Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improved Image Resizing using Seam Carving and scaling

Seam Carving, the popular content-aware image resizing technique, removes or inserts seams of low energy iteratively without sufficiently considering their impact on the global visual quality of the image. However, sometimes seams pass through the regions of interest (ROIs) with low energy and distort the geometric shapes of the important objects. In this paper, we propose an improved resizing method based on improved seam carving method that can prevent the seams going through the ROIs and better preserve the content of the image. With considering frequency-tuned saliency map and the distance to the image center for each pixel in the importance map, it can protect the ROIs when the image is resized to the target size. Moreover, a developed two-dimension search scheme for seam carving and an switching scheme between seam caving and scaling are also proposed to efficiently protect the global visual of the image. Experiments demonstrate that resizing results of the proposed method are more pleasant than those of cropping, uniform scaling and other several methods.
A Lagrangian probability-density-function model for collisional turbulent fluid–particle flows

Inertial particles in turbulent flows are characterised by preferential concentration and segregation and, at sufficient mass loading, dense particle clusters may spontaneously arise due to momentum coupling between the phases. These clusters, in turn, can generate and sustain turbulence in the fluid phase, which we refer to as cluster-induced turbulence (CIT). In the present work, we tackle the problem of developing a framework for the stochastic modelling of moderately dense particle-laden flows, based on a Lagrangian probability-density-function formalism. This framework includes the Eulerian approach, and hence can be useful also for the development of two-fluid models. A rigorous formalism and a general model have been put forward focusing, in particular, on the two ingredients that are key in moderately dense flows, namely, two-way coupling in the carrier phase, and the decomposition of the particle-phase velocity into its spatially correlated and uncorrelated components. Specifically, this last contribution allows us to identify in the stochastic model the contributions due to the correlated fluctuating energy and to the granular temperature of the particle phase, which determine the time scale for particle–particle collisions. The model is then validated and assessed against direct-numerical-simulation data for homogeneous configurations of increasing difficulty: (i) homogeneous isotropic turbulence, (ii) decaying and shear turbulence and (iii) CIT.
PEACE INITIATIVE PROGRAMMES BY STUDENT WELFARE DEPARTMENTS AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS IN MANAGING STUDENT CONFLICTS IN KENYAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

A major challenge facing student affairs’ administration is management of students’ conflicts. Students’ in Kenyan public universities inadvertently resort to rioting and destructive behavior to resolve their conflicts. This has been detrimental to the teaching and learning environment. The rationale for this study was to examine the types of peace initiative programmes in Kenyan public universities and their effectiveness in managing students’ conflicts. The study utilized the evaluation and correlational research designs. The study respondents were 478 students, 25 key respondents and 40 participants in focused group discussions sampled from five public universities in Kenya. Qualitative data was thematically analyzed while quantitative data was inferentially analyzed using the chi-square test for correlation and independence. The study established that, peace initiative programmes are varied in type and effectiveness. The Chi-Square test showed that there was a highly significant association between activeness of peace initiative programmes and achievement of their objectives. Further, although 60 percent of the students felt that peace initiative programmes had met their objectives and had an overall positive impact in benefitting students’ in the areas of handling conflicts constructively, the programmes lacked specific guidelines for evaluating and monitoring their effectiveness. The study concluded that the peace initiative programs benefited students in areas of handling conflicts constructively. The study recommends that peace initiative programmes need to be integrated as one of the core activities in the student welfare department. This would create more opportunities to actively involve the whole student body in the peace initiative programmes in order to enhance a positive campus climate conducive for serious scholarly work. (260 Words)
Vibrational state inversion of a Bose–Einstein condensate: optimal control and state tomography

We present theoretical and experimental results on high-fidelity transfer of a trapped Bose–Einstein condensate into its first vibrationally excited eigenstate. The excitation is driven by mechanical motion of the trap, along a trajectory obtained from optimal control theory. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is found over a large range of parameters. We develop an approximate model to map the dynamics of the many-body condensate wave function to a driven two-level system.
Contradictory Literacy Practices of Mexican-Background Students: An Ethnography From the Rural Midwest

Abstract This ethnographic study explores the contradictory literacy practices of 10 high school students of Mexican background from the rural Midwest. The author uses the term Mexican background to encompass both settled Mexican Americans and recent-immigrant Mexicanos. Literacy is investigated through English and Spanish in a sociocultural context. Findings reveal how Mexican-background students demonstrate different literacy practices in their homes and communities than those acknowledged at school. Educators in the school setting did not recognize Mexican-background students' linguistic proficiency. In school, Mexican-background students were viewed in terms of their limited-English status and were mostly enrolled in low academic tracks. At home, Spanish-speaking parents relied on their children's sophisticated translation abilities. Results indicate that the lost opportunities for effective literacy learning at school ignored the realistic responsibilities and potential of the Mexican-background students. Many of the adults in this small, rural, midwestern community failed to recognize the dynamic implications between literacy and identity that these adolescents navigated on a daily basis across multiple settings.
Adoption of Bt Cotton: Threats and Challenges

Adopting new technology always involves advantages and risks; Bt cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) is a new technology well known in developed countries for its many advantages, such as reduced pesticide application, better insect pest control, and higher lint yield. However, its success in developing countries is still a question mark. Global adoption of Bt cotton has risen dramatically from 0.76 million ha when introduced in 1996 to 7.85 million ha in the 2005 cotton-growing season where 54% of the cotton crops in the USA, 76% in China, and 80% in Australia were grown with single or multiple Bt genes. Bollworms are serious cotton pests causing 30-40% yield reduction in Pakistan and 20-66% potential crop losses in India. The major advances shown in this review include: (1) Evolution of Bt cotton may prove to be a green revolution to enhance cotton yield; (2) adoption of Bt cotton by farmers is increasing due to its beneficial environmental effects by reducing pesticide application: however, a high seed price has compelled farmers to use illegal non-approved Bt causing huge damage to crops because of low tolerance to insect pests; and (3) some factors responsible for changes in the efficiency of the Bt gene and Bt cotton yield include internal phenology (genetics), atmospheric changes (CO2 concentration), nutrition, insect pests, boll distribution pattern, disease and nematodes, removal of fruiting branch and/or floral bud, introduction of Bt gene, and terpenoids and tannin production in the plant body.
Fuzzy Indicator of Sustainable Land Management and Its Correlates in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract Sustainable land management (SLM) is one of the major issues of concern to Nigerian policy makers due to persistent degradation of land. This study applied the fuzzy set method to compute composite indicator of unsustainable land use (IULU) from selected plot-level indicators. Results show that average IULU is 0.43 with 41.48 percent of the farms having higher values. Trends in vegetation covers, vigor of crop growth, crop yields, organic matter contents and type of seeds grown have highest contributions to IULU. Also, estimated parameters with Tobit regression show that education, household size, access to credit, access to extension and per capita farm income significantly reduced IULU, while farming experience, erosion problem and inadequate land problem increased it (p<0.10). The study noted that efforts to promote soil conservation technologies through extension workers and ensuring availability of credits, among others, will go a very long way in addressing land degradation.
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump's Sexist Ideology

Language is not always seen as a neutral vehicle which represents reality. It is sometimes described as a tool which is drawn on to discriminate, insult, abuse, and belittle others. This is evident in the case of sexism which is seen as language that discriminates against women by representing them negatively or which seems to implicitly assume that activities primarily associated with women are necessarily trivial. Thus, language is described as a potential that is drawn on strategically by sexists to devalue or marginalize women. The current paper is a critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump's negative evaluation of women. It sheds light on his sexist ideology to negatively represent and underestimate women. It aims to investigate the structural, lexical, and rhetorical strategies that are utilized for this purpose. For this end, the researcher will analyze some of Trump's opinions concerning women in different occasions drawing upon an eclectic model adopted from Mill's (2008) and VanDijk ((2006). Keywords: sexism, critical discourse analysis, Trump, ideology, negative evaluation.
Stability of gravity currents generated by finite-volume releases

We generalize the linear stability analysis of the axisymmetric self-similar solution of gravity currents from finite-volume releases to include perturbations that depend on both radial and azimuthal coordinates. We show that the similarity solution is stable to sufficiently small perturbations by proving that all perturbation eigenfunctions decay in time. Moreover, asymmetric perturbations are shown to decay more rapidly than axisymmetric perturbations in general. An asymptotic formula for the eigenvalues is derived, which indicates that asymptotic rates of decay of perturbations are given by $t^{-\sigma}$ where $0\,{<}\,\sigma\,{<}\,\frac{1}{4}$ as the Froude number decreases from $\sqrt2$ to $0$. We demonstrate that this formula agrees closely with numerically calculated eigenvalues and, in the absence of azimuthal dependence, it reduces to an expression that improves on the asymptotic formula obtained by Grundy & Rottman (1985). For two-dimensional (planar) currents, we further prove analytically that all perturbation eigenfunctions decay like $t^{-{1/2}}. $
Influence of Socio-Cultural Factors on Homicide: The Nigeria Case Study

Background: Understanding the socio-cultural factors that underlie homicide is central to prevention of such cases. This study was carried out to determine the similarities and differences in the patterns of homicide in two socio-culturally diverse parts of Nigeria. Materials and Method: Duplicate copies of autopsy reports of homicide victims in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and Kano city, Kano State over 11 and 6 year periods respectively were retrieved and analyzed for age, gender, circumstances of death, mechanisms of death, causes of death and types of weapons used. Results: show that 1,004 cases (91/year rate) and 113 cases (18/year rate) of homicides were recorded respectively in Port Harcourt and Kano city during the study periods. The predominant age group of victims in the two cities was the 21 to 30 year age group, with male: female ratio of 12:1 and 16:1 for Port Harcourt and Kano city respectively. The top ranking weapons of choice were firearm (68.9%) in Port Harcourt and sharp daggers (44.2%) in Kano city. While armed robbery and cult attacks were common in Port Harcourt, ethno-religious clashes predominated among circumstances surrounding homicides in Kano. While head injuries in the Port Harcourt homicides were mostly from gunshots those in Kano city were mostly due to blunt trauma. Conclusion: This study has shown that socio-cultural differences in religion, type of weapons available and to which local residents are exposed to during upbringing, gender role, functional rule of law, use of psycho-active substances and increased population and its dynamics are important factors that determine patterns of homicide in Nigeria.
Prevalence of aggressive periodontitis among Yemeni students from schools in the city of Thamar

Introduction and objective: Aggressive periodontitis (AgP) is a type of periodontitis that causes rapid destruction of alveolar bone, especially in young ages. In Yemen, there is no previous study about aggressive periodontitis, so the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and related risk factors for aggressive periodontitis among school students in the city of Thamar. Material and methods: In this study, a two-stage sampling method was used. At first stage, a random sample of eight public schools was selected from the schools of the city of Thamar by simple random sampling. In the second stage, a sample of 807 students (458 female and 349 male) was drawn from the chosen schools by simple random sampling. People aged from 10 to 22, with mean age of 17. The classification considered in the current paper was based on the American Academy of Periodontology classification of 1999. A questionnaire was applied and included questions that would give information about the risk factors that might be considered causal factors for aggressive periodontitis. Results: The number of affected students with AgP was 29 among 807 students, that is, 3.6% of the sample. The percentages of localized aggressive periodontitis (LAgP) and generalized aggressive periodontitis (GAgP) were, respectively, 2.6% (21 students) and 1.0% (8 students). The following teeth were found to be affected: first molars, second molars, incisors, first premolars and second premolars. In GAgP, 20 first molars, 22 incisors, 6 first premolars, 3 second molars and 2 second premolars showed clinical attachment loss. But in LAgP, 18 first molars, 19 incisors, 6 first premolars, 3 second molars and 2 second premolars showed clinical attachment loss. With regards to the risk factors – socioeconomic level, age, poor oral hygiene status, plaque index and gingival bleeding –, the statistical results indicated that each of these factors showed highly significant relationships with AgP. Conclusion: The prevalence of AgP among Yemeni schools students was relatively high: 3.6%. This might be related to the low socioeconomic level and poor oral hygiene status of most of the Yemeni students.
Star formation in semi-analytic galaxy formation models with multiphase gas

We implement physically motivated recipes for partitioning cold gas into different phases (atomic, molecular, and ionized) in galaxies within semi-analytic models of galaxy formation based on cosmological merger trees. We then model the conversion of molecular gas into stars using empirical recipes motivated by recent observations. We explore the impact of these new recipes on the evolution of fundamental galaxy properties such as stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), and gas and stellar phase metallicity. We present predictions for stellar mass functions, stellar mass versus SFR relations, and cold gas phase and stellar mass-metallicity relations for our fiducial models, from redshift z ˜ 6 to the present day. In addition we present predictions for the global SFR, mass assembly history, and cosmic enrichment history. We find that the predicted stellar properties of galaxies (stellar mass, SFR, metallicity) are remarkably insensitive to the details of the recipes used for partitioning gas into H I and H2. We see significant sensitivity to the recipes for H2 formation only in very low mass haloes (M_h ≲ 10^{10.5} M_{⊙}), which host galaxies with stellar masses m_* ≲ 10^8 M_{⊙}. The properties of low-mass galaxies are also quite insensitive to the details of the recipe used for converting H2 into stars, while the formation epoch of massive galaxies does depend on this significantly. We argue that this behaviour can be interpreted within the framework of a simple equilibrium model for galaxy evolution, in which the conversion of cold gas into stars is balanced on average by inflows and outflows.
Predicting Customers Churn in a Relational Database

This paper explores how two main classical classification models work and generate predictions through a commercial solution of relational database management system (Microsoft SQL Server 2012). The aim of the paper is to accurately predict churn among a set of customers defined by various discrete and continuous variables, derived from three main data sources: the commercial transactions history; the usersâ€™ behavior or events happening on their computers; the specific identity information provided by the customers themselves. On a theoretical side, the paper presents the main concepts and ideas underlying the Decision Tree and NaA¯ve Bayes classifiers and exemplifies some of them with actual hand-made calculations of the data being modeled by the software. On an analytical and practical side, the paper analyzes the graphs and tables generated by the classifying models and also reveal the main data insights. In the end, the classifiersâ€™ accuracy is evaluated based on the test data method. The most accurate one is chosen for generating predictions on the customersâ€™ data where the values of the response variable are not known.
On Kronecker’s density theorem, primitive points and orbits of matrices

We discuss recent quantitative results in connexion with Kronecker's theorem on the density of subgroups in R^n and with Dani and Raghavan's theorem on the density of orbits in the spaces of frames. We also propose several related problems. The case of the natural linear action of the unimodular group SL_2(Z) on the real plane is investigated more closely. We then establish an intriguing link between the configuration of (discrete) orbits of primitive points and the rate of density of dense orbits.
Effects of the Madden-Julian Oscillation on the Cyclogeneses of Hurricane Fausto (2002) and Hurricane Emily (2005)

The necessary climatological conditions for tropical cyclogenesis are generally agreed upon and can be summarized as sea surface temperatures above 26.5 °C overlaying a deep oceanic mixedlayer, deep convection within a region of moist lower and middle levels, positive lowlevel vorticity anomalies, and weak (or slightly easterly) vertical wind shear (Gray 1968, 1979). While the climatological conditions are wellknown, these conditions exist over a large portion of the tropics for extended time periods. Only a small percentage of potential disturbances develop into tropical storms. This suggests that there must be additional criteria for individual storms. Despite the availability of advanced global observations and highresolution numerical models, the local conditions necessary for genesis remain somewhat of an enigma. Tropical cyclones form within preexisting convective regions which are often embedded in synopticscale cyclonic regions such as monsoon troughs, tropical waves, or cyclonic frontal disturbances that move equatorward into the tropics. These cyclonic regions are on a scale much larger than a tropical cyclone core. One theory is that tropical waves make the local environment more favorable for genesis. Frank and Roundy (2006) showed that the MaddenJulian Oscillation (MJO), equatorial Rossby waves, and tropical depression type (TDtype) waves (such as African easterly waves) play significant roles in the development of many cyclones every year in all six major basin. The goal of this research is to investigate how the MJO affects tropical cyclogenesis using the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model version 2.2 (WRFV2.2) and real data.
The role of students’ prior topic beliefs in recall and evaluation of information from texts on socio-scientific issues

Abstract In this research, we investigated relationships between undergraduate students’ prior topic beliefs and their recall of the main conclusions from texts on controversial socio-scientific issues, to what extent students trusted the recalled conclusions, and how they justified their trust in those conclusions. While belief-biased recall of text conclusions was not observed in this study, students were found to trust the recalled conclusions more when they were consistent than when they were inconsistent with students’ prior beliefs about the issues. Moreover, students primarily justified their trust in the recalled conclusions by referring to their personal opinions on the issues. Finally, students who correctly recalled text conclusions even when those conclusions were at odds with their prior beliefs about the issues outperformed students who incorrectly recalled conclusions that were consistent with their prior beliefs on measures of cognitive reflection and reported use of critical reading strategies. Theoretical as well as educational implications of these findings are discussed.
Role of Biosurfactant Produced By Fusarium sp . BS-8 in Enhanced Oil Recovery ( EOR ) Through Sand Pack Column

Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) represents the use of microorganisms to extract the remaining oil trapped up in reservoirs. Recently, the biosurfactant application in MEOR has been preferably encouraged over microorganisms due to their potential role in oil mobility and miscibility. The present study was conducted to develop practical microbial solutions and approaches for improving oil production. A newly isolated fungal strain Fusarium sp. BS-8 (JQ860113) produced an effective biosurfactant. The crude biosurfactant was able to reduce the surface tension of water from 72 mNm -1 to 32 mNm -1 , with 71% hydrocarbon emulsifying index and an oil displacement activity (ODA) in the range of 7-13 cm. Under optimized conditions, up to 5.25 g L -1 crude biosurfactant was recovered from fermentation broth with ethyl acetate/methanol (5:1) with an ODA of 13 cm. A sand pack column was constructed to simulate an oil reservoir. The use of crude biosurfactant resulted in the additional oil recovery of 46% over untreated column. The biosurfactant was found to be stable at wide range of temperature (0-90°C), pH (5-9) and salt concentration (1-15%), suggesting it to be suitable candidate for biosurfactant mediated enhanced oil recovery.