Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors determining off-farm employment on small farms in district Nowshehra of North West Pakistan.

There exists high level of under employment in agriculture sector in agrarian and transitory economies. Industrial growth and capacity is not enough to accommodate surplus labour existing in the agricultural sector which give way to unemployment and the expansion of non-farm sector (unorganized service sector). This shift of livelihood has socio-economic implications for a transitory economy like Pakistan. Aim of the present research is to investigate and assess the factors contributing to off-farm employment in North West Pakistan. For this purpose data were collected from purposively selected villages in district Nowshera, Pakistan in 2008. OLS technique was used for data analysis. Findings of the study show that farm-size, family-size, farm-underemployment, education, and income-from-other-sources were the main factors determining off-farm employment in the study area. It was also observed that farmers of the comparatively developed areas devote more time to off-farm employment. This could be associated to the developed means of transport and communications, better education facilities as well as availability of off-farm jobs locally. The study revealed that most of the farmers were engaged in daily paid labour. However, a considerable number of farmers were also engaged in trade and commerce jobs and part time employment with the private firms. Overall there is a gradual shift from farm to off-farm employment which is resisted by the underdeveloped means of transport and communication, education and lack of basic infrastructure.
ECONOMETRIC ISSUES IN ESTIMATING THE BEHAVIORAL RESPONSE TO TAXATION: A NONTECHNICAL INTRODUCTION

Reliable estimates of how tax incentives affect behavior are an essential input into the formation of tax policy. However, one encounters a number of difficult econometric problems in estimating the magnitude of the behavioral effects. This paper provides a nontechnical introduction to some of the more prominent problems, particularly the endogeneity of marginal tax rates and the problem of identifying tax effects, and discusses two estimation techniques used in recent studies: difference-in-differences and instrumental variables using panel data.
Epidemiological Aspects of kidney Failure in Hospitalized Children in Brazil

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the epidemiology, costs and outcome of children’s kidney failure in Brazil. Methods: The study is an observational cohort study based in national govern database. Data were collected from all hospitals affiliated to Brazilian unified health system (SUS). We analyzed all children from neonatal period to 19 years old with diagnosis of renal failure based on the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Results: Demographic data were collected in eight cohorts from 1998 to 2007. There were 666.725 hospital admissions by kidney disease and 43,174 admissions by kidney failure. The mean of mortality rate, 4% in these cohorts. The admissions and mortality rate have been constant with high mortality under the age of 1 year since 1998. The incidence in boys was higher than in girls but was not significant (p > 0.05). The mean of length of stay was 9.55 days. The mean of annual costs was $5,075,641 million and $588 dollars per patient. In addition, the congenital malformations of the urinary system presented a coefficient of incidence in 1999 of the 0.08/1000 inhabitants or 4 fold less than 2005 (0.44/1000). Conclusion: Kidney failure is a prevalent healthy problem that affects children from neonatal period to adolescence and presents high post natal mortality. Renal failure is associated to a large spectrum of different ethiologies and different levels of morbidity and consequent impact on the outcome. On account of this early diagnosis improvement and treatments would be established.
Towards price-based predictive control of a small-scale electricity network

ABSTRACT With the increasing deployment of battery storage devices in residential electricity networks, it is essential that the charging and discharging of these devices be scheduled so as to avoid adverse impacts on the electricity distribution network. In this paper, we propose a non-cooperative, price-based hierarchical distributed optimisation approach that provably recovers the centralised, or cooperative, optimal performance from the point of view of the network operator. The distributed optimisation algorithm provides important insights into the appropriate design of contracts between an energy provider and their associated residential customers, who can themselves act as energy providers as well as consumers (e.g. due to rooftop solar photovoltaics and batteries) depending on the time of the day and on real-time prices. To make the presentation self-contained, and to highlight key properties of the price-based optimisation algorithm, the dual ascent method and its convergence properties are reviewed. The performance of the proposed price-based optimisation algorithm is validated on recent measurement taken from an Australian electricity distribution company, Ausgrid. In addition to analysing the results of the open loop solution, we investigate the effect of real-time prices in the closed loop using a model predictive control framework.
An Exploratory Investigation of Online Forum Mediated Collaborative Learning of Speech Writing: A Case Study.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are being integrated in the curriculum by many educational institutions to extend teaching and learning beyond classroom. This paper is based on a case study exploring the integration of LMS Nalanda created on Moodle in Effective Public Speaking (EPS) classroom to give students an additional platform to practice, collaborate and discuss speech writing. Out of many teaching learning facilities available on LMS, the researcher chose online forum as a tool for giving additional practice in speech writing. This tool helped in enhancing learner centeredness on one hand and encouraged equal participation of all the group members on the other. The present paper looks at the researcher's observation of the outcomes of the integration process. One of the important finding was that students' interaction on online forums resulted in improvement of students' performance in speech writing. Higher participation, constructive feedback and community of practice resulted in enhancement in their speech organising abilities while preparing the speech draft. Vygotsky's Socio-cultural theory which holds active, interactive and collaborative role of learners in the entire learning process has been used as its theoretical basis.
A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR COST DETERMINATION IN GRAIN STORAGE FACILITY OPERATIONS 1

Many research works have being carried out on analyzing grain storage facility costs; however a few of them had taken into account the analysis of factors associated to all preprocessing and storage steps. The objective of this work was to develop a decision support system for determining the grain storage facility costs and utilization fees in grain storage facilities. The data of a CONAB storage facility located in Ponta Grossa PR, Brazil, was used as input of the system developed to analyze its specific characteristics, such as amount of product received and stored throughout the year, hourly capacity of drying, cleaning, and receiving, and dispatch. By applying the decision support system, it was observed that the reception and expedition costs were exponentially reduced as the turnover rate of the storage increased. The cleaning and drying costs increased linearly with grain initial moisture. The storage cost increased exponentially as the occupancy rate of the storage facility decreased.
Optimization of Reinforced Concrete Retaining Walls Using Ant Colony Method

Optimization of concrete retaining walls is an important task in geotechnical and structural engineering. Classical optimization search methods are rudimentarily based on direct search methods. Di- rect search methods belong to a class of optimization methods that do not compute derivatives. However, these algorithms suffer from both trapping in local minima and increasing run time. In order to reduce the possibility of suffering from this problem, the heuristic approaches are more favored among the scientists. This paper applies a methodology to arrive at optimal design of concrete retaining wall using ant col- ony optimization (ACO) algorithm that is a general search technique for the solution of difficult combina- torial problems with its theoretical roots based on the foraging behavior of ants. The algorithm is used to find the minimum weight and cost for concrete retaining walls. Coulomb lateral earth pressure theory is used to derive the lateral total thrust on the wall. The results are compared with other available optimiza- tion scheme applied by other researchers. The results clearly indicate that ACO yields the solutions for all benchmarks due to its capability to explore and exploit the solution space effectively. As a result, it can be used for optimizing the reinforced concrete retaining walls. Concrete retaining walls are most widely used structures in civil engineering practice. Such walls are commonly used to support earth, coal, ore piles, and water. Optimization of retaining walls is necessary due to economical consideration. Current optimization structural softwares for retaining wall design often lack the ability to find out optim al design because of their deterministic nature, while those employing stochastic methods are not tailored specifically for retaining walls and massive concrete structures. Clas- sic optimization search methods are rudimentarily based on direct search methods. Direct search methods belong to a class of optimization methods that do not compute derivatives. Examples of direct search me- thod are the Nelder Mead Simplex method, Hooke and Jeeves's pattern search, the box method, and Den- nis and Torczon's parallel direct search algorithm employing a multi-sided simplex. However, these algo- rithms suffer from both trapping in local minima and increasing running time. In this paper, a methodology is presented to arrive at optimal design of concrete retaining wall using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm that is a general search technique for the solution of difficult combinatorial problems with its theoretical roots based on the foraging behavior of ants. ACO is based on the indirect communication of a colony of simple agents, called artificial ants, mediated by artificial phe- romone trails. The pheromone trails in ACO serve as distributed numerical information, which the ants use to probabilistically construct solutions to the problem being solved.
Diversity Of Mandibular Morphology In Some Carnivorans

Abstract Comparison of mandibular morphology of some aquatic (seals, walruses, and sea otters) and terrestrial (hyenas and pandas) carnivorans demonstrates a rather general pattern correlating size of condyloid angle, size of gape, and diet. Structural differences of carnivoran jaws reveal morphological and ecological adaptations that are directly correlated with availability of prey, diving depth, feeding competition and specialized feeding methods. Specifically, the inclination of the condyloid process relative to the axis of the alveolar row (= condyloid angle) can be used to determine dietary preferences, including size of prey. Generally, carnivorans with a large condyloid angle feed on larger prey, while a low condyloid angle suggests feeding on small prey or can be an advantageous feeding mechanism. Mirounga angustirostris (Northern elephant seal) displays sex-specific characters in cranial and postcranial elements. Likewise, significant sexually dimorphic differences in the size of condyloid angle imply that deeper-diving male Northern elephant seals have a feeding niche dissimilar to that of females. Morphological assessment of male M. angustirostris suggests they are bottom-feeding seals that utilize a suction-feeding mechanism to capture small prey and crush shells with their teeth, which become weaker as they age.
Unrelated Transplants for High-risk Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

Standard chemotherapy has a poor outcome in adult patients with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplant (alloSCT) is the treatment of choice, and SCT with alternative progenitors should be considered in the absence of a matched sibling donor. There is great heterogeneity in the data on unrelated SCT for adult patients with high-risk ALL. Many studies include both paediatric and adult patients, or provide combined data from ALL and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients. Moreover, the follow-up of the reported series is highly variable, and the definition of high-risk criteria varies from one study to another. The reported disease-free survival (DFS) for adult ALL patients ranges from 30 to 70%, and leukaemia relapse (14–47%) is an important cause of treatment failure. Despite great improvements in recent years, transplant-related mortality (TRM) from unrelated SCT (USCT) remains unacceptably high (29–36%). The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) disparity in the unrelated donor setting with a high incidence of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and delayed immunological reconstitution with a high incidence of infectious events in the unrelated cord blood SCT are the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in unrelated transplants. Disease status at transplant and the presence of acute and/or chronic GvHD are the most important factors determining relapse in high-risk ALL adult patients undergoing USCT.
European and United States farmers’ markets: similarities, differences and potential developments

Farmers’ markets have always been the usual way of buying and selling rural products in the Western world. With the advent of supermarkets, farmers’ markets rapidly disappeared in many nations. However, in countries such as France and Italy, which place a high priority on food origin and regional specialisation, some farmers’ markets continued to exist, partly due to their mechanisms to identify and promote locally grown foods. The consumer’s desire to re-establish a bond with local food products, local growers and producers, together with the growing concern for food freshness and healthiness have been key drivers for the renaissance of farmers’ markets occurred in the latest years in many European countries and in the United States. Several studies, conducted across Europe and in the U.S., have shown rising consumers’ consideration of farmers’ markets as important sources of household food shopping and increasing attention of farmers to this sale channel, in a period in which their share of the “food dollar” is continuing to decrease. The objectives of this paper are to contribute to extend understanding of the main features of the European and United States farmers’ markets and raise critical questions about their potential development in the modern food system.
Conceptualizing Urban Shrinkage

Since the second half of the 20th century, urban shrinkage has become a common pathway of transformation for many large cities across the globe. Although the appearance of shrinkage is fairly universal—typically manifested in dwindling population, emerging vacant spaces, and the underuse of existing urban infrastructure, ranging from schools and parks to water pipelines—its essence is hidden from view. Phenomena related to shrinkage have been discussed predominantly using terms such as decline, decay, blight, abandonment, disurbanization, urban crisis, and demographic change. Amongst others, these concepts were typically related to specific national contexts, installed in distinct explanatory frameworks, based around diverging normative accounts, ultimately leading to very different policy implications. Yet there is still a lack of conceptualization and integration of shrinkage into the wider theoretical debates in human geography, town and country planning, urban and regional studies, and social sciences at large. The problem here is not only to explain how shrinkage comes about, but also to study shrinkage as a process: simultaneously as a presupposition, a medium, and an outcome of continually changing social relationships. If we wish to understand shrinkage in a specific location, we need to integrate theoretical explanations with historical trajectories, as well as to combine these with a study of the specific impacts caused by shrinkage and to analyse the policy environment in which these processes take place. The authors apply an integrative model which maps the entire process across different contexts and independently of local or national specifics; it covers causes, impacts, responses, and feedback loops, and the interrelations between these aspects. The model does not ‘explain’ shrinkage in every case: instead, it builds a framework into which place-specific and time-specific explanations can be embedded. It is thus a heuristics that enables communication, if not comparison, across different contexts. With the help of this model, the authors hope to find a way in which shrinkage can be studied both in a conceptually rigorous and in an historically specific way. Instead of an invariant ‘process of shrinkage’, they portray a ‘pluralist world of shrinkages’.
Low latitude ionospheric effects of major geomagnetic storms observed using TOPEX TEC data

Abstract. Low latitude ionospheric effects of two major geomagnetic storms are analysed using TOPEX TEC data for specific satellite passes. The storms are the one that started on 15 July 2000 and the one that started on 8 November 2004. The variation of vertical TEC as a function of latitude along the satellite passes during day-time mostly in the region of the Pacific Ocean have been analysed comparing the storm period with quiet conditions. It has to be noted that for obvious reasons the TEC behaviour over this region cannot be observed using ground-based instruments but TOPEX data give a reasonable overall view of the region covered by the Equatorial Anomaly, just as the storms were developing. The performance of vertical TEC obtained from GPS derived TEC of global ionospheric maps (GIMs) are compared with the TOPEX data in order to determine their accuracy when storms of this type take place. The results show that the Equatorial Anomaly TEC peaks move towards the poles by several degrees and increase their intensity with respect to the quiet conditions behaviour for both storms that occurred at different seasons and solar activity level. This behaviour is not well represented by the maps of the different GIMs used in this study. The rate of change obtained from TOPEX TEC were computed to look for vertical TEC spatial gradients variations.
Impact of brewer's yeast extract and levamisole in diets with vegetable oils on the growth, chemical composition, and immunological and biochemical blood parameters of pikeperch (Sander lucioperca).

The impact of applying NuPro® (40 g/kg feed) and levamisole (300 mg/kg feed) in European pikeperch (Sander lucioperca) diets with vegetable oils on growth, immunological, hematological, and blood chemical parameters was assayed. The fish were fed the feed containing sunflower and linseed oils (48 and 21 g/kg feed) (group VO) or this feed with levamisole (group VOL) or NuPro® (group VON). The fourth group was fed the feed with fish oil added in the amount of 69 g/kg feed (group FO). The pikeperch were reared for 56 days. Feeding the fish feed supplemented with levamisole or NuPro® increased the immunological responses of the phagocytes and lymphocytes, lysozyme activity, and total gamma-globulin levels. The feed supplemented with NuPro® resulted in decreased aspartate and alanine aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase activity. Vegetable oils in the feed were linked to increased contents of linoleic acid in fish bodies. The quantity of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids was significantly the highest in group FO. The immunological index obtained in group VON indicated that the diet supplemented with brewer’s yeast extract (NuPro®) was the most advantageous when feeding juvenile pikeperch feeds with vegetable oils.
HISTOPATHOLOGICAL STUDIES ON THE TOXICITY OF OCIMUM GRATISSIMUM LEAVE EXTRACT ON SOME ORGANS OF RABBIT

Aqueous extract of leaves of Ocimum gratissimum (OG) at doses of 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 g/kg was experimentally tested through oral administration twice weekly to rabbits, for four weeks. At the end of the fourth week, the animals were sacrificed after ether anesthesia and transection of the jugular vein. The livers, kidneys and the intestine (jejunum) were removed and fixed In 10% formal saline. Paraffin sections were prepared from these organs and stained with haematoxylin and eosin for histopathological assessment. The extract of OG at all doses showed changes In the intestine which were indicative of Its effects on bowel discharge and mucous secretion. The effect on the kidney was indicative of diuretic activity at all the tested doses. In the liver the extract showed higher necrotic changes at a low dose (0.4g/kg’). The laxative and hepatoprotective potentials of aqueous extract of leaves of Ocimum gratissimum have been discussed.
Consecutive treatment with phytase and arazyme influence protein hydrolysis of soybean meal

Soybean meal (SBM) is the main protein supplement used in animal feed worldwide. The degree of hydrolysis (DH) of SBM treated with two enzymes viz. phytase and arazyme was investigated for the first time in this study. The DH of SBM in the treatment with arazyme increased significantly as compared to the control without enzyme application. About 1.5-times and 10-fold higher DH were observed in phytase treatment when compared to the control treatments containing no enzyme. At the end of 24 h, enzymatic hydrolysis was done through consecutive treatment with 0.5% (w/v) phytase and 0.02% (w/v) arazyme, and the protein in the hydrolysate were mostly degraded free amino acids and peptides (<6 KDa) when SDS-PAGE and fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) techniques used. Free amino acids contents of the soybean meal treated with phytase-arazyme increased by 2 to 14 fold as compared to products without enzyme. These results suggested that soybean meal proteins continuously treated with phytase and arazyme can be used as commercial feed additive for accelerated livestock growth. Key words: Soybean meal, phytase, arazyme, hydrolysis.