Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLEDGE Influence of Water Physico-Chemical Parameters on the Distribution of the Communities of Macro invertebrates of Affon River in Bénin

macroinvertebrate community River. Abstract: The objective of the study is to evaluate the influence of physico-chemical parameters on the distribution of macro invertebrates. Thus, for mapping biotic data, the 24 families collected and the matrix of physicochemical parameters, a Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CAC) was performed. Physical analysis results indicate that the pH, depth, conductivity, TDS, and dissolved oxygen influence the distribution of macro invertebrates. In addition, a positive correlation was observed between the pollution-sensitive families: Perlodidae, Beraeidae, Potamanthidae and the pH, the dissolved oxygen, the conductivity then the TDS.
SEMI-PRIMITIVE ROOTS AND THE DISCRETE LOGARITHM MODULO 2 k

We establish a connection between semi-primitive roots of the multiplicative group of integers modulo 2 k where k ≥ 3, and the logarithmic base in the algorithm introduced by Fit-Florea and Matula (2004) for computing the discrete logarithm modulo 2 k . Fit-Florea and Matula used properties of the semi-primitive root 3 modulo 2 k to obtain their results and provided a conversion formula for other possible bases. We show that their results can be extended to any semi-primitive root modulo 2 k and also present a generalized version of their algorithm to ﬁnd the discrete logarithm modulo 2 k . Various applications in cryptography, symbolic computation, and others can potentially beneﬁt from higher precision hardware integer arithmetic. The algorithm is suitable for hardware support of applications where fast arithmetic computation is desirable.
ICT integration in mathematics initial teacher training and its impact on visualization: the case of GeoGebra

ABSTRACT This case study investigates the impact of the integration of information and communications technology (ICT) in mathematics visualization skills and initial teacher education programmes. It reports on the influence GeoGebra dynamic software use has on promoting mathematical learning at secondary school and on its impact on teachers’ conceptions about teaching and learning mathematics. This paper describes how GeoGebra-based dynamic applets – designed and used in an exploratory manner – promote mathematical processes such as conjectures. It also refers to the changes prospective teachers experience regarding the relevance visual dynamic representations acquire in teaching mathematics. This study observes a shift in school routines when incorporating technology into the mathematics classroom. Visualization appears as a basic competence associated to key mathematical processes. Implications of an early integration of ICT in mathematics initial teacher training and its impact on developing technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) are drawn.
Investigación Original / Original Research Adolescent Health Screening Practices by Physicians in Jamaica Key Words

Objective. To review Jamaican physicians' adolescent health screening practices by determining their frequency in areas of biomedical, psychological, social, and educational health; the factors that influence these practices; and physicians' perceived level of self-efficacy and their awareness of screening tools and guidelines. Methods. A questionnaire was mailed to general practitioners, family medicine specialists, and pediatricians in Jamaica. The primary outcome variable was the frequency of physician screening for a range of biomedical, psychosocial, and educational developmental issues in the majority (≥ 50%) of adolescent patients. Bivariate analyses were performed to determine differences between professional groups. Results. The response rate was 32.3% (n = 213), with 209 responders being suitable for further analysis. The sample comprised 48.8% general practitioners, 33.0% family medicine specialists , and 18.2% pediatricians. Physicians more often screened for biomedical risks than for psychosocial risks, with very low frequencies of screening for psychosocial issues such as mood, suicidal ideation, sexual orientation, and safety concerns. Physicians reported high levels of confidence in discussing most psychosocial issues with adolescent patients. Time limitation and an insufficient knowledge base were the main factors identified as influencing screening practices. Conclusions. The data suggest unsatisfactory frequency of adolescent health screening by Jamaican physicians, in particular for psychosocial factors. The primary factors identified by physicians as influencing their screening practices have potential for improvement through continued medical education. ABSTRACT Adolescence is a complex and dynamic developmental period between ages 10 and 19 years (1) involving simultaneous yet asynchronous physical, sexual, cog-nitive, and socioemotional development. Many potentially harmful lifestyle habits and behaviors are initiated during adolescence , indicating this period as an ideal time for primary prevention (2, 3). Adolescent morbidity and mortality are primarily due to preventable causes including substance use, unintentional injuries , unprotected sex and the associated risks of teen pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infections including HIV (4). Health professionals can play a significant role in reducing risk-related behaviors and promoting the healthy growth, development, and behavior of adolescent patients (2, 5–9). Many health organizations have established clinical care guidelines for preventive adolescent health care (10–12), recommending periodic screening for behaviors that may affect adolescents' health and further assessment for those adolescents identified as at risk. Physicians have been proposed as the gateway providers for adolescents, facilitating their access to other resources when appropriate (13). However, physi
Influence of coherent structures on the evolution of an axisymmetric turbulent jet

The role of initial conditions in affecting the evolution toward self-similarity of an axisymmetric turbulent jet is examined. The jet’s near-field coherence was manipulated by non-circular exit geometries of identical open area, De2, including a square and a fractal exit, for comparison with a classical round orifice jet. Hot-wire anemometry and 2D-planar particle image velocimetry experiments were performed between the exit and a location 26De downstream, where the Reynolds stress profiles are self-similar. This study shows that a fractal geometry significantly changes the near-field structure of the jet, breaking up the large-scale coherent structures, thereby affecting the entrainment rate of the background fluid into the jet stream. It is found that many of the jet’s turbulent characteristics scale with the number of eddy turnover times rather than simply the streamwise coordinate, with the entrainment rate (amongst others) found to be comparable across the different jets after approximately 3-4 eddies have been overturned. The study is concluded by investigating the jet’s evolution toward a self-similar state. No differences are found for the large-scale spreading rate of the jets in the weakly self-similar region, so defined as the region for which some, but not all of the terms of the mean turbulent kinetic energy equation are self-similar. However, the dissipation rate of the turbulent kinetic energy was found to vary more gradually in x than predicted according to the classical equilibrium theories of Kolmogorov. Instead, the dissipation was found to vary in a non-equilibrium fashion for all three jets tested.The role of initial conditions in affecting the evolution toward self-similarity of an axisymmetric turbulent jet is examined. The jet’s near-field coherence was manipulated by non-circular exit geometries of identical open area, De2, including a square and a fractal exit, for comparison with a classical round orifice jet. Hot-wire anemometry and 2D-planar particle image velocimetry experiments were performed between the exit and a location 26De downstream, where the Reynolds stress profiles are self-similar. This study shows that a fractal geometry significantly changes the near-field structure of the jet, breaking up the large-scale coherent structures, thereby affecting the entrainment rate of the background fluid into the jet stream. It is found that many of the jet’s turbulent characteristics scale with the number of eddy turnover times rather than simply the streamwise coordinate, with the entrainment rate (amongst others) found to be comparable across the different jets after approximately 3-4 eddi.
Investigation of polarization modulation in optical free space communications through the atmosphere

Innovative technologies are required to satisfy the ever increasing bandwidth demand associated with new communication services. Optical free space laser communications with its ability to transmit information via a collimated laser beam at high data rates using compact, low-mass terminals, while avoiding interference problems and without exhausting the radiofrequency bandwidths is a promising candidate in the field. While optical intersatellite links are state-of-the-art technology, laser communications from ground suffers from cloud coverage, harsh weather conditions, and atmospheric turbulence. Most of the previous work on optical free space laser communications through the atmosphere was concentrated on intensity modulated systems. However, polarization modulated systems may be more appropriate for such communication links, because the polarization seems to be the most stable characteristic of a laser beam while propagating through the atmosphere. Thus, a detailed comparison between intensity and polarization modulated systems is of big interest. In my thesis I have implemented a direct detection digital polarization shift keying (PolSK) system with the aid of a commercially available software to simulate the behavior of optical transmission systems. Two receiver structures are realized, for the absence and for the presence of optical amplification in the receiver. A comparison with intensity modulated systems shows that PolSK outperforms on-off keying (OOK) systems in terms of peak optical power by about 3 dB. Special attention is given to the PolSK receiver with optical preamplification and the non-idealities which arise in such systems, e.g., a non-ideal polarization beam splitter, a non-ideal PIN photodiode with transimpedance amplifier, or non-ideal optical and electrical wires. The simulations also help to assess penalties in the receiver’s sensitivity when investigating the influence of the atmosphere. The influence of the atmosphere on the polarization of a laser beam is assessed in terms of polarimetry, a field of research in astronomy. A comparison between ground based and space based (Hubble Space Telescope) polarimetric measurements of partially polarized stars gives further information about such an influence. Based on these measurements I showed that the atmospheric influence on the polarization in rather small and thus negligible. For a practical implementation of an PolSK system with optical amplifier a market study is done to list appropriate devices. Two realizations of high sensitivity receivers, which use PIN photodiodes as detectors, are presented. Although the complexity of an PolSK system is higher than that of an OOK system, the advantages of PolSK in peak power limited systems such as the constant envelope of the transmit signal and the 3 dB sensitivity gain predominate the disadvantages. Thus, PolSK is a promising candidate to replace OOK as modulation system in optical free space communications through the atmosphere.
A column generation based heuristic for maximum lifetime coverage in wireless sensor networks

Several studies in recent years have considered many strategies for increasing sensor network lifetime. We focus on a centralised management scheme where a large number of sensors are randomly deployed in a region of interest to monitor a set of targets and we propose an adaptive scheduling by dividing sensors into non-disjoint cover sets, each cover set being active in different period of time. In this paper, we design a column generation (CG) method based heuristic for efficiently solving the maximum lifetime coverage problem. We first model the problem with a linear programming (LP) formulation for non-disjoint cover sets where the objective is to maximise the sum of activation times of cover sets, with respect the sensor’s battery lifetime. As the number of cover sets may be exponential to the number of sensors and targets, an initial set of cover sets is constructed and other cover sets are generated through the resolution of an auxiliary problem formulated as a integer programming (IP) problem. This problem is either solved at optimality by standard branch-and-bound or solved sub-optimally by a heuristic. Simulation eesults show the efficiency of the proposed heuristic which provides near optimal solutions while saving computational time.
In-rich AlxIn1−xN grown by RF-sputtering on sapphire: from closely-packed columnar to high-surface quality compact layers

The structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of In-rich AlxIn1−xN (0 < x < 0.39) layers grown by reactive radio-frequency (RF) sputtering on sapphire are investigated as a function of the deposition parameters. The RF power applied to the aluminum target (0 W–150 W) and substrate temperature (300 °C–550 °C) are varied. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that all samples have a wurtzite crystallographic structure oriented with the c-axis along the growth direction. The aluminum composition is tuned by changing the power applied to the aluminum target while keeping the power applied to the indium target fixed at 40 W. When increasing the Al content from 0 to 0.39, the room-temperature optical band gap is observed to blue-shift from 1.76 eV to 2.0 eV, strongly influenced by the Burstein–Moss effect. Increasing the substrate temperature, results in an evolution of the morphology from closely-packed columnar to compact. For a substrate temperature of 500 °C and RF power for Al of 150 W, compact Al0.39In0. 61N films with a smooth surface (root-mean-square surface roughness below 1 nm) are produced.
Explicit Solution for Constrained Scalar-State Stochastic Linear-Quadratic Control With Multiplicative Noise

We study in this paper, a class of constrained linear-quadratic (LQ) optimal control problem formulations for the scalar-state stochastic system with multiplicative noise, which has various applications, especially in the financial risk management. The linear constraint on both the control and state variables considered in our model destroys the elegant structure of the conventional LQ formulation and has blocked the derivation of an explicit control policy so far in the literature. We successfully derive in this paper, the analytical control policy for such a class of problems by utilizing the state separation property induced from its structure. We reveal that the optimal control policy is a piecewise affine function of the state and can be computed offline efficiently by solving two coupled Riccati equations. Under some mild conditions, we also obtain the stationary control policy for an infinite time horizon. We demonstrate the implementation of our method via some illustrative examples and show how to calibrate our model to solve dynamic constrained portfolio optimization problems.
Proton therapy in clinical practice: current clinical evidence.

Radiation therapy (RT), as primarily a localized form of treatment, strives for improved local tumor control and cure with few adverse effects. The physical characteristics of protons offer the theoretical benefit of more localized delivery of RT than can be achieved with photons produced by a linear accelerator. The improved dose distribution can potentially be exploited either by allowing higher RT doses to the tumor without increased RT-induced normal tissue toxicity or by reducing adverse effects at equally effective doses. Either of the two approaches is appealing, particularly when a critical normal structure is in close proximity to the tumor. Proton therapy has been in clinical use since the 1970s. It was initially used in two US centers (Boston, MA, and Loma Linda, CA) and subsequently in Europe (d’Orsay, France) and Japan (Tsukuba, Japan); these centers reported most of the initial clinical results. The principal sites chosen for the evaluation of protons were uveal melanomas and tumors at the skull base. Other disease sites were subsequently treated including head and neck and liver tumors; tumors in the brain, upper abdomen, and pelvis; lung cancer; and tumors in the vicinity of the spinal cord. The main rationale had been poor local disease control with conventional therapy, and the proximity of critical dose-limiting normal tissue, which is a bar to safe dose escalation using conventional photon RT. The introduction had frequently been underpinned by planning studies demonstrating, in selected cases, improved dose distribution of protons compared with photons. The perception of physical and clinical advantage has led to the establishment of new clinical facilities, and some tens of thousands of patients are claimed to have been treated to date. The necessary prerequisite for introduction of such technologically complex treatment into the clinical arena is enthusiasm for particle therapy, a belief in its benefit, and considerable financial outlay. The investment in clinical facilities offering proton therapy should not simply follow enthusiasm and belief in the new technology but should be firmly based on objective outcome data demonstrating the real additional value of protons over photons using the criteria of evidence-based medicine. This article attempts to review the currently available clinical evidence.
Effect of Training on Knowledge Regarding Bio Medical Waste Management among Sanitation Staff: An Intervention Study from a Tertiary Care Centre of Uttar Pradesh. -

Background: Health care services are important for our health but the huge amount of bio medical waste generated from it. Unregulated handling of biomedical waste is emerging as a serious threat to human health and safety. Even after a decade biomedical waste management in India is in primitive stage. Objectives: To assess the existing knowledge of biomedical waste management among sanitation staff and to find out the effectiveness of training regarding the knowledge of biomedical waste management among sanitation staff. Materials and Methods: The Present study was conducted among 100 sanitation staff working in UPRIMS & R, Saifai, Etawah (UP) from January to March 2014. Data collection tool consisted of a structured interview questionnaire to assess the knowledge of sanitation staff regarding biomedical waste management. After pre-intervention data collection the study participants were trained on bio medical waste management. Data were analyzed by using SPSS 16.0 and statistics mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage of distribution were calculated. To study the effectiveness of the training t-test was applied. Results: Maximum of the study subjects were in the age group 31-40 years (46.0%), 71.0% male and maximum having educational qualification junior high school and below. Majority (48%) of the sanitation staff had poor knowledge, and only 6% had good knowledge regarding biomedical waste management. Sanitation staff had highest knowledge in the area of waste generation and prevention against biohazards and least in the area of waste handling and collection. After intervention, improvement was observed in knowledge of sanitation staff regarding all the areas of bio medical waste management. Conclusion: Regular training programs of sanitation staff on bio medical waste are very important and this should be done at regular interval.
Estimating individual-level interaction effects in multilevel models: a Monte Carlo simulation study with application*

ABSTRACT Moderated multiple regression provides a useful framework for understanding moderator variables. These variables can also be examined within multilevel datasets, although the literature is not clear on the best way to assess data for significant moderating effects, particularly within a multilevel modeling framework. This study explores potential ways to test moderation at the individual level (level one) within a 2-level multilevel modeling framework, with varying effect sizes, cluster sizes, and numbers of clusters. The study examines five potential methods for testing interaction effects: the Wald test, F-test, likelihood ratio test, Bayesian information criterion (BIC), and Akaike information criterion (AIC). For each method, the simulation study examines Type I error rates and power. Following the simulation study, an applied study uses real data to assess interaction effects using the same five methods. Results indicate that the Wald test, F-test, and likelihood ratio test all perform similarly in terms of Type I error rates and power. Type I error rates for the AIC are more liberal, and for the BIC typically more conservative. A four-step procedure for applied researchers interested in examining interaction effects in multi-level models is provided.
STICKY INFORMATION VERSUS STICKY PRICES : A PROPOSAL TO REPLACE THE NEW KEYNESIAN PHILLIPS CURVE *

This paper examines a model of dynamic price adjustment based on the assumption that information disseminates slowly throughout the population. Compared to the commonly used sticky-price model, this sticky-information model displays three related properties that are more consistent with accepted views about the effects of monetary policy. First, disinflations are always contractionary (although announced disinflations are less contractionary than surprise ones). Second, monetary policy shocks have their maximum impact on inflation with a substantial delay. Third, the change in inflation is positively correlated with the level of economic activity. * We are grateful to Alberto Alesina, Marios Angeletos, Laurence Ball, William Dupor, Martin Eichenbaum, Chris Foote, Xavier Gabaix, Mark Gertler, Bennett McCallum, Ken Rogoff, Julio Rotemberg, Michael Woodford, and anonymous referees for comments on an earlier draft. Reis is grateful to the Fundacao Ciencia e Tecnologia, Praxis XXI, for financial support.
The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy Evaluation of a Coaching Experiential Learning Project on OT Evaluation of a Coaching Experiential Learning Project on OT Student Abilities and Perceptions Student Abilities and Perceptions

Abstract IInnovative teaching methods to address emerging practice needs are critical components of effective occupational therapy education. Experiential learning strategies can enhance skill development and translation of knowledge into OT clinical practice. In addition, skills such as coaching may provide important links to health promotion practices. Thirty-two occupational therapy students took part in an experiential project to connect occupational engagement and health for a community of older adults. A pretest/posttest design was used to evaluate program outcomes in student perceived abilities, and narrative reflection papers provided postexperience qualitative information. The students improved in all 10 areas of abilities self-assessment with mean total scores from pretest (M = 42) improving significantly at posttest (M = 58). Themes from reflection papers indicated a positive response to experiential learning and a desire for more opportunities to prepare for clinical practice, including the use of interprofessional training. The students improved in their abilities to use coaching and health promotion strategies through the use of experiential learning methods. Outcomes suggest that experiential learning opportunities are an effective way to enhance student competencies in coaching, improve readiness for wellness programming, and increase student confidence in application of skills in future clinical practice.