Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preventive Action of Honey on Methotrexate Induced Intestinal Mucositis in Albino Rats (Immunohistochemical Study)

Background and Objectives: Gastrointestinal mucositis is a severe and debilitating side effect of chemotherapy. Methotrexate (MTX) represents one of the most potent classical anti-tumor drugs. The aim of this study was to determine the preventive effects of honey on the intestinal mucositis caused by methotrexate in rats. Materials and Methods: In current study forty females Albino rats, weighing 250-300g were used in the study. For the induction of mucositis, 60 mg/kg of MTX was administered intraperitoneally to each animal in the study group on day 4. The control animals were intraperitoneally injected by normal saline in the same manner and dose like MTX. At the beginning of the experiment, the rats in each group were randomly divided into two groups: Distilled water treated group and honey treated group (10 animals each). A volume of distilled water equal to honey was given by intragastric gavage tube, while the other group was gavaged with honey at a dose of (2.5g/kg) two times daily. The body weight for each rat was measured and then the animals were sacrificed on day 8. In each experiment, one centimeter of prox¬imal jejunum was removed for histopathological, intestinal morphometry, and immunohistochemical analysis using Ki-67 and Bcl-2 immunolabeling. Results: The MTX / honey treated group showed significantly (p 0.05) were seen in the Ki-67 and Bcl-2 immune expression in comparison with the MTX/water treated group. Conclusion: Honey at a dose of 2.5g/kg two times daily, produced a partial protection against methotrexate induced mucositis in rat by decreasing the histopathological scores.
Lumbar-Peritoneal Shunt followed by Donepezil Administration for ResidualCognitive Impairment in Idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus: A CaseReport

We often encounter idiopathic normal-pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in the same patient. Four iNPH patients whose gait improved following placement of a lumbar-peritoneal shunt (LPS) and whose cognitive function improved after administration of donepezil are reported. LPS is useful for improvement of gait disturbance in iNPH, and donepezil is used to treat impaired memory in dementia of Alzheimer’s type (DAT). These four patients showed improvements in gait disturbances postoperatively, and just after donepezil administration, improvements in cognitive symptoms were recognized in the memory tests of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The four patients (two males and two females) ranged in age from 72 to 81 years (mean age: 77 years). In all patients, disproportionately enlarged subarachnoid-space hydrocephalus (DESH) was recognized on imaging examinations, and improvements after the tap test were considered to be indications for surgery. The improvements in the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) were from 25% to 36%. The patients’ mean MMSE score was 27 points preoperatively, 27 points at 1 week after LPS placement, and 30 points at 3 months after LPS placement. Treatment with donepezil appeared to be effective for residual cognitive impairments after LPS placement.
Analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of ethanolic extract of rheumatic tea formula (RTF) in rats and mice

The analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of the ethanolic extract of Rheumatic Tea Formula (RTF) a polyherbal tea consisting the leaves of Eucalyptus globulus, Albizia chevalieri and bark of Salix alba were studied in mice and rats using acetic acid induced writhing, hot plate method, formalin induced pain and carrageenan induced rat paw edema. The extract at doses of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg produced a significant (P<0.05) and dose dependent inhibition of writhing induced by acetic acid. In the hot plate method the extract at all doses also produced a significant (p < 0.05) dose dependent increase in latency of pain. In formalin induced pain the extract exhibited significant (P<0.05) analgesic activities in both first and second phase of the formalin induced pain at doses of 250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg. The ethanolic extract significantly (P<0.05) and dose dependently reduced paw edema induced by carrageenan. The present study suggests that RTF contains bioactive constituents that possess analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, the former being mediated centrally and peripherally justifying its ethnomedicinal use in pain and inflammation associated with rheumatism. Key words: Rheumatic Tea Formula, Analgesic, Anti-inflammatory, Acetic –acid, Carrageenan
Pathways to low-carbon international transport: a comparison of shipping and aviation

Each year, the chance of avoiding ‘dangerous climate change’ diminishes as CO2 emissions rise. While some sectors have started to implement measures aimed at curbing greenhouse gases, meaningful policies focused upon cutting emissions from international shipping and aviation remain inadequate. At a global scale, a similar policy approach to tackling these ‘international’ emissions has been taken, yet the strengths and weaknesses of these industries with regard to both mitigation and their globalised nature have important distinctions. For instance, the shipping sector has a plethora of low-carbon technology options available to it: sails, kites, Flettner rotors, a range of alternative fuels etc, while aviation does not. On the other hand, in aviation, engine efficiency already pushes the boundaries of engineering, while in shipping, the debate is currently less focused on efficiency and more concerned with the sulphur content of heavy fuel oil. Perhaps a more contentious difference, is that shipping serves global trade, while the majority of flights are taken for leisure. This work builds upon existing scenario analysis and technology roadmapping to demonstrate what 2°C means for mitigating greenhouse gases in international aviation and shipping. The paper discusses the implications of using technology, operational changes and demand management to deliver cuts commensurate with 2°C, highlighting where there are similarities and where there are differences between these two important sectors. Finally, the paper concludes that technology plays an important role in pathways towards low-carbon shipping, whereas in aviation, demand management is the key. However, the complexity of the shipping system is, and will likely continue to be, a significant barrier to implementation.
The Research of University-industry Knowledge Innovation Alliance based on Actor Network Theory

University-industry knowledge innovation alliance, a new form of university-industry cooperation. The paper explores this kind of alliance based on actor-network theory. It builds a different nature actor-network which contains enterprise, university, institute, government, resource and the concepts to explain the alliance's mechanism. Some appropriate solutions are proposed that may be encountered in the cooperating process. It stresses that the alliance's internal network should be strengthened with the external environment, so as to improve the performance of alliance and achieve the desired goals. Index Terms -ANT, university-industry knowledge innovation alliance
Geometric Optimization of a Self-Adaptive Robotic Leg

This paper demonstrates the self-adaptive capabilities of a two-degree-of-freedom Hoeckens-pantograph robotic leg (inspired by underactuated mechanical fingers) as well as its optimization, allowing it to overcome unexpected obstacles during its swing phase. A multi-objective optimization of the mechanism’s geometric parameters is performed using a genetic algorithm to highlight the trade-off between two conflicting objectives and select an appropriate compromise. The first of those objective functions measures the leg’s passive adaptation capability through a calculation of the input torque required to initiate the desired sliding motion along an obstacle. The second objective function evaluates the free-space trajectory followed by the leg endpoint using three criteria: linearity, stance ratio, and height-to-width ratio. In comparison with the initial geometry based on the Hoecken’s linkage, the selected final mechanism chosen from the Pareto front shows an important improvement of the adaptation capabi.
In the Shadow of the United States: The International Transmission Effect of Asset Returns

We examine how the fluctuations in financial and housing markets in U.S. affect the asset returns and GDP in Hong Kong. In contrast to the results from linear specifications, which concludes that the U.S. and Hong Kong are virtually delinked in terms of the asset markets, our regime-switching models indicate that the unexpected shock of US stock returns, followed by the TED spread, has the most significant effect on HK asset returns and GDP, typically in the regime with high return and low volatility. For the in-sample one-step-ahead forecasting, US Term spread stands out to be the best predictor.
Suppressed Band Characteristics of an UWB Conical Monopole Antenna with Split Loops Based on the Equivalent Circuit

In this study, the principle of band suppressing an UWB antenna by attaching a small resonator is explained by developing its equivalent circuit. The realized UWB antenna is a conical monopole antenna that contains a split loop for band suppression. The conical monopole antenna corresponds to a transmission line terminated with load impedance, and the split loop is an LC resonator. The coupling between the conical monopole antenna and the split loop is represented as mutual inductance. Equivalent circuits for the UWB antenna suppressing single band [WLAN] and dual band [WLAN, WiMAX] have been suggested, and these equivalent circuits provide insight into the performance characteristics of the developed band suppressed UWB antenna to which a small sized resonator is installed. Simulation and measurement results on the input impedance and VSWR of the proposed equivalent circuit are closely matched. Thus, the validity of the equivalent circuit is confirmed. The measurement results demonstrate that the proposed antenna exhibits a gain of over 3 dBi in the working band and has an omnidirectional radiation pattern. Band rejection has been also implemented by split loops.
Flavobacterium columnare in Finnish fish farming : characterisation and putative disease management strategies

Suomalainen, Lotta-Riina Flavobacterium columnare in Finnish fish farming: characterisation and putative disease management strategies Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2005, 52 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Biological and Environmental Science, ISSN 1456-9701; 155)
Simulating Soft-Sphere Margination in Arterioles and Venules

In this paper, we deploy a Lattice Boltzmann - Particle Dynamics (LBPD) method to dissect the transport properties within arterioles and venules. First, the numerical approach is applied to study the transport of Red Blood Cells (RBC) through plasma and validated by means of comparison with the experimental data in the seminal work by F{\aa}hr{\ae}us and Lindqvist. Then, the presence of micro-scale, soft spheres within the blood flow is considered: the evolution in time of the position of such spheres is studied, in order to highlight the presence of possible \textit{margination} effects. The results of the simulations and the evaluation of the computational eff
An Introduction to Implied Lévy Volatility with Applications ∗ ∗ ∗

The concept of implied volatility is one of the great successes of the Black-Scholes model. However, Black-Scholes relies on a normal distribution, which historical data shows is not adequate to describe real markets. This is often seen in implied volatility surfaces which “smile” and “smirk”, taking on different values for different strike prices. In this paper we discuss a more empirically founded type of implied volatility based on Lévy distributions, first introduced by Corcuera, Guillaume, Leoni and Schoutens in 2009. We use implied Lévy volatility with real market prices to reduce the presence of smiles and smirks. We perform several delta and gamma hedging experiments to test the performance of the Black-Scholes model against Lévy models. Finally, we price barrier options using implied Black-Scholes and implied Lévy volatility and discuss how the change in volatility affects the prices. ∗Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University. Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements of Master of Arts in Mathematics and Statistics, under the supervision of Prof. Hanna Jankowski. ∗∗Schulich School of Business, York University. Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements of Graduate Diploma in Financial Engineering. †Email address: mjgc@mathstat.yorku. ca
ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF SOFT-WATER CALCIUM DECLINE ON THE LIFE-HISTORIES STRATEGIES OF VARIOUS DAPHNIA SPECIES

Soft-water calcium decline is of growing concern for Ca-rich aquatic organisms such as Daphnia, a cladoceran zooplankton. Survival and reproduction thresholds across daphniid species have not been well studied in Ca-limiting conditions. In hopes to establish Ca-thresholds, the life-history of ten iso-female Daphnia clones, composed of Daphnia pulex/pulicaria, D. catawba and D. ambigua, were tracked over 21-day trials exposed to five Ca-treatment groups (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 5.0 mg of Ca/L). D. catawba and D. pulex/pulicaria survivorship was significantly affected by the Ca-gradient, while the survivorship of the smaller-bodied D. ambigua was not. Increased survivorship across the Ca-gradient was most notable in D. catawba, which is surprising as it is often viewed as a species tolerant to low-Ca conditions. However, it is believed that species-specific Ca responses are driven by large variations in survivorship, attributed to differences both within and across clone lines. At low-Ca (< 2.5 mg of Ca/L) all species exhibited premature mortality (<10 days), most likely due to high-Ca demands of juveniles. In general, survivorship did not increase with increasing Ca-level, as the greatest survivorship within all species was seen at moderate Ca-levels (2.5 mg of Ca/L). It is suggested that acclimation to moderate Ca-levels (2.5 mg of Ca/L) is from mother clone lines and batch cultures being raised in the same Ca-concentration. Acclimation to 2.5 mg of Ca/L conditions is further supported by evidence that this Ca treatment also experienced the greatest reproductive output as well as fewer delays in reproduction. Nevertheless, inherent concerns over establishing conservative Ca-thresholds in the laboratory emerge; this in combination with the difficulties that arise here in culturing Daphnia, may highlight the need for in situ studies to identify Cathresholds across daphniids.
CMOS image sensor working as high-speed photo receivers as well as a position sensor for indoor optical wireless LAN systems

We propose and demonstrate a new image sensor specialized in an optical wireless LAN (local area network) system. The use of the image sensor brings excellent features to the optical wireless LAN systems; because the image sensor can capture the scene around the communication node or the hub at once like ordinary image sensors, it is easy to implement detection and tracing of the nodes or the hub without any mechanical component to search them. In addition, the image sensors inherently catch the multiple optical signals in parallel by a huge amount of micro photodiodes, which means that they have potentiality of concurrent data acquisition from multiple nodes at the hub. In this paper, we describe a pixel structure to implement two functional modes: a communication (COM) mode to receive temporally modulated optical signals and an image sensor (IS) mode to capture an image in which photodiode operates in an integration mode. The pixel is a fusion of an active pixel sensor and a current amplifier without temporal integration. We fabricated an 8×8-pixel image sensor in a standard 0. 8μm BiCMOS technology, and successfully demonstrated position detection of a light source and acquisition of optical serial data when wavelength and frequency of incident optical data were 830nm and 1MHz, respectively. We also show the design of a 50×50-pixel CMOS image sensor with 3-stage main amplifiers.
Failure Prediction of Underground Pipeline Based on Artificial Neural Network

Artificial neural network has become a useful tool for many engineering problems. For the prediction and analysis of underground pipeline failure, an ANN model is established as basis of the data of buried pipelines in non-uniform settlement soil. Therefore, the failure of underground pipeline in non-uniform settlement soil is treated as a nonlinear function with several variables. Six influence factors, such as buried depth, wall thickness, pipe diameter, precipitation level, soil modulus of elasticity, and soil density, are considered in this ANN model. The ANN model is a back propagation (BP) network, and model structure is designed based on MATLAB, in which Neuron number in hidden layer and calculating function are selected. Finally, the accuracy of this ANN model and predictive results are investigated, and some suggestions are offered for the protection of underground pipeline in non-uniform settlement soil.
RESEARCH ARTICLE PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION AMONG PRE-UNIVERSITY COLLEGE STUDENTS IN AN URBAN AREA OF SOUTH INDIA

Onset of depression is occurring earlier in life today than in past decades. Adolescence being transitional period from childhood to adulthood is a stage of emotional instability resulting from demand for separation and independence. Evidence suggests that early intervention for depression in children can improve long term outcomes. This cross sectional study was done in January 2010 to find out the prevalence of depression among pre university students in Mangalore city. Prevalence of depression was assessed using Beck’s Depression Inventory II. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Out of 308 participants, depression was seen among 79.2% students. Majority (41.2%) were found to be suffering from moderate followed by mild (26.6%) depression. Prevalence of depression (P=0.027) and severity of depression (P=0.0357) was found to significantly increase with age of the participants. Students of commerce were found to be significantly more depressed than students of science stream (P=0.002). No association of depression with gender of participants or with the type of college they were studying in was observed. There is a need for college students to be educated about depression in order to improve recognition and diagnosis. Also student counselling service offering mental health assistance needs to be established at colleges.
Picoplankton community structure along the northern Iberian continental margin in late winter-early spring

The surface distribution of autotrophic and heterotrophic picoplankton was assessed in 24 transects perpendicular to the coast along the N and NW Iberian peninsula shelf in late winter and early spring 2002. Community structure was analyzed by flow cytometry (FC) and found to be strongly influenced by hydrography. Typical late winter conditions were found during the survey, characterized by the presence of the poleward Portugal coastal counter current (PCCC) in the west and an increasing stratification eastwards. Cyanobacteria (mostly Synechococcus) dominated at low chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration whereas both the total and relative abundance of picoeukaryotes generally increased with total phytoplankton biomass. Differences in the cell size of most FC-defined picoplanktonic groups were also observed along the longitudinal and coastal‐offshore gradients. The presence of Prochlorococcus (<10 3 cells mL � 1 ) coincided with the core of the PCCC and its significant correlation with salinity suggests its possible use as a tracer of this current. Two groups of heterotrophic bacteria were distinguished according to their relative DNA content. High DNA bacteria dominated the community (60¯� 1% SE of total numbers), reaching maximum values in areas under riverine influence with presumed higher inputs of organic matter. Picoplankton biomass was dominated by heterotrophic bacteria in the western region (58¯� 3%) while autotrophic groups contributed on average 66¯� 2% in the southern Bay of Biscay. The heterotrophic bacteria to phytoplankton biomass ratio decreased significantly along the measured range. Yet showing regional differences, the estimated contribution of picophytoplankton to total algal biomass was high (mean 59¯� 4%), indicating the important role of small cells at the onset of the spring bloom in these temperate shelf waters.
Organizing Mechanism of Metaphors in Discourse

This paper intends to discuss the discourse function of metaphors, and tries to explore the text organizing mechanism of metaphors in discourse. First, it reviews the past and current researches of metaphors, and finds that metaphors can work not only at the vocabulary and grammar level, but also at the discourse level. Based on the analysis of some examples, it finds that the metaphorical mapping correspondence can work in the discourse development and coherence. The systematic features and coherent features of a metaphor can also help in the discourse coherence. Metaphors can play a great role in text organizing and discourse coherence.
Assessment of Dipping Treatment with Various Lactic Acid or Sodium Benzoate Concentrations to Extend the Shelf-life of Spent Hen Breast Meats

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of immersion treatment using lactic acid (LA) and sodium benzoate (SB) on the physicochemical quality and freshness of spent hen breast meats. A total of 135 spent hen breast meats were subjected to 9 different treatments using various concentrations of LA and/or SB in sterile DW. The 9 treatment groups were as follows: Control, sterile DW without LA or SB; T1, 1% LA; T2, 2% LA; T3, 4% LA; T4, 1% LA and 0.1% SB; T5, 2% LA and 0.1% SB; T6 2% LA and 0.2% SB; T7, 2% LA and 0.4% SB; T8, 4% LA and 0.2% SB, respectively. All groups were kept at 4 C for 15 d. The microbial counts in the control group gradually increased during storage, but those for the treated groups were significantly lower than the control or were not detected. The pH values of the control were significantly higher than those of the treated groups (p<0.05). In the color measurements, the lightness (L*) and yellowness (b*) values increased during storage and the redness (a*) values decreased (p<0.05). The K-value and volatile basic nitrogen of the treated groups were significantly lower than those of the control group (p<0.05). Overall, the combined results of this study indicate that LA and SB could be used as favorable preservatives for spent hen breast meats to extend their shelf-life during refrigerated storage.
Multidimensional digital radar for collision Avoidance and Security

Abstract: A proper remote sensing device isrequired to provide security and safety fromunauthorized areas in case of trespassing orillegal usage of assets, private properties and toavoid collision in transportation system. In thispaper we designed an ultrasonic transducer pairfor detecting the objects and calculating thedistance between the obstacles. The scanningsection is designed with linear motor and driverfor rotation of view scanning. The firingsection of the obstacle is designed with firingcircuit and a triggering motor. The distance iscalculated and displayed in the LCD display andalso the status RGY led’s. When the limit isreached, the buzzer indication is done usingpiezoelectric buzzer. The control section isdesigned using micro controller for programmingand controlling of the motors and triggeringcircuit.