Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect Scoring Method on Oocyte Maturation, Fertilization and Development Embryo Production from Local Buffalo Oocyte.

The study was conducted to investigate the effect of harvesting methods (Scoring and Aspiration) on maturation oocytes, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo development. This study was conducted at the laboratories of Theriogenology Department of Surgery and Obstetrics, College of Veterinary Medicine Basrah University, during the period extended from December 2018 to the end of March 2019. Samples from female and male reproductive system testis (50 Ovaries and 10 testes) were collected from (Al-Basrah abattoir house) after slaughter at fifteen minutes. All samples were transported in sterilize and clean boxes at (37ºC) within 1-2hrs to the center research unit. Oocytes were collected by Scoring and Aspiration methods. Only grad A and B quality oocytes were selected and incubated in an appropriate maturation medium (TCM-199) at 5% CO2, 38.5 °C and 95% humidity for 24-28 hrs. Spermatozoa were obtained by slicing of caudal epididymal of buffalo's bull. Sperms with matured oocytes were incubated in an appropriate maturation medium at 5% CO2, 38.5°C and 95% humidity from 16 -20 hrs. Fertilized ova was re-incubated in fresh media with changes 50% of media every day and examined every 24hrs for (3) days to follow embryonic development . The results showed: high significant (P<0.05) difference in the mean of collected oocytes in Scoring method than Aspiration method. There was high significant (P<0.05) difference in the percentage of grade A collection oocytes in aspiration method than scoring method. On the other hand the percentage of grade B and C oocytes in Scoring method was high significant (P<0.05) difference than Aspiration method. The percentages of Oocytes maturation in aspiration method was high significant (P<0.05) than scoring method, while the rate of oocyte fertilization was non- significant between two methods. Besides, the percentages of embryos development ( 2, 4 and 8) cells in aspiration method was significant than Scoring method.
A comparison of integrated biomass to electricity systems

This thesis presents a comparison of integrated biomass to electricity systems on the basis of their efficiency, capital cost and electricity production cost. Four systems are evaluated: combustion to raise steam for a steam cycle; atmospheric gasification to produce fuel gas for a dual fuel diesel engine; pressurised gasification to produce fuel gas for a gas turbine combined cycle; and fast pyrolysis to produce pyrolysis liquid for a dual fuel diesel engine. The feedstock in all cases is wood in chipped form. This is the first time that all three thermochemical conversion technologies have been compared in a single, consistent evaluation.The systems have been modelled from the transportation of the wood chips through pretreatment, thermochemical conversion and electricity generation. Equipment requirements during pretreatment are comprehensively modelled and include reception, storage, drying and communication. The de-coupling of the fast pyrolysis system is examined, where the fast pyrolysis and engine stages are carried out at separate locations. Relationships are also included to allow learning effects to be studied. The modelling is achieved through the use of multiple spreadsheets where each spreadsheet models part of the system in isolation and the spreadsheets are combined to give the cost and performance of a whole system.The use of the models has shown that on current costs the combustion system remains the most cost-effective generating route, despite its low efficiency. The novel systems only produce lower cost electricity if learning effects are included, implying that some sort of subsidy will be required during the early development of the gasification and fast pyrolysis systems to make them competitive with the established combustion approach. The use of decoupling in fast pyrolysis systems is a useful way of reducing system costs if electricity is required at several sites because• a single pyrolysis site can be used to supply all the generators, offering economies of scale at the conversion step. Overall, costs are much higher than conventional electricity generating costs for fossil fuels, due mainly to the small scales used. Biomass to electricity opportunities remain restricted to niche markets where electricity prices are high or feed costs are very low. It is highly recommended that further work examines possibilities for combined beat and power which is suitable for small scale systems and could increase revenues that could reduce electricity prices.
Concurrent training : neuroendocrine and molecular mechanisms of strength and endurance training incompatibility

Combining strength and endurance training within the same regimen is aptly referred to as “concurrent training”. Research conducted over the previous 3 decades has indicated concurrent training can result in attenuated development of strength, power and hypertrophy when compared to strength training in isolation. Despite extensive research the mechanisms contributing to this so called “interference effect” are yet to be fully elucidated, as is the influence of manipulating acute training programme variables within a concurrent regimen. As such, the purposes of this thesis were to investigate and draw conclusions regarding underlying physiological mechanisms relating to the interference effect. Additionally, this thesis sought to examine the effects of manipulating programme variables, including frequency and sequencing of exercise within concurrent training regimens on strength related adaptation. The findings of this thesis indicate overall training volume and frequency of endurance training within a concurrent intervention influences the presence and magnitude of the inhibition of strength development. Concurrent training volumes of 3 d·wk-1 elicited muted strength development, whereas lower frequencies did not. Whilst interference was not attributable to neuromuscular factors, it was reported that cortisol was only elevated following higher training frequencies, indicating training stress and catabolism may contribute to interference. Additionally, the sequencing of strength and endurance training can influence endocrine and signalling responses associated with strength adaptation, and it appears strength prior to endurance elicits greater increases in growth associated signalling. The findings of this thesis indicate that overall training stress influences the presence and magnitude of interference experienced, and is reflected in catabolic endocrine responses. Additionally, strength prior to endurance training promotes more favourable anabolic signalling than vice versa, which over time may contribute to greater strength type adaptations.
Measurements of air/water interfaces in plunging breaking waves

Of the energy dissipation that takes place in violent breaking waves, some is accounted for by work done against the buoyancy of bubbles, and some by work done in generating splashes that may rise to elevations far above the crest. In deep water the probability of encountering air in such conditions varies from almost zero at large submergences to almost unity at high elevations. Between these extremes in regular long-crested waves, there is a two dimensional continuum of time-dependent ensemble-averaged void fractions. A detailed knowledge of this distribution would represent a major contribution to a better understanding of the process of wave breaking, but largely for practical reasons, little of this information exists. Previous studies of air entrainment beneath breaking waves have made use of a variety of techniques including local conductivity probes (Cox & Shin, 2003; Hoque 2002), global conductivity probes (Lamarre & Melville, 1994), acoustic techniques and laser methods (Hwung & Jih, 1993). Many of these have shortcomings such as large measurement volumes, limited sensitivity at at least one end of the range of void fractions, or probes that are significantly intrusive. This paper describes detailed measurements made with an instrument that detects individual air/water interfaces over extremely small areas at high frequency. The results allowed us to compute time-dependent void fractions, not only in that part predominantly occupied by water, but in the region above, including (probably for the first time) the splash-up created by the plunging jet.
On the Performance Improvement of Iris Biometric System

Iris is an established biometric modality with many practical applications. Its performance is influenced by noise, database size, and feature representation. This thesis focusses on mitigating these challenges by efficiently characterising iris texture,developing multi-unit iris recognition, reducing the search space of large iris databases, and investigating if iris pattern change over time.To suitably characterise texture features of iris, Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) is combined with Fourier transform to develop a keypoint descriptor-F-SIFT. Proposed F-SIFT is invariant to transformation, illumination, and occlusion along with strong texture description property. For pairing the keypoints from gallery and probe iris images, Phase-Only Correlation (POC) function is used. The use of phase information reduces the wrong matches generated using SIFT. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of F-SIFT over existing keypoint descriptors.To perform the multi-unit iris fusion, a novel classifier is proposed known as Incremental Granular Relevance Vector Machine (iGRVM) that incorporates incremental and granular learning into RVM. The proposed classifier by design is scalable and unbiased which is particularly suitable for biometrics. The match scores from individual units of iris are passed as an input to the corresponding iGRVM classifier, and the posterior probabilities are combined using weighted sum rule. Experimentally, it is shown that the performance of multi-unit iris recognition improves over single unit iris. For search space reduction, local feature based indexing approaches are developed using multi-dimensional trees. Such features extracted from annular iris images are used to index the database using k-d tree. To handle the scalability issue of k-d tree, k-d-b tree based indexing approach is proposed. Another indexing approach using R-tree is developed to minimise the indexing errors. For retrieval, hybrid coarse-to-fine search strategy is proposed. It is inferred from the results that unification of hybrid search with R-tree significantly improves the identification performance. Iris is assumed to be stable over time. Recently, researchers have reported that false rejections increase over the period of time which in turn degrades the performance. An empirical investigation has been made on standard iris aging databases to find whether iris patterns change over time. From the results, it is found that the rejections are primarily due to the presence of other covariates such as blur, noise, occlusion, pupil dilation, and not due to aging
Time Based Subjective Evaluations of Seated Cushion Comfort

Abstract : The detrimental effects of prolonged sitting during long-duration flights include deep vein thrombosis, pressure sores, and decreased awareness and performance. Oftentimes, the cushion is the only component of the seat system that can be modified to mitigate these effects. In addition, it is the cushion that has a direct connection to the seated subject, and thus directly influences his perception. Several studies were undertaken at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Dayton, Ohio to evaluate the long term cushion comfort of a diverse population. Test times ranged from four to eight hours of sit time during each test session. Variables measured included seat interface pressure, oxygen saturation in the lower extremities, muscle fatigue along the back, a cognitive performance task, and subjective evaluations. This study investigated the effect of time on the subjective evaluations from four different studies. It was found that the subjective variables most influenced by time were center/lower back and buttocks, while the shoulder and lower leg variables had no time effect. When the subjects were asked to rate their cushion preferences, it was found that approximately six hours were necessary before the subjects opinions of the cushions no longer changed. This finding is important for tests where the Air Force evaluates cushion options for different missions that may last nine hours or longer. These results and research are relevant to the seating industry whether they are for office, transportation or industrial environments as subjective evaluations are often conducted in order to obtain the best choice for the setting. However, it is important to know before these surveys are conducted, how long a subject should sit in the seat before opinions are collected.
EVOLUTION OF EFFICIENCY AND SUCCESS RATES FOR ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING STUDENTS AT EUITT FROM UNIVERSIDAD POLITÉCNICA DE MADRID

Among most university-level educators, there is an increasing interest in improving the quality of the educational programmes in which they are involved. It is generally agreed that efficiency and success rates are two important parameters to evaluate that quality. Actually, the current convergence process in the structures of European high education systems is being accompanied, in parallel, by a redesign of many educational programmes. Within this redesign, the expected rates of graduation among students must be specified. For this reason, during the last 6 academic years, we have studied the evolution of efficiency, success and subject drop out rates for Electrical and Electronic Engineering students at the Escuela Universitaria de Ingenieria Tecnica de Telecomunicacion belonging to the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid as a way to determine helpful parameters to improve educational programmes. We have focused on the common subjects for all students in order to have a representative student population. These common subjects cover the first and second semesters and a significant part of the third semester of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering course. Although each subject has its own peculiarities, there are some common characteristics in the evolution of the studied parameters: a) the mean success rate is almost constant during the studied period; however, b) the efficiency rate shows a decaying tendency; and, on the opposite side, c) the subject drop out rate exhibits a growing trend.
On the optimisation of operation and maintenance strategies for offshore wind farms

This thesis reports on investigations undertaken into the reliability, availability and maintenance of offshore wind farms when considering different maintenance strategies, an understanding of which is fundamental when considering the technical and economical viability of existing and future offshore wind farms. A comprehensive literature review has been undertaken in the areas of offshore wind farm maintenance strategies, offshore wind turbine reliability and accessibility issues, and CO2 emissions associated with maintenance expeditions for offshore wind farms. The limitations and disadvantages of current maintenance practices are identified and a planned intervention maintenance policy is proposed and examined in detail. To help design a planned intervention maintenance policy, the offshore wind farm parameters that affect its technical and economical viability have been identified, which become the foundation for developing computer based models using Monte Carlo simulations to quantify the maintenance practices of the planned intervention maintenance policy. Different scenarios of the proposed solution are investigated to help quantify the technical and economical benefits over the current maintenance practises, in terms of wind farm availability, cumulative energy output, production cost of energy and CO2 emissions. The research on the reliability of offshore wind turbines has shown that the power converter system is a critical item that suffers from high failure rates. This thesis reports upon the investigation of a hot standby redundancy on the wind turbine power converter system. A redundancy model is deployed to simulate the planned intervention maintenance policy for different offshore wind farm case studies in order to establish the effects of the hot standby redundancy on the offshore wind turbine operational performance. The novel contribution of this work is claimed to be in the development of dedicated models for the reliability, availability and maintenance of offshore wind farms, which should lead in establishing a technical and economic benchmark for the parameters affecting offshore wind farms.
Age-dependent Distribution of Astigmatism and its Component in Chinese Preschool Children

Background: There is an compensatory effect between corneal astigmatism (CA) and internal astigmatism (IA). And the refractive astigmatism (RA) decreased fast in the early 3 years. Nevertheless, little attention was paid to the change in astigmatism in preschool children. Thus, we aimed to investigate the age-dependent distribution of astigmatism and its component in Chinese preschool children from year 3 to year 6 and also, to study the relationship between ocular biometry and IA. Methods: Automated refraction, keratometry and axial length (AL) were performed in this cross-sectional study. The IA was determined as the vector difference between RA and CA. The magnitude and type (with-the-rule WTR, against-the-rule ATR, oblique) of RA, CA and IA were investigated according to the age. Spearman correlation was adopted to detect the factors that may influence IA. Results: A total of 2315 subjects (2315 right eyes) (47.38% female) with a mean age of 4.52±0.88 years (range 3-6 years) were included. The magnitude and the ratio of three kinds of CA components did not change with aging (p=0.1233 and p>0.1, respectively). Though the axial distribution of RA remained unchanged with aging, a significant reduction in RA was seen in year 6 compared to that of year 3 and year 4 (p=0.036 and 0.041, respectively). Conversely，the ATR component in IA was lower in year 6 (68.02%) than it in year 3 (81.92%) and year 4 (77.12%) (both p<0.001) accompanied by increased frequency of oblique astigmatism in year 6 than it in year 3 and year 4 (p<0.001 and p=0.012,respectively). Negative relationship was found between IA and AL. Conclusion: RA decreased from year 3 to year 6. The shift of the axis in IA from ATR to Oblique and WTR may account for the reduction in RA. Eyes with shorter AL had larger IA. Keywords: Internal astigmatism; corneal astigmatism; axial length; with-the-rule.
The Empirical Test of Fama-French Five-Factor Model: Evidence from Pakistan Stock Exchange

This study provides an empirical examination of the Fama and French five-factor asset pricing model (FF5FM) in the equity market of Pakistan. Using data from 2007 to 2017of non-financial firms listed on PSX. The univariate approach is used to construct the dependent portfolios based on four firms characteristics, while a 2x3 approach is used to construct size, value, profitability, and investment factors. Time series regression is used to analyze the data to obtained results. The empirical evidence demonstrates that FF5FM performs better the three-factor model in the Pakistan stock market and the performance of the four-factor model that drops investment factor is similar to FF5FM except for portfolios constructed based on investment factor.
Teaching Writing in Vietnam’s Secondary and High Schools

The current study adopted features of a survey research design to examine the EFL high school teachers’ beliefs about writing and its teaching, their actual classroom practices, and the interplays between their beliefs and practices in the realm of EFL writing instruction. A sample of seventy-six EFL teachers from the eight selected high schools situated in Ho Chi Minh City was recruited for the current survey. The beliefs and practices of EFL writing instruction of these studied teachers were elicited through a thirty-nine-item questionnaire, which was qualitatively analyzed by SPSS 20.0. The study results showed that most of the participants held different views/orientations about writing skills and teaching writing, consisting of form-based, cognitive process-based, functional social-based, and interactive social-based views; nevertheless, the form-based orientation was still most dominant in their beliefs. On the contrary, in practice, most high school teachers followed the product approach, which underlies form-based orientation in lieu of different approaches, explicitly interpreting the writing section’s low results in the Vietnamese National GCSE examination in recent years.
Age as A Predictor of Marital Satisfaction Among Selected Households in Kisii County

Marital satisfaction is a significant to the stability of any nation since the family is the basic unit of any nation. Too much marital dissatisfaction may lead to family members being unstable socially which hence societal problems. The purpose of this study therefore sought to establish age in relation to marital satisfaction among selected spouses. The objective for the study: to determine the implication of age at marriage and marital satisfaction. The social exchange theory and attachment theory were adopted to inform the study. The researcher used a correlation design. The population of the study comprised 4,019 spouses and a sample size of 200 spouses was randomly selected for the study. Data was collected by using the Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire. Content and construct validity was ascertained by a pilot study of applying 20 questionnaires outside the area of study by a questionnaire vetted peers. Reliability was established by the calculating Cronbachs’ Alfa Coeffecient by administering the questionnaire to 20 respondents who did not take part in the final study. Reliability coefficients of 0.763, 0.710, 0.716 and 0.701 were reported and were all above the recommended value. Data analysis was done using statistical techniques of ANOVA, Post Hoc tests and Independent Samples by aid of statistical package of social sciences version 22. The findings and recommendations were given accordingly at the end of the paper.