Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Viewpoints on modelling: Comments on "Achilles and the tortoise: Some caveats to mathematical modelling in biology"

Mathematical modelling has been proven to be useful in understanding some problems from biological science, provided that it is used properly. However, it has also attracted some criticisms as partially presented in a recent opinion article \cite{Gilbert2018} from biological community. This note intends to clarify some confusion and misunderstanding in regard to mathematically modelling by commenting on those critiques raised in \cite{Gilbert2018}, with a hope of initiating some further discussion so that both applied mathematicians and biologist can better use mathematical modelling and better understand the results from modelling.
Arab Knee: Management and Prevention-A Case Report

Radiographic osteoarthritis of the knee is very common in Saudi patients, especially in the patellofemoral compartment. Some studies have considered repetitive daily prayer activities as a factor of causation. However prevention and management recommendations appear to be non-existent in the literature. This report describes the case of chronic bilateral anterior knee pain in a devout adult male, which was dramatically alleviated by simply using a padded cushion under the prayer rug. Simple strategies of temporarily modifying prayer posture, insuring good prayer form, and adequate knee padding, may offer promise as low tech and economical solution for the management of anterior knee pain in this cultural group.
Seasonal partitioning of atympanate moths in relation to bat activity

Certain families of atympanate (deaf) moths are more abundant during the summer at times when bat activity is low. Atympanate moths were collected at ultraviolet lights throughout the summer at a site in southeastern Ontario. Seasonal frequency distributions for individual families showed different trends when compared with ambient bat activity levels. Most saturniids were collected between mid-May and mid-June, before the time when bats are most active (July and August). Lasiocampids were also collected outside the range of high bat activity, emerging in early May, late June, or late August. Population levels of the sphingids, on the other hand, were similar to bat activity levels. From these data, I suggest that some families of deaf moths face reduced selection pressure by bats through temporal isolation.
Isolation and Characterization of Micrococci From Human Skin, Including Two New Species: Micrococcus lylae and Micrococcus kristinae1

Micrococci were commonly isolated from the skins of people living in various regions of the United States. Not all micrococci isolated in this investigation could be identified with the currently recognized species of Micrococcus, viz., M. luteus, M. varians, or M. roseus, and these micrococci therefore became the subject of further taxonomic study. As a result of this study, two new species are proposed: Micrococcus lylae and M. kristinae. The type strains of these species are ATCC 27566 and ATCC 27570, respectively. Numerous strains were isolated that were similar to M. sedentarius or M. nishinomiyaensis, species that were previously represented by only single strains. (ZoBell's strain 541 [ATCC 14392; CCM 314] is designated herein as the type strain of M. sedentarius.) A few micrococci were left unclassified. A variety of morphological, physiological, biochemical, and genetic characters were examined for their use as taxonomic criteria, and key characters, many of which can be determined by simple laboratory procedures, were selected for species differentiation. The more sophisticated studies of aliphatic hydrocarbons and cell-wall peptidoglycans were also very useful in the taxonomy of the micrococci. The predominant micrococci found on human skin were M. luteus and M. varians.
Bioremediation Potentials and Emulsification Activity of Indigenous Bacteria Isolated from Crude Oil Polluted Soil in Ohaji-Egbema, Nigeria

Sweet potatoes are tuber crops consumed in different parts of the world. Its use is however limited by post-harvest spoilage by microorganisms. This study was carried out to isolate, identify, and prevent the microorganisms responsible for the post-harvest spoilage of sweet potato. Five replicate samples of decaying sweet potatoes were obtained randomly at different time intervals from the local markets in Ile-Ife. They were homogenized and serially diluted to ‘thin-out’ the microbial population. Nutrient agar and potato dextrose agar were used for the isolation and identification of bacteria and fungi respectively. The bacterial population were estimated after 24 hours of incubation while the fungi were observed after 5 days of incubation. The organisms were identified using standard morphological and biochemical tests. The total aerobic bacterial count of the samples ranges from 1.81 x 105cfu/g to 1.28 x 107cfu/g while the fungi load ranges from 1.80 x 107sfu/g to 2.90 x 107sfu/g. The genera of the bacteria isolated and their percentage of occurrence include; Staphylococcus (40%), Bacillus (30%), Pseudomonas (20%), Micrococcus (10%), while the genera of the fungi isolated and their percentage of occurrence include; Aspergillus (40%), Mucor (30%), Fusarium (10%), Penicillium (10%), and Geotrichum (10%). The microorganisms gained entry into the sweet potato majorly through openings on the tubers caused by several injuries and are able to proliferate because of the temperature and the humidity of storage condition of the tuber. These microorganisms then breakdown the starch present in the tuber and therefore leads to spoilage of sweet potato.
Investigation of the dose enhancement effect of spherical bismuth oxide nanoparticles in external beam radiotherapy

Introduction: External radiotherapy is the most common method of radiotherapy which the most important problem associated with is that there is no difference between healthy and tumor tissues in dose absorption. One way to differentiate the dose sensitivity is to use metal-based nanoparticles. Bismuth oxide nanoparticles are good candidates for cancer radiotherapy. In this study, we investigated the dose enhancement effect of the synthesized spherical Bi2O3 NPs in 6MV external radiotherapy. Material and methods: Bi2O3 were synthesized and GENIPIN gel dosimeter was produced and divided into two equal portions, one part to fill vials containing pure gel and the other part to be added to a specified amount of nanoparticles to give a concentration of 0.1Mm. Then, the irradiation of the pure gel and gel vials containing the NPs was performed one day after manufacture by a 6MV external radiotherapy device. Gel readout was performed using spectrophotometer and absorption-dose curves were achieved. Results: results show that spherical Bi2O3 NPs cause a decrease in GENIPIN absorbance range compared to gel without NPs. The slope of the absorbance-dose curve in presence of NPs is 0.038 which is more than this slop in the pure gel (0.029) which indicates a DEF of 1.31 in the usage of these NPs in the tumor. Conclusion: we can conclude that by applying these spherical Bi2O3 NPs, dose absorption of the tumor will increase up to 31% which means the efficacy of radiotherapy can be maintained by lower applied dose to the tumor and healthy cells.
EFFECT OF GLUCOSE INFUSION ON METABOLIC AND REPRODUCTIVE FUNCTION IN POSTPARTUM BEEF COWS

An experiment was conducted to determine if glucose infusion could alter hypothalamic, pituitary or ovarian function in the postpartum (PP) beef cow. Twenty-six cows were assigned randomly at parturition to one of three infusion treatments. Controls (CON, n = 8) received 0.9% NaCl from days 26 to 32 PP. Glucose-infused animals (GLU, n = 8) received glucose at a constant rate of 4 mg min−1 kg−0.75 from days 26 to 32 PP, while glucose-spiked cows (SPIKE, n = 10) received glucose at rates up to 8 mg min−1 kg−0.75 for 48 h (days 26 and 27 PP), then received 0.9% NaCl as in CON. On day 32 PP 25 μg of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) was injected intravenously and blood samples were taken at 15- to 30-min intervals to evaluate pituitary release of luteinizing hormone (LH). During the entire infusion period, GLU had lower (P < 0.05) daily free fatty acid concentrations than either SPIKE or CON. Plasma concentrations of glucose in cows receiving the SPIKE treatment were elevated (P < 0.05) during the 48-h i.
Designing for active engagement, enabling resilience and fostering environmental change

Contemporary societies are distancing themselves from nature, driven by urbanization, biodiversity loss, connection loss, industrialization and loss of green space access – all reducing our empathy for nature. Conservation and grassroots reporting highlight nature’s wellbeing, and require impactful citizen-led responses. Youth leaders are reflecting mirrors on humankind, stating that ‘our world is on fire’ and demanding action. Natural world interactions provide health benefits and resilience, proving transformative to our attitude, values and behaviour. The My Naturewatch project facilitates engagements with people’s environments and, in doing so, helps them to comprehend them. Nature observations help connect, engage and foster custodians, at a time where separation from wildlife necessitates active engagement. Activities specifically challenge our understanding of ‘designed engagement(s)’, not as passive activities but as impactful active engagements, openly accessible. This article proposes criteria encouraging public participation within the natural world, presenting value to NGOs, designers, funders and agents. Thirty experts from design, ecology, conservation, museology, engagement, rewilding, wildlife and community work were interviewed, informing ‘design for environmental change through active engagement’. The work identifies design’s role in creating interventions that better engage people with the surrounding natural world, yielding long-term mutual benefits. The objective is to foster active public–nature engagement, identifying barriers, opportunities and pitfalls in nature-engaged interaction(s).
Projecting health trajectories in Europe using microsimulation

This working paper presents an innovative methodological framework for projecting the health of individuals with a set of risk factors using a microsimulation model. The model developed, called ATHLOS-Mic, projects the health of cohorts born before 1960 and a set of risk factors for the horizon 2060 for some European countries. It simulates the lives of individuals using statistical models that explicitly take into account interactions between the different dimensions, either biological and behavioral risk factors (smoking, obesity, depression, arterial hypertension and physical activity), socioeconomic characteristics (education), a health metric, and mortality. Using data from SHARE-HD, we used parameters from statistical models to project dynamically changes in risk factors with a set of covariates and their impact on a health metric. The health metric is then used to modulate the probability of survival. A set of analytical scenarios are built showing the effect of each risk factors on future health trajectories. Results show that driven by a better educational attainment, each generation will be healthier than the previous one at same age. In average, an individual of our base population will live about 18 more years, but only 5 in good health. The scenario removing the effect of having a low level of education on the health metric is the one having the largest effect on both the projected average health metric, the average number of years lived per person, and the average number of years lived in good health. Summing up, removing all risk factors would add 2 years of life, but 6 years in good health.
Review of methodology of quantitative reviews using meta‐analysis in ecology

Summary 1 Statistical methods for combination of independent results have been well publicized in the ecological literature, and have begun to be used for reviewing research. They provide a considerable advance in scientific rigour over traditional narrative or ‘vote-counting’ reviews. 2 However, other methodological developments for research synthesis have not yet been widely adopted. 3 This review briefly summarizes some of the techniques used for carrying out rigorous reviewing and synthesis of results in medical science, and surveys techniques used by ecological meta-analyses. 4 Many of the methods used to reduce bias and enhance the accuracy, reliability and usefulness of reviews in medical science have not yet been widely used by ecologists. 5 The quality of ecological reviews could be improved by adoption of some of these methods, such as specifying the methods used for literature searching, stating the types of study combined in the review and the strength of evidence they provide, presenting results as a point estimate with a confidence interval, investigating bias in selection of studies using funnel plots, making a clear distinction between the main analysis and subsidiary analyses and interpreting the latter with caution, and performing sensitivity analyses.
Commercial-scale Preparation of Biofunctional Fucoxanthin from Waste Parts of Brown Sea Algae Laminalia japonica

Fucoxanthin exhibits a preventative function with degenerative diseases such as cancer and metabolic syndrome without side effects. Therefore, commercial-scale preparation of fucoxanthin is needed, but it has been very difficult to find the required resources to do so. The aim of this study is to develop a preparation method of fucoxanthin using waste parts of cultured kombu (Laminalia japonica). Around 79,000 t of cultured kombu is discarded in Japan during thinning out and forming processes, which includes a high amount of fucoxanthin (21.3-17.8 mg/100 g fresh weight). Waste parts of kombu were examined to obtain better quality fucoxanthin. Heating increased fucoxanthin recovery, and additional washing with tap water reduced the salt content of the fucoxanthin extract. Cutting waste parts of kombu into 5-mm wide strips made extraction easier without the leakage of fucoxanthin during handling. After freezing and transportation to the extraction factory, kombu showed the best recovery of fucoxanthin and the lowest content of salt following two extractions with 3 volumes of absolute ethanol. To remove chlorophylls the extract was subjected to silica gel column chromatography. Finally, 1490 g fucoxanthin was obtained from 10 t of waste parts of kombu and the recovery ratio was 82%. The fucoxanthin obtained was stable and reduced by only 2% in 6 months storage at 4°C. Thus, waste parts of cultured kombu are a good bioresource for fucoxanthin extraction.
WNT/β‐catenin signaling in liver health and disease

Wnt/β‐catenin signaling is emerging as a forerunner for its critical roles in many facets of human biology. Its roles in embryogenesis, organogenesis, and maintaining tissue and organ homeostasis demonstrate its munificent character. Its roles in pathological conditions such as cancer and other human disorders such as inflammatory disorders and fibrosis reveal its villainous disposition. In liver, it also maintains its dual personality and is clearly of essence in several physiological events such as development, regeneration, and growth. Its aberrant activation is also evident in many different tumors of the liver, and recent studies are beginning to identify its role in additional hepatic pathological conditions. It is contributing to liver physiology and pathology by regulating various basic cellular events, including differentiation, proliferation, survival, oxidative stress, morphogenesis, and others. This review discusses the contribution of the Wnt/β‐catenin signaling pathway in these events and simultaneously provides an essential overview of the major developments in the field of Wnt/β‐catenin and liver pathobiology. In addition, areas that are currently deficient or understudied are identified and discussed along with the avenues of translational and clinical relevance. (HEPATOLOGY 2007;45:1298–1305.)
Study of electrophysical properties of metal–semiconductor contact by the theory of complex systems

The purpose of this work is to analyze the electrical properties of the metal–semiconductor contact (MSC) in the framework of the theory of complex systems. The effect of inhomogeneity of the different microstructures: polycrystalline, monocrystalline, amorphous metal–semiconductor contact surface is investigated, considering a Schottky diode (SD) as a parallel connection of numerous subdiodes. It has been shown that the polycrystallinity of the metal translates a homogeneous contact into a complex system, which consists of parallel connected numerous elementary contacts having different properties and parameters.
The roles of community biomass and species pools in the regulation of plant diversity

Considerable debate has developed over the importance of community biomass and species pools in the regulation of community diversity. Attempts to explain patterns of plant diversity as a function of community biomass or productivity have been only partially successful and, in general, have explained only a fraction of the observed variation in diversity. At the same time, studies that have focused on the importance of species pools have led some to conclude that diversity is primarily regulated in the short term by the size of the species pool rather than by biotic interactions. In this paper, I explore how community biomass and species pools may work in combination to regulate diversity in herbaceous plant communities. To address this problem, I employ a simple model in which the dynamics of species richness are a function of aboveground community biomass and environmentally controlled gradients in species pools. Model results lead to two main predictions about the role of biomass regulation: (1) Seasonal dynamics of richness will tend to follow a regular oscillation, with richness rising to peak values during the early to middle portion of the growing season and then declining during the latter part of the season. (2) Seasonal dieback of aboveground tissues facilitates the long-term maintenance of high levels of richness in the community. The persistence of aboveground tissues and accumulation of litter are especially important in limiting the number of species through the suppression of recruitment. Model results also lead to two main predictions about the role of species pools: (1) The height and position of peak richness relative to community biomass will be influenced by the rate at which the species pool increases as available soil resources increase. (2) Variations in nonresource environmental factors (e.g. soil pH or soil salinity) have the potential to regulate species pools in a way that is uncorrelated with aboveground biomass. Under extreme conditions, such nonresource effects can create a unimodal envelope of biomass–richness values. Available evidence from the literature provides partial support for these predictions, though additional data are needed to provide more convincing tests.
PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AND MICROBIOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF NATURAL FERMENTING OLIVE BRINES

The main objective of this work is to study the characterization of physico-chemical and microbiological of fermenting green olive brines at different times of fermentation. The technological and probiotic properties of lactic acid bacteria strains isolated from brines were also characterized, 24 brine samples were sampled from Triffa conserves entreprise, an industrial zone of Oujda city in eastern Morocco, during 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 campaigns, 240 isolates of lactic acid bacteria have been isolated, and they have undergone a series of tests to finally select the so-called probiotic bacteria. 41 strains were resistant to low pH (3, 2.5, 2), bile salts (0.3 and 1%, w/v) and 7 strains among the 41 were resistant to saline stress (8%, w/v) and endowed with acidification capacity and have a good enzymatic activity and a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity against pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria such as ( Escherichia coli , Staphylococcus aureus , Listeria innocua , Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Micrococcus luteus ). These results show the ability of these strains to dominate and grow in the digestive tract.These potential probiotic strains will be used as concentrated ferments in the fermentation and bioconservation of foods.
Quiescent satellite glial cells of the adult trigeminal ganglion

Sensory ganglia comprise functional units built up by neurons and satellite glial cells (SGCs). In animal species there was proven the presence of neuronoglial progenitor cells in adult samples. Such neural crest-derived progenitors were found in immunohistochemistry (IHC). These findings were not previously documented in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was thus aimed to assess in TEM if cells of the human adult trigeminal ganglion indeed have ultrastructural features to qualify for a progenitor, or quiescent phenotype. Trigeminal ganglia were obtained from fifteen adult donor cadavers. In TEM, cells with heterochromatic nuclei, a pancytoplasmic content of free ribosomes, few perinuclear mitochondria, poor developed endoplasmic reticulum, lack of Golgi complexes and membrane trafficking specializations, were found included in the neuronal envelopes built-up by SGCs. The ultrastructural pattern was strongly suggestive for these cells being quiescent progenitors. However, further experiments should correlate the morphologic and immune phenotypes of such cells.
Correlation Between Phenolic, Flavonoid, and Mineral Contents With Antioxidant Activity of Underutilized Vegetables

Natural antioxidants and minerals are important to nutritionists, food manufacturers, and consumers due to their presumed safety and potential therapeutic value. Underutilized vegetables were sampled to evaluate antioxidant activity (AOA), total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and free radical scavenging activity. Significant positive linear correlations occurred between AOA, TPC, and TFC. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), molybdenum (Mo), lead (Pb), and arsenic (As) contents were determined. The most common elements were N, P, and K followed by Ca and Fe. A moderate correlation was observed between K content and 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), TPC, and TFC. The underutilized vegetables can be used as sources of natural antioxidants and minerals.
Liquidity, Information Production, and Debt-Equity Choice

We show that stock liquidity increases the propensity of firms to raise debt capital. The positive effect of liquidity on a debt issuance propensity is much stronger in firms with greater default risk. The effect of liquidity on the cost of debt capital is much larger than its effect on the cost of equity capital. These results are consistent with standard theoretical frameworks for financing under uncertainty and asymmetric information: by facilitating information production, stock liquidity reduces insider and market uncertainty about future firm cash flows, thereby lowering the default risk and thus the costs of debt financing. Our study sheds light on the nexus between the informational environment of firms and corporate financing decisions.