Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Religion and Crime Studies: Assessing What Has Been Learned

This paper provides a review of the literature that assesses the relationship between religion and crime. Research on the relationship between religion and crime indicates that certain aspects of religion reduces participation in criminal activity. A review of the literature indicates religion reduces participation in criminal activity in two broad ways. First, religion seems to operate at a micro level. Studies have pointed to how religious beliefs are associated with self-control. Second, researches have examined the social control aspects of religion. In particular, how factors such as level of participation and social support from such participation reduces criminal activity. Likewise, findings suggest that although there has been a sizable number of studies and diverse interests of researchers examining the religion/crime nexus, the research has not identified which aspects of religion have the strongest influence on crime reduction. In addition, the specific ways in which these factors are associated with crime reduction have not been comprehensively identified. Similarly, more than 40 years of empirical scholarship suggests that religion suppresses criminal behavior. Nevertheless, these findings remain controversial as the literature neither accentuates the mechanisms of religion responsible for suppressing criminal behavior, nor does the literature reject the spuriousness of the religion-crime association relative to mediating effects of self-control and social control. Finally, our review suggests that methodological constraints infringe on the capacity for sociological and criminological to accurately ascertain the validity of the religion-crime nexus, often generating mixed or inconclusive findings on the religion-crime association. Our paper concludes with recommendations for future empirical scholarship that examines the religion-crime nexus.
Scaly green flagellates from Spanish Atlantic coastal waters: molecular, ultrastructural and pigment analyses

Abstract Seven scale-bearing species of prasinophyceans (Chlorophyta) were studied in light and electron microscopy, pigment analysis, and molecular analysis of the small subunit (SSU) rDNA. Unialgal cultures were obtained from samples collected in the Nervión River estuary, Gulf of Biscay, Spanish Atlantic coast. Five of the species belong to the genus Pyramimonas (Prasinophyceae, Pyramimonaceae) and one each to the genera Mamiella (Mamiellophyceae, Mamiellaceae) and Nephroselmis (Nephroselmidophyceae, Nephroselmidaceae). The morphological features of all the strains analyzed agreed closely with the phylogenetic analysis, which in the case of the genus Pyramimonas presented several clusters corresponding to the subgenera Vestigifera (Pyramimonas orientalis, Pyramimonas moestrupii), Punctatae (Pyramimonas robusta), Pyramimonas (Pyramimonas propulsa), and Trichocystis (Pyramimonas grossii). Even though the phylogenetic relationship among these subgenera remains unclear, the results suggested that the Punctatae should remain an independent clade at least until more sequences or genes are analyzed. According to their accessory pigment composition, three groups were distinguished after their pigment ratios were calculated: prasinoxanthin-containing (Mamiella gilva), loroxanthin ester-containing (P. grossii and P. moestrupii), and siphonaxanthin-containing strains (Nephroselmis pyriformis and remaining Pyramimonas species). A high intraspecific variability was found, which highlights the need of an in-depth analysis and multiple technique approach to ensure accurate identification of nanoplanktonic microalgae.
Ultrafine Particulate Exposures in Indoor, Outdoor, Personal and Mobile Environments: Effects of Diesel, Traffic, Pottery Kiln, Cooking and HEPA Filtration on Micro-Environmental Particle Number Concentration

We measured ultrafine particulate material (UFPM) number concentrations in a variety of indoor, personal and mobile environments, using a P-Trak condensations particle counter (TSI model 8525). Indoor UFPM levels indicated influx of outdoor air plus indoor combustion sources (e.g. toasting and cooking, yielding UFPM concentrations >500000 particles/cm3). Influx of UFPM into the indoor environment from unexpected sources (e.g. a home pottery kiln) was readily detected. In a moving passenger car environment, prolonged exposures to UFPM concentrations >100000 particles/cm3 were observed related to heavy traffic, especially diesel vehicles. Data logging at 1 s revealed transient UFPM peaks not demonstrable with longer interval averaging. Indices of continuous, average and cumulative exposures are presented. This type of sensitive and portable instrumentation should be highly useful in studies of UFPM in mobile and personal micro-environments.
Improving volcanic ash predictions with the HYSPLIT dispersion model by assimilating MODIS satellite retrievals

Abstract. Currently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) runs the HYSPLIT dispersion model with a unit mass release rate to predict the transport and dispersion of volcanic ash. The model predictions provide information for the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAAC) to issue advisories to meteorological watch offices, area control centers, flight information centers, and others. This research aims to provide quantitative forecasts of ash distributions generated by objectively and optimally estimating the volcanic ash source strengths, vertical distribution, and temporal variations using an observation-modeling inversion technique. In this top-down approach, a cost functional is defined to quantify the differences between the model predictions and the satellite measurements of column-integrated ash concentrations weighted by the model and observation uncertainties. Minimizing this cost functional by adjusting the sources provides the volcanic ash emission estimates. As an example, MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite retrievals of the 2008 Kasatochi volcanic ash clouds are used to test the HYSPLIT volcanic ash inverse system. Because the satellite retrievals include the ash cloud top height but not the bottom height, there are different model diagnostic choices for comparing the model results with the observed mass loadings. Three options are presented and tested. Although the emission estimates vary significantly with different options, the subsequent model predictions with the different release estimates all show decent skill when evaluated against the unassimilated satellite observations at later times. Among the three options, integrating over three model layers yields slightly better results than integrating from the surface up to the observed volcanic ash cloud top or using a single model layer. Inverse tests also show that including the ash-free region to constrain the model is not beneficial for the current case. In addition, extra constraints on the source terms can be given by explicitly enforcing no-ash for the atmosphere columns above or below the observed ash cloud top height. However, in this case such extra constraints are not helpful for the inverse modeling. It is also found that simultaneously assimilating observations at different times produces better hindcasts than only assimilating the most recent observations.
Foreign or Native-like? The Attitudes of Czech EFL Learners Towards Accents of English and Their Use as Pronunciation Models

Attitudes of language users to English in the international context certainly do not rank among newly studied subjects. One of the frequent caveats of the ongoing research, however, is that it mostly targets university students of English, which may provide a very skewed perspective. This study focuses on young Czech speakers of English who have studied or are studying other disciplines and uses an online survey to examine their attitudes to English pronunciation in general and to their own pronunciation, to various accents of English and also to exposure to model accents. Analyses of 145 respondents show that 70% of them would like to acquire a native-like accent (most frequently General British), even though most of them use English with other foreigners (and not native speakers). They prefer to be exposed to many different accents of English, native and non-native, and believe that learners should themselves choose which accent they want to regard as a model. One of the most important findings concerns the participants’ belief that pronunciation is teachable and that it is worth working on it; this should provide encouragement to teachers of English. In general, our results suggest that the ELF approach and the associated Lingua Franca Core concept do not seem to be relevant for young Czech users of English.
Detecting and Classifying Crimes from Arabic Twitter Posts using Text Mining Techniques

Crime analysis has become a critical area for helping law enforcement agencies to protect civilians. As a result of a rapidly increasing population, crime rates have increased dramatically, and appropriate analysis has become a time-consuming effort. Text mining is an effective tool that may help to solve this problem to classify crimes in effective manner. The proposed system aims to detect and classify crimes in Twitter posts that written in the Arabic language, one of the most widespread languages today. In this paper, classification techniques are used to detect crimes and identify their nature by different classification algorithms. The experiments evaluate different algorithms, such as SVM, DT, CNB, and KNN, in terms of accuracy and speed in the crime domain. Also, different features extraction techniques are evaluated, including root-based stemming, light stemming, n-gram. The experiments revealed the superiority of n-gram over other techniques. Specifically, the results indicate the superiority of SVM with tri-gram over other classifiers, with a 91.55% accuracy.
Manipulability in Constrained School Choice

In constrained school choice mechanisms, students can only rank a subset of the schools they could potentially access. We characterize dominant and undominated strategies in the constrained Boston (BOS) and deferred acceptance (DA) mechanisms. Using our characterization of dominant strategies we show that in constrained DA, the single tie-breaking rule outperforms the multiple tie-breaking rule in terms of both manipulability and stability. We also show that DA is less manipulable than constrained BOS in the sense of Arribillaga and Masso (2015). Using our characterizations of undominated strategies, we derive advice for the students and show that more strategies can be excluded on the basis of dominance in constrained DA than in constrained BOS.
Effects of glucocorticoids on lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory responses in human middle ear epithelial cells and its mechanisms

This study aimed to investigate the effects and mechanisms of glucocorticoids on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory responses in human middle ear epithelial cells (HMEECs). HMEECs were incubated with LPS and then maintained with glucocorticoids. Inflammatory mediators including tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-6 and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) were analyzed. The cell viability at 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h and cell apoptosis were determined, together with apoptosis-related factors Bax and B-cell lymphoma (Bcl-2) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathway related proteins I-kappa-B-alpha (IκB-α) and p-NF-κB. Moreover, the activator of NF-κB, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), was added to the cells, and then the expression levels of inflammatory mediators were analyzed again. The results showed that the relative expression of TNF-α, IL-6 and COX-2 was significantly increased by LPS, and while statistically decreased by glucocorticoids (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). Besides, we found that LPS could dramatically lowered the cell viability and elevated the cell apoptosis (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01), whereas, application of glucocorticoids reversed the results. Moreover, glucocorticoids remarkably decreased the expression levels of Bax and p-NF-κB but increased the levels of Bcl-2 and IκB-α (P < 0.05 or P < 0.01). Additionally, the effects of glucocorticoids on expression levels of inflammatory mediators were prominently inhibited by administration of PMA (P < 0.05). Our results suggest that glucocorticoids may reduce LPS-induced inflammation responses in HMEECs by inhibiting the NF-κB pathway.
POULTRY NUTRITION Efficiency of Utilization of Dietary Phosphorus By Caged Turkey Breeder Hens When Fed Rations Supplemented With Live Yeast Culture

A sixteen-~eek feeding trial was conducted with turkey breeder hens maintained in individual laying cages to determine the effect that live yeast culture had on the utilization of both available and total dietary phosphorus. Criteria used to measure the efficiency with which the dietary phosphorus was utilized included level of egg production, egg weight, egg specific gravity, body weight change, feed intake and reproductive performance. The sixteen experimental rations which were used contained two dietary calcium levels and four dietary phosphorus levels within each calcium level, with each calciumphosphorus combination being fed with and without the addition oflive yeast culture. Measurements were made during the course of, and at the end of consecutive four-week intervals as the sixteen-week feeding trial progressed. The data obtained indicate that a dietary calcium level of 2.25 percent was required for a maximum response in terms of level of egg production, egg weight and egg specific gravity. The addition of live yeast culture to the breeder ration brought about an increase in egg production, egg weight and egg specific gravity, particularly at the two lower dietary phosphorus levels (available phosphorus 0.23 percent/total phosphorus 0.48 percent; and available phosphorus 0.13 percent/total phosphorus 0.36 percent). These two dietary phosphorus levels are well below those recommended for use in commercial turkey breeder rations from the standpoint of available phosphorus. A near statistically significant difference in feed intake between the breeder hens fed the live yeast culture supplemented rations and the unsupplemented rations, along with statistically significant increases in both phosphorus and calcium intake, indicate that an increased intake of calcium and phosphorus was responsible in part for these differences. However, it must be pointed out that the phytase action of the live yeast culture, as previously reported, probably converted at least a part of the phytin phosphorus to
Fare Policy and Vertical Equity: The Trade-off between Affordability and Cost Recovery

Vertical equity and the maximization of farebox revenue are important but conflicting goals in the development of fare policy in the United States. Reducing fares for low-income riders reduces revenue for a transit agency, while increasing fares could disproportionately impact lower-income riders. This paper details this conflict, explores strategies that could account for both goals, and evaluates fare programs in the United States. Two types of low-income strategies are discussed: first generation strategies and targeted subsidy strategies. First generation strategies have several limitations that targeted subsidy strategies account for; first generation strategies focus more on supply, while targeted subsidy strategies focus more on demand. The evaluation of US low-income fare programs found that organizational partnerships can reduce administrative and financial impacts to agencies, local ridership characteristics need to be considered in designing a program, and that smart card technology is useful but not required to create a targeted subsidy program.
The Fact Extraction and VERification (FEVER) Shared Task

We present the results of the first Fact Extraction and VERification (FEVER) Shared Task. The task challenged participants to classify whether human-written factoid claims could be SUPPORTED or REFUTED using evidence retrieved from Wikipedia. We received entries from 23 competing teams, 19 of which scored higher than the previously published baseline. The best performing system achieved a FEVER score of 64.21%. In this paper, we present the results of the shared task and a summary of the systems, highlighting commonalities and innovations among participating systems.
T-Cell Receptor g Chain Variable and Joining Region Genes of Subgroup 1 are Clonally Rearranged in Feline Band T-Cell Lymphoma

Lymphoma is one of the most common tumours of domestic cats. Microscopically, it can be challenging to distinguish lymphoma (monoclonal lymphoid proliferation) from reactive lymphoid hyperplasia (polyclonal lymphoid proliferation). Molecular methods that characterize cellular clonality can overcome this diagnostic challenge; however, it is essential to know which variable and joining region variants are utilized by neoplastic lymphocytes before a sensitive and specific assay can be developed. The present study describes a polymerase chain reaction assay that allows for complete sequencing of clonally recombined T-cell receptor (TCR) g chain genes from formalin-fixed and paraffin wax-embedded samples of feline lymphoma. The variable (V) and joining (J) region variants of the TCR g chain were characterized in 50 feline lymphomas. Amplification and sequencing with primers directed against conserved framework regions 1, 2 and 4 of the TCR g chain identified clonal rearrangement in 68% of T-cell lymphomas and 22% of B-cell lymphomas. The distribution of TCR variants present in Band T-cell lymphomas was similar and included V region variants 1 and 3, and J region variants 1.2, 1.3 and 1.5. V region variants 2 and 4 were not identified in either tumour type. Some feline B-cell lymphomas had a clonally rearranged TCR, a finding reported in human, but not canine, B-cell lymphoma. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Streamrate stagnation-point flow of a nanofluid on a stationary cylinder

The steady-state, viscous flow of Nanofluid in the vicinity of an axisymmetric stagnation point of a stationary cylinder is investigated. The impinging free-stream is steady and with a constant strain rate . Exact solution of the Navier–Stokes equations is derived in this problem. A reduction of these equations is obtained by use of appropriate transformations introduced in this research. The general self-similar solution is obtained when the wall temperature of the cylinder is constant. All the solutions above are presented for Reynolds numbers ranging from 0.1 to 1000 and selected values of particle. For all Reynolds numbers, as the particle fraction increases, the depth of diffusion of the fluid velocity field in radial direction, the depth of the diffusion of the fluid velocity field in -direction, shear-stresses and pressure function decreases.
Understanding Passwords of Chinese Users: Characteristics, Security and Implications

While a lot has changed in computer security over the last twenty years, textual passwords remain the dominant mechanism of authentication over computer systems and are likely to persist in the foreseeable future. Though much attention has been paid to passwords chosen by English users, relatively little is known about passwords selected by non-English users, especially by those who use hieroglyphic characters as their native languages. In this work, we initiate a systematic study into the fundamental properties that characterize passwords of Chinese users, the largest Internet population in the world. We, for the first time, uncover several striking findings on the basis of a corpus of 100 million real-life Chinese web passwords (as well as 30 million English ones), the largest corpus of user-generated passwords ever studied. We further conduct a series of experiments on these datasets by employing two state-of-the-art password cracking techniques, i.e., PCFGbased ones and Markov-Chain-based ones. Remarkably, our results reveal a “reversal principle”: when the guess number allowed is small, Chinese web passwords are much weaker than their English counterparts, yet this relationship will be reversed when the guess number is large. This implies that at somewhere these two groups will be of similar security strength, which well reconciles two conflicting claims about the strength of Chinese web passwords made by Bonneau in IEEE S&P’12 and Li et al. in USENIX SEC’14, respectively. At ten million guesses, the success rate of our improved PCFG-based attack (using Duowan as the training set) against the remaining five Chinese datasets is from 33.2% to 49.8%, which means that our improved attack can crack 92% to 188% more passwords than the best record reported by Li et al. in 2014. We believe that our work contributes to a much better understanding of the characteristics and security of Chinese passwords, and will serve as a groundwork for world-wide security administrators and Chinese individual users to more informedly secure their service accounts.
The Relationship between Burnout and Trait Emotional Intelligence among Secondary School Teachers in Malaysia

This study investigated the relationship between Burnout and Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) among 30 secondary school teachers in Malaysia. The participants were administered the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educator's Survey (MBI-ES) which breaks burnout into three subscales: Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (DP), and Personal Accomplishment (PA). The TEIQue-SF self report questionnaire was also used to elicit information on the respondents’ EI. Descriptive Statistics, including mean and standard deviation, was used to analyze the data. Pearson Correlation Analysis was also used to analyze the correlation between the teachers’ Burnout and TEI scores. Guilford’s (1973) Rule of Thumb was used to determine the strength of the relationship. The results showed significant correlation only between Depersonalization (DP) and TEI. Implications of the study are discussed, and suggestions are given for further research.
Biometric Human Recognition using ECG Signals

: In this research work, ECG of 10 subjects is recorded using the BIOPAC MP 100 system with Acknowledge software. The recorded signal is pre-processed to remove the unwanted high frequency signal, so it is filtered using Low Pass FIR filter with 40 Hz cutoff frequency. Statistical Parameters such as mean, variance, standard deviation etc are used to support the uniqueness property of an ECG signal for each subject. The classifier used in this research work is the Artificial Neural Network (ANN), which is trained with the extracted features. The error in prediction of the ECG of 10 subjects is nearly zero. So the accuracy of the identification system is 100%
Scattering of universal fermionic clusters in the resonating group method

Mixtures of polarized fermions of two different masses can form weakly bound clusters, such as dimers and trimers, that are universally described by the scattering length between the heavy and light fermions. We use the resonating group method to investigate the low-energy scattering processes involving dimers or trimers. The method reproduces approximately the known particle–dimer and dimer–dimer scattering lengths. We use it to estimate the trimer–trimer scattering length, which is presently unknown, and find it to be positive.