Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Passive Control via Slotted Blading in a Compressor Cascade at Stall Condition

This paper was conducted to explore the potential of passive control via slotted bladings in linear cascade configurations under stall condition. Through an extensive 2D-numerical study, the effects of location, width and slope of slots were analyzed and the best configuration was identified. Based on the optimal slot, the 3D aerodynamic performances of cascade were studied and the influence of slotted blading to control endwall flow was investigated. Both 2D and 3D calculations are performed on steady RANS solver with standard k-epsilon turbulence model and low Mach number regime. The total loss coefficient, turning angle and flow visualizations on the blade and end-wall surfaces are adopted to describe the different configurations. The obtained results show, for 2D situation, that a maximum of almost 28% reduction in loss coefficient had been reached and the flow turning was increased with approximately 5. Concerning 3D flow fields the slots marked their benefit and delays the boundary layer separation on both end wall and blade suction surface at mid span.
Application of ANN in Pavement Engineering: State-of-Art

There has been much discussion about the impact and future of artificial intelligence (AI) in our lives and future generations. Many experts even believe that AI will “rule” the world. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have provided a convenient and often extremely accurate solution to problems within all fields, and can be seen as advanced general-purpose regression models that try to mimic the behavior of the human brain. The adoption and use of ANN-based methods in the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide is a clear sign of the successful use of neural nets in geomechanical and pavement systems. This work aims to provide an extensive and detailed state-of-the-art of the application of ANN models to pavement management, materials and design problems. Unlike former review articles published before 2014, this work is more descriptive and makes the review much more appealing to the reader by highlighting numerically and/or graphically the effectiveness and possible drawbacks of each ANN application.
The Importance of Dynamic Geometry Computer Software on Learners' Performance in Geometry.

The use of dynamic geometry computer software (DGCS) is important in educational environment, and it is more advantageous for learning mathematics comprehensively. This study examined the importance of dynamic geometry computer software on learners’ performance in geometry. A quasi experimental, non-equivalent control group was used. The instrument used in this study was geometry achievement mathematics test (GMAT) that comprised 15 multiple choices items. The GMAT was administered to 87 grade nine learners in two secondary schools in Tshwane south district, Gauteng Province South Africa. One school was used as experimental group and the second school was used as the control group. Data analysis employed the use of the statistical t-test independent sample. The result of the study shows that using DGCS is important in geometry whereby it improves the performance of learners. In addition, the results show that the software affects the female learners’ mathematics performances more positively than the male learners. Hence, the results of this study showed that there is great potential in using the DGCS (GeoGebra) to teach secondary schools mathematics. The study recommends that the use of technology in teaching and learning of mathematics should be a priority in the schools.
THE MUTUAL INFLUENCE OF VOWEL LENGTH PERCEPTION IN THE SECOND AND THIRD LANGUAGE

The aim of the paper is to examine the acquisition of vowel length as a distinctive feature from the multilingual perspective. A group of 26 L1 Polish first-year university students were presented with a discrimination task (ABX) juxtaposing minimal pairs containing vowel length contrasts in their L2 and L3. The participants shared English as their L2 but were subdivided into two groups according to their L3 (L3 German or L3 French). Since German and English share the feature of phonemic vowel length while French and Polish do not, it presents an opportunity to examine the role of typology as a motivating factor of Cross Linguistic Influence. The paper compares the results of the perception task between two foreign languages of a speaker, points to cross-group differences, and discusses the sources of CLI in L2 and L3 phonology.
of Lean Six Sigma Six Sigma learning evaluation model using Bloom ’ s Taxonomy

Purpose – This paper aims to propose a learning evaluation model for Green Belts and Black Belts at the training level. A question bank has been developed on the basis of Bloom’s learning classification and applied to a group of employees who were being trained in Six Sigma (SS). Their results were then used to decide on the students’ approval and to guide the instructor’s plan of teaching for the next classes. Design/methodology/approach – An action research has been conducted to develop a question bank of 310 questions based on the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, to implement the evaluation model, and to apply it during the SS training. Findings – The evaluation model has been designed so that the students do not proceed unless they have acquired the conceptual knowledge at each step of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) roadmap. At the end of the evaluation process, the students’ results have been analyzed. The number of mistakes in all stages of DMAIC was equal, implying that the training was uniform the entire roadmap. However, the opposite happened in each of the Bloom’s Taxonomy levels, showing that some skills need to be better stimulated by the instructor than others. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Brazilian agencies, namely, FAPEMIG (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas), CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior), MCTI (Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação) and CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnol ogico) for their support. IJLSS 9,1
Human resource management practices on organisational commitment : The Islamic perspective

Purpose – Islam urges all Muslims to perform their utmost best when they work. Giving the best requires full commitment. Employees’ commitment is influenced by many factors, including the management styles within the organisation. This paper aims to examine the management of human resources from the Islamic perspective and its effects on organisational commitment among selected employees in Islamic organisations in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a self-developed questionnaire that was personally distributed to employees. In total, 121 Muslim employees who work in various positions in eight Islamic organisations participated as respondents of this study. Findings – The findings revealed that the selected organisations frequently practise the Islamic approach in all its human resource management (HRM) functions. The results of correlation and regression analysis show that the Islamic approach in HRM was highly and significantly correlated to organisational commitment. About 45 per cent of the organisational commitment variance was explained by the Islamic approach in HRM. Practical implications – An introduction to the Islamic approach in HRM practices is an initial attempt to provide managers with an effective way of managing and understanding the people they work with. This knowledge would be useful to even non-Muslim managers. For Muslim human resource managers, it is essential for them to not only know but also to apply the Islamic approach in managing employees. Non-Muslim managers will have a better understanding of the expected behaviours of their Muslim employees. Muslim employees regardless for who they work are expected to be honest, trustworthy, and determined to continuously strive for the best. Originality/value – This study is unique from other previous studies. Instead of discussing Islamic management in general, this study explores in-depth every function of HRM based on authentic Islamic sources, as well as providing empirical evidence.
A MULTIGENE PHYLOGENY OF CERATOCYSTIS MANGINECANS INFECTING MANGO IN PAKISTAN

Mango trees (Mangifera indica L.) are affected by a serious wilt disease, recognized as mango sudden death first time reported in Muzafargargh Punjab, Pakistan in 1995. Its prevalent is in almost all mango growing areas with severity ranged from 2-5% in Punjab and 5-10% in Sindh. Survey and sampling was conducted during the year 2011-12, on mango orchids in different distracts of Punjab and Sindh and no location was found free from this Disease. For molecular identification, DNA was successfully extracted and was then amplified by using ITS, BT, TEF (600-800)primers through Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay andnucleotide evidence of Pakistani isolates (45 for each gene) exhibiting the maximum genetic homology with Ceratocystis manginecans (99-100%) followed by C. fimbriata (97%) and C. omanensis (80%) respectively. On the basics of morphological tools and comparison of nucleotide evidence of multi-genes, C. manginecans is different from C. fimbriata and C. omanensis which infect mango in Pakistan. The availability of disease-free planting material and management in combination with fertilization and proper irrigation system would help in improving orchard
Company Board Characteristics and Their Effect on CEO Turnover

This thesis studies the effects of company board diversity and CEO board membership on CEO turnover. Increasing gender diversity in the top management of companies has been a hot topic in media in recent years. Gender quotas on boards of directors have been implemented in several countries and more are planned. Age diversity has also been a topic for discussion and reseach albeit no quotas have been implemented on it yet. CEO being simultaneously chairman of the board is a common albeit somewhat criticised practice. There are no legal limitations on it yet. Academic studies have surveyd the effect of board characteristics not only on financial performance but also CEO turnover. CEO turnover is an important sign of board activity. It is therefore used as a proxy to measure how different variables affect board activity. The aspects studied in this thesis include i.a. board gender diversity, age diversity, CEO board membership and unexpected earnings change on CEO turnover. The data is from the database of Suomen Asiakastieto Oy ranging from years 2005 to 2014. The sample studied is large and consists of non-listed Finnish companies large enough to have at least three board members. The main analyses are done with binomial logistic regression with CEO change as the dichotomous dependent variable. The study has similarities with those of Weisbach (1988) in terms of variable formation and setup. The results of this study are partially in line with earlier literature. Increasing age diversity was found to decrease CEO turnover with all studied analysis settings. Increasing gender diversity was found to decrease CEO turnover in companies with smaller boards but in companies with larger boards the predictor was statistically insignificant. Increasing unexpected earnings change, i.e. overperformance relative to peers, was found to have a negative effect on CEO turnover in most analyses performed. CEO being on board was found to have a negative effect on CEO turnover in companies with smaller boards. With larger boards, however, the effect was reversed. The effects of gender diversity and age diversity suggest that increasing them decreases board activity/monitoring power. Positive earnings performance relative to peers had a negative effect on turnover as expected. The effect of CEO board membership was as expected in smaller companies but surprising in larger companies. The results indicate that if one wants a board that can take a more active role, one should have a less age and gender diverse board. In smaller companies the board should be withouth CEO.
Rituximab Utilization Evaluation with Focused on Available Evidence for Off-Labeled Indications

Background: To investigate the on-labeled and off-labeled indications of rituximab according to available evidence and the cost benefit of using this expensive drug. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted between August 2016 and August 2017 at a teaching hospital affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Patients’ demographic data and disease, indication for rituximab use, its dosage and treatment regimen and previous and concurrent treatments was assessed. The collected data were compared with the current criteria for the pattern of rituximab use. The last version of Lexicomp® acquired by Wolters Kluwer was used as the reference for on-labeled and off-labeled indications of the prescribed drug and its dosage. Level of evidences for applied indications and cost has also been evaluated. Results: A total of 85 patients received rituximab during the study period. The most frequent reasons for rituximab prescription were: multiple sclerosis (50.58%), systemic sclerosis (10.58%), rheumatoid arthritis (7.05%) and Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (4.70%). Rituximab was used in 8 (9.4%) cases according to on-labeled indications. There was level C evidence for rituximab use in off-labeled indications in 47 (55.29%) cases according to available evidences which accounts for the highest calculated cost. Conclusion:Based on our results, rituximab was frequently administrated for off-labeled indications most of which are not supported by established levels of evidence. The total cost was higher for level C evidence indications of off labeled rituximab than for indications with a higher level of evidence (A and B). So, strong evidence is necessary for decision making regarding its effectiveness and its cost benefit. J Pharm Care 2019; 7(1-2): 14-20.
The Dependability of Voice on Elders' Acceptance of Humanoid Agents

The research on ambient assistive technology is concerned with features humanoid agents should show in order to gain user acceptance. However, differently aged groups may have different requirements. This paper is particularly focused on agent’s voice preferences among elders, young adults, and adolescents. To this aim 316 users organized in groups of 45/46 subjects of which 3 groups of elders (65+ years old), 2 of young adults (aged between 22-35 years), and 2 of adolescents (aged between 14-16 years) were recruited and administered the Virtual Agent Acceptance Questionnaire (VAAQ), after watching video-clips of mute and speaking agents, in order to test their preferences in terms of willingness to interact, pragmatic and hedonic qualities, and attractiveness, of proposed speaking and mute agents. In addition, the elders were also tested on listening only the agent’s. The results suggest that voice is primary for getting elder’s acceptance of virtual humanoid agents in contrast to young adults and adolescents which accept equally well either mute or speaking agents.
A . 1 Shear Behavior of Transversely Grouped Shear Studs

In composite steel bridges, shear studs provide additional load paths that allow transfer of load from the 4 intact and failed members to the slab, while non-composite steel bridges only rely on frictional forces and 5 bond at the interface between the slab and the steel. In composite bridges, the load transfer between the 6 concrete slab and the steel members is affected by the behavior of the shear studs, which can be divided 7 into major components: tensile behavior, and shear behavior. Neuman (2009) [1] showed the superior 8 ability of composite bridges to transfer load when shear studs are adequately embedded in the slab. Neuman 9 conducted full-scale experiments on a simple span twin tub girder bridge that underwent failure of the 10 bottom flange and web of one of the tub girders, but did not initially result in structural collapse (the 11 structure was subsequently loaded to failure). Although in the experiments conducted by Neuman it was 12 shown that shear studs contribute to the redundant load transfer mechanisms, the failure of a primary steel 13 tension member can lead to failure of several shear studs if excessive load transfer demands exist (i.e., the 14 studs fail or pullout). These failures may compromise the ability of the faulted structure to develop alternate 15 load paths and could result in collapse of the entire bridge; hence, shear studs have vital importance in the 16 evaluation on redundancy for composite steel bridges with members designated as fracture critical members 17 (FCMs) or system redundant members (SRMs). It is important to include proper shear stud properties 18 which cover the shear, tensile, and combined shear and tensile behavior. The methodology developed in 19 this study to obtain the stiffness, strength, and ductility of transversely grouped shear studs is explained 20 hereafter. The suggested methodology is valid for up to three transversely grouped shear studs. 21
Investigating the Robustness of Sequence-to-Sequence Text-to-Speech Models to Imperfectly-Transcribed Training Data

Sequence-to-sequence (S2S) text-to-speech (TTS) models can synthesise high quality speech when large amounts of annotated training data are available. Transcription errors exist in all data and are especially prevalent in found data such as audiobooks. In previous generations of TTS technology, alignment using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) was widely used to identify and eliminate bad data. In S2S models, the use of attention replaces HMM-based alignment, and there is no explicit mechanism for removing bad data. It is not yet understood how such models deal with transcription errors in the training data. We evaluate the quality of speech from S2S-TTS models when trained on data with imperfect transcripts, simulated using corruption, or provided by an Automatic Speech Recogniser (ASR). We find that attention can skip over extraneous words in the input sequence, providing robustness to insertion errors. But substitutions and deletions pose a problem because there is no ground truth input available to align to the ground truth acoustics during teacher-forced training. We conclude that S2S-TTS systems are only partially robust to training on imperfectlytranscribed data and further work is needed.
India ’ s agricultural export to Vietnam in the context of ASEAN-India free trade agreement : A partial equilibrium approach

Vietnam is the major agricultural export destination of India among Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The study has examined the possibility of market access for India in Vietnam for the selected agricultural products under ASEAN-India Free Trade Agreement by employing a partial equilibrium model developed by the World Bank. The simulations are carried out for the agricultural products which together constitutes more than 80 per cent of the India’s export basket. The results revealed that, India can gain market share in Vietnam in meat products, fisheries, cotton for which Vietnam offers substantial tariff reduction to India under Agreement. The export promotion for these commodities can be done to harness maximum trade potential with Vietnam.
Multiagent Evaluation Mechanisms

We consider settings where agents are evaluated based on observed features, and assume they seek to achieve feature values that bring about good evaluations. Our goal is to craft evaluation mechanisms that incentivize the agents to invest effort in desirable actions; a notable application is the design of course grading schemes. Previous work has studied this problem in the case of a single agent. By contrast, we investigate the general, multi-agent model, and provide a complete characterization of its computational complexity.
Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: The case of Chinese banana investments in Northern Laos

In the context of the ‘global land grab’, the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic has been identified as a hotspot for large-scale land acquisitions sought by capital strong foreign investors. However, in the rapidly commercialising agrarian landscape of northern Laos, other and more subtle forms of land acquisitions are also taking place. These are mainly pursued by smaller companies and private investors promoting cash-crops in contract-farming arrangements or renting agricultural land from farmers on short-term contracts; often with little or no initial involvement of the government actors. This paper investigates such ‘small-scale’ land acquisitions in relation to the recent boom in banana investments in Long District, Luang Namtha Province. Here, banana investments have increased rapidly since 2008-9 with Chinese investors establishing plantations on land rented for 3 to 6 years in the easily accessible and fertile lowland areas along the main district road. Taking point of departure in the experiences of a small minority community in Long District, where two different banana investors established plantations in 2011, the paper focus on the network of actors involved in bringing about banana investments, the strategies employed by investors for gaining access to land, and the agrarian transformations that follows in relation to local agricultural production. The paper is based on data collected through fieldwork in Laos in April-May and August-December 2014 using semi-structured and group interviews, informal conversations, participant observation, and household questionnaires. Two aspects of this study contribute to the ongoing discussion in the ‘global land grab’ debate. Firstly, the results show that despite the small scale of the investments and the short term contracts, the actual land use transformation induced by the plantations represent a strong alienation of land. Secondly, the analysis reveals how the banana investors, circumventing government actors, establish a network of local land brokers and middlemen, relying on personal relationships and ‘snowballing’ techniques to identify suitable land areas and facilitate negotiations over land directly with farmers. Furthermore, the investors employ the full range of ‘powers of exclusion’ (Hall et al., 2011) to gain control over the land. Thus, while these ‘small-scale’ land acquisitions might appear to represent a less dramatic enclosure than long-term and large-scale concessions, the contractual arrangements and the land use conversion they entail have significant implications for changing access to resources, land and general livelihood opportunities for the local communities involved.
FOR MATRIX FAILURE IN CONTINUOUS FRP-COMPOSITES-A LITERATURE STUDY . PART 1 : MATRIX CRACKING

Several criteria for the onset of matrix cracking in brittle FRP-composites have been reviewed and different methods to determine the stress distribution in cracked cross-ply laminate in conjunction with fracture based criteria have been compared with each other. A critical survey of these criteria showed that due to heterogenity of composite material, statistical variability of the mechanical properties and enviromental effects, gross simplifications in the crack growth characterization of these materials must be made. Consequently, the criteria presented here may be applicable only to very limited type of specimen geometry, material configurations, enviromental conditions, and loading types.