Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DO CLUSTER FARMING PRACTICES IMPROVE PROFITABILITY AND PRODUCTIVITY INDICES OF SMALLHOLDER RICE FARMERS? EVIDENCE FROM BORNO STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined the comparative analysis of technical efficiency of cluster and non-cluster rice farming in Borno state, Nigeria. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaire administered to 232 farmers comprising of 93 clustering and 139 non-clustering rice farmers in Borno State, Nigeria. Data were subjected to analytical techniques that included descriptive statistics, gross margin, t-test and stochastic frontier production function (SFPF). Cluster rice farming enterprise per hectare was more profitable by producing a gross margin (GM) of 196,020.62/ha thus returning N1.72 on every N1.00 invested as compared to non-cluster farming which produced a GM of 99,619.32/ha and thus had a return of N0.96 on every N1.00 invested. The SFPF revealed an average technical efficiency (TE) of 0.76 for cluster farming was higher than 0.58 for non-cluster farmers. Hence, cluster rice farming was more technically efficient compared to non-cluster rice farming. The determining factors of TE in cluster farming include seed (-0.49), fertilizer (0.242), agro-chemicals (0.341) and labour (0.747) compared to non-cluster which included fertilizer (0.207), agro-chemicals (-0.291) and labour (0.668). Inefficiency variables were insignificant in cluster farming while household members active in farming (0.811), years of farming experience (-0.226), and amount of credit utilized (0.5e-4) were statistically significant in non-cluster farming. Insecurity, pest infestation and shortage of water were critical production constraints faced by cluster farmers compared to non-cluster farmers faced with constraints such as shortage of water, insecurity and flooding. Non-clustering farmers should adopt production cluster farming to boost their profit, increase their efficiency and take advantage of the enormous services attributed to working in groups.
Improved rate for a multi-server coded caching

Multi-server coded caching, which can further reduce the amount of transmission by means of the collaboration among these servers in the wireless network during the peak traffic times, can be seen everywhere in our life. This amount is called rate. The three servers setting (two data servers and one parity check server)is widely used in practice, e.g. redundant array of independent disks-4. Luo et al. in 2016 proposed the first coded caching scheme for this setting. In this paper, we obtain a smaller rate by modifying Luo's scheme for some parameters. In addition, our method can be more generalized to further reduce the rate.
Computations of quasiconvex hulls of isotropic sets

We design an algorithm for computations of quasiconvex hulls of isotropic compact sets in in the space of 2×2 real matrices. Our approach uses a recent result by the first author [17] on quasiconvex hulls of isotropic compact sets in the space of 2× 2 real matrices. We show that our algorithm has the time complexity of O(N logN) where N is the number of orbits of the set. Finally, we outline some applications of our results to relaxation of L variational problems.
OCULAR CHANGES IN PREGNANT WOMEN

Objective: Pregnancy results in a lot of hormonal changes in the body and the eyes are no exception. These ocular changes could be physiologic, pathologic or a modification of a pre-existing condition. The aim of this study was to determine physiologic ocular changes that are associated with pregnancy in healthy women. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 women were followed longitudinally through out the course of their pregnancy and 6 weeks postpartum. The women were recruited at 8 weeks of pregnancy at the anti-natal clinic in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mansoorah Teaching Hospital,Lahore. The women were aged between 20 and 35 years. Tests carried out included visual acuity, ophthalmoscopy, retinoscopy, and tonometry. The tests were carried out in each of the three trimesters of pregnancy and 6 weeks postpartum. Results: There was a fall in intraocular pressure across the trimesters and this was very significant (P<0.0001). Postpartum, the intraocular pressure began to rise. The difference between the third trimester and post-partum values was also statistically significant (P< 0.0001). The difference in visual acuity through out the pregnancy was not significant (P= 0.8477). Although, there was a fall in refractive error across the different trimesters, it was not statistically significant (P=0.3). There was also no difference in the third trimester and the 6 weeks postpartum values of both visual acuity and refractive error. Conclusion: Ocular changes associated with pregnancy are transient and most tend to resolve postpartum, with values returning to near pre-pregnant state.
The Effect of Hedonic and Utilitarian Values on Online Impulse Buying: Mediating Role of Browsing

This study analyzes the effect of hedonic and utilitarian values on online impulse buying in Bengkulu Province, Indonesia. This study used a quantitative method, and online questionnaires collected primary data. The participants of this study consisted of 201 individuals and were dominated by middle-income people who used e-commerce platforms like Shopee and Tokopedia. Data were analyzed by using SEM-AMOS to explore the relationship between variables. This study confirms that hedonic value has a significantly positive effect on impulse buying while utilitarian value has a significantly negative effect on impulse buying. Additionally, hedonic value has a significantly positive effect on browsing, and utilitarian value does not affect browsing. Moreover, browsing has a significantly positive effect on impulse buying. After testing the mediates effect, this study finds that hedonic value positively affects impulse buying through browsing. Meanwhile, utilitarian value does not affect impulse buying through browsing.
Jazz Chants to Motivate Language Learning among Sarawakian Primary Pupils Towards Positive School Climate: An Inquiry on Teachers’ Perspectives

Since music and language are deeply related where musical training is able to stimulate the same part of the brain that is also associated with understanding language, using Jazz Chants in English language learning possess a remarkable potential at maximizing language learning, especially at creating fun and significant lessons. Nonetheless, its potential remains under-researched, especially on the implementation of Jazz Chants in Malaysian language classrooms towards creating a safe learning climate. Until language learning are given more alternatives, English language classrooms are viewed as flat, thus situating the purpose of this paper. Therefore, this research explored the possibility of using Jazz Chants to investigate teachers’ perceptions on employing Jazz Chants in Malaysian English learning classrooms. To do so, five experienced teachers from Sarawak were selected for a semi-structured interview. The interview questions were validated by experts before the interviews were carried out. A thematic analysis was employed to analyse the interview data in three predetermined themes which are ‘benefits’, ‘challenges’ and ‘suggestions’. In cr eating fun and meaningful learning that may harness towards (re)creating a positive school climate, as aspired by the MoE, this research provides a narrative on teachers’ perspectives within the three discussed themes.
Effectiveness of Giving Chitosan on Interleukin-6 and Mallondhyaldehide Levels in Wistar Rats with Chronic Periodontitis

The 6th highest diseases that occur in Indonesian society include dental caries and periodontitis caused by dental plaque which is a breeding ground for bacteria such as Streptococcus mutants and Phorphyromonas gingivalis. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of chitosan on levels of Interleukin-6 and Malondhyaldehyde (MDA), as an anti-inflammatory marker using the Elisa test. The research method was a true experimental randomized posttest only control group design, with 3 treatment groups namely control, 2% chitosan gel, and 100mg/200g/bb of chitosan orally in 15 Wistar rats with periodontitis induced by Phorphyromonas gingivalis bacteria. The results showed that the mean levels of Interleukin-6 and Mallondhyaldehyde were significantly different (p<0.05) between the control group, chitosan gel treatment, and oral chitosan administration Interleukin-6 levels were the highest in the chitosan gel (8.3091±1.25570), the control average (5.8523±0.51512), the lowest oral average (3.2563±1.45952). Similarly, Mallondhyaldehyde levels were highest in the gel group (2.8850±0.19353), control group (2.2284±0.00914), and oral group (1.2943±0.60280). ). Based on these results, oral chitosan was the most effective in the treatment of periodontitis.
Can vitamin B12, folate, and Vitamin D deficiencies be predisposing factors in cases with acute cystitis?

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between vitamin D, vitamin B12, and folic acid deficiencies and the incidence of acute cystitis, considering the vital role of these vitamins in immune system function. Material and Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients diagnosed with cystitis at our hospital between 2020 and 2022, who had their Vitamin D, B12, and folic acid levels assessed. The prevalence of deficiencies was calculated and statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the association between vitamin deficiencies and acute cystitis. Subgroup analyses were conducted to identify vulnerable populations at higher risk of developing cystitis in the context of vitamin deficiency. Results: Vitamin D deficiency was found in 96% of the patients, followed by Vitamin B12 (44%) and folic acid (35%). Logistic regression models revealed a significant association between vitamin deficiency and acute cystitis (p < 0.05 for all three vitamins). Subgroup analyses identified women and older individuals (≥ 60 years) with vitamin deficiencies as more susceptible to cystitis than their counterparts without deficiencies (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Our study suggests a potential association between Vitamin D, B12, and folic acid deficiencies and the incidence of acute cystitis, particularly among vulnerable populations, such as women and older individuals. These findings highlight the importance of considering nutritional factors in preventing and managing acute cystitis and warrant further investigation in larger prospective studies.
Correlation Between Tumor Suppressor Gene P53 And Bladder Cancer In Some Iraqi Patients

Alterations of tumor suppressor gene p53 were identified in a various types of human cancers, including bladder cancer . So , the present study was designed to investigate the relationship between the tumor suppressor gene p53 in some Iraqi patients with bladder cancer by using two methods , insitu hybridization compare with immunohistochemical assay. A series of 40 bladder tissue cancer collected from different sites (transitional cell and squamous cell) from patients who had undergone cystactomy. These samples were collected during the period between (2012-2014). The histologic types included 21 well differentiated transitional cell , squamous cell, 9 moderately differentiated and ten poorly differentiated carcinomas. By using in situ hybridization , tumor suppressor gene p53 was detected in eighteen out of fourty (45%),otherwise, at immunohistochemistry , it was detected in twenty eight out of fourty (70%). Moreover, the positive results of tumor suppressor gene p53 was related in highly significant to each of stages and sites , significantly related with histologic grade of the tumor by using insitu hybridization method , but there was no significant correlation with each of age and smoking patients. furthermore , in immunohistochemical assay p53 related in highly significant correlation with each of histologic grade, sites, stages of the tumor and the smoking habit. So, it was significantly related with age and gender. It could be conclouded from this study that the two methods of in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry for detection of tumor suppressor gene , protein p53 is useful in the clinical evaluation of patients with bladder cancer and it suggested that mutations of p53 are involved in the bladder transitional cell and squamous cell carcinomas and it may play an a major role in the malignant transformation of urinary tract cancer.
Self-Supervised Intra-Modal and Cross-Modal Contrastive Learning for Point Cloud Understanding

Learning effective representations from unlabeled data is a challenging task for point cloud understanding. As the human visual system can map concepts learned from 2D images to the 3D world, and inspired by recent multimodal research, we introduce data from point cloud modality and image modality for joint learning. Based on the properties of point clouds and images, we propose CrossNet, a comprehensive intra- and cross-modal contrastive learning method that learns 3D point cloud representations. The proposed method achieves 3D-3D and 3D-2D correspondences of objectives by maximizing the consistency of point clouds and their augmented versions, and with the corresponding rendered images in invariant space. We further distinguish the rendered images into RGB and grayscale images to extract color and geometric features, respectively. These training objectives combine feature correspondences between modalities to combine rich learning signals from point clouds and images. Our CrossNet is simple: we add a feature extraction module and a projection head module to the point cloud and image branches, respectively, to train the backbone network in a self-supervised manner. After the network is pretrained, only the point cloud feature extraction module is required for fine-tuning and directly predicting results for downstream tasks. Our experiments on multiple benchmarks demonstrate improved point cloud classification and segmentation results, and the learned representations can be generalized across domains.
EVALUATION OF POST-OPERATIVE PAIN AFTER VENTRAL HERNIA REPAIR

The prospective study was conducted in Nishtar Medical Hospital from January 2022 to January 2023 to assess short-term post-operative pain following laparoscopic and open ventral hernia repair. A total of 50 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in the study. Surgical options were explained to all participants, and the open or laparoscopic technique was performed based on the patient’s choice. Post-operative data were recorded, including pain, wound and systemic complications, post-operative hospital stay, and need for ICU care and drain removal day. A visual analog scale (VAS) was used for measuring post-operative pain scores. Patients were followed up for 1 month. Results showed that the post-operative pain score calculated after the open repair was 5.48 ± 2.25, and after laparoscopic ventral hernia repair was 6.05 ± 1.98. Though the laparoscopic technique was associated with higher scores, this difference was statistically insignificant (P= 0.292). Follow up of patients after one month showed laparoscopic repair was associated with lower complications, including pain, infection, seroma, and hematoma, compared to open repair. It can be concluded that laparoscopic hernia repair leads to lesser complications than the open technique. Using sutures and trackers in laparoscopic technique can result in relatively higher post-operative pain in the short term, but this difference is insignificant, due to which laparoscopic ventral hernia repair is more feasible.
Vehicular Visible Light Communication System: Modeling and Visualizing the Critical Outdoor Propagation Characteristics

We propose a practical vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) visible light communications (VLC) propagation model by considering the impact of the outdoor propagation characteristics. Contrary to the existing literature, we emphasize a dynamic V2V-VLC model considering several propagation characteristics. Both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) V2V-VLC propagation models are proposed. To this end, we comprehensively demonstrate the impact of the considered propagation characteristics on the proposed LOS and NLOS V2V-VLC propagation models. To analyze the proposed propagation models, we also derive the closed-form expressions for the average path loss and discrete-input continuous-output (DCMC) capacity incorporating the considered propagation characteristics. With the help of derived closed-form expressions and simulations, we demonstrate comparative insights for the proposed LOS and NLOS V2V-VLC propagation models. Considering our key findings, it is observed that there is a path loss penalty of $\approx$ 6 dB compared to the conventional path loss model for a worst-case weather scenario. Moreover, it is observed that the considered propagation characteristics have a significant impact on the V2V-VLC performance. Further, we observe that the ergodic DCMC capacity corresponding to the NLOS-road surface link indicates a dominant behavior compared to an NLOS link arising from an interfering vehicle; but up to a certain range of the link length.
Bandpass Filters Based on Dual-Mode Slow Wave Substrate Integrated Waveguide Cavities

We propose compact bandpass filters (BPFs) based on a dual-mode slow wave (DMSW) substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity, which consists of periodically arranged blind via holes. The ultracompact size ( $\sim 0.6\times \lambda _{g}^{2}$ ) and high unloaded quality factor (~465) bring advantages to BPFs. Two-pole BPFs based on a single DMSW SIW cavity are designed with a transmission zero (TZ) appearing in the lower or upper stopband. To realize more complex BPF topology, we design four-pole BPFs based on two traditional SIW cavities and one DMSW SIW cavity. It is the first time that the DMSW SIW cavity is used to implement compact higher order BPFs with the parallel-coupling topology. Results show that the proposed BPFs have competitive performance with significantly small size, which shows potential on microwave circuit designs.
New Results on Ionospheric Irregularity Drift Velocity Estimation Using Multi‐GNSS Spaced‐Receiver Array During High‐Latitude Phase Scintillation

The spaced‐receiver technique using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers offers an inexpensive approach for estimating ionospheric irregularity velocity during ionospheric scintillations. Our previous work has demonstrated that correlative studies of the GNSS carrier phase variations can be used to derive irregularity drift velocity at high latitudes. This study expanded upon our previous projects by incorporating Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) signals, investigation on ionospheric irregularity height assumption, and all‐sky imager measurements into the methodology. A case study is presented based on Global Positioning System, Galileo, and GLONASS measurements during a geomagnetic storm event on 20 December 2015, obtained from a closely spaced receiver array at Poker Flat Research Range near Fairbanks, Alaska. The GNSS‐estimated irregularity drift velocities are in general agreement with the measurements from the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar and the Poker Flat all‐sky imager. The study also shows that the irregularity altitude assumption will not lead to significant variations in the irregularity drift velocity estimates, especially for satellites with relatively high elevations. The techniques presented in this paper demonstrate that GNSS receiver arrays can be used as powerful means to monitor the ionospheric plasma dynamics during space weather events.
Dividend Policy and Firm Performance with Moderating Effect of Ownership Structure: Evidence from The Manufacturing Firms in Pakistan

The objective of this paper is to check the impact of dividend policy and firm performance with a moderating effect of ownership structure. Many studies have been made to check the impact of dividend policy on firm performance but there is not a single study that has been made yet to check the impact of dividend policy and firm performance with moderating effect of ownership structure. This research had been carried out on different non-financial sectors of Pakistan covering the firms of automobile assembler and parts manufacturing, cement and chemical manufacturing, fertilizer manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and textile manufacturing etc. The data used in carrying out this research was taken from the companies that was paying dividends and were listen in KSE-100 index of Pakistan Stock Exchange. Ownership data of the firms were collected by the company’s pattern of shareholding which are published or mentioned in the company’s annual report as per Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) requirements that can be taken from the company’s website. The study shows significant positive relationship between dividend policy and firm performance. The study also shows that there is positive significant relationship between dividend policy and firm performance with moderating effect of ownership structure. Dividend policy can also have implications for a company's investment and growth prospects. In general, firms that retain more of their earnings for reinvestment are likely to have higher levels of capital expenditures and research and development spending. However, dividend payments can also signal to investors that a company has confidence in its future growth prospects.
Urban Plant Biomass Residues from the Neotropics and Their Potential for Thermal Energy Generation

The material associated with tree pruning in a city in the Colombian neotropics was characterized in order to determine its energy potential. The species studied for their relevance in the territory were Prosopis juli ﬂ ora , Lica-nia tomentosa , Terminalia catappa , Azadirachta indica , Pithecellobium dulce , Ficus benjamina and Leucaena leu-cocephala . Moisture content, bulk density, hygroscopic response, elemental chemical analysis, proximal analysis, calori ﬁ c value, ease of ignition and combustion, thermogravimetric and heat ﬂ ow analysis, steam generation capacity, and qualitative analysis of gases (mass spectrometry) were determined. The results that were obtained show high initial moisture contents that vary between 37% and 67% and a variable density (when dry) between 0.21 and 0.41 g/cm 3 . Chemically, it was shown that all residues have lower carbon and sulfur content compared to a reference mineral coal. However, the residues of some species have higher nitrogen contents compared to the same coal. All biomasses are characterized by their high content of volatile fractions and by having a lower content of inorganic matter compared to carbon. The lower calori ﬁ c values of these residues are between 14170 and 16928 kJ/kg, which are not negligible compared to other biomasses. This characteristic would be related to the high presence of hemicellulose in the residues. Flue gas monitoring revealed that there are different air ﬂ ow needs in order to ensure complete combustion. Steam generation tests showed that the calori ﬁ c value should not be the most relevant criterion to establish the potential use of the waste, since leucaena leucocephala, despite having the highest calori ﬁ c value, was the material with the lowest performance in steam generation.