Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isolation and Screening of Dye Decolorizing Bacteria

The present study reveals that the enriched aerobic cultures of indigenous microbes can be used successfully for decolorizing dye effluents. Physico-chemical analysis of dye effluent revealed high load of pollution. Textile dye effluent and contaminated soils were collected and analyzed for selection of suitable bacteria for dye degradation. The residual bacterial load was found to be in the range of 108 cfu.mL-1. Six bacterial species viz., two species of both Bacillus and Klebsiella,, and one species of Planococcus and Micrococcus were isolated. The best two species of dye degraders namely Planococcus and Bacillus were further optimized for the effect of carbon and nitrogen source, pH, temperature and percentage of inoculums. The optimized conditions for both isolates of Planococcus sp. and Bacillus sp. were used in bio-decolorization studies of textile effluent. More than 50% of decolorization was achieved within 4 days of incubation while 80% of decolorization after 6 days. The isolates of Planococcus sp. and Bacillus sp. exhibited maximum decolorization ability at pH between 5-8 and temperature 37C. Moreover, 10% (v/v) inoculums, glucose and peptone as carbon and nitrogen sources respectively were found to be the optimum conditions for decolorization. Both those isolates showed highest decolorization percentage of Coractive Blue 3R dye effectively during optimization.
Explanation of Genesis, Continuity and Change of Policy: Analytical Framework

In face of linked dynamics of society and nature as well as social, technological and Ecological transformation processes, a shift towards pathways of sustainable development is needed. This challenges societies to establish new forms of governance. Innovation of governance has to be based on an understanding of contemporary governance and specific policies in relation to the named broader processes of transformation in order to explore possible future pathways of governance change. To generate such an understanding a genealogy of particular policies is necessary. This article presents conceptual and methodological grounds to study the genesis, continuity and dynamics of policies through time and space. It presents an analytical and methodical framework which fits for the analytical reconstruction of policies' historical pathways of development in order to understand processes of generation, stabilization and change. Such a purpose requires some stock-taking with respect to different concepts and strands of empirical research that underlie the particular perspectives and approaches of the analytical framework. Furthermore, it presupposes the theoretical and conceptual positioning of the elaborated analytical approach.
The effect of the ownership structure characteristics on firm performance in Oman: Empirical study

This study attempts to investigate the effect of the ownership structure characteristics (ownership concentration, managerial ownership and government ownership) on firm performance (ROA) among non-financial Omani companies during 2012-2014. For achieving the objective of this study, 81 firms were taken as a sample to test the above relations. The sampling was obtained from annual report of the companies for three years with a total sampling equal to 243 firms. Multiple regression analysis was employed to test the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. In addition, this study tried to fill the gap in the existing literature concerning the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance in the developing countries such as Oman. This study found a positive and significant association between ownership concentration and government ownership to firm performance (ROA). The study provides some suggestions for future researchers before the conclusion.
Online Process Scaffolding and Students' Self-Regulated Learning with Hypermedia.

This study examined the role of different scaffolding instructional interventions in facilitating students' shift to more sophisticated mental models as indicated by both performance and process data. Undergraduate students (n=53) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 scaffolding conditions (adaptive content and process scaffolding (ACPS), adaptive process scaffolding (APS), and no scaffolding (NS)) and were trained to use a hypermedia environment to learn about the circulatory system. Pretest, posttest, and verbal protocol data were collected. Findings reveal that the ACPS and APS conditions were equally effective and facilitated the shift in learners' mental models significantly more than did the NS condition. Despite the effectiveness of adaptive scaffolding conditions in facilitating students' understanding, process data reveal differences in students' self-regulatory behavior during learning. Participants in the ACPS condition regulated their learning by engaging in help-seeking behavior and over-relying on the tutor to regulate their learning. Participants in the APS condition regulated their learning by planning, monitoring their emerging understanding, and using several strategies to learn and handle task difficulties. Learners in the NS condition were less effective at regulating their learning and exhibited great variability in self-regulation of their learning during the knowledge construction activity. ACPS participants also differed from the other two groups in the amount of time spent on each representation of information. An appendix describes the variables used to code participant behavior. (Contains 4 tables and 72 references.) (Author/SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 0 vO to 0 Running Head: SCAFFOLDING AND SRL WITH HYPERMEDIA Online Process Scaffolding and Students' Self-Regulated Learning with Hypermedia Roger Azevedo , Jennifer G. Cromley , Leslie Thomas 2 , Diane Seibert, and Myriam Tron University of Maryland, College Park 2 Montgomery Blair High School Please address all correspondence to: Roger Azevedo, Ph.D. University of Maryland Department of Human Development 3304 Benjamin Building, 3304E College Park, MD 20742 Tel: (301) 405-2799 Fax: (301) 405-2891 E-mail: ra109@umail.umd. edu PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY ado TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 1 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL (April 21-25, 2003). BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2
Special working arrangements to allow for care responsibilities in Australia: availability, usage and barriers

Background Population ageing is projected to reduce labour force growth and aggregate labour force participation, whilst increasing demand for informal carers. Increasing the labour force participation of Australians who face barriers to employment (including carers) is part of the solution to labour market pressures occurring due to demographic change and may improve the financial wellbeing of carers. Aims To examine the availability, usage and barriers to accessing Special Working Arrangements (SWA) to provide care while employed in Australia. Data and methods The 2015 ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers was used to measure the prevalence of the availability, usage and barriers to SWA to care stratified by carer status and gender. Results About 94% of workers reported access to at least one type of SWA (n=25,094). Of this group, about 22% have used SWA to care in the last 6 months. The proportions using SWA to care were highest among primary carers (64%) followed by other carers (43%) and non-carers (19%). Of those who have used SWA, about 15% wanted to use additional SWA to care in the previous 6 months, but faced barriers in doing so, with higher proportions of primary carers (24.6%) and other carers (21.8%) reporting barriers. The main barriers faced by employed carers included insufficient paid leave and/or work commitments. Conclusions A range of paid and unpaid arrangements are necessary for carers to combine paid work with their caregiving responsibilities. Labour market legislation and workplace policies should be strengthened to reduce barriers to take up of SWA.
Toward metrics and model validation in web-site QEM

In this work, a conceptual framework and the associated strategies for metrics and model validation are analyzed regarding website measurement and evaluation. Particularly, we have conducted three case studies in different Web domains in order to evaluate and compare the quality of sites. For such an end the quantitative, model-based methodology, so-called Web-site QEM (Quality Evaluation Methodology), was utilized. In the assessment process of sites, definition of attributes and measurements, preference criteria for elementary evaluation, and an aggregation model of attributes and characteristics for global evaluation have intervened. Hence, in the present paper, the validation framework and the theoretical validation of some used Web metrics and model for assessment purpose are discussed considering the representational theory of measurement.
Axial-Flexural Interactions of Concrete Filled Glass Fiber Reinforced 1 Polymer Tube ( GFRP-CFFT ) Columns with and without reinforcing 2 GFRP bars 3

This study presents the results of an experimental program and analytical modeling for axial-flexural interactions of concrete-filled glass fiber-reinforced polymer tube (GFRP-CFFT) columns with and without reinforcing glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars. The experimental program included four steel RC specimens, four GFRP-CFFT specimens, and four GFRP bar-reinforced GFRP-CFFT specimens with an outer diameter of 205-206 mm and a height of 800-812 mm. The specimens were tested under concentric and 25and 50-mm eccentric axial loads and four-point load. The experimental results showed that GFRP barreinforced GFRP-CFFT specimens sustained higher peak axial loads, axial and lateral deformations at peak axial load, and flexural loads than GFRP-CFFT specimens without reinforcing GFRP bars and steel RC specimens. Axial load and bending moment (P-M) interactions of GFRP-CFFT specimens with and without reinforcing GFRP bars and steel RC specimens were analytically modeled. A parametric study was conducted to evaluate the effects of actual confinement ratio and GFRP bar reinforcement ratio on P-M interactions of GFRP-CFFT specimens. The P-M interactions were found to be significantly affected by both actual confinement ratio and GFRP bar reinforcement ratio.
Isolation and pathogenicity of avocado post-harvest pathogens from Westfalia and other avocado producing areas.

A survey of postharvest pathogens occurring on avocado fruit originating from Westfalia, Tzaneen, Mooketsi, Levubu, Louis Trichardt, Rustenburg, Kroondal and Avonridge was carried out at weekly intervals for one month in 1989. In each area, at each sampling date some variation in the isolation rate of the pathogens was noted. Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (23,9%) and Dothiorella aromatica (20,4%) were isolated most frequently. Lasiodiplodia theobromae was not isolated from fruit collected in the Tzaneen area. The least frequently occurring fungi included Thyronectria pseudotrichia (1,1%), Trichothecium roseum (0,1%), Fusarium solani (0,1%) and Drechslera setariae (0%). In pathogen/city tests Fuerte fruit inoculated with each of the nine isolated pathogens developed lesions varying in size from 11,5 cm 2 for Pestalotiopsis versicolor to 83,8 cm 2 for T. roseum. Inoculating fruit on the side was more effective than stem-end inoculation for symptom development. Reisolation of all pathogens (except D. setariae and Phomopsis perseae) from artificial inoculations was significant at the 5% level.
Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP): Clinical Strategies, TreatmentChallenges and Economic Concerns

The clinical and economic features of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) are quite unclear, with an extensive array of values and contradictory results. The real challenge in this connection is to present the real estimate of the clinical and associated economic consequences of VAP. In developing countries like Pakistan, it is important to formulate an optimal institutional antimicrobial policy that can be used as a guide for empirical/prophylactic and specific therapies of antibiotics in VAP with more rational approach to lessen the rates of mortality and morbidity, decline the length of treatment and hospitalization and the significant impact in prevention of development of multidrug resistant strains and cost reduction.
Communicating masculinity: attitudes of adolescent males in rural South Africa to rape and gender relations

Rape is a national crisis in South Africa. The high prevalence of rape is evidenced by reports that a woman is raped every four minutes. Various studies have explored attitudes of adolescents to rape; however, they tend to focus on urban, township and college youth with the attitudes of rural boys almost neglected. Drawing on the socialisation theory, it is assumed that the way a boy is socialised through communicative practices at home, school, among the peer group, and in society at large impacts on his attitudes to gender and rape. Through focus group interviews with adolescent boys in Duthuni village in the Limpopo province of South Africa, this study confirms that cultural communicative practices about gender, such as interpersonal communication in family, shape the socialisation of these boys, which influence the acceptance of gender roles displayed in the social construction of masculinity and femininity. This consequently influences their perceptions of rape, and the social efforts to combat rape.
Science teachers research skills through the use of scientific method: The case of Turkey

This experimental study examined the science teachers’ research skills through the use of scientific method. At first, a training program was developed for science teachers to gain the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to successfully plan, apply, evaluate and report a research. Then, the training program was applied to 40 science teachers. Before the study, an expectation interview was done; and after the study, a perception interview was done to the participants. As a result of the study, it was concluded that science teachers are aware of the importance of gaining research skills, they developed positive affective attitudes towards scientific method, and they acquired knowledge and experience about scientific method.
Significance of pelagic aerobic methane oxidation in the methane and carbon budget of a tropical reservoir

[1] The Petit Saut Reservoir (French Guiana), flooded in 1994, has an anoxic and methane-rich (>400 μmol.L−1) hypolimnion and an oxycline located at around 5 meters depth. Waters passing through the turbines are enriched in CH4, which partly degasses downstream of the dam. Aerobic methane oxidation rates were measured in the waters of the reservoir epilimnion and, in river waters downstream of the dam, during the wet and dry seasons. A unique first order relationship between methane concentration (CCH4) and aerobic methane oxidation rates (CH4-ox) was found for the reservoir and the river downstream of the dam (CH4-ox = 0.11 ± 0.01 CCH4 + 1.18 ± 0.74) giving a specific CH4 oxidation rate of 0.11 ± 0.01 h−1. In the reservoir, depth-integrated methane oxidation rates were calculated from oxidation rates and the distributions of CH4 and oxygen and ranged between 11 ± 6 and 310 ± 132 mmol.m−2.d−1, consistent with the turbulent vertical flux from the hypolimnion (38–321 mmol.m−2.d−1) and almost two orders of magnitude higher than the atmospheric fluxes (0.3 ± 0.2–1.9 ± 1.2 mmol.m−2.d−1). The average integrated methane oxidation rate in the epilimnion given by these two independent methods is 100 ± 80 mmol.m−2.d−1. Downstream of the dam, about 40% of the methane entering the river was oxidized (77 ± 40 mmol.m−2.d−1) and 50% was emitted to the atmosphere (98 ± 28 mmol.m−2.d−1). Our results show that total pelagic oxidation (67 ± 64 Gg C-CH4.y−1) reduce atmospheric emissions by more than 85% for the whole lake-river system and that this process is responsible for more than 25% of total CO2 emissions from the whole reservoir-river system.
Material properties of old steel bridges

In a survey conducted in the European project Sustainable Bridges (2004) concerning the amount of railroad bridges produced in metal still in service, 47 000 bridges were found. 40 % of these bridges have an age between 50 and 100 years old, the large amount of old bridges makes them an important part of the infrastructure in Europe. Due to their old age many of these bridges are reaching their design life. To replace these railroad bridges would be very expensive and not a realistic action, when there still is additional load and fatigue capacity left in many of the bridges. To perform assessments of the remaining load or fatigue capacity, the material properties are essential. The best ways of determining the actual properties are of course to take out samples from the investigated structure and analyze the steel. But lacking this information it is important to use as accurate values as possible in an assessment calculations. Information concerning which material properties that can be expected can come from calculations or blue prints used in the design. It is not always these documents are complete and guidance can in
Evaluation of shear strength parameters of granulated waste rubber using artificial neural networks and group method of data handling

Utilizing rubber shreds in civil engineering industry such as geotechnical structures can accelerate generated waste tire recycling process in an economical and environmentally friendly manner. However, understanding the rubber grains strength parameters is required for engineering designs and can be acquired through experimental tests. In this study, small and large direct shear test was implemented to specify shear strength parameters of five rubber grains group which are different in gradation and size. Moreover, artificial neural networks (ANN) are developed based on the test results and optimized networks which best captured the shear stress (τ), and vertical strain (ev) behavior of rubbers, are introduced. Additionally, a prediction model using the combinatorial algorithm in group method of data handling (GMDH) is proposed for the shear strength and vertical strain in the arrangement of closed-form equations. The performance and accuracies of the proposed models were checked using correlation coefficient (R) between the experimental and predicted data and the existing mean square error (MSE) was evaluated. R-values of the modeled τ and ev are equal to 0.9977 and 0.9994 for ANN, and 0.9862 and 0.9942 for GMDH models, respectively. The GMDH proposed models are presented as comparatively simple explicit mathematical equations for further applications.
COGNITIVE SELF-REGULATION IN YOUTH WITH AND WITHOUT LEARNING DISABILITIES: ACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACY, THEORIES OF INTELLIGENCE, LEARNING VS. PERFORMANCE GOAL PREFERENCES, AND EFFORT ATTRIBUTIONS

This study examined whether youth with learning disabilities reported more maladaptive cognitive self-regulatory characteristics known to influence learning motivation and performance. Specifically, 1,518 sixth-through twelfth-graders from two separate rural school districts with and without learning disabilities completed measures of academic self-efficacy, theories of intelligence, academic goal preferences, and attributions for exerting effort in academic contexts. We found that students with a learning disability were more likely to possess low academic self-efficacy, to believe that intelligence was fixed and nonmalleable, to prefer performance over learning goals, and to interpret the exertion of effort as meaning they possessed limited levels of ability. Theories of intelligence and academic self-efficacy were also found to influence goal preferences and ability attributions. Finally, mediational findings provided strong support for the notion that differences in goal preferences and effort attribu.
Effects of increased CO 2 levels on monsoons

Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration provided warmer atmospheric temperature, higher atmospheric water vapor content, but not necessarily more precipitation. A set of experiments performed with a state of the art coupled general circulation model (CGCM) forced with increased atmospheric CO2 concentration (two, four and sixteen times the present-day mean value) have been analyzed and compared with a control experiment to evaluate the effect of increased CO2 levels on monsoons. Generally, the monsoon precipitation responses to CO2 forcing are largest if extreme concentrations of carbon dioxide are used, but they are not necessarly proportional to the forcing applied. In fact, despite a common response in terms of atmospheric water vapor increase to the atmospheric warming, two out of the six monsoons studied simulate less or equal summer mean precipitation in the 16xCO2 experiment compared to the intermediate sensitivity experiments. The precipitation differences between CO2 sensitivity experiments and CTRL have been investigated specifying the contribution of thermodynamic and purely dynamic processes. As a general rule, the differences depending on the atmospheric moisture content changes (thermodynamic component) are large and positive, and they tend to be damped by the dynamic component associated with the changes in the vertical velocity. However, differences are observed among monsoons in terms of the role played by other terms (like moisture advection and evaporation) in shaping the precipitation changes in warmer climates. The precipitation increase, even if weak, occurs despite a weakening of the mean circulation in the monsoon regions (“precipitation-wind paradox”). In particular, the tropical east-west Walker circulation is reduced, as found from velocity potential analysis. The meridional component of the monsoon circulation is changed as well, with larger (smaller) meridional (vertical) scales.
Jaw Cysts in Kano; Northern Nigeria

Background & Objective : Jaw cysts are quite common in dental practice, but there has been no published study from northern Nigeria. We therefore carried out this retrospective study to document the pattern in Kano. Materials & Method : This was a 6 year (2006 to 2012) retrospective study of all cysts of the mandible and maxilla diagnosed at the pathology department of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano. Results : Fifty-four histologically diagnosed jaw cysts were seen during the 6 year study period, comprising 32 males and 22 females (M:F = 1. 4 :1). The age range was 3 to 87 years with highest occurrence in the 2nd & 3rd decades. Dentigerous and radicular cysts were the commonest comprising 48.2% and 29.6% respectively. While dentigerous cysts peaked in the 3 rd decade, radicular cysts peaked in the 5th decade. Cysts were more frequent in the mandible than maxilla with a ratio of 1.7:1. Over four-fifth (81%) of dentigerous cysts were in the mandible while radicular cysts mostly occurred in the maxilla (62.5%). Other jaw cysts in this series were simple bone cysts (7.4%), aneurysmal bone cysts (5.5%), odontogenic keratocysts (3.7%), nasopalatine (3.7%) and eruption (1.9%). Conclusion : With regards to the frequency of different jaw cysts, our findings were broadly consistent with the few published Nigerian and sub-Sahara Africa reports, but at variance with most studies outside the continent which document a preponderance of radicular cysts. However, other parameters (age, gender & site distribution) largely concur with global trends .