Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of maltobionic acid on bone metabolism markers in healthy Japanese postmenopausal women: A randomized double‐blind placebo‐controlled crossover study

Abstract Osteoporosis is characterized by compromised bone strengthpredisposing to an increased risk of fracture and is a disease with a high incidence in postmenopausal women. Frequent estrogen deficiency, particularly in postmenopausal women, induces osteoclast activation and is a major contributor to reduced bone mineral density. Maltobionic acid (MB) reportedly promotes mineral resorption and maintains bone mineral density in human clinical trials, although no studies have confirmed that MB improves bone metabolism in humans. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of MB administration on bone‐resorption markers in healthy Japanese postmenopausal women. This was a randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, crossover trial. Twenty‐six healthy adult Japanese women who realized that they had passed through more than 1 year of natural menopause and were aged 40–69 years were categorized into three groups. The experimental groups were allowed to consume maltobionic acid syrup 4 g (MB syrup 4 g group), maltobionic acid syrup 2 g plus maltose syrup 2 g (MB syrup 2 g group), and maltose syrup 4 g (placebo group) for 4 weeks. All 26 participants completed the intervention. Continuous ingestion of MB syrup 2 g or 4 g for 4 weeks significantly reduced the levels of bone‐resorption markers deoxypyridinoline (DPD) and urinary N‐telopeptide (u‐NTx), and significantly increased the bone formation marker osteocalcin (OC) compared with the placebo group. Maltobionic acid (MB) intake may improve bone metabolism and reduce bone health problems, including osteoporosis, in postmenopausal, adult Japanese women. (UMIN‐CTR ID: UMIN000038627).
Functioning problems associated with conditions with greatest disease burden in South Africa and Zimbabwe: a scoping review protocol

Background: A notable rise in health-related disability for which evidence-based rehabilitation is beneficial is evident in low-to-middle income countries. This scoping review aims to summarize and synthesize the status of peer-reviewed literature regarding the most common functioning problems associated with health conditions that contribute most to disability in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Methods: The scoping review will be conducted according to the framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley and corresponding guidance contained in the Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewers’ Manual. Peer-reviewed studies of all designs published from January 2006 onwards will be systematically searched from five databases. Studies reporting on functioning problems (impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions) in South African and Zimbabwean adults (>18 years) related to the top 10 health conditions contributing most to years lived with disability in South Africa and Zimbabwe according to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 will be included. Two reviewers will screen titles, abstracts, and full texts and chart data. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework will be used to map identified functioning problems. A narrative approach will be used to synthesize results. Discussion: This scoping review will provide a comprehensive mapping of functioning problems affecting adults in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Understanding the local rehabilitation needs may be a first step in strengthening primary care rehabilitation in low-resource settings. Registration: This scoping review protocol was registered with the Open Science Framework (doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/FJM7W) on 31/12/2020.
Structural and Functional Neural Correlates of Treatment Response for Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depressed Adolescents

Precision medicine approaches hold tremendous promise to advance current clinical practice by providing information about which individuals will benefit from which treatments. This pilot study evaluated if baseline structure and function of the salience and emotion brain regions implicated in adolescent depression, specifically the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), predict response to Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depressed Adolescents (IPT-A). Adolescents (n = 15; mean age = 14.5 (1.6); 80.0% female) diagnosed with a depressive disorder completed brain scans before the start of a 16 week trial of IPT-A. Clinical measures assessing depressive symptoms were completed before, during, and after a trial of therapy. Results show that at baseline, greater ACC activation in the context of an emotion-matching task and greater amygdala-ACC resting-state functional connectivity was related to greater improvement in depression symptoms. There was minimal evidence that brain structure predicted changes in depressive symptoms. The present study is the first to evaluate neural predictors of IPT-A response. While the results are preliminary, these findings suggest some avenues for future research to pursue in the hopes that more will benefit from treatment.
3.6 mΩ cm2, 1726 V 4H-SiC normally-off trenched-and-implanted vertical JFETs and circuit applications

A normally-off 4H-SiC trenched-and-implanted vertical JFET (TI-VJFET) with a low specific on-resistance has been demonstrated. The low specific on-resistance (R on―sp ) of 3.6 mQ cm 2 is achieved for a blocking voltage (V bl ) up to 1726 V by eliminating the internal lateral JFET gates. The TI-VJFET technology developed is advantageous in comparison to other reported VJFET technologies because it eliminates the need for epitaxial regrowth in the middle of device fabrication, only one mask requires critical alignment throughout device fabrication, and it provides intrinsically a much lower specific on-resistance owing to the elimination of internal lateral JFET gates. The V 2 bl/R on―sp value of 827 MW/cm 2 for the TI-VJFET substantially surpasses all past records of both unipolar and bipolar SiC power switches. Multi-cell TI-VJFETs have been packaged and tested in an inductively loaded half-bridge inverter. Switching characteristics are reported. A 50 A Darlington transistor has also been developed using the TI-VJFET switches and results are given.
Numerical Investigation of Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna with Liquid Metamaterials for X-band

In this paper, a frequency reconfigurable liquid metamaterial microstrip-based radiating structure is proposed and it is an attempt toward achieving reconfiguration in liquid metamaterial-based microstrip radiating structures. Reconfigurable antenna design is superstrated with five liquid metamaterial layers based on a distilled water split-ring resonator. Superstrate layers give enhancement from 6.5 dB to 13.1 dB in gain of the proposed antenna. A patch is reconfigured through PIN diodes as RF switches. Switching ‘on’ and ‘off’ states of PIN diodes are used for reconfiguration of frequency and radiation patterns. Analysis in terms of reflection coefficient, gain (dBi), radiation pattern, bandwidth (BW), and half-power beamwidth (HPBW) is obtained in switch-off and switch-on state. The proposed design provides enhanced gain, reflection coefficient, and multiband characteristics in the 8-12 GHz range suitable for X-band satellite and radar applications. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.
Perceiving Freedom: Civil Liberties and COVID-19 Vaccinations

Why have some countries been more successful in their COVID-19 vaccine rollouts than others? Despite efforts by governments to vaccinate their adult populations against COVID-19, vaccination rates remain irregularly low in some countries. We suggest that a crucial piece of this puzzle lies in resistance against government directives from the public due to civil liberty protections. Countries with greater protections for civil liberties can be expected to have lower vaccinations administered than countries with fewer protections, as the public enjoys a sense of freedom regarding their private lives. In such countries, de jure constraints on government policies are complemented by the fear of public backlash, even in crises; consequently, beyond structural limitations, governments with high levels of civil liberty protections face an additional hurdle in managing the COVID-19 crisis. Evidence for this hypothesis is presented for 153 countries by combining civil liberty scores with newly available data on COVID-19 vaccinations.
On the Relevancy of Taking into Account the Consumers Importance Score in Reliability Management of Power Supply

In modern realities, ensuring a reliable power supply is an economic challenge. The problem of deterioration of the power grid infrastructure is acute in the Russian Federation. It is proposed to take into account the importance score of electricity consumers when planning repair and modernization activities, for addressing to solve this and a number of other problems in conditions of electric power organizations limited resources. The importance score of the consumer should depend on the possible consequences of a power supply outage.
Analysis of blended learning effectiveness at senior high school during covid-19 pandemic

Blended learning is a solution to overcome the limitation of learning space, time, and source learning. This study describes the application of blended learning at Senior High School 2 Taliwang during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research method used is a descriptive research method with a qualitative approach. The subjects in this study were students of class X MIPA at Senior High School 2 Taliwang totaling 62 people consisting of 2 classes. Data collection used questionnaires, interviews, and document studies. The results showed that the application of blended learning during the Covid-19 pandemic is divided between face-to-face and online learning, consisting of three stages, namely planning, learning process, and evaluation. The planning stage of the teacher makes a learning schedule, divides teaching time between teachers, prepares learning devices, materials, learning activities, learning media, and evaluation. At the stage of the learning process, the teacher conducts learning interactions, explains the material, assigns assignments and exercises either directly through face to face or online through Google Forms and electronic applications such as WhatsApp.The evaluation stage is assessed through cognitive assessment (knowledge) through assignments or portfolios and affective assessment by assessing those who actively participate in learning and respond.
The Healing Capability of Clove Flower Extract (CFE) in Streptozotocin-Induced (STZ-Induced) Diabetic Rat Wounds Infected with Multidrug Resistant Bacteria

Treatment of diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is of great challenge as it is shown to be infected by multidrug resistant bacteria (MDR bacteria). Sixty four bacterial isolates were isolated from DFU cases; antibiotic susceptibility tests were carried out for all of them. One bacterial isolate (number 11) was shown to resist the action of 8 out of 12 antibiotics used and was identified by both a Vitek-2 system and 16S rRNA fingerprints as belonging to Proteus mirabilis, and was designated Proteus mirabilis LC587231 (P. mirabilis). Clove flower extract (CFE) inhibited distinctively the P. mirabilis bacterium obtained. GC-MS spectroscopy showed that this CFE contained nine bioactive compounds. The effect of CFE on wound healing of Type 1 diabetic albino rats (Rattus norvegicus) was studied. The results indicated that topical application of CFE hydrogel improved wound size, wound index, mRNA expression of the wound healing markers (Coli1, MMP9, Fibronectin, PCNA, and TGFβ), growth factor signaling pathways (PPAR-α, PGC1-α, GLP-1, GLPr-1, EGF-β, EGF-βr, VEGF-β, and FGF-β), inflammatory cytokine expression (IL8, TNFα, NFKβ, IL1β, and MCP1), as well as anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL4 & IL10), pro-apoptotic markers (FAS, FAS-L, BAX, BAX/BCL-2, Caspase-3, P53, P38), as well as an antiapoptotic one (BCL2). Furthermore, it improved the wound oxidative state and reduced the wound microbial load, as the cefepime therapy improved the wound healing parameters. Based on the previous notions, it could be concluded that CFE represents a valid antibiotics alternative for DFU therapy since it improves diabetic wound healing and exerts antibacterial activity either in vitro or in vivo.
Traffic-flow-prediction systems based on upstream traffic

Network-based model were developed to predict short term future traffic volume based on current traffic, historical average, and upstream traffic. It is presumed that upstream traffic volume can be used to predict the downstream traffic in a specific time period. Three models are developed for traffic flow prediction: a combination of historical average and upstream traffic, a combination of current traffic and upstream traffic, and a combination of all three variables. The three models were evaluated using regression analysis. The third model is found to provide the best prediction for the analyzed data. In order to balance the variables appropriately according to the present traffic condition, a heuristic adaptive weighting system is devised based on the relationships between the beginning period of prediction and the previous periods. The developed models were applied to 15-minute freeway data obtained by regular induction loop detectors. The prediction models were shown to be capable of producing reliable and accurate forecasts under congested traffic condition. The prediction systems perform better in the 15-minute range than in the ranges of 30- to 45-minute. It is also found that the combined models usually produce more consistent forecasts than the historical average. <<ETX>>
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO ATTRITION IN ESL AMONG NAMIBIAN LEARNERS

This study aimed to examine factors contributing to attrition in ESL among learners in Namibia. This study used the convergent parallel mixed methods. There were 50 participants randomly selected to participate in this research. The data was analyzed and merged to validate the findings. The findings indicated that most of the teachers have agreed that their learners do not use ESL often, lack motivation, and have an undesirable attitude towards learning ESL. There was no clear indication of whether age factors affect young learners from losing ESL. The study suggests further studies to validate the findings. The findings of this study is expected to assist curriculum designers in Namibia and other neighbouring countries.
Early detection of oesophageal cancer through colour contrast enhancement for data augmentation

While white light imaging (WLI) of endoscopy has been set as the gold standard for screening and detecting oesophageal squamous cell cancer (SCC), the early signs of SCC are often missed (1 in 4) due to its subtle change of early onset of SCC. This study firstly enhances colour contrast of each of over 600 WLI images and their accompanying narrow band images (NBI) applying CIE colour appearance model CIECAM02. Then these augmented data together with the original images are employed to train a deep learning based system for classification of low grade dysplasia (LGD), SCC and high grade dysplasia (HGD). As a result, the averaged colour difference (∆E) measured using CIEL*a*b* increased from 11.60 to 14.46 for WLI and from 17.52 to 32.53 for NBI in appearance between suspected regions and their normal neighbours. When training a deep learning system with added enhanced contrasted WLI images, the sensitivity, specific and accuracy for LGD increases by 10.87%, 4.95% and 6.76% respectively. When training with enhanced both WLI and NBI images, these measures for LGD increases by 14.83%, 4.89% and 7.97% respectively, the biggest increase among three classes of SCC, HGD and LGD. In average, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for these three classes are 88.26%, 94.44% and 92.63% respectively for classification of SCC, HGD and LGD, being comparable or exceeding existing published work.
Terahertz frequency generation with monolithically integrated dual wavelength distributed Bragg reflector semiconductor laser diode

Optoelectronic terahertz (THz) generation techniques have helped to narrow the THz gap and have opened up a wealth of new applications for THz technology. However, the development of THz systems into mass market is a major technical challenge, which is attributed to high cost of THz hardware components including sources and detectors. Here, the authors report THz generation from a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) semiconductor laser diode together with fibre coupled photoconducting antennas. Two fibre coupled ion-implanted gallium arsenide photoconducting antennas were employed to generate and detect THz radiation. Two DBR lasers connected with a Y-shaped waveguide structure were monolithically integrated and used to simultaneously emit two wavelengths in the range of 785 nm. These lasers were employed as pumping source for the photomixers. An optical beat frequency of 286 GHz of the dual wavelengths was obtained from optical characterisation. A corresponding THz frequency was confirmed via photomixing in a homodyne set up. By variation of the operation parameters of the laser, the difference frequency was tuned in the range between 286 GHz to 320 GHz. In summary, they report the implementation of a compact and cost effective fiber coupled Terahertz source based on a monolithically integrated dual wavelength DBR semiconductor laser diode.
Identifying unique acoustic signatures from chemically-crosslinked microbubble clusters using deep learning

Ultrasound contrast agents (UCA) are gas encapsulated microspheres that oscillate volumetrically when exposed to an ultrasound field producing a backscattered signal which can be used for improved ultrasound imaging and drug delivery. UCA’s are being used widely for contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging, but there is a need for improved UCAs to develop faster and more accurate contrast agent detection algorithms. Recently, we introduced a new class of lipid based UCAs called Chemically Cross-linked Microbubble Clusters (CCMCs). CCMCs are formed by the physical tethering of individual lipid microbubbles into a larger aggregate cluster. The advantages of these novel CCMCs are their ability to fuse together when exposed to low intensity pulsed ultrasound (US), potentially generating unique acoustic signatures that can enable better contrast agent detection. In this study, our main objective is to demonstrate that the acoustic response of CCMCs is unique and distinct when compared to individual UCAs using deep learning algorithms. Acoustic characterization of CCMCs and individual bubbles was performed using a broadband hydrophone or a clinical transducer attached to a Verasonics Vantage 256. A simple artificial neural network (ANN) was trained and used to classify raw 1D RF ultrasound data as either from CCMC or non-tethered individual bubble populations of UCAs. The ANN was able to classify CCMCs at an accuracy of 93.8% for data collected from broadband hydrophone and 90% for data collected using Verasonics with a clinical transducer. The results obtained suggest the acoustic response of CCMCs is unique and has the potential to be used in developing a novel contrast agent detection technique.
Aerodynamic effect of the aircraft carrier island on flight deck flow with cross wind

Regarding the importance of helicopter operations over aircraft carriers and the increment of the workload of the pilot during take-off and landing manoeuvres, it has been performed a study of the flow downstream the island of an aircraft carrier in cross-wind conditions. The main objective of this work is to characterize the aerodynamic flow in that critical area providing insight for future investigations directed to reduce the workload and improve safe operational conditions. Then, a wind tunnel test campaign was carried out using particle image velocimetry and laser Doppler anemometry techniques. Finally, wind tunnel results have been compared with on-board measurements showing a good agreement between full-scale and model-scale wind tunnel tests.
Distributed Feature Sets for Document Specific Key-Phrase Extraction

Abstract The need for knowledge and the satisfaction of this need is the fastest growing market in the world. Among all types of data, the textual documents are an incredible source of knowledge. In order not to lose track of this rapid development of information diversity, it is necessary to provide schemes that make it possible to filter out and present specific information from this huge amount of textual data. Since then, key-phrase extraction methods have started to gain importance. A key-phrase extraction system provides a selection of relevant data in textual documents based on languages and corresponding extraction rules. To extract the important concepts from the documents, the system should be able to use special features and self-identify properties of the words in the texts and properties of the documents. In this article, we developed and discussed different sets of features which are unrestricted to form, size and organization of the documents, i.e. a novel set of regular, advanced and external knowledge-based features are proposed. To selectively combine the best features from all three sets of features here we deploy the two different automatic feature selection techniques. Four different datasets are used here to evaluate the performance of the individual, combined and best selected features. The dynamic programming-based feature selection approaches significantly improves the performance in contrast to the different feature sets (individual and combined both) and state-of-the-art.
A Triple Band-notched UWB Antenna by Using an Arc-shaped Slot and a U-shaped Resonator Techniques

In this paper, an ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna with triple notch bands is pro- posed and well designed by etching an arc-shaped slot (ASS) on the fan-shaped radiating patch and integrating a U-shaped resonator (USR) alongside the microstrip feed signal line. The pro- posed antenna consists of a microstrip feed structure, a trapezoidal ground plane, a fan-shaped radiating patch, an ASS and a USR, which are printed on a thin substrate with dielectric con- stant of 2.65. The three band-notched characteristics are realized by the use of the ASS and USR, while the center frequencies of these notch bands are tunable by adjusting the dimensions of the proposed ASS and USR. By using these techniques, the proposed antenna can fllter out unwanted narrowband signals from WiMAX, WLAN and RFID bands. The proposed antenna is well designed and extensively investigated. The experimental results are given to verify that the proposed antenna with a wide bandwidth, three designated band-notched functions and good omnidirectional radiation patterns, which is suitable for modern high data rate UWB communi- cation applications.