Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Use of Shells of Marine Molluscs in Spanish Ethnomedicine: A Historical Approach and Present and Future Perspectives

Since ancient times, the shells of marine molluscs have been used as a therapeutic and/or prophylactic resource. In Spain, they were part of practical guides for doctors or pharmacists until the 19th century. In general, seashells were prepared by dissolving in vinegar and were part of plasters or powders used as toothpaste, or to treat dyspepsia, heartburn and leprosy. Thus, the nacre or mother-of-pearl of various molluscs was regularly used in the Royal Colleges of Surgery and in hospitals during the times of the Cortes of Cadiz, as a medicine in galenic preparations based on powders. In contemporary Spanish ethnomedicine, seashells, with a high symbolic value, have been used as an amulet to prevent cracks in the breasts and promote their development during lactation, to avoid teething pain in young children, to eliminate stains on the face or to cure erysipelas. But, as in other countries, products derived from seashells have also been empirically applied. The two resources used traditionally have been the cuttlebone, the internal shell of cuttlefish and the nacre obtained from the external shells of some species. Cuttlebone, dried and pulverised, has been applied externally to cure corneal leukoma and in dental hygiene. In the case of nacre, a distinction must be made between chemical and physical remedies. Certain seashells, macerated in lemon juice, were used in coastal areas to remove spots on the face during postpartum. However, the most common practice in Spain mainland was to dissolve mother-of-pearl buttons in lemon juice (or vinegar). The substance thus obtained has been used to treat different dermatological conditions of the face (chloasma, acne), as well as to eliminate freckles. For the extraction of foreign bodies in the eyes, a very widespread traditional remedy has been to introduce small mother-of-pearl buttons under the lid. These popular remedies and practices are compared with those collected in classic works of medicine throughout history, and data on the pharmacological activity and pharmaceutical applications of the products used are provided. The use of cuttlebone powders is supported by different works on anti-inflammatory, immune-modulatory and/or wound healing properties. Nacre powder has been used in traditional medicines to treat palpitations, convulsions or epilepsy. As sedation and a tranquilisation agent, nacre is an interesting source for further drug development. Likewise, nacre is a biomaterial for orthopaedic and other tissue bioengineering applications. This article is a historical, cultural and anthropological view that can open new epistemological paths in marine-derived product research.
A Fully Non-Volatile Reconfigurable Magnetic Arithmetic Logic Unit Based on Majority Logic

Spintronics has been garnering great success in resolving the shortcomings of conventional charge-based electronics and von-Neumann architecture by offering novel computational paradigms almost devoid of leakage effects and volatility issues of traditional CMOS systems. Especially, hybrid CMOS/MTJ circuits integrating all benefits of spintronics with well-evolved CMOS technology have been extensively investigated as candidates for building next-generation processors. Motivated by the importance of magnetic processors, in this work, a novel fully non-volatile reconfigurable magnetic arithmetic logic unit (NVRMALU) based on majority logic has been proposed. This paper encompasses the prospects of NVRMALU at both the architecture level and circuit level by discussing multi-context hybrid CMOS/MTJ LIM architecture and operation of the circuit. Furthermore, the simulation results of the proposed fully non-volatile reconfigurable magnetic full adder (NVRMFA) making up NVRMALU reveal a remarkable total power reduction by around six to forty-seven folds compared to its contemporary magnetic full adders (MFAs) discussed here. Also, NVRMALU is superior to double pass transistor clocked CMOS (DPTLCMOS) ALU in terms of power reduction by six times, thus qualifying it as an excellent normally OFF, Instant ON digital system. A four-bit extension of NVRMALU has been presented as a sign of the feasibility of the design for multi-bit applications. The transient analysis demonstrates nonvolatile and dynamic reconfigurable traits of NVRMALU in addition to functionality verification. Additionally, variability analysis has been performed to study the factors controlling read and write performances of hybrid circuits from a device-level perspective.
EXPLANATION SHIITE IDENTITY SEEKING AND THE MIDDLE EAST'S NEW GEOPOLITICS

Introduction Social movements are regarded as one of the most efficient factors affecting the Middle East’s regional geopolitics. Such a development can be taken into consideration in the process of political changes in the spring of 2011. Watching the Middle East's developments, one can see fundamental changes in the power structure, political process and geopolitical formations. In this process, grounds have been prepared for structural changes, shift of power, and the spread of political instability. The evolutions including the political leaders change in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and suppression of the Shiite revolutions in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Syria, are political changes. The United States, as a world power, is trying to create new geopolitics in the region within the framework of the Middle East's political developments. The article by using content analysis method based on library sources pursues to explain Middle East's recent developments. The findings tend to define Shiite's identity seeking on the basis of three focal points of "demographic growth", "participation in power", and "political geography".
Aromatic compounds depurative and plant growth promotion rhizobacteria abilities of Allenrolfea vaginata (Amaranthaceae) rhizosphere microbial communities from a solar saltern hypersaline soil

Introduction This work investigates whether rhizosphere microorganisms that colonize halophyte plants thriving in saline habitats can tolerate salinity and provide beneficial effects to their hosts, protecting them from environmental stresses, such as aromatic compound (AC) pollution. Methods To address this question, we conducted a series of experiments. First, we evaluated the effects of phenol, tyrosine, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic (2,4-D) acids on the soil rhizosphere microbial community associated with the halophyte Allenrolfea vaginata. We then determined the ability of bacterial isolates from these microbial communities to utilize these ACs as carbon sources. Finally, we assessed their ability to promote plant growth under saline conditions. Results Our study revealed that each AC had a different impact on the structure and alpha and beta diversity of the halophyte bacterial (but not archaeal) communities. Notably, 2,4-D and phenol, to a lesser degree, had the most substantial decreasing effects. The removal of ACs by the rhizosphere community varied from 15% (2,4-D) to 100% (the other three ACs), depending on the concentration. Halomonas isolates were the most abundant and diverse strains capable of degrading the ACs, with strains of Marinobacter, Alkalihalobacillus, Thalassobacillus, Oceanobacillus, and the archaea Haladaptatus also exhibiting catabolic properties. Moreover, our study found that halophile strains Halomonas sp. LV-8T and Marinobacter sp. LV-48T enhanced the growth and protection of Arabidopsis thaliana plants by 30% to 55% under salt-stress conditions. Discussion These results suggest that moderate halophile microbial communities may protect halophytes from salinity and potential adverse effects of aromatic compounds through depurative processes.
QUICKeR: Quicker Updates Involving Continuous Key Rotation

Since the advent of cloud computing, storing large quantities of sensitive data on remote services have demanded secure encryption practices to maintain data privacy. Merely encrypting data at-rest leaves ciphertexts vulnerable to inevitable key leakage from mismanaged keys, side-channel attacks, and security bugs. To combat this, we propose QUICKeR, a system to facilitate continuous key rotation and ciphertext updates. Unfortunately, continuous ciphertext updates from key rotation interferes with routine access operations by introducing race conditions and performance bottlenecks that preclude prior works from practical use. QUICKeR addresses these concerns through protocols that eliminate race conditions and even achieve the stronger linearizability correctness criterion. In addition, QUICKeR proposes three approaches to implement frequent ciphertext updates. We show how these different update schemes perform under different database bottlenecks. Finally, we demonstrate that QUICKeR is practical through end-to-end experiments showing that routine access operations are not significantly impacted by ciphertext update operations.
Preventing and Resolving Water Use Conflicts in the Mount Kenya Highland–Lowland System through Water Users' Associations

Abstract In recent decades, the Mount Kenya highland–lowland system, which includes the Ewaso Ngiro North Basin, has experienced complex ecological and socioeconomic dynamics. These are reflected in changing land use systems and practices as well as in a rapidly growing human population, especially in the footzones and adjacent lowlands. These changes have exerted unremitting pressure on water resources, especially because the demand for water by different user groups has continued to grow, against the backdrop of expensive alternative sources (rainwater and groundwater harvesting) and increasingly dwindling river water resources. As each of the user groups moves to make substantial claims to available river water, competition for the resource becomes even sharper, thus setting the stage for conflicts related to scarcity that intensify during the dry season, at times resulting in fatal physical conflicts among different user groups in the basin, especially between upstream and downstream users. Different approaches have been used to address these scarcity-related conflicts. The present article discusses Water Users' Associations as one of the most effective initiatives launched to address the problem of water use conflicts in the basin in the recent past.
SAM-UNETR: Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer Segmentation Using Transfer Learning From Large Model

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality among men worldwide. Accurate and efficient segmentation of clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) regions from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays a crucial role in diagnosis, treatment planning, and monitoring of the disease, however, this is a challenging task even for the specialized clinicians. This study presents SAM-UNETR, a novel model for segmenting csPCa regions from MRI images. SAM-UNETR combines a transformer-encoder from the Segment Anything Model (SAM), a versatile segmentation model trained on 11 million images, with a residual-convolution decoder inspired by UNETR. The model uses multiple image modalities and applies prostate zone segmentation, normalization, and data augmentation as preprocessing steps. The performance of SAM-UNETR is compared with three other models using the same strategy and preprocessing. The results show that SAM-UNETR achieves superior reliability and accuracy in csPCa segmentation, especially when using transfer learning for the image encoder. This demonstrates the adaptability of large-scale models for different tasks. SAM-UNETR attains a Dice Score of 0.467 and an AUROC of 0.77 for csPCa prediction.
Adaptability of MANET Routing Protocols for VANETS

In recent years, co-friendly transportation is becoming more and more important. Vehicular ad hoc networks are emerging as a new class of wireless network spontaneously formed between moving vehicles equipped with wireless interfaces, employing short-range to medium-range communication. One of the most distinguishing features of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETS) is the increased mobility of the nodes. Many routing protocols for MANETS have been proposed to date. Among them, DSDV is a representative table-driven protocol, while AODV and DSR are two representative on-demand protocols. This paper proposes ns-2 simulation result by comparing these three protocols at different number of nodes and at different mobility. This comparison result helps in checking the adaptability of MANET routing protocol for Vehicular Ad hoc networks. The scenarios used in the simulation experiments take into account a variety of environmental factors that influence protocol performance. The performance of the protocols is compared in terms of their packet delivery ratio, end to end delay and routing overhead.
Experiments on Lichen Growth, III. The Shape of the Age-Size Curve

ABSTRACT A field experiment was conducted in the Front Range of the Colorado Rocky Mountains to test the hypothesis that lichen age-size curves differ in shape because an inherently sigmoidal growth pattern is interrupted at different stages in its development by a linear growth phase. Large, circular thalli of three morphologically dissimilar species were studied on smooth rock surfaces. Thallus interiors were removed with a knife and wire brush, creating curved wedges of lichen tissue. Distances from reference marks to the unmodified outer margins of the thalli were measured at various wedge widths. Measurements were repeated after 2–16 years, depending upon species. As predicted by the hypothesis, radial growth of Xanthoparmelia coloradoensis and Lecanora novomexicana accelerated with increasing wedge width, becoming linear at average rates of 2.01 and 0.12 mm yr−1, respectively. Radial growth of Rhizocarpon superficiale accelerated to a maximum average rate of 0.016 mm yr−1, then slowed, defining a more complete sigmoidal curve. This species showed no evidence of a linear growth phase, either because none exists or because the wedges were too narrow to detect it. The margins of R. superficiale thalli alternately advance and retreat due to changes in moisture availability and differences in photosynthate production within outer rings of areolate tissue. Hypothalli and areolae grow independently of each other over the short term, though their long-term growth rates must necessarily be similar. The data suggest that areolate crustose lichens are fundamentally different from foliose and placodioid lichens, and that inferences based on one group should not necessarily be extrapolated to another.
35 years of grey system theory in economics and education

PurposeThe Grey System Theory (GST) is an emerging area of research within artificial intelligence. Since its founding in 1982, it has seen a lot of multidisciplinary applications. In just a short period, it has garnered some considerable strengths. Based on the 1987–2021 data collected from the Web of Science (WoS), the current study reports the advancement of the GST.Design/methodology/approachResearch papers utilizing the GST in the fields of economics and education were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) platform using a set of predetermined keywords. In the final stage of the process, the papers that underwent analysis were manually chosen, with selection criteria based on the information presented in the titles and abstracts.FindingsThe study identifies prominent authors, institutions, publications and journals closely associated with the subject. In terms of authors, two major clusters are identified around Liu SF and Wang ZX, while the institution with the highest number of publications is Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Moreover, significant keywords, trends and research directions have been extracted and analyzed. Additionally, the study highlights the regions where the theory holds substantial influence.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is subject to certain limitations stemming from factors such as the language employed in the chosen literature, the papers included within the Web of Science (WoS) database, the designation of works categorized as “articles” in the database, the specific selection of keywords and keyword combinations, and the meticulous manual process employed for paper selection. While the manual selection process itself is not inherently limiting, it demands a greater investment of time and meticulous attention, contributing to the overall limitations of the study.Practical implicationsThe significance of the study extends not only to scholars and practitioners but also to readers who observe the development of emerging scientific disciplines.Originality/valueThe analysis of trends revealed a growing emphasis on the application of GST in diverse domains, including supply chain management, manufacturing and economic development. Notably, the emergence of COVID-19 as a new research focal point among GST scholars is evident. The heightened interest in COVID-19 can be attributed to its global impact across various academic disciplines. However, it is improbable that this interest will persist in the long term, as the pandemic is gradually brought under control.
The relationship between cognition and white matter tract damage after mild traumatic brain injury in a premorbidly healthy, hospitalised adult cohort during the post-acute period

Introduction Recent developments in neuroimaging techniques enable increasingly sensitive consideration of the cognitive impact of damage to white matter tract (WMT) microstructural organisation after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Objective This study investigated the relationship between WMT microstructural properties and cognitive performance. Participants, setting and design Using an observational design, a group of 26 premorbidly healthy adults with mTBI and a group of 20 premorbidly healthy trauma control (TC) participants who were well-matched on age, sex, premorbid functioning and a range of physical, psychological and trauma-related variables, were recruited following hospital admission for traumatic injury. Main measures All participants underwent comprehensive unblinded neuropsychological examination and structural neuroimaging as outpatients 6–10 weeks after injury. Neuropsychological examination included measures of speed of processing, attention, memory, executive function, affective state, pain, fatigue and self-reported outcome. The WMT microstructural properties were estimated using both diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) modelling techniques. Tract properties were compared between the corpus callosum, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus, anterior corona radiata and three segmented sections of the superior longitudinal fasciculus. Results For the TC group, in all investigated tracts, with the exception of the uncinate fasciculus, two DTI metrics (fractional anisotropy and apparent diffusion coefficient) and one NODDI metric (intra-cellular volume fraction) revealed expected predictive linear relationships between extent of WMT microstructural organisation and processing speed, memory and executive function. The mTBI group showed a strikingly different pattern relative to the TC group, with no relationships evident between WMT microstructural organisation and cognition on most tracts. Conclusion These findings indicate that the predictive relationship that normally exists in adults between WMT microstructural organisation and cognition, is significantly disrupted 6–10 weeks after mTBI and suggests that WMT microstructural organisation and cognitive function have disparate recovery trajectories.
Swarm Reinforcement Learning for Collaborative Content Caching in Information Centric Networks

In-network content caching is a fundamental functionality in Information Centric Network (ICN), which facilitates content distribution with reduced bandwidth consumption, lower network congestion, and faster content retrieval. However, traditional heuristic caching strategies often fail to handle dynamic ICN environments, and most leaning-based strategies cannot realize secured content caching for distributed ICN. In observation of these challenges, this paper investigates collaborative content caching in ICN, and proposes a novel algorithm, called Swarm Reinforcement Learning (SRL), for designing a secured caching mechanism in distributed ICN caching platform. SRL inherits salients features from both Swarm Learning (SL) and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL): it enables a fully decentralized learning process and strictly guarantees the privacy and security of data and models during collaborative caching by leveraging the blockchain technique; SRL also lets local ICN router interact with the local environment and integrate the learned knowledge with other ICN routers for constructing a collaborative caching strategy that maximizes the long-term reward of the entire ICN caching platform. We carry out systematic experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The results show that SRL-based collaborative caching outperforms state-of-the-art caching strategies in terms of cache hit rate and content retrieval delay, and also improves the stability of the ICN caching platform.
Energy Efficiency Enhancement for LoRaWAN Networks with Multiple Gateways

LoRaWAN has emerged as a promising and suitable technology for massive machine-type communications. The emerging trend of green communication networking will play a significant role in minimizing power consumption for different battery-powered nodes. The Aloha access scheme used in LoRaWAN leads to a high probability of collision, reducing the network throughput on a large scale. Thus, enhancing the energy efficiency of LoRaWAN networks has become paramount. In this work, we propose a novel spreading factor selection and power control algorithm, named EE-LoRa, to improve the energy efficiency of LoRaWAN networks with multiple gateways. We first devise an optimization problem that maximizes the energy efficiency of the network, defined as a benefit-cost ratio between the network throughput and the consumed energy. Then, power control is applied to tune the transmission power at nodes to the lowest possible levels without affecting the reliability of communications. The simulation results show that EE-LoRa significantly improves the energy efficiency of LoRaWAN networks when compared to legacy LoRaWAN and relevant state-of-the-art algorithms.