Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Circadian actions of orexins on the retinorecipient lateral geniculate complex in rat

Rhythmic processes in living organisms are controlled by biological clocks. The orexinergic system of the lateral hypothalamus carries circadian information to provide arousal for the brain during the active phase. Here, we show that orexins exert an excitatory action in three parts of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), in particular upon directly retinorecipient neurons in the non‐image forming visual structures. We provide evidence for the high nocturnal levels of orexins with stable circadian expression of predominant orexin receptor 2 in the LGN. Our data additionally establish the convergence of orexinergic and pituitary adenylate cyclase (PAC)‐activating peptide/PAC1 receptor systems (used by melanopsin‐expressing retinal ganglion cells), which directly regulates responses to the retinal input. These results help us better understand circadian orexinergic control over the non‐image forming subcortical visual system, forming the animal's preparedness for the behaviourally active night.
Decentralizing Money: Bitcoin Prices and Blockchain Security

We address the determination of bitcoin prices and decentralized security. Users forecast the transactional and resale values of holdings, pricing the risk of systemic attacks. Miners contribute resources to protect against attackers and compete for block rewards. Bitcoin’s design leads to multiple equilibria: the same blockchain technology is consistent with sharply different price and security levels. Bitcoin’s monetary policy can lead to welfare losses and deviations from quantity theory. Price-security feedback amplifies fundamental shocks’ volatility impact and leads to boom and busts unconnected to fundamentals. We characterize how viability versus fiat currency depends on bitcoin’s relative acceptability and inflation protection.
THE ANALYSIS OF VILLAGE MIDWIFE PERFORMANCE IN REDUCING MATERNAL AND INFANT MORTALITY RATE

Background: The most essential aspect to reduce the number of maternal and newborn mortality is midwife competence. Midwives have a great role to be able to handle variety of health services (antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum) to avoid or decrease the maternal and infant mortality rate. Performance of health workers, particularly midwives, is the most crucial in affecting the quality and quantity of midwives’ services to enhance the national health development. Aim: This study analyzed factors affecting village midwife performance for reducing maternal and infant mortality in seek for achieving Bone Bolango cemerlang or bright Bone Balango as the vision of Bone Bolango District in 2021. Methods: This study was an analytical survey with a cross-sectional approach. It was conducted from March to June 2019 in the working area of Bone Bolango District Health Office. There were 227 people from 19 primary healthcare centers as the population, and the sample size was 227 selected by using the total sampling technique. The data were collected by distributing questionnaires to the respondents and using secondary data. The data processing was done through chi-square test and multiple logistic regression with backward wald method. Results: Midwife performance in Bone Bolango District was assessed based on several variables. Most of them were ≥ 25 years old (80.6%); worked for ≥ five years (58,6%); mostly had not participated in any normal childbirth care training (76.7%); had a good competence (96.5%); had good resources/equipment (79.7%); had a good reward (92.5%); had a good attitude (76.2%); had a good motivation (90.7%). There were 12 maternal mortalities from 2017 to 2019 handled by only 11 midwives (4.8%). On the other hand, infant mortality rate (IMR) reached 25 cases in the same years; of 227 midwives, these cases were handled by only 21 midwives (9.3%). Conclusion: A midwife as a part of the health workers has an important role to increase the quality of maternal and child well-being program. Some variables that became indicators of midwife performance and had an effect on reducing the MMR and IMR included work period, reward, and motivation. This study recommends that all midwives have to be provided with a normal childbirth care training in the working area and increased rewards in the process of labor and delivery. Keywords : midwives, performance, maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate.
Evaluation of COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes and practices of physicians working in a medical faculty hospital: an online cross-sectional study from Turkey

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of the assistant physicians who were taking medical specialty training in a medical faculty hospital Materials and Methods: We performed this cross-sectional study in a university hospital The universe of the survey was composed of all assistant physicians who were taking medical specialty training in this hospital
Towards the Equation of State for Neutral (C2H4), Polar (H2O), and Ionic ([bmim][BF4], [bmim][PF6], [pmmim][Tf2N]) Liquids

Despite considerable effort of experimentalists no reliable vapor-liquid coexistence at very small pressures and liquid-solid coexistence at high pressures have been until now observed in the working range of temperature / for ionic liquids. The measurements of high-pressure properties in low-temperature stable liquid are relatively scarce while the strong influence of their consistency on the phase equilibrium prediction is obvious. In this work we discuss the applicability of fluctuational-thermodynamic methodology and respective equation of state to correlate the properties of any (neutral, polar, ionic) liquids since our ultimate goal is the simple reference predictive model to describe vapor-liquid, liquid-liquid, and liquid-solid equilibria of mixtures containing above components. It is shown that the inconsistencies among existing volumetric measurements and the strong dependence of the mechanical and, especially, caloric derived properties on the shape of the functions chosen to fit the experimental data can be resolved in the framework of fluctuational-thermodynamic equation of state. To illustrate its results the comparison with the known experimental data for [bmim][BF4] and [bmim][PF6] as well as with the lattice-fluid equation of state and the methodology of thermodynamic integration is represented. It corroborates the thermodynamic consistency of predictions and excellent correlation of derived properties over the wide range of pressures /.
Evaluation of Parameter Values For a High-Temperature Drying Simulation Model Using Direct Drying Experiments

ABSTRACT An existing drying simulation model for softwood heartwood is revised lrom a theoretical point of view and is completed by extracting all the essential material parameters from moisture and temperature profiles measured in direct drying experiments. Some additional experimental results are presented to validate the qualitative characteristics of the model. The resulting computational model shows good agreement with experiments in the drying temperature range 45-120°C. Special attention is paid to the evolution of moisture gradient during drying, as the next step of the simulation project will be using the result as an input data for a computational stress model.
ROLE OF WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT AND THEIR CONSTRAINTS: A CASE STUDY OF BILIRI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, GOMBE STATE

The study focused on role of women in agricultural development and their constraints in Biliri Local Government Area of Gombe State. Simple random sampling technique was used to select six villages from the LGA and 60 women farmers. Interview scheduled was used to obtain information from the women, on their socio-economic characteristics, farm activities, farm production and their constraints. Descriptive statistics was used to analyzed the data collected. The result revealed that 88% of the respondents age were within 20-49 years, 12% were 50-70 years of age; 80% were married including widows and divorces, 20% single; 75% had formal education, 25% had no formal education; 35% had 1-10 years farming experience, while 65% had 11-40 years. Majority (72%) of the respondents were small-scale farmers having 0.1-3.0 hectares of farmland for cultivation of food crops. Majority of the women acquired land for farming from their husbands and relations (freehold), while others hired land for farming. The respondents sources of income for farming were through cooperative society (33%) and previous farm out put (23%) only few (13%) were able to secure Bank loan, while others borrowed money from friends. The result also showed that women were involved in all farm activities from land clearing to harvesting, processing and marketing of produce. They plant different crops, rear animals and keep poultry. The women farmers’ constraints include mainly lack of land for farming, credit facilities, costly and late input delivery. Women farmers have contributed immensely, to food production, processing and preservation of foods. Serious attention should be paid to their constraints because women are the backbone of agricultural development and food security in Nigeria.
From Alternative Development to Development-Oriented Drug Policies

This policy comment aims to trace the evolution of the concept of alternative development (AD)—alongside changes in the global drug control regime during recent decades—from a practitioner’s point of view. Since the 1970s, drug supply reduction was primarily concentrated on law enforcement and crop substitution programmes. Following negative experiences, some governments focused on development-led approaches that consider the socio-economic and political conditions of drug crop cultivating areas. Both the 1988 United Nations drug control convention (Convention Against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances), the first to mention the concept of AD, and the 1998 Political Declaration created the latitude necessary for AD to evolve into a ‘third pillar’ within the traditional drug supply control system. Another political milestone was the Outcome Document of the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS), as it was the first to dedicate an entire chapter solely to development-oriented drug control. In recent years—unexpectedly given the niche that AD had formerly been—a growing number of countries have declared that they either implement domestic AD measures or support them abroad. The observable increase in AD interventions may be due to a growing engagement of governments, but could also be explained by a rebranding of existing measures, given the increased popularity of AD. The funding situation in light of this enhanced political momentum is, however, rather poor. Latest figures, from 2013, show that AD only accounts for 0.1 per cent of global official development assistance. Though there seems to have been a slight increase in funding recently, the authors argue that a real surge in funding is so far not in sight.
Estimation of the thermal separation of soil particles from the thermal conductivity under reduced air pressure

Knowledge of thermal conductivity of granular materials under reduced air pressure can be utilized for studying intricate mechanisms of heat transfer in two‐phase systems. We measured the thermal conductivity of three soils of varied texture and two sets of glass beads (GB) under reduced air pressure using a twin heat probe. We also predicted the thermal conductivity of a two‐phase system at reduced air pressure from the modified Woodside & Messmer equation based on the kinetic theory of gases. This equation includes a thermal separation of solid particles (d) defined by the heat conduction. We compared this separation with the geometrical mean separation of solid particles (D). The results showed a linear relation between d and D for the GB, and in all cases d was smaller than D. This suggests that conductive heat transfer in two‐phase GB takes place mainly through air spaces the dimension of which is smaller than D.
A study of the electrochemical oxidation of some 1,4-benzodiazepines

The electrochemical oxidation of the 1,4-benzodiazepines flurazepam, chlordiazepoxide, oxazepam, lorazepam, potassium chlorazepate, nitrazepam, flunitrazepam, prazepam, diazepam and medazepam and some of their metabolites has been investigated at a glassy carbon electrode in Britton-Robinson buffers (pH 2–10) and in 0.01 M sodium hydroxide solution, each containing 10% of methanol. Oxidation mechanisms are proposed and analytical applications for use in assays of formulations and biological fluids are recommended.
Killer Acquisitions and Beyond: Policy Effects on Innovation Strategies

This article provides a theory of strategic innovation project choice by incumbents and start‐ups which serves as a foundation for the analysis of acquisition policy. We show that, in spite of countervailing incentives on incumbents and entrants, prohibiting acquisitions has a weakly negative overall innovation effect. We provide conditions determining the size of the effect and conditions under which it is zero. We further analyze the effects of less restrictive policies, including merger remedies and the tax treatment of acquisitions and initial public offerings. Such interventions tend to prevent acquisitions only if the entrant has sufficiently high stand‐alone profits.
Mandatory Retirement for Judges Improved Performance on U.S. State Supreme Courts

Anecdotal evidence often points to aging as a cause for reduced work performance. This paper provides empirical evidence on this issue in a context where performance is measurable and there is variation in mandatory retirement policies: U.S. state supreme courts. We find that introducing mandatory retirement reduces the average age of working judges and improves court performance, as measured by output (number of published opinions) and legal impact (number of forward citations to those opinions). Consistent with aging effects as a contributing factor, we find that older judges do about the same amount of work as younger judges, but that work is lower-quality as measured by citations. However, the effect of mandatory retirement on performance is much larger than what would be expected from the change in the age distribution, suggesting that the presence of older judges reduces the performance of younger judges.
Capital Income Taxation with Portfolio Choice

This paper analyzes redistributional and macroeconomic effects of differential taxation of financial assets with a different risk levels. The redistributive effect stems from the fact that various households hold portfolios with a starkly different risk levels. In particular, poor households primarily save in safe assets, while rich households often invest a substantially higher share of their wealth in (risky) equity. At the same time, equity and safe assets are often taxed at different rates in many tax codes. This is primarily because investments in equity (which are relatively riskier) are taxed both as corporate and personal income, unlike debt, which is tax deductible for corporations. This paper firstly builds a simple theoretical two-period model which shows that the optimal tax wedge between risky and safe assets is increasing in the underlying wealth inequality. Furthermore, I build a quantitative model with a continuum of heterogeneous agents, parsimonious life-cycle, borrowing constraint, aggregate shocks and uninsurable idiosyncratic shocks, in which the government raises revenue by using linear taxes on risky and safe assets. Simulations of quantitative models shows that elimination of differential asset taxation leads to a welfare loss equivalent to a 0.3% permanent reduction in consumption. I find that the optimal tax wedge between taxes on equity and debt is higher than the one in the U.S. tax code.
Automation and control of laser wakefield accelerators using Bayesian optimisation

Laser wakefield accelerators promise to revolutionise many areas of accelerator science. However, one of the greatest challenges to their widespread adoption is the difficulty in control and optimisation of the accelerator outputs due to coupling between input parameters and the dynamic evolution of the accelerating structure. Here, we use machine learning techniques to automate a 100 MeV-scale accelerator, which optimised its outputs by simultaneously varying up to 6 parameters including the spectral and spatial phase of the laser and the plasma density and length. This led to significant improvements over manual optimisation, enhancing the electron and x-ray yields by factors of 3 or more, using only a few tens of measurements. Most notably, the model built by the algorithm enabled optimisation of the laser evolution that might otherwise have been missed in single-variable scans. Subtle tuning of the laser pulse shape caused a dramatic 80% increase in electron beam charge, despite the pulse length changing by just 1%.
Improving the Statistical Power and Reliability of Research Using Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an increasingly popular source of experimental participants due to its convenience and low cost (relative to traditional laboratories). However, MTurk presents challenges related to statistical power and reliability. These challenges are not unique to MTurk, but are more prevalent than in research conducted with other participant pools. In this paper I discuss several reasons why research conducted with MTurk may face additional power and reliability challenges. I then present suggestions for dealing with these challenges, taking advantage of the comparative strengths of MTurk. The discussion should be of interest to PhD students and other researchers considering using MTurk or other online platforms as a source of experimental participants as well as to reviewers and editors who are considering quality control standards for research conducted with this participant pool.
Testing of Chlorella/Scenedesmus microalgae consortia for remediation of wastewater, CO2 mitigation and algae biomass feasibility for lipid production

AbstractIndustry, transport and unsustainable agriculture result in the increased quantity of wastewater, release of nutrients and emission of carbon dioxide that promotes eutrophication of water bodies and global climate change. The application of microalgae for phycoremediation, their biomass use for human needs may increase sustainability and have a positive effect on the regional development. The experiments were carried out in order to establish the feasibility of treating the local municipal wastewater with microalgae consortia and their biomass potential for biofuel production. The results revealed that Chlorella/Scenedesmus consortium eliminated up to 99.7–99.9% of inorganic phosphorus and up to 88.6–96.4% of inorganic nitrogen from the wastewater within three weeks. The ammonium removal was more efficient than that of nitrate. Chlorella algae grew better in diluted, while Scenedesmus – in the concentrated wastewater. The consortium treated wastewater more efficiently than a single species. The ma.
Recommendations for building out mosquito-transmitted diseases in sub-Saharan Africa: the DELIVER mnemonic

In sub-Saharan Africa, most transmission of mosquito-transmitted diseases, such as malaria or dengue, occurs within or around houses. Preventing mosquito house entry and reducing mosquito production around the home would help reduce the transmission of these diseases. Based on recent research, we make key recommendations for reducing the threat of mosquito-transmitted diseases through changes to the built environment. The mnemonic, DELIVER, recommends the following best practices: (i) Doors should be screened, self-closing and without surrounding gaps; (ii) Eaves, the space between the wall and roof, should be closed or screened; (iii) houses should be Lifted above the ground; (iv) Insecticide-treated nets should be used when sleeping in houses at night; (v) houses should be Ventilated, with at least two large-screened windows to facilitate airflow; (vi) Environmental management should be conducted regularly inside and around the home; and (vii) Roofs should be solid, rather than thatch. DELIVER is a package of interventions to be used in combination for maximum impact. Simple changes to the built environment will reduce exposure to mosquito-transmitted diseases and help keep regions free from these diseases after elimination. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Novel control strategies for mosquito-borne diseases'.
Prediction of Droplet Velocities and Rain Out in Horizontal Isothermal Free Jet Flows of Air and Viscous Liquid in Stagnant Ambient Air

Two-dimensional phase Doppler anemometer measurements of droplet size and velocity conducted under several nozzle conditions and a systematic variation of the air mass flow quality and liquid phase viscosity show that the air entrainment process is enhanced when keeping all test conditions constant except for increasing the Newtonian liquid viscosity above of that of water. A two-zone entrainment model based on a variable two-phase entrainment coefficient is proposed with the normalized axial distance allowing for a change in the jet angle. Thus, the jet perimeter is lower and the breakup length is longer in the case of air/relatively higher viscosity liquid phase. It provides the most accurate reproduction of the experimental droplet velocity in comparison with that of other models in the literature and, hence, is recommended for the prediction of the droplet velocity in the case of two-phase air/liquid phase free jet flow in stagnant ambient air. A model for predicting the droplet rain out, considering the droplet trajectories in the free jet flow, allows also for an adequate reproduction of the experimental data.
Modeling Dynamics of Task and Social Cohesion from the Group Perspective Using Nonverbal Motion Capture-based Features

Group cohesion is a multidimensional emergent state that manifests during group interaction. It has been extensively studied in several disciplines such as Social Sciences and Computer Science and it has been investigated through both verbal and nonverbal communication. This work investigates the dynamics of task and social dimensions of cohesion through nonverbal motion-capture-based features. We modeled dynamics either as decreasing or as stable/increasing regarding the previous measurement of cohesion. We design and develop a set of features related to space and body movement from motion capture data as it offers reliable and accurate measurements of body motions. Then, we use a random forest model to binary classify (decrease or no decrease) the dynamics of cohesion, for the task and social dimensions. Our model adopts labels from self-assessments of group cohesion, providing a different perspective of study with respect to the previous work relying on third-party labelling. The analysis reveals that, in a multilabel setting, our model is able to predict changes in task and social cohesion with an average accuracy of 64%(±3%) and 67%(±3%), respectively, outperforming random guessing (50%). In a multiclass setting comprised of four classes (i.e., decrease/decrease, decrease/no decrease, no decrease/decrease and no decrease/no decrease), our model also outperforms chance level (25%) for each class (i.e., 54%, 44%, 33%, 50%, respectively). Furthermore, this work provides a method based on notions from cooperative game theory (i.e., SHAP values) to assess features' impact and importance. We identify that the most important features for predicting cohesion dynamics relate to spacial distance, the amount of movement while walking, the overall posture expansion as well as the amount of inter-personal facing in the group.