Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Commencing character: A case study of character development in college

ABSTRACT In the last century, higher education has witnessed a shift away from explicit character education. Although scholarship has recently reemerged on the importance of character in college, there are almost no empirical investigations of courses intentionally designed to impact student character at the college level. The current study examines an innovative course intervention called ‘Commencing Character’ designed to intentionally teach 16 target virtues through direct instruction, application of seven research-based strategies of character development, and engagement with over 40 commencement addresses focused on character. Comparing pre- and post-course self-reports, results indicated significant group differences in the development of seven targeted virtues when comparing students in the course (n = 31) to a control group (n = 49). These results show that a course focused explicitly on character in a way that is developmentally- and contextually-sensitive can promote the development of specific virtues.
Antioxidant Activity of Hexane, Chloroform, Acetone and Methanol Extract of Swietenia Macrophylla

Nature has always remained a great source of medicinal agents and medicinal system of the world has used plant-based medicines from time immemorial (Mudasir et al., 2011). Medicinal plants are the richest bio-resource of drugs of traditional systems of medicine, modern medicines, nutraceuticals, food supplements, folk medicines, pharmaceutical intermediates and chemical entities for synthetic drugs (Ncube et al., 2008). Oxidation is a chemical reaction that refers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reaction can produce free radical which starts chain reactions that damage cells. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates and inhibit other oxidation reation by oxidize themselves; as a result, antioxidants are often reducing agent such as thiols, ascorbic acid or pohyphenols (Sies, 1997, Kolapo 2014). Ushie et al., 2016 pointed out that S. macrophylla can be used as an analgesic, anaesthetic and as social drugs since it contains alkaloids. The alkaloids contained in plants are used in medicine as anaesthetic agents (Herourat et al.; 1988). Ushie et al., 2016 pointed out that S. macrophylla can be used in the treatment of certain illnesses because it contains glycosides which have long been employed as important ingredient for arrow poisons and drugs (Trease and Evans, 1989). The aim of this research project is to study the antioxidant properties of S. macrophylla using DPPH assay
Methods of Suicide of English and Welsh Immigrants in Australia

One of the better known facts about suicide rates is their remarkable stability in terms of the sex of the victim, the methods used and the age-specific rates in different societies over considerable periods of time. Suicide studies suggest that the frequency and methods of suicide are determined largely by the culture, social mores and a number of other factors— possibly demographic—which remain relatively stable over fairly long periods (Whitlock, 1971). Methods of suicide can vary from country to country (Dublin, 1963; Stengel, 1964). In Australia, there has been a remarkable consistency in the major methods of suicide throughout this century (Saint, 1965), although Hetzel (1971) has pointed out the marked rise in rates from self-poisoning in the last twenty years. Burvill (1970) has contrasted the methods of suicide in Western Australia with those reported in America and Britain, as has Whitlock (1971) among the various immigrant groups in Australia, although he warned that his results were based on comparatively small numbers of suicides in minority population groups. Overall age-standardized suicide rates among immigrants to Australia are substantially higher than those prevailing in their country of origin and among the Australian-born population (Whitlock, 1971; Burvill et al., 1972).
Analysis of Ammonium and Nitrate with Ion Selective Electrodes (ISE) in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) and a Test of Ag - TiO2 Nanotube Composite Material as Antifouling Sensor Protection.

Keeping salmon farming in closed recirculating systems, the challenge related to salmon lice, escape and leakage of nutrients will be dramatically reduced. A high content of nitrogen species deriving fromnutrients and excrements can cause formation of ammonia, that is toxic for salmon. The industry demands fast and reliable analysis of these species. In this master thesis, the use of HACH ion selective electrodes (ISE) for nitrate (ISENO3181) and ammonium (ISENH4181) have been tested. Two tests were done in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) at Nofima in Sunndalsøra with 12‰ salinity, where challenges related to interfering ions and biofouling were investigated. One experiment with no antifouling treatment, and one experiment where vibration and a nylon filter was used as antifouling treatment was done. In addition to the RAS experiments, a flow through system (FTS) with fresh water was used to test a composite material of TiO2 nanorods with silver nanoparticles attached (PDMS-TiO2/Ag) as antifouling sensor protection. The release of silver ions from the silver particles was investigated adding a PDMS-TiO2/Ag coated Teflon cap to a brackish water solution. The silver concentration was determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Samples from the RAS and FTS were also analyzed by ICP-MS to investigate eventual accumulation of metals. The samples were also analyzed by ion chromatography (IC) to quantify the ammonium and nitrate content compared to the ISEmeasurements. None of the metals in RAS or FTS exceeded the background levels for Norwegian coastal waters. There was found an accumulation of Zn and Cu in the RAS with a slope of 0.38 and 0.02 μgL−1day−1 respectively. Drift due to biofouling occurred in all experiments. In RAS the biofouling process started already after the first day. In the FTS the biofouling was visible after two weeks. When the ISE and IC results were compared, the presence of interfering ions was most significant in RAS. The NH4 electrode was more affected by the salinity change in RAS than the NO3 – electrode. The use of vibration and a nylon filter protecting the sensing elements, resulted in a more stable drift successively estimated using baseline reduction by minimum least squares regression (MLR). The PDMS-TiO2/Ag coated caps did not have a visible antifouling effect. In the experiment where the release of Ag+ was investigated, the increase was significant with a p-value equal to 0.012 for the two beakers with coated caps compared to p=0.11 for two blank tests. To achieve an antifouling effect, the cap design needs to be improved. In the FTS the ISE did detect small variations in the ammonium concentration as a result of the salmons’ daytime activity. The method was fast and effective in the freshwater system. More tests regarding antifouling and the presence of interfering ions need to be done to fully elucidate ISEs potential in aquaculture.
Folic Acid Is Related to Muscle Strength and Vitamin A Is Related to Health-Related Quality of Life: Results of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VII 2016–2018)

This study investigated how folic acid affects muscle strength and the effects of vitamin A on quality of life in adults. Baseline data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VII 2016–2018) was used to find 6112 adults (ages 19–80) meeting study criteria. The participants were divided into three groups: young adults (ages 19–39), middle-aged (ages 40–64), and elderly (≥65 years). Muscle strength was measured using a digital grip strength dynamometer. The EuroQol five-dimension questionnaire measured quality of life. Associations were assessed using multivariate regression and logistic regression. Vitamins and handgrip strength were divided into low and high groups based on the mean. Although vitamin A and folate levels were related to handgrip strength in all subjects, regression demonstrated a significant association between folate and handgrip strength in the elderly. The odds ratios (OR) of higher handgrip strength were statistically significant for elderly participants with high levels of folate compared to those with low levels (OR: 1.55). Vitamin A was associated with quality of life, especially in the self-care dimension for the elderly. Further longitudinal research is needed to examine the relationship between vitamins and muscle strength, as well as vitamins and quality of life.
A Theoretical Analysis of Magnetic Particle Alignment in External Magnetic Fields Affected by Viscosity and Brownian Motion

The interaction of an external magnetic field with magnetic objects affects their response and is a fundamental property for many biomedical applications, including magnetic resonance and particle imaging, electromagnetic hyperthermia, and magnetic targeting and separation. Magnetic alignment and relaxation are widely studied in the context of these applications. In this study, we theoretically investigate the alignment dynamics of a rotational magnetic particle as an inverse process to Brownian relaxation. The selected external magnetic flux density ranges from 5μT to 5T. We found that the viscous torque for arbitrary rotating particles with a history term due to the inertia and friction of the surrounding ambient water has a significant effect in strong magnetic fields (range 1–5T). In this range, oscillatory behavior due to the inertial torque of the particle also occurs, and the stochastic Brownian torque diminishes. In contrast, for weak fields (range 5–50μT), the history term of the viscous torque and the inertial torque can be neglected, and the stochastic Brownian torque induced by random collisions of the surrounding fluid molecules becomes dominant. These results contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of magnetic particle alignment in external magnetic fields and have important implications in a variety of biomedical applications.
Responses of soil microbial biomass, diversity and metabolic activity to biochar applications in managed poplar plantations on reclaimed coastal saline soil

With its relatively high stability, biochar has been suggested as a means to mitigate climate change through carbon fixation and improve the physicochemical properties of soils. However, our understanding of the effects of biochar on soil microbial diversity and their metabolic activity remain unclear. In order to elucidate how the application of biochar to plantation soils influences microbial biomass and functional diversity (using Biolog EcoPlatesTM), we conducted an experiment to investigate changes in soil microbial communities at four biochar levels (0, 40, 80 and 120 Mg/ha). We found that biochar application altered the metabolic patterns of microbial communities and accelerated the utilization of amino acids, carboxylic acids, polymers and other miscellaneous plant chemical compounds by microbes. Moreover, compared to the control, soil pH increased by 0.23, 0.24, 0.28 units and microbial biomass carbon to nitrogen ratio (MBC/MBN) by 9.20, 20.99 and 17.74, respectively. Meanwhile, soil moisture decreased from 25.7 to 23.8%, 23.7 and 24.4%, and MBN declined by 42.2, 46.2 and 53.8%. Regression analysis showed that soil pH was the primary factor correlated with reduced MBN. Community physiological profiles revealed that high concentrated biochar (120 Mg/ha) elevated microbial metabolic activity, while biochar application did not alter microbial functional diversity represented by the Shannon diversity index (H′) and evenness (E). Furthermore, the application of biochar would affect biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen through the elevated microbial activity and utilization in different categories of carbon sources (polymers, carboxylic acids etc.) with the reduced MBN.
Chemical Absorption by Aqueous Solution of Ammonia

Carbon capture is proposed as a viable way of exploiting the fossil resources for power plants and industrial processes. The post-combustion capture by chemical absorption in amine aqueous solutions has been in use in chemical and petrochemical areas for decades. As an alternative, the absorption in aqueous ammonia has received great atten tion recently. The carbon capture by aqueous ammonia is based on the conventional absorption-regeneration scheme applied to the ternary system CO 2 –NH 3 –H 2 O. It can be implemented in a chilled and a cooled process, depending upon the temperatures in the absorber and, hence, the precipitation of salts. The process simulation can be conducted in two manners: the equilibrium and the rate-based approaches. The specific heat duty is as low as 3.0, for the cooled process, and 2.2 MJ/kg CO2 , for the chilled one. Moreover, the index SPECCA is as low as 2.6, for the cooled, and 2.9 MJ/kg CO2 , for the chilled one. The overall energy performances from the simulations in the rate-based approach, compared against those in the equilibrium approach, result only slightly penalized. From an eco- nomic perspective, the carbon capture via chemical absorption by aqueous ammonia is a feasible retrofitting solution, yielding a cost of electricity of 82.4 €/MWh e and of avoided CO 2 of 38.6 €/t CO2 for the chilled process.
Orientational fluctuations of liquid water at hydrophobic and hydrophilic interfaces

Being ubiquitous in nature, liquid water interfaces host many important physical and chemical processes. Most of these processes are affected by the properties of water interfaces which depend on molecular details of the interfacial environments. It is thus fundamental to understand microscopic features of a water interface for studying the interfacial phenomena. In this work, we explore structural characteristics of various water interfaces using the methods of molecular simulations and statistical mechanics. Specifically, we describe the intrinsic molecular structure of a water interface in terms of the anisotropic, depth-dependent distribution of water’s molecular orientation. We also analyze the collective hydrogen bond network at the interface which determines the orientational fluctuations of interfacial water molecules. This dissertation consists of three separate studies on related but distinct subtopics. First, we focus on the molecular structure and dielectric properties of the liquid water– vapor interface. We present a statistical mechanical model of interfacial hydrogen bonding which is capable of predicting the orientational distribution at the interface. Using this model along with the atomistic simulations, we reveal that the hydrogen bonding interactions of non-ideal geometries are responsible for the characteristics of the interfacial dielectric properties. Then, we introduce a general computational framework that can characterize the interfacial properties of a hydrated solute from its atomistic simulation. This method utilizes the orientational structure of interfacial water molecules which reflects the microscopic informations about the solute’s surface. We demonstrate that our method is applicable with both temporal and spatial resolutions to a chemically heterogenous surface as well as an irregular surface. Therefore, it is useful especially for probing the local hydration dynamics of a protein which is correlated with the conformational fluctuations. Finally, we study the effects of surface–water interactions on water’s interfacial hydrogen bonding structure using a disordered model hydrophilic surface with tunable polarity. We investigate the relationship between the surface polarity and interfacial molecular structure using the characterization method previously introduced. Based on a mean-field model of interfacial hydrogen bonding, we also quantify the energetic
Systematics of the Arboreal Neotropical ‘thorellii’ Clade of Centruroides Bark Scorpions (Buthidae) and the Efficacy of Mini-Barcodes for Museum Specimens

Fragmented and degraded DNA is pervasive among museum specimens, hindering molecular phylogenetics and species identification. Mini-barcodes, 200–300-base-pair (bp) fragments of barcoding genes, have proven effective for species-level identification of specimens from which complete barcodes cannot be obtained in many groups, but have yet to be tested in arachnids. The present study investigated the efficacy of mini-barcodes combined with longer sequences of the Cytochrome c Oxidase Subunit I (COI) gene in the systematics of the arboreal Neotropical ‘thorellii’ clade of Centruroides Marx, 1890 bark scorpions (Buthidae, C.L. Koch 1837), the species of which have proven to be difficult to identify and delimit due to their similar morphology. The phylogeny of 53 terminals, representing all nine species of the clade and representative species belonging to related clades of Centruroides, rooted on Heteroctenus junceus (Herbst, 1800) and based on up to 1078 base pairs of COI and 112 morphological characters, is presented to test the monophyly of the clade and the limits of its component species. The results support the recognition of nine species of the ‘thorellii’ clade, in accordance with a recent taxonomic revision, and highlight the efficacy of mini-barcodes for identifying morphologically similar cryptic species using specimens of variable age and preservation.
Antioxidant Potential of Red Okra Pods (Abelmoschus esculentus Moench)

Red Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus Moench) is widely distributed in Indonesia and its antioxidant ability is unknown. This study was performed to evaluate the antioxidant activities of red okra pods extracts. The powder of red okra was extracted by reflux. The first extraction used n-hexane (three times). Ethyl acetate was used to extract the residue (three times). Then, the residue was extracted three times using ethanol. Antioxidant activities were tested using DPPH and FRAP assays. This study showed that ethanol extract showed the highest antioxidant activity, which had the lowest IC50 DPPH (39.8 µg/mL) and the highest FRAP (89.15 µmol Fe2+/g). The result of DPPH and FRAP methods indicates that ethanol extract of red okra pods is classified as a very strong antioxidant.
High spatial resolution analysis of the iron oxidation state in silicate glasses using the electron probe

Abstract The iron oxidation state in silicate melts is important for understanding their physical properties, although it is most often used to estimate the oxygen fugacity of magmatic systems. Often high spatial resolution analyses are required, yet the available techniques, such as μrXANES and μMössbauer, require synchrotron access. The flank method is an electron probe technique with the potential to measure Fe oxidation state at high spatial resolution but requires careful method development to reduce errors related to sample damage, especially for hydrous glasses. The intensity ratios derived from measurements on the flanks of FeLα and FeLβ X-rays (FeLβf/FeLαf) over a time interval (time-dependent ratio flank method) can be extrapolated to their initial values at the onset of analysis. We have developed and calibrated this new method using silicate glasses with a wide range of compositions (43–78 wt% SiO2, 0–10 wt% H2O, and 2–18 wt% FeOT, which is all Fe reported as FeO), including 68 glasses with known Fe oxidation state. The Fe oxidation state (Fe2+/FeT) of hydrous (0–4 wt% H2O) basaltic (43–56 wt% SiO2) and peralkaline (70–76 wt% SiO2) glasses with FeOT > 5 wt% can be quantified with a precision of ±0.03 (10 wt% FeOT and 0.5 Fe2+/FeT) and accuracy of ±0.1. We find basaltic and peralkaline glasses each require a different calibration curve and analysis at different spatial resolutions (~20 and ~60 μm diameter regions, respectively). A further 49 synthetic glasses were used to investigate the compositional controls on redox changes during electron beam irradiation, where we found that the direction of redox change is sensitive to glass composition. Anhydrous alkali-poor glasses become reduced during analysis, while hydrous and/or alkali-rich glasses become oxidized by the formation of magnetite nanolites identified using Raman spectroscopy. The rate of reduction is controlled by the initial oxidation state, whereas the rate of oxidation is controlled by SiO2, Fe, and H2O content.
The Mycorrizal Status in Vineyards Affected by Esca

In this work we analyzed the relationship among native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and vine roots affected by esca, a serious grapevine trunk disease. The AMF symbiosis was analyzed on the roots of neighboring plants (symptomatic and asymptomatic to esca) in 14 sites of three vineyards in Marche region (central–eastern Italy). The AMF colonization intensity, identified by non-vital staining, showed higher value in all esca symptomatic plants (ranging from 24.6% to 61.3%) than neighboring asymptomatic plants (from 17.4% to 57.6%). The same trend of Glomeromycota phylum abundance was detected by analyzing fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) linked to the AMF community, obtained by amplicon high throughput analysis of ITS 1 region. Overall, the highest amount of OTUs was detected on roots from symptomatic plants (0.42%), compared to asymptomatic roots (0.29%). Specific primer pairs for native Rhizophagus irregularis and Funneliformis mosseae AMF species, were designed in 28S rRNA and large subunit (LSU) ribosomal RNA, respectively, and droplet digital PCR protocol for absolute quantification was set up. A higher number of DNA copies of both fungal species were detected more frequently in symptomatic than asymptomatic vines. Our study suggests a relationship between esca and native AMF in grapevine. These results underline the importance of native rhizosphere microbial communities for a better knowledge of grapevine esca disease.