Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seroprevalence and Determinants of ToRCH Pathogens in Pregnant Women in the Sub-Himalayan Region

Introduction Toxoplasma gondii (TG), rubella virus (RV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and herpes simplex virus type 1 and 2 (HSV 1 and 2) cause mild maternal morbidity but have serious fetal consequences. The prevalence of these infections varies widely by country and population subgroup, and the paucity of data from the hilly state of Uttarakhand prompted us to undertake this study on their seroprevalence and association with potential risk factors. Methods Serum samples received from pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, between January 2016 to December 2019 were tested for TG-, RV-, CMV, and HSV-specific IgM and IgG by capture enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA). The data were then analyzed to determine the seroprevalence of the major ToRCH infections (toxoplasmosis, other (syphilis, varicella-zoster, parvovirus B19), rubella, cytomegalovirus, and herpes), and Fisher’s exact test was applied to check association with potential risk factors. Results Out of 165 pregnant women who were screened for the four major ToRCH pathogens, overall seroprevalence was 41.2% for TG (IgM=13.3%; IgG=38.2%), 80.0% for RV (IgM=3.0%; IgG=80.0%), 61.8% for CMV (IgM=1.8%; IgG=61.8%), and 42.4% for HSV (IgM=4.3%; IgG=40.6). TG was significantly associated with increasing maternal age (p-value=0.007). The seropositivity of RV was maximum in the drier and windy months of January-March (p-value=0.004), while that of TG in the warmer months of April-June (p-value=0.03). HSV prevalence was comparatively more common in Muslim women (p-value=0.05). Women presenting with bad obstetric history (BOH) and multiparous women were at higher risk for TG-RV-HSV and TG-RV-CMV, respectively. Conclusion Considering the high prevalence and risk of ToRCH infections in this region, we suggest disease-specific screening based on maternal history. Recognition of the burden of ToRCH infections in pregnant women is vital in clinicians’ decisions and implementing control measures.
Development of a Rice Polishing Machine

The development of a frictional Rice Polishing Machine (RPM) is a major effort made to increase the acceptability of local rice owing to the importation ban placed on the imported rice and the willingness of the government to encourage the adequate processing of the local rice. This work is intended to: bridge the wide gap existing between the local/traditional ways of polishing rice and the modern methods; reduce the amount of premium placed on the use of sophisticated imported rice polishers and the local fabricated machines; improve the attractive shinning appearance of polished rice and packing properties; and remove final traces of dust, bran and flour from the rice surface. The machine developed in this work processes local rice at the rate of 25 g/s. As of February 2005, it costs Nigerian Naira (N) 50,950 (approx. 13,185 Thai Baht) to produce this unit using locally available materials. The machine competes favorably with the imported ones.
Can One Size Fit All: A Multi-group Analysis of Indian Corporates

This study aims to investigate the relationship among the various institutional pressures, corporate social responsibility, legitimacy, and reputation in the context of Indian corporates. It also provides an in-depth industry-wise analysis for the said relationship. BSE 500 listed companies form the population for this pan-India primary research. PLS-SEM is the statistical technique adopted to examine the relationship between research constructs. The overall industry analysis established a positive association between all six institutional pressures and CSR activities, but the comprehensive multigroup industrial analysis revealed that kind of institutional pressures that are important to corporates vary across industries. Multi-group analysis points out that—local communities, peers, and media are statistically significant for high as well as low impact industries. But government and NGOs are not statistically significant pressure groups for low impact industries. However, industry associations are not important as a pressure group for both high impact as well as low impact industries. Furthermore, legitimacy is seen to fully mediate the relationship between CSR and reputation for the national level survey.
A Fractional Zener Constitutive Model to Describe the Degradation of Swine Cerebrum with Validation from Experimental Data and Predictions using Finite Element Analysis

ii Dedication . v Acknowledgments. vi Vita . viii List of Tables . xvi List of Figures . xviii Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1. Motivation. 1 1.2. Literature Review . 2 1.2. 1. Fractional Calculus Overview. 9 1.2. 2. Finite Element Analysis . 13 1.3. Chapter Objectives and Organization . 15 Chapter 2: Statistical Analysis of Factors that Influence the Mechanical Behavior of Degrading Swine Brain Subjected to Unconfined Compression Tests at Low Strain Rates . 18 2.
Microstrip post production tuning bar error and compact resonators using negative refractive index metamaterials

Microstrip Post Production Tuning Bar Error and Compact Resonators Using Negative Refractive Index Metamaterials. (May 2005) Aaron David Scher, B.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Kai Chang In this thesis, two separate research topics are undertaken both in the general area of compact RF/microwave circuit design. The first topic involves characterizing the parasitic effects and error due to unused post-production tuning bars. Such tuning bars are used in microwave circuit designs to allow the impedance or length of a microstrip line to be adjusted after fabrication. In general, the tuning bars are simply patterns of small, isolated sections of conductor adjacent to the thru line. Changing the impedance or length of the thru line involves bonding the appropriate tuning bars to the line. Unneeded tuning bars are simply not removed and left isolated. Ideally, there should be no coupling between these unused tuning bars and the thru line. Therefore, the unused tuning bars should have a negligible effect on the circuit’s overall performance. To nullify the parasitic effects of the tuning bars, conventional wisdom suggests placing the bars 1.0 to 1.5 substrate heights away from the main line. While successful in the past, this practice may not result in the most efficient and cost-effective placement of tuning bars in today’s compact microwave circuits. This thesis facilitates the design of compact tuning bar configurations with minimum parasitic effects by analyzing the error attributable to various common tuning bar configurations with a range of parameters and offset distances. The error is primarily determined through electromagnetic simulations, and the accuracy of these simulations is verified by experimental results. The second topic in this thesis involves the design of compact microwave resonators using the transmission line approach to create negative refractive index metamaterials. A survey of the major developments and fundamental concepts related to negative refractive index technology (with focus on the transmission line approach) is given. Following is the
Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth in the Countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)

This article focuses on the relationship between certain fiscal policy instruments and economic growth in the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Our growth model was estimated using the "Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) in a system" dynamic panel over the period 1990-2020. The results obtained show that total public revenue excluding grants, total expenditure, external public debt, the active population, and credits to the economy over GDP positively and significantly influence the GDP growth rate. On the other hand, an inflationary environment and poor quality of the Institutions negatively and significantly affect the rate of GDP growth. By way of economic policy implications, the WAEMU countries should reduce the distortions associated with taxation in order to maintain a fairly substantial level of resources and gradually break away from external forms of financing. Finally, financial development must be promoted so that companies can obtain more loans from banks.
The Effect of Aerobic Training With the Consumption of Probiotics on the Myelination of Nerve Fibers in Cuprizone-induced Demyelination Mouse Model of Multiple Sclerosis

Introduction: Extensive human and animal research shows that exercise has beneficial effects on multiple clinical outcomes for patients suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS). This research was conducted to examine the effect of aerobic exercise with probiotic consumption on the myelination of nerve fibers in a cuprizone-induced demyelination mouse model of MS. Methods: Rats exposed to cuprizone (CPZ) for 13 weeks were subjected to motor and balance tests in week 5. They (5 people in each group) were assigned to five groups of control (C), MS, MS with exercise (MS+Exe), MS with probiotic (MS+Pro), and MS with probiotic and exercise (MS+Pro+Exe) randomly. The exercise groups conducted aerobic exercises 5 days a week for 60 days. The rats received probiotics by gavage. Performance and balance tests were repeated when the eight-week protocol of exercise and probiotic consumption was finished. One day after these interventions, they were sacrificed to undergo biochemical and molecular biology assays. Results: The results showed that Myelin basic protein (MBP) was increased in the MS+Pro+Exe, MS+Pro, and MS+Exe compared to the MS group (P<0.05). The nestin mRNA showed an increase in MS+Pro+Exe, MS+Exe, and MS+Pro groups compared to the MS group, but this increase was not significant in MS+Pro+Exe and MS+Exe groups compared to the control and MS groups (P>0.05). Conclusion: According to the results, lifestyle interventions can effectively alleviate demyelinating-inflammatory processes that happen in the brains of MS patients.
Investigating the Components and Assembly of Processing Bodies in Human Cells

Dennis, Jaclyn Rose (Ph.D., Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology) Investigating the Components and Assembly of Processing Bodies in Human Cells Thesis directed by Associate Professor Jens Lykke-Andersen ! Messenger RNA degradation is important for the control of gene expression. The major mRNA decay pathway requires the coordination of proteins involved in deadenylation, decapping, and exonucleolysis to function properly. Interestingly, many of those proteins, as well as translationally repressed mRNAs, localize to discreet cytoplasmic foci called processing bodies (PBs). It remains unclear how PBs form and their functional significance is, as yet, unknown. To better understand how PB assembly may be regulated, I tested whether the cytoskeleton is required for PB dynamics in human cells. I found that the cytoskeleton is likely not required for overall PB assembly, integrity, or disassociation; moreover, disruption of the cytoskeleton does not inhibit mRNA decay efficiency. However, the localization of AU-rich element (ARE)-containing mRNAs in PBs was inhibited upon cytoskeleton disruption, which suggests a possible role for the cytoskeleton in transcript-specific delivery to PBs. In an assay designed to identify novel PB factors, I found two proteins (PRMT5 and MEP50) that are known to be involved in splicing as a part of the methylosome complex, to co-purify with PB proteins. PRMT5 is a methyltransferase that has an affinity for methylating arginine residues within GRG-tripeptide repeats. Interestingly, the PB protein Lsm4 contains a large GRG-repeat domain in its C-terminus. I confirmed that the Lsm4 C-terminus is methylated and wished to determine if this methylation was
Monotreme-specific conserved proteins derived from retroviral reverse transcriptase

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) have played an essential role in the evolution of mammals. Many ERV-derived genes are reported in the therians that are involved in placental development. However, the contribution of the ERV-derived genes in monotremes, which are oviparous mammals, remains to be uncovered. Here, we conducted a comprehensive search for possible ERV-derived genes in platypus and echidna genomes and identified three reverse transcriptase-like genes named RTOM1, 2, and 3. They were found to be clustered in the GRIP2 intron. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that RTOM1, 2, and 3 are strongly conserved between these species, and they were generated by tandem duplications before the divergence of platypus and echidna. The RTOM transcripts were specifically expressed in the testis, suggesting the physiological importance of RTOM genes. This is the first study reporting monotreme-specific de novo gene candidates derived from ERVs, which provides new insights into the unique evolution of monotremes.
Identification of R&D Paradox after the Global Financial Crisis: Korean Case Focusing on the Smart Convergence and Conventional Industries

This article empirically explores whether the Korean research and development (R&D) paradox has been intensified during the post-global financial crisis (2009–2018). We employ the augmented production function model to test the intensified R&D paradox, which is defined as a continuous decline in a firm’s output elasticity of R&D investment. Using a data set of 720 R&D-active firms, which have ever received more than one government funding, this study drew the following major conclusions on the whole sample firms and two sub-sample firms (smart convergence and conventional industries). First, the R&D paradox has been intensified in the post-global financial crisis over the past decade. Second, the smart convergence industry shows higher a firm’s output elasticity of R&D investment than the conventional one does. Third, in recent years, R&D investment failed to even have significant effect on the value-added. Last, a firm’s output elasticity of R&D investment was found to be much more vulnerable in large and semi-large firms than in SMEs in Korea. In sum, this study confirms the intensified Korean R&D paradox during the post-global financial crisis in Korea. We discuss the government’s role in resolving the R&D paradox in Korea.
A 3.0–10.0 GHz UWB Low-Noise Amplifier with Forward Body bias Technique

ABSTRACT An ultra-wideband (UWB) low-noise amplifier (LNA) based on cascaded common source stage with shunt–shunt resistive feedback architecture is proposed. The wideband input impedance matching is accomplished by shunt–shunt resistive branch with inductor degeneration and parallel resistor-inductor-capacitor (RLC) load, forming two parallel RLC branches having inherently two wideband band-pass filter characteristics, resonating both at lower frequency and higher frequency. The output matching is achieved via a shunt inductor and a series resistor without the use of a buffer. Additionally, both series and shunt-inductive peaking techniques are employed in the proposed UWB LNA circuit design for bandwidth extension. To reduce the supply voltage headroom consumption, the forward body bias technique is also employed in the proposed topology. The resistor-capacitor (RC)-extracted results obtained in this paper are competitive in comparison with recent reported work in appreciating good noise figure (NF) performance as well as low-voltage headroom consumption. In the post-layout simulation results, the proposed complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) UWB LNA dissipates only 13 mW while achieving the S11 below −11.4 dB, S22 below −11.7 dB, a flat S21 of 11.5 ± 0.6 dB, a maximum NF of 3.48 dB, within the range of 3.04 – 3.48 dB over the 3.0–10.0 GHz band of interest. Moreover, the IIP3 is within the range of −6.3 to −7.8 dBm, P1 dB of −14.7 to −16.8 as well as the K-factor of above 1 throughout the entire bandwidth operation, attesting the fact that the resistive feedback circuit is stable. The chip area consumption is approximated to 0.997 × 0.933 mm2.
Cinematic adaptation in the Realm of Linguistics: A Multimodal Analytical Study

'Adaptation', 'Inspiration', 'Quotation', and 'Borrowing' are diverse terminologies used in cinematic field to denote the notion of exchanging ideas in cinematic production. This study investigates movie posters of Hollywood and their Egyptian replicas to unearth the degree of adaptation as well as the similarities and differences between them. To achieve these goals, the researchers choose Multimodal Semiotic Theory as a theoretical framework, and apply Kress and van Leeuwen's framework (2006), and van ةيناسنلإا مولعلاو بادلآا ةيلك ا ل ثلاثلا ءز 42 Leeuwen's model (2006) to the selected posters. The results of the study reveal strong resemblance between the Western-made posters and their Egyptian replicas. Although there are blind copied Egyptian posters, there are also authentic and creative copies which are localized and domesticized to suit Egyptian spectators and their culture.
Inventors' Mobility and Organizations' Productivity: Evidence from Japanese rare name inventors

This paper investigates the relationship between inventors' mobility and organizations' productivity by constructing a database of patent inventors. We focus on inventors with rare names in order to avoid the problem of identifying distinct inventors with the same name. Tracing the inventors' transfers between organizations, we find the following. First, mobile inventors are more productive than stable inventors who have never transferred. Second, inventors with higher ex ante productivity have a higher frequency of transfers, while the effect of transfers on their ex post productivity for productive inventors is the opposite compared with that of less productive inventors. Thus, ex ante productivity may explain a large part of the higher productivity of mobile inventors relative to stable inventors. Third, the productivity of stable inventors is higher in an organization where inventors have more experience in different organizations. These results suggest the existence of knowledge spillover from mobile inventors to stable inventors, which leads to organizations' high productivity.
Examining environmental education content on Indonesian Islamic religious curriculum and its implementation in life

Abstract Damage to the natural environment (floods, pollution) and social (decreased manners) becomes the focus of education to reduce its bad impact. Prevention of damage to the natural environment through learning biology, but the application of environmental education through religious subjects, so that the two curricula are expected to synergize with each other to protect the environment and harmonization of social life. This study aims to analyze the environmental education content in the Islamic religious education curriculum using content analysis. The results showed that the environmental education content in the Islamic religious education curriculum was taught in grades I, II, III, IV, VI, VII, IX, XI, and XII. Environmental Education in the Islamic Religious Education Curriculum includes humans as social beings, natural resources, personal hygiene, and the environment. Implementation of attitudes that arise include courtesy and mutual respect, clean and healthy living, and slaughtering sacrificial animals wisely.
A Study on Parametric Shape Modifications of 3D Skeletal Models

Parametric biomechanical models of the human body have a wide range of applications. Factors that make construction of such models difficult include the difficulty to model free form shapes, the existence of large shape variations, poor models for soft tissues, etc. An important step towards achieving a solution is to generate parametric skeletal models. In this paper, we introduce a new method to parametrically define shapes of skeleton components (bones). Our approach has several advantages: we require only a few sample bones of a class to construct a fairly robust template model; we do not rely on accurate identification of specific landmarks or shape features; finally, our algorithms are robust and efficient. The main tool we use is free form deformation (FFD), which we use to modify the shape of a template mesh by dislocating points of its affiliated lattice. This lattice is automatically derived by mesh simplification. Using the template bone and the values of a few parameters, an FFD based transfor.
Performance measurement system for Jabatan Kerja Raya Malaysia

Recently, JKR’s top management have received complaints and bad reviews from client departments, government agencies, general public and mass media for projects delays and structural failures as well many other problems. The reasons for these grievances are probably due to lack of response and sense of urgency in dealing with problems in managing and implementing building and infrastructure projects. Despite JKR has its own Performance Measurement System (PMS) however the existing system may not be effectively translated the result as measurements and indicators for managers to response and make important and timely decision. Hence, this study has been carried out is to improve the current performance measurement system (PMS) in JKR. The methodology adopted for this study include interview with expert panels and questionnaire survey. The findings of the study indicate that current approach in PMS has not been up to JKR’s expectation and need to be reengineered. Problem and limitation of current PMS has also been identified. Finally this study has identified important recommendations that can be used by JKR to developed the framework to establish a more effective and practical PMS. It is hope that the new improve PMS can help JKR to better serve their clients and other stakeholders need in the future. This will also help JKR to achieve the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as targeted for them especially for the top management level.
A Hybrid Model of MEMD and PSO-LSSVR for Steel Price Forecasting

Herein, we propose a novel hybrid method for forecasting steel prices by modeling nonlinearity and time variations together to enhance forecasting adaptability. The multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD)–ensemble-EMD (EEMD) approach was employed for preprocessing to separate the nonlinear and time variation components of a hot-rolled coil (HRC) price return series, and a particle swarm optimization (PSO)-based least squares support vector regression (LSSVR) approach and a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model were applied to capture the nonlinear and time variation characteristics of steel returns, respectively. The empirical results revealed that compared with the traditional models, the proposed hybrid method yields superior forecasting performance for HRC returns. The evidence also suggested that in capturing the price dynamics of HRC during the COVID-19 pandemic period, the asymmetric GARCH model with MEMD–LSSVR outperformed not only standard GARCH models but also the EEMD-LSSVR models. The proposed MEMD–LSSVR–GARCH model for steel price forecasting provides a useful decision support tool for steelmakers and consumers to evaluate steel price trends.
Different levels of disturbance influence the distributional patterns of native but not exotic plant species on New Zealand small islands

Disturbances of oceanic origin can severely affect plant communities on islands, but it is unclear whether they promote or deter biological invasions. Here, I collected floristic data from 97 small islands subject to different levels of ocean-borne disturbances (i.e. inside and outside Wellington Harbour, New Zealand). First, I tested how relationships between the richness of native and exotic species and island characteristics (e.g. area, isolation, height, distance from nearest dwelling) changed depending on island location. Next, I assessed compositional differences on inner and outer islands for both native and exotic species, and • While results for natives might reflect differences in disturbance levels, those for exotics may be related to lack of coastal specialists in the species pool, invasion time-lags and non-equilibrium dynamics.