Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Moisture dependent of some physical and morphological properties of dent corn ( Zea mays var. indentətə Sturt ) seeds

In this study, physical properties of seeds of Simon and Goldeclat dent corn (Zea mays var. indentətə sturt ) cultivars as a function of moisture content were evaluated. Three levels of moisture ranging from 12.76 to 17.0% (dry basis), and 11.09 to 16.48% (dry basis) were used for Simon and Goldeclat cv. , respectively. The averaged length, width, thickness, arithmetic and geometric mean diameter of seeds ranged from 10.54, 7.26, 4.57, 116.46 and 7.04 mm for Simon cv. ; 10.80, 6.89, 4.81, 119.42 and 7.09 mm for Goldeclat cv. , respectively. The sphericity, volume and surface area increased linearly from 0.668 to 0.684, 125.94 to 162.51 mm 3 , 131.13 to 154.37 mm 2 for Simon cv. ; 0.657 to 0.670, 128.19 to 155.63 mm 3 , 133.18 to 150.89 mm 2 for Goldeclat cv. , respectively. The bulk densities decreased from 762.60 to 675.51 kg/m 3 and from 783.37 to 714.48 kg/m 3 and true densities decreased from 1425.07 to 1367.35 kg/m 3 and from 1455.0 to 1396.36 kg/m 3 for Simon and Goldeclat cv. , respectively, whereas, the angle of repose increased from 23.50 to 26.65° band from 21.86 to 25.27°. The static coefficients for friction of dent corn seeds were determined steel, plywood, wood, glass and galvanized sheet at various moisture contents. The highest static coefficient of friction was found on the wood and the lowest on the glass sheet among the materials tested. Key words : Dent corn, physical properties, moisture content, dimensions, density.
EXTENSION OF THE BREZIS-EKELAND-NAYROLES PRINCIPLE TO MONOTONE OPERATORS

Adv. Math. Sci. Appl. , 18 (2008), 633-650 Abstract. This work deals with Cauchy problems of the form du dt + α(u) � g in V � , a.e. in )0 ,T ( ,u (0) = u 0 . (∗) Here V is a separable and reflexive Banach space, α : V→ P(V � ) is a maximal monotone operator, g and u 0 are prescribed. A lower semicontinuous convex functional
Density and habitat associations of Henslow's Sparrows wintering in saline soil barrens in southern Arkansas

Although the habitat requirements of breeding populations of Henslow's Sparrow (Ammodramus henslowii) have been examined, less is known about their habitat requirements and ecology during the nonbreeding season. We estimated population densities and quantified habitat associations of Henslow's Sparrows wintering in saline soil barrens in southern Arkansas. Densities of Henslow's Sparrows in the saline soil barrens were similar to those in the Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) Ecosystem of the southeastern United States, considered by many to be their primary wintering habitat. Henslow's Sparrows were closely associated with open areas with greater cover of Aristida spp. and globe beaksedge (Rhynchospora globularis), greater stem density at 11-20 cm above ground, more lichens, more herbaceous cover, more bare ground, greater occurrence of little bluestem (Schizacyrium scoparium )a s the tallest vegetation, less moss, and less shrub cover than randomly selected sites. In contrast to the results of studies conducted in the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem, the presence of Henslow's Sparrows in our study was not correlated with the height of the tallest vegetation. Our results indicate that saline soil barrens of southern Arkansas support a high density of wintering Henslow's Sparrows and do so for longer postdisturbance periods than longleaf pine savanna. We also found that stem density near the ground was similar to that reported from longleaf pine savanna, but only about half that observed on their breeding grounds. Areas used by Henslow's Sparrows had more lichen and less moss cover, suggesting that those areas were drier than random sites within the barrens. Further research is needed to determine if large populations of Henslow's Sparrows winter in other saline soil barrens and if fire influences habitat associations and densities in the barrens.
Biogeochemical reduction processes in a hyper-alkaline affected leachate soil profile

Present address: Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India Abstract Hyperalkaline surface environments can occur naturally or because of contamination by hydroxide-rich wastes. The high pH produced in these areas has the potential to lead to highly specialised microbial communities and unusual biogeochemical processes. This paper reports an investigation into the geochemical processes that are occurring in a buried, saturated, organic–rich soil layer at pH 12.3. The soil has been trapped beneath calcite precipitate (tufa) that is accumulating where highly alkaline leachate from a lime kiln waste tip is emerging to atmosphere. A population of anaerobic alkaliphilic bacteria dominated by a single, unidentified species within the Comamonadaceae family of く-proteobacteria has established itself near the top of the soil layer. This bacterial population appears to be capable of nitrate reduction using electron donors derived from the soil organic matter. Below the zone of nitrate reduction a significant proportion of the 0.5N HCl extractable iron (a proxy for microbial available iron) is in the Fe(II) oxidation state indicating there is increasing anoxia with depth and suggesting that microbial iron reduction is occurring. Keywords: anaerobe, alkaliphile, bacteria, contaminated land, iron-reduction, nitrate-reduction, microbial-reduction
Optimum Fermentation Temperature for the ProteinYield of Parkia biglobosaSeeds (Iyere)

African Locust Bean (Parkia biglobosa) seeds were fermented with the aid of a starter culture - Bacillus subtilis to a vegetable protein based food condiment known as ‘Iru’ at various temperatures between 40 °С and 70 °С. Fermentation was carried out for five days (120 hours). The maximum % protein content yield of 52.7 % was obtained after 3 days (72 hours) at an optimum fermentation temperature of 40 ⁰C. Other parameters like % crude fibre, % ash content, % carbohydrate and % fat content decreased with fermentation temperature and duration. The physiological test carried out showed that fermented sample at the optimized condition were generally acceptable for all parameters tested. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) result shows the effect of temperature on the morphological structure of both fermented and unfermented samples.
Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Value Creation from a Stakeholder Perspective

In recent years, we have witnessed how companies and institutions have devoted significant effort to developing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies, basing their decision on the improvement in company results and the subsequent benefits for shareholders and other stakeholders. CSR means that managers must go beyond the mere satisfaction of the shareholders and take steps to establish balanced relations with all their stakeholders. The principles behind the CSR approach empower stakeholder governance. To test whether CSR policy constitutes a factor in value creation for shareholders and certain stakeholders such as employees, creditors and the State, we conducted an explanatory study, using a Correlated Random Effects approach, which compares the socially responsible companies included in the Spanish sustainability index, FTSE4Good Ibex, with the companies listed on the other indices of the IBEX family. On the one hand, the data show that sustainability reporting is well established in large companies in Spain but that it needs to be introduced more extensively in small and medium-sized enterprises. On the other hand, the findings point out that CSR has a positive and significant influence on the distribution of value in favor of the State, a negative influence for employees and no influence on other stakeholders.
Electronic Structure of AlAs Nanocrystals

Ab initio restricted Hartree-Fock method within the framework of large unit cell formalism is used to inves- tigate the electronic structure of the core and oxid ized surface of AlAs nanocrystals. Large unit cells of 8, 16, 54, 64 and 128 atoms are used in the present analysis. Calcu lations are performed utilizing the Gaussian (03) software. The investigated properties include the cohesive energy, energy gap, valence bandwidth, conduction bandwidth and the density of states of the energy levels. Interesting results are obtained which reveal that the electronic structure of AlAs nanocrystals differs sig- nificantly fro m that of the bulk AlAs crystal. A lso, it is found that the energy gap, valence band width and cohesive energy (absolute value) increase as the AlAs large unit cell size increases, for the core part. Whereas, the energy gap of o xygenated (001) - (1×1) surface decreases with increasing the large unit cell size. The energy gap is controlled by the surface part of the nanocrystal. The surface part has lower sym metry than the core part with smaller energy gap and wider valence bandwidth. The density of states of the core part is h igher than that of the surface part. Th is is due to the bro ken bonds and the discon- tinuity at the surface and the existence of new kind of atoms (o xygen ato ms). The present method has threefold results: the method can be used to obtain the converged electronic structure of bulk, surface, and nanocrystals.
An Observational Study of Convection Initiation on 12 June 2002 during IHOP_2002

Abstract The International H2O Project (IHOP_2002) was designed to sample the three-dimensional time-varying moisture field to better understand convective processes. Numerous research and operational water vapor measuring systems and retrievals, via in situ and remote sensing techniques, were operated in the U.S. Southern Great Plains from 13 May to 25 June 2002. This was done in combination with more traditional observations of wind and temperature. Convection initiation (CI) sampling strategies were designed to optimally employ the array of ground-based and airborne sensors to observe the processes leading to the development of deep, moist convection. This case study examines several clear-air features and their impact on CI on 12 June 2002. The supercells that developed produced damaging winds and hail. The clear-air, preconvective features included (i) a mesoscale low pressure region, (ii) a dryline, (iii) an old outflow boundary, (iv) the intersection of (ii) and (iii), (v) internal gravity waves, a.
Academic performance of Polish students from the perspective of the Self-Determination Theory

The aim of this paper is to analyze the application potential of the Self-Determination Theory in understanding academic performance of Polish students. The theory posits that human functioning depends on fulfilling three basic psychological needs: (1) the need for autonomy, (2) the need for competence, and (3) the need of relatedness. Frustration of those needs in school and academic settings may result in non-optimal development of students and lower academic performance. The available data shows that basic psychological needs are not fully satisfied in Polish students which may be linked to poorer learning outcomes. SDT theory has not been used in systematic studies concerning Polish education system. The possibilities for future research are discussed. KeywordsSelf-Determination Theory, education, basic psychological needs, autonomy, competence, relatedness, academic
Bioinformatics Analysis of Xyloglucan Endotransglycosylase/Hydrolase (XTH) Gene from Developing Xylem of a Tropical Timber Tree Neolamarckia Cadamba

This study reported the isolation and in silico characterization of a full-length Xyloglucan endotransglycosylase/Hydrolase (XTH) cDNA from Neolamarckia cadamba, an important tropical light hardwood plantation tree species. XTH is considered as a key agent to regulate cell wall expansion and is believed to be responsible for the incorporation of newly synthesised xyloglucan into the wall matrix. The full-length of NcXTH was firstly predicted using the XTH singletons from the NcdbEST through contig mapping approach. Further validation and confirmation were conducted by amplifying the full-length XTH cDNA using RT-PCR approach. Two fulllength XTH cDNAs, namely NcXTH1 (JX134619) and NcXTH2 (JX134620) were discovered and the nucleotide sequences were 893 and 1,024 bp in length, respectively. The open reading frames for NcXTH1 and NcXTH2 were 858 and 915 bp, respectively. Results predicted that NcXTH1 and NcXTH2 proteins carry out XET activity but they are from different XTH family members. This full-length NcXTH cDNA can serve as good candidate genes in association genetics study which leads to Gene-Assisted Selection (GAS) in the N. cadamba tree breeding programme.
A study of the communicative and linguistic impairments of the Autistic children

This research attempts to find out diverse language and communication impairments of the autistic children. These children have problems in phonology, syntax, semantics, morphology and so on. Again, they also experience different types of difficulties in their everyday discourse. The lack of the theory of mind is considered to be one of the most significant reasons behind their communication impairments. Along with this theory, other theories from Psycholinguistics and Discourse Analysis are used to identify and explain the impairments. For the empirical data, a survey was conducted with the use of both qualitative and quantitative method. This paper concluded with some proposals on what steps should be taken to overcome the limitations which were found during the research.
Auction Design with Loss Averse Bidders: The Optimality of All Pay Mechanisms

Auctioneers who have an indivisible object for sale and believe that bidders are risk neutral can find the recipe for an optimal auction in Myerson (1981); auctioneers who believe that bidders are loss averse can find it here: An optimal auction is an all pay auction with minimum bid, and any optimal mechanism is all pay.
2 The Univariate Case : Some Methods of Rational Characterization in ARMA Models

The systematic study of data to obtain specific properties from long (or short) data series is a main objective. The use of rational models and related numerical methods can be useful to predict the behaviour of relevant economic variables. This paper is a continuation of González-Gil [16] which is concerned with illustrating the application of several numerical methods, among them, the corner method, epsilon-algorithm, rs-algorithm and qd-algorithm to time series modelling. These methods which are closely related to theoretical research in Padé Approximation have been proposed to identify some type of rational structure associated to economic data in different contexts (financial, marketing, farming.). Now, we present the study of the statistical significance for the four mentioned methods. Two examples will be considered, namely, a simulated ARMA model and a Transfer Function Model for the sales series M given in Box-Jenkins [7] and Tsay [27]. Key-Words: Padé Approximation, economics, numerical methods, time series modelling.
Isolation, characterization and molecular weight determination of cellulase from Trichoderma viride.

Cellulose hydrolyzing enzyme from fungus Trichoderma viride was purified and characterized. The cellulase production was variable depending upon the type of cellulose the fungus grew on; it was higher when grown on cellulose or whatmann filter paper than on other carbon source viz carboxy methyl cellulose. Enzyme purification to homogeneity was carried out by anion exchange chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose. SDS-PAGE revealed molecular mass of 87 kDa. Maximal activity of the enzymes was observed at 50°C at pH 4 and was stimulated by Ca 2+ , Co 2+ , Mg 2+ (test at 10 Mm each) and inhibited by Fe 2+ . Ethanol at an optimum concentration of 2% stimulated the initial enzyme activity. The end product of cellulase action was glucose and cellobiose. The enzyme therefore qualifies as an exo-β 1, 4-glucanase. Thermostability, pH and stability in the presence of surface active agents make this enzyme potentially useful in industry particularly for ethanol production. Keywords : Enzyme, cellulose, cellulase African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(28), pp. 4512-4518
Motions for Lead Plaintiff in Securities Class Actions

Using a data set of securities class actions filed from 2003 to 2005, this study assesses the effect of the lead plaintiff presumption enacted as part of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 on agency costs of lead counsel for the class and class members. Examining the pretrial motions for lead plaintiff for each class action, the study reports evidence that characteristics of the selected lead plaintiff, including the amount of losses suffered, the presence of institutional investors, and the presence of institutions that are frequent movants for lead plaintiff status, are negatively correlated with attorney agency costs. The amount of competition in the lead plaintiff selection process and the formation of some (but not all) groups of lead plaintiffs are also negatively correlated with agency costs.
Effects of Dichrostachys glomerata Feeding Regimes on Growth Performance,Gut Microbiota and Haemato-Biochemical Profile of Japanese Quails

Background: The ban of antibiotics growth promoters due to bacteria resistance and the presence of chemical residues in animal products have stimulated research for alternative feeding supplements in poultry production. This study was designed to assess the production performance of quails under two D. glomerata feeding regimes. Methods: A total of 160 two weeks old Japanese quail chicks were assigned to four experimental treatments in a completely randomised design with 4 replicates of 10 chicks (5 males and 5 females) in each treatment. The two feeding regimes consisted of 5 g/kg of feed (T1) and cold water inclusion of 5 g/l (T2) of D. glomerata. Data were recorded on feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio, haematological and serum biochemical parameters, and intestinal microbial count. Findings: Quails fed on the two feeding regimes were compared to quails fed with diet without any supplement (T0) and an antibiotic (1 g/kg) medicated diet. The results showed no significant difference (p>0.05) in feed intake and weight gain, however the feed conversion ratio was significantly lower (p 0.05) effect on carcass yield and relative weight of organs. Triglycerides concentration was significantly higher in quails fed on cold water administration of D. glomerata as compared to the control diet. Aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT), alanine aminotransferase (ALAT), creatinine, total protein, albumin, urea, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol were not significantly affected by the feeding regimes. Except for the concentration of pack cell volume (PCV) that was significantly high (p<0.05) with cold water administration (41.5%) as compared to the negative control ration (35.25%), haematological blood components were not significantly affected by the feeding regimes. Feeding quails with D. glomerata powder whatever the regime significantly (p<0.05) increased lactic bacteria count compared to E. coli, Salmonella and Staphylococci. Conclusions: The feeding of D. glomerata powder to quails through feed or drinking water can be used as an alternative to antibiotics to balance gut microbiota in Japanese quails.
Challenges in Preserving Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Learning From Past Experiences

In this paper we focus on the challenges in preserving indigenous knowledge systems. We explore the challenges of managing indigenous knowledge in the context of intellectual property rights and bio-piracy threats. We analyse how indigenous knowledge affects the lives of local people, investigate the extent to which indigenous knowledge was under threat and evaluate strategies that are in place to protect indigenous knowledge. Primarily, we discuss the role of laws in the general protection of science and knowledge, and specific details such as biodiversity, with emphasis on indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and indigenous medicinal knowledge and their systems. Western sciences, knowledge and legislative laws play a pivotal role in protecting and preserving intellectual property, trade secrets, copy rights, and the general enforcement of ethical practices. The same laws, such as intellectual property rights, copyright, trade secrets and other pieces of legislation should particularly be essential in protecting indigenous knowledge and their systems in the African countries. We examine these laws to determine their effectiveness, strengths, weaknesses, and the challenges they place on the practical protection and preservation of IKS.
The effects of strategic hospital alliances on hospital efficiency

This study examines the effects of strategic alliances on the efficiency of hospitals controlled by the Department of Health in Taiwan. Overall, it is found that the efficiency of the hospitals improved after they formed strategic hospital alliances (SHAs). The results also indicate that smaller hospitals located in competitive areas are more efficient, as exemplified by shorter patient stays, higher occupancy rates, and lower mortality rates. Based on Taiwan's experience, it is inferred that SHAs do improve the performance of the participating hospitals. It is hoped that the results of this study will encourage health policy officials and healthcare organizations in other countries to consider implementing similar strategies for their hospitals.
Semen Quality of Cockerel Breeders Gallus domesticus in Two Climates in Nigeria

The present study was designed to access the reproductive status of Isa-brown cockerel breeders raised in Gwagwalada by comparing the semen quality of the cockerels raised in Gwagwalada and those raised in Jos. Twelve Isa-brown cockerels of (18-24 months) weighing between (3-4 kg) were used. Six cockerel breeders were randomly selected from three different breeder farms in Jos and six from Gwagwalada during the dry season. Environmental parameters that were measured were mean daily temperatures (T°C) and mean relative humidity (%) of study zones. After acclimatization semen samples were collected from the cockerels by cloaca massage into a graduated tube and analysed. The parameters that were analysed for semen quality included: motility, mass activity, percentage live, morphological defects, semen volume, pH and colour. Results showed that the cockerels from the two zones, had similar semen characteristics. The mean values for all the parameters measured werenot significantly different between the two zones (p>0.05). The average ambient temperature and relative humidity at the time of study were 37.5°C and 54% for Gwagwalada versus 20°C and 60% for Jos. It was concluded that the variations in the climatic conditions of the two zones had real effects on cockerel semen quality comparing the volume of semen obtained from the cockerels. High environmental temperature recorded in Gwagwalada was not combined with high humidity. Recommendation was that conscious effort must be made in terms of poultry house design and provision of facilities in other to shield the effect of heat stress on breeder farms in Gwagwalada.