Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relative importance of temperature, pH and boric acid concentration on rates of H/sub 2/ production from galvanized steel corrosion

The corrosion of galvanized steel, to produce hydrogen gas, will occur if sprays operate during a Loss-of-Coolant Accident in a Light Water Reactor. The rates of hydrogen generation, however, are variable and dependent on accident and post-accident conditions. This report describes a study designed to identify the important parameters (temperature, pH, and boric acid concentration) in determining the rates of hydrogen generation from Light Water Reactor containment building spray solutions. The results of the statistical analysis indicate that temperature and pH are the important parameters and that boric acid concentration is not statistically significant in determining rates of hydrogen generation. The results also indicate that there is curvature to the dependence of the rate constant on one or more of the parameters or interactions. The simple equation generated by the treatment does not adequately handle the complexity of the corrosion process and fails to correctly predict rate constants at certain conditions. An alternative equation (or model) is generated by modifying the statistical treatment to accommodate only the significant parameters and to incorporate a temperature dependence which is more in line with theory. The resultant equation gives rate constants which are in closer agreement to experimental values and thus appears tomore » be more consistent within the constraints of the experiments. A description of the testing apparatus is given and a special design of a sample holder is discussed. « less
Perceptions of ESL Students about Using Web-Concordancing and Language Reference Resources in Academic Writing

Online corpora as valuable resources have received considerable attention in teaching English for academic purposes (EAP). The current study investigated ESL participants’ perception of using online concordancers and other reference resources in their academic writing outside the classroom context, after some initial hands-on practice in the classroom. The researcher designed an online interface and included multiple reference resources such as concordancers, thesaurus, online dictionaries and Google as the main search engine. This study used a qualitative case study approach through conducting semi-structured interviews and stimulated recall to achieve in-depth descriptions of the participants’ perceptions of corpus consultation. The findings revealed that the process of corpus consultation is time-consuming; however, the multiple resources assisted the participants to experience new ways of encoding their intended meanings. They became more attentive to the accuracy and appropriacy of the language they use to convey their intended meaning. It was found that not only did reference resource consultation raise participants’ awareness of the lexico-grammatical aspects, but also increased their confidence in academic writing.
Corporate ownership and control in an emerging market: A review

How to cite this paper: Nakpodia, F. (2020). Corporate ownership and control in an emerging market: A review. Journal of Governance & Regulation, 9(3), 40-48. http://doi.org/10.22495/jgrv9i3art3 Copyright © 2020 The Author This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
Interpolation, growth conditions, and stochastic gradient descent

Current machine learning practice requires solving huge-scale empirical risk minimization problems quickly and robustly. These problems are often highly under-determined and admit multiple solutions which exactly fit, or interpolate, the training data. In such cases, stochastic gradient descent has been shown to converge without decreasing step-sizes or averaging, and can achieve the fast convergence of deterministic gradient methods. Recent work has further shown that stochastic acceleration and line-search methods for step-size selection are possible in this restricted setting. Although pioneering, existing analyses for first-order methods under interpolation have two major weaknesses: they are restricted to the finite-sum setting, and, secondly, they are not tight with the best deterministic rates. To address these issues, we extend the notion of interpolation to stochastic optimization problems with general, first-order oracles. We use the proposed framework to analyze stochastic gradient descent with a fixed step-size and with an Armijo-type line-search, as well as Nesterov’s accelerated gradient method with stochastic gradients. In nearly all settings, we obtain faster convergence with a wider range of parameters. The improvement for stochastic Nesterov acceleration is comparable to dividing by the square-root of the condition number and addresses criticism that existing rates were not truly “accelerated”. In the case of convex functions, our convergence rates for stochastic gradient descent — both with and without the stochastic Armijo line-search — recover the best-known rates in the deterministic setting. We also provide a simple extension to `2-regularized minimization, which opens the path to proximal-gradient methods and non-smooth optimization under interpolation.
Possibilities for monitoring CO2 sequestration and decomposition of soil organic matter on dairy farms

Emissions and sequestration of carbon in soils are not yet accounted for in the carbon footprint of dairy farms. The purpose of this study is to develop a reliable and transparent monitoring and accounting system for soil carbon sequestration and emissions at dairy farms. The scientists worked with study groups of dairy farmers, data analysis and model development. A monitoring system based on measurements of OM contents in existing soil analyses is not supportive enough at present to reliably estimate carbon sequestration in soils. However, a monitoring system based on a combination of soil sampling analyses, registration of activities and model calculations of changes in soil carbon quantities is technically possible. The uncertainties in these calculations are currently still too large to link these to a reliable penalty or reward system at farm level.
Nebenbei, mobil und ohne Ziel? Eine Mehrmethodenstudie zu Nachrichtennutzung und -verständnis von jungen Erwachsenen

Prozesse der Nachrichten- und Informationsnutzung haben sich in den letzten Jahren gewandelt - insbesondere bei jungen Erwachsenen. So suggerieren die Dominanz des Smartphones sowie die Popularität sozialer Medien in dieser Altersgruppe, dass die Nutzung von Nachrichten zunehmend durch den situativen und sozialen Kontext geprägt sowie abhängig(er) von „zufälligen“ Kontakten mit einzelnen Beiträgen wird. Derzeit fehlt es jedoch an Erkenntnissen dazu, ob und inwiefern sich Zusammenhänge zwischen den Charakteristika der Nachrichtenerfahrung in gegenwärtigen Informationsumgebungen und dem Stellenwert von Nachrichten im Alltag von Nutzer*innen zeigen. Insbesondere ist unklar, ob und inwiefern (neue) Nutzungspraktiken auch das grundlegende Verständnis von Nachrichten herausfordern. Die Studie untersucht daher, wie junge Erwachsene heute „Nachrichten“ definieren und welche Nutzungspraktiken und -gewohnheiten ihren Umgang mit tagesaktuellen Informationen kennzeichnen. Methodisch wird auf eine Kombination aus einer via WhatsApp realisierten Tagebuchstudie sowie qualitativen Interviews mit insgesamt 47 Studierenden im Alter von 18 bis 24 Jahren gesetzt. Die Ergebnisse verweisen auf den geringen Stellenwert, den Nachrichten im Alltag selbst hochgebildeter junger Menschen einnehmen. Sie zeigen zudem die Schwierigkeit, „Nachrichten(-nutzung)“ zu definieren, sowie die Divergenzen zwischen normativ geprägten Ansprüchen an „gute“ Nachrichten und eigenen Nutzungserfahrungen.
Clinical Utility of Viral Loads in Influenza Virus Infections

For influenza, as for many other infectious diseases, a test which could predict which patients have illness which progresses and requires hospital care, and which can be safely discharged home would improve care and reduce healthcare system costs. Attempts to develop clinically based severity score systems have failed to predict in-hospital mortality/ICU admission in patients with influenza. Viral loads have been shown to correlate with disease severity for some respiratory viruses, and technology is now available that might make measuring viral load in clinical microbiology laboratories feasible. This thesis hypothesizes that influenza viral load can be measured in routine clinical testing and is predictive of disease severity. First we investigated the process of viral load testing, by evaluating collection methods and storage conditions. We compared viral loads in self-collected and investigator-collected nasal swabs in a cluster randomized vaccine trial, and found no difference in viral load regardless of collection method. Utilizing serially diluted RNA transcripts and clinical specimens, we measured viral loads at different storage temperatures over time and after multiple freeze/thaw cycles. We identified that samples with RNA concentrations ≤3.0 log10 copies/ml degrade more quickly than those with higher concentrations of RNA and that nasopharyngeal specimens can undergo up to 7 freeze/thaw cycles and storage up to three years at -80°C if they are re-extracted before testing. Next, we investigated the relationship between viral loads of influenza in out-patients, patients iii requiring hospital admission, and patients admitted to the ICU. We determined that viral loads were lower in influenza A patients admitted to the ICU compared to other settings, while influenza B viral load were higher in ICU patients compared to other settings. Finally, we investigated the association between influenza A viral load and hospital length of stay in a sample of patients with detailed clinical and epidemiological data, and the association between influenza viral load and symptom severity in healthy adults. We did not find an association between viral load and these outcomes in either population. In conclusion influenza viral load, while it can be reliably measured in samples, it is not a suitable marker for disease severity in
Technical efficiency of dairy farmers in Bihar, India: status and determinants

Bihar’s share of the total milk produced in India rose from 3.2% in 2001–02 to 5.2% in 2018– 19, but the productivity of its dairy sector is lower than the national average. The low economies of scale, lack of institutional support, and dominance of small and marginal farmers have constrained the sector’s efficiency. The technical efficiency of dairy farmers—determined by a farmer’s herd size, the size of their holding of cultivated land, education, and experience— would be improved by skills development and technology transfer.
Gastrointestinal Parasitic Infection of Swamp Buffalo in Banten Province, Indonesia: Prevalence, Risk Factor, and Its Impact on Production Performance

Gastrointestinal parasitic infections cause economic losses in large ruminant’s production including swamp buffalo in tropical areas. The basic epidemiological data and impact of the infections in swamp buffaloes in Indonesia are very limited. A cross sectional study was conducted to measure the prevalence, to identify the risk factor, and to evaluate the impact of gastrointestinal parasites infection on production performance (BCS and girth) of swamp buffalo in five Sentra Peternakan Rakyat (SPR) in Banten Province, Indonesia. A total of 340 fecal samples were collected and examined microscopically using modified McMaster technique. The risk factors scrutinized in this study were sex, age, farming managements, and agroclimate. Infection was found in 128 buffaloes (37.65%) consisted of Nematodes, i.e. Toxocara (0.88%), Strongyles (8.24%), Trichuris (5.29%), Strongyloides (2.94%), and Coccidia of Eimeria (30%). Age of buffaloes was the only significant risk factor for the infection. The highest infection rate was occurred in the group of pre-weaned calves (63.83%) and the lowest was found in the adults (29.66%). Pre-weaned calve group was 8.519 and 8.435 times more likely to be infected with nematodes and protozoa, respectively. The Spearman correlation test showed that the girth was negatively low-correlated and significantly to the EPG of Toxocara vitulorum, the number of protozoa oocyst as well as the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections. BCS was not related to the infections. In conclusion, low prevalence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections potentially reduce the production performance of swamp buffaloes in the SPRs of Banten Province, Indonesia.
Comparative efficacy of herbicides and hand weeding to control weeds in onion

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is a widely grown and most popular vegetable in India and around the World. India ranks second after China in terms of both area and production. Onion contributes 70% of the foreign exchange among the fresh vegetables. The yield level or average productivity of this crop is low due to various production constraints. Among these, weed infestation is the prime one. Due to its inherent characters such as short stature, non-branching habits and sparse foliage, onion cannot competes well with the weeds. Additionally, other cultural practices such as high fertilization and frequent irrigation helps in providing congenial environment for weed growth. The yield loss due to weed infestation has been reported to the tune of 40-80% (Channapagoudar and Biradar 2007, Sharma et al. 2009 and Ramalingam et al. 2013). Under J&K conditions particularly in Jammu province, the hand weeding is still a wide practice which is uneconomical, time consuming and often damages the crop. Moreover, due to shortage and non-availability of timely labour and unexpected rainfall during its peak growing season, it often gets delayed or left altogether. Therefore more farmers are switching towards chemical weed control as it may form an integral part of the modern crop production practices in this area. Thus, in order to eliminate crop-weed competition at all stages, there is a need to evaluate the efficacy and economics of various herbicides, its doses and time of application to obtain high yield and marketable produce.
HYBRID ANTENNA ARRAY FOR 4G/5G SMARTPHONE APPLICATIONS

In this paper, a hybrid antenna array for 4G/5G smartphone applications is presented. The hybrid antenna system is composed of one array of two antenna elements for 4G application and another array of six antenna elements for 5G application. By loading PIN diodes and changing the on/off state of the PIN switch, then the resonance point will shift. The 2-antenna array broadens the bandwidth of 4G frequency band and is capable of covering GSM850/900/DCS1800/PCS1900/UMTS2100 and LTE2300/2500 operating bands. A U-shape monopole strip and an S-shape slot coupling technologies are also introduced, the 6-antenna array improves the impedance matching for the proposed 5G antenna array and is capable of covering the 5G (3300–3600 MHz and 4800–5000 MHz), which can meet the demand of 5G application. Spatial and polarization diversity techniques are implemented on these antenna elements so that high isolation can be achieved. This hybrid antenna array is fabricated, and typically experimental results such as S11, isolation, radiation pattern efficiency, and channel capacity are presented. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated ones.
Prognostic Analysis of Uremic Factors of Cardiovascular Risk, Including FGF-23, Klotho and Sclerostin, in Assessing the Progression of Vascular Calcification in CKD Patients: A Prospective Observation

Background: Cardiovascular Calcification (CVC) is a major contributor to the high incidence of Cardiovascular Events (CVE) in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). Early CVC markers are actively studied now in CKD for cardiorenoprotective strategy optimization. We have conducted a prospective comparative analysis testing the follow factors: FGF-23, Klotho, sclerostin, phosphate, parathyroid hormone serum levels, estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR), central systolic Blood Pressure (BP) levels, as independent determinants of CVC. Materials and methods: A total of 131 CKD stage 2-5D patients were included. Serum FGF-23, Klotho, and sclerostin levels were measured by ELISA. Augmentation indices, central (aortal) BP (by «SphygmoCor»), valvular calcification score (by Echocardiography), and aortic calcinosis score (by abdominal aorta radiography), were performed. The observation period was 2 years. Results: According to Spearman`s correlation analysis, the percentage of calcification increase and the change in serum Klotho level were most related. According to ROC analysis, a decrease in Klotho serum level by 50 units or more is a significant predictor of an increase in aortic calcification by 50% or more with a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 75% Using logistic regression analysis, it was found that Klotho serum level ﻿​
Development of a Hybrid Cascaded Converter Based STATCOM With Reduced Switching Losses and Improved Fault Ride Through Capability

This article develops a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) based on the hybrid cascaded converter which has the advantage of reduced number of power transistors and floating capacitors compared to the cascaded H-bridge converter. A hybrid modulation scheme is employed in the hybrid cascaded converter to reduce the switching losses while maintaining the output performance, and the corresponding dc capacitor voltage balancing control scheme is proposed. The laboratory test results are provided to verify the feasibility of the developed STATCOM and the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Furthermore, the proposed scheme is compared with the conventional scheme to reveal the improvement in output quality, power losses, and even fault ride through capability.
Participation in Group Companies as a Source of External Knowledge in Obtaining and Making Profitable Radical Innovations

In the context of potential absorptive capacity, the present work analyzes sources of knowledge through the adjustment between the typology of sources and innovative results. Different external sources can condition the later phases of knowledge absorption. In relation to external sources of knowledge, we enrich their treatment by considering other companies in the same group as deeper relationships. In addition, we analyzed the results regarding the generation of radical innovations with impact on income. The results show that company groups can reduce costs in the exchange of technological knowledge, not only to develop radical innovations but also to improve their economic performance. Furthermore, membership in a group allows a company to obtain a greater economic return when combined with assimilation resources.
Semantic Context Encoding for Accurate 3D Point Cloud Segmentation

Semantic context plays a significant role in image segmentation. However, few prior works have explored semantic contexts for 3D point cloud segmentation. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective Point Context Encoding (PointCE) module to capture semantic contexts of a point cloud and adaptively highlight intermediate feature maps. We also introduce a Semantic Context Encoding loss (SCE-loss) to supervise the network to learn rich semantic context features. To avoid hyperparameter tuning and achieve better convergence performance, we further propose a geometric mean loss to integrate both SCE-loss and segmentation loss. Our PointCE module is general and lightweight, and can be integrated into any point cloud segmentation architecture to improve its segmentation performance with only marginal extra overheads. Experimental results on the ScanNet, S3DIS and Semantic3D datasets show that consistent and significant improvement can be achieved for several different networks by integrating our PointCE module.
First observations of Australian Sarus Crane Antigone antigone gillae pairs attending three young and the incidence of three-egg clutches in the Brolga A. rubicunda

Clutch-size in gruine cranes is consistently two. Clutches of three eggs are very rare, and records of adults supporting three young even more so. We report two observations from the Atherton Tablelands, far north Queensland, of pairs of Australian Sarus Cranes Antigone antigone gillae accompanying three juveniles. Their ages and the behaviour of the groups suggested family relationships. These are the first observations implying that Australian Sarus Cranes may raise three young, and are more likely to be explained by successful three-egg clutches than by adoption. Very little is known of nests and eggs of wild Australian Sarus Cranes and further studies would contribute to the conservation of this crane. More three-egg clutches than expected were identified in Brolgas A. rubicunda , particularly in the Ayr–Townsville region of northern Queensland, where the current breeding status of this species is uncertain.
Determinants of perinatal mortality in public secondary health facilities, Abuja Municipal Area Council, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

Introduction in Nigeria, perinatal mortality rate remains high among births at the health facility. Births occur majorly at the secondary healthcare level in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Identifying factors influencing perinatal deaths in this setting would inform interventions on perinatal deaths reduction. We assessed perinatal mortality and its determinants in public secondary health facilities in AMAC. Methods delivery and neonatal data from two selected public secondary health facilities between 2013 and 2016 were reviewed and we extracted maternal socio-demographics, obstetrics and neonatal data from hospital delivery, newborns´ admissions and discharge registers. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Cox proportional hazard models (α = 5%). Results perinatal mortality rate was 129.5 per 1000 births. Asphyxia 475 (34.0%), neonatal infection 279 (20.0%) and prematurity 242 (17.3%) accounted for majority of the 1,398 perinatal deaths. Unbooked status [aHR = 1.8 (95% CI 1.4 - 2.2)], antepartum haemorrhage [aHR = 2.8 (95% CI 1.2 - 6.7)], previous perinatal death [aHR = 2.3 (95% CI 1.7 - 3.1)] and maternal age ≥ 35 years [aHR= 1.4 (95% CI 1.0 - 1.8)] were associated with increased risk of perinatal death. Conclusion perinatal mortality in the studied hospitals was high. Determinants of perinatal death were unbooked antenatal care (ANC) status, antepartum haemorrhage, previous perinatal death and high maternal age. Reducing perinatal deaths would require improving antenatal care attendance with healthcare staff identifying and targeting women at risk of pregnancy complications.
The digital skills conducive to using the Internet and mobile banking services in light of nationwide own research results

The progress and dissemination of information and communication technologies represent an important factor of socio-economic development. Using the opportunities they offer, requires the respective competencies from society. The purpose of the article is to assess the level of digital skills conducive to using the Internet and mobile banking services against the background of the general digital skills presented by Poles. The research methods applied in the article are as follows: the subject literature studies, descriptive and comparative analysis as well as the nationwide survey research conducted in March 2020 using the CAWI method. The analysis and interpretation of the research material allowed the verification of the following research hypothesis – the high level of the general digital skills presented by Poles has a positive impact on the scope of their skills conducive to using both the Internet and mobile banking services.