Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Proximate, Fibre Qualities and Consumer Acceptability of Bambaranut – Tigernut – Coconut Milk Beverage Blends

Proximate composition and consumer acceptability of bambaranut-tigernut-coconut milk beverage blends was conducted. Four blends of milk beverage were formulated using different ratios of 1:1:1, 3:2:1, 2:3:1 and 1:3:2 from single milk extraction from babaranut, tigernut and coconut. Two control samples were made from 100% bambaranut and tigernut milk respectively. The samples were subjected to proximate and dietary fiber analysis and sensory evaluation were conducted. The mean score of sensory attribute of the milk beverage blends was significantly different (P<0.05). Generally, the blend made from ratio 1:3:2 of bambaranut – tigernut – coconut milk mix having the highest mean score of 8.60 was the most rated and the best among the sample blends. The proximate composition parameters varied among the blends with highest values detected on the samples as follows: moisture 81.22%, crude protein 6.28%, fat 4.30%, crude fiber 2.12%, ash content 2.30% and 11.82% for total carbohydrates. The total dietary fibre of the blends was within the range of 0.78 – 2.10%.
The Evaluation of Thermal Comfort on Primary Schools in Hot-Humid Climates: A Case Study for Antalya

Abstract Thermal comfort provides undoubtedly a great contribution to sustainability. Thermal comfort of classrooms has a direct impact on both learning and energy conservation through a careful temperature control. This study is aimed to emphasize economic, environmental sustainability in schools.Urbanisation and modernisation have led to spend an essential part of people’s lives in indoor spaces. Targeted climatic comfort conditions do not change very much despite the fact that significant change of external climatic conditions depending on climate zones and periods during the year. Therefore, this topic has a great importance in terms of keeping at maximum level of expected performance of architectural structure and carrying positive samples to future. Temperatures that might cause thermal discomfort starts in May for Antalya. After selecting a primary school in Antalya dominated by hot-humid Mediterranean climate conditions, questionnaire prepared according to Fanger’s 7-point sensation scale was conducted on 7th and 8th grade students. The questionnaire was implemented on 74 students (41 male and 33 female). At the end of the research, thermal comfort data in primary school classrooms was obtained according to thermal comfort variables such as air temperature, relative humidity, activity level, air speed, clothing choice, gender, age. The level of thermal comfort of the students and thermal environment conditions of the classes was determined. As a result of obtained data, PMV (predicted mean vote) and PDD (predicted percentage dissatisfied) were identified. According to ASHRAE 55 Standard, examined classrooms were evaluated. Key Words: Thermal Comfort, Sustainable Schools, Hot-Humid Climates
Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Liquid Storage Tanks Isolated by Sliding-Based Systems

Liquid-filled tanks are effective storage infrastructure for water, oil, and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Many such large-scale tanks are located in regions with high seismicity. Therefore, very frequently base isolation technology has to be adopted to reduce the dynamic distress of storage tanks, preventing the structure from typical modes of failure, such as elephant-foot buckling, diamond-shaped buckling, and roof damage caused by liquid sloshing. The cost-effective seismic design of base-isolated liquid storage tanks can be achieved by adopting performance-based design (PBD) principles. In this work, the focus is given on sliding-based systems, namely, single friction pendulum bearings (SFPBs), triple friction pendulum bearings (TFPBs), and mainly on the recently developed quintuple friction pendulum bearings (QFPBs). More specifically, the study is focused on the fragility analysis of tanks isolated by sliding-bearings, emphasizing on isolators’ displacements due to near-fault earthquakes. In addition, a surrogate model has been developed for simulating the dynamic response of the superstructure (tank and liquid content) to achieve an optimal balance between computational efficiency and accuracy.
Urea and Oxidative Stress in Type 2 Diabetes

Introduction : Studies have shown altered protein metabolism in the presence of excess carbohydrate such as type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Protein metabolism is impaired in T2DM as a result of oxidative stress and insulin resistance. Here we aimed to study the correlation of serum urea as an indicator of protein metabolism with malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), as indicators of oxidative stress in T2DM patients. Methods : We performed a cross sectional study on 151 patients with T2DM and 45 healthy controls. We quantified fasting blood sugar (FBS), HbA1C, lipid profile, urea, MDA and SOD in the studied groups. Results : Patients had a higher serum urea, FBS, HbA1C, triglyceride, cholesterol, LDL, MDA and SOD than controls. GFR and serum HDL levels were lower in patients. Diabetic men had a lower HDL and a higher albuminuria compared to diabetic women. There were no difference in any of the studied variables between men and women in control group. Serum urea levels were negatively correlated with MDA (r= -0.70, p<0.01) and SOD (r= -0.60, p<0.01) in men with type 2 diabetes. This was significant after multiple adjustments for HbA1C, GFR, albuminuria and duration of diabetes. Discussion : We showed the negative correlation of serum urea levels with the markers of oxidative stress in T2DM men. It could be concluded that protein metabolism and urea formation is more severely influenced in diabetic men. This explains the negative correlation of urea with MDA and SOD, only in men with T2DM.
Optimal Tool Selection for Environmental-Friendly Turning Operation of Aluminium

In case of machining of automotive parts in large series it is necessary to change to machining operations, sparing the environment. The paper summarises the experiences of the authors, gathered in turning operation. With the help of experiments, planned, carried out and documented systematically, determine the conditions, considered to be the most favourable for the fine turning operations of high silicon-content aluminium cast parts in order to achieve the most advantageous surface roughness parameters. They deal with the topographic examination of surfaces, describing the working characteristics of the machined parts; furthermore, the topological maps of the surfaces, machined with diamond, will be introduced as well. The most favourable parameters were determined not only in the case of tool material and optimal edge construction in case of selection of cutting conditions.
Hepatitis A virus infection among apparently healthy Nigerian Subjects

A study to determine the seroprevalence of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection among apparently healthy Nigerian subjects aged between 2 and 80 years is reported. Serum anti-HAV IgM specific antibody was measured in blood samples of 1532 apparently healthy subjects (1138 males and 394 females) attending Dr. Hassan’s Hospital & Diagnostic Centre, Abuja, Nigeria using standard methods. The subjects were clients who visited the hospital for routine health check during a 15-month period from November 2014 to February 2016. The results showed that 1487 (97.06%) were seronegative, 45 (2.94%) were seropositive. There were significantly higher seropositive results for males (2.48%) compared to females (0.46%). The seroprevalence of HAV among the subjects of this study is considerably lower than the previous reports from Nigeria. The lower prevalence in this study could be due to the socioeconomic status of the subjects, who were mainly professionals and their family members. The reduced prevalence could be due to improved food hygiene, immunization and greater awareness among the subjects of the study group. Improvements in hygienic and socio-economic conditions are known factors that result in a decrease in the prevalence of the disease.
Monetary Shocks and REIT Returns

We investigate the influence of unanticipated changes in US monetary policy on Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT’s). Although a number of studies have investigated the issue of interest rate changes, the effect of unanticipated changes has not previously been addressed in terms of possible effects on both REIT’s returns and volatility. The results show a strong response in both the first and second moments of REIT returns to unexpected policy rate changes. The results for the impact of the shock on both mean and volatility of returns is consistent with results from studies addressing broader equity markets. However, we find evidence both against behavioral changes in volatility coincident to US monetary policy decisions and asymmetric responses to the monetary policy shock.
Title Risk Aversion in Finite Markov Decision Processes Using Total Cost Criteria and Average Value at Risk Permalink

In this paper we present an algorithm to compute risk averse policies in Markov Decision Processes (MDP) when the total cost criterion is used together with the average value at risk (AVaR) metric. Risk averse policies are needed when large deviations from the expected behavior may have detrimental effects, and conventional MDP algorithms usually ignore this aspect. We provide conditions for the structure of the underlying MDP ensuring that approximations for the exact problem can be derived and solved efficiently. Our findings are novel inasmuch as average value at risk has not previously been considered in association with the total cost criterion. Our method is demonstrated in a rapid deployment scenario, whereby a robot is tasked with the objective of reaching a target location within a temporal deadline where increased speed is associated with increased probability of failure. We demonstrate that the proposed algorithm not only produces a risk averse policy reducing the probability of exceeding the expected temporal deadline, but also provides the statistical distribution of costs, thus offering a valuable analysis tool.
Perception and awareness of accents in young children

This study examines children's metaphonological awareness for accent-related information in connected speech. In the first experiment, 5- to 6-year-old French-speaking children were asked to discriminate between Southern and Northern accented French in a sentence categorization task. It was found that these children were not able to reliably distinguish between these native variations of their own language, but were able to distinguish between their own accent and a strong foreign accent in Experiment 2. These findings were also replicated using a speaker discrimination task in Experiment 3, where children were asked to detect pairs of speakers sharing the same accent amongst speaker pairs with different accents. Whilst these experiments have shown that 5- to 6-year-old children do not use non-familiar regional accents as a discriminatory cue, they are able to perceive the differences between accents, as demonstrated in the AX task used in Experiment 4. The factors underlying the relative lack of awareness for a regional accent as opposed to a foreign accent in childhood are discussed, especially regarding the amount of exposure and the learnability of both types of accents.
Climate Change, Agriculture, Poverty and Livelihoods: A Status Report

This paper assesses the impact of climate change on Indian agriculture covering a cross section of crops, seasons and regions based on existing literature. The study notes that the impact of climate change will vary across crops, regions and climate change scenarios. [ISEC Working Paper 277]. URL:[http://www.isec. ac.in/WP%20277_K%20N%20Ninan.pdf].
Joy and disappointment in the hotel experience: managing relationship segments

Purpose – The objective of this research is to provide insight into the management of service quality and emotions across customer relationships in the business‐to‐consumer market and to identify which segmentation method, i.e. conceptual versus data‐driven, is more effective for this purpose.Design/methodology/approach – A cross‐sectional customer satisfaction survey conducted in the hotel industry was used to test the predictions. The respondents were Norwegian customers (n=689) of an international hotel chain, interviewed by telephone through a professional marketing research bureau. Several statistical analyses were applied to analyze the data, i.e. Cluster, MANOVA and regression. The conceptual model was estimated using PLS.Findings – It would appear that the weaker the relationship segment, the more quality‐based and disappointing is the customer experience. The stronger or closer the relationship segment, the more balanced (with respect to price and quality) and joyful is the experience. One segmen.
Community of Practice: An Effective Way to ESL Teacher Professional Development in Vocational Colleges

Teacher professional development is essential to English teaching reform in vocational colleges. Community of practice presents a new way for professional development of ESL teachers in vocational colleges in China. This paper introduces and discusses the process of creating and exploring ESL teacher community of practice in a vocational college. And it points out that teacher community of practice is an effective way to teacher professional development.
ignorance ? : a natural experiment on the effect of feedback on students ' performance

We provide evidence on whether providing university students with feedback on their past exam performance affects their future exam performance. Our identification strategy exploits a natural experiment in a leading UK university where different departments have historically different rules on the provision of feedback to their students. We find the provision of feedback has a positive effect on students’ subsequent test scores: the mean impact corresponds to 13% of a standard deviation in test scores. The impact of feedback is stronger for more able students and for students who have less information to start with about the academic environment, while no subset of individuals is found to be discouraged by feedback. Our findings suggest that students have imperfect information on how their effort translates into test scores and that the provision of feedback might be a cost-effective means to increase students' exam performance.
AC losses in HTS multi-pancake coils made of BSCCO-tape

We present measurements of AC losses in Bi-2223 multi-pancakes coils with different geometries. Measurements were performed at 77 K at frequencies ranging from 50 to 1600 Hz. The losses are found to depend strongly on coil configuration and linearly increase with increasing frequency. The centre pancakes in the coils exhibit larger AC losses than pancakes situated at the ends. Also, AC losses within pancakes depend on adjacent pancakes, even if kept in an open circuit state. The strong change of inductances of pancakes in multi-pancakes coils was observed in opposite to negligible change for single pancake. Introducing a gap between pancakes/ double pancakes can be used as a means of decreasing AC losses in multi-pancakes HTS coils.
DOES CAPITAL STRUCTURE MATTER? EFFECTS ON PROFITABILITY OF FIRMS LISTED AT THE NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHANGE

Capital structure of firms is an important aspect in finance which seeks to determine the optimal capital structure that a firm should maintain. Various theories have been put across to address this issue. This paper examines the relationship between capital structure and profitability of firms listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The study employed a descriptive research design. A census study of 49 firms listed at the NSE that were operational from 2009 and 2013 was undertaken. These companies comprised of all the segments at NSE. Secondary data was collected for a period of five years from financial statements of the firms and the NSE handbook. The findings of the study indicated that capital structure had a significant negative influence on the profitability of firms listed at the NSE.
Usefulness of a Vancomycin pretreatment when challenging chickens in order to evaluate anti-Salmonella preparations

8 For many years, Salmonella infection models have been developed in chickens with the aim 9 to study the effects of prophylactic or therapeutic measures on the colonization of the gut. 10 However, although the literature includes numerous challenge models, few studies 11 investigated the infection rates among the inoculated population. We have implemented an 12 antibiotic pretreatment of the chickens (vancomycin hydrochloride, 25 mg/bird) as an 13 infection promoter. Indeed, vancomycin affects the normal gut microflora and releases sites 14 for Salmonella at the intestinal epithelium. Two experiments were undertaken and a 15 presence/absence cloacal swab method was used to evaluate cecal colonization. In the first 16 experiment, birds were orally inoculated with Salmonella Typhimurium at 21 days of age. 17 Three inoculum doses (3 × 10 3 , 3 × 10 6 , 3 × 10 9 cfu/bird) and an uninfected control were 18 compared according to whether or not vancomycin had been used. Higher levels of 19 Salmonella colonization (more than 70 %) were achieved in the gut by pretreating birds with 20 vancomycin before inoculation (p<0.05). In the second experiment, chicks were inoculated at 21 7 days of age with 10 8 cfu/bird after a vancomycin pretreatment, leading to an infection rate 22 of 87.5 %. In conclusion, vancomycin promotes efficiently the percentage of colonized birds 23 in the challenged population, with either young animals or olders. 24
ALCHORNEA CORDIFOLIA: A HERB WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR PHYTOTHERAPY AGAINST CLOSTRIDIUM TETANI, PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA AND STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS

The antibacterial activity of the extracts of the leaves and stem pith of Alchornea cordifolia were tested against three bacterial isolates. The bacteria isolates used were Clostridiumtetani, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Juice from the stem pith of A. cordifolia showed the highest antibacterial activity against all the test organisms. S. aureus was most susceptible with a zone of inhibition (42.5±1.0 mm) higher than the control, gentamycin (41± 1.0 mm). All the isolates were susceptible to the leaf extract at a concentration of 575.0 mg/ml. However, the MICs were 143.7, 718.0 and 718.0 mg/ml for C. tetani, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, respectively. Phytochemical analysis showed the presence of tannins, saponins and steroids in all the extracts tested. Phlobatannins were detected only in the fresh juice of the leaves. The results of this study show that extracts of this plant may be used for the treatment and management of wound infections caused by these test organisms.
Cold-Rolled Copper Trace Performance in PCB’s and the Influence of Thermal Ageing

This study shows how thermal ageing influences the onset of plasticity in cold-rolled copper at different operating temperatures of 24°C, 60°C, 100°C and 150°C. In addition to these baseline tests, cold-rolled copper samples were also exposed to thermal storage at 250°C for 1 hour. It is demonstrated that these variables are highly critical for the flow stress and this paper discusses the correlation in detail. Additionally cross- sections of the cold-rolled copper samples have enabled correlations to be made between the microstructural morphology and the mechanical performance of cold-rolled copper.
Governance and Institutional Quality and the Links with Economic Growth and Income Inequality: With Special Reference to Developing Asia

This paper looks at the role of governance and institutions in supporting growth and broadening inclusiveness with a special reference to developing Asia. While the intrinsic value of good governance and institutions as ends of development in their own right is now universally accepted and underlies the very notion of inclusiveness, their instrumental value as a means toward better growth performance and more equal income distribution is still not well understood—despite the emergence of a large literature. This paper provides a review of this still growing literature, and, in the process, takes a close look at two critical issues that have attracted a great deal of attention: the measurement of governance and institutional quality, and direction of causality between institutional development and economic development. The paper then examines where developing Asia stands in various widely used measures of governance/ institutional quality relative to the rest of the world, and the power of governance indicators in explaining cross-country variations in growth performance and income inequality in the region. The paper argues that given its intrinsic value and positive association with the level of development, good governance should be pursued in all dimensions as a basic development goal. To maximize its instrumental value, the current literature points to the need for recognizing the context-specific nature of the linkages between governance and institutional quality, on one hand, and growth and inequality, on the other, and for focusing on the aspects that are most binding and critical to a country’s development in a particular period. The empirical analysis shows that developing Asian economies with government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and rule of law scoring above the global means (after controlling for per capita income) in 1998 grew faster on average during 1998- 2008 (by 1.6, 2.0, and 1.2 percentage points annually, respectively) than those economies scoring below the global means. On the basis of these findings, the paper argues that improving governance in these dimensions could be used as potential entry points of development strategies for many countries in the region. The paper also highlights the need for more efforts to improve the measurement of governance and institutional quality and more research to better understand the complex relationships between institutional and economic developments.
Multiple Cutaneous Myxomas Coinciding with Repeated Cardiac Myxomas. A Syndrome

We report on a 31-year-old woman who underwent surgery for two metachronous cardiac myxomas - 7 and 9 years after excision of several cutaneous myxomas. Our observation is a further case of a syndrome-like complex of cardiac and cutaneous myxoma(s), pigmentation anomalies and endocrine disorders described only recently. As modern investigative methods and the development of cardiovascular surgery have brought about an essential improvement in diagnostics and prognosis of cardiac myxomas, the knowledge of this syndrome-like complex is of great therapeutic importance. Therefore, in our opinion, echocardiographic investigations are strongly recommended even in asymptomatic patients, once several cutaneous myxomas are diagnosed histologically.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF BOARD CHARACTERISTICS AND GOVERNANCE INDICES ON THE QUALITY OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION

The objective of this study is to examine the effect on the quality of accounting information published by Canadian firms of board of directors’ characteristics compared to that of governance indices that measure board quality. We find that the majority of board characteristics have an important and significant effect on the levels of earnings management and accounting conservatism. On the other hand, in the case of the studied attributes of the quality of accounting information, we find that the effect of governance indices that assess the quality of boards of directors is not clearly established. Particularly, our results reveal that individual measures of the characteristics of boards of directors allow for a better detection and explanation of the quality of accounting information than do multifactor commercial and academic governance indices. ***