Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

NRZ was facing a decline in its organizational performance as it was characterized by high rates of customer dissatisfaction, high levels of stress, absenteeism and high levels of centralization in decision making that cost the company. Moreover, there had been no career growth opportunities for staff and lack of alignment between employee and company performance, resulting in increased operating costs, decrease in production and poor results. Therefore, the researcher sought to establish the impact of employee engagement on performance of NRZ. The research was carried out in Harare, NRZ. The study applied the case study research design and data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. A hundred questionnaires were distributed and ninetyone were returned. The sample had 30 managerial and 70 non managerial employees. The research findings were presented using pie charts, graphs and tables. The research established that there was a strong positive relationship between employee engagement and organisational performance. The findings also revealed that the outcomes of employee engagement were employee retention, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour. In addition, the research identified various factors that enhance employee engagement but the chief factor was the involvement of employees in decision making. Therefore, in view of the conclusion and findings of the research the study recommended that NRZ should involve employees in decision making and align employees to organisational performance so as to improve engagement of employees.
Effective Large Scale Computing Software for Parallel Mesh Generation

PAGE Scientists commonly turn to supercomputers or Clusters of Workstations with hundreds (even thousands) of nodes to generate meshes for large-scale simulations. Parallel mesh generation software is then used to decompose the original mesh generation problem into smaller sub-problems that can be solved (meshed) in parallel. The size of the final mesh is limited by the amount of aggregate memory of the parallel machine. Also, requesting many compute nodes on a shared computing resource may result in a long waiting, far surpassing the time it takes to solve the problem. These two problems (i.e., insufficient memory when computing on a small number of nodes, and long waiting times when using many nodes from a shared computing resource) can be addressed by using out-of-core algorithms. These are algorithms that keep most of the dataset out-of-core (i.e., outside of memory, on disk) and load only a portion in-core (i.e., into memory) at a time. We explored two approaches to out-of-core computing. First, we presented a traditional approach, which is to modify the existing in-core algorithms to enable out-of-core computing. While we achieved good performance with this approach the task is complex and labor intensive. An alternative approach, we presented a runtime system designed to support out-of-core applications. It requires little modification of the existing in-core application code and still produces acceptable results. Evaluation of the runtime system showed little performance degradation while simplifying and shortening the development cycle of out-of-core applications. The overhead from using the runtime system for small problem sizes is between 12% and 41% while the overlap of computation, communication and disk I/0 is above 50% and as high as 61% for large problems. The main contribution of our work is the ability to utilize computing resources more effectively. The user has a choice of either solving larger problems, that otherwise would not be possible, or solving problems of the same size but using fewer computing nodes, thus reducing the waiting time on shared clusters and supercomputers. We demonstrated that the latter could potentially lead to substantially shorter wall-clock time.
Effect of Limestone Particles on Rheological Properties and Hardening Process of Plasticized Cement Pastes

The rheological properties (flow, fluidity, dynamic viscosity, stiffness rate) and hardening process (hydration, development of structure) of Portland-limestone cement (PLC) and Portland cement (PC) (strength class 42.5 R and N) pastes without and with superplasticizer (SP) based on synthetic polycarboxylatether (PCE) were investigated. It was found that limestone particles increase W/C and viscosity of cement pastes and reduction of water in plasticized pastes PCL is lower than in pastes PC. On the other hand, the fluidity of plasticized cement pastes PCL is better and its thickening goes slower. The hydration and structure development in pastes PLC are going slower than in pastes PC. The impact of SP (when consistency of cement pastes is the same) on hydration process and hardening structure development of are going faster in plasticized cement pastes. The fineness of cements also has an influence on SP effect.
Treatment using 448 kHz capacitive resistive monopolar radiofrequency improves pain and function in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee joint : A randomised controlled trial

Objective: This study investigated whether capacitive resistive monopolar radiofrequency (CRMRF)-based treatment improves pain and function among patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. Design and setting: Three-group randomised controlled trial with concealed allocation, participant blinding and intention-to-treat analysis. Forty-five patients diagnosed with osteoarthritis, from the waiting list for physiotherapy at a local hospital were enrolled. Intervention: Participants in the active and sham groups received eight sessions of CRMRF and sham-CRMRF respectively over four weeks, along with standard care. The control group received standard care only. Assessment: Pain and function were measured at four time points: week zero (baseline), week four (post intervention), week eight and week 16 (two follow-ups) using visual analogue scale (VAS), Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) Osteoarthritis Index, timed up and go (TUG) test and knee range of motion (ROM). Results: For pain (VAS), there were clinically significant changes in the active group at post treatment compared to sham (effect size: 1.3, 95% CI: 0.29–1.3) and control (effect size: 1.5, 95% CI: 0.32–1.3), and at one-month follow-up compared to control (effect size: 1.1, 95% CI: 0.10–1.3). For function (WOMAC), there was clinically significant change in the active group at post treatment compared to control (effect size: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.02–2.6), but not compared to sham. No meaningful differences were noted for TUG or knee ROM. No differences were noted at three-month follow-up for any outcomes. Conclusion: CRMRF treatment can improve pain and function in patients with knee osteoarthritis in the short term. Trial registration: NIHR-CRN study ID: 20264. Contribution of the paper: • The study demonstrated significant short-term improvements of pain and function in OA knee with a four-week CRMRF intervention when compared to sham and current standard departmental care. • The study highlights the potential benefits of this relatively underused RF-based EPA in the management of OA knee and provides baseline data for future research.
Uncovering the “ black box ” A study on how to make machine learning techniques more interpretable in an application to loan default prediction

This thesis demonstrates how machine learning techniques can be made more interpretable using several methods that enhance the transparency of these techniques. First, different aspects of interpretability are outlined and various measures that allow for a comparison across methods are presented. After that, different explanation methods are applied in an empirical study on loan default prediction. It is illustrated that global interpretation can be attained by constructing variable importance measures or partial dependence plots, which give insight into the relationship between the explanatory variables and the outcome. On a local level insights into the model can be achieved by constructing feature contributions or a local linear approximation of the model, giving a detailed explanation on the prediction outcome of single instances. Some global understanding into how the model reaches its classification results can be given by inspecting the variable interactions that the classifier exploits. At last, single tree approximation can be performed, providing an approximating graphical representation of the model, allowing for understanding on a both global and local scale how decisions in the model are reached.
MOTOR ABILITIES IN HUMANS FROM BERNSTEIN ’ S AND FLEISHMAN ’ S PERSPECTIVE

The basic goal of science is to produce the predictability that enables intentional shaping of environment and efficacious influence the future events. To achieve this goal, three methods of information processing may be adopted: induction, abduction and deduction. The former bases on observation of simple cause-effect chains and the premise that the same causes will evoke the same results. It enables production of predictability “rooted” in reality. Abduction includes abstract processing of the observed reality and creation of generalized theories. Theory enables production of predictability “rooted” in formal representations of reality (and not in sensory experiences) by means of deduction. In motor science, being probably the greatest challenge to the whole contemporary science, production of predictability is especially difficult. The elementary conditions for performing any motor act make the motor abilities. They may be identified either experimentally, or theoretically. The former way, basing on superficial parameters of motor performances, is being initiated by E.A. Fleishman. The latter, founded on neurophysiological and physiological rationale, has been developed by N.A. Bernstein. In the paper both these approaches of identifying and defining particular motor abilities have been presented with special emphasis on the latter.
A mechanistic empirical method to predict permanent deformation on tropical soils on pavements

This paper presents several permanent deformation tests of compacted tropical soils used for road pavements in Brazil. It is proposed a mathematical model to predict permanent deformation based on stress conditions and number of load applications. There were developed a lot of triaxial tests with repeated load, up to 150,000 cycles in 8 materials samples: 2 laterite gravels, 2 fine lateritic soils, 2 non-lateritic fine sands, 1 kaolinitic soil, and one crushed stone. There were studied permanent deformation and plastic shakedown, main factors of the materials tested under repeated loading, through permanent deformation increasing rate analysis at each cycle. The purpose is to check any possible strengthening of soils due to load repetition. There is a strong evidence that plastic shakedown occurs frequently in compacted tropical soils used for pavements in Brazil. RÉSUMÉ Cet article présente les résultats des essais de déformation permanente des sols compactés tropicaux utilisés dans les chaussées au Brésil. Il est proposé un modèle mathématique pour prédire la déformation permanente en fonction de l'état des contraintes et le nombre d'applications de charge. Plusieurs essais triaxiaux cycliques jusqu'à 150.000 cycles, ont été effectués dans 8 échantillons de différents matériaux: 2 graviers de latérite, 2 sols latéritiques fins, 2 nonlatéritiques sables fins, 1 sols kaolinitiques, et une pierre concassée. Il a été étudié les principaux facteurs de déformation permanente et “shakedown” plastique des matériaux testés sous chargement cyclique, à travers l'analyse du taux d'augmentation de déformation permanente à chaque cycle. Le but de l’étude était d'analyser la possibilité du gain de la résistance des sols due aux cycles de charge, car il ya des preuves solides que Le “shakedown” plastique se produit fréquemment dans les sols compactés tropicaux utilisés dans les chaussées au Brésil.
Bulgaria MULTISPECTRAL DATA CLASSIFICATION BY NON-LINEAR METHODS

The last remote instruments provided the scientific community two important improvements – hyperspectral sensors with increased spatial resolution. This opened new trends in classification of small areas of the land cover and anthropogenic objects. Together with this more precise spectral and spatial new challenges are posed to the algorithms for data processing, namely the exponentially increased volume of data. One promising method to overcome this problem is to focus the research only on that features which best describe the object of interest. These features may include not only these mentioned above but also textural and geographical ones. The idea of this research was to establish a framework for remotely sensed data classification based on nonlinear methods developed recently, such as data mining and kernel based “kd-trees”. The results obtained confirmed some improvements and simplicity from computational point, which means robustness, and slight increase of the map accuracy. This study was partially supported by NSFB under Contracts NZ-1410/04 and MUNZ-1502/05.
What determines rural households ’ decision to enrol children in schools in Ghana ?

We use field data to investigate factors which influence parents’ decision to enrol children in schools in rural Ghana. The empirical results identified a host of socio-economic and householdlevel factors including remittances parents expect from investing in education, parents perception of a child's desirable professions, cost of schooling and discount rate as significant determinants of parental school enrolment decision. When gender of the child and remittances are taken into account, we show male parents are more likely to invest in education of boys than girls because they expect significantly higher returns from their investment in boys. Female parents do not show such gender preference. The proportion of children enrolled in school is positively related to average cost of schooling for male parents Gender of parent plays a significant role in school enrolment decision making. JEL: Classification: I20, J24, D91
A Dynamic View on Family Firms’ Innovation Behavior

A growing literature has pointed towards differences in innovation behaviour between family and nonfamily firms. Yet, all studies have adopted a static view and it is unclear whether and how family firm innovation behavior to that of nonfamily firms over time. This paper adopts a dynamic view and aims at identifying the influence of family control on innovation persistence at the firm level. Based on a large panel of German firms for the period 2001 to 2012, it provides first evidence of family firms to innovate less persistently than nonfamily firms over time, whilst still having a higher propensity to invest into innovation in the first place.
A global Budyko model to partition evaporation into interception and transpiration

Abstract. Evaporation is a crucial flux in the hydrological cycle and links the water and energy balance of a catchment. The Budyko framework is often used to provide a first-order estimate of evaporation, as it is a straightforward model with only rainfall and potential evaporation as required input. Many researchers have improved the Budyko framework by including more physics and catchment characteristics in the original equation. However, the parameterization of these improved Budyko models is not so straightforward, is data demanding, and requires local knowledge that is difficult to obtain at the global scale. In this paper we present an improvement of the previously presented Gerrits' model (“Analytical derivation of the Budyko curve based on rainfall characteristics and a simple evaporation model” in Gerrits et al., 2009 WRR), whereby total evaporation is calculated on the basis of simple interception and transpiration thresholds in combination with measurable parameters like rainfall dynamics and storage availability from remotely sensed data sources. While Gerrits' model was previously investigated for 10 catchments with different climate conditions and where some parameters were assumed to be constant, in this study we applied the model at the global scale and fed the model with remotely sensed input data. The output of the model has been compared to two complex land-surface models, STEAM and GLEAM, as well as the database of Landflux-EVAL. Our results show that total evaporation estimated by Gerrits' model is in good agreement with Landflux-EVAL, STEAM, and GLEAM. The results also show that Gerrits' model underestimates interception in comparison to STEAM and overestimates it in comparison to GLEAM, whereas the opposite is found for transpiration. Errors in interception can partly be explained by differences in the definition of interception that successively introduce errors in the calculation of transpiration. Relating to the Budyko framework, the model shows a reasonable performance for the estimation of total evaporation. The results also found a unimodal distribution of the transpiration to precipitation fraction (EtP), indicating that both increasing and decreasing aridity will result in a decline in the fraction of transpired rainfall by plants for growth and metabolism.
Acquiring English in a Constructionist Environment: A Case Study

This qualitative exploratory research focuses on a case of a seven-year-old learner studying in a constructionist classroom. It aims at exploring how the psychological and social environment in a classroom influences a young learner’s learning of ‘English as a Foreign Language’ (EFL). Studying the psychological environment of the classroom, this study covers the effect of activities on the learner’s emotions, feelings, attitudes and motivation. The study of the classroom’s social environment looks at the effect of activities in the class on the learner-peer interactions and learner-facilitator interactions. The data comes from the participant’s journals, learner logs, classroom observations and in-depth interviews. The findings reveal that topics covered in the class and facilitator-designed activities which were personally evocative and meaningful to the learner made the learner feel more connected and related to her learning environment. Building artifacts not only helped the learner to externalise and internalise her learnings but also encouraged interactions between learner-peer and learner-facilitator. These classroom interactions and the learner’s positive feelings, attitude, emotions and motivation helped the learner to build her understandings about the new English words introduced in the class and to recall, understand, and use some of those words in her communication.
Evaluation of short-term prognostic factors of ranibizumab in patients with dabetic macular edema

Purpose: Study the prognostic factors for short-term visual improvement in pacients treated with ranibizumab (IVR) for diabetic macular edema (DME). Methods: cross-sectional descriptive study in which 41 eletronic medical records of patients who attended in a private medical clinic in Belo Horizonte Minas Gerais in a period of August / 2016 to May / 2017. It was verified general data and previous history of patients who received consecutive monthly IVR for DME, analyzing sex, age and presence of previous treatment as possible prognostic factors determining the changes in visual acuity measured by the Snellen table after the monthly procedure. Results: In the total sample, 51.2% were female subjects. The mean age was 64.20 ± 7.54 years. Age, previous treatment and gender were not correlated with better visual acuity in any time. Conclusion: The major strategy of DME treatment nowadays is intravitreal injections, which have proved to be an effetive way of visual acuity improvement. However, many patients do not exhibit the expected outcome or are refractory to treatment. Aiming to predict the treatment efficacy in short term also to provide the patient a reasonable expectation about the outcome based on prognostic factors, new clinical studies are necessary since there are so few that approach this subject such an important treatment of a very prevalent disease.
Pyxel: a novel and multi-purpose Python-based framework for imaging detector simulation

Pyxel is a novel, open-source and Python-based framework designed to host and pipeline any type of models simulating detector effects such as cosmic rays, detector PSF, various noise sources, Charge Transfer Inefficiency or persistence on images produced by CCD or CMOS-based imaging detectors. It is currently under development at the European Space Agency with the goal of release it to the broader detector scientist community. We present here the architecture of the framework, how to integrate new models in it and give a few examples of its current simulation capabilities.
Capturing the Cacophony of Movement

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Hoeben THERAPEUTIC EFFICACY OF ANTIOXIDANTS IN RECURRENT CASES OF MASTITIS IN BUFFALOES

Eighteen buffaloes selected from a private dairy farm of the Ludhiana region were divided into three groups of six animals each. The fi rst group served as healthy control, the second and third as treatment groups. Treatment was given on the 7th day of observation with injRedoxin 20 ml I/M s.i. d for 5 days in Group 2 and with inj Vetade 10 ml/500 kg b.wt. s.i. d. for 4 days in Group 3. Vitamin C and vitamin E levels were assayed on the 0th, 7th, 14th and 21st days of observation. In Group 1, the levels of vitamin C, vitamin E and selenium were 1.0795 ± 0.019 to 1.088 ± 0.025 mg/dl, 3.983 ± 0.064 to 3.946 ± 0.133 μmol/l and 0.611 ± 0.059 to 0.62 ± 0.072 μg/ml, respectively. Pre-treatment and posttreatment value values of vitamin C were 0.765 ± 0.128 to 0.924 ± 0.088 mg/dl and 1.0795 ± 0.019 to 1.088 ± 0.025 mg/dl, respectively. in Group 2, showing a signifi cant difference, i.e. a 28% increase in the level after treatment. Pre-treatment and posttreatment values of vitamin E ranged from 2.58 ± 0.24 to 3.006 ± 0.434 μmol/l and 3.983 ± 0.064 to 3.946 ± 0.133 μmol/l, respectively, in Group 3, showing a signifi cant difference, i.e. a 41% increase in the level. Pre-treatment and posttreatment values of selenium ranged from 0.19 ± 0.062 to 0.245 ± 0.068 μg/ml and 0.690 ± 0.025 to 0.695 ± 0.031 μg/ml, respectively, showing a 2.18 % increase in the level. Eight animals out of the 12 were cured suggesting that antioxidant containing drugs can act as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of mastitis.
Intelligence and Mental Imagery in ID

After a presentation of the main model for conceptualizing and measuring intelligence, the importance of Mental Imagery in determining the cognitive performances in Intellectual Disability (ID) is underlined. The study aims at investigating if mental imagery can moderate the effect of cognitive components (i.e., Factor IQ) on the degree of mental deterioration in adults diagnosed with ID. The WAIS-IV, MoCA, and MIT (Mental Imagery Test) were administered in a sample composed of 40 subjects, age range 16-64 years, diagnosed with Mild or Moderate ID.