Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Affecting Economic Efficiency of Sheep Fattening Industriesin Fars Province, Iran

Globally Iran occupies the 4th rank in terms of sheep heads with 54 million [1]. Sheep fattening units have played a prominent role in the development of red meat and wool industry in Iranian animal husbandry sector. The present study aims to estimate technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of the sheep fattening units by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. Moreover, the effects of various socio-economic factors on levels of the efficiencies of the units were studied. By filling out 285 questionnaires at randomized two-stage cluster sampling and from interviews with the sheep fattener, necessary information was obtained from three regions (cold, temperate and warm) in Iran in 2006/7. The results of this research revealed that the average technical, allocative and economic efficiencies for sheep fattening units were 90.5%, 68.9% and 62.5% respectively. There is a considerable gap about 30-48% between the economic efficiency mean and the best efficient unit in regions of survey. Moreover, increasing of education levels, unit size, number of fattening per year and credits can improve efficiency of sheep fattening industries.
EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF VICKERS HARDNESS TESTING

Indentation Tests have been largely used for determination of superficial hardness. Due to its great applicability, new methodologies are being developed in order to determine mechanical properties such as Young Modulus (E) and fracture toughness (KIC) for brittle materials. However, the Vickers indentation has several limitations and complications as methodology for characterization of these material properties. Thus, the use of a numerical technique able to determine fields of stress and strain during the indentation cycle may give a more reliable interpretation of this kind of test. Hence, this work aims to study the mechanical behaviour of a specimen of tungsten carbide cobalt (WC-Co) during a Vickers indentation test, based on FE calculations with the commercial solver MSC Marc. In a future development of this work, it will be developed numerical models to simulate the mechanisms of crack onset and their propagation during the tests.
An Analysis on Technology Spillovers From Foreign Direct Investment in Chongqing

With China’s accession to the WTO, the Chinese economy has involved in the process of globalization quickly. On the one hand, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has played an important role in Chinese economy, on the other hand, and foreign advanced technology comes along with the foreign capital. In order to explore whether FDI technology spillover has affection in Chongqing, this paper selects the 1999-2013 data of large and mediumsized industrial enterprises in Chongqing as the research object, and builds an estimating equations by introducing FDI as physical capital to have an empirical analysis of how FDI technology spillovers affect the technology innovation abilities of Chongqing enterprises. The conclusion shows that FDI has a significant effect in technological spillover.
Development of a Novel Cell Encapsulation System Based on Natural Origin Polymers for Tissue Engineering Applications

Cells microencapsulated in biocompatible semi-permeable polymeric membranes are effective as cell delivery systems while protecting the host against immune responses. In this study, cell encapsulation membranes were prepared based on carrageenan and alginate, two natural cationic polymers. Different formulations/conditions were explored to optimize the microcapsules which were characterized with respect to their morphology, mechanical stability, and cytotoxicity. Spherical-shaped microcapsules were obtained from all the polymeric systems. The iota-carrageenan/sodium alginate microcapsules exhibited the best stability and permeability, and therefore, these were selected for the cell encapsulation. These capsules provided an environment that supported cell proliferation and have the potential for tissue engineering as well as other cell-based therapy applications.
Application of microbial community profiling and functional gene detection for assessment of natural attenuation of petroleum hydrocarbons in boreal subsurface

Microbial community structure and functional gene diversity were assessed in subsurface soil and groundwater samples collected from a previously remediated site with residual oil contamination. Primers for functional gene detection and enumeration were designed and tested in order to better quantify pollutant degradation potential in the subsurface soil and groundwater. Results indicate that the study area contains variety of bacteria with capacity to degrade monoaromatic solvents (BTEX), alkanes, low molecular weight PAHs and phenols. Functional genes related to BTEX, phenol and alkane degradation were widely distributed and were found to be especially abundant in zones with higher residual contamination. Results suggest that the indigenous subsurface microbial community at the study site has versatile catabolic potential to degrade different oil compounds. This characteristic is an important prerequisite for the application of natural contaminant attenuation and the successful monitoring of this approach for site remediation.
Occupational and Environmental Risks Caused by Bio-Aerosols in and from Farm Animal Houses

The air in modern animal production systems contains a large variety of aerial pollutants which are widely recognised as detrimental for the respiratory health of animals kept in these facilities and the work force working regularly in this atmosphere. Primary and opportunistic microbial pathogens may cause directly infectious and allergic diseases in farm animals, and chronic exposure to some types of aerial pollutants may exacerbate multi-factorial environmental diseases. There are, however, few international field surveys paying attention to the health of the farmers and the farm personnel working in animal houses, and to the spread of pathogens from farm buildings. Studies reveal that up to 20 % of farmers and farm workers complain about symptoms of respiratory affections such as coughing, sputum, wheezing and others. Some develop asthma, others develop diseases which are described as e.g. ODTS (organic dust toxic syndrome). There are indications that various pathogens can survive in an air-borne state for several minutes and can be distributed over long distances in the ambient air of farms, e.g. foot and mouth virus can travel aerially more than 50 km. In a recent study it was shown that Staphylococcae can be found in significant concentrations (4000 cfu/m³) in about 500 m down wind of broiler barns. A future-oriented sustainable farm animal production should enhance - beside the topics of animal welfare, consumer protection and economy - also standards to improve occupational health and to prevent or reduce the spread of pathogens via the air.
Evidence for Bacteriophages within Gram-negative Cocci-Obligate Endoparasitic Bacteria of Naegleria sp.

Gram-negative cocci observed as endocytobionts within the cytoplasm of a Naegleria strain isolated from a garden pond harboured small hexagonal particles of about 70 nm identified as bacteriophages called ”Neo-Ph/2”. These phages resembled the recently described phages; strain ”Neo-Ph/1” observed for the first time within the Chlamydia-like endocytobiont Neochlamydia hartmannellae (Parachlamydiaceae) multiplying within Hartmannella vermiformis (Schmid et al. 2001). The possible reasons for this obvious similarity are object for discussion in this article.
Rescaled Whittaker driven stochastic differential equations converge to the additive stochastic heat equation

We study the $(2+1)$-dimensional Whittaker driven SDEs obtained in the recent work [Commun. Math. Phys. 350, 957--984] and extend its result on a certain convergence of the covariance kernels of the solutions. The main result of this paper proves that, with the same limiting scheme introduced in the aforementioned work, the Whittaker driven SDEs converge weakly to the additive stochastic heat equation in the space of probability measures on $C(\Bbb R_+,\mathcal S'(\Bbb R^2))$. The present proof develops along the martingale problem formulations of the solutions and does not use the asymtptoics of the covariance kernels obtained earlier.
Why Firm-established User Communities Work for Innovation: The Personal Attributes of Innovative Users in the Case of Computer-controlled Music

Studies of the sources of innovations have recognized that many innovations are developed by users. However, the fact that firms employ communities of users to strengthen their innovation process has not yet received much attention. In firm-established user communities users freely reveal innovations to a firm’s product platform, which in turn puts the firm in a favorable position (a) because these new product features become available to all users by sharing on a user-to-user basis, or (b) because it allows the firm to pick up the innovations and integrate them in future products and then benefit by selling them to all users. We study the key personal attributes of the individuals responsible for innovations and the creation of value in this organizational context, namely the innovative users, to explain why firm-established user communities work. Analyzing data derived from a web-based questionnaire generating 442 answers we find that innovative users are likely to be (i) hobbyists, an attribute that can be assumed to affect innovators’ willingness to share innovations (positively), and (ii) responsive to “firm-recognition” as a motivating factor for undertaking innovation, which explains their decision to join the firm’s domain. In agreement with earlier studies we also find that innovative users are likely to be “lead users”, an attribute that we assume to affect the quality of user innovation. Whether or not a firm-established user community can be turned into an asset for the firm is to a great extent conditioned by the issues studied in this paper.
Teachers’ Perceptions of and Concerns for the Implementation of the New First Grade English Textbook at Iran’s Public Junior High Schools

Changing the English textbook of the first grade junior high school at Iran’s public schools after 27 years has sparked researchers’ interests in conducting evaluations of the new English textbook to get insights into its strengths and weaknesses. In line with this trend, this study aimed at evaluating the new textbook (Prospect 1) from teachers’ perspectives. To attain this objective, 30 junior high school teachers were interviewed and the data were then analyzed by qualitative content analysis. The results revealed that from teachers’ perspectives, there were some pitfalls with the new textbook such as applying an unsuitable method of literacy instruction; over-attention to the communication skills at the expense of literacy skills; over-localization of the content; overlooking the development of intercultural competence in students; and lack of authenticity in the presentation of the content. Finally, as the central figures in the process of educational change, the participant teachers offered some suggestions to amend the new textbook with the hope that their voices be heard by the pertinent authorities.
Improving reuse of in‐service information capture and feedback

Purpose – The adoption of the product‐service system business model means that the designing company has greater scope and motivation to learn from experience of its products in use to improve their core design and engineering capabilities. Continuous improvement, however, depends crucially upon the implementation of effective knowledge and information management (KIM) systems within a dynamic learning environment that impinge on diverse communities throughout the product lifecycle. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach – This paper consolidates literature reviews and presents empirical observations relating to the current KIM systems and practices within large aerospace and manufacturing companies. In particular, experiences from a case study to enhance reuse of in‐service feedback conducted with an aerospace company are reported.Findings – The empirical observations suggest that the feedback processes rely on a combination of formal and informal personalization and codifica.
Decision domains and teacher participation: A qualitative investigation of decision-making in egyptian schools

The purpose of this paper is to explore the gap between actual and desired decision domains as a potential factor affecting teacher participation in decision-making in Egyptian schools. In order to explore this gap, the study sets out to answer three questions: (1) what would a typology of school decisions look like in Egypt’s secondary schools? (2) How do Egyptian teachers perceive actual decisions made in their schools? (3) What decision domains are most desired by Egyptian teachers? The study employed a qualitative, descriptive research approach based on individual, semi-structured interviews with a sample of 85 school teachers and senior and middle management members in nine general secondary schools in Damietta County, Egypt. School documents were also collected and analyzed. These included minutes of meetings of school boards and Boards of Trustees (BOTs). A typology of school decisions was developed which revealed the absence of significant decisions related to curriculum. Teachers’ responses showed that they regarded school decisions as insignificant and irrelevant to their concerns, and that significant decisions are retained by central administrators. Desired decision areas were identified which included curriculum and student discipline policy. As this study is consistent with the current interest in decentralization and increased participation in Egypt’s schools, it is hoped that the findings will be useful to educational policy makers as well as practitioners as they implement decentralization initiatives in Egypt. The findings may also have relevance and applicability to comparable secondary schools in other parts of the world.
Antecedents and Outcomes of Psychological Insecurity and Interpersonal Trust Among Chinese People

Psychological insecurity and interpersonal trust were empirically tested in a conceptual model in relation to several personality and social measures as theoretical antecedents, and to interpersonal relationships and feelings of life satisfaction as hypothesized outcomes. Questionnaire data from 301 Chinese adults showed psychological insecurity to be significantly and positively correlated with neuroticism and dependency, while negatively related to family emotional support, emotional intelligence, openness, and agreeableness; and the regression revealed neuroticism to be the strongest predictor of psychological insecurity. The results for interpersonal trust showed a significant negative correlation with psychological insecurity, and a pattern of correlations with all the other variables that were in the opposite direction of those for psychological insecurity; and the regression revealed agreeableness to be the strongest predictor of interpersonal trust. Interpersonal trust was also a significant predictor of coworker support and life satisfaction. The research identified behaviors that should be able to reduce psychological insecurity, and others that could increase interpersonal trust, with the overall results demonstrating the importance of being emotionally supportive and honest with other people to reduce feelings of psychological insecurity and increase interpersonal trust.
What's in a name? Cultural observations on nationally named hacking groups

Culture's role in cognition has long been established, but understanding national culture's role in cyber events currently remains an understudied research area. Michael Minkov observed that culture influences thought; even when people think they are in control, cultural biases are actually controlling their thoughts. Cultural values endure, and because they do, these cultural values leave artifacts can be revealed in thought patterns. This philosophy serves as a foundation for further work in progress on name choices by hackers. In this study, we examined 10 years' worth of Zone-H archives where hacker names that identified with national identities were analysed using Hofstede's cultural framework to determine whether culture may play a role in hacker name and name choices. The findings revealed cultural preferences in several of the six cultural dimensions. In addition, trending the results showed significant findings in two cultural dimensions: (1) masculinity versus femininity and (2) uncertainty avoidance. The results suggest that assumptions about the anonymous nature of the Internet influencing behaviours may not be universally applicable, and that culture should also be considered when evaluating cyber actor behaviours.
A skew extension of the t‐distribution, with applications

Summary. A tractable skew t‐distribution on the real line is proposed. This includes as a special case the symmetric t‐distribution, and otherwise provides skew extensions thereof. The distribution is potentially useful both for modelling data and in robustness studies. Properties of the new distribution are presented. Likelihood inference for the parameters of this skew t‐distribution is developed. Application is made to two data modelling examples.
Low Salinity Oil Recovery On Clayey Sandstone: Experimental Study

It's now largely agreed from laboratory and field tests results that brine composition and ionic strength can influence oil recovery (Jadhunandan and Morrow, 1991; Jadhunandan and Morrow, 1995). Morrow et al. in the 90's first carried out a large study on the ability of low salinity waterflooding to become an EOR method (Yildiz and Morrow, 1996; Tang and Morrow, 1999). More recently BP, carried out a large program on low salinity injection and proposed additional recovery mechanisms (Mc Guire and Chatham, 2005; Lager et al. 2006). Although there is substantial evidence of this phenomenon, the physical causes are still uncertain and several possible recovery mechanisms have been put forward in the literature: clay release, wettability alteration, IFT modification, key role of kaolinite etc. In this paper, we present experiments dealing with tertiary and secondary recovery tests performed on an outcrop sandstone containing 9.2% of clays without kaolinite. Each experiment is performed following a three step procedure during which pressure drop, pH, brine composition and oil recovery are monitored. First, the core is saturated with a high salinity brine at ambient temperature until equilibrium is reached (pressure drop and pH are constant and ion exchange is achieved). Second, the initial water saturation is established using a crude oil. Finally, after ageing, high salinity brine waterflooding followed by low salinity brines in the case of tertiary experiment or direct low salinity brines flooding in the case of secondary recovery are performed. Additional oil recovery of about 10% of original oil in place is observed in tertiary experiments when going from 50g/l to 1g/l brine. This oil production occurs after 2 or 3 pore volumes in the form of an oil bank displacement, suggesting a more dispersive behavior of the matrix in the presence of oil. It is worth noting that this additional oil recovery has been obtained in a clayey sandstone that does not contain kaolinite. When low salinity brine was injected, both pH and pressure drop increased. Successive dilutions of injection brine from high salinity did not lead to an oil recovery increase until using 1g/l, showing a salinity concentration threshold, whereas pressure drop and pH were increasing significantly at each salinity dilution. Waterflooding at different temperatures shows that oil recovery in secondary mode increases with increasing displacement temperature. But additional oil recovery in tertiary mode is more positive for moderate temperatures.
Cryphonectria canker on Tibouchina in South Africa

Cryphonectria cubensis is an important canker pathogen of plantation Eucalyptus spp. in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world, including South Africa. It is best known on Eucalyptus spp. , but it also occurs on Syzygium aromaticum (clove). In 1998, C. cubensis was found to cause cankers on the non-myrtaceous hosts Tibouchina urvilleana and T. lepidota in Colombia. In this study, we report on a similar canker disease that has recently been found in South Africa on T. granulosa commonly grown as an ornamental tree. The identity of the pathogen was determined through morphological comparisons and phylogenetic analyses of ITS and β-tubulin gene sequences. The pathogenicity of the fungus was also tested on T. granulosa and E. grandis. Morphological as well as DNA sequence comparisons showed that the fungus on T. granulosa is the same as C. cubensis occurring on Eucalyptus spp. in South Africa. Pathogenicity tests on T. granulosa and E. grandis clones showed that the fungus from T. granulosa is able to cause cankers on both hosts.
Basal cankers and coppice failure of Eucalyptus grandis in Florida.

Barnard. E. L. Geary. T. English,J. T. ,and Gilly, S. P. 1987. Basal cankers and coppice failure of Euca/yplus grandis in Florida. Plant Disease 71: 358-361. of Eucalyptus spp. in Brazil and Surinam, respectively, and have reduced coppicing substantially (4,13,14). We have suspected that C. cubensis was a cause of some, if not all, coppice failure of E. grandis in Florida (Fig. 1). Therefore, we surveyed for basal cankers in an 11-yr-old E. grandis plantation that had been studied earlier by Hodges et al (12), isolated from cankered tissues to identify associated fungi, and evaluated coppice regeneration in the plantation after it was harvested at age 13. Preliminary observations from the canker survey have been reported (1). The relationship of basal cankers to coppice failure in a Euca/yptus grandis plantation in southern Florida was investigated. Canker incidence increased from about 15 to 57% over 4 yr. Cr.vphonectria cubensis and Botryosphaeria dothidea were isolated frequently from bark samples removed from cankered trees and stumps. After a February harvest at age 13, 44% of residual stumps failed to generate coppice shoots, or they initiated new shoots that soon died. Incidence of coppice failure was not significantly correlated to the presence or severity of basal cankers, but stumps of cankered trees had significantly fewer coppice-bursting centers. Dead coppice shoots on 99 of 100 randomly selected stumps supported pycnidia and/ or perithecia of c. cubensis at their bases 18 mo after harvest. Dead coppice shoots on 50 of the same 100 stumps supported pycnidial stromata characteristic of those described for C. gyrosa, a species not previously reported in
Effect of skin contact before and during alcoholic fermentation on the chemical and sensory profile of South African Chenin Blanc white wines

The volatile and phenolic composition of Chenin blanc wines made with different skin contact treatments was studied. One batch of grapes was used to make a dry white wine according to two different treatments, namely pre-fermentative skin contact and complete fermentation on the skins. A white wine fermented without any skin contact was used as control. Fermentation on the skins and skin contact before fermentation led to significantly lower levels of terpenes, esters, acids and thiols, and the highest significant levels of alcohols and phenolic compounds. However, this effect was less pronounced in wines with skin contact before fermentation. Sensory analysis of all the experimental wines was also performed. The results showed a significant shift from the sensory attributes of fresh and tropical fruits of the control Chenin blanc wines towards riper fruit notes in the skin contact treatments. This observation was correlated with the length of the skin contact period. Possible reasons to explain the results observed in this study are discussed.