Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
VERITAS long term monitoring of Gamma-Ray emission from the BL Lacertae object

BL Lacertae is the prototype of the blazar subclass known as BL Lac type objects. BL Lacertae object itself is a low-frequency-peaked BL Lac(LBL). Very high energy (VHE) gamma ray emission from this source was discovered in 2005 by MAGIC observatory while the source was at a flaring state. Since then, VHE gamma rays from this source has been detected several times. However, all of those times the source was in a high activity state. Former studies suggest several non-thermal zones emitting in gamma-rays, then gamma-ray flare should be composed of a convolution. Observing the BL Lacertae object at quiescent states and active states is the key to disentangle these two components. VERITAS is monitoring the BL Lacertae object since 2011. The archival data set includes observations during flaring and quiescent states. This presentation reports on the preliminary results of the VERITAS observation between January 2013 - December 2015, and simultaneous multiwavelength observations.
Factors Affecting the Citizens’ Trust in E-Government

In e-government context, trust plays a vital role in helping citizens overcome perceived risks. Trust makes citizens comfortable sharing personal information, make online government transaction, and acting on e-Government advices. Thus, trust is a significant notion that should be critically investigated to help both researchers and practitioners to understand citizens' acceptance to e-Government. Prior research in trust has focused mainly on consumer's trust in e-Commerce. Most of existing literatures on trust in e-government focus on technical perspective such as PKI. This paper contributes by proposing a conceptual model of citizens' trust in e-Government. The proposed conceptual model of citizens' trust in e-government is integrated constructs from multiple disciplines: psychology, sociology, e-commerce, and HCI. The research is aimed also to develop items in order to measure the theoretical constructs in the proposed model. The pool of items is generated based on literature review. Q-Methodology has been utilised to validate the generated measurement items. The outcome of two Q-sorting rounds resulted in developing a survey instrument for proposed model with an excellent validity and reliability statistical results.
PREDICTING ROAD CRASHES WITH MOBILE DEVICES USING THE LINE INTERSECTION TECHNIQUE

Worldwide more than 1.24 million people die each year because of road crashes. In 2008 980,000 crashes were reported in South Africa alone. In 2004 the financial impact of these deadly events was estimated at $518 billion. Current integrated technologies in Smartphones and Tablets enable us to do something that has never been done before, that is to predict road crashes in real time. Mobile devices can access information such as traveling direction and speed from their Global Position System (GPS). Given these parameters, it is now possible to predict where the current mobile device will be in future. Information is easily shared with Wireless Technology (WIFI) between the devices. Searching for collisions is not always an easy task. This paper proposes a trajectory prediction formula where acceleration and Direction Change Rate (DCR) is considered as well as a search algorithm for optimal crash search detection. The results prove that the Line Intersection Technique (LIT) is a better algorithm to use when searching for collisions between different road using objects.
Factors Influence Customer Loyalty in Kuwait Islamic Banks : An Exploratory Study

Protecting market share against rival firms is more important than ever due to the decline in market growth rate and the increase in the competition. The main requirement for protecting market share is to create loyal customers. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to examine interrelationships between service quality, emotional satisfaction, and image on loyalty of Islamic bank customers. By using online survey‚ data of this study were collected from 600 Kuwait Islamic banking customers. The finding shows that emotional satisfaction is the only significant variable affecting the loyalty. This study provides useful information for Kuwait policy makers and bankers on how to improve loyalty of customers in Islamic banks which in turn increases the profitability of the banks.
An alternative marginal utility growth proxy for use in asset pricing models

∗The University of Memphis, Fogelman College of Business and Economics. Email address: djmphd@gmail.com. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at Pepperdine University, The University of Memphis, The University of Tennessee, Lynchburg College, and during the 2009 Ph.D. Project Finance Doctoral Student Association meetings coincident with the 2009 Western Finance Association annual meeting. The author would like to thank participants of those presentations for their constructive comments and those who submitted comments through SSRN. An earlier version of this paper was published in the Financial Study Association Rotterdam (FSR) Forum, September 2009, Issue 5
Revisiting INTEGRAL/SPI observations of 44Ti from Cassiopeia A

Context. The 340-yr old supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, located at 3.4 kpc distance, is the best-studied young core-collapse supernova remnant. Nucleosynthesis yields in radioactive isotopes have been studied with di erent methods, in particular for production and ejection of 44 Ti and 56 Ni, which originate in the innermost regions of the supernova. 44 Ti was first discovered in this remnant, but is not seen consistently in other core-collapse sources. Aims. We aim to measure radioactive 44 Ti ejected in Cassiopeia A and to place constraints on velocities of these ejecta by determining X- and -ray line-shape parameters of the emission lines. Methods. We analyzed the observations made with the SPI spectrometer on INTEGRAL together with an improved instrumental background method, to achieve a high spectroscopic resolution that enables interpretation for a velocity constraint on 44 Ti ejecta from the 1.157 MeV -ray line of the 44 Sc decay. Results. We observe both the hard X-ray line at 78 keV and the -ray line at 1157 keV from the 44 Ti decay chain at a combined significance of 3.8 . Measured fluxes are (2:1 0:4) 10 5 ph cm 2 s 1 and (3:5 1:2) 10 5 ph cm 2 s 1 , which corresponds to (1:5 0:4) 10 4 and (2:4 0:9) 10 4 M of 44 Ti, respectively. The measured Doppler broadening of the lines implies expansion velocities of 4300 and 2200 km s 1 , respectively. By combining our results with previous studies, we determine a more precise estimate of ejected 44 Ti of (1:37 0:19) 10 4 M . Conclusions. The measurements of the two lines are consistent with previous studies. The flux in the line originating from excited 44 Ca is significantly higher than the flux determined in the lines from 44 Sc. Cosmic-ray acceleration within the supernova remnant may be responsible for an additional contribution to this line from nuclear de-excitation following energetic particle collisions in the remnant and swept-up material.
Higher education, funding, polices and politics: A critical review

Abstract. This paper intends to critically examine the existing literature on the funding of the higher education and also trying to analyse this issue in Libyan context, which is a developing and oil dependent economy. The discussion will try to establish a full picture of the current model of funding allocation mechanisms in public university and the criteria used for distribution of funds, and motivations behind government funding. With recent globalization, the cross border movements of goods, services and people have increased in recent decades and it has brought new challenges to the higher education funding. The findings suggest that by looking at other factor such as motivation, which in Libyan case, to win over supports from different tribes and this seems to be for political purposes. The government in Libya seems to be seeking to achieve political purposes through the financing of higher education institutions. Keywords. Higher education, Sources of funding, Government policies, Economic development. JEL. I00, I20, I23.
PHAGOSTIMULANT ACTIVITY OF SOME BOTANICALS TO BOMBYX MORI LINN

Administration of mulberry leaves treated with methanol extracts of five botanicals and medicinal plant oils indicated a slight phagostimulatory activity in M.azedarach leaves at 0.5% (C value=1.02 ) to fifth instar larvae of Bombyx mori. Among the medicinal plant oils, the oils from Psoralea corylifolia ( C value=1.29 and 1.16), Asparagus racemosus (C value=1.02 and 1.12), Juglans regia (C value=1.35 and 1.17), Santalum album (C value=1.06 and 1.04), Trigonella foenum-graecum (C value=1.05 and 1.03) at 1 and 2% respectively were preferred while Lageneria vulgaris (C value =1.05) was preferred by the worm at 2%. Thes botanicals could further be tested for their effect on economic parameters of B. mori.
Surveillance and outbreak report Botulism in Italy , 1986 to 2015

F Anniballi 1 2 , B Auricchio 1 2 , A Fiore 1 , D Lonati 3 , CA Locatelli 3 , F Lista 4 , S Fillo 4 , G Mandarino 5 , D De Medici 1 1. National Reference Centre for Botulism, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Rome, Italy 2. These authors contributed equally to this work 3. Poison Control Centre and National Toxicology Information Centre, IRCCS Maugeri Foundation Hospital, Pavia, Italy 4. Histology and Molecular Biology Unit, Section Two, Army Medical and Veterinary Research Centre, Rome, Italy 5. PENTA The Joint Laboratory on Models and Methodology to Predict and Manage Large Scale Threats to Public Health, International Affairs Unit, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Rome, Italy
Modulating the Antioxidant Activity of Thin Layer-by-Layer Films with Polyphenols

Plants and fruits contain many antioxidant molecules among them polyphenols [1]. Such natural antioxidants can find applications in food science [2] and in particular for food packaging when the molecules of interest are integrated in a film or a membrane. Many polyphenols, among them tannic acid (Figure 1) deposit spontaneously at solid liquid interfaces in a versatile manner. The deposition of TA and other polyphenols occurring spontaneously on glasses from wine or from tea has been exploited recently in materials science [3,4]. Polyphenols contain redox active groups which can also act as coordination centers for metal cations like Fe3+. This chemical modality allows the deposition from polyphenol-metal cation mixtures to yield conformal coatings [5] or to obtain films by alternating adsorption steps of the polyphenol and metal cations according to a Layer-by-Layer (LBL) deposition method [6]. The same deposition strategy can be used to deposit polyphenol containing films by alternating their adsorption with that of a polymer [7], a polyelectrolyte [8] or proteins [9]. In these cases, the interactions responsible for the cohesion of the films are due to hydrogen bonding or to electrostatic interactions (polyphenols containing also weakly acidic groups able to become anionic at high enough pH). The deposition of films made from proteins and polyphenols is due to the interplay of many kinds of interactions among them some specific interactions with amino acids like L-proline [10]. Films containing TA and other polyphenols display some antioxidant activity [11]. The advantage of the LBL deposition method of a material with respect to direct functionalization by contact with a polyphenol containing solution, leading mostly to a deposited monolayer, is an increased stability and durability of the coating. Herein, it will be shown, that LBL films made from a polycation and TA are characterized by an amount of TA which is proportional to the number of deposition steps. The antioxidant activity of those (PAH-TA)n films (where n denotes the number of deposition cycles of the polycation and the polyphenol) scales also proportionally with the number of the deposition steps, as in other studies [11]. This means that all the polyphenol molecules in the film are accessible to the used probe, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (Figure 1). The antioxidant properties of the films can be suppressed by depositing two capping bilayers made from poly (allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and poly (sodium 4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS). This new finding will be discussed in terms of possible applications in food packaging.
Food security in South Africa: A comprehensive review of the past two decades

II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III DEDICATION IV I DEDICATE THIS MASTER DISSERTATION TO MY MOTHER AND FATHER WHO HAVE BEEN MY SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FROM DAY ONE IV TABLE OF CONTENTS V LIST OF FIGURES VII LIST OF TABLES VIII ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS IX
Urinary Biomarkers And Association With Recovery From Severe Aki

Urinary Biomarkers and Association with Recovery from Severe AKI Rahul Agarwal and Steven G Coca, Assistant Professor, Section of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT Few studies have examined the ability of urinary biomarkers to associate with recovery from acute kidney injury (AKI), a common complication for hospitalized patients that is independently associated with severe morbidity and mortality. We hypothesized that urinary biomarkers of kidney injury (NGAL, IL-18) or repair (YKL-40) would be associated with renal recovery in patients with severe AKI. We prospectively enrolled 48 patients admitted at Yale New Haven Hospital with severe AKI (AKIN Stage 3). Daily morning urine samples were collected (until recovery up to max of 9 days). Levels of urinary YKL-40, NGAL, and IL-18 were measured. The primary exposures were the concentrations of the biomarkers on the first, last, and average daily values of the biomarker during enrollment. The primary outcome was renal recovery at discharge and was classified as “complete” if SCr ≤1.4 mg/dL, “partial” if SCr >1.4 and lower than peak SCr reached, and “nonrecovery” if SCr > 4mg/dL or death. Fifteen patients recovered completely, 17 recovered partially, and 16 did not recover (11 due to death). Mean time to partial recovery from the first sample collection was 2.47 ± 1.92 days and mean time to complete recovery was 6.60 ± 4.03 days. Median values of the day 1, average, last NGAL (p= 0.01, p=0.01, and p <0.01) and last YKL-40 (p=0.02) were significantly higher in patients that did not recover from AKI, compared to those that experienced partial or complete recovery. The AUCs for non-recovery for day 1, average, and last NGAL were 0.76, 0.77, and 0.81, for YKL-40 0.58, 0.66, and 0.75, and for IL-18 0.54, 0.55, and 0.59 respectively. In conclusion, high values of YKL-40 and NGAL appear to be associated with nonrecovery from severe while IL-18 did not discriminate between recovery and non-recovery in this cohort of patients. Larger studies will need to confirm these findings.
Interactive comment on “ A physics-based approach to oversample multi-satellite , multi-species observations to a common grid ” by K

Satellite remote sensing of the Earth’s atmospheric composition usually samples irregularly in space and time, and many applications require spatially and temporally averaging the satellite observations (Level 2) to a regular grid (Level 3). When averaging Level 2 data over a long time period to a target Level 3 grid ::: that :: is significantly finer than ::: the :::: sizes ::: of : Level 2 pixels, this process is referred to as “oversampling”. An agile, physics-based oversampling approach is developed to represent each satellite observation as a sensitivity distribution on the ground, instead of a point or a polygon as assumed in previous approaches ::::::: methods. This sensitivity distribution can be determined by the spatial response function of each satellite sensor. A generalized 2-D super Gaussian function is proposed to characterize the spatial response functions of both imaging grating spectrometers (e.g., OMI, OMPS, and TROPOMI) and scanning Fourier transform spectrometers (e.g., GOSAT, IASI, : and CrIS). Synthetic OMI and IASI observations were generated to compare the errors due to simplifying satellite fields of view (FOV) as polygons (tessellation error) and the errors due to discretizing the smooth spatial response function on a finite grid (discretization error). The balance between these two error sources depends on the target grid resolution ::: size, the ground size of FOV, and the smoothness of spatial response functions. Explicit consideration of the spatial response function is favorable for high resolution ::::::: fine-grid oversampling and smoother spatial response. For OMI, it is beneficial to oversample using the spatial response functions for grid resolutions :::: grids : finer than ∼16 km. The generalized 2-D super Gaussian function also enables smoothing of the Level 3 results by decreasing the shape-determining exponents, useful for high noise level or sparse satellite datasets. This physical oversampling is applied to OMI NO2 products and IASI NH3 products, showing :::::::: approach : is ::::::::: especially :::::::::::: advantageous :::::: during :::::: smaller :::::::: temporal :::::::: windows :::: and :::::: shows : substantially improved visualization of trace gas
Cancer Localization in the Prostate with F-18 Fluorocholine Positron Emission Tomography

Abstract : An imaging technique to identify the regions of cancer in the prostate gland could significantly enhance the diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance of this disease. This project evaluates fluorine-18 fluorocholine (F-18 FCH) positron emission tomography (PET) as a method for localizing cancer in the prostate gland. The research study plans to accrue 25 subjects who are undergoing radical prostatectomy surgery for prostate cancer. The subjects will undergo pre-operative PET scanning to acquire images of F-18 FCH uptake in anatomical sextants of the prostate. These results will be compared to the results of prostate biopsy and histopathologic analysis of the prostate specimen following surgery to determine the accuracy of F-18 FCH PET for detecting cancer in prostate sextants. The first major task of the project involved development of the human subjects research protocol and its approval by the institutional review board (IRB) at two medical institutions as well as the U.S. Army Human Subjects Research Review Board. Following completion of these tasks, subject recruitment was begun on July 18, 2005. As of December 20, 2005, 10 subjects have participated in the research. Analysis of the preliminary data reveals that benign and malignant prostate sextants demonstrate statistically significant differences in F-18 FCH uptake as measured by PET. These preliminary findings concur with data obtained from a previous pilot study and support potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications for this technique. Because the average tumor volume from the first 5 subjects was less than expected, a protocol change was submitted to the IRB in December 2005 to allow the inclusion of patients who may have higher tumor volumes. Project tasks that were assigned to the first project year have been completed in accordance to the Statement of Work (SOW). Completion of the remaining tasks is expected within the time frame of the SOW.
Probiotics and Metabolic Outcomes of Gestational Diabetes: A Review Article

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is the most prevalent metabolic problem of gestation. In contrast to subjects without diabetes, women with GDM are at advanced risk of adverse maternal and fetal consequences without intervention. The current and unanticipated growth in the prevalence of gestational diabetes and the middling outcomes of dietary manipulations could somewhat be because of incuriosity to or failure in changing the different combination and unsuitable intestinal micro flora which happens frequently in the second half of pregnancy particularly when complemented with overweight/obesity. In the range of lifestyle-related aspects, probiotics are suggested as part of a balanced diet, low-cost, feasible and potentially impressive strategy to manage this health problem. The objective of this review paper is to review the related studies pursuant to the significance of probiotics and their impression in prohibition and management of GDM. Electronic search was performed in databases, including Scopus, Science direct, PubMed, Cochrane central, Google Scholar, ISC, Magiran, IranMedex, SID, and MedLib. Evidence proposes that manipulation of gut microbiota during pregnancy by certain probiotics in high risk pregnant women may be of pronounced advantage for better metabolic profile of pregnant women and their offspring
Airline delay prediction by machine learning algorithms

Flight planning, as one of the challenging issue in the industrial world, is faced with many uncertain conditions. One such condition is delay occurrence, which stems from various factors and imposes considerable costs on airlines, operators, and travelers. With these considerations in mind, we implemented flight delay prediction through proposed approaches that are based on machine learning algorithms. Parameters that enable the effective estimation of delay are identified, after which Bayesian modeling, decision tree, cluster classification, random forest, and hybrid method are applied to estimate the occurrences and magnitude of delay in a network. These methods were tested on a U.S. flight dataset and then refined for a large Iranian airline network. Results showed that the parameters affecting delay in US networks are visibility, wind, and departure time, whereas those affecting delay in Iranian airline flights are fleet age and aircraft type. The proposed approaches exhibited an accuracy of more than 70% in calculating delay occurance and magnitude in both the whole-network US and Iranian. It is hoped that the techniques put forward in this work will enable airline companies to accurately predict delays, improve flight planning, and prevent delay propagation.
Social and biological pathways in childhood and consequent adult mortality risk: A review of evidence and some research implications

Artikkelen diskuterer den prinsipielle betydningen av sosiale og biologiske faktorer i barndommen for dodelighetsrisikoen i voksen alder. Ulike modeller av livslopet blir presentert; kritisk og sensitiv periode, akkumulering av risiko og til sist en forlopsmodell. Disse modellene blir diskutert i lys av empiriske studier hvor sosiale og biologiske faktorer i barndommen er vist a ha en assosiasjon med dodelighet i voksen alder. En slik livslopsmodell har potensial til a forklare ulikhet i helse pa en biologisk og sosialt plausibel mate. Men den stiller ogsa sporsmal ved om arsaksfaktorer fra tidligere i livet kan hevdes a vaere uavhengige for vi kjenner hvordan de biologiske og sosiale kjedene av risiko henger sammen og har utviklet seg over tid. Det blir derfor hevdet av en del forskere at for a forsta kroniske sykdommers etiologi fullt ut ma bade sosiale og biologiske arsakskjeder innga i modellen.