Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correlation of Blood and Salivary Levels of Zinc, Iron and Copper in Head and Neck Cancer Patients: An Investigational Study

Background: Metals like copper, iron and zinc have been suggested to modulate free radical generation and carcinogenesis. In lieu of these observations, estimation of these metals is vital and most studies have been with the blood. Objectives: In the present study we estimated the levels of these metals in both serum and saliva of the head and neck (H&N) cancer patients and compared it with healthy age-matched control group. A correlation between the levels of these metals in the serum and saliva of respective H&N cancer patient was also assessed. Materials and Methods: The subjects of this study were the clinically confirmed cases of H&N cancers visiting the Oncology Department of Medical College Hospital for treatment. Age and sex-matched healthy individuals were included as control group. The levels of iron, copper and zinc were estimated in whole saliva and serum by standard spectrophotometric methods. Results: When compared to the controls, the levels of iron and copper were higher in serum and saliva was high in the H&N cancer patients and statically significant (P=.0002 to P=.0001). On the contrary, there was a decrease in the levels of zinc but was not significant. There was significant correlation between serum and saliva with respect to the levels of iron, copper and zinc in H&N cancer patients and was statically significant (P=.0001). Conclusions: The findings of this study indicated the role of metals in etiopathogenesis of H&N cancer. An assessment of the levels of metals in cancer patients might have prognostic and therapeutic implications. This study observed a significant positive correlation between serum and saliva which will go a long way in establishing saliva as a diagnostic tool complimentary to blood.
INFANT MORTALITY IN THE RURAL SIDAMA ZONE, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA: EXAMINING THE CONTRIBUTION OF KEY PREGNANCY AND POSTNATAL HEALTH CARE SERVICES

Objectives: This study is aimed at examining the contribution of selected pregnancy and postnatal health care services to Infant Mortality (IM) in Southern Ethiopia. Method: Data were collected from 10 rural villages of the Sidama Zone, Southern Ethiopia, using a structured interview schedule. The 1,094 eligible women respondents were selected using a combination of simple random and multi-stage sampling techniques. The main outcome variable of the study (IM) was measured by reported infant deaths during the twelve months preceding the survey, and was estimated at 9.6% or 96 infant deaths per 1,000 births. Pregnancy and health care variables were used as the main explanatory variables along with other household and individual characteristics. Results: The predicted probabilities, using three models of logistic regression analysis, have shown that four pregnancy and postnatal health care variables (antenatal care, immunisation, exclusive breast feeding and wantedness of the pregnancy) and women’s age are found to be significant predictors of IM in the study areas. Conclusions: Finally, based on the key findings, some recommendations are given: promoting of institutional delivery seeking behaviour through behavioural change communications, training more Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), and maximising the use of the Health Extension Workers (HEWs) stationed at village level to make a house-to-house visit so as to encourage pregnant women to seek pregnancy and delivery care services.
A Comparison of Sources of Uncertainty for Calculating Sprinkler Activation

Treatment of uncertainty is an important consideration when performing a quantitative risk assessment (QRA) for the purpose of performance-based fire safety design. It has been noted in New Zealand that the outcome for fire QRAs is sensitive to uncertainty in the effectiveness of fire safety systems, including sprinkler systems. This paper considers the uncertainty in sprinkler activation time and the heat release rate (HRR) at the time of sprinkler activation for two scenarios; one where a set of sprinkler experiments in a room is modelled and the second which considers a more general design case for the same room. The relative importance of aleatoric (natural) and epistemic (model) uncertainties is shown to depend on the scenario being modelled. Twelve sources of uncertainty were quantified based on literature data and ranked for the scenarios considered. A new probabilistic-deterministic design tool for making risk-informed fire safety decisions is used to calculate output distributions for the two parameters considered and the sources of uncertainty are ranked in terms of sensitivity for output uncertainty. It is found that fire growth rate tends to be more important than the model uncertainty associated with the deterministic zone model engine for the scenarios considered, and uncertainty in the fire location becomes more important than the model uncertainty in design cases where there is greater uncertainty. Uncertainty in sprinkler response parameters and the ambient interior temperature provided the least contribution to the output uncertainties.
Identifying the factors governing attitude towards the e-Agriservice among dairy farmers in Maharashtra, India

Information and communication technology (ICT) projects have a great potential to revolutionise the information delivery system by bridging the gap between farmers and extension personnel. aAQUA (Almost All Questions Answered) portal was launched by the Developmental Informatics Laboratory (DIL) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai, Maharashtra, India in 2003 as an information providing system to deliver technology options and tailored information for the problems and queries raised by Indian dairy farmers. To measure the effectiveness of this service the attitudinal dimensions of the users of aAQUA e-Agriservice were investigated using a 22 item scale. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 120 dairy farmers from which data were collected and subjected to factor analysis to identify the underlying constructs in this research. From the attitude items, four components were extracted and named as the pessimistic, utility, technicaland efficacy perspective, which influenced the developmentof varied level of attitudinal inclination towards the e-Agriservice. These components explained 64.40 per cent of variation in the attitude of the users towards the aAQUA e-Agriservice. This study provides a framework for technically efficient service provision that might help to reduce the pessimistic attitude of target population to adopt e-Agriservice in their farming system. The results should also be helpful for researchers, academics, ICT based service providers and policy makers to consider these perspectives while planning and implementing ICT projects.
Pollen storage by stingless bees as an environmental marker for metal contamination: spatial and temporal distribution of metal elements

Since the middle of the 20th century, human activities have led to overall ecosystem contamination and to major modifications in landscape structure and composition. Mining activities represent a major source of environmental contamination by metal residues. The objective of our study was to evaluate the presence of heavy metals and other elements on stingless bee pollen, and compare them to samples of Suspended Particulate Material (SPM) in five points a Mineral Province, in Brazil. More than 50 elements were identified by ICP-OES and ICP-MS, after microwave digestion. Overall, we found a strong relation among elements present on pollen and SPM. Samples from the four areas exhibited higher levels of minerals compared to the reference site. Mineral levels varied widely within the two seasonal periods. Some elements, like Pb, Cd, As, Cu, Zn, and Fe were found at levels considered potentially toxic to human health. Pollen stored by stingless bees was a successful bioindicator, and demonstrated the value of quantitative ecological information for detecting air pollution.
Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth: Evidence from Nigeria

This paper empirically examines the effects of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on economic growth in Nigeria. Employing the Error Correction Model (ECM), annual secondary time series data covering the period of 1979 to 2013 were analysed using an ECM technique to determine the short and long run effect of FDI on economic growth of Nigeria. Granger causality methodology was used to analyze and establish the nature of relationship (if any) between FDI and economic growth in Nigeria. Our empirical analysis reveals that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has both immediate and time lag effect on Nigeria economy in the short run. And FDI has a non significant negative effect on the Nigerian economy in the long run during the period under review. This was further confirmed by the causality test which shows that FDI granger causes RGDP and not the other way. Thus FDI has a significant positive effect on the growth as well as the development of the Nigerian economy only in the short run during the period under review. We therefore conclude and recommend that government should ensure stable macroeconomic policies as a stabilization tool to propel the attraction of more FDI into Nigeria and dependency on foreign direct investment should remain limited.
A multi-level researcher development framework to address contrasting views of student research challenges

Ensuring quality and completion of students’ research places pressure on postgraduate supervisors. Postgraduate students’ primary interest in theoretical and practical knowledge rather than research, influences the completion of qualifications. Student research challenges were explored using an Interactive Qualitative Analysis research design. Through conducting student and supervisor focus groups and individual interviews, issues emerged related to educational input, support and identity development. There were differences in the perspectives of student and supervisor indicating that students are less dependent on supervisors than supervisors thought they were. Supervisors indicated support strategies, such as an awareness of learning styles, adaptive support and strengthening researcher identity. Researcher development needs to take place on multiple levels to enhance quality and relieve pressure on the postgraduate supervisor in changing educational contexts.
Relaxin family peptides : structure – activity relationship studies Correspondence

The human relaxin peptide family consists of seven cystine-rich peptides, four of which are known to signal through relaxin family peptide receptors, RXFP1–4. As these peptides play a vital role physiologically and in various diseases, they are of considerable importance for drug discovery and development. Detailed structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies towards understanding the role of important residues in each of these peptides have been reported over the years and utilized for the design of antagonists and minimized agonist variants. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the SAR of human relaxin 2 (H2 relaxin), human relaxin 3 (H3 relaxin), human insulin-like peptide 3 (INSL3) and human insulin-like peptide 5 (INSL5).
Multi-scale drought and ocean–atmosphere variability in monsoon Asia

Spatially extensive and persistent drought episodes have repeatedly influenced human history, including the ‘Strange Parallels’ drought event in monsoon Asia during the mid-18th century. Here we explore the dynamics of sustained monsoon failure using observed and tree-ring reconstructed drought patterns and a 1300-year pre-industrial community earth system model control run. Both modern observational and climate model drought patterns during years with extremely weakened South Asian monsoon resemble those reconstructed for the Strange Parallels drought. Model analysis reveals that this pattern arises during boreal spring over Southeast Asia, with decreased precipitation and moisture flux, while related summertime climate anomalies are confined to the Indian subcontinent. Years with simulated South Asian drying exhibit canonical El Niño conditions over the Pacific and associated shifts in the Walker circulation. In contrast, multi-year drought periods, resembling those sustained during the Strange Parallels drought, feature anomalous Pacific warming around the dateline, typical of El Niño Modoki events.
Analytical Delta-Four-Stream Doubling-Adding Method for Radiative Transfer Parameterizations

Although single-layer solutions have been obtained for the d-four-stream discrete ordinates method (DOM) in radiative transfer, a four-stream doubling‐adding method (4DA) is lacking, which enables us to calculate the radiative transfer through a vertically inhomogeneous atmosphere with multiple layers. In this work, based on the Chandrasekhar invariance principle, an analytical method of d-4DA is proposed. When applying d-4DA to an idealized medium with specified optical properties, the reflection, transmission, and absorption are the same if the medium is treated as either a single layer or dividing it into multiple layers. This indicates that d-4DA is able to solve the multilayer connection properly in a radiative transfer process. In addition, the d-4DA method has been systematically compared with the d-two-stream doubling‐adding method (d-2DA) in the solar spectrum. For a realistic atmospheric profile with gaseous transmission considered, it is found that the accuracy of d-4DA is superior to that of d-2DA in most of cases, especially for the cloudy sky. The relative errors of d-4DA are generally less than 1% in both the heating rate and flux, while the relative errors of d-2DA can be as high as 6%.
Inflation and Dividend Behavior of Pakistani Firms: An Empirical Investigation Using ARDL

The purpose of this study is to examine the dividends behavior of Pakistani firms by taking a macroeconomicperspective. In doing that inflation and real growth are also considered. The paper examines the relationshipbetween dividend yield, return on equity, real growth and inflation in the Pakistan by applying ARDL approachwhich is used to examine the relationship in the long run. Moreover, VECM is also applied to capture the shortrun impact. Results of ARDL revealed a positive relationship between inflation and dividend payments, whichcan be interpreted in two ways. First, inflation affects revenues and variable cost not the fixed cost; it simplyincreases the nominal value of corporate earnings and therefore dividend payouts, and second is that managersmay try to pursue a dividend policy, which is considered to be optimal, believing that there is a desirable level ofreal dividend income to be paid to their investors. The results of ARDL approach show that inflation, in longterm as well as in short run have positive relationship with dividends while return on equity and real growth ratesshowed insignificant relationship with dividend yield in both long and short run. The estimated equation remainsstable over the period of study as indicated by CUSUM and CUSUMQ stability tests. This study is helpful forvarious investors in deciding for investment when they have fear of considerable acceleration of inflationarypressure. For example they can protect themselves against accelerating inflation rates when buying the stocks.While formulating an optimal dividend policy of the firm, managers should carefully examine the inflationaryenvironment.
Supernova Collisions with the Heliosphere

Nearby supernova explosions—within a few tens of pc of the solar system—have become a subject of intense scrutiny, due to the discovery of live undersea 60Fe from an event 2.8 Myr ago. A key open question concerns the delivery of supernova ejecta to the Earth, in particular penetration of the heliosphere by the supernova remnant (SNR). We present the first systematic numerical hydrodynamical study of the interaction between a supernova blast and the solar wind. Our simulations explore dynamic pressure regimes that are factors ≥10 above those in other studies of the heliosphere under exotic conditions, for supernovae exploding at a range of distances through different interstellar environments, and interacting with solar winds of varying strengths. Our results are qualitatively consistent with the structure of the contemporary heliosphere modeled by previous work, but compressed to within the inner solar system. We demonstrate that key characteristics of the resulting heliospheric structure follow simple scaling laws that can be understood in terms of pressure-balance arguments, and which are in agreement with previous work. Our models show that a 10 pc supernova event, incident on a solar-wind outflow with the mean observed properties, compresses the heliopause to just beyond 1 AU. We also demonstrate scenarios where the supernova remnant compresses the heliopause to within 1 AU, in which cases supernova material will be directly deposited on Earth. Since 8 pc marks the nominal “kill radius” for severe biosphere damage, any extinction-level events should have left terrestrial deposits of supernova debris. We conclude with a brief discussion of the effect of our approximations and the impact of additional physics.
Interplay of superradiance and disorder in the Anderson Model

Using a non‐Hermitian Hamiltonian approach to open systems, we study the interplay of disorder and superradiance in a one‐dimensional Anderson model. Analyzing the complex eigenvalues of the non‐Hermitian Hamiltonian, a transition to a superradiant regime is shown to occur. As an effect of openness the structure of eigenstates undergoes a strong change in the superradiant regime: we show that the sensitivity to disorder of the superradiant and the subradiant subspaces is very different; superradiant states remain delocalized as disorder increases, while subradiant states are sensitive to the degree of disorder.
A cocycle model for topological and Lie group cohomology

We propose a unified framework in which the different constructions of cohomology groups for topological and Lie groups can all be treated on equal footings. In particular, we show that the cohomology of "locally continuous" cochains (respectively "locally smooth" in the case of Lie groups) fits into this framework, which provides an easily accessible cocycle model for topological and Lie group cohomology. We illustrate the use of this unified framework and the relation between the different models in various applications. This includes the construction of cohomology classes characterizing the string group and a direct connection to Lie algebra cohomology.
The reaction probability of N2O5 with sulfuric acid aerosols at stratospheric temperatures and compositions

The authors have measured the rate of reaction of N{sub 2}O{sub 5} with H{sub 2}O on monodisperse, submicrometer H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} particles in a low-temperature flow reactor. Measurements were carried out at temperatures between 225 K and 293 K on aerosol particles with sizes and compositions comparable to those found in the stratosphere. At 273 K, the reaction probability was found to be 0.103{+-}0.006, independent of H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} composition from 64 to 81 wt %. At 230 K, the reaction probability increased from 0.077 for compositions near 60% H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} to 0.146 for compositions near 70% H{sub 2}SO{sub 4}. Intermediate conditions gave intermediate results except for low reaction probability of about 0.045 at 260 K on aerosols with about 78% H{sub 2}SO{sub 4}. The reaction probability did not depend on particle size. These results imply that the reaction occurs essentially at the surface of the particle. A simple model for this type of reaction that reproduces the general trends observed is presented. The presence of formaldehyde did not affect the reaction rate. 53 refs., 12 figs., 4 tabs.
Local Governments’ Tax Burden in Brazil: Evolution and Characteristics

Since the establishment of the 1988 Constitution, there has been a movement of fiscal (and in terms of responsibilities) decentralisation towards local governments in Brazil. Nowadays, since the municipalities have nearly a relevant role in the federation as the states have, it has become more important to carry out a detailed study of their tax burden. From the last year before the Constitution until 2016, the municipalities ’ tax burden nearly doubled in terms of local taxes collected, and more than doubled in terms of available revenue. The growth even remained after 2011, when the national tax burden took a downwards turn. An assessment using the tax base reveals a regressive municipal taxation, similar to the pattern of the Brazilian tax system as a whole. An analysis by population and by region shows that the direct municipal taxation is more intense in the richer and more populous regions, while available revenue is shown to be more relevant in poorer and less populous regions. Despite the municipalities ’ remark-able evolution in the Federation, a comparison with other countries shows that there is still room for local governments to expand fiscally.
Physicians Perception on Complementary and Alternative Medicine(CAM): A Cross Sectional Survey at Tertiary Care Hospital in India

Background: Allopathic physicians are relatively unfamiliar with Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) but they’re in common use. A cross sectional survey was conducted to understand physician’s perception of it. Method: All 385 physicians from St. John’s Medical College & Hospital, Bangalore were approached. Data were collected using anonymised questionnaires on its use, perceptions, recommendation and inclusion in medical curricula. Responses were analysed according to their experience ( 10 years) and qualifications (specialists with: MD, MS, MCh, DM, Diploma or GPs with MBBS and Fellowship). Results: Responses were received from 247 (64%) of physicians. 173/38/36 (70/15/15%) had 10 years’ experience, half were specialists, half GPs. Their mean age was 33 years, 114 (46%) were males. 168/169/152/133/91/84 (68/68/53/54/37/34/27%) reported their patients used CAM for chronic diseases/consult their patients about CAM/said their patients informed them about it/considered it may be useful but harmful/that it increases side effects of allopathic medication/ that it worsens the condition. 67 (27%) physicians recommended it. Yoga/meditation, 57/47 (23/19%) were commonest. Most, 97/143/154/98 (39/58/62/40%) disagree with using it when allopathyis ineffective/disagree with including it in medical curricula/disagree on training doctors about it/do not recommend it. Conclusion: CAM is used ubiquitously, especially for chronic diseases. Allopathic doctors need knowledge about them and their appropriate use for better outcomes.
LARGE CHANGES IN BOARD SIZE, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FIRM VALUE

We find that substantial changes in board size, either an increase or a decrease of three or more directors at one time, are permanent movements rather than temporary changes, but the large changes are followed by small reversal in the subsequent years. Empirical evidence shows that all types of directors (inside, affiliated, and independent) are strongly affected by board size expansions (or reductions). Large changes in board size provide a good opportunity for a firm to optimize its board structure by increasing board independence and retiring elder directors. Further analysis indicates that such substantial changes in board size are associated with more frequent board meetings, a higher likelihood of CEO transitions, and firm size expansions. However, we find no evidence that large decreases (or increases) in board size add (or destroy) firm value for shareholders in the long run.