Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
INVESTIGATING STUDENT INDISCIPLINE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF MAURITIUS AND ITS CONNECTIONS TO THE QUALITY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

The level of indiscipline in secondary schools of Mauritius have become a real concern as it is believed that they are the cause of poor students performances. Classroom management and leadership skills are also considered necessary for students effective learning. This research investigated into the main sources of existing disciplinary problems in private and public secondary schools of Mauritius, gender-wise and mixed, and the extent of teacher training on student discipline. Additionally, it examined the impact of transformational leadership and leaders training on student discipline. It also attempted to identify ways of implementing selected mitigation strategies for better classroom management and overall student discipline. The investigation employed a cross-sectional research design where a close-ended questionnaire was developed and administered through the web after semi-structured interviews were carried out with head of schools. Data analysis was done on IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Dependent variables were described through measures of central tendency, dispersion, skewness and kurtosis. Normality test (Shapiro-Wilk) was also used. Additionally, bivariate correlation analyses, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and Chi-Square tests were used to identify relationships between variables that did not follow a normal distribution. The study revealed that the three major sources of indiscipline related to classroom disruption were talking in class, inattention and ignoring instructions. Further analysis revealed that girls were more talkative whereas boys were found to be more inattentive and ignorant of instructions. The research also showed that the longer teachers were trained, the lesser were students undisciplined in class. It was also found that transformational leadership was being applied in about 80% of schools and it significantly and positively affected student discipline. However, the study also revealed that teacher leadership style was significantly related to students talking in class and them ignoring instructions but was insignificantly related to students inattention. The results also showed that there were significant differences in mitigation strategies between boys, girls and mix schools and that networking and restorative justice were considered more significant strategies than just improving school climate.
Machine learning analytics for predictive breeding

Prediction accuracies of genomic selection methods are affected by the quality of the phenotypic and genotypic data and by the use of appropriate analytic models in the training sets. This research focuses on the impact of data quality for ordinal traits. Ordinal scores of traits are typical for various types of stress tolerance and resistance. Established spatial models developed for continuous quantitative traits were unknown whether they can effectively adjust the spatial autocorrelation for ordinal traits with sharp transitions patterns among groups of plots in experimental field trials. The effectiveness of the spatial adjustments was systematically compared with eight different spatial models using soybean iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) as an example. After incorporation of the spatial pattern recognition to provide adjusted ordinal data, a comparison of prediction accuracies between algorithmic modeling and data modeling approaches were systematically conducted. The results revealed that genomic prediction accuracies could be dramatically improved by both machine learning models and geospatial spatial analyses. Overall, algorithmic modeling outperforms data modeling methods for the soybean IDC ordinal data type. Further, machine learning algorithms provide higher prediction accuracy than traditional statistical data models in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and overall
Changes in Ecological Parameter of Woody Vegetation along Altitudinal Gradient in Jebel ElDair, North Kordofan, Sudan

Qualitative and quantitative data on floristic composition and species diversity of the woody plants on Jabal Eldair - Northern Kordofan State were collected from twenty three circular plots 0.1ha. , between elevation ranged from 510 to 1200 m above sea level (asl), which later were divided into three vegetation communities (community I, community II and community III). According to the dominant plant species, to determine how woody plants species change with increasing altitude. A total number of 1147 plants from 47 species belonging to 22 families were sampled. Number of ecological parameters has been studied for each plant species and vegetation community. These parameters include number of individuals, also the frequency percentage, abundance, density, relative density and importance value index (IVI), in addition to numbers of ecological indices. Community III was found to be more diverse compared to Communities II and I, using Shannon diversity index (H). It also has the highest species richness and density than the other two Communities.
Multiscale Stochastic Modeling Connects Cancer Drug Resistance Mechanisms to Population Survival Rates

Drug resistance significantly limits the long-term effectiveness of targeted therapeutics for cancer patients. Recent experimental studies have demonstrated that cancer cell heterogeneity and microenvironment adaptations to targeted therapy play important roles in promoting the rapid acquisition of drug resistance and in increasing cancer metastasis. The systematic development of effective therapeutics to overcome drug resistance mechanisms poses a major challenge. In this study, we used a modeling approach to connect cellular mechanisms underlying cancer drug resistance to population-level patient survival. To predict progression-free survival in cancer patients with metastatic melanoma, we developed a set of stochastic differential equations to describe the dynamics of heterogeneous cell populations while taking into account micro-environment adaptations. Clinical data on survival and circulating tumor cell DNA (ctDNA) concentrations were used to confirm the effectiveness of our model. Moreover, our model predicted distinct patterns of dosedependent synergy when evaluating a combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors versus a combination of BRAF and PI3K inhibitors. These predictions were consistent with the findings in previously reported studies. The impact of the drug metabolism rate on patient survival was also discussed. The proposedmodel might facilitate the quantitative evaluation and optimization of combination therapeutics and cancer clinical trial design.
A hypomorphic allele of telomerase reverse transcriptase uncovers the minimal functional length of telomeres in Arabidopsis

Despite the essential requirement of telomeric DNA for genome stability, the length of telomere tracts between species differs by up to four orders of magnitude, raising the question of the minimal length of telomeric DNA necessary for proper function. Here we address this question using a hypomorphic allele of the telomerase catalytic subunit, TERT. We show that although this construct partially restored telomerase activity to a tert mutant, telomeres continued to shorten over several generations, ultimately stabilizing at a bimodal size distribution. Telomeres on two chromosome arms were maintained at a length of 1kb, while the remaining telomeres were maintained at 400 bp. The longest telomeres identified in this background were also significantly longer in wild type populations, suggesting cis-acting elements on these arms either promote telomerase processivity or recruitment. Genetically disrupting telomerase processivity in this background resulted in immediate lethality. Thus, telomeres of 400 bp are both necessary and sufficient for Arabidopsis viability. As this length is the estimated minimal length for t-loop formation, our data suggest that telomeres long enough to form a t-loop constitute the minimal functional length.
Bio-Functional Properties of Bee Pollen: The Case of “Bee Pollen Yoghurt”

The objectives of the present work were: (a) to characterize bee pollen from the region of Epirus in terms of biofunctional activity parameters as assessed by (i) the determination of specific polyphenols using high performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-MS), (ii) antioxidant capacity (DPPH assay), and (iii) total phenolic content (Folin-Ciocalteu assay), and (b) to prepare yoghurts from cow, goat, and sheep milk supplemented with different concentrations of grounded bee pollen (0.5, 1.0, 2.5 and 3.0%, w/v), and study afterwards the trend in antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content along with product’s sensory properties. Results showed that bee pollen ethanolic extracts are a rich source of phytochemicals based on the high total phenolic content and in vitro antioxidant activity that were monitored. The addition of grounded bee pollen in yoghurts resulted in a food matrix of a higher in vitro antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content, whereas it improved the yoghurt’s taste, odour, appearance, and cohesion; the latter indicates its beneficial use as a general food surface and interface material enhancer due to the possible formation of surface/interface active lipid-linked proteins. Based on the present findings, bee pollen yoghurt is proposed as a novel and costless functional food whereas it may comprise a research basis for food or material science in the scientific society of the future. Results were further supported by implementation of advanced chemometric analyses providing a full characterization of the product’s uniqueness.
Preventive Measures for Communicable Diseases in Ayurveda and Ancient Indian Culture

Ayurveda, an ancient science of life in world, has holistic approach in prevention and management of diseases, broadly classified as communicable and non communicable, depending upon their mode of transmission. Various terms like Janapadodhwansha (Charaka), Maraka (Sushruta) and Janamar (Bhela) have been used to describe the disease epidemic in Ayurveda and communicable diseases have been separately described as Aupasargika Roga.Interactions among agent, host and environment is responsible for emergence of infectious diseases. An infection is manifested only if agent is able to overcome the host immunity under favorable environment. Sushruta opines that without involvement of factors like Ritu (suitable season or time), Beeja (seed), Kshetra (field), and Ambu (water) neither a plant nor a fetus can germinate and grow. Same principle can be applied to development of infectious diseases. Among these four factors, suitability of Kshetra (human body) is especially important in the context of infectious diseases along with Beeja (infective agent), Ritu (opportune time allowing the optimal growth of the pathogen) and Ambu (nutritional factors favoring the pathogens). Ayurveda advocates various preventive measures like avoiding prasanga (mutual contact) and gatrasansparsha (touching) to break the chain of transmission of infective agents and rasayana (rejuvenative therapy) and panchakarma (purification procedures) to promote the kshetra.Although communicable diseases have been controlled to a large extent with the help of modern preventive measures like vaccination a continued re- emergence of newer infective diseases has made it necessary to re-look the measures of prevention. There is an urgent need to complement them with the traditional knowledge, such as use of the ancient preventive measures and health-promotive measures like rasayana. This paper is intended to describe various methods of infection prevention described in Ayurveda texts and discusses their relevance in current scenario.
Resistance Status of Aedes Aegepty Larvae Against Temephos in Gunungpati Subdistrict, Semarang

Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) is a major problem in Indonesia. In 2016, Incidence Rate (IR) = 77.96/100.000; Case Fatality Rate (CFR) = 0.79%. Semarang City, the Capital of Central Java Province, is an endemic area of DHF. Gunungpati is a subdistrict that has a high incidence of DHF. Some health workers sell abate (temephos) without notifying the appropriate dosage. Long-term use of larvacide and inacurate dosage may lead to resistance. This study aimed to determine the resistance status of Aedes aegypti larvae to temephos in Gunungpati sub-district. The population study was all of Ae. aegypti larvae in Gunungpati sub-district and the sample was Ae. aegypti larvae trapped by ovitrap and reared by researcher to obtain the first generation (F1). F1 larvae would be randomly exposed to temephos, with doses according to the WHO guidelines. We counted larval death after 24 hours of exposure by larval resistance indicator. This was true experiment with randomized pretest-posttest design with control group. The results showed that Ae. aegypti larvae in Gunungpati sub-district were tolerant to temephos, because the average of larvae mortality were 81-95% in temephos exposure with WHO-recommended dose. Keywords— resistance, Aedes aegypti, temephos.
Application of Nonuniform FFT to Spherical Near-Field Antenna Measurements

This article investigates on the use of nonuniform fast Fourier transform (NUFFT) to solve spherical near-field transformation problems. Traditional postprocessing algorithms make use of conventional FFT for the transformation of measured grids with uniform sampling. More recently, the processing of irregular sampling grids has been introduced by means of matrix-based algorithms. The benefits of both type of algorithms are combined in this article with the implementation of the spherical wave expansion (SWE) summation and its adjoint with NUFFT. This allows the processing of fields with the efficiency of the FFT approaches and the versatility of the matrix operators. To this end, the NUFFT will be introduced and it will be shown how it can be implemented to accelerate the multidimensional summations required in the SWE calculations. Numerical investigations will be introduced to demonstrate the computational gains achieved with negligible approximation errors. Finally, the NUFFT will be tested on three different spherical near-field postprocessing problems: far-field transformation of near fields measured with spiral scanning, phaseless measurements on spherical surfaces with different sampling grids, and antenna diagnostics.
EFFICIENT ANTENNA SELECTION STRATEGY FOR A MASSIVE MIMO DOWNLINK SYSTEM

—This paper focuses on an eﬃcient antenna selection strategy for a distributed massive MIMO system. The objective of the proposed algorithm is to attain ergodic achievable rate as much as possible with antenna selection in a constrained capacity limited system. In this proposed work, the initial selection of antenna set is based on channel amplitude and correlation which then follows an iterative approach in order to select the best subset of transmit antenna elements from the overall antenna set. The proposed scheme signiﬁcantly outperforms, in terms of ergodic rate with low complexity, the prevailing transmit antenna selection methods. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed antenna selection method is close to select all transmission with a minimum throughput loss. Thus the proposed method is best suited for a large scale distributed Massive MIMO system without degradation in system performance and is of low computational complexity.
SURFACE FILM CHARACTERIZATION FROM X-TO-K-BAND RADAR SIGNAL INVERSION, A WIND-WAVE-POOL EXPERIMENT

This paper describes an experiment in a wind-wave pool in Brest, France, to characterize surface films when observed at moderate incidence from X-to-K radar bands. Measurements of the radar backscattered field were carried out for various seawater surface states and incidence angles. From this meaningful database (mainly lying in simultaneous acquisitions in X-, Ku-, and K-bands), an inversion method is proposed to characterize the elasticity modulus of the surface film. This process is based on the minimization of the cost function correlating the values given by a physical model of the damping ratio and the measured ones. The resulting oil parameters are found in overall good agreement — but still qualitative — with the various released oils. Nonetheless, the inversion method does not work properly for the rapeseed oil slick when higher wind speeds are considered, and this failure is explained. In addition, it can be seen that the results can be applied in an ocean context by comparing the modeled normalized radar cross section (NRCS) in an ocean context (given by the Bragg scattering and the Elfouhaily spectrum) and the measured NRCS.
Improved Change Detector Using Dual-Camera Sensors for Intelligent Surveillance Systems

Unauthorized entrance in a prohibited area might create a security risk. An intelligent surveillance system should be able to mitigate such a problem by incorporating a sterile zone monitoring algorithm. The algorithm is challenged by a dual-camera sensors (color/IR), dynamic backgrounds, illumination changes, camouflaged, and static foreground objects, etc. This paper proposes an improved change detector (ICD) to mitigate the above-mentioned challenges. It employs a novel statistical decision criterion (SDC) based on skewness patterns. The SDC helps to differentiate time of day using the camera sensors (color/IR). The input frames are processed according to the time of day. For instance, IR input is image-enhanced to differentiate between camouflaged intruders from the background. Then input goes through Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) based change detector to segment foreground (intruder). The foreground object is further cleansed using morphological operations for possible isolated noise and holes. The ICD was tested on three datasets and outperformed top-ranked change detection algorithms.
Linear Time-Periodic Modeling, Examination, and Performance Enhancement of Grid Synchronization Systems With DC Component Rejection/Estimation Capability

The dc component, which may be caused by different factors in the grid voltage, is one of the disturbances that may severely affect the performance of grid synchronization systems and, therefore, grid-tied power converters. In the phase-locked loop (PLL) and frequency-locked loop (FLL)-based grid synchronization systems, which this article focuses on, some solutions to deal with this challenge have been proposed in the literature. One of the best available solutions is adding dc rejection/estimation loop(s) to a standard PLL and FLL structure. This approach provides an estimation of the dc component and, at the same time, makes the PLL and FLL immune to disturbance effects of the dc component. Despite their implementation simplicity, no linear model for the grid synchronization systems with the dc rejection/estimation capability has yet been presented. The main aim of this article is to fill this research gap. It will be shown that developing such models facilitates the examination and the performance enhancement of the grid synchronization systems under study.
Mathematical modelling of serine integrase - mediated gene assembly

Site-specific recombination promoted by serine integrases can be used for ordered assembly of DNA fragments into larger arrays. When a plasmid vector is included in the assembly, the circular product DNA molecules can transform E. coli cells. A convenient “one-pot” method using a single integrase involves recombination between pairs of matched orthogonal attachment sites, allowing assembly of up to six DNA fragments. However, the efficiency of assembly decreases as the number of fragments increases, due to accumulation of incorrect products in which recombination has occurred between mismatched sites. Here we use mathematical modelling to analyse published experimental data for the assembly reactions and suggest potential ways to improve assembly efficiency. We assume that unproductive synaptic complexes between pairs of mismatched sites become predominant as the number and diversity of sites increase. Our modelling predicts that the proportion of correct products can be improved by raising fragment DNA concentrations and lowering plasmid vector concentration. The assembly kinetics is affected by the inactivation of integrase in vitro. The model also predicts that the precision might be improved by redesigning the location of attachment sites on fragments to reduce the formation of the wrong circular products. Our preliminary experimental explorations of assembly with ϕC31 integrase confirmed that assembly efficiency might be improved. However, optimization of efficiency would require more experimental work on the mechanisms of wrong product formation. The use of a more efficient integrase (such as Bxb1) might be a more promising approach to assembly optimization. The model might be easily extended for different integrases or/and different assembly strategies, such as those using multiple integrases or multiple substrate structures.
Perception, Health-related Quality Of Life Measures and Coping Strategies among Call Center Employees: A Case Study of Access Bank, Nigeria

Introduction: Call center employees form a very essential workforce in many institutions. Financial institutions require their services to aid meeting organizational goals in a fast-paced environment. The call center service job is labor-intensive in the banking sector placing its workers at risk of ill health and reduced quality of life in the immediate to long term. Methods: A cross sectional online survey wasconducted among 198 call center employees in a bankto assess their perception, health-related quality of life measures and coping strategies. Data was collected over a period of 5 weeks and analyzed using frequency counts and percentages. Results: Most (34.8%) were within the age range 26-30 years old and were females(57.1%). Respondents (83.3%) noted their work as manageable. Respondents (77.3%) experienced problems with the eyes amongst other body parts. More than half experience depression, worry and anxiety. Respondents engage in both positive and negative coping mechanisms such as napping, stretching and use of stimulants. Conclusion: Health related quality of life measures among call center employees was unsatisfactory. Better working conditions need to be promoted to protect these employees’ health.
On Single-Error-Detecting Codes for DNA-Based Data Storage

DNA-based storage is considered to be a promising option to accommodate huge amounts of data. The strings of nucleotides are prone to errors though. To reduce the error probability, these strings should satisfy constraints on the ratio of A’s and T’s versus the number of G’s and C’s, and on the maximum number of repeated identical nucleotides. To deal with errors when they occur after all, it is also desirable that the set of DNA-strings possesses certain error correction or detection capabilities. This is established by designing quaternary constrained codes with a specified minimum distance. Here, maximum-sized block codes with a fixed number of G/C symbols, no symbol repetition, and a minimum Hamming distance of two are presented.