Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of teachers’ utilisation of school time in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis. A case study of some selected primary schools within the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis

Introduction Education at the primary level provides the foundation upon which further education is built, as such, it is very essential. Ministry of Education (1994) indicated that the government of Ghana recognises primary education as the fundamental building block of the nation. Education is thus the bedrock of every economy and this is the reason why the school is established to shape, grade and produce the manpower needed for the society and for that matter the entire economy. In educating an individual, the teacher who is a facilitator plays a major role in the teaching and learning process. Essential among the resources that facilitate teaching and learning is the use of time. In the school, the teacher is the one who manages it and gets things done through people so that desirable goals are achieved. According to Ministry of Education (1994), it behoves the head teacher to ensure that instructional time is used judiciously. This is done by ensuring that both teachers and pupils are engaged in teachinglearning activities at the appropriate times. Outlining the determinants of instructional time utilisation, Lockheed and Verspoor (1991, p. 58) stated, The annual number of hours available for children to study given subjects in school is determined by three factors: the hours in the official school year; the proportion of these hours assigned to the subjects; and the amount of time lost because of school closing, teacher absence, student absence and miscellaneous interruptions. The 2007 Educational Reforms brought about a universal and compulsory basic education of two years of kindergarten and six years of primary education. Kindergarten education enables children to learn by doing. This provides them with expressive activities that demand their participation in all learning. This lays the foundation for later formal experiences in learning. Their learning activities such as listening, speaking and decision-making are enhanced at an early age. At the primary level, fewer subjects are taught to improve upon each pupils grounding in the basic skills required for entry into the Junior High School. Emphasis is laid on literacy, numeric and problem-solving skills. In the primary school, the Ghana Education Service (GES) schools operate a standard time schedule and all one session primary schools start at 8.00a. m. and closes at 2.00p. m. However, it appears that not all schools are able to adhere to this directive since activities pertaining in each district or town is different. For example, in areas where accessibility of transport is a problem to both pupils and teachers especially where they have to walk long distances making it virtually impossible for school to begin at 8.00am. This leads to the loss of time in the morning. As Lockheed and Verspoor (1991) observe that Ghana spends approximately 610 hours in a year for instructions in primary grades one
AItBERT: Domain Specific Pretraining on Alternative Social Media to Improve Hate Speech Classification

Fringe online communities like 4chan and Parler are havens of hate speech and tend to develop unique vocabularies that are challenging for hate speech classifiers to decode. These vitriolic environments normalize hateful dialogue that has proven to elicit real world violence, making hate speech classification an important issue for both online and offline safety. We aim to perform hate speech classification on three domain specific hate speech datasets from Twitter [1], Reddit [2], and Gab [2]. Our aim is to improve results of hate speech classification within these fringe communities by using transfer learning by pretraining BERT models on domain specific corpora from Parler and 4chan. We build off related works by using the BERT base uncased model as our baseline. We contribute to these works by pretraining the BERT model on larger corpora and corpora of supposedly similar domains to the finetuning datasets to test whether larger and similar pretraining datasets improve results. We also modified the domain specifc exBERT model [3] for hate speech classification. The models pretrained on a large corpus of Parler and 4chan posts showed accuracy improvements over the baseline in two of the three hate speech datasets. Improvements were observed in datasets of a similar domain to our pretraining corpora. Our exBERT model did not show improvements to the baseline due to limitations in the existing exBERT codebase.
Maize Milling and Modifying Atmospheric Conditions Limit Formation of Aflatoxin B1 by Aspergillus Flavus

Occurrence of mycotoxins in foods poses a serious health concern all over the world. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is the most toxic, with widest occurrence in various foods, but mainly in cereals and nuts and its accumulation depends on substrate and environmental factors. This study investigated the how physical status (milling) of maize kernels and atmospheric conditions (aeration, moisture and temperature) affect production of aflatoxin B1 by Aspergillus flavus (ATCC 28862). Intact kernels and flour were incubated for up to 20 days in open and partially sealed petri dishes under controlled temperatures of 25 oC, 30 oC and 37 oC and initial moisture contents of 27%, 22%, 18%, 15% and 12%. It was found that on average, significantly higher (p < 0.05) aflatoxin B1 level was accumulated in intact kernels (145.7 μg/kg) as compared to milled kernels (2.2 μg/kg). Also, none of the samples incubated under Journal of Biology and Life Science ISSN 2157-6076 2021, Vol. 12, No. 2 17 partially sealed conditions, compared to up to 100% of the samples incubated in open atmosphere had detectable levels of aflatoxin B1 after 20 days. Fungal growth was not affected by milling or aeration, but sporulation was low at 37 oC and high at 25 oC and 30 oC. The findings of this study provide baseline information on how conditions can be modified to control postharvest accumulation of aflatoxin B1 in cereals. Key words; aflatoxin, Aspergillus flavus, maize, milling, air-tight, air-open
Discovery and Learning of Navigation Goals from Pixels in Minecraft

Pre-training Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents in a task-agnostic manner has shown promising results. However, previous works still struggle to learn and discover meaningful skills in high-dimensional state-spaces. We approach the problem by leveraging unsupervised skill discovery and self-supervised learning of state representations. In our work, we learn a compact latent representation by making use of variational or contrastive techniques. We demonstrate that both allow learning a set of basic navigation skills by maximizing an information theoretic objective. We assess our method in Minecraft 3D maps with diﬀerent complexities. Our results show that representations and conditioned policies learned from pixels are enough for toy examples, but do not scale to realistic and complex maps. We also explore alternative rewards and input observations to overcome these limitations. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/juanjo3ns/mineRL .
Increase of non- HBV, non- HCV related hepatocellular carcinoma -Over 20 years single institution study-

Background: We previously reported the trends of etiologies of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) between 1995 and 2009. By updating this study, we aimed to evaluate the incidence of HCC with non- hepatitis B viral and non- hepatitis C viral (NBNC) etiologies and explore the clinical characteristics, also.Methods: Consecutive 2171 HCC patients at our institution were enrolled between 1992 and 2018 in this retrospective cohort study. A comparative study was conducted by dividing into two groups, an early group from 1992 to 2009 and a late group from 2010 to 2018.Results: NBNC-HCC account for 514 patients (23.6%). The proportion of NBNC-HCC has continued to increase from 26.5% in 2009 to 46.3% in 2018. NBNC-HCC were getting older (median ages, 67 to 73 years). Type 2 diabetes mellitus (48.5% to 60.3%: P=0.008), hypertension (48.5% to 57.4%: P=0.047), and hyperlipidemia (39.2% to 53.8%: P=0.001) has increased significantly in recent years. The median FIB-4 index have decreased (4.37 to 3.61: P=0.026) and the median platelet counts have increased (15.1 to 17.9: P=0.013) significantly. Among 514 NBNC-HCC, 194 patients underwent hepatic resection in which 14.9%, 29.3%, and 55.8% were based on nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), alcoholic liver disease (ALD), and cryptogenic, respectively. Cirrhosis was detected in 72.4%, 38.6%, and 15.5% of NASH, ALD and cryptogenic, respectively. The prevalence of cirrhosis in NASH were significantly higher than other groups (P<0.001), overall, 70% of the background liver of NBNC-HCC was not cirrhosis. On the other hands, the median FIB-4 index in cryptogenic HCC were 2.56 and significantly lower than other groups, FIB-4 index considered as one of useful screening of HCC.Conclusions: NBNC-HCC has rapidly been increasing in recent years even in regional university hospital. The presence of metabolic syndrome may be important risk factors. Furthermore, HCC from non-cirrhotic liver needs attention carefully. Accordingly, it is speculated that these patients should receive periodic surveillance for HCC development.
Novice and Experienced EFL Teachers: Which Professional Development Programs Matters for Our Classroom?

Abstract: This study aimed at exploring the perceptions of EFL novice and experienced teachers on the impact of professional development programs to their teaching practice. The design of this study is a descriptive study by using in-depth interviews for gaining the data. The result of this study revealed that novice and experienced teachers have different needs in developing their professionalism. This differences then lead to different preferences of development programs which really fulfill their needs and influence their teaching practice. Meanwhile, both teachers agree that the time permission is the most important factor of a successful development programs for teachers.Abstrak: Penelitian ini menyelidiki persepsi guru Bahasa Inggris pemula dan guru berpengalaman dalam dampak kegiatan pengembangan keprofesian terhadap kegiatan pembelajaran mereka. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode wawancara mendalam dengan pertanyaan-pertanyaan terbuka. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa guru bahasa Inggris pemula dan berpengalaman memiliki kebutuhan yang berbeda dalam mengembangkan profesionalisme mereka. Perbedaan ini kemudian mengarah pada perbedaan pilihan kegiatan pengembangan keprofesian.
Management of parenting preparedness at home in COVID-2019 pandemic based on individual and family self-management theory (IFSMT): A Systematic Review

Background: COVID-19, which emerged from the novel zoonotic coronavirus-2, continues to spread rapidly throughout the world and becomes a pandemic. Some countries say they have the resources to deal with the co-19 pandemic situation. Still, when it comes to children's physical and emotional security, this must be through because preparing children for a pandemic like this requires a lot of effort and proper planning. This systematic review aims to identify and summarize the available evidence about parenting preparedness strategies to a successful/recommended pandemic to reduce COVID-19 threats to children in self and family management and assist policymakers in evidence-based decision making for better pandemic preparedness and provide direction for future research. Methods: A systematic review of the literature was carried out by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) diagram following the predetermined eligibility criteria. 250 research articles produced from the beginning, 15 articles were found that met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Results: The parenting preparedness strategy in the COVID-19 pandemic is important to improve the scientific preparedness associated with COVID-19 in children. Conclusion: COVID-19 has occurred in children but seems to show a mild impact on the disease. However, parenting preparedness of children at home can help reduce the transmission rate of COVID-19 in personal and Family management. Any future crisis can be handled more quickly and easily.
Tax-Saving Components on Tax Disclosures

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of tax planning, as measured by the use of tax saving, consisting of permanent differences, temporary differences, foreign tax-rates differentials, and tax losses on tax disclosures. The sample in this study was 21 consumer good manufacturing companies listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) for 7 years (from 2012 to 2018). The results of this study are: 1) Permanent differences has an influence on tax disclosures, 2) Temporary differences has an influence on tax disclosures, 3) Foreign tax-rate differentials has no influence on tax disclosures, and 4) Tax losses have an influence on tax disclosures.
Learning About Social Networks from Mobile Money Transfers∗

The increasing popularity of mobile money transfer apps is generating population-scale data on real-world social ties through the social exchange of money. I show how data from these apps provides researchers with an opportunity to better comprehend social networks and their role in social and economic behavior. To do this, I construct a social network from the near universe of person-to-person mobile money transfers in Denmark, based on records from a dominant app used by 80% of the population. Exploiting complete data on socio-economic indicators, family structure and institutional attachments from government registers, I detail the network’s structural properties and their striking accordance with those of other large-scale social networks, like Facebook. I also provide novel insights on the extent of segregation and integration in social networks according to economic status and country-of-origin. To show how these data can be used to understand causal social influences on behaviours, I link the network to income, balance sheet and bank account transaction data and explore the effects of income shocks to friends on individuals’ spending decisions. Individuals exposed to a friend losing their job cut back their expenditure in the same month as their displaced friend and their spending remains depressed over the estimation window. The reduction in spending includes social expenditures, such as food away from home and travel, and personal durable expenditures, including home improvements, home furnishings and purchases at department stores. The timing and composition of spending reductions suggest that friends’ adverse experiences may affect individuals’ perceptions of their own economic security. ∗Acknowledgments: I thank Asger Lau Andersen, Amalie Sofie Jensen, Niels Johannesen, David Dreyer Lassen, Andreas Bjerre Nielsen, Tue Lehn-Schiøler, Benjamin Ly Serena, and Johannes Stroebel for helpful comments and suggestions, along with participants at SODAS Data Sessions and NABE TEC2019. The activities of the Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI) are financed by a grant from the Danish National Research Foundation. This research was facilitated by Adam Sheridan’s Industrial PhD project, jointly financed by Danske Bank, which provided data access, and Innovation Fund Denmark. More details on Innovation Fund Denmark’s Industrial PhD programme are available at https://innovationsfonden.dk/en/programmes/ industrial-researcher. Support from Danske Bank and Innovation Fund Denmark is gratefully acknowledged. Danske Bank did not review the conclusions of this paper before circulation and the opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not represent the views of Danske Bank. Support from the Danish Finance Institute (DFI) is gratefully acknowledged. †University of Copenhagen, CEBI, and DFI. Email: adam.sheridan@econ.ku. dk
Evaluation of Serum Zinc Level in Oral Lichen Planus , a Case Control Study

Lichen planus is a chronic inflammatory immunologic-based disease involving skin and mucosa. Many etiologic factors are deliberated regarding the disease; however, the disorders of immune system and the role of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes and monocytes are more highlighted. Zinc is an imperative element for the growth of epithelium and its deficiency induces the cytotoxic activity of T-helper2 cells which seems to be associated with lichen planus. This study aimed to evaluate the levels of serum zinc in oral lichen planus (OLP) and compares it with the healthy control group to find out any feasible inference. A total of 20 patients with oral lichen planus and 20 healthy individuals as the control group were recruited in this descriptive-comparative study. All the participants were selected from the referees to the department of oral medicine, school of dentistry, Shiraz University of medical sciences. Serum zinc level was examined for all the individuals with biochemistry method with LTA kit [LTA. S.r. L-S.U-Via Milallo, 15/f-20060 Bassero (Milano) Italia]. Data were analyzed by adopting the t test and chi square tests through SPSS 17 statistical software. The mean age of patients with OLP and the healthy control group was 45.4 and 30.9 years respectively. The mean serum zinc levels in the oral lichen planus groups and control groups were 92.49 , 84.94 μg/dl respectively. The difference was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). Based on our results, it does not seem the serum zinc level relate to
Effectiveness of Psychological and Educational Interventions to Prevent Depression in Primary Care: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Objectives: Depression is ranked as the second cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Early diagnosis and management are considered the cornerstone of its prevention. Primary care centers are considered the first stop for any patients, targeting depression at these stations will greatly help early detection and management. Methods: Six databases were searched using specific search terms. We included randomized controlled trials that assess the efficacy of any intervention applied in primary care centers for the prevention of depression. The studies were assessed for the quality of evidence using the Cochrane quality assessment tool before being included for the review. Results: Eighteen studies fulfilled our inclusion criteria and had passed the quality assessment to be included for the qualitative evidence synthesis. Based on these studies, only cognitive behavioral therapy had the best results and successfully prevented the progression of depression into major depressive disorders. Conclusion: Cognitive-behavioral therapy had the best results for the prevention of depressive symptoms in primary care, however, more studies are needed to understand factors affecting its efficacy.
Application of dynamic calibration and control waveform optimization techniques in the fast sweeping reflectometer upgrade on the HL-2A tokamak

High temporal-spatial density profiles, measured by the frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) reflectometer, are crucial for the study of particle transport and confinement, especially for the transient events. However, the conventional calibration methods and control waveform of the voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) source constraint the increase of the sweeping frequency (time resolution) and the accuracy of the probed location of the FMCW. In this work, two methods of dynamic calibration of the VCO are proposed to reduce the measurement error due to the high sweep rate, and the results are found to be consistent with each other. In addition, the control waveform of VCOs are re-designed considering the VCO calibration results and dispersions of the waveguide and cables. Therefore, the sweep/dead time has been shortened to be 10 μs/50 ns from 25 μs/5 μs and the accuracy of the detection location has been improved significantly. The density profiles and density fluctuations during the tearing modes are presented which demonstrate the capability of the upgraded reflectometer.
Effect of metakaolin and silica fume on the engineering properties of expansive soil

Characteristics of the expansive soil should be studied due to the effects and problems of this soil on the structures that build on it, also, its spread in large areas in the world. Some of these problems are the cracks and large damages on the structures due to the differential settlement of the soil. These problems occur due to the swelling and shrinkage characteristics of the soil when it is affected by changeable water content. The need for the stabilizers to overcome these problems appears due to a large amount of loses money caused by the expansive soil’s problems. This study used silica fume and metakaolin which considers stabilizer agents that used to treat the expansive soil. Silica fume is an industrial material obtained by condensation operation to the smoke that produced from the production process of the ferrosilicon metal. While metakaolin is a a pozzolanic material obtained from the burning of kaolin rock to (700-800) °C. The soil used in this study classified as CH soil. The treated samples were prepared by mixing the soil with (5%, 10%, and 15%) of the two additives. From the results, it was found that Atterberg limits were increased with the adding silica fume and decreased with Metakaolin. Specific gravity decreased with silica fume while it is increased with Metakaolin. The maximum dry unit weight decreased, and the optimum water content increased with silica fume and the opposite occur with metakaolin. The results showed that the swelling present improved with both additives.
Effect of geogrid on the structural behavior of reinforced concrete beams

Now, using of geogrids as strengthening material are extend used, especially to enhancement of concrete elements as inter layers concrete applications, eight beams were tested to explain the effect of geogrid on the behavior of reinforced concrete beams. Beams tested had equal cross-sectional dimension (100 mm x 200 mm), compressive strength (f’c = 30 MPa), with a simply span length equals 1150 mm, with shear reinforcement (Ф4 @100mm C/C) and subjected to two point load. The tested beams were divided into two groups according to the presence of geogrid layer, with and without geogrid. Each group consists of four specimens, which were sub-divided according to the flexural reinforcement ratio that ranges from (0 to 0.0263). During the tests, it was noted that, the load deflection curve for beams with geogrid layer were stiffer and the percentage of stiffening was increased with increase of the flexural reinforcement ratio. The maximum applied load for beams with geogrid layer were higher than conventional beams without geogrid layer under the same conditions, while, the deflection values for beams with geogrid layer was lower than conventional beams without geogrid layer. The first crack load of beams with geogrid was greater than conventional beams without geogrid layer. So, the geogrids layer offer great enhancements to concrete properties and performance from the first cracking load, load-deflection response, reduce the cracks width and number and ultimate strength of tested in comparison to the conventional beams.