condition. The electricity home demand considers electric vehicles (EVs), Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs), and all types of non-shiftable, shiftable, and controllable appliances. Furthermore, PV-based renewable energy resources, EVs, and BESSs are utilized as sources of generated power during specific time intervals. In this model, customers can only perform Demand Response (DR) actions with contracts with utility operators. A multi-objective demand/generation response is proposed to optimize the scheduling of various loads/supplies based on the pricing schemes. The customers’ behavior comfort level and a degradation cost that reflects the distribution transformer Loss-of-Life (LoL) are integrated into the multi-objective optimization problem. Simulation results demonstrate the mutual benefits that the proposed HEMS provides to customers and utility operators by minimizing electricity costs while meeting customer comfort needs and minimizing transformer LoL to enhance operators’ assets. The results show that the electricity operation cost and demand peak are reduced by 31% and 18%, respectively, along with transformer LoL % which is reduced by 28% compared with the case when no DR was applied.
Rangeland loss and population decline of the critically endangered Liben Lark Heteromirafra archeri in southern Ethiopia

Summary Liben Lark Heteromirafra archeri is a ‘Critically Endangered’ species threatened by the loss and degradation of grassland at the Liben Plain, southern Ethiopia, one of only two known sites for the species. We use field data from nine visits between 2007 and 2019 and satellite imagery to quantify changes over time in the species’ abundance and in the extent and quality of its habitat. We estimate that the population fell from around 279 singing males (95% CL: 182–436) in 2007 to around 51 (14–144) in 2013, after which too few birds were recorded to estimate population size. Arable cultivation first appeared on the plain in the early 1990s and by 2019 more than a third of the plain had been converted to crops. Cultivation was initially confined to the fertile black soils but from 2008 began to spread into the less fertile red soils that cover most of the plain. Liben Larks strongly avoided areas with extensive bare ground or trees and bushes, but the extent of these did not change significantly over the survey period. A plausible explanation for the species’ decline is that grassland degradation, caused before 2007 by continuous high-pressure grazing by livestock, reduced its rates of reproduction or survival to a level that could not support its previous population. Since 2015, communal kalos (grazing exclosures) have been established to generate forage and other resources in the hope of also providing breeding habitat for Liben Larks. Grass height and density within four grassland kalos in 2018 greatly exceeded that in the surrounding grassland, indicating that the plain retains the potential to recover rapidly if appropriately managed. Improvement of grassland structure through the restitution of traditional and sustainable rangeland management regimes and the reversion of cereal agriculture to grassland are urgently needed to avert the species’ extinction.
Monitoring and Controlling Saturation Zones in Heap Leach Piles Using Thermal Analysis

This manuscript describes a method that is based on the implementation and setup of a mechatronic system that can recognize and detect, through thermal analysis, the zones where heap leaching piles may become locally saturated. Such a condition could trigger the potential of liquefaction, generating local or general collapse in the pile. In order to reduce this potential danger, and therefore achieve full stability in the pile, the irrigation system must be properly controlled; for instance, in potentially saturated zones, the irrigation flow can be reduced or eliminated until the saturation has disappeared. The mechatronic system consists of a hexacopter, equipped with a thermal infrared camera mounted on its structure and pointing down to the ground, which is used to obtain the temperature information of the heat transfer between the heap pile and the environment. Such information is very useful, as the level of saturated zones can then be traced. The communication between the operator of the irrigation system and the mechatronic system is based on a radio-frequency link, in which geo-referenced images are transmitted.
Technique for storing and automated processing of weather station data in cloud platforms

In this paper we present an approach for design of cloud-based systems for storing and processing of sensor data from weather stations. In recent years there are abundant IoT devices that are capable of fairly precise data acquisition of local atmospheric parameters and reliable transmission over wireless network. The used dataset is acquired from a modern weather station model from a superior European manufacturer. 17 parameters are used for training neural network based LSTM model. In our research we have also compared several models and approaches for modeling this type of data. We propose a design of container based system for automated processing of the received data, visualization and cloud storage technique. We are comparing two types of open-source container technologies for implementing data processing. We have evaluated the performance and provide the set of criteria for choosing a container platform. Storing the data in the cloud is an important part and we provide our consideration for implementing a particular open source platform that could reduce costs fulfil the requirements for weather data storage. The designed system is expected to be cloud-provider agnostic. The proposed features make the system especially suitable for purposes such as local weather forecast; disaster prediction: hurricane, severe storms, floods, tornadoes, etc.; severe droughts with fire dangers; prediction of landslides. Depending on the availability of additional sensors the future development of the system may be extended with parameters of the soil. Training the model on a freely available data set is in our future plans for system development.
Effects of Mineral-Solubilizing Microorganisms on Root Growth, Soil Nutrient Content, and Enzyme Activities in the Rhizosphere Soil of Robinia pseudoacacia

Background: Abandoned mining sites are becoming increasingly common due to anthropogenic activities. Consequently, external-soil spray seeding technology has attracted increasing attention as a strategy to remediate them. However, significant challenges remain that greatly inhibit the efficacy of such technologies, such as insufficient nutrients available for plants. Methods: For this study, we designed an experiment, which involved the addition of mineral-solubilizing microorganisms and R. pseudoacacia seedlings to the external-soil spray seeding (ESSS) substrate, and measured the soil nutrients, enzyme activities, and root growth of R. pseudoacacia. Results: First, the combination of certain mineral-solubilizing microorganisms with ESSS advanced its efficiency by increasing the availability of soil nutrients and soil enzymatic activities in association with R. pseudoacacia. Furthermore, the improvement of root growth of R. pseudoacacia was intimately related to soil nutrients, particularly for soil total nitrogen (TN) and total sulfur (TS). In general, the effects of the J2 (combined Bacillus thuringiensis and Gongronella butleri) treatment for soil nutrients, enzyme activities, and plant growth were the strongest. Conclusion: In summary, the results of our experiment revealed that these mineral-solubilizing microorganisms conveyed a promotional effect on R. pseudoacacia seedlings by increasing the soil nutrient content. These results provide basic data and microbial resources for the development and applications of mineral-solubilizing microorganisms for abandoned mine remediation.
Progress in nanomedicine-based drug delivery in designing of chitosan nanoparticles for cancer therapy

Abstract Cancer is among the most dreadful fatal diseases globally, and the efficacy of recent chemotherapeutic approaches is limited due to many related drawbacks. The major limitation associated with cancer chemotherapy is the poor aqueous solubility of most of the anticancer drugs, development of multidrug resistance, low bioavailability, small plasma half-life, and serious side effects to healthy tissues due to unspecific distribution of chemotherapeutic drugs. Advancement in nanoscience provides the means of specific and selective targeting of cancer cells. Chitosan, one of the naturally occurring biocompatible and mucoadhesive biopolymers that have been widely used in recent years for the effective delivery of anti-cancer drugs at the target site. Chitosan nanoparticles can encapsulate both hydrophilic and lipophilic chemotherapeutic drugs, proteins/peptides as well as different genetic materials like DNA, miRNA, siRNA, etc. in their polymeric matrix. Due to the unique polymeric matrix, these nanoparticles improve the solubility as well as the stability of encapsulated molecules in the biological system. Chitosan nanoparticles can improve the pharmacokinetic profile as well as the therapeutic efficacy of encapsulated drugs by controlling the release rates and targeted delivery process. These nanoparticles selectively deliver the encapsulated drugs to desired sites through passive or active targeting mechanisms thereby decrease the undesirable side-effects. The surface of chitosan nanoparticles can be modified with different ligands like antibodies, proteins, peptides, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids to achieve selective targeting. This review will provide a state-of-the-art perspective on recent development in chitosan-nanoparticles for smart anti-cancer therapeutic delivery. Graphical Abstract
Assessing the effects of climate variable and timescale selection on uncertainties in dryness/wetness trends in conterminous China

Analysing dryness/wetness trends, which is typically achieved by examining drought indices, is an essential approach for assessing extreme climate events. However, since there are differences among studies in terms of selected climate variables and timescales used to calculate drought indices, there is uncertainty regarding the magnitude and direction of the dryness/wetness, trend even for the same region. We used 40 years weather station data (1970–2010) and studied the uncertainties of dryness/wetness trends in conterminous China. The effects of selected climate variables, timescales and their interaction on the dryness/wetness trends were quantified by comparing the Standardized Precipitation Index, Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) with the Thornthwaite equation and SPEI with the Penman–Monteith equation at 3‐, 12‐ and 24‐month timescales. The results indicated that (a) higher uncertainties occurred in relatively arid and humid regions; (b) timescale tended to exaggerate the effect of climate variables, even though its effect was substantially lower than climate variables; (c) relative humidity and precipitation were the primary climate variables affecting observed dryness/wetness trend uncertainties. Since the key climate variables changed depending on the selected timescale, the role of timescale should be further examined the Inner Mongolia and Northeast regions. In general, the study results suggest that the trend analysis of dryness/wetness should include the interaction of both climate variable and timescale selection, particularly when a single drought index is used to estimate the dryness/wetness trend in diverse regions.
Frequency and impact of individual symptoms on quality of life in dry eye disease in patients presenting to a tertiary care hospital.

OBJECTIVE To assess the frequency of symptoms and impact on quality of life in individuals with dry eye disease. METHODS The cross-sectional, study was conducted from December 2018 to June 2019 at the outpatient clinic of the Department of Ophthalmology, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan, and comprised dry eye disease patients aged at least 13 years with ocular burning sensation, lacrimation, grittiness, photophobia, redness or itching. Tear Film Breakup time <10 sec and / or positive ocular surface staining >5 corneal spots, >9 conjunctival spots, lid margin staining ≥ 2mm in length were used to diagnose the disease. Data was collected using the Dry Eye Quality of Life Score questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS 25. RESULTS of the 191 patients, 135(71%) were females and 56(29%) were males. The overall mean age was 39.8±16.6 years. Itching 155(81.2%), watering 151(79.1%) and burning 124(64.9%) were the most frequent symptoms, with watering (p<0.001) and photophobia (p=0.012) significantly impacting quality of life. CONCLUSIONS The most common symptoms among patients of dry eye disease affecting their quality of life were itching, watering, burning, photophobia and low mood.