Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Successful ascent of female leaders in the pharmaceutical industry: a qualitative, transcendental, and phenomenological study

PurposeThis research studied the ascension of 12 female executives in one of the STEM disciplines, the pharmaceutical sector; and sheds a perspective of the setbacks, challenges and progresses these women experienced during their ascent.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilized a qualitative, transcendental, and phenomenological approach.FindingsThe findings of this research identified barriers that encapsulated the study participants and created setbacks to their ascent, such as gendered structures, self, peers, direct managers, family and society. Further, this study's results revealed success strategies that represented progresses, such as having sponsors, mentors, leadership development, being flexible, self-branding, and having networks that created resiliency to the setbacks faced by the female executives within the pharmaceutical sector of STEM.Research limitations/implicationsThe resulting demographic sample of this research shown in Table 1 includes one diverse, female executive and presents a limitation of the data. Therefore, the underrepresentation of ethnic diversity may be due to the sampling approach or may be due to the additional barriers ethnically diverse females face in this segment of the STEM environment. Intersectionality was not examined in this research, as the primary focus of this research was female executives in the pharmaceutical sector. Further research examining the 360-Degree Gender Sphere theory and the impact of the six Success Strategies to Create Resilience, can be expanded to focus on ethnically diverse females in the broader STEM disciplines. The study results and implications for female leadership within all of STEM disciplines are timely and relevant.Practical implicationsThe practical implications include creating awareness for women and men in STEM, of the barriers encountered by women and the success strategies needed to ascend and self-actualize.Social implicationsThe implications of these research findings impact the pharmaceutical industry, all STEM disciplines, policy makers, educational systems and potentially society as a whole.Originality/valueThis study was conducted as original research.
Vorbeugende Pflanzenschutzmaßnahmen im Ackerbau und ihre Eignung zur Förderung von Arthropoden

Nutzarthropoden und deren Forderung sind Teil des Konzeptes des integrierten Pflanzenschutzes. Sie sind von einer Vielzahl pflanzenbaulicher Verfahren betroffen, auch von denen, die eine vorbeugende Wirkung gegenuber Schadorganismen haben. Die Moglichkeiten der Forderung von Arthropoden in Fruchtfolgen, durch Zwischenfruchte und Untersaaten, Bodenbearbeitungsverfahren, Stickstoffdungung, Aussaatzeitpunkte sowie Aussaatdichten in den Hauptkulturen des Ackerbaus (Getreide, Winterraps und Mais), wurden anhand einer Literaturrecherche untersucht. Das Vorhandensein von struktureller Diversitat auf der Bodenoberflache sowie eine kleinraumige Verteilung der Anbauflachen und die Storungsintensitat durch die Bodenbearbeitung sind wichtige Elemente fur die Forderung von Nutzarthropoden. Je hoher die Strukturvielfalt auf dem Feld durch Ernteruckstande oder Mulch, desto mehr Lebensraume entstehen. Eine kleinraumige Verteilung der Fruchtfolge in der Landschaft ermoglicht es Arthropoden bei Storungen auf benachbarte Flachen auszuweichen. Eine wichtige Erganzung bilden nutzlingsfordernde Masnahmen. Damit Arthropodengesellschaften in der Agrarlandschaft uberleben und die Okosystemleistung von Nutzarthropoden auch abgerufen werden konnen, mussen die Bedingungen auf dem Feld entsprechend angepasst werden.
Analysis of the Real Energy Consumption of Energy Saving Lamps

Light emitting diode (LED) and compact fluorescent light (CFL) lamps are widely used because they are associated with low energy consumption and a reduced environmental impact. In the present paper, a study of the real consumption of these devices has been carried out. To do this, the active, reactive, distortion and apparent power and electrical efficiency for various lamps have been measured and calculated. The distortions produced in the network provoke the consumed energy to be in the order of 50–75% higher than that which appears in the commercial characteristics. This situation means that for its operation, it is necessary to generate and distribute an amount of energy much higher than that which is declared as the consumption of these lamps, and so far, this amount of energy is neither quantified nor invoiced. Additionally, groups of lamps have also been studied to check whether, when working together on the same network, there is a compensation phenomenon that reduces the negative effects of individual lamps. We have found that this compensation effect does not occur for the type of devices evaluated.
Radiative and predissociative lifetimes of the V ′=0, 1, and 2 levels of the A 2Σ+ state of OH and OD

A direct measurement of the fluorescent decay rates of the V ′=0, 1, 2 vibrational levels of the A 2Σ+ state of OH and OD has been performed using pulsed laser excitation and at total gas pressures of less than 1 mTorr. The present experiment is the first in which lifetime measurements have been performed for individual rotational levels (N ′) of each of the three lowest vibrational states of both OH and OD and at pressures where both quenching and excitation transfer should be minimal. The radiative lifetime was found to increase slightly for the higher vibrational levels in agreement with a model of linear decrease of the transition moment with increasing internuclear separation. The measured radiative lifetimes, τV ′± (3σ), for OH were τ0=693±30 nsec, τ1=736±33 nsec and for OD were τ0 =691±27 nsec, τ1=712±30 nsec, τ2=736±39 nsec. The V ′=2 level of OH was found to be strongly predissociated with a predissociation lifetime of about 270±25 nsec at N ′=1. An analysis of the energies at which predissociati.
Hourglass‐shaped impedance network based nonelectrolytic capacitors high step‐up converter with low voltage stress

In this study, a novel high‐step‐up converter is proposed with a new hourglass‐shaped impedance network (HIN). Due to the short lifetime of electrolytic capacitors (ECs), the proposed converter uses nonelectrolytic capacitors (NECs), which however can realize all ECs' features. Besides, the proposed converter has low capacitor voltage stresses, ensuring it could be electrolytic‐capacitors‐free. With this feature, the proposed high step‐up converter has smaller size, lighter weight, smaller parasitic resistance, and longer operation life than the conventional ones with ECs. In this paper, detailed operational principle and performance of the proposed converter are presented, to demonstrate its advanced features. Simulation and experimental studies are also carried out, which validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed converter.
Raman spectral study of solid and dissolved poly(vinyl alcohol) and ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer

We have measured the Raman spectra of ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH). Spectra of 88% hydrolyzed PVOH were examined from the partially crystalline solid, from PVOH dissolved in both H2O and D2O, and from films precipitated from these solutions. The spectrum in H2O differs from that of the starting material by disappearance of sharp bands having Raman shift values of 1146 and 1093 cm−1, strengthening of a band near 915 cm−1, decrease in frequency of bands at 480, 1356, and 1441 cm−1, and increase in frequency of bands at 369, 413, 1023, 1371, and 2910 cm−1. The spectrum of the film shows partial reversal of these trends. With D2O as the solvent, the band shifts are slightly different from those listed above and new bands appear. These changes are indicative of loss of crystallinity, change in stereochemistry, and partial deuteration of hydroxyl during dissolution of this PVOH sample at room temperature. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Edge IoT Platform Supporting Multi-Tenancy for Smart Distributed Systems

-The rapid growth in technology and wide use of the internet has increased smart applications such as intelligent transportation control systems, and the Internet of Things, which heavily rely on an efficient and reliable connectivity network. To overcome high bandwidth workload on the network, as well as minimize latency for real-time applications, the computation can be moved from the central cloud to a distributed edge cloud, that shifts the function of centralized cloud computing to edge devices of networks. By abstracting the IoT edge components such as data streams or by virtualizing the devices/actuators, it becomes possible to avoid or resolve access conflicts. The edge computing benefits various smart applications that use a distributed network for data analytics and amenities. Different from the existing cloud management solutions, edge computing needs to move cloud management services towards distributed assorted edge nodes for multi-tenant user applications. However, existing cloud management services do not offer remote sharing of multi-tenant user applications on the cloud of edge nodes. IoT systems that support multi-tenancy tend to use cloud-hosted device/thing virtualization. Through this paper, we present the idea of light-weight virtual resources that can be hosted on edge devices and thus offer the same abstraction/virtualization without latency.
Enhanced Lithium‐Ion Transport in PEO‐Based Composite Polymer Electrolytes with Ferroelectric BaTiO3

The ion-conduction properties of a polyethylene oxide (PEO)-based composite polymer electrolyte comprised of PEO, LiClO{sub 4}, and the ferroelectric material BaTiO{sub 3} were studied. The addition of BaTiO{sub 3} resulted in an increase in conductivity over the temperature range 25--115 C. The optimum amount of BaTiO{sub 3} (purity 99.9%, particle size 0.6--1.2 {micro}m) was 1.4 wt %, which is very low in comparison with previously reported composite polymer electrolytes. The ionic conductivity of a composite polymer electrolyte containing 1.4 wt % BaTiO{sub 3} was 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} S/cm at 25 C, which is at least one order of magnitude higher than that of the pristine polymer electrolyte (4 {times} 10{sup {minus}7} S/cm). The transport number of the lithium ion in this composite polymer electrolyte was higher than that of the pristine polymer electrolyte. The increase in the conductivity and the lithium-ion transport number is explained on the basis of the spontaneous polarization of the ferroelectric material due to its particular crystal structure. The addition of BaTiO{sub 3} powder greatly enhanced the lithium/electrolyte interface stability.
Examination of Substrate Specificity of the First Adenylation Domain in mcyA Module Involved in Microcystin Biosynthesis

The cyanotoxin microcystin (MC) is a secondary metabolite, synthesized by nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) and polyketide synthase (PKS) enzymes. It has many isoforms and the mechanism of its diversity is not well understood. One of the MC synthetase genes, mcyA , codes for the McyA module containing two adenylation (A) domains. The first domain, McyA-A1, generally binds to L-serine (L-ser). Then the N -methyl transferase (NMT) domain converts L-Ser into N-methyldehydroalanine (Mdha), which usually occupies position 7 on the MC molecule. However, various other amino acids (AAs) might also be present at this position. In this study, bioinformatic analyses of selected cyanobacteria were performed to understand whether genetic information in the first adenylation domain of mcyA could explain incorporation of different AAs at position 7 of the MC molecule. Binding pocket signatures of McyA-A1 and putative activated AAs were determined via various bioinformatics tools. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees of full length mcyA , mcyA -A1 and 16S rRNA genes were prepared in Mega 6. Phylogenetic analysis of mcyA -A1 nucleotide sequences was in agreement with the predictions of activated AAs by McyA-A1. In comparison with the 16S rRNA and full length mcyA gene trees, mcyA -A1 phylogenetic trees suggested horizontal transfer of the A domain in either Planktothrix agardhii (Gomont) Anagnostidis & Komarek or Planktothrix rubescens (De Candolle ex Gomont) Anagnostidis & Komarek strains. Predictions of activated AAs were generally in agreement with the chemically determined position 7 AAs. However, there were exceptions suggesting the multispecificity of the first A domain of McyA in some cyanobacteria.
Label-free characterization of ischemic cerebral injury using intravital two-photon excitation fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy

Characterizing an ischemic brain injury at its early stage is critical to biological research and the clinical diagnosis of cerebral ischemia-related diseases. However, approaches with intravital, label-free, and real-time characterization capabilities are scarce. Two-photon excitation fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) can detect variations in energy metabolism based on the autofluorescence of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). Using this unique feature, we proposed a novel approach for cerebral ischemia characterization. From investigating cell and animal models, the cerebral NADH fluorescence lifetime was observed to be sensitive to metabolic changes caused by ischemia and consistent with ischemic time. A comparison with standard blood flow imaging and neuronal injury assessment further suggests that, the two-photon FLIM, using NADH as an indicator, can characterize degrees of cerebral ischemia and related injuries, particularly at the early stage. These findings demonstrate that NADH FLIM is promising for providing intravital, label-free, and real-time assessment of cerebral ischemia and ischemic brain injury that will be significant to the study and diagnosis of related diseases.
Efficacy of immune-checkpoint inhibitors in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients with different metastases

Background To investigate the significance of metastatic sites and their numbers to the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods A total of 232 patients who received ICI monotherapy or ICI-based combination therapy were retrospectively identified from January 2016 to February 2019. Six metastatic sites (brain, liver, bone, adrenal gland, contralateral lung, pleura) were included to analyze their significance to ICI efficacy. To explore the association between liver metastasis (LM) and tumor T cell infiltration, 46 patients with available tumor specimens were tested for PD-L1 expression, CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) density. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were estimated by Kaplan-Meier curves. Results More metastatic organs involved were associated with significantly worse PFS (0–1 organ: 5.7 months, 2–3 organs: 3.5 months, ≥4 organs: 2.7 months, P<0.001) and lower ORR (36% vs. 29.8% vs. 18.2%, P<0.001). Patients with brain metastasis (BM) had shorter PFS and OS than those without (P=0.002, P=0.021; respectively). Notably, patients with LM had the shortest PFS (2.3 months, P=0.005) and numerically shortest OS (9.8 months, P=0.238) compared with those with other organ metastases. Multivariate analysis revealed that LM was independently associated with inferior PFS (P<0.001). Immunostaining showed that patients with LM tended to have lower proportions of PD-L1+CD8+TIL+ tumors compared with those without LM (0% vs. 30.8%, P=0.088). Interestingly, ICI-based combination therapy could effectively control LM with improved intrahepatic PFS (P=0.056) and ORR (41.7% vs. 6.7%, P=0.030). Conclusions More metastatic organs involved were associated with poorer response to ICIs. LM was a negative predictive factor for patients treated with ICI monotherapy and the combination strategy might effectively control LM.
Social and Environmental Reporting, Sustainable Development and Institutional Voids: Evidence from a Developing Country

This study adopts the concept of institutional voids to examine the perceptions of managers and policymakers in developing markets with respect to the actual barriers that hinder social and environmental reporting (SER) towards sustainable development. The study uses in-depth semi-structured interviews with managers and decision-makers and policymakers of the main oil and gas companies in weak institutional settings (Libya). The findings suggest that the absence of environment general authority’s role, the absence of a clear legal requirement that refers to SER, the shortage of knowledge and awareness, the lack of motivation from the government, fear of change, and the absence of civil society organisations are perceived as the major barriers that hinder the development of SER. These findings contribute to the literature on institutional voids and sustainable development by providing evidence on SER barriers in the context of a developing country. Therefore, it could be useful to corporate regulators and policymakers to mitigate institutional voids to develop a more focussed SER agenda, when considering regulations for the disclosure and sustainable development.
A review on tribological performance of ionic liquids as additives to bio lubricants

All the moving components in an internal combustion engine require a lubricant that allows smooth sliding and/or rolling of interacting surfaces. Lubricant not only minimizes the friction and wear but also dissipates the heat generated due to friction and removes debris from the area of contact. Environmental concerns, decreasing mineral oil reserves and difficult disposal of nonbiodegradable conventional lubricants have urged the researchers to shift towards environmental-friendly lubricants. Number of tribological studies carried out in the past have proved that ionic liquid-based bio-lubricants are sustainable and biodegradable alternative to mineral oils. This paper presents a brief review of properties of ionic liquids and their ability to reduce friction and wear between the interacting surfaces. Tribological performance and compatibility of ionic liquids with various base-oils have been compared under boundary lubrication. The results reveal that phosphonium-based ionic liquids namely tetra-decyl tri-hexyl phosphonium bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl) phosphinate (P66614)i(C8)2PO2 and tri-hexyl tetra-decyl phosphonium bis(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (P-DEHP) are more suitable for tribological applications. Since, ionic liquids can be tailored according to the application and millions of combinations are possible therefore, there is a need to summarize the published data in a more systematic and logical way.
Prevalence and factors associated with depression among the elderly in a rural community

Background: Senior citizen elderly or old age consists of ages close to or exceeding the average life span of human beings. The limit of old age cannot be defined precisely because it does not have the same meaning in all societies by the middle of this century, there could be 100 million elderly people living in the India according to United Nations World population prospects report. Depression is the common psychiatric disorder among elderly. The aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of Depression among elderly in a rural population. Design of the study was a cross sectional study conducted among 450 elderly populations in rural community of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.Methods: A validated geriatric depression scale (Geriatric depression scale (GDS) 30) was used to assess their depression status and the various demographic details, socio economic status and living arrangements were analyzed to see for any association with depression. Statistical analysis was chi square test and odds ratio.Results: Among the 450 elderly subjects studied. The prevalence of depression among elderly males was found to be 48% and among females 56% and the difference in the prevalence of depression among males and females was found to be statistically significance (p=0.03). Conclusions: The results confirmed that there is a high prevalence of depression among the elderly population. There is a need to improve geriatrics health care services combined with proper monitoring and evaluation.
Heat Transfer Phenomena in Lithium/Polymer‐Electrolyte Batteries for Electric Vehicle Application

Mathematical modeling of heat generation and transport in lithium/polymer-electrolyte batteries for electric vehicle applications has been conducted. The results demonstrate that thermal management may not be a serious problem for batteries under low discharge rates. However, under high discharge rates, the temperature of a battery may increase remarkably if the thickness of a cell stack exceeds a certain value. Also, due to the low thermal conductivity of the polymer, the improvement of cooling conditions is not an effective means of improving heat removal for large-stack systems. For a required operational temperature range and a given discharge rate, model predictions can be used to design appropriate battery structures and to choose a suitable cooling scheme.
Predicting Release of PCBs at Point of Dredging

A simple laboratory test, referred to here as the dredging elutriate test (DRET), was sought to predict the concentration of contaminants in the water column at the point of dredging. The DRET is procedurally similar to the modified elutriate test developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to predict concentrations of contaminants at the point of disposal of dredge material. The objective of experimentation was to investigate the release of dissolved and suspended polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as a function of initial concentration of sediment, aeration time, and settling time in the DRET. Settling time was found most important. Field data from a pilot dredging project if New Bedford Harbor, Mass. compared well to results of the DRET. Most of the PCB in the field and DRET were sorbed to small particles rather than dissolved. A good correlation was obtained between total PCB and total suspended solids. A sorption equilibrium model based on available partition coefficients described the sorbed-dissolved PCB distribution. Particle size distribution analysis showed that the mean diameter was less than 10 μ\Nm after just 0.5 h of settling and decreased very little with further settling. These particles and their PCB burden have the potential to be transported away from a dredging site.
A new nonstationary preconditioned iterative method for linear discrete ill‐posed problems with application to image deblurring

Discrete ill‐posed inverse problems arise in many areas of science and engineering. Their solutions are very sensitive to perturbations in the data. Regularization methods aim at reducing this sensitivity. This article considers an iterative regularization method, based on iterated Tikhonov regularization, that was proposed in M. Donatelli and M. Hanke, Fast nonstationary preconditioned iterative methods for ill‐posed problems, with application to image deblurring, Inverse Problems, 29 (2013), Art. 095008, 16 pages. In this method, the exact operator is approximated by an operator that is easier to work with. However, the convergence theory requires the approximating operator to be spectrally equivalent to the original operator. This condition is rarely satisfied in practice. Nevertheless, this iterative method determines accurate image restorations in many situations. We propose a modification of the iterative method, that relaxes the demand of spectral equivalence to a requirement that is easier to satisfy. We show that, although the modified method is not an iterative regularization method, it maintains one of the most important theoretical properties for this kind of methods, namely monotonic decrease of the reconstruction error. Several computed experiments show the good performances of the proposed method.