Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of ethanolic leaf extract of Vinca major L. on biochemical parameters and glucose level of alloxan induced diabetic rats

In view of World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation on the use of medicinal plants for the management of diabetes mellitus, this study evaluated the effect of ethanolic leaf extract of Vinca major L. on biochemical parameters and glucose level of alloxan induced diabetic rats as objective. Sixty-four male Wistar albino rats were induced with diabetes by a single intraperitoneal injection and were separated into four groups (1-4) of sixteen rats each. Group 1 served as the control while groups 2 to 4 served as the test groups. Apart from the control, the test groups were treated with different concentrations of the leaf extract, and four rats from each group were sacrificed every seven days for assessment. The treatment period lasted for 28 days. Haemoglobin (Hb) levels in groups 3 and 4 rats significantly increased (p<0.05) against the control throughout the number of days of the study. Red blood cell (RBC) levels in groups 2 and 4 increased significantly (p<0.05) against the control on the 14th day, while all the test group rats had significantly increased (p<0.05) RBC levels on the 21st and 28th days of the study. The observed trend followed by electrolyte ions, urea and creatinine in test rats against the control in the present study, may be attributed to V. major leaf extract trying to salvage the excretory organs of alloxan battered diabetic rats. Glucose level, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) liver enzymes reduced significantly (p<0.05) in test rats against the control. Diabetic rats treated with V. major leaf extract in this study, showed significant improvements on those associate problems of diabetes which include anaemia, dyslipidaemia, and hepatic necrosis and inflammation. Rats treated with the leaf extract also showed reduced glucose level (Hypoglycemia). From the observations of this study, extract from leaf of V. major may be effective against diabetes and some of its associate problems. Key words: diabetes, biochemical parameters, Vinca major, leaf extract, Wistar rats.
Application of Continuous Wavelet Transform Coupled with Zero-crossing Technique for the Simultaneous Spectrophotometric Determination of Sacubitril and Valsartan in Tablet Dosage Form

Continuous wavelet transform; Zero-crossing technique; Sacubitril; Valsartan; Simultaneous determination; Environmentally friendly spectrophotometric method ABSTRACT: A rapid, simple, precise, accurate, and environmentally friendly spectrophotometric method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of Sacubitril and Valsartan in their combined dosage form, using continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and zero-crossing techniques without using organic solvents and the timeconsuming extraction step. Initially, UV spectra of two pure components in water were processed via various mother wavelet families. Then, applying zero-crossing technique, the optimum points were found to obtain appropriate calibration curves for each point. The calibration curves were linear for both Sacubitril and Valsartan. The validation of these methods was investigated by analyzing several synthetic mixtures with known concentrations. Applying oneway analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and Fisher pairwise comparisons, the following were found to yield the best results: Discrete Meyer (dmey) wavelet functions with scaling factor of 61 at 232 nm and Symlet5 (sym5) with 48 at 232 nm for Sacubitril and Meyer (meyr) with 50 at 272 nm, meyr with 59 at 247 nm, Daubechies (db5) with 53 at 237 nm, and sym5 with 59 at 226 nm for Valsartan. The mean recovery values in synthetic mixtures were between 99.09% and 101.16% using the proposed methods, where relative standard deviation (RSD) not more than 1.23% proved to have good precision. The obtained results from the commercial tablets, applying the developed methods, were compared to those yielded by HPLC method by one-way ANOVA test. According to the results, they were in good agreement and showed no significant differences, thereby suggesting successful determination in accordance with green chemistry.
Supporting the Interpretation of Enriched Audiovisual Sources through Temporal Content Exploration

Increasingly, images and audiovisual media are being used in humanities research (Clivaz, 2016). However, moving images have been called a "blind medium" for retrieval (Sandom & Enser, 2001), since it is not possible to search their content in the same way that we search for text necessitating the manual or automatic sequential viewing and annotation for transcoding or interpreting the audiovisual contents. This poses problems for unlocking access to large audiovisual archives in a way that they are suitable for their users, academic researchers among them (Tommasi et al., 2014).
Position Paper di AIDAP: Evidence-based psychological treatments and not multidisciplinary eclectic treatments as first approach of eating disorders

Guidelines for the treatment of eating disorders are not yet available in Italy, however some documents of clinical appropriateness and consensus have recently been published by the Italian Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Health. These documents recommend with strong emphasis a multidisciplinary treatment for eating disorders and discourage a mono-professional treatment. These recommendations, although they are the result of a broad clinical consensus, do not take in consideration that some evidence-based psychological treatment for eating disorders (e.g., enhanced cognitive behavior therapy (CBT-E) and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)) are delivered by a single therapist and not by multidisciplinary teams. On the contrary, the recommended multidisciplinary eclectic intervention has no evidence of efficacy, having never been tested in randomized controlled trials. In this position paper, the Associazione Italiana Disturbi dell’Alimentazione e del Peso (AIDAP) recommends to the Italian eating disorder clinical services to deliver, as first-line intervention, and according to the age and the eating disorder diagnosis of the patient, the following evidence-based psychological treatment: CBT-E (for all the eating disorder diagnostic categories and age), IPT (for adults with bulimia nervosa), family-based treatment (FBT) (for adolescents with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa), and Maudsley Model of Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults (MANTRA) (for adults with anorexia nervosa). The position paper also recommends multidisciplinary treatments should be only implemented and evaluated in some high specialized clinical centers delivering intensive treatments, such as intensive outpatient treatment, day hospital and inpatients, when the patients do not respond to well delivered outpatient evidence-based psychological treatments. Parole chiave Disturbi dell’alimentazione Anoressia nervosa Bulimia nervosa Trattamento psicologico Trattamento multidisciplinare Trattamento basato sull’evidenza
Developing Web Entry Forms Based on METADATA

Reformatting information currently held in databases into Hypertext Mark-up language (HTML) forms suitable for the World-Wide Web (WWW) requires significant effort both in creating the forms initially and their subsequent maintenance. To avoid these costs, we make use of metadata that can be extracted from the catalogue tables in relational database system, using java database connectivity (JDBC). With this development framework the implementation and maintenance of various database backed web applications will be easier, faster and less error prone.
COVERAGE IMPROVEMENT USING GLA (GENETIC LEARNING AUTOMATA) ALGORITHM IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Coverage improvement is one of the main problems in wireless sensor networks. Given a finite number of sensors, improvement of the sensor deployment will provide sufficient sensor coverage and save cost of sensors for locating in grid points. For achieving good coverage, the sensors should be placed in adequate places. This paper uses the genetic and learning automata as intelligent methods for solving the blanket sensor placement. In this paper an NP-complete problem for arbitrary sensor fields is described which is one of the most important issues in the research fields, so the proposed algorithm is going to solve this problem by considering two factors: first, the complete coverage and second, the minimum used sensors. The proposed method is examined in different areas using MATLAB. The results confirm the successes of using this new method in sensor placement; also they show that the new method is more efficient than other methods like FAPBIL and MDPSO in large areas
A SYSTEM FOR THE ANALYSIS OF IMAGES CONTAINING ATMOSPHERIC DISCHARGES- SAIDA

 This paper describes a system that is able to detect and classify images of lightning discharges stored in video files. The system uses Edge Detectors and Mathematical Morphology to detect images of lightning discharges, and the classification is done using an Artificial Neural network (ANN). The system was implemented in C Language and using the OpenCV library, and was tested with 20 video files, containing 63 lightning discharges previously manually detected. Results showed that 95% of the lightning discharges present in the video files were detected and the number of discharges was correctly computed, and that the artificial neural network classified the detected events with a success rate of 90%. Keywords Image Processing, Computer Vision, Artificial Neural Networks, Lightning Discharges.
Bipolar Plaka Akış Alanları Üzerine Deneysel Çalışmalar

Temiz ve alternatif enerji arayisi, insanligin surekli artan enerji talebini karsilama dogrultusunda artis gostermektedir. Yakit pilleri, yakitin kimyasal enerjisini kullanarak dogrudan elektrige donusturen yuksek verimli enerji donusum sistemleridir. Klasik elektrik enerjisi uretim cevriminde yakit once yakilarak isi enerjisi elde edilmekte, ardindan buhar etkisi ile turbin dondurulmekte, jeneratorde akim elde edilmekte ve depolanmaktadir. Bu enerji donusumu oldukca karmasik ve cok makineli bir sistem gerektirirken, her enerji donusumunde enerji kayiplari da meydana gelmektedir. Yakit pillerinde ise sadece yakitin elektronlarini devreden gecirerek yuksek elektriksel verimle enerji elde edilmektedir. Bu calismada yakit pili cesitlerinden PEM yakit pilleri ele alinarak, PEM yakit pillerinde kullanilan bipolar plakalarin akis alanlari incelenmistir. Literaturde numerik calismalar da bulunmakla birlikte, yakit pillerinin oldukca degisken calisma sartlarindan dolayi deneysel olarak test etmek buyuk onem arz etmektedir. Bu nedenle son on yilda yapilmis olan deneysel calismalar, yontemleriyle sunulmustur. Gunumuzde cok populer bazi akis kanallari verilmekle beraber, akis kanallarini birbirleriyle karsilastirma yontemiyle ustunlugun belirlendigi anlasilmis ve gunumuzde hala optimum akis kanalina ulasilamadigi gozlemlenmistir.
The Role of Sensory Processing Sensitivity in the Formation of Entrepreneurial Intention: A Theory of Planned Behavior Approach

Purpose: This research explores the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurship, in particular, Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) and Entrepreneurial Intention (EI). The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is applied to test for mediation of the three intention antecedents: attractiveness, social norms, and perceived behavioral control. Methodology: Based on literature, hypotheses are constructed to define the relationship between SPS, EI, and TPB. Operationalization of the definitions of interest enables the design of a survey, which is consequently performed on university students. Statistical analysis is performed on the collected data, to test the hypotheses. Findings: Although no clear relationship between SPS, EI, and TPB are found, a subscale of SPS shows a negative relationship between EI and two antecedents of TPB, namely attitude towards entrepreneurship and perceived behavioral control. The subscale of SPS, which shows this relationship, is Ease of Excitement (EOE), which describes an individual's degree of feeling overwhelmed by environmental and emotional stimuli. Outcomes differ depending on measurement. Research implications: The results indicate that more preliminary work on establishing a validated measurement for both, SPS and EI are required. In addition, the current study excludes the environment as a factor, which may prove significant in future studies. Practical implications: Individuals with high SPS, who strive to pursue an entrepreneurial career can benefit from managing their EOE. Taking the time to reflect on new stimuli and finding counter evidence for their bias towards entrepreneurship may enable objectivity in their attitude towards entrepreneurship and take control of their situation. Originality/value: The current study is original in two ways. Firstly, SPS is a relatively new personality trait, which has little published research in the context of entrepreneurship. Secondly, the research measures suggest multiple interpretations of SPS and EI, uncovering a root cause for mixed results with regards to the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurship.
Evaluate Metadata of Sparse Matrix for SpMV on Shared Memory Architecture

Sparse Matrix operations are frequently used op-erations in scientific, engineering and high-performance com-puting (HPC) applications. Among them, sparse matrix-vector multiplication (SpMV) is a popular kernel and considered an important numerical method for science, engineering and in scientific computing. However, SpMV is a computationally expen-sive operation. To obtain better performance, SpMV depends on certain factors; choosing the right storage format for the sparse matrix is one of them. Other things like data access pattern, the sparsity of the matrix data set, load balancing, sharing of the memory hierarchy, etc. are other factors that affect performance. Metadata, that describes the substructure of the sparse matrix, like shape, density, sparsity, etc. of the sparse matrix also affects performance efficiency for any sparse matrix operation. Various approaches presented in literature over the last few decades given good results for certain types of matrix structures and don’t perform as well with others. Developers thus are faced with a difficulty in choosing the most appropriate format. In this research, an approach is presented that evaluates metadata of a given sparse matrix and suggest to the developers the most suitable storage format to use for SpMV.
Foreign Direct Investment - Growth Linkage in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is Governance a Mediating Factor?

In sub – Saharan Africa, weak institutions and the rising concern for improved business environment offer considerable leverage for enhancing the effectiveness of institutional framework, capital inflows, and public investment efficiency. These have put SSA in the global spotlight in recent times. Hence, the study examines the mediating effect of governance on FDI – growth nexus in 35 SSA countries between 2002 and 2017 using panel data techniques (Pooled OLS, Fixed Effects, and Panel-Corrected Standard Error’ (PCSE) estimation) and the Dynamic One – Step Difference and System GMM. Results indicate that control of corruption, political stability and regulatory quality, including governance composite index, have a positive and significant effect on economic growth, suggesting that institutions have a salutary impact on SSA economies. The findings further show that FDI inflows adversely influence growth owing to insufficient absorptive capacity that could enhance FDI effectiveness in the region. More importantly, the pervasiveness of poor governance in SSA is identified as a critical case that undermines the development of the nexus between FDI and economic growth. Thus, the study suggests that FDI – growth linkage would be enhanced by promoting a strong institutional environment that offers a good mechanism for attaining the actual FDI spillover potential through a policy framework that points the path towards cost-effective measures in SSA. Also, there should be core investment policies across African countries that would induce the private sector in consolidating government efforts and resources aimed at improving international competitiveness by diversifying the region’s economies away from a protracted commodity – based.
Nurses' Competence and Job Related Factors among Nurses in University Hospitals: A Cross Sectional Descriptive Design

Introduction: Nurses' Competence is a critical factor for providing safe and quality care and self- assessment is a key issue in maintenance of competence. This study was conducted to identify the level of competence and its associations with some job related factors. Methods: A cross sectional and descriptive design was conducted at seven university hospitals in Rasht during September 2015. This study included 230 nurses working in university hospitals who were selected using stratified sampling method . The majority of nurses was female and had a bachelor's degree. Nurses' competence was measured using self reported competency inventory for registered nurses (Persian version) . Data was analyzed with Spearman correlation, Mann-Whitney-U SPSS /21 software. Results: The average score of competence was 173.59±26.72 and was considered in high level. The highest and the lowest competence were in dimensions of 'ethical-legal performance' (M=3.23±.52) and 'Critical thinking/research aptitude' (M=3.11±.51) respectively. There were significant associations between nurses' competence and some job related factors consisting work experience (p = 0.001), monthly salary (p = 0.001), working hours per month (p = 0.004), Nurses' shift work (p = 0.021), and employment type (p = 0.003). Conclusions: Nurses assessed their competence at a desirable level, which may be due to self-assessment tool. Some job related factors associated with nurses' competence. Exploring the competence level and its relationship with these factors could be helpful in managerial interventions for professional competency.
Making Consumers Switch: Not as Easy as It Seems? The Effects of Brand Preference and Resistance to Advertising on Consumers’ Attitudes and Behaviour

Does advertising merely reinforce existing brand preferences or can consumers still be triggered to switch brands? This study examined if brand preference explains the use of resistance strategies while watching a television commercial, and if the use of resistance strategies mediates the effects of brand preference on consumers’ attitudes and behaviour (i.e., product attitude, advertisement attitude, and purchase intention). This made it the first research to study brand preference as the possible antecedent of resistance strategies, in combination with its effects on consumers. According to existing literature, consumers dislike information that opposes their existing position or that threatens their freedom. Thus, when people are confronted with an advertisement and this information is not in line with their beliefs, it will elicit more resistance. To resist attitudinal change and to protect their freedom, consumers can use cognitive resistance strategies (i.e., counterarguing) and affective resistance strategies (i.e., negative affect) to not be persuaded by advertisements. It was hypothesised that consumers who have a stronger preference for a brand use less resistance strategies, because the advertisement is congruent to their beliefs. On the other hand, more resistance will be evoked when consumers with weaker preferences for the brand are exposed to the ad. Subsequently, this cognitive and affective resistance negatively affects their product attitude, advertisement attitude, and purchase intention. To test these hypotheses, an online survey was distributed among an existing online panel, containing a television commercial of a toothpaste brand. Among others, questions were asked about respondents’ preference for that brand (prior to exposure to the ad), their attitudes towards the product and the advertisement, and their intentions to purchase that product. The total sample size was 265. The results found direct positive effects of brand preference on consumers’ attitudes and behaviour. However, no effects of brand preference on the use of resistance strategies were found. Nonetheless, resistance strategies did negatively impact how consumers evaluated the product and the advertisement. Moreover, resistance strategies indirectly affected purchase intentions via advertisement attitude and product attitude. Thus, these findings do suggest the importance of both prior brand preferences and the use of resistance strategies on consumers’ attitudes and behaviour. Future research could further explore under which circumstances brand preference does influence the use of resistance strategies. To conclude, it could still be argued that advertising efforts merely reinforce existing preferences rather than stimulate consumers to switch brands.
Gateway Load Balancing Service in Cloud Data Centre Environments using throughput Metric Iindex.

In cloud data centre designs, as a result of high density traffic transactions, introducing a gateway load balancer (GLB) to improve server performance considering the demand of clients, will greatly offer robust fault tolerance, while enhancing performance at large. This paper developed, and analysed the performance of a core layer network simulation which hosts a typical http web service while outlining the advantages of load balancing service. This reflects in the throughput response of a two case scenario: Cloud DCN failure recovery and Cloud DCN No_ failure recovery in a carefully design cloud datacenter setup. From the results of this study, it was observed that the former yielded 99% throughput index while the later offered 97% throughput index. The 3% differential accounts for occasional server downtimes. Consequently, this paper argues that in a data intensive network, any load balancing service will allow load sharing of traffic from access layer endpoints within a common subnet through redundant default gateways, while also providing failure protection. This will offer an additional improvement in a proposed Enterprise Energy Tracking Analytics Cloud Portal (EETACP) in our future work.
Association of TP53 gene codon 72 polymorphism with Helicobacter pylori-positive non-cardia gastric cancer in Vietnam.

INTRODUCTION This research aimed to determine the association of the combination of H. pylori infection and TP53 codon 72 polymorphism with non-cardia gastric cancer (GC) in Vietnam. METHODOLOGY A total of 164 patients with non-cardia GC and 164 patients with peptic ulcer disease or functional dyspepsia in controls matched by sex and age were enrolled. H. pylori infection was diagnosed by rapid urease test and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The cagA gene-positivity and vacA sm subtypes were determined by multiplex PCR. Genotypes of TP53 codon 72 polymorphism were determined by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. RESULTS The prevalence of H. pylori infection in GC and control group were 61.6% and 55.4%, respectively. The rates of cagA-positive strains in the two H. pylori-positive groups were 80.2% and 71.4%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in TP53 codon 72 genotype distribution between GC group (frequencies of Arg/Arg, Arg/Pro and Pro/Pro genotypes were 31.1%, 43.3% and 25.6%, respectively) and controls (29.3%, 52.4% and 18.3%, respectively), p = 0.172. The significant difference in genotype distribution was observed in recessive model (Pro/Pro vs Arg/Arg + Arg/Pro) when stratifying by H. pylori infection (OR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.03-3.96, p = 0.041) and by cagA-positivity (OR = 2.33, 95% CI 1.07-5.07, p = 0.032). CONCLUSIONS This study suggests a synergistic interaction between H. pylori infection, especially cagA-positive H. pylori, and Pro/Pro genotype of TP53 codon 72 polymorphism might play a significant role in the pathogenesis of GC in the Vietnamese population.