Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histogram based Hierarchical Data Representation for Microarray Classification

[ANGLES] A general framework for microarray classification relying on histogram based hierarchical clustering is proposed in this work. It produces precise and reliable classifiers based on a two-step approach. In the first step, the feature set is enhanced by histogram based features corresponding to each cluster produced via hierarchical clustering, where a parameter (maximum number of dominant genes) can be tuned based on the dataset characteristics. In the second step, a reliable classifier is built from a wrapper feature selection process called Improved Sequential Floating Forward Selection (IFFS) to properly choose a small feature set for the classification task. Considering the sample scarcity in the microarray datasets, a reliability parameter has been considered to improve the feature selection process along with classification error rate. Different combinations of error rate and reliability has been used as the scoring rule. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN) classifiers have been used for this work and the performances has been compared. The potential of the proposed framework has been evaluated with three publicly available datasets : colon, lymphoma and leukaemia. The experimental results have confirmed the usefulness of the histogram based hierarchical clustering and the new representative feature generation algorithm. A gene level analysis has revealed that the best features selected by the feature selection algorithm has only very few basic constituent genes involved. The comparative results showed that the proposed framework can compete with state of the art alternatives.
The Effect of Baton Use in Fast and Slow Tempi on Perceptions of Choral Conductor and Ensemble Performance

The purpose of this study was to examine whether baton use in slow and fast tempi affected participants’ perceptions of choral conducting and ensemble performance. University choral students (N = 177) viewed video clips of two Caucasian choral directors conducting selections of slow and fast tempi, with and without a baton. Participants rated the expressiveness and clarity of the conductor and the musicality of the ensemble on 7-point Likert-type scales. Results revealed a significant main effect for tempo, and significant interactions between tempo and order and between baton and order. Responses for tempo and baton use varied according to the order in which the excerpts were presented. Overall, participants rated each musical element higher in the fast tempo pieces than in the slow tempo pieces. Clarity and expressiveness were rated slightly higher in excerpts with a baton (M clarity = 10.17, SD = 2.24, M expressiveness = 9.11, SD = 2.19) compared to excerpts without a baton (M clarity = 10.03, SD = 2.30, M expressiveness = 8.85, SD = 2.17). However, these differences were not statistically significant. Mean ratings for musicality of the choir were exactly the same for excerpts conducted with and without a baton (M = 10.58).
Genetic Variations and Contributions of Some Floral Traits to Pod Yield in Bambara Groundnut ( Vigna subterranea L . Verdc ) under Two Cropping Seasons in the Derived Savanna of the South-East Nigeria

This study was conducted to determine the genetic variation, character association and path coefficient analysis between floral traits and pod yield of 13 bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc) genotypes. The genotypes were evaluated in replicated field experiments at the Deptartment of Crop Science Research Field, University of Nigeria, Nsukka in the early and late planting seasons. The result showed significant differences among the genotypes in most of the traits studied. The genotypic and heritabilty estimates were high in pistil length, stamen length and stigma-anther separation at both planting dates indicating that these traits have high transmitting ability to next generation and therefore, selection of these traits would be more efficient. The number of pods per plant had significant positive correlation with anther diameter in the early planting . However, number of pods per plant recorded negative correlation values with stigma-anther separation in the early and late planting indicating that decrease in stigma-anther separation will favour pod set in bambara groundnut. The path coefficient analysis showed that anther diameter had the highest positive direct effect (0.57) on number of pods per plant, followed by pistil length (0.25) in the early planting. In the late planting, stamen length had the largest positive direct effect (1.19) on number of pods but was masked by the negative indirect effect via pistil length (-1.27) and stigma-anther separation (-0.44) resulting in the significant negative correlation of the number of pods per plant with stamen length. Therefore, genotypes with large anthers could be reliably looked for, while selecting high yielding genotypes in the early planting. However, selection of genotypes with reduced stigma– anther separation and shorter pistil should be adopted in the improvement of the crop during late planting. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Doses of organic compost on yield and accumulation of macronutrients on endive

The authors evaluated the effects of doses of organic compost on the production and accumulation of macronutrients in endive plants in two areas with different fertility levels. The experiments were carried out at Fazenda Experimental São Manuel, located in the municipality of São Manuel, São Paulo State, Brazil. The study was carried out in a completely randomized design with seven treatments, six doses of organic compost (0, 35, 70, 105, 140 and 175 t/ha) and one additional treatment with inorganic fertilizer (N-P-K 4-14-8) and four replicates. In both areas, when the dose of organic compost was increased, the authors noticed a linear increase in fresh matter weight, number of leaves and plant height. In high-fertility area, compared to control (dose 0), using the highest dose (175 t/ha), the authors observed an increase of 280, 58 and 101% in fresh matter weight, number of leaves and plant height, respectively. For dry weight, we observed a linear increase in low fertility area and quadratic effect in high fertility area, with maximum estimated dry matter of 22.26 g applying 144 t/ha of organic compost. The nutrient accumulation was proportional to dry matter, with a linear increase in low fertility area and quadratic effect in high fertility area. The decreasing order of accumulated nutrients was K>N>Ca>P>S>Mg, with the highest values, in high fertility area, of 1,269, 471, 185, 91, 53 and 35 mg/ plant, respectively, for doses varying from 121 to 158 t/ha.
A synthesised literature review on organisational culture and corporate performance

Article history: Received 19 May 2017 Received in revised form 8 June 2017 Accepted 11 June 2017 Available online 14 June 2017 The purpose of this paper is to determine the extent to which organisational culture is an explanatory variable for firm’s corporate performance especially now that entities interact in globally knowledge based economies. A review of theoretical and empirical studies were carried out on some developed, emerging and developing nations with particular reference to traits characterised in specific organisational cultural environments in relation to their effects on corporate performance. Those reviews show that organisational culture needs to focus on knowledge management, knowledge conversion, team work, human capital formation, organisational climate and adaptive culture. The studies reviewed focused more on cross-national research design with less attention on the longitudinal aspect. It was not possible to review papers written in non-English language, and those published reviews with access denied to some online. There is a need for more empirical evidence to further justify the relevance of this study area for assessment of organisational culture and corporate performance. This review adds value with the recognition of the need to gear up researchers and policy making bodies to encourage advancement of studies on intellectual capital and knowledge management to enhance sustainable corporate culture and performance.
Analysis of Segmentation Algorithms in Colour Fundus and OCT Images for Glaucoma Detection

Glaucoma is the largesteye disease which affects the optic nerve head and results in visual impairment. In this paper, we analyze the various segmentation algorithms for glaucoma detection using color fundus images and spectral domain Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images of same subjects. In fundus images, the disc and the cup regions are segmented separately with four different segmentation algorithms namely Otsu method, Region growing, Hill climbing and Fuzzy C-means clustering algorithms. In OCT images, the cup and the disc diameter were measured by segmenting the retinal nerve fibre and retinal pigment epithelium layers. From both the analysis, the Cup to Disc Ratio (CDR) is calculated and compared with the clinical values. The experimental results show that the performance error in the OCT image analysis is less when compared to the fundus image analysis. Thus, it can be concluded that glaucoma detection can be done more effectively using OCT image analysis.
Does Xbrl Benefit Financial Statement Auditing?

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is heralded to significantly enhance transparency, efficiency, and accuracy in business information supply chains which can facilitate auditing in firms. We investigate the impact of XBRL on financial statements auditing by using empirical evidence from firms listed in the NYSE and NASDAQ between 2009-2011, the time when the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) XBRL adoption mandate for publicly listed firms took effect. Our results support claims that XBRL can facilitate auditing which is manifested in reduced auditing costs. That is, XBRL adopters are likely to pay reduced audit fees. We also find that this effect is directly related to firm size, with larger firms benefiting more than smaller firms. As XBRL has been in an emerging state for over a decade, our findings offer much needed evidence concerning its economic consequences which can have important implications for accountants, auditors, and XBRL application developers.
Camel Milk : A Boon to Mankind

This paper embraces most of the medical benefits of camel milk. It is far better than cow milk and most of its contents and properties resemble to those of mother’s milk. It has low fats, have insulin-like and protective protein and have lactose as the major carbohydrate. It can be used for the treatment of many ailments like diabetes, autism, diarrhea, it possesses anti-tumors properties and the potent immune system components help fight diseases. Due to these qualities it has been utilized for ages by the nomads and Bedouins.
Effects of chlorthalidone and hydrochlorothiazide on blood pressure and serum potassium levels : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Whether chlorthalidone (CTDN) is more potent than hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) in the management of hypertension is controversial. Although CTDN has been used as an alternative treatment to HCTZ for lowering blood pressure, HCTZ is still used far more frequently than CTDN. Objectives: Trials comparing the antihypertensive potency and potassium effects of HCTZ with those of CTDN and direct systematic reviews and metaanalyses of such trials are scarce; therefore, our objective was to further examine the controversy regarding the potency of these two drugs. Methods: Pubmed, Embase, and CENTRAL databases were searched for randomized controlled trials that directly compared the antihypertensive potencies of HCTZ and CTDN; a manual search of the reference lists of relevant articles was also conducted to identify additional eligible articles. Weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were pooled by using a fixed-effect model or a random-effect model. Results: Six randomized controlled trials with a total of 366 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The results indicated that a dose of HCTZ double to that of CTDN has the same efficacy for lowering SBP and DBP (WMD=-3.22 mmHG, 95% CI: -6.48 to 0.04, I2=0%, WMD=-0.67 mmHG, 95% CI: -2.60 to 1.26, I2=0%; respectively); But CTDN caused a greater reduction than HCTZ in 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (WMD=-5.03 mmHG, 95% CI: -9.22 to -0.84, I2=0%), ambulatory nighttime mean SBP (WMD=-6.70 mmHG, 95% CI: -11.10 to -2.30, I2=0%); Moreover, there was no detectable difference in serum potassium levels between the CTDN and HCTZ groups (WMD=0.07, 95% CI: -0.14 to 0.28, I2=71.3%). Conclusions: CTDN may be more effective for the management of mild-to-moderate hypertension without causing greater serum potassium loss than HCTZ.
Repressed productive potential and revolt: insights from an insurgency in Burundi

Abstract The relationship between participation in revolt and individuals' economic conditions is among the most debated in political science. While conventional economic theory suggests that those who face the poorest economic prospects are most inclined to fight, extant evidence is decidedly mixed. We address this puzzling variation by analyzing the interplay between macro-structural conditions and individuals' micro-level circumstances. Under conditions of severe group repression, we show how a “glass-ceiling” logic may operate: among the repressed group, those with relatively high productive potential may be most motivated to revolt. We test this with in-depth analysis of participation in the 1993–2003 Burundian insurgency. The data are consistent with numerous implications of the glass-ceiling logic and inconsistent with extant alternative explanations.
Effect of Methods and Time of Sowing on Soil Moisture and Yield Paramaters under Machine Transplanted Rice Fallow Blackgram ( Phaseolus Mungo L . )

At present globally 60 million tonnes of pulses are produced annually from 70 million hectare. India is the largest producers and consumer of pulses in the world accounting for 29 percent of the world area and 17 percent world production of pulses in the country. Researchers have improved some approaches to enhancing crop yield, including increased planting density, early station, improved fertilization and straw mulching. The rice fallow pulses survive entirely on residual moisture and fertility left over by the preceding rice crop [1] and [2]. Unlike other crops, rice fallow pulse need no irrigation, weed and nutrient management excluding seed cost and labour charges for sowing and harvesting. Terminal moisture stress under rice fallow conditions results in poor yield [3]. The rice fallow pulse survives entirely on residual moisture and fertility left over by the preceding crop of rice [4]. As cost of cultivation of the crop is very less, the profit is many fold than the conventional system of cultivation. In fact, rice fallow pulse is a boomerang to the wetland rice growers as they could able to fetch more income with less management and input cost [5]. The present study determined the effects of various sowing methods and sowing time soil moisture on leaf area, drymatter accumulation, grainyield and suitable method of sowing for rice fallow blackgram in Madurai Southern India
English & Persian Document Categorization based on a Novel Hybrid Algorithm

This paper describes automatic document categorization based on large text hierarchy. We handle the large number of features and training examples by taking into account hierarchical structure of examples and using feature selection for large text data. We experimentally evaluate feature subset selection on real-world text data collected from the existing Web hierarchy named Yahoo. In our learning experiments naive Bayesian classifier was used on text data using feature vector document representation that includes word sequences (n-grams) instead of just single words (unigrams). Experimental evaluation on real-world data collected form the Web shows that our approach gives promising results and can potentially be used for document categorization on the Web. Additionally the best result on our data is achieved for relatively small feature subset, while for larger subset the performance substantially drops. The best performance among six tested feature scoring measure was achieved by the feature scoring measure called Odds ratio that is known from information retrieval.
Improvement of nicotine yield by ethanolic heat reflux extraction of nicotiana tabacum var. Virginia origin of ponorogo

Nicotine is known as an active compound contained in tobacco, which can be used for many purposes including pharmaceutical substances. Current extraction methods reported yields between 0.3 to 3.6 wt% of nicotine per dry weight of tobacco leaves. This study proposed an ethanolic heat reflux extraction (EHRE) method with temperature at chiller system 0°C and an ultrasonic applied before an EHRE process. The extraction was carried out at low temperature and moderate extraction time to increase the yield of nicotine from Nicotiana tabacum var. Virginia origin of Ponorogo. The highest yield of nicotine (6.3 wt%) was achieved at 6 hours. The yield was characterized using thin-layer chromatography and ultra-performance liquid chromatography. Optimum reflux in EHRE increased the nicotine yield to 60% more than the highest yield reported in the literatures. This significant improvement is important for further purification in nicotine production. The EHRE method in this study has a potential to be increased to a larger scale due to its ability to produce a high quantity of nicotine.
ESTIMATION OF GENETIC PARAMETERS AMONG CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS IN TWO STRAINS OF JAPANESE QUAILS

The data on carcass characteristics of 370 black and 336 brown Japanese quails under selection for high 4week body weights over four generations was subjected to least squares analysis to study the effect of strain, generation, sex and hatch. The effects of strain generation and hatch were significant on majority of the traits under study, while sex had significant effect on BW6, DW, Giblets but not on carcass cuts. The overall least squares means for BW6, DW, Giblets, heart, liver, gizzard were 221.61, 137.75, 11.77, 1.85, 5.10 and 4.81g, respectively, where as the least squares means for wings, neck, legs, breast, back and SFV are 12.38, 5.91, 33.15, 56.47, 29.84 g and 1.84 kg, respectively. Black Japanese quails are significantly (P<0.01) heavier than brown Japanese quails for all carcass traits. Generation 7 and hatch 5 recorded highest means for almost all the carcass traits. Heritability estimates for BW6, giblets and carcass cuts are medium to high in magnitude. Genetic association of BW6 and DW with other internal organs and carcass cuts ranged from -0.77 to 0.97 among the strains. Phenotypic correlation of BW6 with giblets and carcass cuts varied from low to high, while moderate to high association with positive direction was recorded for DW with other organs. Environmental correlation of BW6 with other carcass traits are medium to high (-0.51 to 0.80) in range with inconsistency in direction.
The End of China ’ s Demographic Dividend : The Perspective of Potential GDP Growth

The unprecedented economic growth in China over the past 30 years can be attributed largely to the demographic dividend. That is, growth of the working age population guarantees an adequate supply of labour; a decline in the dependence ratio (the ratio of the dependent population to the working age population) helps to maintain a high savings rate, which is the condition for capital formation; and an unlimited supply of labour prevents return on capital from diminishing, which allows heavy investment to be the main source of GDP growth (Cai and Zhao 2012).
Effects of Task Repetition and Self-reflection on EFL Learners’ Attentional Allocation and Speaking

This study investigated how Korean EFL learners’ attentional allocation changes during task repetition with or without self-reflection and how this change affects their task performance. A total of 30 Korean high school students were divided into a task repetition only group, a task repetition with self-reflection group, and a comparison group. Each group repeated the same picture-based storytelling task according to its group condition and then performed a new task. Participants’ task performances were analyzed in terms of fluency, complexity, and accuracy and their retrospective interviews were categorized in order to explore their attentional allocation during task planning and performance. The results demonstrated that the learners placed most attention to conveying the message while planning and performing their first task. However, when repeating the same task, the learners paid more attention to structures and forms leading to improvement in complexity and accuracy. These learners were also more likely to employ strategies they had learned previously when doing a new task, which was helpful. Self-reflection raised learners’ awareness on the target form and positively influenced accuracy.
Diagnostic tool development on embedded system for heart fitness measurement

The main objective of this study is the measurement of the activity of the autonomic nervous system through Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Determination of the ratio of parasympathetic and sympathetic tone has meaningful clinical benefit in the case of certain disease ́s diagnosis, and a possible follow-up may be in the field of competitive sports. An embedded system was created to make measurements on a specific microcontroller. Instead of the previously studied Electrocardiogram (ECG) curves, we processed the more easily recorded Photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals by PanTompkins peak detection algorithm. For this measurements we used the InnoCare Pico tool, which was provided by the Innomed Medical Ltd. The algorithm enables the determination of the parameters of HRV, which is based on the obtained data from the PPG signals. We will cover the main parameters of the tool, resource requirements and the calculation capacity of the implemented algorithm.
An Integrated Model for Motivation and Self-efficacy in Decision Making ( ME-DM )

Presentation of an integrated model for motivation and self-efficacy in decision making (ME-DM) applying a dual process theory mindset The (ME-DM) model contends that a nonmonotonic and discontinuous function best represents the relationship of “motivation and self-efficacy in decision making”. It suggests that there is an optimal range of self-efficacy level (System 2 Focus) and self-efficacy strength (System 1 Focus), where optimal learning and optimal decision making, for important and irrevocable decisions, is most promising. The model explores, how and why we decide in certain situations and how decision making, beliefs and learning are connected.
‘Extrinsic mortality’ does not drive the evolution of senescence

The evolution of senescence is often explained by arguing that, in nature, few individuals survive to be old and that therefore it is evolutionarily unimportant what happens to organisms when they are old. A corollary to this explanation is that extrinsically imposed mortality, because it reduces the chance of living to be old, favors the evolution of senescence. These ideas, although incorrect, are widespread. We show that selection gradients are not proportional to survivorship, but to the stable age-distribution, and we highlight the difference. We also show that selection gradients decline with age even in the hypothetical case of zero mortality. We analyze age-independent perturbations of mortality, and show that they affect neither selection gradients nor the solution of optimal life history models. We propose correct verbal explanations of the reason that selection gradients decline with age, and discuss other relevant factors such as density effects and interaction mortality. 65 | Declining selection gradients