Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EVALUATION OF CONSUMER PREFERENCE FOR THE CONSUMPTION OF PROCESSED CHICKEN: A CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC SERVANTS IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

The study was conducted to examine the consumer preference for consumption of processed chicken among public servants in Ondo State, Nigeria. Primary data were used for this study with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. A multistage sampling procedure was used to randomly select 120 respondents. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation test and logistic regression were employed to analyze the data. The results showed that the mean age of the public servant was 39 years and about 52.5% of the workers were female. The average household size was 4, about 62.5% of the respondents were married and the public servant had an average working experience of 5 years. The results revealed that about 53.3% of the workers had preference for processed chicken and only 5.8% of the respondent consume processed chicken daily. Also, the result showed that 26.3% of monthly budget on food was spent on consumption of processed chicken, which amounted to N11,533.33. The result of acceptance of processed chicken showed that taste was the major factor to their preference and consumption of processed chicken. Also, there is a positive relationship between income and the quantity of processed chicken consumed. The logistic results showed that level of education, price of processed chicken, quantity consumed and income level were the major factors explaining the preference for processed chicken to other meat productsin the area. The result of the study also showed that high price, income level and market difficulties were the main constraints to consumption of processed chicken by the public servant. It was then recommended that unemployed graduates should be encouraged to take advantage of the available demand for processed chicken meat among public servants and broiler meat marketers should be enlightened about the availability of demand for processed chicken meat among public servants.
Using Random Forest Regression to Determine Influential Force-Time Metrics for Countermovement Jump Height: A Technical Report

Abstract Merrigan, JJ, Stone, JD, Wagle, JP, Hornsby, WG, Ramadan, J, Joseph, M, and Hagen, JA. Using random forest regression to determine influential force-time metrics for countermovement jump height: a technical report. J Strength Cond Res 36(1): 277–283, 2022—The purpose of this study was to indicate the most influential force-time metrics on countermovement jump (CMJ) height using multiple statistical procedures. Eighty-two National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I American football players performed 2 maximal-effort, no arm-swing, CMJs on force plates. The average absolute and relative (i.e., power/body mass) metrics were included as predictor variables, whereas jump height was the dependent variable within regression models (p < 0.05). Best subsets regression (8 metrics, R2 = 0.95) included less metrics compared with stepwise regression (18 metrics, R2 = 0.96), while explaining similar overall variance in jump height (p = 0.083). Random forest regression (RFR) models included 8 metrics, explained ∼93% of jump height variance, and were not significantly different than best subsets regression models (p > 0.05). Players achieved higher CMJs by attaining a deeper, faster, and more forceful countermovement with lower eccentric-to-concentric force ratios. An additional RFR was conducted on metrics scaled to body mass and revealed relative mean and peak concentric power to be the most influential. For exploratory purposes, additional RFR were run for each positional group and suggested that the most influential variables may differ across positions. Thus, developing power output capabilities and providing coaching to improve technique during the countermovement may maximize jump height capabilities. Scientists and practitioners may use best subsets or RFR analyses to help identify which force-time metrics are of interest to reduce the selectable number of multicollinear force-time metrics to monitor. These results may inform their training programs to maximize individual performance capabilities.
In vivo Evaluation of Antifertility Activity of Aqueous and Butanol Fractions of Methanolic Root Extract of Rumex steudelii in Female Mice and Rats

Background: In Ethiopia, to control fertility, traditional medicines have been used for many years. The crude methanolic root extract of Rumex steudelii (Tult) is believed to have anti-fertility effect. Objectives: To identify fraction(s) of crude methanolic root extract of Rumex steudelii responsible for antifertility effect, to suggest the possible mechanisms, to determine the oral Lethal Dose, 50% (LD50), and to screen the phytochemicals for the fractions. Methods: Preliminary screening for the antifertility activity was conducted in female mice at 700mg/kg and 900mg/kg using aqueous and butanol fraction from January to November, 2011, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia . Besides effect of the fractions at 900mg/kg on implantation, serum estrogen, progesterone, and cholesterol, the weight of genital organ and body weight was carried out. Results: The fractions reduced the number of litters at 700mg/kg and 900mg/kg (p<0.01). The aqueous fraction decreased implantation site (p<0.05) which was further supported by increase in serum progesterone level (p<0.001). The wet weight of the uterus was shown also to be reduced significantly (p<0.05). The LD50 of the aqueous and butanol fractions was found to be 10.475g/kg and 7.080g/kg, respectively. Determination of the secondary metabolites in these fractions indicated the presence of phytosterols, polyphenols and tannins, which could be responsible constituents for their antifertility effects. Conclusion: The aqueous fraction showed more antifertility activity and higher lethal dose than butanol fraction. Further investigations on the quantity of screened phytochemicals and efficacy, safety, isolation, characterization and structural elucidation of active principles on these fractions should be conducted. Moreover the antifertility effects and phytochemical screening of other fractions need to be investigated.
Occurrence of Pesticides Associated with an Agricultural Drainage System in a Mediterranean Environment

Surface water pollution (as a result of pesticides) is a major problem, due to the negative impact on human health and ecosystems. The excessive use and persistence of surface water pollution in the environment may present a notable risk. In this article, DDT and its metabolite DDE hereafter, DDT–DDE), and a commonly used pesticide (herbicide) glyphosate, were analyzed in agricultural drainage waters; afterward, a spatial analysis was applied to identify potential areas of high pesticide occurrence in an agricultural Mediterranean coastal floodplain. The spatial distribution of banned (Directive 79/117/EEC), yet highly persistent pesticides in the environment, such as DDT (and metabolites), was compared with the (currently and mostly used) glyphosate. A sequence of various point patterns, spatial analysis methods, and non-parametric statistics, were computed to elucidate the pesticide pollution hotspots. As a reference value, almost 70% of the water samples were above the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline for DDT (and metabolites) for drinking water (1 µg/L), with a maximum of 6.53 µg/L. Our spatial analysis approach revealed a significantly high concentration of DDT–DDE clusters close to wetlands in natural parks, where mosquitos are abundant, and pesticides persist and flow to the surface waters from soil and groundwater pools. Conversely, glyphosate concentrations were below WHO guidelines; their spatial patterns were related more toward current agricultural uses in the southern sector of the study area.
Anisotropic interaction and motion states of locusts in a hopper band

Swarming locusts present a quintessential example of animal collective motion. Juvenile locusts march and hop across the ground in coordinated groups called hopper bands. Composed of up to millions of insects, hopper bands exhibit aligned motion and various collective structures. These groups are well-documented in the field, but the individual insects themselves are typically studied in much smaller groups in laboratory experiments. We present the first trajectory data that detail the movement of individual locusts within a hopper band in a natural setting. Using automated video tracking, we derive our data from footage of four distinct hopper bands of the Australian plague locust, Chortoicetes terminifera. We reconstruct nearly twenty-thousand individual trajectories composed of over 3.3 million locust positions. We classify these data into three motion states: stationary, walking, and hopping. Distributions of relative neighbor positions reveal anisotropies that depend on motion state. Stationary locusts have high-density areas distributed around them apparently at random. Walking locusts have a low-density area in front of them. Hopping locusts have low-density areas in front and behind them. Our results suggest novel insect interactions, namely that locusts change their motion to avoid colliding with neighbors in front of them.
Quality of Life in Patients with Neovascular Age Related Mascular Degeneration (n-AMD) Seen in a Public Hospital of Malaysia

The purpose of the present study was to assess quality of life (QOL) in n-AMD patients seen in a Malaysian public hospital and to further identify visual and demographic factors that may contribute to QOL scores of these patients. Patients with any form of n-AMD in at least one eye were recruited from hospital’s ophthalmology department. Bahasa Malaysia version of National Eye Institute Visual function questionnaire-25 (NEI-VFQ-25) was administered to all participants. Demographics, visual functions (VF) including best corrected distance visual acuity (BCDVA), contrast sensitivity (CS), near visual acuity (NVA) and reading speed (RS) were recorded. Eighty-six patients (Malay=26, Indian=23, Chinese=37) aged 52 to 85 years, diagnosed with n-AMD were chosen to participate. Their mean NEI-VFQ composite score (NEI-VFQ CS) was 66.91 ± 13.07. However, no significant difference in NEI-VFQ CS between gender, races and between the two sub groups of n-AMD were observed (p>0.05). NEI-VFQ CS showed a significant association with RS (correlation coefficient (ρ) =0.627), NVA (ρ = -.660), BCDVA (ρ = -.586), CS (ρ =.0.515). A linear model showed that a combination of BCDVA, NVA, CS is accounted for a significant 38 % variability of NEI-VFQ CS (R2 =0.382, p<0.001). In conclusion, the QOL of Malaysian n-AMD patients were found to be low. Thus, the study results indicated the need of developing necessary management strategies to address this QOL issues in n-AMD patients in Malaysia. Furthermore, the present study suggested incorporating appropriate VF such as near acuity, contrast sensitivity, reading speed in clinical settings while assessing n-AMD patients as these VF explain the patient’s perception about the impact of this disease.
Recent technical advances in radiofrequency ablations for hepatocellular carcinoma

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has regarded as a curative treatment method for early stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), providing comparable overall survival to surgical resection. However, lack of ideal guiding modality for RFA procedure and higher rate of local tumor progression (LTP) after treatment than surgical resection have been important limitations. To overcome the current limitations of RFA, the fusion imaging between real-time ultrasound and reference computed tomography/magnetic resonance images has been introduced. The fusion imaging could improve the feasibility of RFA for HCC by helping the accurate identification of target HCC, especially for invisible small HCC. In addition, RFA using multiple electrodes with multi-channel generator and various energy delivery modes could improve the therapeutic efficacy, by creating larger ablation volume than RFA using a single electrode. RFA using multiple electrodes can allow no touch ablation technique, which might have a potential to reduce LTP. In this review, these recently introduced ablation techniques will be discussed with the results of both animal and clinical studies.
Explainable information retrieval using deep learning for medical images

Image segmentation is useful to extract valuable information for an efficient analysis on the region of interest. Mostly, the number of images generated from a real life situation such as streaming video, is large and not ideal for traditional segmentation with machine learning algorithms. This is due to the following factors (a) numerous image features (b) complex distribution of shapes, colors and textures (c) imbalance data ratio of underlying classes (d) movements of the camera, objects and (e) variations in luminance for site capture. So, we have proposed an efficient deep learning model for image classification and the proof-of-concept has been the case studied on gastrointestinal images for bleeding detection. The Ex plainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) module has been utilized to reverse engineer the test results for the impact of features on a given test dataset. The architecture is generally applicable in other areas of image classification. The proposed method has been compared with state-of-the-art including Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine, Artificial Neural Network and Random Forest. It has reported F1 score of 0.76 on the real world streaming dataset which is comparatively better than traditional methods.
An Integrated Framework on Service Recovery Performance: The Mediating Role of Organizational Commitment

This study aims to provide a summary review of what is already known about service recovery performance and recognizes some emergent issues that assume a vital part in it. By synthesizing extant service recovery literature, this article seeks further understanding of service recovery performance and offers priorities for ongoing research on this area in the telecom industry in Pakistan. Despite, there been a substantial amount of discussion done to address the service recovery performance issue that is featuring massive challenges, there is a certain paucity of information regarding the subject matter in Pakistan. This study provides a conceptual framework intended to broaden the comprehension of service recovery performance and the impact of the evolving role of selected internal marketing practices. For instance, internal communication, employee rewards, employee training, and employee empowerment. Finally, presenting the mediation role of organizational commitment in the proposed framework make an important contribution to the existing literature on service recovery performance by addressing both practical and conceptual aspects.
Low regularity a priori estimates for the fourth order cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation

We consider the low regularity behavior of the fourth order cubic nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation (4NLS) \begin{align*} \begin{cases} i\partial_tu+\partial_x^4u=\pm \vert u \vert^2u, \quad(t,x)\in \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}\\ u(x,0)=u_0(x)\in H^s\left(\mathbb{R}\right). \end{cases} \end{align*} In arXiv:1911.03253, the author showed that this equation is globally well-posed in $H^s, s\geq -\frac{1}{2}$ and ill-posedness in the sense that the solution map fails to be uniformly continuous for $-\frac{15}{14}<s<-\frac{1}{2}$. Therefore, $s=-\frac{1}{2}$ is the lowest regularity that can be handled by the contraction argument. In spite of this ill-posedness result, we obtain a priori bound below $s<-1/2$. This a priori estimate guarantees the existence of a weak solution for $-3/4<s<-1/2$. But we cannot establish full well-posedness because of the lack of energy estimate of differences of solutions. Our method is inspired by Koch-Tataru \cite{KT2007}. We use the $U^p$ and $V^p$ based spaces adapted to frequency dependent time intervals on which the nonlinear evolution can be still described by linear dynamics.
ASSESSMENT OF SAPONIN RICH FRACTION FROM BALANITESAEGYPTIACA (L

Saponin rich fraction of Balanites fruits (SRF) was administered orally at a dose 250 mg/kg to schistosoma infected mice. Treatment with SRF showed amelioration signs in all biomarkers that confirmed by significant reduction in oogram, ova count and worm burden. Histopathological examination showed extensive reduction in granuloma sizes six weeks post treatment. Our results showed time dependant inhibition in the DNA damage induced in infected mice after treatment. Saponins were also successfully synthesized by callus cultures using Murashige and Skoog media. NMR analysis illustrated the presence of four major saponins of furostanol type from both fruits of natural plant and calli. Thus, SRF of B.aegyptiaca fruits possesses antischistomiasis activity. Antioxidant and antimutagenic activities could be considered as a possible mechanisms of action. Additionally, Balanites aegyptiaca saponins could be produced in continuous manner using in vitro cultures as future vision for drug production to overcome scarce of active metabolites and endangered plant.
How can advance care planning support hope in patients with advanced cancer and their families: A qualitative study as part of the international ACTION trial

Abstract Objective Clinicians' fears of taking away patients' hope is one of the barriers to advance care planning (ACP). Research on how ACP supports hope is scarce. We have taken up the challenge to specify ways in which ACP conversations may potentially support hope. Methods In an international qualitative study, we explored ACP experiences of patients with advanced cancer and their personal representatives (PRs) within the cluster‐randomised control ACTION trial. Using deductive analysis of data obtained in interviews following the ACP conversations, this substudy reports on a theme of hope. A latent thematic analysis was performed on segments of text relevant to answer the research question. Results Twenty patients with advanced cancer and 17 PRs from Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom were participating in post‐ACP interviews. Three themes reflecting elements that provide grounds for hope were constructed. ACP potentially supports hope by being (I) a meaningful activity that embraces uncertainties and difficulties; (II) an action towards an aware and empowered position; (III) an act of mutual care anchored in commitments. Conclusion Our findings on various potentially hope supporting elements of ACP conversations provide a constructive way of thinking about hope in relation to ACP that could inform practice.
Causes and criteria of disharmonies in family system functioning

The article highlights the problem of finding the causes of disharmonies in marital relations and the criteria for the normal functioning of a family system. Dysfunction or disturbances of family functioning are such features of family life that complicate or hinder execution of family functions. A dysfunctional family in a broad sense means a system determining distortions of personal development and, therefore, maladaptive, deviant behaviour or neurotic disorders at one or more of the family members. The aim of the study is to identify the causes of disharmony in marital relations and the criteria for normal functioning of a family as a system. The empirical part of this study was devoted to determining the causes of such disharmonies in marital relationships that subsequently led to divorce. The study was conducted during the family counselling of married men, women and married couples who were in the process of divorce. The next criteria for normal family functioning have been determined: respect for differences; sincerity in expressing thoughts and feelings; dynamic relationships; role sharing; observance of personal boundaries; family openness; emotional and spiritual intimacy.
IMPROVEMENT OF WRITING SKILLS USING ACTIVITY BASED METHOD OF LEARNING AT GRADE-VI

This study was undertaken to investigate the outcome of using the activity based learning method on the development of writing skills of students of grade 6. The study used pretest post-test equivalent group design. 50 students were randomly selected from a government school as sample for this study. They were divided into experimental and control groups based on the scores they achieved in pre-test. Students in the experimentalgroup received instruction through activity based method of learning. In contrast, the traditional method of teaching writing was used for teaching the control group. A comparison of pre- and post-test scores on writing measure evidenced that the experimental group performed better that the control group on writing post-test. It was concluded that activities helped enhance the writing skills of the experimental group. This finding suggests that students of elementary level should be engaged in activity based learning to enhance their writing skills.
The Neglected Liaison: Targeting Cancer Cell Metabolic Reprogramming Modifies the Composition of Non-Malignant Populations of the Tumor Microenvironment

Simple Summary Along with cancer cells, tumor mass also contains numerous types of non-malignant cell populations, all together contributing to an organ-like multicellular organization. This review underlines the importance of taking into consideration the effects metabolic drugs used for cancer therapy may exert on the cells of the tumor microenvironment. Abstract Metabolic reprogramming is a well-known hallmark of cancer, whereby the development of drugs that target cancer cell metabolism is gaining momentum. However, when establishing preclinical studies and clinical trials, it is often neglected that a tumor mass is a complex system in which cancer cells coexist and interact with several types of microenvironment populations, including endothelial cells, fibroblasts and immune cells. We are just starting to understand how such populations are affected by the metabolic changes occurring in a transformed cell and little is known about the impact of metabolism-targeting drugs on the non-malignant tumor components. Here we provide a general overview of the links between cancer cell metabolism and tumor microenvironment (TME), particularly focusing on the emerging literature reporting TME-specific effects of metabolic therapies.
Parallel Data Distribution Management on Shared-memory Multiprocessors

The problem of identifying intersections between two sets of d-dimensional axis-parallel rectangles appears frequently in the context of agent-based simulation studies. For this reason, the High Level Architecture (HLA) specification—a standard framework for interoperability among simulators—includes a Data Distribution Management (DDM) service whose responsibility is to report all intersections between a set of subscription and update regions. The algorithms at the core of the DDM service are CPU-intensive, and could greatly benefit from the large computing power of modern multi-core processors. In this article, we propose two parallel solutions to the DDM problem that can operate effectively on shared-memory multiprocessors. The first solution is based on a data structure (the interval tree) that allows concurrent computation of intersections between subscription and update regions. The second solution is based on a novel parallel extension of the Sort Based Matching algorithm, whose sequential version is considered among the most efficient solutions to the DDM problem. Extensive experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithms confirm their effectiveness on taking advantage of multiple execution units in a shared-memory architecture.