Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidemiological trends of Lassa fever in Nigeria from 2015-2021: A review

Introduction: Lassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic fever with non-specific symptoms that has shown an upward trend in Nigeria and other West African countries, which is depicted by high incidence and case fatality in recent years. There are different reports on the yearly case burden of Lassa fever from the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria, through the regulatory body – Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Being the epicentre of the disease, Lassa fever has been exported from Nigeria to both neighbouring and distant countries.Methods: The aim of this review was to carry out a retrospective analysis from January 2015 to 26 September 2021 of the weekly and yearly outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria based on selected publications. The focus was on timely diagnosis, treatment option, public health interventions and progress of clinical trials for vaccine candidates, and to identify proactive measures that can be sustained to curb periodic outbreaks. The review was done using percentages, cross-tabulation and graphical charts. Results: The predominant age group infected was 21 to 40 years with a male to female ratio of 1:0.8. A total of 3311 laboratory-confirmed Lassa fever cases out of 20,588 suspected cases were identified from 29 states. Edo, Ondo, Taraba, Ebonyi, Bauchi, Plateau and Nasarawa had yearly Lassa fever incidence over the time frame considered. Contact tracing was done on over 33,804 individuals with about 90% completing follow-up. Case fatality rate within the period ranged from 9.3% to 29.2%. There is a sharp decline in the epidemiological trend of Lassa fever in the yearly seasonal peaks from weeks 1 to 13 with about 75% reduction in incidence between 2020 and 2021. Conclusion: The effective management of Lassa fever needs the implementation of preventive methods, prompt laboratory diagnosis, timely treatment, provision of personal protective equipment, cross-border surveillance, contact tracing, community awareness and vector control in order to minimise spread.
Cooperative Control of Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

The focus of research of AUV is gradually moving towards multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (MAUV) in recent years. This paper describes an investigation into cooperative control of MAUV. Firstly, a distributed control architecture (MOOS) was applied to MAUV system. According to MOOS, functionalities of AUV were organized in a modular manner and a unified information exchange mechanism was used to ensure an efficient communication between different modules. Secondly, a behavior based control strategy was proposed to enable the AUV to cooperate with each other intelligently and adaptively. Interval programming algorithm was applied to make sure that behaviors of each AUV can be coordinated in a timely and optimal manner. Stability of behavior-based control of AUV was analyzed. Finally, a distributed simulation environment was established and a series of simulation were carried out to verify the feasibility of methods mentioned above.
Risk Identification and Assessment in PPP Infrastructure Projects using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and Life-Cycle Methodology

To fulfil the increasing demands of the public,Public Private Partnership (PPP) has beenincreasingly used to procure infrastructureprojects, such as motor ways, bridges, tunnelsand railways. However, the risks involved inPPP projects are unique and dynamic due tolarge amount of investment and longconcession period. This paper aims to developa risk identification framework from theperspectives of project life cycle, and anassessment framework for risks associatedwith PPP project using fuzzy analyticalhierarchy process (AHP). First the paperreviews the current literature to identifycommon risks in PPP infrastructure projectsand classification methods used. The risksidentified from the literature were classifiedusing project life cycle perspectives. Followingthat, the paper presents the advantages offuzzy AHP. Furthermore, the paper provides aframework for assessment of risks in PPPprojects followed by an illustrative examplewhere the data was obtained from surveyquestionnaires. The paper concludes that risksassociated in PPP infrastructure projects areunique and therefore it is beneficial to classifythem from project life cycle perspectives, andthe proposed fuzzy AHP method is suitable forthe assessment of these risks.
Normative Static Grip Strength of Saudi Arabia’s Population and Influences of Numerous Factors on Grip Strength

Most daily tasks require exerting static grip strength which can be challenging for the elderly as their strength diminishes with age. Moreover, normative static grip strength data are important in ergonomics and clinical settings. The goal of this study is to present the gender, age-specific, hand-specific, and body-mass-index-specific handgrip strength reference of Saudi males and females in order to describe the population’s occupational demand and to compare them with the international standards. The secondary objective is to investigate the effects of gender, age group, hand area, and body mass index on the grip strength. A sample of 297 (146 male and 151 female) volunteers aged between 18 and 70 with different occupations participated in the study. Grip strength data were collected using a Jamar dynamometer with standard test position, protocol, and instructions. The mean maximum voluntary grip strength values for males were 38.71 kg and 22.01 kg, respectively. There was a curvilinear relationship of grip strength to age; significant differences between genders, hand area, and some age groups; and a correlation to hand dimensions depending on the gender.
Large Databases - Association Rule Mining

Data mining uses a technique of Association Rule Mining to generate rules in an efficient way. Associa tion rule learning is a popular and well researched method for discovering interesting relations between variables in large da tabases. The main problem that occurs is, handling the large databases. The paper presents the methodology to find the asso ciation rules from a large dataset. It also puts forward the ways to deal with the larg e datasets and determines the factors on which the generation of association rules is dependent. Thus, the association rules are gener ated by two ways considering the support count whic h is user defined and secondly, generated in accordance with the database with minimum memory usage. One such large database that is under consideration is census data set which is significa nt in the stock exchange system. The input data is pre-processed and the factors like memory usage and total time are accounted. Upon generation of the association rules the variance and the difference is recorded and they are compared for their accuracy.
Application of Three Order Cumulants in Fault Diagnosis

Compared with bispectrum, three-order cumulants have a lower computing complexity, in the experiment, features of fault signals and normal signals are fetched by 2-D wavelet in different directions, then these features are used to diagnose fault. The experiment shows, that the method can achieve satisfactory result through different selections in fault diagnosis. the results prove that the method in the experiment is necessary.
The value of post-occupancy evaluation for building occupants and facility managers

User satisfaction studies and measured performance studies reveal that there are significant gaps between the design intent and the performance of buildings and systems over time and occupancy shifts. Whether this gap is due to failures in the design, construction, management or use of buildings is often unclear, user satisfaction studies, augmented by as-built records and measured performance studies to fully understand the performance of buildings and building systems over time. The article introduces the General Services Administration's (GSA) National Environmental Assessment Toolkit (NEAT) field study tools and database and their contributions to advancing the goals of high-performance buildings that meet ongoing occupancy needs and management resources. The NEAT studies undertaken by Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Building Performance GSA have been used to illustrate the value of instrumented post-occupancy evaluation to: promote occupants as sensors and controllers; identify technologies and systems that work; prove that place impacts health and productivity; ensure investment where it matters; recognize the importance of behaviour on environmental gains; and to catalyse innovation.
Particle Swarm Optimization for Construction Site Unequal-Area Layout

Layout of temporary facilities on a construction site is essential to enhancing productivity and safety, and is a complex issue due to the unique nature of construction. This paper proposes a particle swarm optimization (PSO)-based methodology to solve the construction site unequal-area facility layout problem. A priority-based particle representation of the candidate solutions to the layout problem is proposed. The particle-represented solution in terms of priorities should be transformed to the specific layout plan with consideration of nonoverlap and geometric constraints. In addition, a modified solution space boundary handling approach is proposed for controlling particle updating with regard to the priority value range. Computational experiments are carried out to justify the efficiency of the proposed method and investigate its underlying performances. This study aims at providing an alternative and effective means for solving the construction site unequal-area layout problem by utilizing the PSO algorithm.
A nearly optimal variable fractional delay filter with extracted Chebyshev window

A novel technique for designing a nearly optimal (in the Chebyshev sense) FIR variable fractional delay filter is presented that offers rapid recalculation of the filter coefficients according to the varying fractional delay parameter. The idea of the technique lies in using a fixed window extracted from a strictly optimal linear-phase design and in updating the filter coefficients in a numerically efficient way typical of windowing method.
The Comparative Effects of Modern Dialogue Journal and Traditional Dialogue Journal on Critical Thinking: Iranian EFL Learners in Focus

The current study explored whether critical thinking skills can be cultivated among Iranian EFL learners through keeping dialogue journals written through paper-and-pen (traditional) and through email (modern). Moreover, the study compared Traditional Dialogue Journal Writing with Modern Dialogue Journal Writing to see which one has probably a greater potentiality for improving critical thinking in an ELT context. To this end, it adopted a quantitative design and selected 85 participants non-randomly from among intermediate EFL learners in Iran. To collect the data, a Preliminary English Test as a homogeneity test and Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Form were utilized. Statistical analysis of the finding revealed that dialogue journaling, both traditional and modern, was a fruitful experience for developing critical thinking. Moreover, contrary to the researchers' assumption, traditional Dialogue journal proved to have a greater potentiality for the development of critical thinking. The study provides implications for ELT contexts.
Do Extracellular RNAs Provide Insight into Uveal Melanoma Biology?

Simple Summary The study of RNAs in the extracellular environment in physiological and pathological conditions has become a growing field of research with intriguing applications in diagnostics and prognostics. Such extracellular RNAs are passively or actively released by all cells into biological fluids to spread biological signals to other cells. The perturbation of such RNA-based cell-to-cell communications in cancer can be easily identified by molecular analysis of liquid biopsies, even if source cells secreting RNAs are often elusive. In uveal melanoma (UM), extracellular RNAs can be assayed in serum, plasma, and vitreous and aqueous humor. In this review, we explore the possibility that extracellular RNA alterations in UM could partially match with RNA dysregulations observed in tumor tissues and provide information to better understand UM biology. Abstract Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular malignant tumor in adults, showing a high mortality due to metastasis. Although it is considered a rare disease, a growing number of papers have reported altered levels of RNAs (i.e., coding and non-coding RNAs) in cancerous tissues and biological fluids from UM patients. The presence of circulating RNAs, whose dysregulation is associated with UM, paved the way to the possibility of exploiting it for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. However, the biological meaning and the origin of such RNAs in blood and ocular fluids of UM patients remain unexplored. In this review, we report the state of the art of circulating RNAs in UM and debate whether the amount and types of RNAs measured in bodily fluids mirror the RNA alterations from source cancer cells. Based on literature data, extracellular RNAs in UM patients do not represent, with rare exceptions, a snapshot of RNA dysregulations occurring in cancerous tissues, but rather the complex and heterogeneous outcome of a systemic dysfunction, including immune system activity, that modifies the mechanisms of RNA delivery from several cell types.
Spectrum efficiency improvements in cognitive radio networks : a survey

Cognitive Radio Network (CRN) is a promising wireless communication network to utilize the unused and otherwise wasted portions of the licensed spectrum under two conditions; protecting the primary users of the licensed spectrum from harmful interference, and providing to its best effort optimum Quality of Service (QoS) to its users. However, there are so many challenges that must be tackled in order to satisfy both of conditions together. This paper provides an up-to-date survey of various techniques, algorithms, open area studies and ideas to improve the spectrum efficiency in CRNs in terms of topology and spectrum sharing strategy. To the best of our knowledge this paper is the first survey that considers the QoS provisioning from CRN perspective and the challenges involved. Conclusions about these issues and future work are presented at the end.
Efecto de tres dilutores en la conservación del semen de alpacas

El presente trabajo tuvo el proposito de evaluar la eficiencia de tres dilutores: Trisglucosa, Tris-fructosa y un dilutor comercial de cerdo, en la conservacion del semen de alpaca. Se utilizaron 12 machos que fueron entrenados por un mes en la coleccion de semen con vagina artificial y frazadilla electrica. Los animales fueron de la Sub-Estacion ExperimentalQuimsachata del INIA, Puno. El semen tuvo las siguientes caracteristicas: volumen de 2.7 ± 0.8 ml, viscosidad de 1.04 ± 0.3, motilidad de 54.0 ± 8.0%, pH con tendencia a la alcalinidad, concentracion de 248,100 espermatozoides/ml, y el color que predomino fue el blanco lechoso. El tiempo promedio de copula fue de 26.5 ± 3.8minutos. Se utilizo un factor de dilucion de 1 en 2 para semen y dilutor, respectivamente. Las diluciones fueron evaluadas considerando lamotilidad individual como unico parametro para determinar la viabilidad espermatica. El dilutor Tris-glucosamostro una viabilidad promedio de 5.8 ± 1.1 horas, el Tris-fructosa de 6.1 ± 2.5 horas y el dilutor comercial de cerdo de 5.5 ± 1.0 horas, sin haber diferencia estadistica significativa entre dilutores.
A comparative study of ionothermal treatment of rice straw using triflate and acetate-based ionic liquids

Ionic liquids (ILs) have found applications in the pretreatment of waste lignocellulosic biomass by interacting with the carbohydrate molecules present in the biomass materials. Pretreatment is essential before biomass conversion into valuable chemicals, fuels, and many other value-added products. This comparative study mainly focused on the pretreatment ability of four ILs having acetate or triflate as a common anion with different cations. Among various studied ILs, diazabicyclo[5.4. 0]undec-7-ene (DBU)-based acidic ionic liquid when used as a dual solvocatalyst showed significant structural modifications of the rice straw (RS) sample, through C6-O bond breakage assisted by the tertiary nitrogen in DBU cation. Structural modifications due to the pretreatment were confirmed through SEM, PXRD, and FTIR analysis. The elemental analysis confirmed that carbon content in original RS is reduced to 29% and 20% upon ionothermal treatment of RS with IL at 90 °C and 120 °C, respectively. Additionally, TGA indicated that further pyrolysis could be easier with the pretreated rice straw yielding biochar up to 9% thereby reducing wastes. Conversion of RS was found to be 60 % which reduced marginally to 50 % after three cycles of recycling IL. The findings of this work provide the proof of concept that studied ILs with high thermal stability and recyclability should act as a potential solvocatalyst in sustainable pretreatment and other biomass applications.
Piezoelectric materials parameters for piezoelectric thin films in GHz applications

Piezoelectric thin films have existing and promising new applications in microwave filter technologies. The final performance depends on many parameters, and very specifically on the materials properties of each involved material. In this article, materials and properties for thin-film bulk acoustic wave resonators are discussed on some selected issues: the piezoelectric coefficients and acoustic losses of AlN, the relation of the first one with microstructural parameters, the inclusion of parasitic elements, and the merits of and problems with ferroelectric materials.
Value creation disclosure: the international integrated reporting framework revisited in the light of stakeholder theory

Purpose The paper aims to propose an integrated reporting (IR) framework rooted in Freeman’s stakeholder theory (ST). The proposed framework modifies the international integrated reporting framework (IIRF) and aims to overcome criticisms related to its focus on investors and the abandonment of sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops a modified IIRF based on an in-depth analysis of the IR and ST literature. The framework was then applied to a non-profit health-care organisation to verify its theoretical assumptions. Findings The modified IIRF was conceived as a ready-to-use tool. By applying it to a business case, it was validated with respect to whether and how it could help achieve better and more stakeholder-oriented reporting. The findings enabled us to validate the use of the tool not only for reporting but also for the self-assessment of organisations with respect to embedding ST. Research limitations/implications The modified IIRF was implemented only in one case, and further implementations are needed to comprehensively identify its strengths and weaknesses, both in for-profit and non-profit organisations. Practical implications The revised IIRF represents an updated tool for reporting and disclosing the value created by an organisation for itself and for its stakeholders including the external entities affected by the impacts engendered by the organisation. In this way, the IIRF can give visibility to all value created and the value creation process, including sustainability matters. This allows integrated thinking processes to be incorporated accordingly, supporting better management. Originality/value This paper suggests three adjustments to improve the IIRF’s ability to incorporate ST as a theoretical foundation. The adjusted IIRF is a ready to-use-tool specifically highlighting what value or values an organisation delivers (its outcomes), for whom (its stakeholders) and how (its specific business processes) within a business model effectively connecting them. From this point of view, it fits the rising stream about the evolution of the sustainability reporting fostered jointly by the international integrated reporting council and sustainability accounting standard board, and by the European Union.
Generation of a family of non-isolated DC-DC PWM converters using new three-state switching cells

This paper introduces a new family of PWM DC-DC nonisolated converters. The new converters are generated using three-state commutation cells, comprising two active switches, two diodes and coupled inductors. The main advantages over the classical converters are low conduction and commutation losses, and low input and output current ripple. Due to these features, the new converters are suitable for low voltage and high current applications. Theoretical analysis and experimentation results are presented.
Relevance of the current modelling methods for the prediction of LNG vapour dispersion and development to be carried on

In the framework of liquefaction processes, LNG storage and transport, or LNG use as a fuel, any accidental leak may lead to critical events ranging from cryogenic impact on personal and structures to flammable events such as fires and explosions. In this context, being able to predict LNG vapour dispersion is a key asset to evaluate potential flash fires which are the dimensioning hazard for the sitting and risk assessment studies.
Synthesis of fluorinated phosphorus-containing copolymers and their immobilization and properties on stainless steel

A series of fluorinated-phosphonic acid methacrylates were synthesized by free radical polymerization using heptadecafluorodecyl methacrylate (HDFDMA) and (dimethoxyphosphoryl) methyl methacrylate (DMPMM) monomers for potential application as anti-corrosion coatings. The dimethyl protecting groups were then hydrolyzed, giving phosphonic acid groups that are able to stably bind onto metal oxide surfaces. The copolymers were then immobilized as a monolayer film to the surface of 316L stainless steel by treatment of dilute solutions in trifluoroacetic acid for 30 minutes followed by rinsing. The surfaces were analyzed using various techniques and contact angles as high as 128° were recorded for some copolymer functionalized surfaces. Results also demonstrated that the polymer films proved stable to hydrolysis over several weeks of immersion in water.