Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cellulose-Derivatives-Based Hydrogels as Vehicles for Dermal and Transdermal Drug Delivery

The use of water-soluble polymers of natural, semisynthetic, and synthetic origin for dermal and transdermal drug delivery systems is manifold. Among the most used biopolymers in the formulation of skin preparations, the cellulose ether derivatives as representatives of semisynthetic polymers distinguish through their specific physico‐ chemical properties, by which the pharmacist can select the appropriate cellulose derivative for a particular purpose. The hydrogels containing cellulose derivatives as gelling agents are widely used as water-soluble ointment bases, because they usually associate the characteristics of both conventional and innovative hydrogels, including especially safety, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and a relatively easy way of preparation and low price. The present chapter describes the following issues: the physicochemical properties of water-soluble cellulose derivatives in relationship with their type and grade; physical and chemical properties of cellulose-derivatives-based hydrogels and their compatibility with other auxiliary substances commonly used in the formulation of pharmaceutical hydrogels; the development and manufacturing of these hydrogels on both small and large scales; the characterization of cellulose derivatives hydrogels as pharmaceutical dosage forms through different compendial and noncompendial methods; and well-recognized and novel applications of cellulosederivatives-based hydrogels for dermal and transdermal drug delivery.
DETERMINANTS OF ALLOCATIVE EFFICIENCY OF RAIN-FED RICE PRODUCTION IN TARABA STATE, NIGERIA

This paper analyzed the determinants of allocative efficiency of rainfed rice production in Taraba State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 234 rain-fed rice farmers through multi-stage random sampling. Stochastic frontier cost function was employed to analyse the data. Majority (82%) of the respondents were males, 84% of them were in their active ages (21-50 years), 89% had one form of formal education or the other, 64% have farmed for more than five years and about 85% were small scale holders. The diagnostic statistics, gamma (0.84) and sigma squared (0.03), were statistically significant at 1% probability level. The result further revealed that cost of herbicide, seed and family labour were significant at 1% level, while cost of hired labour and ploughing were significant at 5% level. The mean allocative efficiency (AE) was 0.69. The analysis also showed that education and farming experience were the major determinants of allocative efficiency among the respondents. Government should enhance farmers’ education levels through the establishment of functional literacy classes to improve their allocative efficiency.
Growth regulator losses from cotton plants due to rainfall

Plant growth regulators (PGRs) applied to cotton plants (Gossypium hirsutum L.) can be washed off by rainfall. It is expected that the closer the rainfall to spraying time, the higher the product loss and the higher the amount of product to be reapplied to reach the desired growth rate. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of time between rainfall and application of either mepiquat chloride or chlormequat chloride to cotton on plant growth, as well as, estimate the need for PGR reapplication. Cotton was grown in 12-L pots with soil in a greenhouse. PGRs were applied forty days after seedling emergence, when 50% of plants had one pinhead square. Rainfall was simulated 1, 2, 4, 6, or 24 h after spraying. Plant height was measured just before PGR application and then at 3-d intervals for 30 d. At harvest, the number of reproductive branches and structures were counted before dry matter phytomass determination. Both growth regulators reduced cotton dry matter yields regardless of rainfall interval. PGRs controlled excessive plant growth; however, their efficiency was reduced as the time elapsed until rainfall was shorter. Product losses were detected after all rainfall intervals, which, in field conditions would require PGR reapplication. Mepiquat chloride rates to be reapplied after rain were on average 17% higher than chlormequat chloride rates.
Evaluation of cowpea genotypes for phosphorus use efficiency

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) yields in West Africa are low primarily due to low available soil phosphorus (P) status. Phosphorus efficient cowpea genotypes with great ability to utilize P from P-deficient soils are important in soils with low nutrient availability. This study was conducted to evaluate the P efficiency of cowpea genotypes under limiting P conditions. Fifty cowpea genotypes were planted in PVC tubes and harvested 5 days after planting (DAP). Data collected on shoot and root parameters showed significant difference (P < 0.05) among the genotypes studied. Among the 50 genotypes, 6 were further selected and evaluated in pots under different levels of P application (0, 20 and 40 kg P/ha). The cowpea genotypes varied significantly (P < 0.05) in shoot growth, nodulation and P uptake after growing for 40 days. Using principal component analysis (PCA) and phosphorus efficiency index (PEI), cowpea genotypes were grouped into three P efficiency categories. The study concluded that differential growth of cowpea under low P was observed.
Combining XRD with Hole-Drilling Method in Residual Stress Gradient Analysis of Laser Hardened C45 Steel

LLocalized laser hardening of steel surfaces performed with optimal parameters not only hardens the surface layer, but is also capable of generating advantageous hook-like shape of residual stress depth distribution. Upon combining two most common methods of XRD and hole-drilling, the residual stresses up to the depth of 3 mm were analysed for two widths of high-powered diode laser beam. Narrower laser beam generates wider area with compressive stresses and the diffraction technique as compared with hole-drilling method always indicates higher values of compressive residual stress maxima.
Behavior of Three-Dimensional Boundary Layers in a Radial Inflow Turbine Scroll

A detailed experimental investigation was carried out to examine the three-dimensional boundary layer characteristics in a radial inflow turbine scroll. Some basic flow phenomena and growth of secondary flow were also investigated. In the inlet region of the scroll, the incoming boundary layer begins to have the skewed nature, namely the radially inward secondary flow caused by the radial pressure gradient. From the inlet region to the one third of the scroll circumference, the secondary flow grows so strongly that the most of the low momentum fluid in the incoming boundary layer are transported to the nozzle region. The succeeding elimination of the low momentum fluid in the boundary layer suppresses growth of the boundary layer further downstream, where the boundary layer shows a similarity of velocity profile. The distributions of the boundary layer properties in the scroll correspond well to those of the flow properties at the nozzle. The behavior of the boundary layer in the scroll is found to affect the circumferential nonuniformity of the nozzle flow field. © 1993 ASME
Representations of twisted group algebras

We construct a general class of Banach algebras which include as special cases the group algebra of a locally compact group, the group algebra of a group extension (in terms of the subgroup and quotient group), and some other examples, special cases of which have been studied under the name of covariance algebras. We develop the general representation theory and generalize Mackey's theory of induced representations.
Long-run Effects of Villagization in Tanzania

Developmental villages (vijiji uya maendeleo) were introduced in mainland Tanzania over the period 19741982 as part of a large-scale resettlement program. This paper investigates the long-run impacts of these villages, examining whether variation in intensity of the governments villagization program explains within-region variation in social capital outcomes today. An earlier body of social science research largely criticized Tanzania’s villagization program as a failed example of large-scale state planning with adverse consequences for peasants. Combining historic data on Tanzania from the 1970s and recent national household surveys, I first document that developmental villages led to an increase in primary school completion rates. Today, districts which experienced a high share of developmental villages have greater availability of public goods and report higher rates of participation in community activities. I also report instrumental variable estimates based on a drought which facilitated the resettlement of peasants in these villages.
Assessment of Heavy Metals and Color as Indicators of Contamination in Street Dust of a City in SE Spain: Influence of Traffic Intensity and Sampling Location

In the present work, a sampling grid of the urban core of the city of Murcia (South East Spain) was designed in order to analyze street dust, focusing on the contents of the heavy metals Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn and their relationships with the color of the sample, the traffic pattern, and the location where they were sampled (sidewalks, ledges, and roads). The characterization of the samples was carried out by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, whereas the heavy metals were extracted by acid digestion and determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The concentration (mg/kg) in urban dust of the city of Murcia was highest for Zn (653), followed by Cu (201) > Pb (177) > Cr (117) > Ni (51) >> Cd (0.5). The color expounded statistically significant differences with regard to the heavy metals, including the pollutant load. The same pattern was found when the classification variable was the traffic intensity, except in the case of Ni. The areas with a higher risk of contamination by heavy metals in the urban dust are the ledges of narrow city center streets with moderate traffic, where Zn and Pb seem to accumulate most greatly.
Articulating resilience in practice: chains of responsibilisation, failure points and political contestation

Abstract Resilience has become a fashionable concept in UK policy-making in the last years. Many commentators have interpreted resilience as a neoliberal strategy that seeks to responsibilise individuals in anticipation of the retreat of centralised forms of risk management and protection. However, the haste with which the concept has been adopted also means that little attention has been paid to how resilience works in practice. This article analyses the implementation of a resilience initiative designed to build community resilience to flooding in the UK. It argues that the implementation of the policy is enabled by a long governmental chain of responsibilisation comprising several linkages that are also endangered by potential failure points where political contestations play out. It concludes that looking for what resilience ‘does’ requires investigating the implementation of specific resilience policies and the degree to which they are successful.
Immediate and Long-Term Effects of “Learning By Teaching” on Knowledge of Cognition

Learning By Teaching (LBT) programs for pre-service teachers in two different environments (technological and face-to-face) were compared using 100 pre-service teachers as subjects. Both programs were based on the IMPROVE instructional method which provides explicit metacognitive steps for LBT with a dual perspective (2P): that of the teacher and that of the learner. The dependent variables Knowledge of Cognition (KC) in learning and in teaching were tested for their immediate and long-term effects in a Technology-Based System group (TBS+2P), and in a Face-to-Face group (F2F+2P). Post-test results of KC have indicated that the TBS+2P group had shown a higher level of conditional and procedural knowledge of teaching. The TBS+2P group has also performed better in measures of long-term effects of declarative knowledge in teaching. Both theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.
Seasonal variations of sulphur, phosphorus and magnesium in the leaves and current-year twigs of hemiparasitic mistletoe Loranthus europaeus Jacq. and its host Quercus pubescens Willd.

Gebauer R. , Volařík D. , Urban J. (2018): Seasonal variations of sulphur, phosphorus and magnesium in the leaves and current-year twigs of hemiparasitic mistletoe Loranthus europaeus Jacq. and its host Quercus pubescens Willd. J. For. Sci., 64: 66–73. The objectives of this research were to investigate nutrient seasonal dynamics in the hemiparasitic mistletoe Loranthus europaeus von Jacquin and its host Quercus pubescens Willdenow, and to evaluate nutrient relationships between mistletoe and its host. For these purposes, S, P and Mg concentrations in the leaves and current-year twigs were analysed 12 times during the growing season. We found that the studied nutrients were not retrieved from hemiparasitic mistletoe leaves prior to abscission, contrary to its host. The seasonal dynamics of S, P, and Mg in L. europaeus and Q. pubescens leaves differed from each other while in current-year twigs the dynamics was similar in both species. In general, nutrient concentrations in the leaves and current-year twigs were higher in mistletoe compared with its host. But the mistletoe to host nutrient ratios varied greatly during the growing season, especially in leaves, mostly during leaf expansion and senescence. Thus, studies investigating nutrient relationships between mistletoe and its host should be realized during the period of leaf maturity.
Bag of Words - Quality Issues of Near-Duplicate Image Retrieval

This paper addresses the problem of large scale near-duplicate image retrieval. Issues related to visual words dictionary generation are discussed. A new spatial verification routine is proposed. It incorporates neighborhood consistency, term weighting and it is integrated into the Bhattacharyya coefficient. The proposed approach reaches almost 10\% higher retrieval quality, comparing to other recently reported state-of-the-art methods.
Exploiting heterogeneity in cluster storage systems

Large-scale storage systems include a heterogeneous mix of storage devices with different reliability, capacity and performance characteristics. This dissertation explores the benefits of explicitly factoring in heterogeneity in the characteristics of storage devices belonging to a single tier, for cheaper redundancy and more load-balanced data placement. Data reliability in today’s cluster storage systems is agnostic to the failure rate differences observed between storage devices in the same tier. Using a production dataset of over 100,000 hard disks, we show that there is a significant diversity in hard disk failure rates, as a function of make/model. We build a case for failure rate tailored redundancy, and design and prototype HeART (Heterogeneity-Aware Redundancy Tuner), an online automated framework to aid the process. HeART continuously monitors the failure rates of different disk groups, and employs robust online algorithms to safely and accurately identify redundancy schemes for each disk group, while meeting a defined reliability target. This leads to lower level of redundancy for devices with low failure rate and more redundancy for devices with high failure rate. Redundancy informed by HeART would result in 13-44% fewer disks than one-scheme-fits-all approaches in the production dataset: 33-44% compared to 3-replication and 13-19% compared to erasure codes like 6-of-9 or 10-of-14. Technological advancements make capacity heterogeneity also prevalent, and unavoidable in large cluster storage systems. Data placement algorithms agnostic to capacity heterogeneity often cause heavy spindle imbalance across the disk fleet. This load imbalance worsens when there is data heat (accesses per unit time) heterogeneity across different clients. We propose a data placement algorithm that accounts for each dataset’s current heat and expected rate of cooling in addition to storage device capacity heterogeneity. These simple heuristics allow for data placement that results in higher storage device utilization, lower rebalancing cost and lower tail latencies.
Fundamental Elements Identified for Success of Disease State Management Clinical Decision Support Systems

Traditional forms of communicating best practice disease state management do not adequately support appropriate prescribing in patients with complex needs, such as those with multi-morbidities or aged patients. An effective solution is the use of clinical decision support systems; however, currently available systems do not meet the needs of health professionals (HPs). We wished to evaluate whether HPs find the way in which an early-stage prototype delivers information is useful; however, during prototype development, articles defining fundamental elements of clinical decision support systems (CDSS) success, process model and data requirements were found to be widely dispersed and lacking. We describe a new CDSS prototype for healthcare information delivery tailored for health professional using the identified fundamental elements for success. Concepts described in this article could be used to as the foundation for other CDSS and to inform electronic medical record design.
Critical Error: Courts' Refusal to Recognize Intentional Race Discrimination Findings as Constitutional Facts

Critical Error: Courts’ Refusal To Recognize Intentional Race Discrimination Findings as Constitutional Facts raises a novel double standard: while fact-specific trial court findings of actual malice are reviewed under the “independent judgment” standard (a wholesale re-weighting of the trial court record and decision) on appeal, intentional race discrimination findings are reviewed under the far more deferential Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52 clear error standard. Both legal concepts are arrived at through assessing state-of-mind determinations; both directly trigger constitutional proscriptions. Only actual malice, however, is classified as a constitutional fact, thus taking it out of the more deferential standard of review. The Supreme Court has failed to clarify this important procedural exception to the clear error standard. More than this, the Court has failed to explain why it refuses to apply independent judgment to all constitutional facts. The results of the differential treatment of these two legal concepts are: 1) Rule 52, and the Supreme Court’s approach to its constitutional fact exception is another type of denial of structural due process, preventing the legal norming of intentional discrimination jurisprudence; 2) institutional interests of doctrinal coherence and decisional accuracy are minimized in favor of reducing direct costs to the judicial system; 3) whether working inside or outside the intentionalist framework of discrimination, it makes sense to apply the independent appellate judgment standard to intentional discrimination findings, and; 4) the persistent application of Rule 52’s clear error standard to findings of intentional discrimination is yet another example of the Supreme Court’s narrowed approach to Equal Protection violations.
EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING IN ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS

In this study, the participation of employee architects in decision making in architectural firms is investigated. This is with a view to identifying the organisational contexts that enhance employee participation in decision making. The impact of such participation on the performances of the firms was also assessed. This study was carried out through a questionnaire survey of employers of architects in Nigeria. In agreement with findings of previous studies, participation of the employees of the architectural firms in the study in decision making is low. Employee participation in decision making in the firms was dependent on the staffing strategy and proportion of junior staff in many cases. The positive impact of employee participation in decision making on firm performance varied with the nature of the decision. This study concludes that there is need for employers in architectural firms to identify the categories of decision that employees should be involved in and to modify their firm contexts to encourage participation where desired.
Apparent Motion Perception in the Praying Mantis: Psychophysics and Modelling

Apparent motion is the perception of a motion created by rapidly presenting still frames in which objects are displaced in space. Observers can reliably discriminate the direction of apparent motion when inter-frame object displacement is below a certain limit, Dmax. Earlier studies of motion perception in humans found that Dmax scales with spatial element size, interpreting the relationship between the two as linear, and that Dmax appears to be lower-bounded at around 15 arcmin. Here, we run corresponding experiments in the praying mantis Sphodromantis lineola to investigate how Dmax scales with element size. We used moving random chequerboard patterns of varying element and displacement step sizes to elicit the optomotor response, a postural stabilization mechanism that causes mantids to lean in the direction of large-field motion. Subsequently, we calculated Dmax as the displacement step size corresponding to a 50% probability of detecting an optomotor response in the same direction as the stimulus. Our main findings are that mantis Dmax appears to scale as a power-law of element size and that, in contrast to humans, it does not appear to be lower-bounded. We present two models to explain these observations: a simple high-level model based on motion energy in the Fourier domain and a more detailed one based on the Reichardt Detector. The models present complementary intuitive and physiologically-realistic accounts of how Dmax scales with element size in insects. Author Summary Computer monitors, smart phone screens and other forms of digital displays present a series of still images (frames) in which objects are displaced in small steps, tricking us into perceiving smooth motion. This illusion is referred to as “apparent motion”, and for it to work effectively the magnitude of each displacement step must be smaller than a certain limit, referred to as Dmax. Previous studies have investigated the relationship between this limit and object size in humans and found that larger objects can be displaced in larger steps without affecting motion perception. In this work, we investigated the same relationship in the praying mantis Sphodromantis lineola by presenting them with moving chequerboard patterns on a computer monitor. Even though motion perception in humans and insects are believed to be explained equally well by the same underlying model, we found that Dmax scales with object size differently in mantids. These results suggest that there may be qualitative differences in how mantids perceive apparent motion compared to humans.