Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diverging interpretations of humanitarian exceptions: assisting rejected asylum seekers in Norway

ABSTRACT This study explores the tension between regulations aimed at hindering the mobility of irregular migrants in Europe and the individuals who identify with humanitarian ideals and assist rejected asylum seekers. Drawing on legal document analysis and qualitative interviews with individuals who have supported rejected asylum seekers from Afghanistan, this study analyses how the term ‘humanitarian assistance’ is interpreted both legally and socially in the Norwegian context. Although Norway has implemented a humanitarian exception from criminal liability for humanitarian assistance to irregular migrants, the concept of humanitarian assistance is narrowly interpreted as life-saving assistance provided by publicly known formal organisations. This is in contrast with the broader understanding of humanitarian assistance maintained by the respondents, who understand the term as support beyond mere physical survival and which includes upholding human rights. It is shown that even though respondents align themselves with international human rights and humanitarian motives, they might still be prosecuted by the EU and national legislation. It is argued that the criminalisation of acts that are commonly deemed as morally right and humanitarian challenges fundamental principles of the use of punishment as a tool to prohibit harm in society.
Homotopy Perturbation Method for the Fractal Toda Oscillator

The fractal Toda oscillator with an exponentially nonlinear term is extremely difficult to solve; Elias-Zuniga et al. (2020) suggested the equivalent power-form method. In this paper, first, the fractal variational theory is used to show the basic property of the fractal oscillator, and a new form of the Toda oscillator is obtained free of the exponential nonlinear term, which is similar to the form of the Jerk oscillator. The homotopy perturbation method is used to solve the fractal Toda oscillator, and the analytical solution is examined using the numerical solution which shows excellent agreement. Furthermore, the effect of the order of the fractal derivative on the vibration property is elucidated graphically.
Manner of Cardiomyocytes Asynchronized Contraction: A New Finding

The manner of the cardiomyocytes asynchronized contraction is a new concept revealing the mechanism of the cardiac contraction manner in physiological condition. The manner of the cardiomyocytes asynchronized contraction refers to that during systole both the sub-endocardium and the mid-myocardium contract while the sub-epicardium relaxes, and during diastole both the sub-endocardium and the mid-myocardium relax while the sub-epicardium contracts in physiological condition. The interruption of the manner of the cardiomyocytes asynchronized contraction may cause various heart diseases, including but not limited to myocardial ischemia/ infarction, heart failure, and ventricular arrhythmias. The underlying mechanism is explored. This current review summarizes all recent progresses in the research area of the manner of the cardiomyocytes asynchronized contraction.
Information Needs Assessment and Prioritization of Dairy Farmers

Among the different sectors of agriculture livestock based information was the most sought information by the farmers in our country. It was reported that hardly five percent of the farm households in India were able to access the information on animal husbandry as against forty percent on crop farming. It was primarily due to the lack of efficient livestock extension system in place. Hence before developing any advisory modules to the farmers, assessment of their informational needs should be prior step. In the present study, a survey was carried out to elicit the present level of knowledge and future information needs of dairy farmers. The study revealed that majority of the farmers i.e. 76.7 per cent of them possessed medium level of knowledge on dairy farming practices. Based on the weighted mean score of each subject area, dairy farmers informational needs were prioritized as most wanted information regarding, nutrition and feeding (2.22), breeding and reproduction (2.15), general management (2.12), health care management (2.08) and fodder production (1.94) respectively. The present status demand the effective livestock extension system in place especially deployment of information communication technologies to address the most sought information needs of the dairy farmers.
A Model of Inclusion for Children With Disability in NSW Community Preschools

Abstract The New South Wales (NSW) Government supports the meaningful participation of children with disability and additional learning needs in community-based not-for-profit preschools. Funding and sector capacity building is provided under the Disability and Inclusion Program to support access and participation in educational programs. Research and theories, which highlight the essential factors for successful inclusion, have been used to guide the development of the program. Baseline data were collected from 680 survey respondents from NSW community preschools regarding barriers to inclusion and supports needed to ensure that inclusion for children with additional needs is successful. Attitude to inclusion was not reported to be a major barrier; however, educators reported the need for specialist support and appropriate training. Data from the program continue to reveal the reality of inclusion for children and the role played by funding and ongoing capacity-building support.
Markov (Set) chains application to predict mortality rates using extended Milevsky–Promislov generalized mortality models

The mortality rates ( ) measure the frequency of deaths in a fixed: population and time interval. The ability to model and forecast allows determining, among others, fundamental characteristics of life expectancy tables, e.g. used to determine the amount of premium in life insurance, adequate to the risk of death. The article proposes a new method of modelling and forecasting , using the class of stochastic Milevsky–Promislov switch models with excitations. The excitations are modelled by second, fourth and sixth order polynomials of outputs from the non-Gaussian Linear Scalar Filter (nGLSF) model and taking into account the Markov (Set) chain. The Markov (Set) chain state space is defined based on even orders of the nGLSF polynomial. The model order determines the theoretical values of the death rates. The obtained results usually provide a more precise forecast of the mortality rates than the commonly used Lee–Carter model.
Associations between Consistent and High-quality Teacher-child Interactions and Preschool Children’s Self-regulation and Activity in the Stress Response System

ABSTRACT Research Findings: This study aims to understand the ways in which classroom-level teacher-child interaction quality is predictive of self-regulatory behavior and physiology. Specifically, we examine if high-quality and consistent behavioral and emotional support are related to preschool children’s behavioral self-regulation, inhibitory control, and morning cortisol levels at child care. Fifty-four children within 11 center-based preschool classrooms participated. Saliva was collected at child care over two mornings and assayed for cortisol; two direct assessments of self-regulation were conducted. Classroom quality was observed over two days with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Models predicting self-regulation find that high-quality Emotional Support predicted higher behavioral self-regulation and inhibitory control skills for preschool children. No significant associations with consistency of teacher-child interactions emerged; however, there was a trend-level association between consistently managed classrooms and behavioral self-regulation. Results indicate no association between classroom-level interaction quality or consistency and children’s cortisol at child care. Practice or Policy: Our findings indicate that classroom-level, emotionally supportive interactions predict higher behavioral self-regulation and inhibitory control for preschool children. Thus, teachers who foster relationships in the classroom that are supportive and responsive may help to support preschool children’s self-regulation skills.
Review on Coffee Antioxidant and Its Health Benefit

Coffee has been for decades the most commercialized food product and most widely consumed beverage in the world. Antioxidants prevent oxidation of other molecules in our body. Coffee shows the greatest antioxidant activity and major source of antioxidants. Antioxidant content can be maintained or even enhanced by the formation of compounds with antioxidant activity (AA) such as Maillard reaction products. AA of coffee brews is strongly affected by coffee roasting process. Measuring antioxidant activity of coffee would help assess their potential as a source of natural antioxidants. Reviewing AA of coffee is the aim of this seminar paper. AA coffee can be measured by various chemical and physicochemical methods. Coffee is the most antioxidant rich beverages. Roasted coffee brews showed a greater oxygen scavenging capacity than the crude coffee brew. These results suggested that the changes in the antioxidant properties of the coffee brews may be attributed to a further development at any degree of roasting. AA of semi dry and natural coffees was quite similar. Redox potential values of coffee brews during storage at 30°C under ordinary atmosphere greatly increased in the first few days. Contribution of non-phenolic fraction to the overall AA of coffee brew is much lower than that of the phenolic fraction. Evaluation of antioxidant content of local coffee is very important for coffee value addition.
Survival of Lab Grown Calonectria pseudonaviculata Microsclerotia During Small-Scale Composting

Abstract Boxwood blight, caused by Calonectria pseudonaviculata, is a devastating fungal disease of Buxus spp. , first observed in the United States in 2011. Due to the persistent nature of the produced microsclerotia, concern arose over the potential for compost to serve as a disease vector. Previous work demonstrated that C. pseudonaviculata is very stable at mesophilic temperatures, however, no previous work has evaluated C. pseudonaviculata during composting. Our objective was to evaluate the survival of C. pseudonaviculata microsclerotia after being composted for 24, 48, and 72 h at temperatures of 40, 50, and 60 °C. Composting was performed using a newly created bioreactor system, allowing for precise control of the composting process. In conjunction with the composting evaluations, the same temperature/time combinations were evaluated in incubators. While the pathogen survived 40 °C through 72 h in an incubator, compost survival was minimal, with only some survival observed at 24 h at the same temperature. We were able to determine that exposure to temperatures ≥50 °C for 24 h or longer, and that exposure in a composting system for 48 h or longer at 40 °C would kill the microsclerotia.
Projections of shipping emissions and the related impact on air
pollution and human health in the Nordic region

Abstract. International initiatives have successfully brought down the emissions from shipping in Emission Control Areas (ECAs), and hence the related negative impacts on environment and human health. But the question is if this is enough to mitigate the future increase in shipping activities. The overall goal of this study is to provide an up-to-date view on future ship emissions and provide a holistic view on atmospheric pollutants and its contribution to air quality in the Nordic (and Arctic) area. First step has been to setup new and detailed scenarios for the potential developments in global shipping emissions, including different regulations and new routes in the Arctic. The scenarios include a Baseline scenario, and two additional SOx Emission Control Area (SECA) and heavy fuel oil (HFO) ban scenarios. All three scenarios are calculated in two variants involving Business As Usual (BAU) and High Growth (HiG) traffic growths. Additionally a Polar route scenario is included, with new ship traffic routes in the future Arctic with less sea ice. This has been combined with existing Current Legislation scenarios for the land-based emissions (ECLIPSE V5a) and used as input for two Nordic chemistry-transport models (DEHM and MATCH). Thereby the current (2015) and future (2030, 2050) air pollution levels and the contribution from shipping have been simulated for the Nordic and Arctic areas. Population exposure and the number of premature deaths attributable to air pollution in the Nordic area have thereafter been assessed by using the health assessment model EVA. It is estimated that within the Nordic region, approximately 9900 persons died prematurely due to air pollution in 2015. When including the projected development in both shipping and land-based emissions, this number is estimated to decrease to approximately 7900 in 2050. The shipping alone is associated with about 850 premature deaths during current day conditions (as a mean over the two models), decreasing to approximately 600 cases in the 2050 BAU scenario. Introducing a HFO ban has the potential to lower the number of cases associated with emissions from shipping to approximately 550 in 2050, while the SECA scenario has a smaller impact. The worst case scenario of no additional regulation of shipping emissions combined with a high growth in the shipping traffic, will on the other hand lead to a small increase in the relative impact of shipping and the number of premature deaths related to shipping is in that scenario projected to be around 900 in 2050. This scenario also leads to increased deposition of nitrogen and black carbon in the Arctic, with potential impacts on environment and climate.
Optimization and Prediction of Biodiesel Yield from Moringa Seed Oil and Characterization

In this study, oil was extracted from Moringa seed using mechanical and solvent methods. To transesterify the oil into biodiesel, factorial design of experiment of 24 was used to obtain different combination factors at different level of reaction temperature, catalyst amount, reaction time and alcohol to oil ratio, giving rise to 48 experimental runs. The oil sample was transesterified in 48 experimental runs, in each case the biodiesel yield was recorded in percentage. The biodiesel was then characterized according to ASTM test protocol. Factorial design model was developed using Design Expert 7.0, the model generated R of 0.987 and Mean Square Error (MSE) of 5.0453 and was used to predict and optimize biodiesel yield. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model from MATLAB R2016a was developed using 4 input variables and 30 runs, the remaining 18 runs were tested with the ANN model to predict and compare the biodiesel yield with the experimental biodiesel yield, the model generated R value of 0.99687 and MSE of 3.50804. It was found that solvent method yielded more oil than mechanical method, the biodiesel has good thermo-physical property, optimum biodiesel yield of 91.45 % was obtained at 5:1 alcohol/ oil molar ratio, 18.89 wt% catalyst amounts, 45 minutes reaction time and at 45 ? reaction temperature. The experimental validation yielded 88.33 % biodiesel. The ANN model adequately predicted the remaining 18 runs with R2 value of 0.99649 and MSE of 4.914243. Both models proved adequate enough to predict biodiesel yield but ANN model proved more adequate.
A Hotspot Discovery Method Based on Improved FIHC Clustering Algorithm

: It was difficult to find the microblog hotspot because the characteristics of microblog were short, rapid, change and so on. A microblog hotspot detection method based on MFIHC and TOPSIS was proposed in order to solve the problem. Firstly, the calculation of HowNet similarity was used in the score function of FIHC, the semantic links between frequent words were considered, and the initial clusters based on frequent words were produced more accurately. Then the initial cluster of the text repletion of mircoblog was reduced, and the idea of Single-Pass clustering was used to the reduced topic cluster in order to get the Hotspot. At last, an improved TOPSIS model was used to sort the hot topics in order to get the rank of the hot topics. Compared with the other text clustering algorithms and hotspot detection methods, the method has good effect, and can be a more comprehensive response to the current hot topics.
Biosynthesis of Silver Nanoparticles from Allium ampeloprasum Leaves Extract and Its Antifungal Activity

Development of natural based nanomaterial immense interest of researchers involved in eco-friendly biosynthesis of nanoparticles. This research set out to investigate the potential of Allium ampeloprasum leaves extract to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), and evaluate their antifungal activity against some toxigenic strains of Aspergillus isolates. In order to achieve this, AgNPs were prepared using plant extracts at room temperature and the formation of AgNPs was visually detected after the color changed to dark brown within few minutes. The biosynthesized AgNPs were characterized using the UV-vis spectroscopy, which confirmed the formation of AgNPs with a maximum peak at 437 nm due to the Plasmon resonance. The main active reduction agents were detected by Fourier Transmission infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Also, the nanoparticles were characterized using Scanning electron microscope (SEM). The antifungal activity of AgNPs was investigated by agar well diffusion method, which revealed inhibition zones of 8 mm, 10 mm, 11 mm, 11 mm and 14 mm against Aspergillus flavus 1, A. parasiticus, A. flavus 2, A. ochraceus, and A. niger. The minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) was determined using micro broth dilution method. MIC values of AgNPs ranged from 652 - 2500 μg/ml. The fungi treated with AgNPs, were examined with (SEM), it was observed that the treated fungi were damaged. These results suggest that AgNPs have the potential to be used as an ideal eco-friendly approach to control toxigenic fungi.
Demographic and Social-Economic Determinants of Malnutrition among Children (0-23 Months Old) in Kenya

Objective: To identify the demographic, social, and economic determinants of malnutrition in Kenya's children aged 0-23 months. Methods: Data from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), a nationally representative cross-sectional study conducted in 2014/2015, were used in this study. Data from children 0-23 months old with complete information on weight, height, age, and sex were used for analysis. Height for Age Z scores (HAZ), Weight for Height Z scores (WHZ), and BMI for age Z scores (BAZ) was determined using WHO guidelines to determine the nutritional status of the children. Chi-square statistics were used to determine the relationship between social-economic status and place of residence indicators and the nutritional status of the children. Significance was set at p <0.05. Results: Among all participating (n=7578), 22.7% were stunted (HAZ < -2), 6.2% were wasted (WHZ < -2), and 6.1% were either overweight or obese (BAZ > 2). Wasting and stunting were significantly higher in children from rural areas, poorer wealth index, and mothers with no education. In contrast, children from urban areas, the richest wealth index category, and mothers with secondary or higher education were significantly more likely to be overweight or obese. Conclusion: Current and future policies and programs to curb malnutrition in Kenya need to target specific needs of children based on their social-economic status, area of residence, and other demographic characteristics that were identified as determinants of child malnutrition instead of using a general approach.
Prediction of maize (Zea mays L.) population using normalized-difference vegetative index (NDVI) and coefficient of variation (CV)

Abstract The process of improving crop management inputs by use of remote sensing devices is a new technology. This study presents the use of the normalized-difference vegetative index (NDVI) combined with the coefficient of variation (CV) to predict plant populations in corn (Zea mays L.) over different growth stages and different locations. About 76 plots were selected from the two sites to conduct this research. The results showed that we were not able to reliably predict plant population at lately growth stages because the canopy covered the soil with overlapping leaves. However, at early growth stages, the results suggest that as the corn plant emerged from the soil, the biomass per unit area was small and the sensor technology application for prediction of plant population was possible. Further studies may be designed based on this observation to investigate the possibility at early growth stages such as V2 and V3.
Design of a test rig for fundamental investigations of spark characteristics

A common means to increase efficiency in stationary spark ignited engines is to operate the engine with a higher air/fuel ratio of the mixture in conjunction with a higher turbulence level; however, this generally leads to severe conditions that significantly impact the inflammability of the gas–air mixture and combustion stability. Because the electric arc that forms at the spark plug is a main influencing factor in combustion, detailed research work in the field of electric arc behavior generated at spark plugs is required. This article thus presents a specially tailored test rig that is designed to facilitate an investigation of electric arc behavior under cross-flows at a spark plug typically used in gas engines. The test rig consists of a closed flow circuit for inert gases; its centerpiece is a test cell that provides optical access for high-speed imaging of the electric arc behavior at the spark plug. The required flow velocity at the spark plug is set with a blower. Flow velocities up to 30 m/s, pressures up to 60 bar and temperatures up to 80 °C can be achieved inside the flow system at the location of the spark plug. Postprocessing algorithms have been developed to automatically extract information from the high-speed images. The results reveal that the arc stretches more at a higher flow velocity as indicated by its greater arc length. In addition, it is evident that the cycle-to-cycle variation in arc length increases at higher flow velocities. The secondary voltage history and its cycle-to-cycle variation are strongly influenced by the arc length. This is reflected in the cycle-to-cycle variation of the spark energy input to the flowing gas. These results support the conclusion that spark behavior itself can be a substantial source of cycle-to-cycle variation in the combustion process observed in spark ignited gas engines.