Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geostatistical Approach for Evaluating Heavy Metal Contamination in Groundwater in the High Ziz Basin (Morocco)

In the south of morocco, especially the Ziz basin, access to the drinking water becoming a concern for the populations. In addition, it is the main factor in the economic development of the region and the key to improving the standard of living of people and improving their health and ensure their stability in the region. Hence, the objective of this study is to evaluate the concentration of the heavy metal (Cd, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn) and determine the pollution sources of the studied groundwater. After filtration, the solubility of heavy metals in Groundwater is evaluated by atomic emission spectroscopy with an inductive coupled plasma (ICP-AES) using a JY-type spectrometer. For a better evaluation of mineral deposits and the geological formations impact on groundwater quality, we have analyzed the different variables through their correlations, orientation in the correlation circle and factorial plan to find the main factors which influence the quality of aquifer in the study region. Based on this fact, we have adopted a multi-tool approach based mainly on hydrochemical studies and geostatistical techniques. Indeed, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) shows four groundwater groups according to the contamination degree and the nature of the metal pollutants.
Effective Requirement Engineering Process Model in Software Engineering

Requirement Engineering is regarded as one of the major stages in software development and management. The aim of requirement engineering is to analyse, investigate, document and check the services and also the constraints of the software system that is being developed. The world of requirement management has increasingly developed over the years and has become the cornerstone for any software development to be successful, therefore it is vital for every organization to consider and pay more attention to the requirement engineering if they intend to build a quality software product that will satisfy the users. Different viewpoints, objectives, roles and responsibilities are all incorporated into requirements engineering which makes it a difficult and complex process in software engineering. Many researchers have come up with different optimized approaches to the requirement engineering. This paper reviewed relevant literature from Elsevier, Emerald, IEEE, ProQuest and Google Scholar databases. Requirement engineering processes are further outlined and explained which include requirement elicitation and development, validation and verification etc. In conclusion, the paper recommends effective requirements engineering process to adopt depending on the industry’s goal.
Nutrition and Health Issues in Cuba: Strategies for a Developing Country

Positive changes in the nutrition and health of the Cuban population have taken place in the last three decades. The strategies developed for their attainment have been mainly in the public health sector. Changes in health indicators closely linked to the nutrition status of the community in the last 20 years indicate that the population's standard of living has risen. However, there has been a tendency to both an absolute and a relative increase in the prevalence of and mortality from chronic non-communicable diseases and in their associated risk factors. On the other hand, moderate or severe protein-energy deficiency is not common, but iron deficiency is still a problem, especially in small children and pregnant women. Several strategies and actions currently are in progress for promoting a positive change in food habits and lifestyle.
Proceedings of Statistics Canada Symposium 2001 Achieving Data Quality in a Statistical Agency: A Methodological Perspective CONSTRUCTION OF IMPUTATION CELLS FOR THE CANADIAN LABOUR FORCE SURVEY

1 David Haziza, Cédric Charbonnier, Ophelia Chow and Jean-François Beaumont, Household Survey Methods Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0T6. In large scale surveys, it is almost guaranteed that some level of nonresponse will occur. Generally, statistical agencies use imputation as a way to treat item nonresponse. A common preliminary to imputation is the formation of imputation cells. In this article, we study the formation of these cells using two methods. The first method is similar to that of Eltinge and Yansaneh (1997) in the case of weighting cells and the second is the method currently used in the Canadian Labour Force Survey. Using Labour Force data, simulation studies are performed to test the impact of the response rate, the response mechanism and constraints on the quality of the point estimator under both methods.
THE APPLICATION OF STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING ON THE USAGE OF ONLINE TAX SYSTEM AMONG SELF-EMPLOYED TAXPAYERS IN NIGERIA

Online tax system refers to the use of information technology in the filing and payment of tax returns. This study examined the causal relationship between perceived ease of use, perceived security, and perceived usefulness on the usage of online tax system among the self-employed taxpayers in Nigeria . A total of 390 questionnaires were administered and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to determine the variables relationship in the model. The result support the direct positive relationship between perceived ease of use and perceived security, explain the self-employed taxpayers’ usage of the online tax system with a statistically significant value on perceived usefulness. The paper also reveals that the perceived usefulness has a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived ease of use and perceived security towards the usage of the online tax system. The findings show the goodness fit indices are adequate with the model fit indices showing the chi-square value of 260.067, DF=98, p-value =0.000, Normed chi-square CMINDF = 2.654, CFI = 0.961, NFI = . 939, TLI = 0.952 and RMSEA = . 065. This study contributes to the on going effort to enhance the effective usage of the online tax system by the tax authority through the self-employed taxpayers. This may lead to the increase in revenue generated by the government through its effective implementation.
Development and Validation of an Individualized Nomogram for Predicting Survival in Patients with Esophageal Carcinoma after Resection

An accurate estimation of prognosis of the esophageal carcinoma patients after surgery is urgently needed. Clinical nomogram has been developed to quantify risk by incorporating prognostic factors for individual patient. Based on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 2004 to 2013, a total of 4566 patients were selected. Of those, 3198 patients were assigned to training set to construct the nomogram, which incorporated age, gender, histology, grade, T stage, N stage, nodes examined, radiation and chemotherapy. The calibration curve for probability of survival showed good agreement between prediction by nomogram and actual observation. The C-index of the nomogram was 0.71(95%CI 0.70-0.72), which was statistically higher than the TNM staging system. The results were then validated using bootstrap resampling and a validation set of 1368 patients in the SEER database. Besides, in the esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and esophageal adenocarcinoma subgroups, the nomogram discrimination was superior to the TNM staging system. It is likely that these results would play a supplementary role in the current staging system and help to identify the high risk population after surgery.
Drinking, smoking and type a polydrug behaviours: Psychosocial factors among Portuguese university students

Aim: This paper aims to describe alcohol, tobacco and type A polydrug consumption among university students. Method: A cross-sectional study was performed. Through a convenience sampling, a total of 338 were included (51.8% male with a mean age of 20.6 years, SD = 3.4). Data was collected using a self-reported questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed by sociodemographic and substance consumption and behaviours variables. Spearman's correlation coefficients were assessed to measure the strength and direction of the association between sociodemographic and substance consumption variables. To evaluate type A polydrug consumption, multivariate logistic regression models were performed. Results: It was observed significant correlations between tobacco consumption with cannabis and alcohol involvement, and coping, conformity, social, enhancement drinking motives. About alcohol consumption, there were observed relations with students’ social environment, and with enhancement, conformity and social drinking motives. Regarding sociodemographic factors on type A polydrug consumption it was verified that students who have parents and friends who smoke are more likely to polydrug. Conclusion: Findings suggest that interventions focused on substance consumption may need to address descriptive and injunctive norms, drinking motives and social environment as part of the student’s consumption behaviours.
The Bright Side of Global Banks

In this paper we study whether the presence of multinational banks mitigated or ampli ed the impact on credit supply of the sovereign debt crisis that hit Italy in 2011. Focusing on rms borrowing from at least two banks on a sample of about 670,000 bank- rm relationships from the Italian Credit Register, we include rm*period xed e¤ects in all regressions, thus controlling for all rm unobserved heterogeneity. We nd that foreign banks tightened credit supply less during the crisis: relative to domestic banks, lending by foreign banks grew by about 3 percentage points more, and the interest rates they charged were between 15 and 20 basis points lower during the crisis. We examine whether the e¤ect was more intense for banks operating as branches or subsidiaries. We also study the extensive margin of credit by analyzing bankspropensity to terminate an existing relationship and to accept a loan application. Finally, we test whether foreign banks were able to fully compensate for the reduction of credit by Italian banks. Keywords: Multinational Banks, Credit Supply, Sovereign Debt Crisis. Jel Codes: G21, F34, E44, E51 Bank of Italy Economic Research Department Financial Structure and Intermediaries Division Via Nazionale 91, Rome, Italy. A previous version of this paper circulated with the title "Credit Supply During a Sovereign Crisis". We thank Giorgio Albareto, Martin Brown, Elena Carletti, Nicola Cetorelli, Federico Cingano, Ricardo Correa, Olivier De Jonghe, Domenico Depalo, Linda Goldberg, Giorgio Gobbi, Luigi Guiso, Giuseppe Ilardi, Silvia Magri, Francesco Manaresi, David Marques-Ibanez, Tommaso Oliviero, Steven Ongena, Daniel Paravisini, Alberto Pozzolo, Joao Santos, Koen Schoors, Neeltje Van Horen, participants at the 2012 CREDIT conference, at the workshop on Macroeconomic policies, global liquidity, and sovereign risk, at the "6th CEPR Swiss Winter Conference in Financial Intermediation", at the "Third Mo r Workshop", at the 20th Finance Forum, at the FIRS 2013 Conference, seminar participants at the Bank of Italy and at the New York Fed. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reect those of the Bank of Italy. Corresponding author: enrico.sette@bancaditalia.it
DNA Metabarcoding of Deep-Sea Sediment Communities Using COI: Community Assessment, Spatio-Temporal Patterns and Comparison with 18S rDNA

Among the complex ecosystems and habitats that form the deep sea, submarine canyons and open slope systems are regarded as potential hotspots of biodiversity. We assessed the spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity in sediment communities of a NW Mediterranean Canyon and its adjacent open slope (Blanes Canyon) with DNA metabarcoding. We sampled three layers of sediment and four different depths (900–1750 m) at two seasons, and used a fragment of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) as a metabarcoding marker. The final dataset contained a total of 15,318 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs). Metazoa, Stramenopiles and Archaeplastida were the dominant taxa and, within metazoans, Arthropoda, Nematoda and Cnidaria were the most diverse. There was a trend towards decreasing MOTU richness and diversity in the first few cm (1 to 5) of the sediment, with only 26.3% of the MOTUs shared across sediment layers. Our results show the presence of heterogeneous communities in the studied area, which was significantly different between zones, depths and seasons. We compared our results with the ones presented in a previous study, obtained using the v7 region of the 18S rRNA gene in the same samples. There were remarkable differences in the total number of MOTUs and in the most diverse taxa. COI recovered a higher number of MOTUs, but more remained unassigned taxonomically. However, the broad spatio-temporal patterns elucidated from both datasets coincided, with both markers retrieving the same ecological information. Our results showed that COI can be used to accurately characterize the studied communities and constitute a high-resolution method to detect ecological shifts. We also highlight that COI reference databases for deep-sea organisms have important gaps, and their completeness is essential in order to successfully apply metabarcoding techniques.
Complement activation in neurodegenerative disorders

Background: Deficiency for complement component C6 results in slower Wallerian degeneration (WD) and rapid nerve regeneration after crush injury in rats. C6 is essential for the formation of the membrane attack complex. C6 deficient rats are unable to form this complex, but retain upstream complement effector functions. Though capable to attract macrophages to the damage site, C6 deficient animals show significantly lower amounts of activated macrophages in the damaged nerve compared to WT animals. Hypothesis: The lowered amount of activated macrophages in injured peripheral nerves is responsible for the delayed WD in C6 rats. Method: WT animals were depleted of circulating macrophages by treatment with clodronatecontaining liposomes before and after the sciatic nerve crush injury. PBS-containing liposomes and PBS were used as controls. Results: Macrophage-depleted animals showed delayed myelin clearance, but the extent of axonal damage was unchanged compared to animals treated with PBS or liposomes only. In addition, depletion of macrophages reduced the amount of complement deposition in the injured nerves. Conclusion: Activated macrophages in the nerve are responsible for rapid myelin clearance during WD and increase complement activation in the injured nerve. However, macrophage depletion did not delay axonal degeneration during WD.
CYTOTOXICITY OF THREE ROOT CANAL SEALERS ON HUMAN FIBROBLAST CELLS (WI-38) AT DIFFERENT TIMES AND CONCENTRATIONS

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the in vitro cytotoxicity of three endodontic sealers (TotalFill BC, Gutta Flow2 and AH Plus) on WI-38 cell line human. As a reference, AH Plus was compared with the more recent endodontic sealers regarding cell viability of fibroblast cells (WI-38). Methods: Biological testing was carried out in vitro on WI-38 cells. Cell viability assay was performed by using eluates from each endodontic sealer and dispensed to pre-cultured WI-38 cell line. The effect was assessed by MTT cell proliferation assay and ELISA reader after 24 hours and 72 hours of exposure and various concentrations of (0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 125, 250 and 500mg/ ml). Statistical differences were assessed by analysis of variance and Tukey test (P < .05). Results: TotalFill BC, Gutta Flow2 and AH Plus sealer eluates for 24 hours showed no cytotoxic effect, while it was increased by increasing the concentration for 72 hours’ measurement. Statistically there is no significant difference among the tested sealer materials; TotalFill BC, Gutta Flow2 and AH Plus. Conclusions: In the present study TotalFill BC, Gutta Flow2 and AH Plus sealer eluates showed no cytotoxic effects at least in the first 24 hours. But they exhibited moderately or severely cytotoxic activity at 72 hours of measurement at high concentration.
ISOLATION OF BACTERIOCIN PRODUCING LACTIC ACID BACTERIA FROM FISH AND ITS ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY

The objective of the present study was to isolate, characterize and identify the bacteriocin producing lactic acid bacteria from fish samples. Antimicrobial activity of the isolated strain was tested against spoilage pathogens. The extracted antimicrobial compound was also tested for some physiological conditions heat, pH and enzymes. The lactic acid bacteria strain was identified based on morphological, cultural, physiological and biochemical characters and carbohydrate utilization pattern identified as Lactobacillus plantarum. The extracted antimicrobial compound from the isolate exhibited no effect on the proteinase and pepsin. Although Trypsin has no effect on bacteriocin and active at 100°C. The effect of pH 2 to 12 on the crude protein extract was studied. The activity was not affected in pH 3 to 9.
Um jogo para dar suporte ao processo de projeto de edificações escolares

The architectural design process is complex, as new technical, social, environmental and economical requirements are introduced, and this very scenario is applicable for school buildings. The quality of a school building depends on known design criteria, professional knowledge and feedback from building performance assessments. To attain high performance school buildings, the design process should add a multidisciplinary team via an integrated process. This article presents a design tool to structure a school building design briefing process. A participatory architectural programming phase is advocated and tested through a focal group, supported by a game called “Shuffle the School Building Design Deck” (SSBDD). The content of SSBDD and application procedure are based on known facts, needs and global concepts for learning environments in the twenty-first century. The briefing game considers the specific context of Brazil. Validation tests show positive results for productive architectural programming for school buildings. SSBDD has potential for global contexts, including translations for other building types.
Is offshoring driven by air emissions?

The pollution haven effect reflects the idea that stricter environmental policies foster the relocation of polluting activities and imports of pollution-intensive products. This paper develops a new approach for testing this effect for imported intermediate materials. It adds to the existing literature on pollution havens through this specific focus on imports of intermediates, which is of particular interest in view of the rise of offshoring within global value chains. The estimation strategy consists in including emission intensities as exogenous demand shifters in a system of cost share equations for variable input factors among which figure imported intermediates. Emissions of three types of air pollutants are analysed: greenhouse gases, acidifying gases and tropospheric precursor gases. The results provide evidence of a pollution haven effect for emissions of acidifying gases, in particular in footloose industries. No such evidence is found for the other types of pollutants. These results reflect the stricter enforcement of regulations for air quality, which act upon acidifying gases. Jel Classification – F18, F14, Q53, Q56
University of Birmingham The role of HIFs in ischaemia-reperfusion injury

Publisher Rights Statement: This work is published by Dove Medical Press Limited, and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. The full terms of the License are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. Permissions beyond the scope of the License are administered by Dove Medical Press Limited. Information on how to request permission may be found at: http://www.dovepress. com/permissions.php
Deep learning for detecting corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on high-resolution computed tomography: a pilot study

Background To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of Densely Connected Convolutional Networks (DenseNet) for detection of COVID-19 features on high resolution computed tomography (HRCT). Methods The Ethic Committee of our institution approved the protocol of this study and waived the requirement for patient informed consent. Two hundreds and ninety-five patients were enrolled in this study (healthy person: 149; COVID-19 patients: 146), which were divided into three separate non-overlapping cohorts (training set, n=135, healthy person, n=69, patients, n=66; validation set, n=20, healthy person, n=10, patients, n=10; test set, n=140, healthy person, n=70, patients, n=70). The DenseNet was trained and tested to classify the images as having manifestation of COVID-19 or as healthy. A radiologist also blindly evaluated all the test images and rechecked the misdiagnosed cases by DenseNet. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) and areas under the curve (AUCs) were used to assess the model performance. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of DenseNet model and radiologist were also calculated. Results The DenseNet algorithm model yielded an AUC of 0.99 (95% CI: 0.958–1.0) in the validation set and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.972–0.995) in the test set. The threshold value was selected as 0.8, while for validation and test sets, the accuracies were 95% and 92%, the sensitivities were 100% and 97%, the specificities were 90% and 87%, and the F1 values were 95% and 93%, respectively. The sensitivity of radiologist was 94%, the specificity was 96%, while the accuracy was 95%. Conclusions Deep learning (DL) with DenseNet can accurately classify COVID-19 on HRCT with an AUC of 0.98, which can reduce the miss diagnosis rate (combined with radiologists’ evaluation) and radiologists’ workload.
Emerging invasion threat of the liana

The woody vine Celastrus orbiculatus (Celastraceae), Oriental bittersweet, is an alien species that recently has been found to be spreading in Europe. Many aspects of its biology and ecology are still obscure. This study evaluates the distribution and habitats, as well as size and age of stands of C. orbiculatus in Lithuania. We investigated whether meteorological factors affect radial stem increments and determined seedling recruitment in order to judge the plant’s potential for further spread in Europe. We studied the flower gender of C. orbiculatus in four populations in Lithuania and found that all sampled individuals were monoecious, although with dominant either functionally female or male flowers. Dendrochronological methods enabled us to reveal the approximate time of the first establishment of populations of C. orbiculatus in Lithuania. The youngest recorded individual with fruits was determined to be 10 years old. Analysis of radial increments revealed no reliable correlations with meteorological conditions. Therefore, we conclude that climatic conditions in the region are favourable for the growth, reproduction, and invasion of this species. C. orbiculatus produces viable seeds, successfully reproduces and spreads within and around the established stands. The presence of seedlings and twoto four-year-old saplings in the population confirms constant generative recruitment. Available information on the distribution of C. orbiculatus in Europe revealed its existence in 13 countries. In total, 58 occurrences of this species have been recorded in Europe so far. We consider that the lag period lasted until 2005 and that the exponential population growth phase has now set in. In Lithuania, the invaded area is quite small (0.51 ha); however, the total estimated invaded area in Europe could be about 250 ha. At the current stage of invasion and distribution in Europe, measures for control, management, and eradication of C. orbiculatus have a chance of being effective and economically feasible.