Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental and clinical reports on anti‐inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects of Curcuma longa and curcumin, an updated and comprehensive review

Curcuma longa (C. longa) or turmeric is a plant with a long history of use in traditional medicine, especially for treating inflammatory conditions C. longa and its main constituent, curcumin (CUR), showed various pharmacological effects such as antioxidant and anti‐microbial properties. The updated knowledge of anti‐inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects of C. longa and CUR is provided in this review article. Pharmacological effects of C. longa, and CUR, including anti‐inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory properties, were searched using various databases and appropriate keywords until September 2020. Various studies showed anti‐inflammatory effects of C. longa and CUR, including decreased white blood cell, neutrophil, and eosinophil numbers, and its protective effects on serum levels of inflammatory mediators such as phospholipase A2 and total protein in different inflammatory disorders. The antioxidant effects of C. longa and CUR were also reported in several studies. The plant extracts and CUR decreased malondialdehyde and nitric oxide levels but increased thiol, superoxide dismutase, and catalase levels in oxidative stress conditions. Treatment with C. longa and CUR also improved immunoglobulin E (Ig)E, pro‐inflammatory cytokine interleukin 4 (IL)‐4, transforming growth factor‐beta, IL‐17, interferon‐gamma levels, and type 1/type 2 helper cells (Th1)/(Th2) ratio in conditions with disturbance in the immune system. Therefore C. longa and CUR showed anti‐inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects, indicating a potential therapeutic effect of the plant and its constituent, CUR, for treating of inflammatory, oxidative, and immune dysregulation disorders.
Insular functional organization during handgrip in females and males with obstructive sleep apnea

Study objectives Brain regulation of autonomic function in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is disrupted in a sex-specific manner, including in the insula, which may contribute to several comorbidities. The insular gyri have anatomically distinct functions with respect to autonomic nervous system regulation; yet, OSA exerts little effect on the organization of insular gyral responses to sympathetic components of an autonomic challenge, the Valsalva. We further assessed neural responses of insular gyri in people with OSA to a static handgrip task, which principally involves parasympathetic withdrawal. Methods We measured insular function with blood oxygen level dependent functional MRI. We studied 48 newly-diagnosed OSA (age mean±std:46.5±9 years; AHI±std:32.6±21.1 events/hour; 36 male) and 63 healthy (47.2±8.8 years;40 male) participants. Subjects performed four 16s handgrips (1 min intervals, 80% subjective maximum strength) during scanning. fMRI time trends from five insular gyri—anterior short (ASG); mid short (MSG); posterior short (PSG); anterior long (ALG); and posterior long (PLG)—were assessed for within-group responses and between-group differences with repeated measures ANOVA (p<0.05) in combined and separate female-male models; age and resting heart-rate (HR) influences were also assessed. Results Females showed greater right anterior dominance at the ASG, but no differences emerged between OSA and controls in relation to functional organization of the insula in response to handgrip. Males showed greater left anterior dominance at the ASG, but there were also no differences between OSA and controls. The males showed a group difference between OSA and controls only in the ALG. OSA males had lower left activation at the ALG compared to control males. Responses were mostly influenced by HR and age; however, age did not impact the response for right anterior dominance in females. Conclusions Insular gyri functional responses to handgrip differ in OSA vs controls in a sex-based manner, but only in laterality of one gyrus, suggesting anterior and right-side insular dominance during sympathetic activation but parasympathetic withdrawal is largely intact, despite morphologic injury to the overall structure.
COVID-19 Pandemic: Need of the Hour – A Course Correction, Restructuring & Review of our Policies – An Indian Perspective

The world stunned by a pandemic of such cataclysmic scale is reeling under the joint burden of health impact unleashed by the diseases and the strain on the economy. Glaring shortfalls and inconsistencies in strategies to combat the pandemic have surfaced worldwide irrespective of the country’s economic and health care status. The responses have vacillated from mute to drastic. Gaps in health preparedness coupled with administrative tardiness, lack of co-ordination and foresight has heightened the impact of pandemic. Coordinated holistic approach with structured policies in place is the need of the hour. Surveillance and epidemiological models to predict the unpredictable and preempt the backlash will dictate our future successes and failures in this protracted fight against the pandemic. This article attempts to review the present status of health policy on COVID in general and with specific reference to India and their outcome thus far. We also propose a simple and practical framework on which a decisive, well-knit, reliable and acceptable policy can be framed.
The dose-response relationship between interval-training and VO2max in well-trained endurance runners: A systematic review

ABSTRACT Success in endurance running is primarily determined by maximal aerobic power (VO2max), fractional utilization, and running economy (RE). Within the literature, two training modalities have been identified to improve VO2max; continuous training (CT) and interval-training (IT). The efficacy of IT to improve VO2max in well-trained runners remains equivocal, as does whether a dose-response relationship exists between the IT training load performed and changes in VO2max. A keyword search was performed in five electronic databases. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review. The training impulse (TRIMP) was calculated to analyse relationships between training load and changes in VO2max, by calculating the time accumulated in certain intensity domains throughout a training intervention. Non-significant (P>0.05) improvements in VO2max were reported in six studies, with only one study reporting a significant (P<0.05) improvement following the IT interventions. A relationship between the training session impulse of the interval-training performed (IT STRIMP) and VO2max improvements were observed. The efficacy of IT to improve VO2max in well-trained runners remains equivocal, nevertheless, the novel method of training-load analysis demonstrates a relationship between the IT STRIMP and VO2max improvements. This provides practical application for the periodization of IT within the training regime of well-trained distance runners.
Effects of a Literacy Feature in an Augmentative and Alternative Communication App on Single-Word Reading of Individuals with Severe Autism Spectrum Disorders

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app with transition to literacy (T2L) software features (i.e., dynamic text and speech output upon selection of a graphic symbol within the grid display) on the acquisition of 12 personally relevant single words for individuals with severe autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who had minimal or no speech. The study implemented a single-subject, multiple-probe, across word sets design with four participants. All four participants in this study demonstrated increased accuracy reading targeted single words and results from this study provide preliminary evidence that the T2L features can positively affect the single-word learning of individuals with ASD who have minimal speech and limited literacy skills.
Factors Analysis for Risk Perception in Fabrication Work

Accidents in industry is not only cause damage, but also economic losses for the company. One of the causes of accidents is the reduced safety performance of workers. One cause of the lack of safety performance is still lack of understanding in analyzing hazards in the workplace and also discussing safety risk perception. Related research proves that a considerable amount of damage has been found associated with inaccurate safety risk perception. In fabrication work, with the characteristics of work that monotonous position of working, causing musculoskeletal disorders that become of the hazard that need to be considered. Safety performance is also related to safety culture. Safety culture is not only related to institutional and safety policies, but also related to the structural and contextual aspects of the organization. Therefore, the researcher emphasizes to study the combination of personality traits, body pain, and organizational hierarchies on safety risk perception in the field of fabrication work by modeling using SEM. The purpose of this study is to consider about safety risk perception in fabrication work for safety management system that is implemented. Meanwhile for further research, it is expected that the developed model can be used as a guide in developing safety research.
Effect of Surfactant in Gas Dissolved Cleaning Solutions on Acoustic Bubble Dynamics

Megasonic cleaning is one of the promising technologies to remove the particles during semiconductor processing. Acoustic bubble cavitation plays a key role in removing the particles. In this work, the effect of an anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) on a bubble in the presence of hydrogen dissolved DIW water was studied. The bubble dynamics were observed using a high-speed camera. It was found that with the increase of surfactant the bubble characteristics were changed very significantly. Several parameters affecting the bubble dynamics were investigated.
Measurement of Overall Volumetric Mass Transfer Coefficients for Carbon Dioxide in a Well-Mixed Reactor Using a pH Probe

Carbon dioxide can serve as a source of carbon for photosynthetic cell cultures, but it must reside in the aqueous phase prior to uptake. Carbon dioxide is a gas at room temperature and pressure, and its solubility in water is very low. It resides in the aqueous phase as four different species, carbon dioxide, CO2; carbonic acid, H2CO3; bicarbonate ion, HCO3-; and carbonate ion, CO3=, whose equilibrium concentrations are pH dependent. With these factors taken into account, a model has been developed to allow the pH profile of an aqueous phase, undergoing a sudden application of bubbles containing carbon dioxide, to be used as a measure of the transient dissolved carbon dioxide concentration in a reactor. Experimentally measured carbon dioxide profiles were used to calculate the overall volumetric mass transfer coefficients for carbon dioxide into a well-mixed reactor as a function of temperature, stirring speed, and aeration rate. Finally, an empirical correlation is provided to predict the overall volume.
Mechanical Properties of Silicone Rubber / Hydroxyapatite Composite

Silicone rubber (SR) and hydroxyapatite (HA) are two well-known material that have been used as bone replacement. The flexibility and compatibility of SR and HA respectively, shows great performance and improvement in medical application. This paper investigate the mechanical properties of SR and HA composite with various phr loading of HA (0 - 30 phr). The results indicate that, HA loading phr of 25 phr and 30 phr were in the range of tensile strength of 5.76 MPa and 3.15 MPa respectively. Also, the hardness value of all the percentage loading of HA were above the hardness value of human vertebrae cancellous bone.
Substituted 1,10-Phenanthroline-5,6-diamines and their Extension to Soluble, Acetylenic Pyrazinophenanthrolines

2,9-Disubstituted and 3,8-disubstituted 1,10-phenanthrolines have been converted to the respective 5,6-diamines in three steps. The new heterocycles have been employed in condensation reactions with a protected 1,2-dialkynyl-1,2-dione to afford solubility-improved, acetylenic pyrazinophenanthrolines (pyzphen). In an initial study, the synthetic scope of these novel acetylenic ligands is evaluated.
Nutrient Digestibility, Growth, Mucosal Barrier Status, and Activity of Leucocytes From Head Kidney of Atlantic Salmon Fed Marine- or Plant-Derived Protein and Lipid Sources

Nutrient digestibility, growth, and mucosal barrier status of fish skin, gills, and distal intestine were studied in Atlantic salmon fed feeds based on marine or plant-derived ingredients. The barrier status was assessed by considering the expression of four mucin genes, five genes that encode antimicrobial proteins, distal intestine micromorphology, and design-based stereology of the midgut epithelium. In addition, the head kidney leukocytes were examined using flow cytometry; to understand the differences in their counts and function. Five experimental feeds containing the main components i) fishmeal and fish oil (BG1), ii) soybean meal (BG2; to induce enteritis), iii) fishmeal as the main protein source and rapeseed oil as the main lipid source (BG3), iv) a mix of plant protein concentrates as the protein sources and fish oil as the lipid source (BG4), and v) plant and marine ingredients in the ratio 70:30 (BG5) were produced for the study. Atlantic salmon with initial weight 72.7 ± 1.2 g was offered the experimental feeds for 65 days. The results revealed that the weights of all fish groups doubled, except for fish fed BG2. Fish fed the BG2 diet had lower blood cholesterol concentration, developed enteritis, had lower expression of muc2 in the distal intestine, and had a compromised barrier status in the intestine. Expression of both the mucin genes and genes that encode antimicrobial peptides were tissue-specific and some were significantly affected by diet. The fish fed BG1 and BG3 had more head kidney lymphocyte-like cells compared to BG5-fed fish, and the phagocytic activity of macrophage-like cells from the head kidney was the highest in fish fed BG1. The intestinal micromorphology and the mucosal mapping suggest two different ways by which plant-based diets can alter the gut barrier status; by either reducing the mucous cell sizes, volumetric densities and barrier status (as noted for BG2) or increasing volumetric density of mucous cells (as observed for BG4 and BG5). The results of the compromised intestinal barrier in fish fed plant ingredients should be further confirmed through transcriptomic and immunohistochemical studies to refine ingredient composition for sustainable and acceptable healthy diets.
Prevalence and Genetic Characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus CC398 Isolates From Invasive Infections in Spanish Hospitals, Focusing on the Livestock-Independent CC398-MSSA Clade

Background Livestock-associated (LA)-CC398-MRSA is closely related to pigs, being unfrequently detected in human invasive infections. CC398-MSSA is emerging in human invasive infections in some countries, but genetic and epidemiological characteristics are still scarcely reported. Objectives To determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus (SA) CC398, both MRSA and MSSA, among blood cultures SA isolates recovered in Spanish hospitals located in regions with different pig-farming densities (PD) and characterize the recovered isolates. Methods One thousand twenty-two SA isolates (761 MSSA, 261 MRSA) recovered from blood cultures during 6–12 months in 17 Spanish hospitals (2018–2019) were studied. CC398 lineage identification, detection of spa-types, and antibiotic resistance, virulence and human immune evasion cluster (IEC) genes were analyzed by PCR/sequencing. Results Forty-four CC398-MSSA isolates (4.3% of SA; 5.8% of MSSA) and 10 CC398-MRSA isolates (1% of SA; 3.8% of MRSA) were detected. Eleven spa-types were found among the CC398-MSSA isolates with t571 and t1451 the most frequent spa-types detected (75%). Most of CC398-MSSA isolates were Immune-Evasion-Cluster (IEC)-positive (88.6%), tetracycline-susceptible (95.5%) and erythromycin/clindamycin–inducible-resistant/erm(T)-positive (75%). No statistical significance was detected when the CC398-MSSA/MSSA rate was correlated to PD (pigs/km2) (p = 0.108). On the contrary, CC398-MRSA isolates were all IEC-negative, predominately spa-t011 (70%), and the CC398-MRSA/MRSA rate was significantly associated to PD (p < 0.005). Conclusion CC398-MSSA is an emerging clade in invasive infections in Spanish hospitals. CC398-MRSA (mostly t011) and CC398-MSSA (mostly t571 and t1451) show important differences, possibly suggesting divergent steps in host-adaptation evolutionary processes. While CC398-MRSA is livestock-associated (lacking IEC-system), CC398-MSSA seems to be mostly livestock-independent, carrying human-adaptation markers.
Salivary CCL20 Level as a Biomarker for Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background/Aim: This study investigated the utility of C-C motif chemokine ligand 20 (CCL20) expression in saliva as a biomarker for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and also examined the associated microbiome. Materials and Methods: The study group included patients with OSCC or oral potentially malignant disorder (OPMD), and healthy volunteers (HVs). microarray and qRT-PCR were used to compare salivary CCL20 expression levels among groups. Data on CCL20 levels in oral cancer tissues and normal tissues were retrieved from a public database and examined. Furthermore, next-generation sequencing was used to investigate the salivary microbiome. Results: A significant increase in the expression level of CCL20 was observed in both OSCC tissues and saliva from patients with oral cancer. Fusobacterium was identified as the predominant bacteria in OSCC and correlated with CCL20 expression level. OSCC screening based on salivary CCL20 expression enabled successful differentiation between patients with OSCC and HVs. Conclusion: CCL20 expression may be a useful biomarker for OSCC.
(Photo)electrochemical characterization of tin‐doped indium oxide

Tin‐doped indium oxide (ITO) films, prepared by dc magnetron sputtering, were characterized by (photo)electrochemical measurements in aqueous H2SO4 solutions. Wavelength dependent photocurrent measurements were used to determine the optical band gap energy of these films. Electron excitation from the valence band to localized states in the band gap was observed. The presence of such energy levels resulted in an Urbach tail. Impedance measurements were used to determine the flatband potential and the charge carrier concentration of ITO. A change in the charge carrier concentration due to different deposition conditions resulted in a change of the resistivity and in a shift of the flatband potential. This shift could be explained by a Moss–Burstein shift of the optical band gap.
A computational construction grammar approach to semantic frame extraction

Abstract This paper introduces a novel methodology for extracting semantic frames from text corpora. Building on recent advances in computational construction grammar, the method captures expert knowledge of how semantic frames can be expressed in the form of conventionalised form-meaning pairings, called constructions. By combining these constructions in a semantic parsing process, the frame-semantic structure of a sentence is retrieved through the intermediary of its morpho-syntactic structure. The main advantage of this approach is that state-of-the-art results are achieved, without the need for annotated training data. We demonstrate the method in a case study where causation frames are extracted from English newspaper articles, and compare it to a commonly used approach based on Conditional Random Fields (CRFs). The computational construction grammar approach yields a word-level F1 score of 78.5%, outperforming the CRF approach by 4.5 percentage points.
Mixture‐based clustering for count data using approximated Fisher Scoring and Minorization–Maximization approaches

The multinomial distribution has been widely used to model count data. To increase clustering efficiency, we use an approximation to the Fisher scoring algorithm, which is more robust regarding the choice of initial parameter values. Then, we use a novel approach to estimate the optimal number of components, based on minimum message length criterion. Moreover, we consider a generalization of the multinomial model obtained by introducing the Dirichlet as prior, yielding the Dirichlet Compound Multinomial (DCM). Even though DCM can address the burstiness phenomenon of count data, the presence of Gamma function in its density function usually leads to undesired complications. In this article, we use two alternative representations of DCM distribution to perform clustering based on finite mixture models, where the mixture parameters are estimated using the minorization–maximization framework. To evaluate and compare the performance of our proposed models, we have considered three challenging real‐world applications that involve high‐dimensional count vectors, namely, sentiment analysis, facial expression recognition, and human action recognition. The results show that the proposed algorithms increase the clustering efficiency of their respective models remarkably, and the best results are achieved by the second parametrization of DCM, which can accommodate over‐dispersed count data.
Characterization of Portuguese-Grown Geranium Oil (Pelargonium sp.)

Abstract The chemical composition of the Portuguese-grown geranium essential oil (Pelargonium hybrid) cultivated in northern Portugal, which also grows wild, was examined. It was found that the geranium oil herein obtained had characteristics intermediate between Bourbon and China types, with good olfactory quality and presenting characteristics different from those previously studied. The essential oils of fresh/dried and green/yellow geranium leaves were compared. Solvent extraction methods were also employed and the composition of the respective absolutes was determined and compared with the essential oil. It was concluded that using air-dried plant and yellow leaves improved the quality of geranium oil. Moreover, the absolute obtained from a diethyl ether extract had the best organoleptic properties of the extracts studied.
Bonding characterization of BC2N thin films

We have studied the bonding states of BC2N thin films prepared by chemical vapor deposition, one of the new layered BCN compounds. The chemical bonding states of boron, carbon, and nitrogen atoms in the BC2N thin films were investigated by using x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy to measure chemical shifts of 1s electrons, being compared with those in graphite and hexagonal (h‐) BN. The results exhibited that the thin films had significant B–C and C–N bonds and were clearly different from graphite and h‐BN, indicating that an atomic‐level hybrid of the three elements was synthesized.
Exploratory Gait Analysis Using Wearable Technology

Gait analysis is a rapidly expanding and evolving research area with application to biomechanics and rehabilitation. Current wearable technology that can be used to collect gait information is becoming more accessible in terms of cost and usability compared to lab counterparts which can be expensive and require training to setup and use. This paper provides an exploratory analysis of knee angle versus angular velocity of the lower leg for six healthy participants for at four walking speeds (1.8 km/h, 2.7 km/h, 4.5 km/h, 5.4 km/h) on a treadmill and walking over the ground at 3.9 km, using the Xsens Inertial Measurement Unit. These phase portraits provide a rich data source for qualitative comparison. In future objective gait analysis based on suggested gait parameters can aid with rehabilitation of dysfunctional gait.