Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gold Panning In Central Mozambique: A Critical Investigation Of The Effects Of Gold Panning In Manica Province

This paper critically examines the effects of gold panning in the central province of Manica, Mozambique. While illegal gold miners consider gold panning in the area as their key and sole means to survival, the research establishes a number of negative effects that seem to outweigh the merits that the activity brings to society. Having been privileged to witness some of the ‘dirty works’ that take place in that part of the country, the paper critiques the government for failing to put in place stringent measures to address this mounting problem in the Manica province. The paper also critiques most of the researchers on gold mining in Mozambique (Zacarias and Manuel 2003; Spiegel et al 2006; Shandro et al 2009 and Blacksmith Institute 2005, 2011) for researching exclusively on ways of reducing mercury pollution without devoting significant attention to other serious problems resulting from illegal gold panning in the country. As a matter of consequence, the history of mining in Mozambique makes a sorry reading with its failure to document, by default or otherwise, detailed accounts of other serious effects of gold panning in Manica province. In this view, I advance the argument that gold panning is causing more harm than good to humans, non-humans and the natural environment. As such, the country and Manica province in particular runs the risk of facing catastrophic changes in the physical environment, water sanitation, agriculture, aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity and habitats and, of course, new pressures on human healthy, culture and economy if the government continues relaxing on the situation. Against this background, I recommend that to confront the adverse effects and the jeopardy being perpetrated by gold panners in Manica, the government in conjunction with the Ministries of Mines, Environment, Lands and Agriculture should enter in dialogue with the illegal gold International Journal of Politics and Good Governance Volume 2, No. 2.4 Quarter IV 2011 ISSN: 0976 – 1195 2 panners and establish a monitoring committee consisting of scientists and experts from different ministries and other relevant bodies to help arresting this mounting problem.
Unsupervised categorization of word meanings using statistical and neural network methods

This thesis investigates the extent to which the statistical structure of natural language can be used to enable a conceptual structure for word meanings to be developed without external supervision. Few of the words that human beings use can be assigned rigourous definitions, yet we all have an intuitive understanding of the relationships between the meanings of these words. Psychology has yet to provide a complete account of how this knowledge is obtained. The present work seeks to extend recent statistical approaches to syntactic development to consider the problem of developing a categorization for word meanings, using techniques which have recently been popular in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Neural Computation. A statistical technique is introduced for representing the contexts in which words occur. Each word is represented by a 'statistical context vector', and the vectors are subjected to hierarchical cluster analysis to produce a structure in which words which have similar contexts are placed closer together than those which do not. Analyses of this type are carried out on a 10,000,000 word corpus taken from the Wall Street Journal, using a variety of different parameters, and the appropriateness of the resulting structures is assessed using Roget's Thesaurus as a benchmark. A still more attractive approach is one which deals with polysemy, and which develops its representations for word meanings continuously from the outset, with no need for a separate stage of statistical analysis. To take these considerations into account, an unsupervised neural network is presented, in which different senses of a word token are allowed to be assigned to different output clusters as the contexts of their occurrence dictate. After initial testing using Elman's (1988) artificial corpus, the network's performance is assessed on the 10,000,000 word corpus by comparing the ways in which different word tokens are distributed over the output units. Further analyses are carried out in which a crude measure of this distribution is used to assess Jones' (1985) 'Ease of Predication' measure. The distribution measure is found to account for a significant amount of the variance in Ease of Predication. Word frequency is also found to play a significant role, and word frequency effects are reconsidered in the light of this. The psychological implications of the results obtained from the network are discussed. It is concluded that there is a great deal of information inherent in the structure of language which could potentially play an important part in developing a conceptual structure for word meanings. Whilst extralinguistic information is undoubtedly likely to be of importance as well, it is striking that the use of very simple statistical measures can permit the development of such rich structures.
L = λW: A Discounted Analogue and a New Proof

This paper presents a discounted analogue to L = λW, together with an application to a queuing optimization problem. This discounted analogue is used to construct a new proof of the classical (limiting average) version of L = λW, using as hypotheses only that the limiting averages of λ and W exist and are finite.
Preparation of porous carbon nanofibers derived from PBI/PLLA for supercapacitor electrodes

Porous carbon nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning blend solutions of polybenzimidazole/poly-L-lactic acid (PBI/PLLA) and carbonization. During thermal treatment, PLLA was decomposed, resulting in the creation of pores in the carbon nanofibers. From SEM images, it is shown that carbon nanofibers had diameters in the range of 100–200 nm. The conversion of PBI to carbon was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, and the surface area and pore volume of carbon nanofibers were determined using nitrogen adsorption/desorption analyses. To investigate electrochemical performances, coin-type cells were assembled using free-standing carbon nanofiber electrodes and ionic liquid electrolyte. cyclic voltammetry studies show that the PBI/PLLA-derived porous carbon nanofiber electrodes have higher capacitance due to lower electrochemical impedance compared to carbon nanofiber electrode from PBI only. These porous carbon nanofibers were activated using ammonia for further porosity improvement and annealed to remove the surface functional groups to better match the polarity of electrode and electrolyte. Ragone plots, correlating energy density with power density calculated from galvanostatic charge–discharge curves, reveal that activation/annealing further improves energy and power densities.
Role of the parasympathetic nervous system in cardioprotection by remote hindlimb ischaemic preconditioning

• What is the central question of this study? Ischaemia–reperfusion of peripheral tissues protects the heart from subsequent myocardial ischaemia–reperfusion‐induced injury and cardiac dysfunction, a phenomenon referred to as ‘remote ischaemic preconditioning’ (rIPC). This study addressed whether activation of sensory afferent nerves in the ischaemic hindlimb and vagal efferent nerves innervating the heart mediate rIPC. • What is the main finding and its importance? Spinal cord section, bilateral vagotomy or blockade of muscarinic cholinergic receptors in vivo abolished rIPC and cardioprotection measured in vitro. Electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve induced cardioprotection, thus mimicking rIPC. The finding that sensory and parasympathetic neural mechanisms mediate rIPC confirms and extends previous results, with implications for translational studies in patients with coronary artery disease.
Sensitivity to Changes in Cash Flows and Firm Value and Changes of Investments

The change in operating cash flow as a source of the companies’ cash flow has a significant impact on asset structure and capital, including held cash, capital investment and external financing, so that the increase in cash of the companies, in the short term, increases savings and reduces the external financing and in long-term increases capital investment and external financing. Positive operating cash flow does not guarantee the good performance of the company. If operating cash flow is not sufficient for financial needs and investment, the company will be faced with financial problems. This study examined the relationship between sensitivity to changes in cash flows and firm value and changes of investments in companies. For this purpose, a sample of 100 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange is studied for the 5-year period of 2008 to 2012. To verify the hypotheses, a multivariate regression model is used. Hypotheses test results show that there is a significant relationship between sensitivity to changes in cash flows and changes of investments. Also, there is a significant relationship between firm value and investment changes.
Factors Affecting Online Purchase Intention: Effects of Technology and Social Commerce

With the rapid development of information communication technologies and enhanced Internet penetration, the nature of a consumer’s daily activities has changed and most offline activities have migrated towards online activities. Moreover, customers have shown a greater tendency to shift to online activities from their traditional offline activities. In this light, e-commerce transactions in Sri Lanka are expected to grow in the near future. Apart from traditional Internet technologies, a variety of new social commerce activities has started influencing the behavior of customer activities including the online purchasing. Even though the impact of traditional Internet technologies on purchase intention of customers has been examined by many researchers, the same has not been examined adequately in relation to social commerce related activities. Therefore, this study is aimed at identifying the factors affecting online purchase intention of customers from both the technological and social commerce perspective. The theoretical model developed in the study was empirically tested through survey of 292 MBA students from two leading universities and a prominent institute in Sri Lanka. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. The study revealed that online purchase intention positively and significantly related with perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, website content and trust. Moreover, it was identified that trust has a full mediation effect between perceived ease of use and purchase intention as well as between website content and purchase intention. Further, it was found that trust has a partial mediation between perceived usefulness and purchase intention.
Very low sound velocities in iron‐rich (Mg,Fe)O: Implications for the core‐mantle boundary region

The sound velocities of (Mg.16Fe.84)O have been measured to 121 GPa at ambient temperature using nuclear resonant inelastic x‐ray scattering. The effect of electronic environment of the iron sites on the sound velocities were tracked in situ using synchrotron Mössbauer spectroscopy. We found the sound velocities of (Mg.16Fe.84)O to be much lower than those in other presumed mantle phases at similar conditions, most notably at very high pressures. Conservative estimates of the effect of temperature and dilution on aggregate sound velocities show that only a small amount of iron‐rich (Mg,Fe)O can greatly reduce the average sound velocity of an assemblage. We propose that iron‐rich (Mg,Fe)O be a source of ultra‐low velocity zones. Other properties of this phase, such as enhanced density and dynamic stability, strongly support the presence of iron‐rich (Mg,Fe)O in localized patches above the core‐mantle boundary.
Analog/RF performance of multiple gate SOI devices: wideband simulations and characterization

Multiple-gate devices, such as the planar double-gate (DG), triple-gate (TG), FinFET, Pi-Gate (PG), and Omega-Gate Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) MOSFETs are potential candidates for achieving the performance targets of the International Roadmap of the Semiconductor Industry Association. In this paper, wideband experimental and three-dimensional simulation analyses have been carried out to compare the analog/RF performance of DG, TG/FinFET, PG, and single-gate (SG) SOI MOSFETs. The characteristics of the multiple-gate devices were analyzed in the dc and ac regimes from subthreshold region to strong inversion and saturation regions. In both regimes, the advantages and limitations of the multiple-gate devices over the SG structure are discussed for channel length scaling well below 100 nm. To the authors' knowledge, it is the first time that such extensive results and analyses are presented on the potential of these novel devices for high-frequency analog applications.
Outcome of transarterial chemoembolization in patients with inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma eligible for radiofrequency ablation.

AIM To evaluate the outcome of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) <5 cm in diameter eligible for radiofrequency ablation (RFA). METHODS The treatment-related mortality, morbidity, long-term survival, and prognostic factors of HCC patients who had TACE and fulfilled the present inclusion criteria for RFA were evaluated. RESULTS Of the 748 patients treated with TACE between January 1990 and December 2002, 114 patients were also eligible for RFA. The treatment-related mortality and morbidity were 1% and 19%, respectively. Survival at 1, 3, and 5 years was 80%, 43%, and 23%, respectively. Older age and a high albumin level were associated with a better survival, whereas a high alpha-fetoprotein level (AFP) and the size of the largest tumor >3 cm in diameter were adverse prognostic factors in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION The morbidity, mortality, and survival data after TACE for small HCCs eligible for RFA are comparable to those reported after RFA in the literature. Our data suggest the need for a randomized comparison of the two treatment modalities for small HCCs.
Evaluation of Satiety Sensations and Food Intake After Different Preloads

The reproducibility of three questions, related to fullness, satiety and desire to eat, rated on an unmarked triangle was verified. In four sessions 12 volunteers ate pasta with tomato sauce (520 kcal) and were asked to rate the sensations felt. There was no difference in rating scores of the replications so the proposed questionnaire provides a stable measure of sensations related to satiety. Subsequently three satiety conditions were studied. Two foods, one rich in carbohydrate, pasta (baked macaroni) and the other in protein, polpette (meatballs), were used as loads at two calorie levels and as preload before an "ad libitum" meal. All the three questions proved useful in discriminating between the different satiety conditions. The food intake underlines the specificity of satiety: subjects, after eating a preload which previously had satiated them, ate other foods in different amounts depending on the kind of preload eaten. Food intake was significantly higher after the pasta preload, furthermore "fullness" and "satiety" ratings were significantly highest after the meatball preload, suggesting that in our experimental conditions, meatballs were more satiating than pasta. In conclusion, this study highlights the validity of using several quite different questions to study hunger and satiety, together with the actual food intake.
Exploring the consumer acceptance of and preferences in nutrigenomics-based personalized health management service

Nutrigenomics is an emerging technology that offers opportunities for personalized health management from the preventive and promoting perspectives. Despite general agreement on the value of nutrigenomics as a powerful approach to unravel the complex diet-health relationships, challenges in applications at the scientific, regulative, and ethical levels have also been widely discussed. However, research into the consumer acceptance and potential service models of such application is relatively scarce. As the awareness and demand for preventive medicine continues to grow worldwide alone along with the ever increasing market of health optimizing improving product and service, the successful development of such innovative applications would require better knowledge from consumer's perspectives. In the present study a multimedia online survey was carried out to understand the consumer acceptance of nutrigenomics based personalized health management and to explore the consumer preferences of related service particularly in the Asian population. In accordance to previous finding, perceived benefit was found to be the most critical in consumer acceptance while other suggested factors remained insignificant. In addition, strong potential in the market of the nutrigenomics-based personalized health management service under certain conditions was revealed. In summary, the findings of this study will provide guidelines to the future development of personalized health management services.
Zinc , Magnesium and Gamma Glutamyltransferase levels in Human Seminal fluid

Results: Compared with the other groups, oligospermic group had the highest proportion of specimens with abnormal liquefaction (26.0%) and leukocyte counts (32.0%). Both oligospermic and asthenospermic groups had comparable sperm motility, which was lower than that in normospermia (p < 0.05). The mean levels of γ-GT and Mg in oligospermia were significantly lower than that in all other groups. The mean Zn levels in oligospermia and azoospermia were lower than that in the other two groups. Significant positive correlation was observed between γ-GT, Zn and Mg in all four groups. The mean levels of γ-GT, Zn and Mg correlated positively with sperm count and motility only in the normospermic group.
Expectation maximization algorithms for MAP estimation of jump Markov linear systems

In a jump Markov linear system, the state matrix, observation matrix, and the noise covariance matrices evolve according to the realization of a finite state Markov chain. Given a realization of the observation process, the aim is to estimate the state of the Markov chain assuming known model parameters. Computing conditional mean estimates is infeasible as it involves a cost that grows exponentially with the number of observations. We present three expectation maximization (EM) algorithms for state estimation to compute maximum a posteriori (MAP) state sequence estimates [which are also known as Bayesian maximum likelihood state sequence estimates (MLSEs)]. The first EM algorithm yields the MAP estimate for the entire sequence of the finite state Markov chain. The second EM algorithm yields the MAP estimate of the (continuous) state of the jump linear system. The third EM algorithm computes the joint MAP estimate of the finite and continuous states. The three EM algorithms optimally combine a hidden Markov model (HMM) estimator and a Kalman smoother (KS) in three different ways to compute the desired MAP state sequence estimates. Unlike the conditional mean state estimates, which require computational cost exponential in the data length, the proposed iterative schemes are linear in the data length.
Analysis of Cesarean Section Rate - According to Robson's 10-group Classification.

High cesarean birth rates are an issue of international public health concern.1 Worries over such increases have led the World Health Organization to advise that Cesarean Section (CS) rates should not be more than 15%,2 with some evidence that CS rates above 15% are not associated with additional reduction in maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity.3 Analyzing CS rates in different countries, including primary vs. repeat CS and potential reasons of these, provide important insights into the solution for reducing the overall CS rate. Robson,4 proposed a new classification system, the Robson Ten-Group Classification System to allow critical analysis according to characteristics of pregnancy (Table 1). The characteristics used are: Table 1 Robson’ 10-Group Classification. single or multiple pregnancy nulliparous, multiparous, or multiparous with a previous CS cephalic, breech presentation or other malpresentation spontaneous or induced labor term or preterm births. This classification system has been used in single-institution studies, jurisdictional, and national registries and recently with international comparisons.5,6 The aim of this study was to investigate CS rates at a tertiary care centre in Oman and make analysis based on the 10-group classification.
A three-phase symmetrical multistage Voltage multiplier

A three-phase symmetrical Cockcroft-Walton (CW) multistage voltage multiplier (VM) is proposed. It consists of one smoothing column and six oscillating columns. The oscillating columns are connected to three-phase power through center-tap transformers. The capacitors of the smoothing column are charged six times per cycle by six oscillating columns and are discharged six times through the load, unlike the conventional symmetrical VM in which they are charged and discharged twice per cycle. The three-phase symmetrical structure completely eliminates the first five harmonic components of load-generated voltage ripple. Theoretical analysis indicates that the proposed three-phase symmetrical CW-VM has one-third the voltage ripple and voltage drop of the conventional single-phase symmetrical CW-VM. Experimental and simulation results of the proposed three-phase symmetrical CW-VM as well as of the conventional single-phase symmetrical CW-VM are presented. A comparison shows that the three-phase symmetrical CW-VM has significantly less voltage ripple, half the voltage drop, and a fourfold increase in output power over the conventional single-phase symmetrical CW-VM.
Why Do Banks Securitise Their Assets? Bank-Level Evidence from Over One Hundred Countries in the Pre-Crisis Period

We investigate the causes and consequences of securitisations using a large data set of banks from over 100 world countries between 1991 and 2007, when the financial crisis caused the market to collapse. Our results show that banks were more likely to securitise their assets when they faced binding capital requirements and when the direct and indirect costs of these operations were lower (e.g., administrative expenses or the loss implied in the sale of opaque assets in an imperfect information environment). We also find evidence that banks securitised their assets to contain credit risk and reduce the exposure to liquidity shocks. The ex-post effects of securitisations are consistent with these ex-ante determinants. After the securitisation, banks improved their capital ratios and did not increase their riskiness. More important, they increased their credit supply. These results suggest that if properly used, these techniques can provide additional flexibility in managing banks’ activities and risk, and can foster credit supply. But, as the crisis has made well clear, provisions must be taken to avoid that some banks may use these new techniques in a way that increases individual and especially systemic risk.