Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Highly conductive ultrathin Co films by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering

Ultrathin Co films deposited on SiO2 with conductivities exceeding that of Cu are demonstrated. Ionized deposition implemented by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) is shown to result in smooth films with large grains and low resistivities, namely, 14 µΩ cm at a thickness of 40 nm, which is close to the bulk value of Co. Even at a thickness of only 6 nm, a resistivity of 35 µΩ cm is obtained. The improved film quality is attributed to a higher nucleation density in the Co-ion dominated plasma in HiPIMS. In particular, the pulsed nature of the Co flux as well as shallow ion implantation of Co into SiO2 can increase the nucleation density. Adatom diffusion is further enhanced in the ionized process, resulting in a dense microstructure. These results are in contrast to Co deposited by conventional direct current magnetron sputtering where the conductivity is reduced due to smaller grains, voids, rougher interfaces, and Ar incorporation. The resistivity of the HiPIMS films is shown to be in acco.
Freeze fixation-dehydration as a method of preparation of Gyrodactylus (Monogenea) for SEM

Abstract Freeze fixation-dehydration was used for the first time in the preparation of attached Gyrodactylus for SEM viewing. The technique provided instant immobilization of specimens before death and negligible shrinkage throughout the fixation-dehydration process. Comparisons of sample means of two linear measurements of attached opisthaptors showed 20% more shrinkage of Gyrodactylus fixed using 10% neutral buffered formalin than those which were freeze fixed. Freeze fixation-dehydration was excellent for the study of gross external morphology of attached Gyrodactylus. However, the freeze fixation-dehydration process may cause disruption of intracellular structural components making delicate tissues brittle and more prone to damage during subsequent manipulation.
Direct inpatient burden caused by foot-related conditions: a multisite point-prevalence study

Objective The aims of this point-prevalence study were to investigate a representative inpatient population to determine the prevalence of people admitted to hospital for the reason of a foot-related condition, and identify associated independent factors. Methods Participants were adult inpatients in 5 different representative hospitals, admitted for any reason on the day of data collection. Maternity, mental health and cognitively impaired inpatients were excluded. Participants were surveyed on a range of self-reported demographic, social determinant, medical history, foot disease history, self-care, footwear, past foot treatment prior to hospitalisation and reason for admission variables. Physical examinations were performed to clinically diagnose a range of foot disease and foot risk factor variables. Independent factors associated with being admitted to hospital for the primary or secondary reason of a foot-related condition were analysed using multivariate logistic regression. Results Overall, 733 participants were included; mean (SD) age 62 (19) years, male 55.8%. Foot-related conditions were the primary reason for admission in 54 participants (7.4% (95% CI 5.7% to 9.5%)); 36 for foot disease (4.9%), 15 foot trauma (2.1%). Being admitted for the primary reason of a foot-related condition was independently associated with foot infection, critical peripheral arterial disease, foot trauma and past foot treatment by a general practitioner and surgeon (p<0.01). Foot-related conditions were a secondary reason for admission in 28 participants (3.8% (2.6% to 5.6%)), and were independently associated with diabetes and current foot ulcer (p<0.01). Conclusions This study, the first in a representative inpatient population, suggests the direct inpatient burden caused by foot-related conditions is significantly higher than previously appreciated. Findings indicate 1 in every 13 inpatients was primarily admitted because of a foot-related condition with most due to foot disease or foot trauma. Future strategies are recommended to investigate and intervene in the considerable inpatient burden caused by foot-related conditions.
Aspects of Diversity Measurement for Microbial Communities

A useful measure of diversity was calculated for microbial communities collected from lake water and sediment samples using the Shannon index (H′) and rarefaction [E(S)]. Isolates were clustered by a numerical taxonomy approach in which limited (<20) tests were used so that the groups obtained represented a level of resolution other than species. The numerical value of diversity for each sample was affected by the number of tests used; however, the relative diversity compared among several sampling locations was the same whether 11 or 19 characters were examined. The number of isolates (i.e., sample size) strongly influenced the value of H′ so that unequal sized samples could not be compared. Rarefaction accounts for differences in sample size inherently so that such comparisons are made simple. Due to the type of sampling carried out by microbiologists, H′ is estimated and not determined and therefore requires a statement of error associated with it. Failure to report error provided potentially misleading results. Calculation of the variance of H′ is not a simple matter and may be impossible when handling a large number of samples. With rarefaction, the variance of E(S) is readily determined, facilitating the comparison of many samples.
How to keep your customers.

One of our conclusions is that individual customers have very different expectations and needs. By treating each situation exactly the same, an organization will perhaps delight one customer while disappointing another. CUSTOMER LOYALTY GROWS THROUGH POSITIVE MEMORIES Strategically managing each customer’s experience to create a positive memory is perhaps the most important ingredient in cultivating customer loyalty. To successfully manage customer relationships and achieve high levels of customer loyalty, organizations are learning that they not only have to focus on managing customer experiences, but they also have to rethink managerial priorities and how to drive their quality improvement efforts.
A Simplified Approach to Applying the 3GPP Spatial Channel Model

This paper reports on a set of channel models that have been proposed for the evaluation of system concepts for the long-term evolution of third generation mobile communications systems. Conflicting requirements between simplicity of implementation and accuracy in reproducing the radio channel are presented, and the resulting modeling choices are discussed. The channel models have been derived by combining a spatial channel model with several different antenna arrangements that are envisioned to be typical for the systems in question. These antenna arrangements include both spatial separation of elements and polarization. The channel models are supplied as tapped delay lines with correlation parameters for simulating full MIMO channels of size up to 4times4
A unique fingerprint? Factors influencing attitudes towards science and technology in South Africa

CITATION: Guenther, L. & Weingart, P. 2016. A unique fingerprint? Factors influencing attitudes towards science and technology in South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 112((7/8), Art. #2016-0093, doi:10.17159/sajs.2016/20160093.
A Survey on Software Fault Localization Techniques

-In recent years, there has been significant interest in fault-localization techniques that are based on statistical analysis of program constructs executed by passing and failing executions. This paper shows how an existing techniques such as Tarantula, Jaccard ,Ochiai have an efficient technique for localizing fault based on suspiciousness score and rank compared to set-union, setintersection. A survey of all an existing techniques should be analysed and a faulty statement in each should be calculated. Each and every technique same test case is generated and an executed statement should be denoted for finding faulty statement. Keywords--Tarantula, Jaccard, Set-union, SetIntersection, Nearest Neighbor, Fault Localization
Robust regression in extrinsic calibration between camera and single line scan laser rangefinder

This paper presents an improvement for error reduction of the cost function for non-linear optimization of extrinsic parameters estimation between single line scan LiDAR and RGB camera. The non-linear optimization utilizes a least square scheme by assigning equal weights to all LiDAR measurement points. With robust regression, we used all LiDAR measurement points and removed RANSAC outlier removal with a weighting scheme dependent on the defined geometric constraint. The methods aims to minimize the error from the inaccuracy of the LiDAR measurement points using robust regression with M-estimator. The methods are tested with 100 random trials with noise magnitude from 5 to 40mm and a 10 percent chance of outliers of 3 times the normal noise magnitude. The results show that M-estimator is more resistant to noise than current state of art.
Interobserver agreement on MNA nutritional scale of hospitalized elderly patients

Summary : AIM : The prevalence of undernutrition is high in geriatric population, reaching half of hospitalized patients. Geriatric evaluation should therefore include a nutrition assessment scale. Because of lack of internationally recognized method, Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) has been developped by Guigoz, Vellas and Garry. The aim of this study is to test the interobserver agreement on MNA nutritional scale in a group of hospitalized elderly patients. METHOD : MNA of 39 hospitalized patients (27 women and 12 men) aging 79 (± 9) has been independently completed by 2 geriatric clinicians. The total score obtained by MNA enables to define 3 classes of patients as follows : satisfactory nutritional state, undernutrition risk and bad nutritional state. The interobserver agreement level is calculated for the total score as well as for each item. The agreement is defined by Cohen's Kappa index (K), being the best when K value becomes close to 1. RESULTS : For MNA total score, K value is 0.51, demonstrating a significant interobserver agreement. Although still significant (K = 0.42), the agreement level is the worse for the intermediate class, i.e : undernutrition risk. The other two classes, satisfactory and bad nutritional states show a K value of respectively 0.51 and 0.65. The agreement level for each item is statistically significant with a K value from 0.32 to 0.84, except the following ones for which a disagreement is to be noted : mid arm circumference, bed sores or skin ulcers, and beverage intake. CONCLUSIONS : Even if it can be improved, MNA nutrition assessment scale is a reliable tool. However, the clinicians must be aware of the above classification of patients, because of the less good characterisation in the second class. The present study corroborates the easiness to use this tool in daily geriatric practice.
Identification and partial characterization of the major galactoproteins present at the surface of AS-30D hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

Abstract The major plasma membrane glycoproteins of AS-30D hepatocellular carcinoma cells were radiolabeled by one or more cell surface-specific methods: d-galactose oxidase-NaB 3 H 4 ; NalO 4 -NaB 3 H 4 ; or lactoperoxidase-catalyzed iodination. The major radiolabeled galactoproteins 1a, 1b, and 2 were resolved by affinity chromatography on Sepharose-conjugated Ricinus communis agglutinin II and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis. These galactoproteins had apparent molecular weights in the range of 110,000 to 160,000 as judged by their behavior in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in 7.5% acrylamide gels. Each of the galactoproteins bound to Sepharose-conjugated wheat germ agglutinin and exhibited charge heterogeneity. Galactoprotein 1a, a component selectively labeled by d-galactose oxidase-NaB 3 H 4 or NalO 4 -NaB 3 H 4 , was further characterized. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of galactoprotein 1a in gels of varying acrylamide concentration allowed approximation of its subunit molecular weight (128,000) and suggested a high carbohydrate content. Treatment of cells with neuraminidase prior to radiolabeling was accompanied by a shift in the isoelectric points of the heterogeneous species of galactoprotein 1a to more basic pH9s, indicating that variation in sialic acid content was at least partially responsible for its charge heterogeneity. When cells were pretreated with high concentrations of neuraminidase, labeling of galactoprotein 1a by the NalO 4 -NaB 3 H 4 method was reduced only 50%, suggesting that a significant fraction of the sialic acid is resistant to cleavage by neuraminidase. Exposure of cells labeled by the NalO 4 -NaB 3 H 4 method to exogenous papain resulted in degradation of galactoprotein 1a and the appearance of a new radiolabeled glycopeptide having an apparent molecular weight of 63,000 in 7.5% acrylamide gels.
Numerical polynomial algebra

Preface Part I. Polynomials and Numerical Analysis: 1. Polynomials 2. Representations of polynomial ideals 3. Polynomials with coefficients of limited accuracy 4. Approximate numerical computation Part II. Univariate Polynomial Problems: 5. Univariate polynomials 6. Various tasks with empirical univariate polynomials Part III. Multivariate Polynomial Problems: 7. One multivariate polynomial 8. Zero-dimensional systems of multivariate polynomials 9. Systems of empirical multivariate polynomials 10. Numerical basis computation Part IV. Positive-Dimensional Polynomial Systems: 11. Matrix eigenproblems for positive-dimensional systems Index.
Macrophage‐Like Tumor Cells as Tools to Study Chemoattractive Activity

Macrophage‐like tumor cells can be obtained in large quantities as rather homogeneous populations, making these cells useful for chemotaxis assays. Therefore, macrophage‐like cells J774A, WEHI‐3, P388D1, IC‐21, and NCTC 1469, all of murine origin, and U937 of human origin, were tested for chemotactic activity to a number of chemoattractive agents, such as casein, an N‐formyl tetrapeptide (N‐formyl‐L‐norleucyl‐L‐leucyl‐L‐phenylalanyl‐L‐tyrosine), and culture supernatants of murine SL2 lymphoma cells. J774A and WEHI‐3 macrophage‐like cells of murine (BALB/c) origin expressed the strongest chemotactic activity to casein and N‐formyl tetrapeptide, respectively. The results show that: very standardized chemotaxis assays can be performed using these cell lines; these assays require appropriate cell line–stimulus combinations; there are substantial differences among cell lines as to sensitivity to various chemoattractive substances; macrophage cell lines and functional mutants may be helpful for the study of receptors for chemotaxins and the study of transducer signals for chemotaxis.
A User-Process Oriented Performance Study of Ethernet Networking Under Berkeley UNIX 4.2BSD

Abstract : Berkeley UNIX 4.2BSD is an operating system which provides alternative ways for processes to communicate with each other. User processes may choose, for example, intermachine communications media, protocols, addressing families, and styles of communication. In particular, user processes may use datagram or stream communication. In this paper we present a study of the impact that IPC mechanisms, as currently implemented in Berkeley UNIX 4.2BSD in Ethernet based environments, have, from the user process viewpoint, on the performance of distributed applications. This study not only assesses the impact that different processors, network hardware interfaces, and Ethernets have on the communication across machines between user processes, but also the effect of the loading of the various components which participate in the interprocess communication mechanism. Thus, host and ether loads are also taken into account in our study. Our measurements highlight the current ultimate bounds on performance which may be achieved by user process applications communicating across machines, and serve as a guide in designing performance critical applications. For this study, hosts and ethers have been loaded with a user defined mix of tasks, i.e., an artificial workload. Moreover, we present a detailed timing analysis of the dynamic behavior of the TCP/IP and the UDP/IP network communication protocols' current implementation in Berkeley UNIX 4.2BSD. This study sheds light on the tradeoffs encountered when software and hardware perform the same actions on data, e.g., checksums, and when several buffering schemes coexist at different levels in the system.
Final Project Report : Real Time Tennis Match Prediction Using Machine Learning

This project adopts an innovative data model by combining both historical match data and real-time stats, and apply machine learning to predict tennis match outcomes. Specifically, we explore and compare four data models mixing historical data and real-time stats, while applying machine learning techniques such as logistic regression, support vector classification (SVC) with linear, RBF and polynomial kernels, and Naive Bayes classification. Feature selection techniques such as recursive feature elimination and principal component analysis were employed as well. We find that applying SVC with a RBF kernel on historical data alone gives the best prediction. More importantly, a thorough analysis on results was done to reveal and understand the predominant challenge in this hybrid approach high bias, as our extracted feature set does not cover edge cases and "comback" situations. TTL (total points won) is found to be the most dominant and predictive feature for linear models, with other standout features also revealed. From there, the project outlines the future work needed to combat the high bias issue by proposing other features that could be used but not included in the current project.
Formation and Characterization of Pseudo-Lignin Microspheres during High-pressure Water Pretreatment

Microspheres were generated after subjecting corn stem rind to high-pressure water pretreatment. These microspheres can be divided into two categories according to their location: free microspheres and adsorbed microspheres. The formation and characterization of both microsphere types were studied. For the free microspheres, the maximum formation was reached at 180 degrees C; when the temperature was too high (200 degrees C) or too low (120 degrees C), no free microspheres were observed. As pretreatment temperature was varied, the morphologies of the free microspheres were different. For the adsorbed microspheres, their formation occurred over a wider temperature range, and their density increased with rising pretreatment temperature. Using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, many C=C and C=O bonds were identified on the surface of the free microspheres, indicating the presence of functional groups similar to those of lignin. Compared with untreated corn stem rind, the lignin signal of the residue surface was enhanced, which may be attributable to the increase in adsorbed microsphere quantity.
Growth Kinetics and in Vitro Aging of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Isolated From Rat Adipose Versus Bone Marrow Tissues

Objective- To investigate and compare growth potential as well as aging of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from rat bone marrow tissue and adipose tissue (AT) occurred at epicardial and epididymal regions. Design- Experimental study. Animals- 10 Wistar Rats. Procedures- Rat MSCs occurred at bone marrow and epicardial and epididymal AT were isolated and culture expanded through several successive passages. Differentiation potential along bone, cartilage and adipose cell lineages was used to verify MSC identity of the isolated cells, and then the cells were comparatively investigated in terms of their colonogenic ability, population doubling time and growth curve characteristics. Furthermore, the number of senescent cells at different passages was quantified using senescent- associated (SA) s galactosidase staining method. Results- MSCs from both AT appeared to have more proliferation capacity in culture than those from bone marrow since they exhibited significantly more colony number and shorter PDT value (P<0.05). Epicardial AT-MSCs indicated even more significant proliferation capacity than their epididymal counterparts. With respect to cell aging, marrow-MSCs cultures indicated higher percentages of senescent cells than AT-MSCs (P<0.05). Although the percentages of senescent cells in epididmal AT-MSCs were higher than epicardial AT- MSCs but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion and Clinical Relevance- Taken together we concluded that rat epicardial AT- MSCs could be appropriate cells for experimental and preclinical settings since they possess more expansion rate and less percentages of senescent cells in culture.
Energising a faculty medical education retreat with liberating structures

programme is transported from one country to another, it is important to ascertain whether it caters to local needs and wants. The current study was conducted to establish whether the expectations of Indian applicants to the fellowship programme matched the objectives of the programme. What was done In the course of their application to the FAIMER regional institute fellowship programme in India, applicants were asked why they were applying for the fellowship. Answers to this question from 55 applicants selected for the 2009 fellowship programme at the three regional institutes were analysed. Coding was performed by one researcher and the codes were verified and validated by another until a consensus was reached. In addition, focus group discussions were conducted at the end of Year 1 of the fellowship to further elicit participant viewpoints. Evaluation of results and impact The major themes to emerge referred to the desire to acquire knowledge or skills in specific areas, the desire to bring about a specific change or make a difference, career advancement, the need to network, previous experience in medical education and previous awareness of the fellowship programme. Applicants most frequently described their need to acquire the specific knowledge (44%) and pedagogic skills to become effective teachers (78%) and good trainers of medical teachers (38%). They specifically wanted to learn about educational methods, assessment, curriculum design, communication skills, mentoring, and educational and scientific research methodology. They also wrote about their desires to bring about specific curricular innovations (40%), improve the health system in their country (38%), strengthen their medical education units (26%) and improve the quality of teaching imparted by their institutes (25%). They articulated their need to network with international and national medical educationalists (31%) and their desire to acquire a formal degree in medical education or some other form of recognition (20%). They also described the influence of past exposure or experiences in medical education (38%) and reported having been made aware by colleagues of the quality of the FAIMER programme (11%) and the impressive quality of its faculty staff (13%). Although results indicate some alignment between expectations and objectives, most applicants expected the curriculum to cover topics related to teaching and learning methods (51%) and assessment (26%), rather than leadership (10%) or management (7%). This may be explained by the applicants’ low level of awareness of the leadership and management components at the time of application. The results of the focus group discussion showed that participants’ appreciation of the importance of these topics increased after they were enrolled in the fellowship programme. Matching learner expectations and needs with educational content is important and educational programmes can expand learners’ horizons.