Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phd 2 inactivation enhances glycogen storage and promotes excessive neutrophilic responses

Citation for published version: Sadiku, P, Willson, JA, Dickinson, R, Murphy, F, Harris, A, Lewis, A, Sammut, D, Mirchandani, AS, Ryan, E, Watts, E, Thompson, AAR, Marriott, HM, Dockrell, DH, Taylor, CT, Schneider, M, Maxwell, PH, Ratcliffe, PJ, Schofield, CJ, Ghesquiere, B, Carmeliet, P, Whyte, MKB & Walmsley, SR 2017, 'Phd2 inactivation enhances glycogen storage and promotes excessive neutrophilic responses', Journal of Clinical Investigation, vol. 127, no. 9, pp. 3407-3420. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI90848
Lean Application and Efficiency of manufacturing firms: An empirical study of manufacturing firms in Rivers State, Nigeria

The increasing demand for speedy delivery of quality products at lower production cost have resulted to new trend in manufacturing to review the gap between input resources inventory and production output inventory. More so, creating competitive niche in the current market environment is now difficult for manufacturers than ever in meeting competitiveness. Consequently, many manufacturing firms are becoming flexible to catch up with the current challenges so as to simultaneously improve quality and productivity. This paper examined the relationship between lean manufacturing and efficiency of 53 manufacturing firms listed with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria in Rivers State, Nigeria. The questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents and analysed using, mean scores, standard deviations and t-statistic in testing stated hypothesis. It was observed that lean manufacturing has a very strong positive and significant influence on efficiency of manufacturing firms. We recommend that: management of manufacturing firms should set up clear policies on lean implementation and communicate same to staff. Also, managers of manufacturing firms are encouraged to increase its resource commitment to staff training and development so as to inculcate in them skills and knowledge necessary to implement lean practices in within their organisations; therefore, professionalism should be encouraged at all levels of the organization. Again, manufacturing firms should pursue quality consciousness through capability surveillance, in having constant monitoring of suppliers/throughput process to ensure production outputs conforms to product specification and quality standards, should be constantly advocated.
Picoplankton abundance and biomass across the eastern South Pacific Ocean along latitude 32.5° S

The distribution of picoplankton ( 75% total picoplanktonic abundance). As expected, Prochlorococcus was the most numerically abundant phytoplankter under very oligotrophic (chlorophyll a concentration ≤0.1 mg m -3 ) and mesotrophic (>0.1 and ≤1 mg m -3 ) conditions. However, in contrast to other subtropical regions, picophytoeukaryotes appear to dominate the <2 µm autotrophic carbon biomass in this region of the South Pacific Ocean at this time of the year. In the upper 200 m of the water column, the integrated carbon biomass of Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, picophytoeukaryotes and bacterioplankton were in the ratios of 9:1:14:11 and 3:1:8:6 under oligo- and mesotrophic conditions, respectively. Thus, picophytoeukaryotes were 1.4- to 2-fold higher in biomass than both cyanobacteria combined, and slightly more important (1.2- to 1.3-fold) than bacterioplankton. Pico- phytoeukaryotes could therefore play a dominant ecological and biogeochemical role in subtropical gyres, which extend over a vast area of the world's oceans.
Linking ENSO and heavy rainfall events over coastal British Columbia through a weather pattern classification

Classifications of atmospheric weather patterns (WPs) are widely used for the description of the climate of a given region and are employed for many applications, such as weather forecasting, downscaling of global circula- tion model outputs and reconstruction of past climates. WP classifications were recently used to improve the statistical characterisation of heavy rainfall. In this context, bottom-up approaches, combining spatial distribution of heavy rainfall observations and geopotential height fields have been used to define WP classifications relevant for heavy rainfall sta- tistical analysis. The definition of WPs at the synoptic scale creates an interesting variable which could be used as a link between the global scale of climate signals and the local scale of precipitation station measurements. We introduce here a new WP classification centred on the British Columbia (BC) coastal region (Canada) and based on a bottom-up approach. Five contrasted WPs composed this classification, four rainy WPs and one non-rainy WP, the anticyclonic pattern. The four rainy WPs are mainly observed in the winter months (October to March), which is the period of heavy precipi- tation events in coastal BC and is thus consistent with the local climatology. The combination of this WP classification with the seasonal description of rainfall is shown to be useful for splitting observed precipitation series into more homoge- neous sub-samples (i.e. sub-samples constituted by days hav- ing similar atmospheric circulation patterns) and thus identi- fying, for each station, the synoptic situations that generate the highest hazard in terms of heavy rainfall events. El Ni ˜ no- Southern Oscillations (ENSO) significantly influence the fre- quency of occurrence of two coastal BC WPs. Within each WP, ENSO seem to influence only the frequency of rainy events and not the magnitudes of heavy rainfall events. Con- sequently, heavy rainfall estimations do not show significant evolution of heavy rainfall behaviour between Ni ˜ no and Ni˜ na winters. However, the WP approach captures the variabil- ity of the probability of occurrences of synoptic situations generating heavy rainfall depending on ENSO and open- ing interesting perspectives for the analysis of heavy rainfall distribution in a non-stationary context.
In vitro anti-infective and antioxidant activities of Garcinia cola Heckel and Morinda lucida Benth

Garcinia cola also known as “bitter cola” (Guttiferae) is a plant with a wide usage of its parts for various medicinal purposes. The seeds are chewed as aphrodisiac and for the treatment of coughs, dysentery and liver inflammation. Morinda lucida (Rubiaceae) commonly called “great morinda” has been shown to have antimalarial and anti-pyretic activities. This study aimed at evaluating the anti-infective and antioxidant properties of G. cola and M. lucida and to justify their folkloric uses. Ethanol extracts of the stem barks of G. cola (GCB) and M. lucida (MLB) were evaluated for their antimicrobial, anthelmintic and antioxidant activities. Antimicrobial activity was evaluated by determining the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) using the micro broth dilution method against strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi and Candida albicans. Anthelmintic activity was evaluated by determining the effects of the extracts on the paralytic and death times of Pheretima posthuma at concentrations of 50, 20 and 10 mg/mL using piperazine citrate (PZN) (15 mg/mL) and albendazole (ABZ) (20 mg/mL) as references. Antioxidant activity was determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity using ascorbic acid (ASA) as reference standard. The results reveal that the extracts from both plants demonstrated antimicrobial activity with MIC values ranging from 50 to 80 mg/mL and 10 to 30 mg/mL for GCB and MLB, respectively. Both extracts also demonstrated a concentration dependent anthelmintic activity with decrease in paralytic and death times upon an increase in extract concentrations. GCB and MLB extract showed antioxidant activities with IC50 values, 6.830 and 342.1 µg/mL, respectively. Phytochemical screening of both extracts revealed the presence of tannins, glycosides, alkaloids and flavonoids. These findings may justify the folkloric uses of these plants. Key words: Garcinia cola, antioxidant, Morinda lucida, antimicrobial, anthelmintic.
Study of serum magnesium levels in diabetes mellitus and its correlation with complications (retinopathy and HbA1c) a cross-sectional study of one year

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a heterogeneous group of metabolic disorders characterized by chronic hyperglycemia with disturbance of carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism resulting from defects in insulin secretion, insulin action or both. The aim of this study was to estimate serum magnesium levels in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and correlate it with complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus - glycemic control and retinopathy. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 100 patients with type 2 diabetes, attending Government Medical College and associated Hospital, Jammu over a period of one year from 1 st November, 2014 to 30 th October, 2015. Detailed history including duration of diabetes, treatment mode, symptoms suggestive of retinopathy and associated diseases such as hypertension and ischemic heart disease were obtained, as per the proforma, followed by physical examination. Results: Majority of patients (38%) of type-2 diabetes mellitus were in the age group of 51-60 years. Males constituting 71% with male to female ratio of 2.45:1. Complications were observed in 48 cases, which mainly included retinopathy 60.42% (all non-proliferative). Maximum patients (79%) had abnormal (>6.5%) glycosylated hemoglobin levels ranging from 6.5 to 12%. Patients with diabetic retinopathy had significantly higher prevalence of hypomagnesaemia compared to patients without retinopathy (58.62 % vs 18.31%). Conclusions: Prevalence of hypomagnesaemia in type 2 diabetes was 30% in the present study. The present study illustrates that as the magnesium level decreases in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, prevalence of retinopathy increases.
Strategic Adjustment Capacity, Sustained Competitive Advantage, and Firm Performance: An Evolutionary Perspective on Bird Flocking and Firm Competition

Imitating the positioning rules in the bird flocking system, the strategic adjustment capacity is decomposed into three aspects, which are the organizational learning capacity from the top firms, the extent to which firms maintain or rely on the best operational capacity vector in history, and the ability to overcome the disadvantage while maintaining the advantage of the operational capacity vector from the previous years, respectively. Financial vectors are constructed to represent the results of corporate strategic adjustment and listed firms in the China A stock are chosen as the samples. As empirical analysis reveals, there is a positive correlation between the organizational learning capacity from the top firms and the firm performance and a U-shaped relation between the learning capability from the previous best operational capacity vector and the firm performance. However, no significant correlation between the inertia control ability of the current operational capacity vector of the firms and their performance improvement can be observed. This study verifies that the issue of corporate competitiveness and performance can be investigated by utilizing the principles of competition in nature. Moreover, a firm can obtain a sustainable competitive advantage by improving its ability to learn from top firms in the industry.
Superposition of structures in the interference zone between the southern Brasília belt and the central Ribeira belt in the region SW of Itajubá (MG), SE Brazil

The study area is localized in the Socorro nappe, part of the southern Brasilia belt, with a minor part in the Embu terrane, part of the central Ribeira belt. Three phases of deformation were detected, Dn-1, Dn and Dn+1. Sn-1 seems to be generally transposed into Sn, but in the northwestern part it is well preserved, dipping about 60o to W and SW, with a stretching and/or mineral lineation plunging down dip. The main foliation in most of the area is Sn, dipping about 70o to SSE. Dn folds are tight to isoclinal, with axes that plunge about 40o to SW. Quartz-feldspathic segregation veins are folded by Dn. The structures related to Dn-1 and Dn are cut and modified by four important shear zones ascribed to deformation phase Dn+1. Two samples of a granite that is elongated along the Caxambu shear zone, and also cut by it, were dated. One yielded a crystallization age of 575 ± 5 Ma, and the other one, from the shear zone, an age of 567 ± 8 Ma, interpreted either as representing the age of movement along the Caxambu shear zone, or as metamorphic growth.
User and provider perspectives on ES engagement by Chinese SMEs : a process analysis

The extant Enterprise Systems (ES) literature shows a great emphasis on Western large organisations, and the user perspective is considered prime. The survey method is dominant in this literature, focusing on what motivates an implementation and on the factors that are critical to implementation success. In the main such survey work treats ES implementation as an event with the analysis focused on input factors and outputs. In contrast, this paper examines ES adoption and implementation in Chinese SMEs by considering not only the user perspective but also the ES provider and the wider institutional setting. The use of the case study method captures the dynamics of the implementation process and the changing relationships between the stakeholders. Both actor network theory and institutional theory inform the analysis. The findings are potentially significant and challenge user-centered theories of adoption. The institutional influences are shown to be weaker than anticipated in China context.
Assessing Students’ Understanding of the Measures of Central Tendency and Attitude towards Statistics in Rural Secondary Schools

This research was conducted to assess the level of students’ understanding of the measures of central tendency and attitude towards statistics. A survey research was conducted on Tenth Graders in nine secondary rural schools in Sabah, Malaysia. A total of 148 students were sampled using stratified random sampling. Statistical Understanding Test of the Measures of Central Tendency and Survey Attitude towards Statistics questionnaire were used as data collection tools. The data was analyzed descriptively and inferentially by using SPSS version 20.0. The results revealed that students’ understanding of measures of central tendency was at a moderate level, while their attitude towards statistics was positive. Gender difference was found to be significant in students’ understanding of measures of central tendency (p=0.032), but not in their attitude towards statistics. Generally, male students had a higher understanding than the female students. Furthermore, there were no significant relationships between students’ understanding of measures of central tendency and attitude towards statistics, except for Effort component (r=-0.299, p<.05). The finding showed that students who willingly put a great effort to learn statistics did not necessarily warrant a good understanding of the measures of central tendency. This study implied that Mathematics educators should remind students that the quality of learning with the appropriate learning technique invested in it would warrant better understanding of the measures of central tendency.
Inequalities in school leavers’ labour market outcomes: do school subject choices matter?

Abstract Despite a wide international literature on the effect of vocational and general education on school-to-work transition, relatively little is known about the role of having studied specific subjects in explaining inequalities in young people’s labour market outcomes. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining differences in employment chances of young people who left education early, either at the end of compulsory schooling or at the end of secondary school. Using data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study, a large-scale linkage study created using data from administrative and statistical sources, we found little gender differences but strong parental background differences in school leavers’ employment status and type of occupation entered. Social inequalities in labour market outcomes were only partly explained by curriculum choices. Moreover, after controlling for social origin and grades, only history and business for lower-secondary leavers and maths for upper-secondary leavers were associated with a reduction in the chances of being unemployed/inactive.
The properties of the interstellar medium in disc galaxies with stellar feedback

We perform calculations of isolated disc galaxies to investigate how the properties of the interstellar medium (ISM), the nature of molecular clouds and the global star formation rate depend on the level of stellar feedback. We adopt a simple physical model, which includes a galactic potential, a standard cooling and heating prescription of the ISM and self-gravity of the gas. Stellar feedback is implemented by injecting energy into dense, gravitationally collapsing gas, but is independent of the Schmidt–Kennicutt relation. We obtain fractions of gas, and filling factors for different phases of the ISM in reasonable agreement with observations. Supernovae are found to be vital to reproduce the scaleheights of the different components of the ISM, and velocity dispersions. The giant molecular clouds (GMCs) formed in the simulations display mass spectra similar to the observations, their normalization depend on the level of feedback. We find ∼40 per cent of the clouds exhibit retrograde rotation, induced by cloud–cloud collisions. The star formation rates we obtain are in good agreement with the observed Schmidt–Kennicutt relation, and are not strongly depend on the star formation efficiency we assume, being largely self-regulated by the feedback. We also investigate the effect of spiral structure by comparing calculations with and without the spiral component of the potential. The main difference with a spiral potential is that more massive GMCs are able to accumulate in the spiral arms. Thus we are able to reproduce massive GMCs, and the spurs seen in many grand design galaxies, even with stellar feedback. The presence of the spiral potential does not have an explicit effect on the star formation rate, but can increase the star formation rate indirectly by enabling the formation of long-lived, strongly bound clouds.
HPTLC-based quantification of camptothecin in Ophiorrhiza species of the southern Western Ghats in India

Abstract Camptothecin (CPT), a modified monoterpene indole alkaloid, is a potential anticancer drug, and due to high demand, search for its new plant-based sources is a priority. Genus Ophiorrhiza is a candidate group in the search for new resources of CPT. Here, CPT contents in 38 Ophiorrhiza accessions, belonging to 11 species and 3 varieties, collected from the southern Western Ghats region in India were quantified by HPTLC-densitometry. Ophiorrhiza mungos (396.54 μg/g, dr. wt.) and O. mungos var. angustifolia (373.19 μg/g, dr. wt.) were the two best CPT sources among the screened species/varieties. O. rugosa var. decumbens (18.55 μg/g, dr. wt.) and O. hirsutula (17.14 μg/g, dr. wt.) showed moderate contents of CPT. This is the first systematic CPT screening of O. hirsutula, O. barnesii, O. incarnata, O. radicans and O. villosa. This study shows the significance of choosing high CPT-yielding ecotypes/chemotypes of Ophiorrhiza species or varieties for commercial purposes.
Effect of Quality Grades on Carcass Characteristics, Physico-chemical and Sensory Traits of Longissimus Dorsi in Hanwoo

Analyses were conducted to estimate the effect of quality grade on the carcass characteristics, physico-chemical and sensory traits of Longissimus dorsi in Hanwoo. A total of 42,113 carcasses were selected on the basis of five quality grades (grade , , 1, 2, and 3) and an additional 258 samples of Longissimus dorsi were used to evaluate the beef quality. The increase in quality grade from grade 3 to grade was significant (p value (41.53) and highest cooking loss (22.11%) were observed with grade and 3 beef, respectively. There was no difference observed on (5.53 to 5.66) among the quality grades, which were within the normal range. Sensory evaluation experiments revealed that quality grades were associated with significantly altered (all p Hanwoo beef had a significantly higher WBs and lower fat contents when compared to grade Hanwoo beef (p
Globally Optimal Solutions for Large Single-Row Facility Layout Problems

This paper is concerned with the single-row facility layout problem (SRFLP). The SRFLP asks for an optimal linear placement of rectangular facilities with varying lengths on a straight line so as to minimize the total cost associated with the (known or projected) interactions between them. First, we revisit the new formulation of this problem recently proposed by the authors, and exhibit a bijection between the feasible set of the formulation, and the set of all permutations on n objects. We then consider the semideflnite programming (SDP) relaxation arising from this new formulation. On the theoretical side, we prove that a number of triangle inequalities hold automatically for the SDP relaxation, and more interestingly, that if we consider the tighter relaxation obtained by adding the remaining triangle inequalities, then a signiflcant number of additional facet-deflning inequalities of the underlying cut polytope are automatically enforced. On the computational side, we use the SDP relaxation to obtain globally optimal layouts for large SRFLPs with up to thirty facilities, some of which have remained unsolved since 1988.
Evaluation of the Effects of Conflict Resolution, Peace Education and Peer Mediation: A Meta-Analysis Study.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of conflict resolution, peace education and peer mediation on the conflict resolution skills of students via meta-analysis method. 23 studies were determined to be in accordance with the study criteria . According to research findings conflict resolution, peace education and peer mediation education programs have a wide range of effect on the conflict resolution skills of students. In addition to this, the education program, education level, the type of application, publication type , the duration of application have been examined and evaluated. As a result, it can be stated that conflict resolution, peace education or peer mediation is effective in the constructive development of conflict resolution skills of the students.
Induced Mutagenesis in Cicer arietinum

The traditional varieties of chick pea have low potentiality and restricted variability with respect to economic characters. Broadening the genetic base for crop improvement can be quickly achieved through induced mutagenesis. The present study was undertaken in order to comparing the effectiveness and efficiency of mutagens on Cicer arietinum. In this regard, Co – 4 variety of chick pea was subjected to different dose/concentration of Gamma rays (20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 kR) and Ethyl Methane Sulphonate (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mM) for inducing mutation. Mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency was calculated based on biological damage in M1 and chlorophyll mutations in M2. The results indicated that, mutagenic effectiveness increased with the increase in dose/concentration of mutagen. Intermediate treatments in general were found more efficient in causing less biological damage and inducing maximum amount of mutations. It shows that the chemical mutagens are more effective and efficient than physical mutagen for inducing mutation in Chick pea