Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pastoral dynamics in the region of Diffa (Niger) : a descriptive analysis of livestock capital

Located between the desert zone in the North and the Sahelian zone in the South, the Region of Diffa is a pastoral area par excellence in Niger. Breeding, witch a highly diversified livestock, is the dominant economic activity in the region. It occupied 95% of the population and contributes annually to 55% in the formation of the region gross domestic production (1). For understanding the pastoral dynamic a survey of 300 households (150 households witch herd sedentary and 150 witch herd mobile) was conducted during the first semester of 2012. The data analysis is performed from a herd of 15,618 animal heads consisting mainly of small ruminants for both sedentary (72%) and mobile (52%). The herd structure (sedentary and mobile) by age and sex shows on the one hand, the males are early and systematically exploited, all species including, and the reproduction is carried out by a core of female spawners more less stable and dominated by young females, on the other hand. Comparative analysis of compositions and structures of the livestock by agro-ecological zone (Pastoral bowls zone; Komadougou River and Lake Chad zones) reveals zonal disparities particularly in the sedentary livestock system.
Partial Replacement of Elephantgrass Silage with Cottonseed Hulls . 1 . Intake , Degradability , and Apparent Ruminal , Intestinal , and Total Tract Digestibilities in Steers

Four ruminally cannulated Holstein steers averaging 259 kg of body weight were randomly assigned to a 4x4 Latin square to study the effects of replacing elephantgrass silage with cottonseed hulls on intake and apparent ruminal, intestinal, and total tract digestibilities of dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), ether extract (EE), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber corrected to ash and protein (NDFap), and corrected non-fiber carbohydrates (NFCap). Intake of total digestible nutrients (TDN) and ruminal degradabilities of cottonseed hulls, elephantgrass silage, sorghum, and soybean meal also were evaluated. Treatments (60% of forage) contained on DM basis: 0, 10, 20 or 30% of cottonseed hulls that partially replaced elephantgrass silage in the diet. Digestibilities were obtained using indigestible acid detergent fiber as an internal marker. To determine ruminal degradability of the feeds two steers were used and the following incubation times were adopted: zero, three, six, 12, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 144 hours. Daily intake of all nutrients expressed either as an amount or as percentage of body weight, increased linearly by partially replacing elephantgrass silage with cottonseed hulls. No effects of increasing levels of cottonseed hulls were observed for apparent ruminal, intestinal, and total tract digestibilities of nutrients in the current trial. Consequently, contents of dietary TDN did not differ and averaged 59.53% across diets. In addition, calculated TDN was 55.52% for cottonseed hulls. Effective DM degradation, assuming a passage rate of 5.06%/h, was 38.65; 41.13; 68.58, and 77.56% for cottonseed hulls, elephantgrass silage, sorghum, and soybean meal, respectively. It can be concluded that cottonseed hulls is a good forage alternative to elephantgrass silage and may supply up to 30% of the total DM in diets of dairy steers.
Effect of Herbicides, Seed Dressing Chemicals and Spray Regimes on Germination, Insect Infestation and Yield of Cowpea ('Vigna unguiculata' (L) Walp)

A field experiment was conducted in Samaru-Zaria located between latitudes11010' and 10054'N and longitudes 07038' and 07044'E within the guinea Savanna zone of North central Nigeria. The effect of seed treatment chemicals (Apron Star(R) 24WP, 20% w/w Thiamethoxoams, 20% w/w Metalaxyl-M and 20% w/w Difenoconazole) and four spray regimes (5 days, 7 days, 10 days and 14 days after sowing) on the germination, insect infestation and yield of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp) (SAMPEA-7) were investigated during the 2006/2007 rainy season. The experiment comprised of five treatments replicated four times in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). The result obtained showed that seeds dressed with Apron Star(R) recorded higher germination counts (35 seedlings) compared to the undressed seeds, which had the least estimates (26.75 seedlings) and lower yields (366.7kg/ha). The SAMPEA-7 seeds dressed and protected with Cypermethrin and Dimethoate for the control of field insect pests gave significant (p<0.05) grain yield per ha under 7 days (1387.50kg/ha) and 10 days (1208.30kg/ha) spray regimes. Farmers could therefore adopt either the 7 or 10 days spray regimes in the zone.
Levels and effects of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) on circulating thyroid hormones in house sparrows (Passer domesticus) from Leka, Norway

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have been reported to disrupt vertebrate endocrine systems in numerous wildlife, semi-field and laboratory studies, and thyroid homeostasis is among the systems reported to be susceptible for such perturbation. Thyroid hormones are important in a vast range of physiological processes, and a disruption of thyroid homeostasis might thus cause detrimental effects. Toxic effects exerted by POPs on the thyroid system has been reported in mammals and in birds at high trophic levels, but the knowledge of POPs toxicity in passerines is limited. The passerine species house sparrow (Passer domesticus) has to my knowledge never been investigated for thyroid disruption previous to the present study. The house sparrow has experienced a severe population decrease in Northern Europe since mid-1980s, and the reason for the decline is not completely elucidated. Increased knowledge regarding levels and toxic effects of POPs in house sparrows might contribute to further elucidation of the problem. The aim of the present study was to investigate potential effects of POPs exposure on the thyroid system, herein represented by circulating free fractions of 3,3,5-triiodothyronine (FT3) and thyroxine (FT4), in house sparrows from Norway. An additional aim was to contribute to the existing documentation of POPs levels in passerines, specifically hepatic levels. The multivariate statistical analyses principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal projections to latent structures (O-PLS) were used to model the complexity of variables affecting FT3 and FT4 levels in the birds, including both biometric variables and contaminant levels as predictors. Additionally, bivariate correlations between contaminants and thyroid hormones were investigated with Spearmans rank correlation test. The study population was located on an agricultural island in Northern Norway, and sampling was conducted in February 2013. Significant correlations between single POPs and thyroid hormones are reported in the present study. Although statistical correlations do not represent cause-effect relationship, these findings add further weight of evidence to the hypothesis of avian thyroid disruption caused by contaminant exposure in wildlife. The level of contamination in the investigated sparrows was in general low, but a few individuals had highly elevated levels of some polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners compared to the mean. PCBs and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were found at higher concentrations than polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the sparrows, and the OCPs varied significantly between sexes. The level of one contaminant seemed to vary with age (PCB-52), and levels of three PBDE congeners (BDE-47, -99 and -100) varied significantly according to which farm the investigated birds was captured.
Serial innovators in the UK: does size matter?

This article aims to shed light on the presence and importance of a significant number of small firms amongst serial innovators. Contrary to the common expectation in the innovative persistence literature, we posit that small serial innovators also benefit from operating within patterns of creative accumulation. However, it is in the quality of the technology and in the very nature of the knowledge accumulation process that the differences between small and large serial innovators can be found. Using a sample of 811 UK-based, highly innovative companies that patented over 66,000 inventions from 1990 to 2006, we find evidence in support of our theory. While large serial innovators experience higher innovation rates due to the scale of their innovation efforts, small serial innovators benefit more from processes of search depth characterized by the internal recombination of their previous knowledge. We find that important differences exist also in the very nature of the technologies being developed by small and large serial innovators.
An epidemiological analysis of cervical cancer in women age less than 30 years and their prognosis, a regional cancer center experience

Objective: Cervical cancer though common among the developing world, still very few data is available for young patients with cervical cancer. This paper attempts to evaluate the epidemiology with special focus on disease free survival and the prognostic significance of the young age in cervical cancer. Material & Methods: For this retrospective study young patient with age less than 30 years & cervical cancer, over duration of 2009 to 2014 were included. Pertinent data were collected retrogradely from the case records & whenever required patients were contacted over phone. Results: Between 2009 to 2014, a total of 8363 cervical cancer patients were referred to us, out of which 169 patients with carcinoma cervix in the age group of < 30 years were treated at our hospital. From the 169 patients, 52 patients were lost to follow up. Among 117 patients who were treated, 65(55.55%) had Disease Free survival of less than 6 months. According to the histopathology squamous cell carcinoma had a disease free survival (DFS) of 8.5 months, followed by adenocarcinoma 10.62 months. Conclusion: We have found the poor prognosis of cervical cancer in young patients compared to older patients. More studies are required to study the pathophysiology and factors implicating the prognosis in young patients with cervical cancer to know this basic difference in survival among old and young patients with cervical cancer.
Self Emulsifying Drug Delivery Systems: Progress till now

Over 40 % of the new age drugs have poor hydrophilicity. This causes issues in formulation and thereby limiting its dissolution and bioavailability, forcing them to be given intravenously resulting in increased production cost, poor patient compliance, and toxicity in long term therapy. Self Emulsifying Drug Delivery System (SEDDS) is a pharmaceutical formulation aimed at increasing the dissolution of orally administered drugs, mainly BCS II class of drugs in GIT. The approach overcomes the problem of dissolution limited absorption of hydrophobic drugs and therefore minimum effective concentration of drug in plasma is attained. SEDDS consists of different proportions of oil, surfactant, and cosurfactant which modify the solubilising capacity of the drug and thereby varying the drug release profile. The aim of this review is to summarise the potential applications of SEDDS for increasing the oral bioavailability of BCS class II drugs. This review details about the selection of lipid system, surfactants and cosolvents. The review provides the overview of potential application of self emulsified system, and effectively summarizes the progress made till now in this domain.
Peskun–Tierney ordering for Markovian Monte Carlo: Beyond the reversible scenario

Historically time-reversibility of the transitions or processes underpinning Markov chain Monte Carlo methods (MCMC) has played a key role in their development, while the self-adjointness of associated operators together with the use of classical functional analysis techniques on Hilbert spaces have led to powerful and practically successful tools to characterise and compare their performance. Similar results for algorithms relying on nonreversible Markov processes are scarce. We show that for a type of nonreversible Monte Carlo Markov chains and processes, of current or renewed interest in the physics and statistical literatures, it is possible to develop comparison results which closely mirror those available in the reversible scenario. We show that these results shed light on earlier literature, proving some conjectures and strengthening some earlier results.
An Overview of Production and Industrial Exploitation of Bacterial Laccases

| Laccases (p-diphenol: oxygen oxidoreductase, EC 1.10.3.2) are multi-copper polyphenolic oxidases that oxidize many phenolic and non-phenolic aromatic compounds such as amino or methoxy monophenols, syringaldazine, ABTS and amino or methoxy monophenols. They have been depicted in various species of bacteria, plants and in different genera of fungi. Laccases have been purified by various methods. It involves in di-oxygen to water reduction and 1eoxidation of phenolic and its allied parts. Laccases are mostly used in different industries like food, paper and pulp, pharmaceutical and textile etc. Both laccases and mediators have been used in different process like delignification of pulp. Laccases from bacterial species are used in dye decolouration and biobleaching processes. This review article describes the whole overview of laccases. Novelty Statement | This paper reported the updated knowledge about bacterial laccases. Article History Received: June 13, 2019 Revised: March 26, 2020 Accepted: June 15, 2020 Published: June 29, 2020 Authors’ Contributions FA reviewed the literature and wrote the manuscript. MI supervised the study. HAS helped in manuscript writing. SA did literature survey. MK critically reviewed the dinal draft.
Structure, Conduct and Performance of Indian Banking Sector

Abstract In the context of initiation of economic reforms in general and changes in policies and regulations of the banking sector in particular, the present paper attempts to examine the structure-conduct-performance relationships in Indian banking sector. It is observed that there have been changes in the market structure of Indian banking sector, conducts of the banks and their performance in the post-reform era, especially during the last decade, though the changes have not been significant in every aspect. Using a panel dataset of 59 banks operating in India during 1999-2000 to 2008-2009 and applying the two-stage least squares (2SLS) method of estimation, the paper finds that there exist strong inter-linkages amongst structure of the market, banks’ conduct and their financial performance. While market share of a bank depends directly on its market size, asset base, selling efforts, and past financial performance, its selling efforts vary directly with market share, asset base, and past financial performance. On the other hand, returns on assets of a bank vary directly with its market share, but inversely with its asset base and selling efforts. The regression results essentially suggest for multidirectional and dynamic SCP relationships in Indian banking sector. It is also found that the nature of ownership has significant influence on market share, selling efforts and financial performance of the banks. As compared to the nationalised banks, market share of the private banks (both domestic and foreign) is found to be lower. But private banks make greater selling efforts and have better financial performance vis-à-vis their public sector counterparts
A Review of the UK-ICO’s Draft Guidance on the AI Auditing Framework

The Information Commissioner’s Ofﬁce (ICO) timely call for consultation regarding their ‘Guid-ance on the AI auditing framework: Draft guidance for consultation’ (February 2020) is part of a growing literature concerning the governance of Artiﬁcial Intelligence (AI) systems. The ICO’s draft leads the UK’s national conversation by producing guidance that encompasses both technical (ex. system impact assessments) and non-technical (ex. human oversight) components to governance and represents a signiﬁcant milestone in the movement towards standardising AI governance. Welcoming this crucial intervention, we summarise and critically evaluated each section of the draft guidance, offering feed-back in line with the call for consultation. We conclude with a note on what we anticipate will be future debates and by presenting our general recommendations.
Purchase Intention of College Students in China to H Mobile Phone during the Sino-US Trade War

The purpose of this study is to investigate will college students in China still purchase H mobile phones during Sino-US trade war, most importantly is to understand what factors affect purchase intention of H mobile phone to college students in China during this special period and is there any significant difference in purchase intention among different demographic characteristics. The researcher used convenience sampling and snowball sampling to collect 386 valid data by distributing the questionnaire online in five provinces in China from 425 respondents. Cronbach’s alpha was measured to test the reliability of the data. Besides, Pearson correlation, multiple linear regression and ANOVA are used to test hypotheses. The findings revealed that more than half of college students in China will still purchase H phones and there is a significant difference in purchase intention among different genders, age groups, provinces, money respondents are willing to pay for a phone and different number of phones respondents are using at present. Most importantly, four of six independent variables have significant influence on purchase intention of H phones which are product features, social influence, and ethnocentrism and brand image. The findings of this study are limited by number of respondents and non-probability sampling method. Anyway, this study can predict to a great extent whether H mobile phone will survive this difficult time and give an answer to the world.
Toxoplasma Retinitis in Immunocompromised Host with Normal CD4 Count-A Case Report

Toxoplasmosis is the most common opportunistic infection in patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. A potentially blinding necrotizing retinitis can occur, with progressive deterioration of CD4+ T counts below 250 cells/cumm. This case highlights its unusual presentation in an HIV patient with normal CD4+ T counts. A 42-year-old gentleman presented with a week history of left eye diminution of vision. Clinical examination of the right eye was unremarkable while left eye showed anterior chamber and vitreous cells with a yellowish foveal lesion suspicious of toxoplasmic retinitis. He was seropositive for HIV, on therapy for ten years, with CD4+ T count 777 cells/cumm. Laboratory tests confirmed toxoplasmosis. He was started on oral anti-toxoplasma medication with tapering doses of oral and topical steroids. On subsequent follow-up, the patient had good visual and clinical improvement.
GTMapLens: Interactive Lens for Geo‐Text Data Browsing on Map

Data containing geospatial semantics, such as geotagged tweets, travel blogs, and crime reports, associates natural language texts with geographical locations. This paper presents a lens‐based visual interaction technique, GTMapLens, to flexibly browse the geo‐text data on a map. It allows users to perform dynamic focus+context exploration by using movable lenses to browse geographical regions, find locations of interest, and perform comparative and drill‐down studies. Geo‐text data is visualized in a way that users can easily perceive the underlying geospatial semantics along with lens moving. Based on a requirement analysis with a cohort of multidisciplinary domain experts, a set of lens interaction techniques are developed including keywords control, path management, context visualization, and snapshot anchors. They allow users to achieve a guided and controllable exploration of geo‐text data. A hierarchical data model enables the interactive lens operations by accelerated data retrieval from a geo‐text database. Evaluation with real‐world datasets is presented to show the usability and effectiveness of GTMapLens.
Backscatter Communications: Inception of the Battery-Free Era—A Comprehensive Survey

The ever increasing proliferation of wireless objects and consistent connectivity demands are creating significant challenges for battery-constrained wireless devices. The vision of massive IoT, involving billions of smart objects to be connected to the cellular network, needs to address the problem of uninterrupted power consumption while taking advantage of emerging high-frequency 5G communications. The problem of limited battery power motivates us to utilize radio frequency (RF) signals as the energy source for battery-free communications in next-generation wireless networks. Backscatter communication (BackCom) makes it possible to harvest energy from incident RF signals and reflect back parts of the same signals while modulating the data. Ambient BackCom (Amb-BackCom) is a type of BackCom that can harvest energy from nearby WiFi, TV, and cellular RF signals to modulate information. The objective of this article is to review BackCom as a solution to the limited battery life problem and enable future battery-free communications for combating the energy issues for devices in emerging wireless networks. We first highlight the energy constraint in existing wireless communications. We then investigate BackCom as a practical solution to the limited battery life problem. Subsequently, in order to take the advantages of omnipresent radio waves, we elaborate BackCom tag architecture and various types of BackCom. To understand encoding and data extraction, we demonstrate signal processing aspects that cover channel coding, interference, decoding, and signal detection schemes. Moreover, we also describe BackCom communication modes, modulation schemes, and multiple access techniques to accommodate maximum users with high throughput. Similarly, to mitigate the increased network energy, adequate data and power transfer schemes for BackCom are elaborated, in addition to reliability, security, and range extension. Finally, we highlight BackCom applications with existing research challenges and future directions for next-generation 5G wireless networks.
ZEKI: unsupervised zero-day exploit kit intelligence

: Over the last few years, exploit kits (EKs) have become the de facto medium for large-scale spread of malware. Drive-by download is the leading method that is widely used by EK flavors to exploit web-based client-side vulnerabilities. Their principal goal is to infect the victim’s system with a malware. In addition, EK families evolve quickly, where they port zero-day exploits for brand new vulnerabilities that were never seen before and for which no patch exists. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for categorizing malware infection incidents conducted through EKs by leveraging the inherent “overall URL patterns” in the HTTP traffic chain. The proposed approach is based on the key finding that EKs infect victim systems using a specially designed chain, where EKs lead the web browser to download a malicious payload by issuing several HTTP requests to more than one malicious domain addresses. This practice in use enables the development of a system that is capable of clustering the responsible EK instances. The method has been evaluated with a popular and publicly available dataset that contains 240 different real-world infection cases involving over 2250 URLs, the incidents being linked with the 4 major EK flavors that occurred throughout the year 2016. The system achieves up to 93.7% clustering accuracy with the estimators experimented.