Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An audit of surgical repair of Tetralogy of Fallot in an African tertiary care centre

Background: For patients undergoing Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) repair at institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, data on type of surgical repair, operative mortality and important determinants of outcome such as age at operation and development of pulmonary regurgitation (PR) post-repair is scanty. Objective: To describe the outcomes of children diagnosed with TOF who underwent surgical repair at our center with emphasis on post-operative PR. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study undertaken from 1 January 1994 to 31 December 2003 at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH). The descriptive analysis of the clinical audit was done in 2010. Results: Fifty four (75%) patients were operated upon: 50 (92.5%) had complete repair and 4 (7.4%) had a palliative procedure in the form of a Blalock-Taussig (B-T) shunt. The median age for corrective surgery was 39.5 months. Twenty out of 50 (40%) patients had simple repair, 10 (20%) had repair which included pulmonary valvotomy, 15 (30%) had a transannular patch (TAP) repair with or without monocusp and 5 (10%) had conduit insertion. An evaluation of severe PR among all the repair groups in the immediate post-operative period ( 5 years), severe PR was documented in 3 (30%) patients with pulmonary valvotomy, 8 (53%) who had TAP repair, 2 (10%) patients with simple repair including 1 (20%) patient with a xenograft conduit. One out of 50 (2%) surgically corrected patients who had a complex anatomy died in the immediate post-operative period. Twenty eight out of 50 (56%) patients who had complete correction were lost to follow-up. Conclusion: Surgical correction occurs much later in infancy and childhood compared to developed countries. Severe PR is a serious complication strongly associated with all types of surgical repair of TOF and these patients require lifelong follow-up. Despite the small sample size, the operative mortality compares favourably to fi rst world centers.
Pauline Authorship and the Pastoral Epistles: Implications for Canon

The question of authorship usually dominates discussions of the states of the Pastoral Epistles in the New Testament canon. A number of factors have often been suggested as important to consider: chronology, epistolary format, style, content, and theology. This paper's concern is not ultimately to adjudicate the issue of authorship, but to examine some of the evidence, and then to raise some questions regarding canon that are suggested by the conclusions.
What makes a good truffle infected tree

Modern truffle cultivation is based on planting Tuber infected plants in suitable sites. The first step is the production of truffle infected plants in greenhouses, generally using spore inoculation techniques. Other less common methods include the inoculating plants with pure cultures and the mother plant techniques. Regardless of the inoculation technique used, it is advisable to check the geographic origin of the inoculum, and selecting the most suitable one for the climatic conditions of the site where the plants are to be planted. It is also important to verify the quality of the inoculum before inoculating the plants. In particular, when using spore inoculation techniques, the ascomata used for making the spore suspension should undergo morphological observation and molecular testing to verify the absence of less valuable Tuber species. It is also advisable to assess the abundance of mature spores and their vitality particularly when the inoculum is not produced from fresh truffle. In contrast when mycelial inoculation or mother plant techniques is used it is important to ensure that the plants are carrying two compatible mating types and that the mother plants are free of contamination with other ectomycorrhizal fungi.
Studies on bioemulsifier production by Actinopolyspora sp. A18 isolated from garden soil

Out of the 13 species of actinomycetes isolated from garden soil, 10 tested positive for lipase and emulsification activity. Actinopolyspora sp. A18 exhibiting maximum activity was further studied and partially purified. Actinopolyspora sp. A18 exhibited maximum bioemulsifier production during stationary phase at 72 h. Maximum bioemulsifier production was obtained at 30C, pH 8, 250 rpm and 2% (w/v) NaCl concentration. Emulsification activity was maximum (316 EU mL) with sunflower oil as substrate. The yield of purified bioemulsifier was 1 g/L and reduced the surface tension of water slightly (7 mN/m). Partially purified bioemulsifier from Actinopolyspora sp. A18 was a glycolipopeptide comprising of 68% protein, 22.20% non-reducing sugars, 4.80% reducing sugars and 5% lipids. The bioemulsifier produced was stable at room temperature for 7 d.
Farmers’ Preferences for Climate-Smart Agriculture: An Assessment in the Indo-Gangetic Plain

This study was undertaken to assess farmersâ€™ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for various climate-smart interventions in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The research outputs will be helpful in integrating farmersâ€™ choices with government programs in the selected regions. The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) was selected because it is highly vulnerable to climate change, which may adversely affect the sustainability of the rice-wheat production system and the food security of the region. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) can mitigate the negative impacts of climate change and improve the efficiency of the rice-wheat-based production system. CSA requires a complete package of practices to achieve the desired objectives, but adoption is largely dependent on farmersâ€™ preferences and their capacity and WTP.
A simulation of the Last Glacial Maximum with a coupled atmosphere‐ocean GCM

A simulation of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate has been performed by a global coupled atmosphere‐ocean general circulation model (AOGCM). Two simulations are conducted for the LGM with different initial conditions: one with the present‐day initial condition and the other with a pre‐conditioning of fresh water flux over the North Atlantic. After more than 200 year integration both LGM simulations attained a similar quasi‐equilibrium state. The global mean surface air temperature dropped 3.9°C and precipitation decreased 11% compared to the present day simulation. The sea surface temperature dropped 1.7°C in the tropics, with larger decreases in the Atlantic than in the Indo‐Pacific. There is a region with warmer than present sea surface temperatures over the subtropical eastern Pacific. The thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic in the LGM simulation is slightly stronger than in the present day simulation.
Covariate Adjusted ROC Curve Analysis and An Application

Objective: Aim of this study is to analyze the change of the area under the adjusted ROC (AdjROC) curve in certain conditions via binormal distribution model using simulation studies and application of this algorithm to real data. Materials and Methods: Data sets simulated according to various conditions. PSA and age values of 125 patients who were examined prostate biopsy with pre-diagnosis of prostate cancer in Gaziosmanpasa University Faculty of Medicine Department of Urology at the years of 2005 to 2007. An algorithm and code program was written that make simulation according to various condition using PROC IML procedure in SAS statistical software.Results: According to the simulation study, if biomarker indicators in healthy group are constant and are lower or equal in healthy group than/to disease group, both adjusted AUC (AdjAUC) and AUC have small values and, no significant difference was found between them. The AUC was significantly larger when the biomarker indicators in disease group were higher. In addition, if the correlation between the covariate and biomarker is high in disease group and if AUC is approximately 0.75, then there is significant difference between adjusted AUC and AUC. PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen), a biomarker used for prostate cancer diagnosis, was analyzed based on the adjustments by age. It was found that adjusted AUC value was higher than unadjusted AUC value. Conclusions: For the adjusted ROC model being applicable, covariate and biomarker distributions must show double binormal distribution. If the biomarker can distinguish disease and healthy individuals correctly, then covariate is not needed. If correlation of healthy is approaching to 0 and correlation of disease is 0.50, and if AUC is less than 0.75, then covariate must be included in the model. Model does not work well when sample size of disease and healthy are less than 50.
The Effects of Risk on Education in Indonesia

We study the effects of risk and uncertainty on education in Indonesia. Households that face more uncertainty and that have limited or no access to formal insurance will have a higher motive for self‐insurance, and this may have adverse consequences for investment in child education. A key contribution of the article is to decompose risk into village‐ and household‐level components and to estimate whether they have different effects on education. We find no evidence of household risk affecting child education; however, there is evidence that village risk adversely affects investment in education.
The Portuguese Non-Observed Economy

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the volume of the Non- Observed Economy (NOE) in Portugal, by estimating, based on MIMIC models (multiple indicators multiple causes), its path in the period 1977-2008. On the one hand, given the influence of the tax burden, the burden of regulation and the evolution of the labour market, and on the other hand its impact on monetary, labour market and production indicators, it is estimated that the weight of NOE as a percentage of official GDP in Portugal has grown from 19% in 1977 to 23% in 2008. In particular, it is observed that after a fall in the period 1977-1982, the NOE showed an upward trend in the subsequent period, which has stabilized at around 21% since 1994. However, from the end of 2007, there has again been an increase. Finally, results show that the growth of NOE in Portugal tends positively to affect the growth of the official economy.
Electroweak Physics at Future $e^{+} e^{-}$ Colliders

With the discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC in 2012, all fundamental parameters of the Standard Model (SM) have been experimentally measured. Then the global fits of the electroweak sector provide a powerful test of the internal consistency of the SM. Any observable sensitive to electroweak corrections can be unambiguously predicted and any deviation of the measurements with respect to the predictions would reveal the existence of new, weakly interacting particles. Thus precision electroweak measurements are a key tool for constraining theories describing physics beyond the SM. Although hadron colliders (Tevatron, LHC) have matched or occasionally exceeded the precision of LEP measurements, e+e- colliders are unrivalled for electroweak precision measurements. The expected performance of the future e+e- colliders is discussed in the perspective of indirect discovery of new physics. These machines are nevertheless well-suited for direct discoveries as well.
Cosmological simulations with disformally coupled symmetron fields

Context. We investigate statistical properties of the distribution of matter at redshift zero in disformal gravity by using N-body simulations. The disformal model studied here consists of a conformally coupled symmetron field with an additional exponential disformal term. Aims. We conduct cosmological simulations to discover the impact of the new disformal terms in the matter power spectrum, halo mass function, and radial profile of the scalar field. Methods. We calculated the disformal geodesic equation and the equation of motion for the scalar field. We then implemented these equations into the N-body code Isis, which is a modified gravity version of the code Ramses. Results. The presence of a conformal symmetron field increases both the power spectrum and mass function compared to standard gravity on small scales. Our main finding is that the newly added disformal terms tend to counteract these effects and can make the evolution slightly closer to standard gravity. We finally show that the disformal terms give rise to oscillations of the scalar field in the centre of the dark matter haloes.
Liveability and ecological land use

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore ways to transcend the current negative impact of rationalisation in the agricultural sector that has taken place during the last five decades. Rationalisation has been part of the process of globalisation, which induced environmental degradation and a decrease of liveability in rural areas in Sweden. Globalisation has caused the disembeddedness of people from their local environment. As a result, people no longer perceive feedback from that part of the non-human environment that is affected by their action. Moreover, global society has become increasingly vulnerable to crises as the redundancy of numerous relatively self-sufficient systems gradually disappeared. To examine the interface between the human and non-human environment, an interdisciplinary research approach has been adopted. Participatory research has been complemented with an interview study and questionnaire survey. I have chosen to explore the role of the non-human environment in liveability and the potential consequences of this for the scientific discussion of ecological land use. Liveability comprises of (the interrelationships between) five variables: local inhabitants, community life, service level, local economy and physical place. Social activities generate a sense-of-community and reinforce the local stock of social capital, an important driving force behind the local economy. In order to understand the role of the non-human environment in liveability, the relationship between physical place and the other variables has been investigated. A shift has been perceived from an emphasis on the production value of the local, non-human environment to a perception of this environment in experiential terms. For the scientific discussion of ecological land use this might imply that a certain degree of local self-reliance and self-sufficiency could both induce liveability and re-establish feedback relationships that allow for the adaptive management of the non-human and human environment. This learning approach to ecological land use, facilitated by a certain degree of re-localisation of decision making and resource use, is considered to be one alternative for obtaining liveability and a more ecologically sound land use.
Barriers to women´s career advancement in Indonesian academia: a qualitative empirical study

Why is the representation of women fewer than men in the top academic positions in Indonesia? To answer this question, the researcher did an empirical study using qualitative method to explore any possible barriers that have been encountered or faced by women. Twenty-five participants consisted of 19 lecturers (4 men and 15 women) and 6 senior leaders (3 rectors and 3 deans, all men) from 6 selected universities participated in this in-depth interviews. The results showed that female academics face multiple barriers to advance to top positions: family-, organizational-, and individual-related barriers. The family related barriers (e.g. family responsibility and spousal restriction) and organizational-related constraints (e.g. discrimination and masculine culture) were the most frequently mentioned barriers preventing women from achieving both top academic and leadership positions. However, individual-related barriers (e.g. being in a minority position and lacking confidence) only appeared to have a negative effect on reaching top leadership positions. These findings contribute to the knowledge about factors associated with the scarcity of women in top positions in academia, with a particular focus on the Indonesian context. Affirmative action should be provided for women to reduce the gender gap in top positions in Indonesian academia.
An assessment of the frequency of lymphocytes with IL-4 intracellular expression and IL-4 concentration in the plasma of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia depending on the occurrence of Epstein-Barr virus DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells**

1Department of Clinical Immunology and Immunotherapy, Medical University, Lublin Head of Department: prof. Jacek Rolinski, MD, PhD 2St. John’s Cancer Center, Lublin Head: prof. Elzbieta Staroslawska, MD, PhD 3Department of Hematology, Holycross Cancer Center, Kielce Head of Department: Marcin Pasiarski, MD, PhD 4Department of Oncology, Holycross Cancer Center, Kielce Head of Department: Stanislaw Goźdź, MD, PhD, Associate Professor
The Implications for Fiscal Policy Considering Rule-of-Thumb Consumers in the New Keynesian Model for Romania

In this paper it was analyzed the effects of fiscal spending shocks on the Romanian economy. The study of the literature has suggested that the standard real business cycle and New Keynesian mod- els have difficulties in predicting the effects of fiscal policy on the economy, particularly in predicting the response of private consumption. One possible reason of this problem is that they ignore the fact that a significant fraction of households does not behave in a forward-looking manner. In this re- spect we use a New Keynesian model, where rule-of-thumb households, which consume their current income, coexist with the standard optimizing households. The main conclusion is that the response of Ricardian households, due to a negative wealth effect of governmental consumption, which is caused by a higher tax burden in the future, these households, decreases their consumption and increases their labour supply.
Lowpass Filter with Wide Stopband and Sharp Skirt Using Novel Defected Ground Structure

A novel defected ground structure unit is presented in this paper. This structure is composed of a traditional dumbbell DGS and a pair of coupling stubs in the aperture. In contrast to a single finite attenuation pole characteristic offered by the conventional dumbbell DGS, the proposed DGS unit provides dual finite attenuation poles that can be independently controlled. By adjusting the position of the two attenuation poles, a much sharper skirt and wider stopband could be achieved. A lowpass filter with a cut off frequency of 3.2 GHz utilizing four cascaded novel DGS units is designed, fabricated and measured. This lowpass filter achieves a wide stopband with over 30dB attenuation up to 30 GHz. The results obtained from simulation and measurement have good agreement.
A Survey on Approaches to Feature Selection

Feature selection is major problem in data mining and machine learning to decrease the dimensionality of the data and increase the performance of an algorithm, such as a classification & clustering algorithm. However, feature selection is a challenging job due to the huge search space. A various efficient techniques have been applied to solve feature selection job, where evolutionary computation techniques have recently gained much attention and shown some success. However, there are no proving guidelines on the strengths and weaknesses of approaches. This leads to a discontinued and fragmented field with ultimately lost opportunities for improving performance and successful applications. This paper presents a survey of the state-ofthe-art work on evolutionary computation for feature selection, which finds the contributions of these different algorithms. Keywords—Classification, data mining, evolutionary computation, feature selection, machine learning.
Basel II and bank lending behavior: some likely implications for monetary policy

The new Basel accord is slated to come into effect in India around 2007 raising the question of how the revised standards will influence bank behaviour. Using a simple theoretical model, it is shown that the revised accord will result in asymmetric differences in the efficacy of monetary policy in influencing bank lending. This will, however, depend on a number of factors, including whether banks are constrained by the risk-based capital standards, the credit quality of bank assets and the relative liquidity of banks’ balance sheets. The basic model is empirically explored using data on Indian commercial banks for the period 1996-2004. The analysis indicates that the effect of a contractionary monetary policy will be significantly mitigated provided the proportion of unconstrained to constrained banks in the system is significantly high.
Strong evidence for hadron acceleration in Tycho’s supernova remnant

Context. Very recent gamma-ray observations of G120.1+1.4 (Tycho’s) supernova remnant (SNR) by Fermi-LAT and VERITAS have provided new fundamental pieces of information for understanding particle acceleration and nonthermal emission in SNRs. Aims. We want to outline a coherent description of Tycho’s properties in terms of SNR evolution, shock hydrodynamics, and multiwavelength emission by accounting for particle acceleration at the forward shock via first-order Fermi mechanism. Methods. We adopt here a quick and reliable semi-analytical approach to nonlinear diffusive shock acceleration. It includes magnetic field amplification due to resonant streaming instability and the dynamical backreaction on the shock of both cosmic rays (CRs) and self-generated magnetic turbulence. Results. We find that Tycho’s forward shock accelerates protons up to at least 500 TeV, channelling into CRs about 10% of its kinetic energy. Moreover, the CR-induced streaming instability is consistent with all the observational evidence of very efficient magnetic field amplification (up to ∼300 μG). In such a strong magnetic field, the velocity of the Alfven waves scattering CRs in the upstream is expected to be enhanced and to make accelerated particles feel an effective compression factor lower than 4, in turn leading to an energy spectrum steeper than the standard prediction ∝E −2 . T his effect is crucial for explaining GeV-to-TeV gamma-ray spectrum as the result of neutral pions decay produced in nuclear collisions between accelerated nuclei and the background gas. Conclusions. The self-consistency of such hadronic scenario, along with the inability of the concurrent leptonic mechanism (inverse Compton scattering of relativistic electrons on several photon backgrounds) to reproduce both the shape and the normalization of the detected gamma-ray emission, represents the first clear and direct radiative evidence that hadron acceleration occurs efficiently in young Galactic SNRs.
Patterns and regulation of dissolved organic carbon: An analysis of 7,500 widely distributed lakes

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a key parameter in lakes that can affect numerous features, including microbial metabolism, light climate, acidity, and primary production. In an attempt to understand the factors that regulate DOC in lakes, we assembled a large database (7,514 lakes from 6 continents) of DOC concentrations and other parameters that characterize the conditions in the lakes, the catchment, the soil, and the climate. DOC concentrations were in the range 0.1–332 mg L−1, and the median was 5.71 mg L−1. A partial least squares regression explained 48% of the variability in lake DOC and showed that altitude, mean annual runoff, and precipitation were negatively correlated with lake DOC, while conductivity, soil carbon density, and soil C:N ratio were positively related with lake DOC. A multiple linear regression using altitude, mean annual runoff, and soil carbon density as predictors explained 40% of the variability in lake DOC. While lake area and drainage ratio (catchment : lake area) were not correlated to lake DOC in the global data set, these two factors explained significant variation of the residuals of the multiple linear regression model in several regional subsets of data. These results suggest a hierarchical regulation of DOC in lakes, where climatic and topographic characteristics set the possible range of DOC concentrations of a certain region, and catchment and lake properties then regulate the DOC concentration in each individual lake.