Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microencapsulation of Cymbopogon citratus D.C. Stapf Essential Oil with Spray Drying: Development, Characterization, and Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activities

This study aimed to microencapsulate Cymbopogon citratus essential oil (CCEO) with spray drying using maltodextrin and gelatin. The effects of the operational conditions (inlet temperature (130–160 °C), CCEO concentration (5–15%), maltodextrin concentration (10–20%)) on the physicochemical stability and antioxidant and antibacterial activities of the CCEO microcapsules were determined. The CCEO microencapsulation process had yield and encapsulation efficiency values varying from 31.02 to 77.53% and 15.86–61.95%, respectively. CCEO microcapsules had antibacterial effects against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli with minimum inhibitory concentration varying from 10 to 20%, and total phenolic contents and antioxidant activities varying from 1632 to 4171.08 μg TE/g and 28.55–45.12 µg/g, respectively. CCEO microcapsules had average diameters varying from 5.10 to 10.11 µm, with spherical external structures without cracks and apparent pores. The best desirable process conditions for CCEO microencapsulation were process inlet temperature of 148 °C, maltodextrin concentration of 15%, and CCEO concentration of 10%. The results showed that CCEO microcapsules with increased stability and low degradation of active components can be prepared by spray drying using maltodextrin and gelatin with the production of microcapsules, which could be exploited as potential food preservatives.
Artificial Emotions and Love and Sex Doll Service Workers

Realistic looking humanoid love and sex dolls have been available on a somewhat secretive basis for at least three decades. But today the industry has gone mainstream with North American, European, and Asian producers using mass customization and competing on the bases of features, realism, price, and depth of product lines. As a result, realistic life size artificial companions are becoming more affordable to purchase and more feasible to patronize on a service basis. Sexual relations may be without equal when it comes to emotional intimacy. Yet, the increasingly vocal and interactive robotic versions of these dolls, feel nothing. They may nevertheless induce emotions in users that potentially surpass the pleasure of human-human sexual experiences. The most technologically advanced love and sex robots are forecast to sense human emotions and gear their performances of empathy, conversation, and sexual activity accordingly. I offer a model of how this might be done to provide a better service experience. I compare the nature of resulting “artificial emotions” by robots to natural emotions by humans. I explore the ethical issues entailed in offering love and sex robot services with artificial emotions and offer a conclusion and recommendations for service management and for further research.
Humidity response of a capacitive sensor based on auxeticity of carbon nanotube-paper composites

Auxetic materials showing a negative Poisson’s ratio can offer unusual sensing capabilities due to drastic percolation changes. This study presents the capacitive response of wet-fractured carbon nanotube paper composites in exposure to humidity. A strained composite strip is fractured to produce numerous cantilevers consisting of cellulose fibers coated with carbon nanotubes. During stretching, the thin composite buckles in the out-of-plane direction, which causes auxetic behavior to generate the radially structured electrodes. The crossbar junctions forming among the fractured electrodes significantly increase capacitance and its response to humidity as a function of sensor widths. The molecular junctions switch electric characteristics between predominantly resistive- and capacitive elements. The resulting capacitive response is characterized for humidity sensing without the need for an additional absorption medium. The normalized capacitance change (ΔC/C0) exhibits a sensitivity of 0.225 within the range of 40 ∼ 80% relative humidity. The novel auxetic behavior of a water-printed paper-based nanocomposite paves the way for inexpensive humidity and sweat sensors.
A Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration and Ultrasonic Vibration on Smartphones in Tactile Code Perception

To improve touchscreen accessibility, it has been proved efficient to integrate tactile feedback into touchscreen devices. Two typical techniques can be used to offer tactile feedback on smartphones, namely, mechanical vibration (MV) and ultrasonic vibration (UV). However, (a) whether MV and UV are equally perceived and evaluated on usability is unknown, and if not, (b) which technique/feedback provides better usability and satisfaction. In this study, a comparative user study was conducted to evaluate user performance on tactile codes perception generated by MV and UV techniques. 10 tactile codes were designed using the two techniques, and 16 sighted and 5 blind people were invited to take part in a tactile code perception experiment. Tactile codes perception accuracy, response time, and satisfaction on the MV and UV were recorded during the experiment. The experimental results show that the user perception performance of MV was significantly better than UV for both sighted and blind participants. Participants obtained an accuracy approximately 3% higher, with the response time at least 3 s faster, and user satisfaction significantly higher (6.1 vs. 4.6 in a 7-point Likert rating scale) when using MV. Both sighted and blind participants assessed MV with a higher preference over UV. Our results suggest that MV fits better to applications that require precise tactile code perception, for which UV may not be as suitable due to its lower recognition efficiency.
Prenatal Supplementation in Beef Cattle and Its Effects on Plasma Metabolome of Dams and Calves

This study investigated the effect of different prenatal nutrition on the plasma metabolome of Nellore dams and their offspring. For that purpose, three nutritional treatments were used in 126 cows during pregnancy: NP—(control) only mineral supplementation; PP—protein-energy supplementation in the final third; and FP—protein-energy supplementation during the entire pregnancy. Targeted metabolomics were analyzed in plasma at the beginning of pregnancy and in pre-delivery of cows (n = 27) as well as in calves (n = 27, 30 ± 9.6 days of age). Data were analyzed by the analysis of variance, partial least squares discriminant analysis, and the principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA showed a clear clustering in the periods investigated only in cows (early gestation and pre-delivery). We found significant metabolites in both supervised analyses (p < 0.05 and VIP score > 1) for cows (Taurine, Glutamic acid, Histidine, and PC aa C42:2) and for calves (Carnosine, Alanine, and PC aa C26:0). The enrichment analysis revealed biological processes (p < 0.1) common among cows and calves (histidine metabolism and beta-alanine metabolism), which may be indicative of transgenerational epigenetic changes. In general, fetal programming affected mainly the metabolism of amino acids.
LGPD: Levantamento de Técnicas Criptográficas e de Anonimização para Proteção de Bases de Dados

A Lei nº 13.709, de 14 de agosto de 2018, conhecida como Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais (LGPD), veio para instituir princípios e regras para a proteção das pessoas naturais no que diz respeito ao tratamento de seus dados, principalmente no formato digital. Por essa razão, surge a necessidade de se estabelecer soluções tecnológicas capazes de atender às imposições da lei. Neste trabalho, apresentamos um levantamento de técnicas e ferramentas de anonimização e de criptografia que demonstram potencial para auxiliar no cumprimento da LGPD, no caso específico da proteção de bases de dados. Dentre as técnicas comparadas, percebe-se que não há nenhuma que atenda perfeitamente a todas as situações, seja por questões de desempenho ou por considerações de segurança. Ainda assim, conclui-se que, quando possível, essas soluções devem ser utilizadas, pois têm o potencial de aumentar significativamente a segurança dos sistemas e auxiliar no cumprimento da lei.
Remote monitoring techniques for rehabilitated slope

AGL Loy Yang has been intensively engaged and involved in research in the area of rehabilitated mining slopes. A proposal was raised to turn the Loy Yang mine pit into a lake after decommission (in three decades) to achieve safe and stable rehabilitation of the mines. The slope stability of these rehabilitated slopes is one of the major concerns. The slopes are hardly failed spontaneously. Instead, they usually provide indications of distress (cracks and erosion) over some time. Therefore, an ongoing monitoring system may provide valuable time to mitigate the progression of the failure. Distributed optical fibre sensing (DOFS) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are emerging new and innovative technologies for remote monitoring a large civil structure for early warnings, alerts and decision making. Both DOFS and UAV have been recently deployed at Loy Yang rehabilitated trial site. The preliminary results have demonstrated their reliability and practicality for these rehabilitated slope monitoring techniques. These remote sensing techniques are compared and discussed in terms of slope monitoring application.
The Effect of Mind-Body Exercise on Blood Pressure in Middle-Aged and Elderly Patients with Hypertension: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Objectives. The effects and safety of mind-body exercise in improving blood pressure in middle-aged and elderly patients with hypertension were explored in this meta-analysis. Methods. A meta-analysis of studies from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Web of Science, PubMed, and Cochrane was performed to identify related experimental studies by screening out the randomized controlled trials from the time of respective database creation until January 22, 2021. In addition, first, we completed the research registration on the INPLASY platform on March 20, 2021 (registration number: INPLASY202130072) and, second, on the PROSPERO platform on December 28, 2021 (registration number: CRD42021289125). The data were analyzed using a random-effects model with the help of Stata 14.0 software. Results. A total of 2,277 patients from 30 studies were reflected in the present study. The results show that mind-body exercise can effectively improve systolic blood pressure [SMD = −0.994, 95% CI: −1.239∼−0.748, P < 0.01 ] and diastolic blood pressure [SMD = −0.757, 95% CI: −1.009∼−0.505, P < 0.01 ] in middle-aged and elderly patients with hypertension. Conclusion. The results of this meta-analysis show that mind-body exercise can effectively improve blood pressure in middle-aged and elderly patients with hypertension without adverse events.
Treatment Need as an Indicator for Planning Dental Postgraduate Programs at Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia

Background: The treatment need is one of the fundamental factors for effective planning of postgraduate dental programs that improve the competency of dental practitioners. Aims: To assess the treatment need of patients at Umm Al-Qura University, Dental Teaching Hospital utilizing statistically representative sample of patients visiting the clinics. To use data analyzed to propose the need and design for postgraduate degrees in the college. Material and methods: Information were retrieved from the electronic database of 4,967 patients’ files anonymously including age, gender, treatment needs and referred clinic specialty. The obtained data were subjected to descriptive statistics in the form of mean ± SD, frequencies, cross tabulations, and percentages using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results: The percentage of females' records was significantly higher (52%) than that of males. The mean age of males was higher than females (36.66 versus 35.10) while young adult age category constituted the greatest number (36.6%). The most common treatment need recorded in patients' files were periodontics (73.3%), restorative (60.4%) followed by fixed prosthodontics (54.8%). Nearly half of the patients’ (48.9%) were in need of endodontic treatment. The common significantly higher needs in females were restorative and periodontics, while among males, significantly higher treatment needs for surgery, endodontics and prosthodontics were recorded. Conclusion: Patient treatment needs at Faculty of Dentistry, Umm Al-Qura University reflect a high priority for proposing postgraduate degrees in periodontics and restorative dentistry. Also, devoting considerable time and effort in counseling and providing undergraduates with information that guide in making career decisions and match the treatment needs in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Clinical Significance: Establishment of dental postgraduate degrees that meet the treatment needs of the community will lead to more professional diagnosis and management of patients by qualified specialists.
The Biological Role of Cervical Cancer Suppressor 3 (CCS-3): Literature Review

CCS-3 is one of the isoforms of eEF1A1, the key protein of the translation elongation step. Discovered in 2006, it has been the subject of some studies on human cervical cancer cell lines and cervical cancer samples. These studies brought to identify its probable role as a transcriptional co-repressor but other functions are currently unknown. It has also been shown that it is able to inhibit cell growth and induce apoptosis in the tumor cells that downregulate it. Further studies could highlight its functions and its possible usefulness as a tumor marker. This review aims to brief the research about CCS-3 that has been carried out so far.
BenSignNet: Bengali Sign Language Alphabet Recognition Using Concatenated Segmentation and Convolutional Neural Network

Sign language recognition is one of the most challenging applications in machine learning and human-computer interaction. Many researchers have developed classification models for different sign languages such as English, Arabic, Japanese, and Bengali; however, no significant research has been done on the general-shape performance for different datasets. Most research work has achieved satisfactory performance with a small dataset. These models may fail to replicate the same performance for evaluating different and larger datasets. In this context, this paper proposes a novel method for recognizing Bengali sign language (BSL) alphabets to overcome the issue of generalization. The proposed method has been evaluated with three benchmark datasets such as `38 BdSL’, `KU-BdSL’, and `Ishara-Lipi’. Here, three steps are followed to achieve the goal: segmentation, augmentation, and Convolutional neural network (CNN) based classification. Firstly, a concatenated segmentation approach with YCbCr, HSV and watershed algorithm was designed to accurately identify gesture signs. Secondly, seven image augmentation techniques are selected to increase the training data size without changing the semantic meaning. Finally, the CNN-based model called BenSignNet was applied to extract the features and classify purposes. The performance accuracy of the model achieved 94.00%, 99.60%, and 99.60% for the BdSL Alphabet, KU-BdSL, and Ishara-Lipi datasets, respectively. Experimental findings confirmed that our proposed method achieved a higher recognition rate than the conventional ones and accomplished a generalization property in all datasets for the BSL domain.
Impact of Broad-Spectrum Lighting on Recall Behaviour in a Pair of Captive Blue-Throated Macaws (Ara glaucogularis)

Many birds, including macaws, are highly visual animals able to detect a wide band of light wavelengths ranging into ultraviolet A, but in captivity, full-spectrum lighting is not universally employed. Where purpose-made bird lighting is used, this is typically made with the provision of ultraviolet B radiation and vitamin D3 synthesis in mind. Limited research in this field suggests behavioural and physiological benefits of broad-spectrum lighting provision, but more work is needed to broaden the taxonomic scope and to investigate its impacts on understudied areas of husbandry, including behavioural management. We compared the duration of time a bonded pair of blue-throated macaws at ZSL London Zoo opted to remain in an inside den after being recalled from an outdoors flight aviary, with and without the presence of artificial lighting in the form of High Output T5 Fluorescent lamps, which are rich in UVA and UVB wavelengths as well as those visible to humans. We hypothesized that the birds would remain inside for longer when T5 lighting was on, as they would be more visually comfortable. Using randomization analyses, we show that, over 54 trials split between winter and spring, the mean duration spent inside after recall increased from 81.04 to 515.13 s with the presence of the lighting unit, which was highly statistically significant. Our results are likely to be explained by much higher visibility of indoor surroundings creating a more hospitable indoor environment for the birds and will have implications for captive macaw management.
Dietary Intake of Toxic Heavy Metals with Major Groups of Food Products—Results of Analytical Determinations

Food contains a complex matrix of various substances, including essential nutrients, non-nutritive substances, and toxins, including metals. The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the contribution of major groups of food products to an overall intake of toxic heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Hg, and Ni) using a combination of the 24-dietary recall technique, the ICP-OES (Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry) method, and chemometric tools. The obtained results reveal that there is a high potential risk of developing nephrotoxicity through the dietary intake of Pb in the case of both genders. The dietary intake determined for other elements (Cd, Hg, and Ni) was far below the limits established by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) supported analytical determinations and revealed that cereals and vegetables were major contributors to a total intake of Cd (39.6 and 17.4% of the total exposure, respectively), Ni (40.4 and 19.3%), and Hg (16.8 and 19.6%), while water and beverages were major dietary sources of Pb (31% of the total daily intake). In contrast, eggs, fats and oils, and milk and dairy products provided the smallest amounts of Cd, Pb, and Ni. Despite containing high amounts of Hg, considering very low consumption, fish were not found to be an important source of this element.
Relationship dissolution strategies: Comparing the psychological consequences of ghosting, orbiting, and rejection

Ghosting and orbiting occur when a relationship is ended unilaterally by suddenly withdrawing from all communication and without explanation. However, in orbiting, the disengager still follows the victims on social networking sites after the breakup. With the advent of the digital era, these practices have become increasingly common, gaining attention from psychology research. Within the theoretical framework of social exclusion, the present study (N = 176) investigated victims’ consequences of ghosting and orbiting, considering the two breakup strategies as instances of ostracism. Participants were invited to fill an online survey and randomly assigned to recall an episode of ghosting, orbiting, or rejection. Following the recall task, participants completed a series of questionnaires to measure the typical outcomes threatened by ostracism (i.e., emotions, basic psychological needs, breakup’s cognitive evaluation, and aggressive inclinations). The results showed a consistent pattern across most of the constructs measured. Specifically, ghosting led to worse outcomes than rejection, whereas the disengagers’ ambiguous signals characterizing orbiting seemed to buffer the victims partially from the consequences of relationship dissolution. Results are discussed in the light of social exclusion literature, adding to the growing research on ghosting.
Studies On Bean Yellow Mosaic Virus Infecting Some Leguminous Crops In Egypt

Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV) was isolated from naturally infected bean ( phaseolus valgaris , L. cv. Karnk) and faba bean ( Vicia faba , L cv. Balady) plants were collected from different districts in menoufia governorate, Egypt; showing vein chlorosis followed by green and/or yellow mosaic symptoms that may be due to virus infection. Diseased samples were subjected to identification of isolated virus based on symptomatology host range, serological tests (DAS- ELISA, Tissue blot immunoassay TBIA and electron microscopy). Histological studies of bean infected leaves by BYMV cleared that chloroplasts contained starch grain turned to spherical in shape and with lost of their envelopes totally or partially. Chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids as well as oxidative enzymes (peroxidase and polyphenol oxidase) were determined in viral infected leaves. Molecular detection of BYMV using specific primers was detected using RT-PCR; its products showed a single amplified fragment of ~ 900 bp in electrophoresis analysis.
Characteristics of indoor human-induced particle resuspension under different ventilation conditions

This study performed a series of experiments to study the characteristics of human-induced particle resuspension under different ventilation conditions. Four modes of supplied airspeed were evaluated: no wind, low wind (2.742 m/s), medium wind (3.849 m/s) and high wind (4.422 m/s). Results show that the steady-state particle concentration can be approximated as a linear function of the airspeed. Human walking and ventilation conditions can have a significant and coupling role in particle behaviours. In particular, human walking provides initial energy for resuspension by disturbing the local fields, and thus increases the resuspension, especially for large particles of 5–10 μm in size. The wind has two competitive effects, that is, supplying energy to keep particles suspended and pushing the particles downward, and the latter becomes dominant when the airspeed was too high. Consequently, intermediate airspeeds can intensify the effect of human walking, and introduce higher peaks of particle concentration in the human-walking stages. As for the particle number density, similar conclusions can be drawn that the effect of ventilation conditions is more pronounced on small particles less than 1 μm while that of human walking is on large particles. This work lays a foundation for revealing the particle resuspension mechanism.