Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generalized Linear Models for Rainfall Patterns In The Presence Of Temperature Trends in Different Climatic Zones in Kenya

Rainfall and temperature series impact heavily on the performance of a country’s agricultural production as a component of the economy especially in a developing country like Kenya. These series were analyzed to study the evolution of their mean variability. In particular, this study sought to model the Temporal Rainfall Patterns in different Zones in Kenya considering temperature trends as indicators of the rainfall variations. In achieving this objective, a broad statistical approach was used, based on inference on their entire series to predict the mean amount of rainfall using the Maximum and Minimum temperatures processes. Data on different counties in Kenya regarding rainfall and temperature was obtained from the respective weather stations. The study then came up with zones dependent on rainfall using cluster Analysis. Models specific to each created zone were fitted and included the Poisson, Quasi-Poisson and Negative Binomial models which belong to the broad class of Generalized Linear Models (GLMs). Using the AIC criterion, we identified Negative Binomial model as the best model for the variability of rainfall patterns in these Zones as maximum and minimum temperatures changes, and the discussion about them made thereof. Keywords: Cluster analysis, Poisson, Quasi-Poisson, Negative binomial, Precipitation, Temperature.
Motivation: An investigation to establish the impact of motivational theories on employee performance and satisfaction and to determine key factors towards the motivation of employees.

This investigation is to determine the impact of seminal motivational theories and practices on employee performance and job satisfaction in addition to determining the existence and significance of specific motivational factors for the successful improvement of employee performance and job satisfaction in the modern business world. The research draws on various secondary data and literature to explore and critically analyse the constructs, models and principals of several key motivational theories whilst primary research is conducted through a web-based survey to develop a comprehensive investigation into possible determinants of employee motivation. The subsequent findings found age to be a significant factor with regard to the five types of motivation and can offer practical implications for managers today. Furthermore, Maslow's (1943) hierarchy of needs theory and Gallup's (2015) employee engagement practice is further examined as a possible hybrid for the successful motivation of employees and greater levels of performance and job satisfaction. The findings show that further research is required to address gaps in the literature surrounding the topic of motivation, specifically the constructs of introjected, identified and integrated motivation.
How Strategic Orientation Affects Inter-Organizational Networks in Uncertain Environments

This article deals with business network and cluster dynamics, as well as inter-firm joint-ventures and collaborations, in order to study their evolution and possible effects when radical innovation occurs inside them. Each network transformation is brought about by specific combination of changes in tie creation, tie deletion and power inside the network. In the present work an agent based model is introduced (E³), which aims to explore how innovation diffusion can facilitate network formation of existing enterprises, affect network topology (e.g. an enterprise owning an innovative process could become a focal point), induce new players to enter the market and spread onto the network by being shared or internally acquired by new players. In order to study these dynamics, with regards to the optimal balancing among different strategies and the importance of exogenous parameters in cluster creation, a model is presented. It follows the agent based paradigm, particularly suited for describing complex social systems in which many parts interact among them. This allows creating simulations of the analyzed system and testing different hypothesis. Besides, it’s a paradigm in which the emergent features of complex systems can arise spontaneously, thanks to the bottom-up design. A model is introduced and described in detail. Qualitative results supported by an empirical case study are described, reflecting current state-of-the art theories. The results show how clusters emerge and evolve among enterprises, and how radical innovation can trigger this phenomenon.
Trade Openness, Gains from Variety and Government Spending

This paper investigates empirically the effect of import diversity on government size and provides evidence for the love of variety effect on government spending described in Hanslin (2008). I argue that crowding out of firms is an important cost of public good provision. However, due to the access to foreign varieties, national costs of public good provision are lower and therefore, public good provision is higher. Especially for OECD countries this channel seems to exist. The diversity of imported products has a positive effect on government consumption, particularly when these goods are classified as differentiated. In addition, this positive effect is decreasing in home market size. Further, the direct effect of the share of differentiated in total imported products on the government share is negative.
Personalisation seeks to improve public service quality by emphasizing the role of the service user as a customer with agency and power

Using the customer orientated bureaucracy (COB) construct, this qualitative study investigates changes to the Human Resource (HR) function’s status in eight Scottish voluntary organisations delivering public services at a time of contradictory government calls for greater customer service (personalisation) and cost control (austerity). HR attempts to build and sustain social orders that encourage worker commitment to customer service, leading to business facing and ‘business partner’ strategic roles in areas of recruitment and skills. The study, however, challenges the ability of unitarist ‘business partner’ HR roles to resolve emerging organisational tensions concerning industrial relations, worker concerns over their own security, lack of opportunities to up-skill and service quality. It further questions whether the HR function can be strategic in this and other COB contexts as it can be powerless to resolve workplace tensions because its own status is undermined by budget cuts by government and it faces challenges to its expertise from internal and external actors such as consultants and customers.
Reliability and Geographic Trends of 50,000 Photovoltaic Systems in the USA: Preprint

This paper presents performance and reliability data from nearly 50,000 photovoltaic (PV) systems totaling 1.7 gigawatts installed capacity in the USA from 2009 to 2012 and their geographic trends. About 90% of the normal systems and about 85% of all systems, including systems with known issues, performed to within 10% or better of expected performance. Although considerable uncertainty may exist due to the nature of the data, hotter climates appear to exhibit some degradation not seen in the more moderate climates. Special causes of underperformance and their impacts are delineated by reliability category. Hardware-related issues are dominated by inverter problems (totaling less than 0.5%) and underperforming modules (totaling less than 0.1%). Furthermore, many reliability categories show a significant decrease in occurrence from year 1 to subsequent years, emphasizing the need for higher-quality installations but also the need for improved standards development. The probability of PV system damage because of hail is below 0.05%. Singular weather events can have a significant impact such as a single lightning strike to a transformer or the impact of a hurricane. However, grid outages are more likely to have a significant impact than PV system damage when extreme weather events occur.
Vesicular Drug Delivery Systems: A Special Emphasis on Pharmacosomes

Pharmacosomes are the colloidal dispersions of drugs covalently bound to lipids and may exist as ultrafine vesicular, micellar or hexagonal aggregates, depending on the chemical structure of the drug lipid complex. The term pharmacosomes is explicitly used to describe the zwitterion, amphiphilic stoichiometric complexes of polyphenolic compounds with phospholipids. The system is formed by linking a drug (pharmakon) to a carrier (soma), they are called pharmacosomes. Pharmacosomes can pass through biomembranes efficiently and possess advantages over the use of other vesicular systems such as transferosomes liposomes and noisome. Pharmacososmes are design to avoid the unusual problems associated with the liposomal entrapment of polar drug molecules like low drug incorporation, leakage and solubility. This chapter includes the basic introduction, applications, method of preparation, characterisation, advantages, some research experiences and future prospects of pharmacosomes.
Dissociative recombination exalts molecular growth in N2/CH4 plasmas

We present a comparison of the outcomes of two models of N2/CH4 VUV plasmas in two sets of conditions representative of a laboratory experiment and of Titan's ionosphere. The "FullDR" model incorporates all available experimental data on dissociative recombination od CxHyN + ions thanks to the probabilistic tree technique recently developed in our group, whereas the "Hloss" model implements the H-loss pathways used by default in many models. We show that the FullDR model enhances globally the production of neutrals and ions, through the production of C2Hx fragments. These species are efficient promoters of molecular growth, notably in the higher pressure conditions of the laboratory experiment.
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) Extracts Inhibit Proinflammatory Cytokine Production From Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Human Promonocytic Cell Line U-937

Black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) is an excellent source of health-promoting compounds. Consumption of black walnuts has been linked to many health benefits (e.g., anti-inflammatory) stemming from its phytochemical composition and medicinal properties, but these effects have not been systematically studied or characterized. In this study, potential anti-inflammatory compounds found in kernel extracts of 10 black walnut cultivars were putatively identified using a metabolomic profiling analysis, revealing differences in potential anti-inflammatory capacities among examined cultivars. Five cultivars were examined for activities in the human promonocytic cell line U-937 by evaluating the effects of the extracts on the expression of six human inflammatory cytokines/chemokines using a bead-based, flow cytometric multiplex assay. The methanolic extracts of these cultivars were added at four concentrations (0.1, 0.3, 1, and 10 mg/ml) either before and after the addition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to human U-937 cells to examine their effect on cytokine production. Results from cytotoxicity and viability assays revealed that the kernel extracts had no toxic effect on the U-937 cells. Of the 13 cytokines [interleukin (IL)-1β, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-17, IL-18, IL-23, IL-33, interferon (IFN)-α, IFN-γ] measured, only six were detected under the culture conditions. The production of the six detected cytokines by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-differentiated, LPS-stimulated U-937 was significantly inhibited by the kernel extracts from two cultivars Surprise and Sparrow when the extracts were added before the addition of LPS. Other cultivars (Daniel, Mystry, and Sparks) showed weak or no significant effects on cytokine production. In contrast, no inhibitory effect was observed on the production of cytokines by PMA-differentiated, LPS-stimulated U-937 when the kernel extracts were added after the addition of LPS. The findings suggest that the extracts from certain black walnut cultivars, such as Sparrow and Surprise, are promising biological candidates for potentially decreasing the severity of inflammatory disease.
Features of the inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei of hypothalamus in different models of arterial hypertension

The regulation of the paraventricular (PVN) and supraoptic (SON) nuclei’s activity is carried out with a great amount of different neurotransmitters, in particular, with nitric oxide. In order to get clear understanding of the local NO effects in hypothalamus in normal condition and different models of hypertension it is necessary to study all isoforms of NOS in PVN and SON. Our purpose was to fi nd out the features of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression in magnocellular SON and PVN in SHR and endocrine-saline model of hypertension in rats. Materials and methods. For all rats the mean blood pressure (mBP) was measured. In Wistar rats mBP was stable during the experiment. In SHR mBP was higher than normal. In animals of the 3rd group with ESM the fi rst measurement (before the modelling) demonstrated normal rates of mBP. Since the 7th day of modelling mBP started increase and became steadily increased from the 21st day. We obtained the frontal slices of hypothalamus and performed the assessment of iNOS expression using immunofl uorescence assay. The results showed the presence of the constitutive expression of iNOS in the magnocellular neurons of hypothalamus in Wistar rats as well as in both groups of experimental hypertension. The level of iNOS expression in magnocellular nuclei was dependent both on type of hypertension and topography of magnocellular neurons in hypothalamus. In SHR there was high expression of iNOS in PVN and low one in SON, whereas in endocrine-saline model there was high expression in SON and there were no substantial changes of the iNOS expression in PVN. Conclusions. We believe the alteration of iNOS expression in magnocellular nuclei of hypothalamus could participate in development and/or adaptation to hypertension.
EFFECTS OF PLASMA TREATMENT ON THE SURFACE CHEMISTRY , WETTABILITY , AND CELLULAR INTERACTIONS OF NANOFIBROUS SCAFFOLDS

In this study, poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) nanofibrous mats (Ø: 107 ± 26 nm) were prepared by electrospinning and subsequently subjected to a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treatment sustained in three different gases (argon, ammonia/helium and nitrogen). In a next step, water contact angle measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the surface properties of the PCL nanofibers before and after plasma treatment. Cell behavior on the fibers was also evaluated in detail by live/dead fluorescence microscopy performed one day and seven days after seeding of human foreskin fibroblasts (HFFs). In addition, the cells morphology on the nanofibers was observed with SEM. The obtained results revealed that the hydrophilicity of PCL nanofibers can be significantly increased due to the incorporation of nitrogen-containing groups after plasma modifications in NH3/He and N2 and due to the incorporation of oxygen-containing groups after plasma modification in argon. In addition, these increases in hydrophilicity occur without inducing any morphological changes to the PCL nanofibers. Cell studies also reveal that cell adhesion and proliferation on the nanofibers were strongly increased due to the performed plasma treatments, most likely as a result of the increased surface hydrophilicity. Plasma surface modification is thus a very promising strategy to modify the surface of nanofibrous materials to be used in tissue engineering applications.
ON A CLASS OF GENERAL LINEAR GROUP WHOSE DETERMINANT IS THE SAME AS THE TRACE

General Linear Groups are examples of Topological Groups. In this work, a class of GL(2,IR) whose trace and determinant are equal is constructed. The proposed GL(2,IR) class is further endowed with Euclidean topology and shown to be a topological group. A sequence of the constructed GL(n,IR) and its generalization are also presented.
Charge-storage related parameter calculation for Si and SiGe bipolar transistors from device simulation

Various methods for calculating regional charge storage components in bipolar transistors from device simulation results are compared with respect to their suitability for compact modeling. The methods are evalu- ated for Si and SiGe transistors with very different doping profiles representing existing process technologies. Causes for the failure of a certain method under certain conditions are discussed. Such regional partitioning methods are also very useful for process development.
Evaluation of a rapid lateral flow calprotectin test for the diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection

Background: Microbiological diagnosis of prosthetic joint infection (PJI) relies on culture techniques that are slow and insensitive. Rapid tests are urgently required to improve patient management. Calprotectin is a neutrophil biomarker of inflammation that has been demonstrated to be effective for the diagnosis of PJI. A calprotectin based lateral flow test has been developed for the rapid detection of PJI using synovial fluid samples. Methods: A convenience series of 69 synovial fluid samples from patients at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals (NNUH) were collected intraoperatively from 52 hip and 17 knee revision operations. Calprotectin levels were measured using a new commercially available lateral flow assay for PJI diagnosis (Lyfstone). For all samples, synovial fluid was pipetted onto the lateral flow device and the signal was read using a mobile phone app after 15 minutes incubation at room temperature. Results: According to the Musculoskeletal Infection Society (MSIS) criteria, 24 patients were defined as PJI positive and the remaining 45 were negative. The overall accuracy of the lateral flow test against the MSIS criteria was 75%. The test had a sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 76% respectively with a positive predictive value (PPV) of 62% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 85%. Discordant results were then reviewed by the clinical team using available patient data to develop an alternative gold standard for defining presence/absence of infection (MSIS+). Compared to MSIS+, the test showed an overall accuracy of 83%, sensitivity and specificity of 95% and 78% respectively, a PPV of 62% and an NPV of 98%. Test accuracy for hip revisions was 77% and for knee revisions was 100%. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that the calprotectin lateral flow assay is an effective diagnostic test for PJI. Our data suggests that the test is likely to generate false positive results in patients with metallosis and gross osteolysis.
Phosphorus Efficient Phenotype of Rice

The ideal phenotype to cope with P deficiency is suggested to be a larger root system, both in terms of length and foraging area, coupled with a high capacity for P solubiliza tion from compounds exuded from roots. Greater soil exploration results in a large num - ber of roots in the top soil, longer roots in general with more cortical aerenchyma, more and longer root hairs, and a shift in mycorrhizal and bacterial colonization. However, these assumptions often result from experiments in highly controlled, sterile and soil-free conditions using model plants or single ecotypes where results are then extrapolated to all genotypes and plant species. In recent years this generalization has been questioned. Here, we summarize recent rice research analyzing the natural diversity of rice root sys - tems under P deficiency. Interestingly, while some of the high yielding genotypes do show the expected, large root system phenotype, some have a surprisingly small root system—as little as a quarter of that of the large root system varieties—but achieve simi lar yield and P uptake under P deficiency. This effect has recently been termed root effi - ciency, which we discuss in this chapter in conjunction with root foraging traits.
Performance of diethylene glycol-based particle counters in the sub-3 nm size range

Abstract. When studying new particle formation, the uncertainty in determining the "true" nucleation rate is considerably reduced when using condensation particle counters (CPCs) capable of measuring concentrations of aerosol particles at sizes close to or even at the critical cluster size (1–2 nm). Recently, CPCs able to reliably detect particles below 2 nm in size and even close to 1 nm became available. Using these instruments, the corrections needed for calculating nucleation rates are substantially reduced compared to scaling the observed formation rate to the nucleation rate at the critical cluster size. However, this improved instrumentation requires a careful characterization of their cut-off size and the shape of the detection efficiency curve because relatively small shifts in the cut-off size can translate into larger relative errors when measuring particles close to the cut-off size. Here we describe the development of two continuous-flow CPCs using diethylene glycol (DEG) as the working fluid. The design is based on two TSI 3776 counters. Several sets of measurements to characterize their performance at different temperature settings were carried out. Furthermore, two mixing-type particle size magnifiers (PSM) A09 from Airmodus were characterized in parallel. One PSM was operated at the highest mixing ratio (1 L min−1 saturator flow), and the other was operated in a scanning mode, where the mixing ratios are changed periodically, resulting in a range of cut-off sizes. The mixing ratios are determined by varying the saturator flow, where the aerosol flow stays constant at 2.5 L min−1. Different test aerosols were generated using a nano-differential mobility analyser (nano-DMA) or a high-resolution DMA, to obtain detection efficiency curves for all four CPCs. One calibration setup included a high-resolution mass spectrometer (APi-TOF) for the determination of the chemical composition of the generated clusters. The lowest cut-off sizes were achieved with negatively charged ammonium sulfate clusters, resulting in cut-offs of 1.4 nm for the laminar flow CPCs and 1.2 and 1.1 nm for the PSMs. A comparison of one of the laminar-flow CPCs and one of the PSMs measuring ambient and laboratory air showed good agreement between the instruments.
Assessment of Serum Ferritin Levels in Sudanese Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood malignancy. Although there are known increase in serum ferritin with many forms of malignancy, the pattern of elevation with different stages of ALL have not yet been elucidated. Objectives: To assess serum ferritin, uric acid, and LDH in Sudanese patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Materials and Methods: This is a case-control study conducted in Khartoum state, Sudan during the period from May 2018 to November 2018. A total of 160 subjects were enrolled in this study, 80 patients of ALL as cases; and gender-matched, 80 healthy subjects as controls. All tests result were statistically analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. Results: This study included 160 subjects, 80 patients with ALL among which 42 subjects (52.5%) were males and the reminder 38 subjects (47.5%) were females. The mean age of the cases group was 17.6 ± 5.6 years old. The control group included 80 healthy subjects which were matched in age (17.8 ± 12.1) and gender (52.5% males, 47.5% females) with the cases group. Among ALL patients, statistically significant positive correlations were observed between number of blast cells serum ferritin level (r=0.735, p<0.0001), uric acid (r=0.618, p<0.0001) and LDH (r=0.570, p<0.0001). Conclusions: ALL was associated with elevated serum ferritin levels. The level of serum ferritin was significantly correlated with various stages of the disease and had a positive linear correlation with serum uric acid, LDH, and blast count, therefore determination of serum ferritin could be used as ALL prognostic markers.