Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MULTIPLE MARKERS OF DIABETES IN RELATION TO ABDOMINAL OBESITY IN OBESE EGYPTIAN ADOLESCENT GIRLS

Inflammation is believed to be the ‘common soil’ leading to the development of type 2 diabetes but the trigger of inflammation is unclear. Elevated plasma concentrations of many inflammatory markers are associated with obesity in adult but this association is less clear in children and adolescents. Our objective was to examine the relation between some inflammatory markers and the adolescent’s central obesity in a group of obese adolescent girls (n=90). Waist to hip ratio (WHR) was taken as a measure of central obesity and used to divide the participating students into two groups: group I with WHR> 0.8 and group II with WHR< 0.8. The determined markers were C-reactive protein (CRP), ApolipoproteinB (ApoB) and Ferritin. There were a very high significant (p<0.05) increase in CRP,ApoB and Ferritin levels in group I when compared to group II with a high positive significant correlation between CRP and both ofApoBand Ferritin at r=0.895 and r=0.618 respectively and positive significant (p<0.05) correlation between ApoBand Ferritin at r=0.818 in group I. A very high significant (p<0.05) correlation was found between WHR and the measured markers CRP, ApoB and Ferritin at r=0.766, r=0.650 and r=0.442respectively. CRP, ApoB and Ferritin were the corner stone markers of inflammation and can be used as early predictors of diabetes. In conclusion, this study focused on avoiding of being obese with remarked central obesity throughout adolescent period in Egypt by recommending an effective program to follow up the central obesity, to decrease the risks of the initiated inflammatory molecules for the protection from the associated complications in the future.
Competencia y estructura de mercado del sector bancario en México

Este articulo tiene como objetivo evaluar la competencia en el sector bancario mexicano por medio de dos enfoques: concentracion y poder de mercado. Dentro de las medidas de concentracion se emplean los indices de concentracion y el indice Herfindahl-Hirschman. En el enfoque de poder de mercado se usan dos herramientas: el indice de Lerner y el estadistico H. Para calcular el indice de Lerner se utiliza un modelo de ecuaciones simultaneas el cual se estima con el metodo generalizado de momentos. Por otra parte para el calculo del estadistico H se usa un panel de datos estimado en primeras diferencias y efectos fijos. Se emplea una muestra de 15 bancos para el caso del enfoque de poder de mercado y de 32 bancos para el enfoque de concentracion; ambos enfoques se estudian dentro del periodo 2000-2012. Se observa que dentro del enfoque de concentracion existe una disminucion de los indices de concentracion y por lo tanto un aumento en la competencia. El resultado alcanzado en el enfoque de poder de me cado para el indice de Lerner y el estadistico H es competencia monopolistica.
Information needs and thematic priorities of the organic food and farming sector in France

A large survey was performed among French actors committed to organic food and farming (OF&F) to identify their information needs. This survey highlights the need for increased information dissemination. This analysis identifies four publics with specific needs. Structuring variables include professional experience, degree of commitment to OF&F and professional category. Legal and economic information about food quality and processing is generally of interest to senior actors with low-level needs. On the contrary, junior actors actively involved in the developmental and educational aspects have the greatest needs over a wide range of themes. Thematic priorities also depend on professional categories and types of information. While technicians and farmers require scientific and technical information on plant production issues, only young farmers give priority to animal production issues. These results allow OF&F actors to reflect on the improvement of the overall device of information dissemination.
Quality assessment and validation of the MODIS global land surface temperature

This paper presents an evaluation of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) thermal infrared bands and the status of land surface temperature (LST) version-3 standard products retrieved from Terra MODIS data. The accuracy of daily MODIS LST products has been validated in more than 20 clear-sky cases with in situ measurement data collected in field campaigns in 2000–2002. The MODIS LST accuracy is better than 1°C in the range from −10 to 50°C. Refinements and improvements were made to the new version of MODIS LST product generation executive code. Using both Terra and Aqua MODIS data for LST retrieval improves the quality of the LST product and the diurnal feature in the product due to better temporal, spatial and angular coverage of clear-sky observations.
Magnetosheath-cusp interface

Abstract. We advance the achievements of Interball-1 and other contemporary missions in exploration of the magnetosheath-cusp interface. Extensive discussion of published results is accompanied by presentation of new data from a case study and a comparison of those data within the broader context of three-year magnetopause (MP) crossings by Interball-1. Multi-spacecraft boundary layer studies reveal that in ∼80% of the cases the interaction of the magnetosheath (MSH) flow with the high latitude MP produces a layer containing strong nonlinear turbulence, called the turbulent boundary layer (TBL). The TBL contains wave trains with flows at approximately the Alfven speed along field lines and "diamagnetic bubbles" with small magnetic fields inside. A comparison of the multi-point measurements obtained on 29 May 1996 with a global MHD model indicates that three types of populating processes should be operative: large-scale (∼few RE) anti-parallel merging at sites remote from the cusp; medium-scale (few thousandkm) local TBL-merging of fields that are anti-parallel on average; small-scale (few hundredkm) bursty reconnection of fluctuating magnetic fields, representing a continuous mechanism for MSH plasma inflow into the magnetosphere, which could dominate in quasi-steady cases. The lowest frequency (∼1–2mHz) TBL fluctuations are traced throughout the magnetosheath from the post-bow shock region up to the inner magnetopause border. The resonance of these fluctuations with dayside flux tubes might provide an effective correlative link for the entire dayside region of the solar wind interaction with the magnetopause and cusp ionosphere. The TBL disturbances are characterized by kinked, double-sloped wave power spectra and, most probably, three-wave cascading. Both elliptical polarization and nearly Alfvenic phase velocities with characteristic dispersion indicate the kinetic Alfvenic nature of the TBL waves. The three-wave phase coupling could effectively support the self-organization of the TBL plasma by means of coherent resonant-like structures. The estimated characteristic scale of the "resonator" is of the order of the TBL dimension over the cusps. Inverse cascades of kinetic Alfven waves are proposed for forming the larger scale "organizing" structures, which in turn synchronize all nonlinear cascades within the TBL in a self-consistent manner. This infers a qualitative difference from the traditional approach, wherein the MSH/cusp interaction is regarded as a linear superposition of magnetospheric responses on the solar wind or MSH disturbances. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers) – Space plasma physics (turbulence; nonlinear phenomena)
Evaluation of VITEK 2 Compact and VITEK MS in the identification of coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from blood cultures

Introduction: In most clinical laboratories, coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) are classified through their biochemical characteristics using traditional and/or automated phenotypic methods. However, identification by phenotypic method is a great challenge despite the improvement in identification by automated systems in recent years. Objective: The main objective was to compare the identification of CNS between two automated methods: phenotypic (VITEK 2 Compact, bioMérieux) and mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF VITEK MS, bioMérieux). Materials and method: 133 CNS isolates from whole blood samples from September 2015 to May 2016 were analyzed. Results: All the 133 isolates were identified by VITEK 2 Compact as CNS, whereas VITEK MS did not identify seven, and there was uncertainty among three species in one isolate. The two devices had a concordance of 92.8% (117/126) of which: 56 Staphylococcus epidermidis, 34 Staphylococcus hominis ssp. hominis, 15 Staphylococcus haemolyticus, 10 Staphylococcus capitis, one Staphylococcus cohnii ssp. urealyticus and one Staphylococcus sciuri. There was disagreement in identification of S. lugdunensis and S. aureus. Conclusion: Through the analysis between the two devices and based on scientific articles comparing the methods involved in the study, it was possible to observe the great biochemical similarity among the coagulase-negative staphylococci species, this being the main limitation of the phenotypic method. The VITEK MS equipment showed high discrimination between species when compared to the gold standard method, besides being rapid and easy to use.
Production performance and safety of meat from beef cattle finished in feedlots using salinomycin in the diet Desempenho produtivo e inocuidade da carne de bovinos terminados em confinamento com salinomicina na dieta

This study assessed production performance, carcass characteristics, serum parameters, residue depletion of meat, and economic performance during the finishing period of steers in feedlots using salinomycin in their diet. A total of 32 steers were finished in a feedlot on a diet comprising corn silage and concentrate (50:50), with or without added salinomycin (120 mg per animal day-1). Study design was completely randomized, with eight repetitions. Results indicated that the use of salinomycin increased both weight gain (1.582 vs. 1.304 kg) and feed conversion (6.16 vs. 7.25 kg kg-1). No significant alterations were observed in feed intake (9.52 vs. 9.25 kg animal day-1), serum parameters, or apparent diet digestibility. The withdrawal period of 16 h prior to slaughter promoted a lower salinomycin concentration (0.25 μg kg-1) in organs and edible tissues, which is below the levels allowed by legislation. Animals finished with salinomycin also exhibited greater warm carcass weight (287.76 vs. 275.81 kg) and better economic performance (profit margin increments of R$ 84.20 per animal). Salinomycin use in feedlot-finished steers promoted both production and economic performance improvements without added implications to either animal or consumer health since there were no significant residues found in any edible tissues.
On the rationality of Manx crabs

This paper accepts the challenge posed by Godfrey Baldacchino in “Islands and despots”, published in Commonwealth & Comparative Politics in February 2012, to acknowledge and investigate the implications of the “expressions of harmony and solidarity” often observed in small island societies. To do so, aspects of the Isle of Man’s political and social life are discussed from the perspectives of popular rule and rationality. This paper argues that a homogeneity in preferences and the political practices of small island states might be a rational way of protecting a vulnerable economy and thus ensuring economic growth and a sufficient allocation to each island resident of the scarce resources required to survive. Such small island homogeneity and consensualism is therefore not necessarily indicating a deficient democratic practice, but might just connote another way of conducting democratic governance, spawned from a particular way of living and a particular range of needs.
Verification of ECMWF and ECMWF/MACC's global and direct irradiance forecasts with respect to solar electricity production forecasts

The successful electricity grid integration of solar energy into day-ahead markets requires at least hourly resolved 48 h forecasts. Technologies as photovoltaics and non-concentrating solar thermal technologies make use of global horizontal irradiance (GHI) forecasts, while all concentrating technologies both from the photovoltaic and the thermal sector require direct normal irradiances (DNI). The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has recently changed towards providing direct as well as global irradiances. Additionally, theMACC (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition & Climate) near-real time services provide daily analysis and forecasts of aerosol properties in preparation of the upcoming European Copernicus programme. The operational ECMWF/IFS (Integrated Forecast System) forecast system will in the medium term profit from the Copernicus service aerosol forecasts. Therefore, within the MACC-II project specific experiment runs were performed allowing for the assessment of the performance gain of these potential future capabilities. Also the potential impact of providing forecasts with hourly output resolution compared to three-hourly resolved forecasts is investigated. The inclusion of the new aerosol climatology in October 2003 improved both the GHI and DNI forecasts remarkably, while the change towards a new radiation scheme in 2007 only had minor and partly even unfavourable impacts on the performance indicators. For GHI, larger RMSE (root mean square error) values are found for broken/overcast conditions than for scattered cloud fields. For DNI, the findings are opposite with larger RMSE values for scattered clouds compared to overcast/broken cloud situations. The introduction of direct irradiances as an output parameter in the operational IFS version has not resulted in a general performance improvement with respect to biases and RMSE compared to the widely used Skartveit et al. (1998) global to direct irradiance conversion scheme. Cloudy situations and especially thin ice cloud cases are forecasted much better with respect to biases and RMSE, but large biases are introduced in clear sky cases. When applying the MACC aerosol scheme to include aerosol direct effects, an improvement especially in DNI biases is found for cloud free cases as expected. However, a performance decrease is found for water cloud cases. It is assumed that this is caused by the lack of an explicit modelling of cloud-aerosol interactions, while other meteorological forcings for cloud processes like the temperature field are modified by the aerosols.
Ground state properties of LiNbO3 from first-principles calculations

A systematic investigation has been carried out to study the ground state properties of LiNbO3 semiconductor using generalized gradient approximation within the density functional theory. The lattice constants (a and c) are calculated from the optimized unit cell and compare with the experimental values. The energy gap has been calculated along the Γ direction found to be 3.59 eV. The partial and total densities of state have been discussed. We have also calculated the frequency dependent dielectric constant and refractive index of LiNbO3 semiconductors for the first time in this paper. The values of elastic constants (Cij), bulk modulus and shear modulus have been calculated. The calculated values of above parameters are compared with the available experimental values and values reported by different workers. A good agreement has been found between them.
Parallel Increases in Heterochromatin Variants and Chromosome Damages in Drugs Addicts

Polymorphisms of the size of heterochromatin regions and abnormalities of chromosomes have been well documented in human genome; they consist of DNA sequences that are not transcribed. The prime aim of the present study was to evaluate the heterochromatin polymorphism and numerical and structural abnormalities associated with chromosomes in drug addicts. No data exists in Iran regarding the cytogenetic characteristics of drug addiction lymphocytes. Therefore, cytogenetic investigations were performed in 93 drug addiction lymphocytes and 93 normal controls. This randomized collected study was conducted on 93 consecutive drug addiction individuals and 93 healthy individuals in Loghman and private hospitals, Tehran, Iran between the years 2007-2009. By applying Barium Hydroxide saline Giemsa (BSC) method, the variant heterochromatin polymorphism of chromosomes 1, 9 and 16 on lymphocyte cultures were evaluated. Cytogenetic analysis was performed in drug addicts’ lymphocytes cultures.Constitutive heterochromatin polymorphism of chromosomes 1 in drug addicts revealed statistical significant when compared with chromosome of healthy controls (P=0.004). The differences were significant for chromosome 9 (P=0.029), it was 94.1% in drug addiction and 5.9% in the control group (P=0.196). The differences were also significant for chromosome 16: it was 91.9% in addicts and 8.1% in the control group (P=0.052). Also the frequency of partial and complete inversion did not show any significant differences between the drugs addicts and the control group. The occurrence of chromosomal defects including, chromatid break (12 addicts), chromatid gap (8 addicts), dicentric (2 addicts), was higher in our observation. Our constitutive heterochromatin polymorphism blocks and chromosomal abnormalities in drugs addicts’ chromosome may provide an opportunity to serve as a marker for the detection and characterization of the damages chromosomes in drug addicts.
Remembering Reflection in Pre-Service Teachers' Professional Experience.

In an Australian education policy environment where professional standards are determining the parameters of effective teaching and learning, it is important that we revisit ways to ensure reflection and collegial engagement are embedded in pre-service teachers’ professional experience. This article reports on a university program initiative that used a non-clinical model of professional experience to centralise opportunities for pre-service teachers to engage in reflection and research of their practice in a collaborative and largely non-hierarchical learning and teaching environment. Ultimately the results of their experience indicated that pre-service teachers were able to theorise about their practice in ways that cognitively and affectively resonated with them and allowed them to gain insights into the complexities of the teaching and learning process and of themselves as teachers
Job Attitudes of Agricultural Middle Managers

The paper analyzes middle managers' job attitudes, in particular job satisfaction, based on case studies. Employees' job satisfaction is expected to reduce human resource management risks, leading to higher loyalty, organizational commitment and motivation and resulting in less turnover. Components of job satisfaction include achievement, recognition, work itself, job security, supervision, interpersonal relationships, compensation, organization, personal life and working conditions. They cause both satisfaction and dissatisfaction, which contradicts Herzberg's theory of job satisfaction and leads to different recommendations for management practice, namely focus improvement where it makes the most difference. An example is limiting work hours during peak season.
Effects of Various Thawing Methods on the Quality Characteristics of Frozen Beef

In this study, the quality characteristics due to the influence of various thawing methods on electro-magnetic and air blast frozen beef were examined. The loin and round of second grade Hanwoo were sliced into 5-7 cm thickness and packed with aerobic packaging. The packaged beef samples, which were frozen by air blast freezing at -45 o C and electro-magnetic freezing at -55 o C, were thawed by 4 thawing methods with refrigeration (4±1 o C), room temperature (RT, 25 o C), cold water (15 o C), and microwave (2450 MHz). These samples were thawed to the point, which were core temperature reached 0 o C. Analyses were carried out to determine drip and cooking loss, water holding capacity (WHC), moisture contents and sensory evaluation. Frozen beef thawed by microwave indicated a lower drip loss (0.66-2.01%) than the other thawing methods (0.80-2.50%). Cooking loss after electro-magnetic freezing indicated 52.0% by microwave thawing for round compared with 41.8% by refrigeration, 50.1% by RT, and 50.8% by cold water. WHC thawing by microwave with electro-magnetic freezing didn’t showed any difference depending on the thawing methods, while moisture contents was higher thawing by microwave with electro-magnetic freezing than refrigeration (71.9%), RT (75.0%), and cold water (74.9%) for round. The texture of sensory evaluation for round thawed by microwave result was the highest than refrigeration (4.7 point), RT (6.4 point) and cold water (6.6 point), while sensory evaluation was no significant difference. Therefore, it was shown that microwave thawing is an appropriate way to reduce the deterioration of meat quality due to freezing.
Studies on the host range of Septoria species on cereals and some wild grasses in Iran

In an attempt to determine the host range of Septoria species, 27 species/varieties of cereals and certain wild grasses were examined with inoculation experiments under controlled conditions. Most Septoria species were each pathogenic only on a particular host plant, and wild grasses played only a minor role as alternative hosts for these fungi. Septoria tritici isolates from Triticum aestivum infected T. aestivum , T. durum , T. dicoccum and T. compactum , species that may provide a primary inoculum source for S. tritici . Septoria isolates from Aegilops tauschii , Lolium loliaceum , Lophochloa phleoides , Phalaris paradoxa and Hordeum glaucum were pathogenic only on their original hosts. S. passerinii isolates from Hordeum vulgare and H. distichon were pathogenic on all Hordeum species/cultivars tested except H. glaucum. Thus various Hordeum species may play a role in the epidemiology of Septoria diseases on barley.
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Efficiency on the Fruit Size and Yield of Capsicum

A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on the fruit size and yield of Capsicum . The treatments comprised 4 levels of N (0, 50, 100 & 150 kg ha -1 ) and 3 levels of P (0, 30 & 60 kg ha -1 ). Length and breadth of fruit and number of fruits per plant increased significantly with increasing nitrogen doses up to 100 kg N ha -1 . However, average weight of fruit content increased significantly up to 150 kg N ha -1 . On the other hand, average weight of fruit and yield increased significantly with increasing levels of P up to the treatment 30 kg P ha -1 , whereas length of fruit and number fruits per plant was increased significantly up to the 60 kg P ha -1 . Considering the combined effect of nitrogen and phosphorus, the maximum significant length of Capsicum , breadth of Capsicum , number of fruits per plant and, average weight of fruit as well as yield were found in the treatment combination of 150 kg N and 30 kg P ha -1 .
Can Credit Default Swaps Predict Financial Crises: An Empirical Test on Emerging Markets

We explore the informational value of credit default swaps and the extent to which they may be linked to financial crises. After developing a theoretical framework to model the relationship between credit default swap market and equity and currency markets, we apply an empirical study which uses logistic regressions and a panel data sample of emerging markets to assess the ability of these financial instruments to predict crises. Regarding them as reflections of future expectations of investors on the outcomes of currency and equity markets, we find credit default swaps to be a significant indicator explaining the periods proceeding financial crises, at least in equity markets. The inclusion of credit default swaps as a factor in models that predict crises and their ability to improve predictions in equity market is a major contribution of this study to the existing literature.