Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implantable antennas for biomedical applications

Recently, the interest in implantable devices for biomedical telemetry has significantly increased. Amongst the different components of the implantable device, the antenna plays the most significant role in the wireless data transmission. However, the human body around the antenna alters its overall characteristics and absorbs most of its radiation. Therefore, this thesis is mainly focused on improving the antenna characteristics (bandwidth and radiation efficiency) to overcome the human body effect and investigating new structures that reduce the power absorption by the human body tissues. A novel antenna design methodology is developed and used to design new flexible implantable antennas of much lighter weight, larger radiation efficiency, and wider bandwidth than existing embedded antennas. These antennas work for multiple ((401-406 MHz) MedRadio, 433 MHz and 2.45 GHz ISM) bands which satisfy the requirements of low power consumption and wireless power transfer. This has been combined with thorough investigations of the antenna performance in the anatomical human body. New effective evaluation parameters such as the antenna orientation are investigated for the first time. New structures inspired by complementary and multiple split ring resonators (CSRRs and MSRRs) are designed. The structures are found to reduce the electric near field and hence the absorbed power which increases the radiated power accordingly. This new promising function of metamaterial based structures for implantable applications is investigated for the first time. The path loss (between pacemaker and glucose monitoring implantable antennas inside the anatomical body model) and (between an implantable and external antennas for a wireless power channel at 433 MHz) are estimated. Moreover, the optimum antenna type for on-in body communication is investigated. Loop antennas are found to outperform patch antennas in close proximity to the human body.
Human Resource Management with the Support of Management Information Systems

At present, new technologies are crucial in maintaining the com­petitiveness of businesses. In recent years, the application of management information systems has also increased in the field of human resource man­agement, where they support many decisions concerning human resources. Emphasis is placed on employee training and the use of information systems in terms of achieving a competitive advantage. The practical part is focused on finding the dependence between employee training, the use of informa­tion systems and the competitiveness of the selected enterprise, where re­gression and correlation analysis is applied. Regarding the performed anal­ysis, we confirm the significant impact between the costs spent on employee training, the costs spent on information systems and the accounting profit/ loss, labour productivity in the selected enterprise. Based on the results of the research, generalized findings and suggestions are presented.
The practice of COVID-19 preventive measures in Palestine on the limits of vaccine provision: a population-based study.

INTRODUCTION Despite discovery of effective vaccines, healthy behaviors and good practices remain the cornerstone of the prevention and control of COVID-19 and the mitigation of adverse impacts. This study aimed to assess the Palestinian population's COVID-19 prevention measures and correlate them with their knowledge, attitude, and background characteristics. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional study was performed between Dec 2020 and Jan 2021 on 1,451 respondents ≥18 years via an interviewer-administered questionnaire, comprising 35 questions assessing knowledge, attitude, and practice toward COVID-19. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariable regression analyses. RESULTS Of the 1,451 respondents, 768 were females (52.9%), the mean age was 32.8 ± 13.7 years, and 161 (11.1%) reported having been infected with the coronavirus. Overall, 38.7% (95%CI: 36.2-41.2%), 23.4% (95%CI: 21.3-25.7%), and 50.2% (95%CI: 47.6-52.9%) reported good knowledge, attitude, and practice, respectively. Respondents over 50 [aOR 1.9, 95%CI: 1.3-2.8], females [aOR 1.7, 95%CI: 1.4-2.2], and people who had COVID-19 infection [aOR1.7, 95%CI: 1.2-2.5] were more likely to report good practice. Participants with good attitude were 5. times more likely to report good practice than those with poor attitude [p-value < 0.001, aOR 5.7, 95%CI: 3.9-8.4]. CONCLUSIONS The knowledge, attitude, and practice of the participants are no ideal. A positive attitude is a crucial predictor of good practices for COVID-19 prevention and control. Public health interventions are essential for developing and sustaining positive attitudes and good practices and preventing misconceptions.
Barriers to the Use of Locally Produced Food Products in Ghanaian Restaurants: Opportunities for Investments

Aims: To e xamine the extent to which locally produced rice, chicken, cooking oils and tomato paste are used in Ghana’s restaurants, to identify barriers that inhibit their use and to possibly identify investment opportunities that may increase their production, utilization and consumption. Methodology: Data was obtained from one representative each from 90 restaurants in Accra using semi-structured questionnaires. Basically the questions focused on the various dishes offered, source of raw materials and barriers to the use of locally produced food products in restaurants. The data was complemented by in-depth interviews with some restaurant representatives and secondary data sources. Results: Rice dishes were the most popular in restaurants with fried rice alone being served in 92.2% of the restaurants. In most cases, rice dishes were accompanied by fried chicken and various sauces and side dishes prepared with oils and tomato paste. Findings showed that rice, chicken, cooking oils, and tomato pastes, which were used in the preparation of the dishes, are
Effect of Payments System Innovations on the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Nigeria

The study examines the effect of payments system innovations on the performance of commercial banks in Nigeria, Ex post factor research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprises all the banks operating in Nigeria. Data were collected from the economic reports and statistical bulletin of central bank of Nigeria. The Auto-Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) bounds approach to co-integration was adopted on quarterly time-series data from Q1 2007 to Q4 2020 to test the causal relationship between payments system innovations and financial performance of commercial banks in Nigeria. The results indicated that mobile payment, POS transactions and internet payment have positive and significant impact on return on assets of commercial banks in Nigeria, while RTGS has negative impact on the return of assets. The results of the study will fill the knowledge gap and will benefit both regulators and operators in making decision-making process and development of new policies that will aid the promotion of innovative products for safe reliable, and credible payments system and in identify payments system technology, projects and initiatives that are significantly viable, respectively. The study recommends the need for the commercial banks in Nigeria to undertake massive mass media enlightenment campaigns on all payments system innovations/initiatives.
Public Perception of Risks Associated with Major Accident Hazards

This research was designed to provide the HSE with a better understanding of the nature and dynamics of public perceptions of the risks associated with major hazard sites in the light of current policy developments and debates. It consisted of a series of case studies conducted around seven different major hazard sites and utilised a qualitative research design that involved people living close to such sites taking part in focus group discussions and completing a Q-sort exercise. The results of the research highlight the influence of local context on public perceptions of major hazard sites and outline the ways in which members of the lay public reason about the associated risks. The analysis differentiates the bases of public toleration of hazardous industrial sites and accounts for their distribution across different local contexts. The report also documents the public’s views of a number of policy issues, including the provision of risk information, the regulation of major hazard industry and the use of land use planning controls. The report concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research for policy, giving particular attention to the Seveso II Directive and forthcoming COMAH Regulations, and to the HSE’s Tolerability of Risk criteria.
Paraxanthine Supplementation Increases Muscle Mass, Strength, and Endurance in Mice

Paraxanthine is a natural dietary ingredient and the main metabolite of caffeine in humans. Compared to caffeine, paraxanthine exhibits lower toxicity, lesser anxiogenic properties, stronger locomotor activating effects, greater wake promoting properties, and stronger dopaminergic effects. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential beneficial effects of paraxanthine supplementation on muscle mass, strength, and endurance performance in comparison to the control and other ingredients commonly used by athletes: L-theanine, alpha-GPC, and taurine. Male Swiss Albino mice from five groups (n = 8 per group) were orally administered paraxanthine (20.5 mg/kg/day, human equivalence dose (HED) 100 mg), L-theanine (10.28 mg/kg/day, HED 50 mg), alpha-GPC (41.09 mg/kg/day, HED 200 mg), taurine (102.75 mg/kg/day, HED 500 mg), or control (carboxy methyl cellulose) for 4 weeks. Exercise performance was evaluated using forelimb grip strength and treadmill endurance exercise. All animals were subject to treadmill training for 60 min 5 days per week. Blood draws were utilized to analyze lipid profile, liver health, renal function, and nitric oxide levels. Paraxanthine significantly increased forelimb grip strength by 17% (p < 0.001), treadmill exercise performance by 39% (p < 0.001), gastrocnemius and soleus muscle mass by 14% and 41% respectively (both p < 0.001), and nitric oxide levels by 100% compared to control (p < 0.001), while reducing triglyceride (p < 0.001), total cholesterol (p < 0.001), LDL (p < 0.05), and increasing HDL (p < 0.001) compared to control, and compared to L-theanine, alpha-GPC, and taurine. Results from this initial investigation indicate that, when compared to the control, L-theanine, alpha-GPC, and taurine, paraxanthine is an effective ingredient for various aspects of sports performance and may enhance cardiovascular health.
Effect of different alfalfa cultivars on growth and development of the spotted alfalfa aphid, Therioaphis trifolii (Monell)

Therioaphis trifolii (Monell) is a well‐known pest in alfalfa cultivation in China. Individuals of T. trifolii were allowed to feed on 10 alfalfa cultivars and their growth, reproduction, and population life table parameters were estimated. Nymphs that fed on Hunter River had the longest development time, whereas nymphs that fed on Defu had the shortest development time. Adults that fed on Debao, Zhongmu No. 2, and Defu had the shortest development time, whereas adults that fed on Golden Empress and Hunter River had the longest development times. Individuals that fed on Zhungeer produced the greatest number of offspring (13.950), and those that fed on Hunter River produced the fewest offspring (6.000). The survival rate of T. trifolii was the highest on Algonquin and lowest on Hunter River, whereas the survival time was the longest on Golden Empress and shortest on Debao. The population that fed on Algonquin had the highest intrinsic growth rate (0.560) and shortest population doubling time (1.237 days), whereas those that fed on Hunter River had the lowest intrinsic growth rate (0.217) and longest population doubling time (3.194 days). The life table parameters of the experimental T. trifolii population were used to quantify the resistance strengths of the cultivars. Results indicate that the Hunter River cultivar may effectively resist damage from T. trifolii. This study provides a theoretical basis for breeding aphid‐resistant alfalfa cultivars, enabling further research into the prevention and control of aphid infestation.
Reducing Water Pollution with Subsurface Drainage

ABSTRACT Asubsurface drainage-runoff-erosion experi-ment on clay loam alluvial soil near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was conducted during 1980, 1981, and 1982. The experiment consisted of four surface drained plots, two of which were also subsurface drained. From 1 October 1980 to 30 September 1982, surface runoff and soil erosion were reduced 29% and 16%, respectively, by subsurface drainage. From 1 May 1981 to 30 September 1982, total potassium and phosphorus removed from the plots were reduced 24 and 32%, respectively, by subsurface drainage.
The application of Legendre Polynomials to model muscularity and body condition score in primiparous Italian Simmental cattle

Abstract The aim of the present study was to develop a model to predict muscularity and body condition score (BCS) during the lactation of Italian Simmental dairy cows in Emilia Romagna herds. A total of 2656 Italian Simmental primiparous cows from 324 dairy herds were linear classified between 2002 and 2020. Lactation curves for muscularity and BCS were modelled for each cow using random regression model. The model included the fixed effects of age at linear scoring and days in milk modelled with a Legendre polynomial, and the random effects of herd-year of classification, cow and days in milk for each cow modelled with Legendre polynomials. The most parsimonious model included a fixed cubic Legendre polynomial and a random linear polynomial for cow effects. Results indicated that, on an average, BCS nadir was anticipated to that of muscularity, and, in both cases, this moment was around the lactation peak, when animals have the greatest nutrients requirement. After this period, both BCS and muscularity recovered up to post-partum levels. Moreover, after the 9 month of lactation, the absolute growth rate of muscularity and BCS was negative, suggesting that late-gestating cows could potentially enter a phase of body conformation loss. Results reported in the current research indicate that random regression using Legendre polynomials can be successfully employed to predict muscularity and BCS during the lactation of dairy cows. Highlights Modelling dairy cows’ muscularity and BCS allows to use these parameters as indicator traits for functionality in dairy cows. The use of prediction model of muscularity and BCS allows to understand the evolution of these conformation traits during the lactation. The analysis of muscularity and BCS allows to assess health and welfare status of dairy cows, which is essential to maximise production performances.
Adaptive Robust Synchronous Motion Control of Dual Parallel Linear Motor Driven Stage

Due to the potential of achieving high speed and high precision, linear motor driven gantry systems are widely used in industrial applications such as machine tools, semiconductor manufacturing equipments and microelectronics manufacturing equipments. To have large enough driving force, a H-type structure with dual parallel driving motors is usually adopted. Though dual-motor driven structure can deliver higher driving power, the “pull and drag” problem between two motors exists when they are controlled separately. In this paper, a synchronous control scheme is proposed which has an effective thrust allocation to deal with the chattering of the “pull and drag” effect, and uses adaptive robust control (ARC) technique to obtain a guaranteed performance with the presence of both parametric uncertainties and uncertain nonlinearities. Comparative experiments have been done on a dual-linear-motor-driven industrial gantry. The results show that the control input chattering is significantly reduced without sacrificing the good tracking performance of ARC controllers. © 2012 ASME
Accounting for new technology in museum exhibtions

Museums of fine and decorative art increasingly deploy computer-based interpretation devices such as Personal Digital Assistants and information kiosks into their exhibitions. Museum managers hope that such new technology will help raise visitor numbers, attract new audiences and enhance visitors’ experience of exhibits. Yet, we have relatively little knowledge of whether the investment in digital resources ‘pays off’ for museums. Conventional accounting methods and techniques largely assess whether investment in exhibitions leads to higher visitor numbers and increased revenue, but ignores the museum’s agenda and mission. Studies of visitor behavior and learning primarily focus on whether visitors attend to exhibits but largely lack methods to examine the quality of the museum experience. This paper wishes to contribute to current debates about the adequacy of methods favored in financial accounting and visitor studies for the assessment of investment in new technology in museum exhibitions. It draws on two cases to explore how the deployment of PDAs and information kiosks influences the ways in which visitors examine and experience the exhibits. The findings are used to assess the deployment of new technology in exhibitions, to provide practical information to managers and designers who plan and develop such technologies for art museums and to show how ethnographic and videobased methods can contribute to current practice in museum accounting.
Leaderless Consensus Control of Nonlinear PIDE-Type Multi-Agent Systems With Time Delays

This paper studies leaderless consensus of semi-linear parabolic partial integro-differential equations based multi-agent systems (PIDEMASs) with time delays. Making use of the information interaction and coordination among the neighboring agents, consensus control of the leaderless PIDEMAS is constructed. Consensus of the leaderless PIDEMAS is analyzed by using a Lyapunov approach. Dealing with time-invariant delays and time-varying delays, two sufficient conditions for consensus of the leaderless PIDEMAS are respectively obtained in terms of LMIs. Two examples illustrate the effectiveness of developed theoretical results.
Interactional Justice and Deviant Workplace Behavior: The Mediating Role of Perceived Supervisor Support in Hotel Industry of KP-Pakistan

In the field of organizational behaviour, interactional justice and perceived supervisor support have a critical role in directing employees’ behaviour in either positive or negative direction. Keeping this in mind, this paper looks at the effect of interactional injustice on employees’ deviant behaviour with perceived supervisor support as a mediator. To link the study variables, equity and social exchange theories were used. The extensive literature on destructive deviance has been reviewed. To empirically test the relationship, a two-phase sampling technique (first clustering and then purposive) was applied through which 160 responses from the Hotel and Tourism industry of KP province were collected. A single structured adapted questionnaire was employed. The findings of the study reveal the presence of a negative relationship between interactional justice and deviant workplace behaviour. Further, the results demonstrated that perceived supervisor support mediates this relationship. All the results of the study are statistically significant. The study has theoretical as well as practical implications. Theoretically, the results of the study would help the organizational behaviour scholars to understand the issue in a different organizational environment. Practically, the findings will assist managers to understand the critical role of the supervisor which is instrumental in enhancing the morale of employees at the workplace. This will help them understand how supervisor support can affect the frequency and intensity of deviant workplace behaviour. The study has some limitations like sampling, subjective opinion of the participants, and limited numbers of the variables. In future, this research can be replicated in other sectors like education, health, banking, and other industries.
A Comparative Analysis of the Nature of Stock Return Volatility in BRICS and G7 Markets

Through globalization and financial market liberalization, the opening up of markets has increased cross-border investments as investors search for higher risk-adjusted returns. This ability to invest internationally has raised the attention given to emerging markets that offer higher risk-adjusted returns relative to developed markets. However, despite the growing importance of emerging markets, the literature on the nature of volatility in global markets is typified by generalizations of findings from developed markets. To fill this gap, this study comparatively examined the nature of stock return volatility in developed G7 and emerging BRICS markets. Broad market index data and GARCH models over the period 2003:01–2020:08 were employed. The study found evidence of volatility persistence, asymmetry, mean reversion and weak evidence of a risk premium in both emerging and developed markets. There was also evidence of significant differences in the nature of volatility within the two sets of markets. These volatility patterns in both groups cast doubt on the assertion that developed markets are more informationally efficient than emerging markets. Thus, markets in the same group may not always have the same nature of volatility, especially in the wake of structural events such as the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Improving library services through the application of business performance concepts

In virtually any field of endeavour today, access to information is a prerequisite for success. Libraries form the repositories with user-friendliness their mission. This has lead to the need for new ways to evaluate library performance. Astute library managers will plan for such developments, taking into account current and future trends that impact on library services. Library services are also affected, for example, by financial considerations and staffing problems. Further complicating matters are the demands of their clients who have developed increased expectations of improved service, and also a desire for more self-service opportunities. Such changes raise the question: “to what extent can libraries apply business performance management techniques to assess their performance. ” This, then, is the research question for this study. This work will evaluate library performance with the aim of improving service management. Its targets are the UWC library, and others, such as the Stellenbosch University, and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. The application of selected service management techniques and measures used in business will be explored. These techniques include The Balanced Scorecard, critical success factors and service quality. The study also touches on transformation and change management. An obvious source of information about library management is the corps of managers. The secondary source of information is the community of library users.