Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Electroimpedance Spectroscopy for the Measurement of the Dielectric Properties of Sodium Chloride Solutions at Different Glucose Concentrations

We investigated possible variations of impedance values in samples of sodium chloride solution (sodium chloride 0.9%) with glucose at different concentrations, ranging from 5000 to around 75 mg/dL. The sodium chloride solution (either saline physiological solution) was chosen since it has similarities to blood but no cell components, which may be confounding factors in this study. Special focus was on the effect of stirring and of temperature variations on the impedance spectrum of samples at different glucose concentrations. We found that variations in glucose concentration directly affect the impedance modulus of the sample both in static conditions and in dynamic conditions due to stirring, as well as at both room temperature and at increased temperature. In fact, even if the impedance variations were often small (around 3-4 mΩ per mg/dL), they were usually clearly measurable. These findings may be the basis for possible development of a new approach, based on impedance technology, for the noninvasive monitoring of glycaemia.
Big Five Personality Traits as The Predictor of Teachers’ Organizational Psychological Capital

The method of the research was defined as the descriptive survey model since it was aimed to test whether the personality traits of teachers are a significant predictor of their psychological capital levels in this study. 416 teachers (60.3% female, 39.7% male) who were teaching in the schools of Ministry of National Education in Istanbul and were selected by simple random element sampling method constituted the study group of the research. While 37.3% of teachers who participated in the research were working in primary schools, 39.2% of them were working in secondary schools and 23.6% of them were working in high schools. In the research, the personality traits of the teachers were measured by "adjective based personality test", and their psychological capital levels were measured by "organizational psychological capital" scale. Pearson correlation technique and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the collected data. Research results showed that there was a positively significant relationship between extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness, which are big five personality traits of teachers, and optimism, hope, resilience and self-efficacy, which are the sub-dimensions of the psychological capital scale, and that there was a negatively significant relationship with neuroticism personality trait. According to the findings obtained as a result of prediction analyses, personality traits were found to be significant predictors of optimism, resilience, hope, and self-efficacy, which are the sub-dimensions of the psychological capital scale. The results obtained from the research were discussed within the frame of the relevant literature and suggestions were offered for future researches. Keywords: Teachers, psychological capital, big five personality traits, prediction
Neural coding with spikes and bursts: characterizing neurons and networks with noisy input

De hersenen verwerken voortdurend informatie uit hun omgeving. Fleur Zeldenrust onderzocht op het niveau van hersencellen (neuronen) hoe deze informatieverwerking plaatsvindt, ofwel wat de ‘neurale code’ is. Dit onderzocht ze met zowel experimentele waarnemingen als theoretische modellen. Zeldenrust richtte zich op twee hersengebieden: de hippocampus (betrokken bij leren en geheugen) en de thalamus (het belangrijkste schakelstation naar de cortex). Uit haar onderzoek blijkt dat de neurale code in de hippocampus verandert door de remmende input van naburige cellen (inhibitie). Het effect van de inhibitie wordt sterk bepaald door de manier waarop het neuronale circuit anatomisch is georganiseerd: feedback-inhibitie, waarbij de remmende cellen geactiveerd worden door de neuronen die zij zelf inhiberen, is effectiever in het veranderen van de code. Daar staat tegenover dat feedforward-inhibitie, waarbij de remmende cellen externe informatie ontvangen, zorgt voor een veelzijdiger code. In de thalamus kunnen verschillende eigenschappen van de neurale code veranderen afhankelijk van het gemiddelde van de input die een neuron krijgt. Zeldenrust concludeert dat de fysieke eigenschappen van neuronen en hun omgeving de neurale code kunnen beinvloeden.
Teachers’ experiences with school improvement projects: The case of Bahraini public schools

AbstractFor any school improvement (SI) initiative to succeed, teachers’ buy-in is a must. Usually, such a commitment is weak when the needed resources, training, know-how, and support are lacking. Bahraini public schools require teachers’ buy-in and commitment. The twofold question though is this: (1) What are the experiences of teachers in Bahraini public schools with respect to SI project implementation and (2) what are some suggestions they have, to possibly make such an implementation more successful? This is the research question that this mixed-methods study addressed by collecting data from (1) teachers in Bahrain, through their completion of a questionnaire containing closed and open-ended items; and (2) feedback sheets of in-service teachers who were involved in the training and implementation of one of the SI projects in Bahraini schools. The data analysis yielded interesting results, which can help enlighten policy-makers in Bahrain regarding the way forward with SI.
Cutting propagation of Quercus acutissima clones after rejuvenation through serial grafting

mdash; Vegetative propagation of 34to 67-year-old Quercus acutissima trees was successfully achieved from rooted cuttings. Semi-hardwood ramets which were obtained from the clones established through grafting twice onto the 2-year-old rootstocks showed 60% rooting (ranging from 20% to 100%). After grafting only once, average rooting frequency was 11% (ranging from 0 to 34%) using cuttings dipped in 500 ppm indole-butyric acid (IBA) solution. The rooting medium consisted of equal volumes of peatmoss and perlite. Cuttings were watered by intermittent mist and grown in the greenhouse at 25 ± 3 °C for more than 5 weeks. For rooting, there was no significant difference between ortet age but marked differences were observed among the clones. Although most of the rooted cuttings did not sprout new buds in the current year, they usually produced slowly-growing buds and/or revealed plagiotropic growth at the following year.
Perceptions of commercialization activities of research results among academic researchers in Malaysia

Problem statement: This study discusses the results of a survey conducted on academic researchers working on biotechnology related research from four leading research universities in Malaysia. The analyses used in this study are essentially exploratory and broadly seeks to address the research question of interest, i.e., to document any differences in opinion between demographic backgrounds group. Approach: Factor analysis and reliability tests were conducted to identify dimensions of commercialization activities and to determine statistical reliability of the dimensions. Subsequently, a series of one-way ANOVA tests were conducted to examine whether perceptions on commercialization activities results differ based on the demographic background of the researchers. Results: The result of this study revealed significant differences in perceptions on commercialization initiatives particularly with regards to years of research experience, experience as administrator/top level management at university level and job status. Conclusion/Recommendation: Qualitative studies were recommended to complement this exploratory study.
Drug-related problems in a sample of outpatients with chronic diseases : a cross-sectional study from

and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php). Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management 2016:12 233–239 Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management Dovepress
Approaching Euclidean limits: a fractal analysis of the architecture of Kazuyo Sejima

Fractal Geometry evolved in mathematics during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s; building on Benoit Mandelbrot’s proposal that natural systems frequently possess characteristic geometric complexity over multiple scales of observation. In 1996 Carl Bovill demonstrated a method for determining an approximate fractal dimension, or characteristic visual complexity, of architectural elevations and plans. This “box-counting” method, as used by Bovill, is the only known way to calculate and compare the fractal geometries of buildings. Significantly, past architectural analysis using the boxcounting approach has only been applied to the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and a limited selection of ancient buildings. This paper will expand the set of cases tested by the boxcounting method to incorporate five house designs by Kazuyo Sejima, a famous, late 20th century minimalist architect. The fractal dimensions are calculated using a combination of Archimage and Benoit software, the former of which uses an extrapolation of Bovill’s box-counting method for the fractal analysis of house designs. Being the first examples of minimalist architecture tested by this method, this paper will also explore the extremities of this method, and Bovill’s suggestion that modern architecture with minimal visual complexity should result in a more Euclidean, rather than highly fractal, results.
Mécanismes et bases cérébrales du traitement des fréquences spatiales lors de la catégorisation de scènes visuelles

L'analyse visuelle de scenes debute par l'extraction en parallele de l'information a differentes frequences spatiales, en suivant un mode de traitement par defaut « coarse-to-fine ». L'analyse rapide de l'information grossiere (« coarse ») en basses frequences spatiales fournirait un apercu global de la scene, qui serait ensuite affine par l'analyse des details de la scene (« fine ») en hautes frequences spatiales. L'objectif de cette these a ete de preciser les bases cerebrales du traitement des frequences spatiales lors de la categorisation de scenes. A travers deux etudes comportementales, nous avons tout d'abord montre qu'une analyse « coarse-to-fine » est plus avantageuse pour la categorisation rapide de scenes, et ce, independamment de la valeur de contraste de luminance associee aux differentes frequences spatiales (Experiences 1 et 2). Des etudes en IRMf nous ont par la suite permis de mettre en evidence l'implication d'un large reseau cerebral lors de l'analyse « coarse-to-fine » des scenes, incluant les aires visuelles primaires et occipito-temporales, mais egalement le cortex frontal inferieur (Experience 3). Une analyse de la connectivite a revele que lors de cette analyse, le cortex frontal inferieur exercerait une influence « top-down » sur le cortex visuel primaire et les gyri fusiforme et parahippocampique au sein du cortex occipito-temporal. Ces resultats soulignent le role du cortex visuel primaire comme region integrative, codant a la fois les afferences retino-thalamiques et les influences « top-down » de regions superieures. Nous avons egalement observe que le gyrus frontal inferieur et le gyrus fusiforme participaient activement a l'integration de l'information semantique contenue dans les basses et hautes frequences spatiales d'une scene (Experience 4). Enfin, nous avons specifiquement etudie le traitement des frequences spatiales au sein de regions occipito-temporales selectives aux scenes : la « parahippocampal place area » (PPA), le cortex retrosplenial et l'« occipital place area ». Nous avons montre que ces trois regions participent de facon distincte au traitement des frequences spatiales dans les scenes (Experience 5) et qu'une strategie d'analyse « coarse-to-fine » serait privilegiee par la PPA (Experience 6). Les resultats de ces travaux nous permettent de conforter et de preciser les modeles actuels de la categorisation visuelle de scenes bases sur un traitement frequentiel de l'information visuelle.
Monetary Policy and Asset Price Interactions in India: Should Financial Stability Concerns from Asset Prices be Addressed Through Monetary Policy?

The dynamic interactions between monetary policy and asset prices have conventionally been examined in terms of the asset price channel of transmission of monetary policy, given the pre-crisis analytical consensus against the use of monetary policy to respond directly to asset price inflation. In the post sub-prime crisis period, however, there has been an overwhelming intellectual support for revisiting the issue of whether monetary policy should become more sensitive to asset price trends and respond proactively to prevent any build up of bubbles. In the Indian context, this paper provides empirical evidence to explain the relevance of a policy of no direct use of the interest rate instrument for stabilising asset price cycles. While the asset price channel of monetary policy is clearly visible in empirical estimates, there is no evidence of monetary policy responding to asset price developments directly. Asset price changes also do not seem to influence the inflation path, as per the impulse response analysis in a structural VAR model. This suggests why monetary policy may continue to refrain from responding directly to asset price cycles. Credit market shocks, however, explain significant proportion of asset price variations over medium to long run, which though could be part of a broader comovement of variables over the business cycle, as visible in terms of simultaneous movement in real activity, credit flows and asset prices. Higher interest rates seem to lead to contraction in output, credit demand as well as asset prices; hence, only the impact on asset prices should not be viewed as a good enough reason to use monetary policy for stabilising asset price cycles. The financial stability concerns from asset price bubbles could be better addressed through micro and macro-prudential measures, and the effectiveness of such measures could be enhanced when implemented in a sound macroeconomic policy environment.
Fish Fauna Faces Anthropogenic Double Trouble: Erosion of Fish Diversity inTropical Oxbow Lake of the Ganga River Basin in Eastern India

Fish diversity in Oxbow lake is adversely impacted due to diverse anthropogenic activities like over-exploitation, indiscriminate use of fine meshed fishing gears, jute retting etc. To quantify the impact of such anthropogenic activities on fish diversity and aquatic health, a survey with seasonal analysis of diversity indices, relative frequencies and abundance status of native fish populations was conducted from April 2013 to March 2014 in a semi closed Oxbow lake in Nadia district in eastern India. The level of p<0.05 was accepted as statistical significance. Of the 33 native fish species recorded 33% belonging to 8 orders and 17 families fell under vulnerable or endangered categories. Native species like Amblypharyngodon mola, Chanda nama, Pethia ticto and Notopterus notopterus, Colisa fasciata, P. ticto, were the most dominant and frequent fishes. Shannon-Weiner diversity index was decreased by 41% by precipitating impact of monsoonal anthropogenic activities during post-monsoon. Low native fish diversity indices are pointers to poor ecosystem health status owing to intense adverse activities like jute retting, indiscriminate fishing aggravated by influx of turbid water from the river Ganga following episodic flood events during monsoon. Regulation and prevention of such anthropogenic activities are urgently warranted for sustainable conservation and management of the Oxbow lake.
Quantifying the decline in Corallium rubrum populations: Reply to Santangelo & Bramanti (2010)

In the comment on Bruckner (2009; Mar Ecol Prog Ser 397:319-332), Santangelo & Bramanti (2010; Mar Ecol Prog Ser 418:295-297) suggest that the available data for Corallium rubrum populations cannot be used to make conclusions about population trends for the species throughout the Mediterranean. Their main concerns relate to (1) different methodologies used to sample populations; (2) insufficient population information from deep water; and (3) limited data on sampling area and density of colonies. While I recognize many of the limitations of the data, the con- clusions in Bruckner (2009) were based on multiple datasets, including population demography and reproductive patterns, as well as landings data, trade statistics and biological information. The pri- mary comparison involves differences between depths, levels of fishing pressure, and historic popu- lations using information from representative habitats off Costa Brava, Spain; recent data were col- lected using similar methods and included size structure, reproductive information, and density and abundance of colonies. At the time of Bruckner (2009), most fisheries were in shallow water (<70 m depth), but they were already progressively expanding into deeper areas. Since publication of the manuscript, the fishery for C. rubrum has entered a new phase, SCUBA fishing using mixed gases and new technology (e.g. ROVs) to reach greater depths (70 to 150 m) and increase landings, mostly because shallow populations have been overharvested. This new trend is problematic, because the science does not exist to determine sustainable harvest levels at these depths.
Synthesis Report

The radical transformation of the system of global economic governance has become increasingly urgent. Events in the last years of the 20th century and at the turn of the millennium have underlined the fact that both the structure and the key institutions of the current international system are deeply dysfunctional. The Asian financial crisis in 1997, the unraveling of the World Trade Organizational ministerial meetings in Seattle in 1999 and Cancun in 2003, the stock market meltdown in 2001-2002, the collapse of the Argentine economy in 2002—these are among the milestones in the crisis of legitimacy that now pervades the system and its key actors.
Automatically Compute Information Flow Quantity via Probabilistic Semantics

Measuring information flow in software has recently become an active research topic in the security community. Information about confidential inputs may flow to public outputs in batch programs. It would be useful to quantify such flows in the computational world. In this paper, We present an automatic analyser for measuring information flow within software systems. We quantify leakage in terms of information theory and incorporate this computation into probabilistic semantics. Our semantic functions provide information flow measurement for programs given secure inputs under any probability distribution. The major contribution is a automatically quantitative analyser based on the leakage definition for such a language. While-loops are handled by applying entropy of generalized distributions and relative properties in order to provide a more precise analysis with observing time.
Measuring Dynamic Loads on a Foldable City Bicycle

Strain gauges have been used to measure dynamic loads on a foldable bicycle while it is being ridden. Eight full, Wheatstone-bridge measuring points were used to measure the forces on the front and rear wheels, the handlebars, the seat and the pedals. These bridges were positioned at special measuring parts that simplified the measurements. Some of the measuring problems that were successfully resolved are described. The measuring took place on public roads where real-life data was gathered for various riding situations. For an easier interpretation of the data, a camera, an encoder and a GPS system were used. The results are shown for some riding situations and their impact on the design of foldable bicycles is discussed.
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Donald Trump’s Inaugural Speech from the Perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar

As an interdicipline that studies the relation of language, power and ideology, critical discourse analysis has attracted more and more linguists’ attention, which can be applied to analyze language features under certain social and cultural background. Critical discourse analysis is based on Halliday’s systemic functional grammar that is a practical method to analyze discourse. Political discourse as a kind of typical discourse which involves the speaker’s ideology and intention, can also be analyzed by critical discourse analysis. Therefore, this paper analyzes Donald Trump’s inaugural speech mainly from the perspectives of transitivity, modality, personal pronoun and coherence in order to reveal the speaker’s political intention, and help readers understand the meaning of discourse, cultivate their critical consciousness and analytical ability. The paper concludes that Trump uses different language forms to transmit, change and maintain audiences’ ideology subtly. At the same time, it has a positive effect on the development of the critical discourse analysis.
Analysis of Severity of Vehicle Crashes at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings: Multinomial Logit Modeling

The purpose of this paper is to develop a nominal response multinomial logit model (MNLM) to explore the impact of various explanatory variables on three different crash severity levels of vehicle-related crashes at highway-rail grade crossings (HRGCs) in the U.S.A. Crash data (from 2005 to 2012) and crossing inventory data for this study are obtained from the Federal Railroad Administration. The highway-rail crash and crossing inventory data are merged together by using USDOT crossing identification number to create a data set consisting of 7,414 observations after data cleaning. Different variables are considered for estimating the coefficients of the model. The MNLM results indicate that when rail equipment with high speed struck a vehicle, the chance of resulting in fatal injury increases. Crashes occurred at higher temperatures are also more likely to be injury and fatal as compared to those occurred at lower temperatures. In addition, the study reveals that male vehicle drivers with the age being 25-60 or above 60 years, pick-up trucks, concrete and rubber surfaces are more likely to be involved in more severe crashes (including injury and fatal crashes). On the other hand, truck-trailer vehicles, foggy and snowy weather conditions, development area types (i.e. residential, commercial, industrial and institutional), and higher daily traffic volumes are more likely to involved in less severe crashes. Finally, it is presented that reducing train speed and vehicle speeds, as well as educating drivers will minimize the chances of resulting in more severe vehicle crashes at HRGCs.
Stress from Role Conflict: Consequences for Professional Effectiveness of Secondary School Teachers in Cross River State, Nigeria

An ex-post facto data collected from 600 teachers and 2400 senior secondary two students from Cross River State were analyzed to determine the influence of stress arising from role conflict on professional effectiveness. One hypothesis was tested using One-Way Analysis of Variance. The result of the data analyses showed that stress arising from role conflict has a significant influence on professional effectiveness (Classroom management and supervision of co-curricular activities). Teachers who experience low level of stress are more effective than those who experience moderate and high level of stress. Based on the finding, some recommendations were made.