Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NANOSPONGES : A COMPLETELY NEW NANO-HORIZON

In recent years, through nanotechnology, Nano sponges (NS) has acquired remarkable strength in drug delivery. Later, as they effectively overcome the problems like increasing the solubility of waterinsoluble drugs, increasing bioavailability, reducing drug toxicity, avoiding drug degradation and targeting the drug to a specific site, which offers controlled drug delivery for topical use. They can also be used as a carrier as biocatalysts for vaccines, proteins and antibodies. 1 Nanosponges (NSs) are branched cyclodextrin (CD) polymeric systems which have proven to be a boon in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields. 2 In this review, an attempt is made to summarize the methods of development, characterization techniques and possible areas of applications of nanosponge drug delivery systems.
Proposal of A Dynamic Channel Allocation Method for MIMO-OFDMA System

: This paper proposed a dynamic channel allocation method for MIMO-OFDMA system, which can be applied for both uplink and downlink. The SNR on each subcarrier linking from a BS to all active MSs is estimated by ZF and MMSE approach. Only subcarriers having maximum SNR are selected for the corresponding communication link. The proposed algorithm is investigated for different system parameters and the channel conditions. Numerical results show that the system performance can be significantly improved by applying the proposed technique.
Performance of promising rice varieties under ambient and elevated temperature regimes

Open top chamber system was designed for undertaking research into rice crop response to increased temperature during rainy season at Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Khajura, Banke in 2018. With the objective of determining the efficacy of the chamber system and to generate possible differences in climate which could alter plant response between ambient and chamber system, 5 different rice varieties (Radha-4, Sukhkhadhan-3, Sukhkhadhan-2, IR83383-G-B-141-1 and IR87751-20-4-4-2) with three temperature conditions were used: ambient condition, open top chamber with 1.2m height enclosed from base with plastic sheet and open top chamber with 1.5m height enclosed from base with plastic sheet. With 3.1°c higher temperature Sukhkhadhan-2 significantly (p value= 0.0199) produced higher grain yield 4.33 t/ha under chamber condition in contrast to open field (2.93 t/ha) as well as significantly (p value=0.0175) higher biomass yield 13.62 t/ha under elevated temperature. Also, Sukhkhadhan-2 significantly (p value=0.0012) attained maximum height (86.99 cm) under chamber condition compared to open field (73.06 cm) during harvest. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference for number of tillers per hill during maturity stage. Significantly sukhkhadhan-3 (p value=0.02994) showed longer panicle length 25.7cm under chamber than normal field condition (23.74 cm). In addition, Radha- 4 significantly (p value=0.03823) produced more filled grains per panicle (169) under chamber conditions than ambient condition (112). The consideration of crop variety is a good adoption measure to minimize incidence of elevated temperature in farming system.
Thermotherapy of Sunflower Seeds Controlling Charcoal-Rot Caused by Macrophomina phaseolina

Various fungi were isolated from sunflower seed samples collected from two fields in Ismailia and Beni-Suef governorates. Fifteen fungal species belonging to 10 genera were isolated from Beni-Suef fields and thirteen fungal species belonging to 8 genera were isolated from Ismailia field. Alternaria alternata recorded the highest frequency from sunflower seed samples collected from the two locations followed by Aspergillius flavus and A. niger. Macrophomina phaseolina was the main seed-borne pathogen isolated from sunflower seeds collected from the two locations followed by Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium spp. Applying thermo-treatments through microwave radiation in five exposing periods (15, 30 sec, 1, 2 and 4 min.) and hot water treatment at five soaking periods (30 sec, 1, 2, 4 and 8 min.) gave significant impacts on the occurrence of seed-borne pathogen M. phaseolina in sunflower seeds as well as seed germination. Moreover, increasing the exposure time of microwave radiation or soaking in hot water led to enhancing their effects. Soaking in hot water negatively affected thefrequency of M. phaseolina than microwave radiation treatment. Generally, the obtained results clearly show that microwave radiations and hot water treatments significantly decreased the incidence of pre- and post-emergence damping-off. Moreover, sunflower seeds exposed to either treatment then planted under greenhouse conditions in infested and non-infested soil with M. phaseolina or under open field conditions, naturally infested, led to increase of sunflower seed yield. In this respect, the highest impact was obtained when sunflower seeds were soaked in hot water at 2 min followed by soaking in hotwater for 1 min and exposure to microwave radiation for 1 min. Data also proved that the efficiency of some thermal treatments was approximately close to efficiency of fungicide in reducing damping-off and charcoal rot diseases during 2017 and 2018 trail seasons, where soaking in hot water for 2 min. was the closest one.
Does Size Matter? Body Size, Mass Collecting, and Their Implications for Understanding Prehistoric Foraging Behavior

Zooarchaeologists regularly assume a positive relationship between body size and energetic return rates among animal taxa. Some researchers question the validity of this assumption, suggesting that small animals collected in mass can provide high returns and pose interpretive problems for methods relying on a clear correlation. A review of empirical data shows that while large fish and invertebrates can provide high returns, those for most small animals remain very low. Differences appear to result from disparities in the relative energetic value of various taxa, costs associated with mass collection, and the efficiency with which resources are handled once acquired. Mass collection is unlikely to pose an interpretive problem under most circumstances, and the low returns for mass collecting many small animals have interesting implications for interpreting changes in their relative frequencies.
Fatty acids profile and lipids health indices of white brined cheese produced from Lacaune sheep milk.

Panayotov, D. , Naydenova, N. , Iliev, T. & Mihaylova, G. (2019) Fatty acids profi le and lipids health indices of white brined cheese produced from Lacaune sheep milk. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 25 (Suppl. 3), 25, 85–90 The objective of the study was to determine the composition of fatty acids in the milk of Lacaune sheep and produced cheese from it. The study was performed with ewe’s milk of Lacaune breed, reared in the herd of the private farm in a village of Yambol municipality. Milk samples were collected in the morning and the evening, proportionally to the milk yield, according to rules for milk sampling. To perform an analysis of the fatty acid composition of the Lacaune sheep milk, three milk samples were collected at three diff erent times from April to June 2017. From the milk samples have been made Bulgarian white cheese. The fatty acid composition of raw milk and cheese samples was determined at 60 day of producing. The most abundant fatty acids in milk and cheese were saturated fatty acids (82.37% and 77.42% in the milk and cheese, respectively). Monounsaturated fatty acids (14.31% for raw milk and 16.54% for white brined cheese) were the most numerous in terms of isomers, but mostly in low concentration. The atherogenic index was calculated on the obtained values for lauric (C12:0), myristic (C14:0) and palmitic (C16:0) acids and the unsaturated fatty acids. The data for the raw sheep milk was – 2.16 and for produced white brined cheese – 1.63. Omega 6/Omega 3 ratio varies from 1.33 for raw milk and 1.00 for white brined cheese, which is within the range of the optimal values for healthy nutrition.
Evaluating the Effect of Teachers’ Group Performance Incentives on Pupil Achievement

Proposals to use teachers’ performance incentives have recently attracted considerable attention. However, there is very little experience with applying incentives in schools. This paper provides evidence on the causal effects of two programs: the first provided the school and its teachers with monetary performance incentives and the second with additional conventional resources. The assignment of schools to the two programs was not random; therefore, identification is a central issue in the empirical analysis. The empirical results suggest that schools’ and teachers’ group monetary incentives caused significant gains in many dimensions of students’ outcomes. Endowing schools with more resources also led to improvement in student performance. However, the comparison based on cost equivalency suggests that the teachers’ incentive intervention is much more cost effective.
Effects of Chitosan Coating on Seed Germination and Salt-tolerance of Seedlings in Hybrid Rice(Oryza sativa L.)

Seeds of two hybrid rice combinations, Shanyou 10 and Eryoupeijiu, which were film-coated with 1.5% chitosan, 1.5% chitosan +10 mmol/L proline, and non-coated seeds were germinated in H 2O, 50 mmol/L, 100 mmol/L or 150 mmol/L NaCl solutions at 30℃. Germination percentage, activities of α, β-amylase, tolerance index, tolerance ratio and content of compatible solutes, proline, total soluble sugar, fructose and sucrose were determined. The results showed that chitosan coating significantly improved germination percentage and activities of β-amylase under normal (H 2O) or salt stress conditions, and decreased activities of α-amylase under salt stress conditions as compared with the control (non-coating treatment). Under salt stress conditions, activities of α, β-amylase increased in Coated or non-coated seeds with enhancement of NaCl concentrations, Chitosan coating also improved the tolerance index and tolerance ratio of seedlings, and increased the content of proline, total soluble sugar, fructose and sucrose in stressed seedlings. It was suggested that Chitosan coating was able to improve the salt tolerance of seedlings in hybrid rice. Coating with chitosan +10 mmol/L proline had little increasing effects on seed germination and the salt tolerance of seedlings. Shanyou 10 had higher salt-tolerance of seedlings than Eryoupeijiu.
Deadbeat PQ Control for Islanded Smart Grids

The dynamic performance of smart (micro)grids depends on the proper selection of the controller gains and power-sharing parameters. This manuscript describes the control design to achieve a deadbeat desirable performance in terms of: i) Zero steady-state error. ii) Minimum rise time. iii) Minimum settling time. iv) Less than 2% overshoot/undershoot. This paper considers an Islanded microgrid system composed of two distributed generation (DG) units. Each DG unit includes three-phase pulse width modulation (PWM) inverter. The proposed controllers are proportional- integral (PI) type. The Controllers gains of the inverters and the Phase Locked Loop (PLL) parameters are designed to guarantee deadbeat dynamic performance in terms of minimal overshoot and system stability. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is used to tune the controller parameters of the current, PQ loops, and the PLL. The proposed controllers are compared with the traditional (Ziegler and Nichols), auto-tuned, and interior-point methods to shows the excellence of the proposed technique. Results authenticate and endorse the effectiveness of the proposed controllers and PLL design technique to achieve the desired deadbeat response of the study microgrid system.
THE ANALYSIS ON THE REPRODUCTIVE ABILITY OF CHINESE ALLIGATOR(ALLIGATOR SINENSIS) IN CAPTIVE POPULATION IN ANHUI PROVINCE AND THE ANTICIPATION OF POPULATION INCREASE

According to analyses of the reproductive parameters in three generations of Chinese alligator during 1982 to 2003 in Anhui Research Center for Chinese Alligator Reproduction(ARCCAR),Xuan Zhou,China,The results Showed that the number of eggs decreased significantly in the recent three years.The rate of fertilization and hatching was(83.80±2.37)% and(89.53±0.86)%,in parental generation,(79.38±2.74)% and(83.78±1.95)% in first filial(F1)generation and(68.7±1.84)%and(88.16±1.68)% in second filial generation(F2). Based on one way ANOVA,the rates of fertilization and hatching among three generations are significantly different(F_((ROF))=4.33,P0.05;F_((ROH))=4.56,P0.05). The analysis on factors affecting(alligator's) reproduction showed that the number of eggs decreased obviously,and it may be caused by the parental(alligator's) losing their reproduction and the current of the F1 alligator's reproductive ability declining,not all the F2 alligator's entering reproductive period.We also found that the number of stock alligators was correlated with temperature in April(R=0.979,P0.01),and the significant difference between the rate of fecundation in filial generation and parental generation was related to inbreeding depression and the lose of genetic diversity.A model in ideal state was built to predict the increase of captive population on the basis of the Time Series Analysis.It was predicted that the number of the captive population would reach 19000 individuals in ten years by this model.We suggest that the ARCCAR should broaden the size of breeding,especially,should broaden the construction of the pond of juvenile alligators and young alligators according to the anticipation of this model together with the consideration of the age structure of the captive population.
Phenoxodiol, a synthetic analog of genistein, generates ceramide and is equipotent in wild-type and multidrug-resistant human tumor cells

2075 Background: Multidrug resistance (MDR) continues to undermine the success of chemotherapy against cancer. Phenoxodiol (PXD, 2H-1-benzopyran-7–0,1,3-[4-hydroxylphenyl]) is a flavonoid derivative that inhibits growth of ovarian, prostate, breast, leukemia, and other human tumor cell lines. We evaluated the potency of PXD in MDR tumor cell lines and their wild-type isogenic variants. We hypothesized that its cytotoxic effect might be linked to increased intracellular production of ceramide, an agonist of apoptosis, and that its efficacy might be independent of MDR status. Methods: Three sets of wild-type and MDR cells were evaluated: KB-3–1 and KB-V1 head/neck epidermoid cancer; MCF-7 and MCF-7-AdrR breast cancer; and SKOV-3 and SKOVBL1.0 ovarian cancer. Cells were seeded into 96-well plates. After 24 hours, PXD was added and cells were incubated for 5 days. Cell viability was determined by colorimetric assay, and the PDX concentration causing 50% cell kill (EC50) was determined. Separate experiments ex.
A Survey of the Studies on Pharmacological Effects of Lycorine and Its Derivatives

Lycorine is a kind of alkaloid constituent which is highly-contained in plant medicine Lycoris radiata.Pharmacological effects research has revealed that lycorine and its derivatives have many pharmacological effects,such as anti-inflammation、antivirus、anti-malarial、 heart-blood system protection and tumor cell killing.An overview of the pharmacological effects of lycorine and its derivatives is given,and advice for further research of lycorine and its derivatives is suggested.
Sorghum breeding strategies for phosphorus-limited environments in Western Africa : from field to genome level

Breeding sorghum for low-input conditions is hindered by soil heterogeneity. Spatial adjustment using mixed models can help account for this variation and increase precision of low-input field trials. Large smallscale spatial variation (CV 39.4%) for plant available phosphorous was mapped in an intensely sampled low-input field. Spatial adjustments were shown to account for residual yield differences due to this and other growth factors. To investigate the potential of such models to increase the efficiency of lowand high-input field trials, 17 experiments with 70 sorghum genotypes conducted in Mali, West Africa, were analyzed for grain yield using different mixed models including models with autoregressive spatial correlation terms. Spatial models (AR1, AR2) improved broad sense heritability estimates for grain yield, averaging gains of 10 and 6 percentage points relative to RCB and lattice models, respectively. The heritability estimate gains were even higher under low-P conditions and in two-replicate analyses. No specific model was best for all environments. A single spatial model, AR1xAR1, captured most of the gains for heritability and relative efficiency provided by the best model identified for each environment using Akaike’s Information Criterion. Spatial modeling resulted in important changes in genotype ranking for grain yield. Thus, the use of spatial models was shown to have potentially important consequences for aiding effective sorghum selection in West Africa, particularly under low-input conditions and for trials with fewer replications. Thus, using spatial models can improve the resource allocation of a breeding program. Furthermore, our results show that good experimental design with optimal placement and orientation of blocks is essential for efficient statistical analysis with or without spatial adjustment.
What's New at the Zoo?

Abstract Kathy Carlstead, a researcher at the Honolulu Zoo, goes to some trouble to make life more interesting for the Hawaiian honeycreepers she is studying. Every day she collects stalks of flowers from various flowering shrubs, puts them in small plastic tubes filled with water, and clips the tubes to branches in the birds' cage. Despite the plentiful supply of nectar available from a feeder in their cage, the birds seem to enjoy extracting nectar from the flowers. And instead of just eating their usual daily bowl of fly larvae, the birds hunt down and catch fruit flies that Carlstead raises for them.
Influence of Live Cells or Cells Extract of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae on in Vitro Gas Production of a Total Mixed Ration

The effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as live cells (LC) or cells extract (CE) on in vitro gas production (GP) kinetics and ruminal fermentation parameters of a total mixed ration (TMR) consisting of commercial concentrate and alfalfa hay [1:1 dry matter (DM)] as a substrate was studied. The TMR was incubated with CE at 1, 2 and 4 mg/g or LC at 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 mg/g DM for 96 h. Rumen GP was recorded after 6, 12, 19, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h of incubation. Interaction effects were observed (P<0.01) between treatment type and yeast dose for the asymptotic GP and methane (CH4) production. Incubation of yeast CE improved (P<0.01) the asymptotic GP compared to control and LC with greater effects (P<0.01) for the low and the intermediate doses. Yeast CE treatment was more effective (P<0.01) in GP than both of LC and control treatments with greater effect (P<0.01) for the low and the intermediate doses. Treatment type and yeast dose affected (P<0.01) CH4 production, metabolisable energy (ME), and short chain fatty acids (SCFA) without affecting in vitro DM degradability (IVDMD). Higher values (P<0.01) of CH4, ME, SCFA and IVDMD were observed for the yeast CE treatment. It could be concluded that adding yeast S. cerevisiae (CE and LC extract) improved GP and ruminal fermentation parameters, where CE at 0.3 and 0.6 mg/g DM was more effective than the yeast LC.
A model for the upper mantle

The occurrence of a low-velocity zone in the upper mantle has been attributed to the effect of high temperature gradients. If the upper mantle is homogeneous, it is shown that the required temperature gradients would lead to extensive melting. Since this consequence is unacceptable, it appears necessary to consider nonhomogeneous models. It is assumed that the mantle immediately below the Mohorovicic discontinuity consists dominantly of dunite and peridotite. This passes downward into more primitive material, which is chemically equivalent to a mixture of 1 part of basalt to 4 parts of dunite. For convenience, this hypothetical primitive material is called ‘pyrolite. ’ Within the upper mantle, the pyrolite might occur in either of two principal mineral facies—(i) as the assemblage olivine-pyroxene-plagioclase (plagioclase pyrolite) and (ii) as the assemblage olivine-pyroxene-garnet (garnet pyrolite). There would also be a substantial transition zone between these facies, in which olivine, pyroxene, plagioclase, and garnet coexisted. It is suggested that the low-velocity zone is caused by downward transition from the sub-Mohorovicic peridotite into plagioclase pyrolite (which has a relatively low seismic velocity) and then into garnet pyrolite. The low-velocity zone is thus due to the presence of plagioclase as a primary phase. Further aspects of this model are explored. The depths of these various zones probably differ between oceanic, continental margin, and Precambrian shield regions. The model implies that a low-velocity zone may not be present beneath Precambrian shields. In regions which have been recently subjected to diastrophism, the characteristic geotherm may pass for a considerable distance through the transition zone between plagioclase and garnet pyrolite facies. This can give rise to acute thermal and mechanical instability, which may in turn cause diastrophism in the crust. Evolutionary relationships between oceanic, active orogenic, and Precambrian shield regions are also discussed in terms of the model.
Rethinking the Grammar of Student-Teacher Relationships

One educational structure with its own grammar is the student-teacher relationship. The conventional relational grammar involves teachers and students connecting to pursue academic learning—a grammar rooted in both historic attempts to define the professional domain of teaching as the transmission of academic knowledge as well as current efforts to “learnify” education. This study describes 154 student-teacher relationships experienced by three high school teachers in a Midwest middle college to depict a revised relational grammar. Encouraged to reimagine teaching as academic and nonacademic support-giving, the Lincoln teachers exhibited a relational grammar based on knowing students as learners and also deeply as people and giving nonacademic support as much as or more than academic support, with implications for equity.
Changing Mortality

United States mortality rates, 1910-20, show uneven changes for various causes of death in different racial and local groups. This paper explains the calculation of a simple index by which these variations can readily be compared. Nine tables, showing the trend of mortality for important diseases among white and colored, rural and urban populations illustrate the use of this expression. Brief comments in the text point out significant tendencies disclosed by the figures. The paper thus presents scattered data in a form easily grasped by non-mathematical readers, and suggests more advanced problems for statistical experts.