Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
INNOVATIVE PRACTICES IN SCIENCE EDUCATION: A PANACEA FOR IMPROVING SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SCIENCE SUBJECTS IN NIGERIA

Innovative practices are those actions or activities engaged by man through which new inventions are introduced into the society. Innovative practices can be seen in the areas of; Health, Communication, Agriculture, Industry, Governance, Education etc. This present paper was developed to examine innovative practices in science education which was identified as a panacea for improving students’ academic achievement in science subjects in secondary schools in Nigeria. The expository write-up examined innovative practices in science education in the areas of; science education curriculum, science teaching and learning, and improvisation in science education. The paper pointed out that when teachers adopt innovative practices in science education, the students’ academic achievement are greatly enhanced. The paper concluded by suggesting among other things that science teachers should utilize innovative practices in their lesson delivery so as to enhance students’ active participation in the lesson which will bring about an improved academic achievement. Also, intensive in-service programs should be organized to get the science teachers acquainted with and trained on how to effectively utilize innovative practices for enhanced students’ academic achievement in science subjects.
The Effect of Green Tea on Prevention of Mouth Bacterial Infection, Halitosis, and Plaque Formation on Teeth

Background: Compounds present in both green and black teas have been shown to inhibit the growth and activity of bacteria associated with mouth infections. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of green tea leaves extract on the aerobic mouth bacterial load. Methods: A total of 25 volunteer female students, aged 20-25 years, were selected and then evaluated by green tea extract and mouthwashes containing 0.2, 0.5, and 1% tannin, as the most effective antibacterial complex in green tea. Then a comparative study was conducted on a green tea mouthwash containing 1% tannin with 10% ethanol, a alcohol free mouthwash, and a green tea herbal mouthwash with a chlorhexidine 0.2% sample, as and chemical brand. Results: Green tea mouthwash containing 1% tannin was more effective than other concentrations (P 0.05). Conclusion: The herbal green tea mouthwash could reduce the aerobic mouth bacterial load and may prevent plaque formation on teeth and come over halitosis due to infection of the bacteria. Also, it is a safe and nontoxic mouthwash especially for children and pregnant women.
Electrosynthesized Ni-Al Layered Double Hydroxide-Pt Nanoparticles as an Inorganic Nanocomposite and Potentate Anodic Material for Methanol Electrooxidation in Alkaline Media

In this study, Ni-Al layered double hydroxide (LDH)-Pt nanoparticles (PtNPs) as an inorganic nano-composite was electrosynthesized on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) by a facile and fast two-step electrochemical process. Structure and physicochemical properties of PtNPs/Ni-Al LDH/GCE were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry and electrochemical methods. Then, electrocatalytic and stability characterizations of the PtNPs/Ni-Al LDH/GCE for methanol oxidation in alkaline media were investigated in detail by cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and chronopotentiometry measurements. PtNPs/Ni-Al LDH/GCE exhibited higher electrocatalytic activity than PtNPs/GCE and Ni-Al LDH/GCE. Also, the resulted chronoam-perograms indicated that the PtNPs/Ni-Al LDH/GCE has a better stability. Copyright © 2017 BCREC GROUP. All rights reserved Received: 30th March 2016; Revised: 29th July 2016; Accepted: 9th September 2016 How to Cite : Habibi, B. , Ghaderi, S. (2017). Electro Synthesized Ni-Al Layered Double Hydroxide-Pt Nanoparticles as an Inorganic Nanocomposite and Potentate Anodic Material for Methanol Electro-Oxidation in Alkaline Media. Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis , 12(1): 1-13 (doi:10.9767/bcrec.12.1.460.1-13) Permalink/DOI : http://dx.doi. org/10.9767/bcrec.12. 1.460. 1-13
A Model for the Estimation of Yield and Investigation on Factors Affecting Irrigated Wheat Production in Various Tillage Methods (Using Artificial Neural Networks)

This study was conducted to estimate the yield and investigate the factors affecting irrigated wheat yield in different tillage methods in Iran using neural networks. Data were collected from 330 farms in 12 different regions of Isfahan, Fars and Khuzestan provinces in Iran by using face to face questionnaire method. Information collected from each field includes climate, soil texture, EC of soil, soil structure, crop rotation, crop residues management method, tillage method, depth of tillage, the amount of (nitrogen, phosphorus and potash) fertilizers consumed, method and efficiency of the amount of water used (as input variables of the neural network) and biomass yield (total seed yield and straw) as the output variable of neural network algorithm. Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Neural Network of feed forward kind was used in this study. The results showed that the proposed model can predict the biomass yield with a determination coefficient of 90% for different tillage methods. Thus based on managerial inputs relating to soil and irrigation, the mentioned model was proposed as a good approximation of the yield. Sensitivity analysis was carried out using the method of variations of coefficient of determination. As the results showed, the inputs of the management of residues, climate, crop rotation and tillage technique had the highest sensitivity coefficient in the model of achieving the yield. Among the management factors (crop residues management, tillage method, irrigation method and crop rotation), the most effective factor was residue management and the next important factors were crop rotation and tillage method. In conservation systems, tillage method selection with crop residues management at the farm level and also selecting the appropriate crop rotation are aimed at achieving the best results. The least important parameters in the model of assessing the biomass yield were type of soil texture and the irrigation efficiency. Among the factors related to the soil, the soil structure was the most important factor in this model, the effect of which was much lower than the rest of factors.
Uniformly rotating global radiative‐convective equilibrium in the Community Atmosphere Model, version 5

A standard atmospheric general circulation model is run in a uniformly rotating global radiative‐convective equilibrium configuration to explore the equilibrium state, including the statistics of its constituent tropical cyclones, and its sensitivity to horizontal resolution. The Community Atmosphere Model 5 (CAM5) is run at the conventional resolution of approximately 100 km grid spacing and a high resolution of 25 km grid spacing globally. The setup uses an aqua‐planet configuration with spatially uniform, diurnally varying insolation, uniform fixed sea surface temperatures, and a uniform rotation rate equal to that at 10°N. The resulting state is one in which tropical cyclones fill the global domain, such that storm count and outer storm size covary strongly. At higher resolution, the storm inner core is more intense and compact but the size of the outer circulation decreases only marginally, and storm count increases in a manner consistent with this decrease in size. Furthermore, the size of the wind field and precipitation fields are highly correlated. A simple analytical model is found to robustly reproduce the radial structure of the broad outer storm circulation. Finally, the minimum central pressure is demonstrated to be an exclusive function of peak azimuthal‐mean wind speed and outer storm size. Despite significant changes in the statistics of storm count, intensity, and structure, the mean environment, including the potential intensity, is nearly identical for both simulations. Results are compared with the nonrotating case from a prior study, and a generalized conceptual framework for the interpretation of aggregation with or without rotation is proposed.
Green Skills for Green Economy: Case of the Environmental Education Role in Kazakhstan's Economy.

The research on situation with developing “green skills” in conditions of transition to “green economy” is analysed in this article. Kazakhstan like many other states has been going through transition to “green economy” since 2013. Economic reforms have made an impact on the system of environmental education. The authors of this research directed their efforts at revealing how people use “green skills” in such sectors as catering, car-service and waste management. The authors carried out sociological survey and observation in order to find out to what extent knowledge, skills, opinions, types of behaviour associated with “green skills” are spread among the respondents. Comparative analysis demonstrated that application of environment-friendly operating procedures at enterprises in official and non-official sector vary. Many employees perceive “green skills” as environmental friendliness and have no proper understanding of the role of “green skills”.
Characterization of phytoplasmas related to 'Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris' subgroup rpI-L in Iran

In two of Iran's central provinces, several herbaceous plants showing phytoplasma disease symptoms were collected to detect 'Canididatus Phytoplasma asteris'-related phytoplasmas. Confirmation of an association of phytoplasmas with diseased plants was done using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays having the phytoplasma universal primer pairs P1/P7 followed by R16F2n/ R16R2 in nested PCR. Then, for detection of 'Ca. P. asteris', DNA samples were subjected to amplification of rp and tuf genes using specific primer pairs rp(I)F1A/rp(I)R1A and fTufAy/rTufAy, respectively. Restriction fragment length polymorphism or RFLP analyses of rp gene fragments using Tsp509I restriction enzyme as well as sequence analyses indicated that 'Ca. P. asteris'-related phytoplasmas associated with carrot, niger seed and scallion plants in these regions, belong to the rpI-L subgroup. This research is the first report of carrot, niger seed, and scallion infection with phytoplasmas belonging to the rpI-L subgroup.
Immunomodulatory activity of Madhuca longifolia

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of Madhuca latifolia on immunomodulatory activity that comprises of screening to identify the activity of ethanolic extract of Madhuca latifolia on humoral and cell mediated immunity (specific immune response). Experiments were conducted in vivo in Swiss albino mice. Madhuca latifolia ethanolic extract was found to enhance humoral immune response on 7th day by 13 % as compared to the standard control cyclophosphamide that exhibited 54% humoral immune response, where as cell mediated immune response was observed with an enhancement in the values (20.27%) in comparison with control cyclosporine (37.63%).
Decentralized Control of an Energy Constrained Heterogeneous Swarm for Persistent Surveillance

Robot swarms are envisioned in applications such as surveillance, agriculture, searchand-rescue operations, and construction. The decentralized nature of swarm intelligence has three key advantages over traditional multi-robot control algorithms: it is scalable, it is fault tolerant, and it is not susceptible to a single point of failure. These advantages are critical to the task of persistent surveillance where a number of target locations need to be visited as frequently as possible. Unfortunately, in the real world, the autonomous robots that can be used for persistent surveillance have a limited battery life (or fuel capacity). Thus, they need to abandon their surveillance duties to visit a battery swapping station (or refueling depot) a.k. a. depots. This down time reduces the frequency of visitation. This problem can be eliminated if the depots themselves were autonomous vehicles that could meet the (surveillance) robots at some point along their path from one target to another. Thus, the robots would spend less time on the ’charging’ (or refueling) task. In this thesis we present decentralized control algorithms, and their results, for three stages of the persistent surveillance problem. First, we consider the case where the robots have no energy constraints, and use a decentralized approach to allow the robots choose the best target that they should visit next. While the selection process is decentralized, the robots can communicate with all the other robots in the swarm, and let them know which is their chosen target. We then consider the energy constraints of the robots, and slightly modify the algorithm, so that the robots visit a depot before they run out of energy. Lastly, we consider the case where the depots themselves can move, and communicate with the robots to pick a location and time to meet, to be able to swap the empty battery of a robot, with a fresh one. The goal of persistent surveillance is to visit target locations as frequently as possible, and thus, the performance measurement parameter is chosen to be the median frequency of visitation for all target locations. We evaluate the performance of the three algorithms in an extensive set of simulated experiments.
The Prevalence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility pattern of Bacterial Uropathogens Isolated from pregnant women

A cross-sectional study was conducted on a total of 200 pregnant women to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibility of bacterial uropathog ens from January to May, 2011 at Gondar University Hospital antenatal clinic, Northwest Ethiopia. Clean catch mid-stream urine specimens were collected from each study subjects. Urine culture, identification and sensiti vity tests were done using standard microbiologic p rocedure. In this study, the overall prevalence of urinary tract infection was 12%. Of this bacteriological screeni ng of midstream urine specimens showed that 10.2% and 15.9%, had significant bacteriuria in asymptomatic and symptomatic group respectively. Prevalence of urina ry tract infection was a statistically significant association with previous history of catheterization and urinary tra ct infection (p<0.05). Escherichia coli was the mos t frequently isolated organism (41.5%) followed by coagulase neg ative staphylococcus (25%). Gram negative and posit ive bacteria accounted for (58.3%) and (41.7%) respecti vely. Rate of susceptibility for all isolated bacteria showed, ceftriaxon and gentamicin (87.5%) for each, amoxici llin‐clavulanic acid (83.3%), ciprofloxacine (75%), and norfloxacilin (70.8%). However, most resistance was to ampicillin (91.7%), amoxicillin (79.2%), tetrac ycline (58.3%), cotrimoxazol (50%), and chloramphinicol (3 3.3%). Multi drug resistance (resistance two or mor e drugs) of 91.7% (22/24) was observed among the isolated ba cterial uropathogens.
How representative are instantaneous evaporative fraction measurements of daytime fluxes

Sun-synchronous optical and thermal remote sens- ing is a promising technique to provide instantaneous ET (evapotranspiration) estimates during satellite overpass. The common approach to extrapolate the instantaneous estimates to values for daily or longer periods relies on the assump- tion that the EF (evaporative fraction, defined as the ratio of latent heat flux to surface available energy) remains nearly constant during daytime. However, there is still no consen- sus on the validity of the self-preservation of the EF. We use FLUXNET (a global network of eddy covariance stations) measurements to examine this self-preservation, and the con- ditions under which it can hold. It is found that the instanta- neous EF could represent daytime EF under clear sky con- ditions, especially between 11:00 and 14:00 LT (local time) for all stations. However, the results show that the EF is more variable during cloudy sky conditions, so that an increase in cloud cover results in an increase in the variability of the EF during daytime.
The Effect of Exposure on Chinese Learners’ Processing of English Wh-movement Sentences

The study is to examine the effect of exposure on Chinese learners’ differences in the comprehension of three types of wh -movement structural sentences in English, such as Who did the boy think pinched the goat ? Chinese learners with 10 years’ (group 1) and 5 years’ (group 2) amount of formal exposure with English and one control group with 10 years exposure to English participated both off-line and on-line comprehension tests. Findings indicated that the two Chinese groups had the same comprehension accuracy as the control group, but differ in reading times. In spite of having longer comprehension times, group 2 got relatively lower comprehension scores, indicating that there is a strong correlation between Chinese learners’ response times and comprehension accuracy and the amount of formal exposure. These findings are discussed regarding the role of formal amount of exposure in complex English sentence processing, and conclusions are drawn on Chinese learners’ comprehension of complex English syntactic structures.
Self-assessment and self-reflection in higher and distance education : existential reflections

This article explores and describes the value of self-assessment and self-reflection reports of adult learners as an integral part of non-venue linked portfolio assignments and examinations in the Department of Communication Science at the University of South Africa. The study is based on a qualitative content analysis of the approximately 9 000 typed or written reports submitted in the module Communication Research during 2002-2006. The results illustrate the extent to which continuous practice of applying self-assessment and self-reflection becomes an integral part of learning in higher and distance education on a personal, cognitive, social and critical level.
The Captured Locations of Spoofers through Applying Pit on the Path Backscatter Dataset

It is long known attackers may utilize fashioned source IP location to cover their real areas. To capture the spoofers, various IP traceback mechanisms have been proposed. However, due to the challenges regarding deployment services, there has been not any widely adopted IP traceback solution, at least at the Internet level. As a result, the mist on the locations of spoofers has never been dissolute till now. This paper proposes passive IP traceback (PIT) that bypasses the deployment difficulties of IP traceback techniques and comes up with a solution to the problem. PIT inve stigates Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) error messages (named path backscatter) triggered by spoofing traffic, and tracks the spoofers based on public available information such as topology. Along these lines, PIT can discover the spoofers with no arrangement necessity. This paper represents the reasons, accumulation, and the factual results on way backscatter, exhibits the procedures and adequacy of PIT, and demonstrates the caught areas of spoofers through applying PIT on the way backscatter information set. These results can help further reveal IP spoofing, which has been studied for long but never well understood. As because of some limitations PIT cannot work in all the spoofing attacks, it may be a helpful mechanism of tracing a spoofers before an Internet-level traceback system has been deployed in real.
Dispersive solid-phase extraction based on butylamide silica for the determination of sulfamethoxazole in milk samples by capillary electrophoresis

ABSTRACT A new method based on the combination of dispersive solid-phase extraction and capillary electrophoresis is proposed for the determination of sulfamethoxazole in milk samples. Butylamide silica was synthesized and used as extractant. Factors involved in sample treatment method such as: butylamide silica amount, NaOH concentration in methanol, sample volume, and dispersion time were evaluated using a Taguchi parameter design. Under optimal conditions, average recoveries ranged from 73 to 85% with a limit of detection of 0.05 mg L−1 were achieved. The proposed method is a useful technique for cleanup milk samples. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Addition of varying amounts of sodium bicarbonate to colostrum replacer: Effects on IgG absorption, serum bicarbonate, and hematocrit in neonatal calves

ADDITION OF VARYING AMOUNTS OF SODIUM BICARBONATE TO COLOSTRUM REPLACER: EFFECTS ON IgG ABSORPTION, SERUM BICARBONATE, AND HEMATOCRIT IN NEONATAL CALVES by Rosemarie G. Cabral University of New Hampshire, December 2010 Fifty-two calves were assigned to a randomized complete block design and were randomly assigned by block to one of four treatments: colostrum replacer with no sodium bicarbonate, colostrum replacer with 15g of sodium bicarbonate, colostrum replacer with 30g of sodium bicarbonate, and colostrum replacer with 45g of sodium bicarbonate to test for linear and quadratic effects. Calves were fed colostrum replacer (;>200g of IgG) in one feeding at 0 h and 2L milk replacer at 12, 24, 36, and 48 h. Only calves from multiparous cows, without dystocia, and bom in calving pens were used. Sodium bicarbonate had a negative effect on IgG absorption, apparent efficiency of absorption, and area under the curve especially when the 45g treatment was fed. Sodium bicarbonate treatments had no effect on hematocrit. Serum bicarbonate concentrations and
Patent protection, intelligence and economic growth: a cross-country empirical investigation

Extant literature on the link between patent protection and economic growth have yielded inconclusive results. In this study, we aim to engage in this debate by conjecturing that intelligence moderates the effect of patent protection on economic growth. Using annual data of 88 nations from 1970 to 2013 we find that patent protection has positive effect on growth only after accounting for the interaction between IQ and IPR. Indeed, we find that the interaction term is negative and statistically significant suggesting that countries with higher level of intelligence (above 90 points) can offset the negative effect of weak IPR protection. The results remain robust for a battery of robustness tests.
Optimal anticoagulant treatment of cancer-associated venous thromboembolism remains unclear

Commentary on: Kahale LA, Hakoum MB, Tsolakian IG, et al . Anticoagulation for the long-term treatment of venous thromboembolism in people with cancer. Cochrane Database Syst Rev . 2018;6:CD006650. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) complicates the course of 5%–10% of patients with cancer and remains the second leading cause of death in patients with cancer after the malignancy itself.1 Until recently, the standard-of-care treatment for cancer-associated VTE has been low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) for extended periods based on the results of several randomised controlled trials (RCT) comparing LMWH with vitamin K antagonists (VKA). As an injectable, expensive agent, adherence may be poor by both patients and providers.1 The direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC) are a new oral treatment option that does not require regular anticoagulant monitoring, and therefore an attractive potential alternative to LMWH and VKAs. Published evidence for the efficacy and safety of DOACs in comparison with LMWH is currently limited to two RCTs. This systematic review examines the …
Elemental abundance study of the CP star HD 206653

An analysis of the abundances of the Silicon star HD 206653 is presented using an ATLAS9 model atmosphere and observational material taken with a REOSC echelle spectrograph attached to the Jorge Sahade 2.15 m telescope at CASLEO. The light elements are solar or deficient except silicon which is overabundant by a factor of 5. The iron peak elements are all overabundant by factors between 10 and 50. Sr and Y are around 1000 times the solar values. Among the Rare Earths only Ce and Eu are identified; both are overabundant by large factors.