Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF THE BIOCHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR RESPONSES OF HALOXYLON AMMODENDRON GROWN ON HEAVY METAL POLLUTED SOIL IN AL-JOUF REGION OF SAUDIA ARABIA

Several factors, including biochemical patterns and gene expression patterns, were examined in Haloxylon ammodendron plants growing in two separate locations in the Al-Jouf region of Saudia Arabia. The soil in the two distinct locations has different properties, and the soil in one region has substantial quantities of heavy metals and agrochemicals, therefore it is deemed to be polluted. Samples were collected from the H. ammodendron growing on polluted and unpolluted soils and analyzed for different parameters. Plants growing on polluted soils showed significantly higher concentration of heavy metals and agrochemicals as compared to ones growing on unpolluted soil while as exhibited a significant decline in the content of essential mineral ions including potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese and iron. Lipid peroxidation and hydrogen peroxide increased in both leaves and stem of H. ammodendron growing on polluted soils with significant decline in nitrate and oxalate content. Plants that were grown in contaminated soils have enhanced activity of antioxidant enzymes like catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and superoxide dismutase (SOD). In addition, the content of secondary compounds including total phenols, tannins, saponins and alkaloids increased significantly in plants growing on polluted soils as compared to the plants growing on normal soil. The expression patterns of genes including heavy metal ATPase (HMA4), phytochelatin synthase (PCS1), heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and zinc transporter (ZIP4) also showed considerable increase in the plants growing on polluted soils as compared to the plants gown in unpolluted soil. The instant study reveals that heavy metal and agrochemical pollution has significant influence on the growth and metabolism of H. ammodendron vis-à-vis has the potential to up-regulate tolerance mechanisms to alleviate the damaging effects of heavy metals and agrochemicals.
The birds of Ydre Kitsissut (Kitsissut Avalliit), Southwest Greenland

Ydre Kitsissut (60°45-47'N, 48°25-29'W), an archipelago about 10 km off Nunarsuit in the district of Qaqortoq, is the only breeding reserve for birds in southern Greenland. However, it has only been visited by ornithologists four times: by F. Salomonsen on 3 July 1971, and by the authors for between 3 and 14 days in 1983, 1985, and 1992. Population sizes of the most abundant species in 1992 were: Fulmarus glacialis 125 occupied sites (32% with young); Somateria mollissima about 30 nests (and 500-1000 summering birds, together with c. 100 Somateria spectabilis); Larus hyperboreus at least 100 adults with 25-30 broods of young; Larus marinus 2 pairs, one brood (but 11 pairs in 1985); Rissa tridactyla 23 pairs, no young; Uria aalge 900 birds (about 630 pairs); Uria lomvia 9000 birds (6300 pairs); Alea torda 400-500 birds; Cepphus grylle 150 pairs (very rough estimate); Fratercula arctica 200 birds. Although numbers of Uria spp. in 1971 were reported as 61,200, there are good reasons to believe that this was a gross overestimate, and that actual numbers did not differ much from the more recent counts. Apparent population declines between 1983-85 and 1992 for Fulmarus glacialis, Larus marinus and Uria spp. may reflect a lower attendance at the colony in 1992 where the breeding success of these and most other species was low. The poor breeding performance was most likely a consequence of the cold and prolonged winter 1991/92, with persistent frost prevailing until after mid-June. In Uria spp. , however, egging and associated disturbance probably was the primary cause of breeding failure; residents of nearby villages habitually take eggs on Ydre Kitsissut in spite of its status as a bird reserve.
Developing and Documenting Problem-Solving Strategies for Computer Programming Before Code Writing

The purpose of this research-to-practice work-in-progress paper is to help students formalize the development and documentation of problem-solving strategies for computer programming, before attempting code writing, in a first course on Java programming. This approach could be beneficial: 1) for instructors to gain insight on students' problem-solving mental processes and to improve the evaluation of students' programming skills; 2) for students to develop an awareness of the process of developing problem-solving strategies, so they can reflect on their progress through the process of writing computer programs. We have adapted general problem-solving strategies developed in different areas of engineering and computer science to teaching computer programming. The process of developing and documenting computer programming strategies includes the following steps: 1) understanding the problem; 2) identifying/recalling similar problems; 3) developing strategies to solve the problem; 4) implementing a prototype as a computer program.
The Effects of Resveratrol Supplementation on the Quality of Life of Diabetic Patients with Neuropathy: Small Randomized Clinical Trial

The diabetic neuropathy complication exerts a considerable decline in the level of patient’s well-being. The main approaches to hamper the progression of diabetic complications and improve patient’s life quality are controlling the glycemic levels and amelioration of the hyperglycemia-induced neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and pain. Supplementation of appropriate anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidants such as resveratrol may therefore be effective in the management of diabetic complications. The aim of this trial was to assess resveratrol’s impact on improving life quality of patients with the neuropathic complication of diabetes. Sixty-one patients with diabetic neuropathy were recruited in this double-blinded placebo-controlled trial. Patients were randomized into the resveratrol (n=31) group; who received a 500mg resveratrol capsule once daily concomitantly with the conventional hypoglycemic agents for three months, and the placebo (n=30) group. From each group 25 patients completed the study. The quality of life (QoL) of the patients was estimated utilizing RAND 36-item survey questionnaire. Fasting blood glucose levels were analyzed at the baseline and on the last day of the 3rd month. There was a significant decrement (p< 0.001) in the fasting serum glucose level of the patients supplemented with resveratrol at the end of the 3rd month, in comparison with the patient using the placebo. There was also a significant improvement in patient’s severity of pain (p<0.001) as shown in the bodily pain score of the RAND 36 scale and a remarkable (p < 0.05) improvement in physical functioning, physical health, social functioning, emotional well-being, energy/fatigue, and health change subscales of the questionnaire. The study concluded that resveratrol is the polyphenol that has a positive effect on reducing pain associated with diabetic neuropathy and improving the overall QoL of the patient.
Spatial Mapping of Macular Pigment Optical Density and Its Relationship to Contrast Sensitivity and Glare Disability

Macular pigment (MP) is the shared term for three xanthophylliccarotenoids: lutein, zeaxanthin, and meso-zeaxanthin, which, relative to human serum concentrations, are highly concentrated in the central macula. The term macular pigment optical density (MPOD) refers to a quantifiable (typically in log units) value of the peak optical absorption density of MP in the central retina. MP alters the spectral composition of incident light due to its anatomic position relative to the photoreceptors. In addition to its short wavelength filtering properties, MP also exhibits potent antioxidant properties that have become the subject of interest for a wide range of retinal conditions, most notably, age-related macular degeneration. Recently, a number of studies have focused their efforts on the spectral properties of MP and its relationship with visual performance. These studies have demonstrated a correlation between central MPOD and visual performance measures including contrast sensitivity (Hammond et al., 2012 and Loughman et al., 2012), glare disability (Hammond et al., 2012 and Loughman et al., 2010), temporal sensitivity function (Renzi et al., 2010), glare discomfort (Stringham et al., 2011), and photostress recovery time (Stringham et al., 2007 and 2008). All of these visual performance metrics were measured at central fixation. No published studies have examined the relationship between visual performance and MPOD at parafoveal locations where MP levels are lower. The
Emotion Recognition Based on Electroencephalogram (EEG) Signals

Recently, doors have opened with a variety of con-temporary applications regarding Electroencephalogram (EEG) signal analysis. These new doors can be introduced as a way to detect emotions. In this research, some models of human emotion analysis based on brain signals will be presented. This study focuses on emotion recognition based on EEG signals analysis following two approaches: Spectral and Statistical analysis. Generated feature vectors were rated with the help of several classification algorithms, bringing the accuracy of emotion detection up to 85%. Furthermore, The source of EEG signals was examined by identifying the channel from which they were recorded. To facilitate the implementation of these analytics, a software Interface (API) that provides all the required technical functionalities was designed using Python programming language. Finally, analysis results were matched with the adopted human emotions model, and by observing classification results, the feasibility of emotion recognition based on EEG signals was concluded and what circumstances need to be addressed in such a system.
Understanding multivariate brain activity: Evaluating the effect of voxelwise noise correlations on population codes in functional magnetic resonance imaging

Previous studies have shown that neurons exhibit trial-by-trial correlated activity and that such noise correlations (NCs) greatly impact the accuracy of population codes. Meanwhile, multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) has become a mainstream approach in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), but it remains unclear how NCs between voxels affect MVPA accuracy. Here, we tackle this issue by combining voxel-encoding modeling and MVPA. We focus on a well-established form of NC, tuning compatible noise correlation (TCNC), whose sign and magnitude are systematically related to the tuning similarity between two units. We first replicate the classical finding that TCNCs impair population codes in a standard neuronal population. We then extend our analysis to fMRI data and show that voxelwise TCNCs do not impair and can even improve MVPA accuracy when TCNCs are strong or the number of voxels (i.e., pool size) is large. Further computational analyses demonstrate that the discrepancy between the effect of TCNCs in both neuronal and voxel populations can be explained by units’ tuning heterogeneity and pool sizes. Our results provide a theoretical foundation to understand the effect of correlated activity on population codes under different neural measurements. Our results also suggest that the conventional MVPA approach conflates several key aspects of neural coding, and future fMRI research may need to characterize different properties (e.g., NC) of multivariate responses to assess the accuracy of population codes. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Noise correlations (NC) is the key component of the multivariate response distribution and thus characterizing their effect on population codes is the cornerstone for understanding probabilistic computation in the brain. Despite extensive studies on NCs in unit recording experiments, little is known with respect to their role in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We characterize the effect of voxelwise NC by building voxel-encoding models and directly quantifying the amount of information in multivariate fMRI data. In contrast to the detrimental effects of NC implied in unit recording data, we find that the voxelwise NCs can enhance information codes in several situations. Our work provides a new approach to characterize population responses in fMRI research.
From Making Spaces to Making Change: The Future of Making in ECE

In this paper, we discuss the results and key findings of a daylong “Making and Makerspaces in Electrical and Computer Engineering” (ECE) workshop hosted in conjunction with the ECE Department Heads Association Annual Conference in 2022. This workshop brought together thought leaders in making and makerspaces from across ECE, engineering education, and the broader maker community to discuss the current state of (change)making in ECE, making with purpose, and anti-racist engineering spaces in addition to live maker activities at lunch and an unconference to discuss community, partnerships, and ECE in mechanical engineering makerspaces. Broadly, a key finding from the conference was the need to shift the conversation from talking about making spaces (which tend to focus more on the equipment and facilities management) to ecosystems of making change, including culture, identity, community partnerships, shifting from labs to makerspaces, and shifting from spaces to makerspaces. Another key finding was an ecosystem view of possible touchpoints for making in an engineering program, including making in pre-college, making for recruitment, making in undergraduate design classes, making in extracurricular settings, making for fun, and making at home --all leading toward growing a thriving, diverse engineering workforce of the future. The themes that emerged from the workshop discussions were summarized and presented to department heads about how makerspaces connect to broader efforts in the ECE community such as how to become more equitable and inclusive, how to rebrand programs to attract new students, and promote best practices in educating 21st century learners.
A Smooth and Fast I/f Control Method for PMSM Startup by Current Compensation Method

Sensorless control of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) has been well applied in many industrial applications due to its cost reduction and mechanical simplicity. The back-EMF based sensorless control has poor performance in low-speed range. Therefore in some applications where low-speed accurate control is not required, I/f control method is used for startup and switching to back-EMF-based sensorless control. During the startup, a large load torque disturbance causes large speed fluctuation and lead to oscillation even out of synchronism. This paper analyzes the causes and influencing factors of speed fluctuation, and based on that a control method by current compensation during startup is proposed The proposed method can be effectively applied to reduce the speed ripples without extending the startup time.
A cross-sectional study exploring the relationship between symptoms of anxiety/depression and P50 sensory gating in adult patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis

Introduction Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a clinical disease that affects multiple body systems. It is characterized by persistent or recurring fatigue, which may be linked to immune, neuroendocrine, and energy metabolism dysfunctions. Individuals with CFS may experience pain, sleep disorders, anxiety, and depression. This research analyzed the fundamental characteristics of anxiety/depression symptoms in patients with CFS and investigated the association between these symptoms and the P50 SG (sensory gate) ratio. Methods Two hundred and forty-nine subjects fulfilled the CDC-1994 criteria for CFS and were included in the study. The subjects successively completed the Symptom CheckList-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale-14 (HAMA-14), and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale-24 (HAMD-24). Auditory-evoked potential P50 were measured using the 128-lead-electroencephalograph. Result According to HAMA and HAMD, 17.3% (n = 43) of the patients did not exhibit anxiety/depression, with a threshold score of 7 and 7 for HAMA and HAMD. When the threshold score was 14 and 20 respectively, 43.3% (n = 108) of the patients did not exhibit anxiety/depression. The SCL-90-R results indicated that 69.5% (n = 173) of these individuals with the score arranging from 0 to 160 did not present mental problems. There was a correlation between somatization scores and P50 SG ratio in the overall sample and no anxiety or depression (NAOD) group delimited by 14 and 20, respectively, (p < 0.05). Regression analysis showed that anxiety and depression were risk factors associated with an abnormal P50 SG ratio. Discussion A significant correlation exists between the P50 SG ratio and clinical symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Abnormalities in brain function among patients with CFS may play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of the condition, leading to their classification as being prone to functional neurological disorders. The P50 SG ratio cannot be used as a diagnostic marker for CFS but show some significance on the mechanism, classification, treatment, and prognosis of CFS.
Novel N,S-Substituted naphthoquinone analogues from aminonaphthoquinones

In this study, novel N,S-substituted naphthaquinone analogues (2, 4, 6, and 8) were synthesized from the reactions of previously known aminonaphthaquinone derivatives (1, 3, 5, and 7) with allyl mercaptan. 2-(allylthio)-3-(4-phenylpiperazin-1-yl)naphthalene-1,4-dione (2), 2-(allylthio)-3-(4-(2-fluorophenyl)piperazin-1-yl)naphthalene-1,4-dione (4), 2-(allylthio) -3-(4-benzylpiperidin-1-yl)naphthalene-1,4-dione (6) and 2-(4-chlorophenylamino)-3-(allylthio)naphthalene-1,4-dione (8) were obtained from the reactions of 2-chloro-3-(4-phenylpiperazin-1-yl)naphthalene-1,4-dione (1), 2-chloro-3-(4-(2-fluorophenyl)piperazin-1-yl)naphthalene-1,4-dione (3), 2-(4-benzylpiperidin-1-yl)-3-chloronaphthalene-1,4-dione (5), and 2-(4-chlorophenylamino) -3-chloronaphthalene-1,4-dione (7) with allyl mercaptan according to the general synthesis procedure. Synthesized new naphthaquinone analogues (2, 4, 6, and 8) were purified by column chromatography. The chemical structures of these novel N,S-substituted naphthaquinone analogues were characterized by spectroscopic methods (FT-IR, NMR, and MS).
ADERLNet: Adaptive Denoising Enhancement Representation Learning for Low-Latency and High-Accurate Target Detection on SAR Sensors

Target detection on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery is critical to several military and civilian applications. However, the coherent imaging mechanism of SAR will inevitably generate speckle noise, reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of SAR imagery, resulting in the loss of certain important information related to texture, and thus degrading the accuracy of SAR image target detection. In addition, learning irrelevant features, such as natural clutter, increases the false alarm rate. To address these issues, this article proposes a high-accurate and low-latency SAR target detection network (ADERLNet) to enhance the ability of the target detection model to represent valid features from strongly noisy images and irrelevant features. Specifically, the deep target detection architecture incorporates soft thresholding functions as nonlinear transformation layers, which can eliminate noisy and irrelevant features by forcing these interference features to be zeros. Second, given that manually setting the appropriate thresholds in the soft thresholding functions is challenging, the thresholds in ADERLNet are automatically determined to avoid substantial signal processing expertise by integrating specially designed subnetworks as trainable modules. Finally, the classification and regression losses are redesigned to offer the model stronger generalization ability by balancing the positive and negative samples and handling the impact of possible low-quality samples in the training set. Additionally, the structural reparameterization method is employed to balance accuracy and speed. Experimental results on three widely used datasets for SAR target detection, including the SAR ship detection dataset, large-scale multi-class SAR image target detection dataset (MSAR)-1.0, and SAR-Ship-Dataset, reveal that ADERLNet maximally improves average precision (AP) by 2.7%, 3.3%, and 1.8%, respectively, and far outperforms other methods on detection accuracy while maintaining excellent real-time performance, fully highlighting the superiority of ADERLNet. The trained models and source codes will be available at https://github.com/yangyahu-1994/ADERLNet.
Hepatobiliary manifestations in patients with ulcerative colitis: a retrospective analysis

Background Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are often associated with altered liver function tests (LFTs). There is little data on the relationship between abnormal LFT and IBD. Our study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and etiology of elevated LFT in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and to determine whether there is an association with clinical and demographic parameters. Methods The clinical records of the Gastroenterology Outpatients Clinic at a single center were reviewed and screened for patients with UC from 2005 to 2014. In total, 263 patients were included. Patients with Crohn’s disease (CD), colitis indeterminate, and colitis of other origins were excluded. Abnormal LFT and liver injuries were analyzed. Results A cohort of 182 patients was analyzed (114 males, 68 females; mean age = 50.2 ± 16.1 years). 58 patients had already been diagnosed with a hepatobiliary disorder. Patients with a known hepatobiliary disorder suffered from UC for a significantly longer duration. Elevated LFT in patients without known hepatobiliary disorders was 69.4%. Liver injury was found in 21.8%. A transient increase in abnormal LFT was shown in 59 patients (68.6%), a persistent increase was found in 27 patients (31.4%). Treatment with thiopurines was a risk factor for persistent elevated LFT (p = 0.029), steroids had a protective impact (p = 0.037). Conclusion This study clearly highlights the importance of screening for hepatobiliary disorders and abnormal LFT in patients with UC, as the prevalence of hepatobiliary disorders and abnormal LFT is detected very often among this patient group.
ROLE OF PROBIOTICS IN TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS PATIENTS WITH HYPERTENSION: A REVIEW

Background: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is one of a global health problem. One of the comorbidities that often occurs in patients with type 2 DM is hypertension. Hypertension can increase the risk of cardiovascular complications. One of the causes of type 2 DM and hypertension is gut dysbiosis. An imbalance of gastrointestinal microbiota contributes to chronic inflammation and effects on the insulin action, increases insulin resistance, and leads to endothelial dysfunction. The role of this inflammatory mediator is a new therapeutic target in type 2 DM patients with hypertension. Objective: to describe how probiotic effect in type 2 diabetic patients with hypertension. Methods: All articles were obtained by conducting an electronic search through Pubmed and Google Scholar. Results: Probiotics help to restore the balance of the gastrointestinal microbiota, produce anti-inflammatory mediators, and suppress the pro-inflammatory mediators to control the glycemic profile and blood pressure of patients with type 2 DM with hypertension. All the clinical trial showed that probiotic help to maintaining clinical outcome in diabetic patients with hypertension. Conclusion: Probiotic effective for glycemic control and blood pressure in type 2 DM with hypertension. Keywords: Diabetes; Hypertension; Gut dysbiosis; Probiotics; Inflammation mediators