Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ag Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications—Synthesis and Characterization—A Review

Silver nanoparticles have been intensively studied over a long period of time because they exhibit antibacterial properties in infection treatments, wound healing, or drug delivery systems. The advantages that silver nanoparticles offer regarding the functionalization confer prolonged stability and make them suitable for biomedical applications. Apart from functionalization, silver nanoparticles exhibit various shapes and sizes depending on the conditions used through their fabrications and depending on their final purpose. This paper presents a review of silver nanoparticles with respect to synthesis procedures, including the polluting green synthesis. Currently, the most commonly used characterization techniques required for nanoparticles investigation in antibacterial treatments are described briefly, since silver nanoparticles possess differences in their structure or morphology.
The Usage of Specific Markers for Some Major Traits in Egyptian Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and Their Wild Relatives

: Wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the world’s major cereal crops. The present work was carried out at the Faculty of Agriculture, (Saba Basha), Alexandria University, Egypt during the seasons of 2014 up to 2016 to study the implementation of specific markers on some major traits in Egyptian wheat. Five Egyptian bread wheat genotypes (2n=42, AABBDD), Egypt 1, Gemmeiza 9 & 11, Sakha 93, Sids 1 and one wild wheat Aegilops ventricosa Tausch (2n=28, DvDvNvNv) were used in the current experiment. Specific peaks for target genes were scored across all genotypes in addition to other unique peaks for susceptible genotypes of all the traits. Polymorphic level was (90%) across all wheat accessions, especially between wild and domesticated wheat. High level of polymorphism could be attributed to selection of genotypes with diverse characteristics. A total of 110 alleles were detected, among which 21 alleles (19%) were polymorphic and 89 alleles were specific for target genes (81%). For SSR, it is very common that each primer set amplifies multiple fragments and they are either different alleles in one locus or different loci. The result reveals significant differences in allelic diversity among wheat cultivars studied. The fragment sizes ranged from 103 to 440bp. This opens up a possibility to apply marker-assisted selection (MAS) in developing new Egyptian wheat cultivars.
Assessing The Non-Aviation Services for Optimizing the Dwell Time Spent by Air ‎Passengers

develop some new services that improve the passenger experience. In addition, the dwell time directly affects the airport revenues, and that there is a positive relationship between the dwell time and passenger spending.The research recommends that the addition of some new services at Cairo International Airport, Spreading awareness of the use of modern smart technologies among passengers.
Summer drought affects abundance of grassland grasshoppers differently along an elevation gradient

Orthoptera (hereinafter termed ‘grasshoppers’) are of great functional significance since they are the main arthropod consumers in grasslands and an important food source for medium‐sized insectivorous vertebrates. However, research investigating the effects of extreme weather events on the abundance of grasshoppers has lacked thus far. Here, we studied the effects of summer drought on grasshopper abundance in temperate semi‐natural grasslands with low land‐use intensity. We considered calcareous and mesic grasslands; per type, we randomly selected 27 plots. Our study revealed distinct differences in habitat characteristics between plots of calcareous and mesic grasslands. Overall, calcareous grasslands had a more heterogeneous and shorter vegetation than mesic grasslands. Consequently, species richness was higher in calcareous grasslands. By contrast, grasshopper abundance did not differ between the two types. Summer temperature was the key driver of grasshopper abundance. Abundance was lowest in grasslands that were situated at lower elevations with higher summer temperatures and that were characterised by the strongest effects of summer drought. Its influence even overrode the differences in habitat characteristics between calcareous and mesic grasslands. Extreme weather events, such as summer droughts, are expected to become more frequent due to global warming. Accordingly, suitable conservation strategies that increase the resistance and resilience of temperate semi‐natural grasslands and their insect assemblages against summer drought are highly needed. Based on our study, increasing habitat heterogeneity seems to be the most effective way to mitigate the negative effects of summer drought.
Recent Advancements in Materials and Coatings for Biomedical Implants

Metallic materials such as stainless steel (SS), titanium (Ti), magnesium (Mg) alloys, and cobalt-chromium (Co-Cr) alloys are widely used as biomaterials for implant applications. Metallic implants sometimes fail in surgeries due to inadequate biocompatibility, faster degradation rate (Mg-based alloys), inflammatory response, infections, inertness (SS, Ti, and Co-Cr alloys), lower corrosion resistance, elastic modulus mismatch, excessive wear, and shielding stress. Therefore, to address this problem, it is necessary to develop a method to improve the biofunctionalization of metallic implant surfaces by changing the materials’ surface and morphology without altering the mechanical properties of metallic implants. Among various methods, surface modification on metallic surfaces by applying coatings is an effective way to improve implant material performance. In this review, we discuss the recent developments in ceramics, polymers, and metallic materials used for implant applications. Their biocompatibility is also discussed. The recent trends in coatings for biomedical implants, applications, and their future directions were also discussed in detail.
Depressive Symptoms as Mediator on the Link between Physical Activity and Cognitive Function: Longitudinal Evidence from Older Adults in China

ABSTRACT Objectives This study examines the extent to which depressive symptoms mediate the link between physical activity and cognitive function among older adults in China. Methods This study utilizes the 2013–18 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) dataset, of which 3,658 subjects over the age of 50 satisfied inclusion criteria. Degree of physical activity, prevalence of depressive symptoms, and performance in cognitive function are measured by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) instruments. A structural mediation model was built to assess the degree to which depressive symptoms act as mediator between physical activity and cognitive function. Results Physical activity is positively and significantly associated with cognitive function (std β = 0.034, p-value = .007), while physical activity is negatively and significantly associated with prevalence of depressive symptoms (std β = −0.088, p-value < .001). Results indicate that depressive symptoms partially and significantly mediate the relationship between physical activity and cognitive function (std β = 0.003, p-value = .035). Total influence of physical activity on cognitive performance is evaluated to be 0.037 standard deviations (p-value = .035). Conclusions Findings uncover an underexamined mental well-being channel through which physical activity can positively influence late adulthood cognition. Clinical Implications In recommending behavioral modifications to reduce risks of late adulthood cognitive decline, encouraging physical activity for older individuals is key, since it is both directly associated with better cognitive performance, as well as indirectly through lowering prevalence of depressive symptoms.
A Modulation Signal Bispectrum Enhanced Squared Envelope for the detection and diagnosis of compound epicyclic gear faults

Epicyclic gearboxes are prevalent in a variety of important engineering systems such as automotive, aerospace, wind turbines, civil equipment and industrial robots owing to the merits of compact structure and high power density. To ensure the productivities of such important systems, condition monitoring techniques are being actively studied to resolve the challenge of varying transmission paths and multiple modulations in vibration signals acquired from ring gear housing. This paper proposes a new Modulation Signal Bispectrum (MSB) Enhanced Squared Envelope method to analyse the vibration signals acquired by a special On-Rotor Sensing (ORS) transducer that is mounted on the shaft of an epicyclic gearbox. A vibration signal model of ORS measurements from epicyclic gearboxes is presented to show the multiple modulation influences. Moreover, inevitable noise influences are also investigated on the conventional squared envelope and the state-of-the-art spectral correlation analysis. On this base, MSB is introduced to suppress these influences for accurately extracting equally spaced harmonics in the squared envelope and is then integrated to isolate fault signatures, allowing effective fault detection and diagnosis of epicyclic gearboxes, which lead to novel contributions of an MSB Enhanced Squared Envelope (MSB-ESE) approach. An experimental study of compound epicyclic gear faults was conducted to demonstrate the superior performance of MSB-ESE along with the special ORS technique in detecting and diagnosing the compound faults on sun and planet gears.
Gut Microbiome Suffers from Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Childhood and Its Characteristics Are Positively Associated with Intra-Hospital Physical Exercise

Simple Summary Gut microbiome research has rapidly advanced with good perspectives for the diagnostics and/or therapy of a plethora of diseases, including metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases and various types of cancer. In this study, we examined the composition of the fecal microbiota of eligible children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). We found a negative effect of HSCT treatment on microbiome bacterial diversity and richness with microbial monodominance by pathogenic bacteria in pediatric ALL patients after 3 months. The changes in the gut microbiota were associated with systemic inflammation on day + 28. However, promisingly, we have observed an association between bacterial diversity and physical exercise during HSCT treatment. Our findings provide additional support for the importance of investigating the gut microbiome in children with cancer. Abstract Gut microbiome impairment is a serious side effect of cancer treatment. The aim of this study was to identify the effects of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) treatment on gut microbiota composition in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Fecal microbiotas were categorized using specific primers targeting the V1–V3 region of 16S rDNA in eligible pediatric ALL patients after HSCT (n = 16) and in healthy controls (Ctrl, n = 13). An intra-hospital exercise program was also organized for child patients during HSCT treatment. Significant differences in gut microbiota composition were observed between ALL HSCT and Ctrl with further negative effects. Plasma C-reactive protein correlated positively with the pathogenic bacteria Enterococcus spp. and negatively with beneficial bacteria Butyriccocus spp. or Akkermansia spp. , respectively (rs = 0.511, p = 0.05; rs = −0.541, p = 0.04; rs = −0.738, p = 0.02). Bacterial alpha diversity correlated with the exercise training characteristics. Therefore, specific changes in the microbiota of children were associated with systemic inflammation or the ability to exercise physically during HSCT treatment.
The building size effect on bird community assemblages in tropical urban ecosystem

Abstract. Utama AA, Nurvianto S. 2022. The building size effect on bird community assemblages in tropical urban ecosystem. Biodiversitas 23: 2775-2782. The construction of buildings is one of the factors that cause landscape changes in urban areas. Landscape changes can result in the fragmentation of animal habitats that live in urban areas. Characteristics of urban structures, such as spatial configuration and distribution of building types, are some of the factors that influence the distribution pattern and abundance of bird species in urban areas. This research aimed to describe the effect of building type on the diversity of bird species in Province of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, or Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY). Bird data were recorded using the point count method, while building type data and vegetation height were obtained by subtracting Digital Surface Model (DSM) data and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data in the built-up area. The data was recorded from three levels of urbanization, namely urban, suburban and rural. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was used to visualize the response of birds to the type of building. After that, the Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was used to determine the effect of the type of building on the diversity of bird species. The results showed that shrub cover affected species richness and abundance of birds. The building types with a height below 18 meters had a negative effect on the abundance and diversity of birds in suburban areas. The abundance of birds in urban areas was positively affected by the type of building with a height of between 18 and 30 meters. The existence of buildings in urban areas can reduce bird feed sources. Making spatial plans that provide more variety of plant cover and diversity of building heights are expected to increase bird diversity in urban areas.
Antimicrobial Resistance among Sputum Pathogens in Post ‎Hepatitis C Cirrhotic Patients: a Cross-Sectional Study‎

Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet. Results: The most common organisms isolated from sputum samples in the present study were E coli (19.39%), Klebsiella spp (15.31%), Staph aureus (14.29%) and Pseudomonas (9.18%) while no growth of organisms observed in 28.58%. The antimicrobial-susceptibility for Enterobacteriaceae species isolated from sputum showed higher sensitivity to Imipenem (88.2%), Piperacillin – tazobactam (73.5%), and Ampicillin (70.59%) while Ceftriaxone , Ceftazidime and Cefotaxime showed higher resistance respectively (64.71%, 58.82% and 55.89%). The antimicrobial-susceptibility results for S.aureus species isolated from sputum showed higher sensitivity to Vancomycin (100%) followed by Oxacillin ( 64.29%) while Penicillin G showed complete resistance 100%, followed by Tetracycline 92.86% ,and Co- trimoxazole 85.71%. Conclusion: Gram-negative bacteria were the cause of bacterial infections in significant proportion of patients with increased sensitivity to B-lactam antibiotics and ampicillin. However third and fourth generation cephalosporin had the higher resistance values.
Relationships between the Perception of Footwear Comfort and the Fear of Falls in People at the Early Period of Old Age

Objective: The present study aimed to analyze the relationships between the perceptions of footwear comfort with fear of falls in younger-old women and men. Participants: the population sample involved 100 free-living community dwellers aged 65–74. Design: the Falls Efficacy Scale-International and a visual analogue scale to assess perception of footwear comfort were used as research tools. Results: there were statistically significant differences in the FES-I results in people who suffered a fall in the last year compared to those who did not experience a fall (p < 0.001), as well as in the subjective assessment of mediolateral control in people who have suffered and have not suffered a fall in the last year (p = 0.033). In women, statistically significant relationships were found in the subjective assessment of shoe comfort in terms of arch height (p = 0.025) and material properties of the footwear (p = 0.036) with the results of FES-I. Conclusions: People who have fallen show a higher level of fear of falling. The assessment of footwear comfort in terms of mediolateral control was lower in the younger-old who had experienced a fall in the last year. In women, a worse assessment of arch height and material properties of the footwear is accompanied by greater fear of falling.
Adding Insult to Injury: Arrests Reduce Attendance through Institutional Mechanisms

Students across the United States experience high levels of contact with the police. To clarify the causal relationships of this contact with educational outcomes and the mechanisms by which such relationships arise, we estimate the effects of arrest on student engagement with school using daily attendance data. Recently arrested students missed significantly more school than did students who would be arrested later in the school year. The effects of arrest on attendance can be attributed to suspensions and court appearances; we found little evidence of changes in absences due to health or skipping school. These results suggest that institutional, not student centric, mechanisms drive the relationship between arrest and educational outcomes. Were it not for institutional channels, particularly exclusionary discipline, arrested students would likely remain more engaged in school. Estimates are similar for white and black students, but black students are differentially affected because they are arrested at higher rates.
Collaborative optimization of bushing installation angle and bushing stiffness of torsion beam suspension to improve the handing stability of the whole vehicle

Both the bushing installation angle and bushing stiffness of torsion beam suspension have important and complex effects on suspension characteristics and vehicle handling stability. For improving the vehicle handling stability by optimizing the two, this paper systematically analyzes the influence mechanism of the bushing installation angle and bushing stiffness of the torsion beam suspension on the suspension C characteristic. The nonlinear relationship between the bushing installation angle and the steady-state characteristics index in the local design space is discussed. The influence mechanism of the bushing installation angle and bushing stiffness on the frequency response characteristics is deeply analyzed, the variation relationship of the frequency characteristic index at the low frequency of 0.5 Hz under different bushing installation angles and bushing stiffnesses is obtained. Finally, the bushing stiffness, which has a great influence on the frequency characteristics, and the bushing installation angle are taken as the optimization variables, and the frequency characteristic index is taken as the optimization goal, and the multi-objective collaborative optimization of the frequency characteristic is carried out with the help of genetic algorithm. From the comparative analysis of transient and steady-state characteristics before and after optimization, it can be seen the vehicle handling stability has been improved.
Additive Manufacturing for Aerospace from Inception to Certification

Metal additive manufacturing (MAM) does not require any preface for its potential applications in various engineering and technological sectors. This article comprehensively discusses about the application of additive manufacturing technique specifically aerospace components. The structure of this article begins with an introduction to the current state-of-the-art MAM technologies with the aid of patent landscape analysis. Any manufacturing starts with understating of the manufacturing cycle, so herein, the aerospace manufacturing cycle has been discussed commencing from the design phase and followed by the process parameters selection. The immediate effect after printing is the selection of evaluation parameters, wherein the surface texture analysis of AM printed components is discussed. This paves to discuss about the specific alloys such as titanium alloy and Inconel alloys which are widely used in the aerospace industry. This analysis paves a path for the utilization of these materials to manufacture specific aerospace components which are also discussed. Thereby, the impact of MAM over the aerospace sector and the guidelines to decision making on the suitable variant of MAM has been discussed clearly with the help of earlier literatures. Finally, the qualification and certification procedure are discussed therein, leading to the conclusion about the future scope of MAM in the aerospace sector.
The ozone–climate penalty over South America and Africa by 2100

Abstract. Climate change has the potential to increase surface ozone (O3) concentrations, known as the “ozone–climate penalty”, through changes to atmospheric chemistry, transport and dry deposition. In the tropics, the response of surface O3 to changing climate is relatively understudied but has important consequences for air pollution and human and ecosystem health. In this study, we evaluate the change in surface O3 due to climate change over South America and Africa using three state-of-the-art Earth system models that follow the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 3-7.0 emission scenario from CMIP6. In order to quantify changes due to climate change alone, we evaluate the difference between simulations including climate change and simulations with a fixed present-day climate. We find that by 2100, models predict an ozone–climate penalty in areas where O3 is already predicted to be high due to the impacts of precursor emissions, namely urban and biomass burning areas, although on average, models predict a decrease in surface O3 due to climate change. We identify a small but robust positive trend in annual mean surface O3 over polluted areas. Additionally, during biomass burning seasons, seasonal mean O3 concentrations increase by 15 ppb (model range 12 to 18 ppb) in areas with substantial biomass burning such as the arc of deforestation in the Amazon. The ozone–climate penalty in polluted areas is shown to be driven by an increased rate of O3 chemical production, which is strongly influenced by NOx concentrations and is therefore specific to the emission pathway chosen. Multiple linear regression finds the change in NOx concentration to be a strong predictor of the change in O3 production, whereas increased isoprene emission rate is positively correlated with increased O3 destruction, suggesting NOx-limited conditions over the majority of tropical Africa and South America. However, models disagree on the role of climate change in remote, low-NOx regions, partly because of significant differences in NOx concentrations produced by each model. We also find that the magnitude and location of the ozone–climate penalty in the Congo Basin has greater inter-model variation than that in the Amazon, so further model development and validation are needed to constrain the response in central Africa. We conclude that if the climate were to change according to the emission scenario used here, models predict that forested areas in biomass burning locations and urban populations will be at increasing risk of high O3 exposure, irrespective of any direct impacts on O3 via the prescribed emission scenario.