Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Aqueous Extract of Khaya grandifoliola C. DC. Stem Bark on some Disaccharidases Activity in Iron-Deficient Weanling Rats

This study was aimed at investigating the effect of the aqueous extracts of Khaya grandifoliola stem bark on some disaccharidases (lactase and sucrase) in diet-induced anemia in weanling rats. Weanling rats of 21 days old were maintained on iron-deficient diets for four weeks to induce anemia before treatment. A total of 35 weanling rats were used, grouped into five rats per group of iron-deficient diet/distilled water, iron-sufficient diet/distilled water, change of iron-deficient diet after four weeks to iron-sufficient diet, iron-deficient diet/ Standard drug, iron-deficient diet/25 mg/kg body weight of aqueous plant extract, iron-deficient diet/50 mg/kg body weight of aqueous plant extract, and iron-deficient diet/100 mg/kg body weight of aqueous plant extract. Phytochemical screening of the extract revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, cardiac glycosides, tannins, anthraquinones and flavonoids. The extract administered orally produced significant increase in the activity of intestinal mucosa sucrase and lactase (P < .05). The change of diet from iron deficient diet to iron sufficient diet increased disaccharidases activities in the intestinal mucosa. However, the aqueous extract of Khaya grandifoliola showed a higher disaccharidases activity when compared to the group of rats that were fed iron-sufficient diet. This study revealed that plant extract administered Original Research Article Ajiboye and Oladiji; AJRB, 7(3): 1-7, 2020; Article no.AJRB. 60874 2 increased disaccharidases activity in the intestinal mucosa in diet-induced anemic group of weanling rats and thus lends credence to Khaya grandifoliola use in folklore medicine in the management of anemia.
Unusual microscopic appearance of Sarcoptes scabiei from skin scrapping sample and its epidemiology

Scabies is still a global parasitic problem with an iceberg phenomenon. Vulnerable people including those with comorbidities and live in close contact to each other in a long time. Its causative agent is Sarcoptes scabiei , an Arthropod which live in the host by burrowing and making tunnel in the skin. The patient usually complaint suffer from nocturnal itching, beside the skin derangement of the affected areas. Here we reported an unusual appearance of S. scabiei from a skin scrapping sample sent to the laboratory of parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Kristen Indonesia, Jakarta Indonesia and also discuss its epidemiology.
The Ectomycorrhizal Community of Crimean Linden Trees in Warsaw, Poland

Urban trees provide many ecosystem services essential to city dwellers well-being. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are symbionts for trees and may also contribute to urban tree health and thus maintenance of the ecosystem services. However, no studies so far have analysed the composition of the ECM community colonising Crimean linden. In this study we investigated ECM associations of Crimean linden trees in the urban environment, comparing street trees with those growing in a park. Moreover, we studied the ECM community of healthy versus unhealthy linden trees growing along a street. The health status of each tree was assessed using tree health indicators. The smallest degree ECM colonisation was observed in unhealthy street trees (40.5%). Cenococcum geophilum was found to be the most abundant ECM fungal species of the Crimean linden growing in the park (23.9%). Our results suggest that the linden trees growing in the park and those growing along the street but without disease symptoms did not differ in their ECM richness. However, the unhealthy street trees showed less ECM diversity and abundance. Moreover, strong negative correlations between the concentrations of Na and Cl in the soil and ECM colonisation were found. This study describes, for the first time, the ECM fungal community on Tilia “Euchlora” trees grown in Europe. We report novel findings on the ECM associations of Crimean linden trees in an urban ecosystem. Further research should focus on the role of native mycorrhizal fungal communities in nutrient acquisition by urban trees in the presence of salt stress.
Evaluation of DNA Extraction Methods for Detection of Leishmania by Polymerase Chain Reaction

There are several methods used to obtain DNA from cells; however, the quantity, integrity, and purity of DNA vary among the methods, which may interfere with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results. The objective was to determine the most efficient and cost-effective method that provides the best DNA yield and PCR results. Three methods of DNA isolation were compared: 20% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), guanidine isothiocyanate-phenol-chloroform (GTPC), and DNA extraction using a commercial kit (GE Healthcare GenomicPrep Blood DNA Isolation KitTM). Human peripheral blood samples were inoculated with 104 promastigotes of Leishmania infantum. DNA was quantified and PCR was performed with 13A/13B primers. The results showed that a higher DNA yield was obtained using the GTPC technique (214.51 ng/μL), followed by SDS (26.16 ng/μL) and the commercial kit (10.99 ng/μL). We concluded that while all of the techniques were effective for obtaining DNA, the GTPC method provided the best yield and the brightest bands.
Selection of Core Collection from Jesso-Balam Rice ( Oryza sativa L.) Accessions Using Quantitative, Qualitative and Molecular Characters-A Review

Genetic improvement of rice ( Oryza sativa L.) for yield is important for increasing demand of the growing population and the changing climate of the world. Recent studies showed that backcrossing twice using modern varieties as receptor and mini core collection as doner, most of the undesirable traits could be improved remarkably and in other words its maximum allele diversity could be brought back into rice fields. Core collection is defined as a subset chosen to represent the most genetic diversity of an initial collection with a minimum of redundancies. The objective of the present study was to review the selection of core collection of Jesso-Balam group of rice genotypes through quantitative, qualitative and molecular characters. Earlier, the same germplasms were characterized for agro-morphological, physico-chemical and molecular characters and grouped into different clusters by different methods at Bangladesh Rice Research Institute during 2009-12. Finally, the core collection was selected by reviewing the above characterized data and using the hierarchical cluster analysis. Moreover, the selection processes of core collection were improved by applying composite evaluation methods; such as agro-morphological traits, biochemical characters and so on, through sampling strategies based on genotypic values, predicted genotypic value, comparing different genetic distances, cluster methods and sampling strategies methods, molecular characterization or SSR marker base data. As a result, the selected core germplasm of Jesso-Balam rice accessions were JBPL1, JBPL8, JBPL9, JBPL10, JBPL13, JBPL15, JBPL16, JBPL17, JBPL19, JBPL20, JBPL21, JBPL23, JBPL25 and JBPL26. In conclusion, the core collection need to be considered as the working collection of Jesso-Balam rice genotypes for their easy and safe conservation and effective utilization in Gene bank. The Agriculturists 2017; 15(1) 170-181
Revegetation of subtropical soil slopes: Groundcover performance and the implications of urban development and slope features on plant community

Co-ordinating Editor: Rob Marrs Abstract Questions: Is revegetation of soil slopes with the currently used plant groundcovers effective in promoting dense vegetation and ecological values of landscapes? Does the degree of urban development influence the abundance of groundcovers? Is there any relationship between slope features and the plant community of soil slopes? Location: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. Methods: We conducted a vegetation study focusing on groundcovers on 35 revegetated soil slopes in urban and suburban areas of Hong Kong and determined differences in plant cover, diversity and community composition among areas under various degrees of development. We also assessed slope features, including presence of erosion control mats, canopy openness, slopes angle, area, elevation and substrate properties, such as soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and nutrient status, to examine their relationships to the plant community composition. Results: Plant cover was generally about 30%, with ferns having the highest cover. The initially planted groundcover species were replaced by native graminoids and ferns, or an invasive climbing herb, Wedelia trilobata. Soil slopes covered by erosion control mats had significantly lower plant cover than those without. Contrasting plant community composition of groundcovers was found among areas with different degrees of urban development and between slopes with and without erosion control mats. Slope angle, canopy openness, sandy soil texture and soil EC were closely associated with the plant communities of soil slopes. Conclusions: The current planted groundcovers used for revegetating soil slopes led to unsatisfactory plant cover but allowed colonization of other native groundcovers. Planting strategy using more adaptable native groundcovers, but not invasive species, is a feasible approach to ecologically restore soil slopes. The degree of development and certain slope features influence the plant community and should be considered in the revegetation of soil slopes.
Does the Choice of IJV under Institutional Duality Promote the Innovation Performance of Chinese Manufacturing Firms? Evidence from Listed Chinese Manufacturing Companies

The relationship between the strategic choice of internationalization under institutional duality and the performance of emerging market multinational enterprises (EM-MNEs) will become a focal point for scholars, practitioners and policy makers in the future. In order to better understand the determinants of the entry mode choice under institutional duality for EM-MNEs, based on the sample of Chinese manufacturing listed companies ‘going out’ from 2003 to 2015, we investigated the impact of organization institutional inertia and host-country institutional quality on the choice of the international joint venture (IJV) of Chinese manufacturing firms, as well as the effect and potential problems of the IJV choice on the firms’ innovation performance under institutional duality. The main results of our empirical analyses provide evidence that the response to institutional duality means that Chinese firms have the possibility to choose IJV in entry modes ahead of their capability support, and subject to insufficient professional field accumulation, cross-cultural management and joint governance capability, this premature choice of IJV actually hinders their innovation efficiency. Furthermore, the test on the influence of firm heterogeneity found that, when the firm is privately owned or has a lower internationalization breadth, the above negative moderating effect of IJV choice is more significant. Our findings enrich the literature on the relationship between the strategic choice of internationalization and innovation performance of EM-MNEs, and provide inspiring and straightforward empirical evidence.
Statistical Analysis and Prediction Models for Performance of Re-mixed Concrete in Hot Climate Regions

Prediction models are proposed to estimate features such as strength and physical properties of concrete mixes which are subjected to re-mixing process. The effects of re-mixing concrete mixes after adding additional water on the physical properties (final slump, dry unit weight and pulse velocity) and hardened concrete strength (compressive strength, tensile splitting strength, modulus of rupture, static and dynamic modulus of elasticity) of concrete at 7 and 28 days are studied. The empirical equations are proposed in terms of the fresh properties according to the characteristics of the mixture of concrete (ratio of water to cement, humidity, mix air content, mix temperature, proportions of mix and unit weight). It is concluded that the predicted values using the developed models fairly agree with the experimental results collected from previous studies .
SDN Based Management Platform for Intranet Services

Telecom operators experience difficulties in applications such as virtual local area network (VLAN) management, bandwidth management and access management while providing intranet services in traditional networks. In this study, open network operating system (ONOS) based software defined network (SDN) platform is developed for intranet services in order to address these problems. The developed platform has been integrated onto an existing network and a new topology has been created. In this proposed topology, intranet network elements are connected to the new generation SDN switches instead of the legacy switches. The proposed solution has been tested on a live network. According to test results where the proposed SDN platform is compared with the traditional intranet network in a live network scenario under varying traffic load, the SDN based platform achieved very successful results in terms of latency, jitter, packet loss and flow setup times. Overall, the proposed SDN platform provides a good alternative to traditional solutions in large scale intranet networks, minimizing the workload spent by the operators in controlling the network, while achieving cost savings and eliminating vendor dependency.
Precoding Based Cross-Tier Interference Mitigation in Centralized-RAN

This letter considers a two-tier downlink interference problem as a case of study, where macrocell user equipment (UE) shares the same frequency band with femtocell UE and suffers from severe cross-tier interference. Power control is one of the spectrally-efficient techniques used to mitigate the interference. However, it harms femtocell users since the femto base station reduces the transmitted power. In this letter, a novel scheme is proposed to jointly suppress the interference on the macrocell users, and preserve the high data rates required by femtocell users under centralized radio access network. The analytical results well agreed with the conducted simulations, and showed the superiority of the proposed scheme in achieving higher throughput compared to existing schemes.
Dynamic stabilisation for an Euler–Bernoulli beam equation with boundary control and matched nonlinear disturbance

In this paper, we are concerned with dynamic stabilisation for a one-dimensional Euler–Bernoulli beam equation with boundary moment control and matched nonlinear uncertain disturbance. In the case of no disturbance, we show that a boundary feedback control law exponentially stabilises the system and Riesz basis generation holds for the closed-loop system. The well-posedness of the system in the sense of Salamon-Weiss, which is essentially important for the design of observer, is verified. We design an infinite-dimensional disturbance estimator, which doesn't need slow variation or high gain or boundedness of the derivation of the disturbance, to estimate the total disturbance. Based on the disturbance estimator, we design an output feedback control law. The Riesz basis generation and exponential stability of a couple system including the original equation is proved. Moreover, the boundedness of the closed-loop system is verified. Some numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the results.
Aptasensor development for detection of virus in water

Contamination of water by waterborne viruses causes serious health issues worldwide. The current virus detection methods are expensive and time-consuming and require access to well-equipped laboratories. This thesis describes the development of an impedimetric all-polymer aptasensor for detection of three types of waterborne viruses: norovirus, rotavirus and hepatitis A virus. The development of the aptasensor involved sample preparation for aptamer selection of rotavirus and hepatitis A virus, an iterative design process of the aptasensor, investigation of the surface immobilisation of aptamers and finally an impedimetric electrical characterisation of the sensor. The sample preparation of the rotavirus was based on purification and biotinylation of the virus to meet the requirements of the aptamer selection process. The selection process, performed by an external collaborator, was based on streptavidin coated magnetic bead separation, hence the needed biotinylation. It was found that the BPH linker gave the highest yield when the biotinylated rotavirus were immobilised onto the beads. The design of the viral aptasensor was determined by an iterative design process. The final chip design was based on a SD card design with an injection moulded PC substrate and lid. The electrodes were screen-printed PEDOT:PSS. The surface immobilisation of aptamers through UV cross-linking onto di erent polymer substrates was tested. As the success of this step is crucial for the aptasensor specificity and performances, the surface immobilisation was throughly investigated. The aptamer UV cross-linking onto PEDOT:PSS was promising. Furthermore, some passive absorption of the aptamers onto the PEDOT:PSS was found. The impedimetric electrical characterisation of the aptasensor chip was done with di erent media salinity and di erent pH values. The impedimetric measurements of the di erent media salinity showed the expected behaviour with the greatest change present in the region representing the solution resistance. The pH measurements did not show any significant change of the impedance, hence the chip was stable in the measured pH range, which corresponds to the expected pH range of water samples. The stability of the aptasensor chip was tested over a 2 week period in continuous flow. It was found that the electrodes were not damaged or degraded during the time period, as a constant impedance signal was measured. A solid foundation for the further development of the aptasensor for viral detection has been established and from this a new cheap and simple viral detection method can emerge.
Effect of Sequential Compression Device on Hemodynamic Changes After Spinal Anesthesia for Caesarean Section: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background The benefit of sequential compression device (SCD) for the prevention of hypotension after spinal anesthesia in cesarean sections has not been determined. Objectives In this study, an attempt was made to determine whether SCD can prevent hemodynamic changes following spinal anesthesia for cesarean sections. Methods In a prospective clinical trial, 76 parturient women undergoing elective cesarean sections under spinal anesthesia were randomly divided into SCD or control groups. The maternal hemodynamic changes within 75 min after spinal anesthesia, nausea, vomiting, and neonatal Apgar score at 1 and 5 min were compared between the groups. Results There were no significant differences between the groups in the patients’ characteristics, maximum sensory block, skin incision to delivery time, spinal anesthesia to delivery time (min), and the total duration of surgery. Concerning heart rate changes, RM ANOVA showed a significant difference in the effect of time, groups, and the interaction of the two factors (P < 0.0001, P < 0.0001, and P < 0.0001, respectively). Tukey post hoc test showed that 3 min after spinal anesthesia, diastolic blood pressure was significantly higher in the SCD group than in the control group (P < 0.05). The SCD group had meaningfully lower rates of nausea (P = 0.005) and vomiting (P = 0.001) than the control group. The SCD group also demonstrated a significantly lower mean ephedrine dosage per patient (4.1 mg against 17.1 mg, P = 0.001). However, no significant difference was observed between the groups in terms of neonatal Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes. Conclusions This study showed that SCD could reduce extensive changes in diastolic blood pressure as an important hemodynamic parameter and the incidence of nausea and vomiting. Thus, SCD can be used in spinal anesthesia care practices for elective cesarean sections.
Synergistic reinforcement of Cu–Ni–Al films with dual nanostructure

Nanocrystalline-strengthened surface layer significantly improves the surface hardness and wear resistance of Cu or Cu alloys and avoids the reduction of conductivity. However, the poor thermal stability limits its industrial application. Herein, a series of Cu-Ni-Al films were prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering, which shows γ (∼20 nm) + γ′΄ phase (∼10 nm) dual nanostructure. Compared with pure Cu film, γ′ phase precipitation-strengthened films possess higher hardness, outstanding wear resistance and a certain electrical conductivity. The strengthening mechanisms have been discussed in detail. After annealing at 450°C/20 h, the hardness of Cu-Ni-Al films decreases slightly, but their wear resistance remains essentially unchanged, exhibiting superior thermal stability, the main reason of which is that the growth of nanocrystalline Cu can be retarded through the precipitation of γ′ phases.
Complete mitochondrial genome of Xiphidiopsis (Xiphidiopsis) gurneyi (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Meconematinae)

Abstract Xiphidiopsis (Xiphidiopsis) gurneyi belongs to Meconematinae. The complete mitochondrial genome of X. (X.) gurneyi was sequenced by the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. The total length of the mitogenome was 16,225 bp and contains the typical gene arrangement, base composition, codon usage found in Meconematinae species. Phylogenetic tree was constructed based on concatenated datasets of PCGs and rRNAs of X. (X.) gurneyi and 19 Tettigoniidae species to assess their phylogenic relationship. Phylogenetic analysis showed that X. (X.) gurneyi was more closely related to the genus of Xizicus.
Infrared Image Adaptive Enhancement Guided by Energy of Gradient Transformation and Multiscale Image Fusion

The detail enhancement and dynamic range compression of infrared (IR) images is an important issue and a necessary practical application in the domain of IR image processing. This paper provides a novel approach to displaying high dynamic range infrared images on common display equipment with appropriate contrast and clear detail information. The steps are chiefly as follows. First, in order to protect the weak global details in different regions of the image, we adjust the original normalized image into multiple brightness levels by adaptive Gamma transformation. Second, each brightness image is decomposed into a base layer and several detail layers by the multiscale guided filter. Details in each image are enhanced separately. Third, to obtain the image with global details of the input image, enhanced images in each brightness are fused together. Last, we filter out the outliers and adjust the dynamic range before outputting the image. Compared with other conventional or cutting-edge methods, the experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach is effective and robust in dynamic range compression and detail information enhancement of IR image.