Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MICROSATELLITE MARKERS POLYMORPHISM BETWEEN TWO EGYPTIAN GOAT POPULATIONS (Capra hircus)

Two native goat populations present in El-Farafra and Siwa oases, located in the Western Desert of Egypt were geno-typed using ten microsatellite molecular markers (SSR). Blood samples taken from a total of 34 individual goats, 14 from Farafra and 20 from Siwa, were subjected to DNA extraction and subsequently to SSR-PCR amplification. The number of alleles ranged from two for MAF70 marker to seven for OarFCB48 and SRCRSP8 loci, the average number per population for Farafra goats was 3.0 and 3.4 for Siwa goats with a total number of a 42 alleles for both populations. The mean observed heterozygosity (Ho) and expected heterozygosity (HE) for both populations varied from 0.21 to 0.24 and 0.56 to 0.59, respectively. Fixation indices revealed a 0.7063 variation referring to differences among individuals versus total variance (Fit). While, among populations differences versus total variance had a lower fixation index (Fst = 0.2371) indicating low level of genetic differentiation between Farafra and Siwa populations. A pair wise difference between Farafra and Siwa goat populations was (0.6151) based on among breeds F index (Fis). The highest PIC was observed for SRCRSP8 microsatellite marker (0.791) and the lowest PIC was 0.375 for SRCRSP23. The average PIC of the ten markers was 0.530 and 0.570 for Farafra and Siwa goat populations, respectively, which indicated that the ten microsatellite markers contained highly polymorphic loci in both Egyptian goat populations. In the genetic diversity analysis, microsatellite markers with PIC>0.7 were taken as the most ideal selected markers. From the selected microsatellite markers in the present study, the PIC of OarFCB48 and SRCRSP8 (Siwa) exceeded 0.7 which indicated that these loci could be used as genetic markers for genetic diversity analysis of Siwa goat population. The markers generated by OarFCB48 and SRCRSP8 loci could be utilized in marker assisted selection (MAS) to improve the performance of Egyptian goat populations.
Learner Satisfaction on Blended Learning

Petek Askar and Arif Altun Hacettepe University, Turkey Hale Ilgaz Ankara University, Turkey Abstract This paper focuses on learner satisfaction as a measure of quality of blended learning. Blended learning combines multiple delivery media that are designed to complement each other and promote learning and application-learned behavior ( Singh, 2003). In other words blended learning is defined as a method of educating-at-a-distance that utilizes technology (high-tech, such as television and the Internet or low-tech, such as voice mail or conference calls) combined with traditional (or, stand-up) education or training (Smith, 2001). The aim of using blended learning approaches is to find an harmonious balance between online access to knowledge and face-to-face human interaction. The balance between online and face-to-face components will vary for individuals. Some blended courses will include more face-to-face than online strategies. Other courses will tip the balance in favor of online strategies, using face-to-face contact infrequently. Still others will mix the two forms of instruction somewhat equally. Some may emphasize asynchronous student-to-student contact while others will require significant amounts of synchronous interaction The aim in either case is to find that harmonious balance- the balance of instructional strategies that is tailored specifically to improve student learning (Osguthorpe and Graham, 2003). Distance education has a strong background in Turkey and is recognized as a method of learning for all levels of education, except primary education (covering the years 1-5). The Ministry of National Education is responsible for all distance learning activities from kindergarten to secondary level. The Higher Education Council is responsible for the distance learning implementation in universities. There is a growing private sector offering especially IT courses via the internet. The other courses are related to project and time management, language teaching and as preparation for the university entrance examination, which is a regulation to enroll a program at university level in Turkey. On the other hand, distance learning is being used increasingly as a mechanism for professional development. Some courses offered by the universities are for the completion toward a BA degree. Student satisfaction can be defined as the student’s perception pertaining to the college experience and perceived value of the education received while attending an educational institution (Astin, 1993 cited in Bollinger, Martindale, 2004). Learner satisfaction is one of the key factors for the success of the programs. Moreover, participant satisfaction levels along with their performance and trust are indicators of the formation and leadership of virtual teams (Bruce, Avolio, and Surinder, 2003) in e-learning environments.
Influence of feeding processed pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) seeds on broiler chick performance.

This experiment was conducted to assess the effect of feeding different processed pigeon pea seeds on broilers performance. Four isocaloric and iso-nitrogenous diets containing (10%) of soake d pigeon pea seeds, decorticated with added enzyme (multi enzymes with high content of pentosanase) , decorticated roasted and control diet were formulated. Parameters measured weekly were feed intake, body weight gain and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR). Overall body weight, hot carcass weight and dressing percentage were recorded. Results revealed that inclusion of 10% soaked pigeon pea seed, decorticated with added enzyme (multi enzyme with a high content of pentosanase) and decorticated roasted had no significant (p>0.05) effects on feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, final live body weight, hot carcass weight and dressing percentage. Inclusion of 10% processed pigeon pea seeds resulted in a similar performance of broiler chicks when compared with the control group.
On a type of generalized open sets

In this paper, a new class of sets called μ-generalized closed (briefly μg-closed) sets in generalized topological spaces are introduced and studied. The class of all μg-closed sets is strictly larger than the class of all μ-closed sets (in the sense of A. Csaszar). Furthermore, g-closed sets (in the sense of N. Levine) is a special type of μg-closed sets in a topological space. Some of their properties are investigated here. Finally, some characterizations of μ-regular and μ-normal spaces have been given.
Basketball jump shot performed by adults and children

Purpose. the study compared the performance of basketball jump shots between children and adults. Methods. A kinematic analysis was used to evaluate shots performance (2D; sagittal plane; 100 Hz). A biomechanical model (6 points and 4 body segments) provided the shoulder, elbow, and wrist angular displacements and velocities. Results. Children performed simultaneous movements of the shoulder-elbow-wrist joints to release the ball. Adults executed a countermovement around the elbow and wrist, but with greater constraint around the shoulder joint. this strategy may have allowed adults to achieve higher release, smaller variability, and better accuracy. Conclusions. Differences in performance between adults and children were explained by the participants’ physical characteristics and time of practice (experience).
Content Analysis of Nurse Images Perceived by Nursing Students

This study examined the nurse images perceived by nursing students. The study was specifically meant to determine what images grade 2 and 3 nursing students had about nurses before and after their clinical practice to define the nurse's image. The selected nursing students were interviewed to obtain their opinions on the definition and necessity of a nurse and what a great nurse should be like as well as their prejudice about nurses, and content analysis was carried out to categorize their statements. As a result, 48 significant statements and 14 categories were selected. The findings of the study might not be generalizable because the subjects in this study were selected by convenience sampling from two different nursing departments located in Gangwon Province and Gyeonggi Province. More concrete and reliable results are expected if more students from more geographic regions are investigated.
Early estimates of recruitment of the Belt Sea cod stock

The Belt Sea cod stock produced very different year class abundances from 1993 to 1999. After the strong year class 1994 a poor year class 1995 followed. Stronger year classes were observed again in 1996 and in 1997. Comparative analyses of the maturity development of female cods, of the fecundity and of the year class abundance demonstrated the following: The maturity development of female cods from November to March was very different in the years investigated. However, the analyses showed that an early or late beginning of the maturity development did not give any indications concerning the new year class abundance. The year class strength of Belt Sea cod is mainly determined by the portions of female cod having a maturity stage of more than II at the beginning of the main spawning season in March. A trawl survey during the beginning of the spawning season for estimating the portions of active female spawners can be used for assessing the actual potential population fecundity and arriving at a first estimate of the new year class abundance with acceptable accuracy. These data are available before the spawning season of the Belt Sea cod is finished. The large variations of the portions of active female spawners are influenced by the abundance and the spatial distribution of the main prey component age group 1 herring and by the temperature conditions during the prespawning period.
Evaluation of Guitars and Violins Made using Alternative Woods through Mobility Measurements

The feasibility of substituting the types of wood usually employed in the making of guitars and violins was analyzed, but without comparing the properties of involved materials as it is often reported; in this work, the vibrational behavior of twelve guitars and three violins built with alternative types of woods was compared to data of classical instruments available in the literature. In the guitars here measured, the back plate and ribs were not made from traditional woods; while in the violins, only the top plate was made from an alternative type of wood. The results showed that changing the wood of back plate and ribs does not radically affect the typical mobility of a guitar; however, the expected mobility for a violin was not clearly obtained substituting the wood of the top plate. Thus it seems feasible to substitute the wood of back plate and ribs in guitars without causing dramatic changes in their performance; in contrast, a change of the wood type for top plate in violins seems inadvisable unless the design of the top plate is modified to compensate the differences between the woods.
A multicentre survey of acute hospital nursing staff training in dementia care

Purpose: This paper reports on results of a study to identify education needs of nurses in acute care environments regarding dementia care in Ireland. Method: As part of a multicentre study of dementia prevalence and in-hospital course, a survey was conducted with nurses (n=151) in six acute hospitals in the south of Ireland. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings: Despite the availability of a national dementia education programme across all care services, 83% of acute hospital nursing staff perceived that they had insufficient training in dementia care, reflecting the known poor uptake of offered dementia education in acute hospitals. Over two thirds of nurses felt that education on dementia specific communication strategies was insufficient or unavailable. Nurses also reported insufficient knowledge with regard to pain assessment in patients with dementia, or alternatives to physical or chemical restraint. This lack of knowledge has implications for quality of care and may have consequences for safety of patients with dementia in acute hospitals in Ireland. Conclusion: With the expected growth in prevalence of dementia worldwide, more people with dementia will access acute hospital care. Education and training to improve dementia care needs to be prioritised in acute hospitals at senior level.
Do social responsibility disclosures show improvements on stock price?

The 2007 financial crisis was the largest shock to the financial markets not only to the United States but the world as a whole since 1930. Lack of information and confusion in financial markets causes sharp declines in banks capitalization. The link between stock price behavior and the content of social disclosure is lacking in the literature and there is no clear understanding whether they are valued or disregarded by financial markets. CSR is the voluntary interaction between the firm and its stakeholders through addressing their social and environmental concerns with business activities. This paper contributes to the literature by drawing conclusions on whether CSR disclosure, which communicates firm involvement and level of commitment to society, shows improvement on banks’ stock prices. Banks’ social behavior is equally important to investors and customers risk assessment on one hand, and to regulators’ reputation and the public confidence in the banking system on the other hand. Poorly controlled and operated banks can impose extensive negative effects not only on investors but also on their societies; therefore, effective management manages risk not only through financial performance but also through reflecting their good citizenship. The research examines a sample of national commercial banks, as the banking sector was experiencing increasing pressure that scratched stakeholders and investors trust during the latest financial crisis. In addition to examining a unique sample of banks during 2009-2010, the study contributes by employing content analysis technique to measure the content; i.e. the existence and comprehensiveness; of CSR disclosure in banks’ annual reports. We find that the informative content of CSR disclosure is appreciated by stock participants and is of value. The reported results signal investors’ interest in and consideration to CSR disclosure when valuing assets. Moreover, our results suggest that management involvement and communication of their CSR activities through better disclosure content is a potential tool to enhance shareholders value. The documented results are likely to encourage banking institutions in the developing countries to invest and report on their social activities. Banking institutions may enhance their shareholders welfare by investing in effectual social engagements and considering the content of CSR disclosure rather than classifying social involvement as non-rewarding activity.
TIGHTENING APPROPRIABILITY THROUGH THE PATENTING PROCESS: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF PHARMACEUTICALS 1

The economics literature has made huge progress over the past twenty years in extending our understanding on the benefits and costs of patent protection (GRANSTRAND, 2003). Nevertheless, the business literature has not followed the same pattern. Our knowledge as to how firms manage both patents and the patenting process to capture the benefits realised from innovative effort is still scant (WINTER, 2000). For the purposes of this research we consider the patenting process as a series of patent-related events which begin at the moment an invention comes out and continue until a patent is issued.
Concrete containing steel slag aggregate: performance after high temperature exposure

Due to the fact that steel slags are made at the temperatures up to 1600°C, utilization in concretes with improved properties after the exposure to high temperatures is considered in this paper. An experimental program was designed and carried out to study properties of four steel slag based concrete mixtures with different types of cement pastes prior and after heating up to 800°C. Dolomite based concrete mixture was studied as a reference mixture. The results obtained have shown that residual mechanical properties of concrete made with steel slag aggregate are comparable to the reference dolomite concrete up to the tempera-ture of ca. 550°C, while at higher temperatures, steel slag exhibits mineral transformation followed by unstable volumetric expansion which reflected negatively on the residual properties of slag based concrete mixtures. This expansion become stable if the slag was previously heated up to 1000°C.
Low multiplication noise thin Al0.6Ga0.4As avalanche photodiodes

Avalanche multiplication and excess noise were measured on a series of Al0.6Ga0. 4As p+in+ and n+ip+ diodes, with avalanche region thickness, w ranging from 0.026 μm to 0.85 μm. The results show that the ionization coefficient for electrons is slightly higher than for holes in thick, bulk material. At fixed multiplication values the excess noise factor was found to decrease with decreasing w, irrespective of injected carrier type. Owing to the wide Al0.6Ga0. 4As bandgap extremely thin devices can sustain very high electric fields, giving rise to very low excess noise factors, of around F~3.3 at a multiplication factor of M~15.5 in the structure with w=0.026 μm. This is the lowest reported excess noise at this value of multiplication for devices grown on GaAs substrates. Recursion equation modeling, using both a hard threshold dead space model and one which incorporates the detailed history of the ionizing carriers, is used to model the nonlocal nature of impact ionization giving rise to the reduction in excess noise with decreasing w. Although the hard threshold dead space model could reproduce qualitatively the experimental results, better agreement was obtained from the history-dependent model
Environmental Innovations, Local Networks and Internationalization

This paper investigates the forces correlated with environmental innovations (EIs) introduced by firms in local production systems (LPS). The role of inter-firm network relationships, agglomeration economies and internationalization strategies is jointly analysed for a sample of 555 firms in the Emilia–Romagna (ER) region (North-East Italy). Cooperating with a certain kind of local actors—i.e. suppliers and universities—is the most important EI driver for the investigated firms, along with their training coverage and their adoption of information and communication technologies. The role of agglomeration economies is instead less clear-cut. They spur EIs only in the presence of established LPS, with idiosyncratic sector specialization, while conversely they act as EI barriers. Networking effects and agglomeration economies are instead found to strongly promote the adoption of EIs by multinational firms, thus highlighting the importance of local–global interactions. Interesting specifications for these results are found for particular kinds of EIs, in such fields as CO2 abatement and ISO labelling, generally extending the analysis of EI drivers by joining local and international factors. In addition, the role of regulatory sector factors confirms the induced innovation hypothesis and provides a robustness check to our results.
Application of Liposomes for Construction of Vaccines

Vaccinology as a scientific field is undergoing a dramatic development. Never before such sophisticated techniques and in-depth knowledge of immunological processes have been at hand to exploit fully the potential of protecting from as well as curing diseases through vaccination. In spite of great successes like eradication of smallpox in the 1970s and poliomyelitis elimination from all but six countries in the world (two important milestones in the medical history), new challenges have arisen to be faced. Rapidly changing ecosystems and human behaviour, an ever-increasing density of human and farmed animal populations, a high degree of mobility resulting in rapid spreading of pathogens in infected people and animals, new contacts between human and animals in endemic areas, poverty, and war conflicts in the third world, and many other factors contribute to the more frequent occurrence and rapid dissemination of new diseases. Three diseases that most heavily afflict global health are AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. As an example of new viral pathogens we can mention Ebola virus, SARS-coronavirus, or new strains of influenza virus (Wack & Rappuoli, 2005). Among re-emerging diseases of the past few years, diphteria and cholera should be mentioned. Moreover, multi drug-resistant bacteria frequently occur as a result of overdosing on antibiotics. One of the most important future challenges will be to respond promptly to emerging diseases such as those mentioned above. Rapid sequencing of the genome of the pathogen implicated the speed of the development of diagnostic tools as well as the identification and expression of recombinant targets for vaccines and therapeutic agents development (Stadler et al., 2003). Immunotherapy of cancer represents a special field, where anticancer vaccines could be powerful weapons/tools for long-term effective treatment. The progress in the vaccine development is closely related with the progress in immunology and molecular biology. A new term “Reverse vaccinology” was proposed by Rappuoli (Rappuoli, 2000) to specify a complex genome-based approach in the vaccine development. Unlike the conventional approach that requires a laborious process of a selection of individual components important for the induction of protective immune response, reverse vaccinology offers a possibility to use genomic information derived from in silico analysis of the sequenced organisms. This approach can significantly reduce the time necessary to identify the antigens for the development of a candidate vaccine and enables a systematic identification of all potential antigens of pathogens including those which are difficult or
Genetic diversity assessment of Phaseolus vulgaris L. landraces in Nigeria's mid-altitude agroecological zone

Phaseolus vulgaris L. is a valuable and highly nutritious food legume. In Nigeria, it is highly underutilized, being consumed in few parts of Plateau and Taraba States within the mid-altitude agroecological zone. In order to provide information on breeding and improvement for better acceptability, genetic diversity among eleven landraces grown within this zone, belonging to six phenotypic classes based on seed colour, was assessed using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and soduim dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of total seed proteins. RAPD-PCR amplified products ranged from 4 to 9 bands. Number of alleles observed and mean gene diversity within the different phenotypic classes ranged from 1.0 ± 0 to 1.63 ± 0.49 and from 0.13 ± 0.19 to 0.26 ± 0.21, respectively. The highest genetic distance was between white and canberry seeded varieties (81.09%) while the least was between red and pinto accessions (9.22%). However, the highest number of polymorphic loci (40), percentage polymorphism (63.49%), Nei’s gene diversity (0.26 ± 0.21) and number of alleles (1.63 ± 0.49) was found within pinto varieties. Nei’s genetic similarity between landraces from the two states was 91.72% indicating a profound founder effect which could be facilitated by high germplasm exchange between these states. Jaccards similarity coefficient between the landraces based on total seed proteins bands was 1.00. However, genetic relationships and clusters drawn from RAPD and SDS-PAGE data differed, with most of the landraces belonging to separate clusters in the dendrograms obtained from both methods. High polymorphism suggests a broad genetic base among the landraces. The study of more specific seed proteins such as phaseolin as biochemical markers might better elucidate diversity present within the landraces.