Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antimicrobial activities of six plants used in Traditional Arabic Palestinian Herbal Medicine

Ethanolic extracts of six plants: Arum palaestinum Bioss, Urtica pilulifera L. , Thymbra capitata (L.) Cav. , Origanum syriacum L. , Teucrium creticum L. , and Teucrium polium L. , used in Traditional Arabic Palestinian Herbal Medicine were evaluated for their antibacterial, anti-candida, and antidermatophyte activities using well diffusion, micro-dilution and food poisoned techniques. The extracts were tested against: six bacterial strains including Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae; five Candida albicans isolates, and two dermatophytes: Microsporum canis, and Trichophyton rubrum. The most active plants extracts were T. capitata and O. syriacum against the tested bacteria, while the remaining plant extracts did not express any activity or exhibited only very low activity against tested bacteria species and candida isolates. O. syriacum was also the most active plant against all Candida strains with inhibition zones that ranged from 22.5 to 29.5 mm. On the other hand, T. capitata extract showed the highest activity against the test dermatophytes (producing a complete inhibition at ≤ 45 µg/mL). Key words: Medicinal plants, antibacterial activity, antifungal activity, Arum palaestinum, Urtica pilulifera, Thymbra capitata, Origanum syriacum, Teucrium creticum, Tecrium polium.
IMAGE ENHANCEMENT WITH BILATERAL FILTER IN MIX-CLAHE

As light is suffered when it passes in water or in foggy area, the clarity of image or video captured under these environment is usually degraded to varying degrees. The degradation may be due to various factors like relative object-camera motion, blur due to camera misfocus, relative atmospheric turbulence and others. The clarity of image is the challenging factors in image processing. The goal of enhancement is to enhance the structural appearance of a picture without the degradation in the input image. The enhancement techniques make the identification of key features easier by eliminating noise and other artifacts within an image. In this paper, bilateral filter is applied on mix CLAHE enhancement technique to improve the visibility of an image in foggy and underwater condition. More specifically, we categorize processing methods based on representative techniques of Image enhancement. Thus the contribution with this paper would be to classify and review image enhancement processing techniques, attempt an evaluation of shortcomings and general needs in this field of active research and in last we shall mention promising directions on research for image enhancement for future research.
MULTI -WORD TERM EXTRACTION BASED ON NEW HYBRID APPROACH FOR ARABIC LANGUAGE

Arabic Multiword Term are relevant strings of words in text documents. Once they are automatically extracted, they can be used to increase the performance of any text mining applications such as Categorisation, Clustering, Information Retrieval System, Machine Translation, and Summarization, etc. This paper introduces our proposed Multiword term extraction system based on the contextual information. In fact, we propose a new method based a hybrid approach for Arabic Multiword term extraction. Like other method based on hybrid approach, our method is composed by two main steps: the Linguistic approach and the Statistical one. In the first step, the Linguistic approach uses Part Of Speech (POS) Tagger (Taani’s Tagger) and the Sequence Identifier as patterns in order to extract the candidate AMTWs. While in the second one which includes our main contribution, the Statistical approach incorporates the contextual information by using a new proposed association measure based on Termhood and Unithood for AMWTs extraction. To evaluate the efficiency of our proposed method for AMWTs extraction, this later has been tested and compared using three different association measures: the proposed one named NTC-Value, NC-Value, and C-Value. The experimental results using Arabic Texts taken from the environment domain, show that our hybrid method outperforms the other ones in term of precision, in addition, it can deal correctly with tri-gram Arabic Multiword terms.
Transfer of Manual Flying Skills From PC-Based Simulation to Actual Flight-Comparison of In-Flight Measured Data and Instructor Ratings

Three groups of novice pilots received training to fly aerobatic maneuvers in a light aircraft. Trainees in the control group received in-flight instruction and were given the usual briefings before each flight. Trainees in the 2 experimental groups received extra training: Each in-flight lesson was preceded by PC-based simulated flight. A total of 2,053 maneuvers were analyzed on the basis of both flight-data recordings and instructor ratings. I hypothesized that complex manual flying skills, learned on the ground, transfer to the aircraft. The results provide no objective support for this hypothesis. There were no significant differences in flying skills between the three groups as measured by the flight-data recordings. However, both experimental (PC) groups managed to fly significantly more maneuvers in the same amount of flight time in the aircraft and received better instructor ratings. I analyze these differences in detail. In the discussion, I compare the findings with published transfer experiments with PC-based simulation.
A loaded in vivo study in 10 goats

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the source is credited. DOI 10.3109/17453674.2014. 960660 Background and purpose — The bone impaction grafting technique restores bone defects in total hip replacement. Porous titanium particles (TiPs) are deformable, like bone particles, and offer better primary stability. We addressed the following questions in this animal study: are impacted TiPs osteoconductive under loaded conditions; do released micro-particles accelerate wear; and are systemic titanium blood levels elevated after implantation of TiPs? Animals and methods — An AAOS type-III defect was created in the right acetabulum of 10 goats weighing 63 (SD 6) kg, and reconstructed with calcium phosphate-coated TiPs and a cemented polyethylene cup. A stem with a cobalt chrome head was cemented in the femur. The goats were killed after 15 weeks. Blood samples were taken preand postoperatively. Results — The TiP-graft layer measured 5.6 (SD 0.8) mm with a mean bone ingrowth distance of 2.8 (SD 0.8) mm. Cement penetrated 0.9 (0.3–1.9) mm into the TiPs. 1 reconstruction showed minimal cement penetration (0.3 mm) and failed at the cementTiP interface. There were no signs of accelerated wear, metallic particle debris, or osteolysis. Median systemic titanium concentrations increased on a log-linear scale from 0.5 (0.3–1.1) parts per billion (ppb) to 0.9 (0.5–2.8) ppb (p = 0.01). Interpretation — Adequate cement pressurization is advocated for impaction grafting with TiPs. After implantation, calcium phosphate-coated TiPs were osteoconductive under loaded conditions and caused an increase in systemic titanium concentrations. However, absolute levels remained low. There were no signs of accelerated wear. A clinical pilot study should be performed to prove that application in humans is safe in the long term.
Abnormal Folate Metabolism and Maternal Risk for Down Syndrome

Down syndrome (DS) or trisomy 21 (MIM 190685) is the most common genetic disorder with a prevalence of 1 in 660 live births (Jones, 2006). DS is the leading cause of geneticallydefined intellectual disability (Contestabile et al., 2010) and its phenotype is complex and variable among individuals, who may present with a combination of dysmorphic features (Ahmed et al., 2005; Pavarino-Bertelli et al., 2009), congenital heart disease (Abbag, 2006), neurological abnormalities such as early manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease (Lott & Head, 2005), immunological impairments (Ram & Chinen, 2011), elevated risk of specific types of leukemia (Hasle et al., 2000), and other clinical complications (Venail et al., 2004). Trisomy 21 can be caused by three types of chromosomal abnormalities: free trisomy, translocation, or mosaicism. Mosaicism accounts for the minority of DS cases (about 1%) and is characterized by some cells containing 46 chromosomes and others, 47 chromosomes. Translocations are attributed to 3-4% of the cases, with Robertsonian translocation involving chromosomes 14 and 21 being the most common type. Finally, free trisomy occurs in about 95% of cases (Ahmed et al., 2005; J.M. Biselli et al., 2008b) and is characterized by the presence of three complete copies of chromosome 21. Free trisomy, the main chromosomal abnormality leading to DS, is caused by the failure of normal chromosome 21 segregation during meiosis (meiotic nondisjunction) (Hassold & Hunt, 2000). The parental origin of the extra chromosome 21 is maternal in about 80% of cases (Jyothy et al., 2001), and most (about 77%) occur during the first maternal meiotic division in the maturing oocyte, before conception (Antonarakis et al., 1992).
Chemical Composition and Antifungal Activity of Nigella Sativa L . Oil Seed Cultivated In Morocco

Nigella sativa L. commonly called black seed belongs to the family Ranunculaceae is known for its indigenous medicinal uses since immemorial time. The present study was carried out in order to characterize the Nigella seed oil cultivated in Morocco for its fatty acid and sterol composition using gas chromatography. The results indicated the presence of linoleic acid (58.5%) and oleic acid (23.7%) as unsaturated fatty acids and palmitic acid (13.1%) as saturated fatty acid while β-sitosterol and stigmasterol were among the major components, together constituting about 69 % of total sterols. Nigella seed oil has a strong antifungal activity compared to the conventional fungicides. Our findings demonstrate that Nigella seed oil has an antifungal activity that might be a natural potential source of antifungal used in food, in cosmetics and in pharmaceuticals products.
DISTURBANCES REJECTION ON A ROBOT ARM USING AN EFFICIENT PREDICTIVE CONTROLLER

Abstract This work proposes a predictive controller with interpolation in order to improve the behaviour of a typical MPC when the system presents constraints. Particularly, it is interesting to see how the interpolation, between the solution of the optimal unconstrained problem and other feasible solutions, assures the stability of the system in presence of disturbances. The system in which the controller is applied is a two-link robot manipulator arm. The predictive controller is inserted in an adaptive perturbation scheme to change adequately the nominal inputs, given by an inverse dynamics controller, in order to reject the disturbances produced. The efficiency of the proposed strategy is shown by simulation.
Validation of Quantitative Multimodality Analysis of Telomerase Activity in Urine Cells as a Noninvasive Diagnostic and Prognostic Tool for Prostate Cancer

Abstract : The major goal of this project was to develop a clinical trial focused on the validation of diagnostic and prognostic utility of quantitative analysis of telomerase activity in exfoliated cells in urine as a molecular marker and clinical tool for: 1) noninvasive early detection of prostate cancer; and 2) determination of indolent asymptomatic carcinomas that have potential to develop into invasive disease and require treatment. We report here that our research and clinical teams are completely ready to carry out the proposed clinical trial. We have developed and optimized all research and clinical protocols. We have prepared all material resources for large-scale complex analysis of telomerase activity in patients exfoliated cancer cells. We have established a reliable crosscommunication between our clinical and research personnel.
A O ] 1 8 Ju l 2 01 8 Reactive random walkers on complex networks

Giulia Cencetti, 2 Federico Battiston, Duccio Fanelli, and Vito Latora 5 Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università degli Studi di Firenze Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, INFN and CSDC Department of Network and Data Science, Central European University, Budapest 1051, Hungary School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK Dipartimento di Fisica ed Astronomia, Università di Catania and INFN, I-95123 Catania, Italy
Multiple exciton generation in semiconductor nanocrystals: Toward efficient solar energy conversion

Within the range of photon energies illuminating the Earth's surface, absorption of a photon by a conventional photovoltaic semiconductor device results in the production of a single electron‐hole pair; energy of a photon in excess of the semiconductor's bandgap is efficiently converted to heat through interactions between the electron and hole with the crystal lattice. Recently, colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals and nanocrystal films have been shown to exhibit efficient multiple electron‐hole pair generation from a single photon with energy greater than twice the effective band gap. This multiple carrier pair process, referred to as multiple exciton generation (MEG), represents one route to reducing the thermal loss in semiconductor solar cells and may lead to the development of low cost, high efficiency solar energy devices. We review the current experimental and theoretical understanding of MEG, and provide views to the near‐term future for both fundamental research and the development of working devices which exploit MEG.
he Epidemiology of Obesity

n the United States, obesity among adults and verweight among children and adolescents have ncreased markedly since 1980. Among adults, obeity is defined as a body mass index of 30 or greater. mong children and adolescents, overweight is dened as a body mass index for age at or above the 5th percentile of a specified reference population. n 2003–2004, 32.9% of adults 20 –74 years old were bese and more than 17% of teenagers (age, 12–19 ) were overweight. Obesity varies by age and sex, nd by race-ethnic group among adult women. A igher body weight is associated with an increased ncidence of a number of conditions, including dibetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and nonaloholic fatty liver disease, and with an increased isk of disability. Obesity is associated with a modstly increased risk of all-cause mortality. However, he net effect of overweight and obesity on morbidty and mortality is difficult to quantify. It is likely hat a gene-environment interaction, in which geetically susceptible individuals respond to an enironment with increased availability of palatable nergy-dense foods and reduced opportunities for nergy expenditure, contributes to the current high revalence of obesity. Evidence suggests that even ithout reaching an ideal weight, a moderate mount of weight loss can be beneficial in terms of educing levels of some risk factors, such as blood ressure. Many studies of dietary and behavioral reatments, however, have shown that maintenance f weight loss is difficult. The social and economic osts of obesity and of attempts to prevent or to reat obesity are high.
WISDOM project-I: black hole mass measurement using molecular gas kinematics in NGC 3665

As a part of the mm-Wave Interferometric Survey of Dark Object Masses (WISDOM) project, we present an estimate of the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) in the nearby fast-rotator early-type galaxy NGC 3665. We obtained the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy (CARMA) B and C array observations of the 12CO(J = 2 − 1) emission line with a combined angular resolution of 0.59 arcsec. We analysed and modelled the three-dimensional molecular gas kinematics, obtaining a best-fitting SMBH mass MBH=5.75+1.49−1.18×108 MBH=5.75−1.18+1.49×108 M⊙, a mass-to-light ratio at H-band (M/L)H = 1.45 ± 0.04 (M/L)⊙,H and other parameters describing the geometry of the molecular gas disc (statistical errors, all at 3σ confidence). We estimate the systematic uncertainties on the stellar M/L to be ≈0.2 (M/L)⊙,H, and on the SMBH mass to be ≈0.4 × 108 M⊙. The measured SMBH mass is consistent with that estimated from the latest correlations with galaxy properties. Following our older works, we also analysed and modelled the kinematics using only the major-axis position–velocity diagram, and conclude that the two methods are consistent.
START-GAP/DLC Family Proteins: Molecular Mechanisms for Anti-Tumor Activities

The Rho family of GTPases belongs to the superfamily named “Ras-like” proteins, which consists of over 150 varieties in mammals [1]. Significant progress has recently been made in understanding the biological functions mediated by this family of small (~21 kDa) G proteins (guanine nucleotide-binding proteins). Rho GTPases affect crucial biological processes such as transcriptional regulation, cell cycle progression, apoptosis and membrane trafficking [2, 3]. Thus far, a total of 23 Rho proteins have been identified [4], among which RhoA, Rac1 and Cdc42 are characterized in detail. Rho GTPases are also involved in the cytoskeleton formation of the cell via the regulation of actin dynamics [5, 6]. RhoA induces stress fiber formation and focal adhesion assembly, thereby regulating cell shape, attachment and motility, whereas Rac1 promotes extension of lamellipodia and membrane ruffling [7]. Cdc42 has been shown to play a role in the formation of filopodia [8].
Web Portal Integration Architecture Approaches

Enterprise Modelling with Web portal integration architecturerequires investment of advanced architectural thinking into definition of services before any development of services or service consumers can begin. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)is gradually replacing monolithic architecture as the premier d sign principle for new business applications with its inherently systematic nature andcapability. Earlier efforts of notable styles of SOA such as CORBA and XATMI have failed to be adopted as main stream projects because of demanding design process requirement with sense -making activities and even have been residing with the modern SOA or Web services middleware. In this paper it is aimed to incorporate sensemaking design activities with the proposed semantic web service based architecture. This paper tries to tackle the above problem by proposing a service -oriented architecture for web data and service integr ation. A gen-Spec architectural pattern has been suggested and adopted in order to tackle theproblem. Firstly, it proposes a service-oriented platform independent architecture andSecondly, it presents a specific deployment of such architecture for data and service integratio n on the web using semantic webservices implemented with the WSMO (Web Services Modeling Ontology).
Experimental validation of joint phase and amplitude wave-front sensing with coronagraphic phase diversity for high-contrast imaging

Context. The next generation of space-borne instruments dedicated to the direct detection of exoplanets requires unprecedented levels of wavefront control precision. Coronagraphic wavefront sensing techniques for these instruments must measure both the phase and amplitude of the optical aberrations using the scientific camera as a wavefront sensor. Aims. In this paper, we develop an extension of coronagraphic phase diversity to the estimation of the complex electric field, that is, the joint estimation of phase and amplitude. Methods. We introduced the formalism for complex coronagraphic phase diversity. We have demonstrated experimentally on the Très Haute Dynamique testbed at the Observatoire de Paris that it is possible to reconstruct phase and amplitude aberrations with a subnanometric precision using coronagraphic phase diversity. Finally, we have performed the first comparison between the complex wavefront estimated using coronagraphic phase diversity (which relies on time-modulation of the speckle pattern) and the one reconstructed by the self-coherent camera (which relies on the spatial modulation of the speckle pattern). Results. We demonstrate that coronagraphic phase diversity retrieves complex wavefront with subnanometric precision with a good agreement with the reconstruction performed using the self-coherent camera. Conclusions. This result paves the way to coronagraphic phase diversity as a coronagraphic wave-front sensor candidate for very high contrast space missions.
Concordant estimates of oceanic carbon monoxide source and sink processes in the Pacific yield a balanced global “blue‐water” CO budget

Studies to characterize sources and sinks of carbon monoxide (CO) in the mixed layer were carried out at sites covering large regions of the north and south Pacific. Apparent quantum yield spectra for the photochemical production of CO from colored dissolved organic matter were measured, as were first‐order net microbial CO consumption rate constants. Contrary to initial expectations, neither photoproduction nor biooxidation parameters exhibited strong regional variations, except that in the Southern Ocean CO biooxidation rate coefficients were very low. Global “blue‐water” CO flux terms derived from the data (in Tg carbon from CO per year, CO‐C a−1) are: photochemical source, 50 (estimated range, 30–70), microbial sink, 32 (estimated range, 10–60) and total CO sink (microbial plus gas exchange), 38 (estimated range, 13–60). Considering uncertainties and extrapolation biases, these independently estimated source and sink terms are thus in, or close to, balance at ∼40 (range of overlap, 30–60) Tg CO‐C a−1. The simplest interpretation of this balance is that no major net sources or sinks (i.e., light‐independent production, photoproduction at >450 nm) remain undiscovered, though considerable uncertainty in actual process rates remains. These CO fluxes are, however, very much smaller than some recently estimated values. The origins and implications of these discrepancies are discussed, and the coastal budget term is approximated.
Publication VI

The precise computation of abstractions is a bottleneck in many approaches to CEGAR-based verification. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, based on the use of structural information. Rather than computing the abstraction as a single, monolithic quantification, we provide a structure-aware abstraction algorithm, based on two complementary steps. The first, highlevel step exploits the structure of the system, and partitions the abstraction problem into the combination of several smaller abstraction problems. This is represented as a formula with quantifiers. The second, low-level step exploits the structure of the formula, in particular the occurrence of variables within the quantifiers, and applies a set of low-level rewriting rules aiming at further reducing the scope of quantifiers. We experimentally evaluate the approach on a substantial set of benchmarks, and show significant speed ups compared to monolithic abstraction algorithms.