Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes as Fluorescence Biosensors for Pathogen Recognition in Water Systems

The possibility of using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) aggregates as fluorescence sensors for pathogen recognition in drinking water treatment applications has been studied. Batch adsorption study is conducted to adsorb large concentrations of Staphylococcus aureus aureus SH 1000 and Escherichia coli pKV-11 on single-walled carbon nanotubes. Subsequently the immobilized bacteria are detected with confocal microscopy by coating the nanotubes with fluorescence emitting antibodies. The Freundlich adsorption equilibrium constant (k) for S.aureus and E.coli determined from batch adsorption study was found to be 9×108 and 2×108 ml/g, respectively. The visualization of bacterial cells adsorbed on fluorescently modified carbon nanotubes is also clearly seen. The results indicate that hydrophobic single-walled carbon nanotubes have excellent bacterial adsorption capacity and fluorescent detection capability. This is an important advancement in designing fluorescence biosensors for pathogen recognition in water systems.
CO2 Emissions, Trade Openness and GDP Percapita : Bangladesh Perspective

In recent decades, the relationship between international trade, environmental problems and growth remains controversial topics for the economic literature. This paper mainly deals with the interactions among these three key issues of Bangladesh economy. Johansen’s cointegrating methods have been used to analyze the interaction. Estimation shows one cointegrating vector exists in the model. Findings suggest that the adjustment speed is faster for trade openness while CO2 emissions and GDP per capita have slow adjustment speed of restoration towards the long-run equilibrium. Granger causality test indicates the apparent bidirectional causal link between trade openness and GDP per capita but no causal link has been found from trade openness to CO2 emissions and from GDP per capita to CO2 emissions in both short run and long-run. Except GDP per capita and trade there are other factors which cause these emissions, such as population, but they are not included in the present model. The overall estimation implies that the current situation needs to draw attention to lower the existing emissions without blaming the international trade relations for causing CO2 emissions and focus more on the growth performance to increase the GDP per capita.
Knowledge Discovery on Consumer Trust in B2C Electronic Commerce

The purpose of this research is to discover knowledge (association rules) in consumer behavioral data with regard to their trusting intension. The main research question is: “what are there consumer perception profiles that tend to be associated with a consumer's perception of trust? ” To answer the question, real-world data obtained from a customer trust survey have been collected and analyzed using a data mining association rule discovery algorithm (APRIORI). From a managerial point of view, the analyzed results will provide some insights into specific target groups and their relevant drivers for trustworthiness. For example, one of the association rules is, customers who have high perception of trustworthiness and high perception of convenience make a transaction with 95% confidence. This shows the importance of trustworthiness and convenience for completion of transactions.
SDRED: Smart Data Retrieval Engine for Databases

Today computers are continuously betrothed in almost all domains and organizations. Thus, databases act as the heart for storing and retrieving information that contain huge digital data. However, in order to interact with such databases, it is necessary to have knowledge about the Structured Query Language (SQL), which is difficult for non-expert users to understand and manipulate. So, there is an emergent need to develop a smart and a user friendly computational technique to interact with databases. The current work proposed a smart technique that can handle such context. The proposed “Smart Data Retrieval Engine for Databases (SDRED)” provided an environment that allows a nonexpert user to write and to execute the database queries easily. Furthermore, it retrieved the data stored in databases without a prior knowledge of the SQL. SDRED, which enables the non-expert user to write database queries in natural language (such as English) and to convert them to their SQL query equivalents. The current work presented a detailed design and evaluation for the proposed system by executing different database queries in English. The results established that SDRED successfully converted the non-expert user’s natural language queries into their equivalent SQL queries, thereby providing an easy and user-friendly environment to interact with databases.
The changes of Zinc, Copper, and Iron levels in lung tissue after formaldehyde inhalation during the early postnatal period of Rats

Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi, Tıp Fakültesi Anatomi A.D. Afyon, TURKEY Phone: 902722140152, Fax: 902722142060 E-mail : asongur55@yahoo.com Aim: In this study, effects of inhaled formaldehyde (FA) gas, during early postnatal period on the levels of zinc, copper and iron elements and activity of total superoxide dismutase (t-SOD) enzyme in lung tissue and also the reversibility of effects of formaldehyde were examined. Methods: For this purpose newly born albino Wistar rats were exposed to 0 (control), 6 or 12 ppm FA gas for 30 days. After the treatment, rats were decapitated in 30th and 90th days. Activities of t-SOD and the levels of zinc, copper and iron were measured in lung samples. Results: A decrease in the t-SOD activity, copper and iron levels and increase in zinc levels were found in the treatment groups in comparison with control group at both 30th and 90th days measurements. Conclusion: It was thought that exposure to FA may alter the trace element levels of lung tissue including copper, zinc and iron, and induce further oxidative damage on lung tissue.
Convective environment in pre-monsoon and monsoon conditions over the Indian subcontinent: the impact of surface forcing

Abstract. Thermodynamic soundings for pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons from the Indian subcontinent are analysed to document differences between convective environments. The pre-monsoon environment features more variability for both near-surface moisture and free-tropospheric temperature and moisture profiles. As a result, the level of neutral buoyancy (LNB) and pseudo-adiabatic convective available potential energy (CAPE) vary more for the pre-monsoon environment. Pre-monsoon soundings also feature higher lifting condensation levels (LCLs). LCL heights are shown to depend on the availability of surface moisture, with low LCLs corresponding to high surface humidity, arguably because of the availability of soil moisture. A simple theoretical argument is developed and showed to mimic the observed relationship between LCLs and surface moisture. We argue that the key element is the partitioning of surface energy flux into its sensible and latent components, that is, the surface Bowen ratio, and the way the Bowen ratio affects surface buoyancy flux. We support our argument with observations of changes in the Bowen ratio and LCL height around the monsoon onset, and with idealized simulations of cloud fields driven by surface heat fluxes with different Bowen ratios.
Korean Wave： Towards Regional Cultural Diffusion？

The aim of this paper is firstly to determine if the Korean television drama Winter Sonata and its spinoffs are contributing to contemporary cross-cultural diffusion in Japan. Secondly, if cross-cultural diffusion is occurring, is it contributing to a loss of local identity? Winter Sonata is a small but significant part of the Korean Wave and in the vanguard of Korean television drama content viewed in Japan. There have been macro political changes in East Asia, largely driven by Korea, resulting in an easing of restrictions on cross-border media trade. These in turn have progressively created a new dynamic in content and volume. The methodology used for the study is triangulation including document analysis, audience analysis, and commercial outcomes. The convergent validation derived from the three parameters advances the proposition that Winter Sonata has contributed to cultural diffusion from a Japanese perspective but not to a loss of local identity. Arguably, the process is an enriching one in East Asia reinforced by multi-lateral media trade.
Enhancing the role of assessment in curriculum reform in chemistry

The role of assessment in the chemistry classroom is ultimately tied to the nature of the assessments available for use. Because they provide data that can inform decisions about curricular changes, or new pedagogies, the incorporation of new assessment strategies can play an important role in how educational and curriculum reform is carried out. Several recent developments in assessment have been tied together to investigate the benefits of using multiple assessment strategies in decision making about teaching innovation. These new tools include measures of student problem solving, metacognition, cognitive development within the chemistry content at the college level and evaluation of students in affective aspects of learning. Summaries of how these new tools may be combined and what measures arise from such combinations are presented.
The Importance of A Priori Contrasts in Analysis of Variance Research.

The literAf-ura regarding the use of multiple comparisons in analysis of variance is reviewed. Two reasons why planned comparisons are generally superior to the use of unplanned or post hoc tests are presented. It is suggested that orthogonal tests are generally more useful than non-orthogonal tests. It is argued that planned comparisons can be used even when omnibus tests are not statistically significant, or in place of such tests. Use of planned comparisons tends to result in more thoughtful research with greater power against Type II error.
Hold on to it? An experimental analysis of the disposition effect

This paper experimentally investigates a well-known anomaly in portfolio management, i.e., the fact that paper losses are realized less than paper gains (disposition effect). I confirm the existence of the disposition effect in a simple risky task in which choices are taken sequentially. However, when choices are planned ahead and a contingent plan is defined, a reversal in the disposition effect is observed.
Statistical thresholding for robust ASR

Speech recognition systems have been applied in real world applications for several decades,where there should be an unsatisfactory recognition performance under various noise conditions,particularly in lower signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) circumstances.In this paper,we propose a statistical thresholding method for mean and variance normalization technique,further reducing the mismatch between training and testing environments,which makes an automatic speech recognition system more robust to environmental changes.Mel-frequency cepstrum coefficient(MFCC) features are extracted as acoustic features,and they are further normalized with the mean and variance normalization method to get the cepstral mean and variance normalization(CMVN) features.The proposed statistical thresholding method is then applied.The viability of the proposed approach was verified in various experiments with different types of background noises at different SNR levels.In an isolated word recognition task,the experimental results show that the proposed approach reduced the error rate by over 40% in some cases compared with the baseline MFCC front-end,and under lower SNR conditions the proposed method also outperforms other robust features such as cepstral mean subtraction(CMS) and CMVN.
Serotypes of sorbitol-positive shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli (SP-STEC) isolated from freshwater fish

A total of 104 strains of Escherichia coli isolated from the intestinal contents of freshwater fish (Catla catla) (n=150) were subjected for virulence characterization by multiplex PCR. One or more virulence genes were detected in a total of 18 (17.3%) isolates viz., shiga-toxin type-1 (stx1) in 18 (17.3%) isolates, intimin (eaeA) in eight (7.6%) isolates, shiga-toxin type-2 (stx2) in four (3.8%) isolates and enterohemolysin (hlyA) in four (3.8%) isolates. All the 18 isolates have shown pink colonies on SorbitolMacConkey agar (SMAC) indicative of sorbitol fermenting non-O157 serotype. Serotyping was performed to identify sorbitol positive (SP)-shiga toxigenic E. coli (STEC) isolates. Diverse serotypes of SP-STEC detected include O120 (three isolates), O141 (two), O63 (two), rough (two) and O126 (one), whereas eight isolates were found to be ‘O’ group untypable (UT). This was the first report on the detection of SP-STEC serotypes from freshwater fish in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Perspectives on Pink Salmon and Sea Lice: Scientific Evidence Fails to Support the Extinction Hypothesis

Using a Ricker (1975) model and escapement data for a subset of Broughton Archipelago, British Columbia watersheds, Krkošek et al. (2007a) predicted that sea lice infections originating on Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) farms will cause the extinction of pink salmon(Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) in the archipelago by 2010. The purpose of this article is to examine this issue in the context of all of the escapement data available for the archipelago and to review additional scientific reports and information not discussed by Krkošek et al. (2007a). Additional research during the last five years is not consistent with the Krkošek et al. (2007a) conclusion that sea lice routinely cause in excess of 80% mortality of fry. Rather, the literature reviewed herein indicates that pink salmon fry mount an effective immune response at sizes as small as 0.7 g, resulting in the rapid shedding of lice within two weeks. Pink salmon returns are shown to be highly variable throughout the Northeast Pacific in areas without salmon farms. Following periods of high abundance, pink salmon populations typically fall to low levels, and they may remain depressed for several generations. However, in most cases, the populations then gradually increase to begin the cycle anew. An examination of returns to all of the documented Broughton Archipelago watersheds indicates that following exceptionally high returns in 2000 and 2001, the populations declined to very low numbers in 2002 and 2003. Contrary to the conclusions reached by Krkošek et al. (2007a), Broughton pink salmon returns have steadily increased since then, with no indication that they are threatened with extinction. Other unsubstantiated assumptions used in Krkošek et al. (2007a) are also discussed in light of additional scientific reports and theoretical considerations.
TESTING THE EXPECTATIONS THEORY OF THE TERM STRUCTURE OF INTEREST RATES IN THRESHOLD MODELS

We test the expectations theory of the term structure of U.S. interest rates in nonlinear systems. These models allow the response of the change in short rates to past values of the spread to depend upon the level of the spread. The nonlinear system is tested against a linear system, and the results of testing the expectations theory in both models are contrasted. We find that the results of tests of the implications of the expectations theory depend on the size and sign of the spread. The long maturity spread predicts future changes of the short rate only when it is high.
CHAPTER FOUR A GLOBAL VIEW OF THE PHYLOGENYAND ORIGIN OF THE ROOT ROT PATHOGEN ARMILLARIA

Armillaria (Fr.:Fr.) Staude is a cosmopolitan plant pathogenic fungus that causes root rot in a large variety of primarily woody hosts. The phylogenetic relationships between Armillaria spp. from the Holarctic floral kingdom have been well studied. In contrast, very little is known regarding the relationships between species from the non-HoI arctic (African, Australian, Indo­ pacific and South American) floral kingdoms. The aim of this study was to determine the phylogenetic relationships among Armillaria spp. from the non-Holarctic and between these fungi and species from the Holarctic. An additional aim was to consider a previously presented hypothesis that Armillaria has a Gondwanan origin by estimating the time of divergence between the non-Holarctic and Holarctic Armillaria spp. Isolates included in this study originated from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, North America and South America. Analyses were based on DNA sequences from the large subunit (LSU) gene ofthe ribosomal RNA operon. Phylogenetic trees separated the species from the different floral kingdoms into two strongly supported clades representing the Holarctic and the non-Holarctic, respectively. Species in the non-Holarctic clade had a higher interspecific diversity than those from the Holarctic. Results suggest that the non-HoI arctic Armillaria group is much older than the Holarctic and that the non-Holarctic species could have originated in Gondwana.
Incorporating Lifestyle Medicine Into a Large Health Care System: The Orlando Health Experience

There is now overwhelming evidence that daily actions and habits profoundly influence short-term and long-term health and quality of life. Helping individuals make more positive choices in the areas of physical activity, weight management, nutritional practices, and not using tobacco products is a shared responsibility among physicians, other health care workers, health care systems, and the individual patients themselves. Although some progress has been made in these areas, health care systems have been slow to respond to this important imperative. This article describes one health care system, Orlando Health, and its initiative to incorporate lifestyle medicine concepts into its core operating principles. Great progress has been made in the past 18 months in this initiative although numerous challenges remain. The authors enumerate both progress and challenges. They hope the experience at Orlando Health will challenge and inspire other health care systems to also take a more proactive stance in incorporating lifestyle medicine into their culture and core operating principles.
Determinants on Audit Quality of City Inspectorates in South Sulawesi Province

This study aims to identify and analyze the effect of leadership style on self-efficacy, the effect of leadership style on emotional exhaustion; self-efficacy influences the emotional exhaustion, and emotional exhaustion on audit quality. This study uses a quantitative approach. The population in this study was all auditors in city inspectorates in South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The sampling technique used in this research is purposive sampling where the sampling is based on the consideration or criteria in accordance with the purpose of research. These research data will be obtained by filling out a questionnaires, and direct interviews with respondents. Data are collected through questionnaires and interviews, and are analyzed using quantitative and descriptive analysis techniques.
The Fluctuations in Homocysteine Level Caused by Various Combinations of Folic Acid Cycle Genes Snp Alleles as a Factor in the Course of Pregnancy Violation

The presence of pathological alleles of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of the folic acid cycle genes is one of the female reproductive system violation factors including habitual miscarriage and pre-eclampsia. The realizing mechanism for this genetic predisposition is hyperhomocysteinemia-homocysteine level increasing in the blood. This study presenting an attempt to find the relationship between the genotype for the four SNPs of the three folate cycle genes - C677T and A1298C of the MTHFR gene, A2756G of the MTR gene and the A66G of the MTRR gene and the homocysteine level in the blood of women with impaired pregnancy. As a result no direct correlation was found but it was found a statistically significant interlation between the presence of pathological alleles of the studied SNP and the mean square deviation (σ) of the homocysteine level fluctuations over time. For the polymorphism C677T of the MTHFR gene σ of the homocysteine blood level fluctuation is increased up to four times in women with a homozygous pathological state TT compared with the normal homozygotes CC. The clinical importance of monitoring the homocysteine blood level has been shown especially for women with folate cycle genes pathological alleles’ presence.
Productive performance, egg quality and bone characteristics of quails fed with meal and canola oil

This study evaluated the effect of canola meal and oil in quail diet on productive performance, egg quality and bone characteristics. Quails (n = 84) with 150-days-of-age and average weight of 234±17 g were used in this experiment that lasted 84 days. The experiment consisted of a completely randomized design with 4 treatments, 7 replications with 3 birds each. Four diets were formulated: SM+SO - control diet with soybean meal and oil; MC+SO - 25% replacement of soybean meal with canola meal; MC+CO - 25% replacement of soybean meal with canola meal and complete replacement of canola oil with soybean oil; SM+OC - control diet with soybean meal and canola oil. Productive performance, internal and external egg quality and bone characteristics were evaluated. The diet with canola meal and oil (MC+CO) decreased (p <0.05) feed conversion. Albumen height was lower (p < 0.05) for treatments with canola meal and oil (MC+CO). Regardless of the oil used, the dietary canola meal (MC+SO and MC+CO) reduced the weight and length of tibia (p < 0.05), but increased its ash content (p < 0.05). The mixture of canola oil and meal decreases feed conversion, and negatively affects internal egg quality and bone characteristics of quails.
Impact of Ownership and Capital Structures on the Performance of Listed Companies in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE)

The purpose of present study is to investigate the impact of ownership and capital structures on the performance of listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). Thus, 153 companies were sampled out during the year 2004 till 2008. The research hypotheses were verified using multiple regression analysis. Tobin Q ratio and the Rate of return on assets (ROA) were used as indices of corporate performance. Company ownership structure through the mechanisms of institutional, block stock, and stock concentration as well as capital structure were investigated by the indices of the ratio of liability to equity and long-term liability to equity. In general, hypothesis test results showed that the mechanisms of the ownership structure and institutional stock had a significant positive correlation with Tobin Q ratio, and block stock had a significant positive correlation with the rate of return on assets. Also results showed that capital structure has a significant negative correlation with corporate performance.
How the Relational Paradigm Can Transform the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics: Experiment in Quebec

The main goal of this paper is to show how Vasily Davydov's powerful ideas about the nature of mathematical thinking and learning can transform the teaching and learning of additive word problem solving. The name Vasily Davydov is well known in the field of mathematics education in Russia. However, the transformative value of Davydov's theoretical work in this field has not yet been fully recognized by the larger international community. In this article, I use Davydov's vision of mathematics as the study of quantitative relationships - the vision underlying the relational paradigm in teaching and learning of mathematics. I use the example of one research project to demonstrate how the relational paradigm changes and reforms teaching practices. I discuss the teaching approach, developed within this paradigm, as well as the learning outcomes demonstrating the transformative power of Davydov's ideas.