Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AN EVALUATION OF SELECTED PILOT FISH HATCHERY OPERATIONS IN GHANA

The failure of past attempts to develop aquaculture in Ghana has been of concern to many people. Relevant constraints identified included fmgerling shortages, low economic returns from the industry, inadequate tested extension messages among others. In recent years. The Water Research Institute and the Directorate of Fisheries have made some efforts to solve the immediate problems of inadequate seed supply and stunted growth of tilapia in ponds due to excessive reproduction. Pilot hatcheries were improvised from available facilities in Accra, Kumasi and Akosombo to produce the right age and quantity of fry/fmgerlings for fanners. The objectives of this study are (1) To ascertain the viability of these pilot activities. (2) To propose viable option(s) built upon the above initiatives and (3) To contribute information on the economics of tilapia culture. Econometric models were estimated to assess technical and economic efficiencies of some beneficiary fanners. The Akosombo tilapia activities, showed signs of being financially/economically viable. With regards to the Accra catfish activity sensitivity analysis revealed that, an increment of 10 per cent upon the current survival rate of 37 per cent could lead it to viability. However, at the same assumed improved survival rate, the Kumasi hatchery proved nonviable. Regression results showed that the experience of farmers, stocking density, quantity of manure and pond fertility levels significantly influenced tilapia output. Also, current rates of stocking and liming are below optimum levels. Increased use of these inputs, as suggested by the input allocative efficiency criteria may not be realistic, given the subsistence nature of these farms. Assured availability of these inputs and cash are therefore, prerequisites to exploit further production and income from tilapia culture by farmers. Measures to encourage private fmgerling producers, strengthening of the requisite technical manpower in the country, regular training programs for farmers and the establishment of on-farm and on-station research programs to refine upon current practices are recommended. University of Ghana http://ugspace.ug. edu.gh
Geosynthetic stabilization of unpaved roads on soft ground : a field evaluation

A full scale field trial was carried out to investigate the performance of different geosynthetics in unpaved road construction over soft ground. The test site comprises five 16 m long, by 4.5 m wide test sections, built on a subgrade of undrained shear strength approximately 40 kPa. One is unreinforced and serves as a control section in the study, three sections include a geotextile, and one includes a geogrid. Each test section incorporated a variable thickness of sandy gravel base course material, between 25 and 50 cm thick. They were trafficked in sequence by a vehicle of standard axle load. An important governing parameter for interpretation of behavior is the influence of base course thickness on the relationship between number of passes and rut depth. Performance of the test sections was evaluated from measurements of rut depth, base course thickness, base course deformations, geosynthetic strain, and deformed profile of the geosynthetic, with increasing number of vehicle passes. Vehicle trafficking was continued to a rut depth of about 20 cm, which constitutes a serviceability failure. Results from the full scale field trial show a better performance in the reinforced sections than the unreinforced section. The performance of the unreinforced section shows good agreement with other well-documented field data at large rut depths, between 10 and 15 cm, but not at small ruts. Although the four geosynthetics exhibited a broad range of stiffness and material properties, the general performance of the four reinforced sections was similar on the thicker base course layers. This is attributed to a reinforced mechanism governed by stiffness and separation, and all materials appear adequately stiff for the site condition and vehicle loading. On the thinner subgrades, a tensioned-membrane effect is mobilized, and a significant difference is observed between the geosynthetics.
Debris Clearance by Microglia: an Essential Link between Degeneration and Regeneration

Microglia are cells of myeloid origin that populate the CNS during early development and form the brain's innate immune cell type. They perform homoeostatic activity in the normal CNS, a function associated with high motility of their ramified processes and their constant phagocytic clearance of cell debris. This debris clearance role is amplified in CNS injury, where there is frank loss of tissue and recruitment of microglia to the injured area. Recent evidence suggests that this phagocytic clearance following injury is more than simply tidying up, but instead plays a fundamental role in facilitating the reorganization of neuronal circuits and triggering repair. Insufficient clearance by microglia, prevalent in several neurodegenerative diseases and declining with ageing, is associated with an inadequate regenerative response. Thus, understanding the mechanism and functional significance of microglial-mediated clearance of tissue debris following injury may open up exciting new therapeutic avenues.
Inpatient Palliative Care Consultation for Women with Gynecologic

Objective: Recommendations to improve end-of-life cancer care include integration of palliative care into standard cancer care. There is limited information regarding palliative care for ethnic and racial minority women with gynecologic malignancies. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of clinical, socio-demographic, and provider factors on palliative medicine consultation. Methods: After IRB approval, patients with gynecologic malignancies who received a palliative medicine consultation from January 1, 2008 until June 1, 2010 were identified. Abstracted data included demographics, reason/s for consultation, and outcomes. Results were described and comparison made using Fisher’s Exact Test, Student’s T analysis, and Kaplan-Meier time to event analysis with SPSS software. Results: 84 patients were referred for palliative medicine consultation. Ethnic/racial distribution was Black (37%), White (39%), and Hispanic (16%). The reason/s for consultation included pain (45%), goals of care (46%), and bowel obstruction (4%), dyspnea (4%). Median number of days from the initial consultation until death by Kaplan-Meier time to event analysis, which is a proxy metric for timely consultation was 35 days [Range 0-1005 days]. Younger patients (<60) were less likely to be DNR (p=0.03, 60% verses 79.5%) or referred to hospice (p=0.02, 9% versus 33%). “Goals of care” was the consultation reason in 61% of patients of medical sub-specialists vs. 26% of Gynecologic Oncologists (p=0.003). 28% of patients from medical sub-specialists died in the hospital verses 8% of gynecologic oncologist referred patients (p=0.02). Conclusions: These data suggest that there may be barriers to the implementation of palliative medicine for women with gynecologic malignancies. Providers may be influenced by patient age as well as their own specialty background. Reasons for the barriers to access in these women need to be further explored.
Analysis of Studies on Social Support and Children of Depressed Mothers: A Systematic Review

Recognizing the conditions that minimize the impact of maternal depression on children has clinical relevance. The present review aimed to analyze recent empirical studies that have investigated the associations between maternal depression and different social support conditions for school-aged children. We systematically reviewed empirical articles indexed from 2007 to 2014 in the following databases: MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, LILACS and SciELO. Three keywords were used: maternal depression, social support and child behavior. Twenty-seven articles were included and analyzed. These studies included a broad range of contextual risk factors and social support conditions, and in their predictive models, it was found that less contextual risk and greater parental resources and social support were predictors of fewer problems for the children. The identification of social support sources that attenuate the effect of maternal depression on child outcomes has implications for the development of prevention and intervention programs.
Computing Eigenface from Edge Images for Face Recognition Based on Hausdorff Distance

The different face regions have different degrees of importance for face recognition. In previous Hausdorff distance measures for face recognition, such as Spatially Eigen-Weighted Hausdorff distance (SEWHD) in which the weighting function is computed from grayscale images. However, Hausdorff distance is a measure for two binary point sets, not for grayscale point sets. Based on our previous work on Weighted Hausdorff distance (EFWHD) for face localization, a new weighting function of Hausdorff distance measure termed Edge Eigenface Weighted Hausdorff distance (EEWHD) is proposed for face recognition in this paper. The weighting function, which reflects the discriminative properties of face edge images effectively, is based on the eigenface of face edge images, not the eigenface of grayscale images in SEWHD, nor the edge points appearing frequency in EFWHD. The weighted Hausdorff distance Experimental results show the new method achieves higher recognition rate comparing with previous Hausdorff distance measures.
Environmental monitoring services based on wireless sensor networks

It is nowadays notorious the dependence of modern society in computer systems, able to aggregate and manipulate tremendous amounts of information. In the last decades, associated to the surge of the new wireless technologies, to the increased miniaturization and energy efficiency of integrated circuits, a new study subject emerged: Wireless Sensor Networks. WSNs join knowledge from several fields of science, like Computer Science and Electronics, to enable platforms that can be used to distributively sense specific variables. The fields of application of WSN technologies are immense due to several advantages over common wired sensing networks. Standards and specifications like the IEEE802.15. 4 and ZigBee emerged, that specify the communication channels and allow interoperability between different hardware. These networks are usually established with small battery powered devices , that collect data in their surrounding environment. These new platforms join already well established applications in the field of wireless personal area networks, that are today present in people’s lives. Bluetooth serves as an example; this technology is today seamlessly used in working and home environments. The penetration of devices capable of establishing wireless networks is bound to increase due to its massive acceptance, increasing data transmission rates and reliability. The result of this work is a complete platform, based on a wireless sensor network, able to gather environmental data and providing it online through a set of services. One of the main purposes of the research subject is to develop a system, complying with applicable open standards that allows easy integration of data gathered at the wireless network level with current publicly available geo-location tools. A step by step documentation of the system is used, in order to demonstrate its build steps and the methodologies used in order to circumvent the difficulties found. This research is supported by a case study, where the system is used for real life purposes in the study of construction materials and their influence on thermal comfort zones. This study shows that wireless sensor networks are particularly well suited for gathering environmental data in a spatial distributed context. Small micro-climatic changes can be parametrized using the developed tools. Integrating the evolution of different measurable variables with its geographic location enables a deeper understanding of how the location characteristics influence such variation. This research will also show that there are still issues pertaining link quality, and routing algorithms when using WSNs. The developed application performance is analysed in order to backup such statements. It is possible to extend this system for other monitoring appliances. Further research could be made to extend this application for pollution monitoring, by adding air quality sensors and also noise sensors. Monitoring the buildings energy consumption, and estimating their thermal efficiency could also be achieved by extending the developed framework.
Town Centre Management: a solution to the challenges facing urban centres?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the experience of towns which utilize town centre management (TCM) initiatives. The findings which emerge offer insights into how TCM can aid the development of urban centres.Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative research was conducted with public servants charged with the delivery of TCM initiatives in Northern Ireland (NI). Findings – The paper presents multiple perspectives on the purpose, process, benefits and challenges of TCM, specifically the TCM initiatives in NI.Practical implications – The paper presents evidence of the success of TCM in each of the participating urban centres.Originality/value – The paper focuses on research which seeks to enhance the understanding of TCM initiatives. This research indicates that TCM (with the right stakeholders) is a viable alternative to town planning, regeneration and management.
Intramuscular injection of an adenoviral vector expressing hepatocyte growth factor facilitates hepatic transduction with a retroviral vector in mice.

Retroviral vectors can result in therapeutic and stable levels of expression of proteins from the liver. However, most retroviral vectors transduce only dividing cells, and hepatocytes are normally quiescent. The goal of this study was to determine if an adenoviral vector could transiently express hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) in order to induce hepatocyte replication and facilitate retroviral vector transduction of the liver. Intramuscular injection of an adenoviral vector that expressed human HGF from the cytomegalovirus promoter (Ad.CMV.HGF) resulted in moderate levels of HGF in blood and liver, and replication of 3 to 12% of hepatocytes. No cytopathic effect was observed in the liver, and a control adenoviral vector induced no or lower levels of replication. When a retroviral vector expressing beta-galactosidase cDNA was injected into a peripheral vein during the peak period of hepatocyte replication induced by intramuscularly administered Ad.CMV. HGF, 8% of hepatocytes were transduced. We conclude that intramuscular injection of Ad.CMV. HGF is a safe and effective way to induce transient systemic expression of HGF and hepatocyte replication, and to facilitate transduction of hepatocytes with a retroviral vector.
A systematic literature review of content-based mobile health

Mobile health (m-health) applications have recently attracted attention from both the manufacturing sector and research community. The evolution in the use of the smartphone has been aided by advanced communication and presents challenges in terms of the reliability and accuracy of applications. Awareness of these challenges could help industries and designers to develop better tools to enable patients and users to access effective apps. The aim of the study is to identify the critical features and content for m-health apps and the essential components for a salient m-health framework. In support of this aim, this article reviews 80 papers with more than 100 applications regarding m-health applications to gain a deep understanding of the critical content requirements for future improvements in m-health app features. Four prominent characteristics of the most important features emerged from the review of the literature: 1) reminder, 2) monitoring program, 3) training program, and 4) community network features. These features were then incorporated into the design of a m-health framework. It is our hope that m-health technology adoption will increase in the near future by improving patient engagement. The authors believe that by understanding m-health app critical content requirements and its classification, new solutions may be revealed with the potential to overcome the present challenges.
Bed rest and cognition: effects on executive functioning and reaction time.

INTRODUCTION Executive functions are high-order aspects of cognition heavily dependent upon the prefrontal cortex. Both prefrontal cortex activity and executive function task performance are enhanced by participation in aerobic physical activity, suggesting that a lack of such activity during the bed rest model of prolonged weightlessness might induce executive function deficits. METHODS Twenty-four healthy males (ages 21-45 yr) undertook 60 d of head-down bed rest (-6 degrees) for the 2nd Berlin Bed Rest Study (BBR2-2). Three executive function tasks (Iowa Gambling Task, working memory, and flanker) and a reaction time task were administered before, during, and after bed rest. RESULTS Iowa Gambling Task scores were significantly worse during bed rest (1.7 +/- 6.9) than in other sessions (24.3 +/- 7.8). Effects on working memory and flanker task performance were less obvious, requiring practice effects to be considered. Reaction time was significantly slower after bed rest (569 +/- 42 ms) than in earlier tests (529 +/- 45 ms). There was also significantly less intrasubject variability in reaction time after bed rest, consistent with more efficient executive functioning at this stage. DISCUSSION Our results provide some evidence for a detrimental effect of bed rest on executive functioning. Whether this stems from a lack of aerobic physical activity and/or changes in the prefrontal cortex remains to be determined. Cognitive effects of bed rest could have implications for the planned human exploration of Mars, and for medical and lifestyle conditions with inadequate levels of aerobic physical activity.
Transmit and Receive Diversity in Body-Centric Wireless Communications

Two antenna diversity schemes are evaluated for use with the 2.45 GHz wireless off-body communication between a receiver worn at the ear and a stationary transmitter. A receive diversity scheme is compared to a transmit diversity scheme in an indoor environment. It is found that the two diversity schemes can provide the same improvement of the channel fading. Therefore the transmit diversity scheme may be a viable option for systems such as Hearing Instruments (HI) that are subjected to strict space requirements at the receiver end.
Regulation of financial systems and economic growth in OECD countries: An empirical analysis

The operation of the financial system can have a key impact on economic growth and the stability of the economy. It affects long-term economic growth through its effect on the efficiency of intermediation between the savers and final borrowers of funds; through the extent to which it allows for monitoring of the users of external funds, affecting thereby the productivity of capital employed; and through its implications for the volume of saving, which influences the future income-generating capacity of the economy. It affects the stability of the economy because of the high degree of leverage of its activities and its pivotal role in the settlement of all transactions in the economy, so that any failure in one segment risks undermining the stability of the whole system.
The Cyclically-Adjusted Budget Balance in EU Fiscal Policy Making: A Love at First Sight Turned into a Mature Relationship

The cyclically-adjusted budget balance (CAB) plays a key role in the fiscal surveillance framework of the Economic and Monetary Union. It started off in a supporting role in the shadow of the headline deficit and, before long, turned into the linchpin of the rules and requirements of the Stability and Growth Pact. The steep ascent was driven by high hopes and expectations which, with the passing of time were only partly met. The everyday practice of the EU fiscal surveillance rapidly revealed a number of caveats of the instrument which, at times, hampered the effectiveness of fiscal surveillance. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the changing fortunes of the CAB in the EU fiscal surveillance framework. It portrays its main shortcomings and the way they can be dealt with in practice. As an overall conclusion the paper argues that, although the CAB is not devoid of problems and imperfections, it is superior to the headline deficit in most respects.
Adaptively Mapping Parallelism Based on System Workload Using Machine Learning

Parallel Computing has become pervasive and the number of processors placed in computers will further increase in the future. However, software developers are struggling to efficiently exploit the computational resources provided by parallel architectures. It is thus inevitable to investigate the behaviour of parallel programs and develop methods that help improving their performance. The software developer should not have to worry about how to map parallelism to the underlying architecture, but should instead concentrate on exposing the parallelism and leave the mapping task to the runtime system. In this project, the behaviour of parallel programs in the presence of workload is investigated. It is shown that choosing the right number of threads for an application is crucial to achieve the best performance possible when there is other workload running on the system. The default policy of creating as many threads as there are cores is rarely optimal in this situation and using the optimal number of threads reduces the runtime by 22.5% on average w.r. t. the default policy. Determining the optimal number of threads is not a straight-forward task, because it not only depends on the current workload but also on the program itself. For some programs, reducing the number of threads w.r. t. the default yields the optimal solution, whereas for other programs the best performance is achieved using more threads than there are cores. In order to tackle this problem, a novel technique for choosing the number of threads is presented in this work. Using Machine Learning techniques, a model is created that predicts the optimal number of threads based on the current system workload and the program. Different approaches for modelling this problem and several sets of features are evaluated. With the best model, a speedup of 92% of the optimal performance is achieved, which corresponds to a runtime reduction of almost 16% over the default policy.
Fingerprint Matching Using Minutia Polygons

Fingerprint distortion changes both the geometric position and orientation of minutiae, and leads to difficulties in establishing a match among multiple impressions acquired from the same finger In this paper, minutia polygons are used to match distorted fingerprints. A minutia polygon describes not only the minutia type and orientation but also the minutia shape. This allows the minutia polygon to be bigger than the conventional tolerance box without losing matching accuracy. In other words, a minutia polygon has a higher ability to tolerate distortion. Furthermore, the proposed matching method employs an improved distortion model using a multi-quadric basis function with parameters. Adjustable parameters make this model more suitable for fingerprint distortion. Experimental results show the proposed method is two times faster and more accurate (especially, on fingerprints with heavy distortion) than the method by A.M.Bazen and S.H. Gerez (2003)