Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Storm-stimulated enzymatic decomposition of organic matter in benthiclpelagic coastal mesocosms

Sediment resuspension caused by simulated storms led to a dramatic short-term increase of aminopeptidase (AMPase) and P-glucosidase (GLCase) activities and bacterial secondary production in coastal waters during a mesocosm experiment in Knebel Vig, Denmark. Perturbation of sediments strongly affected the kinetic parameters of AMPase and GLCase in the water column of the enclosures. V,, values of AMPase and GLCase determined 4 h after a simulated storm event were 24 % and 43 % higher, respectively, than those assayed during the calm period. Sediment resuspension in enclosures ('storm enclosures') had the most pronounced effect on GLCase apparent K, (Michaelis constant) values, which increased 2.6 times (163 %) after sediment resuspension. AMPase K,,, values were approximately 1.6 times higher after sediment resuspension than before sediment resuspension. Changes in of the V, , and K,,, values of GLCase and AMPase in storm enclosures were accompanied by longer turnover tlmes for enzymatic hydrolysis of substrates. GLCase and AMPase after sediment resuspension had noticeably higher specific activities than before the storm event. GLCase and AMPase specific activities produced by an 'average' single bacterium were 2.4 and 2.1 times higher, respectively, after the storm event. Sediment in the water caused a situation in which most GLCase activity (68%) was associated with the particle size fraction >l0 pm. AMPase activity after a storm event also shifted towards the > 10 pm size fractions. Activities of free AMPase and GLCase dissolved in the water were low and contributed 8% and 14-16%, respectively, to the total activity of these enzymes. Results of simultaneously radiolabeling size-fractionated samples with [3H]thymidine and ['"]protein hydrolysate showed that the water column of storm enclosures was inhabited by metabolically different bacterial populations before and after sediment resuspension. The response of the suspended microbial assen~blages to the storm event was very rapid but short-term; enzymatic activity levels returned to pre-storm levels within 24 h. Our rnesocosm experiments demonstrated that sediment resuspension caused by simulated storms had a pronounced stimulatory effect on the rates of microbial enzymatic degradation of organic matter in a coastal ecosystem.
Variations in Brain Morphometry Among Healthy Preschoolers Born Very Preterm

Background Preterm birth is associated with an increased risk of neonatal brain injury, which can lead to alterations in brain maturation. Advances in neonatal care have dramatically reduced the incidence of the most significant medical consequences of preterm birth. Relatively healthy preterm infants remain at increased risk for subtle injuries that impact future neurodevelopmental and functioning. Aims To investigate the gray matter morphometry measures of cortical thickness, surface area, and sulcal depth in the brain using magnetic resonance imaging at 5 years of age in healthy children born very preterm. Study design Cohort study Subjects Participants were 52 children born very preterm (VPT; less than 33 weeks gestational age) and 37 children born full term. Outcome measures Cortical segmentation and calculation of morphometry measures were completed using FreeSurfer version 5.3. 0 and compared between groups using voxel-wise, surface-based analyses. Results The VPT group had a significantly thinner cortex in temporal and parietal regions as well as thicker gray matter in the occipital and inferior frontal regions. Reduced surface area was found in the fusiform area in the VPT group. Sulcal depth was also lower in the VPT group within the posterior parietal and inferior temporal regions and greater sulcal depth was found in the middle temporal and medial parietal regions. Results in some of these regions were correlated with gestational age at birth in the VPT group. Conclusions The most widespread differences between the VPT and FT groups were found in cortical thickness. These findings may represent a combination of delayed maturation and permanent alterations caused by the perinatal processes associated with very preterm birth.
Investigation of the angle and age effect using Fitts' Law for mouse input

In human-computer interaction Fitts’ Law has proven to be a highly accurate model for predicting movement times of pointing tasks. The original Fitts' Law only considers one-dimensional movements. In the field of human-computer interaction however one has to deal with at least two dimensions. Due to inconsistency in previous research concerning the integration of the motion angle into the Fitts' formulation, we investigated the influence of this factor on movement times and total fixation time on target object. 93 subjects, separated in three age groups were tested in executing a pointing task with a computer mouse. The results reveal that horizontal and vertical pointing movements result in significantly shorter movement times than diagonal pointing movements. Regarding the total fixation time on target object we found significantly longer fixation times for pointings in upper areas than for pointings in lower areas. Moreover, movement time as well as total fixation time on target object was significantly higher with increasing age. Practitioner Summary: We investigated which angle leads to lowest movement times when carrying out goal directed pointing movements with a computer mouse. For different age groups horizontal and vertical pointing movements were beneficial as they led to lower movement times than diagonal pointing movements.
A Regression Method for Mark‐Recapture Estimation of Population Size with Unequal Catchability

The assumption of equal catchability of marked and unmarked animals in mark—recapture sampling is examined. Violation of this assumption may come from two basic sources, heterogeneity or contagion, and both produce a bias in the estimate of population size. Two approaches to this problem are discussed. First, it is noted that bias can be avoided by statistically independent sampling procedures for marking and recapturing. Second, a new regression method is presented for multiple captures on a closed population, which combines mark—recapture with "simulated" removal and tests whether the assumption of equal catchability holds, regardless of the source of bias. Furthermore, if the ratio of catchabilities between unmarked and marked animals is constant over at least two successive samples, the method provides an estimate of population size even if the assumption of equal catchability does not hold. Two suggestions are made to supplement the regression method. First, noncapture sampling to obtain the ratio of.
Peer Editing in French Using Digital Tools: A Micro-Analysis of Learner-Computer Interactions

Abstract This paper describes a case study focused on the ways in which university-level learners of French as a second language collaborate during peer-editing sessions assisted by digital tools. The purpose of the study is to better understand users’ interactions with each other and with technologies at a micro level. Audio recordings and video screen captures of peer-editing sessions serve as a basis for our analysis of strategies deployed by 12 learners of French as a second language enrolled in an intensive intermediate grammar and writing course. Using a mixed-methods approach based on qualitative and quantitative data collected with five peer-editing groups, the study centres on processes in which participants engage to perform their tasks. The paper makes recommendations regarding task design and learners’ training for development of digital literacies. Resume Cet article presente une etude de cas portant sur les strategies utilisees par des apprenants de francais langue seconde en milieu universitaire, lors de seances de correction des pairs assistees par des outils numeriques. L’objectif de l’etude etait de mieux comprendre, a un niveau micro, les facons dont les participants interagissaient entre eux, ainsi que d’identifier les interactions avec les outils numeriques utilises. Pour ce faire, nous avons eu recours a des enregistrements audio et a des captures d’ecran de seances de correction des pairs pour analyser les strategies mises en œuvre par ces etudiants inscrits dans un cours de grammaire et d’ecriture de niveau intermediaire. A partir des donnees d’ordre quantitative et qualitative recueillies aupres de cinq groupes d’apprenants, cette etude s’est concentree sur les procedes auxquels avaient eu recours les participants pour accomplir la tâche. L’article offre des recommandations sur les conceptions de tâches et sur la formation a la litteratie numerique.
Trade Liberalization and Institutional Quality: Evidence from Vietnam

Recent cross-country research shows that there is a causal relationship between trade liberalization and quality of institutions. The literature on cross-country studies has been criticized because differences in legal systems and other institutions across countries are difficult to control for. An in-depth case study of a particular country’s experience can provide a useful complement to cross-country regressions. Using the unique dataset from provincial competitiveness survey and a natural experiment from joining the World Trade Organization, I find that variations in economic institutions across provinces in Vietnam can be explained by trade liberalization. To overcome endogeneity problems, I use minimum distance from each province to main economic centres as an instrument for trade liberalization. The instrumental variable approach shows that the direction of influence is from greater openness to better institutions. The results hold after controlling for various additional covariates. It is also robust to various alternative measures of institutions. I also find that trade liberalisation has greater short term impacts on institutional quality in the Northern provinces.
Clinical Study Quinolone Prophylaxis in Transrectal Ultrasound Guided Prostate Biopsy : An Eight-Year Single Center Experience

1 Department of Urology, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 7, Chung Shan S. Road (Zhongshan S. Road), Zhongzheng District, Taipei City 10002, Taiwan 2Department of Urology, Cardinal Tien Hospital, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, No. 362, Zhongzheng Road, Xindian District, New Taipei City 231, Taiwan 3Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, No. 21, Section 2, Nanya S. Road, Banqiao District, New Taipei City 220, Taiwan 4Department of Urology, Tzu Chi General Hospital, No. 707, Section 3, Chung Yang Road, Hualien 970, Taiwan
A clinical study and different modalities of management of ventral hernias

Background: Ventral hernias are a common problem encountered by the surgeons. Patients developing hernias become restricted from work or usual activities as the hernia enlarges and this demands surgical repair. The objective of this study is to evaluate the predisposing factors, the different modes of presentation, the different methods of surgical repair including the newer methods.Methods: A prospective random study done at Alluri Sita Rama Raju Academy of Medical sciences, Eluru, where in 50 cases of ventral hernias were randomly selected. A thorough case history taken as per the proforma enclosed and relevant investigations were done following which a selective surgical treatment such as anatomical repair and mesh repair were used. Anatomical repair was mainly considered in pediatric and infected cases and the remaining with open and laparoscopic mesh repair.Results: Majority of ventral hernias were seen in the age group of 21 to 60 years with a major female preponderance in umbilical, paraumbilical and incisional hernias, and epigastric hernias common in males. The common predisposing factors identified were previous surgeries, followed by anaemia, multiparity. Majority patients presented with mass or swelling over the abdomen which were reducible. The lower midline incisions were the most common cause for incisional hernias. Most of the patients had a fair preoperative presentation. In this study anatomical and mesh repair (open and laparoscopic) were done. 7 cases lost follow up and no recurrences noted.Conclusions: Among the ventral hernias infraumbilical incisional hernias were common with majority being gyneacological and obstetric procedures. Maximum cases were repaired with Open mesh repair (onlay >inlay) followed by laparoscopic and anatomical repair. With the good knowledge of anatomy, good relaxed anaesthesia and improved surgical skills, the use of synthetic suture and prosthetic material, coverage with antibiotics, post-operative care the outcome of treatment for hernia has improved with insignificant recurrence.
Design , Fabrication , and Application of GaN-Based Micro-LED Arrays With Individual Addressing by N-Electrodes Volume 9 , Number 6 , December 2017

We demonstrate the development, performance, and application of a GaN-based micro-light emitting diode (μLED) array sharing a common p-electrode (anode), and with individually addressable n-electrodes (cathodes). Compared to conventional GaN-based LED arrays, this array design employs a reversed structure of common and individual electrodes, which makes it innovative and compatible with n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) transistor-based drivers for faster modulation. Excellent performance characteristics are illustrated by an example array emitting at 450 nm. At a current density of 17.7 kA/cm2 in direct-current operation, the optical power and small signal electrical-to-optical modulation bandwidth of a single μLED element with 24 μm diameter are over 2.0 mW and 440 MHz, respectively. The optimized fabrication process also ensures a high yield of working μLED elements per array and excellent element-to-element uniformity of electrical/optical characteristics. Results on visible light communication are presented as an application of an array integrated with an NMOS driver. Data transmission at several hundred Mb/s without bit error is achieved for singleand multiple-μLED-element operations, under an ON–OFF-keying modulation scheme. Transmission of stepped sawtooth waveforms is also demonstrated to confirm that the μLED elements can transmit discrete multilevel signals.
Testing Theories of Capital Structure and Estimating the Speed of Adjustment

Abstract This paper examines time-series patterns of external financing decisions and shows that publicly traded U.S. firms fund a much larger proportion of their financing deficit with external equity when the cost of equity capital is low. The historical values of the cost of equity capital have long-lasting effects on firms’ capital structures through their influence on firms’ historical financing decisions. We also introduce a new econometric technique to deal with biases in estimates of the speed of adjustment toward target leverage. We find that firms adjust toward target leverage at a moderate speed, with a half-life of 3.7 years for book leverage, even after controlling for the traditional determinants of capital structure and firm fixed effects.
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR VALUE MANAGEMENT 1 WORKSHOPS IN MALAYSIA 2

4 The application of Value Management (VM) in Malaysia increased dramatically after it was made a mandatory 5 requirement for public projects exceeding 50 million Malaysian Ringgit (MYR). This paper reports the findings of an 6 empirical study to determine the critical success factors (CSFs) for VM workshops in the Malaysian construction 7 industry. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey of publicand privatesector players in the industry, and 8 analyzed using descriptive analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test, and scale ranking. The results reveal that clear 9 objectives, client participation and support, discipline and attitude, team mix, and a decision making authority are 10 critical components for successful VM workshops. Other factors include the participation of end users during the 11 workshop, background information, input from relevant government departments, and the facilitator’s VM workshop 12 experience. The CSFs determined by this study provide a framework for successful VM workshops in the Malaysian 13 construction industry and may be applicable to construction industries in other similar jurisdictions. 14
ANISOTROPY OF X-RAY BURSTS FROM NEUTRON STARS WITH CONCAVE ACCRETION DISKS

Emission from neutron stars and accretion disks in low-mass X-ray binaries is anisotropic. The non-spherical shape of the disk as well as blocking of the neutron star by the disk make the observed flux dependent on the inclination angle of the disk with respect to the line of sight. This is of importance for the interpretation of thermonuclear X-ray bursts from neutron stars. Because part of the X-ray burst is reflected off the disk, the observed burst flux depends on the anisotropies for both direct emission from the neutron star and reflection off the disk. This influences measurements of source distance, mass accretion rate, and constraints on the neutron star’s equation of state. Previous predictions of the anisotropy factors assumed a geometrically flat disk. Detailed observations of two so-called superbursts allowed for the direct and the reflected burst fluxes to each be measured separately. The reflection fraction was much higher than what the anisotropies of a flat disk can account for. We create numerical models to calculate the anisotropy factors for different disk shapes, including concave disks. We present the anisotropy factors of the direct and reflected burst fluxes separately, as well as the anisotropy of the persistent flux. Reflection fractions substantially larger than unity are produced in the case where the inner accretion disk increases steeply in height, such that part of the star is blocked from view. Such a geometry could possibly be induced by the X-ray burst if X-ray heating causes the inner disk to puff up.
Adoption of E-learning Systems in Tanzania ’ s Universities : A Proposed Multi-Factors Adoption Model ( MFAM 11 )

Current studies show that there is no comprehensive adoption model in e-learning systems in universities. This problem opens up to too much debates about which models and frameworks fit well in an e-learning environment particularly in universities in Tanzania. This paper answers the two debatable questions, which are:(1) what are the factors that affect adoption of e-learning systems in Tanzania’s universities, (2) what is the comprehensive e-learning adoption model in universities in Tanzania. This research study adapts DeLone and McLean (2003) IS model after an extensive literature reviews conducted in information systems and in e-learning systems. The findings from this research will add up to literature of limited factors’ model and it will open it up for validation in a different universities’ application domain. Keywords— Adoption, e-learning systems, factors, models, frameworks, multi-factors, Tanzania, DeLone and McLean, universities.
Wildlife surveillance using deep learning methods

Abstract Wildlife conservation and the management of human–wildlife conflicts require cost‐effective methods of monitoring wild animal behavior. Still and video camera surveillance can generate enormous quantities of data, which is laborious and expensive to screen for the species of interest. In the present study, we describe a state‐of‐the‐art, deep learning approach for automatically identifying and isolating species‐specific activity from still images and video data. We used a dataset consisting of 8,368 images of wild and domestic animals in farm buildings, and we developed an approach firstly to distinguish badgers from other species (binary classification) and secondly to distinguish each of six animal species (multiclassification). We focused on binary classification of badgers first because such a tool would be relevant to efforts to manage Mycobacterium bovis (the cause of bovine tuberculosis) transmission between badgers and cattle. We used two deep learning frameworks for automatic image recognition. They achieved high accuracies, in the order of 98.05% for binary classification and 90.32% for multiclassification. Based on the deep learning framework, a detection process was also developed for identifying animals of interest in video footage, which to our knowledge is the first application for this purpose. The algorithms developed here have wide applications in wildlife monitoring where large quantities of visual data require screening for certain species.
Investigation of Class I, II and III Integrons among Acinetobacter Strains Isolated from Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Patients in Intensive Care Unit of Rasoul Akram Hospital in Tehran, Iran

Article type: Original Article Background: Multi-drug resistant strains of Acinetobacter spp. have created therapeutic problems worldwide. The objective of this study was to detect integrons in Acinetobacter spp. isolates from Ventilator -Associated Pneumonia patients using PCR method. Methods: A total 51 Bronchoalveolar lavage samples were obtained from patients in ICU and examined for Acinetobacterspp. infection by biochemical and PCR methods using blaOXA51-like primers. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed using disk diffusion and MIC methods. Results: Among 51 patients with VAP (62.7% males, 35.2% females, mean age 53 year), 50 (98%) were positive, with a high prevalence of gram-negative bacteria, mainly Acinetobacter spp. (70%), from which A. baumani was detected in 34 (68%) and A. lwoffii in 1 (2%) of isolates. More than 90% of isolates were resistant to imipenem, pipera cillin+tazobactam, third generation cephalosporins and gentamicin, while the most effective antibiotic was colistin (100%). The correlation coefficient between disk diffusion and MIC was 0.808 (p = 0.001). Three Acinetobacter isolates (8%) harbored integrase I gene but none of isolates contained Class II or III integrons. Conclusion: The results showed that colistin was an effective antibi otic and can be used for treatment of patients in ICU. Due to the high number of MDR isolates lacking Integrons it can be concluded that although class I in tegrons are important among clinical isolates of A. baumannii, they have no significant role in dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes in Rasoul Akram Hospital in Tehran, Iran. The pres ence of IntI in A. lwoffii may be related to transfer of integron to A. baumanniiwhich can be considered as an important threat for hospitalized patients.
Opportunities and constraints of peri-urban buffalo and dairy cattle systems in Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan

iii Table of contents v Index of figures vi Index of tables vi Preface vii 1 Overview 1 1.1 Milk production systems 2 1.2 Objectives of the working paper 3 2 Material and methods 4 2.1 Study area 4 2.2 Data collection 4 2.3 Statistical analysis 5 3 Results and discussion 7 3.1 Classification of farmers 7 3.2 Household structure 8 3.3 Land holdings 10 3.4 Livestock 10 3.5 Use of animal excreta 11 3.6 Labour 14 3.7 Milk production and marketing 19 3.8 Animal turnover and livestock trade 28 3.9 Future prospects and challenges 29 4 Discussion of the methodology 37 5 Conclusions and suggestions for further research 39 5.1 “Identification of household types fit for a micro credit program” 39 5.2 “Impact of peri-urban dairy production on the income of rural households” 40 5.3 “How to cope with growing cities and rural farmers becoming urban? ” 41 5.4 “Safety, decency and gender aspects of labour in dairy production” 41 6 References 42 ICDD l Opportunities and constraints of peri-urban dairy buffalo and dairy cattle systems in Faisalabad