Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Antibacterial and Anti-Efflux Activities of Cinnamon Essential Oil against Pan and Extensive Drug-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated from Human and Animal Sources

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is notorious for its ability to develop a high level of resistance to antimicrobial agents. Resistance-nodulation-division (RND) efflux pumps could mediate drug resistance in P. aeruginosa. The present study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial and anti-efflux activities of cinnamon essential oil either alone or combined with ciprofloxacin against drug resistant P. aeruginosa originated from human and animal sources. The results revealed that 73.91% of the examined samples were positive for P. aeruginosa; among them, 77.78% were of human source and 72.73% were recovered from animal samples. According to the antimicrobial resistance profile, 48.73% of the isolates were multidrug-resistant (MDR), 9.2% were extensive drug-resistant (XDR), and 0.84% were pan drug-resistant (PDR). The antimicrobial potential of cinnamon oil against eleven XDR and one PDR P. aeruginosa isolates was assessed by the agar well diffusion assay and broth microdilution technique. The results showed strong antibacterial activity of cinnamon oil against all tested P. aeruginosa isolates with inhibition zones’ diameters ranging from 34 to 50 mm. Moreover, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values of cinnamon oil against P. aeruginosa isolates ranged from 0.0562–0.225 µg/mL and 0.1125–0.225 µg/mL, respectively. The cinnamon oil was further used to evaluate its anti-efflux activity against drug-resistant P. aeruginosa by phenotypic and genotypic assays. The cartwheel test revealed diminished efflux pump activity post cinnamon oil exposure by two-fold indicating its reasonable impact. Moreover, the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) results demonstrated a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the expression levels of MexA and MexB genes of P. aeruginosa isolates treated with cinnamon oil when compared to the non-treated ones (fold changes values ranged from 0.4204–0.7474 for MexA and 0.2793–0.4118 for MexB). In conclusion, we suggested the therapeutic use of cinnamon oil as a promising antibacterial and anti-efflux agent against drug-resistant P. aeruginosa.
Effective medium theory and network theory applied to the transport properties of rock

The effective medium theory (EMT) proposed by Kirkpatrick (1973) is known to be a useful tool to describe the conducting properties of heterogeneous media. We check the validity of the theory on several probability distribution functions. The accuracy of the theory is inferred by comparing the results given by the EMT to those obtained when using an exact method based on the resolution of two-dimensional conducting networks. It turns out that the EMT approximation is quite good for quasi-uniform distributions of conducting elements, whereas large discrepancies appear for highly contrasted distributions such as decreasing exponential functions. The reason is that ensemble averaging and spatial averaging are not equivalent for broad, nonuniform distributions. Therefore the effective medium theory may not be appropriate for the calculation of the transport properties of rocks which exhibit this type of distribution. The nature of the distribution varies, however, depending on the rock type and the length scale of interest. Critical path analysis can be a complementary tool to deal with highly heterogeneous conducting media. The accuracy of such a technique appears to be better than that of the EMT approximation. But it depends also on the representativity of the input data. Finally, an example of data relative to Fontainebleau Sandstone is developed in this paper. It is concluded that for this rock, network theory is the most accurate tool for calculating transport properties from statistically averaged observations on two-dimensional sections.
Observations on the crystallization of spodumene from aqueous solutions in a hydrothermal diamond‐anvil cell

Crystallization experiments were conducted in a new type of hydrothermal diamond-anvil cell (HDAC; type V) using LiAlSi2O6 (S) gel and H2O (W) as starting materials. A total of 21 experiments were performed at temperatures up to 950 degrees C and pressures up to 788 MPa. In the samples with relatively low W/S ratios, many small crystals formed in the melt phase during cooling. In those with high W/S ratios, only a few crystals with smooth surfaces crystallized from the aqueous fluid in the presence of melt droplets, which were gradually consumed during crystal growth, indicating rapid transfer of material from the melt to the crystals through the aqueous fluid. The nucleation of crystals started at 710 (+/- 70)degrees C and 520 (+/- 80) MPa, and crystal growth ended at 570 (+/- 40)degrees C and 320 (+/- 90) MPa, with the cooling P-T path within the stability field of spodumene+quartz in the S-W system. The observed linear crystal growth rates in the aqueous phase, calculated by dividing the maximum length of a single crystal by the duration of the entire growth step, were 4.7x10(-6) and 5.7x10(-6) cm s(-1) for the cooling rates of 0.5 and 1 degrees C min(-1), respectively. However, a rapid crystal growth rate of 3.6x10(-5)cm s(-1) in the aqueous fluid was observed when the components were supplied by nearby melt droplets. Our results show that when crystals nucleate in the aqueous fluid instead of the melt phase, there are fewer nuclei formed, and they grow much faster due to the low viscosity of the aqueous fluid, which accelerates diffusion of components for the growth of crystals. Therefore, the large crystals in granitic pegmatite can crystallize directly from aqueous fluids rather than hydrosilicate melt.
Early Communication Indicator: An analysis with three Portuguese toddlers

Professionals need efficient tools in early childhood communication development to identify infants and toddlers who are at risk of communication disorders or language delays. In Portugal, this project was carried out to respond to these needs due to a lack of these resources and a high prevalence of children at risk for communication problems at early ages. This paper describes the first steps to adapt the Early Communication Indicator (ECI) for the Portuguese population. The ECI is a play-based expressive communication measure for infants and toddlers aged 6 to 42 months. The ECI was originally developed in the U.S. and was designed for use by service providers to provide information about growth in communication, to help in intervention decision making, and to be administered in any language. This paper analyzes the ECI results of three Portuguese children in relation to their communication progression, based on a one-year longitudinal study. The ECI was administered when children were 17, 24, and 30 months of age. The ECI results showed that two of the children follow the typical progression of communication acquisition, with acquisition of earlier prelinguistic skills preceding growth in spoken language. The ECI results for the other child showed a very different and slower progression in the communication skills. The data obtained provided just an initial demonstration of the use of the ECI with Portuguese children. More research is needed into the development of the ECI in the Portuguese context, such as the development of a nationally representative, normative sample. Therefore, a discussion of what is needed in research and practice to advance this project is provided.
Assessing clinical governance activities in secondary curative health care institutes in the Kandy District, Sri Lanka

Background and objective: Clinical governance is a framework through which organisations are held accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services. Therefore, implementing clinical governance is a timely requirement for the Sri Lankan health system. This research assessed the status of clinical governance activities in secondary healthcare institutes in the Kandy District.Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study including all the secondary curative health care institutes in the Kandy District; the District General Hospital, Nawalapitiya, the Base Hospital, Gampola and the Base Hospital, Theldeniya, was conducted in 2019. The principal investigator explored activities related to eight key areas of clinical governance, namely, patient and public involvement, clinical audit, risk management, education, training and continuing personal and professional development, clinical effectiveness programme, staffing and staff management, usage of clinical information supporting and quality improvement, by non-participatory observation and by interviewing Institutional Heads, Special Grade Nursing Officers, Medical Officers and Nursing Officers attached to the Planning and Quality Management Unit using a consensually validated and pretested checklist.Results: The studied hospitals had 73.68% of clinical governance activities. The Base Hospital, Theldeneiya showed the highest percentage (76.79%); however, it had the lowest bed capacity (227 beds), received the lowest financial allocation, spent the highest proportion of funds for training and had a qualified medical administrator continuously over the past six years. Gampola and Nawalapitiya Hospitals showed 69.49 percent and 74.76 percent overall clinical governance activities, respectively. Percentages of clinical governance activities did not show a statistically significant difference between hospitals (F_(w.g=21)^(b.g=2) = 0.254, p=0.778). Activities related to clinical audits (57.14%), clinical effectiveness programmes (49.20%), and staffing management (54.55%) were unsatisfactory in all hospitals.Conclusion: The hospital with the highest clinical governance activities had the service of a qualified administrator for more than five years and utilised the highest proportion of funds for training. A similar approach may be helpful for similar organisations. However, clinical audits, clinical effectiveness and staffing management activities are unsatisfactory in the studied hospitals and require prompt attention.
Exploring the Use of Flipped Classroom in Influencing Listening Comprehension of Civil Engineering Students

Nowadays, maintaining students’ listening ability, particularly during this COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to do. One of the influential aspects in learning English which is also affected by learning patterns in today's pandemic era is listening comprehension. This study elaborates the influence of using flipped classroom to the learning motivation of civil engineering students of Politeknik Negeri Ambon. This study aims at finding out whether or not the use of flipped classroom influences students’ listening comprehension in learning English. The study applied quasi experimental design. The population of the study took two classes of the first semester of TKJJ Study Program in Civil Engineering Department of Politeknik Negeri Ambon as sample through cluster random sampling. One class act as experimental group and other class act as control group. Experimental group taught by implementing flipped classroom while control group taught by using traditional method. The teaching materials used in this study refers to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) namely English for Civil Engineering. The results of the study revealed that the use of flipped classroom encourage students’ listening comprehension as shown from data that t-test value (4.3) was higher than t-table value (2.000). It means that flipped classroom has influenced and improved students’ listening comprehension in classroom. Keywords: civil engineering, ESP, flipped classroom, listening
Herbal - Synthetic Drug Interactions

Background: Herbal medicine is currently one of the therapeutic options chosen by the community because it is considered relatively safer and has minimal side effects. Not only used as a single drug, but herbal ingredients can also be combined with synthetic drugs. However, using herbal and synthetic drugs simultaneously can cause a variety of interactions, including synergism, antagonism, and additive effects (potentiation). Objective: Therefore, it is crucial to do a literature study on the reaction of various herbal medicines to unwanted synthetic drugs to prevent the adverse effects that can be caused.Methods: The literature review is processed based on academic journals published on NCBI, PubMed, and online journal sources that discuss the interactions between herbal medicines and synthetic drugs from 1997 to 2022.Results: Herbal drug interactions can be avoided or managed by providing correct patient advice based on reliable information.Conclusion:The main basic principles of administering these medicines include the doctor's full awareness of the effects and interactions between herbal medicines and herbal medicines and herbal medicines with synthetic drugs.
Meat Quality in Katerini and Podolian Young Bulls Raised on Pasture: A Comparison between Organic Production Systems in Greek and Italian Environments

Simple Summary Katerini cattle is an autochthonous Greek breed considered at high risk of extinction, given the uncontrolled introduction of foreign breeds into local herds and the lack of a national program aiming at monitoring cross-breeding in local populations. As a consequence, Greece has committed to international treaties to create the necessary infrastructure and to prepare a national strategy for the development of actions able to protect indigenous genetic resources and agricultural biodiversity and to participate in cooperation networks, both at a national and global level. This study provides information, which may contribute to the rescue and valorization of the autochthonous Greek Katerini breed through the protection and preservation of biodiversity, as well as an increase in the productivity of farmed animals. Abstract Local and typical agri-food products (TAP) are receiving increasing interest from consumers, since they are perceived as genuine, healthy and tasty because they are produced under environmentally friendly farming systems. This has aroused a renewed interest among breeders from the inner regions of Italy and Greece toward autochthonous animal populations, such as Greek Katerini and Italian Podolian cattle. Twenty animals were used, divided into two homogeneous groups of ten subjects per each genotype. Animals were fed only on natural pasture and were slaughtered at 18 months of age. Meat from the Katerini young bulls showed a lower a* value, higher moisture and was leaner, and its fat was richer in n-3 fatty acids and had a better n-6/n-3 ratio. Meat from Podolian young bulls was more tender and showed a higher redness value and a significantly greater MUFA concentration. This preliminary study provides a contribution to the local actors and relevant authorities to develop a conservation program for the endangered Katerini breed based on the nutritional and sensorial characterization of its products.
Evidence for self-similar, triangular slip distributions on earthquakes: Implications for earthquake and fault mechanics.

We characterize average slip distributions on earthquakes beyond their individual heterogeneity. For that, we analyze a large number of seismic slip distributions both measured at the surface after earthquakes (44 profiles) and derived from slip inversion models (76 models). Investigating the overall shape of these slip profiles, we find that they are roughly triangular both along strike and dip, and most of them (70–80%) are asymmetric. Long linear slopes and high slip gradients therefore are the key ingredients to describe earthquake slip profiles. The scaling relations between maximum displacement and length (or width) suggest furthermore that the triangular slip profiles are self-similar. Such slip patterns make earthquakes dominated by one major zone of maximum slip hence one major “asperity. ” Analyzing the position of hypocenters with respect to these “asperities,” we find that earthquakes nucleate at a distance from them that averages 20–30% of their total length. Compiling observations on 56 earthquakes, we show that this distance (i.e., the asperity size) is structurally defined. We then compare the earthquake slip profiles to cumulative slip profiles measured on long-term faults of various ages and sizes and find that all profiles have a similar shape, triangular and asymmetric. Hence combining data for a large number of earthquakes leads to point out average, generic characteristics of the coseismic slip that are similar to those that emerge from the accumulation of events with time on a single fault. This suggests that these characteristics result from robust physical properties.
Simulación del comportamiento del fuego con base en la estimación geoestadística de la variación espacial de combustibles

This work is focused on the need of an alternative methodology for fire behavior simulation. It is based on forest fuels mapping, as an option to the fuel model concept that traditionally is used. Three maps were used that correspond to the distribution of three fuel classes, which are classified based on the time that, according to their size, death fuels gain or loose humidity until they reach an equilibrium with the surrounded air (1-h, 10-h, y 100-h). These maps were generated through the evaluation and comparison of some interpolation techniques, both deterministic and stochastic. This allowed a better definition of the spatial variation of fuels, even within a zone classified with a determined fuel model. In general, the geostatistics techniques (specifically co-kriging) were the best option. Elevation, obtained on a digital elevation model basis, was the most relevant variable for fuel estimations when co-kriging was used. Field data were gathered through an inventory of 554 plots, within an area of 1,400 ha, in the Ejido El Largo y Anexos, of Chihuahua (México). After that a spatial simulation model was generated (SSM) under a raster approach. This model takes into account spatial variations of fire behavior due not only to variation of slope, wind direction and wind velocity, but also to spatial variations of fuels loading. The use of this kind of tools in the management of fire application is very important, because they help to simulate the poten-
Variability of wetting front velocities during a field‐scale infiltration experiment

Strategies for characterizing subsurface hydraulic properties often lack observations on actual water movement in soil. The goals of this study were to investigate the variability of wetting front velocities during a field‐scale infiltration experiment at the Maricopa Environmental Monitoring site, Maricopa, Arizona (surface area: 50 by 50 m). Wetting front velocities and soil textural components were analyzed as local and effective parameters. Local representation was done by measuring the wetting front travel time through specific depth increments (normally 0.5 m) to a depth of 3 m. Effective representation was done by measuring travel time from ground surface to the depth of interest in 0.5‐m increments from the 1‐m to 3‐m depths. Textural components were represented similarly. One‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were run on wetting front velocities and soil textural components, with spatial location of neutron probe access tubes and soil sampling points classified as replicates and depth intervals classified as independent treatments. The results showed that mean local velocities varied significantly with depth (range = 20–44 cm d−1). Effective front velocities varied much less (range = 22–25 cm d−1) and were found to be statistically the same, even though differences in soil texture and strong layering were observed. As the total wetting depth increased, variance in effective wetting front velocity decreased, with a coefficient of variation of wetting front arrival of only 9% at the 3‐m depth. The decline in the variance of the front velocity is consistent with previous findings that the variance of effective parameters reduces as the measurement scale increases.
Bird Diversity in Rainy Season in Forest Regions of Hainan Island,China

Bird diversity during rainy season in forest regions of Hainan Island,China,namely Jianfengling,Bawangling,Yinggeling,Diaoluoshan and Limushan Nature Reserves,and Wanling,Nanweiling forests,were surveyed,using line transect count method from April to August 2005 with aim of comparing bird diversity between different habitats in the same forest or among the same habitat in different forests.Totally 80 species were found,of which belong to 10 orders and 37 families.Bird diversity between different habitats in the same forest were in the order:primary forestsecondary forestartifical planted forest.For birds at the same habitat in different forests,Yinggeling Nature Reserve had the highest bird diversity between the primary forests,and Bawangling Nature Reserve had the more bird species in the secondary forests.Bird diversity in artificial planted forests was lower than any other forestry type.Large and continuous natural forests,especially the primary ones,are the best habitats for bird diversity.
Disparity of Biofilm Formation in Salmonella typhimurium on Glass and Wood Surfaces at Diverse Incubation Temperatures

Salmonella Typhimurium is a pathogenic gram-negative bacterium that commonly causes food- borne diseases known as gastroenteritis. Biofilm can exist on many surfaces in food preparation e.g glass, wood, plastic, metal and other food items. The aim of this study was to evaluate and quantify the biofilm formation of S. typhimurium on food contact surfaces (glass and wood) at different intervals (24, 48 and 72 hours) and different incubation temperatures (10, 28 and 37 oC). The inoculum used was 108 CFU ml-1 of S. typhimurium. Formation of biofilm was quantified using beads vortex and agar plate count method. Biofilm of S. typhimurium was formed on both surfaces with preference more to glass surfaces, but all the densities of biofilm formed can cause infections. On Glass surfaces a total of 1.62x109 CFU ml-1 S. typhimurium was achieved as the highest biofilm density. Thirty seven degree was the most preferred incubation temperature of S. typhimurium cells, through which the highest biofilm cells were formed and 10oC incubation temperature supported the least biofilm densities. The result showed that, the biofilm formation of S. typhimurium was influenced by incubation temperatures and increases with time.
AutoPwn: Artifact-Assisted Heap Exploit Generation for CTF PWN Competitions

Capture-the-flag (CTF) competitions have become highly successful in security education, and heap corruption is considered one of the most difficult and rewarding challenges due to its complexity and real-world impact. However, developing a heap exploit is a challenging task that often requires significant human involvement to manipulate memory layouts and bypass security checks. To facilitate the exploitation of heap corruption, existing solutions develop automated systems that rely on manually crafted patterns to generate exploits. Such manual patterns tend to be specific, which limits their flexibility to cope with the evolving exploit techniques. To address this limitation, we explore the problem of the automatic summarization of exploit patterns. We leverage an observation that public attack artifacts provide key insights into heap exploits. Based upon this observation, we develop AutoPwn, the first artifact-assisted AEG system that automatically summarizes exploit patterns from artifacts of known heap exploits and uses them to guide the exploitation of new programs. Considering the diversity of programs and exploits, we propose to use a novel Exploitation State Machine (ESM), with generic states and transitions to model the exploit patterns, and then efficiently construct it through combining the dynamic monitoring of exploits and the semantic analysis of their text descriptions. We implement a prototype of AutoPwn and evaluate it on 96 testing CTF binaries. The results show that AutoPwn produces 22 successful exploits and 13 partial exploits, preliminarily demonstrating its efficacy.