Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An adaptive regional vulnerability assessment model: Review and concepts for data-scarce regions

Abstract. Although the vulnerability indicator method has been applied to several data-scarce regions, a missing linkage with damage grades had hindered its application for loss evaluation to complement disaster risk reduction efforts. To address this gap, we present a review of physical vulnerability indicators and flood damage models to gain insights on best practice. Thereafter, we present a conceptual framework for linking the vulnerability indicators and damage grades using three phases (i) developing a vulnerability index, (ii) identifying regional damage grades, and (iii) linking vulnerability index classes with damage grades. The vulnerability index comprehensively integrates elements of the hazard using a Building Impact Index (BII) on one hand, and exposure, susceptibility and local protection elements using a Building Resistance Index (BRI) on the other hand. For the damage grades, local expert assessments are used for identifying and categorizing frequently observed regional damage patterns. Finally, by means of synthetic what-if analysis, experts are asked to estimate damage grades for each interval of the BII and class of BRI to develop a vulnerability curve. The proposed conceptual framework can be used for damage prediction in data-scarce regions to support loss assessment and to provide guidance for disaster risk reduction.
Patterns and Severity of Injuries in Patients Following Road Traffic Accidents – A Medicolegal Aspects

Background and purpose: Road traffic accident (RTA) is the major cause of the morbidity and mortality throughout the world and the incidence is still very high in developed and developing countries. With the objective to see the pattern and severity of the injury following RTA from the medico legal point of view, this study was design in a tertiary care centre at far eastern part of Nepal. Material and method: This is a prospective analytical study with nonprobability consecutive sampling of road traffic accidents cases presented in the emergency department during period of 6 months. Type of study: Prospective Analytical study. Result: There were total 210 cases of road traffic accidents with mean age of 31.8 (SD 15.7) years where majority were at 20-29 years of age group and males were the majority. Majority of the cases had injuries to the extremities followed by head. Grievous injury and life threatening injuries were also a common finding in this study. Conclusion: Road traffic accidents are more common among male, bike/scooter rider and 22-29 years of age group. Majority of the injury were fracture/dislocation of extremities and intracranial injuries. As per the medicolegal aspect, grievous and life threatening injuries were common findings among patients with road traffic accidents.
Characterization of particulate organic matter in a Guanabara Bay- coastal ocean transect using elemental, isotopic and molecular markers

Particulate organic matter (POM) from two periods (summer and fall) was characterized in a transect along the transition of the Guanabara Bay to the coastal ocean by elemental composition (C and N), isotopic ratios (δC and δN) and molecular markers (sterols, n-alcohols and fatty acids). Elemental (C/N of 5-7) and isotopic (δC= -25.3 to -16.2 ‰ and δN = 4.6 to 11.2 ‰) signatures were typical of planktonic organic matter. Fatty acids (totals of 12.08 ± 7.78 μg L in summer and 22.06 ± 13.75 μg L in the fall) occurred as shortchain, monoand poly-unsaturated compounds. Total sterol concentrations ranged from 0.36 to 7.32 μg L, with predominance of cholesterol and phytosterols. Alcohols were a minor component (0.17 to 1.33 μg L). The multi-marker approach revealed an overwhelming contribution of autochthonous POM sources, reflecting the influence of the Guanabara Bay outflow on ecological processes in the transition zone considered herein. In addition, fecal material is also exported, although as a low intensity process. Moreover, the terrestrially-derived POM was not exported from the bay and accumulates in inner sediment. This supports the necessity to quantify such contributions to better constrain the carbon balance in the bay.
Dynamic capabilities and performance: A supply chain perspective

Ever changing market environment in terms of technology and competitive situation requires firms to continuously reconfigure their resource configurations. Based on the dynamic capabilities view of the firm, we propose the dynamic capabilities relevant in the context of supply chains. We conceptualize dynamic capabilities of a firm as consisting of multiple levels. Capabilities at the highest level affect the formation of first order dynamic supply chain capabilities. Furthermore, first order capabilities modify the operational capabilities. We propose constructs for second and first order dynamic supply chain capabilities. Performance implications of dynamic supply chain capabilities have also been empirically tested based on data from 275 managers from Pakistani manufacturing industry. The results show a support for the assertions by dynamic capability theorists.
The governance of cooperative federations , a first insight

Cooperative federations have a specific ownership structure: they are cooperatives of cooperatives and can be considered as closely held organizations, as cooperative federations generally include less than 10 member cooperatives. As such, their governance is characterized by the vaguely defined property rights of cooperatives and the specific features of closely held organizations. In this research, we use the cooperative theory and the corporate governance literature to examine the pros and cons of this particular ownership structure. Our goal is to contribute to fill the lack of theory for thinking about the governance of cooperative federation. Key-words: cooperative federations; corporate governance; ownership structure; closely held organizations
Traumatic cervical spine injury: Short-and medium-term prognostic factors in 102 patients

Background: Traumatic cervical spine injuries (CSIs) can be defined as osteodiscoligamentous lesions and are frequent in the young and active population. These lesions are often associated with significant devastating neurological deficits. Here, we sought to establish short-and medium-term prognostic factors that could help predict future outcomes. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 102 adults admitted for traumatic CSI over an 11-year period (January 2004–December 2014). Patients were graded using Frankel scale as exhibiting good or poor outcomes. Results: Two risk factors that significantly predicted results for CSI included original poor Frankel grades (e.g., A and B) and initial neurovegetative disorders (e.g., respectively, P = 0.019 and P = 0.001). However, we did not anticipate that two other risk factors, operative delay and mechanism of trauma, would not significantly adversely impact outcomes. Conclusion: Here, we identified two significant risk factors for predicting poor outcomes following CSI; poor initial Frankel Grades A and B and neurovegetative disorders at the time of original presentation.
ASSESSMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS AMONG NURSING STAFF INSIDE INTENSIVE CARE UNITS IN A MILITARY MEDICAL COMPLEX

This study assessed occupational hazards among nursing staff in intensive care units in a Military Hospital. The study sample consisted of 70 nurses working in ICUs during the study time. A descriptive cross sectional research design was used in carrying out the study. The study conducted in the intensive care units at El Galaa Military Medical Complex. Data collection tool was questionnaire sheet of two parts, socio- demographic characteristics of nurses and risk assessment questionnaire. The results showed that exposure to stress and environmental risk were highest at oncology ICU, exposure to biological risks gave the highest percentage in internal medicine ICU and exposure to radiation was the highest in neurology ICU
Factors associated with delayed diagnosis of breast cancer; a study in North-West of Iran

Introduction: Delayed diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer leads to the presentation of the disease in advanced stages necessitating more invasive surgical interventions, increasing health care costs and mortality rate, and finally reduced patients’ survival. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the factors associated with delayed diagnosis of breast cancer in the north-west of Iran. Patients and Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted on 70 breast cancer patients referred to the cancer registry of Ardabil city, north-west of Iran. The time from the presentation of clinical symptoms to the initiation of treatment was determined by interviews to identify the system and patients’ delays. The data was analyzed in SPSS 19 with the level of significance as P<0.05. Results: The mean age of the patients was 43.3 ± 13.2 years. The means of total, patient, and system related delays were 9.4±1.6 weeks, 6.3 ± 9.9 weeks, and 3.1 ± 2.8 weeks respectively. Regression analysis showed that age, marital status, educational level, monthly income, fear of cancer, and residency were significantly associated with patients’ delay. Conclusion: Our results highlighted the important role of patients’ related factors in delayed diagnosis of breast cancer. Therefore, it is essential to educate individuals for timely referrals to physicians.
Applying deep learning models to structural MRI for stage prediction of Alzheimer's disease

: Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disease that causes impaired cognitive abilities in memory, concentration, planning, and speaking. Alzheimer’s disease is defined as the most common cause of dementia and changes different parts of the brain. Neuroimaging, cerebrospinal fluid, and some protein abnormalities are commonly used as clinical diagnostic biomarkers. In this study, neuroimaging biomarkers were applied for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia as a noninvasive method. Structural magnetic resonance (MR) brain images were used as input of the predictive model. T1 weighted volumetric MR images were reduced to two-dimensional space by several preprocessing methods for three different projections. Convolutional neural network (CNN) models took preprocessed brain images, and the training and testing of the CNN models were carried out with two different data sets. The CNN models achieved accuracy values around 0.8 for diagnosis of both Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. The experimental results revealed that the diagnosis of patients with mild cognitive impairment was more difficult than that of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The proposed deep learning-based model might serve as an efficient and practical diagnostic tool when MRI data are integrated with other clinical tests.
Unsteady Waves Generated by Flow over a Porous Layer

A linear model of free surface flow is derived from two boundary value problems, each of which presents a flow in a different medium. The upper medium is fluid, and the lower one is porous medium. Since the flow is disturbed by an un-flat surface of the porous medium, the disturbance is then performed to the fluid surface as surface waves. The model is generalization of the impermeable bottom and also generalization of the steady flow. We solve the model numerically by a finite difference method of forwarded time averaged centered space. As a result, we perform the wave generation of the flow disturbed by bumps on porous layer. The effect of the uniform upstream and the porous layer is observed to the generated surface wave.
A NON INVASIVE METHOD FOR DIAGNOSIS AND ASSESSMENT OF PORTAL HYPERTENSION IN EGYPTIAN CIRRHOTIC PATIENTS USING PLASMA MALONDIALDEHYDE LEVEL

Liver cirrhosis is a common disease affecting Egyptian patients. Complications of liver cirrhosis usually start once portal hypertension increases. To the authors’ knowledge, there are no available non-invasive methods for assessment of the severity of portal hypertension. This study evaluated the value of plasma Malondialdehyde (MDA) - a lipid peroxide marker for oxidative stress, as a diagnostic biomarker, to assess severity of Portal Hypertension in Egyptian cirrhotic patients. It is a case-control study conducted on a total of 150 Egyptian patients divided into two groups. GI: 100 patients diagnosed as liver cirrhosis with esophageal varices proved by upper GIT endoscopy. GII: 50 normal controls. Serum MDA was measured by ELISA technique. The results showed that MDA assay between the two groups revealed significant statisticaldifference between the two studied groups. Correlation between MDA and the clinical parameters in the cirrhotic group showed a significant positive correlation with ascites, Child Pugh score, varices grade, while there was no correlation with sex.
Analysing Risk Preferences and Time Preferences with respect to Smoking Status and Smoking Intensity

Smoking is a leading cause of death worldwide, and thus the behavioural components need to be understood to mitigate the damage caused by the practice. The relationship between smoking and factors such as risk preferences and time preferences has been the subject of a growing body of literature. This paper evaluates experimental data from smokers and nonsmokers at the University of Cape Town collected in 2016 and 2017. Maximum likelihood estimation is used to estimate models of risk preferences and time preferences. The results highlight that smokers are less risk averse than non-smokers; that smokers discount more heavily than non-smokers; that greater smoking intensity is correlated with lower risk aversion; and that greater smoking intensity is not related to discounting behaviour. In some specifications the relationship between smoking intensity and risk aversion is parabolic, and as such moderate smokers are less risk averse than heavy smokers and light smokers. In conclusion, smokers tend to discount more heavily than non-smokers, and lower smoking intensity is associated with greater risk aversion than higher smoking intensity.
¿Pueden los MOOC Cerrar la Brecha de Oportunidades?: La contribución del diseño pedagógico social inclusivo

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are open courses made available online at no cost to the user and designed to scale up, allowing for a large number of participants. As such, they are a disruptive new development which has the potential to widen access to higher education since they contribute to social inclusion, the dissemination of knowledge and pedagogical innovation. However, assuring quality learning opportunities to all cannot be simply reduced to allowing free access to higher education. On the contrary, it implies assuring equitable opportunities for every participant to succeed in their learning experience. This goal depends on the quality of the learning design. To be successful, a massive open online learning experience has to empower learners and to facilitate a networked learning environment. In fact, MOOCs are designed to serve a high heterogeneity of profiles, with many differences regarding learning needs and preferences, prior knowledge, contexts of participation and diversity of online platforms. Personalization can play a key role in this process. In this article, the authors describe the iMOOC pedagogical model and its later derivative, the sMOOC model, and explain how they contributed to the introduction of the principles of diversity and learner equity to MOOC design, allowing for a clear differentiation of learning paths and also of virtual environments, while empowering participants to succeed in their learning experiences. Using a design-based research approach, a comparative analysis of two course iterations each representing each model is also presented and discussed.
Durability studies on concrete with partial replacement of cement and fine aggregates by fly ash and tailing material

Commonly used concrete in general, consists of cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. Natural river sand is the most commonly used material as fine aggregate in concrete. One of the important requirements of concrete is that it should be durable under certain conditions of exposure. The durability of concrete is defined as its ability to resist weathering action, chemical attack or any other process of deterioration. Durable concrete will retain its original form, quality and serviceability when exposed to its environment. Deterioration can occur in various forms such as alkali aggregate expansion, freeze-thaw expansion, salt scaling by de-icing salts, shrinkage, attack on the reinforcement due to carbonation, sulphate attack on exposure to ground water, sea water attack and corrosion caused by salts. Addition of admixtures may control these effects. In this paper, an attempt has been made to replace part of fine aggregate by tailing material and part of cement by fly ash to improve the durability of concrete. The various durability tests performed were chemical attack tests such as sulphate attack, chloride attack and acid attack test and water absorption test. The concrete blend with 35% Tailing Material (TM) in place of river sand and 20% Fly Ash (FA) in place of OPC, has exhibited higher durability characteristics.
Induction Chemotherapy Followed by Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy in Filipinos With Locally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Cancer Institute Experience in a University Hospital

Purpose: The objectives of this study is to report the oncologic outcomes and safety and tolerability of induction chemotherapy in locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated at our institution – The Benavides Cancer Institute, University of Santo Tomas Hospital, Manila, Philippines Patients and Methods: Thirty-eight patients who underwent induction chemotherapy prior to concurrent chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma at our institution were retrospectively reviewed. Of these, 14 patients were excluded (5 patients had M1 disease at diagnosis, 5 patients received induction chemotherapy (IC) for recurrent disease, 4 patients had incomplete medical records) and 24 patients were included in the i nal outcomes and safety analysis. Results: With a median follow-up of 39 months, the median overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), locoregional failure-free survival (LRFFS) and distant failure-free survival (DFFS) were not reached. The 3-year OS, PFS, LRFFS, and DFFS rates were 60.75%, 57.93%, 52.96%, and 80.67% respectively. In terms of safety, the most common adverse event reported were anemia, nausea/vomiting, and mucositis with very few reported adverse events of neutropenia (4.2% all grades) and no reported case of febrile neutropenia. In terms of tolerability, 87.5% were able to complete three or more cycles of induction chemotherapy and 70.8% completed at least two cycles of cisplatin concurrent with radiotherapy. Conclusion: In this cohort of Filipinos with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, induction chemotherapy strategy appears to be safe and tolerable. Oncologic outcomes were less favorable compared to the published report possibly due to very advanced disease, less use of taxane-containing regimen in this cohort, less use of advanced radiotherapy (RT) technique such as IMRT, and small sample size.
Investigation of Rota And Corona Viruses as Causative Agents for Diarrhea in Egyptian Calves

Rota and Corona viruses are the major causes of calf scour involved in 27% to 36% of calf diarrheic in Egypt. This study was aimed to investigate frequency of Rota and Corona viruses in diarrheic cattle and buffalo calves in Egypt. A total of 82 fecal samples were collected from 0-1-month-old in three provinces in Egypt (Ismailia, Alexandria and Al-Sharqia). All fecal samples were tested by probe based real time polymerase chain reaction technique (qRT-PCR) to determine the presence of BRV and BCoV nucleic acids by using specific generic primers. Fourteen (17.1%) and 22 (26.8%) out of 82 fecal samples were positive for BRV and BCoV, respectively. Positivity percentage of different investigation parameters about both BRV and BCoV were calculated depending on our historical data. Corona and Rota viruses' infection in cattle were more predominant than buffalo calves. Infection rate of Coronavirus is more than Rotavirus infection in cattle calves of Ismailia than other studied provinces. Single infection of cattle or buffalo calves with both viruses is mostly predominant but double infection in the same animal species at the same time is possible. Infection rate of BRV and BCoV in cattle and buffalo calves is higher in winter than autumn, summer and spring.
CO-OCCURRENCE OF DIFFERENT INSECT SPECIES

The black soldier fly (BSF), Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) is well known as a non-pest tropical insect which is distributed in warm temperature and tropic regions. The larvae of this species consume mainly on decomposing organic materials. In this study, fermented coconut waste (CW) was used as oviposition media for black soldier fly. For each sampling, the oviposition media were placed inside five (5) black bins (43 cm diameter x 50 cm height) for ten days in Taman Flora, School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). There was co-occurrence of other insect species found in oviposition media of black soldier fly. A total of 3554 insects belonging to four (4) orders were encountered during the study period of eight months, namely, Blattidae, Coleoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera. Highest number of individuals was recorded from the order Diptera of the family Drosophilidae (N=1890, 53.18%) and followed by the family of Phoridae (N=1350, 37.99%). The percentage of insect species occurred in the following order, Epunaea luteolus (3.71%) ˃ Scarabaeidae (3.38%) ˃ Oecophylla smaragdina (0.90%) ˃ Symploce pallens (0.59%) ˃ Periplaneta fuliginosa (0.23%) ˃ and Paederus littoralis (0.03%). The finding of this study is of great important to identify the multiple species of insects that contribute either as visitor, decomposer, competitor, or predator to the black soldier fly colony.
A New MPPT Technique for Fast and Efficient Tracking under Fast Varying Solar Irradiation and Load Resistance

The maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is a strategy that allows imposing the PV array operation point on the maximum power point (MPP) or close to it under any environmental condition. The conventional incremental conductance (INC) algorithm is the most popular algorithm. But due to the fixed step size, its response speed is low under the rapid change of the solar irradiation level or load resistance. In this paper, a new MPPT technique is proposed to enhance the response speed. It consists of two stages: (1) the computing stage and (2) the regulating stage. The computing stage includes the coarse positioning operation and fine positioning operation. And an initial value of the duty cycle is generated in the computing stage, according to the characteristics of the DC-DC converter and the characteristics of the curve. The regulating stage regulates the duty cycle of the DC-DC converter with a small step size, which can improve the tracking efficiency. And the computing stage can enhance the response speed. A simulation comparison of the proposed MPPT technique with other techniques is carried out in MATLAB/Simulink under different scenarios. The simulation results reveal that the response of the proposed algorithm is 4.6 times faster than that of the INC under these scenarios, and the proposed algorithm has higher efficiency.