Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phytochemical screening, antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxicity activities of bark's crude extracts of Cordia sinensis

Cordia sinensis which is known locally as Andrab is a medicinal plant used traditionally in Sudan and in many other countries as an antioxidant, anti-glycation, anti-malarial and anti-inflammatory. This study was aimed to prepare various crude extracts of C. sinensis bark using different polarities of solvent; phytochemical screening, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and cytotoxicity of the bark crude extracts. Bark of C. sinensis was collected from Omdurman area, dried under shade, powdered and then extracted successively with petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol by using shaker apparatus (at room temperature). The phytochemical examinations were carried out for all extracts. The preliminary phytochemical analysis of the bark crude extracts revealed the presence of various amount of flavonoids, tannins, cardiac glycosides, sterols/triterpense, alkaloids and showed no saponins and coumarins. Crude extracts at concentrations 25 and 50 mg/ml were applied against four standard bacteria (Gram positive: Bacillus subtillis and Staphylococcus aureus, Gram negative: Klebsiella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and two standard fungi (Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger) using the disc diffusion method assay. The methanolic extract at concentration 50 mg/ml was found to be more active against two types of bacteria (Klebsiella and P. aeruginosa) and showed an intermediate activity against the other two types of bacteria (B. subtillis and S. aureus) and also against the two types of fungi (C. albicans and A. niger). No activity was observed with the three solvents (chloroform, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether) (25 and 50 mg/ml) extracts and the methanolic (25 mg/ml) extract against all the microorganisms tested, except ethyl acetate extract at concentration 50 mg/ml showed intermediate inhibition zone (15 mm) against Klebsiella. All extracts were found to be potent against brine shrimps with moderate LD50. The free radical scavenging activity of the crude extracts was evaluated using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical. The antioxidant activity of methanolic extract was the strongest (60%), followed in descending order by ethyl acetate (52%), chloroform (48%), and petroleum ether (32%) extracts. The results showed that higher concentrations are more active than lower concentrations in case of antimicrobial and cytotoxicity activities and also showed that methanolic extract was found to be having potent effect more than other extracts. The study recommends further study for identification of chemical compounds in each extract and specifies the active components that make antimicrobial, cytotoxicity and antioxidant activities of this plant.
Monitoring Staling of Packaged Sliced Pan Breads: Physicochemical Properties, Sensory Evaluation, and Consumer Preference

ABSTRACT The aim of this work was to evaluate the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of sliced pan breads and to investigate their possible correlation. Five commercial sliced pan breads from different brands (C1-C5) were examined for four weeks. A two-way ANOVA revealed significant differences in the moisture content, Young’s modulus and mean cell area among the different brands. Principal Component Analysis showed a good agreement between sensory and instrumental measurements. MaxDiff analysis revealed that the sliced pan bread of the brand C1 is considered as the most favored bread by the consumers whereas the bread of brand C2 as the least favored one.
Effects of organic solvents on morphologies, photoluminescence, and photocatalytic properties of ZnO nanostructures

Employing organo-metal zinc acetylacetonate (Zn(acac)2) as the zincic source, various zinc oxide (ZnO) products with different morphologies have been synthesised via a typical solvothermal method in different polar organic solvents. Quasi-spherical and rod-like structures with diverse sizes are successfully fabricated in the methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, isopropanol, and acetone solutions of NaOH, respectively. Moreover, their microstructures and morphologies have been investigated by X-ray powder diffraction and electron microscopy. A possible growth mechanism has been proposed. The various morphologies of ZnO are attributed to the discrepant polarity and viscosity of organic solvents and the supersaturation levels of reactants. Furthermore, the size-depended photoluminescence and photocatalytic properties of various structures of ZnO are also studied. It is believed that the different but regular photoelectric behaviours are resulting from the surface states and specific surface areas which are related to the exposed polarity facets as well as the size of ZnO particles.
Clinica: An Open-Source Software Platform for Reproducible Clinical Neuroscience Studies

We present Clinica (www.clinica.run), an open-source software platform designed to make clinical neuroscience studies easier and more reproducible. Clinica aims for researchers to (i) spend less time on data management and processing, (ii) perform reproducible evaluations of their methods, and (iii) easily share data and results within their institution and with external collaborators. The core of Clinica is a set of automatic pipelines for processing and analysis of multimodal neuroimaging data (currently, T1-weighted MRI, diffusion MRI, and PET data), as well as tools for statistics, machine learning, and deep learning. It relies on the brain imaging data structure (BIDS) for the organization of raw neuroimaging datasets and on established tools written by the community to build its pipelines. It also provides converters of public neuroimaging datasets to BIDS (currently ADNI, AIBL, OASIS, and NIFD). Processed data include image-valued scalar fields (e.g., tissue probability maps), meshes, surface-based scalar fields (e.g., cortical thickness maps), or scalar outputs (e.g., regional averages). These data follow the ClinicA Processed Structure (CAPS) format which shares the same philosophy as BIDS. Consistent organization of raw and processed neuroimaging files facilitates the execution of single pipelines and of sequences of pipelines, as well as the integration of processed data into statistics or machine learning frameworks. The target audience of Clinica is neuroscientists or clinicians conducting clinical neuroscience studies involving multimodal imaging, and researchers developing advanced machine learning algorithms applied to neuroimaging data.
Effect of Compost Rates and Spraying with some Biostimulant Substances on Growth, Yield and Quality of Snap Bean

Two field experiments were conducted at the private field in El-Zarka City, Damietta Governorate, Egypt, during 2016 and 2017 seasons to evaluate the effects of organic fertilization rates (compost rates) and foliar spraying by some biostimulant substances on yield and its components,growth as well as quality of snap bean (Contender cultivar). A split-plot with three replicates was the experimental design. The vertical-plots to three compost rates i.e. without compost (control treatment), 50 % of the recommended dose (2 tons compost/fed) and 100 % of the recommended dose (4 tons compost/fed). The horizontal plots were devoted to four treatments of foliar spraying with some biostimulant substances i.e. foliar spraying with brassinolid at the rate of 10 ppm, moringa extract at the rate of 200 ppm, chitosan at the rate of 200 ppm and tap water (control treatment). The most important results can be summarized as follows: The highest values of vegetative growth characters, pod yield and its components as well as quality of snap bean pods were resulted from fertilizing with (4 tons compost/fed) 100 % . On the contrary, the lowest values of growth characters, pod yield and its components and chemical composition of snap bean pods were obtained from plants not treated with compost (control treatment). Foliar spraying snap bean plants three times with 200 ppm chitosan exceeded all foliar spraying with some biostimulant substances and resulted the highest values of vegetative growth characters, pod yield and its components as well as quality of snap bean pods. Followed by foliar spraying with brassinolid at the rate of 10 ppm and then moringa extract at the rate of 200 ppm. Whereas, the lowest values of vegetative growth characters, pod yield and its components as well as quality of snap bean pods were resulted with control treatment (spraying with tap water). It can be concluded that organic fertilizing with 4 tons compost/fed and foliar spraying three times with chitosan at the rate of 200 ppm folloued by spraying with brassinolid 10 ppm in order to obtain high yield and its components,growth as well as quality of snap bean (Contender cultivar).
Selection of microalgae strains for bicarbonate-based integrated carbon capture and algal production system to produce lipid

ABSTRACT Microalgae culture with a high concentration of bicarbonate has many advantages, but oleaginous algal strains tolerant to high alkalinity are very few. To obtain more strains with capabilities of both high lipid accumulation and high bicarbonate concentration tolerance, six strains of microalgae were investigated in this study. The results showed that Neochloris oleoabundans and Dunaliella tertiolecta could tolerate as high as 320 mM NaHCO3 concentration, while seawater Chlorella sp. , Picochlorum oklahomensis and Chaetoceros calcitrans could tolerate 80 mM NaHCO3 concentration, and Isochrysis galbana was tolerant to only 40 mM. N. oleoabundans was selected for further study to optimize its lipid production. With Plackett-Burman design, it was found that MgSO4·7H2O and NaNO3 were significant factors for N. oleoabundans’ growth, while ZnSO4·7H2O and NaNO3 were significant factors against its lipid production. The optimal levels of significant factors in the Plackett-Burman design system were determined with a central composite design. Dry cell weight of N. oleoabundans under optimized condition was 1.56 g/L, and lipid content was 23.4%. This showed that N. oleoabundans is a promising strain for lipid production in a high bicarbonate concentration environment.
C-reactive protein is associated with ventricular repolarization dispersion among patients with metabolic syndrome

1Faculty of Medicine, Tetovo Republic of North Macedonia 2Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tetovo, Republic of North Macedonia 3Department of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, Saints Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia 4Department of Cardiology, Faculty of Medicine, M Teresa, Tirana, Republic of Albania 5Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tetovo, Republic of North Macedonia 6Department of Cardiology, Medical Center, Dures, Republic of Albania 7Department of Cardiology, Medical Center, Dures, Republic of Albania 8Private Health Institute of Family Medicine, "Florenc", Tetovo, Republic of North Macedonia 9Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital, "DR Ferit Murat" Gostivar, Republic of North Macedonia 10Private Health Institute,”Rostusha” Debar, Republic of North Macedonia
py_convrot: rotation conventions, to understand and to apply

Rotation is a core crystallographic operation. Two sets of Cartesian coordinates of each point of a rotated object, those before and after rotation, are linearly related, and the coefficients of these linear combinations can be represented in matrix form. This 3 × 3 matrix is unique for all points and thus describes unambiguously a particular rotation. However, its nine elements are mutually dependent and are not interpretable in a straightforward way. To describe rotations by independent and comprehensible parameters, crystallographic software usually refers to Euler or to polar angles. In crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy, there exists a large choice of conventions, making direct comparison of rotation parameters difficult and sometimes confusing. The program py_convrot, written in Python, is a converter of parameters describing rotations. In particular, it deals with all possible choices of polar angles and with all kinds of Euler angles, including all choices of rotation axes and rotation directions. Using a menu, a user can build their own rotation parameterization; its action can be viewed with an interactive graphical tool, Demo. The tables in this article and the extended help pages of the program describe details of these parameterizations and the decomposition of rotation matrices into all types of parameters. The program allows orthogonalization conventions and symmetry operations to be taken into account. This makes the program and its supporting materials both an illustrative teaching material, especially for non-specialists in mathematics and computing, and a tool for practical use.
Improving Security of Honey Encryption in Database: Implementation

Honey encryption is another encryption plot that gives flexibility against animal compels assault by guaranteeing that messages unscrambled with invalid keys yield a substantial looking message. In this paper, we show our usage of Honey encryption and apply it to valuable certifiable situations, for example, MasterCard’s and fundamental content informing. We likewise develop the essential Honey encryption plan to bolster open key encryption. At long last, we talk about the restrictions we confronted in our executions and further necessities for reinforcing our applications.
The Study of the Interaction Mechanism of Linoleic Acid and 1-Linoleyl-2-Oleoyl-3-Linolenoyl-Glycerol with Fe3O4 Nanoparticles

The interaction mechanism of Fe3O4 nanoparticles with linoleic acid and 1-linoleyl-2-oleoyl-3-linolenoyl-glycerol represented by two-layer coordination model has been determined. By means of Fourier spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray phase and thermal gravitational analysis, the interaction mechanism of lipids (linoleic acid and sunflower oil) with Fe3O4 nanoparticles has been studied. Кeywords: Fe3О4 nanoparticles, linoleic acid, 1-linoleyl-2oleoyl-3-linolenoyl-glycerol, sunflower oil, chemisorption.
Independent component analysis applications in CDMA systems

Blind source separation (BSS) methods, independent component analysis (ICA) and independent factor analysis (IFA) are used for detecting the signal coming to a mobile user which is subject to multiple access interference in a CDMA downlink communication. When CDMA models are studied for different channel characteristics, it is seen that they are similar with BSS/ICA models. It is also showed that if ICA is applied to these CDMA models, desired user’s signal can be estimated successfully without channel information and other users’ code sequences. ICA detector is compared with matched filter detector and other conventional detectors using simulation results and it is seen that ICA has some advantages over the other methods. The other BSS method, IFA is applied to basic CDMA downlink model. Since IFA has some convergence and speed problems when the number of sources is large, firstly basic CDMA model with ideal channel assumption is used in IFA application. With simulation of ideal CDMA channel, IFA is compared with ICA and matched filter. Furthermore, Pearson System-based ICA (PS-ICA) method is used for estimating non-Gaussian multipath fading channel coefficients. Considering some fading channel measurements showing that the fading channel coefficients may have an impulsive nature, these coefficients are modeled with an α-stable distribution whose shape parameter α takes values close to 2 which makes the distributions slightly impulsive. Simulation results are obtained to compare PS-ICA with classical ICA. Also IFA is applied to the single path CDMA downlink model to estimate fading channel by using the advantage of IFA which is the capability to estimate sources with wide class of distributions.
Research of enhancement algorithm for infrared image based on the fuzzy set theory

Infrared image s is always company with various common defects such as the imaging blurring, poor contrast, and low discrimination rate between the target and the background, etc. According to the disadvantages, this paper discusses the traditional algorithm based on the fuzzy set theory proposed by Pal and King, moreover, we develop the algorithm to boost the fuzzy set theory in image details missing. For realizing the image contrast stretching adaptively, we employed the improved sine function as the membership functions well as select the pixels transit point of the infrared image adaptively by the average grey value and the standard deviation in terms of the infrared image. The results of the simulation by MATLAB show that the improved fuzzy algorithm conducted in this paper enhances the infrared image subtle details, improves the contrast of the infrared image and the visualization of the infrared image.
Effect of Heat Treatments of Milk on Biogenic and Free Amino Acids of Low Fat Ras Cheese

Four Ras cheese treatments were made by heating cheese milk 1.5 % fat for 65, 70, 75 and 80 oC. Fresh samples of mentioned treatments were analyzed for moisture, fat, total nitrogen, salt and acidity. Analyzed for free amino acids and biogenic amines was carried out when fresh, and after 3 and 6 months. Total biogenic amines and free amino acids increased as ripening period progressed in all cheese treatments. Total biogenic amines of cheese made from 1.5% fat milk increased by raising the temperature of heat treatment up to 75 oC (T3). However, the total free amino acids and biogenic amines of cheese made from 1.5% fat milk decreased by raising the temperature of heat treatments up to 80 oC (T4).
High‐temperature corrosion behavior of some post‐plasma‐spraying‐gas‐nitrided metallic coatings on a Fe‐based superalloy

The objective of the present study is to propose a cost‐effective process for modifying commercially available coatings by gas nitriding using commonly available equipment and starting materials. Al–Cr and Ti–Al metallic coatings were deposited on Superfer 800H (Fe‐based superalloy) using a plasma spray process. Then the gas nitriding of the coatings was done in the lab and the parameters were optimized after conducting several trials on plasma‐sprayed‐coated specimens. Characterization and high‐temperature corrosion behavior of coatings after exposure to air and molten salt at 900°C were studied under cyclic conditions. Techniques like XRD, SEM/EDX, and X‐ray mapping analysis were used for the characterization of the coatings and analysis of the oxide scale. Both the coatings successfully protected the substrate and were effective in decreasing the corrosion rate when subjected to cyclic oxidation (Type‐I hot corrosion) at 900°C for 50 cycles in air and molten salt (a salt mixture of Na2SO4–60%V2O5 dissolved in distilled water). Based on the findings of the present study, the coatings under study are recommended for tapplications to super‐heater and reheater tubes of boilers and all those surfaces that face fireside corrosion, such as fluidized beds, industrial waste incinerators, internal combustion engines, gas turbines or steam turbines, to provide protection against degradation in these environments. The cost of the product/process is approximately Rs. 0.62 per mm2 in case of Al–Cr coating and Rs. 1.86 per mm2 in case of Ti–Al coating.
Novel Antimicrobial Treatments Based on the Interaction of Gallic Acid and UV Light: Characterization, Investigation of Antimicrobial Mechanism, and Application on Fresh Produce

Title of Dissertation: NOVEL ANTIMICROBIAL TREATMENTS BASED ON THE INTERACTION OF GALLIC ACID AND UV LIGHT: CHARACTERIZATION, INVESTIGATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL MECHANISM AND APPLICATION ON FRESH PRODUCE Qingyang Wang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2019 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Rohan V. Tikekar, Assistant Professor, Department of Nutrition and Food Science, UMCP Produce safety continues to be a challenge because produce undergoes minimal processing prior to consumption and existing sanitizers are not effective in inactivating pathogens. Novel decontamination technologies for produce are required as alternatives to traditional methods. In this project, two non-thermal process techniques were developed based on the interaction of UV light and gallic acid (GA) to enhance the safety of fresh produce. The first technique is the simultaneous application of UV-A light and GA (UVA+GA). UVA+GA treatment was effective against E. coli O157:H7, and the mechanism behind the synergistic antimicrobial effect was associated with the cellular uptake of GA, generation of reactive oxidative species (ROS), inactivation of enzymes superoxide dismutase, and damage to the bacterial membrane. In the second technique, the antimicrobial activity of GA was enhanced by its prior UV-C exposure (UVC-GA) against E. coli O157:H7 and was persistent for at least 4 weeks. The antimicrobial activity was affected by solution pH and the wavelength of UV-C exposure. The generation of ROS during UV light exposure and photo-oxidized compounds of GA such as quinone contributed to the antimicrobial activity of the UVC-GA solution. Both UVA+GA and UVC-GA treatments can enhance the inactivation of inoculated E. coli O157:H7 on produce such as spinach leaves and tomatoes without affecting the color and firmness. Common environmental stresses could confer complex cross-stress response in E. coli O157:H7 towards UVA+GA and UVC-GA treatments in that both resistance and sensitization can be induced depending on the stress applied and the technology studied. Repeated exposure to moderate UVA+GA or UVC-GA treatment can also select for sub-population that demonstrates higher resistance towards these treatments as well as cross-resistance to other lethal stress such as heat and acid. ROS scavenging enzymes and alternative sigma factor RpoS are highly likely to be associated with the adaptive response process. In conclusion, both UVA+GA and UVC-GA treatments are promising novel non-thermal techniques that are potential alternative methods for fresh produce disinfection. For future work, a better understanding of the inactivation mechanisms, optimizing of processing parameters, and the development of adaptive response associated with the two treatments need to be explored. NOVEL ANTIMICROBIAL TREATMENTS BASED ON THE INTERACTION OF GALLIC ACID AND UV LIGHT: CHARACTERIZATION, INVESTIGATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL MECHANISM AND APPLICATION ON FRESH PRODUCE
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR MODEL COMPARISON AND SELECTION IN TISSUE ENGINEERING

Computational modeling has been proven to be very useful in tissue engineering over the past years. Because the model is a simplification of the experimental system, the processes accounted for in the model should be analyzed carefully. However, new and complex models are usually proposed without a clear comparison with the basic ones. In this study, the contribution of oxygen to Contois growth kinetics and porosity variation with time due to polymer degradation was evaluated through a sensitivity analysis. The effect of initial glucose concentration, porosity and thickness of the scaffold on the cell volume fraction and substrate concentration was analyzed for three models. Even with the inclusion of oxygen concentration in the model, the output variables are more affected by the initial cell number, while the model with variable porosity is quite robust to variations in the input variables.