Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Just as electable: Black Democratic candidates in swing districts

ABSTRACT Considerable debate exists in the literature about whether white voters are willing to support Black candidates for office, particularly in electorally competitive, non-majority minority districts. This paper leverages the 2018 congressional election – which saw six Black Democratic candidates win electorally competitive, majority white congressional districts – to contribute to this debate. Controlling for an array of congressional district-specific factors, I find that Black candidates performed no worse than white candidates did in swing seats. These results suggest that worries from party leaders that Black candidates cannot win in majority white swing districts may be overblown.
Soluble Manganese Removal on Oxide‐Coated Filter Media

Laboratory-scale filtration studies were conducted to assess the potential for soluble manganese removal within oxide-coated, mixed-media filtration systems. Filter column experiments employed both new anthracite coal and sand as well as oxide-coated media obtained from three full-scale water treatment facilities. Soluble and total manganese removals were evaluated as a function of parameters such as pH, presence or absence of an oxidant in the filter-applied water, quantity and oxidation state of the filter media surface oxide coating, and temperature. Results indicated that Mn2+ removal was rapid and efficient under a variety of solution conditions. Alkaline pH conditions promoted efficient removal of Mn2+on the oxide surface. Free chlorine likewise promoted soluble manganese removal on the media surface under both alkaline and acidic pH conditions. Stronger oxidants such as KMn04, C102, and 03 resulted in Mn2+ oxidation immediately upon addition to the filterapplied water. In these instances, manganese removal was accomplished by retention of colloidal MnOx(s) within the filter. Low-temperature conditions did not appear to inhibit Mn 2+ removal potential. The practical implications of this work for full-scale treatment operations are also discussed. Many water treatment facilities implement manganese control strategies (either year-round or in specific seasons) to produce finished-water manganese
Broaching partially-shared identities: Critically interrogating power and intragroup dynamics in counseling practice with trans people of Color.

Background: Much of the literature on transgender and nonbinary (TGNB) experiences in counseling focuses on White experiences with few recommendations for trans people of Color (TPOC). Research suggests mental health care providers lack intersectional sensitivity with TPOC, lack knowledge of TGNB issues and engage in microaggressive behaviors, notably with Queer-identified clinicians. Aim: To explore issues of power and privilege in the counseling relationship with Queer-identified clinicians and apply the multidimensional model of broaching behavior with TGNB clients of Color. Method: A critical review of conceptual and empirical literature focusing on the interaction and impact of client and clinician race, gender, and sexual/affectional identities in the counseling relationship is presented. Informed by the authors' counseling experiences and respective positionalities as a Black Queer ciswoman and a White Queer transman, the multidimensional model of broaching behavior is applied to a composite case vignette. Results: The model provides a practical tool to facilitate critical conversations of power, privilege and identity in the counseling relationship. Conclusion: With a dearth of scholarship addressing the role of cisgender or White privilege in the counseling relationship, this article outlines strategies to broach issues partially-shared identities with TGNB clients of Color. Recommendations for culturally informed counseling practice, supervision and research are also provided.
Quality of Employment in Bogotá (Colombia): Concept, Method and Evidence

Abstract The concept of quality of employment is a helpful response to different conceptualisations and typologies’ failures in the analysis of the diversity of labour institutions in Latin America. The authors with the help of an original methodology combining socio-economic dimensions in a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), construct a multidimensional indicator. Analysing individual data coming from a household survey in Bogotá for 2013, they found a clear polarization in the quality of employment distribution, transcending the classical typologies. Finally, this original and contextualized measure seems to be useful to describe precisely the complexity of the labour market institutions.
C-Semigroups, subordination principle and the Lévy α-stable distribution on discrete time

In this paper, we introduce the notion of Lévy [Formula: see text]-stable distribution within the discrete setting. Using this notion, a subordination principle is proved, which relates a sequence of solution operators — given by a discrete [Formula: see text]-semigroup — for the abstract Cauchy problem of first order in discrete-time, with a sequence of solution operators for the abstract Cauchy problem of fractional order [Formula: see text] in discrete-time. As an application, we establish the explicit solution of the abstract Cauchy problem in discrete-time that involves the Hilfer fractional difference operator and prove that, in some cases, such solution converges to zero. Our findings give new insights on the theory, provide original concepts and extend as well as improve recent results of relevant references on the subject.
Effect of Organic Fertilization and Amino Acids on Growth, Chemical Composition and Capsaicin Content of Hot Pepper (Capsicum annum L var. Minimum) Plant

This investigation was conducted in a private farm, Samannoud district, El-Gharbia Governorate, Egypt, during two successive seasons of 2017 and 2018 to study the effect of organic fertilizers and foliar spray of amino acid on vegetative growth, fruit yield, chemical composition and capsaicin content of hot pepper (Capsicum annum L var. Minimum) plant. The experiment included 13 treatments obtained from cattle manure at rates of 60 and 30 N-units per fed. combined with amino acid at 0, 100 and 200 ppm as well as chicken fertilizer at rates of 60 and 30 N-units per fed combined with amino acid at 0, 100 and 200 ppm, besides the treatment of NPK at recommended dose as a control. A complete randomized block design with three replicates was adopted. The obtained results showed that, the highest values from vegetative growth parameters, fruit yield, chemicals composition and capsaicin content were obtained from plants treated with cattle manure Original Research Article Hammam et al.; APRJ, 6(4): 40-52, 2020; Article no.APRJ. 61766 41 full dose + 200 ppm amino acids , followed by plants treated with chicken manure full dose + 200 ppm amino acids compared with all treatments except plant height, the highest value was obtained from plants treated with NPK (control) in the two seasons. Amino acid had a great effect when added with organic fertilization, whether cattle manure or chicken fertilizer at a concentration of 100 or 200 ppm. Based on the previous results, it could be recommend that spraying amino acids (glycine and glutamine) at the rate of 200 ppm along with organic fertilizers at the rate of 60 nitrogen units per feddan get the highest fruits yield, Vitamin C and capsaicin of hot pepper.
Respectful maternity care: Disconnect between perspectives and practices of midwives from a referral hospital in Kampala, Uganda.

Introduction: Disrespectful and undignified care during childbirth is a global challenge, particularly in less developed countries. Despite the increase in health facility births, women continue to suffer from disrespect and abuse during childbirth. This practice counters the efforts to encourage women to deliver in health facilities by a skilled birth attendant as a strategy to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality. The purpose of the study was to explore midwives' understanding of respectful maternity care and observe how their practice conforms to this concept. Methods: We conducted a qualitative study combining one-on-one interviews and observation methods of data collection. In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 midwives and 20 observations were done. Audio-recorded data were later transcribed verbatim and analyzed using the content analysis method. Observation data was summarized into a table 2 below.Results: Midwives understood respectful maternity care (RMC) as treating women with respect, dignity, politeness, providing information to clients, and ensuring privacy and confidentiality. However, there was a discrepancy between their understanding of RMC and what they practiced. They also lacked an in-depth understanding of the domains of RMC. Conclusion: There is a need to strengthen midwife's knowledge and skills to enable them to provide respectful maternity services. We recommend in-service training and mentoring to equip midwives with knowledge and skills to offer RMC. Also, RMC should be integrated into pre-service curricula for midwifery and nursing training in Uganda. Furthermore, efforts should be put in to strengthen health systems, and support healthcare providers to provide RMC. More research is needed into locally relevant solutions to promote respectful maternity care.
Multiscale drivers of carabid beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) assemblages in small European woodlands

Aim The spatio-temporal connectivity of forest patches in lowland agricultural landscapes and their age matter to explain current biodiversity patterns across regional as well as biogeographical extents, to the point that their effect exceeds the one of macroclimate for plant diversity in the understorey of temperate forests. Whether this remains true for other taxonomic groups is still largely unknown. Yet, this relative influence has important consequences for ecosystem functioning and the delivery of ecosystem services. Focusing on carabid beetle assemblages, we assessed the relative importance of macroclimatic, landscape and patch attributes in driving local species richness (alpha-diversity) and species dissimilarity between patches (beta-diversity). Location Deciduous forest patches in seven regions along a 2,100-km-long latitudinal gradient across the European temperate forest biome, from southern France to central Sweden. Methods We sampled 221 forest patches in two 5-km x 5-km landscape windows with contrasting management intensities. Carabid beetles were classified into four habitat-preference guilds: forest-specialist, forest-generalist, eurytopic and open-habitat species. We quantified the multi-level environmental influence using mixed-effects models and variation partitioning analysis. Results We found that both alpha- and beta-diversity were primarily determined by macroclimate, acting as a large-scale ecological filter on carabid assemblages among regions. Forest-patch conditions, including biotic and abiotic heterogeneity as well as patch age (but not patch size), increased alpha-diversity of forest species. Landscape management intensity weakly influenced alpha-diversity of forest species, but increased the number of non-forest species in forest patches. Beta diversity of non-forest species increased with patch heterogeneity and decreased with landscape management intensity. Main conclusions Our results highlight the leading role of broad macroclimatic gradients over local and landscape factors in determining the composition of local carabid communities, thereby shedding light on macroecological patterns of arthropod assemblages. This study emphasizes the urgent need for preserving ancient forest patches embedded in agricultural landscapes, even the small and weakly connected ones.
The role of BrNO3 in marine tropospheric chemistry: A model study

Laboratory studies have shown that bromine nitrate (BrNO3) reacts on sulfuric acid and on ice particles. Here we investigate the potential role of BrNO3 in the marine boundary layer (mbl) assuming that it reacts on sea‐salt particles as well. Using the chemical box model MOCCA we find that heterogeneous reactions of BrNO3 on aerosol particles could affect the chemistry in four major ways: 1) They increase loss of NOx (=NO+NO2) from the gas phase; 2) They accelerate loss of bromide and chloride from sea‐salt aerosols. This dehalogenation occurs without the consumption of aerosol acidity; 3) The resulting loss of NOx and the increase of gas‐phase bromine species both lead to O3 destruction; 4) The resulting increase of reactive chlorine species affects gas‐phase hydrocarbons as well as S(IV) oxidation by HOCl in sea‐salt aerosols.
Hydrodechlorination of CHClF2 (HCFC-22) over Pd-Pt catalysts supported on thermally modified activated carbon. Beneficial effect of catalyst oxidation.

Pd-Pt catalysts supported on carbon preheated to 1600°C have been reinvestigated in CHFCl2 hydrodechlorination. An additionally adopted catalyst oxidation at 350-400°C produced an order of magnitude increase in the catalytic activity of Pd/C. This increase is not caused by changes in metal dispersion or possible decontamination of the Pd surface from superficial carbon, but rather by unlocking the active surface, originally inaccessible in metal particles tightly packed in the pores of carbon. Burning carbon from the pore walls attached to the metal changes the pore structure, providing easier access for the reactants to the entire palladium surface. As upon calcination the performance of the rest of the Pd-Pt/C catalysts changes less than for Pd/C, the relation between the turnover frequency and alloy composition does not confirm the Pd-Pt synergy invoked in our previous work. The use of even higher-preheated carbon (1800°C), completely free of micropores, results in a Pd/C catalyst that does not need to be oxidized to achieve high activity and excellent selectivity up to CH2F2 (>90%).
Sleep, physical activity and screens in 0-4 years Spanish children during the COVID-19 pandemic: Were the WHO recommendations met?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned in recent years about child physical inactivity. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 meant in many countries the establishment of a period of confinement with the deprivation of movement of children. The aim of this paper is to analyse whether, during the period of confinement, the WHO recommendations regarding sleep, physical activity and the use of technological devices in children under 5 years of age resident in Spain were met. The sample was composed of 280 Spanish children. The results confirm high values in the use of screens, especially television (M = 65.33), followed by tablets (M = 17.10) and mobile phones (M = 8.34). Physical activity levels were detected to be lower than recommended, with an average of 31.81 minutes versus the recommended 180 minutes. As for sleep hours, the recommendations were minimally fulfilled (M = 10.73; SD = 1.72). It is concluded that the period of confinement may have been an obstacle to complying with WHO recommendations regarding the practice of physical activity and screens in children under 5 years of age, which may have further aggravated the health of children in relation to pathologies associated with sedentary life.
Transferability of trait‐based species distribution models

The need for reliable prediction of species distributions dependent upon traits has been hindered by a lack of model transferability testing. We tested the predictive capacity of trait-SDMs by fitting hierarchical generalised linear models with three trait and four environmental predictors for 20 eucalypt taxa in a reference region. We used these models to predict occurrence for a much larger set of taxa and target areas (82 taxa across 18 target regions) in south-eastern Australia. Median predictive performance for new species in target regions was 0.65 (area under receiver operating curve) and 1.24 times random (area under precision recall curve). Prediction in target regions did not worsen with increasing geographic, environmental or community compositional distance from the reference region, and was improved with reliable trait–environment relationships. Transfer testing also identified trait–environment relationships that did not transfer. These results give confidence that traits and transfer testing can assist in the hard problem of predicting environmental responses for new species, environmental conditions and regions.
Case study on the influence of inhomogeneous surface albedo on UV irradiance

The influence of inhomogeneous surface albedo on UV irradiance is investigated for cloud free conditions using a recently developed 3‐dimensional radiative transfer model. From the calculations the relative enhancement of UV irradiance due to (partial) snow coverage as well as an 1‐dimensional effective albedo is derived. This 1d‐albedo is a quantity allowing to account for effects of inhomogeneous surface albedo in 1‐dimensional radiative transfer models. The results indicate that the surface albedo must be known on an area with considerable size: even if surface albedo is specified on an area with 40km radius around the measuring site the influence of areas outside this range on UV irradiance can be still up to 3%.
Optimal Locations of Monitoring Stations in Water Distribution System

The Safe Drinking Water Act requires that the water quality in water distribution systems is to be sampled at locations that are representative of the system; but the act does not describe how the sampling should be done. In this research, a concept of coverage is defined, and methods on how to locate monitoring stations in a network are described. The best set of stations is one that maximizes the coverage. The problems were formulated as integer programming problems, and were solved on a PC using an integer programming code. Two examples of their application to real systems are shown.
Qualitative and quantitative variations in rubber content among different guayule cultivars

Quantitative and qualitative variations in rubber from 14 cultivars of guayule were studied. Average molecular weight (M w ) was determined through gel permeation chromatography. There were wide variations in phenology, resin, rubber content, and rubber quality; however, no correlation could be observed among biomass, resin, and rubber content. Most of the cultivars had a unimodal refractive index response of polyisoprene except in those cultivars where resin content exceeded that of rubber. The high resin percentage affected the quality of rubber and not its quantity. The present study does not specify the essential threshold temperature minimum to trygger cis-polyisoprene synthesis
Impacts of Topographic Relief and Crustal Heterogeneity on Coseismic Deformation and Inversions for Fault Geometry and Slip: A Case Study of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake in the Central Himalayan Arc

Fault source models inverted from surface displacement measurements are a common tool to contextualize the seismotectonic significance of earthquakes. However, these models commonly invoke a simplified homogeneous elastic half‐space (flat Earth) description of Earth, which may bias the resulting fault geometries and slip distributions in the presence of spatially varying Earth's elastic structure and topography. Here, we developed both forward and inverse three‐dimensional finite‐element models with planar faults to systematically assess the impacts of topography, crustal elastic structure, and fault geometry on surface deformation and earthquake source inversions, with a focus on the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake. Our forward models with fixed fault slip confirm the impacts of topography and crustal heterogeneity on surface deformation. These impacts, however, contribute only maximally ∼10% of the total surface displacement, and the fault depth and dip dominantly control the coseismic deformation for the Gorkha case. When using homogeneous half‐space models to invert the synthetic displacement fields generated by forward finite‐element models, we find that ignoring crustal heterogeneity primarily biases inferred dip angle, while ignoring relief primarily biases inferred fault depth. Our inversions based on finite‐element models suggest that topography and crustal heterogeneity introduce negligible bias on recovering the Gorkha line of sight observations. Fault dip angle and depth can systematically trade off with slip area and slip magnitude, regardless of the presence of relief and crustal heterogeneities. Taken together, our findings highlight the importance of fault geometry on inverted fault kinematics with geodetic observations in the central Himalayan arc.
Socio-cultural, organizational factor and career development of female employees: A study on school teachers

The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of socio-cultural and organizational factors affecting the career development of female employees. With judgmental/ purposive sampling technique, only 142 respondents have been selected out of 150 questionnaires distributed to female school teachers. This study has tested reliability of questionnaires by using Cronbach alpha. Using multiple regression analysis, it has been found that both socio-cultural and organizational factors have negative impact on women career development. Hence, a conclusion can be drawn out of the study that there are negative impacts of socio-cultural and organizational factors on women career development. Considering the outcomes, it can be claimed that the study could be useful for school management, trainers, and human resource developers to assist the career development of female school teachers.
Development and Characterization of Glimepiride Novel Solid Nanodispersion for Improving Its Oral Bioavailability

Glimepiride is an antidiabetic drug which is one of the third generation sulfonylureas. It belongs to class II, according to the BCS (Biopharmaceutical Classification System), which is characterized by low solubility and high permeability. The aim of this work was to formulate glimepiride as solid dispersion using water-soluble carriers to enhance its aqueous solubility and thus enhance its bioavailability. Nine formulations of glimepiride solid dispersion were prepared by a solvent evaporation technique using three different carriers (mannitol, polyethylene glycol 6000, and β-cyclodextrin) with three different drug carrier ratio (1:1, 1:3, and 1:6). Formulation variables were optimized using 32 full factorial design. The prepared formulations were evaluated for production yield, drug content, micromeritic properties, thermal analysis, in-vitro release, and in-vivo hypoglycemic effect. All prepared formulations showed high production yield ranged from 98.4 ± 2.8 to 99.8 ± 2.2% and high drug content in the range of 97.2 ± 3.2 to 99.6 ± 2.1%. The micromeritic properties revealed that all prepared glimepiride formulations showed good flowability. The differential scanning calorimetry study revealed the presence of the drug in the more soluble amorphous form. In accordance with the results of in vitro release study, it was found that the solubility of glimepiride was increased by increasing the drug carrier ratio, compared with the pure form of the drug. It was found that F9 showed a high and rapid reduction in blood glucose levels in diabetic rats, which indicated the success of a solid dispersion technique in improving the solubility and hence the bioavailability of glimepiride.