Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment Environmental Changes in Al-Habbaniya Lake and Surrounding Areas in the Central Part of Iraq

The study area lies in the central part of Iraq, in Al - Anbar Governorate, it covers about (4400) km 2 . It includes Al - Habbinya Lake which represent touristic region and waterish reserves used for water balance management of Euphrates River. The present study depends on Thematic Mapper (TM) data of Landsat 5 acquisition in 1990, Enhancement Thematic Mapper (ETM) data of Landsat7 acquisition in 2001, these data are mosaic and subset it by using area of interest (AOI) file and made use of a nearest neighbor polynomial correction within the ERDAS 9.2 software.The images carried out with WGS84 datum and UTM N38 projection using nearest neighbor resampling. Types of image ratioing were adopted as practical tools for monitoring of Al - Habbinya Lake and surrounding areas such as Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI), Water Index (WI) and Salinity Index (SI) to study environmental changes from 1990 to 2001, by using ERDAS 9.2 Imagine and Arc GIS 9.3 programs. The vegetation distribution determined by Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI), Water determined by using Water Index and to detect the salinity soil used Salinity Index (SI). The obtained result shows increase in area of vegetation, and decrease in area of water, salty soil and sabkha during the period from 1990 to 2001. Keywords: Environmental Changes, Image Ratioing, Thresholding, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Water Index (WI), Salinity Index (SI)
Percutaneous transhepatic image-guided interventions for malignant biliary obstructions: Current status

A malignant biliary obstruction (MBO) occurs when there is a blockage of the bile outflow towards the duodenum due to a malignant tumour. The most common tumours that cause MBO with direct invasion of the biliary tree are pancreatic carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma. The biliary tree may also be blocked from tumours that cause external compression, such as enlarged hilar or ampulary lymph nodes or in some cases of hepatocellular, gastric or gallbladder cancer. Surgery is the treatment of choice if the disease is at an early stage and adjacent structures are not infiltrated. Otherwise patients will receive palliative treatment for quality of life improvement. Percutaneous transhepatic image-guided biliary interventions offer a minimal invasive approach that decompresses the blocked biliary system and have an established role in the management of both operable and inoperable patients with MBO. A variety of devices and techniques have been developed for this purpose, including the use of internal and external drains, plastic, bare metallic and covered metallic stents, biopsy forceps and unilateral or bilateral, one- or two stage- approach. The purpose of this review article is to offer a global overview of the interventional radiology role in such patients and to discuss the latest developments.
Histopathology in fish: proposal for a protocol to assess aquatic pollution

Water pollution induces pathological changes in fish. As an indicator of exposure to contaminants, histology represents a useful tool to assess the degree of pollution, particularly for sub-lethal and chronic effects. However, a standardized method for the description and assessment of histological changes, mainly for use in freshwater fish, is still lacking. In this paper, the present authors propose a standardized tool for the assessment of histological findings which can be applied to different organs. The methodology is based on two factors: (1) the extension of a pathological change is rated with a ‘score value’; and (2) the pathological importance of this alteration is defined as an ‘importance factor’. The sum of the multiplied score values and importance factors of all diagnosed changes results in different indices. With these indices, statistical analysis can be carried out. Assessment methods for the gills, liver, kidney and skin are described.
Latent Murine Cytomegalovirus Infection Contributes to EAE Pathogenesis / Latentna Infekcija Mišjim Citomegalovirusom Ima Ulogu U Patogenezi Eksperimentalnog Autoimunskog Encefalomijelitisa

ABSTRACT Viral infection has been identified as the most likely environmental trigger of multiple sclerosis (MS). There are conflicting data regarding the role of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in MS pathogenesis. We utilised experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)-resistant BALB/c mice and murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV), the murine homolog of CMV, to examine the mechanism by which viral infection enhances autoimmune neuroinflammation. Mice subjected to latent neonatal MCMV infection developed the typical characteristics of EAE. Similar to MS, the MCMV-infected EAE-induced mice developed infiltrates in the central nervous system (CNS) composed of similar percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. The influx of both Th 1 and Th 17 cells into the CNS of MCMV- infected EAE-induced mice was observed. Interestingly, the development of autoimmune neuroinflammation after latent MCMV infection was accompanied by a significant influx of Tc17 cells (CD8+IL-17+ and CD8+RoRγt+) but not Tc1, cells. Our results suggest that latent MCMV infection affects the development of inflammatory lymphocytes that exhibit encephalitogenic potential, thereby mediating increased CNS pathology following EAE induction, and that CMV represents a possible environmental factor in the pathogenesis of MS and other autoimmune diseases SAŽETAK Virusna infekcija se navodi kao najverovatniji faktor okoline koji utiče na razvoj multiple skleroze (MS). Postoje konfliktni podaci o ulozi infekcije citomegalovirusom (CMV) u patogenezi multiple skleroze. Koristili smo BALB/c miševe, rezistentne na indukciju eksperimentalnog autoimunskog encefalomijelitisa (EAE), i mišji citomegalovirus (MCMV), mišji homolog humanom citomegalovirusu da ispitamo kako virusna infekcija može da utiče na razvoj autoimunske neuroinflamacije. Miševi sa latentnom neonatalnom infekcijom mišjim citomegalovirusom su razvili tipičan EAE. Slično kao u MS, MCMV EAE miševi su razvili infiltrate u centralnom nervnom sistemu (CNS) sa sličnom zastupljenošću CD4+ i CD8+ T limfocita. Uočen je influks i Th 1 i Th 17 ćelija u CNS MCMV EAE miševa. Interesantno je da razvoj autoimunske inflamacije nakon latentne MCMV infekcije prati značajan influks samo Tc17 (CD8+IL-17+ i CD8+RoRγt+), a ne i Tc1 ćelija. Naši rezultati ukazuju da latentna MCMV infekcija verovatno utiče na razvoj inflamatornih limfocita koji mogu da indukuju autoimunski proces u CNS-u, direktno pojačava razvoj patoloških procesa u CNS-u nakon indukcije EAE i ukazuje na CMV kao na mogući faktor okoline koji utiče na razvoj multiple skleroze i drugih autoimunskih bolesti.
Coffee Consumption Provides Therapeutic Benefits against AD through Increasing Plasma GCSF Levels and Improving Cognitive Performance

Alzheimer's disease (AD) a progressive neurodegenerative disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions. More than 5 million Americans are living with AD. This number is expected to drastically increase as the baby boomer population transitions into the late-adulthood age group. Currently, the treatment for AD includes FDA drugs that focus on treating the symptoms. These types of drugs lose their efficacy as the disease progresses. Therefore, preventive measures are very critical in decreasing the incidence rate of AD. Many epidemiological studies have been conducted on the treatment of Alzheimer's that suggest enhanced coffee/caffeine intake during aging reduces the risk of AD. As one of most popular beverages in the World, many experimental studies have been done to test the effects of coffee consumption on AD. This paper will aim to review the important discoveries that have been made recently and present the possible mechanisms behind the neuroprotective effects.
Practitioners' motives as a key issue in organizing practice research collaboration

Practice Research has evolved as a fruitful research paradigm in Information Systems (IS). In practice research case studies and other forms of intervention in local practices are central. Such studies require cooperation with practitioners. A researcher’s motives for conducting case studies are primarily to collect and analyze data for research purposes. A practice researcher also aims to develop scientific contributions of practical value. This article elaborates on the practitioners’ motives for participating in practice research using the case of a knowledge initiative (KI) concerning IS maintenance and evolution as an empirical example. KI has been arranged as a professional community in which practitioners (as KI members) and researchers have worked together to develop knowledge. By analyzing patterns of the KI members’ statements and engagements, we identify some tentative motives for practitioners to participate in practice research. The results show that their main motives are to influence research, increase their competence, being a part of a social community, and solve specific problems. With this in mind we are able to arrange for practice research cooperation that meets both researchers’ and practitioners’ motives. The article is concluded with key issues for organizing successful practice research collaboration.
Stochastic resonance in the semiadiabatic limit

Periodically driven Markovian processes are treated in the semiadiabatic limit. In this limit all but one characteristic times of the undriven system are fast compared to the driving frequency. The proposed theory is based on the Floquet representation of the conditional probability and makes use of the instantaneous bases of eigenfunctions of the corresponding forward and backward master operators. The methodology is exemplified with the standard Brownian motion model of stochastic resonance. Quantitative agreement is reached with known results in the fully adiabatic limit and in the regime of linear response theory.
Antimicrobial properties of Lawsonia inermis syn. Lawsonia alba in vivo and in vitro

People in rural areas use plant materials to cure various diseases, because most of the plants contain components of therapeutic value. Among the important medicinal plants included Lawsonia inermis, syn. L. alba (henna). Scientific research on henna plant has proven many beneficial properties in henna. The henna plant extract has a variety of biological activities such as anticomplementary, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antimicrobial activities. Chemical compound in henna is lawsone (C 10 H 6 O 3 ), the active ingredient and a naturally occurring naphthoquinone. Plant tissue culture is the process of plant cell growth outside an intact plant. Research in the area of plant tissue culture technology has resulted in the production of many pharmaceutical substances for new therapeutics. The aim of this paper was to investigate possible antimicrobial activities of henna and to compare the activities in in vivo (normal) henna plant and in vitro (tissue culture) henna plant. Tissue culture studies of henna were carried out by using different concentrations and combinations of hormones. Then, the antibacterial activities of ethanolic extracts of henna in vivo and in vitro, on some bacteria and fungal strains, were screened using the modified agar well diffusion method. In this work Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus cereus and Eschericia coli were used as bacterial strains and fungal strains Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma sp. and Fusarium sp. were used. Data were expressed as mean±standard deviation. Research on in vivo and in vitro plants were compared because previous studies on plant tissue cultures showed that it has potential as a supplement to traditional medicine, especially in the industrial production of bioactive compounds from plants.
Body Shape, Image, and Composition as Predictors of Athlete’s Performance

Body shape, image, and composition are three different but related concepts used to describe people. Body shape, also known as somatotype, represents the tangible body, which can be externally observed and measured without destroying or hurting it. On the contrary, body image represents the subjective and intangible human nature, a construct that we try to define by applying validated scientific tools' a set of dimensions easily affected by psychological perception. Instead, body composition represents the physical parts grouped into similar compartments. Due to the fact that it cannot be observed or measured with the naked eye, and in order to reduce measurement error, we try to measure them with the highest and most accurate available technology. Shape, image, and composition affect sport? s performance. Sports literature mentions, sometimes interchangeably, form, image, and body composition. So when we refer to them we have to distinguish them. Social, political, economic, cultural, educational, and genetic factors influence them. Technological advances in determining the shape and composition are reliable, but not the ones for body image, which needs further development. In this paper, the interrelation of these three aspects is described, with health and sport? s ambit indicators.
Computational study on the stability of lean CH4-air and H2-CH4-air laminar premixed flames

Recently, Shoshin et al. [1] reported measurements on blow-off limits for methane-air and hydrogen-methaneair flames stabilized on metallic rods finding a so-called "anomalous" blow-off behaviour of hydrogen-methaneair flames with certain hydrogen content. It is well known that lean methane-air and hydrogen-methane-air flames have characteristics that differ substantially owing to preferential diffusion effects. In this study, two-dimensional simulations of steady, rod-stabilized, inverted, lean, methaneair and hydrogen-methane-air premixed laminar flames are performed to further investigate the stability and blowoff characteristics of such flames. The simulations are carried out with complex chemistry and non-unity Lewis transport. For the hydrogen-methane-air flames, mixtures with a 40% (molar based) hydrogen content in the fuel are considered. Six cases for different values of equivalence ratio, , and mean inlet velocity, V , of the premixed mixture are studied. The conditions for all the cases are summarized in Table 1. In what follows, the governing equations are provided, the burner and computational setup are described and the numerical results are discussed.
Is the fair-trade a driver for the internationalisation of less developed countries’ firms?

For the firms coming from less developed countries internationalization does not appear as an alternative but as a necessary choice, because the internal market is able to absorb only a minimal part of their production. Moreover, the firms that operate in underdeveloped countries often have not suitable market, organizational and financial competences to implement complex entry modes so they prefer exporting to the foreign market with the intermediation of local trading company. Nevertheless, this mercantile way of internationalization makes the producers extremely vulnerable because it limits their increasing of market knowledge and exposes them to counterpart’s opportunistic behaviors. Many authors have underlined that a solution of such producers’ vulnerability could be the participation in alternative trade networks like fair trade. According to these considerations, the aim of this paper is to analyze if the fair trade may change the internationalization process of the south producers and to define what are the conditions required to south world’s producers in order to participate in fair trade network.
Numerical Analysis of Triple - Barrier GaAs/ Al x Ga 1-x As Resonant Tunneling Structure Using PMM Approach

Summary A theoretical study of triple barrier resonant tunneling diode with multilayer GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs heterostructure is presented based on an exact solution of the Schrodinger equation under the application of a constant electric field and a uniform magnetic field. Using propagation matrix method (PMM), the transmissivity of the structure is calculated as a function of the incident electron energy for different values of applied voltage. The results show good agreement with other existing models.
Performance Measure of Car Parking By Using RFID and OCR

Automatic number plate recognition plays a significant role in several applications and a number of techniques have been proposed. The proposed system consists of two modules: a number plate locating module and a number plate identification module. The previous characterized by fuzzy orders attempts to extract number plates from an input image, while the final conceptualized in terms of neural themes wants to identify the number present in a plate. These applications vary from complex security systems to commons areas and from parking entrance to city traffic control. The core idea of this work is to solve the realistic problem of car identification for real scenes. All steps of the process, from image acquisition to optical character recognition are considered to accomplish an automatic identification of number plates. OCR used to identify an optical refined written characters vehicle number plate is based on template matching. In last phase the letters on the number plate are converted into string or texts format. It can be used with all type of country rules or plates design. The algorithm is tested over different images with different size of vehicle images. In proposed system, number plates are recognizing, with the success rate of 92% and 95% respectively.
Normalized amplitude ratios for frequency-domain CSEM in very shallow water

The standard normalized amplitude ratio commonly used for marine CSEM data does not give a reliable and consistent diagnostic reservoir signature since it may give inconsistent readings in different water depths. This ratio only uses electromagnetic field amplitudes. Here a modification of the normalized amplitude ratio is proposed that includes both the amplitude and the absolute phase of the electromagnetic fields. This ratio behaves consistently at all water depths. In particular, it can be used in very shallow water. Frequency-domain CSEM in water depths of 40 m or less can give anomalous responses that can be detected and interpreted reliably by this simple method. The presence of a reservoir may modify the phase more than the amplitude in such shallow water depths. With the modified normalized amplitude ratio this phase change is transformed to an anomalous amplitude. By combining the up/down decomposition process with the modified normalized amplitude ratio, the sensitivity to subsurface resistors in very shallow water is enhanced.
The relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and basic trauma life support in pre-hospital emergency services

The main purpose of this present study was to investigate if Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) plays a significant role on quality and excellence of pre-hospital emergency services. “NeteMeyer” questionnaire was used to measure organizational citizenship behavior and for measuring basic trauma life support(BTLS), a researcher constructed questionnaire was developed. The population consisted of 140 medical emergency technicians working in Mashad, North-East of Iran. Using simple random sampling, 53 members of research population were selected. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and t- test. The relationship between OCB and basic trauma life support was significant. Also, there was a significant relationship between altruism and basic trauma life support as well as conscientiousness and basic trauma life support. Although, the relationship between ‘civic virtue’ and ‘sportsmanship’ with basic trauma life support were not significant. Therefore, OCB could play a critical role in reduction of mortality and disabilities in traumatic victims. Key words: Organizational citizenship behavior, emergency medical services, basic trauma life support.
Occurrence of anti-Brucella abortus and anti-Leptospira spp. antibodies in buffaloes from Paraíba state, Northeastern Brazil.

The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of animals that tested positive for brucellosis and leptospirosis and the risk factors for these diseases in the State of Paraiba. A total of 136 buffaloes from 14 herds were examined. For brucellosis, we used the buffered acidified plate antigen (BAPA) test as screening method and 2-mercaptoethanol as confirmatory test. For leptospirosis, we conducted a microscopic agglutination test (MAT), with a cut-off point of 1:100. Of the animals examined, two [1.5%; 95% CI = 0.4%–5.2%] were positive for brucellosis, and 38 (27.9%; 95% CI = 21.1%–36.0%) were positive for leptospirosis. The brucellosis-positive animals were from two (14.3%) herds, while nine (64.3%) herds had leptospirosis-seropositive animals. The more frequent Leptospira spp . serotypes were Bratislava, Pomona, and Canicola. We concluded that leptospirosis was widespread in buffaloes in the state of Paraiba and suggested that breeding alongside horses and pigs might be na important factor in the spread of leptospirosis-positive animals. The presence of brucellosispositive animals indicated the possibility of negative-impacting measures on disease control in bovines, and it is therefore recommended that greater attention be given to these animals for brucellosis control.
Environmental impacts of coastal fish farming: carbon and nitrogen budgets for trout farming in Kaldbaksfjørður (Faroe Islands)

Flow of organic carbon (OC) and nitrogen through a sea cage trout farm was calculated on the basis of detailed studies of the farming operation, water circulation, OC and nutrient transport and recycling processes in sediment. A third of the OC and nitrogen provided by fish food was incorporated into fish biomass, which is more than has been found in previous studies. Most OC input was respired by the fish (52 to 70%), and ~63% of the associated nitrogen was lost as dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), potentially stimulating pelagic primary production. Approx. 6% of carbon and 5% of nitrogen derived from fish food settled on the seabed, where it was either mineralized or accumulated in the sediment. Based on transect measurements of diagenetic activity, the farm footprint was found to cover an area ~10 times the farm area. OC mineralization in the sediment increased linearly with increasing food input; the divergence between carbon efflux and oxygen uptake in sediment likewise increased with increasing food input, reflecting an increasing level of sediment reduction. Directly below the farm, the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) efflux was high (on average 53% of dissolved inorganic carbon efflux), indicating that DOC efflux is an important pathway for benthic carbon release below aquaculture farms. Overall, microbial processes removed 56 and 38% of OC and nitrogen, respectively, that settled to the seabed. During a 39 d break in farming activity, due to the combined effect of mineralization and resuspension of surface sediment, sediment conditions improved considerably.