Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Rotation on Fingering Convection in Stellar Interiors

We study the effects of rotation on the growth and saturation of the double-diffusive fingering (thermohaline) instability at low Prandtl number. Using direct numerical simulations, we estimate the compositional transport rates as a function of the relevant nondimensional parameters—the Rossby number, inversely proportional to the rotation rate, and the density ratio that measures the relative thermal and compositional stratifications. Within our explored range of parameters, we generally find rotation to have little effect on vertical transport. However, we also present one exceptional case where a cyclonic large-scale vortex (LSV) is observed at low density ratio and fairly low Rossby number. The LSV leads to significant enhancement in the fingering transport rates by concentrating compositionally dense downflows at its core. We argue that the formation of such LSVs could be relevant to solving the missing-mixing problem in RGB stars.
Effect of fermentation conditions of noni (Morinda citrifolia L.) juice on glutathione content and lipid oxidation in Vero cells

Morinda citrifolia L. (Rubiaceae) normally known as noni is consumed as traditional medicine for more than 2000 years. In the current work, effects of fresh juice in comparison with fermented juice employing different conditions i.e.sugar supplementation, pure and natural culture fermentation as well as fermentation time on glutathione content and lipid oxidation in Vero cells were studied. The results showed that all noni samples induced glutathione content in Vero cells but at different potential. Either natural or pure culture in the presence of sugar showed a remarked induction of glutathione at concentration of 30 μL/mL whereas the range of 100-200 μL/mL was required in non-sugar supplemented samples. Similarly, inhibition of lipid peroxidation in Vero cells by noni juice was achieved and the superior inhibition potential was noted in the samples with high glutathione content. It can be said that fermentation, especially with sugar supplementation, gave rise to greater noni juice quality compared to fresh juice where pure or natural culture fermentation and time (6 or 12 months) had no significant influence.
Halo substructure in the SDSS--Gaia catalogue: streams and clumps

GCM thanks Boustany Foundation, Cambridge Commonwealth, European & International Trust and Isaac Newton Studentship for their support on his work. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement n. 308024.
Cultural Plurality, National Identity and Consensus in Bhutan

to build a nation and national identity through a politics of cultural identity on the cultural basis of only one part of the population. As Bhutan is located in volatile South Asia, it will ensure its future independence, sovereignty and security only if it manages to build a real, i.e. psychological, nation – which means to become a state all cultural groups can identify with. On the basis of Bloom’s social-psychological theory, this working paper (which is the short version of an MA thesis) shows that an integrative political system is a probable way to reach this aim, since it can make the Bhutanese state an identity-securing interpretive system for all its cultural groups. On the basis of Lijphart, it further shows that such a political system should incorporate at least the principles of consensus and special representation, and that the chances of a consensus model would be good in the case of Bhutan. Finally, the paper tries to show that the chances of probable and successful future democracy in Bhutan will not – somewhat contrary to Lijphart’s theory of majoritarian and consensus democracy – decrease if based on a two-party system instead of a multiparty system typical for the ideal type of consensus democracy – as long as some crucial points are met. About this Issue CIS
Phosphorus Removal and Carbon Dioxide Capture in a Pilot Conventional Septic System Upgraded with a Sidestream Steel Slag Filter

The objective of this work was to demonstrate the removal of the phosphorus and carbon dioxide capture potential of a conventional septic system upgraded with a sidestream steel slag filter used in recirculation mode. A pilot scale sidestream experiment was conducted with two septic tank and drainfield systems, one with and one without a sidestream slag filter. The experimental system was fed with real domestic wastewater. Recirculation ratios of 25%, 50% and 75% were tested. Limestone soils and non-calcareous soils were used as drainfield media. The tested system achieved a satisfactory compromise between phosphorus removal and pH at the effluent of the septic tank, thus eliminating the need for a neutralization step. The phosphorus removal efficiency observed in the second compartment of the septic tank was 30% in the slag filter upgraded system, compared to −3% in the control system. The slag filter reached a phosphorus retention of 105 mg/kg. The drainfield of non-calcareous soils achieved very high phosphorus removal in both control and upgraded systems. In the drainfield of limestone soil, the slag filtration reduced the groundwater phosphorus contamination load by up to 75%. The removal of chemical oxygen demand of the drainfields was not affected by the pH rise induced by the slag filter. Phosphorus removal in the septic tank with a slag filter was attributed to either sorption on newly precipitated calcium carbonate, or the precipitation of phosphate minerals, or both. Recirculation ratio design criteria were proposed based on simulations. Simulations showed that the steel slag filter partly inhibited the biological production of carbon dioxide in the septic tank. The influent alkalinity strongly influenced the recirculation ratio needed to raise the pH in the septic tank. The recirculation mode allowed clogging mitigation compared to a mainstream configuration, because an important part of chemical precipitation occurred in the septic tank. The control septic tank produced carbon dioxide, whereas the slag filter-upgraded septic tank was a carbon dioxide sink.
Phylogenetic analysis of green and red forms of the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae), in Japan, based on mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I sequences

To determine the phylogenetic relationship between two forms of Japanese Tetranychus urticae, a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene was sequenced for thirteen strains of the green form and eight strains of the red form. The Japanese green and red forms each consisted of three haplotypes, and the two forms were distinct from each other. However, phylogenetic analysis including mite samples from outside Japan revealed that the two forms are included in a single cluster. Although the entirety of T. urticae is comprised of two well diverged lineages, each of the two lineages included both the green and red forms. Thus, we conclude that from a phylogenetic viewpoint using COI sequences, the two forms belong to a single species.
Loop-like Solitons

The physical phenomena that take place in nature generally have complicated nonlinear features. A variety of methods for examining the properties and solutions of nonlinear evolution equations are explored by using the Vakhnenko equation (VE) as an example. One remarkable feature of the VE is that it possesses loop-like soliton solutions. Loop-like solitons are a class of interesting wave phenomena, which have been involved in some nonlinear systems. The VE can be written in an alternative form, known as the Vakhnenko-Parkes equation (VPE). The VPE can be written in Hirota bilinear form. The Hirota method not only gives the N -soliton solution but enables one to find a way from the Bäcklund transformation through the conservation laws and associated eigenvalue problem to the inverse scattering transform (IST) method. This method is the most appropriate way of tackling the initial value problem (Cauchy problem). The standard procedure for IST method is expanded for the case of multiple poles, specifically, for the double poles with a single pole. In recent papers some physical phenomena in optics and magnetism are satisfactorily described by means of the VE. The question of physical interpretation of multivalued (loop-like) solutions is still an open question.
ASSESSING SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND IMPACT FACTORS OF FINE PARTICULATE MATTER (PM2.5) AND NITROGEN DIOXIDE (NO2) BY COMBINING HIGH-RESOLUTION GEOGRAPHICAL CENSUS DATA, AND METEOROLOGICAL DATA IN HEBEI PROVINCE, CHINA

This paper was the first to employ land use regression (LUR) with high-resolution geographical census data for Hebei, one of the most severely polluted regions in China, to evaluate its spatial distribution characteristics of PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations and identify influencing factors. To develop the LUR model, PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations recorded at 53 sites in Hebei were selected as dependent variables. Independent variables include buffer-related and location-based factors. At first, 169 independent variables were chosen in total. Then pre-processing of bivariate correlation was performed to prevent multicollinearity. Lastly, step-wise regression was processed to identify the impacting factors. Different to other cities which have been studied like Shanghai or Beijing, we find that the results showed that PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations were positively correlated with the industrial pollution sources in a buffer area. NO2 concentrations displayed significant negative correlations with forestland within the distance of 1 km and from the coastline. This study showed that the introduction of high-resolution geographical data into the LUR model significantly improved the fitting. More importantly, our study identified industries within a 9 km-buffer as important influencing factors in Hebei and was also consistent with empirical observations. It provided data on effective buffers to support future policy-making and designations of residential areas.
Asset Focus, Contract and Performance of Mutual Fund: Evidence from Malaysian's Funds Market

The objective of this research is to study the benefits of mutual fund for providing a diversification in investment portfolios for domestics and international investors. Specifically, this research investigates the influences of mutual funds characteristics towards performance. This research uses information from a sample of 289 mutual funds for a period of 2000(1) - 2012(6). This research applies regression analysis for panel data. In this study characteristics were divided into two categories funds; contract and asset allocation. Contract of mutual funds were divided into conventional and Islamic contract. Fund asset focus were divided into stock, debt, money market and asset allocation. As market benchmarks are Malaysia Gold Shariah Price Index and KLSE Composite Index for Islamic mutual funds and conventional mutual funds. Results state that mutual fund characteristics show difference effect on a performance. Conventional funds demonstrate higher performance than Islamic funds but the performance of all fund demonstrate lower than benchmark as approved by negative alpha. Similarly results of fund asset focus, the performance show lower performance than benchmark. Nevertheless, the performance of debt focus asset reached up the benchmark as shown by positive alpha. Analysis on non-linear model, results state that all fund managers may not be able to get information and through their expertise ini the investment decision could reach an abnormal return. Implication of this finding is the selection investment and taking risk reflected in objective and contract will influence the performance of mutual fund.
Role of Expert Knowledge in Home Energy Retrofits

The presentation of information to help homeowners make retrofit decisions has been identified as a major problem. While homeowners often depend on energy auditors and trade contractors as retrofit experts, information provided by them based on their knowledge, can be incomplete and even inaccurate. To the expert, knowledge is often implicit, usually committed to automaticity, and difficult to articulate. This research attempts to establish the determinants of expert knowledge in the home energy retrofit industry. Using literature review, Delphi, and nonprobability sampling techniques, 23 participants participated in the study. The findings identified key attributes of home energy retrofit experts. Based on these attributes, an expertise identification system, suitable for the selection of home energy retrofit experts was developed. The study contributes to understanding the role of expert knowledge generally and the home energy retrofit domain specifically and provides an effective metric for determining industry experts.
EFFECT OF MINT AND ROSEMARY EXTRACTS ON CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL, MICROBIOLOGICAL AND SENSORIAL PROPERTIES OF PREPARED BEEF BURGER

The objective of this work was to study the effects of mint and rosemary extracts on the microbiological , chemical properties sensory quality of prepared beef burger during storge. Two types of mint and rosemaryextracts at 3%(w/v( (water and ethanolic) were used in prepared beef burger samples.The products were evaluated chemically, physically and microbiol during storage at 5 ±1C ̊. The results indicated that rosemary extract showed moderate antioxidant activities being 52.38 mg/ml at 0.1% (1mg/ml) concentration, and high antioxidant activity of 81.52 mg/ml at 1.0% (10 mg/ml). While, mintextract had the lower antioxidant activitythanthose of others being 48.93 mg/ml and 66.72 mg/ml for 0.1% and 1.0% concentration, respectively. Also, both of mint and rosemary extracts markedly inhibited growth of most microorganisms tested.However, the effects differed with regard to the type of mint and rosemary extracts (water and ethanolic), concentration used and the type ofmicroorganisms. Storage burger at 5 ±1C ̊ both cooking yield, water holding capacity (WHC), plasticity,while acid value, peroxide value, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) and total volatile nitrogen (TVN). At the same time, cooking loss was increased by increasing the storage period for all prepared beef burger samples but thisloss wasless in beef burger samples treated with mint and rosemary extracts. The results of organoleptic evaluation of beef burger samples showed that, there were no significant differences (p<0.05) between the control samples prepared without preservatives and with 100 ppm sodium nitrite) and all other treated beef burger samples.So,it could be concluded that addition of mint or rosemary extracts retarded microorganisms activity in beef burger samples with out significant effect on organoleptic properties.
EFFECTS OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND SPATIAL FACTORS ON THE REGENERATION OF ARAUCARIA FOREST FRAGMENTS, SOUTHERN BRAZIL

The floristic patterns of the Atlantic Forest can be explained by different environmental factors. However, recent studies have pointed to the influence of spatial factors on the structure of forest communities. In this study, we evaluated whether environmental and spatial variables influence the distribution of regenerative species in the Araucaria forest in Southern Brazil. We analyzed the vegetation in 20 circular plots with 2.5 m radius each. The environmental variables open-canopy and Ca/K content of soil were the most important predictors of floristic variations in the study area, explaining 9% of the species distribution, while the pure spatial structure explained 7% of the community structure. Although much of the floristic variation remained unexplained (75%), the results indicated the complex effect of environmental and spatial variables on the regeneration patterns of the Araucaria Forest in Southern Brazil.
Exploring Biomedical Engineering Students' Self-Raised Motivations for Engaging in Instructional Design

Current research in the field of engineering education endorses a transition toward active learning pedagogies in the classroom to support greater student learning. In several cases, however, a gap exists between the interdisciplinary research supporting the effectiveness of active learning environments in engineering and actual instructional practice. Today, the engineering instruction is often a shared responsibility between faculty, graduate students and senior undergraduates serving in student teaching roles. Thus, there is a need to better support adopting active learning and to better understand the potential barriers that may inhibit instructors from adopting these new pedagogies. To begin to address these needs, we launched a research-based instructional incubator for biomedical engineering (BME) students, upper level undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty. Given the participants’ selfselection into the Incubator and more systemic barriers in the field, we were interested in understanding what motivates students to engage in a course around active learning and educational design in engineering. Further, we sought to better understand the pre-conceptions these students may have about learning, as one potential barrier to translating research to practice. We hypothesized that students may enter the course with a broad interest in improving education given their own experiences, but limited understanding of learning as it relates to evidence-based active learning practices. Using data from a long-form, open-ended survey, we qualitatively analyzed student responses to better understand their motivations for taking the course and their conceptions of learning. We present results on BME students’ self-raised motivations for engaging in educational design and how students conceive learning from the analytical lens of current learning theories.
Joint Fusion ? Does Level of Response to SI Joint Block Predict Response to SI Group

Background The degree of pain relief required to diagnose sacroiliac joint (SIJ) dysfunction following a diagnostic SIJ block (SIJB) is not known. No gold standard exists. Response to definitive (i.e., accepted as effective) treatment might be a reference standard. Methods Subgroup analysis of 320 subjects enrolled in two prospective multicenter trials evaluating SIJ fusion (SIJF) in patients with SIJ dysfunction diagnosed by history, physical exam and standardized diagnostic SIJB. A 50% reduction in pain at 30 or 60 minutes following SIJB was considered confirmatory. The absolute and percentage improvements in Visual Analog Scale (VAS) SIJ pain and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores at 6 and 12 months after SIJF were correlated with the average acute improvement in SIJ pain with SIJB. Results The average pain reduction during the first hour after SIJB was 79.3%. Six months after SIJF, the overall mean VAS SIJ pain reduction was 50.9 points (0-100 scale) and the mean ODI reduction was 24.6 points. Reductions at 12 months after SIJF were similar. Examined in multiple ways, improvements in SIJ pain and ODI at 6 and 12 months did not correlate with SIJB findings. Conclusions The degree of pain improvement during SIJB did not predict improvements in pain or ODI scores after SIJF. A 50% SIJB threshold resulted in excellent post-SIJF responses. Using overly stringent selection criteria (i.e. 75%) to qualify patients for SIJF has no basis in evidence and would withhold a beneficial procedure from a substantial number of patients with SIJ dysfunction. Level of Evidence Level 1. Clinical Relevance The degree of pain improvement during an SIJ block does not predict the degree of pain improvement after SIJ fusion. keywords: sacroiliac joint dysfunction, sacroiliac joint fusion, diagnostic sacroiliac joint block, risk factors volume 10 article 4 doi: 10.14444/3004
BRAND LOYALTY,CUSTOMER CHARACTERISTICS ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY OF SAVINGS AND CREDIT COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN EMBU COUNTY,KENYA

Meagre profits, shrinking market share and deteriorating customer loyalty among savings and credit cooperative societies in Kenya not only make management to review marketing strategies but also to rethink on brand equity in order to enhance customer loyalty. This study aimed at investigating the effect of brand equity dimensions on customer loyalty of savings and cooperative societies in Embu County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the effect of brand loyalty on customer loyalty of Sacco’s in Embu County. Further, the study sought to determine the moderating effect of customer characteristics on the relationship between brand equity dimensions and customer loyalty of Sacco’s in Embu County. The study was anchored on brand equity theory. The study adopted cross-section research. The target population of the study comprised of 4,014 customers from 30 Sacco’s operating in Embu. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to select respondents of the study. Israel formula was used to calculate the ideal sample of 364 respondents. Primary data was collected from respondents by the use of structured questionnaires with open and closed ended questions. Secondary data was collected from published materials such as financial statements and marketing plans. Data was analysed using descriptive and regression analysis methods with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 24. Descriptive statistics such as mean scores, standard deviations, distribution tables and percentages were used to summarize the responses and to show the magnitude of similarities and differences while R-square was used to determine the predictive power of each individual variable on the dependent. The analysed data was presented in form of Tables. The results revealed that there exist a positive relationship between brand loyalty and customer loyalty. Brand loyalty was significant (r = .616, p < 0.023). This study concluded that Sacco’s were experiencing deteriorating performance in terms of customer loyalty due to inability to improve and develop new products, add-value addition, conduct customer satisfaction survey, enhance customer relationships and provide extended service. This study recommended that top marketing managers of Sacco’s to ensure that policies that promote quality customer service delivery are implemented in order to increase profits and market share. Sacco’s should increase marketing budgets in order to promote product innovation and diversification in new areas of businesses thus enhanced customer loyalty. Key Words: Brand Loyalty, Customer Characteristics, Customer Loyalty CITATION: Ndege, J., & Kegoro, H. O. (2019). Brand loyalty, customer characteristics on customer loyalty of savings and credit cooperative societies in Embu County, Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 6 (4), 588 – 600