Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A One Pot Green Synthesis and Characterisation of Iron Oxide-Pectin Hybrid Nanocomposite

Nano-composites comprised of magnetite nanoparticles in a pectin matrix were prepared by the co-precipitation method. Both sodium hydroxide and ammonium hydroxide were used as precipitating agents and the effects of stoichiometric ratios of iron salts to polymer concentration on particle properties were investigated. The precipitates obtained with NH4OH were sponge-like. The XRD pattern revealed magnetite as the only iron oxide phase present when NH4OH was used as precipitating base whilst nanoparticles precipitated using NaOH showed the presence of additional peaks. The nanocomposites obtained were further characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and zeta-potential. FT-IR confirmed the COO-Fe linkage. Zeta-potential analysis showed a potential change from positive in pure magnetite to negative in polymer coated magnetite depending on the oxide-polymer ratio. SEM and TEM showed fairly evenly distributed nanosize pores.
Allometric studies on growth and development of the human placenta: growth of tissue compartments and diffusive conductances in relation to placental volume and fetal mass

Correlations between placental size and fetal mass during gestation fail to account for changes in composition that accompany placental growth and maturation. This study uses stereological data on the sizes of different tissue compartments in human placentas from 10 weeks of gestation to term and relates them to placental volume and to fetal mass by means of allometric analysis. In addition, tissue dimensions are used to calculate a physiological transport measure (diffusive conductance) for the villous membrane. Histological sections randomly sampled from placentas and analysed stereologically provided estimates of structural quantities (volumes, exchange surface areas, lengths, numbers of nuclei, diffusion distances). These data were combined with a physicochemical quantity (Krogh's diffusion coefficient) in order to estimate oxygen diffusive conductances for the villous membrane and its two components (trophoblast and stroma). Allometric relationships between these quantities and placental volume or fetal mass were obtained by linear regression analyses after log‐transformation. Placental tissues had different growth trajectories: most grew more rapidly than placental volume and all grew more slowly than fetal mass. Diffusion distances were inversely related to placental and fetal size. Differential growth impacted on diffusive conductances, which, again, did not improve commensurately with placental volume but did match exactly growth of the fetus. Findings show that successful integration between supply and demand can be achieved by differential tissue growth. Allometric analysis of results from recent studies on the murine placenta suggest further that diffusive conductances may also be matched to fetal mass during gestation and to fetal mass at term across species.
Calculating Trust Level of X.509 Certificates

The X.509 certificate is widely used by the organizations and people in order to confirm their identities in online transaction. It is created, signed, and issued by certificate authority (CA) following the procedures which are defined in a certificate policy. However, the deficiency in these procedures may create a trust lack in the certificate. Also, due to the CA failures or compromises, the risk of trusting a malicious certificate increase. Then, relying party (RP) should verify certificate trustworthiness in order to accept it or not. In reality, it is difficult for RP who hasn’t the technical competences to judge it. In this context, he needs an automated mechanism for evaluating a certificate trust level. In this paper, we provide him this mechanism. In fact, we suggest a new architecture for calculating a certificate trust. A proposed algorithm is used by this architecture and takes as input three parameters that are the rating of certification fields content, the certificate policy quality, and the calculated CA trust level.
Activated idiotype-reactive cells in suppressor/cytotoxic subpopulations of monoclonal gammopathies: correlation with diagnosis and disease status.

The phenotypic pattern of peripheral blood T (PBT) lymphocytes was correlated with diagnosis and clinical status in 63 patients with monoclonal gammopathies (MGs). The numbers of lymphocytes expressing activation and CD11 determinants were significantly increased in suppressor/cytotoxic and helper/inducer subpopulations of patients with multiple myeloma (MM) and MG of undetermined significance (MGUS). The number of activated suppressor/cytotoxic cells was closely correlated with diagnosis and disease status. These cells were significantly higher in MM at diagnosis (160 +/- 88) than MGUS patients (61 +/- 79; P less than .01). Their number decreased to MGUS levels in MM in stable remission (58 +/- 53), but not in MM with tumor progression (172 +/- 102; P less than .001). In individual patients, part of these cells specifically adhered to dishes precoated with the related M-protein. No monoclonal T-beta gene rearrangement was detected in PBT and cytotoxic/suppressor subpopulations from two patients with a large proportion of activated cells.
Outage probability of cellular mobile radio systems with selective co-channel interference cancellation receiver in overloaded array environments

This article outlines a general numerical procedure for computing the probability of outage of a cellular mobile radio system that is equipped with a smart antenna to suppress a few strongest co-channel interferers (CCI) out of a total of NI active interferers by adaptive null-steering. Aside from the interference-limited case, refined outage criterion that either treat receiver noise as CCI or consider a minimum detectable receiver signal threshold are studied. Exact closed-form expressions for both the basic and refined outage criterion are also derived by assuming that all the CCI signals are subject to Nakagami-m fading with a positive integer fading severity index. Selected numerical examples are provided to illustrate the application of the theory which includes the investigation into the effects of fade distribution of the CCI signals and traffic loading on the outage probability, and also the study of spectrum utilization efficiency improvement using a selective co-channel interference nulling (cancellation) technique. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A multiple-item scale for measuring “sustainable consumption behaviour” construct

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a reliable and valid scale with desirable psychometric properties and sufficient level of reliability and validity to measure sustainable consumption from consumer perspective. Design/methodology/approach In achieving this objective: the domain of the construct is specified; items are generated through qualitative interviews; the initial scale is purified, and finally it is validated. A survey yielded 1,002 complete, usable questionnaires in order to run the analysis. Data were splitted in half. First half was utilised for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and the second half of the data were utilised to run confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The initial pool of item was tested using EFA via SPSS version 23. The CFA was conducted using SmartPLS-3.2. 7 to confirm the dimensionality of sustainable consumption behaviour (SCB) scale. Findings The EFA result revealed that SCB is a three-dimensional construct which is consisted of 24 items. The scale includes: quality of life; care for environmental well-being; and care for the future generation. The CFA confirmed the dimensionality, reliability and validity of the SCB scale. Research limitations/implications This sustainable consumption scale can be used to determine individual’s level of responsibility towards living a quality life, environment welfare, as well as responsibility towards sustainability of the future generation. It is expected that this initiative will stimulate further research on regional, cultural and demographic differences in understanding sustainable development. Practical implications Marketing practitioners may benefit from this scale by understanding the SCB of the socially and environmentally conscious consumers. It may eventually assist them to shape their strategies to meet the increasing demands of environmentalists. Originality/value The notion of sustainable consumption received significant research attention in present decade. It is regarded as one of the major catalysts of the sustainable development. However, in most cases sustainable consumption phenomenon is discussed from greater economic perspective and not much effort has been paid to consider it from consumer’s perspective. Furthermore, there is a lack of readily available scale to measure this construct in the existing literature.
Cardiac Lineage Protein-1 (CLP-1) Regulates Cardiac Remodeling via Transcriptional Modulation of Diverse Hypertrophic and Fibrotic Responses and Angiotensin II-transforming Growth Factor β (TGF-β1) Signaling Axis*

Background: CLP-1 heterozygous mice exhibit enhanced susceptibility to cardiac stress. Results: Angiotensin-II-induced left ventricular hypertrophy and fibrosis were enhanced, and the Smad3 and Stat3 signaling was stimulated in CLP-1+/− mice. Conclusion: CLP-1 controls the hypertrophy and fibrotic response during cardiac remodeling. Significance: Our results offer the potential of targeting CLP-1 for therapeutic intervention in cardiac disease. It is well known that the renin-angiotensin system contributes to left ventricular hypertrophy and fibrosis, a major determinant of myocardial stiffness. TGF-β1 and renin-angiotensin system signaling alters the fibroblast phenotype by promoting its differentiation into morphologically distinct pathological myofibroblasts, which potentiates collagen synthesis and fibrosis and causes enhanced extracellular matrix deposition. However, the atrial natriuretic peptide, which is induced during left ventricular hypertrophy, plays an anti-fibrogenic and anti-hypertrophic role by blocking, among others, the TGF-β-induced nuclear localization of Smads. It is not clear how the hypertrophic and fibrotic responses are transcriptionally regulated. CLP-1, the mouse homolog of human hexamethylene bis-acetamide inducible-1 (HEXIM-1), regulates the pTEFb activity via direct association with pTEFb causing inhibition of the Cdk9-mediated serine 2 phosphorylation in the carboxyl-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II. It was recently reported that the serine kinase activity of Cdk9 not only targets RNA polymerase II but also the conserved serine residues of the polylinker region in Smad3, suggesting that CLP-1-mediated changes in pTEFb activity may trigger Cdk9-dependent Smad3 signaling that can modulate collagen expression and fibrosis. In this study, we evaluated the role of CLP-1 in vivo in induction of left ventricular hypertrophy in angiotensinogen-overexpressing transgenic mice harboring CLP-1 heterozygosity. We observed that introduction of CLP-1 haplodeficiency in the transgenic α-myosin heavy chain-angiotensinogen mice causes prominent changes in hypertrophic and fibrotic responses accompanied by augmentation of Smad3/Stat3 signaling. Together, our findings underscore the critical role of CLP-1 in remodeling of the genetic response during hypertrophy and fibrosis.
Deep Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Associated With Improved Social Functioning in a Young Woman With an Autism Spectrum Disorder

Objectives: There are currently no biomedical treatments targeting the core symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Considering evidence for cortical dysfunction in ASD, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been discussed as a potential therapeutic technique. Methods: We describe the application of a new type of rTMS, deep rTMS, to the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex in a young woman with a high-functioning ASD. High-frequency rTMS was applied for 15 minutes each consecutive weekday for an 11-day period (9 treatments in total). Self-reported assessments were conducted before the first rTMS session, immediately after the last rTMS session, and 1-month after the last rTMS session. Results: Self-reported assessments revealed a number of improvements after deep rTMS. These were primarily in the domain of social relating and interpersonal understanding and were corroborated by family members. Conclusions: Deep rTMS in ASD may serve to remediate aspects of cortical dysfunction (as standard rTMS seems to do in depression and schizophrenia) and provides a potential new avenue for the development of a biomedical treatment of impaired social relating in ASD.
IntegraTag: A Framework for High-Fidelity Web Client Measurement

Collecting information from web clients without explicit input from users is important in a variety of contexts including content customization, experience personalization, accounting and online advertising. A standard approach for gathering web client telemetry is through deployment of Javascript instrumentation that is placed either directly on web pages or through third-party "tags" that are referenced in web pages. In this paper we present a design study of web client measurement methods. The objective of our work is to enhance understanding of best practices in web client measurement toward the goal of developing future tags that are reliable, robust and efficient. We begin by conducting a detailed examination of Javascript instrumentation collected from five well known third party services. Our analysis shows that these code-bases have diverse capabilities and return a broad range of client characteristics. Next, we describe a web client measurement framework and an implementation that we call IntegraTag, which enables us to examine details of performance, accuracy and reliability through live deployments. We use IntegraTag to conduct case studies of tag behavior on a single website which resulted in over 500K page-loads, and on a publisher network which resulted in over 150M page-loads. We establish a lower-bound on the tag's reporting fidelity using a Bernoulli trial. We report on the wide range of client characteristics returned by IntegraTag, as well as its performance and robustness.
Effective lean-team interactions through leader values and members’ information sharing behaviour

Leaders are often blamed when lean work-floor initiatives fail. We hypothesise that leanteam leaders’ work values affect their team members’ information sharing behaviour and, through them, attain more effective team interactions. 429 survey responses of leaders and members of 25 lean-teams in service and manufacturing organisations were analysed through structural equation modeling, linear regression analyses, and Sobel tests. The positive relationship between lean-team effectiveness and leaders’ self-transcendence values, and the negative relationship between lean-team effectiveness and leaders’ conservation values were partly mediated by team information sharing behaviour. Future research must compare the content of effective lean-team interactions to non-lean teams.
Contextualizing learning analytics for secondary schools at micro level

PILARES (Smart Learning Analytics Platform to enhance Performance in Secondary Education ) is a research project aimed at developing a learning analytics platform for Spanish secondary schools' blended learning focused primarily at micro level (students, teachers, tutors and families). In this paper we contextualize the goal of the PILARES project in the wider panorama of learning analytics with references to the situation in the Spanish context.
Programmation dynamique avec approximation de la fonction valeur

L'utilisation d'outils pour l'approximation de la fonction de valeur est essentielle pour pouvoir traiter des problemes de prise de decisions sequentielles de grande taille. Les methodes de programmation dynamique (PD) et d'apprentissage par renforcement (A/R) introduites aux chapitres 1 et 2 supposent que la fonction de valeur peut etre representee (memorisee) en attribuant une valeur a chaque etat (dont le nombre est suppose fini), par exemple sous la forme d'un tableau. Ces methodes de resolution, dites exactes, permettent de determiner la solution optimale du probleme considere (ou tout au moins de converger vers cette solution optimale). Cependant, elles ne s'appliquent souvent qu'a des problemes jouets, car pour la plupart des applications interessantes, le nombre d'etats possibles est si grand (voire infini dans le cas d'espaces continus) qu'une representation exacte de la fonction ne peut etre parfaitement memorisee. Il devient alors necessaire de representer la fonction de valeur, de maniere approchee, a l'aide d'un nombre modere de coefficients, et de redefinir et analyser des methodes de resolution, dites approchees pour la PD et l'A/R, afin de prendre en compte les consequences de l'utilisation de telles approximations dans les problemes de prise de decisions sequentielles.
Adhesive sealing of pits and fissures for caries prevention, with use of ultraviolet light.

Complete protection against caries was obtained when tooth surfaces were shielded from exposure to the oral environment. Tests of a new adhesive material that hardens when exposed to ultraviolet light showed 100% caries protection after one year in 200 deciduous and permanent teeth. Forty-two percent of the matched contralateral control teeth developed caries. This simple preventive measure requires only a few minutes per tooth, and lends itself to use by the dental hygienist after routine prophylaxis.
An Assessment of Human Resource Utilization on Organizational Growth and Development of Adamawa State Polytechnic Yola

It has become imperative for management of organizations to re-evaluate the position or the relevance of workers. Maximum productivity level cannot be achieved, unless the essential material resources are available, even if an organization has gotten all the money and materials it needs. This study assesses the impact of human resource utilization on organizational growth and development of State Polytechnic Yola. The target population of the study mainly consists of 842 academic and non-academic staff of the SPY. The data for this study was sourced through the use of structured questionnaire distributed to the staff of SPY. A total of 271 questionnaires were distributed but 253 were successfully retrieved and analyzed. The study employed descriptive statistics, multiple regression technique in estimating the effects of human resource management practice on organizational growth and development in SPY, Cronbach Alpha were used to test for reliability, correlation coefficient was also used to test the extent to which human resource utilization relate to organizational growth. The findings revealed that human resource utilization, recruitment and selection, manpower training and development and staff welfare/health, safety have positive impact of organizational growth and development of SPY. Conclusively, human resource utilization has positively and significantly impacted on the growth and development of SPY. The study recommended that since human resources utilization is a line activity, therefore, organizations should ensure that there a functional human resources department that will always be responsive to the manpower needs of the organizations. Management should at all times employ professional human resources personnel to handle and provide the required and efficient human resources needs of the organizations. It further recommended that since employees’ productivity is significantly and positively varies with utilization of human resources in organizations, as such management should ensure that there are programmes to encourage and improve the employees’ productivity and lastly, the management of organizations through the human resources department should expand and improve the recruitment, selection and placement process in order to get the best manpower to the right position at the right time. Citation: Francis F (2018) An Assessment of Human Resource Utilization on Organizational Growth and Development of Adamawa State Polytechnic Yola. Arts Social Sci J 9: 419. doi: 10.4172/2151-6200.1000419
Long-Term Results of a Randomized Trial on the Sequencing of Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer

Objective: A prospective, phase III randomized study was undertaken to compare the outcomes of 2 different radiotherapy and chemotherapy sequences in conservatively treated patients with breast cancer. Methods: Between January 1997 and November 2002, 206 patients operated of quadrantectomy and axillary dissection for breast cancer, candidates to receive adjuvant CMF chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and fluorouracil) were assigned to concurrent or sequential radiation treatment by using a balanced randomization method. Before randomization patients were stratified by tumor diameter, age, and lymph node status. The primary end point was the freedom from breast recurrence, and secondary end points were overall and disease-free survival. Overall outcomes were analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principle. Results: All 206 patients enrolled and randomized in the trial were analyzed. The median follow-up was 111 months, with no patient lost for follow-up. No difference in 10-years breast recurrence-free, disease-free, metastasis-free, and overall survival rates was observed in the 2 treatment sequence groups. The Hazard Ratios, calculated for each prognostic factor, showed no difference in all outcomes between the 2 treatment sequences. Conclusions: No influence of the treatment sequence on long-term outcomes was observed in this trial. This finding suggests that to avoid an increased risk of distant recurrence or an excessive toxicity, radiation therapy may be delayed until after the end of the more, recently used, anthracycline-based chemotherapy without increasing the risk of breast recurrences, thus allowing the delivery of full-dose chemotherapy in patients at risk for systemic disease spread.
Role of information technology in probation management.

The Role of Information Technology in Probation Management May 1988 Francis Donald Cochran B.A., Stonehill College Salem State College C.A. G.S. , Northeastern University C.A. G.S. , University of Massachusetts Ed.D. , University of Massachusetts Directed by: Professor Arthur Eve During the twentieth century probation has moved from an alternative correctional sanction for minor offenders, to the point today where 65 percent of the 2,904,979 adult offenders under correctional supervision in 1985 were on probation. The past decade has been a period where even though prisons are overcrowded, they currently function as a last gasp alternative to the courts primary correctional sanction-probation. Concurrent with the time period that probation has moved from the fringes to the center of correctional systems, there has been a revolution* in information technology and management in American society.
A segmentation method for web page analysis using shrinking and dividing

On the basis of image processing technology and characteristics of web pages, a new web segmentation method – iterated shrinking and dividing is proposed in this paper. Dividing conditions and concept of dividing zone are introduced, based on which web page image is divided into visually consentaneous sub-images by shrinking and splitting iteratively. First, the web page is saved as image that is preprocessed by edge detection algorithm such as Canny. Then dividing zones are detected and the web image is segmented repeatedly until all blocks are indivisible. This method can be used to analyse the web pages such as detecting similar visual layout. Experiments show that the algorithm is suitable for web page segmentation, and does well in expansibility and performance.