Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microneedles for transdermal drug delivery using clay-based composites

ABSTRACT Introduction Clays provide a powerful drug delivery system due to their specific structure, which can interact with drugs and control their release. Transdermal delivery avoids the transformation of a drug in the liver by dispensing the drug through the skin, avoiding the gastrointestinal tract. Due to ion exchange and the multilayer structure of clay sheets, drugs are entrapped between the sheets, showing this material’s high drug release capacity. Recent studies have shown that the addition of 5 wt% clay is suitable for transdermal delivery applications. Areas covered In this review, we discussed clay-based polymer microneedles, mechanisms of clay-drug interactions, and antimicrobial effects of clays. We also investigated carriers for clay transdermal drug delivery and in vitro drug release from clay-drug composites. In addition, the most important clays, montmorillonite, halloysite, and sepiolite, were compared and discussed. Expert opinion The manufactured product represents an interesting method of sustained drug release through the skin. The duration of drug release can be tuned by modifying the polymer concentration and an appropriate molecular weight in the polymer system. When using clay as a non-polymer transdermal drug carrier, this adjustment is possible by changing the type and concentration of clay.
Improving Phishing Reporting Using Security Gamification

ABSTRACT Phishing is an increasing threat that causes billions in losses and damage to productivity, trade secrets, and reputations each year. This work explores how security gamification techniques can improve phishing reporting. We contextualized the cognitive evaluation theory (CET) as a kernel theory and constructed a prototype phishing reporting system. With three experiments in a simulated work setting, we tested gamification elements of validation, attribution, incentives, and public presentation for improvements in experiential (e.g., motivation) and instrumental outcomes (e.g., hits and false positives) in phishing reporting. Our findings suggest public attribution with rewards and punishments best balance the competing necessities of accuracy with widespread reporting. Furthermore, our results demonstrate the unique benefits of security gamification to phishing reporting over and above other phishing mitigation techniques (e.g., training and warnings). However, we also noted that unintended consequences in false alarms might arise from shifts in motivation resulting from public display of incentives. These findings suggest that carefully calibrated external incentives (rather than intrinsic rewards) are most likely to improve the ancillary task of phishing reporting.
How Did Financial Markets Respond to COVID-19 and Governmental Policies During the Different Waves of the Pandemic?

This study investigates the impact of COVID-19 and the policies implemented by the authorities on financial markets during the different waves of the pandemic. We found significant correlations between COVID-19 new cases and the volatility of financial markets in most of the studied samples during the three studied waves. We also found that financial markets in developed countries present a significant positive market vision, and those of emerging economies present mixed results.
Aortic valve stenosis: drivers of disease progression and drug targets for therapeutic opportunities

ABSTRACT Introduction Recommended therapy for calcific degenerative aortic stenosis (AS) is still aortic valve replacement (AVR), either transcatheter or surgical, since no conclusive efficacy has been determined in slowing the degenerative process by medical therapy. Areas covered This paper offers a brief overview of molecular mechanisms leading to calcification of aortic valve. It is then focused on potential markers of disease progression, as observed in many observational studies. Finally it provides a comprehensive review of drugs already tested in in vitro and human studies in order to slow aortic valve stenosis process. Expert opinion Despite research providing numerous molecular pathways underlying the calcification process, further efforts must be made to understand risk factors linked to disease progression. Some existing treatments that have already provided survival benefits in many features of cardiovascular diseases are currently being tested with promising results. In the near future new drugs acting on specific pathways by techniques such as monoclonal antibodies and RNA interference, are expected to provide better medical solutions for this ever growing number of patients.
A New Type of Auto-localized State of a Conduction Electron in an Antiferromagnetic Semiconductor

The motion of an electron is studied in a nondeg;enerate band of an antiferromagnetic semiconductor, each lattice point of which contains a magnetic electron. If zero-point oscillations are not taken into account, the motion of an extra electron is possible with spin flip and correspondingly with violation of magnetic order along its trajectory. This results in an increase of the magnetic energy as the electron moves away from the center; consequently the ground state is an auto-localized state resembling a magnetic polaron. The upper and lower energy limits of such a state are determined.
Modelling a conversational agent (Botocrates) for promoting critical thinking and argumentation skills

Students in higher education institutions are often advised to think critically, yet without being guided to do so. The study investigated the use of a conversational agent (Botocrates) for supporting critical thinking and academic argumentation skills. The overarching research questions were: can a conversational agent support critical thinking and academic argumentation skills? If so, how? The study was carried out in two stages: modelling and evaluating Botocrates' prototype. The prototype was a Wizard-of-Oz system where a human plays Botocrates' role by following a set of instructions and knowledge-base to guide generation of responses. Both stages were conducted at the School of Education at the University of Leeds. In the first stage, the study analysed 13 logs of online seminars in order to define the tasks and dialogue strategies needed to be performed by Botocrates. The study identified two main tasks of Botocrates: providing answers to students' enquiries and engaging students in the argumentation process. Botocrates’ dialogue strategies and contents were built to achieve these two tasks. The novel theoretical framework of the ‘challenge to explain’ process and the notion of the ‘constructive expansion of exchange structure’ were produced during this stage and incorporated into Botocrates’ prototype. The aim of the ‘challenge to explain’ process is to engage users in repeated and constant cycles of reflective thinking processes. The ‘constructive expansion of exchange structure’ is the practical application of the ‘challenge to explain’ process. In the second stage, the study used the Wizard-of-Oz (WOZ) experiments and interviews to evaluate Botocrates’ prototype. 7 students participated in the evaluation stage and each participant was immediately interviewed after chatting with Botocrates. The analysis of the data gathered from the WOZ and interviews showed encouraging results in terms of students’ engagement in the process of argumentation. As a result of the role of ‘critic’ played by Botocrates during the interactions, users actively and positively adopted the roles of explainer, clarifier, and evaluator. However, the results also showed negative experiences that occurred to users during the interaction. Improving Botocrates’ performance and training users could decrease users’ unsuccessful and negative experiences. The study identified the critical success and failure factors related to achieving the tasks of Botocrates.
Design of monopulse antenna loaded with Fabry–Perot cavity

A monopulse antenna loaded with Fabry–Perot resonator (FPRC) of X‐band for the application of monopulse radars is designed, fabricated, and measured in this letter. The proposed antenna is composed of an FPRC, a feed source that integrates aperture‐coupled microstrip antennas with a sum–difference comparator. The simulation and measurement have demonstrated that the aperture efficiency of the antenna reaches 46%, and the measured gain of the sum beam is 14.8 dBi which is 4.4 dBi higher than the monopulse antenna without an FPRC. The null depth of the difference beam is under −20 dB. The proposed monopulse antenna is of low‐profile, low cost, and simple structure, which can be applied in radar and wireless communication systems.
Syntax and Semantics of Genitive Subject-Case in Turkic

This paper provides a unified account of genitive-subject case licensing in subordinate contexts of Altaic languages. Genitive-subject clauses, previously analyzed as a manifestation of Genitive/Nominative subject conversion phenomenon in the syntactic literature, are analyzed as exceptionally case marked subjects of clauses that lack the nominative-case licensing feature, similar to the well studied accusative-subject clauses that lack tense. Genitive is licensed by the phi features of a nominal functional category external to the clause in Turkish, as suggested for other languages (Miyagawa 1993, Krause 2001, among others). The difference between genitive and accusative case licensing is restricted to the nature of the functional category that licenses subject case, which is nominal in the former and verbal in the latter. The syntactic mechanism involved in case licensing is language and/or structure dependent. The major theoretical implications of the proposed analysis are the following: de-coupling of case-agreement and motivating covert movement as a syntactic process along with Agree and Move. Theoretically, phi features are accepted to be uninterpretable features on Tense head, which are involved in subject case licensing through motivating the movement of the subject DP to Spec TP. In previous literature on Turkish (Kornfilt 1984, 1987, 1988, 2002, 2003) and European Portuguese (Raposo 1987, 1989), agreement is accepted to be the licensing head or feature for genitive case on subjects in subordinate contexts and for nominative subjects in matrix clauses (Kornfilt 1987, 1989). This research maintains the
Extraction, purification, and quantification of hesperidin from the immature Citrus grandis/maxima fruit Nepal cultivar

Abstract. Manikyam HK, Tripathi P, Patil SB, Lamichhane J, Chaitanya MVNL, Patil AR. 2022. Extraction, purification, and quantification of hesperidin from the immature Citrus grandis/maxima fruit Nepal cultivar. Asian J Nat Prod Biochem 20: 21-26. Hesperidin, a flavanone group of flavonoids and a 7-O-rutinoside of hesperitin is abundantly present in citrus fruits. Pomelo or Citrus grandis (L.) Osbeck/ C. maxima (Burm.) Merr. is grown and cultivated in Nepal as seasonal edible fruit. Pomelo has flavanone and other chemical constituents. Flavanones like naringin, hesperidin, neohesperidin, and naringenin are present in the fruits of C. grandis. Many extraction techniques have been reported in the extraction and purification of hesperidin citrus fruits like sweet lemons, grapefruits, mandarins, etc. However, little information has been provided on hesperidin content in Pomelo fruits. In order to estimate the quantity of hesperidin in the Pomelo fruits of Nepal, we have first time made study. The immature Pomelo fruits of size 2-7 cm were collected from the cultivation field and dried completely. The pulverized fruit powder with moisture content less than 15% was subjected to 5% methanolic acetic extraction and Dimethylformamide (DMF) solvent extraction in Soxhlet apparatus by refluxing at 90°C in 1:15 ration in three subsequent extractions of each 1 hour. The concentrates were crystalized at freezing temperatures in methanol and further purified by repeating the crystallization process. The white amorphous powder was subjected to RP-HPLC analysis method, chromatographic conditions 285 nm wavelength, C18 column 4.6 mm x 15 cm x 5 µm, flow rate 1.2 mL/minute with injection volume 10 µL run time of 30 minutes, column temperature 40°C. Hesperidin yields were 0.12 g/100 g with acetic acid methanol with a purity of 87% and 0.17 g/100 g in DMF extraction with a purity of 90% with recoveries of 87% in acetic acid methanol extraction and 90% in DMF extraction when compared with standard 93%. Further extraction does not yield any hesperidin content indicating a total of 0.15-0.17 g/100 g of hesperidin content in the whole immature fruit of C. grandis/maxima. Thus we found DMF and 5% methanolic acetic solvents as preferable solvents to extract hesperidin.
A New VLAD Method with Dense SIFT Selection Application in Image Classification

—Since Dense SIFT causes a long time spending during clustering due to an excessive order of magnitude, and its feature descriptors reserve excessive insignificant features, we present a new method that using SLIC to select descriptors to address this problem. Furthermore, when VLAD aggregates, the partial directions of feature vectors have the excessive data offset and still distorts after the dimension deduction treatment. Regarding such issue, the algorithm that possesses the optimized clustering descriptor with feature membership information called FS-VLAD is proposed. The algorithm adopts the principle of the fuzzy cost function with the smallest deviation regarding the quadratic sum of the neighbor clustering center to calculate the feature membership degree. After conducting classification test, the result demonstrates that in comparison with the mainstream Dense SIFT + VLAD classification model, the new methods could improve by around 15%, and possesses better generality.
Geochemistry study of black shale in Barzewa and Warte Sections, Sargelu Formation, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Sargelu Formation (Middle Jurassic) is characterized by a wide geographical distribution in Iraq and neighboring countries. This study includes two sections Barzewa and Warte locations in Erbil Governorate of Kurdistan region, Iraq, the organic, inorganic Geochemistry and mineralogical properties were recorded. Fifteen samples of Sargelu Formation black shales were gathered from both locations. The source rocks of the black shales have an intermediate to felsic composition. The illite crystallinity index (IC) of the studied black shale shows the high anchizone stage. The organic geochemical parameters were analyzed in Sargelu Formation, the black shale contains type II - III kerogen. The average total organic carbon (TOC) of black shale for both section is 4.29 wt. %. By using the ultrasound homogenizer process the C-H bond (hydrocarbon component) of black shale recovered from the solid state to the liquid state.
Digital Labour and The Generation of Surplus Value on Instagram

The aim of this paper is to provide a map of the economy of social media platforms. We analyse digital labour on Instagram. The article asks: How are the users, who provide unpaid labour on Instagram, exploited? What kinds of labour do we find on Instagram? In doing so, the paper contributes to the literature on digital labour and the attention economy. Social media platforms exploit paid and unpaid labour in the creation and realisation of value. They capture user-generated content, transform it into commodities and sell it to companies. The article presents the results of a case study of the digital labour of Persian Internet users on Instagram. We conducted a Netnography of popular Instagram users (influencers, Internet users who make shoutouts to brands and influencers) and a survey where 600 Instagram users participated.
Lung ultrasound (LUS) in pre-term neonates with respiratory distress: A prospective observational study

Aim: To find out the diagnostic use of lung ultrasound (LUS) in respiratory distress in neonates by taking clinico-radiological (clinical plus X-ray) diagnosis as the gold standard. Secondary objectives were to find out if modified LUS score can predict the need for surfactant therapy. Methods: A prospective observational study was done in a tertiary care neonatal intensive care unit over a period of 1 year (January–December 2018). All pre-term infants with respiratory distress were screened with LUS and CXR within 2 h of admission and modified LUS score was calculated to find out the lung water content and its correlation with the severity of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Results: In total, 92 neonates were screened during the study period, and 61 were finally diagnosed as RDS. The Kappa statistic between the clinico-radiological diagnosis and LUS diagnosis was 0.639. LUS diagnosis and CXR diagnosis had a Kappa correlation value of 0.786 (95% CI: 0.678–0.983). The most common LUS feature in RDS was pleural line thickening (100%), followed by whiteout lungs (75.4%). The modified LUS score was higher in babies who needed surfactant therapy (median (IQR): 49 (44, 53.5) vs. 29.5 (21, 46)) (P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Our study shows that LUS in neonatal RDS can predict the severity of the disease, need for surfactant therapy and has good agreement with clinical and Xray diagnosis.
Kinematic Representations of Linear and Power‐Law Viscoelastic Deformation Through the Earthquake Cycle

Viscoelastic deformation below the Earth's elastic crust is modulated by stresses generated by both plate tectonic and earthquake cycle processes. Rapid near‐fault deformation following large earthquakes has been interpreted as the signature of viscoelastic stress diffusion in the upper mantle and earthquake cycle models have been developed that integrated this effect throughout the duration of the earthquake cycle. Here we develop a surrogate method to approximate the upper crustal kinematics associated with time‐dependent viscoelastic deformation that does not require knowledge of nor provide constraints on subcrustal rheology. To do this we show how the effects of deformation in the viscoelastic upper mantle can be emulated by introducing a set of effective dislocations at crust‐mantle interface. The approach is shown to approximate both linear and power‐law viscoelastic rheologies and offers a way to accurately represent viscoelastic kinematics even in the case where upper mantle rheology is poorly constrained.
Improving Image Quality and Reducing Scan Time for Synthetic MRI of Breast by Using Deep Learning Reconstruction

Objectives To investigate a deep learning reconstruction algorithm to reduce the time of synthetic MRI (SynMRI) scanning on the breast and improve the image quality. Materials and Methods A total of 192 healthy female volunteers (mean age: 48.1 years) underwent the breast MR examination at 3.0 T from September 2020 to June 2021. Standard SynMRI and fast SynMRI scans were collected simultaneously on the same volunteer. Deep learning technology with a generative adversarial network (GAN) was used to generate high-quality fast SynMRI images by end-to-end training. Peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), mean squared error (MSE), and structural similarity index measure (SSIM) were used to compare the image quality of generated images from fast SynMRI by deep learning algorithms. Results Fast SynMRI acquisition time is half of the standard SynMRI scan, and the generated images of the GAN model show that PSNR and SSIM are improved and MSE is reduced. Conclusion The application of deep learning algorithms with GAN model in breast MAGiC MRI improves the image quality and reduces the scanning time.
Generational Phases: Toward the Low-Back Merger in Cooperstown, New York

This paper reports on a new sociolinguistic sample of Cooperstown, a village in rural central New York. Previous research suggested Cooperstown was losing the Northern Cities Shift (NCS) and acquiring the low back merger via koineization as a result of dialect contact among locally-born children of parents from other regions. The new data shows abrupt retreat from NCS patterns between the Baby Boom generation and Generation X. A “phase transition” pattern is observed in progress toward the low back merger: Millennial women are the first to describe low back minimal pairs as merged, despite no appreciable difference between Millennials and Generation X in production of the low back vowels. No evidence is found to support the hypothesis that koineization is responsible for these changes; it appears that Cooperstown is subject to the same trend away from NCS documented in many other communities, subject to many of the same constraints.
Edinburgh Research Explorer A comprehensive panel of near-full-length clones and reference sequences for non-subtype B isolates of human immunodeficiency virus type 1

Non-subtype B viruses cause the vast majority of new human immunodeﬁciency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infections worldwide and are thus the major focus of international vaccine efforts. Although their geographic dissemination is carefully monitored, their immunogenic and biological properties remain largely unknown, in part because well-characterized virological reference reagents are lacking. In particular, full-length clones and sequences are rare, since subtype classiﬁcation is frequently based on small PCR-derived viral fragments. There are only ﬁve proviral clones available for viruses other than subtype B, and these represent only 3 of the 10 proposed (group M) sequence subtypes. This lack of reference sequences also confounds the identiﬁcation and analysis of mosaic (recombinant) genomes, which appear to be arising with increasing frequency in areas where multiple sequence subtypes cocirculate. To generate a more representative panel of non-subtype B reference reagents, we have cloned (by long PCR or lambda phage techniques) and sequenced 10 near-full-length HIV-1 genomes (lacking less than 80 bp of long terminal repeat sequences) from primary isolates collected at major epicenters of the global AIDS pandemic. Detailed phylogenetic analyses identiﬁed six that represented nonrecombinant members of HIV-1 subtypes A (92UG037.1), C (92BR025.8), D (84ZR085.1 and 94UG114.1), F (93BR020.1), and H (90CF056.1), the last two comprising the ﬁrst full-length examples of these subtypes. Four others were found to be complex mosaics of subtypes A and C (92RW009.6), A and G (92NG083.2 and 92NG003.1), and B and F (93BR029.4), again emphasizing the impact of intersubtype recombination on global HIV-1 diversiﬁcation. Although a number of clones had frameshift mutations or translational stop codons in major open reading frames, all the genomes contained a complete set of genes and three had intact genomic organizations without inactivating mutations. Reconstruction of one of these (94UG114.1) yielded replication-competent virus that grew to high titers in normal donor peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures. This panel of non-subtype B reference genomes should prove valuable for structure- function studies of genetically diverse viral gene products, the generation of subtype-speciﬁc immunological reagents, and the production of DNA- and protein-based subunit vaccines directed against a broader spectrum of viruses. of the informative sites were examined. DNA transfection and viral infectivity studies. Ten micrograms of the reconstructed 94UG114.1 plasmid subclone was transfected into 293 T cells by a calcium phosphate precipitation method (2). Two days after infection, cultured supernatants were analyzed for reverse transcriptase (RT) activity and used to infect phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated normal donor PBMCs (20). Cultures were monitored for virus replication every 3 to 4 days. Nucleotide