Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of X‐ray micro computed tomography image resolution on flow properties of porous rocks

The study of digital rock physics has seen significant advances due to the development of X‐ray micro computed tomography scanning devices. One of the advantages of using such a device is that the pore structure of rock can be mapped down to the micrometre level in three dimensions. However, in providing such high‐resolution images (low voxel size), the resulting file sizes are necessarily large (of the order of gigabytes). Lower image resolution (high voxel size) produces smaller file sizes (of the order of hundreds of megabytes), but risks losing significant details. This study describes the effect of the image resolution obtained by means of hardware‐based and software‐based approach. Four samples of porous rock were scanned using a SkyScan 1173 High Energy Micro‐CT. We found that acquisition using increased pixel binning of the camera (hardware‐based resizing) significantly affects the calculated physical properties of the samples. By contrast, voxel resizing by means of a software‐based approach during the reconstruction process yielded less effect on the porosity and specific surface area of the samples. However, the decreasing resolution of the image obtained by both the hardware‐based and the software‐based approaches affects the permeability significantly. We conclude that simulating fluid flow through the pore space using the Lattice Boltzmann method to calculate the permeability has a significant dependency on the image resolution.
Altered cell-surface targeting of stem cell factor causes loss of melanocyte precursors in Steel17H mutant mice.

The normal products of the murine Steel (Sl) and Dominant white spotting (W) genes are essential for the development of melanocyte precursors, germ cells, and hematopoietic cells. The Sl locus encodes stem cell factor (SCF), which is the ligand of c-kit, a receptor tyrosine kinase encoded by the W locus. One allele of the Sl mutation, Sl17H, exhibits minor hematopoietic defects, sterility only in males, and a complete absence of coat pigmentation. The Sl17H gene encodes SCF protein which exhibits an altered cytoplasmic domain due to a splicing defect. In this paper we analyzed the mechanism by which the pigmentation phenotype in Sl17H mutant mice occurs. We show that in embryos homozygous for Sl17H the number of melanocyte precursors is severely reduced on the lateral neural crest migration pathway by e11.5 and can no longer be detected by e13.5 when they would enter the epidermis in wildtype embryos. The reduced number of dispersing melanocyte precursors correlates with a reduction of SCF immunoreactivity in mutant embryos in all tissues examined. Regardless of the reduced amount, functional SCF is present at the cell surface of fibroblasts transfected with Sl17H mutant SCF cDNA. Since SCF immunoreactivity normally accumulates in basolateral compartments of SCF-expressing embryonic epithelial tissues, we analyzed the localization of wildtype and Sl17H mutant SCF protein in transfected epithelial (MDCK) cells in vitro. As expected, wildtype forms of SCF localize to and are secreted from the basolateral compartment. In contrast, mutant forms of SCF, which either lack a membrane anchor or exhibit the Sl17H altered cytoplasmic tail, localize to and are secreted from the apical compartment of the cultured epithelium. We suggest, therefore, that the loss of melanocyte precursors prior to epidermal invasion, and the loss of germ cells from mature testis, can be explained by the inability of Sl17H mutant SCF to be targeted to the basolateral compartment of polarized epithelial keratinocytes and Sertoli cells, respectively.
The Characteristics of the Board of Directors and their Impact on the Delay of the External Auditor's Report by Applying to Companies Listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange

This study aimed to identify the effect of the characteristics of the Board of Directors (the size of the Board of Directors, Duality of the Board of Directors, and the balance between executive and non-executive members of the Board of Directors, Board independence, the experience of the Board of Directors) on the delay of the issuance of the audit report. The sample of the study was (16) listed companies on the Egyptian Stock Exchange during the period (2013-2016). The required data were obtained from the published annual reports of the sample companies on the Egyptian Stock Exchange website. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study; the study reached the most important results of the impact of the Board size, Board independence and the experience of the Board of Directors to delay the issuance of the independent audit report. One of the most important recommendations of the study is the need for legislation at the local and global level that enhances the characteristics of the board of directors in companies and its impact on delaying the issuance of the independent audit report so that it becomes mandatory for companies which in turn enhances the credibility and reliability of the financial statements, In addition to Conduct more future studies on the same topic of research for its importance.
A continuum model of the retinal network and its response to electrical stimulation

A continuum network model of the retina is presented, consisting of an active implementation of the retinal ganglion cell tissue layer and passive implementation of deeper cell layers. The retinal ganglion cell layer receives excitatory presynaptic inputs from the bipolar layer and inhibitory presynaptic inputs from the amacrine layer. Simulations were performed to investigate the behavior of retinal tissue activation with epiretinal and suprachoroidal electrode stimulation. The results indicated the presence of both early and late onset action potentials consistent with experimental findings.
Manifestations of Insomnia in Sleep Apnea: Implications for Screening and Treatment

The aims of this study were to examine the presence, type, and severity of insomnia complaints in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients and to assess the utility of the Sleep Symptom Checklist (SSC) for case identification in primary care. Participants were 88 OSA patients, 57 cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) patients, and 14 healthy controls (Ctrl). Each completed a sleep questionnaire as well as the SSC, which includes insomnia, daytime functioning, psychological, and sleep disorder subscales. Results showed that OSA patients could be grouped according to 3 insomnia patterns: no insomnia (OSA), n = 21; insomnia (OSA-I), n = 30, with a subjective complaint and disrupted sleep; and noncomplaining poor sleepers (OSA-I-NC), n = 37. Comparisons among the OSA, CBT-I, and Ctrl groups demonstrate distinct profiles on the SSC subscales, indicating its potential utility for both case identification and treatment planning.
Sexual activity of women with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKHS)--preliminary study.

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to assess sexual activity of women with Mayer-Pokitansky-K0ster-Hauser syndrome (MRKHS) in relation to age-matched con trots. The hypotheses on differences betwedn them in regard to various types of sexual activity and its characteristics were verified. MATERIAL AND METHODS 31 patients with MRKHS and 31 healthy women were examined. Psychosexual biography by M. Beisert was used to gain information on autoerotic and dyadic behavior: Phi-coefficient and U Mann-Whitney test were performed. RESULTS Women with the MRKHS started autoerotic be ha vior at a similar age (U=58, 00; ns), practiced masturbation with the same frequency (in adolescence--U=350,00; ns and adulthood--U=137.50; ns) and manifested a similar level of sexual arousal (U=326,50; ns) as the age-matched controls. They declared experiencing vaginal (Phi=0.507; p<0.001) and oral (Phi=0.318; p<0.05) intercourse less frequently than healthy women. They also initiated dyadic sexual activity at a higher age than the controls (petting U=182,00; p<0.01; req=0.41; vaginal intercourse (U=64.00; 0<0.001; req = 0.59; oral contact (U=91.50; p<0.05; req=0.56) with exception of anal intercourse, where the age of initiation was the same in both groups (U=30,50; ns). Women in both groups experienced similar orgasm frequency during petting (U=108.50; ns), oral intercourse (U=97.50; ns), anal Tntercourse (U=25.50; ns). However, patients with the MPKHS reported significantly lower frequency of orgasm during vaginal intercourse (U=60.50; p<0.05; req=0.36). CONCLUSIONS Sexual development of patients with the MRKHS and healthy women is partly similar Differences in dyadic sexual activity are not limited to vaginal intercourse thus are probably determined by biological conditions and their psychological implications.
Comparative evaluation of three products for the detection of Borrelia burgdorferi antibody in human serum

Eighty human serum specimens tested concomitantly by immunoblot and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay developed jointly at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station were used to evaluate three commercially available diagnostic products for Lyme borreliosis. The sources of the kits were Hillcrest Biologicals, Cypress, Calif. ; Whittaker Bioproducts, Walkersville, Md. ; and Cambridge Bioscience, Worcester, Mass. When compared with Western blot analysis, the sensitivities and specificities, respectively, for the diagnostic assays were as follows: Hillcrest Biologicals, 93 and 75%; Whittaker Bioproducts, 73 and 100%; Cambridge Bioscience, 89 and 100%; and University of Connecticut School of Medicine, 96 and 92%.
Water behaviour modelling for efficient ICT-based water management in urban environments: A United Kingdom case study

The global water crisis, caused by ever-increasing population growth, climate change and growing urbanization, requires a sustainable use of water resources worldwide. In the United Kingdom (UK), despite heavy rainfall and common prejudices, population growth and aging water infrastructure engender significant periods of drought and flooding. While increasing the water supply is a solution to current problems, reducing demand by promoting behaviour change, appears as an environmentally and economically interesting approach to better manage water resources. To that end, the rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) offers an opportunity to deploy both structural and voluntary strategies to reduce demand. While a growing body of literature recognises their efficiency in water-scarce countries, there is a lack of research regarding the use of ICT to promote behaviour change and water savings in water-stressed countries such as the UK. Using surveys and case studies, this research project demonstrates that the water-saving user interface designed in the context of this project is an efficient tool to increase users’ awareness of their water usage, improve their knowledge of environmental issues and ease the performance of water-saving actions in households. Providing individuals with an overview of their households’ water consumption through this interface is also identified as the most efficient method to encourage domestic water savings. By designing and testing an innovative water-saving interface based on behaviour change theories, recommendations from previous studies and results from initial surveys, this research project contributes to existing knowledge and provides a new understanding of the impact of ICT and behaviour change methods on the promotion of water conservation in British households. The author believes that this research project can be used to inform British water companies’ strategies and increase the efficiency of their conservation campaigns. By highlighting the need for large-scale structural changes to facilitate domestic water savings, this project also suggests recommendations to increase the impact of future governmental initiatives regarding domestic water conservation.
Corporate Accounting Narratives and SelfPresentational Dissimulation Technique: An Analysis of Fraudulent Financial Reporting Firms

This study seeks to investigate the motivation for impression management among Malaysian public listed firms. The sample used in this study consists of 80 firms classified into two categories; fraudulent financial reporting firms and non-fraudulent financial reporting firms. Content analysis of impression management technique of self-presentational dissimulation in the use of accounting narratives is performed based on the methodology introduced and refined by Merkl-Davies et al. (2011). The findings indicate that firms do not use impression management to create an inaccurate image of organisational outcomes which is inconsistent with the view held by management (self-presentational dissimulation). Specifically, the result indicate that fraudulent financial reporting firms have no greater motivation to engage in selfpresentational dissimulation than their non-fraudulent financial reporting counterparts. The implication of this study suggests that impression management motivations and strategies can also be explained from social psychological perspective and complements the use of economics-based theories in this research area.
The impact of photodynamic therapy on the viability of Streptococcus mutans in a planktonic culture.

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the effect of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with toluidine blue O (TBO) and a light-emitting diode (LED) on the viability of Streptococcus mutans cells in a planktonic culture. BACKGROUND DATA Growth of Streptococcus mutans is the first step in the development of tooth decay. The use of light and dyes promotes cellular death in a noninvasive way, reducing treatment time. METHODS The LED used in this study had output power of 116 mW, its energy was 21 J, and the fluency was 2.18 J/cm(2). Samples were prepared and divided into five groups: (1) control group (-); (2) control group (+); (3) TBO; (4) LED; and (5) LED + TBO. RESULTS One hundred percent of the bacteria were killed following irradiation with LED and TBO. The biofilm that formed on the glass surfaces was analyzed by SEM and colony count. CONCLUSIONS It was demonstrated that PDT was efficient at killing microorganisms and preventing the formation of biofilms.
Conference on ‘ Carbohydrates in health : friends or foes ’ Symposium 4 : Whole grains , dietary fi bre and grain-derived phytochemicals Whole grains beyond fi bre : what can metabolomics tell us about mechanisms ?

Dietary fibre alone does not fully explain the frequent association between greater intake of whole grains and reduced risk of disease in observational studies, and other phytochemicals or food structure may also play an important role. For all the observational evidence for the benefits of a whole-grain-rich diet, we have only limited knowledge of the mechanisms behind this reduction in disease risk, aside from the action of specific cereal fibres on reduction of blood cholesterol and the post-prandial glucose peak. Nutritional metabolomics, the global measurement and interpretation of metabolic profiles, assesses the interaction of food with the endogenous gene–protein cascade and the gut microbiome. This approach allows the generation of new hypotheses which account for systemic effects, rather than just focusing on one or two mechanisms or metabolic pathways. To date, animal and human trials using metabolomics to investigate mechanistic changes to metabolism on eating whole grains and cereal fractions have led to new hypotheses around mechanistic effects of whole grains. These include the role of cereals as a major source of dietary glycine betaine, a possible effect on phospholipid synthesis or metabolism, the role of branched-chain amino acids and improvements in insulin sensitivity, and the possibility that whole grains may have an effect on protein metabolism. These hypotheses help explain some of the observed effects of whole grains, although mechanistic studies using stable isotopes and fully quantitative measures are required to confirm these potential mechanisms.
Eigenvalues of the Far Field Operator for the Helmholtz Equation in an Absorbing Medium

It is shown that there exist an infinite number of eigenvalues of the far field operator corresponding to the scattering of a time-harmonic plane wave by either an imperfectly conducting obstacle or an absorbing inhomogeneous medium. Regions in the complex plane are found where these eigenvalues must lie and, in the case of obstacle scattering, numerical examples are given showing how precise these regions are.
Performance of Owner-Managed and Employee-Managed Small-Scale Poultry Farms in Nigeria

This study was conducted to establish the linkage between farm manager’s identity and performance of poultry farms in Lagos State, Nigeria. Primary data on poultry farm features were elicited with well structured questionnaire from randomly selected 130 poultry firms. Descriptive statistics, regression model and enterprise budget were applied for data analysis. From the result, it is seen that 78.94% of the poultry farms are owner-managed while the other 21.05% are employee-managed. The result revealed that poultry farms are mainly owner managed and had survived for past 4 years in operations. Result shows a return on investment 53% and 61% for employee-managed and owner-managed poultry farms, respectively. The finding shows that the extent to which farm manager’s identity affects financial performance of the poultry firm is 72%. The result shows that there is a positive and significant relationship between farm manager’s identity and the financial performance of poultry farms. Farm manger’s identity (P<0.05) is a predictor of the financial performance of poultry farms in Nigeria. We concluded that owner-managed poultry farms performed better than employee-managed farms. We recommended that small scale poultry farm owners should personally manage their farms, provided they have the rudimentary knowledge of farm management and the technical know-how of poultry production.
Keeping the phone lines open

The electrical fire that took place at a telephone switching center in the Chicago suburb of Hinsdale on May 8, 1988 is discussed. After the fire, 35000 residential and business customers had no service at all, and others served by some 12000 trunk lines lacked long-distance service. Some areas had no service for a month, and dollar estimates of lost business range from the hundreds of millions to the tens of billions. Some of the factors that made this one of the worst disasters in the history of US telephony are examined. The various types of mishaps that can disrupt phone service are identified. AT&T's approach to protecting its network is discussed. It is stressed that although formal risk analysis has never been prominent in the planning of the national telephone network, a host of standard preparations and procedures has all along amounted to a rigorous, if de facto, form of risk management. Chief among them is redundancy. <<ETX>>
American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel Report

The members of the Expert Panel on Cultural Competence of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) envisioned this article to serve as a catalyst to action by the Academy to take the lead in ensuring that measurable outcomes be achieved that reduce or eliminate health disparities commonly found among racial, ethnic, uninsured, underserved, and underrepresented populations residing throughout the United States. The purposes of this article are to (a) assess current issues related to closing the gap in health disparities and achieving cultural competence, (b) discuss a beginning plan of action from the Expert Panel on Cultural Competence for future endeavors and continued work in these areas beyond the 2002 annual conference on Closing the Gap in Health Disparities, and (c) provide clearly delineated recommendations to assist the Academy to plan strategies and to step forward in taking the lead in reshaping health care policies to eliminate health care and health disparities.
Home Field Advantage Calculation for Physical Education and Sport Students.

It is a well-established fact that playing at home field is an advantageous condition for professional sport teams. For this reason, the home field advantage in team sports is an important issue to be explored. It is also one of the different topics that physical education and sports students can use when they want to perform performance analysis on various sports branches in the future. The concept of home field advantage is determined by the ratio of the points the teams get from matches played at home field compared to the overall points obtained at the end of the season. Only when this advantage ratio is over 50% can we talk about such a benefit. The aim of this study is to show students how to calculate home field advantage in football in the physical education and sports departments in universities with Turkish Super League example. For this reason, 30 seasons and n = 18,052 matches from 1987 to 2017 were analyzed. Data were obtained from tff.org, Turkey Football Federation's official website. According to the results obtained, home-playing teams were found to score over 50% in the light of all seasons analyzed. In the study, the mean home team advantage was found to be 61.4 ± 2.95%. When the literature is examined, it presents similar results with this study. At the end of the study, it was also found that there are different variables by which both the home playing team and the visiting team are influenced when determining the home advantage.
Factors Related to the Risk Tolerance of Households in China and the United States: Implications for the Future of Financial Markets in China

We analyzed factors related to the financial risk tolerance of Chinese households, using the 2011 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS). The risk tolerance question was similar to one in the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), and we found that CHFS respondents had slightly higher risk tolerance than SCF respondents, but the percentage of households with stock assets was 9%, compared with 49% in the United States. Our multivariate analyses found many household characteristics in the CHFS had effects on risk tolerance similar to those found in the 2013 SCF. We discuss implications for the future of Chinese investment markets.
Reporting efficiency during a measles outbreak in New York City, 1991.

OBJECTIVES During an epidemic of measles among preschool children in New York City, an investigation was conducted in 12 city hospitals to estimate reporting efficiency of measles to the New York City Department of Health. METHODS Measles cases were identified by review of hospital emergency room and infection control logs and health department surveillance records. The Chandra Sekar Deming method was used (1) to estimate the total number of measles cases in persons less than 19 years old who presented to the 12 hospitals from January through March 1991 and (2) to estimate reporting efficiency. Information on mechanisms for reporting measles cases was collected from hospital infection control coordinators. RESULTS The Chandra Sekar Deming method estimated that 1487 persons with measles presented to the 12 hospitals during the study period. The overall reporting efficiency was 45% (range = 19% to 83%). All 12 hospitals had passive surveillance for measles; 2 also had an active component. These 2 hospitals had the first and third highest measles reporting efficiencies. CONCLUSIONS The reporting efficiency of measles cases by New York City hospitals to the health department was low, indicating that the magnitude of the outbreak was substantially greater than suggested by the number of reported cases.