Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A non-enzymatic nanoceria electrode for non-invasive glucose monitoring

Nanoceria (CeO2) is a special rare earth material, which has electron transfer and catalytic ability. In this paper, an electrochemical method is used to combine CeO2 and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on a glassy carbon electrode. It is shown that this combination can construct a catalyst–electron transfer system. The synergistic effect between CeO2 and AuNPs can enable the system to mimic the enzyme–electron transfer function of glucose oxidase and increase the electron transfer rate, which can significantly increase the sensitivity and hence measure the glucose concentration through an electrochemical method. The system demonstrates a high sensitivity of 1071.52 μA mM−1 cm−2, and a detection limit of 2.86 × 10−3 mM (S/N = 3) across a linear range of 0.02–0.6 mM. Moreover, with a relatively low electrochemical surface area (ESA), the sensor demonstrates good stability, reproducibility, and anti-interference performance toward ascorbic acid (AA), uric acid (UA), and NaCl. The electrode therefore may be used to monitor the glucose level in human fluids, such as saliva and tears.
Meeting Cognitive Demands of Lesson Planning: Introducing the CODE-PLAN Model to Describe and Analyze Teachers’ Planning Competence

Abstract This article proposes a new research approach to teachers’ lesson planning. While numerous guidelines have been dominating lesson planning as an object of teacher education, we utilize teacher cognition and expertise research to view lesson planning from a different perspective: We argue that lesson planning typically demands specific cognitive skills that teachers must master to create high quality instructional practice. The so-called CODE-PLAN model (cognitive demands of lesson planning) forms the general theoretical framework for our conceptualization of six demands (content transformation, task creation, adaptation to student learning dispositions, clarity of learning objectives, unit contextualization, and phasing) to empirically describe and analyze teachers’ planning competence. We investigate how these demands are met through content analysis of 337 plans for demonstration lessons written by teacher candidates during induction in Germany. Statistical findings on the construct, curricular, and predictive validity of planning competence measures show that the CODE-PLAN model may open new empirical research perspectives on teacher planning competence and stimulate curriculum design in teacher education.
Education of Religious Characters in Indonesia

This article reviews about religious education in the congregation tariqah qadiriyah wa naqsyabandiyah. This research was conducted at the congregation in Sambas West Kalimantan. This research uses a qualitative approach with a method of data collection with interview techniques. The problem faced by nations in the world and Indonesia, in particular, is now being transformed by the need to globalize. This indicates that globalization is a phenomenon that cannot be avoided by anyone and any country. The consequences of globalization bring rapid changes and affect every aspect of life, including changes in moral values and social life. To overcome these problems, there is an immediate need to become a spiritual gate in internalizing religious values in living in the community.
Quercetin affects membrane lipids and apoptosis in three-dimensional fibroblast cultures

Abstract The polyphenol quercetin is associated with numerous beneficial health effects in various pathologies such as oxidative stress, neurodegenerative disorders, inflammation, neoplastic processes, age-related diseases, and so on. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of quercetin and its implication in the pharmaceutical practice require additional clarification. In this study we analyzed the biochemical mechanisms of quercetin effect on membrane lipids of fibroblasts cultured as three-dimensional (3D) cultures, which resemble living tissues more adequately compared to cellular monolayers. Quercetin treatment of 3D fibroblasts induced alterations of the plasma membrane phospholipid and fatty acid composition as well as in the phospholipid metabolizing enzymes sphingomyelinase and phospholipase A2. The level of sphingomyelin (SM), which acts as endogenous membrane antioxidant, was elevated due to quercetin action. Incubation of 3D fibroblasts with quercetin induced augmentation in the saturated fatty acids and reduction of all polyunsaturated fatty acids in the membrane phospholipid molecules of the plasma membranes, indicating an additional increase of the resistance to oxidative damage. Quercetin treatment reduced cholesterol susceptibility to oxidation, a phenomenon which is probably related to the observed increase in the level of SM. In addition, Western blot analysis showed augmented phosphorylation of Akt and expression of Bcl-2 in quercetin-treated cell, indicating that apoptosis was suppressed by quercetin. In conclusion, the reported results contribute to a better understanding of the beneficial effects of quercetin on the structure and functions of plasma membranes of 3D cell cultures, which are a more adequate model of living tissues.
Pain expression assessment based on a locality and identity aware network

In clinical medicine, the pain feeling is a signiﬁcant indicator for the medical condition of patients. Of late, automatic pain assessment methods have received more and more interests. Many researchers proposed corresponding methods and achieved impressive results. However, they always ignore the locality and individual differences of painful expression. Therefore, a locality and identity aware network (LIAN) for pain assessment is presented here. Concretely, for the locality characteristic, a locality aware module consisting of a two-branch structure, feature and attention branches, is presented. The former learns pain features by a deep network, while the latter guides the pain features to focus on the dis-criminational regions of pain. As for the individual differences, an identity aware module with a multi-task method is proposed to represent identity-related information to achieve identity-invariant pain assessment. Extensive experiments on public databases show the superiority of LIAN in pain assessment.
Antibacterial activity of fruit and bark extracts of Tamarindus indica against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus

The preliminary antibacterial activity of fruit and bark extracts of Tamarindus indica was evaluated against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus using agar well diffusion method. The bioactive components of the dried powdered plant parts were extracted using aqueous, ethanol and acetone solvents. The ethanol fruit extract of T. indica was found to be effective at different concentrations of 6.25mg/ml-100mg/ml, with mean zone of inhibition ranging between 6.0±2.5mm-20.0±4.5mm for S. aureus and 5.0±2.2mm-19.0±4.5mm for E. coli. Aqueous extract at 6.25mg/ml-100mg/ml concentrations, had mean zone of inhibition of 10.0±3.2mm-23.0±4.8mm for S. aureus and 9.0±3.0-20.0±4.5mm for E. coli. Acetone extract at 6.25mg/ml-100mg/ml concentrations, had mean zone of inhibition of 3.0±1.7-18.0±4.5mm for S. aureus and 3.0±1.7-9.0±3.0mm for E. coli. For the bark extract of T. indica, ethanol extract at 6,25mg/ml-100mg/ml concentrations, had a mean zone of inhibition ranging between 4.0±2.0-16±4.0mm for S. aureus and 1.0±1.0-9.0±3.0mm for E. coli. Aqueous extract at 6.25mg/ml-100mg/ml had mean zone of inhibition of 5.0±2.2-20±4.5mm for S. aureus and 2.0±1.4-6.0±2.4mm for E. coli. For the fruit, aqueous extract had MIC value of 12.5mg/ml and MBC value of 25mg/ml for both E. coli and S.aureus, ethanol extract had MIC value of 6.25mg/ml and MBC value of 12.5mg/ml for both E. coli and S. aureus, while acetone extract had MIC value of 6.25mg/ml and MBC value of 12.5mg/ml for E. coli and MIC value of 12.5mg/ml and MBC value of 25mg/ml for S. aureus. For the bark, aqueous extract had MIC value of 12.5mg/ml and MBC value of 25mg/ml for both E.coli and S. aureus. Ethanol extract had MIC value of 6.25mg/ml and MBC value of 12.5mg/ml for both E. coli and S. aureus. Acetone extract had MIC value of 12.5mg/ml and MBC value of 25mg/ml for both E. coli and S. aureus. The results support the use of the plant parts as therapeutic agents against diseases caused by E. coli and S. aureus.Key words: Antibacterial Activity, Tamarindus indica, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aurues
The Importance of Including Water Temperature Simulations in a 2D Fish Habitat Model for the St. Lawrence River

Extreme climatic conditions likely caused a massive fish mortality during the summer of 2001 in the St. Lawrence River. To corroborate this hypothesis, we used a physical habitat simulation approach incorporating hydraulic and water temperature models. Spawning Habitat Suitability Indices (HSI) for common carp (Cyprinus carpio) were developed using fuzzy logic and applied to the model outputs to estimate habitat weighted usable area during the event. The results revealed that areas suitable for common carp spawning (HSI > 0.3) were severely reduced by high water temperatures, which exceeded 28 °C during the mortality event. During the mortality event, the amount of suitable habitat was reduced to <200 ha/day, representing less than 15% of the maximum potential suitable habitat in the study reach. In addition, the availability of cooler habitats that could have been used as thermal refuges was also reduced. These results indicate that the high water temperature in spawning areas and reduced accessibility to thermal refuge habitats exposed the carp to substantial physiological and environmental stress. The high water temperatures were highly detrimental to the fish and eventually led to the observed mortalities. This study demonstrates the importance of including water temperature in habitat suitability models.
Comparative assessment of dried fish quality collected from market and drying centre at Kuakata in Patuakhali, Bangladesh

The study identified the quality differences of dried Chinese pomfret (Stromateus chinensis), Bombay duck (Harpodon nehereus) and ribbon fish (Trichiurus haumela) from market and drying center at Kuakata, Patuakhali. The sensory, nutritional and microbial quality of collected dried samples were evaluated following organoleptic quality index, standard AOAC and aerobic plate count methods, respectively. Organoleptically no significant difference found between the samples from market and drying center. The highest moisture content value was obtained in Bombay duck (29.78%) from the market and lowest value in Chinese pomfret (20.06%) from drying center. The highest and lowest protein content was in Chinese pomfret (60.73%) and Bombay duck (47.9%) from drying center and market, respectively. The lipid and ash content varied from 2.85% to 7.20% and 13.98% to 19.57% for all the dried fish species collected from both sites. Microbiologically, higher aerobic plate count (APC), total E. coli count (TEC) and total Salmonella count (TSC) were found in Chinese pomfret at 1.96×106 CFU/g, 3.98×105 CFU/g and 1.62×105 CFU/g from market and lowest count found in Bombay duck at 5.05×105, 2.22×105 and 0.81×105 from drying center, respectively. In ribbon fish no Salmonella sp. was found. Based on the sensory and nutritional quality the study conclude that among three species and two sites studied, the dried Bombay duck from the fish drying center had better quality characteristics than the counter parts. However, higher microbial load especially pathogenic TSC and TEC suggests to improve hygiene and sanitary practices, better market distribution and storage facilities need to be followed by the producers for safe and quality dried fishery products.
Segmentasi Citra Pembuluh Darah Retina Menggunakan Operasi Morfologi Iteratif

Retinal vessel segmentation is part of the morphological extraction of retinal blood vessels that plays an essential role in medical image processing. Manual segmentation is possible to do, but it is time-consuming and requires special operators. Moreover, the possibility of variability between operators is vast. This study aims to answer the shortcomings of the manual segmentation process by automatically segmenting retinal blood vessels. The main contribution of this study is the use of a simple method to iteratively segment retinal blood vessels. Â All processes in the segmentation are simulated using Matlab. The algorithm was evaluated by comparing the results of the automatic segmentation with 20 manually segmented images from the STARE dataset. The result show specificity 98.13%, accuracy 93.60%, sensitivity 56.42%, precision 80.48%, and the dice coefficient 64.06%. In conclusion, the automatic retinal blood vessel image segmentation process worked well.
Students’ argumentation in the contexts of science, religious education, and interdisciplinary science-religious education scenarios

ABSTRACT Background Argumentation, that is the coordination of evidence and reasons to support claims, is an important skill for democratic society, developing subject-specific literacies, and can be embedded in multiple school subjects. While argumentation has been extensively researched in science education, interdisciplinary argumentation is less explored, particularly between subjects where collaboration is not the norm, such as science and religious education (RE). Yet everyday issues often involve considering information from multiple sources, such as scientific information or ethical, moral, or religious perspectives. Purpose The purpose of this study was to better understand students’ abilities in argumentation within and across the school subjects of science and RE to inform research and practice of interdisciplinary argumentation. Sample The participants of this study were 457 students, aged between 11 and 14 years, from 10 secondary schools in England. Following data cleaning, 394 student responses were analysed. Design and Methods Students completed simultaneous written assessments for argumentation in three tasks which are situated within three different subject contexts: (1) science (2) RE, and (3) an interdisciplinary context which involved argumentation from science and RE. Results In each of the three contexts, high proportions of students achieve all available marks for identifying claims and evidence. These proportions drop when constructing the link between claim and evidence (warrant) and constructing an evaluative argument. Higher performances were generally noted in the context of science and that students experience particular challenges in argumentation in the RE scenario. Conclusions This study contributes to our understanding of the challenges and successes of students’ argumentation within and across the subjects of science and RE. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.
Growth Enhancement Facilitated by Gaseous CO2 through Heterologous Expression of Reductive Tricarboxylic acid Cycle Genes in Escherichia coli

The enzymatic mechanisms of carbon fixation by autotrophs, such as the reductive tricarboxylic acid cycle (rTCA), have inspired biotechnological approaches to producing bio-based chemicals directly through CO2. To explore the possibility of constructing an rTCA cycle in Escherichia coli and to investigate their potential for CO2 assimilation, a total of ten genes encoding the key rTCA cycle enzymes, including α-ketoglutarate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase, ATP-dependent citrate lyase, and fumarate reductase/succinate dehydrogenase, were cloned into E. coli. The transgenic E. coli strain exhibited enhanced growth and the ability to assimilate external inorganic carbon with a gaseous CO2 supply. Further experiments conducted in sugar-free medium containing hydrogen as the electron donor and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as the electron acceptor proved that the strain is able to undergo anaerobic respiration, using CO2 as the major carbon source. The transgenic stain demonstrated CO2-enhanced growth, whereas the genes involved in chemotaxis, flagellar assembly, and acid-resistance were upregulated under the anaerobic respiration. Furthermore, metabolomic analysis demonstrated that the total concentrations of ATP, ADP, and AMP in the transgenic strain were higher than those in the vector control strain and these results coincided with the enhanced growth. Our approach offers a novel strategy to engineer E. coli for assimilating external gaseous CO2.
Mobile Microrobots for In Vitro Biomedical Applications: A Survey

The demand in the biomedical field for fast and precise devices for in vitro applications has increased in recent years. Mobile microrobots are significantly suitable for such applications and are developing rapidly. These microrobots offer untethered actuation toward a contamination-free environment while allowing for fast and precise handling of biological entities for applications such as positioning, sensing, delivery, and cell surgery that are highly effective for new drug discoveries and improving our understanding of cells’ behavior on the single-cell level. Here, we present a review of the recent state of the art in the actuation and implementation of mobile microrobots for in vitro applications. We first explore the widely used methods of wireless actuation. Next, we address the challenge of implementing an on-board interaction technique to handle the target biological entity without affecting the actuation of the microrobot. Finally, we discuss the future directions that would draw the basic outline for the next generation of mobile microrobots for in vitro applications.
High-performance Cardiovascular Medicine: Artificial Intelligence for Coronary Artery Disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is identified as the leading cause of death globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Approximately 17.9 million people are dying due to cardiovascular disease, which is an estimation of 31% of all deaths worldwide. CVDs are generally affecting the heart and blood vessels in the human body. Since healthcare is an essential factor for a country and its economy, researchers are looking for solutions to predict disease before getting into serious problems. This research introduces a method to development of an algorithm to predict coronary artery disease based on artificial intelligence. The algorithm was tested with 72 random subjects, which covered 11 attributes such as age, gender, height, weight, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, smoking, alcohol intake, and physical activities. According to the results, the prediction accuracy of the system was 81.62% at 0.879 precision.
Fresnel calculations of double/multi-layer antireflection coatings on silicon substrates

Reflectance spectra calculations of double and multi-layer antireflection coating (ARC) structures based on Fresnel equations were studied in this work. A detailed explanation of Fresnel equations was presented with different polarization of incoming light for multi-layer antireflection coatings for solar cell applications. TiO 2 /SiN x , MgF 2 /ZnS thin film stacks for double layer ARC and SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 /TiO 2 , MgF 2 /SiO 2 /TiO 2 thin film stacks for multi-layer ARC were studied. Transfer matrix method and PC1D simulation software were used additionally to simulate crystalline silicon solar cells with considered double and multi-layer ARC films on their front surface with calculated thicknesses. Average reflectance (400-1100 nm) of silicon surface by Fresnel equations with triple layer ARC was around 2.72%. Solar cell performances with each ARC structure were compared to evaluate the achieved output of reflectance of investigated thin films. Simulated short circuit current density of solar cells with tri-layer ARC was 39.71 mA/cm 2 , was significantly higher than that of the ARC-free solar cells resulting in an efficiency of 19.1%.
The Impact of Titanium Dioxide Type Combined with Coffee Oil Obtained from Coffee Industry Waste on Sunscreen Product Performance

(1) Background: Titanium dioxide (TiO2) consists of three polymorphs, including anatase, rutile and brookite. This work aimed to elucidate the influence of rutile and anatase forms in the performance of sunscreens formulated with green coffee oil (GCO) from coffee beans discarded in the agri-food industry. (2) Methods: TiO2 particles were characterized in terms of size and wettability. The sunscreens formulated with GCO were characterized regarding the droplet size, rheology, texture profile analysis (TPA), in vitro Sun Protection Factor and Water Resistance Retention. Topical delivery and permeation studies were performed to confirm caffeine release and skin penetration. (3) Results: Particle size distributions of rutile and anatase TiO2 particles were similar, however, smaller droplets as well as decreased viscosity and increased thixotropy were obtained for anatase TiO2 and GCO formulation compared to rutile form formulations. Notwithstanding, all formulations exhibited linear viscoelastic behavior. Regarding the TPA, a wide range of mechanical properties improved mainly by GCO rather than TiO2 form has been demonstrated. The influence of TiO2 form on UV protection was better evidenced in absence of GCO. The sunscreen formulations containing GCO presented a favorable topical delivery as confirmed by caffeine release and permeation. (4) Conclusions: Both TiO2 forms combined with GCO provided suitable properties including an effective ultraviolet (UV)-light protection.
Inter-annual variation in winter distribution impacts individual seabird contamination with mercury

: Migratory seabirds are exposed to various pollutants throughout their annual cycle. Among them, mercury (Hg) is of particular concern given its large impact on animal health. Recent studies suggest that winter is a critical period for seabirds when contamination by Hg can be higher than at other times of year. However, individuals within and between species can have different migration strategies that could affect their exposure. Here, we combined multi-year individual tracking data and Hg measurements from 6 Arctic seabird species. We investigated whether inter-annual variations in individual winter contamination with Hg was related to seabird fidelity to a wintering site over years. First, our results show that Hg concentrations above the toxicity threshold (i.e. 5 µ g g – 1 dry weight in feathers) were observed in variable proportions according to species (from 2% of northern fulmars to 37% of Brünnich’s guillemots). Second, individua ls with high fidelity to a wintering ground had more similar Hg concentrations among years compared to individuals with low fidelity, suggesting an effect of their migratory strategy on Hg contamination. Further, we found that the directional change in wintering areas among years influenced seabird Hg contamination, highlighting an additional effect of seabirds’ winter distribution. More specifically, individuals migrating to the northwest direction of a previous wintering ground tended to be more contaminated compared those moving to eastern directions. These results confirm spatial differences in Hg concentration throughout the North Atlantic – Arctic and an east-west gradient increase in Hg concentrations. Verifying this trend will require more large-scale ecotoxicological studies at smaller spatial resolution.