Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computer simulations of modified cellulose nanofibrils

The purpose of this study is to observe what modifying the surface of cellulose nanofibrils may imply for their interactions with a surrounding saline aqueous solution. This will be studied by using GROMACS, a molecular dynamic simulation software. In particular, we will analyse the modified surfaces hydrophilicity compared to native nanocellulose. This will subsequently have an impact on the nanofibrils readiness to aggregate to one another and disperse in the solution. Specifically two types of surface modifications will be studied, sulfonation and carboxylation. The hydrophilicity of the surfaces will be determined by analysing the density profiles of the systems wherein the modified surfaces interacts with the aqueous solutions. Also, the energies from the interactions of the simulated systems will be studied. We concluded that both modifications increases the surfaces interactions with the surrounding solution. Modifying the surface of the cellulose nanofibril with sulfonate will increase the surfaces attraction towards water and may provide the best rate of dispersion in aqueous solutions and best prohibit aggregation. Carboxylation of the surface provides similar hydrophilic results as the sulfonation but not as prevalent.
Medicinal Potential of Acalypha wilkesiana Leaves

Background and Aim: Acalypha wilkesiana, commonly called Irish petticoat, is native to the south pacific islands and belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. The plant has antimicrobial and antifungal properties and in traditional medicine, the leaves are eaten as vegetables in the management of hypertension, being a diuretic plant. This study was conducted to determine some phytochemical (quantitative) constituents of Acalypha wilkesiana leaves, with a view to evaluating its medicinal potentials. Method and Design: The samples (ethanol extract, aqueous extract and dried powder) of Acalypha wilkesiana leaves were analyzed for the presence of phytochemicals according to standard methods. Results: Quantitative analysis of these phytochemicals in the leave extracts (aqueous or ethanol) and powder of this plant revealed the presence of medicinally active constituents like saponins (0.44% in the aqueous extract, 0.22% in the ethanol extract and 0.23% in the powdered leaves), cardiac glycosides (0.031% in the aqueous extract, 0.073% in the ethanol extract and 0.099% in the powdered leaves), alkaloids (0.92% in the aqueous extract, 3.20% in the ethanol extract and 2.62% in the powdered leaves) and oxalate (2.4% in the aqueous extract, 16.2% in the ethanol extract and 18.6% in the powdered leaves). Other phytochemicals found were tannins, phenols, steroids, anthraquinones, flavonoids, phytate and terpenoids. Discussion and Conclusion: The various phytochemical compounds detected are Original Research Article Kingsley and Marshall; AIR, Article no. AIR.2014. 11.009 656 known to have beneficial use in industries and medical sciences, and also exhibit physiological activity. The plant (Acalypha wilkesiana) studied here can be seen as a potential source of useful drugs.
The psychosocial preferences in mate selection among Pakistanis

The present survey was targeted to identify and analyze the psychosocial preferences in mate selection among Pakistanis. The inquiry included 1100 Pakistanis (433 males and 667 females) who were all adults, educated, unmarried and belonged to the urban areas of Pakistan. The research questionnaire included 10 psychosocial preferences and the participants were asked to rank their preferences from 1 to 10. The findings were obtained through mean scores and differential analysis. The study established that men and women in Pakistan do idealize certain psychosocial preferences while making choices in mate selection and the most desired preferences of males and females differ significantly. Men, in the current study, reported to value beauty of women the most while women preferred educated men as their top priority. The findings of the current study were in aligned with earlier studies of similar nature.
The Prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus among People Living with HIV/AIDS Receiving Anti-Retroviral Therapy in Chiradzulu District, Malawi: A Cross – Sectional Study

The study was conducted to determine the prevalence of diabetes and its associated factors in people living with HIV/AIDS receiving Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) in Chiradzulu district, Malawi. A hospitalbased cross-sectional study was conducted between April and October 2016. Using systematic random sampling, secondary data from patients’ records registered at ART and diabetes clinics were extracted. Categorical variables were compared using Chi-square test, independent samples test was used to compare means and multiple logistic regressions were used to calculate adjusted odds ratios for the effect of potential risk factors on diabetes. Out of 440 participants (10%) were diabetic. After adjusting for other variables, age, BMI, DM family history, hypertension and WHO stage 2 remained significant predictors of diabetes p<0.05. In addition, use of TDF/3TC/ATV/r was also a strong predictor of diabetes mellitus and the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for TDF/3TC/ATV/r users was 6.08, CI [31.82], P=0.032). The study concluded that diabetes mellitus is a big concern for people on treatment living with HIV/AIDS. Therefore, the study recommends that HIV/ART exposed patients should be checked for DM regardless of the absence or presence of the common diabetes’ risk factors. For the sake of planning and implementing targeted routine monitoring, diabetes risk factors need proper identification.
Ipsilateral vocal cord paralysis after interscalene brachial plexus block for clavicle surgery: anatomical considerations and technical recommendations-a case report

Interscalene brachial plexus block (IBPB) offers many advantages over general anesthesia for anesthesia and pain management during shoulder, clavicle, and humerus surgery. It also has well-known complications, such as nerve injury, Horner’s syndrome, and diaphragmatic paralysis. Hoarseness is a rare complication and most cases are caused by blockage of the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN). We experienced a case of ipsilateral vocal cord paralysis that lasted for several months after IBPB for a clavicle surgery. A 37-year-old woman underwent open reduction and internal fixation of the left clavicle under regional anesthesia by IBPB. After surgery, ipsilateral vocal cord paralysis was described to the patient and the patient was reassured. The patient recovered vocal cord movement 8 weeks after surgery, and speech was restored 12 weeks after the operation.
Control of Type II Diabetes, Its Relationship with Obesity and Basal Metabolic Rate

Background: The prevalence of T2DM is around 7-10%. Control of diabetes and factors influencing it in thirdworld countries need to be clearly defined as most of the people have poor glycemic control. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted and purposive sampling was done to collect data for 5 months. Atotal of 766 type 2 diabetic patients were enrolled who visited SiDER (Sakina Institute of Diabetes and EndocrineResearch Center) at Shalamar Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan. Only pre-diagnosed diabetic subjects with a random bloodglucose of more than 200mg/dl at two occasions and fasting blood glucose levels more than 126mg/dl were includedin the study. Variables like Body Mass Index (BMI), Glycated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) and Basal Metabolic Rate(BMR) were recorded. The data was analyzed by SPSS 22 version. Results: A total of 766 diabetics were recruited in the study out of which 40.3% were male and 59.7% werefemales. The mean age was 48.72±10.43 years. Out of these 53.39% were obese, 32.64% were overweight and only13.97% had a normal body mass index BMI). HbA1c levels in the sample population showed that only 13.05% hadvery healthy control i.e. 7% or less. There was a positive co-relation between Body Mass Indexand glycemiccontrol. However there was no statistically significant relation between Basal Metabolic Rateand glycemic control. Conclusion: People with high Body Mass Index were found to have suboptimal glycemic control. It was alsoobserved that higher percentage of diabetic patients fall in age group of 41-55 years. More powerful studies areneeded to establish a relation between glycated hemoglobin and Basal Metabolic Rate.
AIR-PILLOW TELEPHONE: A PILLOW-SHAPED HAPTIC DEVICE USING A PNEUMATIC ACTUATOR

As a new haptic device for daily use, a pillow-shaped haptic device using a pneumatic actuator, the Air-pillow telephone, is proposed. The Air-pillow telephone allows an intimate couple at a distance to mutually share the partner’s sense of touch and presence. We have developed a prototype system with an air bag driven by a piston-cylinder mechanism. The user’s head motion affects the air pressure of the air bag and then its signal is bilaterally transmitted in real time via internet to actuate the partner’s air pillow. Inside the pillow’s subtle motion, the user can find the existence of the partner’s haptic language. This paper describes the Air-pillow telephone concept and application as well as implementation of the prototype system and simulation results.
Analysing tweets describing during natural disasters in Europe and Asia

Twitter is a widely known platform for speedy diffusion of views, ideas and information during different events. It has widely been used during disasters to communicate evacuation plans, help calls, and damage assessment. Reliability of information accessed during mass emergencies from social media for decision making is very important. In this research we reveal different aspects of credibility, granularity of geographic information reported in tweets and use of Naïve Bayes for tweet classification from the users of Europe and Asia. We used user-based features to assess credibility. Toponyms from tweet text are extracted with its frequency to reveal geographic feature granularity in the tweets. Naïve Bayes is used to classify tweets which is trained on one geographic location and tested for the event from another geographic region. Our results show that credibility assessment shows a complex picture for Italy and Myanmar based on user-based features. So-called fine geographic granularity has been reported from the users of Myanmar. And Naïve Bayes performs with high accuracy even if a new training data is not prepared for different geographic region.
Opportunistic Spectrum Sharing Based on OFDM With Index Modulation

In this paper, a novel opportunistic spectrum sharing scheme, based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation (OFDM-IM), is proposed for cognitive radio (CR) networks. In the considered OFDM-IM based CR (OFDM-IM-CR) model, the primary transmitter (PT) communicates with the primary receiver with the aid of an amplify-and-forward (AF) relay by transmitting OFDM-IM signals. Meanwhile, the secondary transmitter (ST) passively senses the spectrum and transmits its own information over those inactive subcarriers of the primary network to the secondary receiver if the signal-to-noise ratio of the PT $\to $ ST link is above a predefined threshold; otherwise, the ST stays in silent mode. Two different types of maximum-likelihood (ML) detectors are designed for the primary network, based on the knowledge of either the estimated channel state information or the statistical channel information of the secondary network. A complexity-reducing method, which is applicable to both types and achieves near optimal performance, is further proposed. To evaluate the performance, a tight upper bound on the bit error rate (BER) is derived, assuming the first type of ML detection. Simulation results corroborate the analysis and show that OFDM-IM-CR has the potential of outperforming OFDM-CR and OFDM-IM-AF in terms of BER with higher spectral efficiency.
Regulation of Lnc-NTF3-5 on ADAMTS-4 and nerve growth factor in degenerative disc disease

As a degenerative disease, disc degeneration of intervertebral disc disease (IDDD) can cause severe low back pain. There are several factors involving in the pathogenesis of IDDD, in which dysregulation of gene expression plays a critical role, such as aggrecanase ADAMT-4 and inflammatory factors. It has been shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a crucial role in the occurrence and development of IDDD and that Lnc-NTF3-5 plays a role in bone differentiation. However, its role and related mechanisms in IDDD have not been elucidated. The nucleus pulposus of IDDD and idiopathic scoliosis patients were collected to isolate the nucleus pulposus cells. Expression of Lnc-NTF3-5 was tested by real time PCR. The cells were randomly divided into three groups, a IDDD group, a scramble group, and a Lnc-NTF3-5 siRNA group. Cell proliferation was determined by tetrazolium salt (MTT) colorimetric assay. ADAMTS-4 mRNA and Lnc-TNF3-5 was detected by Real-time PCR. TNF-α and IL-4 were analyzed by ELISA. NF-κB and nerve growth factor (NGF) expression was assessed by Western blot. Lnc-NTF3-5 expression was significantly decreased in IDDD nucleus pulposus cells compared with control (P < 0.05). Transfection of LncNTF3-5 siRNA significantly inhibited Lnc-NTF3-5 expression, promoted cell proliferation, inhibited ADAMTS-4 mRNA expression, restrained inflammatory factors TNF-α and IL-4 secretion, suppressed NF-κB protein expression, and elevated NGF expression compared with IDDD group (P < 0.05). Targeting Lnc-NTF3-5 expression can inhibit secretion of ADAMTS-4 and inflammatory factors, promote expression of NGF, and facilitate cell proliferation by regulating NF-κB, thus inhibiting degenerative disc disease.
Large-Scale Survey on Adjectival Representation of Vibrotactile Stimuli

Objective descriptions of the perceptual impression of vibrotactile sensations have become an important issue for designing haptic interaction. In this study, we conducted a large-scale survey on adjectival representations of vibrotactile stimuli with 520 participants using 16 adjective pairs to find naturally associated words to vibrotactile stimuli. The vibrotactile stimuli used were designed to result in the perception of sequentially varying frequency (vibrotactile pitch) using single-frequency sinusoidal vibrations and dual-frequency superimposed vibrations. In results, metaphoric adjective pairs of ‘heavy–light’ and ‘thick–thin’ were most frequently used for single-frequency vibrations. In contrast, dual-frequency superimposed vibrations were largely attributed to three adjective pairs that bear more physical meanings, ‘slow–fast’, ‘sparse– dense’, and ‘bumpy–even’.
Pathogenicity of Seed-borne Mycobiota of Maize (Zea mays (L.) Seeds obtained from Benue State, Nigeria

Reduction of seed viability and germination have been attributed to seed-borne fungi on agricultural seeds. In vitro seed-health studies carried out at the plant Pathology Laboratories of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria, showed the association of maize seeds (Yellow) with C. lunata, B. theobromae, R. stolonifer, A. niger, A. flavus and F. oxysporium. Incidence of 36%, 22.39%, 11.65% were recorded for A. flavus, A. niger, and R. stolonifer, and F. oxysporium respectively with A. flavus being the most occurring organism. It indicated that the organisms caused 5% mean germination failure in the assayed seed. Pathogenicity tests revealed that all the organisms with the exception of R. stolonifer affected the seedlings resulting in varied symptoms on the plants. Controlling these mycobiota of maize seeds could translate to improved crop establishment and productivity.
An Efficient Privacy-Preserving Ranked Keyword Search Method

In this paper a different product rating approach for analytically and visually analyzing sales of similar kind of products from various manufactures with repeated mixture of products is considered. There is no particular rating for products of same type and combination of product purchasing pattern in the market. Using this we regain the perfect mixture of products with analytically rating. Visual representation of rating and mixture of product of similar kind is made by using this rating and pattern to contrast with each other. Data mining gives more conceptual knowledge to identify business processes. The main use of this is to satisfy the requirements of customers. By identifying it analytically the perfect one is studied such as user fulfillment, product productivity and acceptance.
Habitat connectivity in the wider countryside

For UK butterflies, the average functional connectivity between 1985 and 1995 was relatively stable, the unsmoothed index fell to a low of 48% in 2004, and then rose. The level of functional connectivity in 2012 (110%) is 10% greater than in the start year of 1985, with 72% of species increasing in connectivity in the late short term (2000 to 2012), see Figure 3.1. The long-term trend from 1985 to 2012 masks mixed, individual species trends, with 33% of species increasing in functional connectivity, 19% decreasing, and 48% showing no significant change.
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING DEGREE PROGRAM IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING POWER MINIMIZATION IN SINGLE-SINK DATA GATHERING WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK VIA DISTRIBUTED SOURCE CODING

Energy efficiency arises as a vital issue to consider in data gathering wireless sensor networks with energy-constrained sensor nodes. In order to achieve energy efficiency, one key enabler for the future wireless networks is cross-layer optimization. The objective of this thesis is to address distributed transmit power minimization in single-sink data gathering wireless sensor networks by utilizing cross-layer optimization. The pursuance of energy efficiency starts with employing a lossless distributed source coding, Slepian-Wolf coding, to remove all the redundancy in data. The employment of Slepian-Wolf coding is done in global or localized fashion, depending on the degree of the correlation of data available in the network. Then, the conventional data gathering model is extended to the wireless sensor network scenario by including the power-limited sensor nodes and the wireless links in the system. The data transmissions occur across the capacity constrained links that encounter no mutual interference. Multi-path routing is used across additive white Gaussian noise channels under Rayleigh fading. The data transmissions from each sensor node to the sink node are optimized regarding the transmit powers. This is done with the cross-layer optimization between the physical and network layers by jointly optimizing the power allocation and the routing in a distributed fashion. Two alternative frameworks are proposed for the optimization criterion: the first framework involves the total transmit power minimization and the second problem the minimization of the maximum transmit power, both appearing in convex form. The structures are efficiently exploited to derive distributed algorithms based on the dual decomposition technique that distributes the solution process vertically across the protocol layers. Nevertheless, the second algorithm is shown to require also a small amount of centralized signalling. Simulation results are provided to show the advantages of Slepian-Wolf coding and the functionalities of the proposed algorithms. The simulations were conducted in the simulator compiled in Matlab. The data transportation costs with Slepian-Wolf coding are compared to those with the independent encoding in single-sink data gathering scenario. The results show the high reliance of the functionality of Slepian-Wolf coding on the correlation properties of the data, and on the network and cluster sizes. The impact of Slepian-Wolf coding on the transmit power is studied in wireless sensor network scenario. The results show that by using Slepian-Wolf coding, significant improvements in terms of energy efficiency can be achieved. The proposed distributed algorithms are shown to converge near to the optimal solutions in static channels. In addition, the algorithms are shown to be capable of tracking the solution under Rayleigh slow fading channels.
2DOF PID Controller Design for a Class of FOPTD Models – An Analysis with Heuristic Algorithms

In recent years, a number of controller design procedures are developed and implemented in process industries to enhance the performance of closed loop processes. In this paper, heuristic algorithm based Two Degrees Of Freedom (2DOF) PID controller design is proposed for a class of First Order Plus Time Delay (FOPTD) systems existing in the literature. Minimization of the weighted sum of multiple objective functions is considered to monitor the heuristic search towards the optimal controller parameters. A detailed comparative analysis between well known heuristic methods, such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Bacterial Foraging Optimization (BFO), Cuckoo Search (CS) and Firefly Algorithm (FA) are presented. The popular 2DOF PID structures, such as Feed Back Structure (FBS) and Feed Forward Structure (FFS) are considered in this work to enhance the performance of FOPTD systems. From the results, it is noted that, proposed controller provides enhanced results for the reference tracking and disturbance rejection operations. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of scientific committee of Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Research on Resource Equilibrium Scheduling of Massive MOOC Teaching Resources Information Management System

The transmission channel of massive MOOC teaching resource information management system under routing conflict is easily affected by multipath effect, which leads to poor balance of teaching resource scheduling and high bit error rate. In order to improve the channel resource equalization scheduling ability of massive MOOC instructional resource information management system under routing conflict, a resource equalization scheduling model based on adaptive feedback equalization and symbol modulation technology for massive MOOC teaching resource information management system is proposed. The transmission channel model of massive MOOC teaching resource information management system under routing conflict is constructed, and the multipath characteristics of mass MOOC teaching resource information management system channel are analyzed. The random sequence code spread spectrum method is used to suppress the inter-symbol interference in the channel of massive MOOC teaching resource information management system, and the adaptive feedback equalization technique is used to design the channel equalization. The channel of massive MOOC teaching resource information management system is suppressed in order to realize channel resource equalization scheduling of massive MOOC teaching resource information management system. The simulation results show that the proposed method has the advantages of good fidelity, low bit error rate and good balanced allocation of teaching resources.
Factor Affecting Intention to Visit Destination Ethiopia; Branding Perspectives

The paper appraises factor that affects tourist plan to visit a given destination and the overall image of Ethiopia and then proceeds to examine their significance as perceived by tourists. 345 usable responses were collected from 364 distributed questionnaires on leading tourist site of Ethiopia. The empirical analysis was analyzed using regression statically technique with respect to its visitors' perceptions of relationships and effects on quality of experience, infrastructure, environment, entertainment and outdoor activity and overall environment and services infrastructure with plan to visit a given destination under the dimension of cognitive, affective and unique image. The results reveal that the environmental factor, touristic attraction, and element of Cognitive, affective, unique image have an impact on the tourist's intention. Hence, the nation promotion and investment shall make on those elements that potentially affect the plan to visit the given destination.