Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Social and Familial Factors, with Focus on the Media in Increasing the Number of Cosmetic Surgery

Psychological, social, familial, cultural factors and media are the strongest predictors influencing on the increase of different cosmetic surgical procedures. This study aims to evaluate the social, familial and cultural factors associated with women interested perform cosmetic surgery and analyze different psychological characteristics in women’s willingness in various cosmetic surgical methods with focus on media. The study was based on 718 women aged between 18- 35 years in Tehran randomly who filled out the pre-prepared questionnaire. 53% of women would consider having various cosmetic surgeries. 27% of them performed liposuction, 17% breast augmentation, 10% rhinoplasty and 5.6% abdominoplasty. In this study, TV, Satellite, family and having been recommended different cosmetic surgery was significant predictors of rhinoplasty respectively. Whereas TV, divorce/ separation and eating disorders had the main associated with an interest in liposuction. It should be noted that having children was a noteworthy factor in abdominoplasty. Since watching satellite, western TV and social relationships within the family is an indicator of cosmetic surgery growth, should more closely survey the contents of the western media and also, further studies on the more attractive to local media content in order to avoid unnecessary cosmetic surgery done.
Transdermal delivery of kojic acid from microemulgel

Article history: The aim of this study was to develop microemulgel for skin delivery of kojic acid. Microemulsions (ME) containing either oleic acid (OA) or caprylic/capric triglycerides as the basic oily components were developed after construction of pseudoternary phase diagrams. Tween 80 was used as surfactant for oleic acid system both in presence and absence of ethanol or propylene glycol (PG) as cosurfactants. For the caprylic/capric systems, Tween 85 was the surfactant in presence or absence of ethanol as cosurfactant. Selected ME formulations were tested for transdermal delivery of kojic acid both in fluid state and after transformation into gel. Incorporation of cosurfactants expanded the microemulsion zone. The cosurfactant free ME were more viscous. Incorporation of kojic acid in ME systems increased the transdermal flux compared to saturated aqueous solution. caprylic/capric ME were more efficient than (OA) based ME. Transformation of the tested ME systems into gel produced significant enhancement in transdermal drug delivery compared with the saturated aqueous drug solution. However, the data revealed superior efficacy for the fluid ME systems over the corresponding microemulgel. In conclusion, both (OA) and caprylic/capric ME were promising for dermal and transdermal delivery of kojic acid even after gel formation.
The effect of constant dietary energy supply during late gestation and early lactation on performances of prolific D’man ewes

Quarante deux brebis de la race prolifique D'man ont ete utilisees pour etudier les effets du niveau energetique de la ration sur leurs performances de production pendant 45 j en fin de gestation et 60 j apres la mise-bas. Les brebis ont recu 1 kg de foin complemente avec 240 g (lot bas : B), 570 g (lot moyen : M) ou 840 g (lot haut : H) d'un concentre a base d'orge et de tourteau de soja. La proportion de ce dernier a ete ajustee pour obtenir 3 rations iso-azotees (120 g MAT.kg -1 ). Les apports energetiques sont estimes a 1,2, 1,8 et 2,2 fois le besoin d'entretien pour les lots L, M et H respectivement. L'ingestion du foin (829 ± 18 g MS.j -1 ) n'est pas affectee par la quantite de concentre distribuee. La note d'etat corporel des brebis est tres faible au debut de l'essai (1,9 ± 0,3) et continue a baisser tout au long de l'experience. Cependant, la baisse est plus prononcee (P < 0,05) chez les brebis qui recoivent les niveaux L et M. Le poids vif des brebis apres la mise-bas est aussi affectee (P < 0,05) par le niveau energetique de la ration (37,7 ± 7,8, 40,0 ± 7,3 et 43,2 ± 6,9 kg pour les lots L, M et H respectivement). La production laitiere (959 ± 399 g.j -1 ), les teneurs en matiere grasse (8,9 ± 2,4 %) et proteique (4,5 ± 0,9 %) ne sont pas influencees par le niveau energetique de la ration. Les poids a la naissance, a 10, 30 et 50 j sont similaires pour les trois traitements. En revanche, les gains moyens quotidiens entre 10 et 30 j (GMQ10-30) et entre 30 et 50 j (GMQ30-50) sont significativement (P < 0,05) ameliores par l'accroissement du niveau energetique de la ration (95 ± 23, 133 ± 25 et 152 ± 27 g.j -1 pour GMQ10-30 et 76 ± 22, 135 ± 24 et 136 ± 24 g.j -1 pour GMQ30-50 respectivement dans les lots L, M et H). Il est conclu que les besoins energetiques des brebis prolifiques D'man sont vraisemblablement plus eleves que les niveaux testes dans cet essai.
Covariance among independent variables determines the overfitting and underfitting in variation partitioning methods : with a focus on the mixed covariation

The effectiveness and validity of applying variation partitioning methods in community ecology has been questioned. Here, using mathematical deduction and numerical simulation, we made an attempt to uncover the underlying mechanisms determining the effectiveness of variation partitioning techniques. The covariance among independent variables determines the under-fitting and over-fitting problem with the variation partitioning process. Ideally, it is assumed that the covariance among independent variables will be zero (no correlation at all), however, typically there will be some colinearities. Therefore, we analyzed the role of slight covariance on influencing species variation partitioning. We concluded that when the covariance between spatial and environmental predictors is positive, all the three components-pure environmental, spatial variations and mixed covariation were over-fitted, with the sign of the true covariation being negative. In contrast, when the covariance is negative, all the three components were under-fitted with the sign of true covariation being positive. Other factors, including extra noise levels, the strengths of variable coefficients and the patterns of landscape gradients, could reduce the fitting problems caused by the covariance of variables. The conventional calculation of mixed covariation is incorrect and misleading, as the true and estimated covariations are always sign-opposite. In conclusion, I challenge the conventional three-step procedure of variation partitioning, suggesting that a full regression model with all variables together is robust enough to correctly partition variations.
Small-Scale Flat Plate Collectors for Solar Thermal Scavenging in Low Conductivity Environments

There is great opportunity to develop power supplies for autonomous application on the small scale. For example, remote environmental sensors may be powered through the harvesting of ambient thermal energy and heating of a thermoelectric generator. This work investigates a small-scale (centimeters) solar thermal collector designed for this application. The absorber is coated with a unique selective coating and then studied in a low pressure environment to increase performance. A numerical model that is used to predict the performance of the collector plate is developed. This is validated based on benchtop testing of a fabricated collector plate in a low-pressure enclosure. Model results indicate that simulated solar input of about 800 W/m2 results in a collector plate temperature of 298 K in ambient conditions and up to 388 K in vacuum. The model also predicts the various losses in W/m2 K from the plate to the surroundings. Plate temperature is validated through the experimental work showing that the model is useful to the future design of these small-scale solar thermal energy collectors.
Do Enlargements Make the European Union Less Cohesive? An Analysis of Trust between EU Nationalities

This article analyses the impact enlargements have had on the social cohesion of the European Union (EU), measured as generalized interpersonal trust between EU nationalities. Based on a quantitative-dyadic approach, Eurobarometer surveys from 1976 to 1997 are utilized. The key result is that enlargements do not necessarily weaken cohesion, but southern enlargement and the recent eastern enlargement did. The integrative effect of enlargement depends on the extent to which acceding nations differ from existing club members in three main dimensions: the level of modernization (mechanisms: prestige), cultural characteristics (mechanisms: similarity) and their power in the international system (mechanisms: perceived threat).
R&D Capital and Productivity Growth in Industrial Countries

In this paper we incorporate R&D capital explicitly into the analysis of total factor productivity growth. The introduction of R&D capital as an input variable in addition to labor and fixed capital tends to reduce our estimate of Malmquist indexes for a sample of 14 OECD countries, on average, by 10 percent. Our findings indicate that it is technological progress rather than efficiency catch-up that is driven by the accumulation of R&D capital. We also find that productivity gains in manufacturing industries depend importantly on R&D spillovers.
Certifying Unstability of Switched Systems Using Sum of Squares Programming

The joint spectral radius (JSR) of a set of matrices characterizes the maximal asymptotic growth rate of an infinite product of matrices of the set. This quantity appears in a number of applications including the stability of switched and hybrid systems. A popular method used for the stability analysis of these systems searches for a Lyapunov function with convex optimization tools. We investigate dual formulations for this approach and leverage these dual programs for developing new analysis tools for the JSR. We show that the dual of this convex problem searches for the occupations measures of trajectories with high asymptotic growth rate. We both show how to generate a sequence of guaranteed high asymptotic growth rate and how to detect cases where we can provide lower bounds to the JSR. We deduce from it a new guarantee for the upper bound provided by the sum of squares lyapunov program. We end this paper with a method to reduce the computation of the JSR of low rank matrices to the computation of the constrained JSR of matrices of small dimension. All results of this paper are presented for the general case of constrained switched systems, that is, systems for which the switching signal is constrained by an automaton.
A Study of the Relationship of Personality Types and Emotional Intelligence: A Case Study of the Undergraduates of University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Area of the Study The current research is focused on the relationship of the big five personality types and emotional intelligence of the university of Sri Jayewardenepura. Even though, there has been a plenty of international studies focusing on this research area, in the context of Sri Lanka there is little evidence to be found. Therefore this study is filling the empirical gap of the respective study area Problem of the Study The main objective of the research is to find out whether there is a relation between personality and emotional intelligence. Thus the problem statement of this study is, “Is there a strong relationship between personality and emotional intelligence with regard to the university undergraduates in Sri Lanka? " Method of the Study To collect data for this study 77 item questionnaire was used and it was consisted with 5 point Likert scale. Data was analyzed using correlation and regression analysis with the SPSS (16.0 versions). The data were collected from 172 management undergraduates. Findings of the Study It was found that the overall big five personality has a positive relationship with the emotional intelligence of the university undergraduates. Conclusion of the Study It was found that the overall big five personality dimensions positively correlated with the emotional intelligence except neuroticism. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that the big five personality model can predict the variance of emotional intelligence by nearly 41%. Keywords: Big Five Personality, Emotional Intelligence, Sri Lankan Undergraduates, Big Five Inventory
Household Demand for Child Micronutrient Supplementation in Burkina Faso

The success of Plumpy’Nut®, a ready-to-eat therapeutic food (RUTF), in treating severe acute malnutrition (SAM) revolutionized the treatment of SAM and sparked efforts to develop, test, and distribute small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement (SQ-LNS) products aimed at preventing undernutrition. The move from a targeted therapeutic RUTF to broadly distributed preventative SQ-LNS products designed for daily consumption will likely require the private sector to play more centralproduction and delivery roles, which hinge on persistent private demand for these supplements. We use experimental markets for SQ-LNS in rural Burkina Faso to shed light on household demand forpreventative SQ-LNS. In collaboration with local vendors, we conducted a 62-week market trial in 14 villages that enabled us to test the effects of both price and non-price factors on the persistence of household demand. We find that price elasticity of demand for these supplements is high on average, but that repeat purchases are more price-sensitive than first-time purchases. We also find that a loyaltycard that offers a small reward to those purchasing an entire month’s supply of SQ-LNS strongly boosts persistent demand. Both the price and non-price demand effects diminish after a few weeks, underscoring the challenge of persistent demand. In this rainfed agricultural context, rainfallfluctuations also shape demand in potentially important ways. Tapping the full potential of micronutrient supplements will likely require innovative supply chains and hybrid private-public delivery strategies that enable cost-sharing and efficiency gains.
The role of environmental attitudes in emissions charging and vehicle selection

Many of the environmental problems that are both real and sensitive community issues stem from the use of transport infrastructure by passenger and freight vehicles, which are not only a source of congestion, but a source of local pollutants such as lead, carbon monoxide and noise. While there has been extensive literature on the concept of congestion charging and the economic arguments have been known for decades, there have been very few studies that explore road pricing as a function of vehicle emissions. Moreover, a growing global focus on environmental concerns in particular the role of carbon emissions in global warming, has created a social atmosphere where attitudes towards the environment are a pre-eminent focus of news media. In stated choice experiments, such attitudes play a key role in determining willingness to pay measures. This paper, using advanced choice modelling techniques, not only examines the role of vehicle emissions charging but also explores how divergent attitudes towards the environment influences motor vehicle choice, in particular how they impact upon sensitivities to vehicle emissions charging regimes.
The Effect of Tutoring on Secondary Streaming in Egypt

In Egypt, tutoring has developed beyond being a remedial education activity for academically weak students to being an investment tool used by households to enhance children’s education performance and give them a competitive edge. Consequently, tutoring represents a sizeable household expenditure, and thus it is important to examine whether, and to what extent, tutoring pays off in terms of better educational outcomes. The literature on tutoring effects is small, and most of it does not take into account the potential endogeneity of tutoring, making the accuracy of the estimated tutoring effect questionable. In this paper, exploiting the longitudinal nature of the dataset, I estimate the effect of taking tutoring on the likelihood of joining the secondary level stream that leads to university. I use the percentage of the working-age population that works in the education sector at the local level—a proxy for the supply of tutors—as an instrument for taking tutoring. Without using an instrumental variable, tutoring has a statistically significant positive effect. After introducing an instrumental variable, this effect disappears, providing some evidence that endogeneity may be present. However, the estimate of the tutoring coefficient is imprecise and there is some evidence that the instrument variable does not have sufficient power to get a reliable estimate of the tutoring effect.
Thermal-economic multiobjective optimization of heat pipe heat exchanger for energy recovery in HVAC applications using genetic algorithm

Cost and effectiveness are two important factors of heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHE) design. The total cost includes the investment cost for buying equipment (heat exchanger surface area) and operating cost for energy expenditures (related to fan power). The HPHE was thermally modeled using e-NTU method to estimate the overall heat transfer coefficient for the bank of finned tubes as well as estimating pressure drop. Fast and elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) with continuous and discrete variables was applied to obtain the maximum effectiveness and the minimum total cost as two objective functions. Pipe diameter, pipe length, numbers of pipes per row, number of rows, fin pitch and fin length ratio were considered as six design parameters. The results of optimal designs were a set of multiple optimum solutions, called ‘Pareto optimal solutions’. The comparison of the optimum values of total cost and effectiveness, variation of optimum values of design parameters as well as estimating the payback period were also reported for various inlet fresh air volume flow rates.
Volatility of Returns, Variations in Prices and Volume Traded: Evidence from the Main Stocks in Brazil

We study the relationship between the volatility and the price of stocks and the impact that variables such as past volatility, financial gearing, interest rates, stock return and turnover have on the present volatility of these securities. The results show the persistent behavior of volatility and the relationship between interest rate and volatility. The results also showed that a reduction in stock prices are associated with an increase in volatility. Finally we found a greater trading volume tends to increase the volatility.
Gender and economic preferences in a large random sample

We explore gender differences in preferences related to altruism, fairness, cooperation, trust, coordination, risk and competitiveness in an experiment with a large random sample of the Swedish population. In addition to a baseline treatment, we have treatments where participants are primed with their gender or know the counterpart’s gender. We find no behavioral differences between treatments, but some gender differences within specific treatments: men are in some instances less generous, more trusting, and more competitive than women. Aside from a lack of gender differences in risk taking, our results are roughly in line with previous literature.
Prediction of the presence of transcriptionaly active bacterial-type transposase gene in Celosia cristata

A partial mRNA sequence was randomly identified from Celosia cristata matured leaf mRNA population. Based on its deduced amino acid sequence analysis, it was predicted to be a homologue of proteobacterial-type transposase / integrase peptide in plant system. Since the cloned mRNA fragment was significantly closer to the bacterial transposases rather than to their eukaryotic counterparts, so it may be a great value for evolutionary biologists, as it may certify a horizontal transfer of genetic information between co-existed proteobacteria and Celosia leaves. This is a first ever time report that may lead to the further studies concerning the structural and biological importance of bacterial-type integrases in plant system in the future. A possible correlation between the product of the isolated clone and anti-microbial mechanisms through the process of integration / transposition or by homology-dependent RNA degradation strategy is recommended to be investigated in the future.
SAFETY IN CONSTRUCTION: REDUCING THEPHYSICAL DEMANDS ON WORKERS INNIGERIA

A proactive safety culture helps to save lives, retain workers, reduce claims and enhance productivity on construction sites. Previous studies show that health and safety has not been given enough attention in the construction industry in Nigeria. This paper investigated the physical demands on construction workers in different project site. This study was carried out on the construction of 10 number senior staff bungalow at Asaba campus of Delta State University, belonging to the same client and ten different building contractors. Data for the study were generated from two methods, using questionnaire and interview guide. To achieve this, one hundred (100) questionnaires were developed and distributed randomly to ten workers on each site and a response rate of 100% was achieved because the research assistants administered and collected immediately, while the interview source is the site head on each site. Data was analysed using frequency tables, percentages and ranking. The result of the analysis reveals that site works are exposed to high risks in construction, low safety policies are in place and most of the workers do not know how to use some of the existing safety tools. Implications of these finding and future research directions are discussed. The study concludes that improved safety culture and ergonomics of the physical demands on all workers in the construction industry would bring changes in the workers attitude and improved the site productivity in Nigeria.
Comparative Success of Budding and Grafting Citrus sinensis : Effect of Scion’s Number of Buds on Bud Take, Growth and Sturdiness of Seedlings

A greenhouse study was conducted at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi to determine the effectiveness of budding and grafting of Citrus sinensis. The study aimed at establishing the effect of number of buds on scion wood on bud take and growth of seedlings. A total of 6 treatments were arranged in randomized complete block design with 3 replicates. Treatments were 1-bud budding and grafting with scion having 1-5 buds. Budding and grafting were conducted in June, 2014 and monitored for a period of 120 days. Data were analyzed using GenStat statistical package, 15th edition and R 3.4. 1. Results revealed that grafting treatments had significantly higher bud takes on average while budding had the least bud take. Within grafted seedlings, number of buds had no significant effect on bud take and height. Similarly, number of buds did not affect sturdiness quotients of seedlings, of which all were within the recommended range. However, number of buds significantly affected shoot girth, number of leaves and number of branches. A significant linear relationship and positive correlation was found between number of branches and number of leaves. The study recommended that grafting should be adopted as an alternative propagation technique for sweet orange and must use scion wood with 3-4 buds for ideal bud take, growth and sturdiness quotients.