Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTENCE OF BIOMIMICRY LIFE’S PRINCIPLES IN GREEN BUILDING INDEX MALAYSIA

Concerns about climate change and global warming have led many countries to initiate energy rating systems in the planning and development of the built environment. Although useful and novel, this paper contends that these ratings are only remedying and alleviating whatever negative impacts that development creates. Energy ratings are seemingly lacking in attempts to integrate and enhance the physical development of the natural environment. Instead, biomimicry is a discipline that explores nature and tries to understand its bio-integration for the establishment of sustainable products, processes and systems. This paper postulates that with the integration of Biomimicry â€“ Lifeâ€™s Principles (BLP) into the Green Building Index (GBI) Malaysia, a higher level of environmental sustainability could be achieved. This paper attempted to explore the presence and the extent of the presence of BLP in the existing GBI utilizing the content analysis method. This article concludes that although the presence of BLP in the GBI is high, the extent of the presence is low. The paper also recommends the areas of concern that could be improved within the GBI for a more effective rating system .
Movie Sequels: Testing of Brand Extension and Expansion Using Discrete Choice Experiment

MOVIE SEQUELS: TESTING OF BRAND EXTENSION AND EXPANSION USING DISCRETE CHOICE EXPERIMENT Chaohua Chen Advisor: University of Guelph, 2015 Professor Vinay Kanetkar This study investigates the attributes that can affect a sequel’s audience size and product life cycle. The purpose is to determine what attributes influence an individual’s decisions of whether to watch a sequel in the theatres, and when to watch the sequel. Compare is made between the existing audience and new comers. This study employs Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) as the main research method, with Edge of Tomorrow and Interstellar as two parent movies for this research. The findings indicate that four attributes significantly influence consumers’ movie watching decisions: recommendation, valence, actor and title strategy. In addition, existing audiences tend to watch the sequels earlier than new comers. Finally, it is demonstrated that a sequel’s audience size and life cycle largely depend on the level combinations of some given attributes.
In vitro antifungal activity of allicin alone and in combination with two medications against six dermatophytic fungi.

Dermatophytes are fungi capable of invading keratinized tissues of humans and animals, causingdermatomycosis. Azole antifungal drugs are often used in the treatment of dermatomycosis. Because ofincreased use of these medications, azoles are known to cause drug resistance; hence this studyinvestigated an alternative anti-dermatophyte which is plant-based, and biodegradable natural product.Allicin is a pure bioactive compound derived from garlic, which is known worldwide for its antifungalactivities. This study evaluated thein vitro efficacy of pure allicin alone against six dermatophyteisolates and the MIC50 and MIC90 ranged from 0.098 – 25.0 µg/ml. Results of this study showed that theorder of efficacy based on the MICs values was fluconazole > allicin > ketoconazole at 28oC for both 7and 10 days incubation. On the other side, most of tested drug combinations demonstrated synergisticor additive interaction for all isolates for both 7 and 10 days incubation at 28oC. In conclusion allicinalone showed very good potential as an antifungal compound against mycoses-causingdermatophytes, performing better than the synthetic drug fluconazole, and almost the same asketoconazole, furthermore allicin in combination with ketoconazole or with fluconazole frequentlyshowed synergistic or additive interaction against dermatomycosis.
Macroeconomic Instability and the Phillips Curve in Italy

The theme of this paper is whether there was a textbook-like inflation-output tradeoff in post-WWII Italy. We estimate both standard and time-varying parameter models of the relationship between inflation and the level of real economic activity over the 1949 to 2010 period and find no evidence of a stable, significant and positive association between output and prices. We attribute this evidence primarily to a fiscally dominated monetary policy and a rigid indexation mechanism aimed at protecting wages from inflation. These two institutions contributed to the persistent inflation bias and macroeconomic instability that lasted almost until the entry of the country in the European Monetary Union.
HIDDEN MARKOV MODEL CONSIDERING THE INCONSISTENCIES OF OBSERVATION PERIOD

With the development of deterioration prediction of infrastructure, the model expressing a hierarchical relation between two different events have been proposed. However, the data acquired in the actual world, there are many cases where there are the inconsistencies of the observation period. Therefore, in previous studies, the estimation using all the data acquired was difficult. So the authors have estimated by intentionally truncating the data to compensate for inconsistency of the observation period. In this paper, the authors propose a hierarchical model that takes into account the inconsistency of data observation period. To express a complex deterioration process using a Poisson hidden Markov model is composed of localized damage such as potholes, and a damage of the entire pavement cracks. In the processes, the authors formulate the hierarchical model by using latent variables to compensate for inconsistency of the data observation period. So it is possible to perform the estimation using all the data acquired. Lastly, the validity of the proposed method is discussed through the empirical analysis of the visual inspection data.
THE DETERMINANTS OF OIL DEMAND: EVIDENCE FROM ITALY

The main purpose of this paper is to estimate price and income elasticities of crude oil demand in the Italian economy between 1975 and 2014. The Bound Test is employed as an econometric estimation method. According to Bound Test result, a cointegration relationship has been found between oil consumption, oil prices, and real income. Empirical findings show that the long-run income elasticity and price elasticity of oil demand are statistically insignificant in Italy. In addition, price and income elasticities of oil demand estimated as negative-inelastic and positive-inelastic in the short run, respectively. Thus, crude oil can be defined as a necessity good for Italian consumers over the short term. Also, Error Correction Term (ECT) is estimated to be -1.18. According to ECT, a deviation from the long run equilibrium level of oil demand is corrected about one year later. Italy is an energy dependent country and imports most of it. Since crude oil is necessity, the government should diversify energy sources which are consumed in the entire country and/or undertake policies to increase energy efficiency.
Water resource monitoring systems and the role of satellite observations

Abstract. Spatial water resource monitoring systems (SWRMS) can provide valuable information in support of water management, but current operational systems are few and provide only a subset of the information required. Necessary innovations include the explicit description of water redistribution and water use from river and groundwater systems, achieving greater spatial detail (particularly in key features such as irrigated areas and wetlands), and improving accuracy as assessed against hydrometric observations, as well as assimilating those observations. The Australian water resources assessment (AWRA) system aims to achieve this by coupling landscape models with models describing surface water and groundwater dynamics and water use. A review of operational and research applications demonstrates that satellite observations can improve accuracy and spatial detail in hydrological model estimation. All operational systems use dynamic forcing, land cover classifications and a priori parameterisation of vegetation dynamics that are partially or wholly derived from remote sensing. Satellite observations are used to varying degrees in model evaluation and data assimilation. The utility of satellite observations through data assimilation can vary as a function of dominant hydrological processes. Opportunities for improvement are identified, including the development of more accurate and higher spatial and temporal resolution precipitation products, and the use of a greater range of remote sensing products in a priori model parameter estimation, model evaluation and data assimilation. Operational challenges include the continuity of research satellite missions and data services, and the need to find computationally-efficient data assimilation techniques. The successful use of observations critically depends on the availability of detailed information on observational error and understanding of the relationship between remotely-sensed and model variables, as affected by conceptual discrepancies and spatial and temporal scaling.
Processing Subject Pronouns in Relation to Non-Canonical (Quirky) Constructions

This paper tests the Position of Antecedent Hypothesis (PAH), formulated by Carminati (2002), in Romanian, in contexts involving dative quirky subjects. PAH states that the null pronoun prefers an antecedent in the Spec,IP position (subject position), while the overt pronoun prefers an antecedent not in the Spec,IP position (in object position or elsewhere lower in the clause). Structural configuration will guide the processor in choosing the proper antecedent for a pronoun. I prove that the PAH holds for non-canonical contexts, namely for dative subjects/nominative objects contexts in Romanian. To demonstrate this, I propose three off-line (pilot) experiments. The results show that there is a division of labour between null and overt pronouns in assigning a referent in non-canonical contexts. The null pronoun always chooses as antecedent the dative subject, in Spec,TP position and that the processor chooses as antecedent for the overt pronoun, the nominative logical object, situated in a lower position in the clause.
Catering for sustainability: building a dialogue on organic milk

As an industrialised high quality food commodity, organic milk would present a reliable option to feature catering for sustainability. However, its use in schools, hospitals and workplaces is minimal in Finland at the moment. To boost perspective taking on organic milk among caterers, a co-developmental dialogue in terms of organic milk was employed by researchers and practitioners. The first turn of the dialogue was taken by the researcher who invited the caterers to focus on organic milk; the second was offered by practitioners, who disclosed their views about organic milk in individual interviews and focus group discussions. The third turn was taken by the researcher, who shared information with caterers about their issues and suggested the test use of organic milk. As the fourth turn of the dialogue the caterers responded to the researcher by their chosen practices for the (test) use of organic milk. The dialogue as a participatory research method seemed to offer new ways to promote catering for sustainability.
Blue whiting otoliths pair’s symmetry side effect

Otoliths are paired calcified structures located in the inner ear of the teleost fishes. Fisheries scientists have been using the otoliths for a variety of applications as fish ageing, species identification and also species interaction. The symmetry between left and right otoliths is considered species dependent. The application of analysis techniques on otoliths images has been increasing in recent years. The diagnosis on otoliths symmetry as a species characteristic is currently being done. It is expected that the otolith surface (distal versus proximal) used to collect images should have no influence on the symmetry results. The goal of this study is to investigate if the otolith position (distal versus proximal) when analyse images has influence in the diagnostic of the symmetry shape between the left and right otoliths. The results showed that the otolith face orientation should be taken into account during the otoliths images processing for symmetry shape analysis. On blue whiting the otolith images should always be obtained from the concave side, because for symmetry studies the position real matter.
On binary sequences generated by self-clock controlled LFSR

The paper considers some peculiar proper- ties of binary sequences generated by self-clocked linear feedback shift registers of maximum length, and compares these properties with those of truly random sequences. In particular it examines their periods, their 0-1 distributions, and their linear complexity profiles. I. INTRODUCTION The cryptographic qualities of stream ciphers depend on the mechanisms used to generate long binary se- quences starting from short blocks of bits. These mech- anisms are usually described in terms of finite state machines. The literature concerning the generation of binary sequences is vast and wide-ranging with many profound and elegant results, see (1), (4), (6), (12) and the references therein, however, the quest for finite state machines that generate sequences demonstrated to sat- isfy all cryptographic requirements is far from being complete. In (13), Rueppel investigated the properties of self-decimated sequences produced by Linear Feed- back Shift Registers (LFSR), and drew the conclusion that these sequences may have some applications in cryptography and spread spectrum communication. A slightly different approach to studying self-decimation is described in (3), where emphasis is set on the decimation of the LFSR states, rather than of the se- quence itself; these two approaches are closely related, but not totally equivalent. This paper focus on state decimation, looking at its interplay with linear codes and their "puncturing", and compares some peculiar properties of self-clocked binary generated sequences with those of truly random sequences. In particular it examines their period, their 0-1 distributions, and their linear complexity profile (LCP), which is defined as the length of the shortest LFSR that generates the sub- sequence up to length n for every n.
COARSE-GRAINED SIMULATIONS OF OIL-WATER-SURFACTANT MIXTURES

Mixtures of oil and water are naturally unstable but they can be stabilized by addition of surfactant molecules to form microemulsions. Microemulsions are macroscopically homogeneous mixtures but present, at the microscopic scale, large heterogeneities with water-rich and oil-rich domains separated by a surfactant film. The properties of this film are essential for microemulsions as a whole; amongst them, interfacial tension plays a crucial role as it is strongly related with the microemulsion structure [1]. Intensive research in this area have shown that interfacial tension at the oil-water interface can is modified by several factors including the chemistry of the surfactant hydrophylic part (ionic or non-ionic), the number and length of the hydrophobic parts, surfactant concentration, addition of a co-surfactant, addition of salts [2,3,4]. In order to understand the interplay between the different species in presence and eventually to tailor new surfactants or even surfactant mitures, several attempts have been made to compute interfacial tension from molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo or coarse-grained simulation tools. As usual, the prediction of thermodynamical properties using approaches based on statistical mechanics, requires both an efficient tool to sample the phase space of the system and an empirical forcefield that describes intermolecular interactions as accurately as possible. Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulations make an intensive use of empirical forcefields that can accurately predict surface tension in simple liquids or liquid mixtures. By using a system description at the atomistic level, a good understanding of processes can be gained. However, the time and length scales involved in the simulation of oil-water-surfactant usually go beyond what is commonly attainable today with these tools. Therefore, coarse-grained simulations, where particles represent several molecules, or groups of atoms inside a given molecule, are nowadays used as an alternative tool to study such complex systems. One of the most commonly used tool is dissipative particle dynamics proposed by Hoogerbrugge and Koelman [5]. In this paper, we will try to review the difficulties that arise from studying such systems using coarse-grained models [6], in particular when direct comparison with experimental data is wished (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2).
Measuring Service Quality by Servperf Method: A Research on Hospitality Enterprises

The concept of quality has an important place in regards of hospitality enterprises. Nowadays, there has been a severe competition in the world, and only those offering quality service and sustaining it can exist. Costumers are always the unique side evaluating if the service is quality or not, for this reason; enterprises should always take how costumers percept the quality into consideration. Services are activities produced and organized to meet human needs, and they are influenced by when and where they are produced, and by whom they are provided, and also by the levels of costumers’ perception and expectations of service quality. Servperf scale was preferred to measure the service quality in this research. The purposive sampling method, which is one of the incoincident methods, was preferred as sampling method in the research and the costumers (n = 220) staying at 4 and 5 star hotels operating in Mersin, one of the cities having the most population density in Turkey are included in the research. Reliability (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient α > 0.70) and validation tests (divergent and convergent validation) were executed on whole scale and its each factor, by which the costumers evaluated the service quality of the hotel they stay at, and measures of central tendency (frequency, percentage distributions), statistics of key determinant (mean, standard deviation) and discrimination tests were used to analyze the data, and Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to identify the variations between the groups. The data were analyzed using SPSS 21.00. To the results of data provided from the samplings, it was identified that costumers percepted the service quality of the hotel enterprises at very high level. At the end of reviewing the sun-dimensions, it was determined that the physical and safety dimensions of Servperf service quality dimensions measured by 5 factors had the highest level satisfaction. It was discovered that service quality perception differentiated according to some certain demographic factors. Aus. Aca. Acc & Fin. Rev Vol 2(4), Oct 2016, P 354-362
Abraham and Jesus as Ancient Migrants: An African Migration Perspective

Abstract The study is a response to the call for papers that focuses on African issues and, I chose to discuss the issue of migration. Though not a historical document, the Bible records various journeys that the ancient people travelled;1 it narrates people’s relocations from one geographic place to the other. However, migration has never been the main focus of several biblical interpreters who seem to perceive the Bible mostly from a theological lens. Largely, this study is informed by current challenges associated with immigration, highlighting comparative migration experiences that seem embellished under theological themes. For examples, each day we hear about stories of migrants who drown in the sea while trying to cross to Europe or of foreigners, due to xenophobic conflicts over few economic resources, die in numbers in South Africa. This study explores two biblical characters—Abraham and Jesus from a migration perspective, focusing on the pushed or pulled factors embedded under their stories.
Innovative and socially motivated village development in a regional context: The Grythyttan case

The typical study object in business administration is a private company. It is also common in that discipline to analyse groups of companies like networks or clusters. Moreover there are many studies on public and idealistic organizations. In this study however, we will not focus on companies or organizations. Rather we want to shed light over villages (or small towns). The study object is "village development", and especially such kind that is a) socially motivated, b) intended and conscious, and c) has parallels to innovation and entrepreneurship. Most studies on local communities are based on political science, geography, economics, or architecture. Classical references include Marshall (1919) and Beccattini (2004) on industrial districts or von ThA¼nen (1826) on economic geography. Most studies (except architecture) are characterized by a high level of abstraction. One main point in this paper is the analysis of village development from a strategic perspective, and therefore the study is based primary on business administration theory. Villages are not the core interest of the discipline business administration. There exists however exceptions like Johannisson (1978) on local networks or Kotler et al (1993) on "place marketing". In this paper we focus on Grythyttan. We relate that village to another village in the same region. The two villages experienced decline from the years dominated by industrial businesses. But while Grythyttan has transformed to a gastronomic centre there are few positive signs of development in the other village. The question is: Why? The first aim is to derive success factors, but also other factors (and pattern of events) that affected the process. The second aim is to develop a visual language for description of village development processes. A third aim is to connect the micro level analysis with some meso and macro aspects of the region to which Grythyttan belongs. The empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews with key persons related to the case during the years 2002-2010. The data collection also included participation, photographing and archive-work. Books, reports and statistical databases were used as well.
An Expert System Application for Desertification Risk Monitoring

This study includes an expert system design for desertification risk field data collection and monitoring. It describes the structure of used expert system, knowledge base and rule base. Expert system was developed using MEDALUS (Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use) method with Esri’s Survey123 for ArcGIS geographic information systems application. In this study, a mobile application has been developed to collect field data and assess desertification risk. With this expert system, many people will be able to collect field data and assess the risk of desertification in the region with only using their cell phones.
Entropy-based Adaptive Image Denoising

Image entropy, which not only describes the average amount of information about the image source, but also reflects the statistical characteristics of image data, can be described as the properties of image features and image processing basis. This paper is aimed to put forward an adaptive image denoising solution by setting the threshold and analyzing the impact of the original image data, which comes from the image noise under different entropy. For the blocks in image with low entropy value, we apply Haar wavelet method to denoise; for the medium entropy, we use field of expert (FoE) model as the prior information of the medium region denoising to achieve the image denoising of these blocks, and for the high entropy blocks, because little difference existed between ideal and noised image in human perception, no processing is implemented in this kind of blocks. The adaptability of our framework is embodied in the adjusting of the thresholds to classify different entropy blocks. Experiment results demonstrate the advantages of our framework measured by both PSNR and SSIM.