Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Myricitrin Attenuates Hypoxic-ischemic Brain Injury in Neonatal Rats by Mitigating Oxidative Stress and Nrf2/HO-1/ARE Signaling Pathway

The present study has been explored the neuroprotective efficacy of myricitrin and unveil the mechanism of action via the regulation of Nrf2/ HO-1/ARE-dependent signaling cascade in hypoxic-ischemic (HI) induced brain injury of neonatal rats. Upon HI operation neonatal rats received 20 and 40mg/kg bw of myricitrin as intraperitoneally up to one week twice in a day. Myricitrin administration augmented HI induced increase of infarct volume and oedema of the brain, as well as improve neurobehavioral impairments. Further, we measured the level the antioxidant enzymes and oxidative stress marker level of ROS, NO and product of lipid peroxidation. These data support the well-established radical scavenging and antioxidant potential of myricitrin corresponds to a significant decline in most vulnerable radical formation with an obvious increase in antioxidant enzyme content. Interestingly, myricitrin source a significant reduction in NF-κB p65 and inflammatory marker gene expression, while reducing levels of the nuclear fraction of Nrf2- antioxidant response element (ARE) and cytosolic fraction of HO-1 enzyme activation. The results substantiate the efficiency of myricitrin an activation of Nrf2/ARE-dependent HO-1 pathway via improve defense mechanism and mitigate oxidative stress associated neuroprotective effect
Mind-Wandering: What Can We Learn from Eye Movements?

Mind-wandering (MW) is ubiquitous and is associated with reduced performance across a wide range of tasks. Recent studies have shown that MW can be related to changes in gaze parameters. In this dissertation, I explored the link between eye movements and MW in three different contexts that involve complex cognitive processing: visual search, scene perception, and reading comprehension. Study 1 examined how MW affects visual search performance, particularly the ability to suppress salient but irrelevant distractors during visual search. Study 2 used a scene encoding task to study how MW affects how eye movements change over time and their relationship with scene content. Study 3 examined how MW affects readers’ ability to detect semantic incongruities in the text and make necessary revisions of their understanding as they read jokes. All three studies showed that MW was associated with decreased task performance at the behavioral level (e.g., response time, recognition, and recall). Eye-tracking further showed that these behavioral costs can be traced to deficits in specific cognitive processes. The final chapter of this dissertation explored whether there are context-independent eye movement features of MW. MW manifests itself in different ways depending on task characteristics. In tasks that require extensive sampling of the stimuli (e.g., reading and scene viewing), MW was related to a global reduction in visual processing. But this was not the case for the search task, which involved speeded, simple visual processing. MW was instead related to increased looking time on the target after it was already located. MW affects the coupling between cognitive efforts and task demands, but the nature of this decoupling depends on the specific features of particular tasks.
Development of the Delphi Display Concept for Alternative Explanations Decision-Making Support

Abstract Human operators of advanced technology systems, such as nuclear power, command and control, and deepwater oil drilling, must be able to evaluate and respond to a wide array of operational anomalies. Unfortunately, these circumstances are often complex and ambiguous, complicating decision-making tasks. One common decision-making error, called confirmation bias, occurs when decision makers prematurely focus on one explanation instead of systematically considering all plausible alternative explanations that could equally well account for an operational anomaly. The Delphi display is designed to counteract decision makers’ tendencies toward confirmation bias and to encourage them to consider all plausible explanations, including high-risk explanations they might otherwise overlook. An initial Delphi display prototype was designed to help identify the underlying cause of operational anomalies in the complex, high-consequence technology of deepwater drilling. This prototype decision aid incorporates major indicators related to operational anomalies and presents corresponding plausible explanations for a given combination of indicators, ranging from high-risk system-critical explanations to lower-risk but still significant events. The Delphi display incorporates several innovative features to help decision makers detect and monitor operational anomalies and view the relationships among indicators and their associated plausible explanations. Preliminary evaluations of an early prototype Delphi display for detecting kicks in deepwater oil drilling operations have been promising. Moreover, the methodology used to design and develop the Delphi display can be readily generalized to numerous other operational contexts that require humans to make system-critical decisions. To illustrate, an initial Delphi display design for nuclear power plant control is described.
An Assessment of Cyber Attacks Preparedness Strategy for Public and Private Sectors in Zambia

The growing dependence on the cyberspace makes preparedness strategy against cyber-attacks important to achieve security objectives. The cyberspace has become one of the targets for cyber-attacks. Critical Infrastructure services such as banks, power grid, utility, telecoms, and many others. The strategies for preparedness again cyberattacks in involve legal and regulatory framework, compliance to standards, technical, organizational, capacity building, and cooperation aspects. The nature and form of cyber-attacks are becoming advanced persistent threats. The strategy against cyber-attacks demands long-term coordinated efforts from the decision-makers, including vision, strategy, and investment prioritization as well as the organizational agility to respond to ever-changing tactics and techniques. The cyber preparedness strategy enables an organization to identify the nature and the forms of cyberattacks; develop preparedness strategies against cyber-attacks setting objectives; and develop a model that can be used to curb cyber-attacks. This paper is An Assessment of Cyber Attacks Preparedness Strategy for Public and Private Organisations in Zambia.
Analyzing of External Environment Force and Islamic Business Ethics on Baitul Maal Wat Tamwil Performance through Organizational Commitment

This study aims to analyze the influence of external environmental forces and Islamic business ethics which directly have a significant influence on Baitul Maal wat Tamwil (BMT) performance and have a significant influence indirectly through organizational commitment as a mediator on BMT performance. The CEO of BMT must know the fundamental theory in order to improve the BMT performance but also be able to analyze the advantages and limitations in practice. This study uses a survey strategy and is cross-sectional involving 283 BMT CEOs as respondents to get primary data through questionnaires and then analyzed using partial least square (PLS). The results show that directly external environmental forces and Islamic business ethics significantly influence on BMT performance as well as organizational commitment can mediate indirect effect of external environment forces and Islamic business ethics on BMT performance.
PKF Industry Analysis

It is commonly understood that spas were once an afterthought for operators of hotels and resorts. Yet, as living a healthy and better lifestyle has become one of the population's top priorities, spas have grown in popularity and are viewed as essential elements to a hotel or resort's success rather than being just a luxury. To aid hotel owners and operators during the spa investment decision process, as well as assist spa department managers benchmark their operations, PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR) has analyzed the 2006 financial performance of hotel spa departments. The sample was divided into two categories: resorts and urban hotels. The data come from PKF-HR's Trends in the Hotel Industry database.
A vagueness based analysis of abstract nouns

The count/mass distinction is a widely discussed topic across languages and linguistic theories have covered a great part of peculiarities which appear in relation to this phe- nomenon. Abstract nouns have often been left out of consideration, possibly due to the fact that their reference is abstract and the application of some relevant features of count or mass reference, such as cumulativity, divisiveness or atomicity, does not seem to be possible. This paper presents a thorough study of lexical features of a subset of abstract nouns and their distribution in COCA which suggests that countability in abstract nouns has to be determined relative to their semantic category. Focusing on eventuality denoting nominals which comprise a substantial part of abstract nouns, I argue that these nouns resemble concrete nouns in that the countability distinctions are expressed in surprising similarity. I find that the core feature underlying the distinction between abstract count and abstract mass nouns is the vagueness of the minimal components, an approach pursued by Chierchia (2010) for concrete nouns. The minimal components of the count eventualities appear to be stable in all precisifications, unlike those of mass eventualities which are not determined and vary.
Beyond Robotic Speech: Mutual Benefits to Cognitive Psychology and Artificial Intelligence from the Study of Multimodal Communication

Language has predominately been studied as a unimodal phenomenon - as speech or text without much consideration of its physical and social context – this is true both in cognitive psychology/psycholinguistics as well as in artificial intelligence. However, in everyday life, language is most often used in face-to-face communication and in addition to structured speech it comprises a dynamic system of multiplex components such as gestures, eye gaze, mouth movements and prosodic modulation. Recently, cognitive scientists have started to realise the potential importance of multimodality for the understanding of human communication and its neural underpinnings; while AI scientists have begun to address how to integrate multimodality in order to improve communication between human and artificial embodied agent. We review here the existing literature on multimodal language learning and processing in humans and the literature on perception of artificial agents, their comprehension and production of multimodal cues and we discuss their main limitations. We conclude by arguing that by joining forces AI scientists can improve the effectiveness of human-machine interaction and increase the human-likeness and acceptance of embodied agents in society. In turn, computational models that generate language in artificial embodied agents constitute a unique research tool to investigate the underlying mechanisms that govern language processing and learning in humans.
Informational-analytic methods for sociotechnical system on the basic of smart city concept

The issues related to various methods of analyzing indicators and data of socio-technical systems to optimize the choice of a strategy for interaction of citizens and organizations with technical systems (sensors, video cameras, robots, computer and mobile devices, as well as information technologies) during the period of digital transformation and Implementation of Smart City concept inside smart ecosystem interoperability socio and technical components form one hand, and data fusion between heterogeneous components from different areas from another hand combining of socio and technical analytics throughout Smart City Life Cycle are considered. In article risk factors related to the activities of citizens, organizations, administrative and financial structures are also touched upon by the example of the choice of the Smart City concept. Methods of analysis, selection and implementation of the concept of a smart city are demonstrated using examples of the experience of international projects in the field of application of various methods of analysis.
Temperature response of plant residue and soil organic matter decomposition in soil from different depths

Evaluating how decomposition responds to temperature is important for understanding the soil's response under a changing climate. Our objective in this study was to evaluate the effect of temperature and addition of residue at different soil depths on decomposition of the residue and native soil organic matter (SOM) (i.e. priming). Soil samples from depths of 5–10, 20–25 and 40–45 cm were incubated at 5, 15 and 25 °C with and without 13C‐labelled barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) residue. Respiration, microbial biomass, phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) and mineral N were measured during the incubation. Respiration from residue and SOM increased with temperature in all treatments. The activation energy (Ea) was smaller in the control subsurface soil, indicating a more labile substrate, which resulted in greater respiration than surface soil when respiration was standardized to the amount of C. With the addition of residue, the subsurface soil respired less than the surface soil because of preferential use of residue‐C over soil organic carbon (SOC) and mineral N limitation. This resulted in negative priming of native SOC in the subsurface soil when residue was added. All PLFA biomarkers increased in the subsurface soil when incubated, even without the addition of residue, indicating a positive response of microbial activity to the optimized incubation conditions. Subsurface soil with small OC content and with small Ea had an active and efficient microbial community and relatively large rates of respiration.
Dynamique des « petits mondes » de parties prenantes de  l’entreprise. L’exemple des restructurations industrielles

La strategie politique visant a gerer les parties prenantes de l’entreprise peut etre exploree par l’articulation de la theorie des parties prenantes et de l’analyse des reseaux complexes. Les parties prenantes apparaissent comme structurees sous la forme d’un reseau de « petits mondes », c’est-a-dire comme un ensemble de clusters denses faiblement relies entre eux. Ces reseaux sont soumis a des chocs systemiques aleatoires ou intentionnels qui influencent l’urgence de la situation a laquelle fait face l’entreprise et la legitimite de ses actions. L’encastrement de l’entreprise (fort ou faible) et la nature du choc (aleatoire ou intentionnelle) determine le choix de l’entreprise entre une strategie politique reactive, accommodante, proactive ou defensive.
Value of pyruvate carboxylase in thyroid fine-needle aspiration wash-out fluid for predicting PTC lymph node metastasis

BackgroundThe incidence of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is increasing yearly. Knowing whether there is lymph node metastasis is of great value in choosing surgery and surgical methods, but ultrasound cannot qualitatively diagnose and effectively detect lymph node metastases in the central area. Metabolic dysregulation is an important factor associated with malignancy and metastasis of tumors. Pyruvate carboxylase (PC) is a major anaplerotic enzyme that catalyzes the carboxylation of pyruvate to form oxaloacetate (OAA) and is involved in tumorigenesis in several cancers. This study aims to explore the relationship between PC mRNA expression in thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) wash-out fluid and lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). MethodsThe expression levels of PC in PTCs and normal thyroid tissues were first compared based on bioinformatics analysis of public databases, including the Gene Expression Profiling (GEPIA), Oncomine and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. Then, the PC mRNA levels were measured by RT-PCR in surgical tissues in a total of 42 patients with surgically confirmed PTC and compared to those of patients with and without central lymph nodal metastasis (CLNM). Further, to identify PC expression in diagnostic biopsies, a total of 71 thyroid nodule patients with ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration wash-out fluid samples and cytological diagnosis were prospectively enrolled in the study. ResultsThrough data mining, we found that PC is overexpressed in PTC and PTC with lymph node metastasis. In 42 surgically diagnosed PTC patient tumor tissues, PC was significantly higher in patients with CLNM (n=15) than in those without (n=27) nodal metastasis (median: 6.490 vs. 2.430, p = 0.014). Furthermore, in thyroid FNA wash-out fluid, PC was significantly higher in patients with cytologically diagnosed PTC (n=52) than in those with benign nodules (n =19) (median: 2.456 vs. 0.495, p = 0.005). Thirty-four of the 52 patients with PTC received a total thyroidectomy, and PC was also significantly higher in patients with CLNM (n=17) than in those without nodal metastasis (n=17) (median: 3.665 vs. 1.621, p = 0.013). The area under the ROC curve for PC predicting PTC with lymph node metastasis in FNA wash out samples was 0.751 (p = 0.013), and the sensitivity and specificity were 70.6% and 76.5%, respectively.ConclusionsThe findings of this study suggest that PC may predict malignancy in thyroid nodules and lymph nodal metastasis with thyroid FNA wash-out fluid in PTC patients.
A zero-cost attention-based approach to promote cleaner streets: A Signal Detection Theory approach in Parisian streets

In an effort to inform interventions targeting littering behaviour, we estimate how much a change in trash-bag colour increases trash can visibility in Paris. To that end, we applied standard Signal Detection techniques to test how much changing trash-bag colour affects subjects’ trash can detection rates. In three pre-registered studies, we found that changing trash bag colour from grey to either red, green or blue considerably increases the perception of bins in British (tourist) and Parisian (resident) samples. We found that changing the bag colour from grey to blue increased visibility the most.
Bioréacteur enzymatique couplé à l'ultrafiltration pour la valorisation des co-produits issus des industries de la pêche. Application à la seiche Sepia officinalis

Ce travail s’inscrit dans le cadre de la valorisation des co-produits issus des industries de transformation de la seiche Sepia officinalis. Il porte sur la mise en œuvre de l’hydrolyse enzymatique et des procedes de separation membranaires en vue d’obtenir des composes d’interet comme les peptides et les lipides. Les techniques utilisees dans cette etude font partie des technologies propres , visant une depense energetique et un investissement moderes. Les hydrolyses ont ete menees en deux etapes, une premiere pour identifier l’efficacite des enzymes sur les matrices visees et cibler le domaine d’etude. Une fois l’enzyme choisie, la seconde etape a porte sur la determination des conditions optimales d’hydrolyse par plan d’experiences avec pour objectif l’enrichissement de la phase soluble en peptides de petite taille et l’obtention d’une activite antimicrobienne. Le fractionnement par la charge sur des colonnes echangeuses d’ions nous a permis de determiner la nature ionique des peptides antimicrobiens. Le fractionnement par la taille par ultrafiltration a ete utilise comme un deuxieme levier pour agir (i) sur la distribution de la taille des peptides et (ii) sur le niveau d’activite des hydrolysats. Tout d’abord, un fractionnement a petite echelle a ete realise avec des membranes en polyethersulfone et en cellulose regeneree a differents seuils de coupure allant de 1000 a 100 000 Da de maniere a determiner les meilleures conditions separatives. Ensuite, une methodologie de scaling-up par ultrafiltration de l’hydrolysat proteique sur un pilote pre-industriel a ete proposee.
Consciousness Fluctuates with Surprise: An empirical pre-study for the synthesis of the Free Energy Principle and Integrated Information Theory

The Free Energy Principle (FEP) and Integrated Information Theory (IIT) are two ambitious theoretical frameworks, the first aiming to make a general formal description of self-organization and life-like processes, and the second attempting a mathematical theory of conscious experience based on the intrinsic properties of a system. They are each concerned with complementary aspects of the properties of systems, one with life and behavior the other with meaning and experience, so combining them has potentially great scientific value. In this paper, we take a first step towards this synthesis by first partially replicating the results of the evolutionary simulation study by Albantakis et al. (2014) that show a relationship between IIT-measures and fitness in differing complexities of tasks. We then relate FEP-related information theoretic measures to this result, finding that the surprisal of simulated agents’ system states follows the general increase in fitness over evolutionary time, and that it fluctuates together with IIT-based consciousness measures in within-trial time. This suggests that the consciousness measures of IIT indirectly depend on the relation between the agent and the external world, and that they therefore should be related to concepts directly used in the FEP. Lastly, we suggest a future approach for investigating this relationship empirically.
Association between Gait Time and Cognitive Function in Various Walking Conditions

Introduction: Walking ability has been emerges as a significant predictor of future cognitive impairment and dementia in elderly. This study aimed to investigate the association between gait time and cognitive function in various walking conditions, and to find out which walking conditions are the most associated with cognitive function. Methods: This is a study with a cross-sectional design and convenience sampling. The study participants were 86 elderly people aged ＞ 65 years with cognitive intact or mild cognitive impairment. Cognitive function was measured using Mini-mental state examination (MMSE), and two examiners measured walking time according to six different walking conditions. Pearson's correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were used to compare the association between gait time and cognitive function in six walking conditions. Results: There are significantly correlated between gait time and MMSE (cognitive function) in all walking conditions (p ＜ 0.05). According to multiple linear regression, all of the gait time in six different walking conditions was associated with the cognitive function (p ＜ 0.05). However, age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and leg lengths did not associated with the cognitive function. The walking condition that had highest adjusted R^2 (%) coefficient and satisfied the homoscedasticity of residuals was the 4-Meter Walking Test (4MWT) while holding a water cup (r = 0.483, p ＜ 0.001) and the Groningen Meander Walking Test (GMWT) (r = 0.473, p ＜ 0.001). Conclusion: Among the six walking models, the 4MWT while holding a water cup and GMWT were the most effective walking models to explain the cognitive function.