Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Affecting Adoption of Reverse Logistics in the Kenya Manufacturing Sector: A Case Study of Coastal Bottlers Company

The competitive environments have led to short the product life cycle for many consumer goods. This has led to complex environmental challenges especially in developing countries. Reverse logistics plays a major role in addressing reducing waste and protecting the environment not only in Kenya but also worldwide. However, the development of the practice of reverse logistics in Kenya is relatively low with only limited number of industries having tried it. The study sought to establish the factors affecting the implementation of reverse logistics in manufacturing companies in Kenya. The study adopted a case study design and stratified sampling technique to select respondents. Data was collected using self-administered, semistructured questionnaires. Data collected was further analyzed and presented in tables, mean, mode and standard deviation. The study established that legislation, economics, corporate citizenship and collaboration among supply chain partners are major affected adoption of reverse logistics at Coastal Bottlers Limited. The study concluded that the identified factors are very significant in reverse logistics implementation and every organization planning to implement reverse logistic practices should consider them.
Observation of excited-state excitons and band-gap renormalization in hole-doped carbon nanotubes using photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy

The higher Rydberg states of the ${E}_{11}$ exciton in undoped and hole-doped single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were studied using one- and two-photon photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy. Increasing the hole-dopant concentration resulted in a redshift of the first excited state (2$g$) and a blueshift of the ground state (1$u$) of the ${E}_{11}$ exciton. From the redshift of higher Rydberg states, we found that a reduction of the band-gap energy occurs in hole-doped SWCNTs. These findings show that the exciton and electronic band structures are modified by the presence of a small number of holes in the SWCNT one-dimensional structures.
Performance profiles of football teams in the UEFA Champions League considering situational efficiency

Performance of football teams varies constantly due to the dynamic nature of this sport, whilst the typical performance and its spread can be represented by profiles combining different performance-related variables based on data from multiple matches. The current study aims to use a profiling technique to evaluate and compare match performance of football teams in the UEFA Champions League incorporating three situational variables (i.e. strength of team and opponent, match outcome and match location). Match statistics of 72 teams, 496 games across four seasons (2008-09 to 2012-13) of this competition were analysed. Sixteen performance-related events were included: shots, shots on target, shots from open play, shots from set piece, shots from counter attack, passes, pass accuracy (%), crosses, through balls, corners, dribbles, possession, aerial success (%), fouls, tackles, and yellow cards. Teams were classified into three levels of strength by a k-cluster analysis. Profiles of overall performance and profiles incorporating three situational variables for teams of all three levels of strength were set up by presenting the mean, standard deviation, median, lower and upper quartiles of the counts of each event to represent their typical performances and spreads. Means were compared by using one-way ANOVA and independent sample t test (for match location, home and away differences), and were plotted into the same radar charts after unifying all the event counts by standardised score. Established profiles can present straightforwardly typical performances of football teams of different levels playing in different situations, which could provide detailed references for coaches and analysts to evaluate performances of upcoming opposition and of their own.
Topical Anti-Inflammatory and Analgesic Activities of Citrullus colocynthis Extract Cream in Rats

Background and objectives:Citrullus colocynthis (CC), known as bitter apple, is used to treat diabetes in Iranian traditional medicine. The aim of this study is to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of CC cream in rats. Materials and Methods: The carrageenan-induced edema in a rat hind paw was carried out to evaluate the topical anti-inflammatory effect of the CC fruit extract cream (2–8%) and the tissue levels of IL-6 and TNF-α were estimated by using a commercial ELISA kit. The topical antinociceptive activity of CC cream (2–8%) was evaluated in the rat formalin test. To determine the role of opioid receptors in the local antinociceptive effect of the CC cream, naloxone (20 μg/paw, i.pl.), a non-selective opioid antagonist, was used. Results: The results showed that the CC cream (2–8%) dose-dependently reduced the carrageenan-induced paw edema and reversed the changes in the level of TNF-α and IL-6 due to carrageenan-induced edema (p < 0.01). The anti-inflammatory effect of CC cream 8% was comparable to that of hydrocortisone ointment 1%. Furthermore, the application of CC cream (2–8%) dose-dependently inhibited both first and second phases of the formalin test (p < 0.05). The antinociceptive effect of the CC cream (8%) was comparable to that of methyl salicylate cream 30%. Moreover, the administration of naloxone significantly reversed the topical antinociceptive effect of the CC cream (p < 0.05). Conclusions: For the first time, this study indicated that the topical application of CC cream possesses significant anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive activities in animal models, which were probably mediated by opioid receptors and the suppression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-6). Thus, the CC cream can be used to treat inflammatory pain and inflammatory diseases.
Image Quality Assessment with Saliency Map in Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform Domain

Many researchers evaluate images by objective image quality assessments instead of subjective ones. Objective image quality assessment sets up mathematical model according to the human visual system, and it evaluates the image quality through the reference image and the distorted image. The Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) is one of the most classical methods in image quality assessment. However, SSIM has several inherent shortcomings. First, SSIM does not take spatial position, spatial frequency, or direction into account. Second, SSIM considers that different regions in an image have equal importance for overall image quality assessment. Third, it is unreasonable to use fixed parameters for various images. To overcome these shortcomings, we propose a new method of image quality assessment based on Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT). Firstly, NSCT is performed to decompose the image into a low-pass map and high-pass ones. Then, low-pass and high-pass maps are respectively assessed with different strategies. In addition, saliency map is added to describe the importance of different regions in an image. Last, we proposed an approach to calculate the adaptive parameters for various images. Experimental comparisons among five public benchmark databases demonstrate that the proposed method is better than other competing methods.
PREVALENCE OF CANINE BABESIOSIS IN LAHORE, PAKISTAN.

A study was conducted at Pet Centre, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore to record the seasonal prevalence of the Canine Babesiosis, during a period from Jan 2004 to December 2005.The blood samples were collected from the tip of the ear and blood smears stained with Diff-Quik and Giemsa stain, were examined under the microscope. According to the result the percentage of infection was highest during the month of September 2004 i.e., 3.13%. The overall percentage of these diseases for two years i.e 2004 – 2005 was 12.49% and 13.97%, respectively.
Integrating Marine Protected Areas in fisheries management systems: some criteria for ecological efficiency

Through a review of the scientific literature and a more in-depth qualitative meta-analysis of 16 case studies distributed worldwide, this article aims to study impacts of MPAs on marine living resources, ecosystems and related fisheries and to highlight their criteria of efficiency as management tools for a sustainable exploitation. MPAs are efficient for conservation purposes and resource restoration, especially inside their borders. MPAs can also be part of fisheries management systems, but there is a lack of knowledge about their wider scale impacts on fish stocks, ecosystem and fisheries. Adjacent fisheries can increase their catches near closed areas, but such effects are delayed until after MPA establishment and are often limited over distance. Even though local specificities in ecosystems and fishing resources lead to high variability in MPA effects, four major criteria modulate the efficiency of MPAs for fisheries management: (1) the size of the closed area; (2) the level of protection of essential habitats for exploited resources; (3) MPA integration as part of wider integrated fisheries management plans; and (4) efficient monitoring and regulation systems, including participative decision making, to ensure that restrictive measures are respected.
Identity Aware Synthesis for Cross Resolution Face Recognition

Enhancing low resolution images via super-resolution or synthesis algorithms for cross-resolution face recognition has been well studied. Several image processing and machine learning paradigms have been explored for addressing the same. In this research, we propose Synthesis via Hierarchical Sparse Representation (SHSR) algorithm for synthesizing a high resolution face image from a low resolution input image. The proposed algorithm learns multilevel sparse representation for both high and low resolution gallery images, along with identity aware dictionaries and a transformation function between the two representations for face identification scenarios. With low resolution test data as input, a high resolution test image is synthesized using the identity aware dictionaries and transformation, which is then used for face recognition. The performance of the proposed SHSR algorithm is evaluated on four datasets, including one real world dataset. Experimental results and comparison with seven existing algorithms demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm in terms of both face identification and image quality measures.
Methods and Systems for Processing and Analysis of Medical Images

This thesis introduces novel image analysis methods, focusing on texture representation, as well as on computer-aided diagnosis. The first part of this thesis deals with the area of texture representation. Binary pattern (BP)based approaches have been utilized in a wide range of pattern recognition applications. However, noise sensitivity is still a major concern to their applicability on the analysis of real world images. To cope with this problem we propose a generic, uncertainty-aware methodology for the derivation of Fuzzy BP (FBP) texture models, which assumes that a local neighborhood can be partially characterized by more than one binary patterns. The texture discrimination capability of four representative FBP-based approaches has been evaluated on the basis of comprehensive classification and on unsupervised segmentation experiments. The results reveal that the FBP-based approaches lead to consistent improvement in texture classification and segmentation as compared with the original BP-based approaches for various types and levels of additive noise on different reference datasets. In the second part of this thesis a novel approach for thyroid ultrasound pattern representation is presented. Considering that texture and echogenicity are correlated with thyroid malignancy, the proposed fusion approach encodes ultrasound texture by fuzzy local binary patterns and echogenicity by fuzzy intensity histograms. This approach has been experimentally investigated on real ultrasound images for the discrimination of nodules from normal thyroid parenchyma. The results show that the proposed fusion scheme outperforms previous approaches proposed in the literature. Finally an original scheme for the detection of nodular thyroid tissue in longitudinal ultrasound images has been presented and implemented as a prototype software system, named TND (Thyroid Nodule Detector). This system involves a novel algorithm, for automatic detection of the boundaries of the thyroid gland, and the extraction of noise resilient textural and echogenicity image features.
Gr upSM Evaluation of the Refractive Error in Pseudophakic , Aphakic and Phakic Dogs using Streak Retinoscopy

This study evaluated the refractive error in dogs with intraocular lens (IOL) implants, aphakic dogs and healthy controls. A population of 49 dogs (92 retinoscopies) was divided in 3 groups pseudophakic (n=36 eyes), aphakic (n=4 eyes) and phakic healthy control (n=52 eyes). Streak retinoscopy was performed by horizontal and vertical refraction. Mean refractive state was: pseudophakic group +3.74 ±5.45D (-3.5; +21.0D); aphakic group +16.94 ±1.39D (+15.5; +18.25D) and phakic group -0.03 ±1.64D (-5.0; +4.0D). On the pseudophakic animals 72.2% were hyperopic, 13.9% were myopic and emmetropic. Astigmatism was diagnosed in 3 eyes. Anisometropia was observed in 10 patients (1; 20.5D) and antimetropia in 2. Correlation between refractive values/optic axial length suggested a tendency towards emmetropia in animals with higher ocular diameter (P= 0.0845; rho= -0.3). On the phakic group 44% were emmetropic, 30% hyperopic and 26% myopic. Low hyperopia predominated on hyperopic eyes (66.7%). No cases of astigmatism, anisometropia or antimetropia were found on the phakic group. All aphakic patients presented with high hyperopia. Francisco Vieira2 and Esmeralda Costa Delgado1* 1CIISA Centre for interdisciplinar Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary medicine, University of Lisbon 2Faculty of Veterinary medicine, University of Lisbon *Corresponding author: Esmeralda Costa Delgado, DVM, PhD, CIISA Centre for interdisciplinar Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Email: esmeralda@fmv.ulisboa. pt Published Date: May 31, 2018
Early Hemodynamic Changes as Predictors of Mortality after Packed Red Blood Cells Transfusion in Critically Ill Children

Objectives: to evaluate effects of packed red blood cells (PRBCs) transfusion on some hemodynamic responses and its relation to patient mortality Patients: 64 critically ill infants and children were included in the study admitted to in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and required PRBCs transfusion10 mL/kg. Methods: Heart rate (HR), mean arterial blood pressure (MABP), blood hemoglobin (Hb) and hematocrite value (HCT) were measured for conventional hemodynamic(HD) monitoring . Trans-esophageal measurement of stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO), cardiac index (CI), systemic vascular resistance (SVR) and systemic vascular resistance index (SVRI) before and 2 hours after PRBCs transfusion were also performed. Results: CI at a cut-off value >1.9 had the highest sensitivity while CO, SV and SVR at a cut-off values (>1.5, >12.2 and ≤ 3081 respectively) had the highest specificity for prediction of mortality among patients before start of treatment.CO at a cut-off value ≤ 12.5 and CI at a cut-off value ≤ 14.5 had the highest sensitivity while all parameters had low specificity for prediction of mortality among patients after PRBCs transfusion, while SV, SVR and SVRI were less sensitive (38.46%, 38.46%,53.85% and 40% respectively). Conclusions: CI had the highest sensitivity and CO, SV and SVRI had the highest specificity for prediction of mortality among patients before start of PRBCs transfusion. CO and CI had the highest sensitivity for prediction of mortality among patients after PRBCs transfusion.
Improvement of Insulin Sensitivity and Maintenance of Glucose Homeostasis in Insulin-sensitive Tissues via PPAR-γ and Through Activation of PI3K/p-Akt Signaling Pathway by Resveratrol in Type 2 Diabetic Rats

Objective: Increasing evidence in both experimental and clinical studies suggests that there is a close link between hyperglycemia, oxidative stress, and diabetic complications. Resveratrol a polyphenolic compound found in various natural food products. Methods: Four groups male adult albino rats were used in this study: Negative control, Positive control, Therapeutic group and Standard group. Results: The treatment of resveratrol significantly reduced the elevated levels of blood glucose, Total cholesterol, Triglyceride, LDL-c, Urea and Creatinine in positive control as compared with negative control. Treatment of resveratrol also reverted back the decreased levels of insulin, HDL-c, Irisin, enzymatic antioxidant (catalase and superoxide dismutase) as well as decreased level of the non-enzymatic antioxidant (reduced glutathione) in tissue extracts from different organs of diabetic rats to near normal values. Resveratrol significantly increased expression of the Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPAR-γ) gene in adipose tissue compared to positive control. It also regulated insulin mediated glucose uptake in adipose tissue through activation of Phosphatidyl inositol 3 kinases serine/threonine-specific protein kinase (PI3K/p-Akt) signaling pathway. PPAR-γ gene showed many different expressions for other side the PPAR-γ sequences from the adipose tissue confirm there is a mutation with the gene isolated from positive control against therapeutic group, meaning the Type 2 diabetes cause a mutation in the gene sequencing compared to negative control. Hence, we find the opposite with the PPAR-γ sequencing in therapeutic group. Conclusion: These results clearly suggest that the resveratrol has an antioxidant effect and could improve adipose tissue insulin sensitivity and maintain glucose homeostasis in adipose tissue.
Predicting Software Vulnerability Using Security Discussion in Social Media

Social media has been used as a tool for the dissemination and exchange of information among people in many different areas of knowledge. Computer security is one which utilises social media in this way. Researchers and specialists in security are using social media tools for informing their discoveries on subjects as computer security, software vulnerabilities, exploits, data breach and hacker intrusion. Within the context of social media, Twitter might be the first channel used by security researchers for disclosing novelty (such as exploits or backdoors) in computer security. This paper proposes a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification model using Twitter posts (tweets) as a source for filtering relevant information related to software vulnerabilities. In this paper, tweets considered relevant will be those alerting about new vulnerabilities in software (being exploited or not), as well as posts alerting software users about security patches and updates. The nonrelevant information will be considered as those which have no warning characteristic, i.e.: tweets about opinion, general conversation and topics which have no sense of alert. The proposed model achieved an accuracy of 94% by using simple features such as the frequency of words (unigram and bigram). Reasonable rates of recall and precision into the desirable class values were recorded as, 68% and 46% respectively for the same simple features. This experiment opens a path for future studies about the relationship between how alerts and discoveries in computer security are expressed by the security community on social media posts.
Design principles of photo‐bioreactors for cultivation of microalgae

The present hype in microalgae biotechnology has shown that the topic of photo‐bioreactors has to be revisited with respect to availability in really large scale measured in hectars footprint area, minimization of cost, auxiliary energy demand as well as maintenance and life span. This review gives an overview about present designs and the basic limiting factors which include light distribution to avoid saturation kinetics, mixing along the light gradient to make use of light/dark cycles, aeration and mass transfer along the vertical or horizontal main axis for carbon dioxide supply and oxygen removal and last but not least the energy demand necessary to fulfil these tasks. To make comparison of the performance of different designs easier, a commented list of performance parameters is given. Based on these critical points recent developments in the areas of membranes for gas transfer and optical structures for light transfer are discussed. The fundamental starting point for the optimization of photo‐bioprocesses is a detailed understanding of the interaction between the bioreactor in terms of mass and light transfer as well as the microalgae physiology in terms of light and carbon uptake kinetics and dynamics.
Untoward Effects in the Practice of Therapeutic Hypothermia: A Literature Update

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) is the plague of the modern day and therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is launched to be a remedy against this. TH is practised mainly in the treatment of adult cardiac arrest and neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Despite the improved benefits of mild TH, there are commonly overlooked complications associated during management. TH may cause an increase in insulin resistance and a reduction in insulin levels which result in hyperglycemia. Studies showed a significantly increased incidence of meningitis, pneumonia and wound infections. Hypothermia was also reportedly associated with increased blood loss and transfusions. In addition, electrolyte abnormalities such as hypokalaemia, hypomagnesaemia, hypophosphatemia, hypo- and hyperglycaemia have been described during TH. The procedure has also been shown to incite mild metabolic acidosis. This article reviews the current literature to provide systematic data regarding adverse and untoward effects attributed to the procedure of TH in the emergency setting.
Usefulness of Magnetic Particle Imaging for Predicting the Therapeutic Effect of Magnetic Hyperthermia

Purpose: To investigate the usefulness of magnetic particle imaging (MPI) for predicting the therapeutic effect of magnetic hyperthermia (MH). Materials and Methods: First, we performed phantom experiments to investigate the relationship between the MPI value and the temperature rise of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) under an alternating magnetic field (AMF). The MPI value was defined as the pixel value of the transverse image reconstructed from the third-harmonic signals. Samples filled with various iron concentrations of MNPs (Resovist®) were prepared and were imaged using our MPI scanner. These samples were also heated using the AMF, and the specific loss power (SLP) and volume-specific loss power (vSLP) were calculated from the initial slope of the time-dependent temperature rise. Second, we performed animal experiments using tumor-bearing mice, which were divided into untreated (n = 10) and treated groups (n = 20). The tumors in the treated group were injected with Resovist® at an iron concentration of 250 mM (n = 10) or 500 mM (n = 10), and received MH for 20 min, during which the temperatures in the tumor and rectum were measured. The relative tumor volume growth (RTVG) was calculated from (V15 - V0)/V0, where V0 and V15 represented the tumor volume on day 0 and day 15 after MH, respectively. Results: In phantom experiments, the MPI value had significant correlations with the iron concentration of MNPs (r = 0.997), temperature rise (r = 0.981), and vSLP (r = 0.961). In animal experiments, the MPI value had significant correlations with the temperature rise in the tumor (r = 0.731) and RTVG (r = ﹣0.687). Conclusion: Our preliminary results suggest that MPI is useful for predicting the therapeutic effect of MH.