Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of different management practices on carbon sequestration of agricultural soils – a review

ABSTRACT Climate change and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) are critical environmental issues of the 21st century. The increase in atmospheric GHGs concentration since the Industrial era induced interest in identifying practices to reduce these gases and soil C sequestration could be the best solution for reducing CO2 enrichment of the atmosphere. However, the C sequestration capacity of soils is influenced by various management technologies like reduced tillage, organic amendments, cover cropping, nutrient management and biochar. A significant amount of SOC could be sequestered by farm yard manure (FYM) application which enhances lignin and lignin-like molecules that are crucial components of resistant C pools. Legume-based crop rotation promotes C sequestration by accumulating C in macro-aggregates. Biochar causes a positive effect on soil aggregation and SOC storage through the release of multivalent ions. C sequestration depends profoundly on stabilizing the added C through appropriate management practices. The C stabilization mechanism can be better understood following the fractionation of C in different pools. The recalcitrant C pools stored in micro-aggregates represent C sequestration, while C stored in macro-aggregates is C accumulation and a short-term concept. Therefore, this review aims to identify the best management practices leading to C build-up, besides improving C stabilization by imparting recalcitrance to SOC.
Effects of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins, Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans, and Dioxin-like PCBs on Teeth and Bones in Animals and Humans

Bone metabolism is regulated by endocrine systems, so people exposed to polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) may suffer adverse effects on bones and teeth. We reviewed previous publications in which effects of PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls on the teeth and bones of animals and humans were found. The aim was to identify future research directions, particularly for epidemiological studies of populations exposed to PCDD/Fs in the environment. Exposure of fetuses to PCDD/Fs may affect odontogenesis, particularly enamel formation, but the effects of PCDD/Fs on bone genesis are limited to palatine bone. Exposure to PCDD/Fs in milk may affect both teeth and bones, but the effects on bones may be reversible. Exposure to high PCDD/F concentrations even during adulthood may adversely affect teeth. Exposure to PCDD/Fs may induce osteogenesis and improve bone properties because the disrupting effects of PCDD/Fs cause bone remodeling and vitamin D activation. More studies involving humans are required to investigate previously found associations between the PCDD/F concentrations humans are exposed to and biological markers for teeth and bones, including metabolites of vitamin D.
A Three-Parameter Asymmetric Laplace Distribution and Its Extension

ABSTRACT In this article, a new three-parameter asymmetric Laplace distribution and its extension are introduced. This includes as special case the symmetric Laplace double-exponential distribution. The distribution has established a direct link to estimation of quantile and quantile regression. Properties of the new distribution are presented. Application is made to a flood data modeling example.
Stabilizing Controller Design for Linear Parameter-Varying Systems Using Parameter Feedback

A new design approach is presented for linear parameter varying (LPV) systems which utilizes real-time knowledge of the parameters to asymptotically stabilize the closed loop system for all parameter-variations. By changing the LPV system's coordinates to phase variable canonical form, a parameter feedback controller can be constructed that renders the system dynamics to be time invariant and stable in the new coordinates and asymptotically stable for all coordinates. If the original LPV plant remains bounded, continuous, controllable, and/or observable for all time, then the closed loop system is guaranteed stable for all parameter values and rates of change. We discuss procedures for the design of stabilizing LPV state feedback controllers, observers with stable error dynamics, and output feedback regulators. Examples based on a missile flight control problem illustrate the methods. (Author)
The onset of thermal convection in rotating spherical shells

The correct asymptotic theory for the linear onset of instability of a Boussinesq fluid rotating rapidly in a self-gravitating sphere containing a uniform distribution of heat sources was given recently by Jones et al. (2000). Their analysis confirmed the established picture that instability at small Ekman number $E$ is characterized by quasi-geostrophic thermal Rossby waves, which vary slowly in the axial direction on the scale of the sphere radius $r_o$ and have short azimuthal length scale $O(E^{1/3}r_o)$. They also confirmed the localization of the convection about some cylinder radius $s\,{=}\,s_M$ roughly $r_o/2$. Their novel contribution concerned the implementation of global stability conditions to determine, for the first time, the correct Rayleigh number, frequency and azimuthal wavenumber. Their analysis also predicted the value of the finite tilt angle of the radially elongated convective rolls to the meridional planes. In this paper, we study small-Ekman-number convection in a spherical shell. When the inner sphere radius $r_i$ is small (certainly less than $s_M$), the Jones et al. (2000) asymptotic theory continues to apply, as we illustrate with the thick shell $r_i\,{=}\,0.35\,r_o$. For a large inner core, convection is localized adjacent to, but outside, its tangent cylinder, as proposed by Busse & Cuong (1977). We develop the asymptotic theory for the radial structure in that convective layer on its relatively long length scale $O(E^{2/9}r_o)$. The leading-order asymptotic results and first-order corrections for the case of stress-free boundaries are obtained for a relatively thin shell $r_i\,{=}\,0.65\,r_o$ and compared with numerical results for the solution of the complete PDEs that govern the full problem at Ekman numbers as small as $10^{-7}$. We undertook the corresponding asymptotic analysis and numerical simulation for the case in which there are no internal heat sources, but instead a temperature difference is maintained between the inner and outer boundaries. Since the temperature gradient increases sharply with decreasing radius, the onset of instability always occurs on the tangent cylinder irrespective of the size of the inner core radius. We investigate the case $r_i\,{=}\,0.35\,r_o$. In every case mentioned, we also apply rigid boundary conditions and determine the $O(E^{1/6})$ corrections due to Ekman suction at the outer boundary. All analytic predictions for both stress-free and rigid (no-slip) boundaries compare favourably with our full numerics (always with Prandtl number unity), despite the fact that very small Ekman numbers are needed to reach a true asymptotic regime.
Association between statin therapy and the risk of stroke in patients with moyamoya disease: a nationwide cohort study

Background and objective Knowledge regarding the pharmacological treatment for moyamoya disease (MMD), a chronic and progressive cerebrovascular disease conferring greater stroke risk, is limited. In the present study, whether statin therapy is associated with a reduced risk of stroke in patients with MMD was investigated. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study in which the occurrence of stroke in patients with newly diagnosed MMD was investigated using the nationwide health insurance database in Korea from January 2007 to March 2021. A multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model was constructed for stroke, in which statin therapy after MMD diagnosis was treated as a time-dependent variable. Adjustment was done for sex, age, presence of comorbidities, concurrent stroke, revascularisation surgery and treatment with antiplatelets. Results The present study included 13 373 newly diagnosed patients with MMD; 40.8% had a concurrent stroke at the time of MMD diagnosis. During the mean follow-up of 5.1±3.3 years, 631 patients (4.7%) suffered a stroke event (haemorrhagic stroke: 458 patients, ischaemic stroke: 173 patients). Statin therapy after MMD diagnosis was significantly associated with a reduced risk of stroke (adjusted HR 0.74; 95% CI 0.60 to 0.91, p=0.004). In the secondary outcome analysis, the risk of haemorrhagic stroke (adjusted HR 0.74; 95% CI 0.58 to 0.95, p=0.018) and ischaemic stroke (adjusted HR 0.75; 95% CI 0.52 to 1.08, p=0.124) were reduced with the statin treatment. Taking statins was also associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality (adjusted HR 0.47; 95% CI 0.33 to 0.67, p<0.001). Conclusion In patients with MMD, statin therapy was associated with a reduced risk of subsequent stroke. The findings indicate statin treatment may be beneficial for patients with MMD, however the results should be confirmed in randomised controlled trials.
Traveling wave solutions to the nonlinear evolution equation for the risk preference

A singular nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) is introduced, which can be interpreted as the evolution of the risk preference in the optimal investment problem under the random risk process. The unknown quantity is related to the Arrow-Pratt coefficient of relative risk aversion with respect to the optimal value function. We show the existence of monotone traveling wave solutions and the nonexistence of non-monotone such solutions, which are
Recent advances of polymer based nanosystems in cancer management

Abstract Cancer is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Nanotechnology, particularly nanoparticle-based platforms, is at the leading edge of current cancer management research. Polymer-based nanosystems have piqued the interest of researchers owing to their many benefits over other conventional drug delivery systems. Polymers derived from both natural and synthetic sources have various biomedical applications due to unique qualities like porosity, mechanical strength, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Polymers such as poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), polycaprolactone (PCL), and polyethylene glycol (PEG) have been approved by the USFDA and are being researched for drug delivery applications. They have been reported to be potential carriers for drug loading and are used in theranostic applications. In this review, we have primarily focused on the aforementioned polymers and their conjugates. In addition, the therapeutic and diagnostic implications of polymer-based nanosystems have been briefly reviewed. Furthermore, the safety of the developed polymeric formulations is crucial, and we have discussed their biocompatibility in detail. This article also discusses recent developments in block co-polymer-based nanosystems for cancer treatment. The review ends with the challenges of clinical translation of polymer-based nanosystems in drug delivery for cancer therapy.
Thermionic emission and work function of multiwalled carbon nanotube yarns

Thermionic emission from multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) was investigated by using MWNT yarns. The work function of MWNT and thermionic emission constant of the yarn sample were both calculated from the thermionic emission data. The measured work function of MWNT is about $4.54\char21{}4.64\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$. The emission constant is larger than conventional thermionic cathode. Thermionic emission electron energy spectra at various temperatures have also been measured by using the MWNT yarn as the thermionic cathode in an electron momentum spectra instrument. The full width at half maximum of the spectra show a linear relation with the temperature. The carbon nanotube yarn may be used as thermionic cathode to replace the conventional cathode for their special properties.
AFHIRIS: African Human Iris Dataset (Version 1)

Biometric systems remain the most widely used methods for identification and authentication purposes. Their wide acceptability has opened up more research into new application areas of biometric systems. However, biometric research requires an appropriate biometric dataset to validate the proposed technique. This dataset could be privately owned or publicly available for research purposes. In the field of iris biometric research, the iris dataset produced by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CASIA) is the first, most popular, and widely used publicly available iris dataset. However, the increasing popularity and acceptability of human iris-related research have called for additional benchmarks, and therefore, new publicly available databases of human iris images. Existing publicly available human iris datasets have been collected from non-African subjects; therefore, this dataset is the first publicly available human iris dataset of African descent. Three categories of images were collected from 1028 volunteers that participated in the data collection task. The first category was made up of four iris images that were captured when the volunteers used spectacles, while the second category includes four iris images that were captured when the volunteers wore no spectacles. However, the third category of iris images was obtained from eight volunteers that used print-patterned contact lenses. Only four images were captured from volunteers in this category as they were not asked to put on spectacles. In addition to the iris images captured, soft biometric features such as age, gender, state of origin, weight, and height of the volunteers were also captured. It is strongly believed that this unique collection of iris datasets of African descent will open up new research in the study of the human iris.
Chemical Chaperones to Inhibit Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress: Implications in Diseases

Abstract The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is responsible for structural transformation or folding of de novo proteins for transport to the Golgi. When the folding capacity of the ER is exceeded or excessive accumulation of misfolded proteins occurs, the ER enters a stressed condition (ER stress) and unfolded protein responses (UPR) are triggered in order to rescue cells from the stress. Recovery of ER proceeds toward either survival or cell apoptosis. ER stress is implicated in many pathologies, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory diseases, neurodegeneration, and lysosomal storage diseases. As a survival or adaptation mechanism, chaperone molecules are upregulated to manage ER stress. Chemical versions of chaperone have been developed in search of drug candidates for ER stress-related diseases. In this review, synthetic or semi-synthetic chemical chaperones are categorized according to potential therapeutic area and listed along with their chemical structure and activity. Although only a few chemical chaperones have been approved as pharmaceutical drugs, a dramatic increase in literatures over the recent decades indicates enormous amount of efforts paid by many researchers. The efforts warrant clearer understanding of ER stress and the related diseases and consequently will offer a promising drug discovery platform with chaperone activity.
A cohesive, person-centric evidence-based model for successful rehabilitation after stroke and other disabling conditions

Professor Derick Wade, in his valedictory editorial for Clinical Rehabilitation after 27 years in the editor’s chair, makes many important observations about the changing understanding of rehabilitation during his professional life and reflects on his phenomenal contribution to the field. Most importantly, he states that ‘rehabilitation is much broader than traditional medical practice’ and that ‘psychology, sociology and other behavioural sciences’ are relevant to its practice. He champions the Biopsychosocial model of wellness and despairs of the ‘biomedical approach’ to much of non-rehabilitation medicine. He concludes that he has ‘developed a reasonably cohesive model of what rehabilitation is’. We think he could go further and, in this article, using a much broader time horizon and evidence from large, randomised trials, we propose a cohesive model for rehabilitation with the evidence mainly from the field of stroke, arguing that successful rehabilitation depends most on the person, not the health professionals who may be involved. This key idea requires us to rethink current rehabilitation dogma, including the pre-eminence of the health professional team, the belief that success is fundamentally about rehabilitation ‘dose’ and the use of ‘SMART’ (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Timed) and similar goal-setting strategies. In 1972, Dr Howard Rusk, often credited as the ‘father’ of modern comprehensive rehabilitation, proposed two principles for successful rehabilitation outcomes. The first was that ‘the whole person needed rehabilitation, not just the part of him that had been damaged’ and the second that ‘Ultimately, the success of all rehabilitation depends on the patient himself’. Even earlier, Abraham Maslow, one of the great pioneers of
Treatment Outcomes Of Patients With Newly Diagnosed Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia; Experience From A Developing Country.

BACKGROUND Acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) characterized by t (15;17) leading to formation of fusion protein PML-RARA is an acute leukaemia with highest mortality. A remarkable improvement in the outcomes has been witnessed due to evolution of highly effective targeted therapies replacing the traditional chemotherapy is most patients. However limited data is available regarding treatment outcomes of APL using various novel regimens from developing countries like Pakistan. METHODS This was a retrospective descriptive study which included APL patients treated at AFBMTC Rawalpindi from 2005 to 2020. It included a total of 51 eligible patients with a diagnosis of de novo APL confirmed by the presence of PML-RARA transcript or presence of t (15;17) by cytogenetics or FISH analysis. The protocols used for treatment included the UKAML MRC 12, the LPA-99/LPA-2005 PETHEMA, the APML4 and non-chemotherapy based ATO-ATRA protocol. RESULTS The study included 51 patients in which 31 (60.78%) were male and 20 (39.2%) were female. The median age at diagnosis was 30 years (range 5-70). The commonest symptom was fever seen in 43 (84.3%) patients and bruising was the commonest physical finding present in 44 (86.3%) patients. High-risk patients were 23 (46.1%), 18 (35.3%) were intermediate risk and 10 (19.6%) were low risk. The LPA99/LPA2005 was most frequently employed protocol being used in 36 (72%) patients. There were 2 deaths during induction and 44 (86.3%) achieved CR post induction. The median follow up time was 32 months (range 1 to 190 months) with an overall survival (OS) of 76.5% and a relapse free survival (RFS) of 66.7. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows APL is a highly curable malignancy and outcomes have improved with newer non chemotherapy based therapies. It can also be concluded that outcomes of APL gradually improved over the past 2 decades due to improvement in supportive care, provision of blood products and use of newer protocols. The prognosis remains less favourable in high risk patients.
General magnetic reconnection, parallel electric fields, and helicity

Analyzing the qualitative three-dimensional magnetic structure of a plasmoid, we were led to reconsider the concept of magnetic reconnection from a general point of view. The properties of relatively simple magnetic field models provide a strong preference for one of two definitions of magnetic reconnection that exist in the literature. Any concept of magnetic reconnection defined in terms of magnetic topology seems naturally restricted to cases where the magnetic field vanishes somewhere in the nonideal (diffusion) region. The main part of this paper is concerned with magnetic reconnection in nonvanishing magnetic fields (finite-B reconnection), which has attracted less attention in the past. We show that E/sub parallel/ (the electric field component parallel to the magnetic field) plays a crucial physical role in finite-B reconnection, and we present two theorems involving E/sub parallel/. The first states a necessary and sufficient condition on E/sub parallel/ for global reconnection to occur. Here the term ''global'' means the generic case where the breakdown of magnetic connection occurs for plasma elements that stay outside the nonideal region. The second theorem relates the change of magnetic helicity to E/sub parallel/ for cases where the electric field vanishes at large distances. That these results provide new insightmore » into three-dimensional reconnection processes is illustrated in terms of the plasmoid configuration, which was our starting point. copyright American Geophysical Union 1988« less
Photoluminescence property of InGaN single quantum well with embedded AlGaN δ layer

We investigate the photoluminescence (PL) properties of a thick InGaN single quantum well (SQW) in which an AlGaN δ layer is embedded. The δ layer offers an extra degree of freedom which may be employed to tune the emission wavelength. One of the most salient features of such a QW structure is that the long-wavelength tuning is feasible with lower indium composition. The δ layer also increases the wave function overlap between holes and electrons, shortening the PL lifetime. All the measurement results are consistent with the numerical predictions. The QW structure could be of great importance in the design of long-wavelength lasers.
On sequences of integers with no 4, or no 5 numbers in arithmetical progression

This would imply that every strictly increasing sequence of integers with positive upper density contains arbitrarily long arithmetical progressions. Although the conjecture (2) has been the subject of considerable interest (see references) over the past 30 years, our knowledge in relation to it remains very limited. That t(2) = 0 is trivial. In 1952, K. F. Roth [4], [5] proved that t(3) = 0. The cases of (2) for k > 3 remain unsettled. Although the conjecture (2) has proved very resistant, it is not hard in principle to obtain upper bounds for r<i:) (for any particular k). For it is easily seen that (1) implies rik) = inf* a(k)(x), so that we need only compute Alk)(x) for particular x to obtain upper bounds for T(t). The first such computations, in the case k = 3, were carried out by Erdös and Turan [1] in 1936 (but see also [2] for a correction of these results). More precise results were obtained by L. Moser [3] in 1953. The purpose of the present paper is to obtain upper bounds for t(4> and t(6> similar to those for r(3) before t(3) = 0 was known. I wish to thank Professor Roth for suggesting the problem to me, and for his help and encouragement in preparing this paper for publication. Thanks also goes to E. Jensen and R. Howell of M.I. T. , whose clever ideas helped my computer program run efficiently. Using the PDP-1 computer at M.I. T. , I computed values of A m(x) and A w(x) for 1 ¿ x =g 52, and of A^(x) for 1 ^ x ^ 31. See Table I. The values of ATM(x) were computed for comparison with the other results. The best results obtained were
Steady Shock Waves in Composite Materials

The shock wave generated by a planar impact of a flyer plate and propagated along the direction of the fibers of a composite was studied. The sample composite used in the experiments was made of unidirectional aluminum fibers cast in an Epoxy matrix. Both the shock‐wave velocity and the free surface velocity were measured by means of an optical technique. The shock front in the composite was found to be steady. The results of the measured Hugoniot also give a satisfactory comparison with those obtained from an analysis proposed earlier. The observation of a steady shock in the present work is significant in treating problems involving composite materials.