Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of the phenolic waste waters of an Integrated Steel Plant on the behavior of the Indian Murrel Channa punctatus ( Bloch ) .

Behavioral endpoints serve as valuable tools to discern and evaluate effects of exposure to environmental stressors. The Bhilai Steel Plant is an integrated steel plant situated 30 kilometers (west) of Raipur, the capital of the state of Chhattisgarh (India). The phenolic waste water generated in the coke ovens is dumped into the river Kharoon a tributary of the Mahanadi which caters to the needs of potable water and fish for important cities like Raipur , Durg and adjoining areas. The present work is an attempt to understand the impact of this stressful phenolic waste water on the behavior of the Indian Murrel Channa punctatus (Bloch). Fishes exposed for shorter duration to low concentrations of phenolic effluent showed normal behavior in the first 48 hours. However, rapid opercular and mouth movements, increased surfacing with fast, erratic, darting swimming movements accompanied by heavy mucous secretion was observed with increasing concentrations and duration of exposure.In response to long term exposure to high concentration of phenolic effluent, fishes exhibited erratic swimming, jerky movements, respiratory distress and a tendency to escape out of the toxic medium in the first week after exposure. Heavy mucous secretion, paleness in skin and organs accompanied with violent movements, loss of equilibrium and respiratory distress were observed in the following weeks.
The effect of soil type and soil additives on the selected growth parameters and yield of flowerheads of Calendula officinalis

Introduction: Soil additives, which usually contain nutrients and microorganism, can improve soil conditions for plants. There are still few papers dedicated to the application of soil additives in herb plants, especially in calendula. Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the effect of selected soil additives on growth and yield of calendula. Methods: In a pot experiment first order factor was a type of soil: mineral soil with straw, mineral soil and organic soil. The second order factor was soil additive: control, UG Max, EM1 and PRP SOL. Results: The application of UG Max and PRP SOL increased the yield of dry matter of flowerheads by respectively 48.1% and 46.3% in comparison with the control group. Conclusions: UG Max and PRP SOL proved to be the most useful soil additive for calendula growing. The effect of UG Max and PRP SOL was particularly good on organic soil.
Promotion of Healthy Growth with Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplements Among Rural Malawian Children

Low nutritional value of complementary foods is associated with high incidence of childhood growth stunting in low-income countries. This study was done to test a hypothesis that dietary complementation with lipid-based nutrient supplements (LNS) promotes linear growth and reduces the incidence of severe stunting among at-risk infants. A total of 840 6-month-old healthy infants in rural Malawi were enrolled to a randomised assessorblinded trial. The participants received 12-month supplementation with nothing, milk–LNS, soy–LNS, or corn– soy blend (CSB). Supplements provided micronutrients and approximately 280 kcal energy per day. Outcomes were incidence of severe and very severe stunting [length-for-age z-score, (LAZ) < -3.00 and <-3.50, respectively], and change in LAZ. The incidence of severe stunting was 11.8%, 8.2%, 9.1% and 15.5% (P = 0.098) and that of very severe stunting 7.4%, 2.9%, 8.0% and 6.4% (P = 0.138) in control, milk–LNS, soy–LNS and CSB groups, respectively. Between 9 and 12 months of age, the mean change in LAZ was -0.15, -0.02, -0.12 and -0.18 (P = 0.045) for control, milk–LNS, soy–LNS and CSB groups, respectively. There was no significant betweengroup difference in linear growth during other age-intervals. Although participants who received milk–LNS had the lowest incidence of severe and very severe stunting, the differences between the groups were smaller than expected. Thus, the results do not provide conclusive evidence on a causal association between the LNS supplementation and the lower incidence of stunting. Exploratory analyses suggest that provision of milk–LNS, but not soy–LNS promotes linear growth among at-risk infants mainly between 9 and 12 months of age.
Biological Control of Chilli Fusarium Wilt Caused By Fusarium Oxysporium

Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) is one of the important cash crop of India. This crop suffers with various fungal, bacterial and virual diseases, among fusarium wilt is a very destructive disease in Ujjain (M.P.) and its neibouring areas. Only a few aspects of chilli wilt caused by fusarium oxysporum f. spp. capsici have been investigated earlier. In the present study a comparative, study of rhizosphere and rhizoplane of diseased and healthy chilli varieties (‘Malwa’, ‘Patna’ and ‘Simla’) were made in control conditions. At seedling stage, peak of vegetative growth, flowering time and harvesting time the rhizosphere and rhizoplane was analysed for fungi, actinomycetes and bacteria. The pathogen (fusarium oxysporum f.sp. capsici) was 100% frequent and highly abundant in case of diseased plants rhizosphere and rhizoplane of all the three chilli cultivars. The infection were highest for ‘Malwa’ variety, where the percentage disease intensity was also maximum. Species of fungi, actinomycetes and bacteria isolated from rhizosphere and rhizoplane were tested for their antagonistic properties against the pathogen (fusarium oxysporum f. sp. capsici).
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Separating common from distinctive variation

Background: Joint and individual variation explained (JIVE), distinct and common simultaneous component analysis (DISCO) and O2-PLS, a two-block (X-Y) latent variable regression method with an integral OSC filter can all be used for the integrated analysis of multiple data sets and decompose them in three terms: a low(er)-rank approximation capturing common variation across data sets, low(er)-rank approximations for structured variation distinctive for each data set, and residual noise. In this paper these three methods are compared with respect to their mathematical properties and their respective ways of defining common and distinctive variation. Results: The methods are all applied on simulated data and mRNA and miRNA data-sets from GlioBlastoma Multiform (GBM) brain tumors to examine their overlap and differences. When the common variation is abundant, all methods are able to find the correct solution. With real data however, complexities in the data are treated differently by the three methods. Conclusions: All three methods have their own approach to estimate common and distinctive variation with their specific strength and weaknesses. Due to their orthogonality properties and their used algorithms their view on the data is slightly different. By assuming orthogonality between common and distinctive, true natural or biological phenomena that may not be orthogonal at all might be misinterpreted.
RESTRICTION OF LAPLACE-BELTRAMI EIGENFUNCTIONS TO CANTOR-TYPE SETS ON MANIFOLDS

Given a compact Riemannian manifold (M, g) without boundary, we estimate the Lebesgue norm of Laplace-Beltrami eigenfunctions when restricted to certain fractal subsets Γ of M . The sets Γ that we consider are random and of Cantor-type. For large Lebesgue exponents p, our estimates give a natural generalization of L bounds previously obtained in [16, 17, 33, 8]. The estimates are shown to be sharp in this range. The novelty of our approach is the combination of techniques from geometric measure theory with well-known tools from harmonic and microlocal analysis. Random Cantor sets have appeared in a variety of contexts before, specifically in fractal geometry, multiscale analysis, additive combinatorics and fractal percolation [19, 21, 22, 29, 30]. They play a significant role in the study of optimal decay rates of Fourier transforms of measures, and in the identification of sets with arithmetic and geometric structures. Our methods, though inspired by earlier work, are not Fourier-analytic in nature.
Soil pore distribution as affected by cattle trampling under no-till and reduced-till systems

Soil pore size affects soil air and water dynamics, and thus influence crop productivity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of reduced-tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT) systems on soil pore distribution under animal grazing. The soil was sampled at 0-5, 5-10, 10-15 and 15-20 cm depths before and after animal grazing. Bulk density, total porosity and the volume of three pore sizes (macropores, mesopores and micropores) were determined. Differences in total porosity between both tillage systems were statistically significant (P<0.01) in the top 10 cm layer before grazing. Lower total porosity in NT could be related to the effect of previous years’grazing. In RT, disk operations before planting the oat (Avena sativa) crop increased porosity values in the tilled zone at 0-10 cm and decreased them at depths below 10 cm. Macroporosity accounted for 32 (RT) and 20% (NT) of the total porosity in the soil surface, and decreased to 17 (RT) and 17% (NT) in deeper layers. Cattle trampling had a more pronounced effect under RT as compared with NT. Tillage operations increased macroporosity, which had been reduced by cattle trampling. Bulk density and total porosity were adversely affected below 15 cm depth.
Loughborough University Institutional Repository On the performance of opportunistic cooperative wireless networks

Relaying nodes are randomly chosen in traditional cooperat iv systems, which could result in severe performance loss at low SNR, specially when a large number of relaying nodes are used. Such performance loss can be avoided or alleviated by exploring a priori channel information at the transmitter. In this paper, seve ral opportunistic relaying strategies are developed for diffe rent types ofa priori channel information. By using the order statistics, explicit expression of the outage probab ility, as well as the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff, are developed for each proposed cooperative scheme. Our analyt ical results show that the more channel information available at the transmitter, the better performance a coop erative system can achieve. Especially when the source node has the full channel knowledge among the source, relays and destination, full diversity can be achieved with only one relay channel, where the optimal diversity-multip lexing tradeoff is derived as d(r) = (N + 1)(1 − 2r), N is the number of all possible relay nodes and r is the transmission rate.
The neuropsychology of visual imagery and visual hallucinations : fMRI and clinical studies.

Visual hallucinations are a common symptom of neuropsychiatric disorders. It is estimated that up to 33% of Parkinson's patients undergoing long-term treatment will have visual hallucinations (VHs) during the course of their illness. Although the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying visual hallucinations largely remain a mystery, the ability of the human visual system to interpret "imaginal" and "external" events is essential if confusion between the two is to be avoided. The aims of this thesis were two fold: first to explore the "imaginal" and "perceptual" systems of normal subjects, and second, to examine the phenomenology and neuropsychology of visual hallucination in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). A symptom-based approach was taken and it was proposed that abnormally vivid mental imagery together with impaired perceptual processing would be the link between visual hallucinations and Parkinson's disease. This thesis begins by examining visual imagery using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe brain activation while normal subjects are performing comparable imagery and perception tasks. Three experiments are reported to elucidate these processes. The studies involved comparing brain activations of perceptual, imaginal and illusory stimuli. Briefly, these experiments identified the functional roles played by different regions of the brain in "experiencing" visual stimuli from both external and internal sources. Comparison of these brain regions revealed the functional process underlying imagery and perception and possible sites of convergence and differentiation between the two experiences, imagery and perception.
The Progress of the Energy-Efficiency of Single-board Computers

The demand for high-bandwidth, low-latency services is rapidly increasing. Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) have addressed this by providing content from within or close to the Internet Service Provider (ISP). Still, the most common bottleneck for high service quality is the ’last mile’ between ISP and end user. Serving content from small caches on end-user devices promises to increase service quality of the respective content. Similarly, fog computing promises to provide low-latency services from arbitrary nodes within the network. Both require additional functionality provided by network functions virtualization (NFV), redirecting traffic to the appropriate destinations. Still, the cost and performance of possible solutions are not well analyzed. Hence, this paper analyzes the forwarding and computing performance of a number of single-board computers (SBCs) from which models for the performance and energy cost of different loads are derived. Furthermore, the development of energy efficiency gains over the last years is analyzed, confirming Koomey’s law also for SBCs, leading to an increase of computational efficiency by a factor of 5.5 to 7.5 over the course of four years, which relates to a doubling time of 1.62 years.
Surge of Hepatitis E infection during summer months in an urban Municipal area of West Bengal . ”

Viral hepatitis represents a major public health problem worldwide. The purpose of this observational study is to determine the epidemiologic pattern of Hepatitis E infection among patients attending a tertiary care hospital in north Kolkata and adjacent 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India. This study was performed from 1 st January 2015 to 31 st December 2016 with all clinically suspected jaundice patients attending this tertiary care centre, both outpatient and inpatient clinics fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Blood was collected aseptically from clinically suspected cases, serum was separated and analysed by Immunochromatographic test to detect HEV IgM. Out of 181 cases, 46/181(25.41%) were found to be reactive. A month-wise distribution chart for 2 years i.e.; 2015 and 2016 showed 22/46 (47.82%) and 24/46 (52.17%) seropositive cases respectively. A surge of blood samples from these clinically suspected hepatitis patients were seen mainly in the summer months of April, May and June. In this study, HEV IgM reactive cases showed a seasonal variation. In 2015, out of 22 reactive cases, maximum number of cases were seen in the months of April, May and June i.e.,5/22 (22.72%), 6/22 (27.27%) and 7/22 (31.81%) respectively. In 2016, a similar surge is also seen in the summer months of April, May and June, which are 6/24 (25.00%), 7/24 (29.16%) and 9/24 (37.50%) respectively. With respect to the age distribution, highest number of reactive cases was seen between 21-30 years 20/46 (43.47%). Among all reactive cases of HEV, males 28/46 (60.86%) predominate females 18/46 (39.13%); (p<0.05). Although acute hepatitis caused by HEV is a self-limiting disease, still its rise especially during summer months, is noteworthy. Preventive measures should be taken to restrict the infection.
The Role of Vocational and Technical Education ( VTE ) in Enhancing Socio-Economic Emancipation of Nigerian Youths and Promoting National Security

Vocational and Technical Education is a vital component of education in the development of practical and sellable/marketable skills for National Economic Empowerment and Development in Nigeria, viz-a-viz a tool for the amelioration of vices like national insecurity associated with unemployment due to non acquisition of sellable entrepreneurial/vocational skills. The paper is a conceptual paper based on the use of secondary data. It advocates the need for the Federal Government and all stakeholders in education to re-prioritize their agenda and strategies for improved Vocational and Technical Education and by implication Socio-Economic Emancipation of the Nigerian populace particularly the youths. In this bid, the paper has therefore x-rayed the concepts behind Vocational and Technical Education, bringing out its benets (e.g. improved socio-economic welfare and provision of manpower) as a counter measure to address challenges associated with unemployment and national insecurity. The paper further highlights the problems (e.g. poor funding mechanisms, theory based curricula and lack of deserved attention from government/policy makers) confronting Vocational Education and recommends a systematic, result-oriented solution methodology which if faithfully implemented would go a long way in improving and enhancing National Economic Empowerment as well as ameliorating the problems of the vast insurgence of insecurity that has plagued the Nigerian nation.
Nutritive value of fresh and salted fermented fish ( Alestes dentex ) Terkin

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the nutritional value of salted-fermented fish compared to fresh ones. Kawara fish (Alestes dentex) were used in this study. The fish samples were salted in layers, preserved in a tight container fortwenty four hours and boiled once. Next the mixture was fermented under direct sun light and stirred twice a day until the product became homogenous after twenty days. The parameters used for comparison included; proximate analysis, in vitro protein digestibility, minerals, heavy metals content and amino acid composition. In addition the total bacteria and coli-form count were determined. The results obtained showed high levels of moisture (68.20%) and protein (23.30%) in fresh fish compared to the saltedfermented one (40.08% and 14.25%) respectively. However, the ash content of salted-fermented fish was higher than that in fresh ones. No significant difference was found in the in vitro protein digestibility in the salted-fermented fish and fresh one. Minerals content showed different levels of calcium, potassium, copper and iodine in both type of fish, the level of sodium was high in the salted-fermented fish. It’s worth mentioning that the levels of calcium and potassium were highest in both fresh and salted-fermented fish compared to other minerals. Generally iodine and copper were lowest in fresh and salted –fermented fish. Amino acids analysis showed that the glutamic acid was the highest among all other amino acids in both fresh and salted-fermented fish. Whereas the levels
' s personal copy Effects of an autonomy-supportive intervention on tutor behaviors in a higher education context

Empirical evidence has attested to the benefits of autonomy support in a classroom context, in facilitating students' autonomous motivation, well-being, creativity, engagement, and persistence. However, most interventional research aiming to increase teachers' autonomy-supportive behaviors has been conducted in school and college contexts, with few studies aimed at university tutors. The current study implemented a brief theory-driven autonomy-supportive intervention in university seminars and developed an observational checklist instrument to assess behavior change. Tutors who received brief training in autonomy-supportive teaching techniques showed significant increases from baseline in two important autonomy-supportive behaviors in their classes. Potential implications and suggestions for further development of the intervention are discussed. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Running head: AUDIOVISUAL INTEGRATION IN SPEECH PERCEPTION 1 AUDIOVISUAL INTEGRATION IN NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE SPEECH PERCEPTION

Lip rounding enhances the distinction between the fricative sounds /s/ (as in “save”) and /ʃ/ (as in “shave”) in English. However, this distinction is not common throughout world languages. How well are learners of English able to utilize lip rounding to distinguish these two sounds in their production and perception? Is the ability to utilize lip rounding in this distinction related to overall audiovisual integration in speech perception, as measured by the McGurk effect? Does this ability develop over time? Fourteen English language learners and 14 native speakers of English participated in three tasks to explore these questions. A fricative production task and fricative perception task were used to evaluate the ability to use lip rounding to distinguish /s/ and /ʃ/. A McGurk perceptual task was utilized to determine the degree of audiovisual integration in speech perception. Non-native speaker participants also completed a second session to evaluate development over time. Overall, the English language learners showed high proficiency in both production and perception, suggesting effective use of lip rounding in making the distinction. Development of perceptual ability also occurred between the two sessions. Reaction time patterns differed between the learners and native participants in all perception tasks, suggesting distinct strategies in dealing with audiovisual integration in speech
Effects of duckweed (Lemna polyrhiza) meal incorporated diet on enzyme producing autochthonous gut bacteria in fingerling mrigal, Cirrhinus mrigala (Hamilton)

Effects of duckweed (Lemna polyrhiza) meal based diet on growth performance and enzyme-producing autochthonous gut bacteria of mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala) fingerlings were investigated in a feeding trial lasting for 90 days. Lemna leaf meal incorporated diet resulted in the best growth performance of mrigal fingerlings. Population levels of amylase and cellulase-producing bacterial strains was recorded in higher densities than the protease-producing strains in the group of fish fed Lemna meal diet. The isolated gut bacteria were qualitatively screened and quantitatively assayed for amylase, cellulase, and protease activities. The Lemna meal diet resulted in increased activities of amylase by CMF6, isolated from the proximal intestine (PI) and cellulase by CMH9, isolated from the distal intestine (DI). The results indicate diet-associated differences in the production of extracellular enzymes by the gut bacterial community.