Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maternity and paternity leave and career progression of black African women in dual-career couples

Orientation: The study focused on examining the perceptions of dual-career couples at a stateowned company about the influence of taking maternity and paternity leave on the career progression of black African women in middle management and leadership occupations. Research purpose: The primary purpose of the study was to identify core barriers in relation to maternity and paternity leave that contribute negatively in the career progression of black African women in dual-career couples. Motivation for the study: To obtain insight into the underrepresentation and progression of black African women within dual-career couples, in middle management and leadership occupations. Research design, approach and method: This study was qualitative, comprising a sample of 10 black African women and 10 black African men, with data collected through in-depth semistructured interviews. Thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the interview dialogues. Main findings: The findings established that taking maternity leave has a negative influence on the career progression of black African women in dual-career couples at the state-owned company. The participants further confirmed that involuntary time off work and productiveness were principal influencing barriers of taking maternity leave, leading to other undesirable consequences, such as unproductiveness and reliability. Practical and managerial implications: The state-owned company should review its current talent management and recruitment and selection policies, in order to positively contribute to increasing the representation and facilitating career progression of black African women within dual-career couples, in middle management and leadership occupations. Contributions or value-add: Insights were provided on the influences of taking maternity and paternity leave in the underrepresentation and progression of black African women within dual-career couples, in middle management and leadership occupations.
Analysis of Survival Functions In Predicting Length Of Stay In Florida Hospitals

Statistical methodology and data analytics have avenues of exploring relationships among observed variables that are qualitative and quantitative in nature. The main objective of this study is to show that there is not a single “best” model to predict the length of stay of elderly patients; but rather that there is a preferred model for different age groups with various health conditions. We investigate a large amount of public data that are collected for the Agency for Health Care Administration and suggest possible predictive models to interpret its outcomes. Our data consist of every Medicare inpatient hospital discharge record related in the state of Florida 2011 related to the following primary diagnoses: Acute Myocardial Infarction, Heart Failure, and Pneumonia. The response variable is duration of stay in days. The nature of the predictor variables is either categorical or ordinal. We use an Accelerated Failure Time model and a Cox Proportional Hazard model for the right-censored response time in order to analyze related distribution functions. We interpret the effect of sex, primary diagnosis, age, inclusion of respiratory charges, and severity of illness as explanatory variables and use these to rank the patients in terms of expected length of stay. We use an extensive amount of visual display to substantiate the outcomes. The result includes expected instantaneous rate of change on the hazard functions of Accelerated Failure Time and Cox Proportional Hazard models, as well as the Kaplan Meier estimates. The study results indicate the importance of using multiple model types when analyzing any data which incorporates failure time data.
Liquisolid Compact Technique for Improvement of the Dissolution Rate of Flurbiprofen: Formulation and Evaluation

Development of liquisolid compacts is one of the new pharmaceutical formulation technologies to improve the dissolution rate of poorly soluble drugs. The intent of present investigation was to enhance the dissolution rate of poorly soluble drug flurbiprofen by delivering the drug as a liquisolid compact. Liquisolid compacts were developed using polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400) as solvent, Avicel PH102 or starch or HPMC or PEG 4000 or PEG 6000 as the carrier powder and Aerosil 200 as the coating material. The crystallinity of the newly formulated drug and the interaction between excipients was examined by differential scanning calorimetry. The dissolution studies for the liquisolid formulation and the marketed product were carried out at to determine the improvement in dissolution rate and finally the best formulation was subjected to stability studies to assess the drug stability in the formulation. The results of interaction studies showed no change in the crystallinity of the drug and no interaction between excipients. The percentage drug release of flurbiprofen at 10 min (Q 10 ) and dissolution efficiency were increased from 22.81 ± 1.09% and 16.68 for conventional tablet to 91.52 ± 0.78% and 60.17 for the liquisolid tablet F5. The increase in the dissolution rate was also found to be significant compared to the conventional tablet. From the stability studies, the similarity index was found as 84.75 and it is above 50 indicated the stability of drug in the formulation. In conclusion, the liquisolid technique was considered as a promising approach to improve the dissolution of poorly soluble drugs like flurbiprofen.
A Multi-Level Thresholding Method based on Histogram Derivatives for Accurate Brain MRI Segmentation Un método de umbralización multinivel basado en derivadas del histograma para la segmentación precisa de imágenes cerebrales de RM

This work describes the implementation and quantitative evaluation of an automatic and accurate brain magnetic resonance image segmentation method. This is based on adaptive multi-level thresholding to classify the images into variable number brain tissue classes of interest. The method includes a denoising and enhancement image preprocessing stage. After that, the image histogram is computed and smoothed using a pyramid filter. Then, this histogram is differenced to determine a list of peaks and valleys (i.e. local minima) on it. As the number of considered tissue classes to segment is the number of searched histogram thresholds plus one, the histogram thresholds were chosen using the values of valleys that minimize the classification errors. The proposed method was used to segment four tissue classes (i.e. white matter, gray matter, cerebrospinal fluid and background, respectively) in a collection of synthetic brain MR slice from BrainWeb database. The method was compared to other two implemented segmentation approaches: one based on Gaussian mixture models and other one based on k- means clustering. Our multi-level thresholding segmentation algorithm produced equivalent correct classification results (above 95%) than the other two compared methods of the literature.
EFFECT OF NON-METAL ELEMENTS ( C , N , S ) AS ANIONIC DOPANTS ON ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF TiO 2-ANATASE BY DENSITY-FUNCTIONAL THEORY

This article is a theoritical approach to calculate the electronic structure of undopedand non-metal anions doped-TiO2-anatase. The objective of the research is to calculate abinitio the band structure and the density of states (DOS) of undoped-, C-, N-, and S-doped TiO2-anatase. Kohn-Sham equations are performed with the density functional theory (DFT) using the local density approximation (LDA) for exchange-correlation functional. The first-principle calculations were done using supercell (2x2x1) methods as implemented within Amsterdam Density Functional (ADF)-BAND version 2014.10. The ab-initio calculation of the band structures show that all samples are directand indirect-gap type semiconductor. The band gap of TiO2-anatase with DFT using LDA is 2.43 eV. The addition of C atom at 0.943% in 48 atoms produces width intermediate band about 0.76 eV, which is 0.38 eV above the valence band (VB) and 1.38 eV below the conduction band (CB). The addition of N atom at 1.103% and S atom at 2.478% in the lattice structure of TiO2-anatase resulted in the addition of the VB width to 0.47 eV and 0.11 eV, while the resulting gap between the VB and the CB to 1.97 eV and 2.33 eV, respectively.
Comparison of Four Different Purification Methods for Isolation of Anti Echis carinatus Antivenom Antibodies from Immunized Chicken Egg Yolk

Egg-laying hens were immunized with the Echis carinatus venom and the resulting antibodies were extracted from egg yolk by four different purification methods. The chicken egg yolk antibodies were purified by the water dilution method, polyethylene glycol (PEG) and ammonium sulphate precipitation method, chloroform extraction and the Lithium sulphate precipitation method. These methods were compared in terms of total protein content, immunospecific anti E. carinatus immunoglobulin Y (IgY) activity and in vitro and in vivo neutralizing capacity of IgY against the E. carinatus venom. Total IgY concentrations varied from 1.6 to 7.0 mg per ml of egg yolk. In neutralization studies, IgY purified by PEG and ammonium sulphate precipitation (PEG-AS) showed better results when compared to other purification methods. Approximately 1.25 mg of IgY (PEG-AS) was able to neutralize 2Lethal Dose 50 of the E. carinatus venom. Purification of IgY by PEG and ammonium sulphate yielded very pure IgY at high quantities (93% ± 5% of total egg yolk protein), which was also capable of neutralizing toxic
Improved Recognition of Security Bugs via Dual Hyperparameter Optimization

Background: Security bugs need to be handled by small groups of engineers before being widely discussed (otherwise the general public becomes vulnerable to hackers that exploit those bugs). But learning how to separate the security bugs from other bugs is challenging since they may occur very rarely. Data mining that can find such scarce targets required extensive tuning effort. Goal: The goal of this research is to aid practitioners as they struggle to tune methods that try to distinguish security-related bug reports in a product's bug database, through the use of a dual hyperparameter optimizer that learns good settings for both learners and for data pre-processing methods. Method: The proposed method, named SWIFT, combines learner hyperparameter optimization and pre-processor hyperparameter optimization. SWIFT uses a technique called epsilon-dominance, the main idea of which is to ignore operations that do not significantly improve the performance. As a result, the optimization effort can be efficiently reduced. Result: When compared to recent state-of-the-art results (from FARSEC which is published in TSE'18), we find that SWIFT's dual optimization of both pre-processor and learner is more useful than optimizing each of them individually. For example, in a 10-way cross-validation study looking for security bugs from the Chromium web-browser, the FARSEC and SWIFT recalls were 20.4% and 77.1%, respectively, with false alarm rates under 20%. For another example, in experiments with data from the Ambari software project, recalls improved from 30.4 to 83.9% while false alarms remained under 22%. Conclusion: Overall, our approach shows advantages in achieving better performance in a fast way than existing stat-of-the-art method. Therefore, this encourages us in solving similar problems with dual optimization in the future work.
Normative and perceived orthodontic treatment need of senior year dental students

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine perceived and normative orthodontic treatment need of senior year dental students using the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) and Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI). Materials and Methods: Ninety-nine senior year students of the Faculty of Dentistry, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria, participated. Normative assessment of occlusal characteristics was car¬ried out using IOTN and DAI while the Aesthetic Component (AC) scale of IOTN was used by the students to assess perceived need. Results: With the AC scale of IOTN, 6.1% of the students expressed “borderline need” and 2% “great need” for treatment, while normative need was 41.4% for “borderline need” and 11.1% for “great need”. The Dental Health Component found 37.4% and 24.2% in these categories, respectively. The DAI gave 26.3%, 13.1% and 15.1% in the elective treatment, highly desirable treatment and mandatory treatment categories respectively. No gender-dependent differences were found. Moderate correlation was observed between perceived and normative need (r=0.643), which was significant (p<0.001). Conclusions: Over half of the dental students had orthodontic treatment need with both indices. Normative and perceived treatment need differed significantly. The perception of treatment need is not only influenced by knowledge and severity of malocclusion, as psychosocial factors acting on individuals may be involved.
Aligning organizational strategy and employee role behavior with the help of performance management in a Dutch human capital solutions firm

This report provides recommendations for HR practices that can be implemented specifically to support the service differentiation strategy. Managing (new) employees involve clear target setting through cascading down overall company goals. These goals can consists of a combination of hard and soft targets to aid in the implementation of the service strategy (including e.g. customer satisfaction and team cooperative behavior). Development plans must be provided to in order to equip employees with the right knowledge and skills aimed at meeting client expectations. Creative problem solving capabilities and communicative skills and specific branch knowledge could be considered here with the aim of increasing responsibility for the client and taking ownership. Monitoring results and progress is managed differently in a service strategy type of organization then for a cost-leadership type or organization. The latter emphasizes quantity for instance output per person of work that is usually more standardize. For a service strategy type of company quality, further defined by the client also plays a role. Regular feedback to monitor quality and to devise new strategies to reach speed and quality are desirable for a service type of organization. More control type of management can be at the expense of flexibility, feelings of freedom in how to achieve results and the willingness to assume responsibility for the client and the job/task. Finally performance management is about evaluating former set targets through regular performance appraisals during the year and rewarding accordingly. Reward schemes can facilitate increased ownership by rewarding own acquisition proving good services from the past.
ON SURFACE WAVES IN A FINITELY DEFORMED

Rayleigh-type surface waves propagating in an incompressible isotropic half-space of nonconducting magnetoelastic material are studied for a half-space subjected to a finite pure homogeneous strain and a uniform magnetic field. First, the equations and boundary conditions governing linearized incremental motions superimposed on an initial motion and underlying electromagnetic field are derived and then specialized to the quasimagnetostatic approximation. The magnetoelastic material properties are characterized in terms of a “total” isotropic energy density function that depends on both the deformation and a Lagrangian measure of the magnetic induction. The problem of surface wave propagation is then analyzed for different directions of the initial magnetic field and for a simple constitutive model of a magnetoelastic material in order to evaluate the combined effect of the finite deformation and magnetic field on the surface wave speed. It is found that a magnetic field in the considered (sagittal) plane in general destabilizes the material compared with the situation in the absence of a magnetic field, and a magnetic field applied in the direction of wave propagation is more destabilizing than that applied perpendicular to it.
DEA: Anomaly Detection in Smart Environments using Artificial Intelligence

—Nowadays, new paradigms have been deployed, such as smart environments. A smart environment is composed by several heterogeneous Internet of Things devices that communicate with each other and with the Internet. The IoT devices are subject to anomalous behavior, due to security vulnerabilities or malfunction. Monitoring the behavior of these devices is a crucial task to guarantee a efﬁcient performance of the network infrastructure. Within this context, this paper presents the DEA project, which aims to develop a system based on AI to monitor network trafﬁc and to detect anomalies in smart environments, generating a proﬁle of the network and detecting out of order behaviors (different from the behavior pattern).
Translational pharmacology of a putative measure of motor impulsivity in larval zebrafish

Background Impulsivity is poorly planned, premature or inappropriate behaviour, and deficits in impulse control are linked to a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. There are a number of theories relating to the neural basis of impulsivity, but the precise molecular mechanisms of impulse control are not clearly understood. Motor impulsivity has been observed in adult zebrafish, but in order to increase throughput it would be beneficial if early markers could be identified in larvae. One such method was recently shown to have some potential efficacy in zebrafish larvae, relating to an ADHD morphant (lphn3.1) showing increases in motor ‘peaks’ during free swimming behaviour. Objective The aim of this study was to carry out a pharmacological evaluation of motor ‘peaks’ as a measure of motor impulsivity in larval zebrafish, as well as evaluate the behaviour of mutant lines that might be predicted to show variation in motor impulsivity. Method 6dpf zebrafish larvae were filmed for 90-seconds following incubation in amisulpride (a DRD2/3 antagonist), nicotine, apomorphine (a non-specific dopamine agonist), atomoxetine (a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor), and methylphenidate (a combined dopamine/norepinephrine agonist). We also filmed 6dpf larvae homozygous and heterozygous for mutations in pink1, disc1, and ache. In all larvae, we analysed distance moved and motor ‘peaks’, calculated as number of 3-second bins in which the larva traveled > 10mm. Results Atomoxetine and methylphenidate, which reduce impulsivity in humans and other mammalian models, reduced motor peaks while having no effect on overall distance traveled. Apomorphine increased locomotor peaks in a bimodal manner. disc1 homozygous mutants showed lower peaks than wild-type siblings. Finally, although nicotine increased distance traveled, there were no effects on motor peaks. Conclusion The results suggest that analysis of motor peaks may be a promising method for the early detection of impulsivity-related phenotypes.
Statistical Tests and Analysis Related to Disruptive Discharge

Concerning disruptive discharge in insulation, some statistical methods with the step-up test procedure have been recently proposed. The present paper aims to clarify the differences between the methods and the conventional methods provided by International Electrotechnical Commission, and fairly evaluate their performance in the mathematical or practical aspect. As a result, it is shown that depending on the assumption of statistical independence, the successive discharge method or the modified up-and-down method is the most practical.
Future Projection of Droughts over South Korea Using Representative Concentration Pathways(RCPs)

The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), a method widely used to analyze droughts related to climate change, does not consider variables related to temperature and is limited because it cannot consider changes in hydrological balance, such as evapotranspiration from climate change. If we were to consider only the future increase in precipitation from climate change, droughts may decrease. However, because usable water can diminish from an increase in evapotranspiration, it is important to research on projected droughts considering the amount of evapotranspiration along with projecting and evaluating potential droughts considering the impact of climate change. As such, this study evaluated the occurrence of droughts using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) as a newly conceptualized drought index that is similar to SPI but includes the temperature variability. We extracted simulated future precipitation and temperature data (2011-2099) from the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) climate change scenario of IPCC AR5 to evaluate the impact of future climate change on the occurrence of droughts of South Korea. We analyzed the ratio of evapotranspiration to precipitation of meteorological observatories nationwide. In addition, we calculated the SPEI related to drought in the process to evaluate the future occurrence of droughts of South Korea. To confirm validity of SPEI results, extreme indices were analyzed. This resulted in the notion that as we go further into the future, the precipitation increases. But because of an increase in evapotranspiration also from a rise in temperature and continued dryness, the severity of droughts is projected to exacerbate.
Corporate Public Transparency on Financial Performance: The Moderating Role of Political Embeddedness

Corporate public transparency (CPT) is instrumental for companies to establish communications and trust with the public by disclosing and communicating information concerning corporate environmental and social impacts. However, it is still in dispute whether CPT can help promote corporate financial performance (CFP). This paper studied the moderating role of political embeddedness on the relationship between CPT and CFP. We investigate multiple hypotheses about the moderating roles of the political embeddedness including bureaucratic embeddedness (political connections of a chief executive officer (CEO) who was/is a government official or member of political council) and ownership embeddedness (i.e., state-owned enterprises (SOEs)). With the data of 195 observations from top 200 Chinese enterprises ranked by revenue for the years 2014~2016, the results show the following: (1) the relationship of CPT on CFP is moderated by government official and SOE ownership; (2) a negative moderating effect of government official; and (3) a negative moderating effect of SOE ownership. The research implications are further discussed. The findings of this study have practical implications for investors, stakeholders, and regulators.
Competitive Advertising and Pricing

We consider an oligopoly model in which each firm chooses not only its price but also its advertising strategy regarding how much product information to provide. Unlike most previous studies on advertising, we impose no structural restriction on feasible advertising content, so that each firm can freely disclose or conceal any information. We provide a general and complete characterization of the equilibrium advertising content, which illustrates how competition shapes firms’ advertising incentives. We also explore the economic consequences of competitive advertising and investigate how a firm’s advertising decision interacts with its pricing decision. JEL Classification Numbers: D43, L11, L13, L15, M37.