Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Immunocompromised Patients in Iran (2013–2022): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Toxoplasma gondii infection (toxoplasmosis) has the potential to cause a serious disease in immunocompromised patients and can be fatal in this population. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess comprehensively the pooled seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis among immunocompromised patients including HIV/AIDS patients, cancer patients, and transplant recipients in Iran. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar databases (international) and Scientific Information Database (SID), Magiran, IranMedex, and IranDoc databases (national) were systematically searched for all reports that possibly contained data for T. gondii prevalence in different immunocompromised populations in Iran between 2013 and 2022. Results: Overall, IgG seroprevalence rate of toxoplasmosis in Iranian immunocompromised patients was 45.1% (95% confidence interval (CI), 37.4–52.9). IgG seroprevalence rate of toxoplasmosis in 12 studies that included 2279 cancer patients, 19 studies that included 2565 HIV/AIDS patients and in 3 studies that included 200 transplant recipients was 43.6% (95% CI, 30.2–57.0), 45.9% (95% CI, 34.8–57.1) and 45.8% (95% CI, 32.5–59.0), respectively. Moreover, IgM seroprevalence rate in the 26 studies was 2.6% (95% CI, 1.4–3.7). Conclusion: Our findings represent a high seroprevalence rate of Toxoplasma IgG among immunocompromised patients. Health improvement and education toward prevention of toxoplasmosis is of great importance for these susceptible populations.
Path tracking control of differential drive mobile robot based on chaotic-billiards optimization algorithm

Mobile robots are typically depending only on robot kinematics control. However, when high-speed motions and highly loaded transfer are considered, it is necessary to analyze dynamics of the robot to limit tracking error. The goal of this paper is to present a new algorithm, chaotic-billiards optimizer (C-BO) to optimize internal controller parameters of a differential-drive mobile robot (DDMR)-based dynamic model. The C-BO algorithm is notable for its ease of implementation, minimal number of design parameters, high convergence speed, and low computing burden. In addition, a comparison between the performance of C-BO and ant colony optimization (ACO) to determine the optimum controller coefficient that provides superior performance and convergence of the path tracking. The ISE criterion is selected as a fitness function in a simulation-based optimization strategy. For the point of accuracy, the velocity-based dynamic compensation controller was successfully integrated with the motion controller proposed in this study for the robot's kinematics. Control structure of the model was tested using MATLAB/Simulink. The results demonstrate that the suggested C-BO, with steady state error performance of 0.6 percent compared to ACO's 0.8 percent, is the optimum alternative for parameter optimizing the controller for precise path tracking. Also, it offers advantages of quick response, high tracking precision, and outstanding anti-interference capability.
The IoT for Visualization of RC Circuits Transient Phenomena

The development of a device for visualizing the transient phenomena of RC circuits on smartphones has been carried out, utilizing the IoT platform of NodeMCU as a solution to restrictions on attendance in laboratory during COVID-19 pandemic. The quantity displayed is the voltage and electric current during charging or discharging capacitor. NodeMCU is coupled with a CD4066 to switch the process, and a 74HC4051 multiplexer to select the voltage or current value of capacitor. At the end there is an RC circuit connected to the switch and the multiplexer and also a voltage source. User commands are sent from the smartphone to the NodeMCU via the Blynk server. The software consists of a program uploaded in NodeMCU and a Blynk graphic interface arranged on smartphone. The system can work quite well, including controlling the charging and discharging capacitor. The visual appearance of voltage and current on smartphone screen quite similar with those of theory.
Antibacterial activity of garlic extract on cariogenic bacteria: An in vitro study

Background: Garlic (Allium Sativum) is ubiquitous, small and commonly used spice for processing food. There are many types of garlic and differ in shape, size, color, taste, number of cloves per bulb and storability. Objectives: To determine and compare the antibacterial activity of soft neck and hard neck species of garlic against cariogenic bacteria (Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus). Materials and Methods: The well diffusion method was used to evaluate the antibacterial activity of garlic against Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus. After incubation in an appropriate culture medium, diameter of zone of inhibition was measured to assess the antibacterial efficacy of garlic extract. Chlorhexidine mouthwash (ICPA HEALTH PRODUCTS LTD.) was kept as control group. Results were statistically analyzed using Kruskal Wallis test and independent 't' test. Thus, zone of inhibition (in mm) was analyzed using mean of all the readings obtained and the level of significance at <0.05 was considered statistically significant at 5% of level of significance. Results: Maximum zone of inhibition was found with hard neck garlic extract (24mm) followed by soft neck garlic extract (18mm) and Chlorhexidine (17mm) against Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Conclusion: Action of garlic against Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus raises the possibility that it can be used for dental caries and other oral infections possibly.
A sampling method to measure surface roughness of circular flat

We propose a sampling method to measure surface roughness of circular flat in this paper. The steps of this method are described in following. First, the number of sampling points is determined based on the radius of the circular flat; then the sampling points are selected by a certain angle in helical line; at last we use instrument like white light interferometer to measure the surface roughness of these sample points. The sampling method can effectively use the surface roughness of sampling points to estimate the surface roughness of the overall optical surface. According to mathematic derivation and simulation analysis, this method has a good sampling results, thus it can be widely used to measure the surface roughness of the circular flat.
Experimental research on the spectral response of tips for tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Based on unilateral total internal reflection illumination, a tip spectral response detection setup is built. This provides an experimental method for revealing the spectral response and resonance band, which are significant in investigating optical properties and the field enhancing mechanism. The spectral responses of silicon tips coated with gold and silver are detected. These tips are then used in tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) detection under 532 nm excitation to demonstrate the effect of resonant excitation on field enhancement. The corresponding relationship between the measured spectral response and the tip’s enhancement performance in TERS is discussed.
Recent Advances in Ice Mechanics in Canada

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Un acercamiento hacia la enseñanza de números reales con estudiantes de primer año de ingeniería

En este artículo presentamos los resultados obtenidos de la puesta en práctica de tres actividades didácticas utilizadas en la enseñanza de la noción de número real, con estudiantes de primer año de la licenciatura en ingenierías. Estas actividades han sido diseñadas en función del enfoque propuesto por Bronner (1997). Se realiza un análisis cualitativo del trabajo matemático desarrollado por los estudiantes en estas actividades, fundamentado en el marco de la teoría de Espacios de Trabajo Matemático. Los resultados evidencian que la activación de la génesis instrumental con el artefacto tecnológico supera al artefacto simbólico, sin que haya una confrontación de lo obtenido con la TIC, propiciando un ambiente de confusión entre número y su valor aproximado.
IoT-Based Smart Fishing Gear for Sustainability of the Tanzania Blue Economy

The fishing industry engages many Tanzanians and is among the leading sectors of Blue Economy in the country. However, fishing practices are small-scale with poor and insufficient number of fishing facilities, hence limiting productivity and efficacy. Studies argue that the low level of technology currently used in the country could possibly be an impeding factor. Specifically, fishers use non-interactive gears that cannot instantaneously update status and alert them whenever the gears are ready for collection. In such scenarios, fishers not only waste their time but also scarce resources such as fuel to facilitate trips to and from the fishing sites to check status of the gears. Thus, the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) could improve the production and lower operational costs is hypothesized. ICT solutions can help realize the processes with minimum human interventions while adding intelligence to the systems to make informed decisions and hence improve systems’ efficiency. In this work, an IoT based smart fishing gear that counts and records the number of fishes in the gear and then displays them on a mobile application is proposed. The system can send alerts to the user when the required number of fish is attained, and provides navigation support to localize the distant filled gears. Results show that the system can send the location of a given gear and timely update the number of catches via the mobile application.
Low magnetic relaxation in a single crystal and a melt processed sample

Induced current densities and magnetic relaxation rates were measured over a wide temperature and field range on a single crystal and a melt processed sample of using a SQUID magnetometer. The temperature dependence of the magnetic relaxation rate shows a pronounced minimum at elevated temperatures. This leads to very high values of the effective pinning energy and for the single crystal and the melt processed sample respectively, for an applied magnetic field . Furthermore, these samples show a well developed fishtail effect, leading to a current density . This demonstrates that the fishtail effect is closely related to the low relaxation rates observed here.
Examining the Use and Awareness of Educational Blogs among University Students

Blogs are widely used in education since their emergence particularly in higher education. This research study investigated the use of educational blogs by students at university level. 100 male and female university students were the sample of this study. Data was collected through a questionnaire and focused group discussions. Descriptive statistics i.e., frequency and percentages, were calculated for the analysis of quantitative data and the qualitative data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The results of the study indicated that students used blogs to get educational ideas and communicate with other people. They used educational blogs and commented on relevant course related posts. In this way, students get knowledge of different subjects through blogs. Students and teachers also used educational blogs to get to know each other better by visiting and reading blogs. Educational blogs help teachers to teach and students to learn. It is suggested that at university and college level there should be workshops and awareness programs for the use of modern technology into education. Teachers should offer blogs related courses at university and college levels. This study also creates awareness among university students about the use of blogs for educational purposes.
Atmospheric delay tracking in a long-baseline optical stellar interferometer

The performance of a long-baseline optical stellar interferometer is greatly enhanced if the instantaneous atmospheric delay ? (t ) can be tracked to within a fraction of a wavelength, permitting coherent integration of the optical correlation (fringe visibility). Real-time fringe tracking involves a control system that servos a rapidly responding pathlength compensator in real time. However, precise delay tracking can be achieved at somewhat lower signal levels by employing an off-line delaytracking system, in which the raw data measured by the interferometer are stored for subsequent analysis. Then the estimate of ? at time t is based on data collected both before and after time ? An optimum delaytracking algorithm embraces the a priori statistics of the atmospheric delay process. Rather than simply estimating t at a point in time, a superior estimate of ? will be obtained by comparing all possible functions ? (t ) over a time period. Using Bayes’s theorem, the a posteriori probability density of any t(t ) function can be determined. An algorithm is developed that determines one or more functions that maximize that probability. Even the ambiguous estimates that result at lower signal levels can be employed for the coherent integration of optical correlation.
COMPARISON OF VARIOUS SENTIMENT ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES – A STUDY

- In Today’s World, A huge amount of user data such as reviews, comments, surveys and opinion polls are collected via many resources like social websites, e-commerce websites and blogs. All of the data is used by private industries, government and individuals for analysis of their products, events and advertising campaigns etc. It is very difficult to analyze this huge amount of data that is why we need a solution. We need to develop an artificial intelligent system which can automatically classify data into different categories on the basis of polarity positive, negative or neutral. Sentiment analysis is an automated solution for classifying and mining of user reviews, opinions and emotions gathered from various resources such as text surveys and database containing user opinions using natural language processing (NLP). The objective of this paper is to understand concept of sentiment analysis and compare various type of sentiment analysis techniques.
An alternative method of cross-validation for the smoothing of density estimates

Cross-validation with Kullback-Leibler loss function has been applied to the choice of a smoothing parameter in the kernel method of density estimation. A framework for this problem is constructed and used to derive an alternative method of cross-validation, based on integrated squared error, recently also proposed by Rudemo (1982). Hall (1983) has established the consistency and asymptotic optimality of the new method. For small and moderate sized samples, the performances of the two methods of cross-validation are compared on simulated data and specific examples.
Neural Painters: A learned differentiable constraint for generating brushstroke paintings

We explore neural painters, a generative model for brushstrokes learned from a real non-differentiable and non-deterministic painting program. We show that when training an agent to "paint" images using brushstrokes, using a differentiable neural painter leads to much faster convergence. We propose a method for encouraging this agent to follow human-like strokes when reconstructing digits. We also explore the use of a neural painter as a differentiable image parameterization. By directly optimizing brushstrokes to activate neurons in a pre-trained convolutional network, we can directly visualize ImageNet categories and generate "ideal" paintings of each class. Finally, we present a new concept called intrinsic style transfer. By minimizing only the content loss from neural style transfer, we allow the artistic medium, in this case, brushstrokes, to naturally dictate the resulting style.
Inhibiting tau protein improves the recovery of spinal cord injury in rats by alleviating neuroinflammation and oxidative stress

After spinal cord injury, the concentrations of total and hyperphosphorylated tau in cerebrospinal fluid increase, and levels of both correlate with injury severity. Tau inhibition is considered effective therapy for many central nervous system diseases, including traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer's disease. However, whether it can play a role in the treatment of spinal cord injury remains unclear. In this study, the therapeutic effects of tau inhibition were investigated in a rat model of transection spinal cord injury by injecting the rats with a lentivirus encoding tau siRNA that inhibits tau expression. We found that tau inhibition after spinal cord injury down-regulated the levels of inflammatory mediators, including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6 and interleukin-1β. It also led to a shift of activated microglial polarization from the M1 pro-inflammatory phenotype to the M2 anti-inflammatory phenotype, and reduced the amount of reactive oxygen species in the acute phase. Furthermore, the survival of residual neural cells around the injury epicenter, and neuronal and axonal regeneration were also markedly enhanced, which promoted locomotor recovery in the model rats. Collectively, our findings support the conclusion that tau inhibition can attenuate neuroinflammation, alleviate oxidative stress, protect residual cells, facilitate neurogenesis, and improve the functional recovery after spinal cord injury, and thus suggest that tau could be a good molecular target for spinal cord injury therapy.
Immortalized hippocampal astrocytes from 3xTg-AD mice, a new model to study disease-related astrocytic dysfunction: a comparative review

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by complex etiology, long-lasting pathogenesis, and cell-type-specific alterations. Currently, there is no cure for AD, emphasizing the urgent need for a comprehensive understanding of cell-specific pathology. Astrocytes, principal homeostatic cells of the central nervous system, are key players in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, including AD. Cellular models greatly facilitate the investigation of cell-specific pathological alterations and the dissection of molecular mechanisms and pathways. Tumor-derived and immortalized astrocytic cell lines, alongside the emerging technology of adult induced pluripotent stem cells, are widely used to study cellular dysfunction in AD. Surprisingly, no stable cell lines were available from genetic mouse AD models. Recently, we established immortalized hippocampal astroglial cell lines from amyloid-β precursor protein/presenilin-1/Tau triple-transgenic (3xTg)-AD mice (denominated as wild type (WT)- and 3Tg-iAstro cells) using retrovirus-mediated transduction of simian virus 40 large T-antigen and propagation without clonal selection, thereby maintaining natural heterogeneity of primary cultures. Several groups have successfully used 3Tg-iAstro cells for single-cell and omics approaches to study astrocytic AD-related alterations of calcium signaling, mitochondrial dysfunctions, disproteostasis, altered homeostatic and signaling support to neurons, and blood-brain barrier models. Here we provide a comparative overview of the most used models to study astrocytes in vitro, such as primary culture, tumor-derived cell lines, immortalized astroglial cell lines, and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived astrocytes. We conclude that immortalized WT- and 3Tg-iAstro cells provide a non-competitive but complementary, low-cost, easy-to-handle, and versatile cellular model for dissection of astrocyte-specific AD-related alterations and preclinical drug discovery.
Knowledge sharing behavior among farmers in Indonesia: Does social capital matter?

Social capital has three important dimensions, namely, cognitive, relational and structural. It has a crucial role to enhance farmers’ income and knowledge in some developing countries. However, there is a lack of studies which validate the role of social capital to farmers’ income and knowledge sharing. The aims of this study are to examine the role of farmers’ social capital on knowledge sharing behavior through farmer community and personal expectations. The recent study also examines how mediators’ variables (individual and community expectations) influence farmers' knowledge sharing behavior. The study sample consisted of 720 Indonesian rice farmers from Sulawesi districts and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses. The empirical result indicates that structural, cognitive and relational social capital have a positive role in farmers' expectations. They facilitate community members in rural areas and connect people locally and regionally, as mediator variables, personal and community expectations also emerged as tools where people can explore, interact and share their expertise to develop knowledge sharing behavior. However, community expectations have a greater effect on facilitating knowledge sharing among farmers than personal expectations. This study provided insights on developing and enhancing farmers' economic and social life, which was neglected in prior studies. This research contributes to the literature on social capital theory and social connectedness. Hence, the farmers and the local government should address and identify their objective and rational concerns to improve their social capital. In addition, social capital also enhances the content and processes of farmers’ interactions to foster communication and value propositions in creating unique and valuable experiences. Local government should be aware of the essential components of interaction and effective two-way communications among farmers. Furthermore, social capital can also be treated as a tool that allows farmers to share their expertise and knowledge. The community and local government should solve problems for farmers in the future since it is easier and faster to access information and knowledge about production processes. Social capital also has economic and social value, enhancing a sense of belonging among farmers. Key words: Social capital, Farmer expectation, Knowledge Sharing behavior, Developing countries
Pair-Testing Method to Complement User's Behavior Records

In an evacuation behavior analysis, record of behavior such as straying are dependent on participants' memory. Therefore, there is a loss of same of behavior records. In this research, we propose a pair-testing method that simultaneously performs subjective evaluation and interaction evaluation. It has complementary effect of user's memory that depends on user's behavior. We apply the proposed method to evacuation experiments. Based on the proposed method, the evaluator supplemented 47.5% with records by observing the participants. As complementary effect of pair-testing method, "straying" behaviors were recorded by using evaluator's records.
Spectral Enclosures and Complex Resonances for General Self-Adjoint Operators

This paper considers a number of related problems concerning the computation of eigenvalues and complex resonances of a general self-adjoint operator H . The feature which ties the different sections together is that one restricts oneself to spectral properties of H which can be proved by using only vectors from a pre-assigned (possibly finite-dimensional) linear subspace L .