Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel AIEgen-Functionalized Diselenide-Crosslinked Polymer Gels as Fluorescent Probes and Drug Release Carriers

Stimuli-responsive functional gels have shown significant potential for application in biosensing and drug release systems. In this study, aggregation-induced emission luminogen (AIEgen)-functionalized, diselenide-crosslinked polymer gels were synthesized via free radical copolymerization. A series of polymer gels with different crosslink densities or tetraphenylethylene (TPE) contents were synthesized. The diselenide crosslinker in the gels could be fragmented in the presence of H2O2 or dithiothreitol (DTT) due to its redox-responsive property. Thus, the TPE-containing polymer chains were released into the aqueous solution. As a result, the aqueous solution exhibited enhanced fluorescence emission due to the strong hydrophobicity of TPE. The degradation of polymer gels and fluorescence enhancement in an aqueous solution under different H2O2 or DTT concentrations were studied. Furthermore, the polymer gels could be used as drug carriers, suggesting a visual drug release process under the action of external redox agents. The AIEgen-functionalized, diselenide-crosslinked polymer gels hold great potential in the biomedical area for biosensing and controlled drug delivery.
Chemical composition of Azolla (Azolla pinnata) and their exploring effects on the production performance of broilers

An experiment was conducted at Poultry unit, Dept. of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Science, Dr. B.S. Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth Dapoli, Maharashtra to assess the chemical composition of Azolla pinnata and their effect on the performance of broilers. A total 120 chicks (144) were reared together until 9 days of age in brooding stage. On 10 th day, the chicks were weighed individually and distributed randomly into four dietary groups with five replications and each replication have six chicks. A control diet (T 0 ) containing 0.0 % Azolla and three experimental diets in which Azolla was partially (5%; T 1 ), (10%; T 2 ) and T 3 replaced (15%) by Azolla ( Azolla pinnata ) were prepared. An average body weight of 2344.20, 2507.37, 2285.50 and 2244.03 g was found in groups T 0 , T 1 , T 2 and T 3 respectively at the end of 6 th week. The feed conversion ratio significantly superior found T 1 (1.70) followed by T 0 (1.81), T 2 (1.82) and T 3 (1.84), respectively. Supplementation of Azolla at the rate of 5% for 42 days showed the significant increase (P<0.05) in dressing percentage. There was no adverse effect on the performance of broiler chicken when 5% of broiler diet was replaced with Azolla . Hence, net profit per bird was maximum achieved in T 1 (Rs.61.91) followed by T 3 (Rs. 51.54), T 2 (Rs. 49.58) and T 0 (Rs. 47.09), respectively. The study concluded that supplementation of Azolla meal at the rate of 5 % in broiler diet for 42 days increased body weight gain and meat quality. Therefore, it can be used as a poultry feed to reduce feed cost and profitable broiler farming.
Assessing connectivity and the contribution of private lands to protected area networks in the United States

Current targets for protected area network coverage call for increased protection but lack specificity in terms of criteria for parcel type, placement, and landscape connectivity. We assessed land conservation achieved by protected area networks in the contiguous United States, and assessed whether private lands contributed substantially to network coverage and connectivity given species dispersal abilities. On average, states have 4.1% (range: 0.2% to 15.8%, n = 48) protected area coverage with connectivity ≤10 km. Terrain ruggedness, percent farmland, and population density are the primary determinants of protected area placement, leading to biased representation of land features currently under protection. On average, private protected areas contribute <1.1% (range 0.0% to 9.2%) to current protected area coverage across the United States. We conclude that current levels of protection and connectivity are inadequate to support a functional protected area network, and that increased and strategic selection of private protected areas is necessary to meet conservation planning goals.
Association of brachial-cuff excess pressure with carotid intima-media thickness in Australian adults: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE Reservoir pressure parameters [e.g. reservoir pressure (RP) and excess pressure (XSP)] measured using tonometry predict cardiovascular events beyond conventional risk factors. However, the operator dependency of tonometry impedes widespread use. An operator-independent cuff-based device can reasonably estimate the intra-aortic RP and XSP from brachial volumetric waveforms, but whether these estimates are clinically relevant to preclinical phenotypes of cardiovascular risk has not been investigated. METHODS The RP and XSP were derived from brachial volumetric waveforms measured using cuff oscillometry (SphygmoCor XCEL) in 1691 mid-life adults from the CheckPoint study (a population-based cross-sectional study nested in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children). Carotid intima--media thickness (carotid IMT, n = 1447) and carotid--femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV, n = 1632) were measured as preclinical phenotypes of cardiovascular risk. Confounders were conventional risk factors that were correlated with both exposures and outcomes or considered as physiologically important. RESULTS There was a modest association between XSP and carotid IMT (β = 0.76 μm, 95% CI, 0.25-1.26 partial R = 0.8%) after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, heart rate, smoking, diabetes, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and mean arterial pressure. Neither RP nor XSP were associated with PWV in the similarly adjusted models (β = -0.47 cm/s, 95% CI, -1.15 to 0.20, partial R = 0.2% for RP, and β = 0.04 cm/s, 95% CI, -0.59 to 0.67, partial R = 0.01% for XSP). CONCLUSION Cuff-based XSP associates with carotid IMT independent of conventional risk factors, including traditional BP, but the association was weak, indicating that further investigation is warranted to understand the clinical significance of reservoir pressure parameters.
Availability and utilization of support services for South African male caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease in low-income communities

The purpose of this study was to explore the needs of male caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease, by ascertaining the availability and utilization of Alzheimer’s disease-related resources in low-income communities in the Western Cape. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 adult males who were familial caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease. They were recruited via purposeful sampling methods. Thematic analysis of the data generated four major themes, namely Awareness, Knowledge and Education; Caregivers who do not use services; Caregivers who use services and Service needs identified by male caregivers. Predominant findings were that male caregivers in lower income communities do not make use of formal Alzheimer’s disease-related services – albeit being aware of them – because they do not perceive a need for its utilization. Instead, male caregivers prefer assistance in the form of respite care in the home environment to relieve and assist them with household needs. The role of culture may have a substantial influence on these patterns of help-seeking behavior due to the emphasis on a collective approach to caregiving using wider, informal social networks. Needs that were identified by the male caregivers in this study included the general awareness of Alzheimer’s disease, access to information regarding service provision, psychoeducation and affordable services within improved care facilities for low-income communities. The findings of this study suggest a starting point for the needs that should be prioritized to facilitate culturally appropriate service use amongst male caregivers in similar settings.
Evaluation of a software prototype for supporting fire emergency response

Despite recent work on information systems, many first responders in the UK Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) are unable to develop sufficient understanding of the situation to enable them to make good decisions. As a partial requirement of the development of information system for the UK fire and rescue services, a software prototype consisting of a number of human computer interfaces are developed and subsequently evaluated to explore how to present useful information for firefighters during their response operations. This paper exclusively discusses the findings arising from end-user demonstration sessions conducted via participative type of prototype evaluation which is aimed to understand the appropriateness and usefulness of the proposed software prototype. This paper contributes to improve the designing of the human computer interfaces and human computer interaction for supporting fire fighters during fire emergency response.
Connecting brain research with teaching practice among middle school teachers

v List of Figures viii List of Tables ix Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview 1 1.1 Operational Definitions 1 1.2 Problem Statement 2 1.3 Purpose 8 Chapter 2: Literature Review 20 2.1 History 20 2.2 Neuromyths 24 Chapter 3: Methodology 68 3.1 Problem Statement 68 3.2 Research Design 71 3.3 Data Sources and Data Collection Strategies 74 Chapter 4: Findings 90 Chapter 5: Conclusions and Implications 142 5.1 Research Goals 143 5.2 Research Implications 149 5.3 Professional Research Implications 152
The intensity of depressive symptoms (assessed with Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) and manic symptoms (assessed with Young Mania Rating Scale) in patients with mixed episodes in the course of bipolar disorder

Study aim: The diagnosis of mixed episodes in the course of bipolar affective illness is made on the basis of clinical examination, so it may pose a challenge to clinicians due to the lack of standard assessment tools. The aim of the study was to assess the utility of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) for the diagnosis of mixed episodes in the course of bipolar disorder. Material and methods: The study included a group of psychiatric inpatients (n=75) diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder (ICD 10 criteria). The patients were being treated for depressive episodes (n=46), manic episodes (n=13) or mixed episodes (n=12). The assessment of the symptoms was made at the beginning of hospitalization using HDRS and YMRS. Results: It was found that during mixed episodes the intensity of depressive and manic symptoms was similar (HDRS 14.4±7.4 vs. 13.3±8.2 in YMRS). The intensity of manic symptoms during depressive episodes was mean 9.3 pts. (±10 SD); mainly sleep disturbances and irritability. The intensity of depressive symptoms during manic episodes was mean 7.4 pts. (±4.4 SD); mainly sleep disturbances, agitation and restlessness. Conclusions: The results showed that both HDRS and YMRS may be useful in the diagnosis of mixed episodes. Common symptoms of manic and depressive states do not constitute a significant limitation of these tools.
Sarcopenia Is a New Risk Factor of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background and Aim: Recently, sarcopenia has been proposed as an additional risk factor of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and there have been no studies in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We aimed to analyze the clinical associations between sarcopenia and NAFLD in IBD patients. Methods: From January 2004 to December 2017, a total of 488 IBD patients, with CT results, were classified according to the presence of NAFLD. Sarcopenia was assessed based on the muscle volume calculated by the total psoas muscle area in the third lumbar region divided by the square of the patient’s height (m2). Results: Among the 443 included patients, NAFLD was diagnosed in 49 patients (11.1%). Sarcopenia was noted in 34.9%; it was more common in the NAFLD group (51.0 vs. 33.0%; p = 0.019). In multivariate analysis, metabolic syndrome (odds ratio [OR], 8.63), hyperuricemia (OR, 4.66), small bowel resection (OR, 3.45), and sarcopenia (OR, 2.99) were significant risk factors of NAFLD in IBD patients. In addition, sarcopenia was an independent risk factor after adjustment for age, sex, and other metabolic factors (OR, 2.26). Conclusions: The prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver in IBD patients was 11.1%, and sarcopenia was an independent risk factor.
Some properties on Strong Roman domination in graphs

A Strong Roman dominating function (SRDF) is a function   3 , 2 , 1 , 0 :  V f satisfying the condition that every vertex u for which   0  u f is adjacent to at least one vertex v for which   3  v f and every vertex u for which   1  u f is adjacent to at least one vertex v for which   2  v f . The weight of an SRDF is the value        V u u f V f . The minimum weight of an SRDF on a graph G is called the Strong Roman domination numberof G . In this paper, we attempt to verify some properties on SRDF and moreover we present Strong Roman domination number for some special classes of graphs. Also we show that for a tree T with 3  n vertices, l leaves and s support vertices, we have   4 6 s l n T SR     and we characterize all trees achieving this bound. Keywords-Roman domination number, Strong Roman domination number, Graph, Tree, Star, Double star, Connected graph. __________________________________________________*****_________________________________________________
Survey on Traffic Monitoring System using Image Processing

— Growth of total number of vehicles around the world is increase exponentially during past decade. Traffic monitoring is become a big issue in many countries. In India, Many cities having manned traffic monitoring system. A manned traffic monitoring system has certain issues like availability, accuracy of management staff. In this paper, we study different traffic monitoring system. Each system describes a way to handle vehicle traffic on road by minimizing human support. This includes identifying vehicle in traffic; detect traffic congestion on a road, calculating speed of vehicle and avoid accidents on road. This paper study sensor based image processing and vision based image processing techniques. It shows that vision based system gives more accurate data in less cost for traffic management system.
Biodielectric phenomenon for actively differentiating malignant and normal cells: An overview

ABSTRACT Active research is invested in early diagnosis of malignant cells in order to allow scope for effective treatment. The electrical impedance measurements and the modeling techniques used to perform the calculation for dielectric permittivity, conductivity and relaxation frequency aids in the differentiation of malignant and healthy cells. The literature showed a general trend in data with malignant cells having higher electrical conductivity and lower dielectric permittivity than its surrounding healthier cells. However, the relaxation frequency that correlates with the dielectric loss factor was found twice in magnitude for cancer cells than healthy cells. The water content of a cancer cell is found higher and hence correlates with the shift in the relaxation time. The intracellular sodium ion concentration is also realized to be higher for malignant cells than normal cells and accounts for the depolarized transmembrane potential. Hence, this paper forms the framework for future technological innovation that can be taken into account to actively diagnose cancer cell.
Pregnancy‐associated venous insufficiency course with placental and systemic oxidative stress

The development of lower extremity venous insufficiency (VI) during pregnancy has been associated with placental damage. VI is associated with increased oxidative stress in venous wall. We have investigated potential disturbance/dysregulation of the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in placenta and its eventual systemic effects through the measurement of malondialdehyde (MDA) plasma levels in women with VI. A total of 62 women with VI and 52 healthy controls (HCs) were studied. Levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate‐oxidase 1 (NOX1), 2 (NOX2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), endothelial (eNOS), poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase PARP (PARP) and ERK were measured in placental tissue with immunohistochemistry and RT‐qPCR. Plasma and placental levels of MDA were determined by colorimetry at the two study times of 32 weeks of gestation and post‐partum. Protein and gene expression levels of NOX1, NOX2, iNOS, PARP and ERK were significantly increased in placentas of VI. eNOS activity was low in both study groups, and there were no significant differences in gene or protein expression levels. Women with VI showed a significant elevation of plasma MDA levels at 32 weeks of gestation, and these levels remained elevated at 32 weeks post‐partum. The MDA levels were significantly higher in placentas of women with VI. Placental damage that was found in the women with VI was characterized by overexpression of oxidative stress markers NOX1, NOX2, and iNOS, as well as PARP and ERK. Pregnant women with VI showed systemic increases in oxidative stress markers such as plasma MDA levels. The foetuses of women with VI had a significant decrease in their venous pH as compared to those from HC women. The situation of oxidative stress and cellular damage created in the placenta is in coexpression with the production of a pH acidification.
A photosynthetic antenna complex foregoes unity carotenoid-to-bacteriochlorophyll energy transfer efficiency to ensure photoprotection

Significance Photosynthesis uses carotenoids as light-harvesting pigments and for photoprotective energy dissipation. The carbon–carbon double bond conjugation length of carotenoids (N) affects the carotenoid-to-(bacterio)chlorophyll energy transfer efficiency, but the photoprotective capability was considered to be independent of N. Using light-harvesting complex 2 from the model photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides containing ζ-carotene (N = 7) or neurosporene (N = 9), we demonstrate that decreasing the conjugation length increases the carotenoid-to-bacteriochlorophyll energy transfer efficiency, in the case of ζ-carotene to ∼100%. However, unity quantum efficiency comes at the cost of photoprotection, suggesting that naturally evolved photosynthesis tolerates some energetic loss to allow essential energy dissipation, explaining why longer-conjugation length carotenoids are utilized in native pigment–protein complexes. Carotenoids play a number of important roles in photosynthesis, primarily providing light-harvesting and photoprotective energy dissipation functions within pigment–protein complexes. The carbon–carbon double bond (C=C) conjugation length of carotenoids (N), generally between 9 and 15, determines the carotenoid-to-(bacterio)chlorophyll [(B)Chl] energy transfer efficiency. Here we purified and spectroscopically characterized light-harvesting complex 2 (LH2) from Rhodobacter sphaeroides containing the N = 7 carotenoid zeta (ζ)-carotene, not previously incorporated within a natural antenna complex. Transient absorption and time-resolved fluorescence show that, relative to the lifetime of the S1 state of ζ-carotene in solvent, the lifetime decreases ∼250-fold when ζ-carotene is incorporated within LH2, due to transfer of excitation energy to the B800 and B850 BChls a. These measurements show that energy transfer proceeds with an efficiency of ∼100%, primarily via the S1 → Qx route because the S1 → S0 fluorescence emission of ζ-carotene overlaps almost perfectly with the Qx absorption band of the BChls. However, transient absorption measurements performed on microsecond timescales reveal that, unlike the native N ≥ 9 carotenoids normally utilized in light-harvesting complexes, ζ-carotene does not quench excited triplet states of BChl a, likely due to elevation of the ζ-carotene triplet energy state above that of BChl a. These findings provide insights into the coevolution of photosynthetic pigments and pigment–protein complexes. We propose that the N ≥ 9 carotenoids found in light-harvesting antenna complexes represent a vital compromise that retains an acceptable level of energy transfer from carotenoids to (B)Chls while allowing acquisition of a new, essential function, namely, photoprotective quenching of harmful (B)Chl triplets.
Maternal perceptions of father involvement among refugee and disadvantaged families in Beirut, Lebanon

The role of fathers in (co-)parenting their children among refugee and disadvantaged families in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) remains poorly understood. This study sought to examine the associations among mothers’ perceptions of their husband’s involvement (hereafter referred to as paternal involvement), and her perceptions of her own well-being and a number of other variables, as well as observed mother-child interactions in families living in refugee and disadvantaged communities in Beirut, Lebanon. We analyzed baseline data from 104 mother-child dyads (mean age of children = 4.34 years; range = 2.05 to 7.93 years of age) who participated in a randomized controlled trial aimed at evaluating the impact of the Mother-Child Education Program in Beirut. In addition to the mother’s perception of paternal involvement and the videotaped mother-child interactions, data were collected concerning the mother’s well-being and her level of social support, as well as her level of stress as a parent and the way her children were disciplined in the family. Mother-child pairs were videotaped while completing a puzzle together and dyadic interactions were coded. Path analysis showed that paternal involvement was significantly associated with a higher level of maternal well-being and lower distress levels. In addition, higher levels of maternal distress were associated with higher levels of harsh discipline and parenting stress. Correlation analysis showed that higher perceptions of paternal involvement were associated with more positive affect displayed by the child, more positive regard for the child, and better mother-child synchrony during the dyadic interactions. Limitations include the cross-sectional design and the modest sample size, which hinder causal inferences and generalizability of the findings. These preliminary findings suggest that higher levels of paternal involvement may have an impact on markers of maternal mental health and positive mother-child interactions in families living in disadvantaged communities or humanitarian settings. Paternal involvement should be considered when designing and implementing parenting programs in LMICs.
Review on Under Water Sensor Networks

Underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) are becoming popular everyday due to their ability which makes them to be deployed under adverse environmental conditions. UWNs are the enabling technology for a wide range of applications like pollution monitoring, nutrient production, oil retrieval and transportation. The use of acoustic communication underwater environment posses many interesting challenges. Because of high transmission power, energy consumption is more, making medium access protocol a primary focus point for reducing energy consumption. However sensed data can be interpreted meaningfully when referenced to the location of the sensor, making localization an important problem. In this chapter, we give a survey on the architectural view and the protocols used for underwater sensor networks.