Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Economic Utilization of Crop Residues for Value Addition: A Futuristic Approach

The ag ri cul tural pro ducts (ce llul osic and li gno-cellul osic, in clu din g soft- and hard -wood) havin g bein g pro duced by the photosyn­ thet ic processes, are virtu all y in ex haustibl e, and co ul d be co nverted into hi ghl y attrac ti ve subs tr ate for bi oco nve rsion pro cesses. The stru ctu re of li gno-cellul os ic mate ri al is based on th ree main co mpone nt s: cellul ose, hem ice llul ose and li gn in . Th ese th ree compo nents offe r tre mendo us biotec hn ologica l potentia l to be used as substr ate in bi oco nve rsion processes and can be effec ti ve ly exp loited for the prod ucti on of bul k chemi ca ls and va lue-added products. It is poin ted ou t th ere is an urge nt need to develop processes fo r eco nomic util izat ion of th ese resid ues th ro ugh th e advances in bio techn ology. Some maj or produ cts whi ch could be produ ced from these sources incl ude eth ano l, enzymes (e .g. ce llul ases (endoglu ca nases, exo-ce ll ob iohydrolase and ~-glucosidase), li gni nases (laccase, Mn- peroxi . dase and Li- pe roxi dase) , xy lanase, pectin ase, amylases, a- and ~-ga l actos i dases , caffei nase, tann ase), foo d and fee d (probi otc is), etc. Some majo r res idue s whic h need spec ial emph as is in cl ud e sugar ca ne bagasse, cassava bagasse and coffee pu lp. It is mentioned that ad diti onal research on the pre- tr ea tmen t of feeds tock is re quired to improve the com ponen ts yield and th e ce llul ose diges tibilit y to the level, whi ch would make usage of such res idues economi ca ll y viab le. Sim ilarly, although much effo rt s have been made in the past on the ce ll ulose hydrolysis , its effective conversion int o fermentab le sugars is an area whic h needs furth er inputs in te rm s of R&D. It is arg ued th at mu ch need be do ne on the hydro lysis of hem ice ll ulose (a nd so ft -wood). An in-depth analys is is presented on th e scenari o of appl icat ions of crops resi du es in develop ing co untri es, part ic ularly in Indi a, with specia l reference to sugar ca ne bagasse, cassava bagasse and coffee pulp.
Culture, motivation, and vocational decision-making of Australian senior high school students in private schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of culture and motivation in the occupational decisions of senior high school students attending private schools. A theoretical framework guided the study. A questionnaire was administered to 492 Grade 11 students attending a stratified random sample of six independent (private) schools located in the Sydney (Australia) metropolitan area. Structural equation modelling was performed on the data collected. The major findings of the study centre on a new model of vocational decision-making, which provides empirical support for relationships between cultural orientation variables, expectancy-value variables, and related constructs. The findings may be used to advise senior high school students making occupational decisions.
Growth performance and antioxidant status of growing rabbits fed on diets supplemented with Eucommia ulmoides leaves

The present study evaluated the effect of dietary Eucommia ulmoides leaves (EUL) on growth performance and antioxidant status of growing rabbits under heat stress condition. Four hundred and fifty weaned New Zealand male rabbits (6 wk old) were randomly divided into 3 equal groups (150 rabbits/group) and fed with a basal diet (control, digestible energy (DE): 15.92 MJ/kg and crude protein (CP): 19.24%) or the basal diet supplemented with 1 or 5 g of EUL/kg of diet (EUL1 and EUL5), in which the same quantity of barley meal was replaced. During the 21 d of experiment (43 to 63 d of age), the temperature and relative humidity of the rabbit house ranged from 27.5 to 32.5°C and from 65 to 73%, respectively. We analysed feed intake, growth performance and antioxidant status of growing rabbits. Compared with the control group, at the end of the experimental period, EUL supplementation significantly reduced the average daily feed intake (92.0, 92.8 and 100.7 g/d for EUL1, EUL5 and control, respectively; P<0.05), improved the feed conversion ratio (3.80, 3.81 and 4.59 for EUL1, EUL5 and control, respectively; P<0.05), increased the activities of glutathione peroxidase (+35.5 and +35.0% in plasma and liver of rabbits in EUL5 vs. control group, respectively; P<0.05) and reduced those of malondialdehyde (–12.0 and –46.0% in plasma and liver of rabbits in EUL5 vs. control group, respectively; P<0.05). These results suggest that inclusion of EUL in the diet of growing rabbits improved the growth performance and antioxidant status in growing rabbits.
Alteration in photosynthetic pigments, osmolytes and antioxidants in imparting copper stress tolerance by exogenous jasmonic acid treatment in Cajanus cajan

Jasmonic acid regulates various abiotic stress responses but its role in regulation of copper (Cu) homeostasis has been poorly studied. This present study was conducted to explore the potential of jasmonic acid (JA) to enhance copper (Cu) tolerance in Cajanus cajan seedlings in terms of photosynthetic pigments, osmolytes and antioxidants. Seeds treated with different concentration (0, 1 µM, 1 nM and 1 pM) of JA raised in toxic concentration of Cu for 15 days were taken for investigation. Results indicate that Cu stress led to the decreased growth in terms of shoot length, fresh and dry weight. Cu stress also increased Cu accumulation, lipid peroxidation, deteriorated chlorophyll b as well as carotenoids. Cu stress also diminished total proteins, vitamins A, C and B2, and peroxidase activity which led to the deteriorated plant growth and metabolism. Seed priming treatment of JA on the other hand improved the protein content, sugar content and vitamins indicating the potential of JA for Cu stress tolerance. The JA supplementation to Cu stressed seedlings improved Cu tolerance of C. cajan to significant level. Key words: Oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, antioxidants, osmolyte, pigeon pea.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): The prevailing neurobiological model and treatment

Until recently, the specific neurological effects of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the brain were not well supported in the literature. It has been found that the limbic system is intimately involved in this disorder. Specifically, the hippocampus and the amygdala play a crucial role in the emotional memories in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Treatment for PTSD that addresses the limbic system has been shown to be highly effective in studies. Prolonged Exposure Therapy is treatment modality that activates the limbic system in order to reduce symptoms of PTSD. Counselors working with clients diagnosed with PTSD can conceptualize this disorder in a different way that demonstrates the neurobiological underpinnings that further supports the use of evidence-based treatment—prolonged exposure—to not only reduce symptoms of PTSD, but also to change the structure of the brain of these individuals. Counselors improved view of the neurobiological basis of PTSD will improve their case conceptualizations of their clients.
Competitiveness and determinants of cocoa exports from Ghana

Author E-mail: boansidavid@rocketmail.com Tel. :+4915218152877 To formulate future cocoa policy prescriptions and ensure continuous contribution of the subsector to poverty reduction, income generation and growth of the agriculture sector, the present study analyzed the export performance and determinants of cocoa exports from Ghana. The Revealed Comparative Advantage, Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage and multiple regression were employed as analytical tools using secondary data set from sources acknowledged in the study. Having tested for the appropriate standard Gaussian properties and performed all important tests, outcome of the analysis revealed that Ghana is highly competitive in exports of cocoa beans, total cocoa products and processed cocoa exports. In spite of improvements observed in the country’s export performance over the past three decades, there is potential for further improvement. This can be achieved through investment in productivity enhancing innovations, tightening of the loose borders of the country to minimize smuggling, holding onto the price stabilization system, continuous government support to the subsector and through timely adjustment of the exchange rate system.
Factors Affecting the Uptake of Cervical Cancer Screening in Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya

Cervical malignancy afflicts women of all societies. In Kenya, 4,802 women are diagnosed with cervical malignancy and almost 2500 die annually with only 3.2% of cervical screening uptake. The Main goal of this study was to find out the factors that contribute to the uptake of cervical screening at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital. This was a descriptive and cross-sectional study that used a purposeful sampling method. An interview-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from women and hospital key informants. Multivariate regression was used to analyse associations between study variables. A total of 246 participants were recruited. Uptake of cervical screening was 23.1%, with 83.6% being aware of cervical cancer. Fear of results (69.5%), lack of information (69.8%) and fear of the screening procedure (65.2%) were major cervical screening barriers. Free cervical screening (93.5%) comprehensive cancer health education (90.2%), voluntary cervical screening centres (84.9%), mass media cervical cancer campaigns (83.3%) and cervical cancer screening mobile clinics (81.7%) to be the likely motivators to cervical screening uptake. Multivariate regression showed that older women participated more in uptake than young women (p = 0.001), those who had used contraceptives (p=0.001) and those with higher income (p = 0.03). In conclusion, there was a low uptake of screening for cervical cancer disease. A comprehensive and appropriate sensitization program is required, which eventually may increase uptake of cervical screening.
The Theory of Investment in Schooling

The aim of this article is to bring an additional source of countries heterogeneity in the growth literature focused on knowledge accumulation. We find that, the observed heterogeneity in development levels among countries come mostly from income heterogeneities among families as the resulting effect of supplementary investment in schooling provided by parents since the high school. The productivity generated induces the firms’ profits increase through technology better comprehension, thus increases the country’s economic growth. Therefore, embodied knowledge is a process composed of two steps which are: schooling investment or ex-ante knowledge, first and human capital or ex-post knowledge after, thus are crucial unemployment reduction mechanisms.
Public health concerns, risk perception and information sources in Cameroon

Abstract This study presents a descriptive account of ratings based on psychometric variables of perceived twenty-five health risk factors, their information sources and the confidence in the information sources among Cameroonians nationwide. Health risk factors such as HIV/AIDS, natural disasters, terrorism, unprotected sex, unemployment, alcohol consumption, street crime, cigarette smoking, poverty, malaria, cholera and motorcycle accidents were among the greatest perceived health risk factors by the population. On the other hand, female genital mutilation and natural health products were ranked the lowest posing health risk factors among Cameroonians. Also, women perceived more health risks than men, with large differences in the perceived risks of unemployment and chronic diseases. Respondents across the regions younger than forty years old reported greater concerns over health risk factors than those over forty years old. Media organisations, health and professional groups were reported as the main sources of information as well as greater confidence in information obtained from health personnel compared with other information sources among the population. The results obtained from this study showed public concern over several health risk factors, and policies directed towards the effective communication and management strategies of health risks within the communities aimed at the development of health prevention/promotion programmes of the nation should be encouraged.
Intra-Tourism Trade in Europe

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the empirics of trade in tourism services by studying bilateral intra-tourism trade for a sample of 14 member states of the European Union during the period 2000–2004. The authors apply the most up-to-date and robust method available in the literature to distinguish vertically and horizontally differentiated products: the Azhar and Elliott method (2006). The results clearly show that, contrary to conventional wisdom, a large proportion of European countries simultaneously exports and imports comparable amounts of tourism services. Moreover, the predominance of vertical differentiation in these intra-tourism flows suggests that international specialization is taking place in Europe within the tourism sector itself, along the spectrum of quality.
Influence of Total Rewards on Employee Satisfaction and Commitment in Government Organization

Total reward plays a vital role in underpinning numerous issues many developing countries are grappling in regard to employee satisfaction and commitment. There is a general consensus that employee satisfaction and commitment is affected by total rewards. The prime intention of this study was to will examine the effect of total rewards on employee satisfaction and commitment in Uganda. The study uses primary data collected from 190 government employees in Agago district. All the findings were tested at 0.01 and 0.05 level of significance. Results indicate that total reward has a positive and significant effect on employee satisfaction and commitment and provides empirical support as such. The implications of the study are discussed and the researcher closes with recommendation for implementing research findings. Suggestions for future line of research are also provided. Keywords— commitment, government employees, total reward, satisfaction, Uganda
BIOUTILIZATION OF ADANSONIA DIGITATA FRUIT PULP BY BACILLUS SPECIESFOR AMYLASE PRODUCTION

In recent years the cost of carbon source for amylase production has necessitated a drive towards cheaper and sustainable sources. In this study, the utilization of Adansonia digitata fruit pulp as substrate for bacterial amylase production and the effects of varying incubation period, temperature, pH of medium, inoculum size and substrate concentration on amylase production were investigated. The amylolytic activity of the isolates was screened base on halo of clearance on starch medium, while the amylase activity of the selected Bacillus species was monitored using 3, 5 - dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method. Out of 24 Bacillus species screened, B. licheniformis shows the highest amylolytic activity of 5.04 mm while B. subtilis has the least activity of 0.86 mm. Therefore B. licheniformis was selected for studies on the effect of fermentation conditions on amylase activity. The highest amylase activity (2.20 IU/ml/min) was observed after 3 days of fermentation at initial substrate concentration of 10g/L, pH 5.8, inoculum size of 8% and temperature of 75oC. The results of this study suggest that Adansonia digitata fruit pulp can be harnessed at low concentration for large scale bacterial amylase production, and the alpha-amylase produced by B. licheniformis strain could be a thermostable enzyme with novel characteristics suitable for application in starch and other food processing industries.
The Behavior of Option’s Implied Volatility Index: a Case of India VIX

The aim of this paper is to investigate the behavior of implied volatility in the form of day-of-the-week, year-of-the-month and surround the expiration of options. The persistence of volatility is modeled in ARCH/GARCH type framework. The empirical results have shown significant effects of the day-of-the-week, month-of-the-year and day of options expiration. The positive significant Monday effect explains that India VIX rises significantly on the initial days of the market opening, and the significant negative Wednesday effect shows that expected stock market volatility fall through Wednesday-Friday. Moreover, the study reveals the fact on options expiration, the evidence shows that India VIX fall significantly on the day of expiration of European call and put options. The March and December months have reported significant negative impact on the volatility index. Certainly, this kind of results holds practical implication for volatility traders, and helps to the market participant in hedging and pricing of options.
The effects of lactic acid bacteria and mannan oilgosaccharide, with or without fumaric acid, on chicken performance, slaughter yield and digestive tract microflora

In an experiment performed on 600 ROSS broilers the effect of dietary lactic acid bacteria (LAB), mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) without (LAB, MOS) or with fumaric acid (LAB, MOS, FUA) in comparison with antibiotic-supplemented birds (ANT) on performance, mortality, carcass yield, and microflora spectrum of the digestive tract was studied. The body weight of birds at 42 days was 2.2, 2.5, 2.4 and 2.4 kg, in the CON, ANT, LAB + MOS and LAB + MOS + FUA groups, respectively (P≤0.01). No significant differences between the body weights in the antibioticsupplemented (ANT) and experimental groups were found. Bird mortality in the CON, ANT, LAB+MOS and LAB+MOS+FUA groups was 2.7, 0.0, 0.7 and 0.7%, respectively. Compared with the control group, use of the antibiotic or other additives increased feed intake by 0.49 kg/bird, on average. Dressing percentage averaged 73.5% and was significantly higher in the experimental groups (P≤0.05). The weight of cold carcasses averaged 1.8 kg and was significantly lower in group CON (P≤0.01). The pH of the digestive tract did not differ among groups. LAB and MOS with or without FA increased significantly (P≤0.05) the counts of Streptococcus (P≤0.01) and Lactobacillus in the ileal digesta. The Streptococcus and Escherichia coli counts in the caecal digesta decreased significantly (P≤0.01). No Salmonella, Shigella and Campylobacter were found in the small intestine or caecum of any of the groups.
Investors' Overconfidence Bias On Investment in Tehran Stock Exchange

Corresponding Author: Abolfazl Esmaeilzadeh ABSTRACT: Investment refers to translating cash liquidities to one or multiple assets that are maintained for a certain period of time in the future. The word "investment" itself includes a wide range of assets, such as certificates of deposit, bonds, common stocks, and mutual fund investments. The behavioral finance evolution initiated by Kahneman and Tversky (1979) discusses that economic indices and rationales are not the only factors that influence investors' decision makings, but other factors such as behavioral characteristics of the investors also have a role. This study focuses on the behavioral biases. The main objective of this research is to define the behavioral biases, and to explore the impacts of overconfidence biased on investment of investors in Tehran Stock Exchange Market. Our findings indicate that overconfidence bias have a significant impact on investment in Tehran Stock Exchange Market.
Financial Development and Poverty Reduction: Evidence from Selected African Countries

This paper examines the relationship between financial development, economic growth and poverty reduction in nine African countries for the period 1970-2013. It uses the ARDL bounds testing approach. The results show evidence of long-run relationship among the variables in height countries with GDP and financial deepening having a positive effect on poverty reduction in five countries (Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon and South Africa), and poverty reduction having a positive effect on economic growth in three countries (Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal). The study also reveals bidirectional long-run causality between economic growth and poverty reduction in Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon and South Africa, and bidirectional long-run causality between finance and poverty reduction in Benin, Cameroon and South Africa. These findings suggest that policies aimed at increasing economic growth and improving access to credit would reduce poverty but also that measures of poverty reduction would lead to economic growth and financial deepening in these countries.
PAC/UF for Removing Cyanobacterial Cells and Toxins from Drinking Water

Cyanobacterial blooms seasonally arise as a concern to some drinking water suppliers due to the massive input of cells, the release of algogenic organic matter (AOM) into the water and often the production of cyanotoxins as secondary metabolites. Cyanotoxins may cause a wide range of adverse health effects, including skin irritation, neurotoxic damage, gastroenteritis, liver damage, tumour promotion and ultimately death, and their removal is therefore a major goal in water treatment. An optimal water treatment requires the removal of intact cyanobacterial cells (particulate matter) (Drikas et al., 2001), given that cyanotoxins are largely intracellular and cell-bound, as well as the removal of soluble compounds, since there is always a fraction of cyanotoxins that is released into the water by cell-ageing or induced cell damage (Sivonen & Jones, 1999; Pietsch et al., 2002). Conventional treatment is considered ineffective for the removal of dissolved cyanotoxins, making the study and implementation of alternative technologies crucial to minimise or eliminate their negative impact. Hybrid membrane processes of PAC/UF (powdered activated carbon adsorption/ ultrafiltration) were recently developed for controlling pesticides, taste and odour compounds and disinfection-by-products in drinking water treatment. PAC/UF combines the PAC ability to adsorb organics, e.g. dissolved toxins, with the effective removal of particles by low-pressure UF membranes, including cyanobacterial cells and the associated intracellular and cell-bound toxins. Despite its high potential for controlling cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in drinking water, there is a lack of knowledge regarding PAC/UF application on this environmental-health issue. This chapter addresses the removal of cyanobacterial cells and toxins from drinking water by PAC/UF hybrid process, focusing on the main questions involving each technology and the singularities of these environmental-health hazards. The chapter summarises the results of a comprehensive study performed with a commercial fine-grade mesoporous PAC and a lab-scale UF apparatus. Laboratory cultured cells of Microcystis aeruginosa and the associated microcystins were studied. M. aeruginosa is one of the most commonly occurring cyanobacteria and grows in laboratory as single cells, which is an advantage for this study. Due to its small size, M.