Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Paranoid styles and innumeracy: implications of a conspiracy mindset on Europeans' misperceptions about immigrants

Abstract Innumeracy, that is, the inability to deal with numbers and provide correct estimates about political issues, is reported to be widespread among the public. Yet, despite the recognition that a conspiracy mindset is an increasingly common phenomenon in Western democracies, this has not been considered as a potential correlate of innumeracy. Using data from an online sample of respondents across 10 European countries, we show that those with a higher propensity to hold a conspiracy worldview tend to overestimate the actual share of the immigrant population living in their own country. This association holds true when accounting for country heterogeneity and other cognitive, affective and socio-demographic factors. Employing a comparative design and refined measurements, the article contributes to our understanding of how a conspiracy mentality may influence perceptions of relevant political facts, questioning basic processes of democratic accountability.
Robust Distribution-Free Hybrid Exponentially Weighted Moving Average Schemes Based on Simple Random Sampling and Ranked Set Sampling Techniques

This paper proposes new nonparametric hybrid exponentially weighted moving average (HEWMA) control charts based on simple random sampling (SRS) and ranked set sampling (RSS) techniques using the Wilcoxon rank-sum W statistic. The in-control robustness and out-of-control (OOC) performances are thoroughly investigated using extensive simulations. The HEWMA W chart is shown to be superior to the basic exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) and double EWMA W charts in many cases under normal and nonnormal distributions. Moreover, the OOC sensitivities of the new HEWMA W -type control charts are further improved by using supplementary 2-of-2 and 2-of-3 standard and improved runs-rules approaches. It is found that the proposed HEWMA W -type charts with runs-rules perform better than the basic HEWMA W SRS and RSS charts. Real-life data based on the impurity of iron ore are used to illustrate the design and implementation of the new control charts.
Hydrochemical Evaluation of the Tigris River from Mosul to South of Baghdad Cities, Iraq

Aims of this Study: To investigate the climate change{effects in Iraq on the quality and quantity of the water of the Tigris River from {Mosul” city to South of Baghdad city.00 This paper provides a review of the observed and the predicted impacts of climate change on the water quality in the Tigris River in Iraq. Study Design: Cross-Sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study area is starting {from Mosul city which is located in {the north part of Iraq to the Al-Azziziyah city located in the south of Baghdad (2005-2012) . Methodology: The current study was include the available historical data which are the discharge and hydrochemical analysis includes (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO4, HCO3, TDS,NO3, and EC) were taken from 6 stations along the Tigris’ River from Mosul to the south of Baghdad’ cities for the years 2005 to 20112. The available historical climate data’ includes (Rainfall and Temperature) for the period 1990-2012. In this paper also, used some of pervious studies and compared them with the current results. Results: The average annual flow of the Tigris River in Mosul station for the period (1990-2012) ranged between’ (193.8-906) m3/sec and for Sammarra station ranged between’ (366-977) m3/sec. Then, between south of Sammarra’city and north of Baghdad city, Canal of Dijla’joins the Tigris River has a discharge ranges between’ (9-217) m3/sec. After that, the ’Tigris River inter to Baghdad city, the discharge value range between’ (392-1173) m3/sec’and continue his flow to the south of Baghdad city and Diyala River joins it with discharge’range between (55-193) m3/sec. Finally, the Tigris River reaches to’Al-Azizziyah city station with’discharge ranges between (134-769) m3/sec. Conclusion: In general the water quality of the Tigris River are sulfates, calcium, and magnesium. But in Canal of Dijla the most dominant ion is sodium due to agricultural activities and geology of the area consist of gypsum rocks and this can be effects on water quality of Tigris River in the next station (Baghdad). In Al-Azizziyah city the sulfates, calcium, and Sodium is high level due to drainage from irrigation, industrial“and domestic activities.
Effect of flaking on the digestibility of corn in ruminants

Abstract In this study, we aimed to assess the effect of flaking on the nutrient digestibility of corn grain in ruminants. In this regard, in vitro rumen fermentation, in situ rumen degradability, and in vivo metabolic experiments were performed. The automated gas production technique was used for the in vitro fermentation experiments. Six types of corn flakes with various degrees of gelatinization (32%, 41%, 48%, 66%, 86%, and 89%) were ground and incubated in rumen fluid to measure rumen fermentation characteristics and digestion rate. The in situ degradability of ground corn, whole corn, and corn flakes with 62% and 66% gelatinization was measured by incubation in the rumen of two cannulated Holstein cows. In vivo metabolic experiments were performed using 12 crossbred goats (29.8 ± 4.37 kg) using a 3 × 3 Latin square design. The dietary treatments consisted of ground corn and flaked corn with 48% or 62% gelatinization. In vitro experiments showed that as the degree of gelatinization increased, the digestion rate increased linearly, while the discrete lag time decreased linearly (p < 0.05). The effective rumen dry matter degradability, determined by in situ fermentation, was 37%p lower in corn flakes than ground corn, assuming a passage rate of 6%/h (p < 0.01), and there was no difference between the two flakes. In the in vivo experiment, there was no difference in dry matter intake, average daily gain, feed efficiency, and nitrogen utilization among the treatment groups (p > 0.05); however, the crude fat digestibility was lower for corn flakes than for ground corn (p < 0.05). To summarize, the rate of fermentation of corn flakes increased as the degree of gelatinization increased. However, non-ground corn flakes had lower rumen digestibility and did not improve in vivo apparent nutrient digestibility, compared with ground corn. In contrast to the assumption that flaked corn provides more energy to ruminant animals than ground corn, we conclude that the digestibility and energy value of corn flakes are lower than those of ground corn if mastication does not sufficiently reduce the particle size of corn flakes.
Knowledge and Attitude of Malaysian Fruit Growers on Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Integrated pest management (IPM) is a sustainable approach for pest control. However, the adoption of IPM remains low in Malaysia. The main objectives of this study were to identify the knowledge level and attitude of Malaysian fruit farmers on IPM. A total number of 150 respondents were selected through a non-random sampling method and the data was collected through an online questionnaire. The knowledge level and attitude of the respondents were accessed on a scoring scale of one to five. The respondents recorded a moderate knowledge of IPM with a mean score of 3.36. However, farmers showed poor knowledge on different modes of action of pesticides (2.25), and the ability to identify insect pests (2.25). The respondents showed a positive attitude on IPM with a mean score of 3.58. Among the attitude aspects, farmers displayed a positive attitude on the cost-effectiveness of IPM (3.53) and are willing to learn and adopt IPM practices (4.35). The Spearman’s correlation test revealed that there was no significant correlation between age and educational level of farmers on their knowledge on IPM. The findings of this study could assist in the development of IPM programs for better country wide IPM adoption.
Pre- and post-weaning performance of piglets offered different types of creep feed

Abstract: We determined the impact of creep feed provision and type on pre- and post-weaning growth performance of piglets. At 2 wk post farrow, litters (n = 50) were given no creep feed or provided a simple creep feed, a complex creep feed, or both until weaning at ∼28 d. Creep feed, regardless of type, resulted in increased growth (P < 0.05) of piglets in the final week pre-weaning and immediate week post-weaning, which was not maintained at the end of the nursery period. Piglets showed no preference for creep feed type (P > 0.05).
Scenario modelling of carbon mineralization in 3D soil architecture at the microscale: Toward an accessibility coefficient of organic matter for bacteria

The microscale physical characteristics of microbial habitats considerably affect the decomposition of organic matter in soils. One of the challenges is to identify microheterogeneities in soil that can explain the extent of carbon mineralization. The aim of this study was therefore to identify descriptors of μm‐scale soil heterogeneity that can explain CO2 fluxes obtained at the mm scale. A suite of methods and models that visualize soil heterogeneity at scales relevant to microorganisms has been developed over the last decade. Among the existing 3D models that simulate microbial activity in soils, Mosaic is able to simulate, within a short computation time, the microbial degradation of organic matter at the microhabitat scale in soil using real 3D images of soil porosity. Our approach was to generate scenarios of carbon mineralization for various microscale environmental conditions and determine how the descriptors of soil structure could explain CO2 evolution. First, we verified that the simulated diffusion of solutes in the soil samples obtained with Mosaic were the same as those obtained using the same parameter set from a robust 3D model based on a lattice Boltzmann approach. Then, we ran scenarios considering different soil pore architectures, water saturations and microorganism and organic matter placements. We found that the CO2 emissions simulated for the different scenarios could be explained by the distance between microorganisms and organic matter, the diffusion of the substrate and the concentration of the available substrate. For some of the scenarios, we proposed a descriptor of accessibility based on the geodesic distance between microorganisms and organic matter weighted by the amount of organic matter. This microscale descriptor is correlated to the simulated CO2 flux with a correlation coefficient of 0.69.
The Female Penalty for Novelty and the Offsetting Effect of Alternate Status Characteristics

Abstract:Research has shown that audiences penalize novelty in women's work but also that such penalty may vary. This study builds on theories of uncertainty and status signaling to identify contingencies that may account for the variation in the female penalty for novelty, particularly in the production of technological and scientific knowledge. Drawing on theories of expectation states and gender status beliefs, I posit that peer audiences have a baseline bias against novelty in women's work and penalize novelty in female authors' contributions. However, when authors possess status characteristics that are more task-relevant than gender, this penalty erodes. I identify two academic status characteristics, prestigious graduate degrees and prestigious mentors, which offset the female penalty for novelty. Longitudinal multisource data on the productivity of academic engineers show that female engineers who have these characteristics face no significant citation penalty for the novelty of their work. Implications of these findings for gender inequality and for policies that aim to reduce it are discussed.
Exploring emergent co-creative narrative in a strategy video game brand

ABSTRACT This research examines the concept of emergent narrative, located in Game Studies, and brand co-creation, located in Brand Management to bring together both disciplines to produce new understandings about both concepts, video games and their players. Two stages of research were conducted. It was found that players were taking part in brand co-creation behaviours by creating emergent narratives, some of which were quite elaborate. Although these emergent narratives provided no gameplay advantages, creators and other players reading them online derived enjoyment from them which enhanced their consumption of the video game brand. By innovatively bringing together two synergistic disciplines this research extends knowledge about video game media branding demonstrating how examining video game brands using concepts from multiple disciplines can provide rich and useful insights.
Two-dimensional Flow of Power-law Fluids over a Pair of Cylinders in a Side-by-Side Arrangement in the Laminar Regime

This manuscript presents the effect of Reynolds number (Re) and proximity of the bodies on the hydrodynamics of flow of shear-thinning, Newtonian and shear-thickening fluids over a pair of cylinders kept in side-by-side arrangement. Results obtained from the numerical simulations carried out with a combination of different parameters in the range of 0.2 ≤ power law index (n) ≤ 1.8, 0.1 ≤ Re ≤ 100 and 1.2 ≤ G (gap between the cylinders/diameter) ≤ 4 have been discussed in details. Analysis of the results gives a clear insight into the complex influence of Re on streamline patterns, surface pressure profiles, drag and lift coefficients for various fluids when the gap between two cylinder is changed.
Synthesis of β-cyclodextrin Functionalized silica nanoparticles and their effects on the dielectric, optical and electro-optic properties of nematic liquid crystal

ABSTRACT The present work reported the synthesis and characterisation of β-cyclodextrin (βCD) grafted into silica (SiO2@βCD) nanoparticles (NPs). Morphology analysis shows that the prepared NPs have a spherical shape with 170 nm of size. The electro-optic, dielectric and viscoelastic properties of SiO2@βCD doped nematic 5CB were examined in different concentrations of the NPs. A decrease in clearing temperature, birefringence and the order of the nanocomposite systems as compared to the pure system was observed. Dielectric parameters of pure and doped samples were measured in the frequency range of 1–2 MHz. Ionic conductivity and dielectric anisotropy increase significantly with NPs concentration due to the strong dipole moment and polarisability of SiO2@βCD. The advantage of dopedSiO2@βCDnematic 5CB is attributed to the significant decrements in threshold voltage by 32% and strong additional coupling of the electrical dipole moments in the spherical NPs with the nematic director field. On the other hand, it is found that the NPs exhibit a decreasing effect on the response time of the nematic liquid crystal, which is demonstrated by the decrement in the viscosity. The results indicate that doping SiO2@βCD is appropriate to fabricate a fast response LC device. Graphical abstract
The Impact of dental wear on the analysis of morphological affinities based on dental non-metric traits

Dental wear is described as a limitation to dental morphological studies, as it obscures important crown trait features, resulting in significant differences on trait frequencies, an essential component for estimating biodistances. However, the actual impact of dental wear on biological distances still requires further characterization. We explore the impact of dental wear on morphological affinities for Brazilian pre-colonial series in the context of worldwide reference series. Twenty crown traits were scored using the Arizona State University Dental Anthropological System, and dental wear was quantified as an ordinal scale between 1 (no wear) and 8 (crown eroded). Seven crown trait frequencies are significantly associated with dental wear (p<0.05), demonstrating its impact on their analysis. To explore this impact on biodistances, data was divided by wear categories (all teeth, low-wear, moderate/severe wear) and morphological affinities among series was compared through Euclidean distances, Mean Measure of Divergence, and Principal Component Analysis. Results show the impact of wear is only meaningful when a sample contains many wear-biased traits with only moderate/severe wear. We conclude despite the impact of wear on individual trait frequencies, its impact on morphological affinities can be mitigated by including other variables or when comparisons focus only on large-scale biological differences.
Ensuring Employee Job Security When Implementing Changes in the Company: A Case Study of Lithuanian Industry

The process of companies undertaking adaptation in the face of changing conditions that have been influenced by factors such as globalization, technological changes, environmental changes, competition, political decisions, worker mobility, population structure, and so on is one of the major challenges of modern corporate governance. Changes in a company are inevitable, but they do not always directly correlate with employees’ sense of security, including whether an employee feels safe about their workplace, income, or future roles in the company in the face of potential changes. There is an inverse relationship between employees’ sense of security and their time spent with the company. One way of managing this that can help to ensure a sense of security for employees within the company is to directly involve them in the process of implementing changes in the organization. The main goal of this paper is to highlight the principal aspects of employee engagement in change management processes and to gain an increased level of understanding in terms of the implementation of change at the organizational level by involving employees. Research methods: a systematic and comparative analysis of concepts and methods that have been published in the available scientific literature, statistical processing, an instrumental case study, interviews, surveys, and a content analysis of strategic documents, followed by modeling. The theoretical contribution of the paper demonstrates construction of methodology guided by the emergent perspective and new theoretical insights on professional discourse. Practical input shows that employee involvement in change processes is directly related to the speed of strategic change in the company.
Imitation Recognition by Minimally Verbal Young Children: A Comparison Between Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Research has shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display limited imitation recognition behaviors in comparison with typically developing children. However, the levels of imitation recognition of minimally verbal children with ASD relative to those with developmental disabilities are unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare the imitation recognition behaviors of 20 minimally verbal children with ASD and 20 minimally verbal children with Down syndrome (DS) when imitated by an adult in a play context. Results showed that children with ASD display more limited imitation recognition than children with DS. These results indicate that children with ASD are weaker in displaying imitation recognition. However, both groups displayed an association between imitation recognition and a variety of play actions in both groups.
Alternative economic and shortened method for the production of dried germinated rice

Abstract Since germination creates chalky grain around the entire surface of the kernel, it is commonly eliminated by steaming germinated paddy before drying. In this work, a continuous fluidized bed with a capacity of 100 kg/h was therefore used to treat the chalkiness with high-temperature hot air. The performance of this dryer in terms of water evaporation capacity and energy consumption along with the quality attributes was determined quantitatively. Two crops of Khao Dawk Mali 105 stored for 1 month and 8 and 9 months were used as the raw material. Hot air at temperatures of 130–150 °C with full recycling of the exhaust air was able to eliminate the chalkiness perfectly. The best performance, as indicated by higher water evaporation capacity and lower energy consumption, was obtained at a higher feed rate, higher bed depth and higher drying temperature. The higher bed depth and drying temperature provided a higher degree of starch gelatinization and the correspondingly higher head brown rice yield and hardness of the cooked germinated brown rice except for stickiness. Within the studied drying temperature range, the amount of accumulated gamma-aminobutyric acid after drying the rice which had been stored for 1 month decreased slightly compared to that of the sun-dried product, in a range of 11.4–12.6 mg per 100 g, and decreased significantly for the rice which had been stored for 8 and 9 months. The storage period also influenced the texture after cooking. It is recommended that to obtain the premium quality from the germinated product, the paddy should be stored for 1 month, and a drying temperature of approximately 130˚C should be applied. Under the recommended conditions, the energy consumption was about 1.13 MJ/kg of paddy, and the operating cost of the continuous fluidized bed was 0.17 USD/kg, which was more economical than that of the conventional method.
The future of wildlife conservation funding: What options do U.S. college students support?

Insufficient funding is a major impediment to conservation efforts around the world. In the United States, a decline in hunting participation threatens sustainability of the “user‐pay, public benefit” model that has supported wildlife conservation for nearly 100 years, forcing wildlife management agencies to contemplate alternative funding strategies. We investigated support for potential funding options among diverse college students, a rapidly expanding and politically active voting bloc with a potentially powerful influence on the future of conservation. From 2018 to 2020, we surveyed 17,203 undergraduate students at public universities across 22 states. Students preferred innovative approaches to conservation funding, with 72% supporting funding derived from industry sources (e.g., natural resource extraction companies), 63% supporting state sources (e.g., general sales tax), and 43% supporting conventional user‐based sources such as license fees and excise taxes associated with outdoor recreation activities (e.g., hunting). Findings emphasize the need to broaden the base of support for conservation funding and highlight the importance of considering the preferences and perspectives of young adults and other diverse beneficiaries of wildlife conservation.