Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Robust statistics: a brief introduction and overview

The paper gives a highly condensed first introduction into robust statistics and some guidance for the interpretation of the literature, with some consideration for the uses in geodetics in the background. Robust statistics is the stability theory of statistical procedures. It systematically investigates the effects of deviations from modelling assumptions on known procedures and, if necessary, develops new, better procedures. Common modelling assumptions are those of normality and of independence of the random errors. For both exist sophisticated theories with important practical consequences, and specifically normality can be replaced by any other reasonable parametric model (cf. Huber 1981, Hampel et al. 1986, and also Beran 1994). As a simple example, let us consider n “independent” measurements of the same quantity, for example a distance. In general they will differ, namely by what we now call the “random error”, and the question arises which value we should take as the “best estimate” of the unknown “true value”. This question was already considered by Gauss (1821; cf. also Huber 1972), and he, noticing that he needed the unknown error distribution to answer this question, turned the problem upside down and asked for that error distribution which made a rule “generally accepted as a good one”, namely the arithmetic mean, optimal (in location or shift models). This led to the normal distribution as assumed error distribution, and to a deeper justification (other than by simplicity) of the method of least squares. Less than a hundred years later, almost everybody believed in the “dogma of normality”, the mathematicians because they believed it to be an empirical fact, and the users of statistics because they believed it to be a mathematical theorem. But the central limit theorem, being a limit theorem, only suggests approximate normality under well-specified conditions in real situations; and empirical investigations, already by Bessel (1818) and later by Newcomb (1886), Jeffreys (1939) and others, show that typical error distributions of high-quality data are slightly but clearly longertailed (i.e., with higher kurtosis or standardized 4th moment) than the normal. Gauss (1821) had been careful to talk about “observations of equal accuracy”, but obviously real data have different accuracy, as modeled by Newcomb (1886). The implicit or explicit hope that under approximate (instead of exact) normality least squares would still be approximately optimal a belief still held by many statisticians today was thwarted by Tukey (1960; cf. also Huber 1981 or Hampel et al. 1986) who showed among other things that already under tiny deviations from normality the mean deviation formerly much used as scale measure until the dispute between Fisher (1920) and Eddington was better than the standard deviation, despite its efficiency loss of 12 percent under strict normality. In fact, the (avoidable) efficiency losses of least squares under high-quality data are more typically between 10 percent and 50 percent or even
The Importance of Clinical Anatomy Education

Maryam Yaghoubi, Enam Alhagh Charkhat Gorgich, Elham Karimi, Zeinab Sadat Hosseini, Nona Sabeti, Amir Reza Dehghan, Ali Akbar Rajabzadeh Clinical Research Unit, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Department of Biology and Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Student of Research Committee, Islamic Azad University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran Student of Research Committee, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Mazandaran, Iran
The Effect of Hyponatremia on Short Term Prognosis in Patients with acute ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

The activation of the baroreceptor in acute STEMI, leads to activation of the sympathetic nervous system. this leads to release of hormones like vasopressin (AVP) and also activation of rennin-angiotensin system. This neurohormonal change is related to the severity of the myocardial damage. hyponatremia reflects these hormonal changes. So; serum sodium level may be an indicator of the severity of ST elevation MI (STEMI). The aim of this study is to evaluate in hospital prognosis of acute ST elevation myocardial infarction with hyponatremia. This prospective observational study was included 116 patients presenting with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction admitted to coronary care unit (CCU) , in AL-Sader Medical City , Najaf , Iraq , during the period from ( April 2016 and February 2017 ) . Plasma sodium concentrations were taken on admission and at 24, 48 and 72 hours thereafter. The study subjects divided into three groups, group I,include 33 patients with hyponatraemia on admission, group II include 31 patients with hyponatraemia within 72 hours from admission, and control group include 52 patients with normal plasma sodium level (135-145 mmol/L). Study group is collectively of group I and group II (hyponatraemicpatients on admission and hyponatraemic patients within 72 hours), then compared with group III (control group " normonatremicpatient). In this study of 116 patients who presented with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), hyponatremia was diagnosed in 33 patients (28.4%) at the time of admission , 31 patients (26.7%) within 72hours of admission (early developed hyponatremia) and 52 patients (44.9%) with normal serum sodium levelthe heart failure rate was statistically significant in the patients with hyponatremia (study groups ) than in patient with normonatremia (control group ) p -value < 0.001 , and statistically significant in sever hyponatremia p -value < 0.001 . The mortality rate was significantly higher in the patients with hyponatremia (study groups) than in patient with normonatremia (control group) p -value<0.001, and significantly higher in sever hyponatremia p –value <0.001. Hyponatremia in patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction, is strongly associated with sever LV dysfunction and more mortality rate.
Lever: Breaking the Shackles of Scalable On-chain Validation

Blockchain brings dawn to decentralized applications which coordinate correct computations without a prior trust. However, existing scalable on-chain frameworks are incompetent in dealing with intensive validation. On the one hand, duplicated execution pattern leads to limited throughput and unacceptable expenses. On the other hand, there lack fair and secure incentive mechanisms allocating rewards according to the actual workload of validators, thus deriving bad dilemmas among rational participants and inducing effective attacks from shrewd adversaries. While most solutions rely on off-chain patterns to sidestep the shackles, it further introduces unexpected issues in applicability, fairness and brittle dependency on interactive cooperation. The intrinsic bottleneck of backbone has never been drastically broken. This work presents Lever, the first scalable on-chain framework which supports intensive validation, meanwhile achieves validity, incentive compatibility and cost-efficiency tolerance of f < n/4 Byzantine participants. Lever firstly integrates the evaluation of complexity into the correctness of transaction, thoroughly decoupling intensive validation from regular backbone consensus. Significant scalability is then achieved by launching few rounds of novel validation-challenge game between potential adversaries and rational stakeholders; compelling incentive mechanism effectively transfers deposits of adversary to specialized rewards for honest validators, therefore allows the user to lever sufficient endorsement for verification with minimum cost. Combined with game-theoretic insights, a backstop protocol is designed to ensure finality and validity of the framework, breaking through the famous Verifier’s Dilemma. Finally, we streamline Lever under the efficient architecture of sharding, which jointly shows robust to conceivable attacks on validation and performs outstanding ability to purify Byzantine participants. Experimental results show that Lever vastly improves the throughput and reduces expenses of intensive validation with slight compromise in latency.
Adapting a Psychosocial Intervention to reduce HIV risk among likely adolescent participants in HIV biomedical trials

iii Opsomming . vi Acknowledgement of Financial Support . ix Acknowledgements . x Dedication . xii List of Figures . xxi List of Tables . xxii List of Graphs . xxiii List of Abbreviations . xxiv Chapter One: Introduction, Motivation, and Aims of the Study . 1 1.
A comparative study between stirred dead end and circular flow in microfiltration of China clay suspensions

Awell-defined comparative study between stirred dead end and circular crossflow formicrofiltration of china clay suspensions has been undertaken. The comparisons have been made with respect to convectivemass transfer coefficients, permeation and rejection rates, and energy consumption. Similar operating and hydrodynamic conditions were implemented for the comparison. According to our experimental data the circular crossflow module was proven to perform better as compared with the stirred dead end system due to the higher mass transfer coefficients, higher permeation rates and lower energy consumption. The mass transfer coefficients observed are comparable to those previously found in vortex flow filtration and dead end flow filtration. The presence of Dean vortices in the circular crossflowmodule promotes flow instabilities in the curved channel flow path which reduce the concentration polarization effect during the filtration process. The concentration polarization effect however deteriorated due to solute build up (high solute concentration at the membrane surface) and decrease of the shear stress, i.e., the particle lift forces on the membrane surface. This resulted in deposition of particles on the membrane surface. In terms of energy consumption, for the same energy cost the limitingflux reached in circular crossflowwas found tobe higher than in the stirred deadendunit. doi: 10.2166/ws.2015. 158 s://iwaponline.com/ws/article-pdf/16/2/481/412255/ws016020481.pdf Norazanita Shamsuddin Chengcheng Cao Victor M. Starov Diganta Bhusan Das (corresponding author) Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK E-mail: d.b. das@lboro.ac. uk
Use of EDTA in the treatment of local tissue damage caused by the Bothrops alternatus venom

Twelve adult rabbits were distributed in three groups and received on the femoral biceps region, via intradermal injection (ID), 25μg of Bothrops alternatus venom dissolved in NaCl 0.9% and diluted in 0.25mL of phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Thirty minutes later, the group G1 received 0.25mL of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) ID while to G2 and G3 25mg of ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) dissolved in 0.25mL of PBS were administered via intramuscular (IM) and intravenous (IV) injection, respectively. Evaluations included local lesion and blood profile of all animals, before (time zero) and at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 18 and 24h after venom administration. All animal treated with PBS (G1) and EDTA IV (G3) presented increase of nociceptive stimuli at the site of inoculation of the venom, followed by moderate edema that persisted for 24h. Animals treated with IM EDTA (G2) only manifested increase of nociceptive stimuli at the site of injection 1h after treatment with discrete local edema between 12 and 24h. In relation to the local hemorrhagic halo no differences were found amongst the studied groups. Blood profile revealed significant decrease of segmented neutrophils in all groups. There was also increase in triglycerides and decrease in total protein and albumin in all groups. The local lesion was not altered by the treatments.
AIDS in Africa: A Manual for Physicians

The first reported AIDS cases in Africa occurred in central Africa in 1982. AIDS is rapidly spreading among the population living there as well as among populations in southern and western Africa. The AIDS pandemic is overtaxing an already burdened health system in sub-Saharan African countries. WHO has put together this manual so health workers in Africa could have a reliable source of current information in this new and rapidly expanding field. The manuals introduction discusses the public health and social significance of AIDS and provides some HIV seroprevalence rate (e.g. <1-20% of the general population 27-88% of female prostitutes in some cities). The manual next covers the etiology and pathogenesis of AIDS the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) being the causative agent. Chapter 3 reviews the epidemiology of HIV infection and AIDS including an historical review of AIDS in Africa and transmission. Clinical manifestations of acute retroviral illness and asymptomatic and symptomatic HIV infection are delineated in Chapter 4. Opportunistic infections (fungal parasitic bacterial and viral infections) Kaposis sarcoma and lymphoma make up Chapter 5. Considerable information exists in Chapter 6 on HIV infection in children. Chapter 7 reviews clinical and laboratory diagnoses of HIV infection and AIDS. The most involved chapter in the manual is Chapter 8 which provides guidance on the management of HIV/AIDS patients. Counseling and psychosocial support is covered in Chapter 9. The manual concludes with a chapter on the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS. The annexes include the CDC 1987 revision of the case definition for AIDS for surveillance purposes and the CDC classification system for HIV infection.
Differences in Implicit Causality Pronoun Resolution Biases between Native and Non-native Speakers

In reading of sentences with ambiguous pronouns, implicit causality of the verb in the sentence provides a bias toward either the subject or object of the sentence. Previous research has shown that this effect is present and stable in many different languages, suggesting that it might be a cognitive or linguistic universal. If this is the case, it poses the question whether bilingual and trilingual speakers are able to use this information when interpreting ambiguous pronouns in their second language (L2). Previous research has suggested that for L2 pronoun interpretation, even near-native L2 learners show a stronger preference for subject antecedents than native speakers. In order to find a possible answer to the aforementioned question, a four-fold experiment was designed and executed with Dutch, Dutch-Frisian and native English subjects performing an English experiment, and Dutch subjects performing a Dutch experiment, allowing for comparison of the different groups as well as a direct comparison of pronoun resolution in the first and second language. Results confirmed that Dutch verbs show biases consistent with English verbs when used with translated connectives. Additionally, bilinguals and trilinguals are found to use implicit causality information in the same way as native speakers, showing the same connective effects. No evidence of a subject preference was found. This is consistent with the suggestion that implicit causality is a cognitive or linguistic universal.
Technical Efficiency of Independent Oil Palm Smallholders ( ISH ) in Peninsular Malaysia with Respect to Fertiliser and Land Size

Productivity of independent smallholders (ISH) is said to be low. This is partly due to, among others, their lower efficiency level compared to the estates. Although this is a known fact, there is no literature available which measures their efficiency level in producing their fresh fruit bunch (FFB). Hence, this study was carried out on the ISH to assess and determine their technical efficiency (TE) level by considering their effectiveness on using inputs, such as fertilisers and size of their holdings. The results of the study can be used to fill up the missing information pertaining to their level of efficiency. The study used Stochastic Frontier Analysis approach to see the effects of the two inputs. The ISH from Pahang, Perak and Johor were included in this study to represent Peninsular Malaysia region. The two variables, i.e. fertiliser application and size of their holdings had a positive relationship with FFB yield. The study revealed that the estimated average level of TE for the ISH is 0.70 while the maximum and minimum TE are 0.94 and 0.23, respectively. This indicates that the ISH in Peninsular Malaysia are generally inefficient and supports the claim to statement made by various authors on the level of their efficiency. The big difference in TE among ISH in the sample suggests that there is a potential to increase their output or yield by using inputs more efficiently. This can also be inferred that there is an opportunity to improve the ISH productivity, especially the Malays and Indian ethnic groups whose efficiency levels are lower than the Chinese ethnic group.
A cross sectional study of consumer awareness of functional foods in Thessaloniki, Greece

Purpose – Increasing awareness of functional foods would have many health benefits such as reducing the incidence of non communicable diseases. The aim of this study is to investigate consumer awareness and consumption of functional foods in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece.Design/methodology/approach – A sample population of consumers was randomly selected outside popular supermarkets in the city of Thessaloniki (n=154). Trained interviewers conducted interviews and a questionnaire was completed by each participant. Socio‐demographic information and details of knowledge and consumption of functional foods were obtained. Data were analyzed using Stata.Findings – The analysis of the data showed that only 33 per cent of the consumers were aware of the term “functional foods”. Interestingly, the proportion of the sample population that knew about foods with health promoting factors was over 95 per cent. The term “functional food” was unfamiliar to the sample population. Over 70 per cent of the consumers surv.
STUDYING THE EFFECT OF PITCH RATIO ON SHEET CAVITATION IN MARINE PROPELLERS

Cavitation is a phenomenon that occurs when the pressure of a fluid drops below its saturated vapour pressure. Even though cavitation could be used in some applications in a beneficial way, it poses serious adverse effects in the marine propulsion field. The explosion of formed cavitation bubbles in the wake field of the propeller puts large stresses on the propellers blade causing blade erosion in the long term, costing the marine industry millions of dollars annually for maintenance. It also causes vibrations and noise in ships, which for some cases require the propulsion system designers to minimise during the propeller design stages. Non cavitating flow and cavitating flow are studied in the research, using a common CFD tool that uses RANS approach. The effects of altering the pitch ratio on sheet cavitation is studied in cavitating flow using the INSEAN E779A propeller. The study used ANSYS Fluent for the simulation and only one blade is considered in the simulation. Periodic boundary conditions are applied for the 4-bladed propeller. The propeller is simulated in conditions set by the Wageningen worksop and the domain size is based on the cavitation tunnel size used in the measurements of the torque and thrust. The flow considered is uniform and has a speed of 5.808 m/s, propeller rotational speed 36 rps, advance coefficient 0.71, and cavitating flow at cavitation number 1.763. For the cavitating flow, the Zwart-Gerber-Belamri cavitation model along with the k-ε turbulence model are used. Pitch ratios of 0.8, 1.0 and 1.5 are considered and analysed. The results show an increase of the extent of sheet cavitation on the blade surface with an increase in pitch ratio.
ERP Critical Success Factors-Roles and Impact on Promoting Cross Functional Integration

There are only a few researches that are focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and its effects on cross-functional integration and none of them have stated clearly and comprehensively on what are needed to be done in order to let ERP reaches its full potential on enhancing cross-functional integration level. As a result, the objective of this research is to identify answers on why some ERP user organizations are successful in promoting cross-functional integration, while the others are not? Is Critical Success Factore (CSF) the root cause of different levels of firm cross-functional integration after ERP implementation? If yes, how they are put into practice so that it will enhance cross-functional integration. Multiple-case studies with in-depth interview technique is used with 55 respondents who are either ERP consultants or representatives from ERP user organizations. As a result of this study, the definition of ERP success in terms of cross-functional integration is proposed. Moreover, the result of this qualitative research shows that it is actually the individuals who are "change agents" that drive the ERP project to its full potential of unifying cross-functional departments. In addition, the pattern of characteristics of change agents and the empowering factors that can strengthen their capability are discovered. Furthermore, the study allows us to gain more insight on how organization have practically done to sustain or even improve cross functional integration through ERP systems overtime. The findings of this research should be able to trigger the new dimension of further development of theory about the relationship between ERP system and organization behavior as well as the further research on sustainability factors that could improve organization performance through ERP usage.
ASSESSMENT OF LIVER DYSFUNCTION IN ALBINO RATS EXPOSED TO GASOLINE FUME

The quest to satisfying the daily industrial and household need of gasoline in Nigeria has increased individuals' exposure to its fume. This study therefore, aims at investigating the hepatotoxic effect of inhalation exposure to gasoline fume on forty adult male albino rats. The rats were randomised into five treatments (T) with eight rats per treatment. T1 (control) was housed free from gasoline fumes while T2, T3, T4 and T5 were exposed to gasoline fumes in exposure chambers for one, three, five and nine hours daily respectively for a period of twelve weeks. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and histopathological examination of the liver tissues were used as diagnostic markers to assess liver dysfunction. Lipid peroxidation endproduct: Malondialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidants parameters: Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase (CAT), Glutathione peroxidise (GPx) and Reduced glutathione (GSH) activities in the liver tissue of each treatment were analysed using standard methods. Significant increase (p<0.05) in the level of ALT, AST and ALP for exposed rats compared to T1 were recorded. MDA was significantly lower in T1 (45.58±0.26) when compared to the exposed rats. SOD, GSH, CAT and GPx activities were significantly reduced in exposed rats with increasing daily hours of exposure. The liver sections of exposed rats revealed degenerative changes in the ultrastructural integrity of the hepatic cells. Frequent exposure to gasoline fume could pose threat to the normal liver physiology causing malformation and disease conditions.