Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flowering Phenology and Diversity in Tropical Bignoniaceae

Central American Bignoniaceae show five distinct patterns of flowering phenology. Four of these phenol6gical types characterize different bee-pollinated species. Only the generalized "cornucopia" strategy is employed by temperate Bignoniaceae. In the tropics this strategy is also prevalent and is often associated with a seasonal sequence of flowering by related species. The more specialized phenological strategies employed by many tropical species of Bignoniaceae are viewed as making possible differential and essentially contemporaneous attraction of similar pollinators from the same limited pollinator resource. The high diversity of tropical Bignoniaceae appears to be facilitated by use of a variety of phenological strategies by the different species. It is suggested that such mechanisms may be an important factor in maintaining increased tropical diversity in other groups of plants. DIFFERENCES IN flowering phenology among Central American Bignoniaceae illustrate an overlooked mechanism for maintenance of high species diversity in tropical plant communities. The ecological importance of these differences in phenology is in making possible effective and often contemporaneous sharing by numerous plant species of a limited pollinator resource. Evolutionary diversification of floral morphology in the Bignoniaceae has, of course, given rise to genera employing most of the potential pollen vectors available in a tropical community (Gentry 1972, 1973). But although bats (in Parmentiera, Crescentia, Dendrosicus), hummingbirds (in Mawrtinella), hawkmoths (in Tanaecium), and butterflies and small bees (in Tynnanthus and Arrabidaea florida) are the principal pollinators of some Bignoniaceae, the majority of the 76 species occurring naturally in Costa Rica and Panama are pollinated by large and medium-sized bees, especially female euglossines. In some bee-pollinated species additional morphologic specializations further restrict potential pollen vectors as in Amphilophium where pseudocleistogamous flowers which never open spontaneously can be entered only by the strongest members of the apifauna (Megachile, large anthophorids, presumably xylocopids). However, most bee-pollinated species of Bignoniaceae secure their requisite pollinators by different strategies of flower production rather than morphologic differentiation.
Real-time functionalization and biosensing in subwavelength grating bimodal waveguides

In this paper, we present for the first time experimental results of biosensing processes by using subwavelength grating bimodal waveguides as a refractive index sensors. We demonstrate the detection of 10ppm concentration of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) with a 190pm wavelength shift after a functionalization of the sensor surface with a layer of protein A/G in a continuous flowing system. Real-time data of each step is obtained, validating these kind of novel and highly sensitive SWG sensors for biosensing purposes.
Effect of Human Resource Management Practices on the Performance of Small and Medium Hotels of Osu Klottey Sub-Metropolitan Assembly of Greater Accra

The study investigated the effect of human resource Management practices on performance of Small and Medium Hotels in Osu Klottey Sub-Metropolitan Assembly of Greater Accra of Ghana. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were engaged to sample 200 respondents out of a total population of 501 full time workers of the hotels. Questions were formulated to guide the study. Frequency tables and charts were used to present the responses. Person’s correlation was employed to test the performance of the hotels. Major findings were that correlation coefficient for the relationship between rewards and compensations and the firms’ performance was, however, negative - 0.269. Also, it was found that the relationships between the hotels’ performance and the human resource management practices were statistically significant at alpha (? ) = 0.05. These indicate there are slightly little but positive influence on impact of the recruitment procedures on the hotels’ performances though rewards and compensations had little influence on hotels performance. It also indicates that lack of rewards and compensations demotivates employees to give off their best. Based on the findings some recommendations were made, which offers a new and improved performance. K eywords: Reward and Compensation, Small and Medium Hotels, Firm Performance
The Chronology of Tell El-Daba: A Crucial Meeting Point of 14C Dating, Archaeology, and Egyptology in the 2nd Millennium BC

Radiocarbon dating at the Tell el-Daba site in the Nile Delta has created an enigma for many years. Despite great efforts, the difference of about 120 yr between the chronology based on 14C dates and the one based on archaeological evidence linked to the Egyptian historical chronology has not been solved. In order to foster open discussions on this discrepancy, we present here the results of 40 14C accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements on short-lived plant material assigned to 14 different phases of the Tell el-Daba excavation, spanning 600 yr (about 2000–1400 BC). On the one hand, the recently established agreement between 14C dates and dynastic Egypt (Bronk Ramsey et al. 2010) makes it unlikely that the problem lies in the 14C dates and/or the Egyptian historical chronology. On the other hand, the extensive archaeological evidence from Tell el-Daba linked to many different cultures in the eastern Mediterranean and to the Egyptian historical chronology provides strong evidence for an absolute chronology shifted by about 120 yr with respect to the 14C dates.
The effect of family-centered education on the quality of life of adolescents with spinal cord injuries

Background and Purpose: Spinal injury is a destructive complication creating huge changes in the teen health and lifestyle, depending on its extent and severity. Although most of the complications of this disease are treatable, they impose huge costs on the healthcare system, the patient, and his family. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of family-centered education on the quality of life and self-esteem of adolescents with spinal cord injuries. Method: The present study is a quasi-experimental study. Adolescents (108 old) with spinal cord injuries entered the present study through stratified sampling with appropriate allocation. The participants were compared in two groups of experimental and control. The data was collected using demographic information questionnaire as well as Ferrans and Powers’ quality of life index in spinal cord injury. Four weeks after the intervention, the research questionnaires were completed once more by the adolescents of both groups. Data analysis was conducted by using T-square test, independent t-test, Fisher's exact test, and analysis of variance. Finding: According to results, quality of life mean score of adolescents with spinal cord injuries was 23.05 ± 122.65 before the intervention. It became 22.64 ± 148.15 after the intervention. With respect to importance, quality of life mean score of these adolescents changed from 20.83 ± 164.07 to 21.62 ± 174.99. Conclusion: Given the effect of family-centered education on the quality of life in adolescents with spinal cord injuries, it seems essential to create necessary grounds for training families having adolescents with spinal cord injuries by nurses to improve their quality of life as well as conducting researches on their problems.
Estimation of dietary habits and physical activity among young population in Vojvodina: BMI-for-age approach

Healthy diet and development of proper dietary habits in adolescence combined with sufficient physical activity are recognized as the key factors of a long-term health. This study was conducted to gain an insight into the dietary habits, the frequency of meal intake and physical activity of the young population by applying a survey. Surveyed participants were Hungarian nationality students who attended elementary and high schools in the province of Vojvodina, Serbia. The total number of participants was 525 (42.5% males and 57.5% females) most of which were from the rural area. To address the nutritional status and risk for overweight among the young population, body mass index (BMI) of the participants was determined. The majority of participants had normal range nutritional status (70.48%) followed by overweight (19.81%) and obese (7.62%). Overweight and obese nutritional statuses were more common among male participants. Increasing number of participants with overweight nutritional status was noticed in the 7 th grade of elementary school (25.81%). Insufficient physical activity and irregularities in meals intake were also noticed within the studied population which is an indicator of potential obesity development in adulthood.
Evaluation of dalbavancin on length of stay in acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections

Acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI) are common reasons for hospital admission. A pathway to shift care to the outpatient setting sooner could decrease length of stay (LOS). Our not‐for‐profit community health system has developed a novel practice of partnering with hospitalists as part of a multidisciplinary early discharge of hospitalized patients with dalbavancin for ABSSSI. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate outcomes associated with this process.
IMPACT OF HEMOZOIN ON HEMATOLOGICAL OUTCOMES AND INNATE INFLAMMATORY MEDIATOR PRODUCTION IN INFANTS AND YOUNG CHILDREN WITH MALARIAL ANEMIA

Malaria causes 300-500 million clinical cases and 1-3 million deaths per year, the majority of which occur in young African children. Ingestion of hemozoin by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) initiates the cytokine-mediated cascade of immune dysregulation in malaria. Innate immunity plays a critical role in protective responses against infection, which are determined by an appropriate balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators. Pro-inflammatory mediators (TNF-α, IL-12, IFN-γ) that control parasitemia also contribute to pathology. Over-production of immunomodulatory cytokines (TGF-β, IL-10) suppresses the protective pro-inflammatory immune response. The effects of hemozoin on hematological outcomes and inflammatory mediator production in children with malarial anemia and the temporal kinetics of hemozoin-induced cytokine dysregulation in cultured PBMC were investigated in this study. Hematological analyses of healthy control (HC), uncomplicated malaria (UM), mild malarial anemia (MlMA), moderate malarial anemia (MdMA), and severe malarial anemia (SMA) groups revealed that age, temperature, and all erythrocyte, leukocyte, and platelet indices were significantly different between clinical categories. Neither parasitemia nor the prevalence of high density parasitemia (HDP) differed significantly between clinical groups. Stratification of study participants according to proportion of pigment-containing monocytes (PCM) demonstrated that parasitemia, HDP, temperature, and most leukocyte, erythrocyte, and platelet indices were significantly different between 0%, ≤ 10%, and > 10% PCM categories. The > 10% PCM category contained children with the lowest hemoglobin, hematocrit, and erythrocyte counts and the greatest proportion of children with SMA. Plasma IFN-α, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-12p40/p70 levels differed significantly between clinical categories but not between UM and SMA groups. Plasma IFN-α, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and IL-12p40/p70 were not significantly associated with % PCM. β-hematin-induced IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-12p35, IL-12p40, IL-18, IFN-α, IFN-γ, TNF-α, LT-α, NOS-2A, COX-1, COX-2, IL-4, IL-10, and TGF-β expression in cultured PBMC revealed a pro-inflammatory response that varied in magnitude among individuals. Importantly, innate inflammatory mediators modulate the adaptive immune response to Plasmodium parasites. Of public health significance, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms governing these responses will facilitate the development of more immunogenic vaccines, through inclusion of cytokines or other compounds that activate the innate immune system.
Assessment of complement (C2&C4) in patients with recurrent candidal infections

Background: Over the past few decades, candidiasis is a disease of growing incidence that parallels the increasing number of immunocompromised people. The entity of recurrent candidal infections has been defined as at least four symptomatic episodes at the last year. Candida albicans pathogen acts as activating surface for complement deposition i.e., covalent binding of C3b. Opsonization is the process of deposition of complement fragments on the surface of pathogen that allows their recognition, ingestion, and destruction by macrophages, phagocytic cells, neutrophils, and monocytes. IgG antibodies and C3 fragments are the classical opsonins. Phagocytes express specific receptors for C3 fragments. Complement opsonization resulting from the direct activation of the alternative pathway on pathogen surface allows their elimination by phagocytes before the mounting of an adaptive immune response and the appearance of antibodies. Aim of the work: The aim of the present work is to clarify the relation between serum complement (C2&C4) and recurrent candidal infections. Patients and Methods: A case control study. Sera were obtained from 50 recurrent candidal infection patients and 30 healthy volunteers. C2 levels were measured using ELISA with standard kits from EIAab R&D Systems. C4 levels were measured using Automated Chemistry ELISA with standard kits from EIAab R&D Systems. Results: Serum complement C2 was significantly lower among the cases with recurrent candidal infection (65.63±48.35pg/ml) than in healthy volunteers 200.29± 358.43) with p-value= 0.01. Conclusion: Recurrent candidal infection can be caused by low (C2) level in patient's serum. There is significant alteration in complement (C2) level (P ≤ 0.01). There is no significant alteration in complement (C4) level (P ≥ 0.05). Serum complement (C2) level can be used as a laboratory investigation for patients with recurrent candidal infections especially those with associated systemic disease.
Active thermal control for delaying maintenance of power electronics converters

Several studies have reported about power semiconductors and capacitors being the most sensitive components in power converters. The lifetime of these devices is associated with the mission profile and the resulting temperature profile. For preventing failures, it is of interest to estimate the Remaining Useful Lifetime(RUL) and several condition monitoring methods have been proposed for this purpose. Moreover, modular power converters consist of a high number of components and methods have been proposed to reduce the thermal stress and therefore extend the lifetime of a system with software, referred to as active thermal control. For power converters with limited accessibility, the RUL detected by the condition monitoring system may not fit to the scheduled maintenance of the system and devices may still have a significant RUL when their replacement is scheduled. Therefore, this work proposes to control the stress of the most deteriorated components in the system such that the failure probability of multiple building blocks is equalized when the next maintenance is scheduled. Moreover, this concept is proposed to extend the time to the next maintenance and reduce the number of maintenance instances without affecting the mean lifetime of the system.
Resting-State Networks in Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia has been conceptualized as a disorder of altered brain connectivity (i.e. dysconnectivity). Until relatively recently, it was not feasible to test dysconnectivity hypotheses of schizophrenia in vivo. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a powerful tool for mapping functional networks of the brain, such as the default mode network (DMN), and investigating the systems-level pathology of neurological and psychiatric disorders. In this article, we review the latest findings from resting-state fMRI studies on schizophrenia. Despite the wide array of methods used and heterogeneity of patient samples, several tentative conclusions may be drawn from the existing literature. 1) Connectivity of the DMN is altered in schizophrenia. Findings vary across studies; however, a majority of investigations reported hyper-connectivity of the DMN. 2) Resting-state connectivity of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is reduced in schizophrenia, particularly intra-PFC connectivity. 3) Cortical-subcortical networks, including thalamocortical, frontolimbic, and cortico-cerebellar networks are altered in schizophrenia. 4) Preliminary findings indicate that functional connectivity within auditory/language networks and the basal ganglia is related to specific clinical symptoms, including auditory- verbal hallucinations and delusions. 5) Whole-brain network topology measures based on graph theory indicate that functional brain networks in schizophrenia are characterized by reduced small-worldness, lower degree connectivity of brain hubs, and decreased modularity. 6) Some of the alterations in functional connectivity observed in probands are present in unaffected relatives, raising the possibility that functional dysconnectivity is an endophenotype related to genetic risk for schizophrenia. Combined, these findings provide broad support for dysconnectivity theories of schizophrenia. We conclude our review with a discussion of the limitations of the existing literature and potentially important areas of future research.
Antenna Selection Method of Maximizing Secrecy Rate for Green Secure Spatial Modulation

In secure spatial modulation systems, an active antenna-group (AAG) selection of maximizing the average secrecy rate (SR) is proposed to avoid the disadvantage that conventional AAG selection scheme of minimizing bit error ratio at desired receiver may lead to a substantial SR loss. However, due to the limited active antenna pattern and finite-alphabet inputs, it is very hard for us to optimize the SR without closed-form expression. To address the two issues, first, by exploiting the relationship between minimum mean-square error and mutual information, the expression of SR in the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) region is derived. Using the expression, the problem of maximizing SR (Max-SR), called Max-SR I, is converted to integer programming problem. In the high SNR region, we derive an asymptotical lower bound for SR, and find the fact that the Max-SR can be reduced to maximizing the difference of Bob’s minimum Euclidean distance and Eve’s one, called Max-SR II. Through this conclusion, we can find the relationship between SR and bit-error rate. Furthermore, Max-SR III is proposed to overcome the disadvantage of the SR performance loss for the above two asymptotical algorithms in the moderate SNR region, where an approximate expression is exploited as the efficient metric to design AAG. Numerical results show that the SR performance of the proposed Max-SR III is close to that of optimal exhaustive search method, and the Max-SR I and Max-SR II can achieve acceptable SR performance with extremely low complexity.
Hindrances to pupils’ access and participation in primary school education in Kakuma and Lokichoggio divisions, Turkana county

1 *Lecturer, South Eastern university College, Department of education Administration and Planning PO BOX 17460 00100 Nairobi, Kenya 2 County Education Officer, Turkana County, Kenya 3 Lecturer, South Eastern university College, Department of Economics PO BOX 170 90200 Kitui, Kenya 4 Lecturer, South Eastern university College, Department of Education Administration and Planning PO BOX 170 90200 Kitui, Kenya.
Genetic significance of mode of polyploidization: somatic doubling or 2n gametes?

Computer simulation was undertaken to compare the genetic consequences of asexual (somatic doubling) and sexual (2n gametes) polyploidization. The coefficient of inbreeding at a locus, the number and frequency of genotypes at a locus, and the proportion of tri- and tetra-allelic genotypes were considered. The factors considered to estimate the genetic consequences were (i) mechanisms of sexual polyploidization, by first division restitution (FDR) × second division restitution (SDR), FDR × FDR, or SDR × SDR; (ii) position of the locus in relation to the centromere, which affects the gametic output in 2n gamete formation and thus the probability of single-exchange tetrads in meiosis during 2n gamete formation (p value); and (iii) allelic diversity at a locus. In comparing asexual and sexual polyploidization, regardless of the position of a locus in relation to the centromere, sexual polyploidization generally indicated less inbreeding, more genotypic diversity, and a higher proportion of tri- and tetra-alle.
Effect of an extended milking interval on recovery of milk yield and somatic cell count in dairy cows

The objective of the study was to determine whether lactation could be re-initiated after several days without milking. Thirty-six cows in mid lactation were subjected to a single period without milking of either 2, 4 or 7 days. Following these periods twice daily milking resumed. Two days after resumption of twice daily milking, milk yield was depressed to 92, 80 and 51% of pre-treatment (twice a day milking) rates in the 2, 4 and 7-day treatments. The 2- and 4-d treatments achieved pre-treatment milk yields 3 and 4 days after the resumption of milking, respectively. The 7-d treatment failed to achieve pre-treatment yields in this time period. However, 6 days after the resumption of twice-daily milking there was no difference in average milk yield between the 3 groups. Following the resumption of milking, SCC exceeded 2 million cells/ml for the first day in all treatments. Within 3 days the SCC for the 2 and 4-day treatments were below the 400, 000 cells/ml penalty threshold. However, it took five days milking to achieve this level for the 7-day treatment. The results indicate that successful lactations can be re-established after up to 7 days without milking in midlactation, with minimal carry-over effects on milk yield for the rest of the lactation.