Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PHYSICOCHEMICAL METHODS OF NITRATES REMOVAL FROM WASTEWATER

Abstract Nitrate(V) ions in surface water and sewage are pollutants, which excessive concentration have a negative impact on aquatic ecosystems. Due to the chemical properties, removal of nitrates from wastewater is a difficult process. In the municipal sector, biological denitrification (activated sludge) is the most commonly used process. However, in the case of industrial wastewater, where inhibiting substances or substances toxic to microorganisms are present in wastewater, it is necessary to use other types of methods. It is possible to distinguish here methods based on physicochemical processes, in particular: physicochemical separation, chemical or electrochemical reduction and oxidation under supercritical conditions. At present, membrane methods and ion exchange processes are used mainly in the industrial sector because of the high knowledge of the technology and the amount of applications used. Intensive studies are also being carried out on methods using chemical reduction processes, where greatest advantage is the ability to transform nitrates to neutral molecular nitrogen.
The Effect of Sm2O3 on the Sintering and Grain Growth Behaviors of SnO2-Based Ceramics

The effect of samarium oxide was examined on the sintering, microstructure, and grain growth behaviors of (Co, Nb)-doped SnO2-based ceramics prepared by co-precipitation method. The sintered samples were studied through x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and electron dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analyses. The microstructure observations revealed that the samples were near fully dense at a sintering temperature of 1200°C for 1h. The samarium doping prevented accelerated grain growth of the SnO2-based ceramic in the final stage of the sintering. The mean grain size of the SnO2-based ceramic without Sm2O3 doping was 2. 70µm, which was reduced to 0. 887µm for the sample doped with 0.05mol% Sm2O3. The grain size reduction of samples doped with Sm2O3 could be attributed to the segregation of Sm2O3 at the grain boundaries.
EVALUATION OF VARIOUS COOKING METHODS ON THE NUTRITIONAL AND BIOCHEMICAL ATTRIBUTES AND CONSUMER APPEAL OF CHEVON: A REVIEW

Chevon (goat meat) is most popular meat of ruminant species and is accepted by all communities in India. Its keeping has been a traditional activity in India and a primary source of livelihood for people below the poverty line. Goats have a number of characteristics, such as high reproductive potential, ability to thrive on shrubs, bushes, and tree leaves, and less susceptibility to infectious diseases, that make them suitable as meat producing livestock in developing countries, Raghavan [1] opined chevon is obtained from goat of different genotypes like Black Bengal, Jamunapuri, Ganjam, Sirohi, Beetal etc. in India. Black Bengal is a dwarf animal producing about 6.0 kg carcass. Abedin et al. [2] proposed that it is a predominant goat in West Bengal and is famous for its prolificacy, meat and skin quality. The present review envisage on the influence of different cooking methods on the quality and acceptability parameters of chevon.
Controversies in the Management of Respiratory Distress Syndrome in Premature Neonates

Copyright: © 2013 Fujii AM. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Current practices have lowered morbidity and mortality in premature infants over the past two decades. This improvement in outcomes is associated with regionalization of antenatal obstetrical management of potential preterm deliveries by referrals to centers with high-risk obstetricians and Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs), timely administration of antenatal steroids before delivery [1-3] and improving neonatal intensive care strategies. Nonetheless, Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS), due to surfactant deficiency, continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Neonatology is a relatively new subspecialty in which clinical strategies frequently are not supported by the robust evidence based data found in other specialties. Thus, NICU strategies tend to change rapidly and it is difficult for the clinician to keep abreast of the new information. This Special Edition of the Journal of Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine is created to provide the general pediatrician and practicing clinical neonatologist with an update of the state on the art care of RDS in the NICU.
Exploring the lived experience of one rural teacher in an Indigenous context in the Chilean Northern Territory: A narrative inquiry Author

There is a high rate of teacher attrition in Chile, particularly in Indigenous schools. Understanding how the experiences of teachers working in these contexts affects their professional practice will help to retain them. Through the teachers’ lens, using a narrative inquiry design, this study aimed to understand how educators face the challenges of teaching in rural and Indigenous settings. Findings of this study show Chilean teachers’ lack of knowledge about Indigenous culture and tradition. Teachers do not know about Indigenous students’ personal characteristics and this is affecting their teaching. It was also found that teachers’ inaccurate expectations about rural life, the extreme living conditions and emotional and geographic isolation, and the lack of professional recognition contribute to teachers’ exhaustion in the rural and Indigenous context. The findings of this study may contribute to future research and be useful for education stakeholders and universities that are in the process of finding improvements to teaching practices and teachers’ education programs.
Understanding Sri Lankan Business Cycles through an estimated DSGE Model

This study estimates a small open economy DSGE model for Sri Lanka to find out the driving forces of business cycles. The model replicates moments of actual data fairly well and it outperforms BVAR models estimated with the same data. The application of the estimated model reveals that domestic supply shocks and external shocks were the main drivers of business cycles in Sri Lanka. The oil price plays a key role in explaining the movements of inflation.
ELASTIC BEHAVIOR OF ZEOLITE BOGGSITE IN SILICON OIL AND AQUEOUS MEDIUM: A CASE OF HP-INDUCED OVER-HYDRATION

This paper reports the results of an in situ high-pressure synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction investigation on the natural zeolite boggsite [(K0.06Na0.36Sr0.01Ca7.00Mg1.20)(Al17.52Si78.62Fe0.05O192)·82.3 H2O]. The study was performed using both a (16:3:1) methanol:ethanol:water mixture (m.e.w.) as a nominally “penetrating” hydrostatic P-transmitting medium and silicon oil (s.o.) as a “non-penetrating” medium. The studied pressure ranges are: Pamb–7.6 and Pamb–5.9 GPa in m.e. w and s.o. , respectively. No complete X-ray amorphization is observed up to the highest investigated pressures, and the original unit-cell parameters are almost completely recovered upon decompression in both media. The reductions of a, b, c, and V, within the pressure-ranges investigated, are 5.3, 4.2, 4.0, and 13.0% in s.o. and 4.1, 4.1, 3.8, and 11.5% in m.e. w. The Rietveld structural refinements of the powder patterns of the experiments in m.e. w. converged successfully up to 3.6 GPa and demonstrated the penetration of 13 additional water molecules between 0.3 and 2.9 GPa. This over-hydration occurs without any unit-cell volume expansion and can be explained by the fact that no new extraframework sites arise during compression and that water penetration is the only factor to increase the occupancy of already existing sites. Boggsite compressibility is higher in s.o. than in m.e. w. In particular, compressibility in m.e. w. is lower below 3 GPa, whereas above this pressure, the P-V trend becomes similar in the two media. This can be ascribed to the fact that, during water molecule penetration (0.3 < P < 3 GPa), the effect of the P-transmitting medium is directed to compress the system as well as to penetrate the channels.
Audit Fee Premium for Industry Specialization: A Developed Country Perspective

This paper examines the effects of industry specialization (city-level, nationallevel, and joint-level) on audit pricing in the Australia. By using Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed companies, this study documents that auditors who are industry specialists at both city-and national-level charge significantly higher audit fees compare to those auditors who are specialists either only at city-level or only at national-level industry specialist. However, in further analysis, this study documents that firms who are city-level industry specialists they charge relatively higher audit fees than nationallevel industry specialists, which is consistent with prior research on audit fee premiums studies concentrated in Australia. The greater audit fees charged by city-level industry specialists auditors are possibly attributed to recent changes in accounting regulations environment in Australia (e.g., mandatory adoption of IFRS). Such a significant shift in financial reporting environment due of IFRS adoption can affect audit expertise which may be reflected in this study. This study findings are robust in a set of alternative tests following prior research.
Relationship between empathy dimension and customer satisfaction in the insurance industry in Kenya

The Insurance industry is essential to the economic course of every nation attaining sustainable growth and prosperity. However, the industry continues to experience a marginal growth of 2.5% compared to the global real term growth of 4%. This study analyzed the relationship between employee empathy and customer satisfaction in the Kenyan insurance industry. The study was guided by the causal research design. The study applied the linear mixed-effect models of structural equation modeling (SEM) considering the multi-level structure of the data collected. The study concluded that a client who perceives empathy from his/ her insurer’s employees is bound to have higher satisfaction than a customer who does not perceive empathy from their insurer. Employee empathy however, does not significantly affect the variations of customer satisfaction between the insurance companies.
Application of sodium salicylate up-regulates defense responseagainst Fusarium graminearum in wheat spikes

Fusarium head blight caused by the hemibiotrophic fungus Fusarium graminearum is one of the most devastating diseases of wheat which reduces both grain yield and quality. To better understand mechanism underlying wheat resistance to this pathogen, the expressions of five candidate genes encoding phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), glucanase-2 (Gl 2), class IV chitinase (Cht-4), cytochrome P450 (CYP), and pleiotropic drug resistance (PDR) following spike inoculation with F. graminearum was compared in susceptible cv. Falat and resistant cv. Sumai3 at three time points (48, 96, 144 h after inoculation). Real-time quantitative PCR analysis indicated earlier and greater inductions of PAL, Glu-2, and Cht-4 in spikes of 'Sumai3' as compared to 'Falat' in response to F. graminearum inoculation. The expression of CYP in the resistant 'Sumai3' was about three times higher than in 'Falat' at 144 h after pathogen inoculation. Moreover, soil drench application of sodium salicylate (SA) one day before pathogen inoculation drastically curtailed pathogen infection in both the cultivars. Furthermore, SA treatment caused an induction of these genes in spikes of the susceptible cultivar to show a similar pattern as in the resistant one when inoculated with F. graminearum. Proteomics analysis of F. graminearum treated spikes 96 h after inoculation confirmed an increase of Glu and Cht spot volume in 'Sumai3' whereas a decrease in 'Falat'. The SA treatment also caused significant increases in Glu and Cht spot volumes in both the cultivars. Our findings show an association between SA improvement of wheat defense against F. graminearum infection and induction of genes encoding proteins involved in pathogen response (Glu-2, Cht-4), secondary metabolite biosyntheses (PAL), and xenobiotic detoxification (CYP and PDR).
Treatment Outcomes Based on Patient’s Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) after Receiving Conventional Clasp or Precision Attachment Removable Partial Dentures in Distal Extension Cases: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Purpose: To compare the effect of two treatment options in mandibular Kennedy class I cases regarding oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) and the biting force, removable partial dentures retained by either precision attachment (PA-RPD) or clasps (C-RPD)Materials and methods: The study included 32 partially edentulous patients which 16 patients received PA-RPD (OT Cap Attachment) and 16 patients received C-RPD. All the patients in both groups were asked to fill the OHRQoL questionnaire after 1 week (baseline), 3 months, 6 months and 12 months after prosthesis insertion. Biting force was measured using the i-load Star Sensor one week, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after partial denture insertion for all patients in both groups. Statistical analysis comprised Mann Whitney U test, Friedman’s test, Dunn’s test and Chi-square test.Results: The results of OHRQoL revealed that at the baseline, 3 months and 6 months the PA-RPD showed statistically significant lower mean total OHIP-14 score than the C-RPD. However, after 12 Monthes , there was no statistically significant difference between total OHIP-14 scores in the two groups. Concerning the biting force there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups.Conclusion: Within the limitations of this study it was concluded that the OHRQoL of both the PA-RPD and the C-RPD was comparable after 12 months. Similarly the biting force was the same for both treatment options.
Sustainability Disclosure and Stock Returns

I utilize a keyword matching technique for comparing sustainability disclosure levels among publicly listed U.S. firms. By computerized parsing of the 10-K form, filed with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, I construct a sample of 88,464 firm-year sustainability disclosure observations. I find significant cross-sectional variation in sustainability disclosure in 10-K forms and document a steady increase in the form’s usage as a tool for sustainability reporting since the 1990s. Several firm characteristics correlate with disclosure levels of sustainability relating information. Primarily firm size, geographical dispersion, and industry show significant variation in firm 10-K sustainability disclosure concurring with previous empirical work. After controlling for several firm characteristics, I document a negative association between a firm’s sustainability disclosure and stock returns in microcaps. The relation between sustainability disclosure and stock returns is not statistically significant in the comparison of all firms. I document several firm characteristics that explain cross-sectional variation in stock returns. Furthermore, this paper provides insight on industry effects of sustainability disclosure levels, and investigate stock return effects by environmental, social, and governance-related disclosure.
RAAE 2-2019, Regular Article, Ali and Kpakpabia

Cotton is a cash crop that occupies an important place in Togolese economy. However, a downward trend in productivity has been observed over the last twenty years, but the reasons are not well known. The purpose of this article is to determine the level of technical efficiency of cotton producers and analyse its determinants. The stochastic frontier analysis was adopted and data collected from 150 cotton producers in five regions in Togo was used. The results show that the average technical efficiency of cotton producers is 48.33%. It is therefore possible to increase the level of cotton production to 51.67% using the available resources. The factors that affect the technical inefficiency of farmers include the use of herbicides, the education level and the nature of the soil. In order to increase the productivity of cotton, policy should target on the capacity building of the producers by an effective support of the extension agents in order to ensure the follow-up of the technical itineraries.
Determination of parameters that constitute an HIV-specific immune response associated with disease progression in a perinatally HIV-infected pediatric population

Author(s): Sharp, Elizabeth Ramona | Advisor(s): Nixon, Douglas | Abstract: Pediatric HIV infection is a major worldwide public-health challenge, with an estimated rate of 1,200 children being infected daily in sub-Saharan Africa alone. In spite of this, the HIV-specific immune response in perinatally infected children has been relatively understudied. These studies were designed to probe specific aspects of the immune response to HIV in a group of vertically infected children/adolescents, treated at the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, NY. The first study investigated the association between ethnicity and HIV-specific CD8+ T cell responses. Using a cytokine-enhanced ELISpot assay to measure IFN-gamma secretion in response to stimulation by HIV proteins Gag, Nef, and Tat, we show that African-American subjects displayed an immune response of higher magnitude than age and disease-matched Hispanic subjects. With the second study, we focused on defects in monocytes, specifically the signaling within, resulting from HIV infection. We utilized a recently developed intracellular staining technique, phospho-flow, to investigate the Jak/Stat signaling pathway in the monocytes of HIV-infected children. We found significantly lower levels of Jak/Stat signaling in response to stimulation in HIV-infected individuals compared to non-infected individuals. The last study focused on immunodominance patterns and differentiation profiles of Gag-specific CD8+ T cell responses in two progression groups within the same cohort of perinatally infected children. Using CDC guidelines, we classified patients into those with no immunosuppression or with severe immunosuppression. Using the IFN-gamma ELISpot assay, we then identified all epitope-specific CD8+ T cell responses to the Gag protein and compiled the immunodominance hierarchy of each patient. Utilizing multi-parameter cytokine flow cytometry, we then identified the differentiation profile and cytokine secretion profile of each epitope-specific response. We found significant differences between the progression groups with respect to immunodominance hierarchies of Gag-specific CD8+ T cell responses as well as striking differences in the differentiation profiles of CD4+ T cells, specifically an accumulation of the CCR7-CD45RA+ subset. Taken together, these studies add to the field of pediatric HIV immune responses and identify several factors, namely race, monocyte defects, and immunodominance patterns, which can play an important role in the role of the immune response in progression of HIV disease in perinatally infected children.
Distributed Spatiotemporal Indexes for Querying and Mining in Key-Value Stores

The recent ubiquity of sensors and GPS-enabled devices has resulted in an explosion of spatiotemporal data generated from probe cars, traffic sensors, and smartphones. To benefit from such data, applications need data storage that can handle the massive volume of data and support high-computational queries. Although key-value store databases (KVSs) efficiently handle large-scale data, they are not equipped with effective functions for supporting geographical data. To solve this problem, we present G+-HBase, a high-performance spatiotemporal database based on HBase, a standard KVS. First, we present G-HBase, a geographical database based on HBase. To index geographic data, we use Geohash as the rowkey in KVSs. Then, we propose a novel partitioning method, namely binary Geohash rectangle partitioning, to support spatial queries. Our extensive experiments on real datasets have demonstrated improved performance with k nearest neighbors and range query in G-HBase when compared with SpatialHadoop, a stateof-the-art framework with native support for spatial data. We also observed that performance of the spatial join query in G-HBase was on par with SpatialHadoop and outperforms SJMR algorithm in HBase. Second, we extend G-HBase to G+-HBase to support spatiotemporal data in an intelligent transportation system. In the spatiotemporal index, we adopted STCode, a longitude, latitude, and time-encoding algorithm, to build an index on top of HBase. Our proposed index structure allows continuous updates of objects and provides an efficient prefix filter for supporting spatiotemporal data retrieval. Experimental results demonstrate the high performance of spatiotemporal queries with response time meeting the requirements of real-time queryprocessing systems. Finally, we further extend G+-HBase to deal with user-generated geo-tagged social data. We study an efficient multidimensional index structure and parallel processing approaches for the top-k frequent spatiotemporal terms query, a basic analytic query on geo-tagged social data. Given a spatiotemporal range, the query aggregates frequencies of terms among the social posts in that range to find the most frequent terms. In order to reduce storage for indexing and to improve the query performance, we propose a distributed index structure
O4 Hiv incidence among people who attend sexual health clinics in england in 2012: estimates using a biomarker for recent infection

Introduction In England, 80% of HIV diagnoses are in sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics. Since 2009, Public Health England offered testing for recent HIV infection. Aim To estimate HIV incidence among STI clinic attendees in 2012. Methods The AxSYM avidity assay, modified to determine antibody avidity, was conducted on aliquots of newly diagnosed persons and results linked to the national HIV database. An incident case was defined as avidity <0.8, no antiretroviral treatment or AIDS and viral load ≥400 copies/mL at diagnosis. The number of persons tested for HIV was assessed using the Genitourinary Medicine Clinic Activity Dataset. We estimated and adjusted for a 1.9% (95% C.I. 1.0%–3.4%) false recent rate and used 202 days as the mean duration of recent infection to calculate incidence rates. Results Of 212 STI clinics in England, 150(71%) submitted specimens for recent infection testing, comprising 3,930 persons newly diagnosed; 50% were MSM. The number of HIV tests/diagnosis was 210 for all clinic attendees, 38 for MSM, 403 for all heterosexuals and 46 for black African heterosexuals. HIV incidence was 0.15% (95% C.I. 0.13–0.18%) for all attendees, 1.22% (95% C.I. 1.07–1.42%) for MSM, 1.41% (95% C.I. 1.21%-1.66%) for MSM in London, 0.03% (95% C.I. 0.02–0.04%) for heterosexuals and 0.13% (0.05–0.22%) for black African heterosexuals. Discussion/conclusion Testing for recent HIV infection combined with routinely collected clinical data provides robust and timely national estimates of HIV incidence. HIV incidence among MSM and black African heterosexuals attending STI clinics was 40 and nine times higher respectively than among all heterosexuals, and exceeds the WHO-defined elimination threshold of 0.1%.