Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GC-MS composition of leaf extract of Piper cf. arcuatum blume and their antioxidant activity and toxicity studies

In order to study the chemical characteristic and bioactivity of red betel (Piper cf. arcuatum Blume) leaf extracts, a simple and reliable GC-MS method was developed to identify the chemical components from the extract, followed by antioxidant activity assay using DPPH (1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) method and toxicity studiy using Brine Shrimp Lethality Test (BSLT) study. Purification step was carried by column chromatography, containing silica gel as stationary phase, and mixture of n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol as mobile phase. The DPPH assay showed that methanolic extract has the highest antioxidant activity, compared to n-hexane and ethyl acetate extract, and fraction B has the highest antioxidant activity, compared to fraction A and C. GC-MS analysis of fraction B revealed that the fraction was mainly composed of 6,7-dimethoxy-2,2-dimethyl-1-benzopyran. Fragmentation and the most probable biosynthetic route were also proposed in this study. Brine Shrimp Lethality Test (BSLT) study showed that methanolic extract has the highest toxicity with LC50 value of 16.15 ppm. The main compound in this extract was a derivative of benzopyran, which has high antioxidant capacity and selfdefence capability against predator. The results demonstrated that GC-MS method was proven to be an excellent tool to identify chemical constituens in the red betel (Piper cf. arcuatum Blume) leaf extract.
The Completeness of S 4

In this paper, we redefine notion of topo-bisimulation via bi-open relation and review the properties of topo-bisimulation. We also define new dyadic tree. Finally, by means of this dyadic tree, the proof of “S4 is complete with respect to Q” in [3] is examined. Mathematics Subject Classification: 03B45, 54A05
Jurnal Teknologi Review of Course Keeping Control System for Unmanned Surface Vehicle

This paper presents a review of research work done on various aspects of control system approaches of unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in order to improve the course keeping performance. Various methods have been used to produce a course keeping control system for manoeuvring system of USV. However, the review reveals that the adaptive backstepping control system is a powerful tool for the design of controllers for nonlinear systems or transformable to form a tight feedback parameter. It is very suitable for the automated control system of USV in relative motion that involves the disturbances from waves and wind. Fuzzy logic control also had been suggested as an alternative approach for complex systems with uncertain dynamics and those with nonlinearities. This method does not rely on the mathematical models, but the heuristic approach. Further studies may be conducted to combine the control method approach mentioned above to develop a real time system with robust control laws to the motions of a USV in waves, usually at a specific speed, including station keeping or heading in sinusoidal and irregular waves.
Morphological and phenotypic differences in fibroblasts obtained from gingival overgrowth secondary to phenytoin: A pilot study

Introduction: Gingival fibroblasts seem to be key cells in the pathogenesis of gingival overgrowth secondary to phenytoin intake. These cells not only participate in the extracellular matrix protein synthesis, but also regulate protein degradation through production of collagenolitic enzymes and phagocytosis. Some growth factors and cytokines such as IL-1α, TGF-β and TNF-α participate in the homeostasis of extracellular matrix. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of IL-1α, TGF-β and TNF-α receptors on human gingival fibroblasts from a healthy donor, a patient with gingival overgrowth consuming phenytoin (responder) and a donor consuming phenytoin without gingival overgrowth (non- responder). Methods and results: Primary cell cultures of gingival fibroblasts from each donor were characterized by flow cytometry demonstrating vimentin and CD14 positive cells. Using size detector, gingival fibroblasts from the responder donor were larger than fibroblasts from non-responder and healthy donor. A low but positive expression of IL-1R and TGF-βR was detected in cells from the responder donor. TNF-αR expression was detected in all three types of cultured cells but it was higher in the responder donor. Conclusions: These results suggest differences in the morphologic and phenotypic characteristics between gingival fibroblasts from the donors studied.
Changes in endogenous hormone contents of pear stock ( Pyrus betulaefolia Bge. and Pyrus calleryana Dcne.) seeds during cold stratification

In this study, changes in endogenous hormone contents of pear stock seeds during cold stratification were investigated. Abscisic acid (ABA) content decreased with increase in the periods of stratification of pear stock seeds. However, gibberellic acid (GA) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) contents of Pyrus betulaefolia and Pyrus calleryana gradually increased and then decreased, and the GA and IAA contents of P. betulaefolia and P. calleryana seeds reached maximum level at 40 and 50 days, respectively. The results suggest that ABA and GA had regulatory roles in dormancy release, but IAA seems to be involved in the germination process.
Geographical variation of freeze tolerance in the wood frog, Rana sylvatica: The role of hepatic glycogen metabolism

GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION OF FREEZE TOLERANCE IN THE WOOD FROG, RANA SYLVATICA: THE ROLE OF HEPATIC GLYCOGEN METABOLISM by Maria Clara Figueirinhas do Amaral The wood frog, Rana sylvatica, is a freeze-tolerant amphibian that relies on uremic and glucosic cryoprotectant systems to survive freezing of up to 65-70% of its body water. This species is widely distributed in North America and frogs from Interior Alaska survive experimental freezing to at least −16°C, a temperature 10-13°C below that tolerated by their temperate (Ohioan) conspecifics. This dissertation investigated the role of hepatic glycogen metabolism in the enhanced freeze tolerance of the Alaskan population. The first project examined whether the freezing response in the subarctic phenotype was associated with an enhanced response of the glucosic cryoprotectant system. Northern frogs catabolized liver glycogen faster during the early hours of freezing, and were able to retain a substantial reserve of glycogen after a moderate freezing episode, by modulating the activity of their glycogenolytic enzymes. This contrasted with the response of Ohioan frogs, which, under similar conditions, mobilized glucose slower during the early stages of freezing and consumed nearly all their liver glycogen. The second project investigated how variation in the levels of enzymes involved in glycogen metabolism related to seasonal cycling of hepatic glycogen in temperate and subarctic populations of R. sylvatica. Both populations had high potential for glycogenolysis and glycogenesis in winter, as evidenced by large glycogen reserves and high levels of glycogenic and glycogenolytic enzymes, which likely allow for rapid mobilization of cryoprotectant during freezing and replenishing of glycogen reserves during thawing. However, temperate frogs had low potential for glycogen synthesis in spring, whereas subarctic frogs started replenishing their energy reserves early in this season. The final project of this dissertation investigated whether hepatocytes of Alaskan and Ohioan frogs had distinct capacities for freeze tolerance and cryoprotectant production. I found similar levels of freeze tolerance between cells of the two populations, although hepatocytes from Alaskan frogs were more amenable to cryoprotection from urea. Maximal rates of glucose production under agonist stimulation were similar between populations. In summary, Alaskan R. sylvatica have a series of adaptations that contribute to an overall an enhanced glucosic cryoprotectant system and, ultimately, to their extreme freeze tolerance. GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION OF FREEZE TOLERANCE IN THE WOOD FROG, RANA SYLVATICA: THE ROLE OF HEPATIC GLYCOGEN METABOLISM
Visual Impairment Among School Children - Calabar Vision Screening Survey In Secondary Schools (CVS4 Study)

Background: Inability to read materials on the blackboard can profoundly affect a child's participation and learning in the classroom. Therefore, early vision screening, and follow-up if necessary, would bring parents' attention to their child's visual status. Aim: To determine the causes of visual impairment among secondary school students in Calabar metropolis. Methods: It was an observational study conducted over three month. Four schools in Calabar metropolis were stratified and subjects recruited by multi-stage simple random technique. Subjects with visual acuity <6/9 in at least one eye were considered to have failed the vision screening test and were subsequently refracted. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 15.0(2008). Results: A total of 1,175 students participated in vision screening, males were 535 and females were 640 (M:F= 1:1.2) with a mean age of 13.86+1.5 (95% Confidence Interval, [CI] = 13.35-14.36). Of the 81(6.9%) students with VA 6/9 who meant the criterion for refraction, 61(5.2%) were refracted to at least 6/9 in both eyes while the remaining 20(1.7%) had pathology or amblyopia as the cause of reduced vision. The prevalences of causes of visual impairment were, in descending order, refractive errors 61(5.2%), presumed ocular toxoplasmosis 7(0.6%), amblyopia 4(0.34%), retinitis pigmentosa 3(0.3%), pigmentary maculopathy and degeneration 3(0.3%), corneal leucoma 2(0.2%), optic disc coloboma 1(0.08%). Conclusion: uncorrected refractive error was the commonest cause of visual impairment among students in Calabar metropolis.
Bacterial two-hybrid analysis of the Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 multi-component electron transfer pathway

Understanding cellular systems requires profound analysis of the protein interaction networks. Protein interaction mapping is performed mainly by co-purification strategies or two-hybrid systems. Recently, we expanded the tools for analyzing protein-protein interactions in bacteria with a two-hybrid technique based on beta-galactosidase complementation, and demonstrated its potential to explore interactions of membrane systems and to study transient interactions between redox partners (Borloo et al. 2007a). We demonstrate here the functionality of this assay to reveal the interactions within the complex electron transfer chain of the dissimilatory metal reducing bacterium Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. Specifically, we identified the cytoplasmic membrane-bound CymA as a key component, after which the electron transport chain is found to bifurcate towards several periplasmic proteins. It again congregates at the crucial MtrA, which in turn forms an electron transfer complex with the outer membrane localized MtrB and the terminal ferric reductases MtrC and OmcA. These data are complemented by mutant screening and confirm previous kinetic analyses (Borloo et al., 2007b).
Auditory Perception and Executive Functions in Simultaneous Interpreters

Music and language have been proposed to share processing resources in the brain, an extension of that being expertise in one of these two skills may enhance processing of the other. This study aimed to use an experience-dependent linguistic expert – simultaneous interpreters – to address whether linguistic expertise enhances auditory processing outside of the linguistic domain, particularly in measures where musical expertise has been shown to improve performance. Simultaneous interpreters and non-interpreter controls were compared on several measures, spanning fine temporal and spectral discrimination, speech-in-noise perception, memory for pitch, visual working memory and cognitive flexibility. No significant differences were found between simultaneous interpreters and controls on any of the tested measures. The current findings are discussed in light of previous studies demonstrating advantages in executive function in simultaneous interpreters. Possible causes for the discrepancy between the existing research and this study are also discussed.
Mathematical Models as Bioscience Educational Informatics Tools

Organizations and universities have started preparing teachers and students to use mathematical models delivered through technology for improving student's understanding of concepts, pedagogy and laboratory skill training. Bioscience education has started involving virtual laboratories as an appropriate technology to allow student's reflective learning. This paper showcases recent attempts in using mathematical models as virtual laboratories in enhancing biology education. The purpose of this article is to list common simulations used in demonstration of classroom topics in undergraduate and postgraduate bioscience education in India and a review of the effectiveness of virtual labs in blended classroom education. Based on our experience of having designed, developed and deployed 360+ online experiments, this paper also reports usage-based studies in augmenting student learning and choice of models that help design such online tools.
Market Segmentation in the Decision Making Process in Tourism

In this paper, I examine the responses of 154 tourists in relation to their predisposition to purchase and the patterns and habits that are usually decisive in the decision making process regarding tourism services or products. For this research, I conducted a selective direct research, whose purpose was to obtain a segmentation of consumers who purchase tourism services based on specific dimensions of behavior. This research also implied studying the behavior of current and potential customers who purchase travel services depending on several variables for establishing different consumption habits. Thus, to establish a more detailed image of the tourists who participated in this direct and selective research, the analysis involved a factor analysis and a cluster analysis.
Effect of photoperiod on the duration of summer and winter diapause in the cabbage butterfly, Pieris melete (Lepidoptera: Pieridae)

Effect of photoperiod on the duration of summer and winter diapause was investigated in the cabbage butterfly, Pieris melete. By keeping naturally induced aestivating and hibernating pupae under various photoperiods, it was shown that diapause duration of aestivating pupae was significantly longer at long than at short daylengths, whereas diapause duration of hibernating pupae was significantly shorter at long than at short daylengths, suggesting both aestivating and hibernating pupae require opposite photoperiodic signals to promote diapause development. By transferring diapausing pupae, induced under various photoperiods, to 20°C with a naturally changing summer daylength, the diapause induced by short daylengths was easier to terminate than diapause induced by long daylengths. When naturally induced aestivating and hibernating pupae were kept under natural conditions, aesti- vating pupae had a long diapause (mean 155 days) and wide range of emergence (90 days), whereas hibernating pupae had a short diapause (mean 105 days) and a relatively synchronized emergence (lasted 30 days). Finally, the ecological significance of photope- riodic regulation of diapause duration is discussed.
Simplifications of marker-assisted genetic evaluation and accounting for non-additive interaction effects

Abstract. A computing simplification was applied to marker-assisted genetic evaluation of quantitative traits including additive and non-additive effects of QTL as well as residual polygenic effects. Different situations including QTL and the residual polygenic effect estimated as a sum or separately, and with or without non-additive effects integrated in models were evaluated. The computing simplification was used in combinations with different models and parameterizations. An example data was adopted to illustrate the simplified computing strategy and was compared with the computing method of direct inversion. Identical results were obtained from both computing strategies. The main advantage of the simplification is that it does not require inversion of non-additive relationship matrices and relationship matrices of QTL, and the number of random effects in mixed model equations is the same as any animal model with only additive effects.
Measurement of Design Process Front-End – Radical Innovation Approach

The overall structure and the main characteristics of the future product are all decided in the front-end phase, which then strongly affects subsequent new product development activities. Recent studies indicate that these early front-end activities represent the most troublesome phase of the innovation process, and at the same time one of the greatest opportunities to improve the overall innovation capability of a company. In this paper dealing with the criteria we concentrate only for the objectives viewpoint and leave the attributes discussion to the future research. Two most crucial questions are: • What are the objectives of measurement in radical design? and • What are the most crucial future challenges related with the selection of the relevant measurement objectives? Based on the theoretical part of this paper, our framework of the Balanced Design Front-End Model (BDFEM) for measuring the innovation activities front end contains five assessment viewpoints as follows; input, process, output (including impacts), social environment and structural environment. Based on the results from our first managerial implications in three Finnish manufacturing companies we argue, that the developed model is flexible and can also be applied extensively to other purposes than manufacturing companies, like service sector, as well.
Performance and Purchasing effects of Healthcare Supply Chain

Improvement of the performance of the supply chain of a healthcare organization is highly important as they strive to improve efficiency and implement cost reduction [1]. Existing research highlights that internal integration of organizational functions is not only expected to enhance performance but also makes external integration with the supply chain more beneficial [2]. But surprisingly, there is a strong indication that firms and its supply chain managers emphasize more on external collaboration than on collaboration with internal partners and business units [3]. The profound influence of physicians in healthcare organizations is a big challenge in various supply chain initiatives for the firm's managers. Often there is some disconnect between the purchases and the person who decides the purchases[4], [5] emphasizing the criticality of involving and engaging physicians in purchasing & supply management processes. This paper identifies collaborative mechanisms, termed as ‘physician-engagement in purchasing’ that would reduce the physician-manager disconnect by fostering the coexistence of competing logics of both actors and thereby allowing health care organizations to redirect physician's autonomy and knowledge towards improved performance of purchasing behavior and supply chain management. The paper defines physician-engagement in purchasing at two levels, task and organizational and further identifies the result of physician-engagement on relationship between strategic purchasing and organizational performance.
Model updating using uncertain experimental modal data

The propagation of parameter uncertainty in structural dynamics has become a feasible method to determine the probabilistic description of the vibration response of industrial scale �nite element models. Though methods for uncertainty propagation have been developed extensively, the quanti�cation of parameter uncertainty has been neglected in the past. But a correct assumption for the parameter variability is essential for the estimation of the uncertain vibration response. This paper shows how to identify model parameter means and covariance matrix from uncertain experimental modal test data. The common gradient based approach from deterministic computational model updating was extended by an equation that accounts for the stochastic part. In detail an inverse approach for the identi�cation of statistical parametric properties will be presented which will be applied on a numerical model of a replica of the GARTEUR SM-AG19 benchmark structure. The uncertain eigenfrequencies and mode shapes have been determined in an extensive experimental modal test campaign where the aircraft structure was tested repeatedly while it was 130 times dis- and reassembled in between each experimental modal analysis.
ANT COLONY OPTIMIZATION FOR MULTI-OBJECTIVE DIGITAL CONVERGENT PRODUCT NETWORK

Convergent product is an assembly shape concept integrating functions and sub-functions to form a final product. To conceptualize the convergent product problem, a web-based network is considered in which a collection of base functions and sub-functions configure the nodes and each arc in the network is considered to be a link between two nodes. The aim is to find an optimal tree of functionalities in the network adding value to the product in the web environment. First, an algorithm is proposed to assign the links among bases and subfunctions. Then, numerical values as benefits and costs are determined for arcs and nodes, respectively, using a mathematical approach. Also, customer’s value corresponding to the benefits is considered. Finally, the Steiner tree methodology is adapted to a multi-objective model optimized by an ant colony optimization method. The approach is applicable for all digital products, such as mobile, tablet, laptop, etc. An example is worked out to illustrate the proposed approach.
Sensemaking Approaches to Improving Processes of Emergency Medical Trauma Centers

Trauma Center (TC) operations at hospitals are conducted as part of very complex environments. TCs, which are focused on life-saving and resuscitative actions in the treatment of trauma patients, engage many individuals in the solving of multifaceted and on-going ill-structured problems. The solutions to these problems are comprised of multiple human experts‟ resources that must collaborate to be effective in reducing complexity and providing information for systemic approaches to acute injury care. Understanding an emergency situation requires interdisciplinary and collaborative judgments, surgical decision–making in complex scenarios, hands on practical experience, and insight into difficult trauma situations. This paper addressed the application of collaborative sensemaking (CS) techniques to improve the decision making processes in TCs complex environments.
Changes in Wage Inequality in Canada: An Interprovincial Perspective

This paper uses the Canadian Labour Force Survey to understand why the level and dispersion of wages have evolved differently across provinces from 1997 to 2013. The faster increase in the level of wages and the decline in wage dispersion in Newfoundland, Saskatchewan and Alberta are the starkest interprovincial differences. We find that they are accounted for by the growth in the extractive resources sectors, which benefited less-educated and younger workers the most. Increases in minimum wages since 2005 are found to be the main reason why wages at the very bottom grew more than those in the middle of the distribution.
E-shaped DGS Microsrip Patch Antenna for Wi-Max Applications

The Paper discuss a new design of E-shaped defected ground structure(DGS) microstrip patch antenna having circular slot on the ground for C-band frequency range applications like Satellite TV Networks, WiMAX networks. The antenna is designed with commercially available FR-4 substrate having 4.4 dielectric constant and 1.6mm thickness. The resonating frequency range of 5.3 - 6.3GHz is achieved with simple structure having the size of 30(L) x 30(W) mm2. The key parameters of antenna, Gain, VSWR, 3D current distribution and 2D radiation patterns are discussed in detail in generating resonant frequency. The Good results are obtained after simulation.