Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ISO-AMYLASE ELECTROPHORETIC PATTERNS IN HYPERAMYLASEMIC CONDITIONS - A LEADING FOOTPRINT

Objective: Enzyme amylase in humans is a digestive enzyme that acts to cleave starch into smaller carbohydrates. The iso-enzymes of amylase are salivary (S) type and pancreatic (P) type with different characteristics properties. Hyperamylasemia is a condition with increased total serum amylase activity. It is often difficult to interpret the actual defective source with a total serum amylase activity. Therefore, this study of iso-amylase patterns by electrophoretic technique aids in recognizing the correct source of origin of the enzyme amylase. Methods: A total of 80 subjects aged ranges from 20-60 years were recruited from SRM Medical College Hospital and Research center, Tamil Nadu. The subjects included were subdivided as Group 1 of 20 acute pancreatitis, Group 2 of 20 diabetes mellitus, Group 3 of 20 cholecystitis and Group 4 of 20 normal healthy subjects. Serum samples were obtained and analyzed in autoanalyzer and subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis for electrophoretic separation of isoamylase bands. Results: Total serum amylase activity was measured. Electrophoretic iso-enzyme patterns of serum amylase of normal healthy person showed a narrow band of S-type toward the anode, followed by the P-type from the point of application. Electrophoresis of sera of pancreatitis showed only a single prominent P-type band, cholecystitis sera showed a thin S-type with P-type band and diabetic sera had a broad S-type and thin P-type isoamylase bands. Conclusion: Agarose gel electrophoresis is a simple technique and can be run with minimal efforts. The isoamylase band patterns observed differentiates the source of origin of serum amylase. Thereby aids the physicians to take the next right leading step and decide necessary further investigations. Keywords: Isoamylase, Hyperamylasemia, Agarose gel electrophoresis.
Benchmark experiment and theory for near-threshold excitation of helium by electron impact

A new experimental technique has been applied to measure absolute scattering cross sections for electron impact excitation of the n = 2, 3 states of helium at near-threshold energies. The experimental results are compared with predictions from recent state-of-the-art theoretical calculations. The calculations are performed using the R-matrix with pseudostates, B-spline R-matrix, and the convergent close-coupling methods. Generally, very good agreement is found between the experiment and the three theories.
Influence of Job Satisfaction and Teacher Sense of Efficacy on Teaching Effectiveness among Primary School Teachers in South Western Nigeria

This study investigated into the influence of job satisfaction and teacher sense of efficacy on teaching effectiveness among primary school teachers in South Western Nigeria. Descriptive research design was used in the study. Five hundred (500) respondents were selected from five states in South Western Nigeria. The respondents were measured with relevant standardized scale (instruments) and the data obtained was analyzed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) statistical analysis of the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). Two research hypotheses were raised and answered in the study. The result showed that there was significant relationship between job satisfaction and teaching effectiveness of primary school teachers (r= .728; P<0.05) and there was significant relationship between teacher sense of efficacy and teaching effectiveness of primary school teachers (r= .788; P<0.05). In view of these findings, recommendation such as the need for the government and school administrators to device appropriate ways and manners of improving the teachers’ job satisfaction and trained teachers on how to improve their self-efficacy for improved teaching effectiveness and pupils learning outcomes in the school system was preferred.
Soil surface characteristics influence on infiltration in black marls: application to the Super‐Sauze earthflow (southern Alps, France)

Soil surface characteristics (SSCs) have a strong influence on the infiltration properties at the soil surface. They can explain spatial variations in the infiltration processes observed under natural rainfall for relatively little‐differentiated material and can help us to understand the surface and subsurface hydrology of landslides, representative of some of black marls landscapes of the French southern Alps. This paper presents the results of investigations into the influence of SSCs using careful morphological description, in situ tension‐disc infiltrometry and statistical analysis (hierarchical ascending classification and stepwise discriminant analysis). The site studied is the Super‐Sauze earthflow. The selected infiltration and runoff variables were described for 233 microplots chosen all over the earthflow. The results show that an approach based on a description of relevant variables influencing water infiltration can validate a typology based on ‘expert’ knowledge. Hydraulic conductivity at saturation was measured on 36 undisturbed soil cores and at low negative pressure heads on 83 microplots: the dispersion exceeds three orders of magnitude at each pressure head. A statistical analysis of the data set obtained by describing selected variables showed the relevance of the black marl descriptors when defining types of SSC that enable us to distinguish significant hydrodynamical behaviour. This leads us to suggest a distribution of hydraulic conductivity curves near saturation for each SSC type, which can be used as a key to distribute local hydraulic conductivity values adapted to black marl hillslopes. As well as the types of SSC at a microplot scale leading to types of hydrodynamic properties, the typology of combinations of SSCs at a coarser scale should lead to types of hydrological response and to identification of hydrological and geomorphological response units. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Socioeconomic Perspectives to Arable Crop Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Ebonyi North Zone , Ebonyi State , Nigeria

Socioeconomic Perspectives to Arable Crop Farmer-Herder conflicts in Ebonyi North Zone of Ebonyi State, Nigeria was studied. A combination of purposive, systematic and simple random sampling techniques was employed in the selection of 172 respondents (160 farmers and 12 herdsmen). Primary data were sourced through field survey; with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire and interview schedule. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in data analysis. Result showed that majority (96.3 percent) of the farmers were males and belong to age bracket of 51-60 years (29.4percent) and were mostly married (83.8%). Further analysis showed that all the herdsmen were males with no formal education. The age of majority (31.3 percent) ranged between 31-40 years while 87.50 percent were married. The result of probit analyses showed Chi-square values of 5346.00 and 1283.124 for farmers and herders respectively. This shows the goodness of fit of the models. The overall model was statistically significant (P<0.05), implying that the independent variables asserted great influence on the frequency of conflicts with the herdsmen. Most of the independent variables were statistically significant and met a priori expectations. Two null hypotheses tested were rejected, implying that the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers and herdsmen significantly influenced their frequency of conflicts. The level of human casualty among the two conflicting groups within the period was low. However, the economic loss was huge on the two parties. While the farmers lost a lot of crops and farms to the conflicts the herdsmen lost several cattle and sheep as a result of the conflicts. Crops mostly affected were cassava (89%) and rice (55%). Herders seemed to have incurred more economic lost in monetary terms than the farmers. Social cost of the conflict among the farmers and the herdsmen include loss of peace and co-existence among the groups, breakdown of established friendship between the groups, perpetual fear of attack and loss of family means of livelihood. It was recommended that peace and conflict resolution committee that include representatives of farmer and herder communities be instituted by the state
Explanations for Elevated Psychiatric Vulnerability in Nonheterosexuals: Environmental Stressors, Genetics, and the HPA and HPG Axes

In Western societies, around 2-5% of men and women identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual (i.e. nonheterosexual), and at least 10% report at least some attraction to same-sex individuals (Sell et al. 1995; Kendler et al. 2000; Kirk et al. 2000). Nonheterosexuality is not limited to today’s Western societies, but has been commonly observed in other cultures today and throughout history (e.g. Hinsch 1992; Murray and Roscoe 1998; Vasey and VanderLaan 2007). In this chapter I firstly outline extensive and robust evidence that sexual minorities are at greater risk of psychiatric disorder than are heterosexuals (Section 2). In Section 3, I explore possible explanations for why this might be the case. I discuss the dominant ‘minority stress hypothesis’ (Section 3.1); lifestyle factors associated with nonheterosexuality that may exacerbate psychiatric vulnerability (Section 3.2); and ‘common cause’ explanations involving genetic factors (Section 3.3.1) and adverse childhood experiences (Section 3.3.2), which appear to predispose to both nonheterosexuality and psychiatric disorder. I also propose a novel neurohormonal explanation to account for how the same genetic factors and childhood experiences might affect both sexual orientation and psychiatric risk (Sections 3.3.1.3 and 3.3.2). In Section 4 I conclude and draw attention to areas in which much more research is needed.
Optical Characterization of a Diesel Spray at High Temperature and Pressure

The analysis of diesel sprays in engine-like conditions is of fundamental importance for the study and development of diesel engines. Laser diffraction techniques were used in this work to study droplet size distribution of a diesel spray injected into a constant-volume combustion vessel with line-of-sight optical access. The experiments were conducted using a common rail injector electronically controlled to inject after the combustion of a stoichiometric air-methane mixture. This allowed to reach temperature of around 1000 K and pressure of more than 10 bar. In the first stage of the work back-light technique was employed to measure spray characteristics such as penetration and cone angle. The liquid phase behavior was highlighted by means of a high-speed digital camera for different values of injection duration and pressure. In the second phase particle size distribution and pertinent attributes of the distribution were measured on the spray axis at 10 mm from the injector orifice. The obtained results were finally discussed putting in evidence the main sources of disturbance encountered during the measurements and illustrating their effects on the measurement accuracy.
Intuitive Control of Animated Scenes

Animation is a fundamental means of human expression that can dissolve the boundaries of reality and bring imaginative characters to life in visual form. It remarkably combines Arts for the creation of compelling shapes and movements, and Technology for the incorporation of automation and interaction into design paradigms. The transition from hand-drawn 2D animation to 3D computer animation has introduced new tools and creative possibilities. It has yielded different rendering styles, physical simulations, and faster accomplishment of some tasks. However, it completely changed the workflow and the modes of interaction for crafting an animation, sometimes at the expense of the freedom of creation. Current tools used by digital artists to author 3D content are very powerful; they allow the creation of very compelling animations and provide a high level of control over the final result. However, some interaction metaphors provided by such software do not accommodate specific tasks that users need to accomplish. This leads to elements of the artist’s workflow that are achievable in a tedious, repetitive and/or unnatural way. As a result, current 3D tools require a lot of practice to be mastered. To this day, a novice user has no way to create a compelling character animation without prior intensive training. This limits drastically the range of people who can express their creativity through animated features. The overall goal of this thesis involves the study and understanding of intuitive, user-centric design processes for computer animation as well as the application of these ideas to create intuitive interaction techniques and expand the state of the art in a way that focuses on user-oriented systems. In particular, this thesis explores new interaction interfaces for three prominent aspects of computer animation: environment design, movement crafting, and direct high-level control of character motion. We demonstrate that the introduction of more intuitive and natural animation tools has the potential to both facilitate the work of professional artists and make the computer animation technologies accessible to novice users.
Antibacterial and antioxidant activities of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) in vitro

Antibacterial and antioxidant activity, total phenolic and flavonoid concentrations of water, ethanol and ethyl acetate extract of fruits and leaves of Vaccinium myrtillus L. were studied. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) have been determined. Testing was performed on 30 clinical isolates, including strains of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Proteus vulgaris. The values for MIC were in the range from 5 to 40 mg/ml. The most sensitive bacterial strain was Enterococcus faecalis MF-Ef8 strain. The ethanol extract of fruits of V. myrtillus was found the most active. The total phenolic content was determined using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and ranged between 31.44 to 119.17 mg GAE/g. The concentration of flavonoids in extracts was determined and the highest amount was in ethyl acetate extract of leaves of V. myrtillus. Antioxidant activity was monitored spectrophotometrically using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) reagent. The highest capacity to neutralize DPPH radicals (94%RSA) was found in the ethanol extract from fruits and in the water extract from leaves of V. myrtillus. The results of the total phenolic content determination of the examined extracts indicate that bilberry extracts are a rich source of phenolic compounds and also possess a significant antioxidant activity and moderate antibacterial activity. Key words: Plant extracts, phenols, flavonoids, Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, Proteus vulgaris.
Nonlinear Optics

Required text: Text: "Nonlinear Optics", George Stegeman, Wiley 2012 Homework + Quizzes 20% Test 1, in class, closed book (end of first half of semester) 25% Test 2, take home, comprehensive (near semester end) 25% Final, in class final, open book, comprehensive 30% Total 100% (+ and grades will be given on a sliding scale based on years of experience teaching NLO. grades can be picked up in my office 2 days after the final exam. Make-up exams will not be given. The final exam is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 10 from 7:00am-9:50am)
Phase diagram of the dissipative quantum Ising model on a square lattice

The competition between interactions and dissipative processes in a quantum many-body system can drive phase transitions of different order. Exploiting a combination of cluster methods and quantum trajectories, we show how the systematic inclusion of (classical and quantum) nonlocal correlations at increasing distances is crucial to determine the structure of the phase diagram, as well as the nature of the transitions in strongly interacting spin systems. In practice, we focus on the paradigmatic dissipative quantum Ising model: In contrast to the nondissipative case, its phase diagram is still a matter of debate in the literature. When dissipation acts along the interaction direction, we predict important quantitative modifications of the position of the first-order transition boundary. In the case of incoherent relaxation in the field direction, our approach confirms the presence of a second-order transition, while does not support the possible existence of multicritical points. Potentially, these results can be tested in up-to-date quantum simulators of Rydberg atoms.
Properties of quality constructs in Canadian business relationships

This paper investigates whether satisfaction, in B2B relationships, is a mediating construct between the antecedents, trust and commitment, and subsequent outcomes. Using data from a survey of Canadian managers and executives, the study tested a structural equation model, the trust, commitment, satisfaction (TCS) model, where the antecedent constructs, trust and commitment, are mediated by the satisfaction construct, which in turn influences coordination, cooperation and continuity or 'consequence' constructs. The tested model indicated an acceptable fit, validity and reliability. The analysis in the present study reinforces the argument that satisfaction plays a mediating role in creating enduring relationships in business contexts.
Wave propagation and absorption simulations for helicon sources

A two-dimensional (2-D), finite-difference computer code is developed to examine helicon antenna coupling, wave propagation, collisionless Landau, and collisional heating mechanisms. The code calculates the electromagnetic wave fields and power absorption in an inhomogeneous, cold, collisional plasma. The current distribution of the launching antenna, which provides the full antenna spectra, is included in the model. An iterative solution that incorporates warm plasma thermal effects has been added to the code to examine the contribution of collisionless (Landau) wave absorption by electrons. Detailed studies of the wave fields and electron heating profiles at low magnetic fields (B0<100 G), where both Trivelpiece–Gould (TG) and helicon (H) modes are present, are discussed. The effects of the applied uniform magnetic field (B0=10–1000 G), 2-D (r,z) density profiles (ne0=1011–1013 cm−3), neutral gas pressures of 1–10 mTorr and the antenna spectrum on collisional and collisionless wave field solutions and p.
Can Wages Signal Kindness?

We model the interaction between an employer and a worker with interdependent preferences in a simple one-shot production process. In particular, we assume that the worker becomes kinder if she senses that her employer is an altruist. We assume that intentions are private information. Thus, the wage proposal signals the intentions of the employer to the worker. We show that if the workers have "reasonable" beliefs, then the unique prediction of the game is a separating equilibrium outcome in which wages are fully informative about the intentions of the employer. However, if there are several employers simultaneously bidding to hire a single worker, then there may exist another equilibrium in which wages are completely uninformative.
Kx-GROUPS , QUASIDIAGONALITY , AND INTERPOLATION BY MULTIPLIER PROJECTIONS

We relate the following conditions on a c-unital C*-algebra A with the "FS property": (a) KX(A) = 0 ; (b) every projection in M(A)/A lifts; (c) the general Weyl-von Neumann theorem holds in M(A) : Any selfadjoint element h in M (A) can be written as h = TJ~ i ¿,-P,+ a f°r some selfadjoint element a in A , some bounded real sequence {A¡} , and some mutually orthogonal projections {p,} in A with TJÍiP¡ = 1 ; (d) M (A) has FS; and (e) interpolation by multiplier projections holds: For any closed projections p and q in A** with pq = 0, there is a projection r in M (A) such that p<r< 1 -q. We prove various equivalent versions of (a)-(e), and show that (e) ■» (d) •»• (c) =► (b) <= (a), and that (a) «• (b) if, in addition, A is stable. Combining the above results, we obtain counterexamples to the conjecture of G. K. Pedersen " A has FS => M (A) has FS" (for example the stabilized BunceDeddens algebras). Hence the generalized Weyl-von Neumann theorem does not generally hold in L(HA) for c-unital C'-algebras with FS. 0. Introduction Let K be the algebra of all compact operators on a separable Hilbert space 77, and let L(77) be the algebra of all bounded operators on H. If A is a C*-algebra, we denote the Banach space double dual of A by A** and the multiplier algebra of A by M (A). We have inclusions A c M (A) c A**. For details of multiplier algebras the reader is referred to [3, 7, 11, 14, 24] among others. Let 77^ = {{a,}: ai e A and Y^L\a\ai converges in norm}. Then 77^ becomes a Hilbert (right) . ^-module with the ^4-valued inner product oo <R}> {*,-}) = YLa>i fora11 («<>• Wehai=X We denote by L(HA) the set of all "bounded" module maps with an adjoint and by K(H.) the closed ideal of L(H.) called the "compact maps". More Received by the editors August 9, 1988 and, in revised form, May 9, 1989. The results were presented at the 17th Annual Canadian Symposium on Operator Algebras and Operator Theory, held at the University of Toronto (May 22-26, 1989). 1980 Mathematics Subject Classification (1985 Revision). Primary 46L99.
Effect of housing system and age of laying hens on eggshell quality, microbial contamination, and penetration of microorganisms into eggs

Vlčková J., Tůmová E. , Ketta M. , Englmaierová M. , Chodová D. (2018): Effect of housing system and age of laying hens on eggshell quality, microbial contamination, and penetration of microorganisms into eggs. Czech J. Anim. Sci., 63, 51–60. Hens of the laying hybrid ISA Brown were used in the study with the objective to evaluate eggshell quality, microbial contamination of eggshells, and penetration of microorganisms into the egg content in different housing systems (enriched cage: 60 hens, 10 hens per cage, 750 cm2 per hen vs free range: 60 hens, 9 hens per m2) and at different hen ages (26 vs 51 weeks) during storage time (0, 2, 7, 14, and 21 days). A significant interaction between the housing system and age was observed in egg weight and most of eggshell quality measurements. However, microbial contamination and penetration were affected mostly by the housing system and storage time. The numbers of Escherichia coli (P < 0.001, 4.51 vs 2.75 log cfu/eggshell) and Enterococcus (P < 0.001, 2.56 vs 1.11 log cfu/eggshell), and the total number of microorganisms (P < 0.001, 5.04 vs. 3.65 log cfu/eggshell) were higher in free range eggs compared to enriched cage eggs, respectively. The counts of Escherichia coli (P < 0.001, 4.23 vs 2.91 log cfu/eggshell) and Enterococcus (P < 0.001, 2.31 vs 1.27 log cfu/eggshell) decreased with storage time. A positive correlation between the total number of pores and penetration of Escherichia coli in both housing systems was observed in the albumen. It can be concluded that the housing system and age of laying hens significantly affected eggshell quality. Microbial contamination presumably affects the penetration of microorganisms. The correlation between the number of pores and penetration is assumed to be affected by the microbial species.