Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of seed coating treatments on longevity of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seeds

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different seed coating treatments on seed longevity and further to identify the effective seed coating treatment for enhancing seed longevity in wheat seeds. The seeds of wheat variety HPW-155 were coated with nine different treatments comprising of polymer, fungicide, insecticide, polymer-fungicide and polymer-insecticide combinations. The treated and untreated seeds were stored in three replications for twenty-four months after packing in HDPE (high density polyethylene) interwoven non-laminated bags. The evaluation of seed quality parameters was made at bi-monthly intervals for twelve months. The experiment revealed that irrespective of seed coating, seed deteriorated and the vigour declined with aging of seeds. Amongst various treatments, seed coated with polymer @ 3 ml per Kg of seed + Vitavax 200 @ 2 g per Kg of seed (T 6 ) was found superior for quality parameters viz . , germination percentage (93.00%), speed of germination (18.45), seedling length (16.06cm), seedling dry weight (0.0116 g), seedling vigour index – I (1494), vigour index -II (1.079) and field emergence (82.00%) at the end of 24 months of storage over untreated control (T 1 ). Hence, combination of polymer with Vitavax can effectively be utilized to prevent the rapid deterioration of the seed during storage thereby maintaining the quality for a longer period of time.
A Study of Patterns of Thoracic Injuries in the Victims of Vehicular Incidents Brought to the GMCH Mortuary for Medicolegal Autopsies

The present study aims to highlight the pattern of thoracic injuries sustained by the victims of fatal road traffic accidents (RTA) brought to the GMCH Mortuary for medico legal autopsies. The study is an autopsy based observation during 1 st April 2019 to 31 st March 2020. In this study, incidence of thoracic injury among all cases of vehicular accident is 23.83%. A male preponderance (89%) was observed with a male-female ratio of 7.7:1. Peak incidence was observed in the age group of 21-30 years (27.24%). In all cases, thoracic injuries are associated with external or internal injuries on other parts of the body. Pleura are the most commonly involved organs in the thoracic regions. Majority of the victims were pedestrians ((36.6 %) followed by two-wheelers (31.06%). The study indicates the pattern of thoracic injuries sustained along with the trend of road traffic accidents in the region.
Clinico-Pathological Findings and Spatial Distributions of Esophageal Cancer in Arsi Zone, Central Ethiopia

Background: Arsi Zone is one of the esophageal cancer endemic areas and reported to have high incidence of esophageal cancer in Ethiopia. This study assessed clinico-pathological patterns and spatial distributions of esophageal cancer in Arsi Zone, Oromia, Central Ethiopia.Methods: A cross sectional study design was carried out by abstracting data from 403 patients` records that were treated from January 2015 to January 2019. Data were collected by using structured data collection form and Geographical Positioning System software. The collected data were summarized in the form of tables, figures, means and standard deviations. Statistical data analysis was done using SPSS software version 21.0 while geospatial analysis was conducted using the Arc-GIS 10.1 software.Results: The disease was prominent among individuals aged 50 to 59 years. The mean age of females and males was 52.2(SD+10.41) and 56.94(SD +12.27) years respectively. The vast majority (98.3%) of the cases had squamous cell carcinoma. Dysphagia with weight loss accounted for 87.6 percent of the presenting symptoms. The tumor was located at the lower thorax of 42.9% of the patients. Majority (62%) of the patients were from the eastern and north-eastern parts of the Arsi zone. Overwhelming majorities of the patients were from the Robe, Jaju, Disksis and Sude districts.Conclusion: Dysphagia with weight loss was the major symptom during first visit. Squamous cell carcinoma was the predominant histopathological type. Eastern and the northeastern parts of the Zone are the most affected regions. Future studies should focus on the determinants of EC and precise areas with high incidence by using prospective studies through the population and/or facility-based cancer registry systems
Development of sounding equipment for the assessment of the time- settlement characteristics of recent alluvial deposits when subjected to embankment loads.

The piezometer cone is particularly useful for the char:lcterization of different soils. The typically layered nature of mine tailings . impoundments lends itself to the use of the Iliezometer cone for the identification of the various layers. This paper describes some of the details of a piezometer cone and its application in mine tailings materials. Results of field testing in tailings impoundments from gold alld platinum mines are presented and discussed. It is shown that the results can be used to identify layering and thereby the spatial variation of geotechnical parameters. The possibility of characterizing mine tailings materials (and granular soil in general) by using indices based on pore pressure measurement during penetration is discussed. Finally, it is sholm how the piezometer cone can be used as a means of monitoring the st:lbillty of a tailings impoundment throughout its operating liCe. Introduction The characterization of soil materials through relatively Inexpensive in aitu testing is one of the geotechnical engineer's dreams. tlany attempts have been made in the past to develop and perfect instrumentation f~r this purpose, e.g. the Standard Penetration Test (S~r), the Dutch cone (CPT) with friction sleeve (Begem"nn, 1956) and the screwplate (.lanbu and Senneset, 1973). The Dutch cone Ioos been used with considerable success in Europe for the characterization of soil deposits through the identification of soil types, the estimatiotl of undrained shear strength of clays, as well as friction angle and compressibility of sands, and the prediction of pile capacities. The development of the piezometer cone into a useful soil investigation tool has brought new possibilities for soil characterization through continuous testing (Tortensson, 1975; Wissa, et aI., 1975; Parez, et al., 1976; Peignaud, 1979; Baligh, et al., 1980; Campatlella and Robertson, 1981; Gillespie and Campanella, 196.L; Jones and vall Zyl, 1981). Most of the studies reported in the literature have been conducted on natural materials. However, the present paper describes piezometer cone testing in tailings material and the particular concerns of such testing. Various soil indices are defined and their usefulness is investigated. Finally, some conunents are made about the use of the piezometer cone as a monitoring instrument. *Steffen, Robertson and Kirsten (Pretoria) Inc. Pretoria, South Africa **Steffen, Robertson and Kirsten (Arizona) Inc. Tucson, Arizona
Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and associated factors on menstrual hygiene among high school students of North Wollo Zone, Ethiopia, 2019: A cross-sectional study

Objective Lack of proper menstrual hygiene predisposes women to different infectious and chronic obstetric and gynecological problems. A Facility based cross-sectional study was implemented from October 1- December 10, 2018. The data was collected using structured, pretested questioners among female high school students. Systematic random sampling technique was implemented. Data was entered and analyzed through Epi data 3.1 and SPSS respectively. Therefore, this study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude, practice and its associated factors of menstrual hygiene among high school students in North Wollo Zone, Woldia, Ethiopia. Results This study revealed that 365(89.2%), 200(48.9%) and 196(47.9%) of the study participants have good knowledge, good practice and good attitude about menstrual hygiene respectively. Being grade 10 students [AOR=3.96, 95% CI =2.0-7.8], and having good practice of menstrual hygiene (AOR=2.52, 95% CI= 1.26-5) had positive association with menstrual hygiene knowledge. Maternal education level (AOR=1.86, 95% CI=1.18-2.9), being grade 10 students (AOR =2.3, 95% CI=1.48-3.56) were associated factors for practicing menstrual hygiene. Being grade 10 students (AOR=1.9, 95% CI=1.2-2.8), age ≥18 years (AOR=1.67, 95% CI=1.09-2.55) were statistically and positively associated with the attitude of menstrual hygiene.
The Quality Characteristic and Fatty Acid Profile of Cold-Pressed Hazelnut Oils during Nine Months of Storage

Poland is one of the largest producers of hazelnuts in Europe; however, information regarding the storage of cold-pressed hazelnut oil is limited. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the oxidative indices and fatty acid composition of oils from six hazelnut cultivars during 9 months of storage. At the beginning of storage, the hazelnut oils showed zero or very low oxidation values, which indicated the absence of initial triglyceride hydrolysis and fatty acid oxidation. Acid values increased with storage time, which was statistically significant, ranging from 0.17 to 0.34 mg KOH/g oil. The peroxide value in the first 5 months of storage was undetectable, whereas after 9 months the oils showed a slight increase in oils obtained from the ‘Olbrzym z Halle’ cultivar, followed by the ‘Barcelonski’ cultivar, at 3.39 and 2.15 meq O2/kg, respectively. The lipid content of the kernels was very stable under storage conditions. Total monounsaturated fatty acid content exhibited the highest proportion, while saturated fatty acids (SFAs) had the lowest content over the entire storage period. The percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids showed a small decrease during storage, but was not statistically significant; therefore, polyunsaturated fatty acid remained stable. The percentage of monounsaturated fatty acids decreased by approx. 1.6%, thus the percentage of SFA increased by approx. 13.7% during 9 months of storage. The oil yield ranged from 69% for nuts from the ‘Nottinghsamski’ cultivar to 75% from the ‘Webba Cenny’ and ‘Barcelonski’ cultivars.
Expression and characterization of functional human vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF165) in Kluyveromyces lactis

Among the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family variants, the 165-amino acid isoform (VEGF165) is the best characterized and most potent endothelial cell mitogenic factor. It is known that VEGF165 mediates angiogenesis and has the potential for the therapeutic applications. In this study, the expression system of Kluyveromyces lactis that produces the recombinant human VEGF165 has been evaluated. The gene encoding human VEGF165 was successfully cloned in the pKLAC2 expression vector containing a strong LAC4 promoter, after which a pKLAC2-VEGF165 plasmid was constructed. After the transformation, the recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor 165 (rhVEGF165) was expressed in K. lactis GG799 cells (~ 5.7 mg/L) confirmed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting and downstream purification processed comprising ammonium sulphate precipitation and affinity chromatography. The biological activity of the purified rhVEGF165 was confirmed by the proliferation of the human umbilical vein-derived endothelial cells (HUVEC) in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The K. lactis-derived rhVEGF165 exhibited a higher proliferative activity compared with a commercially available rhVEGF165 with a half-maximal effective concentration of 3.0. Cell migration analysis was conducted to evaluate the in vitro wound healing effect of the produced rhVEGF165 via a scratch assay. These findings indicate that K. lactis could be a suitable host for secreting bioactive human VEGF165 for therapeutic use.
Global Optimization with Hybrid Evolutionary Computation

An investigation has been made into hybrid systems which include stochastic and deterministic optimization. This thesis aims to provide new and relevant insights into the design of the nature-inspired hybrid optimization paradigms. It combines evolutionary and gradient-based methods. These hybrid evolutionary methods yield improved performance when applied to complex global optimization tasks and recent research has shown many of such hybridization policies.The thesis has three broad contributions. Firstly, by examination of stochastic optimization, supported by case studies, we utilised the Price's theorem to formulate a new population evolvability measure which assesses the dynamical characteristics of evolutionary operators. This leads to the development of a new convergence assessment method. A novel diversity control mechanism that uses heuristic initialisation and convergence detection mechanism is then proposed. Empirical support is provided to explicitly analyse the benefits of effective diversity control for continuous optimization.Secondly, this study utilised research relevance trees to evolve hybrid systems which combine various evolutionary computation (EC) models with the sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm in a collaborative manner. We reviewed the convergence characteristics of various numerical optimization methods, and the concept of automatic differentiation is applied to design a vectorised forward derivative accumulation technique; this enables provision of accurate derivatives to the SQP algorithm. The SQP serves as a local optimizer in the deterministic phase of the hybrid models. Through benchmarking on stationary and dynamic problems, results showed that the proposed models achieved sufficient diversity control, which suggests improved exploration-exploitation balance. Thirdly, to mitigate the challenges of 'inappropriate' parameter settings, this thesis proposes closed-loop adaptive mechanisms which dynamically evolve effective step sizes for the evolutionary operators. It then examines the effect of incorporating a derivative-free algorithm which extends the hybrid model to a flexible and reusable algorithmic framework.
Pengaruh Struktur Modal dan Karakteristik Perusahaan Terhadap Profitabilitas dan Nilai Perusahaan

Abstrak —Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh struktur modal dan karakteristik perusahaan terhadap profitabilitas dan nilai perusahaan. Metode yang digunakan yaitu regresi linear berganda dengan data panel. Pengujian regresi dilakukan sebanyak dua kali dengan membandingkan sebelum dan sesudah adanya firm growth sebagai variabel kontrol. Data yang digunakan yaitu perusahaan manufaktur yang terdaftar pada Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI) tahun 2005-2013. Dikarenakan mengalami multikolinearitas, maka variabel debt to asset ratio dihilangkan dalam penelitian ini. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa hutang jangka panjang berpengaruh signifikan terhadap profitabilitas dan total hutang berpengaruh signifikan terhadap nilai perusahaan. Karakteristik perusahaan yang diukur dengan firm size berpengaruh positif signifikan terhadap profitabilitas maupun nilai perusahaan, tetapi likuiditas tidak memiliki pengaruh yang signifikan. Firm growth sendiri menunjukkan pengaruh tidak signifikan baik terhadap profitabilitas maupun nilai perusahaan, yang mengindikasikan variabel kontrol yang digunakan kurang baik.
Copper Deposition Corrosion Elevates Lead Release to Potable Water

Deposition corrosion has been identified as a possible factor contributing to consumer exposure to elevated lead in water after partial lead service line replacement. Dump‐and‐fill tests in two different waters yielded very different results; compared with the control, one water showed a substantial increase (approximately three times) in lead leaching, whereas the other showed little effect when copper was added to water contacting new lead pipes. These differences were consistent with expected trends; lead leaching increased as both the copper solubility in water and the amount of copper deposited on the lead pipe surface increased. Detailed analyses of lead pipes from laboratory studies and field tests in which lead was galvanically connected to copper using various commercial and laboratory connectors were consistent with pure metallic copper deposits on the pipe surface, especially near the galvanic junction with copper. This finding supports a significant deposition corrosion mechanism when copper and lead are galvanically connected.
Simulation of Photon Propagation in Tissue Using Matlab

Abstract This paper deals with the light transport, photon trajectory and its radiation in tissue. A model based on Monte Carlo simulation has been implemented in Matlab to get inside into photon interaction with tissue. The project is aimed to non-invasive pulse oximetry measurement of fetal oxygen saturation in the maternal abdomen. One of the fundamental challenges is to ensure a sufficient penetration depth which covers maternal and fetal tissue. This contribution investigates the photon trajectories and analyse the number of photons which stayed in tissue and their radiation distribution. The principle and photon propagation rules, needed for simulation, are presented in this article. Finally the results are compared with literature.
Cell-Free mMIMO Support in the O-RAN Architecture: A PHY Layer Perspective for 5G and Beyond Networks

To keep supporting next-generation requirements, the radio access infrastructure will increasingly densify. Cell-free (CF) network architectures are emerging, combining dense deployments with extreme flexibility in allocating resources to users. In parallel, the Open Radio Access Networks (O-RAN) paradigm is transforming RAN toward an open, intelligent, virtualized, and fully interoperable architecture. This paradigm brings the needed flexibility and intelligent control opportunities for CF networking. In this article, we document the current O-RAN terminology and contrast it with some common CF processing approaches. We then discuss the main O-RAN innovations and research challenges that remain to be solved.
The Impact of Parental Myopia on Myopia in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study from Shanghai, China

Background: To evaluate the effect of parental myopia on Chinese university students with a high prevalence of myopia in Shanghai.Methods: A cross-sectional study of university students in Shanghai, China. All participants responded to a detailed questionnaire, including questions about age, ethnicity and family history. They underwent a standardized ophthalmological examination, including visual acuity, a slit lamp examination and non-cycloplegic auto-refraction. Generalized linear model was used to identify risk factors for myopia.Results: Of the 11,977 total subjects, 91.55% were myopic (spherical equivalent refraction [SER] ≤ -0.75 D), 20.18% were highly myopic (SER ≤ -6.0 D) and only 6.94% were emmetropic (-0.75 D＜SER ≤ 0.75 D). The mean age of the myopic participants (19.7±2.4) was higher than that of the emmetropic participants (19.3±1.9, p < 0.001). 10391 (91.8%) of Han students were myopic, which exhibited greater myopia than minority students (91.5%, p < 0.001). Among the students from families with two myopic parents, 97.9% had myopia. Only 93.7% of students had myopia where only one parent was myopic, and among the students without myopic parents, 90.7% had myopia (p < 0.001). Female students whose parents were myopic (8.0%) were more likely to have myopia than male students whose parents were myopic (7.5%) (p < 0.001). Students with two myopic parents (mean difference: -2.04, 95% CI: -2.21, -1.86) were at a high risk of myopia compared with students with no myopic parents (p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study showed that the refractive status of children in a population with a high prevalence of myopia was related to the status of parents. Increased severity of parental myopia led to a greater risk of myopia in their children.
LE CONTROLE DE GESTION AU SERVICE DU GOUVERNEMENT DE L'UNIVERSITÉ : PROPOS D'ÉTAPE SUR LA CONCEPTION D'UN BALANCED SCORECARD AU SEIN D'UNE UNIVERSITÉ FRANÇAISE.

This communication tells the first results of an experiment on the conception of a Balanced Scorecard within a French university. This university develops a new governance at the time of its access to autonomy in the context of a French reform named "Responsabilites et Competences Elargies". Facing the necessity of implementing Management control devices, the university is constrained to build a system of strategic monitoring in the perspective of its government. To this aim, the researchers propose the development of a Balanced Scorecard. Under the direction of the President, who gets involved directly in the project, the BSC is then build in order to constructing and steering a new strategy. The Simon's model of levers of control ( 1995 ) is so mobilized to study the relevance of the BSC, envisaged as an interactive lever of control, in the perspective of the governance of universities within the context of the "LRU" french law.
Contributing Factors to Online Banking Adoption Among Customers in Kampala, Uganda

The advancement of technology has greatly impacted the nature of businesses pushing most from the traditional brick and wall to a virtual market. The Covid-19 strains in the past year have also immensely cut of human physical contact and spanned the conventional monetary exchange to a cashless platform. However, surveys still register that several Ugandans access bank services at the banking hall instead of using the internet that has been termed as more convenient, easy to use and widely accessible. This study therefore aimed at providing a deeper understanding of factors that contribute to the adoption of online banking in Kampala-Uganda. More specifically, the study explores perceived risk, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness mediated by customer satisfaction as the contributing factors to online banking. into The study adopted the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) to develop the conceptual framework used. A cross sectional research design was employed to achieve the study aims and objectives together with a quantitative approach that used a survey questionnaire to collect data from 300 bank customers from Standard chartered, Centenary and Stanbic banks. The results revealed that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness positively affected adoption of mobile banking and therefore should guide online adoption applications. However, the increase in perceived risks was found to not necessarily lead to a decline in the levels of adoption. This study therefore adds to the scant literature in the area of online banking especially in emerging countries like Uganda.
Side impact requirements in the USA and Europe: a critical comparison

In the United States, a test procedure for occupant protection in side impacts has been required since 1993. A procedure is expected for Europe. The test configuration, evaluation criteria and particulars of both methods are described and discussed from the viewpoint of one in safety development. Using the example of a full-scale test, mean values and scatter of measured occupant loads are illustrated and evaluated. Other considerations regarding dummy behaviour and the differences between the deformable test devices are explained with examples. The goal of vehicle development must be to offer the customer a high degree of occupant protection at a reasonable price. Standardization of specified test procedures and of dummies to be used would be a major step on the way to this goal. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 894848.