Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drug Susceptibility Patterns of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolated from Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Tripoli-Libya

Background: The emergence and spread of drug resistant and multidrug resistance are a global health problem. The susceptibility patterns of M. tuberculosis isolates against anti-tuberculosis drugs forms an important aspect of the control programs at the local level. The aim of this study was to determine the pattern of the susceptibility of drugs to M. tuberculosis isolates from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Tripoli, Libya. Methods: Drug Susceptibility Test (DST) was performed on 261 isolates of M. tuberculosis by BD BACTEC MGIT 960 SIRE system. The drugs tested were: isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RIF), streptomycin (SM) and ethambutol (EMB). Results: All isolates (261) were confirmed as M. tuberculosis complex and showed different resistance patterns: 8.8% to INH; 5.7% to RIF; 8.8% to SM; and 9.0% to EMB. Rifampicin was the lowest detected resistance first-line antibiotics studied. One drug resistant was observed in 18.0%; 3.8% were resistant to two drugs; and 2.3% were resistant to a combination of three-drugs. Of the total 261 cases, 217 were designated as new untreated patients and 44 as previously treated patients. In terms of resistance to any drug, there was a significant difference between the two categories (P<0.014). However, there was no significant difference between new and previously treated patients in relation to one drug resistant (P=0.4). Meanwhile, there was a significant difference in relation to two drug resistant (P<0.005), Nine (20.5%) of the isolates designated multi-drug resistant (MDR) were obtained only from previously treated patients. None of newly treated cases had isolates resistant to three-drugs nor MDRs. Conclusion: This preliminary study indicated the low prevalence of drug resistance M. tuberculosis (MTB) among previously treated patients in Tripoli.
Impact of fiscal policy variables on economic growth in Nigeria (1970-2012): a managerial economics perspective

This study is set out to investigate the impact of fiscal policy variables (capital expenditure, recurrent expenditure and direct income tax) on economic growth in Nigeria. The study adopts a growth accounting framework that specifies economic growth as a function of the fiscal policy variables. Using a time series data for the period 1970-2012, the study tests for the presence of unit root test, using the augmented Dickey-Fuller test for stationarity. It is discovered that all the variables are integrated at I(1). The Johansen cointegration reveals the presence of a long run relationship between economic growth and all the dependent variables (CX, RX and TX). The VECM analysis indicates that capital expenditure and recurrent expenditure are positively related and statistically significant in determining economic growth in the long run. As expected, direct income tax is inversely related and statistically significant in determining economic growth in the long run. A 1% increase in capital expenditure leads to an increase of 3.94% in income. A 1% increase in recurrent expenditure leads to an increase of 3.22% in income. On the other hand, a 1% increase in direct income tax leads to a fall of 6.83% in national output. Moreover, only tax determines economic growth in the short run, as a 1% in direct income tax causes national output to fall by 0.39%. These results meet apriori expectations with respect to their signs. GDP adjusts to its long run equilibrium when there is a shock at a slow speed of 3.07%. The pairwise granger causality indicates that causality relationship does not exist between any of the fiscal policy variables and economic growth. Based on these results, the study recommends the adoption of tax policies that would spur growth instead of retarding growth with a wide margin, as has been observed from the study. Efforts should be made to skew the pattern of public spending towards capital expenditure as it leads to higher growth than recurrent expenditure.
On Approximate Solutions for Time-Fractional Diffusion Equation

In the last decades differential equations involving fractional derivatives and integrals have been studied by many researchers. Due to their ability to model more adequately some phenomena, fractional partial differential equations have been used in numerous areas such as finance, hydrology, porous media, engineering and control systems, etc. Numerical schemes based on rotated finite difference approximation have been proven to work well in solving standard diffusion equations. However, the formulation of these strategies on time fractional diffusion counterpart is still at its infancy. A well-designed preconditioning for these types of problems reduces the number of iterations to reach convergence. In this research work, we have derived new preconditioned fractional rotated finite difference method for solving 2D time-fractional diffusion equation. Numerical experiments are conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Generic NP-incomplete problems

Ladner in 1975 proved that if P ≠ NP then there exist problems in NP, which are not decidable in polynomial time and not NP-complete. Kapovich, Myasnikov, Schupp and Shpilrain in 2003 developed a theory of generic-case complexity. Generic-case approach considers an algorithmic problem on “most” of inputs instead of all domain and ignores its behaviour on the rest of inputs. In this paper we prove a generic analog of the Ladner’s theorem: If P ≠ NP and P = BPP, then there exists a set S ∈ NP, such that S is not strongly generically decidable in polynomial time and not generically NP-complete. Supported by Russian Science Foundation, grant 17-11-01117.
Understanding electron transfer processes with multiscale quantum chemistry methods

The research described in this dissertation consists of two projects. First, the application and improvement of a subsystem DFT method to describe charge transfer reactions in biosystems and molecular materials. Second, the development and validation of a constrained subsystem DFT method to model charge and excitation energy transfer processes in molecules and condensed phases. After introducing the theory of charge transfer reactions in condensed phases (chapter 1), the candidate outlines original and well-established avenues to obtain the electronic couplings (the key parameter to understand the dynamics of these processes). The first project is presented in chapter 3, in which a benchmark study against high-level methods is presented followed by the analysis of the environmental effects on the hole transfer in DNA oligomers. In chapter 4 the advantages of the candidate’s method are pointed out, especially its ability to combine Constrained DFT and subsystem DFT formalisms. Such a flexible method enables the study of the effects of the phosphate group on hole transfer couplings in DNA for the first time in the literature. Additional applications of this method are given in chapter 5, where the quality of the calculated excited states is examined. Finally, in the last chapter two applications are presented: modeling of (1) the hole transfer in Fe-TPP dyads; and (2) charge transfer in the peptidylglycine-α-hydroxylating monooxygenase enzyme. Every project is published or in the process to be published by the candidate
Methodology, Correlational Analysis, and Interpretation of Diet Diary Records of the Food and Fluid Intake of Free-living Humans

Abstract The diet diary technique can produce reliable and valid records of the food and fluid intake of free-living humans. Procedures to maximize accuracy by motivating subjects, verifying records and minimizing bias are described. Underestimation and random error may tend to obscure relationships but does not artifactually produce them. Meal pattern analysis of the diary records relates the meal size, composition and internal interval to preceding conditions with univariate and multivariate regression techniques. Although causation cannot be conclusively demonstrated, the analyses can test for potential causal influences. It is concluded that the diet diary technique is the method of choice for investigations of the ingestive behaviours of free-living humans.
Towards human-oriented norms: investigating the effects of noise exposure on board ships

With current trends showing a decrease in crew numbers on board ships together with increased operational demands as well as increased paperwork, crew fatigue and comfort has become more critical and recently been given more importance. It is known that environmental factors have an effect on crew comfort and performance. The two outstanding environmental factors which exist in the shipboard environment are ship motions and noise, moreover, in these two areas the findings and lessons learnt from other industrial sectors are considered to be less relevant. Therefore, it was necessary to conduct research to understand the effects of these factors, so that, the lessons learnt can be integrated into design process in order to eliminate the adverse effects of the aforementioned two factors during operation. Due to having more obvious performance outcomes ship motions and motion sickness research attracted more interest where human response to noise have been neglected so far. Therefore, this paper reports the findings of research study which investigated the current levels of crew noise exposure through field studies. Furthermore, developed human response models to noise on board ships and SILENV green label noise standards will also be introduced in comparison with current normative framework.
Untangling the Role of Polycomb Complexes in Chemotherapy Resistance.

In this issue, Maganti and colleagues described an epigenetic link between reduced abundance of Polycomb-related protein MTF2 and chemotherapy resistance in refractory acute myeloid leukemia. MTF2 deficiency impaired expression of the PRC2 complex and deposition of H3K27me3 at many genes, including the key target gene MDM2, leading to increased MDM2 expression that in turn depleted p53 and thereby conferred chemoresistance. Cancer Discov; 8(11); 1348-51. ©2018 AACR See related article by Maganti et al., p. 1376.
Tavallista sujumattomuutta: Aikuisten puheen sujuvuuden kvantitatiivinen analyysi

Tutkimus käsittelee suomenkielisten aikuisten puheen tyypillisiä sujumattomuuksia ja niiden normaalivariaatiota. Henkilöt (N = 70) olivat neurologisesti terveitä, eikä heillä ollut diagnosoituja puheen tai kielen häiriöitä. Heidän sarjakuvakerrontaan perustuvien audioaineistojen transkriptioista analysoitiin puhenopeuden ja artikulaationopeuden lisäksi 10 puheen sujuvuutta kuvaavaa muuttujaa. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin muuttujien yleisyyttä, niiden keskinäisiä suhteita sekä sujumattomuuksien vaikutusta sujumattomuusprosenttiin. Sujumattomuusprosentin keskiarvo oli koko aineistossa 2,3 % (vv = 0,0–7,8 %), ja sitä selittivät vahvimmin muuttujat korjaus ja sanan toisto sekä epäröinti, joka oli myös yleisin sujumattomuustyyppi. Sujumattomuusprosentin mukaan jaetuissa puhujaryhmissä sujumattomuuden tyyppi muuttui sujumattomuusprosentin kasvaessa. Sujumattomuuksista muodostui neljä faktoria: sujumattomuudet, jotka liittyivät 1) kielelliseen muotoiluun, 2) viestin suunnitteluun, 3) viestin jatkuvuuden ylläpitoon ja 4) artikulaatioon. Sujumattomuusprosenttia selittivät parhaiten sujumattomuudet, jotka liittyivät kielelliseen muotoiluun sekä ilmaisun jatkuvuuden ylläpitoon. Tulokset vahvistivat ajatusta puheen sujuvuudesta jatkumona sekä toivat esiin sujumattomuuksien laajan variaation niin määrällisesti kuin laadullisestikin. Tämän aineiston normaalivariaatiota voidaan käyttää sekä häiriödiagnostiikan että kuntoutustavoitteiden asettamisen tukena. Lisäksi tutkimuksen tulokset toimivat vertailupohjana tuleville tutkimuksille.
Post-Soviet Trade and Institutional Quality: Subnational Evidence

The paper aims to investigate the impact of the dependence on the post-Soviet trade on the quality of economic institutions in the Russian subnational regions. For this purpose, it uses two approaches: it looks at how the effect of post-Soviet trade on growth changes over time (hypothesizing that if one observes the decline of this effect, the latter is more likely to be driven by the legacy of the Soviet economy and thus less conducive for the improvement of institutional quality) and at the correlation of post-Soviet trade and quantitative indicators of the quality of economic institutions. The results suggest that the post-Soviet trade is more likely to have a positive impact on the institutional change. Specifically, I find that regions of Russia with a larger share of the post-Soviet trade in the total international trade turnover, are characterized by persistently higher growth rates than other regions throughout the period of investigation (2001–2012). Furthermore, I find that the quantitative measures of the quality of economic institutions in the Russian regions exhibit, if any, a positive correlation with the share of the post-Soviet trade. The effect observed could be linked to the complexity of the regional economies and to the substantial presence of new market-based ties in the post-Soviet trade flows
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS TO BE RECLASSIFIED AS ENGLISH PROFICIENT

Title of Dissertation: HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS TO BE RECLASSIFIED AS ENGLISH PROFICIENT? Supreet G. Anand, Doctor of Philosophy, 2018 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Jeff MacSwan, Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership (TLPL) English Learners (ELs) constitute one of the fastest growing student populations enrolled in K–12 schools. One important factor influencing the academic achievement of ELs is attaining English language proficiency (ELP). Once ELs attain ELP, they are reclassified as English proficient. In practice, exiting or reclassify ELs indicates that they no longer need or receive specialized language supports or regular monitoring using ELP assessments. Reclassification is a high-stakes decision. A change from an EL to a non-EL status may impact state and federal funding. Some federal and state funds are allocated based on the per-pupil count of ELs enrolled in a school district. Understanding the relationships between reclassification policies, reclassification rates, and reclassified student outcomes is necessary to make decisions about resources and expectations for ELs. This study explored the population of ELs in one state and addressed the following research questions: 1. How long does it take ELs to be reclassified as English proficient based on the criteria established by the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED)? 2. Does the probability of reclassification vary by grade cluster when first enrolled in the state’s public schools? 3. How do select individual student-level and family-level characteristics impact the probability of reclassification for students in the same grade cluster or who have been ELs for the same amount of time? The analytical sample consisted of ELs who started school for the first time in SY 2010-11 (Cohort 1) or in SY 2011-12 (Cohort 2) and who were continually enrolled during the observation period ending in SY 2015-16. The sample included students enrolled in all grades K-12; no new students were added to the analytical sample. The data were analyzed using a discrete survival analysis. The results indicated that ELs starting school in grades K-8, took on the average of four years to achieve ELP. ELs starting school in upper grades were reclassified faster than ELs who starting in Kindergarten. ELs identified as Hispanic or Latino, received free or reduced lunch, and receiving Special Education services had longer median times to ELP than their peers. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS TO BE RECLASSIFIED AS ENGLISH PROFICIENT?
Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems: How Texts Organize Activity and People

evoke worlds of meaning by representing content and using the resources of language, including relations with other texts, and other media, such as graphics. Part II to this point provides tools to examine how texts arise within and influence the living world of people and events. This final chapter proposes one more set of conceptual and analytic tools for viewing the work that texts do in society. This chapter provides means to identify the conditions under which they accomplish this work; to notice the regularity of texts in carrying out recognizably similar tasks; and to see how specific professions, situations, and social organizations can be associated with a limited range of text types. Finally, it provides methods to analyze how the orderly production, circulation, and use of these texts in part constitutes the very activity and organization of social groups. The analytical approach of this chapter relies on a series of concepts: social facts, speech acts, genres, genre systems, and activity systems. These concepts suggest how people using text create new realities of meaning, relation, and knowledge. Consider a typical academic situation. One university’s faculty senate after much debate passes a regulation requiring students to pass six writing intensive courses in order to be granted a B.A. The regulation defines several criteria that a course must meet before it can be approved by the curriculum committee as writing intensive, such as a minimum number of writing assignments with a minimum number of total required words across the term. This requirement then gets written into various administrative docuC H A P T E R
Physician compensation structures and how they incentivize specific patient care behaviour

introduction The word “altruism” is commonly ascribed to those who pursue a career in healthcare. However, looking at medicine through the lens of altruism shuts our eyes to the inherent humanity of physicians and limits our ability to provide optimal care. It is unreasonable to expect that physicians will (whether consciously or unconsciously) always prioritize ideal health outcomes in the face of varying incentives. This is especially true given that there is no single universally accepted definition of what “ideal health outcomes” would be. Unsurprisingly, a recent Cochrane review of the subject found that physician compensation models do in fact influence behavior.1 How then can we align physician incentives with quality care? There are four discrete compensation structures in use, with a blend of these commonly employed. Fee-for-service (FFS) models compensate doctors a set amount for each service they perform. Capitation models offer compensation based on the total number of patients under a doctor’s care, regardless of how frequently each patient seeks care. Salary models offer physicians fixed remuneration that does not vary based on the services they perform nor patient demographics and are commonly employed by hospitals and community health centers. Pay for performance (P4P) models provide direct financial incentives for meeting certain specific treatment goals.2,3 In Canada, 40% of physicians primarily receive FFS payments (>90% of their income), 10% primarily receive salaried payments, and 1% primarily receive capitation compensation. 33% of physicians receive a blend and about 16% receive the majority of their compensation through other forms, including P4P/incentives, short term contracts, and per diems.4
Effects of RSC96 Schwann Cell-Derived Exosomes on Proliferation, Senescence, and Apoptosis of Dorsal Root Ganglion Cells In Vitro

Background Stress urinary incontinence is a common condition in women and can be associated with peripheral nerve injury. Exosomes. derived from Schwann cells, can enhance the regeneration of axons of the peripheral nervous system. This study aimed to investigate the effects of RSC96 Schwann cell-derived exosomes in a novel in vitro model of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cell injury induced by cyclic mechanical strain (CMS). Material/Methods RSC96 Schwann cells and DRG cells were cultured in vitro. CMS in DRG cells involved mechanical stretch trauma with 5333 μ strain. ExoQuick-TC polymer was used to precipitate exosomes from RSC96 Schwann cell culture medium and identified by nanoparticle tracking analysis, electron microscopy, and Western blot for detection of CD9 and tumor susceptibility gene 101 (Tsg101) protein. Cultured DRG cells were treated with RSC96 Schwann cell-derived exosomes, followed by measurement of cell viability, proliferation, senescence, and apoptosis using the cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA-β-gal) staining, and Hoechst 33258 (blue) fluorescence nucleic acid staining using flow cytometry. Results Mechanical stretch with 5333 μ strain for 8 hours at 1 Hz decreased the activity of cultured DRG cells. RSC96 Schwann cell-derived exosomes promoted cell proliferation and significantly inhibited apoptosis and senescence of DRG cells following injury induced by CMS. Conclusions An in vitro model of DRG cell injury induced by CMS, showed that RSC96 Schwann cell-derived exosomes had a protective effect. The effects of Schwann cell-derived exosomes on peripheral nerve injury, including in stress urinary incontinence, require future in vivo studies.
PRIORITY SELECTION OF RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT AREAS WITH FLOOD HAZARD IN LIMAPULUH KOTA DISTRICT, WEST SUMATRA

The flood disaster has caused much harm to human life. The Effort to reduce the disadvantages caused by the flood is to develop settlement area priority based natural disaster. The purpose of research to determine the priority zone of settlement development using geography information system method (GIS) with regards to hazard risk. The indicator used in determining of area suitability for the settlement are a slope, flood, drainage, gravel, texture, and effective depth. Meanwhile, the Indicators used to determine of flood hazard zone are kinds of soil, slope, landform, rainfall, elevation, land use, and geology. The result shows that the level of area suitability and flood hazard of Limapuluh Kota district were 46% and 50.6%, respectively, these results are categorized as prone to moderate. The analysis result for priority of settlement area development for Limapuluh Kota district shows that it was suitable for S2 (fourth level priority) and flood hazard to medium. Therefore, in the use of area needs more cost and environmental conservation as disaster mitigation efforts for the future.
Mechanisms of Lysophosphatidic Acid-Mediated Lymphangiogenesis in Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common noncutaneous cancer in men worldwide. One of its major treatments is androgen deprivation therapy, but PCa frequently relapses as aggressive castration resistant local tumors and distal metastases. Hence, the development of novel agents or treatment modalities for advanced PCa is crucial. Many tumors, including PCa, first metastasize to regional lymph nodes via lymphatic vessels. Recent findings demonstrate that the bioactive lipid lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) promotes PCa progression by regulating vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C), a critical mediator of tumor lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic metastasis. Many of the underlying molecular mechanisms of the LPA–VEGF-C axis have been described, revealing potential biomarkers and therapeutic targets that may aid in the diagnosis and treatment of advanced PCa. Herein, we review the literature that illustrates a functional role for LPA signaling in PCa progression. These discoveries may be especially applicable to anti-lymphangiogenic strategies for the prevention and therapy of metastatic PCa.