Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Associated With Overweight and Obesity Among Adults in Constantine

Objectives: In Algeria, as in all countries of the developing world, obesity has become more common among adults. The present study aims to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults in Constantine and its relationship with certain determining factors. Study design: A cross-sectional study with cluster sampling allowed us to estimate the prevalence of all categories of body mass index. Methods: The study was conducted in the city of Constantine capital of the district of Constantine. For this purpose, 1143 adults living in Constantine were interviewed. Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was respectively 32,5% and 30,9%. Women are more affected by obesity than men. Obesity is more common among people with no professional activity. Similarly, the level of education and the prevalence of obesity are inversely correlated; it only affects 25,5% of the educated subjects. The results of the logistic regression analysis show that the prevalence of overweight and obesity was significantly different according to age and marital status. The prevalence of obesity is significantly different according to sex and the level of education; sedentary people are 2.6 times more obese than those who are physically active. Conclusions: In this study the prevalence of overweight and obesity is high. Preventive measures are to be taken urgently.
Homo-Coupling of Terminal Alkynes Using a Simple, Cheap Ni(dppe)Cl2/Ag2O Catalyst System

Abstract A simple Ni(dppe)Cl2/Ag2O combination has been established as an efficient catalyst system for the homo-coupling of aromatic terminal alkynes. This reaction proceeds under mild conditions and can be applied to alkynone substrates. Various aromatic 1,3-diynes were obtained in good to excellent yields. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Investable and Interpretable Machine Learning for Equities

The authors propose three principles for evaluating the practical efficacy of machine learning for stock selection, and they compare the performance of various models and investment goals using this framework. The first principle is investability. To this end, the authors focus on portfolios formed from highly liquid US stocks, and they calibrate models to require a reasonable amount of trading. The second principle is interpretability. Investors must understand a model’s output well enough to trust it and extract some general insight from it. To this end, the authors choose a concise set of predictor variables, and they apply a novel method called the model fingerprint to reveal the linear, nonlinear, and interaction effects that drive a model’s predictions. The third principle is that a model’s predictions should be interesting—they should convincingly outperform simpler models. To this end, the authors evaluate out-of-sample performance compared to linear regressions. In addition to these three principles, the authors also consider the important role people play by imparting domain knowledge and preferences to a model. The authors argue that adjusting the prediction goal is one of the most powerful ways to do this. They test random forest, boosted trees, and neural network models for multiple calibrations that they conclude are investable, interpretable, and interesting.
A Gender-Based Analysis of Conflict Management Styles for Construction Management Students

Professor Serne is an Assistant Professor of Safety Health Management at Central Washington University, where she teaches classes covering Hazardous Materials Management, Fire Safety, Incident Investigation, Emergency Response, Construction and Manufacturing Safety, Safety Analysis Systems, and Ergonomics and Human Factors. Previously, she worked for 20 years in the safety industry supporting research safety at an R1 university at the assistant director level, pharmaceutical safety at a world class research facility in Seattle, and specialized in radiation safety, and emergency response as the lead inspector of medical and research facilities using radioactive materials in Washington State and the Public Information Officer at the state EOC during radiological emergencies. She has also worked as an independent fatality investigator, serving various clients in 36 states and 6 countries. She has a Masters in Safety Science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Human Factors.
Direct Mechanism of OH Radicals Formation in PEM Fuel Cells

The generation of hydroxyl and/or peroxyl (·OOH) radicals on fuel cell catalysts has direct consequences for the durability of the polymer electrolyte membrane. Whether radical generation occurs from hydrogen peroxide decomposition vs. direct generation on the Pt catalyst surface is of key interest. Ab initio calculations were performed with Gaussian software employing both cluster models of a platinum surface, as well as single / double Pt atom ensembles. Although complete four-electron reduction to water on Pt is desired, hydrogen peroxide is also formed at potentials below 0.6 Vrhe. In this work, we show that the main pathway of H2O2 formation on platinum involves the ·OH free radical as an intermediate. ·OH radicals may be released from the Pt surface either by dissociation of the adsorbed OOH intermediate at high potentials or by dissociation of one-site adsorbed peroxide intermediate at low potentials. Adsorption of hydrogen peroxide transported to the Pt surface to achieve this state, though possible, is unfavored. These results indicate that the direct formation of hydroxyl radicals on Pt surfaces is possible under certain conditions and need not proceed through a peroxide intermediate.
Liquid-liquidtwo-phaseflowpatternsandmasstransfercharacteristicsinrectangular glassmicroreactors

The flow of two immiscible fluids was investigated in rectangular glass microchannels with equivalent diameters of 269 and 400m. Deionised water, dyed toluene and hexane were selected as probe fluids. Flow patterns were obtained for Y- and T-junction of two micro-channels and monitored by a photo-camera. Volumetric velocities of water and organic phase varied between 1 and 6ml/h. The formation mechanism of slug and parallel flow was studied and the mass transfer performances of two flow patterns were compared. The shape of the interface between the immiscible liquids was controlled by a competition between the viscous forces and the local interfacial tension. The flow patterns could be correlated with the mean Capillary and Reynolds numbers. The mass transfer coefficients for parallel and slug flow were determined using instantaneous neutralisation (acid–base) reaction. The two flow patterns showed the same global volumetric mass transfer coefficients in the range of 0.2–0.5s −1 , being affected mainly by the base concentration in water for parallel flow and by the linear velocity in the case of the slug flow.
Reconsidering the Deterrence Paradigm of Tax Compliance1

An extensive literature on the determinants of tax compliance began nearly forty years ago with the theoretical treatments of Allingham and Sandmo (1972) and Yitzhaki (1974). These theories represent applications of the Becker (1968) economic theory of crime in which a rational, expected-utilitymaximizing agent chooses how much income to self-report to the government by comparing his consumption when noncompliance is or is not detected. The theory has been dubbed the “deterrence” paradigm as it assumes that taxpayers inherently wish to pay no tax liability and are “deterred” from doing so solely by the risk of audit, detection, and penalty. The model’s stylized taxpayer is essentially identical to a gambler who chooses how much to wager based on the odds and payouts of the noncompliance bet.
Why Multipath TCP Degrades Throughput Under Insufficient Send Socket Buffer and Differently Delayed Paths

— Recently, the Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) comes to be used widely. It allows more than one TCP connections via different paths to compose one Multipath TCP communication. Our previous papers pointed out that insufficient send socket buffer makes the throughput worse than that of single path TCP, when the subflows have different transmission delays. Although our previous papers gave the detailed analysis on the throughput degradation focusing on the relationship between the send socket buffer size and the delay, they did not clarify the reason of the throughput degradation. This paper investigates the Linux MPTCP software and the MPTCP communication details, and clarifies why the insufficient socket buffer degrades the MPTCP throughput.
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY AND EVALUATION ON AUTOMATIC EAR DETECTION

Biometric is one of the growing fields used in security, forensic and surveillance applications. Various types of physiological and behavioral biometrics are available today. Human ear is a passive physiological biometric. Ear is an important biometric trait due to many advantages over other biometric modalities. Because of its complex structure, face image detection is very challenging. Detection deals with finding or localizing the position of ear in the given profile face image. Various methods like manual, semiautomatic and automatic techniques are used for ear detection. Automatic ear localization is a complex process compared to manual ear cropping. This paper presents an empirical study and evaluation of four different existing ear detection techniques with our proposed method based on banana wavelets and circular Hough transform. A comparative analysis of the five algorithms in terms of detection accuracy is presented. The detection accuracy was calculated by means of manual as well as automatic verification.
Quality evaluation of water spinach (Ipomea aquatica) leaves cultivated through Aquaponics

Nutrient, nutraceutical analysis and shelf life studies were carried out on Water Spinach (Ipomea aquatica) leaves to determine the differences in the leaves cultivated on Aquaponics and conventional one. Tilapia fishes were grown along with the plants. Leaves cultivated in Aquaponics showed higher yield and sensory qualities. Significant difference was found in many of the nutrient and nutraceutical components among both the treatments. Antioxidant property was also seen to be higher with significant difference statistically (T value-2.10).
Effect of Wedge and Crescent Wear on Production Tubing Burst Pressure Rating

This paper presents the effect of wedgeand crescent damages on the tubular burst pressure. The analysis is based on analytical API Barlow model and finite element method (FEM). The analytical model does not consider the worn out part, whereas the FEM includes the defect as part of the analysis. Results showed that for uniform walled tubular, the FEM and the API Barlow model pressure predictions are nearly equal. As the single and the double crescent wear depth increase from 0 to 50%, the API Barlow model over predicts the FEM burst pressure in range 1 44% and 2-50%, respectively. Likewise, for the single – and the double wedge wear, the API modeling percentile deviations from the FEM results are 157% and 2-58%, respectively. The overall analysis indicates that FEM is a reliable modelling approach for flaw included tubular.
Optimal Design of a Novel Spherical Scissor Linkage Remote Center of Motion Mechanism for Medical Robotics

In this paper, a new remote center of motion (RCM) mechanism is presented whose end-effector is able to move through an entire hemisphere. In general, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) applications, an elliptic cone workspace with vertex angles of 60° and 90° gives the surgeon enough freedom to operate. Therefore, the majority of the developed RCM mechanisms have such a cone as the workspace. However, there are still situations in which a larger workspace is required, like the breast ultrasound scanning application in which the RCM mechanisms should be able to move over a hemisphere to do the breast scanning. The proposed RCM mechanism is developed based upon a spherical scissor linkage and benefits from the high stiffness characteristics of parallel structures while eliminating the common problem of linkage collision in parallel structures. It has two rotational degrees of freedom that are decoupled from each other. The Jacobian and the stiffness of the mechanism while considering the bending of the links is calculated through the virtual joints method (VJM). The kinemato-static equations and the methodology for calculating stiffness are described in detail. The optimal arc angle of the mechanism’s links is found using a multi-objective genetic algorithm optimization. A prototype of the mechanism is built and forward kinematic of the proposed mechanism is examined experimentally. The experiments indicate that the proposed mechanism is able to provide a hemisphere as its workspace while the RCM point of the mechanism is fixed in the space.
Transaction Convenience and Customer Patronage of Deposit Money Banks in Port Harcourt

This study was on transaction convenience and customer patronage of deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. Data were collected through questionnaire from 91 sampled respondents. The hypotheses were tested with Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient with the aid of SPSS, statistical software. It was found thatthere is a significant relationship between perceived time, repeat purchase and word of mouth. Also, there is a significant relationship between perceived effort, repeat purchase and word of mouth. Based on the findings, the study concludes that there is a significant relationship between transaction convenience and customer patronage of deposit money banks in Port Harcourt. Therefore the study recommends that; deposit money banks in Port Harcourt should improve on their transaction convenience to increase customer patronage. Deposit money banks should try to exceed customer expectations in terms of perceived time and effort on transaction to earn their repeat purchase and word of mouth.
STIMULATION OF GROWTH AND OIL PRODUCTION IN CUMIN PLANT

A pot experiment was carried out during two successive seasons (2017/ 2018 and 2018/2019) at Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Department in Dokki. The aim of this work was to study the effect of foliar application of phenylalanine (Phe) and p -nitro phenylacetic acid (PNPAA) each of them alone at (0, 50,100 and 150 ppm) on cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) plant growth, fruits yield, volatile oil production and its major chemical constituents. In general results indicated that, the foliar application of phenylalanine or p-nitrophenylacetic acid significantly increased vegetative growth expressed as (plant height, number of branches per plant) and produced higher fruits yield (g)/plant as well as volatile oil percentage and oil yield compared with control in the two seasons. Moreover, the highest values were obtained from phenylalanine or p-nitrophenylacetic acid at 150 ppm. Cumin plants showed more effective response to p-nitrophenylacetic acid (PNPAA) than phenylalanine (Phe). As for GLC analysis, the results showed that in general the highest percentage of p -menth-1-en7-ol and cumin aldehyde (p -isopropylbenzaldehyde) the main constituents in the volatile oil achieved with the treatment p-nitrophenylacetic acid at 150 ppm. The high concentration of phenylalanine and p-nitrophenylacetic acid (150 ppm) had significant increments in total phenols, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity compared with control. There was a significant increase in phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity compared to control. Also, there was an increment in IAA, GA3 and low level of ABA. It was observed that p -nitrophenylacetic acid (150 ppm) was superior to phenylalanine (150 ppm) in all afore mentioned characters
Determination of the Young Modulus of Gastric Cancer Tissue Experimentally Using Atomic Force Microscopy

Article Type Original Research Diagnosis of cell properties to isolate healthy and damaged tissues of biological cells, moving and manipulating cells and various micro/nanoparticles, imaging and diagnosis the shape of cells and different surfaces are new applications of atomic force microscopes that today use atomic force microscopes. In modeling the manipulation of micro/nanoparticles, using atomic force microscopy, one of the important points is to use a suitable and accurate contact model. Since in three-dimensional manipulation, the micro/nanoparticle is located between the beam and the substrate, contact theories must be divided into two parts. The first part is the contact between the base plate and the micro/nanoparticle and the other part is the contact between the micro/nanoparticle and the tip of the beam tip. In this study, the modulus of elasticity of gastric cancer tissue was extracted using atomic force microscopy to diagnose tissue. For this purpose, two Hertz and JKR contact models have been developed to derive the modulus of elasticity. In an experimental experiment, after isolating the cells from the gastric cancer tissue, the specimens were tested using a rectangular beam and pyramidal and spherical tips under an atomic force microscope, and the load-indentation depth diagrams were obtained. Data analysis was performed. According to the results obtained from the load-indentation depth diagram, the apparent spring coefficient for the cell can be modeled because the slope of this diagram is linear. The modulus of elasticity of the desired texture, according to the obtained diagrams obtained from the comparison of the experimental results extracted from the atomic force microscope and the results of the Hertz and JKRcontact theory of 325 ± 255 kPa, has been obtained. Authors Taheri M.1*. PhD, Bathaee S.H. 1 MSc
Effect of Corporate Characteristics on Voluntary Disclosure of Listed Financial Service Firms in Nigeria

This study assessed the effect of corporate characteristics on voluntary disclosure of listed financial service firms in Nigeria for the period of 2014-2018. The study used correlational research design. Data for the study was extracted from yearly-published financial report of listed financial service firms in Nigeria. All the listed financial service firms were considered for the population of this study, while the sample was adjusted population of thirteen (13) listed financial service firms in Nigeria. The data collected were analyzed using paneled regression technique. The result of the regression revealed that profitability and leverage have a negative and significant effect on the voluntary disclosure of financial service firms in Nigeria. However, a positive and significant relationship exists between firm size and voluntary disclosure. In line with the findings, the study recommended that listed financial service firms in Nigeria should incorporate voluntary disclosure to the compulsory disclosure of financial report required by the governing body. This has become necessary in view of the fact that any increase in the profitability and leverage will reduce the level of voluntary disclosure of the financial reports of the firms as evidenced that leverage confines the firms from voluntary disclose information in annual report to posit superior performance based on lesser requirements of transparency and lesser chance of loss of control. In addition, due to self-interest, managers may decide towards voluntary disclosure. However, the Nigeria Financial Reporting Council and other governing body are to guarantee complete conformity with pertinent national accounting disclosure necessities. Since an increase in the excellence of disclosed information will assist the users to make informed predictions, aid the assessment of the firm’s advancement, and lessen the predicament of information asymmetry for investors.
Control of turbulent transport: Less friction and more heat transfer

Because of the importance of fundamental knowledge on turbulent heat transfer for further decreasing entropy production and improving efficiency in various thermo-fluid systems, we revisit a classical issue whether enhancing heat transfer is possible with skin friction reduced or at least not increased as much as heat transfer. The answer that numerous previous studies suggest is quite pessimistic because the analogy concept of momentum and heat transport holds well in a wide range of flows. Nevertheless, the recent progress in analyzing turbulence mechanics and designing turbulence control offers a chance to develop a scheme for dissimilar momentum and heat transport. By reexamining the governing equations and boundary conditions for convective heat transfer, the basic strategies for achieving dissimilar control in turbulent flow is generally classified into two groups, i.e., one for the averaged quantities and the other for the turbulent fluctuating components. As a result, two different approaches are discussed presently. First, under three typical heating conditions, the contribution of turbulent transport to wall friction and heat transfer is mathematically formulated, and it is shown that the difference in how the local turbulent transport of momentum and that of heat contribute to the friction and heat transfer coefficients is a key to answer whether the dissimilar control is feasible. Such control is likely to be achieved when the weight distributions for the stress and flux in the derived relationships are different. Secondly, we introduce a more general methodology, i.e., the optimal control theory. The Frechet differentials obtained clearly show that the responses of velocity and scalar fields to a given control input are quite different due to the fact that the velocity is a divergence-free vector while the temperature is a conservative scalar. By exploiting this inherent difference, the dissimilar control can be achieved even in flows where the averaged momentum and heat transport equations have the same form.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Assessment of the Multiple Rapid Swallows Test for Gauging Esophageal Reflux Burden in Patients with Refractory Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Background The multiple rapid swallows (MRS) test is used to assess esophageal contraction reserve. In this study, we characterized the expression of the MRS test in patients with reflux burden and other symptomatic phenotypes with refractory gastroesophageal reflux disease (rGERD). Material/Methods Patients with rGERD who underwent high-resolution manometry (HRM) and esophageal pH-impedance monitoring (EIM) between September 2018 and January 2020 were retrospectively studied. Results We enrolled 151 patients and divided them into 4 phenotypes according to the results of EIM. In phenotype 1, the MRS distal contractile integral (DCI) was significantly positively correlated with acid-liquid reflux episodes. In phenotype 2, lower esophageal sphincter pressure (LES) length was significantly positively correlated with MRS DCI, and MRS/single-swallow (SS) DCI ratio. In phenotype 3, MRS DCI was negatively correlated with the DeMeester score, acid exposure time (AET), upright AET, long-term acid reflux episodes, acid-mixed reflux episodes, recumbent acid reflux episodes, and total acid reflux episodes. There was a significant negative correlation between MRS/SS DCI and recumbent acid reflux episodes. In phenotype 4, nonacid-liquid episodes and recumbent nonacid reflux episodes were significantly higher in the abnormal MRS group. However, acid-gas episodes, weakly acid-gas episodes, and upright gas reflux episodes were higher in the normal MRS group than in the abnormal MRS group. Conclusions Esophageal contraction reserve is heterogeneous within the reflux burden and symptomatic phenotypes of patients with rGERD.