Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Three Models Dealing with Working Memory and Its Dimensions in Second Language Acquisition

The current status of research on working memory (WM) and its components in second language acquisition (SLA) was examined in this review. Literature search was done on four aspects using search terms in Google Scholar. Hence, the review results are given and introduced. 1. In the definition of WM, some confusion exists on whether short term memory (STM) or recent memory is the same as WM or different. 2. In this review, three main models have been discussed elaborately, as they are the only ones discussed in literature. They are: multicomponent model of Baddeley (2000), embedded process model of Cowan (2005) and attention control model of Engle and Kane (2003). 3. The phonological and executive components of WM were examined in more detail, as these determine the two basic aspects of language acquisition: language characteristics and acquisition methods (Wen, 2012). Overall, the variables related to phonological and executive working memories are evident from published research, but their interactive relationships and affecting factors are not entirely clear. 4. Admittedly, several diverse internal and external factors affect WM in relation to SLA. Some practically useful interventions are indicated by certain findings.
Schottky diodes and high electron mobility transistors of 2DEG AlGaN/GaN structures on sapphire substrate

We report Schottky diodes (SDs) and High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) fabricated of 2DEG AlGaN/GaN structures grown by Metalorganic Chemical Vapour Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) on sapphire substrate. The SDs and HEMTs were designed intentionally without surface passivation and were successfully fabricated at the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (CPST), using standard UV photolithography procedures. The performance of Ohmic contacts formed of quaternary Ti/Al/Ni/Au stack was optimized varying the temperature of rapid thermal annealing process. Deposited on the semiconductor metal Ni/Au stack was used to form 0.75 eV height Schottky barriers. The fabricated SDs demonstrated low reverse current and high electric current switching ratio while the HEMTs showed high transconductance and drain saturation currents performance with good transistor channel closing. This work paves a way to develop advanced AlGaN/GaN based HEMT structures as well as new electronic components for operation at high powers and high frequencies.
Parental provisioning in relation to offspring sex and sex ratio in the great tit (Parus major)

Sex-biased parental care is expected if the offspring sexes differ in their energetic needs or if they differentially affect their parents' reproductive success after independence. Furthermore, parents should adjust provisioning rate and prey size to the needs of individual nestlings and the entire brood. We investigated experimentally whether parental care in the great tit varied with individual offspring sex and brood sex ratio. We created broods of skewed sex ratio and monitored parental provisioning behaviour as number and size of prey items brought to individual young and broods. We found that male and female nestlings were fed at equal rates and with equally sized prey items independently of the brood sex ratio. The male share of provisioning did not change with offspring sex or sex ratio. However, parents brought significantly larger prey items to male biased broods with a small decline in provisioning rate such that the total amount of food brought did not change. Our findings suggest that parents did respond to manipulated brood sex ratio without distinguishing between the individual nestling sexes. Bringing larger prey items at slightly lower rates to male biased broods might reduce the cost of solicitation activities or satisfy increased needs in those broods.
Species-specific effects of fluid shear on grazing by sea urchin larvae: comparison of experimental results with encounter-model predictions

Small-scale turbulence can alter the rate of plankton predator–prey encounters. Encounter models predict that prey ingestion by slow-swimming zooplankton is enhanced at low levels of turbulence. We investigated whether small-scale turbulence increases ingestion for the slow-swimming, suspension-feeding pluteus larvae of the white urchin Lytechinus pictus and the purple urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. Model predictions of the critical level of turbulence, ecr, above which encounters due to turbulence are greater than those due to behavior (swimming or suspension feeding) alone, were experimentally tested using shortand long-term grazing treatments. Because urchin larvae are smaller than the smallest eddy scales of turbulence and thus experience turbulence as laminar shear, larvae were exposed to flow conditions using a simple laminar shear flow with dissipation rates, e, of 0, 0.1, 0.4, and 1 cm2 s–3. Short-term ingestion of beads by L. pictus larvae was unaffected by e < 1 cm2 s–3 but was 30% greater at this level, which was greater than ecr based on flow speeds produced in suspension feeding. Long-term flow treatments with algal prey had no significant effect on grazing or growth. Short-term ingestion of beads by S. purpuratus larvae was unaffected by e < ecr based on suspension feeding; the effect of long-term flow exposure on ingestion and growth could not be investigated because of high mortality, suggesting greater sensitivity to flow exposure compared to L. pictus. Experimental results are consistent with model predictions that ecr is high, and thus levels of turbulence in the ocean are not expected to significantly increase ingestion and reduce food limitation in suspension-feeding urchin larvae.
Determination of Pollen Quality, Quantity and Effect of Cross Pollination on the Fruit Set and Quality in the Pomegranate

This research was carried out to determine the pollen quality (pollen viability and germination), quantity (pollen production) and the role of cross pollination on the fruit set in Hicaz and 33 N 26 pomegranate cultivars under Adana ecological conditions in 1997. Pollen viability levels with TTC and FDA, pollen germination level with agar in the petri method, and pollen production capacity with the hemacytometric method of these cultivars were determined in both male (A type-unfertile) and bisexual (B type-fertile) flowers. In addition to these experiments, the changes in the fruit set and fruit quality in open-, selfand crosspollination (with pollen taken from both bisexual and male flowers) were examined. These studies showed that the highest pollen viability and germination rate were obtained from male flowers of Hicaz (75.24% viability in TTC, 82.45% viability in FDA, 61.50% germination in 1% agar + 10% sucrose medium in agar plate method). Regarding pollen production capability per anther, the best results were obtained from male flowers (3055 pollen/anther in Hicaz, 2701 pollen/anther in 33 N 26). The rates of fruit set in selfand open pollination were found to be lower than those of cross-pollination.
Original article: Anti-fibrotic Effects of ONO-EF-345, a Specific Phosphodiesterase IV inhibitor, on Lung Fibroblasts

Phosphodiesterase (PDE) IV inhibitors have been shown to inhibit various inflammatory reactions in pulmonary diseases such as bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive lung diseases (COPD). However, there have been no studies evaluating the effect of PDE IV inhibitors on airway fibrosis, which is a critical feature of airway remodeling in asthma and COPD. We therefore examined whether ONO-EF-345 (ONO), a PDE IV inhibitor, affected the function of lung fibroblasts. ONO suppressed TGF-β-induced type I collagen (COL1) mRNA expression in lung fibroblasts and also inhibited TGF-β-induced α- smooth muscle actin (SMA) protein expression. ONO did not affect Smad2 phosphorylation or Smad7 expression. However, ONO reduced JNK and p38 activation, which regulates TGF-β-induced COL1 expression. These results indicate that PDE IV inhibitors exert anti-fibrotic effects through the JNK and/or p38 pathways.
Combustion Kinetics of Corncob Charcoal and Partially Demineralized Corncob Charcoal in the Kinetic Regime

Charcoals produced by a modern, efficient method were studied in the kinetic regime, at oxygen partial pressures of 0.2 and 1 bar by thermogravimetric experiments and their reaction kinetic modeling. The charcoals were ground to an average particle size of 5−13 μm. A partial removal of minerals from the feedstock (corncobs) by an acid-washing procedure resulted in ca. 6 times higher specific surface area in the charcoal. Despite the increased surface area, this sample evidenced a much lower reactivity. A model based on three reactions gave an adequate description over a wide range of experimental conditions. Thirty-eight experiments on four charcoal samples were evaluated. The experiments differed in their temperature programs, in the ambient gas composition, and in the grinding of the samples. Characteristics of the combustion process were determined including activation energy values characteristic for the temperature dependence of the burnoff, formal reaction orders characterizing the dependence on the.
Mini-symposium: The Hip (ii) The Role of Imaging in Follow-up of Newly Introduced Implants

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Orthopaedics and Trauma. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Orthopaedics and Trauma, vol 26, issue 4, 2012, DOI 10.1016/j.mporth. 2012.06. 007
Relative distribution of dark matter and stellar mass in three massive galaxy clusters

This work observationally addresses the relative distribution of total and optically luminous matter in galaxy clusters by computing the radial profile of the stellar-to-total mass ratio. We adopt state-of-the-art accurate lensing masses free from assumptions about the mass radial profile and we use extremely deep multicolor wide--field optical images to distinguish star formation from stellar mass, to properly calculate the mass in galaxies of low mass, those outside the red sequence, and to allow a contribution from galaxies of low mass that is clustercentric dependent. We pay special attention to issues and contributions that are usually underrated, yet are major sources of uncertainty, and we present an approach that allows us to account for all of them. Here we present the results for three very massive clusters at $z\sim0.45$, MACSJ1206.2-0847, MACSJ0329.6-0211, and RXJ1347.5-1145. We find that stellar mass and total matter are closely distributed on scales from about 150 kpc to 2.5 Mpc: the stellar-to-total mass ratio is radially constant. We find that the characteristic mass stays constant across clustercentric radii and clusters, but that the less-massive end of the galaxy mass function is dependent on the environment.
Comparison of Islamic and Conventional Banking on the Basis of Riba and Services: A Case Study of Peshawar Region

Islamic banking was introduced in Pakistan in 1970 to meet the religious and economic needs of the people of Pakistan, wider steps have been taken in 1980 by the Banking Companies Ordinance (BCO 1962), which was modified to accommodate transactions are not interest-based banking system in Pakistan. What needs to be evaluated is the knowledge of Islamic banking products among customers of Peshawar. The reasons for changing the conventional banking to Islamic banking has been analyzed. This study will present the results of research carried out mainly with people who currently use conventional and Islamic banking and Islamic banking knowledge. In this research, we have tried to highlight some of the problems that are causing problems for the growth of Islamic banking. The dependent variables in this research are changing in other Islamic banks, customer satisfaction. We selected a sample size of 150 banking client (male and female) and used descriptive and correlation analysis to analyze the relationship between customer satisfaction and Islamic Banking Services in Peshawar.
Early Studies of Multi-Tree Handling in Eastern Canada

Abstract Thinnings are not as common in Canada as they are in most European countries for a variety of reasons, not the least being the high treatment costs. In recent years, FERIC has proposed a host of strategies to reduce the costs of thinnings and thus increase the attractiveness of this treatment. One of these strategies is to use multi-tree handling harvester heads because the use of single-grip harvesters often results in high wood costs when harvesting small stems typical of commercial thinning treatments. Recently introduced harvester heads such as the Waratah HTH-470 HD provide multi-stem felling and processing options that can increase harvester productivity in small trees. This paper describes the early results from FERIC studies of multi-stem heads working in eastern Canada. During FERIC studies, the ability to handle more than one stem at a time increased machine productivity by an average of 21 to 33% compared with handling stems one at a time. On average, multi-stem work cycles were longer than single-stem cycles, but the ability to process more than one stem at a time in 30 to 40% of the cycles lowered the mean harvesting time per stem. The delimbing quality and the length-measurement accuracy for sawlogs were comparable to those of conventional heads currently on the market. This technology is thus well suited to final felling of small trees and to commercial thinning because its productivity is less affected than with conventional heads by the small tree volumes. The accumulator that keeps felled stems vertical also provides benefits, since it lets the operator control the fall of the felled stems and thus may reduce the risk of damaging residual stems.
PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF EDIBLE OFFAL FROM FREE-RANGE REARED SWALLOW-BELLY MANGALICA PIGS

Physical (pH and L*a*b* values) and chemical (moisture, protein, total fat, total ash, K, P, Na, Mg, Ca, Zn, Fe, Cu, and Mn) characteristics of offal consisting of the tongue, heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidney, brain, and spinal cord of free-range reared Swallow-Belly Mangalica pigs were determined. Many signifi cant differences were found among mean values of quality traits. However, except for a few cases, the determined offal quality traits were in the characteristic ranges reported in the literature. Lungs were high in pH24h (P<0.01) and L*a*b* values (P<0.01), as well as in moisture and Na concentration, and the lowest in K, Cu, and Mn. Tongue was high in total fat, and the lowest in pH24h, moisture (P<0.01), and total ash concentration. The highest levels of protein (P<0.01), Mg, Fe (P<0.05), Zn (P<0.01), and Mn (P<0.01) and the lowest of Na were found in liver. The darkest colour (lowest L* value), highest concentration of K, the lowest concentration of total fat and Ca were found in spleen. Finally, spinal cord was the highest in total ash (P<0.01), P (P<0.01), and Ca (P<0.05) and the lowest in protein, Mg (P<0.05), Fe, and Zn (P<0.01) concentration.
The Relationships between Perceived Organizational Support, Felt Obligation, Affective Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intention of Academics working with Private Higher Educational Institutions in Malaysia

The main objective of this paper is to examine the relationships between perceived organizational support (POS), felt obligation, affective organizational commitment and turnover intention of academicians working for private higher educational institutions in Malaysia. This paper is driven theoretically by the social exchange theory, the concept of perceived organizational support (POS) which is the commitment of the organization to the employee, the norm of reciprocity, the organizational support theory as well as the other relevant literature in the human resource management and organizational behaviour research. This paper contributes to the limited body of knowledge about the psychological processes underlying the formation of organizational commitment through the perspectives of the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964) and the organizational support theory (Eisenberger, et al., 1986; Eisenberger et al., 2001).
The use of intranet in indonesian government agencies : the cultural validity of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology

Advanced integration of communication and information system changed intranet into a system that enable workers to perform task in any possible time and venue. This development increases the use of the intranet in Indonesia, especially by government agencies. Utilization of intranet as an online workspace is for employee services, communication and socialization, working tools, knowledge sharing and collaboration facility. In the present study, intranet utilization measurement is done by using the context-based UTAUT model because most of existing technology acceptance and use theories was developed in Western cultures, thus, culture and structure of the organization were added to the model to be more precise. Survey on 533 employees of a government institution at the ministerial level in Indonesia was conducted to test the model with structural equation modeling and PLS technique. The result shows that performance expectancy is the strongest factor influencing intention to use, followed by effort expectancy and social influence. Culture and organizational structures are correlated to intention to use. The relation of culture and organizational structures as determinant on intention to use is insignificant, but as moderating variables both are increasing the influence of performance expectancy and social influence on intention to use.
TISSUE CULTURE RESPONSES OF SOME WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.) CULTIVARS GROWN IN PAKISTAN

Good tissue culture response for callus induction and regeneration is prerequisite for improvement of wheat through genetic transformation. Tissue culture response of 6 wheat cultivars was studied using MS and N6 medium supplemented with different concentration of 2, 4-D (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and BAP (6-benzylaminopurine) for callus induction and regeneration, respectively. Mature seeds were used as explants. All cultivars exhibited best response for callus induction and regeneration on MS medium as compared to N6 medium. However, significant differences among cultivars were observed. Each cultivar responded differently at different levels of growth regulator for callus induction. Inqalab-91 and Lasani-08 showed maximum callus induction (90%) and (78.78%), respectively at 3mg/l of 2, 4-D. Tatara showed 84.43% callus at 2.0mg/l, chakwal-97 77.08% at 2.5mg/l while GA-02 and Khyber showed 74.30% and 65.97% callus induction response, respectively, at 3.5mg/l of 2, 4-D. As regards regeneration, direct shoots and roots development were observed by using different concentration of BAP. Significantly higher regeneration (59.33%) was observed in Chakwal-97 with 3.0mg/l of BAP while least regeneration was observed in Khyber (17.33%) at 4.0mg/l among all cultivars. It was also observed that all cultivars showed shoot as well as root development with 3 and 5mg/l of BAP. Using 8mg/l agar rather than 6 and 10 mg/l significantly enhanced regeneration ability of cultivars. The results of present findings will be helpful for selecting the most tissue culture responsive cultivars for genetic transformation against different biotic and abiotic stresses as well as for improvement of important agronomic traits of wheat crop (Fig. 2).
Post-harvest changes in functional and sensory properties of guava (Psidium guajava L. cv. Pant Prabhat) fruits as influenced by different edible coating treatments

The main aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of different edible coating treatments like calcium chloride (1.0, 1.5, 2.0%), chitosan (0.5, 1.0, 1.5%), sodium alginate (0.5, 1.0, 1.5%) and Aloe vera gel (1:1, 1:2, 1:3) at varying concentrations on the post-harvest quality attributes of fruits of guava cultivar ‘Pant Prabhat’. After treatment, fruits were kept at ambient temperature of 27-29°C till 12 days and analyzed for various functional and sensory parameters while the uncoated fruits serve as control. In all treatments, chitosan (1.5%) coating was effective in maintaining superoxide dismutase activity (69.48 units/g fruit weight), total phenolics content (333.35 mg GAE/100 g fresh weight), fruit appearance (8.32), fruit flavour (8.21) and fruit texture (8.28). Aloe vera 1:1 gel coating was effective in maintaining total flavonoids content (89.64 mg/100 g fresh weight), total antioxidants capacity (684.27 μmol. TE/100 g fresh weight), fruit colour (8.22), fruit taste (8.19) and overall acceptability (8.18). Hence, it was concluded that coating treatment of 1.5% chitosan followed by Aloe vera 1:1 gel coating can be used for enhancing the shelf life and maintaining postharvest quality in fruits of guava cultivar ‘Pant Prabhat’.
Contagion and Uninvadability in Social Networks with Bilingual Option

In a setting where an infinite population of players interact locally and repeatedly, we study the impacts of payoff structures and network structures on contagion of a convention. For the "bilingual game", where each player chooses one of two conventions or adopts both (i.e., chooses the "bilingual option") at an additional cost, we completely characterize when a convention spreads contagiously from a finite subset of players to the entire population in some network, and conversely, when a convention is never invaded by the other convention in any network. In particular, depending on the cost of bilingual option, the risk-dominated but Pareto-dominant convention can be contagious, and furthermore, for a fixed profile of payoff parameter values, the risk-dominant and the Pareto-dominant conventions can each be contagious in respective networks. Non-linear networks can be critical in determining the contagious conventions in some range of parameter values. We also introduce the concept of weight-preserving node identification and show that if there is a weight-preserving node identification from one network to another, then the latter is more contagion-inducing than the former in all supermodular games. We demonstrate that with our three-action game, our analysis reveals strictly more finer structures of networks than that with two-action coordination games.
The effects of particulate limestone and 25-hydroxy-cholecalciferol in broiler chicken diets on the mechanical properties of bones

In an experiment carried out on 560 broiler chickens, the effect of supplementing diets with particulate limestone (grit, diameter 1.2-4 mm) and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25-OH-D3) on selected biomechanical parameters of tibia bones was studied. Replacement of 30% of pulverized limestone by grit increased ultimate load, yielding load and stiffness of tibias at 43 days of age. Partial or complete substitution of 25-OH-D3 for cholecalciferol positively affected yielding load and stiffness of bones. The best quality of tibia bones was found in chickens fed a diet with simultaneous addition of grit and replacement of 90 or 100% of cholecalciferol by 25-OH-D3.