Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship of Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume in First Second (FEV 1 )and FEV 1 /FVC% with Plasma Progesterone Level during Different Phases of Normal Menstrual Cycle

The present study was carried out to observe the correlation of some lung function parameters with the endogenous plasma progesterone level during different phases of menstrual cycle. The study was conducted on 30 healthy young female volunteers with age range of 20-25 years in the department of Physiology of BSMMU, Dhaka, during July 2005- June 2006. All the subjects were studied in 3 phases of menstrual cycle for 2 consecutive cycles. FVC, FEV 1 , FEV 1 /FVC% for assessing lung function and plasma Progesterone level during each phase of menstrual cycle were measured by a portable spirometer and by ELIZA method in auto analyzer respectively. Comparison of the values between different phases were done by paired â€˜t' test considering menstrual phase data as baseline due to negligible amount of progesterone detected in this phase. Correlation of FVC , FEV 1 and FEV 1 /FVC%with Progesterone level in each 3 phases were analyzed by Pearson's correlation- coefficient test. Plasma progesterone level was much higher during luteal phase compared to those of follicular phases of both cycles (24.54ng/ml vs1.41 ng/ml; 26.56 ng/ml vs. 1.48 ng/ml). Both FVC and FEV 1 were significantly higher (p<0.001) during luteal phase than those of follicular phases in both the cycles. FVC, FEV 1 and FEV 1 /FVC%were positively correlated with plasma progesterone level but these relationships had failed to show any statistical significance. Similar to others, this study also observed increased ventilation and high endogenous progesterone level during luteal phase. Therefore increased ventilation might be related to high progesterone level during luteal phase owing to increased inspiratory muscle endurance and bronchial relaxation effect. Key words: Plasma Progesterone; Forced Vital Capacity; Forced Expiratory Volume; Menstrual cycle. DOI:10.3329/jbsp.v2i0. 976 J Bangladesh Soc Physiol. 2007 Dec;(2): 7-12.
A Structural Approach to Control of Transitional Waves of Nonlinear Diffusion-reaction Systems: Theory and Possible Applications to Bio-medicine

This paper has considered a novel approach to structural recognition and control of nonlinear reactiondiffusion systems (systems with density dependent diffusion). The main consistence of the approach is interactive variation of the nonlinear diffusion and sources structural parameters that allows to implement a qualitative control and recognition of transitional system conditions (transients). The method of inverse solutions construction allows formulating the new analytic conditions of compactness and periodicity of the transients that is also available for nonintegrated systems. On the other hand, using ofenergy conservations laws, allows transfer to nonlinear dynamics models that gives the possiblity to apply the modem deterministic chaos theory (particularly the Feigenboum’s universal constants and scenario of chaotic transitions).
Heterogeneous Firms, the Structure of Industry, and Trade Under Oligopoly

We develop a model with endogeneity in key features of industrial structure linked to heterogeneous cost structures under Cournot competition. We use the model to explore issues related to cross-country differences in industry structure and the impact of globalization on markups and pricing, concentration, and productivity. The model nests two workhorse trade models, the Brander & Krugman reciprocal dumping model and the Ricardian technology-based trade model, as special cases. We examine both free entry and limited entry (free exit) cases. The model generates clear testable predictions on the probability of zero trade flows and the pattern of export prices, and on cross-country and industry variations in industrial structure controlling for openness. Market prices decline as a result of trade liberalization, the least productive firms get squeezed out of the market, exporting firms gain market share, and more firms become trade oriented. In addition, depending on the strength of underlying cost heterogeneity, falling prices are consistent with both increasing and falling industry concentration following episodes of integration. Welfare rises with trade liberalization, unless trade costs decline from a prohibitive level in the short run free exit case. Variation across industries and markets in markups, concentration, and pricing structures is otherwise a function of market size and the variation in cost heterogeneity across industries.
Three-dimensional shapelets and an automated classification scheme for dark matter haloes

We extend the two-dimensional Cartesian shapelet formalism to d-dimensions. Concentrating on the three-dimensional case, we derive shapelet-based equations for the mass, centroid, root mean square radius, and components of the quadrupole moment and moment of inertia tensors. Using cosmological N-body simulations as an application domain, we show that three-dimensional shapelets can be used to replicate the complex sub-structure of dark matter haloes and demonstrate the basis of an automated classification scheme for halo shapes. We investigate the shapelet decomposition process from an algorithmic viewpoint, and consider opportunities for accelerating the computation of shapelet-based representations using graphics processing units.
Conocarpus erectus Leaf Extract for Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles

Silver nanoparticles (SNPs) were synthesized by a green method using Conocarpus erectus leaves extract. Leaves were cleaned and used freshly then the extract was obtained by heating leaves in water for 15 min. Silver nitrate used as SNPs precursor and 5 mL of extract were added to silver ion solution at 80 °C and the growth of nanoparticle was monitored by electronic spectra at plasmon resonance absorption of SNPs, where the growth obeys sigmoidal kinetics. SNPs were characterized by SEM, XRD, FTIR, UV-vis absorption and fluorescence, and particle size was estimated. SEM reveals that the SNPs had spherical shape and particle size less than 100 nm. XRD analysis showed that only Ag phase was present and the estimated particle size was 20 nm. FTIR spectra analysis showed similarity of extract and SNPs, indicating the adsorption of active components of the extract on the high surface area of SNPs. Electronic absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy showed that plasmon absorption and fluorescence in the visible region were a characteristic feature of SNPs. Antibacterial activity examined against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus indicated that the inhibition zones were equal to 24 and 19 mm, respectively.
Understanding the Socio-Economic Distribution and Consequences of Patterns of Multiple Deprivation: An Application of Self-Organising Maps

In this paper we apply self organising maps (SOM) to a detailed set of material deprivation indicators from the Irish component of European Union Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). The first stage of our analysis involves the identification and description of sixteen clusters of multiple deprivation that allow us to provide a detailed account of such deprivation in contemporary Ireland. In going beyond this mapping stage, we consider both patterns of socio-economic differentiation in relation to cluster membership and the extent to which such membership contributes to our understanding of the manner in which individuals experience their economic circumstances. Our analysis makes clear the continuing importance of traditional forms of stratification relating to factors such as income, social class and housing tenure in accounting for patterns of multiple deprivation. However, it also confirms the role of acute life events and life cycle and location influences. It suggests that debates relating to the extent to which poverty and social exclusion have become individualized should take particular care to distinguish between different kinds of outcomes. Further analysis demonstrates that the SOM approach is considerably more successful than a comparable latent class analysis in identifying those exposed to subjective economic stress. This finding, combined with those relating to the role of socio-economic factors in accounting for cluster membership, confirms that a focus on a set of eight SOM macro clusters seems most appropriate if our interest lies in broad patterns stratification. For other purposes differentiation within clusters, which clearly takes a systematic form, may prove to be crucial.
GRAMMAR, GRAMMAR TEACHING, AND GRAMMAR AND TEACHERS’ COGNITIONS: A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Grammar teaching is regarded as one of the most polemical issues in foreign language teaching (Thornbury, 1999). Such controversy may have risen mainly for two reasons. Firstly, because there is a large debate among researchers whether to teach grammar is or is not appropriate for language development. Whereas researchers such as Krashen (1982) claim that teaching should not focus on grammar when acquisition, or communication and fluency, are aimed, others, such as Doughty and Williams (1998), counterargue this assumption by suggesting a focus on form. The second reason for such controversy is the fact that the concept and the scope of grammar is still an object of study leading to diverse multi-dimensional definitions (LARSENFREEMAN, 2001; TONKYN, 1994; BATSTONE, 1994a). Tonkyn (1994), for example, points out that the first distinction of diverse types of grammar is between descriptive or theoretical, and pedagogical grammars. The author also reminds us that beyond these types of grammar lie various other types of and attitudes towards grammar.
High HIV sero-prevalence and associated sexual behavioral risk factors among university students in Southeast Nigeria: our experiences from on-campus voluntary counselling and testing centers

Introduction: The global rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence among youths and adolescents is increasingly alarming, and sexual behavior still remains the major determinants in the spread of the disease. However, the objective of this study is to evaluate HIV sero-prevalence and associated sexual risk factors among undergraduate students, as a model to aid HIV sensitization, prevention, and intervention strategies in Nigeria. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 670 undergraduate students aged 15-26 years of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, using well-structured questionnaires to obtain demographic and sexual behavioral data. Enzyme-based immunoassay technique was used by Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) centers located in the institution to confirm HIV sero-status. Results: The overall prevalence of HIV among undergraduate students was relatively high 5.2% against the recent national estimation. The participants had an existence of increased sexuality, which encompasses multiple sex partnering and high frequency of sex in a short period of 6 months. HIV prevalence among female students (6.5%) was not statistically significant at p < 0.05, when compared with their male counterpart (4.3%). Conclusions: The results and observations on this study emphasize an urgent need for adoption of effective HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) intervention programs targeted at the general young individuals in Nigeria. Therefore, we find it crucial for the introduction of sexual health education into the school curriculum aimed at educating young individuals to adopt a healthy living. HIV AIDS Rev 2018; 17, 3: 203-209 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/hivar.2018. 78493
THE INFLUENCE OF WORKING PARAMETERS AGAINST COMPOSITION OF ZINC-COBALT ALLOY CO-DEPOSITED LAYERS

Electrodeposited alloys are important in industry due to their properties which are superior to those of single metal layer. Zinc-cobalt alloys were co-deposited on gold substrate. Composition of the layers was established using SEM-EDX techniques. The influence of working parameters against stoichiometric composition of alloys was studied in order to find optimal conditions to achieve a desired final product. Some discussion about reaction mechanism was opened based on EIS diagrams.
Organic agriculture and the global food supply

Abstract The principal objections to the proposition that organic agriculture can contribute significantly to the global food supply are low yields and insufficient quantities of organically acceptable fertilizers. We evaluated the universality of both claims. For the first claim, we compared yields of organic versus conventional or low-intensive food production for a global dataset of 293 examples and estimated the average yield ratio (organic:non-organic) of different food categories for the developed and the developing world. For most food categories, the average yield ratio was slightly <1.0 for studies in the developed world and >1.0 for studies in the developing world. With the average yield ratios, we modeled the global food supply that could be grown organically on the current agricultural land base. Model estimates indicate that organic methods could produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the agricultural land base. We also evaluated the amount of nitrogen potentially available from fixation by leguminous cover crops used as fertilizer. Data from temperate and tropical agroecosystems suggest that leguminous cover crops could fix enough nitrogen to replace the amount of synthetic fertilizer currently in use. These results indicate that organic agriculture has the potential to contribute quite substantially to the global food supply, while reducing the detrimental environmental impacts of conventional agriculture. Evaluation and review of this paper have raised important issues about crop rotations under organic versus conventional agriculture and the reliability of grey-literature sources. An ongoing dialogue on these subjects can be found in the Forum editorial of this issue.
Swift spectra of AT2018cow: a white dwarf tidal disruption event?

We acknowledge the efforts of the Swift planners. Swift and NuSTAR Data were retrieved from the Swift and NuSTAR archive at HEASARC/GSFC, and from the UK Swift Science Data Centre. We also used the CFHT archive hosted at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre operated by the National Research Council of Canada with the support of the Canadian Space Agency, and the WFCAM UKIRT data from the UKIDSSDR10PLUS data release from the WFCAM archive at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. This work has been supported by the UK Space Agency under grant ST/P002323/1 and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council under grant ST/N00811/1. QH is supported by a UCL MSSL Summer Research Studentship. SRO gratefully acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. SC acknowledges the support of under ASI-INAF contract I/004/11/1.
The Buying of Private Brands and Manufacturer Brands in Grocery Retailing: A Comparative Study of Buying Processes in the UK, Sweden and Italy

Private brands in grocery retailing have evolved from a way to compete on price by selling low quality products at a low price, into a brand category in their own right, with a wide range of positioning options open to retailers. The buying and selling of private brands means that retailers' add new activities and processes to those that are traditionally associated with retailing. This paper compares the buying processes for manufacturer brands and private brands across three European countries in an attempt to analyse how the extension of the buying process inherent in private brand ranges, and the organisational contexts within which these processes operate impact upon complexity in the retail buying process
Isolation of Bioactive Phytochemicals in Leaves of Combretum dolichopentalum and their Hydrogen Peroxide Scavenging Potentials

This study elucidated the bioactive constituents of leaves of Combretum dolichopentalum. The quantitative phytochemical analyses on the leaves of the plant revealed the presence of alkaloids (14.24 ± 2.24 %), flavonoids (17.00 ± 2.00 %), tannins (6.09 ± 0.32 %), saponin (4.19 ± 0.69 %), cyanogenic glycosides (2.89 ± 0.22 %), oxalate (2.56 ± 0.56 %) and phytate (0.10 ± 0.01 %). Further evaluation of the crude plant extract using gas chromatographyflam ionization detector (GC-FID) indicated presence and concentration of specific phytochemicals such as spartein, anthocyanin, lunamarine, epicatechin, rutin, and kaempferol. The free radical scavenging potential of flavonoid, saponins, alkaloid, and tannin precipitated from the plants showed increased scavenging abilities with increasing extract concentration. However flavonoid compared to saponins, alkaloid and tannin showed better scavenging activity with an IC50 of 36.10 mg/ml. These results indicate that C. dolichopentalum is endowed with phytoconstituent that has strong antioxidant potencies necessary to provide therapeutic effects.
Study orchestrations in distance learning: Identifying dissonance and its implications for distance educators

The exploration of study orchestrations emphasises students’ active participation in learning, describing the ways in which they marshal the resources available to them in response to their learning environment. This study reports the identification of study orchestrations in a group of distance students and identifies the existence of dissonant study orchestrations, which previous research has linked with poor achievement, in approximately one-fifth of the group. Data came from responses by 176 students to the ASSIST questionnaire. The data was subject to factor analysis to ensure commensurability with previous studies, and then cluster analysis was used to identify groups with similar study orchestrations. Four clusters were identified. One of these was clearly dissonant, pointing toward problematic links between learning environments and student approaches to study. The implications of dissonant study orchestrations are explored and further research is suggested, along with implications for the practice of distance educators.
Modeling of mean-covariance structures in generalized estimating equations with dropouts

Within the framework of joint mean-covariance models, we study the effects of dropout missing at random (MAR) on the estimation of mean and covariance structures for longitudinal data using generalized estimating equations (GEE). It is evidential that the MAR dropout has more severe influences on the estimation of variance-covariances relative to the mean estimation, as the former involves the estimation of the second moments. We propose to use the inverse probabilityweighted generalized estimating equation (WGEE) method to model the mean and covariance structures, simultaneously, in order to accommodate the effects of MAR dropout. The proposed WGEE approach produces unbiased estimators of parameters in both the mean and covariances for longitudinal data with MAR dropout. Simulation studies are conducted to assess the performance of the proposed approach and a real data analysis for the PANSS data is made to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Can non-market valuation measure indigenous knowledge?

Current New Zealand resource management legislation requires local government actively recognise and take into account Maori epistemologies in resource management planning. The Maori world-view is holistic in nature in that it embodies historical, environmental and spiritual values, as well as modern experiences. Concerns arise for Maori communities when planners and developers utilise only economic tools such as willingness to pay surveys to determine the total value of a proposed project. this paper draws from a survey of 700 methodologies can measure changes in the environment where the response is culturally influenced, particularly from Maori respondents who identify strongly with traditional Maori cultural values.
Non‐negligible effects of cloud vertical overlapping assumptions on longwave spectral fingerprinting studies

In order to monitor and attribute secular changes from outgoing spectral radiances, spectral fingerprints need to be constructed first. Large‐scale model outputs are usually used to derive such spectral fingerprints. Different models make different assumptions on vertical overlapping of subgrid clouds. We explore the extent to which the spectral fingerprints constructed under different cloud vertical overlapping assumptions can affect such spectral fingerprinting studies. Utilizing a principal component‐based radiative transfer model with high computational efficiency, we build an OSSE (Observing System Simulation Experiment) with full treatment of subgrid cloud variability to study this issue. We first show that the OLR (outgoing longwave radiation) computed from this OSSE is consistent with the OLR directly output from the parent large‐scale models. We then examine the differences in spectral fingerprints due to cloud overlapping assumptions alone. Different cloud overlapping assumptions have little effect on the spectral fingerprints of temperature and humidity. However, the amplitude of the spectral fingerprints due to the same amount of cloud fraction change can differ as much as a factor of two between maximum random versus random overlap assumptions, especially for middle and low clouds. We further examine the impact of cloud overlapping assumptions on the results of linear regression of spectral differences with respect to predefined spectral fingerprints. Cloud‐relevant regression coefficients are affected more by different cloud overlapping assumptions than regression coefficients of other geophysical variables. These findings highlight the challenges in constructing realistic longwave spectral fingerprints and in detecting climate change using all‐sky observations.
An Evaluation of Third-Party Mobile Payment Usage Intention in China

This paper analyses the current situation of Chinese mobile payment industry, and then discusses the win-win benefit mode that take third-party mobile payment companies as main body. Now, two kinds of payment processes––the web page payment and the APP payment is summarized, meanwhile, the paper explores five kinds of major characteristics of this win-win commerce mode. Our dataset is collected by online questionnaires and field research focusing on the usage intention of mobile payment services. Moreover, we put forward an index system to describe the level of usage intention, next to do Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and base on it to establish an evaluation model. Finally, we prove that this model could correctly describe the usage intention of users. Keywords-third-party mobile payment; PCA; usage intention; alipay; mobile e-commerce