Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vision Improvement Using Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles-Doped PMMA for Contact Lenses

تظهر المركبات النانوية المعتمده في تركيبها على المواد البوليمريه خصائص بصرية مختلفة مثل معامل الانكسار العالي و عدد آبي و كذلك نفاذية عالية للضوء المرئي حوالي 95-99 %. تم اقتراح جزيئات ثنائي اوكسيد التيتانيوم النانوية كمرشح جيد لزيادة معامل الانكسار و الحفاظ على نفاذية الضوء المرئي عند دمجه مع بوليمر بولي مثيل ميثا اكريليت لان ثنائي اوكسد التيتانيوم يمتلك معامل انكسار عالي = 2.45 و 2.7 للطورين الانتازي و روتيل على التوالي. الهدف من هذا العمل هو تحضير عدسات لاصقه من بولي مثيل ميثا اكريليت النقي و اخرى من بولي مثيل ميثا اكريليت المشوب بثنائي اوكسيد التيتانيوم النانوي بتراكيز مختلفة من الجسيمات النانوية و دراسة تأثيرها على العين البشرية. تم استخدام برنامج التصاميم البصرية زيماكس لنمذجة العين البشرية بالاعتماد على نموذج ليو و برينان للعين و بعد ذلك تم تطبيق العدسات النقية و المشوبة. تم تقييم الكفائة البصرية باستخدام دالة التضمين و محاكاة الصورة. اضهرت المعايير المستخدمة افضل كفاءة للرؤيا تم الحصول عليها عند استخدام العدسة المشوبة بنسبة 0.1 وزن/حجم من ثنائي اوكسيد التيتانيوم النانوي حيث قللت الزيوغ الكروية و اللونية المتولدة داخل العين البشرية.
An Evaluation of English Textbook “Prospect 2”: Teachers and Teacher Educators’ Perceptions in the Spotlight

This study endeavored to evaluate the local English textbook named “Prospect 2” taught in junior high schools in Iran based on a group of Iranian EFL teachers and teacher educators’ perspectives. For this purpose, 10 (6 males and 4 females) teacher educators and 117 (54 males and 63 females) junior high school EFL teachers from Golestan Province, Iran took part in this study. To gather the required data, the modified version of Mukundan’s (2011) questionnaire was utilized as a textbook evaluation checklist to investigate the participants’ perspectives toward suitability, strengths, and shortcomings of the book. The outcomes of this research revealed that the participants of the two groups mainly had positive attitudes toward the book. Further findings of this research did not present any significant difference between teachers and teacher educators’ views toward the book. Finally, some concluding remarks regarding the overall findings of the study were presented. Main implications of the study were that teachers should attempt to incorporate suitable and practical methods for the instruction and promotion of the communicative language teaching approach in the class as an approach on which the book is based and try to cater for the shortcomings of the book through providing supplementary materials and alternative activities for the students.
Determination of Age at Menarche and its Association with Socio-Economic Status and Physical Activity: A Study Among Tibetan Adolescent Girls of Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh, India

Background: Age at menarche (AAM) marks the formal beginning of sexual maturation in girls. Present study focuses on determining the AAM among Tibetan girls and its association with socio-economic status (SES) and physical activity level. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 276 Tibetan adolescent girls (13 to 18 years) in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. Data was collected using a proforma, consisting of questions regarding sociodemographic profile, AAM and physical activity level (PAQA). Data was entered in MS-Excel and analyzed in SPSS 20.0. Results: Early menarche was observed in majority of girls with most frequent AAM as 13 years for the sample. A significant difference of AAM categories was found with SES and level of physical activity. Conclusion: Girls who were in better socio-economic category and were physically more active attained menarche at an earlier age in comparison to others.
Structural change and financial fragility in the Colombian business sector: A post Keynesian approach

Este articulo busca establecer el vinculo teorico y empirico entre el cambio estructural y la fragilidad financiera a partir de las teorias de la Ley de Thirllwall y la inestabilidad financiera de Minsky. Para ello se realiza un analisis descriptivo y econometrico de panel para 1846 empresas colombianas durante el periodo 1996-2015. Se construye un novedoso indicador de fragilidad financiera y desde alli se establece una relacion entre los balances de la empresa, el cambio estructural, el crecimiento economico, el tamano de la firma y el efecto Minsky que mide laendogeneidad del ciclo a la deuda.
AN EXPECTANCY VALUE THEORY PREDICTS ACHIEVEMENT IN UNDERGRADUATE STATISTICS THROUGH ACADEMIC DELAY OF GRATIFICATION

We tested a model that integrates academic delay of gratification with Expectancy Value Theory to predict achievement in an undergraduate psychology and nursing statistics class at a metropolitan university in the southeastern United States. We analyzed measurements (n = 163: 80.4% female) of past performance, academic delay of gratification, effort, value, affect, and cognitive competence with students’ final exam score. The path model analyzed explained 14.9% of the variance in scores. Past performance inmathematics and student effort had direct effects on grades and all expectancy value theory constructs, as well as academic delay of gratification, were indirectly related to grades. We present details of our analysis and discuss theoretical and pedagogical implications of this study. First published June 2020 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives
Dynamic pricing and long-term planning models for managed lanes with multiple entrances and exits

Dynamic Pricing and Long-term Planning Models for Managed Lanes with Multiple Entrances and Exits Venktesh Pandey, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2020 Supervisor: Stephen D. Boyles Express lanes or priced managed lanes provide a reliable alternative to travelers by charging dynamic tolls in exchange for traveling on lanes with no congestion. These lanes have various locations of entrances and exits and allow travelers to adapt their route based on the toll and travel time information received at a toll gantry. In this dissertation, we incorporate this adaptive lane choice behavior in improving the dynamic pricing and longterm planning models for managed lanes with multiple entrances and exits. Lane choice of travelers minimizing their disutility is affected by the real-time information about tolls and travel time through variable message signs and perceived information from past experiences. In this dissertation, we compare various adaptive lane choice models differing in their reliance on real-time information or historic information or both. We propose a decision route lane choice model that efficiently compares the disutility over multiple routes on an express lane. Assuming drivers disutility is only affected by tolls and travel times, we show that the decision route model generates only up to 0.93% error in expected costs compared to the optimal adaptive lane choice model, making it a suitable choice for modeling lane choice of travelers. Next, using the decision route lane choice framework, we improve the current dynamic pricing models for express lanes that commonly ignore adaptive lane choice, assume simplified traffic dynamics, and/or are based on simplified heuristics. Formulating the dynamic pricing problem as an MDP, we optimize the tolls for various objectives including maximizing revenue and minimizing total system travel time (TSTT). Three solution algorithms
Efectos del aislamiento social y la cuarentena sobre el bienestar subjetivo de los chilenos durante el brote de COVID-19

Se analizó el bienestar subjetivo de una muestra de 175 adultos de Santiago de Chile, que han estado entre 1 y 3 semanas en aislamiento social y/o cuarentena, a través de la Escala de afecto positivo y negativo adaptada por Arancibia. Para ello, se hizo una comparación de medias en ambas escalas con los valores críticos correlativos extraídos del mismo estudio de validación del instrumento. Los principales resultados mostraron que el grupo sometido a aislamiento social presentó un menor promedio de puntación bruta en la expresión de afecto positivo y mayor en afecto negativo, siendo ambos significativos. Además, al calcular la magnitud del efecto (d de Cohen) se obtuvieron resultados dispares para las escalas.
Characterization and functional properties of proteins isolated from flaxseed cake and sesame cake

Flaxseed protein isolate (FPI) and sesame protein isolate (SPI) were extracted from flaxseed and sesame cake as by-products, and their functional properties (water holding and fat absorption capacities, bulk density, least gelling concentration, solubility, and emulsifying properties) were determined. Bulk density of the SPI (0.162 g/ml) was lower than that of the FPI (0.175 g/ml). The water absorption capacity of the FPI (305.66%) was higher than that of the SPI (288.93%). The oil absorption capacity and least gelling capacity of the FPI and SPI were 127.48, 3.6, 134.39, and 5%, respectively. The least solubility occurred at pH 4.0 and it was 24.54, 9.56% for FPI and SPI, respectively. Levels of pH and salt concentrations were used as dependent variables for the characterization of emulsifying capacity, activity, and emulsion stability, as well as foaming capacity and foam stability. The addition of NaCl at concentrations up to 1.0 M improved these characteristics. The SPI and FPI had a minimum emulsion capacity (74.54 and 100.20 ml oil/g protein, respectively) and a minimum foam capacity (14.25 and 17.35 %, respectively) at pH 4. The FPI and SPI were found to be highly soluble at acidic and alkaline pH and their emulsifying and foaming properties were high. Moreover, their bulk density, water absorption, and fat absorption capacities and least gelling capacity properties were good. Therefore, the FPI and SPI can be used in food formulation systems.
Exploring the acquisition of verb inflections in Japanese: A probabilistic analysis of seven adult–child corpora

The acquisition of verb morphology is often studied using categorical criteria for determining the productivity of a morpheme. Applying this approach to Japanese, an agglutinative language, this study finds no consistent order for morpheme acquisition and that productivity could be explained by sampling effects. To examine morpheme acquisition using more graded measures of productivity, the authors compared various regression models for predicting the age of acquisition of 311 verb forms across a large combined corpus of seven Japanese-speaking children (aged 1;1–5;1). Complex forms were learned earlier than frequency-matched simple forms, and morpheme ending identity explained substantial variation. Both of these findings suggest that children have some segmented morphemes and have learned some of their semantic/pragmatic characteristics. Sampling would predict that verb form acquisition would be sensitive to lemma and ending frequency, but acquisition was also sensitive to aspects of input frequency that were independent of these factors, and this suggests that children are encoding whole verb forms in addition to creating forms with compositional morphological rules.
Biofilm and antibiotic resistance profile among Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolated from clinical samples

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic gram-negative bacilli capable of causing a wide range of problematic acute and chronic infections. It is survival, adaptation and struggle to numerous classes of antibiotics pushing it as life threating pathogen. Sixty P. aeruginosa isolates were recovered from 7 types of specimens (1 Pharyngeal swab, 1 CSF, 2 High vaginal swab, 11 ear swab,12 wound swab, 12 Broncoalveolar lavage and 21 midstream urine). All isolates confirmed by Pseudomonas chromogenic agar Biofilm formation were assayed by TCP while antibiotic susceptibility performed according to CLSI-2019. The results of isolation revealed high percentage of P. aeruginosa among cystitis patients 21/60(35%), lower respiratory tract infection patients 12/60(20%), wounds infection 12/60(20%) and otitis media 11/60(18.3%) while 2/60(3.3%) for bacterial vaginosis, 1/60(1.7%) for each of meningitis and pharyngitis. The results of Biofilm formation using TCP method revealed that 51/60 (85%) were biofilm former while 9/60 (15%) were non biofilm former. Concern correlation of biofilm-formation with antibiotic resistance, the results showed strong association between biofilm and resistance to Beta-lactams. The P. aeruginosa resistance to Cefepime 55/60(91.7%), Piperacillin 44/60 (73.3%) and Ceftazidime 43/60(71.7%) while weak association were seen for Aztreonam resistance 21/60 (35%). Carbapenem antibiotics also show weak correlation between biofilm and antibiotic-resistance in which only 11/60 (18.3%) and 9/60 (15%) of isolates were resist meropenem and imipenem respectively. Fluoroquinolone resistance were 31/60 (51.7%), 29/60 (48.3%), 21/60(35%) and 18/60 (30%) for lomefloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and levofloxacin respectively. Totally MDR P. aeruginosa compile 38 (63.34%) while non-MDR P. aeruginosa consist 22(36.66%). The most prevalent phenotype is BETA/AMINO/FLUORO which compile 13(21.66%). Concern relationship of multidrug resistance with biofilm formation the results revealed that 21/51 (41.17%) were non-MDR while 30/51(58.83%) were MDR. There is a strong correlation between biofilm formation and resistance to antibiotic among P. aeruginosa recovered from clinical samples with dominance of coexistence resistance among MDR isolates.
Surface Modifications and Applications of Aqueous Silica Sols

Methods of modifying the surface of the particles of colloidal silica were developed and the effects of surface modification on the properties of colloidal silica were studied. Gamma-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) readily reacts with water to yield a hydrolysed silane that reacts readily with the silica surface. The epoxy functional groups were not affected during the hydrolysis but subsequent reaction with the silica surface opened the epoxy rings. The presence of silane groups on the particle surface was established by Si-NMR. About 1.5 GPTMS groups per nm2 silica surface were needed to affect significantly the properties of colloidal silica. Modification of conventional silica sols improves the stability toward gelling by electrolytes, allows the preparation of mixtures of various lattices with silica sols that are stable toward gelling, increases the hardness of latex coatings, and improves the properties of pigmented coatings. Methods were developed for making white composite pigments consisting of a silica core with a titania shell. A necessary step was the aluminate modification of the silica particles. With 1.5 aluminosilicate sites per nm2 of core surface, well-dispersed composite particles having cores of uniform size in the range of 300 to 500 nm with a titania coating, the thickness of which corresponded to from 150 to 400 wt-% of titania based on the weight of the core, were prepared. In a third type of modification colloidal silica was prepared with a high degree of structure, i.e. the silica particles having linear dimensions rather than being perfect spheres and being stabilised with amines. Such sols are very effective anionic components in dual retention aids in papermaking. Highly structured silica sols but being stabilised with sodium can be used to make solid electrolytes in lead-acid batteries with improved properties compared with conventional electrolytes. Colloidal silica of different sizes can be used to improve the properties of concrete mixtures. Modifying colloidal silica to yield sols of wide particle size distributions provides a means to make concrete with improved properties. The small particle fraction of the sol will increase of the early strength while the large particle fraction will increase the ultimate mechanical properties.
Medical device regulations, industrial capabilities, and affordable healthcare technology development : case studies from the United Kingdom and South Africa

This thesis concerns the influence of healthcare systems regulation on firm-level capabilities and affordable healthcare technologies. Regulatory change is highly contentious, critics arguing that regulatory changes interfere with the efficiency of the market, and advocates arguing that well designed regulatory changes make markets more efficient and ensure market outcomes are more equitable. To date, very few studies analyze the influence of regulatory change on the medical device industry, and its ability to manufacture and supply affordable healthcare technologies. To respond to this gap, this research employs the Sectoral Systems of Innovation (SSI) approach as a theoretical framework to analyze the influence of regulatory changes on industrial capabilities in medical device industries and affordable healthcare technologies in South Africa and the United Kingdom. A mixed-method approach, focusing on three cases of regulatory change, emphasised documentary analysis and questionnaire-guided interviews to collect primary and secondary data from different sources in the healthcare systems of the two study countries. Regulatory changes facilitated some firms to create new strategies and innovative capabilities. Regulatory changes enabled some firms to develop close collaborative linkages with external providers in search of competitive advantage and improved market positioning. One reactive regulatory change, in particular, illustrated negative influence on innovative capabilities. Smaller firms were at a particular disadvantage in adapting to regulatory change. In the South Africa case, the more stringent regulatory requirements made it hard for domestic suppliers to enter the supply chain and led to joint ventures mainly with multinational corporations. The thesis argues, with empirical evidence, that a more enabling and discriminating regulation that takes into consideration of firms’ technological capabilities can achieve intended goals more efficiently and effectively, than constraining and indiscriminate regulation.
Accuracy-Relevance trade-off in Transfer Learning for Object Detection

This paper addresses the problem of accuracy while using different datasets to train the parent model while using transfer learning. We show how the training time and accuracy of the custom object detector depend on the parent model’s dataset. We show comprehensive empirical evidence that there is a strong dependence of datasets, while there is a possibility to train any model up to the desired accuracy if trained for a longer time, or if the relevance with the custom dataset is increased. The more the relevance, the faster the training and more is the accuracy of the custom detector. The difference in accuracy, given the same time to train, but different parent dataset is 10-12%. When using Ava as parent dataset we obtain 68.4%. By merely changing the parent dataset to COCO, we achieved a 20% increase in the mAP score.
Academic Access and Progress for Students With Intellectual Disability in Inclusive Postsecondary Education: A Systematic Review of Research

The passage of the Higher Education Opportunity Act in 2008 extended the expectation of previous legislation (the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and Individuals With Disabilities Education Act) regarding general education academic access for students with intellectual disability, from elementary to secondary and now through to postsecondary education. In light of this extension of academic access, the authors conducted a systematic research review of the studies that explored access to and progress in college academics for students with intellectual disability (ID) enrolled in inclusive postsecondary education (PSE) programs. Of the 43 studies that met criteria, between 1987 and 2017, less than half provided sufficient contextual information to confirm academically inclusive course attendance or participation. Findings and implications, regarding the lack of research exploring access to and progress in academically inclusive college course content for students with ID are discussed. Authors also discuss the need for consensus on academic expectations of students with ID enrolled in college courses and the timely use of compensatory technologies and strategies.
Dynamic Costs and Market Power: Rooftop Solar Penetration in Western Australia

Production from zero marginal cost solar panels reduces the amount of energy produced by fossil-fuel-fired power plants during the day. Yet, we find that the operating profits earned by fossil-fuel plants in Western Australia increased by 15% coincident with the doubling of rooftop solar capacity from 2015-2018 to world-leading solar penetration levels. We estimate that the fossil-fuel plants displaced by solar production during the day must incur substantial start-up and ramping costs to effectively compete at sunset. Results from both a regression framework and least-cost simulations indicate that, due to this reduction in effective competition, increases in solar capacity result in increases in the exercise of market power, operating profits and wholesale prices in the evening. Our findings highlight the importance of designing electricity markets that properly compensate flexibility in production and consumption.
Religion and Corporate Disclosure Quality

We examine whether religion influences the quality of corporate disclosure, focusing on the role of social trust. Using country-level data on religion and disclosure quality from 38 countries, we find that general religiosity is negatively related to both voluntary and mandatory corporate disclosure qualities. Moreover, by dividing religiosity into two groups according to the hierarchy of religions, we find that these negative relationships are more pronounced for non-hierarchical religions. Finally, we show that religious heterogeneity is positively associated with both disclosure qualities. Overall, our findings suggest a novel channel ‒ social trust ‒ through which national religiouscharacteris ticsa ffect corporate disclosure quality.
Toxicity assessment of African locust bean effluents on agricultural soil and aquatic organism at Jimba- Oja and Temidire locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) processing centers

Indiscriminate processing of agricultural produces has led to the alteration of agricultural soil and aquatic habitat, consequently threatening food security, human health and natural population size of aquatic organisms. This study investigated chemical properties of the soil at Jimba- Oja and Temidire locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) processing centres. The static bioassays were also performed on Clarias gariepinus to evaluate the median lethal concentrations of the locust bean effluents within 72 and 96 hours. Physico-chemical parameters of effluents showed that pH was slightly acidic (6.44 to 6.73 respectively). The dissolved oxygen ranged from 6.48 to 6.73 mg/L and phosphate from 67.52 to 82.60 mg/L. The concentration of copper, iron, nickel ranged from 6.77 to 8.84, 32.57 to 47.67 and 0.21 to 1.04 mg/L respectively. These parameters exceeded the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) permissible limits. The Effluents from Parkia biglobosa impacted soil with high concentrations of heavy metals ranging from: copper 4.72 to 5.02, cadmium 0.03 to 0.35, iron 51.82 to 76.41 and nickel 0.13 to 0.05 at processing centers compared to the control site. Toxicity assessments indicated that the mortality increased with increase in effluent concentration. LC tests (36 %:72 hours), (20 %: 96 hours), (30.1 %: 50 72 hours) and (20 %: 96 hours) concentrations were carried out for Jimba-oja and Temidire respectively and the sublethal dose of below 7.5 % for both Parkia biglobosa processing centers were obtained. The study concluded that releasing Parkia biglobosa effluent to the environment have negative impacts on agricultural soil and aquatic organisms. There is therefore need for relevant government agencies to control indiscriminate discharge of these effluents into the environment untreated. Keywords: Locust bean effluent, Toxicity, Agric soil, Aquatic Organism