Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PRIVATE SECTOR INVESTMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN PALESTINE

This study examines the impact of private sector investment on economic growth in Palestine using quarterly time series data from 1990-2015. Multiple regression and co-integration methods are employed to analyse the data. The objectives of this study are to analyse the trends of private investment and economic growth in Palestine from 1990­-2015 and to examine the impact of private sector investment on economic. Being a time series data, to avoid spurious regression results, the first step is to test for the stationarity of the data by using Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test. Then ordinary least square (OLS) regression technique is used to estimate of each independent variable effect on the dependent variable. Test the stationary of the error term is done to test the long run co-integration among variables. The result of stationarity and normality test will reveal that the model is fairly well specified and could be used for policy analysis or not. The co-integration test result will indicate that private sector investment and economic growth have a long run significant effect on one another. The unit root tests, which conducted, confirm that variables are stationary in first difference and the co-integration tests also confirm the existence of long term relationship between the variables. The findings of the study concluded that there exist a short-run and long run relationship between private sector investment and economic growth in Palestine. This study recommends the Palestinian government to promote and encourage both domestic and foreign direct investment. The investment policy should be more transparent, attractive and competitive
STOP-Bang Test Results of a Randomly Selected Group of Fibromyalgia Patients

Except for diffuse musculoskeletal pain and pain at tender points, the symptoms reported by patients with Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) are similar to those of patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS). Patients with OSAS can also present FMS. STOP-Bang test is an effective scale which was developed to identify the patients with OSAS. The aim of this study was to evaluate the probable correlation between symptom severity of FMS and STOP-Bang test. Thirty one patients were included in the study. Demographic data including gender, age, body mass index and concomitant diseases are recorded. Musculoskeletal and neurologic examination, measurement of neck circumference and limitation of cervical range of motion were performed. Also MRI findings were recorded as decreased cervical lordosis, spondylosis and discopathy. STOP-Bang test was applied. Beside this test presence of snoring and fatigue were asked again separately. Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) was applied. Results of FIQ including total score, visual analog scale for pain (VAS pain) and fatigue (VAS fatigue) were recorded. Twenty five patients (80,6%) were female and 6 patients (19,4%) were male. Neck circumference of male patients was significantly higher than the females (p<0,05). All patients were complaining of fatigue, and 61,3% reported snoring. According to the STOP-Bang test high risk of OSAS was found in 54,8% of the patients (5 males and 12 females). There was significant and positive correlation between snoring and VAS pain, VAS fatigue, FIQ score and high risk of OSAS (p<0,01). Correlations between high risk of OSAS and VAS pain, VAS fatigue and FIQ score (p<0,01) were significant, as well as the correlations between high risk of OSAS and limitation of cervical rotation, and presence of cervical discopathy and decreased cervical lordosis (p<0,05). Although it does not imply a cause and effect relationship, the association between FMS and OSAS is clear. Physicians should keep in mind the presence of OSAS among patients with FMS, especially in male patients. STOP-Bang test is an effective co-examination to predict the risk level of OSAS which is correlated with snoring. Only asking presence of snoring can substitute for STOP-Bang test to refer these patients for the examination of upper airways.
Geographic patterns of vertebrate diversity and identification of relevant areas for conservation in Europe

Geographic patterns of vertebrate diversity and identification of relevant areas for conservation in Europe. — The 'EU Council conclusions on biodiversity post–2010' re–enforced Europe’s commitment to halt biodiversity loss by 2020. Identifying areas of high–value for biodiversity conservation is an important issue to meet this target. We investigated the geographic pattern of terrestrial vertebrate diversity status in Europe by assessing the species richness, rarity, vulnerability (according to IUCN criteria), and a combined index of the three former for the amphibians, reptiles, bird and mammals of this region. We also correlated the value of all indices with climate and human influence variables. Overall, clear geographic gradients of species diversity were found. The combined biodiversity index indicated that high–value biodiversity areas were mostly located in the Mediterranean basin and the highest vulnerability was found in the Iberian peninsula for most taxa. Across all indexes, the proportion of variance explained by climate and human influence factors was moderate to low. The results obtained in this study have the potential to provide valuable support for nature conservation policies in Europe and, consequently, might contribute to mitigate biodiversity decline in this region.
Ovary as an indicator of frequency of spawning in fishes

In majority of the marine fishes from tropical areas, maturation is a continuous process resulting in the occurrence of mature fishes throughout the year. In several Indian marine fishes, because of multiple spawning, a truly spent fish is scarcely found and also difficult to identify. Instead, partially spent fishes have been reported in a number of cases. As the eggs contained in the ovary are progressively ripened and shed, the ovary itself grows smaller, and to the naked eye, seems to reverse the stages by which it attained fuji maturity. The ovaries of such fi shes, though superficially resemble the normal stages III to V, differ from them in macroscopic appearance as well as microscopic structure to some extent. It occurred to the authors that such partially spent ovaries of fishes yield clues to the frequency or spawning in different species. In the present paper, the occurrence and nature of such ovaries and their relation to the frequency of spawning in two species of ribbon-fishes and a sciaenid have been discussed with supporting evidence from data on other fishes.
Off-shell higher spin N=2 supermultiplets in three dimensions

Off-shell higher spin N=2 supermultiplets in three spacetime dimensions (3D) are presented in this paper. We propose gauge prepotentials for higher spin superconformal gravity and construct the corresponding gauge-invariant field strengths, which are proved to be conformal primary superfields. These field strengths are higher spin generalisations of the (linearised) N=2 super-Cotton tensor, which controls the superspace geometry of conformal supergravity. We also construct the higher spin extensions of the linearised N=2 conformal supergravity action. We provide two dually equivalent off-shell formulations for massless higher spin N=2 supermultiplets. They involve one and the same superconformal prepotential but differ in the compensators used. For the lowest superspin value 3/2, these higher spin series terminate at the linearised actions for the (1,1) minimal and w=-1 non-minimal N=2 Poincar\'e supergravity theories constructed in arXiv:1109.0496. Similar to the pure 3D supergravity actions, their higher spin counterparts propagate no degrees of freedom. However, the massless higher spin supermultiplets are used to construct off-shell massive N=2 supermultiplets by combining the massless actions with those describing higher spin extensions of the linearised N=2 conformal supergravity. We also demonstrate that every higher spin super-Cotton tensor can be represented as a linear superposition of the equations of motion for the corresponding massless higher spin supermultiplet,with the coefficients being higher-derivative linear operators.
Toxicological Effects of Methyl Parathion and Protection Afforded by Ascorbic Acid in Small Intestine of Swiss Albino Mice: A Histological and Histometric Study

Abstract Methyl parathion (C8H10NO5PS) is widely used insecticide known to cause fatal intoxication in both human and animals. This study was carried out to investigate the deleterious effects of methyl parathion on small intestine of mice. Animals were injected intraperitoneally an acute dose (3mg/kg bwt) of methyl parathion. Autopsies were done on 7, 14, 21 and 28 days post- treatment. The weight of intestine decreased drastically in methyl parathion treated group as compared to control. Histopathological changes involved degeneration of cryptal and villous region, loss of villi. Histometric analysis showed increase in percentage of pyknotic cells, dead mitotic figures and decrease in number of total cell of crypts. Also, this work was planned to evaluate the ability of ascorbic acid to prevent or reduce the toxic effects of methyl parathion. Mice were administered two doses of ascorbic acid 40mg/kg bwt and 80mg/kg bwt. Results showed that i.p. injection of 80mg/kg bwt of ascorbic acid daily was highly effective in protection against methyl parathion toxicity. Lower dose that is 40mg/kg bwt of ascorbic acid also provided protection but to a lesser extent
Proteomic Analysis of Bioreactor Cultures of an Antibody Expressing CHOGSCell Line that Promotes High Productivity

Antibody manufacturing cell line development at Janssen Research & Development involves transfection of therapeutic antibody genes into a CHO-GS host cell line and isolating primary transfectomas that upon cloning yield high expressing cell lines secreting the desired antibody products. Subsequently, these cell lines are cultivated in stirred tank bioreactors for the large-scale generation of the products. In an attempt to optimize this process for high productivity, a two pronged approach was undertaken. First, in a Design of Experiment study, a CHO-GS cell line expressing a therapeutic antibody was cultivated in 2 L DasGip fed-batch mini-bioreactors under a variety of culture conditions. In general, culture conditions that promoted robust growth and high viable cell density resulted in high productivity. Then, cell culture harvests and cell lysates from two ‘high productivity’ and two ‘low productivity’ bioreactors were subjected to proteomic analysis using the CHO genome database, on two independent days. The levels of each protein expressed in these two sets of bioreactors were then compared. A total of 180 proteins that were modulated two-fold or more were thus identified, only 12 of which were consistently modulated across multiple days in culture. The modulated proteins have biological process functions that are related to cytoskeleton rearrangement, protein synthesis, cell metabolism and cell growth. Provided that these observations are validated by Western blot, one or more of these proteins, whose expression correlated to productivity can potentially be utilized as targets for manipulating a superior transfection host cell line. At a minimum, the expression levels of these proteins can provide insight for further process optimization efforts.
Relations between measures of Cattell‐Horn‐Carroll (CHC) cognitive abilities and mathematics achievement across the school‐age years

Cognitive clusters from the Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ III) Tests of Cognitive Abilities that measure select Cattell-Horn-Carroll broad and narrow cognitive abilities were shown to be significantly related to mathematics achievement in a large, nationally representative sample of children and adolescents. Multiple regression analyses were used to predict performance on the Math Calculation Skills and Math Reasoning clusters from the WJ III Tests of Achievement for 14 age groups ranging in age from 6 to 19 years. Comprehension-Knowledge (Gc) demonstrated moderate relations with Math Calculation Skills after the early school-age years and moderate to strong relations with Math Reasoning. Fluid Reasoning (Gf), Short-term Memory (Gsm), and Working Memory generally demonstrated moderate relations with the mathematics clusters. Processing Speed (Gs) demonstrated moderate relations with Math Reasoning during the elementary school years and moderate to strong relations with Math Calculation Skills. During the earliest ages of the analysis, Long-term Retrieval (Glr) demonstrated moderate relations with the mathematics clusters, andAuditory Processing (Ga) demonstrated moderate relations with Math Calculation Skills. Visual-Spatial Thinking (Gv) generally demonstrated nonsignificant relations with the mathematics clusters. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Effects of Different Dietary Oil Sources and Levels on Growth Performance and Serum Metabolites in Broiler Chickens

| This study examined the effects of different oil sources and levels in diets of broilers on growth performance and serum metabolites. A total of 210 one day old broilers were allotted to 7 dietary groups. Diets were formulated, based corn and soybean meal, with different oil sources and levels: Control group was fed based diet with addition of 3% mixed oil (soybean oil and sunflower oil), and other diets were added 2% and 4% of linseed oil (LO), fish oil (FO), or soybean oil (SO) over 38 days. Body weight, body weight gain, and feed conversion were determined at day 21 and 38. At trials’ end, liver, spleen and bursa of Fabricius were weighted. Serum total protein and albumin were measured, too. The results of growth performance showed that supplementation of 4% LO to the basal diet markedly increased the body weight gain of broiler chickens at day 21 and 38 (664 and 1046 g, respectively). The best dressing percentage was recorded in group fed 4% LO: (71.55%). A significant increase in total serum protein and globulin was noted in broilers fed 2% FO. In conclusion, supplementation with either 2% or 4% LO to broiler diets has more significant impacts on growth performance, while addition of FO improved immunity.
Avascular Necrosis of Humeral Head after Thalidomide Use: A Report of Two Cases

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a disabling cancer that is part of a spectrum of diseases ranging from monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance to plasma cell leukemia. MM is characterized by several features, including low blood counts, bone and calcium problems, infections, kidney problems, monoclonal gammopathy, light chain amyloidosis and solitary plasmacytoma [1]. Thalidomide was first introduced for patients with refractory multiple myeloma. Due to the promising results achieved in these patients, the drug was subsequently used in the earlier stages of the disease [2]. In this paper, we review the available clinical data regarding the adverse effects of thalidomide in the patients with MM.
HEAT TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT IN BOILING OVER MODIFIED SURFACES: A CRITICAL REVIEW

Boiling enhancement has been strongly linked to surface modification techniques for many decades. However, improvements in this field are always emerging, making it necessary to catch up with recently applied methods of increasing the critical heat flux and heat transfer coefficient. This review outlines the basic ideas of four surface modification techniques (roughness, artificial cavities, pin-fins, and wettability) and their effect on heat transfer performance. For each of the aforementioned surface modification techniques, cited works are classified and evaluated according to the type of boiling (flow or pool), the kind of working fluid used (water or other refrigerant), and the magnitude of heat exchanged (high or low heat flux). A respective enhancement factor, defined as the percentage of the performance of the corresponding plain surface, is calculated for each experimental work in order to compare them on a common ground. Comprehensive plots and tables are constructed herein using data from the cited works to allow direct comparison of the results. In addition, an effort is made through the cited works to identify the role of surface topography on heat transfer mechanisms and bubble dynamics. Finally, recommendations for future research are presented.
Comparative study of Banana figs prepared from two different varieties

The study was conducted to evaluate the sensory and physicochemical properties of banana products . The tests were undertaken to ascertain the suitability of the solutions for preservation of sweet bananas as added-value foods and to reduce post-harvest losses. Prepared banana figs of both varieties were presented to a panel of judges for evaluation of organoleptic attributed. The maximum total soluble solids (22.84 and 12.30), Titratable acidity (0.0148 and 0.0403), non reducing sugar (11.250), Ash (1.1144 and 1.9346) were showed by variety giant in banana fig, whereas, the variety dwarf showed maximum pH, Vitamin C content, total sugar and reducing sugar. On other hand the maximum (24.48°Brix) total soluble solids was observed in banana figs prepared after 90 days. The maximum total sugar (20.36%), non-reducing sugar (14.08%) Ash (1.12%) were showed by the banana figs prepared after 90 days. Sensory evaluations of banana figs revealed that they exhibited significant difference in the score of all attributes among the two with exception of consistency . The results showed that the 90 days produced good results for frying and drying of banana figs.
Interleukin-6 and exercise; early evidence of a novel myokine

Hogg, Brendan, M.S., Spring 2018 Health and Human Performance Interleukin-6, a novel myokine Chairperson: John C. Quindry, PhD Interleukin-6 (IL-6) was first identified as a pleiotropic cytokine, with a host of body-wide functions. Cytokine functions are characterized by chronically elevated levels within various inflammatory states. In this regard, IL-6 is largely associated with the acute phase response to many stimuli and performs specific actions when produced from certain cell types. Accrued evidence indicates IL-6 release from skeletal muscle often includes myokine functions. Novel myokine functions are adaptive in nature, and as compared to inflammatory/cytokine roles, exhibit a transient time course. Following exercise plasma IL-6 peaks and returns to resting levels within 1-2 hours. In contrast, IL-6 is observed to be consistently elevated in a much longer time course during inflammatory disease states. Production and release of IL-6 is reliant on many stress dependent factors, but from a skeletal muscle perspective, the release appears to be bioenergetic/fatigue dependent. Moreover, long duration in conjunction with high intensity exercise results in the greatest IL-6 production. Association between IL-6 and the metabolic status of skeletal muscle, in regards to glycogen content and glucose uptake, has provided a new avenue of research. The acute increase in circulating IL-6 following exercise indicates divergent roles for IL-6. Recent evidence indicates that IL-6 exerts regulatory cyto-protection in regards to insulin sensitivity and metabolic stress. In addition, recent data suggest that IL-6 is central within mechanisms regarding cardio-protection from ischemic injury. Given these widespread benefits, there is reason to suspect additional myokine roles of IL-6 are on the horizon. Further research efforts with mechanistic approaches should be directed toward investigating skeletal muscle derived IL-6 in regards to exercise-induced protection from metabolic and ischemic injury.
Students’ perspective on the benefits of EFL literature education

ABSTRACT Understanding students’ perspectives on the foreign language (FL) curriculum could be considered as a vital step in curriculum design and lesson planning. This study drew on data provided by a single open question survey to investigate the perspective of Dutch secondary school students (N = 635) from 15 different schools with regard to the benefits of literature education in English as a foreign language (EFL). This study also sought to find out whether there are any differences in these perspectives between the different schools. The Comprehensive Approach to Foreign Language Literature Learning was used to analyse the students’ answers. Results show that the majority of the students consider literature in a FL primarily as language education. Furthermore, a comparison between the 15 schools indicated that there were differences in the way students from different schools perceive the benefits of the EFL literature curriculum. The article concludes with a discussion of pedagogical issues and suggestions for ways in which the student perspective can be studied on a small scale.
The biomechanics of stretching

This narrative review examined the biomechanical effect of stretching exercises on skeletal muscles. While there is a long history of clinical research on the effect of stretching on flexibility, there have only been a few years of research on the acute and chronic effects of stretching on the biomechanical parameters of muscle function. The acute effect of stretching appears to be a significant increase in range of motion primarily due to increased stretch tolerance and significant reductions in most all forms of muscular performance. Stretching also creates significant acute reductions in passive tension (stress-relaxation) in the muscle, but does not appear to affect its stiffness/elasticity. Stretch training significantly increases range of motion, but it also tends to increase the passive tension and stiffness of the musculature. Future research of human muscle in vivo during stretching and normal movement using ultrasound promises to help clarify the effects of stretching on the active and passive components of muscle and the many biomechanical variables of muscular performance.
Who leads Research Productivity Change? Guidelines for R&D policy makers

We rely on efficiency and productivity analysis based on Malmquist indices to evaluate to what extent policy-makers have been able to promote the creation and consolidation of comprehensive research groups that contribute to the implementation of a successful innovation system. We suggest that this dynamic evaluation offers relevant information to current ex-post policy evaluation methods, helping decision makers to readapt and reorient policies and their associated means, most notably resource allocation (financial schemes), to better respond to the actual needs of promising research groups in their search for excellence (micro-level perspective), and to adapt future policy design to the achievement of medium-long term policy objectives (meso and macro level perspectives). We apply this methodology to the case of the Spanish R&D Food Technology Program finding that a large size and a comprehensive multi-dimensional research output are the key features of the leading groups exhibiting high efficiency and productivity levels. Identifying these groups as benchmark, we conclude that the financial grants allocated by the program, typically aimed at small-sized and partially oriented research group, have no succeeded in reorienting them in time so as to overcome their limitations.