Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Testing the Effect of AMBER Alerts on Face Vigilance

This experiment was conducted to test whether AMBER Alert messages encourage people to become more face-vigilant. Face-vigilance was measured through a recognition task that instructed participants to search for discrepant faces in friendly, threatening, and neutral crowds. Participants were primed with either an AMBER Alert message or a nonword message and then instructed to quickly and accurately conclude whether a discrepant face was present in a matrix of faces. Performance was measured as the response time for correct responses. Results confirmed that threatening faces in friendly crowds were more quickly and accurately detected than were friendly faces in threatening crowds. The results did not show a significant difference in response times for correct responses between the AMBER Alert group and the nonword group. Our findings did not support the hypothesis that AMBER Alerts encourage people to become more facevigilant.
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS ’ VIEWS ON HANDLING LARGE CLASSES IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN UGANDA : IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER EDUCATION

This paper presents part of a research on teaching in large classes in primary schools in Uganda. The purpose of the study was to investigate the administrators, teachers and pupils’ views and practices on teaching large classes. Twenty school administrators (14 males and 6 females) from two districts in central Uganda participated in the study. Data were collected through interviews and documentary analysis. The data were analysed using quasi-grounded theory approach involving the constant comparative method. The findings of the study show that schools face such challenges as understaffing, management of class discipline and heavy marking loads. The administrators have in place plans that include equipping teachers with new skills through inservice programmes and employment of more teachers for dealing with large classes. In light of the findings, this study highlights the need to modify practical teacher practices, teacher preparation and educational research to address teacher preparation programs in teacher education and calls for policy changes on lessons duration and more action research with teachers teaching in large classes is suggested to inform decision making.
Maternal ethnicity as risk factor for miscarriage : 2 evidence from a six-year period cohort in a university 3 setting 4 5

In last decades, growing migration flows have modified the obstetric clinical care, 17 requiring specific attention by health care systems. The aim was to describe the phenomenon 18 focusing on miscarriage (pregnancy loss at <20 weeks). Patients admitted for care at miscarriage in 19 a six-year period (2012-17) were revised. Miscarriage rates in all ethnic groups, dichotomized in 20 early (within the first 12 weeks of gestation) and late (at <20 weeks) pregnancy loss. Associations 21 between women's characteristics (age, parity, inter-pregnancy interval (IPI)) were explored to 22 elucidate any differences. A total of 1,940 patients were included, segregated in early (n=1,769, 23 91.2%) and late (n=171, 8.8%) pregnancy losses. Caucasian ethnicity was the most common (87.9%), 24 leaving the minority groups to 12.1%. Maternal age was higher among Caucasians women than 25 other subgroups, in contrast to Asiatic patients. Nulliparity was observed in 1,045 (53.9%) patient, 26 more widespread among Caucasian and Maghrebins. A positive obstetric history counting at least 27 one miscarriage was frequent, ranging from 22.2% to 75%, in particular among Asiatic women, 28 while the recurrence in Caucasians. In Afro-Carribeans the most relevant rate of late miscarriage 29 was found. By multiple regression modelling, maternal age, nulliparity and Afro-Carribean were 30 identified as determinants. Maternal ethnicity should be considered in the management of 31 pregnancy losses in combination with already well-defined risk factors, including age at 32 miscarriare and nulliparity. 33
Evaluation of the performance of deep learning techniques over tampered dataset

The reduction of classification error over supervised data sets is the main goal in Deep Learning (DL) approaches. However, tampered data is a serious problem in machine learning techniques. One of the recent interests to the machine learning community is the performance enhancement of supervised learning algorithms over tampered training data. In this thesis, the well-known deep learning techniques known as No-Drop, Dropout and DropConnect have been investigated by using toy example data set, the popular handwritten digits data set (MNIST), and our new natural images data set. The investigation divided into three groups which are training Deep Learning techniques over regular data sets, tampered data sets and noisy data sets. First, Deep Learning techniques have been investigated over regular data sets, the experiments showed good results in terms of accuracy and error rate. Then, Deep learning techniques were investigated with tampered MNIST data, this tampered mechanism is the first step toward the security analysis of Deep Learning techniques. The results of DL techniques over tampered MNIST data set showed the same as in regular MNIST. Therefore, the investigation continued with adding two noises which were Gaussian noise and Salt and Pepper noise to reduce the clarity of the MNIST data set. The results showed that Deep Learning techniques still give good accuracy under noise field environment. The thesis contribution is the extensive research that supports Deep Learning techniques that trained over tampered data to obtain high classification accuracy.
Tracks of hadronic showers in the SiW ECAL physics prototype

A simple track-finding algorithm was developed to study tracks left by secondary particles, emerging from hadronic interactions in a highly granular electromagnetic calorimeter prototype. The predictions of two Monte Carlo Geant4 models are compared with experimental data, taken at FNAL in 2008, using a novel track-finding algorithm. Present Monte Carlo simulations provide a good description of the experimental data in terms of new observables, available through the detailed analysis of the secondary particles; the Monte Carlo predictions are within 20% of the data, and for many observables much closer. Main systematic effects were studied using electron and muon samples. This note contains preliminary CALICE results, and is for the use of members of the CALICE Collaboration and others to whom permission has been given. 1Corresponding authors: Roman Pöschl: poeschl@lal.in2p3. fr, Sviatoslav Bilokin: bilokin@lal.in2p3. fr
Floristic and ecological investigation of Wadi Al—Agar in Al—Jabal Al— Akhdar—Libya

Floristic and ecological investigation of Wadi Al—Agar was carried out. The study area lies between 20 45'00" and 20 01' 42" E longitude and 30 35' 00" and 32 01' 15" N latitude of the northeast region of Libya (known as Al—Jabal Al—Akhdar). An open scrub represents the vegetation of the Wadi, which is a very characteristic and natural type of Mediterranean plant communities. A large number of maquis species are found at several elevation parts of the Wadi. About 317 taxa of the vascular plants are investigated in the area. The results revealed that, these taxa are belonging to 66 families two families of Gymnosperms and the remaining 64 families are belonging to Angiosperms. Dicotyledons are represented by 262 species, 171 genera and 55 families and Monocotylendons are represented by 51 species, 37 genera and 9 families. In addition to that, the ten largest families according to the number of species are Asteraceae (46 species), Poaceae (26 species), Lamiaceae (19 species), Apiaceae (13 species), Brassicaceae (13 species), Boraginaceae (11 species), Geraniaceae (11 species), Liliaceae (11 species), and Ranunculaceae (9 species). In this study, there are 18 endemic taxa have been collected. In addition to 23 species reported by some authors, there are no specimens for these species have been collected in Libya. The species Clematis vatalba and Clematis montana have been collected for the first time and they form a new record for Libya.
LexScore: A Semantic Approach to Scoring Domain Specific Sentiment Lexicons

The sentiment of a word varies based on its context of usage: the words used around it and the part-of-speech it is used as. This paper proposes a technique to suggest the sentiment of a word by combining its part-of-speech and the semantic similarities of its co-occurrences with both context-specific and pre-trained embeddings to achieve powerful and fast results. A study was conducted across domains and sub-domains to measure variance of sentiment by switching domains and switching context within the same domain. Re-scoring a commonly used polarity lexicon showed that 10% of words changed scores while switching domains and 8% changed scores within domains while switching context. Part of Speech analysis on 65,353 commonly used sentiment lexicons showed that 81% of sentiment bearing (non-neutral) lexicons were of the tags NN (Common Noun), JJ (Adjective) or NNS (Proper Noun).
Proceedings of the PhD Symposium at the 8th IEEE European Conference on Web Services

Nowadays, organizations from public and private sectors expose their information systems (IS) to the Web. These distributed IS must enforce strict regulations based on laws or corporate policies. A part of EBSEC and SELKIS projects is to specify these regulations using a formal notation (ASTD) at the most abstract level and automatically derive an enforcing security framework. This paper describes a doctoral project articulated around an implementation of a policy enforcement manager (PEM) similar to the one proposed in the XACML standard in order to impose security policies from formal specifications of security rules. Keywords-Access control policy; security rule; policy decision point; formal specification; deployment; SOA; ASTD; BPEL.
MICROBIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FRESHWATER CLAM ( Galatea paradoxa , BORN 1778 ) ) CAUGHT FROM CROSS RIVER ,

Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Environmental Management, University of Uyo, Uyo, PMB 1017, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria; dorime_2004@yahoo.com; +2348038097510; +2348182260328 Microbiological analysis of the freshwater clam, Galatea paradoxa, from Cross River, Nigeria, was carried out using standard microbiological techniques. The total heterotrophic bacterial count (THBC) varied from 2.80×104 cfu g -1 to 4.80×104 cfu g. The total coliform count (TCC) ranged 2.72×102 cfu g6.36×102 cfu g. The total faecal coliform count (TFCC) was from 1.81× 102 cfu g to 4.54×102 cfu g and the total fungal count (TFC) fluctuated between 3.36×103 cfu g 1 and 9.64×103 cfu g. The bacteria and fungi species isolated and their frequencies of occurrences were: Staphylococcus aureus (16.7%), Streptococcus sp (8.3%), Vibro cholerae (8.3%), Escherichia coli (4.2%), Enterobacter sp (4.2%), Salmonella sp (8.3%), Candida albicans (8.3%), Aspergillus niger (16.7%), Penicillium chrysogenum (16.7%) and Rhizopus stolonifera (8.3%). The different anatomical sites of the clam sampled and their isolation rates were: guts (37.5%), inner shell (29.2%), and the homogenized flesh (33.33%). The isolates were mostly susceptible to Gentamycin and Ciprofloxacin and resistant to Rocephin and Zinnacef. The least susceptible isolate, Staphylococcus aureus, was susceptible to only Gentamycin, Ciprofloxacin and Streptomycin out of ten antibiotics used. Isolation of E. coli indicated feacal contamination of the clam sample, therefore depuration of clam sample is necessary to prevent food borne disease outbreaks.
Rekabentuk pembelajaran bagi meningkatkan tahap kefahaman konsep pelajar dalam tajuk Trigonometri menggunakan perisian sumber terbuka Geogebra

This research aims to develop leaning instructions using open source mathematical software of GeoGebra (simple called as RP-GGB). The RP-GGB was developed to assist secondary school student to improve their conceptual understanding in Trigonometry. This study was adopted ADDIE model whilst the research activities were carried out in four phase namely Phase I, Phase II and Phase III, Phase IV and Phase V. This study was conducted in Single Quasi Experiment. In Phase I, a series of analyses of student’s learning difficulties in Trigonometry were conducted to provide essential baseline information required for the design and development of RP-GGB. In Phase II and Phase III, the design and development of RP-GGB were performed involving determination of structure, content and scope of learning instructions as well as the formulation of learning activities that would help easing students’ learning difficulties as we as improving their conceptual understanding in Trigonometry. The visualization of feature GeoGebra has been capitalized for these purposes. In Phase IV, the RP-GGB was tried out to a group twenty-two of form 4 students selected from a school in the state of Selangor. In Phase V, the effectiveness of RP-GGB in assisting students to improve their conceptual understanding in Trigonometry was conducted. The level of students’ conceptual understanding in Trigonometry before and after the use of RP-GGB were measured by specially designed Trigonometry Test. The test score were generated using rubrics. The data analyzed using simple statistical approach involving comparison of scores, the changes of scores and graphical plots of score before and after the use of RP-GGB. The study was found evidences suggesting that the RP-GGB has been effective in assisting students to improve their conceptual understanding in Trigonometry. The study thus provides a practical alternative of learning to assist students for ease their learning difficulties as well as improving their conceptual understanding in Trigonometry
THE STAGES OF DENIAL AND ACCEPTANCE AMONG PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE

Around 400 new cases of chronic kidney disease are being delivered to nephrology clinics every year at an average of 20 patients a day. The current study aimed to construct a test instrument to assess the stages of acceptance and denial among patients with chronic kidney disease to identify the degree of denial among patients as a basis for intervention. A total of 116 participants took part in the study, consisting of new and follow-up cases. Six factors emerged from the study which characterised the aspects of denial and acceptance. The Renal Care Readiness Scale has been identified to have a good internal consistency.
Comparisons between numerical and experimental data for the planar rocking-block dynamics – Part II : analysis of the onset of rocking and of overturning

In this Part II it is considered that the base has a horizontal motion. The parameters that have been fitted with free-rocking experiments in Part I are used to study the onset of rocking and the onset of overturning. Very good agreement with experimental data, when they exist, are found. Some new ideas on possible criteria for onset of rocking and overturning are provided from the extensive numerical results.
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING JOB SATISFACTION : EVIDENCE FROM BANKING SECTOR OF PAKISTAN 1

Non-financial rewards are playing a key role in the job satisfaction of the employees at banking sector of Pakistan. Moreover, there exists a difference between the preferences of the nonfinancial rewards among the male and female employees. This study is aimed to investigate the impact of different non-monetary rewards in the eyes of the employees at banking sector of Pakistan. Quantitative data is collected through questionnaires from a sample of 249 respondents. Analysis is done using SPSS 17.0 and the results suggest that there exists a positive correlation among the non-financial rewards and job satisfaction. Different non-financial rewards like learning & promotions, trainings, work autonomy, work life balance, working environment etc play an important role in employee’s satisfaction towards their jobs. It is concluded from the study that if the organizations want to get a quality output from their employees, they should accommodate them with nonfinancial rewards as much as possible along with the financial rewards. KeywordsJob Satisfaction, Non-financial rewards, Survey Method
Indispensable Role of CX3CR1+ Dendritic Cells in Regulation of Virus-Induced Neuroinflammation Through Rapid Development of Antiviral Immunity in Peripheral Lymphoid Tissues

A coordinated host immune response mediated via chemokine network plays a crucial role in boosting defense mechanisms against pathogenic infections. The speed of Ag presentation and delivery by CD11c+ dendritic cells (DCs) to cognate T cells in lymphoid tissues may decide the pathological severity of the infection. Here, we investigated the role of CX3CR1 in the neuroinflammation induced by infection with Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a neurotrophic virus. Interestingly, CX3CR1 deficiency strongly enhanced susceptibility to JEV only after peripheral inoculation via footpad. By contrast, both CX3CR1+/+ and CX3CR1−/− mice showed comparable susceptibility to JEV following inoculation via intranasal and intraperitoneal routes. CX3CR1−/− mice exhibited lethal neuroinflammation after JEV inoculation via footpad route, showing high mortality, morbidity, pro-inflammatory cytokine expression, and uncontrolled CNS-infiltration of peripheral leukocytes including Ly-6Chi monocytes and Ly-6Ghi granulocytes. Furthermore, the absence of CX3CR1+CD11c+ DCs appeared to enhance susceptibility of CX3CR1−/− mice to JE after peripheral JEV inoculation. CX3CR1 ablation impaired the migration of CX3CR1+CD11c+ DCs from JEV-inoculated sites to draining lymph nodes (dLNs), resulting in decreased NK cell activation and JEV-specific CD4+/CD8+ T-cell responses. However, CX3CR1-competent mice showed rapid temporal expression of viral Ags in dLNs. Subsequently, JEV was rapidly cleared, with concomitant generation of antiviral NK cell activation and T-cell responses mediated by rapid migration of JEV Ag+CX3CR1+CD11c+ DCs. Using biallelic functional CX3CR1 expression system, the functional expression of CX3CR1 on CD11chi DCs appeared to be essentially required for inducing rapid and effective responses of NK cell activation and Ag-specific CD4+ T cells in dLNs. Strikingly, adoptive transfer of CX3CR1+CD11c+ DCs was found to completely restore the resistance of CX3CR1−/− recipients to JEV, as corroborated by the rapid delivery of JEV Ags in dLNs and attenuation of neuroinflammation in the CNS. Collectively, these results indicate that CX3CR1+CD11c+ DCs play an important role in generating rapid and effective responses of antiviral NK cell activation and Ag-specific T cells after peripheral inoculation with the virus, thereby resulting in conferring resistance to viral infection by reducing the peripheral viral burden.
Brain Endothelial Cells Release Apical and Basolateral Microparticles in Response to Inflammatory Cytokine Stimulation: Relevance to Neuroinflammatory Stress?

Microparticles (MP) are regarded both as biomarkers and mediators of many forms of pathology, including neurovascular inflammation. Here, we characterized vectorial release of apical and basolateral MPs (AMPs and BMPs) from control and TNF-α/IFN-γ treated human brain endothelial monolayers, studied molecular composition of AMPs and BMPs and characterized molecular pathways regulating AMP and BMP release. The effects of AMPs and BMPs on blood-brain barrier properties and human brain microvascular smooth muscle tonic contractility in vitro were also evaluated. We report that human brain microvascular endothelial cells release MPs both apically and basolaterally with both AMP and BMP release significantly increased following inflammatory cytokine challenge (3.5-fold and 3.9-fold vs. control, respectively). AMPs and BMPs both carry proteins derived from parent cells including those in BBB junctions (Claudin−1, −3, −5, occludin, VE-cadherin). AMPs and BMPs represent distinct populations whose release appears to be regulated by distinctly separate molecular pathways, which depend on signaling from Rho-associated, coiled-coil containing protein kinase (ROCK), calpain as well as cholesterol depletion. AMPs and BMPs modulate functions of neighboring cells including BBB endothelial solute permeability and brain vascular smooth muscle contractility. While control AMPs enhanced brain endothelial barrier, cytokine-induced AMPs impaired BBB. Cytokine-induced but not control BMPs significantly impaired human brain smooth muscle contractility as early as day 1. Taken together these results indicate that AMPs and BMPs may contribute to neurovascular inflammatory disease progression both within the circulation (AMP) and in the brain parenchyma (BMP).
1D and 2D-HSQC NMR: Two Methods to Distinguish and Characterize Heparin From Different Animal and Tissue Sources

The US Food and Drug Administration has encouraged the reintroduction of bovine heparin drug product to the US market to mitigate the risks of heparin shortages and potential adulteration or contamination of the primary source which is porcine heparin. Here, a 1D-NMR method was applied to compare heparin sodium of bovine intestinal origin with that of bovine lung, porcine, or ovine intestinal origin. The results showed that a simple 1D test using NMR signal intensity ratios among diagnostic signals of the proton spectra uniquely identified the origin of heparin and concomitantly could be used to assure the correct sample labeling. However, a limitation of the use of only mono-dimensional spectra is that these spectra may not provide sufficiently detailed information on the composition of heparin batches to adequately determine the quality of this complex product. As an alternative, a higher resolution quantitative 2D-HSQC method was used to calculate the percentage of mono- and disaccharides, distinguish the origin of heparin and, simultaneously, assess the heparin composition. The 2D-HSQC method is proposed to provide sufficient information to evaluate the quality of industrial production process used to make the drug substance. Together, the 1D and 2D data produced by these measurements can be used to assure the identity and purity of this widely used drug.
Overexpression of a CPYC-Type Glutaredoxin, OsGrxC2.2, Causes Abnormal Embryos and an Increased Grain Weight in Rice

Glutaredoxins (Grxs) are a ubiquitous group of oxidoreductase enzymes that are important in plant growth and development; however, the functions of rice Grxs have not been fully elucidated. In this paper, we showed that one of the Grxs, encoded by OsGrxC2.2, exhibited Grx activity. Furthermore, we demonstrated that OsGrxC2.2 was able to regulate embryo development during embryogenesis. Transgenic rice lines overexpressing OsGrxC2.2 unexpectedly exhibited degenerate embryos as well as embryoless seeds. Our data indicated that the embryonic abnormalities occurred at an early stage during embryogenesis. We found that the expression of several endodermal layer marker genes for embryo development, such as OSH1 (apical region marker), OsSCR (L2 ground tissue marker), and OsPNH1 (L3 vascular tissue marker), were significantly decreased in the OsGrxC2.2-overexpressed transgenic rice lines. In contrast, the transcript levels of the majority of protodermal layer markers, including HAZ1, ROC2, ROC3, and RAmy1A, and the shoot apical meristem marker HB, showed little change between the wild-type (WT) and OsGrxC2.2-overexpressing embryos. Surprisingly, the seed weight of the overexpressed transgenic rice was remarkably increased in comparison to that of the WT. These results indicate that the overexpression of OsGrxC2.2 interferes with the normal embryogenesis of rice embryos and leads to increased grain weight. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that OsGrxC2.2 is a rice embryo development-associated gene.