Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nanoindentation of silicon surfaces: Molecular-dynamics simulations of atomic force microscopy

We investigate the atomic-scale details of atomic force microscopy through a quasistatic molecular dynamics simulation together with a density-functional-based tight-binding method. The changes in the AFM tip shape, the size of the tip-sample contact area, as well as the microscopic hardness and Young's moduli of silicon ${111},{110},{100}$ surfaces are studied. Furthermore, the effects of hydrogen termination of the surface and of subsurface vacancies on hardness and Young's modulus are discussed.
The fossil wonders of the Silurian Eramosa Lagerstätte of Canada : the jawed polychaete faunas

The Silurian Eramosa Lagerstatte in Ontario, Canada, is represented by three distinguished biotas (1 to 3) with exceptionally well preserved fossils. In this study, the jawed polychaete fauna is described and discussed for the first time, on the basis of scolecodonts and jaw apparatuses, recovered from Biota 1 and 3. One new paulinitid species, Kettnerites sp. a, is described from a wealthy collection of specimens recovered through acid digestion of rocks from the locality Park Head (comprising Biota 1), the strata of which were probably formed in very shallow, possibly lagoonal environments. The abundant and monospecific material allowed confident reconstruction of the full dorsal maxillary apparatus and the new taxon is compared to previously known, approximately coeval ones from other regions. Attempts at finding evidence of jaw moulting for Kettnerites sp. a were inconclusive; similar to a previous study from the Silurian of Gotland, Sweden, no unambiguous evidence for distinct size frequency classes was revealed. In addition to the Park Head collection, bedding plane material from the locality Wiarton (comprising Biota 3) revealed two other taxa; Kettnerites sp. b and Oenonites cf. curvidens. The strata at Wiarton have been interpreted as representing environments with good water circulation and open marine conditions. Based on their relative abundance, jaw bearing polychaetes apparently played a significant role in the Silurian marine biotas that are currently preserved in the Eramosa Lagerstatte and this study provides a fuller picture of this lagerstatte. Moreover, the results reinforce the fact that different polychaete species had variable environmental preferences during the Silurian and that Oenonites and Kettnerites formed two of the most common and widely distributed genera.
Impediment of privacy in the use of clouds by educational institutions

Cloud computing is considered as one of the technologies that revolutionizing the educational sector. Innovation of nascent interactive and user friendly educational tools and resources helps in the improvement of students' academic performance. The technology revolutionized the delivery of educational tools and materials shifting from educator-centric to student-centric. The cloud based education spur considerable interest among the students. The technology adoption theories found that students were satisfied and motivated by the cloud-based learning environment and were adopting it as their lifestyle. While the adoption is impressive, the concern for privacy is real. The laws in US, EU countries and UAE are not directly addressing the privacy and data protection issues in clouds. However, the existing laws could be extended to cover the cloud service use by educational institutions and protection of personal data. The major issue in protecting privacy of students and others is the extra-jurisdiction effect of the Patriot Act and Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA) of US. These laws give opportunities to the US regulators to access and use private data of various parties in US and beyond for security reasons. 
DETERMINANTS OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY AMONG SUBSCRIBERS OF GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR MOBILE (GSM) COMMUNICATION IN NORTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

Mobile telecommunications has transformed the way in which people communicate and disseminate information and ideas, especially in developing countries. In Nigeria, there was full deregulation of the telecommunications industry in Nigeria which paved way for private sector participation leading to the licensing of Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications operations in 2001. Due to the upsurge and the speed in the growth rate of the telecommunication industry in Nigeria, the GSM market has thrown up intense rivalry among the operators. Therefore, the GSM providers in Nigeria are faced with the challenges of demonstrating customer-focused and continuous service improvement, as a way to ensuring customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. The objective of this study is identify the determinants of customer loyalty among subscribers of GSM in Northwestern Nigeria. This study adopt survey research approach, and using logistic regression model, there is evidence to suggest that perceived price fairness does not affect customer loyalty in northwestern Nigeria. In addition, this study found out that the major factors influencing whether a GSM subscriber will reports brand loyalty are; perceived service quality, perceived brand image, and perceived customer satisfaction. This study suggest that the GSM service providers should continue to ensure the provision of a high service quality in the Northwestern Nigeria and by extension in the whole Nigeria in order to maintain customer loyalty.
OBSERVING TUMOR VASCULARITY NONINVASIVELY USING MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING

A new approach to tumor discrimination using magnetic resonance imaging is reported. The susceptibility difference between venous blood and the surrounding tissue is used to generate contrast. This approach is able to exquisitely reveal small veins even those which are smaller than a voxel. Using this method, it is possible to visualize the primary draining veins within tumors better than contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging methods that require a contrast agent or even conventional angiography. The ability to highlight deoxygenated blood may lead to the possibility of differentiating benign from malignant tumors noninvasively.
Molecular Mechanics Studies of a Psychostimulating Agent , 2-[ ( Diphenylmethyl ) Sulfinyl ] Acetamide ( Modafinil )

2-[(Diphenylmethyl) sulfinyl] acetamide (modafinil), is a wake-promoting agent use for treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness in narcolepsy. Molecular mechanics studies of 2-[(diphenylmethyl) sulfinyl] acetamide (modafinil) was performed according to the Hartree-Fock (HF) calculation method by Argus Lab 4.0. 1 software. The molecular mechanics potential energy function were evaluated in terms of energies associated with bonded interactions (bond length, bond angle and dihedral angle) as well as non-bonded interactions (Vander Waals and electrostatic). Surfaces were created to visualize excited state properties such as highest occupied molecular orbital’s, lowest unoccupied molecular orbital’s and electrostatic potential (ESP) mapped density. The minimum potential energy was calculated by geometry convergence function by Argus Lab software. The most feasible position for the drug to interact with the receptor was found to be -108.034930 au (-67793.003600 kcal/mol). These results could help us in understating the drug-receptor interactions.
Brevundimonas vesicularis:A Novel Bio-sorbent for Removal of Lead from Wastewater

In this study, a bacterial species which could remove lead from wastewater was isolated from lead contaminated soil prepared in the laboratory. Based on the biochemical and morphological characterization the bacteria were identified as Brevundimonas vesicularis. The bio- sorption potentiel of powdered dry biomass of B. Vesicularis was investigated by batch adsorption experiments. It was found that, the bio-sorption capacities were significantly affected by the pH and initial concentration of the solution, bio-sorbent dosage and contact time. Batch and isothermal studies were carried out at optimum pH of 4. The rate of bio-sorption was found to be fast during the initial 10min and it reached equilibrium by 60min. Langmuir isotherm model was suitable for describing the bio-sorption of lead by B. Vesicularis. The results indicated that, the dry biomass of B. Vesicularis is suitable as an efficient bio-sorbent for the removal of lead from wastewater.
Comparative physicochemical, phytochemical and acute toxicity studies of two Ocimum species in Western Uganda

Ocimum gratissimum and Ocimum suave are species belonging to the Lamiaceae family; they have been domesticated and are widely grown in gardens in Western Uganda for its claimed beneficial effect in ethnomedical practice. This study was aimed at comparative evaluation of the physicochemical, phytochemical and acute toxicity potentials of their leaves. Dried leaves of O. gratissimum and O. suave were subjected to physicochemical analysis, crude extraction in methanol and sequential extraction in n-hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate and methanol. Phytochemical constituents of the crude extracts were determined by both qualitative and quantitative methods, while acute toxicity potentials were studied in female rats. Total caffeic acid derivatives contents, total flavonoid contents and reducing power assay were evaluated in the sequential extracts. The physicochemical parameters of leaves of O. gratissimum and O. suave showed similar profiles. The extraction yield, phytochemical constituents and acute toxicity effects of the crude extracts were not significantly different. Hexane, chloroform and ethylacetate extract of O. suave showed significant (p < 0.05) higher total flavonoid contents than corresponding extracts of O. gratissimum. Similarly, O. suave extracts showed a stronger positive correlation of phenolic content to antiradical power than the corresponding extracts of O. gratissimum. Conclusively, the two species showed comparative physicochemical, phytochemical and acute toxicity profiles, and a positive correlation of phenolic contents to antiradical power. Key words: Lamiaceae, Uganda, phenolics, Ocimum gratissimum, Ocimum suave.
Line generalisation by repeated elimination of points

AbstractThis paper presents a new approach to line generalisation which uses the concept of 'effective area' for progressive simplification of a line by point elimination. Two coastlines are used to compare the performance of this, with that of the widely used Douglas-Peucker, algorithm. The results from the area-based algorithm compare favourably with manual generalisation of the same lines. It is capable of achieving both imperceptible minimal simplifications and caricatural generalisations. By careful selection of cut-off values, it is possible to use the same algorithm for scale-dependent and scale-independent generalisations. More importantly, it offers scope for modelling cartographic lines as consisting of features within features so that their geometric manipulation may be modified by application- and/or user-defined rules and weights. The paper examines the merits and limitations of the algorithm and the opportunities it offers for further research and progress in the field of line generalisation.
Nutritional requirements for methyl orange decolourisation by freely suspended cells and growing cells of Lactobacillus casei TISTR 1500

Lactobacillus casei TISTR 1500 possesses cytoplasmic azoreductase and can breakdown azo bonds under microaerophilic condition. It was found previously that a growing culture is more tolerant to a high initial dye concentration than freely suspended cells supplied only with sucrose. The present study is aimed at investigating the nutritive requirements for decolourisation by the growing cells and the freely suspended cells using Plackett-Burmann experimental design. In this study, the composition of the medium was found to play an important role in methyl orange decolourisation and biomass production. Sucrose, meat extract and peptone increased methyl orange decolourisation by freely suspended cells, whereas sodium acetate exerted a negative effect on decolourisation. In addition, it was observed that the yeast and meat extracts enhanced the degradation of the dye by the growing cells. Sucrose was an important factor in biomass production by freely suspended cells and growing cells. On the other hand, dipotassium hydrogen phosphate and sodium acetate decreased the biomass production. These findings promote the understanding and knowledge about the requirements of azo dye decolourisation by Lactobacillus casei.
Sentiment Analysis: Comparative Analysis of Multilingual Sentiment and Opinion Classification Techniques

—Sentiment analysis and opinion mining have become emerging topics of research in recent years but most of the work is focused on data in the English language. A comprehensive research and analysis are essential which considers multiple languages, machine translation techniques, and different classiﬁers. This paper presents, a comparative analysis of different approaches for multilingual sentiment analysis. These approaches are divided into two parts: one using classiﬁcation of text without language translation and second using the translation of testing data to a target language, such as English, before classiﬁcation. The presented research and results are useful for understanding whether machine translation should be used for multilingual sentiment analysis or building language speciﬁc sentiment classiﬁcation systems is a better approach. The effects of language translation techniques, features, and accuracy of various classiﬁers for multilingual sentiment analysis is also discussed in this study.
Assessment of Component Generality using Fuzzy Approach to Optimize Software Development Cost

Role of reusability has seen a rapid demand for software. Reusability has become an essential characteristic of Component-Based Software (CBS). Component Based Software Development (CBSD) is becoming popular as objectoriented concept alone is not enough powerful to cope with the upcoming requirements of today’s software. CBSE is a paradigm with the objective to construct and design software using a pre-defined set of software components explicitly created for reuse. To check to what extent a component can be reused in CBSD, it is required to measure the generality of components. In this paper three new metrics namelyComponent Generality, Average Component Generality, Cost Benefit Percentage have been proposed. These metrics help to evaluate the generality of the component rather than a particular class and will be helpful to reduce the overall software development cost. We apply fuzzy logic to estimate the reusability and software development cost. The result obtained describe the analysis in terms of quality factors related to generality, reusability that aids significantly in assessing the component reusability and optimizing the overall software development cost.
Comparative Advantage or Discrimination? Studying Male-Female Wage Differentials Using Displaced Workers

In this paper we empirically examine differences in search behavior between men and women. We assess hypotheses regarding duration of search, wages and tenure. The hypotheses are derived from two models: the equilibrium search model with discriminatory firms by Black (1995) and an opportunity cost model that extends the Black model by incorporating age varying reservation wages. We identify effects using data on displaced workers and a differences in differences approach. We find that for men and women the duration of search is equal once we limit our estimation to women with a constant number of children in the household. Furthermore, we find no significant differences in the quality of job match between men and women. Finally, male/female wage differentials are largest among young workers but a significant portion of the difference is accounting for by changes in the number of children in the household. All these results suggest that differences in search behavior and outcomes between men and women are due to differences in nonmarket opportunities rather than to discrimination.
An Examination of Budgetary Roles in the Context of Sponsorship Management: A Contingency Perspective

This study examines budgetary roles in the context of sponsorship management and identifies factors affecting the importance of budgetary roles in the sponsorship investment decision-making context. This has been pursued through the analysis of qualitative field data as well as a survey of Australian organisations with active sponsorship agendas. It was found that authorisation of sponsorship expenditure is the main sponsorship management budgetary role. It was also found that planning, forecasting and motivation are relatively important sponsorship management budgetary roles. Trust and risk were identified as significant factors affecting the importance of budgetary roles in this context. These findings give credence to Sidhu and Roberts (2008) call for further research of the marketing/accounting interface as it appears the relative importance of budgetary roles in a sponsorship management context differs to the relative importance of budgetary roles that have been reported in the literature.
Characterisation of Mango Kernel Fat and Preparation of TranÂ’s-Free Margarine for Use in Muffins

Six different samples of mangoes were found to contain 13.0-15.3% seeds and 41.1-66.7% kernels. The seed kernels contained 9.6-10.6% fat with slip melting point ranging from 24°C-30°C. Gas chromatographic analysis showed that the major fatty acids were stearic acid (31.3-41.3%), oleic acid (38.7- 42.3%) and palmitic acid (8.3- 11.3%). Mango kernel fat was blended with palm oil at 0 to 30% levels and margarines were prepared incorporating suitable additives. Margarine containing 30% palm oil blend (experimental margarine-EM) showed textural characteristics closer to commercial bakery margarine (CM). Muffins were prepared by replacing CM with EM at 25, 50, 75 and 100% levels. Fat content of the muffins ranged between 24.8 and 26.2%. Fatty acid composition showed a decrease in palmitic acid and trans fat acid and increase in stearic acid content. Physical characteristics and sensory evaluation showed that muffins prepared by replacing 50% of CM were highly acceptable. Thus, it could be concluded that muffins having improved fatty acid profile can be prepared utilizing mango kernel fat.
Consulting in Action: A Case Study of Six Community Support Teams Sustaining Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment

Adopting and sustaining mental health-evidence based practices (EBPs) in community mental health agencies is a challenge because it often entails making infrastructural changes, such as support for assessments and creation of new service types, with minimal financial support from state mental health authorities. Even when there is appropriate funding, oversight, and systems, ongoing training and support for staff are limited and require creative use of agency resources. EBP guides and toolkits must be supplemented by ongoing training, for example, consultation, in order to support and maintain changes in staff behavior. This paper describes the impact of an interactive, in-vivo consulting model on quality of services and consumer outcomes. This training model, in conjunction with program monitoring, supported and maintained the clinical components of one mental health EBP, integrated dual disorder treatment, for individuals with co-occurring serious mental illness and substance use disorder.
Adolescent peer relations instrument : assessment of its reliability and construct validity when used with upper primary students

An increasing awareness of the detrimental effects of single-item scales to measure bullying has recently become apparent. A new multiple-item multiplescale behavioural measure of bullying was developed for secondary schools by Parada (2000) and found to be a reliable and valid scale for adolescent students. However, it is not known whether a similar instrument would yield sound psychometric properties for younger students and therefore provide a salient measure for those students. The aim of the present investigation is to examine the multi-dimensional and hierarchical structure of the Adolescent Peer Relations Questionnaire (APRI)(Parada, 2000) for upper primary aged students. A total of 894 students from Years 5 and 6 from eight Western Sydney primary schools completed the questionnaire. The APRI contains 36 items, 6 scales, and measures 3 types of bullying (Physical, Verbal, Social) in 2 categories (bullying, being targeted). Each scale (e.g., Bullying Physical) is comprised of 6 items. In addition, this investigation analyses the ability of these 3 types of bullying and being targeted to define 2 global second order factors – Global Bullying, and Global Target. Results from the first- and second order Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) showed excellent results for the APRI. The APRI was as such deemed appropriate for use within the upper primary school years.
Multiple Intelligences and Videogames: Intervention Proposal for Learning Disabilities

In recent years, there has been much research into the possibilities offered by digital tools for intervention in learning disabilities. The most recent studies have found that these tools can have positive effects on diverse aspects of learning, such as the acquisition of reading, writing, vocabulary and mathematics, as well as improvement of executive functioning and behavioural control skills. Despite the results showing the positive effects of using digital tools for students with learning disabilities, it remains necessary to widen their use in areas such as identification, assessment and intervention as early as possible. Within the current chapter, the application of the conceptual framework of multiple intelligences to the design of educational video games is proposed to facilitate diagnosis and improve intervention success in cases of learning disability. In this regard, a proposed novel tool is presented that may be used for the evaluation and intervention for students with learning disabilities.
Molecular bases of Sorcin-dependent resistance to chemotherapeutic agents

Soluble resistance-related calcium binding protein (Sorcin) is a protein initially labelled “resistance-related”, since it is co-amplified with ABCB1 in multidrug (MD)-resistant cells. While for years Sorcin overproduction was believed to be a by-product of the co-amplification of its gene with the P-glycoprotein gene, many recent studies view Sorcin as an oncoprotein, playing an important role in MD resistance (MDR). Sorcin is one of the most highly expressed calciumbinding proteins, which is overexpressed in many human tumors and MD resistant cancers, and represents a novel MDR marker. Sorcin expression in tumors inversely correlates with patients’ response to chemotherapies and overall prognosis. Sorcin is highly expressed in MDR cell lines over their parent cells. Sorcin overexpression by gene transfection increases drug resistance to a variety of chemotherapeutic drugs in many cancer lines. On the other hand, Sorcin silencing leads to reversal of drug resistance in many cell lines. This review describes: (1) the roles of Sorcin in the cell; (2) the studies showing Sorcin overexpression in tumors and cancer cells; (3) the studies showing the effects of Sorcin overexpression and silencing; (4) the molecular effects of Sorcin overexpression; and (5) the structural and genetic bases of Sorcin-dependent MDR.