Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Automated greenhouse with forced air circulation for vertical drying of Fibroin plates

In processing applied to drying samples that require a parameter with greater specificity, the internal temperature control and the homogenization of the equipment chamber is fundamental in reducing the risks of modifications to active principles, which makes greenhouses with forced air circulation widely used and viable for such applications. The present project aims to the elaboration and construction of greenhouse with forced air circulation through of easily accessible materials, with automation by Arduino, being developed for vertical drying of Fibroin plates. In addition to conducting specific tests and statistical applications for validation of the same. Characterized in an experimental study, with material selection and appropriate equipments, elaboration and construction of the system in an economically viable way with standardized and controlled operation. In view of the aspects observed, achieved the development of a prototype of the equipment, verifying its functionality within the objectified parameters. Featuring a good alternative in the performance of the drying process of fibroin plates with good control of the estimated factors.
The uses of conspiracy

ABSTRACT This lesson offers students a way to analyze conspiracy theories while neither platforming dangerous ideas nor dismissing them as unworthy of academic study. Ideal for argument or rhetoric courses, first, the lesson advances conspiracy theories as a recognizable species of argument; second, the lesson uses a truncated version of Toulmin’s model of argument to equip students to engage the reasoning behind conspiratorial claims rather than the claim or its evidence. In so doing, students learn to isolate the most vulnerable part of an argument—what Toulmin calls its “warrant. ” By the lesson’s end, students engage in an empathetic imagining of what makes conspiracy theories desirable in the first place, no matter their content, re-emphasizing rhetoric’s civic roots in a time of vitriol. Courses Argumentation and Debate, Rhetorical Criticism, Introduction to Communication, Political Communication, Persuasion. Objectives By the lesson’s end, students will be able to (1) identify the conspiracy theory as a form of public argument, (2) engage examples of the form with empathetic imagination, and (3) use the Toulmin model to evaluate arguments otherwise dismissed.
Experimental and Simulation Investigations of the Cantilever Beam Energy Harvester

Machines, cars suspensions, buildings steel constructions etc. usually generate vibrations, which can be the excitement signal for piezoelectric energy harvesters. The piezoelectric patches attached to the vibrating construction have ability to convert mechanical energy of harmful vibrations into electrical energy.The goal of the study was to verify a finite element model of the piezoelectric beam energy harvester by comparing results of numerical simulations with those obtained experimentally. The stand used in the experiment consists of the cantilever beam with piezoelectric elements attached, which is excited by the base harmonic movement. The transverse displacements of the selected beam’s point and the base, and also the frequency of vibrations were observed and measured using an accelerometer and a B&K Pulse platform. A portable data acquisition module was used to quantify the voltage generated by the piezoelectric layers.The finite element model was built in ANSYS software. The beam and piezoelectric layers were modeled by twenty node elements with an additional electric degree of freedom for piezoelectric elements. A full piezoelectric matrix was used in the finite element analysis instead of a one-dimensional piezoelectric effect, which dominates in many analytical approaches. It allowed building a more accurate model of the system. The experimental tests and finite element method simulations were performed and acquired results were compared. The characteristics of voltage amplitude in the time and frequency domain were shown and discussed.
Study of a lithium-ion battery charge-discharge test unit characteristics*

The article describes the structure of a charge-discharge unit which allows to perform electrical, resource and thermal testing of several lithium-ion batteries simultaneously. The principle of operation of a one battery research channel (BRC) is shown. This study evaluated the stabilization error and rate of change of charge/discharge currents, the switching time from the charge mode to the discharge mode and vice versa for a single BRC and parallel BRCs. The possibility of increasing the maximum battery testing current due to the parallel connection of multiple BRCs without using a current alignment device between channels was discussed.
Compatibilization of PLA grafted maleic anhydrate through blending of thermoplastic starch (TPS) and nanoclay nanocomposites for the reduction of gas permeability

ABSTRACT Here, the effects of compatibilization and clay nanoparticles on the gas permeability of nanocomposites of poly-lactic acid (PLA)/thermoplastic starch (TPS)/nanoclay were discussed. TPS and compatibilized PLA/TPS were tailored in the first step. The starch with D-sorbitol as a plasticizer was mingled through the internal mixer. Afterward, the maleination method was utilized on PLA to ameliorate the compatibilization of PLA and TPS. In this regard, maleic anhydrate (MA) has been grafted on PLA in the presence of L101 as a peroxide initiator via melt mixing to obtain PLA-g-MA. The optimum content of PLA-g-MA was about 4 phr, confirmed by DMTA and SEM. Noteworthy, the presence of PLA-g-MA has moderately improved the oxygen barrier. Then, the nanocomposites of PLA and TPS containing 1% of Cloisite-30B as well as the optimum compatibilizer (4phr), were produced by melt mixing in the masterbatch module leading to the formation of an extraordinary well-dispersed structure according to XRD patterns. The mixing order controlled the localization of nanosheets. It was concluded that the inclusion of 1% nanoclay in the PLA phase reduces the oxygen permeability by 55% compared to the pristine blend due to the tortuosity effect of nanosheets that are appropriately dispersed in the matrix. Graphical Abstract
Recent Advances in Herbal Medicines – An Updated Review

Nowadays peoples throughout the world have been attracting towards the herbal medicines. Worldwide favour the traditional healthcare system, so day-by-day uses of herbal remedies to cure diseases is increase instead of alternative medicines. Herbal drugs have an ability to maintain health and to treat various diseases therefore herbal drugs have been used since very earlier days. To fulfil the public requirement many companies have been using herbal drug technology for converting botanical materials into medicines, where standardization, quality control, modern scientific techniques and traditional knowledge are very necessary. This review focuses on recent trends in Herbal drugs and main motto is to explain the therapeutic effectiveness of various herbal drugs, adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, standardization and stability testing of herbal medicines, pharmacovigilance and regulatory status of herbal medicines.
Driving factors of capital allocation efficiency in the artificial intelligence industry in China– the perspective of a financing ecosystem

ABSTRACT Based on a comprehensive consideration of financing ecological factors, this study constructs a financing ecosystem and capital allocation efficiency model to simulate the driving factors of capital allocation efficiency in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Our findings show that the capital allocation efficiency of the AI industry is expected to gradually decrease. Among the various components of the financing ecosystem, capital allocation efficiency is most sensitive to human capital quality, followed by the development of banking, marketisation level, degree of government intervention, and opening-up level. Finally, suggestions for optimising the financing ecosystem and improving capital allocation efficiency are presented.
Simulation Modeling and Analysis of Photovoltaic Array under Partial Shading

Based on the Equivalent model of traditional photovoltaic cells and considering the reverse avalanche effect in the shadow of photovoltaic cells,a parallel bypass diode is designed in the simulation of parallel PV module for avoiding the occurrence of hot spot effect.The established simulation model can simulate the output characteristics of photovoltaic array according to different shading conditions and temperature changes and thus place the basis for the further researches on maximum power point tracking(MPPT).
Evaluation of the efficiency of chemical cartridges for respiratory protection against SARS-CoV-2

Abstract The shortage of PFF2, N95, KN95, and FFP2 respirators in the COVID-19 pandemic required that alternative respiratory protection measures be adopted to reduce the number of cases of the disease. Given this scenario, with the purpose of proving that chemical cartridges offer some degree of protection against aerodispersoids, among these those of biological origin, such as SARS-CoV-2, the filtering efficiency of chemical cartridges was evaluated. The evaluation of the filtering efficiency of cartridges was performed using the air filter test method, which uses micrometric air particles for the penetration test. The research proved that chemical cartridges, in general, have an average efficiency above 85% for respiratory protection against aerodispersoids. The multigas cartridge and organic vapor/acid gas cartridge had an average filtration efficiency of 91%. Chemical cartridges associated with facial or semi-facial respirators can become powerful resources for respiratory protection for people exposed to the virus, when the use of PFF2 or equivalent respirators is not possible.
Interrelationship between cardiovascular and periodontal diseases

In the recent times studies relating the association of Oral and Systemic diseases has gained immense importance because the high occurrence of oral diseases is an extremely common source of infection. Periodontitis is ranked as the sixth most prevalent disease affecting humans affecting 740 million people worldwide. Periodontitis and cardiovascular disease have a complex etiology and genetics and share some common risk factors (i.e., smoking, age, diabetes, etc. The aim of this review is to look at the link between these two diseases. PD is a potential risk factor that may initiate the development, maturation, and instability of atheroma in the arteries. Two mechanisms were proposed to explain such association, either periodontal pathogens directly invade bloodstream or indirectly by increasing systemic level of inflammatory mediators. Interestingly, According to the current literature, it is concluded that there is a strong relationship between these chronic disorders. Improvement in the condition of one disease positively impact the condition of the other one emphasizing the association between these two diseases.
Too much of a good thing? The unforeseen importance of knowledge management and role clarity as antecedents of service quality in private hospitals in Ghana

The effective management of employees’ knowledge has been described as a critical ingredient for organizations seeking to ensure sustainable strategic competitive advantage in the market place. The goal of the study was to examine how knowledge management affect workers' job clarity and service quality. The cross-sectional survey approach was used in this study while purposive sampling technique was employed to select private hospitals. The research included 300 employees from Trust Hospital, Otoo Memorial Hospital, and Cocoa Hospital, all of which are private institutions in Ghana. Data was collected using the questionnaire. The analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 and Structural equation modeling. The findings demonstrated that service quality and knowledge management had a beneficial association.
Isoperimetric and Brunn-Minkowski inequalities for the (p, q)-mixed geominimal surface areas

Abstract Motivated by the celebrated work of Lutwak, Yang and Zhang [1] on ( p , q ) \left(p,q) -mixed volumes and that of Feng and He [2] on ( p , q ) \left(p,q) -mixed geominimal surface areas, we in the present paper establish and confirm the affine isoperimetric and Brunn-Minkowski-type inequalities with respect to ( p , q ) \left(p,q) -mixed geominimal surface areas.
Investigating and Prioritizing Factors Affecting Intellectual Capital Management Based on Bontis Model Using Hierarchical Analysis Method in Municipality

Today, the necessity of the development and management of intellectual capital has become a serious requirement at the macro-national level and in the business arena and led to the paradigm change governing the industrial economy by moving towards a knowledge-based economy. The purpose of this study is to investigate and prioritize the factors affecting intellectual capital management based on Bontis model using hierarchical analysis method in municipality of Terengganu province. The field research and questionnaire extracted from the original questionnaire were used for data collection. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed. The statistical population of this study was all 145 managers of Terengganu municipality in central building of the municipality. The hierarchical analysis method was used for analyzing the data by Expert choice software. The research findings showed that among the three main components, human capital was in the first priority, which means that it should be invested more in this area and structural capital was in the last priority. Among all the indicators identified, abilities and knowledge and skill were in the first priority and common conditions were in the last priority.
Overexpression of Nrf2 protects cerebral cortical neurons from ethanol-induced apoptotic death Molecular

Ethanol (ETOH) can cause apoptotic death of neurons by depleting glutathione (GSH) with an associated increase in oxidative stress (Rathinam et al., 2006). The current study illustrates a means to overcome this ETOH-induced neurotoxicity by enhancing GSH through boosting Nrf2, a transcription factor which controls GSH homeostasis. ETOH treatment caused a significant increase in Nrf2 protein, transcript expression, the Nrf2-DNA binding activity and expression of its transcriptional target, NQO1 in PCNs. However, this increase in Nrf2 did not maintain GSH levels in response to ETOH and apoptotic death still occurred. To elucidate this phenomenon, we silenced Nrf2 in neurons and found that ETOH induced GSH depletion and the increase in superoxide levels were exacerbated. Further, Nrf2 knockdown resulted in significantly increased (P<0.05) caspase-3 activity and apoptosis. Adenovirus mediated overexpression of Nrf2 prevented ETOH induced depletion of GSH from medium and high GSH subpopulation and prevented ETOH-related apoptotic death. These studies illustrate the importance of Nrf2-dependent maintenance of GSH homeostasis in cerebral cortical neurons in the defense against oxidative stress and apoptotic death elicited by ETOH exposure.
Overview of CapsNet Performance Evaluation Methods for Image Classification using a Dual Input Capsule Network as a Case Study

Performance evaluation is a critical part of deep learning (DL) that requires careful conduct to enhance confidence and reliability. Several metrics exist to evaluate DL models, however, choosing one for a given model is not trivial, since it is not a one-fit-all solution. Practically, accuracy is the most popularly used evaluation metric for capsule networks (CapsNets). This is problematic for sensitive applications (e.g. health), since accuracy is overly optimistic in the presence of class imbalance, and does not permit the exact reporting of a model’s risk of bias and potential usefulness. This paper, therefore, aims at demonstrating the usefulness of other metrics for performance evaluation as well as interpretability through the implementation of a custom capsule model. The metrics are effective in measuring the real performance of the models in terms of accuracy (93.03% for proposed model), number of parameters (≈ 4 million fewer for proposed model), ability to scale and fail-safe, and the effectiveness of the routing process when evaluated on the datasets. Evaluating a CapsNet model with all these metrics has the potential to enhance the practitioner’s confidence and also improve model understandability and reliability. © 2022 University of Bahrain. All rights reserved.
Meta Learning the Step Size in Policy Gradient Methods

Policy-based algorithms are among the most widely adopted techniques in model-free RL, thanks to their strong theoretical groundings and good properties in continuous action spaces. Unfortunately, these methods require precise and problem-speciﬁc hyperparameter tuning to achieve good performance and, as a consequence, they tend to struggle when asked to accomplish a series of heterogeneous tasks. In particular, the selection of the step size has a crucial impact on the ability to learn a highly performing policy, aﬀecting the speed and the stability of the training process, and often being the main culprit for poor results. In this paper, we tackle these issues with a Meta Reinforcement Learning approach, by introducing a new formulation, known as meta-MDP, that can be used to solve any hyperparameter selection problem in RL with contextual processes. After providing a theoretical Lipschitz bound to the performance in diﬀerent tasks, we adopt the proposed framework to train a batch RL algorithm to dynamically recommend the most adequate step size for diﬀerent policies and tasks. In conclusion, we present an experimental campaign to show the advantages of selecting an adaptive learning rate in heterogeneous environments.
Evaluation of bioactive compound content, in-vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of ethanol extract of the seed of Cucumis metuliferus fruit

Cucumis metuliferus commonly called Kiwano is a well-known plant in the middle belt area of Nigeria. It is consumed for nutritional and medicinal purposes. This study evaluated the bioactive compound content, In-vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of ethanol extract of the seed of Cucumis metuliferus fruit. The antioxidant properties were evaluated using DPPH (2, 2 diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical, iron reducing power and inhibition of lipid peroxidation tests. Ascorbic acid served as standard. The anti-inflammatory activity at concentration of 200-1000 μg/ml was measured In-vitro using anti-proteinase activity, membrane stabilization and inhibition of albumin denaturation assay systems. Aspirin and diclofenac were used as reference drugs. The bioactive compounds evaluated were phenol, flavonoid, beta carotene, lycopene and ascorbic acid. From the result, the seed extract contains phenol (149.40±9.93 mgGAE/g), flavonoids (97.84±2.84 mgCE/g), beta carotene (0.110±0.001 mg/g), lycopene (0.085±0.001 mg/g) and ascorbic acid (0.190±0.028 mgAA/g). In the antioxidant assays, the antioxidant activities were dependent on the concentration. At lower concentrations, the seed extract displayed higher activity in all the assays compared with the standard. The DPPH scavenging and lipid inhibition abilities of the seed were more potent with lower IC50 while the reductive potential of the standard was better. From the anti-inflammatory assays, the seed extract exhibited antiproteinase activity of 0-8.78%, membrane stabilization (inhibition of heat-induced haemolysis) activity of 5.13-20.51% and percent inhibition of albumin denaturation of 0.78-16.15%. These results showed that ethanol extract of Cucumis metuliferus seed contains bioactive compounds which are beneficial to health and possess antioxidant and antiinflammatory abilities.
Ovarian cancer in southeastern of Yemen

Introduction: Ovarian cancer is an important cause of mortality in women. The incidence of ovarian cancer and survival rates are still relatively unknown in southeast Yemen. This study takes into account trends in ovarian cancer incidence and survival rates by examining age, histological subtypes, residency, and treatment. Methods: The National Cancer Center Aden is the premier cancer care transformation center in the southeastern governorates and the source for collecting data on ovarian cancer mortality from 2014-2020 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Database. The age-adjusted incidence rate, the percentage incidence rate, the annual percentage changes (APC) by histopathology and age at diagnosis were calculated. The 5-year survival rates were calculated by stage and treatment. Results: Mean age at presentation: 48.14 years (SD 15, range 20-79 years); commonest histological sub-type: presentation of OVC types was the Serous cystadenocarcinoma 56(34%); The most frequently seen stage: 4 (53%) of all ovarian cancers), followed by stage 3 (28%). The mortality rate for women with ovarian cancer is slightly higher in the years studied. Mortality was higher during period of the war. Conclusions: Due to the lack of adequate information on the epidemiological records of ovarian cancer in Yemen, there is an urgent need to carry out a large population study in southeastern Yemen in order to improve the programs of prevention and control of ovarian cancer in the region by the support of Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization. Keyword: Ovarian Cancer; Chemotherapy; Histopathology; Mortality
1 3 D imaging techniques for characterising microcracks in cement-based materials 1

10 Concrete inherently contains pores and microcracks that can adversely impact its mechanical properties and long-term 11 durability. However, characterising microcracks is difficult due to their complex, multiscale and three-dimensional (3D) 12 nature. This paper presents an evaluation of 3D imaging techniques for characterising microcracks induced by different 13 mechanisms. Seven cement pastes, mortars and concretes subjected to drying shrinkage, autogenous shrinkage and 14 freeze-thaw cycles were investigated using focused ion beam nanotomography (FIB-nt), broad ion beam serial section 15 tomography (BIB-SST), laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) combined with serial sectioning and X-ray 16 microtomography (μCT). The study shows that the characteristics of microcracks vary significantly depending on 17 exposure conditions. Yet there is no single technique that can capture the entire size range of microcracks from sub to 18 tens of μm within a sufficiently representative sampling volume. The achievable image volume and resolution, and the 19 advantages and disadvantages of each technique are compared and discussed. 20
Resource Allocation in Post-Conflict Power Sharing Arrangements – Evidence from Lebanon

Post-conflict power-sharing arrangements not only allocate political power but also economic resources among powerful elites. This article investigates the mechanisms of rent allocation of a major source of such resources: Public procurement of large infrastructure projects. We analyze a new dataset of all infrastructure procurement contracts awarded between 2008 and 2018 by Lebanon’s Council of Development and Reconstruction (CDR), the major state institution to implement large infrastructure projects after the country’s civil war (1975-1990). We qualify the extent to which politically connected firms capture larger contract values by differentiating the “quality” of their connections. We find that connected firms capture larger project values, however, only those firms that are connected directly to the board of CDR and their political protégés, rather than the wider set of powerful political elites. We argue that the arrangements to share economic resources are based on collusive networks, upheld by norms of power-sharing behavior.