Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Solid-State NMR Study on the Structure and Dynamics of Triblock Copolymer P123 Remaining in SBA-15 after Solvent Washing

In the triblockcopolymers, poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) block is hydro-phobic while poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) block is hydro-philic. Therefore, above a critical micelle concentration andtemperature, micelles consisting of core and corona regionsmainly made of PPO and PEO blocks, respectively, areproduced.
Efficacy of Five Fungicides and Neem Seed Kernel Extract on the Control of Covered Kernel Smut Disease (Sporisorium sorghi (L.) Clinton) of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench)

Sorghum ranks fifth among world food cereal crops used as food, feed and for biofuel (ethanol) production. It is infected by several diseases; the devastating one in the Sudan is the covered kernel smut (CKS), which is caused by the fungus Sporisorium sorghi. The present study was based on field observations of the high infection level of CKS in sorghum in season 2007-2008 at Hamadna Allah Block in the Blue Nile Agricultural Schemes. Farmers in that area used to grow seeds without disinfection, sometimes use expired seed dressing, or use a dose lower than the recommended. This study was an attempt to evaluate the efficacy of five synthetic fungicides and Neem seed kernel ethanolic-extract (NSK-Et.OH-extr.) for controlling covered kernel smut disease (CKS) of sorghum. Experiments were conducted both in the field (season 2008-2009) and in the laboratory. Five fungicides, viz.: Thiram (tetramethylthiuram disulfide), and its counterpart Shiram, Raxil (tebuconazole), Apron Star (thiamethoxam + mefenoxam + difenoconazole), Vincit (Flutriafol + Thiabendazole), in addition to Neem seed kernel ethanolic-extract (NSK-Et.OHextr.) were evaluated for inhibiting spore germination of the fungus Sporisorium sorghi in the laboratory and the field. Two susceptible varieties of sorghum, viz. Wad Ahmad and Abusabaeen were grown to investigate their performance against CKS; RCBD was used with three replicates. The recommended dose for each product was tested together with another lower dose. NSK-Et.OH-extr. tested concentrations were 2.5%,5%, and 10%. Slide germination test (SGT) and inhibition zone techniques (IZT) were carried out in the laboratory. The recommended doses showed complete control of the pathogen on both varieties, while the reduced dose resulted in 0.72% 1.45% disease incidence on Wad Ahmad variety, and 1.06% 2.15% for Abusabaeen. NSK-Et.OH-extr. showed disease incidence of 10.4%, 8.28% and 5.35% on Wad Ahmad, and 9.2%, 5.19% and 1.87% for Abusabaeen in the three tested concentrations, respectively. The control results were 14.68% and 15.94% for Wad Ahmad and Abusabaeen, respectively. Laboratory tests showed no spore germination when Apron Star and Vincit at the concentration of 50 ppm were used, while Shiram at the same concentration showed the highest spore germination (6.57%). Neem-extract showed 45.5% spore germination at 2,000 ppm, whereas the control exhibited 100% spore germination. Vincit at 150 ppm showed the largest inhibition zone 41.0 mm (high efficiency) of all tested products. Inhibition zone of NSK-Et.OH-extr. for concentration of 1,000 and 2,000 ppm were 22.6 mm and 26.0 mm and for the undiluted oil (crude oil) was 40.0 mm. According to the study results, all the tested chemicals are recommended for use as seed dresser against CKS. Neem extract needs more studies to select the appropriate concentration for the control of the fungus Sporisorum sorghi without affecting sorghum seeds viability.
DIAGNOSIS AND MANAGEMENT OF ISCHEMIC STROKE: TIME IS CRITICAL

Background: It is predicted that stroke’s incidence and impact will increase considerably over time. Proper management of stroke depends on a reliable and urgent diagnosis that includes patient / relative - emergency team - hospital chain, so the diagnosis begins with the recognition of the first signs of stroke. In order to act promptly in the acute period and subsequently assess the risk factors, the neurological service needs to be equipped with high- performance neuroimaging and clinical laboratory. The specific treatment of acute ischemic stroke is nowadays the reperfusion procedure, performed by thrombolytic therapy and, since 2015, by the endovascular treatment. Stroke is also a leading cause of severe long-term disability. The rehabilitation of post-stroke patients requires an interdisciplinary approach, in order to prevent recurrences, combat complications and reintegrate the patient into society. Conclusions: Stroke remains one of the leading determinants of death and severe disability worldwide and the Republic of Moldova is not an exception. Considering the narrow window for recognition and administration of outcome-modifying treatment, the management of stroke focuses mainly on rapid reperfusion via intravenous thrombolysis and endovascular thrombectomy. The availability of this specialized treatment in the Stroke Unit could improve the patient’s outcome and decrease the disability’s level and economical burden. There is clear evidence that preventing a stroke is much more effective than treating it, so we should seize the opportunity and act involving not only the medical staff, but also the government, health decision makers, specialists in public health and international agencies.
Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leucoencephalopathy vs. multiple sclerosis. Either one or sometimes both?

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leucoencephalopathy (CADASIL), is the most common cause of inherited cerebral small vessel disease, inherited stroke and inherited vascular dementia. It is not infrequent for CADASIL to be mistaken and mistreated for multiple sclerosis (MS). A much less frequent but existing scenario is the co-occurrence of CADASIL and MS (or MS-like inflammatory condition). Such patients may present with spinal cord lesions, brain or spinal cord enhancing lesions, positive oligoclonal bands and high IgG index in the cerebrospinal fluid and good response to corticosteroids or immunomodulating treatments. CADASIL through various mechanisms may trigger or modulate autoimmune reactions, and either be complicated by an inflammatory component or cause an MS-like disorder.
LAAC: Lightweight Lattice-Based Authentication and Access Control Protocol for E-Health Systems in IoT Environments

Over the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has played a crucial role in designing e-health systems. An IoT-enabled e-health system allows different entities to examine a patient's health condition anywhere and anytime. However, the deployment of e-health systems in an IoT environment faces various security and privacy challenges. The authentication of participating entities, the confidentiality of information transferred through an insecure channel, and access control are essential issues to be resolved. To settle these challenges, we found many authentication protocols for e-health systems based on the discrete logarithm and integer factorization problems. However, quantum attacks expose all these protocols. In this article, we propose a lattice-based authentication and access control (LAAC) protocol for IoT-enabled e-health systems to mitigate the quantum attacks. We prove that LAAC is robust with the hardness assumption of the inhomogeneous small integer solution problem. Moreover, we provide provable security analysis of LAAC. Besides, performance evaluation shows it is reasonable to execute LAAC in an IoT device.
Multipath-Assisted Indoor Localization Using a Single Receiver

Target localization using a single receiver is highly needed due to the mobility of the target. In indoor environment, multipath signals are rich and usually relate the target location and structure of indoor environment through geometry parameters such as Angle of Arrival (AOA) and Time of Flight (TOF). Based on this, in this article we propose a multipath-assisted indoor localization system using commodity WiFi signals which contain phase errors caused by imperfect hardware and non-synchronized clocks. The proposed system is different from conventional localization algorithms which treat multipath signals as enemies, and only uses a single receiver. To realize accurate localization without interferences of phase errors, we firstly construct a geometry model for jointly estimating the locations of the target and scatterers which can be regarded as objects such as furniture, by using TOF differences between reflection paths and direct path. Considering more constrains on target location, we select the direct path as the reference. Then, with the help of AOAs, we develop a location searching algorithm of the target and scatterers based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). We have implemented the proposed system on the commodity WiFi devices, and the experiment results in actual indoor environment show that the median location error is around 1.5m by using only one receiver. What’s more, the intensive simulation results show that the proposed system is promising in the emerging networks such as 5G, where higher bandwidth of signal and more antennas can be used for providing accurate AOA and TOF.
Numerical simulations of the impacts of land-cover change in the intertidal zone on local meteorology in western Korea

The impact of land cover change in the intertidal zone (8.2% of the total surface area) on meteorology was evaluated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model during summer (19 21 August 2016) and winter (9 11 February 2016). The heat flux change in the intertidal zone due to the tidal effects was greater in summer than in winter. During high tide in summer, the heat flux increased before sunrise and after sunset and decreased after sunrise and before sunset. During low tide, the overall heat flux decreased. In winter, a notable feature was the positive sensible heat flux before sunrise and after sunset during high tide due to a high sea surface temperature. The horizontal and vertical impacts of the tidal phenomena on the coastal meteorology were more pronounced during high tide than during low tide. The temperature decreased in inland areas and intertidal zone in summer afternoons, and increased at sea in winter mornings. The water vapor mixing ratio during the summer period increased in inland from the coastline. The wind speed during high tide at sea increased overall in summer and winter due to the decreased roughness length. During the summer period, the westerly wind speed significantly increased in the lower atmosphere (within 0.4 km) over coastal areas, and the easterly wind speed increased at the heights (approximately 1 km) of the return current of the sea breeze. These horizontal and vertical variations in sea breeze circulation induced horizontal meteorological differences in the Seoul metropolitan areas (approximately 30 km away from the coastline) and vertical differences within the planetary boundary layer (approximately 1.5 km altitude). Article history: Received 25 April 2019 Revised 23 November 2019 Accepted 7 January 2020
Np Behavior in Synthesized Uranyl Phases: Results of Initial Tests

Initial tests were completed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for developing a potential mechanism to retard the mobility of neptunium at the Yucca Mountain repository. Neptunium is of concern because of its mobility in the environment and long half life, contributing a large percentage of the potential dose over extended times at the perimeter of the site. The mobility of neptunium could be retarded by associating with uranium mineral phases. The following four uranium mineral phases were examined and are potential secondary phases expected to form as a result of interactions of spent nuclear fuel with the local environment: meta-schoepite, studtite, uranophane, and sodium boltwoodite. The fate of the neptunium was examined in these synthetic experiments.
Performance, fatty acids profile and oxidative stability of meat of rabbits fed different lipid sources

Considering the nutritional requirements of growing rabbits, the inclusion of lipid sources in diet, besides improving pellet quality, helps to meet the energy demands of the animals, as the adjustment of voluntary feed intake by rabbits is primarily controlled by the energy content of the diet (Gidenne et al., 2017). As the energy content of lipid sources is almost three times that other feedstuffs commonly used, the inclusion of oils and fats in rabbit diets allows a greater share of ingredients with higher fibre contents to be included, such as by-products from food and feed processing industries (Klinger et al., 2015).
Horn Antenna With Miniaturized Size and Increased Gain by Loading Slow Wave Periodic Metal Blocks

An H-plane horn antenna with miniaturized size and increased gain is reported, which is realized by loading slow wave structures (SWSs) inside the shortened horn cavity. The SWSs in the form of periodic metal blocks can decelerate the phase velocity of the electromagnetic wave traveling to the radiating aperture. So the phase difference between the center and the edges of the aperture enlarged by the shortened longitudinal dimension can be compensated, and the longitudinal length of the horn antenna is significantly reduced. Meanwhile, uniform magnitude distribution of electric fields on the aperture is achieved by cleverly designing the heights of embedded blocks. Thus, the realized gain and aperture efficiency are maximized. The proposed horn antenna is easily fabricated by standard mechanical manufacture process. The longitudinal length of the prototype is 33.3% less than the original horn antenna with the same aperture size. Moreover, the average gain is 1.7 dB higher than the original horn, while maximized aperture efficiency up to 80.7% is achieved.
The knowledge of oral hygiene and oral hygiene habits during pregnancy and puerperium

OBJECTIVES. We wanted to explore the knowledge and attitudes of pregnant women and women after giving birth to oral health. Likewise, we wanted to determine whether there was any awareness of oral hygiene during pregnancy in the aforementioned population. Our aim was to establish the correlation between oral hygiene habits in relation to age, level of education and place of residence (urban / rural) and to determine the importance of the role of experts in further education of the patient. STUDY DESIGN. A cross-sectional study. PATIENTS AND METHODS. The subjects were patients admitted to the department of maternal and puerpera in the maternity ward of the General Hospital Zabok and Croatian veterans in the period from 1 December 2016 till 15 February 2017. Data for statistical analysis were obtained on the basis of an anonymous questionnaire of 15 questions. RESULTS. Nearly half of pregnant women and women after delivery (49%) believe that oral hygiene does not affect the outcome of pregnancy. In Planned Parenthood pregnancy 70% of women with the lowest levels of education are not going to control dental examinations. Over 90% of highly educated respondents used additional oral hygiene products, while only 20% of women with low levels of education used additional products. The results showed that 71% of women thought they had not received enough oral health information from their doctor. Also, in 60% of respondents, primary data on oral hygiene and health were not received by health professionals but from other sources. CONCLUSION. The obtained data show that almost half of the respondents did not develop the habit of awareness of the need for oral hygiene. The prevalence of monitoring the level of education but are weaker indicators correlate with low skill levels. The emphasis of the modern approach to the prevention of, and given that over half of the surveyed women does not the necessary knowledge of oral health opens space for continuing education and the promotion of information programs by the health system.
Analysis of Fasting Urine pH as a Predictor of Insulin Resistance in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background and aim: Recent research articles suggest that a low urine pH related to more complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Our aim was to study of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes patients using homeostasis model assessment and analysis of fasting urine pH as a predictor of insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes. Materials and methods: This prospective study was conducted in our hospital with type 2 diabetes mellitus patients during the period 2019 to 2020. A total of 102 patients have been taken for the study. Participants were isolated into two groups with urine pH <5.5 and the group with urine pH ≥ 5.5. We then further investigated the association between low urine pH levels and insulin resistance. Descriptive data were shown as the mean value of (Standard error) or number (%). The unpaired two sample t-test was used for analysis of continuous variables and the Chi-square test used for estimation of categorical variables. Results: Participants with urine pH 5.5 have strong positive association with lower triglycerides levels and better glycemic control indicated by low HbA1C(P values <0.001,P values <0.0001 respectively). A significant inverse relationship was observed between urine pH levels and the extent of insulin resistance Conclusion: These observational findings concluded that fasting low urine pH can be used as simple, noninvasive, and easily available tool to estimate insulin resistance.
Lipid peroxidation products and their role in neurodegenerative diseases

The central nervous system (CNS) is one of the most metabolically active organs and is characterized by elevated oxygen requirements, while it possesses a diminished anti-oxidative action. This can result in impairment in susceptible glia and neurons, due to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and ultimately neurodegeneration. Indeed, oxidative stress is a key component of the pathophysiological mechanisms in a plethora of diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders. Iron, is additionally involved in oxygen transportation and misregulation of iron can cause neurotoxicity through different mechanisms leading to oxidative damage and cell death. Recent discoveries showing that ROS are capable of commencing lipid peroxidation (LPO), a process in which oxidants assault lipids that contain C-C double bonds and particularly polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). LPO results in the generation of toxic lipid aldehyde species, including 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE), malondialdehyde, and acrolein. These reactive aldehyde species are generated within enzymatic pathways that lead to post-transcriptional alterations of DNA and proteins, eventually resulting in genotoxicity, inhibition of gene expression, cytotoxicity and cellular death. Among those various molecules, isoprostanes and neuroprostanes are potential key biomarkers for oxidative stress status in neurological disorders. The aim of this review was to describe LPO process and its products, and to characterize their role as potential biomarkers in neurodegenerative diseases (NDs).
Using Plant Phenomics to Exploit the Gains of Genomics

Agricultural scientists face the dual challenge of breeding input-responsive, widely adoptable and climate-resilient varieties of crop plants and developing such varieties at a faster pace. Integrating the gains of genomics with modern-day phenomics will lead to increased breeding efficiency which in turn offers great promise to develop such varieties rapidly. Plant phenotyping techniques have impressively evolved during the last two decades. The low-cost, automated and semi-automated methods for data acquisition, storage and analysis are now available which allow precise quantitative analysis of plant structure and function; and genetic dissection of complex traits. Appropriate plant types can now be quickly developed that respond favorably to low input and resource-limited environments and address the challenges of subsistence agriculture. The present review focuses on the need of systematic, rapid, minimal invasive and low-cost plant phenotyping. It also discusses its evolution to modern day high throughput phenotyping (HTP), traits amenable to HTP, integration of HTP with genomics and the scope of utilizing these tools for crop improvement.
Antibiotic resistance and prevalence of class 1 and 2 integrons in Escherichia coli isolated from hospital wastewater

BACKGROUND Hospital wastewaters may contain antibiotic resistant bacteria such as Escherichia coli. These E. coli harbor integron genes that are responsible for antibiotic resistance. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the frequency of class 1 and 2 integrons in environmental antibiotic resistant E. coli strains isolated from the hospital wastewaters in Tehran, Iran.METHODSAs a descriptive cross-sectional study, this research was performed from April to September 2015 on hospital wastewaters in Tehran. Bacterial isolation and identification was performed by standard biochemical and bacteriological procedures. Susceptibility testing was done by employing the disk diffusion method using different antibiotics. Total DNAs were extracted to evaluate the presence of class 1 and 2 integrons by using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method with specific primers. RESULTSFifty E. coli strains were isolated and identified from the wastewaters of 25 hospitals in Tehran. The phenotype results showed that 46 isolates (92%) were resistant to at least one antibiotic and 27 isolates (54%) were multidrug resistant. PCR showed that 35 (70%) and 20 (40%) of the isolates had class 1 and 2 integrons respectively and 14 isolates (28%) had both class 1 and class 2 integrons.CONCLUSIONThis study has shown a considerable presence of class 1 and class 2 integrons in E. coli strains isolated from hospital wastewaters in Tehran. Proper antibiotics prescription and appropriate hospital wastewater treatment can prevent resistance genes in E. coli from circulating in the environment.
Analysis and experimental application of a dead‐time compensator for input saturated processes with output time‐varying delays

Dead-time compensators (DTCs) are a family of classical controllers derived from the Smith Predictor (SP). Their main characteristic is that they explicitly employ the model of the open-loop process to feedback a predicted value of the non-delayed system, thus obtaining \textit{compensation} of the delay. Such a perfect compensation is not achievable in the case of time-varying delays. In this paper, we address stability analysis of a DTC structure in this situation, in addition to considering saturating actuators and disturbances of limited energy. Specific challenges related to the DTC closed loop are taken into account in the developed theoretical conditions, which are expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) by using an adequate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) and generalized sector conditions. Furthermore, a new approach for the definition of the set of initial conditions in an augmented space in conjunction with the LKF is presented. Besides theoretical innovations, practical discussion about the relation between the tuning of DTC controllers and robustness for this class of systems is presented through numerical examples. An experimental application on a neonatal incubator prototype is carried out to emphasize the effectiveness of the results.