Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VOICE DISORDERS AMONG TEACHERS IN SLOVENIA: PREVALENCE AND SOME RISK FACTORS

Background. Teachers as voice professionals with heavy vocal load represent a population at high risk of vocal problems. Until now there has not been any study evaluating prevalence and risk factors for voice disorders among teachers in Slovenia. Methods. Questionnaires about voice disorders and vocal habits were sent to randomly chosen 10% of elementary, middle schools and kindergarten in Slovenia. Answers from 1509 completed questionnaires were analyzed by statistical program SPSS 11.0. Results. In the school year 2002/03 51% of teachers occasionally experienced voice disorders and 15% did frequently. The prevalence of transient voice problems was therefore about 66%. By univariate χ 2 test we found statistically significant relationship to frequent voice disorders for female sex (p < 0.02), middle school teachers (p < 0.02), age over 40 years (p < 0.0005) and atopic constitution (p < 0.006); voice disorders during study showed borderline significance (p < 0.07). There was no significant relationship to voice problems for yelling, talking loudly or rapidly, using chalk while talking, cigarette smoking, water intake and gastroesophageal reflux. Statistically significant variates were included in the multivariate logistic regression model. There was 1.9-times higher risk of experiencing frequent voice disorders in females than for males (p < 0.003). Risk of vocal problems in middle school teachers was 1.5-times higher than in kindergarten teachers (p < 0.01) and 1.8-times higher than in elementary school teachers (p < 0.0005). Age over 40 years carried 2,3-times higher risk for hoarseness than age under 40 years (p < 0.0005). Voice disorders during study showed 1.7-times higher risk for later occupational vocal problems (p < 0.02). Atopic constitution had 1.6-times higher risk for frequent vocal problems (p < 0.008). The questionaire also showed how unfamiliar to vocal hygiene Slovene teachers are. Conclusions. The prevalence of voice disorders among teachers in Slovenia is high – about 66%. In our opinion the teaching of right vocal technique, vocal hygiene, prevention and therapy of voice disorders should be included in the study for the future vocal professionals. Before entering study vocal constitution of candidates should be evaluated.
Quality of life in persons with hearing loss: The importance of psychological variables and hearing loss severity

Background: To the best of our knowledge, no empirically based consensus has been reached as to if, and to what extent, persons with hearing loss (HL) have reduced generic Quality of life (QoL). There seems to be limited knowledge regarding to what extent a hearing aid (HA) would improve QoL. The main aim of the present study was to review studies about the relationship between HL and QoL. A supporting aim was to study the association between distress and HL. Methods: Literature databases (Cinahl, Pub Med and Web of Science) were searched to identify relevant journal articles published in the period from January 2000 to March 17, 2016. We performed a primary search pertaining to the relationship between HL, HA and QoL (search number one) followed by a supporting search pertaining to the relationship between distress/mood/anxiety and HL (search number two). After checking for duplications and screening the titles of the papers, we read the abstracts of the remaining papers. The most relevant papers were read thoroughly, leaving us with the journal articles that met the inclusion criteria. Results: Twenty journal articles were included in the present review: 13 were found in the primary search (HL and QoL), and seven in the supporting search (HL and distress). The literature yields equivocal findings regarding the association between generic QoL and HL. A strong association between distress and HL was shown, where distressed persons tend to have a lowered generic QoL. It is suggested that QoL is lowered among HL patients. Some studies suggest an increased generic QoL following the use of HA, especially during the first few months after initiation of treatment. Other studies suggest that HA use is one of several possible factors that contribute to improve generic QoL. Conclusions: The majority of the studies suggest that HL is associated with reduced generic QoL. Using hearing aids seem to improve general QoL at follow-up within the first year. HL is a risk factor for distress. Further research is needed to explore the relationship between HL and generic QoL, in addition to the importance of influencing variables on this relationship.
Traditional House Architecture in Geopark Ciletuh Sukabumi as Mathematical Learning Materials In Basic Education

The purpose of this research is to describe a mathematical element in a traditional house in Geopark Ciletuh Sukabumi. The background of this research is there is a fact in the community which states that learning is only as a benchmark to achieve grades, not based on how the student understands and solves the problems given, whereas the use of learning one of them is as a solution to solve problems in daily life. Based on this, there is concern that students will not be able to apply mathematics to solve problems in everyday life. Therefore we need a new innovation in learning that links social life or culture with material in schools such as mathematics. One solution to that problem is about ethnomathematics. The type of this research is qualitative research. Data collection techniques used in this research are an interview, observation, and documentation, then the data obtained are analyzed by using data reduction, data presentation, verification, and conclusion. The results of this study show that in the architecture of traditional house there are mathematical elements such as geometry. The results of this study can be used as an innovation and learning materials in elementary school mathematics, so it will increase students knowledge related to the application of mathematics in everyday life. It is expected that ethnomathematics may become an innovation of learning mathematics in school.
Enzymatic production of rebaudioside E from stevia leaf extract Executive summary

The enzymatic conversion process produces a highly purified preparation containing no less than 85% rebaudioside E and no less than 95% total steviol glycosides on a dry weight basis. The enzymatic conversion process makes use of an enzyme processing aid (designated as UGT-A) that has previously been assessed and approved by FSANZ under A1157 (FSANZ 2018) and is listed in Schedule 18 for the production of rebaudiosides M and D. UGT-A contains two plant enzymes (uridine diphosphate (UDP)-glucosyltransferase and a sucrose synthase) expressed as a fusion protein.
STORYTELLING AS A MEANS OF BRAND BUILDING

The objective of the study was to examine the arguments and benefits of storytelling in brand building, as well as explore the role of building authenticity and emotions through brand stories. The research project was implemented by examining four relatively small Finnish companies that cleverly exploit brand stories in different ways in their communication. Due to lack of previous research on the topic, the scope of the study was chosen to be from the company perspective. The study aimed to answer the following research questions: (1) How do small Finnish companies brand and differentiate themselves by creating “authentic” brand stories? (2) How is emotional branding exploited in these brand stories? (3) Why is storytelling viewed important? The research methods of the study consisted of a semi-structured reflective interview as well as analysis on the sample companies’ websites and Instagram accounts. As an analysis method, thematic analysis was used to make sense of the collected data that included four interviews that were transcribed into a written form, together with the seven pages of notes concerning the companies’ websites, as well as the analysis of the 100 Instagram posts along with the analysis of the “Instagram Stories” from two weeks. Colorcoding was utilized in order to identify repeating themes, similarities and differences, as well as naturally occurring transitions. It could be concluded that the main findings of this graduate thesis are threefold. Firstly, five different themes (truthful brand story, real people, honesty and transparency, use of humor, and Finnishness) could be identified, through which small Finnish companies brand and differentiate themselves by creating authentic brand stories. Secondly, emotional branding is exploited by aiming to create (predetermined) emotions by appealing to consumers’ emotions together with promoting the company values. Thirdly, storytelling is viewed important, as it is a core of these companies differentiating them from their competitors by substantially increasing their brand awareness.
Multi-Objective Topology Optimization for Bi-Dimensional Structures

Nowadays, one of the main engineering challenges is the optimization of performance, time, consumption, among other parameters in order to have the best quality and economic solutions, that is why the optimization models have a big importance in an engineering project. The study developed in this work aims to develop program that perform the topology optimization on a bidimensional plate minimizing the compliance to obtain a structure with maximum stiffness. The structure is subject to constrains, boundary conditions and material quantity, this optimizations is made to minimize two objectives, support two loads. For this purpose a Matlab program was developed to solved a problem of multi-objective optimization for the case of two differentiated functions and then was elaborated another topology optimization algorithm based on the ideas of the first model. The two objective functions are the values of the compliance and the goal is to minimize the compliance. Resorting to the concept of Pareto dominance several optimal solutions are found, through an iterative process where two analyzes of finite elements are made and is given two directions to minimize each function in each
Buckling behaviour of graphene sheets

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms, in an hexagonal lattice, and one of the most interesting nano-structures of today, given its excellent mechanical, electrical and optical properties, with applications in almost every field of engineering. Taking this into account, this work aims to build a finite element model of a graphene sheet that allows the study of its structural stability, verifying this model with results from other investigators. This model was built following the atomic-continuum approach, using the AMBER inter-atomic potential. This work also shows a parametric study of the buckling of graphene sheets for different combinations of loads and supports, making a critical assessment of the variation of the buckling load and the corresponding buckling mode with respect to geometric parameters. The finite element method has proven to be a good solution for the research of the mechanical properties, with results in agreement with the available literature. This study also demonstrates that the buckled graphene sheet behaves like the classic plate theory predicts.
Epidemiology of Needlestick and Sharps Injuries in Veterinary Medicine

Needlestick injuries (NSIs) are a serious concern for veterinary practitioners as well as other healthcare personnel. During practice, veterinarians are exposed to various risky situations in which NSI and sharps injuries seem to be a common occupational hazard. Studies on prevalence and occurrence of NSI in veterinary medicine are scarce and probably underreported. One important consequence is the physical trauma. However, other factors related to their economic or psychiatric impact should also be considered. The studies available about NSI in veterinarians reported different prevalence, ranging from 1 % to 86.7 %, although their comparison is difficult since prevalence is calculated from different data sources. Various risk factors of NSI (such as years as veterinarians, number of work hours, poor quality of restraint of animals, poor needle handling practices, among others) have been described. However, information regarding risk factors in veterinary medicine is scarce. In order to understand the epidemiology of NSI in veterinarians, a review of the literature published in the last four decades (1980–2016) is presented. Thus, the current chapter will address several characteristics of NSI in veterinary medicine as occurrence, prevalence and incidence risk factors, consequences and preventive measures.
Detecting Hacker Threats: Performance of Word and Sentence Embedding Models in Identifying Hacker Communications

Cyber security initiatives are ﬁnding new approaches to mitigating threats against the computational infrastructure of companies. One of these approaches is the use text mining techniques and classiﬁcation models to detect potentially malicious messages or posts in hacker communications. This is a diﬃcult task due the ambiguity and the strong use of technical vocabulary inherent in such posts. This paper aims to evaluate the use of robust language models for feature representation of input to downstream classiﬁcation tasks of hacker communication posts. We perform the experiment against ﬁve hacker forum datasets using a variety of language models: two Word Embeddings (Word2vec and Glove), and three Sentence Embeddings (Sent2vec, InferSent and SentEncoder). We conclude that, for this task, only Sentence Embed-dings enhance the performance of SVM classiﬁcation models compared to traditional language models (Bag-of-words, word/char n-grams). Ad-ditionally, we found that models using CNN improves upon SVM models by achieving 93% of positive recall and 96% of average class accuracy.
Electrolyte disturbance in dengue infected patients: A hospital based study

Dengue infection is one of the most common mosquito-borne infections caused by Flaviridae. Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) is more serious than dengue fever (DF) due to capillary leakage. The World Health Organization has reported 2.5 billion people live in areas where dengue viruses can be transmitted (WHO, 2009). The aim of our study is is to evaluate electrolyte disturbances in patients with Dengue infection . In this study we include total of 88 clinically diagnosed and serologically confirmed age and sex matched Dengue cases. Serum electrolytes [Sodium, Potassium & Chloride] were measured by electrolyte kit method by using Semiauto analyser. The mean age of the study group was 24.4±13.7 in which 70.4 % were adults and 29.5% were children . 69.3% of the patients are males ,30.6% are females. The amounts of Sodium (p<0.0001). , Potassium (p<0.0001) and Chlorides (p<0.0001) were varied significantly between the control and the patients samples. The study revealed mild hyponatremia and hypokalemia in Dengue confirmed patients and it was analysed that mild hyponatremia is a common electrolyte disturbance and renal involvement is mild in patients with DF Patients.
Learning Portfolios in Translation Classrooms

Learning portfolio is a beneficial alternative for classroom learning and assessment since it enriches students’ learning experiences, and it is a sound integration of teaching, learning, and assessment through socially constructed learning. Translation pedagogy can benefit a great deal from the use of portfolios. It develops the students’ translation competence, as well as other skills necessary for their translation learning, including decision making, problem solving, selfmonitoring, and self-assessing. Using portfolios allows the students to fully participate in their own learning, and at the same time, practice social skills through sharing and collaborating with their peers. The teachers can also ascertain whether and how learning outcomes have been met and make adjustments as necessary. Any learning difficulties that might occur can be communicated to the teachers and can be handled in an appropriate time and manner. Additionally, portfolio use has proved to be an alternative assessment in different translation classroom settings since it is a performance-based evaluation and has quality of test usefulness. Therefore, portfolio use is believed to be an ideal tool in translation pedagogy.
Effect Investment Opportunity Set on Cost Of Equity Capital : Study of online investment Information Technology in the Indonesian Stock Exchange

The study aims to analyze disclosure as variable mediating the effects of investment opportunity set on cost of equity capital in the companies listed at lq45 in Indonesian stock exchange.Data analysis exploited secondary data taken from financial report in the period of 2012-2016.Data on stock price was taken from http://www.duniainvestasi. com/bei. Sampling was carried out using purposive sampling method and it was analyzed through the use of partial least square. The results of this study indicate that investment opportunity set provides positive and significant effects on cost of equity capital. Disclosure provides negative and significant effect on cost of equity capital. Investment opportunity set provides indirect effects on cost of equity capital, disclosure. Therefore, the conclusion of this research isdisclosure may mediate the effect of investment opportunity set on cost of equity capital.
Ultra-narrow Band Satellite Visual Monitoring of High-sea Fishing Vessels

Overfishing, i.e. fishing more fish than can be reproduced, has extremely harmful consequences, affecting the natural balance of the oceans as well as the economic and social well-being of the coastal communities that depend on it for survival. In order to promote the sustainability of marine life, several monitoring techniques have been employed over the years. One of these monitoring techniques is to place a ‘blackbox’ in the fishing vessels which, via satellite communication, transmits relevant information, such as the boat position and speed, to a Control Center at shore. To increase the effectiveness of this type of monitoring, the implementation of an on-board camera has been subject of study to enable video surveillance on board of fishing vessels. However, the extraordinarily high cost of satellite-based communications is a major barrier, seriously hindering the implementation of such systems. In this context, this work has two main objectives: the first concerned the development of an automatic detection system of fishing activities based on visual data. This system was based on the increasingly popular deep-learning networks, notably using the so-called Convolutional Neural Networks to provide video classification. The resulting automatic detection of fishing activities proved to have an excellent performance, thus allowing to alert the occurrence of illegal fishing activities, as well as the transmission of relevant images of those events. The second objective was the efficient compression of the images to be satellite transmitted, notably using a royalty free codec. To increase the final user experience, an image enhancement system to be placed in the Control Center was also developed, to allow performing a lower rate based image compression at the vessels and consequently reducing the transmission costs. Keywords— Overfishing, Vessel Monitoring Systems, Videosurveillance, Image Processing, Image Compression, DeepLearning, Convolution Neural Networks, Image Enhancement
Information, Technology Adoption and Productivity: The Role of Mobile Phones in Agriculture

We study the effect of information on technology adoption and productivity in agriculture. Our empirical strategy exploits the expansion of the mobile phone network in previously uncovered areas of rural India coupled with the availability of call centers for agricultural advice. We measure information on agricultural practices by analyzing the content of 2.5 million phone calls made by farmers to one of India's leading call centers for agricultural advice. We find that areas receiving coverage from new towers and with no language barriers between farmers and advisers answering their calls experience higher adoption of high yielding varieties of seeds and other complementary inputs, as well as higher increase in agricultural productivity. Our estimates indicate that information frictions can explain around 25 percent of the agricultural productivity gap between the most productive and the least productive areas in our sample.
Antioxidant Activities of Some Tuberous Plant Leaves

The present study reports antioxidant potential of leaves of four vegetables, Allium sativum, Beta vulgaris, Colocasia esculenta and Amarphophyllus captulentus. Different in vitro assays were carried out to determine antioxidant potential of their leaf extracts. Total polyphenols and total flavonoids content of these samples were also analyzed. The results showed that ethanolic leaf extract of Allium sativum and Beta vulgaris possessed higher free radicals scavenging activities (In term of IC50) as compared to other extracts. Identification and purification of bioactive compounds showed that out of four tested samples, Allium sativum and Beta vulgaris leaves have more phytochemicals (CGA, CA, RU, Quer and Kaem) than the other two. In term of total flavonoids content the highest value was observed in leaf extract of Colocasia esculenta and Allium sativum. Above data showed that Allium sativum and Beta vulgaris have more antioxidant properties and hence may be considered for potential use as nutraceuticals.
IDENTIFICATION OF COMMON AEROBIC BACTERIAL ISOLATES AMONG CONJUNCTIVITIS IN SULAYMANIYAH PROVINCE / IRAQ

Background: Bacterial conjunctivitis is a microbial infection of the mucous membrane of the conjunctiva of eye that occurs both in adults and children. It is produced by an array of microorganisms that is frequently isolated from the conjunctiva of healthy subjects. The normal conjunctival flora represents both bacterial colonization and transient or recurring bacterial contamination. Coagulase-negative Staphylococci and Corynebacteria are frequently present on the healthy conjunctiva, but more traditionally pathogenic organisms, such as coagulase-positive Staphylococci, Streptococci, Haemophilus species, Moraxellae and Gram negative coliform rods occasionally isolated from normal, non-inflamed eyes. Objective: To determine etiological agents of aerobic bacterial conjunctivitis and the prevalence of each bacteria and its relation with the conjunctival discharge. Methods: This study conducted on 100 conjunctival samples from patients with conjunctivitis, and 50 samples from healthy normal persons. All samples were cultured on enriched media like blood agar and chocolate agar, anti-microbial susceptibility of all 100 samples from patients were analyzed. Results: The prevalence of aerobic bacterial conjunctivitis is 53 %with predominance age of 1-10 years. The most common bacterial isolates were Staphylococcus epidermidis followed by Streptococcus pneumonia. Most of the isolates were sensitive to cefotaxime and ofloxacillin, while different result was detected regarding resistance of each isolated bacteria. Conclusion: Aerobic bacterial isolates can be detected both in conjunctivitis and normal healthy individual with similarity regarding the type of bacteria that affect all age group. Keywords: Conjunctivitis, commensal flora, conjunctival discharge Citation: Anoar KA, HassanTM, Majid BT. Identification of common aerobic bacterial isolates among conjunctivitis in Sulaymaniyah Province / Iraq. Iraqi JMS. 2018; 16(2): 223-229. doi: 10.22578/IJMS.16. 2.15