Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of Heavy Metals Contamination in Soil and Plant (Talinum triangulare) Leaf around Selected Industrial Areas in Ogun State, Nigeria

Heavy metal accumulations in plant and soil from anthropogenic sources with subsequent consequences constitute major environmental problem. This present study investigated the pollution load of heavy metals in the soil and plant from selected industrial estates, Ogun State, Nigeria. Twenty soil and plant samples were collected from four selected industrial areas in Agbara, Sango-ota, Ewekoro, and Sagamu Ogun State, Nigeria. Also, five soil and plant samples were collected from Epe town, located in the outskirts of Ogun where there are no industrial activities to serve as control. The concentration of selected heavy metals in the soil and plant samples were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. The mean concentration of heavy metal in the soil shows Fe ranged from 50.00 to 1964.00 mg/kg, Zn ranged from 136.00 to 1862.80 mg/kg; Cu ranged from 4.12 to 122.40 mg/kg, Cd ranged from ND to 12.48 mg/kg, and Mn ranged from 16.76 to 60.60 mg/kg. Also, mean concentration of Fe in the vegetable samples ranged from 118.00 to 579.20 mg/kg, Zn ranged from ND to 1687.00 mg/kg, Cu ranged between 5.72 to 32.16 mg/kg, Cd ranged from 1.12 to 12.16 mg/kg while Mn ranged from 13.00 to 32.60. Analysis of variance revealed significant (p<0.05) variation in the concentrations of the heavy metals in soil and plant samples among the sites which is an indication of extent of metal contamination. Positive correlation was found in some of the metals in soils and plants samples indicating common contamination source. Zn, Cu and Cd concentrations in the soils from some of the locations exceeded WHO permissible limit. The impact of industries on surrounding environmental media was observed, it is therefore necessary for the authorities to enforce stricter measures on the release of contaminants into the environment by industries to forestall health crisis.
To Help “La Gente”: Examining Helping People as a Motivation for Becoming an Officer in the Los Angeles Police Department Among Male Mexican American Officers

The most commonly declared motivation for pursuing a career in law enforcement is helping people. As part of a study focusing on male Mexican American police officers in the Los Angeles Police Department, data were collected on initial motivations of police officers. The data reveal that a significant motivation for respondents was not only helping people but specifically helping minority communities receive improved services. This motivation stems from their interactions and perception of police while growing up in minority communities. Based on the findings, this article concludes with a call for a more grounded approach to research on Latinos in law enforcement.
Developing Middle School Students' Computational Thinking Skills Using Unplugged Computing Activities

This study investigated the role of using unplugged computing activities on developing computational thinking (CT) skills of 6th-grade students. The unplugged computing classroom activities were based on the Bebras challenge, an international contest that aims to promote CT and informatics among school students of all ages. Participants of the study were fifty-three 6thgrade students from two public middle schools in Istanbul. The unplugged computing activities involved the tasks with three different difficulty levels covering the CT processes found to be common in CT definitions in the literature. To evaluate students’ CT skills, two equivalent tests were constructed from Bebras tasks considering the same parameters (difficulty levels and CT processes). The results showed that students’ post-test scores were significantly higher than their pre-test scores. There were not any significant differences between students’ scores in terms of gender, and there was no interaction effect between students’ CT scores and their gender.
Intraspecific variation in seedling drought tolerance and associated traits in a critically endangered, endemic Hawaiian shrub

ABSTRACT Background: Climates are changing at a rate that exceeds the adaptive capacity of species, especially endangered species. Genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity are important for population persistence, yet few studies have linked traits to seedling performance under drought in endangered species. Aims: We assessed intraspecific variation and trait plasticity under drought, to understand how an endangered species would cope with increasingly severe droughts. Methods: Using greenhouse experiments, we assessed drought tolerance of a critically endangered Hawaiian shrub, Schiedea obovata. Seedlings from five maternal families (three selfed and two interpopulation crosses) were subjected to daily watering or a simulated drought, and we measured growth, traits linked to drought tolerance, and days until death under terminal drought. Results: Drought reduced growth but not days until death. We detected genetic variation in growth, but no trait plasticity except in carbon:nitrogen, which decreased under drought. We did not detect traits that enhanced performance under drought but identified four physiological traits whose effects on growth varied under control and drought. Conclusions: Our results indicate moderate drought tolerance of an endangered shrub, and low trait plasticity. Conservation of endangered species under shifting climates will benefit from studies of stress tolerance, particularly at the vulnerable seedling stage.
Competitiveness and Sustainability in Tourist Firms and Destinations

Tourism is a major activity in the global economy, not only in terms of its economic impact but also its social and environmental implications. The management practices and processes adopted by tourist companies and destinations are very heterogeneous and have variable impacts on the triple-bottom-line sustainability (people, profit, planet) of the ecosystem. However, there is still only limited available knowledge about the value of different practices for promoting both sustainable development and greater competitiveness. This Special Issue includes papers that present new ideas, theories, advancements, experiences, evidence or methodologies that support the convergence of economic, social and environmental competitiveness, the factors that help ensure their alignment, and the obstacles to complementarity between sustainability, responsibility and competitiveness in the tourism industry.
Feasibility trial of the school‐based STRONG intervention to promote resilience among newcomer youth

Funding information School Mental Health Ontario Abstract There are thousands of refugee students in Canadian schools and many struggle with distress and trauma symptoms. Even those not demonstrating overt distress may face adjustment challenges. This paper describes the pilot of the Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups (STRONG) program in ten schools. STRONG is a 10‐session, manualized program focused on building skills and helping students process their migration journey. This pilot used a pragmatic mixed‐methods approach to evaluate the feasibility of STRONG, with a focus on acceptability, implementation, and perceived utility of the intervention. Clinicians (n = 16) provided data at the training, throughout the intervention and at the end through clinician surveys and focus groups. Clinicians reported high levels of acceptability for the training and program. Implementation challenges included time constraints, external influences, and some challenges with language. Overall STRONG was seen to provide significant positive benefits for students in increasing connectedness, stress management, and coping strategies. Clinicians felt that students developed more positive self‐image and had improved optimism. This feasibility trial of the STRONG program indicated
The role of cognition for speech-in-noise perception: Considering individual listening strategies related to aging and hearing loss

Listening to speech in a noisy background is difficult for everyone. While such listening has historically been considered mainly in the context of auditory processing, the role of cognition has attracted considerable interest in recent years. This has been particularly true in the context of life-span research and the comparison of younger and older listeners. This article will discuss three factors that are important to consider when investigating the nature of cognitive involvement in speech-in-noise (SiN) perception: (1) the listening situation, (2) listener variables, and (3) the role of hearing aids. I argue that a similar level of intelligibility can be achieved with the support of very different skills, or listening strategies, depending on the listening situation and listener. Age as a variable is particularly instructive for this type of research as it is accompanied by auditory as well as cognitive changes. As age-related changes are not uniform, using aging as a tool for the investigation can increase the opportunity to see individual differences in contributing processes and resulting compensation strategies. In addition to highlighting different interaction effects between hearing and cognition, I will argue that our conceptual understanding of the underlying processes can only be furthered if the selection of cognitive tests and experimental procedures in SiN studies follows accepted cognitive models, so that understanding can advance on a conceptual level without reliance on a particular test. Ultimately, a better understanding of the various listening strategies available to listeners, and the conditions under which they are used, may have theoretical as well as practical implications. Theoretically, it may help us better understand phenomena such as listening effort. Practically, it may guide us toward more effective diagnosis and intervention for listening difficulties in everyday life.
ES-QUAL model and customer satisfaction in online banking: evidence from multivariate analysis techniques

Research background: The commercial banks are adopting online services for their transactions to stay competitive and fulfill the customers' needs. There is a dire need to satisfy online customers in a competitive environment. Thus, this paper employed the ES-QUAL model and two mediating variables and outlined the recommendations to the management of the online banking industry to develop effective strategies. Purpose of the article: The undertaken research aimed to examine the electronic banking service quality and customer satisfaction. For this purpose, we employed the ES-QUAL model and examined the direct impact of ES-QUAL dimensions and customer’s satisfaction. The secondary task of this paper is to investigate the mediation effect of customer's trust and the perceived value in an association between the ES-QUAL model and customer satisfaction. Finally, we examine and check whether customer satisfaction translates into the business performance of commercial banks or not. Methods: To achieve the overall goal of this research, SEM-based multivariate approach has been used, including confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and multiple approaches (normal theory, and bootstrapping) to examine the moderation between the exogenous and endogenous variables. For the validation of hypotheses and results, a financial analysis has been performed simultaneously with the primary analysis. The research is done for a sample of 910 respondents of the account holders of five top commercial banks of Pakistan. Findings & Value added: The outcomes of the direct investigation revealed an affirmative, and potent impact of ES-QUAL dimensions on customer’s satisfaction. The outcomes of the indirect relationship exhibited that the perceived value and trust mediate ES-QUAL dimensions and customer satisfaction. The secondary data of selected five commercial banks and ratios analysis validated the results of the ES-QUAL model, and it is concluded that the results are linear with the outcomes of customers' satisfaction of primary analysis.
Phenotypic and molecular evaluation of genetic diversity of rapeseed ( Brassica napus L.) genotypes

The genetic diversity and relationships among rapeseed genotypes were evaluated using quantitative analysis and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Ten morphological and biochemical traits (plant height, height to the first branch, stem diameter, branch number, leaf number, pod number, seed yield per plant, 1000-seed weight, oil content and protein content) were analyzed in a three-year field experiment with 30 winter rapeseed genotypes. RAPD analysis was performed with 13 primers, chosen according to previous results. Significant genetic variability among the genotypes was obtained at both the morphological and molecular level. Nine out of the thirteen RAPD primers that were used for the analysis enabled the estimation of DNA polymorphism of the genotypes, while the other primers were monomorphic. Dendrograms obtained for morpho-biochemical traits and for the RAPD results were compared. In both cases partial grouping of genotypes based on their geographical origin was established.
Incidence of Fusarium spp. on several field crops in Estonia and their toxicity towards Bacillus stearothermophilus.

The article provides an overview of the occurrence of Fusarium spp. on grain produced in Estonia from 1973-2004, the occurrence of Fusarium spp. in the common root rot complex of cereals in 1977-1985 and potato tubers with dry rot symptoms in the yield of 1996- 2000. The dominating species on grain were (contaminated samples, %) F. avenaceum (Fr.) Sacc. - 28.0-30.3; F. poae (Pk.) Wr. - 7.4-9.5 F. semitectum Berk. et Rav. - 7.0-9.0; F. oxysporum (Schlecht) Snyd. et Hans. - 7.4-8.0; accompanied by F. ventricosum App. et Wr. , F. sporotrichioides Sherb. var. minus Wr. , F. verticillioides (Sacc.) Nirenberg, F. culmorum (W. G. Sm.) Sacc. and F. sambucinum Fuck. In the common root rot complex of barley, F. culmorum - 16.8; F. sambucinum - 2.5; F. avenaceum - 2.2; F. oxysporum - 1.7; and F. poae - 1.3 (contaminated samples, %) dominated. In potato with dry rot, F. culmorum - 26.7; F. solani (Mart.) Sacc. - 20.0; F. poae - 15.0; F. oxysporum - 13.3 and F. sulphureum Schlecht - 8.3 (contaminated tubers, %) dominated. The occurrence of toxic isolates both on grain and potato was established. Of Fusarium isolates recovered from grain (total 287) 5.6% were highly toxic, and 88.1% mildly or medium toxic to Bacillus stearothermophilus. Of 15 isolates found on potato, 1 was highly toxic and 9 were mildly to medium toxic. Fusarium spp. has been presented according to Gerlach & Nirenberg (1982).
The impact of English classics on increasing learners’ motivation and cultural awareness: A case in Turkish EFL classes

The impetus behind the development of this research is to study the potential influence(s) of cartoons (caricatures) on L2 learners in terms of gaining cultural awareness and enhancing their motivation levels. To that end, three English classics in the form of cartoons, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare, and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson have been determined for the experiment. In this quasi-experimental research design, 47 learners of English were asked to read these cartoons illustrated either with colourful or colourless pictures, whereas randomly selected 20 people in the population were only exposed to plain texts. An assessment form, statistically found valid and reliable, developed by the researchers after a comprehensive literature review and getting approvals of two professors in the field in content validity has been utilized in the study. Accordingly, the findings point out the fact that the first group who has aimed at learning the target language through cartoons has adopted more positive attitude towards the language and its culture. Briefly, the current research emphasizes the importance of cartoons in increasing learners’ cultural awareness, motivation and educational accomplishments in the end.
Guiding change in higher education: an emergent, iterative application of Kotter’s change model

ABSTRACT While university change initiatives have become more common in the face of changing learner needs and higher education funding, many fail to produce desired effects, even when guided by organizational change models. The purpose of this study was to document a successful change process in an engineering department at a Hispanic-serving institution in the southwestern United States. The change effort focused on enhancing faculty capacity to support diverse student success. The change process was planned using Kotter’s eight-step change model (1996) and was therefore a prescribed, linear, sequential change process. Qualitative analysis of audio-recorded faculty interviews and meetings, artifacts, field notes, and participant observation highlights how Kotter’s change model was implemented iteratively and emergently. Early steps were revisited and strategies were treated as improvable. This approach enhanced faculty buy-in and project success. Characterization of each step provides insight into ways to apply Kotter’s change model in higher education settings.
Networked Control Under DoS Attacks: Tradeoffs Between Resilience and Data Rate

In this article, we study communication-constrained networked control problems for linear time-invariant systems in the presence of Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, namely attacks that prevent transmissions over the communication network. Our article aims at exploring the tradeoffs between system resilience and network bandwidth capacity. Given a class of DoS attacks, we characterize the bit-rate conditions that are dependent on the unstable eigenvalues of the dynamic matrix of the plant and the parameters of DoS attacks, under which exponential stability of the closed-loop system can be guaranteed. Our characterization clearly shows the tradeoffs between the communication bandwidth and resilience against DoS. An example is given to illustrate the proposed approach.
Exploring the Covid-19 Pandemic As a Catalyst for Stimulating Future Research Agendas for Managing Crises and Disasters at International Sport Events

While the interdisciplinary study of crisis, disaster, and emergency management has become increasingly sophisticated, the identification of synergies, useful concepts, and future research agendas in relation to studies within the domain of sport event management to inform these areas, is still at a very early stage of development. The far-reaching global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic further illustrates the timely importance of this research agenda for both sports events and broader studies in festivals and events. The purpose of this article is to critically scope the resilience landscape to help further understand how studies on both international sports events (ISEs) specifically, and both sport and event management studies more generally, could be better informed by disaster management and resilience studies. The article highlights eight key thematic areas that merits further investigation and combines to identify a multidisciplinary research agenda and framework for advancing knowledge on managing crises and disasters in both sport and event management studies.
Standardization and Evaluation of Synbiotic Yoghurt

The most popular milk-based products in the world are fermented milk products due to their high nutritional and therapeutic values (Aneja et al., 2002). They play an important role in the human daily diet. Some of the popular fermented milk products are yoghurt, shrikhand, dahi, lassi, kumiss, kefir and acidophilus milk. Yoghurt is one of the most popular products worldwide which have great consumer acceptability due to its health benefits other than its basic nutrition, which is produced by lactic acid fermentation of milk, generally by mixed cultures of lactic acid bacteria (Chandan, 2006). Yoghurt becomes a functional food upon incorporating probiotics-live microorganisms which when International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 3 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com
Leaf function in tropical rain forest canopy trees: the effect of light on leaf morphology and physiology in different-sized trees.

In this thesis the effect of constant and fluctuating light availability on several leaf traits was studied for naturally growing trees of different sizes, i.e . from sapling to adult canopy tree, of five species in a tropical rain forest in French Guiana. Leaf acclimation responses were examined throughout the life time of leaves in order to evaluate whether leaves can profit from these adjustments in terms of carbon gain. The five species, arranged in order from most shade-tolerant to pioneer, were: Duguetia surinamensis , Vouacapoua americana , Dicorynia guianensis , Pourouma bicolor spp. digitata , and Goupia glabra . For Duguetia , Vouacapoua , Dicorynia and Goupia , it was shown that tree height and light availability had independent effects on photosynthesis and other features of leaf function. Direction and magnitude of the variation in leaf variables tended to be similar among species. The morphological variable leaf mass per unit area seemed to be a key variable as it determined most of the variation in other leaf variables. The time needed to increase the photosynthetic rate (up to 90% of its capacity) to a sudden increase in light was between 7 to 11 min for shade and sun growing saplings of Vouacapoua , Dicorynia and Pourouma . The readiness to exploit the next lightfleck was substantial in these plants as the induction loss was moderate to low, except in gap saplings of Dicorynia . The time needed to reach 75% of the maximum carboxylation efficiency (V cmax ) was used to separate the relative importance of biochemical and stomatal limitation during the time course of photosynthetic induction. The mean leaf life span of different-sized trees for Vouacapoua was 61 months (range 27-101) and for Dicorynia 32 months (range 17-54). The variation in traits in response to leaf age was low. Photosynthetic capacity and nitrogen concentration were relatively constant with time; leaf mass per unit area increased during the first 18 months. Simulations of the daily carbon gain with a low- and highlight regime showed differences among both sun- and shade-leaves and trees of different sizes. Leaf construction cost was independent of leaf life span. Leaf payback time was relatively short (4 to 40 days); it was constant during a wide range of irradiance, but increased sharply in a narrow range of low light. The rate of net return on carbon investment was slow in long-lived leaves of Vouacapoua . Leaf mass per area decreased with increased leaf life span, which could be explained by a light- and height-dependent selection pressure for leaf life span and leaf mass per area. The integration of the results with those at higher organisation levels, such as branch and tree crown, is briefly discussed, and the applicability in silvicultural systems in which light is manipulated to enhance growth and production of timber species is evaluated. Key-words: tropical rain forest, leaf morphology, photosynthesis, leaf age, tree height, shade tolerance, leaf construction costs, leaf payback time, ecophysiology.