Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
EFFECT OF COST MANAGEMENT ON FINANCIAL PERFOMANCE OF AGRIBUSINESS ENTERPRISES IN KENYA

Agribusiness enterprises in Kenya are a major economic activity that should be creating employment thus increasing GDP. In the recent past, there have been renewed efforts by the government and other players to promote Agribusiness enterprises . Thus this study sought to determine the influence of cost management on performance of Agribusiness enterprises in Kenya. The study design was descriptive panel research design. Secondary data was used for analysis. The target population was four Agribusiness enterprises with a total population of one thousand two hundred and forty five (1,245) farmers registered as at December, 2018 by the Commissioner of cooperatives in Kenya comprising of Homabay, Bungoma, Busia and Siaya counties which also formed the study target units. Census sampling was used to select sample of the population. Secondary data over the ten year-period covering 2009-2018 was obtained . Data was collected using secondary data collection sheet and analyzed using multiple panel regression models. Limitations faced during data collection included high illiteracy levels amongst members. This was controlled by taking the officials through the areas of cost management to have them understand the concepts under enquiry. The study findings showed that cost management had significant influence on return on investment, a measure of financial performance of Agribusiness enterprises in Kenya and tests for significance also showed that the influence was statistically significant. The study therefore recommended that all Agribusiness enterprises farmers be trained on cost management aspects. Key words: Cost management, financial management, Agribusiness enterprises CITATION: Gitau, B. N. (2019). Effect of cost management on financial performance of agribusiness enterprises in Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 6 (3), 237 – 245.
Development of a Digital Microscope Spectrophotometric System for Determination of the Antioxidant Activity and Total Phenolic Content in Teas

Abstract This work presents a simple, low cost, and portable spectrophotometer based on a digital microscope as a detector for the determination of the antioxidant activity and total phenolic content (TPC). The antioxidant activity was expressed as ascorbic acid equivalents (AAE) using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) assay. The TPC value was measured using the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The color of the products was captured using a digital microscope powered through the USB output of a laptop. A digital microscope, held in a 3D printing device was used to take photos of the reaction product that was illuminated with the stable light source of the digital microscope. The pictures were analyzed for quantitation. For the DPPH assay, the developed method provided a working range from 0.6 to 6 mg L−1 of ascorbic acid with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.2 mg L−1 and a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 2.2%. The TPC method provided a working range from 4.6 to 100 mg L−1 for gallic acid, with a LOD of 1.4 mg L−1 and a RSD of 1.3%. Results of the proposed system agree well with a conventional spectrophotometric method and have been successfully applied to measure the antioxidant activity and TPC of local Thai tea samples.
Preclinical Evaluation of an Innovative Bone Graft of Marine Origin for the Treatment of Critical-Sized Bone Defects in an Animal Model

Autogenous cancellous bone graft is the current gold standard of treatment for the management of bone defects since it possesses the properties of osteoinduction, osteoconduction, and osteogenesis. Xenografts and synthetic grafts have been widely reported as available and low-cost alternatives, which retain good osteoconductive and mechanical properties. Given the rich biodiversity of ocean organisms, marine sources are of particular interest in the search for alternative bone grafts with enhanced functionalities. The purpose of this paper is to assess the biocompatibility of a marine-derived bone graft obtained from shark tooth, which is an environmentally sustainable and abundant raw material from fishing. This research presents the findings of a preclinical trial—following UNE-EN ISO 10993—that induced a critical-sized bone defect in a rabbit model and compared the results with a commercial bovine-derived bone graft. Evaluation by micro-computed tomography and histomorphometric analysis 12 weeks after implantation revealed good osseointegration, with no signs of inflammatory foreign body reactions, fibrosis, or necrosis in any of the cases. The shark tooth-derived bone graft yielded significantly higher new bone mineral density values (54 ± 6%) than the control (27 ± 8%). Moreover, the percentage of intersection values were much higher (86 ± 8%) than the bovine-derived bone graft (30 ± 1%) used as control. The area of occupancy by bone tissue in the test material (38 ± 5%) also gave higher values than the control (30 ± 6%). The role of physicochemical properties, biphasic structure, and composition on the stimulation of bone regeneration is also discussed.
Effect of Co-administration of Agnus castus Aqueous Leaf Extract and Cadmium Chloride on Testicular Function Indices

Background: Cadmium toxicity is an environmental health menace in developing countries, which can result in damage to the male reproductive system. The mechanisms of cadmium toxicity include an increase in lipid peroxidation, depletion of glutathione, reduction in protein-bound sulfhydryl groups, and increase of oxidative stress. Agnus castus has been differently reported for its strong antioxidant potential and reproductive-enhancing properties. These two properties make the plant viable for the possible amelioration of cadmium toxicity. Objectives: This study was carried out to investigate the effect of Agnus castus aqueous leaf extract on the testicular function indices in cadmium chloride-treated rats. Methods: Twenty-five male Wistar rats (100 - 160) g, Rattus norvegicus strain, were randomly distributed into five different groups, each containing five animals. The animals were grouped as follows. Group A (control group) received distilled water, and group B received 6.5 mg/kg body weight of cadmium chloride. Groups C, D, and E received 6.5 mg/kg body weight of cadmium chloride each together with 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg, and 200 mg/kg body weight of aqueous extract of Agnus castus, respectively. The administration was done by oral gavage, once daily for 21 days. The animals were finally sacrificed on day 22. The serum was collected, and the testis was excised for testicular function indices, hormonal assays, and antioxidant activities. Results: Exposure to cadmium chloride caused a significant reduction (P < 0.05) in the weight of the testes and antioxidant enzymes (catalase, superoxide dismutase, and reduced glutathione) compared to the control group. However, co-treatment with cadmium chloride and Agnus castus leaves resulted in the amelioration of cadmium-induced reduction in testicular weight and antioxidant enzymes. Exposure to cadmium chloride caused a significant decrease in testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone when compared to the control group. Co-treatment with cadmium chloride and Agnus castus increased the levels of glycogen, testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone in the rats’ testes. Conclusions: The aqueous leaf extract of Agnus castus displayed a protective role in testicular function and antioxidants in Wistar rats against cadmium chloride toxicity, compared to control rats that received distilled water only.
Deliquescence Behavior of Deep Eutectic Solvents

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are formed by a hydrogen bond donor and an acceptor. The hydrogen bond interactions between these two components significantly depress the melting temperature of the mixture. DESs have been used as an alternative for organic solvents in various branches of the chemical industry. Many DESs are very hygroscopic and water is known to change the properties of DESs, but there has neven been a systematic study performed on the deliquesence behavior of DESs. Therefore, this study investigated the thermal and deliquescent behavior of four DESs. The DES mixtures were stored in desiccators at different relative humidities (RH) to investigate the critical RH (RH0) for deliquescence. It was found that, due to the formation of a eutonic mixture, the RH0 to induce deliquescence for a given DES mixture was lower compared to the individual components comprising the DES. The results showed that, even though all investigated DESs had eutectic melting temperatures above room temperature, but due to the low RH0, they were able to appear liquid at room temperature under ambient conditions. The eutonic and eutectic compositions were identified at different compositions for the DESs. The results emphasize that great care must be taken to control the process and storage conditions for DESs.
Output-inflation Trade-off in the Presence of Foreign Capital: Evidence for Vietnam

On one monthly time-series data set of Vietnam economy over 02/2008–09/2018, the Time-Varying-Coefficient VAR model records that the trade-off between inflation and output growth is mitigated by the foreign capital inflows. The inflation is mostly determined by credit supply growth, while output growth is largely driven by foreign direct investment (FDI) capital inflows. A monthly increase of FDI by USD 1 billion can raise 1.77% of monthly output growth rate. The result also holds on accounting for exchange rate fluctuation. JEL Classifications: E31, F15, F36, F43
Differences in the Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Cardiology Outpatients in Mali: Comparison between Framingham Body Mass Index-Based Tool and Low-Information World Health Organization Chart

Objective. This study aimed to compare 2 laborless tools, namely, the body mass index-based Framingham (bmi-Frm) and low-information WHO- (li-WHO-) based risk scores, and assess their agreement in outpatients in a cardiology department. Methodology. Data stem from a cross-sectional previous study performed from May to September 2016 in the Cardiology Department of University Hospital Gabriel Touré (UH-GT) in Bamako. All patients aged 40 and more were included in the study allowing the assessment of bmi-Frm and li-WHO prediction charts. The cardiovascular risk (CVR) was evaluated using a calculator prepared by D‘Agostino et al. for the bmi-Frm and the li-WHO chart for the Afro-D region of the WHO. The risk score for both ranged from <10 to ≥40. The data were entered in an ACCESS 2010 database, then processed by MS Excel 2010, and finally analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20. Continuous variables were presented as means and standard deviations, and categorical variables were presented as frequencies with percentages. P < 0.05 was considered the statistical significance level. After sample description, the risk score was assessed using bmi-Frm and li-WHO prediction tools. Finally, a kappa test was performed to check for the interreliability of both methods. For weighted kappa, coefficients were given all five classes of risk groups in 0, 25 steps from 1 for total concordance to 0 for total discordance. Results. This study involved 793 outpatients, 63.7% being female, 35.1% of them younger than 50 years, 57.9% with no formal education, and 67.7% with no medical insurance. Means for age, body mass index (BMI), and systolic blood pressure (SBP) were, respectively, 53.81 ± 16.729 years, 25.29 ± 06.151 kg/m2, and 139.49 ± 27.110 mm Hg. Using the li-WHO prediction chart gives a much higher proportion of low-risk patients compared to bmi-Frm (83.6 vs. 37.7). Sociodemographic characteristics such as education or income level were not different in risk score neither for the bmi-Frm nor for the li-WHO risk score. The percentage of agreement between both tools was 40.4%, and agreement (kappa of 0.1 and weighted kappa of 0.2) was found to be slight. Conclusion. Using the bmi-Frm and li-WHO tool gives a similar risk estimation in younger female patients. Older patients must be evaluated using high-information tools with cholesterol, e.g., versions of the Framingham risk equation or WHO using cholesterol. These must be confirmed in further studies and compared to data from prospective studies
Online Public Responses to the “Send Her Back” Chant at the 2019 Greenville Rally

ABSTRACT The Squad is a group of four progressive women of colour elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018 who have been vocal critics especially of immigration and environmental policies. During a Republican rally in North Carolina in 2019, Trump disparaged the Squad for being critical of him. The crowd responded chanting “Send her/them back. ” This study conducted a content analysis of public comments posted on four online news sites assessing rejection or approval for this chant. Content analysis showed a striking difference across the sites based on the amount of approval for the chant. Comments on Fox News and a conservative Twitter site supported the chant and characterized members of the Squad as obstructionist and uncooperative. There was little support for the chant on the Washington Post and the New York Times sites. This study examined how users who posted these comments explained/justified their responses to the chant.
A Deep-Learning Model with Learnable Group Convolution and Deep Supervision for Brain Tumor Segmentation

The segmentation of brain tumors in medical images is a crucial step of clinical treatment. Manual segmentation is time consuming and labor intensive, and existing automatic segmentation methods suffer from issues such as numerous parameters and low precision. To resolve these issues, this study proposes a learnable group convolution-based segmentation method that replaces convolution in the feature extraction stage with learnable group convolution, thereby reducing the number of convolutional network parameters and enhancing communication between convolution groups. To improve utilization of the feature maps, we added a skip connection structure between learnable group convolution modules, which increased segmentation precision. We used deep supervision to combine output images in the network output stage to reduce overfitting and enhance the recognition capabilities of the network. We tested the proposed algorithm model using the open BraTS 2018 dataset. The experiment results revealed that the proposed model is superior to 3D U-Net and DMFNet and has better segmentation results for tumor cores than No New-Net and NVDLMED, the winning methods in the BraTS 2018 challenge. The segmentation precision of the proposed method with regard to whole tumors, enhancing tumors, and tumor cores was 90.25%, 80.36%, and 86.20%. Furthermore, the proposed method uses fewer parameters and a less complex model.
Slow Release of Menthol Using Sorbents Developed from Microwave Graphene Oxide

Menthol is a key ingredient in many of the traditional Thai aroma products such as potpourri and herbal air freshener. However, it suffers from the rapid evaporation and sublimation loss. In this work, microwave graphene oxide (mGO) has been prepared as sorbent and tested for the slow release of menthol. Menthol was loaded into microwave graphene oxide at loading ratios of 1:0.5 and 1:1. The release performance of the mGO as compared to traditional essential oil reed diffuser and the pure menthol was studied by monitoring the menthol weight loss at the temperature of 80°C until all of the menthol evaporated using thermogravimetric analysis. It was found that mGO can significantly slow down the menthol release rate compared to that of the pure menthol by up to eight times slower. The interaction and adsorption mechanism of the menthol-loaded microwave graphene oxide was also studied using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) which indicates that menthol adsorbs strongly onto the mGO leading to the slow release rate.
Fractal-Constrained Crosshole/Borehole-to-Surface Full-Waveform Inversion for Hydrogeological Applications Using Ground-Penetrating Radar

Full-waveform inversion (FWI) is considered one of the most promising interpretation tools for hydrogeological applications using ground-penetrating radar. However, FWI has had limited practical uptake for several reasons: large computational requirements, an inability to reconstruct loss mechanisms of soil, and the need for a good initial starting model. We aim to address these issues via a novel FWI subject to a fractally correlated distribution of water. Initially, the dispersive properties of the soil are expressed as a function of the water fraction using a semiempirical model. This approach means that the permittivity, conductivity, and relaxation mechanisms are all correlated, and therefore, sensitivity problems between the permittivity and loss mechanisms no longer affect the performance of FWI. Subsequently, the distribution of the water fraction is constrained to follow a fractal geometry. Fractal-correlated noise is then compressed using a principal component analysis (PCA) in order to further reduce the number of the system’s unknowns and accelerate FWI. PCA reduces the volume and dimensions of the optimization space, and thus, initialization is no longer necessary. Finally, a novel measurement configuration is suggested that uses superposition with all the individual measurements in order to reduce the number of forward models that need to be executed for every iteration of FWI. These enhancements substantially reduce the computational requirements of FWI and therefore eliminate the need for high-performance computers and time-consuming algorithms. The proposed scheme has been successfully tested with several numerical case-studies, which indicates the potential of this approach to become a commercially appealing interpretation tool for hydrogeology.
Polymorfizmy krevních destiček a možnosti monitorace účinku protidestičkové léčby

Cilem nasi studie bylo zjistit prevalenci destickových polymorfizmů, ktere jsou spojovany s „aspirinovou rezistenci“ ci s variabilitou odpovědi na lecbu clopidogrelem v ceske populaci. Metody: Ke zjistěni frekvence polymorfizmů GP IIIa (HPA-1; rs5918), P2Y12 (H1/H2 haplotyp; rs2046934) and COX-1 (-842A/G; rs10306114) bylo provedeno anonymni testovani DNA od 1 450 darců krve pomoci PCR na analyzatoru Light Cycler 480 (ROCHE). Výsledky: Byly zjistěny tyto frekvence: GP IIIa (HPA-1) – 27,40 % heterozygotů, 3,66 % homozygotů a 68,94 % wild type homozygotů, P2Y12 (H1/H2 haplotyp) – 25,92 % heterozygotů, 2,63 % homozygotů a 71,46 % wild type homozygotů a COX-1 (-842A/G) – 12,00 % heterozygotů, 0,41 % homozygotů a 87,59 % wild type homozygotů v testovane skupině. Tyto frekvence jsou tedy v souladu s odhadovanou 10–40 % variabilitou ucinku protidestickove lecby. Dale je uveden přehled o významu laboratornich vysetřeni pro rutinni monitorovani protidestickove lecby.
E-Commerce Customer Attraction: Digital Marketing Techniques, Evolution and Dynamics across Firms

Abstract The emergence of web analytics software has changed the way marketing is researched, monitored, planned, and managed, which suggests a new dimension of marketing interactions between firms. This paper describes digital marketing results in terms of customer attraction to e-commerce websites from different angles (cross-country, firm type, evolution) and investigates empirically how competitors’ marketing activities affect a focal firm. Using a vector autoregression model applied to data for grocery e-commerce in the US, the UK, and France, we find differences across American and European firms in the composition of digital marketing techniques and the existence of interaction effects across firms.
In vitro: The Modulating Effect of Myricetin on the Atherosclerosis Related Processes in THP1 Macrophages

Aims: To assess the anti-atherosclerotic effects of Myricetin (pharmaceutical) in human THP-1 macrophages following IFN-γ or MCP-1 stimulation. Study Design: The protective effects of myricetin against atherosclerosis was evaluated using the Original Research Article Almassabi et al.; JPRI, 32(47): 62-73, 2020; Article no.JPRI. 65460 63 humanTHP-1 macrophages and studying the following parameters namely, cell viability, cell proliferation, cell migration, inflammation related gene expression and cholesterol efflux in vitro. Place and Duration of Study: THP-1 cell line: Department of biochemistry (faculty of science), Cell Culture Unit, Experimental Biochemistry Unit (King Fahad Medical Research Centre), King Abdul Aziz University, between September 2019 and September 2020. Methodology: The THP-1 cell lines were differentiated into macrophages by incubation with PMA (160 nM) for 24 hours. The viability percentage was determined using Pierce LDH cytotoxicity assay kit, the percentage change in macrophages proliferation was evaluated by crystal violet dye, the RNA was extracted then the cDNA was synthesized and the quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was done for inflammation-related genes, ICAM-1 and MCP-1. The percentage of monocyte migration and cholesterol efflux were also calculated. Results: Cytotoxicity assays demonstrated no significant toxicity with myricetin at 25μM and 50 μM concentrations on THP-1 macrophages. The quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) demonstrated a significant increase in interferon gamma (IFN-γ) mediated expression of both intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1) and monocyte chemo-attractant protein-1 (MCP-1) by 2.1 and 7.1 fold respectively, compared to the control. Treatment with myricetin (25 μM and 50 μM) significantly inhibited the IFN-γ induced overexpression of ICAM-1 by 42.86% & 71.34% and MCP1 by 53.52% & 87.32% respectively. Myricetin (25 μM) significantly reduced the migration of monocytes by 33.66% compared to MCP-1. The cholesterol efflux from THP-1 macrophages treated with myricetin was significantly increased by 47% and 57% in the absence and presence of IFN-γ, respectively compared to the control. Conclusion: Myricetin has anti-inflammatory effects and supports cholesterol efflux, which can help in prevention of atherosclerosis. Furthermore, myricetin did not exhibit any cytotoxic effects and therefore is a safe phytochemical which can complement conventional therapeutics.
Completeness of P-Summable as Hilbert Space with Its Dual Space

Hilbert space is a complete inner product space, meaning that each Cauchy sequence converges to a point in that space. One of the vector spaces that will be examined as the inner product space is p-summable space. The inner product space is a subset of vector spaces that have special properties that must be fulfilled. One way to prove vector space is the inner product space is to use parallelogram equality theorems. After it is known that the vector space is the inner product space, the completeness of the space will be proven using the dual space. The space used is the p-summable space, data that can be changed in a sequence form will be usable in this study. The results of this study will be useful as another application in determining a Hilbert space by using a method that is different from the definition. The analysis used will show comparison of the speed of completion accuracy will be a benchmark in this study, so that will be a new reference in determining a space is Hilbert space.