Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formulation and Characterization of Nanosized Ethosomal Formulations of Antigout Model Drug (Febuxostat) Prepared by Cold Method: In Vitro/Ex Vivo and In Vivo Assessment

Febuxostat (FXT) is a xanthine oxidase (XO) drug which indicated for the treatment of gout. FXT loaded nanosized ethosomes were prepared using cold method with varied concentrations of ethyl alcohol and soya lecithin (SL). The prepared ethosomes were characterized by size, entrapment efficiency (DEE), FT-IR, in vitro release, kinetic studies of in vitro release profile, in vitro skin permeation and deposition, and stability study. The selected ethosomal formulation was incorporated in HPMC gel and characterized for drug content, ex vivo diffusion study through rat skin, and in vivo study and determination of pharmacokinetic parameters using HPLC technique. The results of size analysis showed that minimum size was 124.2 ± 16.77 nm with PDI values between 0.2 and 0.6. The zeta potential was from − 43.5 ± 3.0 to − 20.6 ± 1.42 mV. DEE ranged from 48 to 86%. The results of in vitro skin permeation showed that the amount FXT permeated ranged from 43.33 ± 5.3 to 82.14 ± 5.8%, flux ranged from 14.85 to 28.02. The results of ex vivo study showed that the amount of FXT permeated from unprocessed FXT gel was 49.42 ± 3.29% which was lesser than from FXT ethosomal gel. The results of in vivo study showed that Cmax and tmax were significantly different and higher for transdermal administration of FXT than oral administration. The developed FXT nanosized selected ethosome-based transdermal drug delivery gel system would provide a promising method for better management of gout.
Machine Learning and SonarQube KPIs to Predict Increasing Bug Resolution Times

Technical dept metaphor is widely discussed topic in research, but there is no common model on how to manage technical dept [3]. Companies invest a lot of money in maintenance and in commercial software system maintenance it is typical to have some penalties on missing the SLA deadline on bug resolution times. Adding technical dept can be understandable, in order to be quicker in markets with new features, but in order to manage it effectively, it is mandatory to understand the risks and impacts of the interest of it. In this research machine learning technology was used to evaluate whether SonarQube technical dept KPIs can be used to predict bug resolution times. The fact that the data was collected only from open source projects was limitation, but the results were encouraging. Accuracy approximately of 90% was reached. As it was seen that number of lines of code is also a valid indicator of bug resolution times, it was concluded, that it would be best to repeat this study in environment of commercial company which maintains many projects of similar size.
Stages of Design of Digital Twin for Local Enterprise

The work is devoted to the consideration of the stages of development of a digital twin for the local enterprise. With the aid of the digital twin it is possible to manage the enterprise, control problems in it, ensure the normal functioning of the enterprise objects due to the monitoring of a status of facilities and equipment based on big data obtained from Industrial IoT-sensors, as well as the monitoring of performance and current status of employees on the basis of the interpretation of bio-signals obtained in real time. The plant for preparation of super-viscous oil with disposal facilities was chosen as a local enterprise. This data is collected for the unit of predictive analysis and prediction in real time of pre-emergency situations for the rapid taking action to prevent these threats. In order to develop a plausible prototype of the digital twin of the enterprise, Unity cross-platform development environment for computer games was used.
S 1 Text : Empirical Data Participants

Seventeen healthy volunteers (7 women, mean age 65.6±10.9 std) underwent DTI and EEG resting-state recordings. None of the participants reported any history of serious medical, neurological or psychiatric diseases. None of the participants were taking any central nervous system-active medication. The study design was approved by the Local Ethical Committee of the Medical Association of Hamburg (PV 3777). All participants gave their written informed consent according to the ethical declaration of Helsinki.
Use of Plastic Waste (PVC) as a Partial Substitute for the Fine Aggregate in the Production of Cement Bricks

The Plastic waste materials may be considered as one of the main environment pollution recourses which affect the public health. Waste disposal is achieved by incineration, landfill, and recycling techniques, however their effects producing, may be as harmful to health as the waste itself. The main goal of this study, besides waste disposal, is an attempt by making use them to improve brick strength. So for this purpose, plastic waste materials are added to a local cement brick for both white and grey cement mixture in order to modify brick compressive strength. It is decide to use a 12% of plastic waste material as a percentage weight of the fine aggregate in the local cement brick. For both white and grey local cement mixtures to substitute an equivalent weight of the fine aggregate is reason for adopting this ratio as a percentage of fine aggregate instead of cement. This because primary tests of local brick indicates a lower strength due to using a little amount of cement. It is found that a dramatic reduction occurs in brick compressive strength and reaches only half of the local bricks strength for both grey and white cements. For improving the compressive strength of the local brick produced by increasing the cement ratio from 12% to 16%. The results indicated that bricks compressive strength increases with increasing the cement ratios at 16%. This because has a twice the local strength and about four times of the local brick produced. Also results indicated that the use of PVC as a partial substitute for fine aggregate in different practical projects of civil engineering such as slop stability, side walking, public garden corridors and wall channel irrigations. In addition, the use of PVC waste to produce cement brick may decrease the plastic waste disposal cost and effects.
Promoting Academic Self-Efficacy in First-Generation College Students

The objective of this research was to assess differences in academic self-efficacy between demographic classifications, with special regard to differences between firstand continuing-generation college students. Additionally, I explored the relationship between levels of academic self-efficacy and perceived stress within the academic domain. Bandura (1997) coined the term self-efficacy to refer to the individual’s belief that they can take necessary action in order to achieve their goals. In this thesis, I aimed to measure the success of a written academic self-efficacy intervention within a college freshman sample, but the lack of sufficient matched pairs led me to modify the secondary hypothesis to instead measure the changes in academic self-efficacy between two time intervals. Regarding the primary hypotheses, the analyses revealed no significant relationship between academic self-efficacy and generational status, nor a correlation between academic self-efficacy scores and perceived stress scores. However, additional analyses were conducted to identify gender and race/ethnicity as areas of interest in student stress outcomes, as female participants and students of color reported significantly higher stress levels. This research was limited by a small sample size and limited generalizability. I made future recommendations to address these disparities and apply this information in a productive capacity.
Bankruptcy prediction: To what degree does past development count?

In most cases, bankruptcy models are based on financial indicators (so called predictors) that describe a current condition or a certain area of financial health, like profitability, indebtedness and so on. But they do not tell us anything about relevant past development in this area. The main question of the research presented was, how much of the information about the past development could be useful in predicting bankruptcy. The aim of our research is to analyse the partial potential of financial ratios for predicting bankruptcy and to compare their importance with the importance of commonly used indicators. Twenty eight indicators were examined in a sample of construction companies operating in the Czech Republic, as well as their development over the past five periods. The non-parametric Boosted Trees method was used to evaluate the relative importance of predictors. The results show that the indicators describing past development could be a significant predictor of bankruptcy, however their main potential is in possible synergy with the indicators describing the current state, both being of the same area of financial health. Key-Words: construction companies, bankruptcy prediction, financial ratio, dynamic indicators, model accuracy, multi-period transformation, model development
Coordinating Pricing and Empty Container Repositioning in Two-Depot Shipping Systems

This paper studies joint decisions on pricing and empty container repositioning in two-depot shipping services with stochastic shipping demand. We formulate the problem as a stochastic dynamic programming model. The exact dynamic program may have a high-dimensional state space because of the in-transit containers. To cope with the curse of dimensionality, we develop an approximate model where the number of in-transit containers on each vessel is approximated with a fixed container flow predetermined by solving a static version of the problem. Moreover, we show that the approximate value function is [Formula: see text]-concave, thereby characterizing the structure of the optimal control policy for the approximate model. With the upper bound obtained by solving the information relaxation–based dual of the exact dynamic program, we numerically show that the control policies generated from our approximate model are close to optimal when transit times span multiple periods.
Legume flours: Nutritionally important sources of protein and dietary fiber

Vegetarian and vegan nutrition have become fashionable. Some consumers now see themselves as partial vegetarians and greatly restrict their consumption of animal products. This has led to an increase in the demand for alternative sources of protein, in the form of legumes and their processed products. Proteins enhance the feeling of fullness and can contribute to lowering blood pressure. Moreover, plant proteins have a favorable effect on lipid metabolism. For this reason, legume flours are important sources of plant protein. Flours from soya, lupin, chickpea and green pea have been studied. The highest content of protein was found in soya and lupin, which both contained ca. 35 g protein per 100 g. Lupin flour had the highest content of kernel fiber, corresponding to 35 g/100 g soluble kernel fiber. In addition, lupin and soya flour only had a low content of easily digestible carbohydrates: ca. 8–10 g/100 g. Cereal flour had a high content of starch and a low content of protein and is used in making bread, cakes and pastries; one possibility would be to replace 10–20% of this with legume flour. The amino acids contained in the legume flour would enhance the nutritional value of the cereal protein. The fat content in legume flours other than soya flour was clearly under 10 g/100 g. The omega-6/omega-3 ratio in lupin and green pea flour was in accordance with the recommended maximal ratio of 5:1. Most legume flours are a good source of magnesium, iron and zinc, as well as of vitamin E, the B vitamins, and carotenoids. Aside from their nutritional and physiological benefits, legume flours are cheaper than protein and fiber extracts from legumes. For ecological and nutritional/physiological reasons, only plant protein should be used to enrich protein relative to fats and carbohydrates. Lupin is an interesting alternative to soya beans in Europe, as it has a high content of protein. Legume flour can be used to enrich bread, cakes or pastries, or meat products. It supports good health and is easy to process.
Framework for Automated Food Export Gain Forecasting

The food and agriculture could be a driver of the economy in Russia if intensive growth factors were mainly used. In particular, it is necessary to adjust the food export structure to fit reality better. This problem implies long-term forecasting of the commodity combinations and export directions which could provide a persistent export gain in the future. Unfortunately, the existing solutions for food market forecasting tackle mainly with short-term prediction, whereas structural changes in a whole branch of an economy can last during years. Long-term food market forecasting is a tricky one because food markets are quite unstable and export values depend on a variety of different features. The paper provides a multi-step data-driven framework which uses multi-modal data from various databases to detect these commodities and export directions. We propose the quantile nonlinear autoregressive exogenous model together with pre-filtering to tackle with such long-term prediction tasks. The framework also considers textual information from mass-media to assess political risks related to prospective export directions. The experiments show that the proposed framework provides more accurate predictions then widely used ARIMA model. The expert validation of the obtained result confirms that the framework could be useful for export diversification.
Firms’ Patenting Activity and Performance: A Quantitative Analysis of Japanese Mobile Telecommunication Industry

Mobile telecommunication industry has shown remarkable technological progress in these twenty years. Recently, cell phones in Japan are uniquely evolved to have high-tech functions such as one-seg television, high-speed internet connection and noncontact payment system. However, as described by a term “Galapagos syndrome”, they are innovative but do not gain widespread use in the world. In the present work, based on patent data, technological characteristics of R&D activities in Japanese telecommunication carriers are investigated. Especially, the relationship between the R&D activities and subsequent firm's performances are analyzed. Similar to former studies concerning pharmaceutical and manufacturing industry, strong correlation between the number of patent applications and nets sales is found. It is also shown that regression model with shorter time-lag gives better description of the relationship between R&D inputs and outcome in this sector. Furthermore, R&D efficiency of each firm is investigated based on regression coefficients. It is found that R&D efficiencies of Japanese carries do not exceed that of Nokia, the leading company in world mobile telecommunication industry. The result implies that there exist room for improvement in R&D and market strategies for Japanese firms to expand their world market share.
Seasonal Changes in the thermal tolerances of Odontophrynus occidentalis (Berg, 1896) (Anura: Cycloramphidae)

We studied the thermal tolerances of Odontophrynus occidentalis during the dry and wet seasons of the Monte Desert in San Juan Province, Argentina. This toad had differences in CTmax between dry and wet seasons, with CTmax values being greater in the wet season (Austral summer). Operative temperature, body temperature, and environmental maximal temperature were related to CTmax suggesting seasonal acclimatization in O. occidentalis. Additionally, the CTmax recorded for O. occidentalis was 36. 1ºC, and the maximum ambient temperature measured during the toads’ activity time was 37ºC. The CTmin of O. occidentalis was 4. 1ºC while the minimum environmental temperature recorded was 7.2 ºC. The wide tolerance range observed and the relationship between tolerance limits and the environmental extremes indicate that seasonal acclimatization is an effective mechanism by which toads can raise their thermal tolerance. This is a highly relevant adaptation allowing them to survive in the challenging conditions of the Monte Desert.
Searching for faces in crowd chokepoint videos

Investigations of face identification have typically focussed on matching faces to photographic IDs. Few researchers have considered the task of searching for a face in a crowd. In Experiment 1, we created the Chokepoint Search Test to simulate real‐time search for a target. Performance on this test was poor (39% accuracy) and showed moderate associations with tests of face matching and memory. In addition, trial‐level confidence predicted accuracy, and for those participants who were previously familiar with one or more targets, higher familiarity was associated with increased accuracy. In Experiment 2, we found improvements in performance on the test when three recent images of the target, but not three social media images, were displayed during searches. Taken together, our results highlight the difficulties inherent in real‐time searching for faces, with important implications for those security personnel who carry out this task on a daily basis.
The Effect of Information Service Quality on Customer Loyalty: A Customer Relationship Management Perspective

As managing customer relationship gets more important, companies are strengthening information service using multi-channels to their customers as a part of their customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives. It means companies are now accepting such information services not as simple information-delivering tools, but as strategic initiatives for acquiring and maintaining customer loyalty. In this paper, we attempt to validate whether or not such various information services would impact on organizational performance in terms of CRM strategy. More specifically, our research objective is to answer the next three questions: first, how to construct the instruments to measure not information quality but information service quality? ; second, which attributes of information service quality can influence corporate image and customer loyalty? ; finally, does each information service type have unique characteristics compared with others in terms of influencing corporate image and customer loyalty? With respect to providing answers to those questions, the previous studies had been limited in that those studies failed to consider the variety of types of information service or restricted the quality of information service to information quality. An appropriate research model answering the above questions should consider the fact that most companies are utilizing multi channels for their information services, and include the recent strategic information service such as customer online community. Moreover, since corporate information service could be regarded as a type of products or services delivered to customer, it is necessary
Dynamic Incentives and Compulsory Savings in Microfinance

It has been argued, in literature, that providing only credit to the poor without any other service might not be welfare improving. We have examined a dynamic model with continuous time framework where a micro-finance institution (MFI) provides credit along with compulsory savings service to its clients. By providing savings service, the MFI enables the borrowers to build collateral which is required to get loan from the formal sector. Eligibility of getting loan from the formal sector can be thought of as getting out of the poverty trap. In the benchmark case a certificate from MFI along with collateral is required to get loan from the formal sector, later this assumption has been relaxed. We have observed that, under some restrictions, the optimum loan size progressively increases over time in both the cases. Hence, this paper addresses a nearly universal feature of micro-finance loan scheme, namely progressive lending, which has largely been ignored in literature. More precisely, when certification from the MFI is required, initially loan size increases over time and after a certain point of time it hits the efficient amount and then onwards loan size becomes constant over time, given that the rate of interest on deposit is not too small or the borrower is patient enough. When the certificate is not required, then also loan size increases over time, but restriction required for that is stronger. However in this case whether the borrower would at all be able to get the efficient amount or not is not unambiguous. Lastly, we found that borrower’s lifetime utility is increasing in fraction of forced savings and decreasing with increase in competition among MFI-s captured via increase in cost of capital.
Flexible Film: Interactive Cubist-style Rendering

This work describes a new approach of rendering multiple perspective images inspired by cubist art. Our implementation uses a novel technique which not only allows an easy integration in existing frameworks, but also to generate these images at interactive rates. We further describe a cubist-style camera model that is capable of embedding additional information, which is derived from the scene. Distant objects can be put in relation to express their interconnections and possible dependencies. This requires an intelligent camera model, which is one of our main motivations. Possible applications are manifold and range from scientiﬁc visualization to storytelling and computer games. Our implementation utilizes cubemaps and a NURBS based camera surface to compute the ﬁnal image. All processing is accomplished in realtime on the GPU using fragment shaders. We demonstrate the possibilities of this new approach using artiﬁcial renditions as well as real photographs. The work presented is work in progress and currently under development. To illustrate the usability of the method we suggest several application domains, including ﬁlming, for which this technique offers new ways of expression and camera work.
Sapphire-Sim: Macro-Op-Level Simulator for Ring-LWE and Module-LWE Hardware Acceleration

This manuscript describes a Python-based open-source cycle-accurate simulator for the Sapphire lattice-crypto processor which can be used to profile the performance of Ring-LWE and Module-LWE algorithms. This allows fast evaluation of lattice-based protocols with varying parameter choices but without any hardware design effort, which is especially important for a fast evolving field such as lattice-based cryptography. The simulator not only reports accurate cycle counts and execution times but also macro-operation-level power and average energy consumption modelled using measurements from the Sapphire test chip at various operating conditions. Detailed description of the custom instructions, simulation options and example code are also provided as reference.
Cloud Based Advanced Bestpeer for Data Sharing in Corporate Network

— Many computer networks and business organisation of the same industry sector share some of theselective data and collaborate with other companies who share a common interest. This data sharing helps to achieve their business goals and to reduce the operational cost which in turn increases the revenue of the corporate network. There are many unique challenges faced by inter-company data sharing and data processing processes such as scalability, performance and security. In this paper we present a cloud based system, Advanced BestPeer which delivers elastic data sharing services with better performance for corporate network and business organisation. Advanced BestPeer system is developed by combining cloud computing, peer to peer technology and database to provide economical, flexible, scalable platform and also based on pay-as-you-go business model. Advanced BestPeer is evaluated on Amazon EC2 cloud platform. The benchmarking result shows that Advanced BestPeer performs better than HadoopDB technology. It also demonstrates that Advanced BestPeer achieves near linear scalability for throughput with respect to the number of peer nodes.