Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Field Evaluation of Compost , Sawdust and Rice Straw Biomass on Soil Physical and Hydraulic Properties

A field experiment was carried out to investigate the e#ects of compost, sawdust and rice straw biomass on soil three-phase composition, soil resistance to penetration, bulk density, nearsaturated hydraulic conductivity, K (h), and soil water retention characteristics. The experimental design involved ten split blocks such that the non-amended one plot was considered as control and other nine plots were under each of compost, sawdust and straw treatments at application rates of *. +, *. , and *. m m of apparent soil volume. Addition of compost, sawdust and straw showed potential for improvement of surface soil physical and hydraulic properties, then its e#ectiveness was partly dependent on amendment types and application rates. Three-phase composition of all amended soils showed solid-phase reductions and increase of total porosity. Generally, soil resistance and bulk density at all amendment plots were decreased, which was likely due to reduction in soil solid phases. A good correlation between soil resistance and bulk density was also observed. Except for sawdust applied at higher rate, the K (h) generally increased at any level of compost and straw incorporations, and this was attributed to the of reduction in solid phase of amended soils. Soil water content was relatively high at higher suction for compost amended soils, while improvement in soil water retention was limited at lower suction for sawdust, and gradually increased from low to high suction for straw amended soils,
Transport in a congested city : A computable equilibrium model applied to Kampala City

This paper develops and applies a quantitative model of internal city structure to analyse the impacts of transport improvement in Kampala, Uganda. Using a Spatial Computable General Equilibrium Model we develop a simulated version of a city in which firms and households choose their location decisions according to the cost of commuting and transporting goods across the urban space. In a rapidly developing city, with congested transport infrastructure, new and improved transport routes lead to both direct and indirect effects for the city’s residents. The model captures the direct impacts of transport changes on commuting times, and the indirect impacts on the price of goods and services, rents, and wages. It also captures the important long-term impacts on land use within the city, as both firms and residents adjust their location choices in response to these price changes, leading to greater economic benefits of transport investments through economies of scale and agglomeration effects. The results show that transport investments that increase speeds of travel within the city result not only in an increase in the welfare of these directly affected residents, but also on residents without access to vehicles. The relative size of the impacts on these two groups vary according to the location of the transport investment, the ease with which firms and residents can relocate across the urban space, and the size of the agglomeration effects for different industries within the city.
Attitudes of Japanese nationals towards standard and non-standard varieties of Scottish English speech

In Japan, English language learners, educators and policy makers have tended to depend upon Standard British and Standard American varieties of English to provide models of linguistic norms. This paper investigates the perceptions of 32 Japanese nationals resident in either Scotland or Japan of two varieties of English speech (Scottish Standard English speech and the non-standard Glasgow vernacular speech), according to gender and familiarity with the variety. The experiment employed both direct and indirect techniques of language attitude measurement. The results obtained suggest that although there appears to be a general tolerance amongst the informants for both the standard and non-standard varieties of Scottish English speech selected, attitudes were significantly more favourable towards the Scottish Standard English form. However, gender and familiarity with the speech variety were not found to be significant variables in determining the language attitudes of the informants. The findings are discussed in relation to the pedagogical and language planning implications for the choice of linguistic model in English language teaching both within and without Japan and in terms of the potential direction of future attitudinal research in this area.
Combined effects of elevated p CO 2 , temperature , and starvation stress on larvae of a large tropical marine fish

Original Article Combined effects of elevated pCO2, temperature, and starvation stress on larvae of a large tropical marine fish Sean Bignami*, Su Sponaugle, Martha Hauff and Robert K. Cowen Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy, Miami, FL 33149, USA Biology Department, Concordia University Irvine, 1530 Concordia West, Irvine, CA 92612, USA Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA Biology Department, Shields Science Center, Stonehill College, 320 Washington St, Easton, MA 02357, USA Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon State University, 2030 SE Marine Science Dr, Newport, OR 97365, USA
Spatial pyramid matching

This chapter deals with the problem of whole-image categorization. We may want to classify a photograph based on a high-level semantic attribute (e.g., indoor or outdoor), scene type (forest, street, office, etc.), or object category (car, face, etc.). Our philosophy is that such global image tasks can be approached in a holistic fashion: It should be possible to develop image representations that use low-level features to directly infer high-level semantic information about the scene without going through the intermediate step of segmenting the image into more "basic" semantic entities. For example, we should be able to recognize that an image contains a beach scene without first segmenting and identifying its separate components, such as sand, water, sky, or bathers. This philosophy is inspired by psychophysical and psychological evidence that people can recognize scenes by considering them in a "holistic" manner, while overlooking most of the details of the constituent objects (Oliva and Torralba, 2001). It has been shown that human subjects can perform high-level categorization tasks extremely rapidly and in the near absence of attention (Thorpe et al., 1996; Fei-Fei et al., 2002), which would most likely preclude any feedback or detailed analysis of individual parts of the scene.
Influence of elemental sulfur , micronutrients , phosphorus , calcium , magnesium and potassium on growth of Prosopis alba on high pH soils in Argentina

A field trial on 3-year-old Prosopis alba growing on pH 8.5 soils in Argentina was conducted to identify mineral nutrients that were most limiting growth and to determine correlations among these nutrients. As applications of nutrients such as Zn, Cu and P would be soon rendered unavailable due to the high pH, combinations of elemental S to decrease the pH were examined along with macro and micronutrient soil additions. Thirty trees were selected with stem diameters ranging from 2.8 to 4.5 cm and divided into five treatments in a completely randomized design with 1 tree per replicate. The treatments were: (1) control, (2) addition of elemental S to lower the pH, (3) addition of S and triple superphosphate (P), (4) addition of S, P and a complete blend of micronutrients and (5) addition of S, P, micronutrients and K and Mg. Biomass increases were estimated using regression equations on stem diameter increases. A small non-significant decrease in pH of about 0.3 pH was obtained in the treatments with S, except for treatment which contained micronutrients in the form of strong base oxides. There was a significant increase in electrical conductivity due to the oxidation of the S. The best treatment containing S, P and micronutrients had a 42% increase significant biomass increase over the control. Growth was positively correlated with leaf levels (decreasing order of see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. .jaridenv.2005.01.022 nding author. D’Arrigo Bros, P.O. Box 850, Salinas, CA 93902, USA. Tel.: +1 831 235 2847. dress: Peter_Felker@hotmail.com (P. Felker).
Acinetobacter Baumanii Nosocomial Infections in 212 Burned Patients of Moroccan Hospital 2004-2012

Background:Nosocomial infections caused by strains Acinetobacter Baumannii strands are a growing clinical problem. The occurrence of multidrug-resistant strands is observed and that limits the ways of therapy considerably. The aim of the present study is to bring out the epidemiological profile of burn patients infected with Acinetobacter Baumanii and to investigate the risk factors related to this pathology. Methods: this is a retrospective study carried out on 212 burn and infected patients, hospitalized at Burn Service of Mohamed V Military Hospital of Rabat (Morocco), during the period 2004-2012. Subjects were selected through simple random sampling method. Data was collected using questionnaire. Results: Among 212 patients, we registered 50 cases of Acinetobacter Baumanii infection. Males were more frequent with a sex-ratio of 1.5. Moreover, the most concerned age group was 30 to 39 years old. The average age was 37.9±17.7 years. The results also showed that Acinetobacter baumanii is the most resistant to antibiotics, all types mixed up. It resisted to antibiotics in 76% of cases. The study of Unit Burn Standard (UBS) showed that 42% of cases were severe to mortal. Furthermore, Baux index (IB) showed that 44% of cases have bad to very bad prognosis. As for evolution of patients, 16% of cases were dead and 50% has a good evolution after grafting.The statistical analysis reveals that the risk of death in burn patients infected with Acinetobacter baumanii was three times as high as that of burn patients infected with other germs (OR= 3.2 ; IC= 1.2-8.9). Besides, women has a risk of death six times as high as men (OR= 6; IC= 1.1-33.7). Conclusion: health authorities in our country should give more importance to the hospital hygiene by motivating and sensitizing all the health system participants.
48.4: The Effect of JPEG Coding Scheme on the Perceived Quality of 3‐D Images

In this paper, we present an report on the effect of JPEG coding scheme on the perceived quality of 3D images. The general functionality of 3D image compression is discussed, we show that the application of lossy compression to the 3D image pairs has less drawback than to the 2D image of the same scence, two degraded image pairs can give more information than an original 2D one. Studies of different compression rates on the test images have been carried out, evaluation of the processed image pairs is done by the adoption of the CCIR subjective assessment method, some useful results are described to avoid the visible image degradation and the visual strain.
27 국 문 초 록 국내 반려동물에서 분리한 Staphylococcus pseudintermedius 의 항생제 내성과 MLST 분석 비교 이 찬 희

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (MRSP) has emerged as an important health threat in companion animals, with potential for transmission to humans. However, little is known about MRSP circulating in Korea. Accordingly, in this study, we determined the prevalence, antimicrobial resistance profile, and clonal distribution of MRSP in Korea. Forty of 57 (70.17%) swab samples collected from dogs at five veterinary hospitals were positive for S. pseudintermedius (SP), and 21 dogs (36.84%) were carrying MRSP strains; overall, 26 of 50 isolates (52.0%) were MRSP. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests against 18 antimicrobial agents (13 classes) revealed that all MRSP were multi-drug resistant isolates showing resistance to a wide range of
Skilled labour mobility : Tracing its spatial distribution

This paper aims to provide new insights into the well-studied phenomenon of knowledge flows. We study one of the main mechanisms through which these flows occur, that is, the mobility of highly-skilled individuals. In contrast to earlier studies, we focus on the geographical mobility of inventors across European regions. Thus, patent data are used to trace the pattern of inventors’ mobility across European regions, to track down focuses of attraction of talent throughout the continent, and to study their distribution across the space. To do so, we first gather information from PCT patent documents and match the names which seemed to belong to the same inventor using name matching algorithms; second, we create a new algorithm to decide whether each patent applied for under each name belongs to the same inventor, according to set of predetermined characteristics.
The Introduction of Topical Structure Analysis into the Japanese University EFL Writing Class-For the Purpose of Producing Coherent Writings -

The present paper is an attempt to investigate the validity and reliability of coherence as an objective measure for writing proficiency of Japanese university students. Coherence is regarded as one of the important elements in effective writing, but it has been referred to as an elusive notion which arises from the paralinguistic factors such as schema and expectations which generally reside in reader’s mind. Many attempts was made in the 1980’s and 1990’s to quantify coherence, and topical structure analysis, which was put forward by Lautamatti(1987), successfully visualized coherence in a graphic manner. The present paper aims to explore the possibility of topical structure analysis by tentatively employing it as a criteria for the evaluation of students’ writings. 35 sample writings were topically analysed after they were holistically rated by two independent rators. The topical structures of the writings which were highly rated by holistic evaluation turned to be similar to the sample writing with ideal topical structure shown by Witte(1981-a). This may lead to the inclusion of the instruction of topical structure analysis not only into the methodological cycle of writing class, but also into the textbook organization as its potential activity.
Profit efficiency and constraints analysis of shea butter industry : northern region of Ghana

This study was undertaken to examine the profit efficiency and its determining factors, the investment opportunity, and the challenges of shea butter producers in the northern region of Ghana. The methods employed in this research were the Stochastic Profit Frontier (SPF) model, gain-cost and investment return analyses, as well as Kendall’s W statistic using primary data collected from 120 purposively-selected respondents. Results from the analysis indicated that profit efficiency was positively influenced by sex, household size, marital status, educational level, transportation cost, store rent, and price of shea nut with a gain in profit efficiency of 58.5%. The investment analysis demonstrated a net gain per person of $ 8,077 equivalent to GH₵ 28,270 Ghanaian cedi (GH₵) using 2016 exchange rate (GH₵ 3.5 = $1). Among the challenges identified, the poor quality of shea nuts was the most prioritised challenge with 72.8% agreement among the respondents. Based on these findings, it was recommended that proper training and education, as well as improvement in shea nut quality, should be promoted to improve the profit efficiency of shea butter producers.
Perioperative effects of anesthesia and surgery on inflammation-coagulation interaction

Background: The extent of perioperative cross-talk between coagulation and inflammatory markers depends on the type of surgery and anesthesia. Methods: After obtaining ethics committee approval and patients' written informed consents, 68 patients aged 25–65 years of either sex, American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) physical status I–II were randomly assigned to one of four equal groups: Open or Laparoscopic cholecystectomy groups anesthetized with either Isoflurane (IO or IL groups) or Sevoflurane (SO or SL groups) in order to assess coagulation, anticoagulation, fibrinolytic and inflammatory markers preoperatively, immediately postoperative, 24 and 72 hours after surgery. Results: In all groups, prothrombin concentration significantly reduced while prothrombin time, partial thromboplastin time and international normalized ratio significantly increased (P < 0.05) postoperatively. Coagulation markers including; soluble platelet selectin, von Willebrand factor, thrombin antithrombin complex, D-dimer, as well as inflammatory markers including; high sensitivity C-reactive protein, interleukin1 beta and interleukin-6 showed significant (P < 0.05) postoperative elevation. Plasminogen and anticoagulation markers including; antithrombin, protein C and S significantly reduced (P < 0.05) in all groups. Coagulation and inflammatory markers were significantly higher while plasminogen and anticoagulation markers were significantly lower in open than laparoscopic groups and after isoflurane than sevoflurane anesthesia (P< 0.05). Correlations between coagulation and inflammatory markers were observed postoperatively. Conclusions: Laparoscopic surgery under sevoflurane anesthesia was associated with less hypercoagulability than open surgery under isoflurane anesthesia probably mediated through inflammatory response. [Hanan F. Khafagy, Nadia A. Hussein, Mona E. Madkour, Ola M. Mahmoud, Amr Z. Mansour Mohamed F. Yussif, Ahmed A. Abbas and Yasser M. Samhan. Perioperative effects of anesthesia and surgery on inflammationcoagulation interaction. Life Sci J 2014;11(12):900-906]. (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 158
AN ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PRINCIPLES ON THE USE OF SELF-SERVING ATTRIBUTIONS IN CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORTS

This work is an initial attempt to investigate a possible relationship between causal attributions in narrative sections of annual reports and a corporate governance index among companies listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa), for 2006. As a proxy for corporate governance we use the enhanced governance certification seals attributed by the Bovespa. The results show that selfserving attributions can be found in the annual reports, regardless of corporate governance levels indicated by the Bovespa seals. Evidence of a relationship obtained through the use of sentence counts is not corroborated when the proportion of reports dedicated to causal attributions is used. The possible explanation is connected to report length. The conclusion suggests further research, with inclusion of other variables and use of an extended sample, in order to clarify the issue.
Mathematical Analysis for Identifying Neutron Shielding in Neutron Multiplicity Counting

Passive neutron interrogation and neutron multiplicity counting is becoming a standard procedure in material control and accountability, due to the relative transparency of structure materials to neutron flux, making it very effective in measuring non pure, poorly characterized samples. Currently, all applicable neutron multiplicity counting methods assume that both the detection efficiency and the neutron die away time are system parameters, independent of the sample. Thus, if the detection efficiency of the system is reduced due to neutron absorbers in the sample, the measurement will be very biased. In the present study we develop, through both theory and implementation, new method for detecting a concealment of neutron counts (for instance, due to the presence of an absorbing matrix elements, such as Cd or B in the sample), manifested through a reduced effective detection efficiency. One of the attributes that make the proposed method appealing, is that it does not require any additional operators and may be easily applied to any standard NMC counter.
Using PBPK guided “ Body-ona-Chip ” Systems to Predict Mammalian Response to Drug and Chemical Exposure

The continued development of in vitro systems that accurately emulate human response to drugs or chemical agents will impact drug development, our understanding of chemical toxicity, and enhance our ability to respond to threats from chemical or biological agents. A promising technology is to build microscale replicas of humans that capture essential elements of physiology, pharmacology and/or toxicology (microphysiological systems). Here, we review progress on systems for microscale models of mammalian systems that include two or more integrated cellular components. These systems are described as a “Body-on-a-Chip. ”, and utilize the concept of physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling in the design. These microscale systems can also be used as model systems to predict whole-body responses to drugs as well as study the mechanism of action of drugs using PBPK analysis. In this review, we provide examples of various approaches to construct such systems with a focus on their physiological usefulness and various approaches to measure responses (e.g. chemical, electrical, or mechanical force and cellular viability and morphology). While the goal is to predict human response, other mammalian cell types can be utilized with the same principle to predict animal response. These systems will be evaluated on their potential to be physiologically accurate, to provide effective and efficient platform for analytics with accessibility to a wide range of users, for ease of incorporation of analytics, functional for weeks to months, and the ability to replicate previously observed human responses. Corresponding Authors: James J Hickman, University of Central Florida, NanoScience Technology Center, 12424 Research Parkway, Suite 400, Orlando, FL 32826 Phone: 407-823-1925 Fax: 407-882-2819, jhickman@mail.ucf. edu, Michael L. Shuler, Cornell University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 115 Weill Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 Phone: 607-255-7577 Fax: 607-255-7330, mls50@cornell.edu. *The first two authors contributed equally NIH Public Access Author Manuscript Exp Biol Med (Maywood). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 September 05. Published in final edited form as: Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2014 September ; 239(9): 1225–1239. doi:10.1177/1535370214529397. N IH -P A A uhor M anscript N IH -P A A uhor M anscript N IH -P A A uhor M anscript
Maternal Subjectivity

As I noted elsewhere, each and every one of us throughout the generations anywhere in the world has slithered out of, or been retrieved from a powerful woman’s body. We too swam in an amniotic sea within a swelling uterus, punctuated by the booming sound of a life-giving heartthrob until, vernix-coated, we were propelled headfirst along a tight birth canal, or lifted out from within a slashed belly (Raphael-Leff 2002, p.45).