Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rhetorical Moves in Problem Statement Section of Iranian EFL Postgraduate Students' Theses

The Problem Statement (PS) section of a thesis, usually a subsection of the first chapter, is supposed to justify the objectives of the study. Postgraduate students are often ignorant of the rhetorical moves that they are expected to make in their PS. This descriptive study aimed to explore the rhetorical moves of the PS in Iranian master’s (MA) degree theses. The study focused on 30 PSs written by MA Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) students. The samples were analyzed based on Swales’ (1990) Create-a-research-space (CARS) model. The findings revealed the students’ flaws in writing the PS where they typically presented the significance of their study. The results of the analysis of their written samples also showed that some of the students failed to address a problem as an academic issue based on the existing gap in the previous studies and failed to recommend ways to solve the problem. Students’ awareness of the rhetorical structure of the PS may help them create higher-quality works in academic settings. This study has theoretical and pedagogical implications, a discussion of which concludes the paper. Keywords: Genre, Rhetorical structure, Problem Statement, Swales CARS model, MA theses, EFL learners
Surveying the Attitude of Family Physicians Working in Health Centers of Tehran University of Medical Sciences towards their Profession Using a Qualitative Approach

Background : Family physician plan is a form of health care delivery system which its correct implementation results in health promotion. Being aware of family physicians’ viewpoints towards their occupation would play an important role in its better implementation. The present study aims to to investigate family physicians` attitude who are working in health centers affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences towards their profession. Materials and Methods : This qualitative study was conducted in 2011. In order to reach information saturation , the data were collected by performing two singular interviews and four focus group discussions among all 33 physicians working at health care centers of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Eventually, data were analyzed using conceptual framework method. Results : Data analysis indicated three general concepts. The first issue is the factors that encourage physicians to choose family physician profession and continue doing it (including economical, cultural and environmental factors and work conditions). The second one is the study challenges (including preparation to implement the plan, work conditions and professional limits) and the final one is the reforms needed for its correct and proper implementation ( in policy making and administrative level). Conclusion : Regarding the issue that economical, cultural and environmental factors and work atmosphere have the main role in motivating family physicians, the most important challenges the plan confronts are also related to these factors and major and minor reforms are needed to overcome these challenges. Moreover preparing society’s culture would surely result in better implementation of the plan.
How Do Hospitality and Tourism Undergraduate Students Learn? From a Perspective of Learning Styles

This theoretical paper presents the influence of learning styles and culture values on facilitating undergraduate students’ learning. Learning styles describe the way people process information. Many learning style inventories have been developed and applied widely, for example, Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ). However, limited research has been conducted in the field of hospitality and tourism higher education, particularly in eastern culture. Past research in the hospitality and tourism higher education did not reveal if certain learning styles can contribute to better learning outcomes, however, there is a significant difference in preferred learning styles of students in terms of different cultural values. Therefore, it makes it pivotal to consider the influence of culture difference when examining how learning styles contribute to better learning outcomes in future research. Therefore, hospitality and tourism educators can properly plan useful strategies to accommodate different learning styles and enhance students’ learning.
Simulation of laminar–turbulent transition in compressible Taylor–Green flow basing on quasi-gas dynamic equations

We report the results of numerical simulation of laminar–turbulent transition in the Taylor–Green vortex for viscous compressible gas flow basing on quasi-gas-dynamic (QGD) equations. Here the QGD system is obtained by a temporal averaging of the Navier–Stokes equations. The additional dissipative terms in QGD system serve to model the effects of the unresolved subgrid scales. Comparison with direct numerical simulation and large eddy simulation reference data demonstrates that QGD numerical algorithm provides a uniform and adequate simulation of both laminar and turbulent evolution of the vortex for Reynolds numbers from 100 up to 5000, including transition.
The extent and nature of known cases of institutional child sexual abuse

The sexual abuse of children by persons who work with them - institutional abuse - is a focus of major concern among policy makers, practitioners and the public. Despite this, knowledge about it remains limited. This paper presents findings from a study of institutional abuse cases referred to social service departments or the police in eight local authority areas. While such cases were relatively uncommon and constituted a small proportion of all child protection referrals, some involved large numbers of victims and abusers. Institutional abuse cases in the present study shared some characteristics with the majority of (intrafamilial) abuse cases, but there were also important differences, such as the proportion of male victims and the extent to which abuses used techniques of targeting and entrapment. Contrary to media representations, the institutional abuse reported here was not just a problem of children's homes, social work or the public sector, but occurred in a wide variety of settings and sectors and was perpetrated by a range of occupational groups. If all children are to be protected, then policy and practice measures to prevent abuse need to be directed towards a much wider range of institutions.
A model of two-sided reputation

We consider the problem of a decision maker (e.g. politician, medium, financial intermediary, arbitrator.) who needs to maintain a reputation vis-a-vis several audiences with different preferences. We show that reputation-building gives rise to a rebalancing effect: the decision maker "favours" the party he is perceived as more remote to in order to catch up his reputational deficit. This sometimes results in moderation, but could also generate extremism. Finally, two-sided reputation may be "bad", in that reputational concerns sometimes reduce the welfare of all parties.
Perceived agricultural land use decisions in a peri-urban district, Ghana

The paper analyses farmer households’ decisions on agricultural land uses in peri-urban Asante-Akim South District of the Ashante region, Ghana. Rapid peri-urbanization has resulted in increasing demand for, and pressure on arable lands. The decision to convert from agricultural land uses to other land uses is driven by a myriad of factors, ranging from social to economic. Using a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods, 120 household respondents were proportionately sampled from three communities in the district, for questionnaires administration and interviews, to collect data. Data was subjected to Pearson’s chi-square, contingency and frequencies tabulation analyses embedded in the SPSS V.17. Results show that there is increasing peri-urbanization, resulting from increasing demand for residential and commercial land uses at the expense of arable land uses. These outcomes have perceived negative implications on food productivity and security in the district. The District Assembly’s policy focus should be geared towards the protection of prime agricultural lands, as physical development cannot be avoided.
Preparation and characterization of a novel magnetic nano-adsorbent

A novel magnetic nano-adsorbent has been developed using Fe3O4 nanoparticles (13.2 nm) as cores and polyacrylic acid (PAA) as ionic exchange groups. The Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitating Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions in an ammonia solution and treating under hydrothermal conditions. PAA was covalently bound onto the magnetic nanoparticles via carbodiimide activation. Transmission electron micrographs showed that the magnetic nanoparticles remained discrete and had no significant change in size after binding the PAA. The X-ray diffraction patterns indicated the magnetic nanoparticles were pure Fe3O4 with a spinel structure, and the binding of PAA did not result in a phase change. Magnetic measurement revealed the magnetic nanoparticles were superparamagnetic, and their saturation magnetization was reduced only slightly after PAA binding. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the binding of PAA to the magnetic nanoparticles, suggested a binding mechanism for the PAA, and revealed the maximum weight ratio of PAA bound to the magnetic nanoparticles was 0.12. In addition, the ionic exchange capacity of the resultant magnetic nano-adsorbents was estimated to be 1.64 mequiv g−1, much higher than those of commercial ionic exchange resins. When the magnetic nano-adsorbents were used for the recovery of lysozyme, the adsorption/desorption of lysozyme was completed within 1 min due to the absence of pore-diffusion resistance. Also, the adsorption/desorption efficiency could reach almost 100% under appropriate conditions, and the recovered lysozyme retained 95% activity.
Dynamics in steady state in vitro acto-myosin networks

Forces and stresses generated by the action of myosin minifilaments are analyzed in idealized computer-generated actin bundles, and compared to results for isotropic actin networks. The bundles are generated as random collections of actin filaments in two dimensions with constrained orientations, crosslinked and attached to two fixed walls. Myosin minifilaments are placed on actin filament pairs and allowed to move and deform the network so that it exerts forces on the walls. The vast majority of simulation runs end with contractile minifilament stress, because minifilaments rotate into energetically stable contractile configurations. This process is aided by the bending and stretching of actin filaments, which accomodate minifilament rotation. Stresses for bundles are greater than those for isotropic networks, and antiparallel filaments generate more tension than parallel filaments. The forces transmitted by the actin network to the walls of the simulation cell often exceed the tension in the minifilament itself. S Online supplementary data available from stacks.iop. org/PhysBio/10/036006/mmedia
Case Study of Heat Transfer during Artificial Ground Freezing with Groundwater Flow

For the artificial ground freezing (AGF) projects in highly permeable formations, the effect of groundwater flow cannot be neglected. Based on the heat transfer and seepage theory in porous media with the finite element method, a fully coupled numerical model was established to simulate the changes of temperature field and groundwater flow field. Firstly, based on the classic analytical solution for the frozen temperature field, the model’s ability to solve phase change problems has been validated. In order to analyze the influences of different parameters on the closure time of the freezing wall, we performed the sensitivity analysis for three parameters of this numerical model. The analysis showed that, besides the head difference, the thermal conductivity of soil grain and pipe spacing are also the key factors that control the closure time of the frozen wall. Finally, a strengthening project of a metro tunnel with AGF method in South China was chosen as a field example. With the finite element software COMSOL Multiphysics® (Stockholm, Sweden), a three-dimensional (3D) numerical model was set up to simulate the change of frozen temperature field and groundwater flow field in the project area as well as the freezing process within 50 days. The simulation results show that the freezing wall appears in an asymmetrical shape with horizontal groundwater flow normal to the axial of the tunnel. Along the groundwater flow direction, freezing wall forms slowly and on the upstream side the thickness of the frozen wall is thinner than that on the downstream side. The actual pipe spacing has an important influence on the temperature field and closure time of the frozen wall. The larger the actual pipe spacing is, the slower the closing process will be. Besides this, the calculation for the average temperature of freezing body (not yet in the form of a wall) shows that the average temperature change of the freezing body coincides with that of the main frozen pipes with the same trend.
Effect of fermented by-product and rice straw on milk yield and fatty acid composition in dairy cows.

This experiment used by-products from agro-industry waste as a roughage source for dairy cows. Bagasse, pineapple peel, corn cob, corn stover and vinasse were used to produce fermented byproduct (FBP). The objective of this study was to determine the effects of FBP with rice straw on the milk yield, milk composition and fatty acid profile in dairy cows. Fifteen dairy cows with 75–87.5% Holstein Friesian blood were used with an average initial body weight (± SD) of 407.33 ± 53.48 kg in mid-lactation and 111.25 ± 25.12 days in milk. Cows were randomly allocated to three treatments (T1 = five dairy cows fed rice straw ad libitum; T2 = five dairy cows fed FBP with rice straw at the ratio 50:50 (dry basis) ad libitum; T3 = five dairy cows fed sweet corn waste silage with rice straw at the ratio 50:50 (dry basis) ad libitum) using a completely randomized design. Data were adjusted with parity and initial body weight as covariates. The results revealed that the milk yield and 4% fat-corrected milk from cows fed FBP with rice straw were found to be the highest (P < 0.05) among all treatments. The caproic acid (C6:0) and palmitoleic acid levels (C16:1) from cows fed FBP with rice straw were the highest (P < 0.05) among all treatments. Moreover, short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), long chain fatty acids (LCFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids composed of γ-linolenic (C18:3n6c), α-linolenic (C18:3n3c), eicosatrienoic acid (C20:3n6) and arachidonic acid (C20:4n6) were significantly highest in cows fed FBP with rice straw. The body weight change and average daily gain obtained from cows fed with FBP and rice straw were found to be the highest among all treatments. It was concluded that dairy cows fed FBP with rice straw at the ratio of 50:50 on a dry matter basis increased the milk yield and the SCFA and LCFA contents. The present study showed great benefit from feeding FBP and rice straw as a ready-to-feed practice producing higher milk yield and quality.
Iris Segmentation using Gradient Magnitude and Fourier Descriptor for Multimodal Biometric Authentication System

Perfectly segmenting the area of the iris is one of the most important steps in iris recognition. There are several problematic areas that affect the accuracy of the iris segmentation step, such as eyelids, eyelashes, glasses, pupil (due to less accurate iris segmentation), motion blur, and lighting and specular reflections. To solve these problems, gradient magnitude and Fourier descriptor are employed to do iris segmentation in the proposed Multimodal Biometric Authentication System (MBAS). This approach showed quite promising results, i.e. an accuracy rate of 97%. The result of the iris recognition system was combined with the result of an open-source fingerprint recognition system to develop a multimodal biometrics authentication system. The results of the fusion between iris and fingerprint authentication were 99% accurate. Data from Multimedia Malaysia University (MMUI) and our own prepared database, the SGU-MB-1 dataset, were used to test the accuracy of the proposed system.
Effect of tool geometry on friction stir spot welding of polypropylene sheets

The effects of tool geometry and properties on friction stir spot welding properties of polypropylene sheets were studied. Four different tool pin geometries, with varying pin angles, pin lengths, shoulder diameters and shoulder angles were used for friction stir spot welding. All the welding operations were done at the room temperature. Lap-shear tensile tests were carried out to find the weld static strength. Weld cross section appearance observations were also done. From the experiments the effect of tool geometry on friction stir spot weld formation and weld strength were determined. The opti- mum tool geometry for 4 mm thick polypropylene sheets were determined. The tapered cylindrical pin gave the biggest and the straight cylindrical pin gave the lowest lap-shear fracture load.
Validation of the magnetic energy vs. helicity scaling in solar magnetic structures

Aims. We assess the validity of the free magnetic energy – relative magnetic helicity diagram for solar magnetic structures. Methods. We used two different methods of calculating the free magnetic energy and the relative magnetic helicity budgets: a classical, volume-calculation nonlinear force-free (NLFF) method applied to finite coronal magnetic structures and a surface-calculation NLFF derivation that relies on a single photospheric or chromospheric vector magnetogram. Both methods were applied to two different data sets, namely synthetic active-region cases obtained by three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations and observed active-region cases, which include both eruptive and noneruptive magnetic structures. Results. The derived energy-helicity diagram shows a consistent monotonic scaling between relative helicity and free energy with a scaling index 0.84± 0.05 for both data sets and calculation methods. It also confirms the segregation between noneruptive and eruptive active regions and the existence of thresholds in both free energy and relative helicity for active regions to enter eruptive territory. Conclusions. We consider the previously reported energy-helicity diagram of solar magnetic structures as adequately validated and envision a significant role of the uncovered scaling in future studies of solar magnetism.
The Relations Among Environmental Disclosure, Environmental Performance, and Economic Performance: A Simultaneous Equations Approach

This study provides an integrated analysis of the interrelations among (1) environmental disclosure, (2) environmental performance, and (3) economic performance. Based on the argument that management's (unobservable) overall strategy affects each of these corporate responsibilities, we conjecture that prior literature's mixed results describing their interrelations may be attributable to the fact that researchers have not considered these functions to be jointly determined. After endogenizing these corporate functions in simultaneous equations models, we obtain results that suggest "good" environmental performance is significantly associated with "good" economic performance, and also with more extensive quantifiable environmental disclosures of specific pollution measures and occurrences.
Exploring machine learning design options in discourse parsing

Discourse parsing recently attracts increasing interest among researchers since it is very helpful for text understanding, sentiment analysis and other NLP tasks. In a well-written text, authors often use discourse to better organize the text, and sentences (or clauses) tend to interact with neighboring sentences (or clauses). Each piece of text locally exhibits a finer discourse structure called rhetorical structure. And a document can be organized to a discourse tree (this process is called discourse parsing), which seeks to capture the discourse structure and logically binds the sentences (or clauses) together. However, despite the fact that discourse parsing is very useful, although intrasentential level discourse parsing already achieves high performance, multi-sentential level discourse parsing remains a big challenge in terms of both accuracy and efficiency. In addition, machine learning techniques are proved to be successful in many NLP tasks including discourse parsing. Thus, in this thesis, we try to enhance the performance (e.g., accuracy, efficiency) of discourse parsing by using machine learning techniques. To this aim, we propose a novel two-step discourse parsing system, which first builds a discourse tree for a given text by applying optimal probabilistic parsing to probabilities inferred from learned conditional random fields (CRFs), then uses learned log-linear models to tag all discourse relations to the nodes in the discourse tree. We analyze different aspects of the problem (e.g., sequential v.s. non-sequential model, greedy v.s. optimal parsing, joint v.s. separate model) and discuss their trade-offs. We also carried out extensive experiments to study the usefulness of different feature families and over-fitting. Consequently, we find out that the most effective feature sets for different tasks are different: part-of-speech (POS) and context features are the most effective for intra and multi-sentential structure prediction respectively, while ngram features are the most effective for both intra and multi-sentential relation labeling. Moreover, over-fitting does occur in our experiments, so we need proper regularization. Final result shows that our system achieves state-of-the-art F-scores of 86.2, 72.2 and 59.2 in structure, nuclearity and relation. And it is more efficient than Joty’s [19] (training: 40 times faster; test: 3 times faster).
Studies on degradation of waste papers using microflora / microbial consortia isolated from refuse dumpsites in Ilorin metropolis

A total of ninety samples of domestic solid waste from five domestic waste dumpsites at Taiwo, Agbo Oba, Baboko, Unilorin and Tanke in Ilorin metropolis were collected over a six month period at two weeks interval, characterized and analyzed. Baboko has the highest mean waste composition of paper and cardboard with the lowest being from Tanke. Five fungal genera and five bacterial species were identified from the wastes. Food wastes have the highest percentage of 63.30% while wood has the lowest of 0.08%. Glass and paper had the highest mean percentage of non-combustible component of 99.98% each, while leather had the highest ash of 18.44%. Escherichia coli and Aspergillus niger had the highest occurrence in both the rainy and dry seasons of the bacterial isolate and fungal isolates respectively. Bacillus, Aspergillus and Mucor species were found to be the most widely distributed on all the wastes. Degradation was monitored through glucose production in enrichment media where Bacillus cereus was identified as the only bacterial isolate that can degrade paper while A. niger was found to be the most active degrader of the waste papers of the fungal isolate. All fungal isolate except Mucor mucedo and Rhizopus stolonifer were able to degrade waste papers to different degrees. In mixed culture, glucose production was highest with Aspergillus and Penicillium consortium. It is concluded that microorganisms present in domestic wastes could be used either singly or in consortium for waste degradation thereby proving to be a key to a clean and safe future world.