Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Evolution of Erythrocytes Becoming Red in Respect to Fluorescence

Very young red blood cells, namely reticulocytes, can be quite easily recognized and labeled by cluster of differentiation antibodies (CD71, transferrin receptor) or by staining remnant RNA with thiazol orange. In contrast, age specific erythrocyte labeling is more difficult in later periods of their life time. While erythrocytes contain band 4.1 protein, a molecular clock, so far it has not been possible to read this clock on individual cells. One concept to track erythrocytes during their life time is to mark them when they are young, either directly in vivo or ex vivo followed by a transfusion. Several methods like biotinylation, use of isotopes or fluorescent labeling have proved to be useful experimental approaches but also have several inherent disadvantages. Genetic engineering of mice provides additional options to express fluorescent proteins in erythrocytes. To allow co-staining with popular green fluorescent dyes like Fluo-4 or other fluorescein-based dyes, we bred a mouse line expressing a tandem red fluorescent protein (tdRFP). Within this Brief Research Report, we provide the initial characterisation of this mouse line and show application examples ranging from transfusion experiments and intravital microscopy to multicolour flow cytometry and confocal imaging. We provide a versatile new tool for erythrocyte research and discuss a range of experimental opportunities to study membrane processes and other aspects of erythrocyte development and aging with help of these animals.
THE MONETARY TRANSMISSION MECHANISM IN A SMALL OPEN ECONOMY: THE CASE OF EGYPT

By treating the Egyptian economy as a small open economy, the current study attempts to fill a gap in studies about MTMs in the Egyptian economy. The results of the study are as follows: (i) The CBE is factually applying the sterilized intervention policy. (ii) The CBE does not apply an independent monetary policy. (iii) The federal funds rate and the FX rate, respectively, play the most important role among the foreign and domestic variables that influence the reaction of the CBE. (iv) Foreign economic shocks play a dominant role in explaining the behavior of real domestic growth, whereas domestic economic shocks play a dominant role in explaining the behavior of domestic inflation, especially in the short run. (v) The interest rate channel explains the MTMs in the Egypt.
Data modeling diagnostics for share price performance of Islamic Bank in Malaysia using Computational Islamic Finance approach

Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad is an institution that offers financing activity that complies with shariah (Islamic law) and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. The objective of this study is to forecast the performance of share price for Islamic Bank in Malaysia. The method implemented in this study is autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA). From the analysis, there are two model of ARIMA that developed which are ARIMA (3,1,3) and ARIMA(3,1,4). The model of ARIMA (3,1,4) show larger value of R-squared and lower absolute value of Akaike info criterion (AIC). In addition, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is 0.85% in ex-post data range. This results indicates ARIMA (3,1,4) is a reliable forecasting model . The findings from this study will help investors to select a better portfolio for their investment decision in order to gain better profits. In addition, the findings of this study also will help economists to understand the future condition of economic scenario in Malaysia
Fuzzy Rule Based Inference System for Implementation of Naval Military Mission

Naval military units are convoluted frameworks required to work in specific time periods in seaward assignments where support operations are radically restricted. A decline at the time of mission is an analytical fact that can radically impact the mission achievement. The choice of changing a unit to a mission subsequently requires complex judgments including data about the well being status of hardware and the natural conditions. The present system expects to help the choice about changing a unit to a mission considering that ambiguity and unpredictability of information by methods of fuzzy concepts and imitates the selection procedure of a human trained by means of a rule-based inference system. A numerical application is introduced to demonstrate the viability of the approach.
Influence of Compost Rates and Application Time on Growth, Yield and Chemical Composition of Snap Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L)

A field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Experimental and Research Station, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt in the two summer successive seasons 2008 and 2009. The present work aims to study the response of snap bean to different rates of compost and time of application in comparison with two different sources of inorganic fertilizers. The experiment included 8 treatments, the recommended mineral fertilizer (MF) as a control, Natural fertilizer (NF), i.e. 4, 6 and 8 tons of compost were applied once through soil preparation (O). 4, 6 and 8 tons of compost were applied at two equal splits at soil preparation and 30 days after sowing (S). The same rate of (N: P: K (50:45:60) kg/fed. ) was applied either in MF or NF treatment. The N source in both treatments was ammonium sulfate, super phosphate (P) and potassium sulfate (K) in MF treatment. Phosphate rock (P) and natural potassium (K) in NF treatment. Results showed that MF, NF, 4 tons compost O and 4 tons compost S treatments produced significantly taller plants in combined over seasons. The highest value of plant height was obtained by the MF treatment. The lowest compost rate (4 tons/fed.) S surpassed all treatments in early yield of snap beans pods. The both recommended mineral fertilizer and 4 tons splitting of compost significantly yielded the highest total yield. The compost treatments applied at two equal splits of the three different rates produced higher early yield and total yield in comparison with the corresponded rates added once in combined over seasons. Meanwhile, No significant differences were detected between all treatments for pod length, pod weight and number of branches per plant. The plant treated with 4t/fed. organic fertilizer had the highest NPK percentage compared to 6 and 8 t/fed. The plants treated by 8 tons compost O possessed the highest values of leaves total chlorophyll.
Dialysis Pretreatment for Dissolved Organic Nitrogen Analysis in Freshwaters

Total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), including dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), plays an important role in numerous environmental processes, such as nutrient cycling and lake and estuary eutrophication. The impact of DIN on environmental processes has been extensively studied. However, the understanding on DON in the environment is largely unknown, as there is no direct method for DON measurement. In practice, DON was determined by subtracting DIN from TDN. Large measurement errors could be induced when DIN becomes dominant in sample. This study was to investigate the impact of two pretreatments of dialysis, dialysis against Millipore water and dialysis against phosphate buffer (4.7 mM H3PO4-5.3 mM KH2PO4, pH 2.2) using a cellulose ester (CE) membrane (100–500 Da molecular weight cutoff), on DON measurement in a broad DIN range from various aquatic ecosystems. Results showed that the removal of NH4-N and NO3-N by both dialysis approaches was highly effective (>80%), but the DON loss by the former was significantly lower than by the latter. This study demonstrated that dialysis against Millipore water with the membrane would be more effective as a sample pretreatment for DIN removal, leading to a reliable and accurate DON measurement.
The New Career Contract: Developing the Whole Person at Midlife and Beyond

Abstract This is an examination of the current status and future potential of older workers in organizational settings. This analysis will necessarily require a reexamination of traditional models of career stages, particularly in relation to issues of aging in the career context. The paper starts with an examination of the “career contract,” the set of mutual expectations between employer and employee and on the ways that contract has changed over the last decade. Our summary view of the new contract is that it reflects a move from an organizationally based career to a protean or self-based career. This change has particularly strong implications, positive and negative, for older workers, and these are explored in depth. We argue that the contemporary high-speed work environment demands two key competencies (which we call “meta-skills,” since they are skills for learning how to learn): identity development and heightened adaptability. The development of these meta-skills occurs through a process of midca- reer “routine-busting. ” In our view, this suggests a new view of career stages, in which the focus is on many cycles of learning stages (continuous learning), rather than a single lifelong career stage cycle. The paper concludes with the implication of these new career concepts for the development of older workers, questioning the currently popular model of retraining and calling instead forcontinuous learningas a means of providing lifelong development for workers of all ages.
Purchase intention of ethnic textiles: The mediating role of the attitude of Mexican middle-class consumers

This research analyzes how behavioral attitude mediated the relationship between ethnical identity and intention to purchase ethnic textiles. We selected a sample of 405 postgraduate students from five different universities who fulfilled the following criteria: (1) they belong to the Mexican middle-class with an income ranging from 479 to 638 dollars a month; (2) they are part of the potential consumer market because they are under 30 years-old on average; and (3) they are familiar with the dynamic of handmade ethnic textiles because they live in a State that has native handicraft communities. Using the mediation model from Baron and Kenny (1986), the results showed that purchase attitude mediated the relationship between ethnical identity and intention to purchase ethnic textiles. Moreover, we found that ethnic identity influenced the intention to purchase ethnic textiles. This article provides information on the purchasing behavior of ethnic textiles by middle-class consumers in Mexico to allow artisans develop marketing strategies for this market segment and increase their sales.
Endovascular treatment of severe lower leg ischemia in patients not suitable for open surgery

Background: The aim of the study was to assess the potential of endovascular treatment of severe lower leg ischemia and obstructive lesions in below-the-knee arteries (Rutherford class 4–6 or class 3 with a claudication distance below 50 m) in patients deemed not suitable for surgery. Material and methods: 85 patients who underwent below-the-knee endovascular interventions between February 2005 and November 2006 were included into the study. There were 52 diabetics and 27 patients on chronic hemodialysis. All patients were initially turned down from surgery on the basis of a clinical assessment and a lower leg angiography. Concomitant obstructive above-the-knee lesions were treated at the same sitting (iliac arteries were treated in 4 cases and femoral or popliteal arteries in 85 cases). A good result was diagnosed when restoration of normal flow to the dorsal pedal or plantar arteries directly through dilated or opened tibial arteries was achieved. The result was considered to be moderate when Wojciech Bodzoń i wsp. Chirurgia Polska 2007, 9, 1 Leczenie wewnątrznaczyniowe krytycznego niedokrwienia kończyn dolnych u chorych niekwalifikujących się do leczenia operacyjnego 19 inflow into the pedal arteries was increased in relation to the initial angiography, but achieved thanks to the increased flow within the collaterals of dilated tibial or peroneal arteries. No change or worsening was diagnosed, when flow to the foot did not change or decreased in relation to the initial angiography. Results: Immediate technical success was achieved in 85 procedures (83%) — this was estimated good in 55 procedures (53.9%) and moderate in 30 (29.4%). No change was seen in 13 procedures (12.7%) while worsening was seen in 4 (4.9%). In 3 patients in whom the initial result was bad, local intraarterial fibrinolysis and ancillary angioplasty were subsequently performed and the final results were deemed good. Conclusions: Endovascular treatment of patients with advanced leg ischemia who are not suitable for open surgery seems to be justified. Immediate beneficial effects in angiographic assessment can be obtained in most cases.
Reliable and Clinically Significant Change in Outcomes for Forensic Mental Health Inpatients: Use of the HoNOS-Secure

ABSTRACT Outcomes measures are commonly derived from post-discharge recidivism, readmission, and mortality rates but information about common outcomes across admission is scant. We determined whether reliable and clinically significant change in risk-related need, behavior, functioning, and symptoms occurred during admission by analysing routinely collected HoNOS-secure data (N = 418). We calculated between-group differences in baseline scores and rates of change, the proportion of patients for whom change was reliable, and, of those, the proportion whose scores fell by a clinically significant margin. Reliable change was demonstrated for 4.8% and 5.7% of patients on the HoNOS-secure scale and security scale respectively, and that change was rarely clinically significant. In a context in which services rarely report on routinely collected data for a range of outcomes, we found that HoNOS-secure captured little of any clinical change that may have occurred. Further research should determine whether the HoNOS-secure is a suitable tool for routine outcomes reporting.
Gaussian Mixture Filter in Hybrid Navigation

This paper studies the Gaussian Mixture Filter (GMF) in hybrid navigation and is divided into three parts focusing on different problems. The first part deals with approximating the likelihood function as a Gaussian mixture. The second part gives a new way to robustify GMF by adding more components, and the third part concentrates on different ways to reduce the number of mixture components so that the algorithm is fast without losing significant information. Finally, we compare GMF with other filters using simulations.
Therapeutic effect of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid irrigation solution against wound infection with drug-resistant bacteria in a rat model: an animal study

Objectives Irrigation is the cornerstone of treating skeletal infection by eliminating pathogens in wounds. A previous study shows that irrigation with normal saline (0.9%) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) could improve the removal of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) compared with normal saline (NS) alone. However, it is still unclear whether EDTA solution is effective against infection with drug-resistant bacteria. Methods We established three wound infection models (skin defect, bone-exposed, implant-exposed) by inoculating the wounds with a variety of representative drug-resistant bacteria including methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), extended spectrum beta-lactamase-producing E. coli (ESBL-EC), multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MRPA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MRAB), multidrug-resistant Enterobacter (MRE), and multidrug-resistant Proteus mirabilis (MRPM). Irrigation and debridement were repeated until the wound culture became negative. The operating times required to eliminate pathogens in wounds were compared through survival analysis. Results Compared with other groups (NS, castile soap, benzalkonium chloride, and bacitracin), the EDTA group required fewer debridement and irrigation operations to achieve pathogen eradication in all three models of wound infection. Conclusion Irrigation with EDTA solution was more effective than the other irrigation fluids used in the treatment of wound infections caused by drug-resistant pathogens. Cite this article: Z. Deng, F. Liu, C. Li. Therapeutic effect of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid irrigation solution against wound infection with drug-resistant bacteria in a rat model: an animal study. Bone Joint Res 2019;8:189–198. DOI: 10.1302/2046-3758.85. BJR-2018-0280.R3.
The Ethical Ideology of University Students in South Africa

Abstract The study investigated the ethical ideology of university students in South Africa. In addition, the study investigated if there is a significant gender difference in the ethical ideology of university students. The study focused on business students. Data was collected through the use of self-administered questionnaires in a survey. Descriptive statistics and the T-test were used for data analysis. The results indicated high scores in both idealism and relativism. Students are more idealistic than relativistic with respect to their ethical ideology. There are no significant differences in the mean scores of both male and female students for both idealism and relativism. Most of the students can be classified as situationists.
THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND THE CHALLENGES OF THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

It has long been recognised that the role of the construction industry in socio-economic development goes beyond its share in national output. A number of studies have focused on the issue of employment creation others have emphasised its multiplier effect on other sectors of the economy. The role of construction infrastructure in the process of development has gained a new stimulus following the United Nations Millennium Declaration at the Millennium Summit in New York in September, 2000. Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), measured through 21 targets, were devised. According to international development agencies, the services provided by infrastructure have a pervasive effect on the economic and social targets related to the MDGs. Using data obtained from World Bank and United Nations publications, and making use of an analysis developed in previous works, this study presents some prospects of the pattern of development of the construction industry in two groups of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to their level of economic development. Some insights for the growth strategies of the construction industry in the groups of countries are also presented.
EVALUATION OF AN EXISTING BRIDGE'S MODAL PROPERTIES USING SIMPLIFIED FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS.

The purpose of this paper is to present results of a simplified approach to the dynamic finite element modeling of composite girder-slab bridges using a single beam element to represent the girder-slab cross section. Dynamic properties calculated with these simplified models are compared to experimental results and results obtained from more detailed shell element models. The method for modeling flexural behavior is first discussed followed by a discussion of modeling torsional behavior. The beam element models accurately calculated the mode shapes of the structure, but the associated resonant frequencies showed some error.
The effect of weather on lesser kestrel breeding success: can climate change explain historical population declines?

Summary 1 We model the effect of annual weather conditions on lesser kestrel Falco naumanni breeding success in South-western Spain. Models indicate that rainfall is a good predictor of breeding success and has in general a positive effect on reproduction. 2 Rainfall and temperature in spring, during the courtship period, influence colony occupancy rate. Mean minimum temperatures have a positive effect on nest occupation while the relationship between occupation and rainfall is curvilinear with an optimum around 84 mm. 3 Nest success rate is influenced positively by rainfall in winter and negatively by rainfall during the nestling period. 4 The mean number of chicks per successful nest is positively influenced by rainfall during the winter, arrival, courtship, and incubation periods. Rainfall during these periods explains 35% of the variance in this breeding parameter. 5 Nestling body condition is affected positively by rainfall during the courtship and incubation periods. 6 Models that consider the amount of rainfall at each colony in periods defined by the breeding phenology of the lesser kestrel outperform those based on total annual rainfall or on winter NAO-index. 7 Although rainfall in spring has declined significantly since 1966, retrospective predictions of lesser kestrel population growth rate at our colonies indicate that the effect of climate change on breeding success cannot be held responsible for the historical population decline.
COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF PHYTOCHEMICALS AND ANTIOXIDANT POTENTIAL OF METHANOLIC AND AQUEOUS EXTRACTS OF CLERODENDRUM COLEBROOKIANUM WALP. LEAF FROM NORTH-EAST INDIA

Objective: The present study was undertaken, to evaluate the in vitro antioxidant capacity as well as phytochemical quantification of Clerodendrum colebrookianum. Methods: A 70% methanolic extract (CCLM) and aqueous extract (CCLA) of C. colebrookianum Walp. leaves to evaluate different in vitro tests in diversified fields including the total antioxidant activity and the extent of their abilities to scavenge for various reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS) and the analysis of various phytochemicals present in both the extracts followed by an attempt to clarify the active compounds through High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) conferring antioxidant capacity. Results: Results confirmed a better efficacy of CCLM in projecting total antioxidant activity and scavenging of DPPH, hydroxyl, superoxide, nitric oxide and HOCl radicals. CCLM also displayed impressive amounts of phytochemicals like phenolic & flavonoid compounds, carbohydrates, tannins and alkaloids. HPLC chromatogram revealed the presence of compounds that represent the retention peaks of the compared standard phytocompounds-tannic acid, quercetin, catechin, reserpine, ascorbic acid and gallic acid. Conclusion: These results confirm the possible role of the 70% methanolic extract as a promising free radical scavenger and as a potent antioxidant source.
Efficiency of Smallholder Cocoa Farmers in Malaysia: A DEA Approach

Cocoa production in Malaysia faced several problems and challenges that lead to low productivity. The low productivity is evidenced from the continuous drop in cocoa production since 2001 despite efforts from governing bodies to boost output. This study investigates this issue by looking into the production efficiency among small holder cocoa farmers in Malaysia. The technical efficiencies of cocoa farmers in Malaysia are estimated using data envelopment analysis. The study relies upon primary data gathered during the 2013 production season. Data are collected from a set of structured questionnaire administered on 323 smallholder cocoa farmers throughout Malaysia. Results of the analysis reveal that the mean efficiency score is 0.576. This indicates that many cocoa farmers in Malaysia are technically inefficient and this resulted into the low productivity in the Malaysian raw cocoa beans industry in recent years. This inefficiency is largely due to poor management and usage of inputs in the cocoa production.