Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving Grammar Achievement through Using Metatalk considering Iranian EFL Learners with Advanced Language Proficiency

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of metatalk activity on Iranian Advanced EFL Learners' knowledge of passive tenses. 60 advanced level institute learners, who participated in this study, were randomly selected via a language proficiency test (TOEFL). Those who got ±1SD in the test were chosen. They were randomly assigned into two experimental and control groups with 20 participants in every group. An English grammar test related to the usage of passive tenses was administered to both groups in the pre and post-tests. Treatment sessions lasted for 8 sessions but with different methodologies. Teacher in both groups explained about different passive tenses in every treatment sessions. However, learners in the experimental group were treated with metatalk activity and they tried to complete exercises collaboratively with their peers and teachers. They have to complete a dictogloss task with the help of their peers due to focus on learning passive verb tenses. While the control group did not received dictogloss as a metatalk activity and completed the exercises at home and the next session checked the answers. A posttest of grammar was then administered to both groups. The data of the study were analyzed using the independent samples t-test to compare the means of grammar knowledge in both groups. The results revealed that Iranian EFL learners in the experimental group received higher score in the grammar test after being treated with metatalk activity for 8 sessions. It can be conclude that metatalk is an effective method for teaching grammatical knowledge and teachers can use it in their classes.
Effect of Inorganic Fertilizer Micro-dosing and Weed Management Regimes on Finger Millet Productivity in Uganda

Finger millet yields in farmers’ fields are low primarily due to low soil fertility and poor weed management. Fertilizer application could be one of the key strategies used to address the problem. However, due to high cost of fertilizer, its utilization has been limited to very few farmers in the country. Consequently, a study was conducted in Kuju sub-county, Amuria district in Eastern Uganda during 2016 long and short rains to determine the effect of micro dosing and weeding time on finger millet performance and weed growth. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design in a split plot treatment structure. Weeding times constituted the main plot [weeding at 20 DAS (days after sowing), 30 DAS, 45 DAS, and 20 & 45 DAS (double weeding)], while fertilizer rates (N 16.6 kg ha-1 + P2O5 10.6 kg ha-1; P2O5 10.6 kg ha-1; N 16.6 kg ha-1; N0 + P0, and N 83 kg ha-1 + P2O5 52 kg ha-1) constituted the sub plots. Results of this study revealed that the interaction between weeding at 45 DAS and fertilizer micro-dosing significantly (P < 0.05) reduced weed biomass (7.7 × 10-4 kg ha-1) without significant increase in finger-millet grain yield. Interaction of fertilizer micro-dosing (N 16.6 kg ha-1 + P2O5 10.6 kg ha-1) with weeding once at 20 DAS recorded the highest (2292 kg ha-1) finger millet grain yield with significant (P < 0.05) reduction in days to finger millet flowering. Therefore, it is recommended that fertilizer micro-dosing at N 16.6 kg ha-1 + P2O5 10.6 kg ha-1 and weeding once at 20 DAS can be used to control weeds and enhance finger-millet productivity.
Success-Driving Business Model Characteristics of IaaS Providers – Towards a Quantitative Evaluation

Despite the highly competitive situation within the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market and the resulting pressure and uncertainty for the involved providers, only little knowledge is available about business model characteristics (BMCs) related to success. Merely few qualitative studies are existing that propose hypotheses on success-driving business model characteristics (SDBMCs), however, a general and comparative quantitative evaluation and thus an evidence for their impact on business success is still missing. But this knowledge is essential for IaaS providers as it would allow them to focus their limited resources and efforts on the truly decisive BMCs and, at the same time, save costs by avoiding activities and investments of minor importance. Aiming to reduce this gap, a web-based survey was carried out, in which representatives of IaaS providers of different size rated the level of relevance of the proposed SDBMCs. As this study is still going on, this paper focuses on presenting the study design and an analysis of the data collected so far. As a preliminary result, nearly 80 % of the SDBMCs were rated as extremely important or important, meaning that the existing qualitative research results were confirmed to a high degree. The relevance of the individual SDBMCs varies greatly depending on the IaaS provider’s size
The University of Edinburgh’s English-Tamil and English-Inuktitut Submissions to the WMT20 News Translation Task

We describe the University of Edinburgh’s submissions to the WMT20 news translation shared task for the low resource language pair English-Tamil and the mid-resource language pair English-Inuktitut. We use the neural machine translation transformer architecture for all submissions and explore a variety of techniques to improve translation quality to compensate for the lack of parallel training data. For the very low-resource English-Tamil, this involves exploring pretraining, using both language model objectives and translation using an unrelated high-resource language pair (German-English), and iterative backtranslation. For English-Inuktitut, we explore the use of multilingual systems, which, despite not being part of the primary submission, would have achieved the best results on the test set.
Splintering with distributions and polytopes: Unconventional schemes for private computation

Performing computations while maintaining privacy is an important problem in todays distributed machine learning solutions. Consider the following two set ups between a client and a server, where in setup i) the client has a public data vector x , the server has a large private database of data vectors B and the client wants to ﬁnd the inner products (cid:104) x , y k (cid:105) , ∀ y k ∈ B . The client does not want the server to learn x while the server does not want the client to learn the records in its database. This is in contrast to another setup ii) where the client would like to perform an operation solely on its data, such as computation of a matrix inverse on its data matrix M , but would like to use the superior computing ability of the server to do so without having to leak M to the server. We present a stochastic as well as a polyhedral combinatorics scheme for splitting the client data into privatized shares that are transmitted to the server in such settings. The server performs the requested operations on these shares instead of on the raw client data at the server. The obtained intermediate results are sent back to the client where they are assembled by the client to obtain the ﬁnal result. We present such schemes for operations such as sigmoid, softmax, matrix inverse, inner product on real-valued data and for linear computation on one-hot encoded data.
Thermoregulation of gene expression in encapsulated cells by magnetic field-directed, nanoparticle-mediated heat induction

Cell and gene therapies have an enormous range of potential applications, but as for most other therapies, dosing is a critical issue, which makes regulated gene expression a prerequisite for advanced strategies. Several inducible expression systems have been established, which mainly rely on small molecules as inducers, such as hormones or antibiotics. Here we describe a novel system for induction of gene expression in encapsulated cells. This involves the modification of cells to express potential therapeutic genes under the control of a heat inducible promoter and the co-encapsulation of these cells with magnetic nanoparticles. Magnetic nanoparticles produce heat when subjected to an alternating magnetic field, the elevated temperatures in the capsules then induce gene expression. In the present study we define the parameters of such systems and provide proof-of-principle using reporter gene constructs. The fine-tuned heating of nanoparticles in the magnetic field allows regulation of gene expression from the outside over a broad range and within short time. Such a system has great potential for advancement of cell and gene therapy approaches. APPENDIX _________________________________________________________________________________ 130 7.5. 2. Oral presentation ÖGBM, ÖGGGT, ÖGBT, ANGT Joint Annual Meeting 2008, Graz, 22. –
IN VITRO REGENERATION OF JACKFRUIT (ARTOCARPUS HETEROPHYLLUS LAM., MORACEAE) IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE

Sopie Edwige-Salomé YAPO1,*, Manéhonon Martine BEUGRÉ 1, Yao Kouakou François KONAN1, Koutoua AYOLIE1, Goné Fabrice DIEN1 and Tanoh Hilaire KOUAKOU2 1Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé, UFR Agroforesterie, Laboratoire d’Amélioration de la Production Agricole, Département de Génétique, Biologie et Physiologie, BP 150 Daloa, Côte d’Ivoire 2Université Nangui Abrogoua, UFR des Sciences de la Nature, Laboratoire de Biologie et Amélioration des Productions Végétales, BP 801 Abidjan 02, Cote d’Ivoire
REFRAMING UNSUPERVISED MACHINE CONDITION MONITORING AS A SUPERVISED CLASSIFICATION TASK WITH OUTLIER-EXPOSED CLASSIFIERS

This technical report contains a detailed summary of our submissions to the Unsupervised Detection of Anomalous Sounds for Machine Condition Monitoring (MCM) Task of the IEEE AASP Challenge on Detection and Classiﬁcation of Acoustic Scenes and Events 2020 (DCASE). The goal of acoustic MCM is to identify whether a sound emitted from a machine is normal or anomalous. In contrast to the task coordinator’s conjecture that ’this task cannot be solved as a simple classiﬁcation problem,’ we show that a simple binary classiﬁer substantially outperforms the provided unsupervised Au-toencoder baseline across all machine types and instances, if out-liers i.e., various other recordings, are available. In addition to this technical description, we release our complete source code to make our submission fully reproducible 1 .
Sustainability of Maize-Based Production Practices among Small-scale Maize Farmers in Anambra State, Nigeria

Quick Response Code Abstract: The study assessed sustainability of maize-based production practices among small-scale maize farmers in Anambra State, Nigeria. Purposive and random sampling techniques were used to select 180 respondents used for the study while data were generated using questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data generated. The study indicated that the existing sustainable maize-based production practices that can enhance maize production in the area were adequate fertilizer use ( ̅=4.13), pest and disease control ( ̅=3.84), planting of hybrid maize ( ̅=3.66), use of animal manure ( ̅=3.57), planting cover crop ( ̅=3.51) and early planting ( ̅=3.20). Also, the result shows that maize production in the study area is somewhat sustainable since the sustainability index of 51.0% was recorded which is little above average score. Finally, on the constraints militating against sustainability of maize production, the farmers observed that economic problems such as high labour cost (0.802), high cost of fertilizer (0.796), high price of quality seed (0.710), inadequate capital (0.645) and low cost of cob (0.582) posed the greatest threat to sustainability of maize production followed by natural factors such as erosion menace (0.643), incidence of pest and diseases (0.629), destruction of cobs by flood, drought and storms (0.625) and destruction of cobs by other animals (0.588); while social factors such as lack or no access to land (0.892) and poor infrastructure (0.642) were not left out. Based on the findings of the study, there is need for the Government, relevant non-governmental bodies and stakeholders to invest in the sustainability of maize production among smallscale farmers, in order to ensure steady supply of maize and it products at a cheaper price, by providing necessary and dependable assistants such as provision of subsidized inputs and low interest loans.
Variability in Berry Maturation of Concord and Cabernet franc in a Cool Climate

Variability in the ripening and maturation of fruit impacts its composition and ultimate quality. A study was conducted in 2006 and 2007 in two commercial vineyards in the Finger Lakes area of New York to assess the degree of biological variability in the commercially important red grape varieties Concord and Cabernet franc (CF). Vines, clusters, and berries were examined for variability in berry size, deformability or softness, color, cluster weight, and soluble solids by calculating the coefficient of variation. Variability was highest early in fruit development and decreased considerably by harvest. Berry diameter variability at harvest was as high as 11% in CF, while deformability varied as much as 38% in Concord. Variability in cluster weight in CF was as high as 45%, while soluble solids variability in Concord reached 14%. Variability in berry diameter, deformability, and color was higher in Concord than in CF, while fruit soluble solids and cluster weight variability was higher in CF. Within individual clusters, berries from the bottom third of the cluster were considerably higher in soluble solids than berries sampled from the top third. These results are valuable to growers seeking to improve uniformity of grape ripening in a vineyard, optimize preharvest sampling strategy, and select and retain only the highest quality fruit on a cluster for juice or wine production.
Nutrition and Hydration Status of Soldiers Consuming the 18-Man Arctic Tray Pack Ration Module with Either the Meal, Ready-to-Eat or the Long Life Ration Packet during a Cold Weather Field Training Exercise

Abstract : This lO-day test evaluated two Army Field Feeding System feeding modalities (T/MRE/T and T/LLRP/T) with 96 male soldiers participating in a cold weather field training exercise. Nutrition/hydration status was assessed from food/fluid intake, body weight and percent fat changes, and urine specific gravity. Energy expenditure was measured on a sub-sample (n=20) who also provided blood samples, and a 24-h urine sample for nitrogen balance. Mean energy intake was similar between groups (3271 and 3035 kcal/d for the T/MRE/T and T/LLRP/T groups, respectively) meeting about 70% of MRDA, and 77% of energy expenditure. Mean intake of protein, vitamins and minerals was adequate except for the T/LLRP/T group's vitamin B6 (58% of MRDA). Body weight loss (1.1 and 0. 6%, respectively) was significant (p 0.05) within, but similar between groups. Body fat decreased 10.6 and 4.9%, respectively. Mean nitrogen balance was positive indicating that the energy deficit was not exerting a severe metabolic stress. Further, psychophysiological data indicate that neither group was severely stressed and the rations provided were sufficient to sustain them. Although the LLRP received higher acceptability ratings than the MRE, all the rations were well accepted. It was concluded that neither feeding regimen was better than the other in preventing body weight loss or maintaining nutrition/ hydration status. Thus, the feeding modality chosen for Cold Weather Field Feeding depends upon environmental conditions, mission parameters, and water availability and heating capabilities. Nutrient intake, Ration acceptability, Hydration status, Activity patterns, Psychophysiological symptomatology, Energy expenditure, Stable isotopes, Nitrogen balance, Cold weather nutrition.
The Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2: large-scale climate features and climate sensitivity

Abstract. The Pliocene epoch has great potential to improve our understanding of the long-term climatic and environmental consequences of an atmospheric CO2 concentration near ∼400 parts per million by volume. Here we present the large-scale features of Pliocene climate as simulated by a new ensemble of climate models of varying complexity and spatial resolution based on new reconstructions of boundary conditions (the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project Phase 2; PlioMIP2). As a global annual average, modelled surface air temperatures increase by between 1.7 and 5.2 ∘ C relative to the pre-industrial era with a multi-model mean value of 3.2 ∘ C. Annual mean total precipitation rates increase by 7 % (range: 2 %–13 %). On average, surface air temperature (SAT) increases by 4.3 ∘ C over land and 2.8 ∘ C over the oceans. There is a clear pattern of polar amplification with warming polewards of 60 ∘ N and 60 ∘ S exceeding the global mean warming by a factor of 2.3. In the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, meridional temperature gradients are reduced, while tropical zonal gradients remain largely unchanged. There is a statistically significant relationship between a model's climate response associated with a doubling in CO2 (equilibrium climate sensitivity; ECS) and its simulated Pliocene surface temperature response. The mean ensemble Earth system response to a doubling of CO2 (including ice sheet feedbacks) is 67 % greater than ECS; this is larger than the increase of 47 % obtained from the PlioMIP1 ensemble. Proxy-derived estimates of Pliocene sea surface temperatures are used to assess model estimates of ECS and give an ECS range of 2.6–4.8 ∘ C. This result is in general accord with the ECS range presented by previous Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports.
Acute and Prolonged Effects of Stretching on Shear Modulus of the Pectoralis Minor Muscle.

Increased muscle stiffness of the pectoralis minor (PMi) could deteriorate shoulder function. Stretching is useful for maintaining and improving muscle stiffness in rehabilitation and sport practice. However, the acute and prolonged effect of stretching on the PMi muscle stiffness is unclear due to limited methodology for assessing individual muscle stiffness. Using shear wave elastography, we explored the responses of shear modulus to stretching in the PMi over time. The first experiment (n = 20) aimed to clarify the acute change in the shear modulus during stretching. The shear modulus was measured at intervals of 30 s × 10 sets. The second experiment (n = 16) aimed to observe and compare the prolonged effect of different durations of stretching on the shear modulus. Short and long stretching duration groups underwent 30s × 1 set and 30s × 10 sets, respectively. The assessments of shear modulus were conducted before, immediately after, and at 5, 10, and 15 min post-stretching. In experiment I, the shear modulus decreased immediately after a bout (30 s) of stretching (p < 0.001, change: -2.3 kPa, effect size: r = 0.72) and further decreased after 3 repetitions (i.e., 90 s) of stretching (p = 0.03, change: -1.0 kPa, effect size: r = 0.53). In experiment II, the change in the shear modulus after stretching was greater in the long duration group than in the short duration group (p = 0.013, group mean difference: -2.5 kPa, partial η 2 = 0.36). The shear modulus of PMi decreased immediately after stretching, and stretching for a long duration was promising to maintain the decreased shear modulus. The acute and prolonged effects on the PMi shear modulus provide information relevant to minimum and persistent stretching time in rehabilitation and sport practice.
Digital Artery Perforator Flap Use in Reconstruction of Fingertip Defects

Amac: Parmak ucu defektlerinin rekonstruksiyonunda dijital arter perforator flebi kullanarak yapilanrekonstruksiyonlar ile ilgili deneyimimizi bildirmeyi amacladik. Gerec ve Yontem: Parmak defektleri nedeniyle ameliyat edilenve dijital arter perforator flep ile rekonstruksiyon yapilan 8 hasta calismaya dahil edildi. Hastalar etyoloji, cinsiyet, yas, komorbidite ve sonuclar acisindan degerlendirildi. Fleplerin boyutlari 20 x10 mm ile 25 x20 mm arasindaydi. Bulgular: Hastalarin ortalama yasi 43,6 ( 19-66) idi. 8 flebin 6'si tam olarak sag kaldi ve sorunsuz iyilesti. Bir flepte kismi cilt nekrozu yasanirken 1 flep ise tamamen kaybedildi. Hicbir hasta soguk intoleransindan veya eklem kontrakturunden sikayetci degildi. Hastalardan birinde hafif tirnak deformitesi olustu. Sonuc: Dijital arter perforator flebi(DAPF), komorbiditesi olmayan ve sigara icmeyen hastalarda parmak ucu defekti rekonstruksiyonlari icin guvenilir ve cok yonlu bir fleptir. Tek asamali ameliyat proseduru, flebi hazirlama kolayligi, hizli iyilesme ve dijital arterlerin korunmasi en onemli avantajlaridir.
The Economics of Psychological Well-Being Evidence from the United States Using Machine Learning Method

This paper models peoples psychological well-being (PWB) by applying machine learning methods to a large dataset in the United States. PWB can be quantified by three self-reported variables: general happiness, satisfaction with the financial situation, and satisfaction with the job. First, we run the K-nearest neighbor (KNN) algorithm for each respective feature to rank the importance of features. We found that marital status has a higher importance score than income for peoples general happiness. Prestige score of occupation is the most important predictor of satisfaction with jobs. Next, we utilize the Forward Selection algorithm to find the best combination of predictions. Using this selected combination to predict people’s PWB, we achieve 70% 80% classification accuracy when detecting people with disadvantaged PWB. On top of that, we use ordered probit regression to quantify how each feature a↵ects PWB. Lastly, we show that PWB is important to economics by investigating how happiness affects physical and mental health, risky goods consumption, investment decisions, and working behaviors. We find that happier people have better health conditions, smoke and drink less, have more confidence in financial institutions, and generally work more hours.
Haematological and blood biochemical parameters in Lacaune dairy sheep

Nedeva, I. , Slavov, T. , Varlyakov, I. , Radev, V. , & Panayotov, D. (2019). Haematological and blood biochemical parameters in Lacaune dairy sheep. Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science, 25(Supp 1), 91–95 The effect of productivity (high and low) and season (winter vs summer) on venous blood morphology and biochemical parameters was investigated in dairy Lacaune sheep. Thirty-two animals were included in the experiment, divided into 2 groups. It was found out that during the winter, white blood cell counts, red blood cell counts, thrombocytes, haemoglobin content, haematocrit and mean corpuscular haemoglobin increased both in high-productive and low-productive sheep (p < 0.05 – p < 0.001). Blood liver enzymes (ASAT, gamma glutamyl transferase, alkaline phosphatase) exhibited elevation during the winter (p < 0.05 – p < 0.01). No seasonal infl uence has been observed with respect to the other assayed haematological (MCH, MCV, MCHC, RDW, MPV, PDW, PCT) and blood biochemical (glucose, creatinine, total cholesterol, triglycerides, Са, Р, total protein, albumins, globulins) parameters.