Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of the toxic factor present in tor Sp. of Chalakudi River, Western Ghats, India

An unidentified rare mahseer species of the Chalakudy river is a red variety locally known as ‘choppan choora’ is not eaten by the people as its consumption leads to giddiness, nausea and vomiting which last for at least 24 hours. Bioassay-guided fractionation was employed to identify the active compounds from fish sample. Purification of the crude extract was done by Gel filteration chromatography. Spectrophotometric analysis of Tor sp. showed highest peaks as compared to the Tor khudree sykes, 1839. Water sample analysis of toxic cyanobacteria showed negative result by PCR. Preliminary studies on mouse Bioassay was carried out at Central Institute of Fishery Technology, Kochi. Fraction showed mild symptoms in Aqueous extract. Intraperitoneal mice study was conducted at Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Thrissur. Mice exhibited lethality within 24hr. Control was maintained throughout the study from non toxic Tor sp.
Numerical simulation of electron energy loss near inhomogeneous dielectrics

The nonrelativistic energy loss suffered by fast electrons passing near dielectric interfaces of arbitrary shape is calculated by solving Poisson’s equation using the boundary-charge method. The potential induced by a moving electron is expressed in terms of surface-charge distributions placed at the interfaces. These surface charges, obtained by self-consistently solving the resulting integral equation, act back on the electron producing a retarding force and hence energy loss. The dielectrics are described by frequency-dependent dielectric functions. Two particular cases are discussed in further detail: interfaces invariant under translation along one particular direction and axially symmetric interfaces. Previous results for simple geometries, such as planes, spheres, and cylinders, based upon analytical solutions, are fully reproduced within this approach. Calculations are presented for electrons moving near wedges, coupled parallel cylinders, coupled spheres, and toroidal surfaces. @S0163-1829 ~97! 00848-5#
Biomolecule Damage (DNA and Lipid) is elevated in patients with Type 1 diabetes with and without diabetic complications.

There is strong evidence that oxidative stress is involved in the aetiology and pathogenesis of diabetes and its complications. Increased production of reactive oxygen species in vivo can lead to cellular biomolecule damage, such as lipid peroxidation and DNA damage. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of this damage by measuring in vivo antioxidant status, levels of lipid peroxidation, and levels of neutrophil DNA damage in 50 participants with type 1 diabetes and 50 age- and sex-matched, healthy controls. Gylcaemic control (%HbA1c) was relatively good with a group mean of 7.71% which increased to 8.12 % in those with complications. Compared to the control group there were significantly elevated levels of neutrophil DNA damage (% tail DNA, p<0.0001) and plasma MDA levels (p<0.05) in the Type 1 group as a whole, this significance rose to p<0.01 in those with complications. There were significant alterations in markers of antioxidant status including, reduced levels of superoxide dismutase (p<0.0001), uric acid (p<0.05) and Vitamin C (p<0.05) and elevated levels of catalase (p<0.001). These results indicate that even with acceptable glycaemic control significant oxidative damage still occurs and this damage increases, in some indices, with the onset of complications.
Children of Immigrants in the Child Welfare System: Characteristics, Risk, and Maltreatment

Children in immigrant families face a number of risks that may lead to involvement with child welfare agencies. Yet, little is known about their involvement in this system. This study analyzes data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being to identify the characteristics, risk factors, and incidence of maltreatment among children of immigrants involved with the child welfare system, and compares those factors to children in U.S.-born families. Findings indicate that significant differences are present in the type of maltreatment experienced and in exposure to risk. Increased awareness of these differences can facilitate an understanding of the dynamics of risk and maltreatment in immigrant families, as well as the development of culturally competent assessment, intervention, and prevention activities.
The 2015 al-Shabaab's attack in Garissa, Kenya. An immersion into the structural, socio-political and psychological roots of violence

The paper studies the attack conducted by the Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab in Garissa, north of Kenya, on April 2, 2015. In contrast to judgmental and narrow-minded media explanations which tended to dominate the debate after the attack, the present paper uses conflict theories in order to investigate the deep roots of violence. It questions how a group such as al-Shabaab has been able to emerge, to find support and to become a major actor in the Horn of Africa, and to some extent internationally. It draws on Basic Human Needs, Collective Psychology and Structural and Cultural Violence theories to demonstrate that the attack in Garissa is the manifestation of decades of structural, cultural and direct violence between communities, as well as between colonial and postcolonial governments in Kenya and Somalia. Understanding the deep causes of violence and its endorsement by a part of the population is a first step to transform the conflict. Studying the relationships between the different actors is important in order to understand the cycle of violence, and to think of ways to defuse it and to heal decades-long wounds. THE 2015 AL-­‐SHABAAB’S ATTACK IN GARISSA, KENYA
A nonhydrostatic version of FVCOM : 2. Mechanistic study of tidally generated nonlinear internal waves in Massachusetts Bay

[1] The generation, propagation, and dissipation processes of large-amplitude nonlinear internal waves in Massachusetts Bay during the stratified season were examined using the nonhydrostatic Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM-NH). The model reproduced well the characteristics of the high-frequency internal waves observed in Massachusetts Bay in August 1998. The model experiments suggested that internal waves over Stellwagen Bank are generated by the interaction of tidal currents with steep bottom topography through a process of forming a large-density front on the western slope of the bank by the release of an initial density perturbation near ebb-flood transition, nonlinear steepening of the density front into a deep density depression, and disintegrating of the density depression into a wave train. Earth's rotation tends to transfer the cross-bank tidal kinetic energy into the along-bank direction and thus reduces the intensity of the density perturbation at ebb-flood transition and density depression in the flood period. The internal wave packet propagates as a leading edge feature of the internal tidal wave, and the faster propagation speed of the high-frequency internal waves in Massachusetts Bay is caused by Earth's rotation. The model experiments suggested that bottom friction can significantly influence the cross-bank scale of the density perturbation and thus the density depression during wave generation and the dissipation during the wave's shoaling. Inclusion of vertical mixing using the Mellor-Yamada level 2.5 turbulence closure model had only a marginal effect on wave evolution. The model results support the internal wave theory proposed by Lee and Beardsley (1974) but are in disagreement with the lee-wave mechanism proposed by Maxworthy (1979).
Compulsief gebruik van sociale media op de smartphone

The purpose of this study was to gain more knowledge about compulsive use of social media on the smartphone among Dutch adolescents. The relationships between compulsive use of social media on the smartphone, impulsivity, depressive symptoms and school performance were examined. The mediating role of impulsivity and depressive symptoms in the relationship of compulsive use of social media on the smartphone and school performance was also examined in this research. Questionnaire data were gathered from 4519 Dutch adolescents (age between eleven and eighteen years) in a cross-sectional design. The results show a positive relationship between compulsive use of social media on the smartphone and school performance. Also more compulsive use of social media on the smartphone was associated with more impulsivity and more depressive symptoms. There was no mediating role of impulsivity and depressive symptoms in the relationship between compulsive use of social media on the smartphone and school performance. Girls are more likely to report a higher degree on impulsivity and depressive symptoms than boys. Finally, boys are more likely to report a lower school performance than girls. Abstract Het doel van het huidige onderzoek was meer inzicht te verkrijgen over compulsief gebruik van sociale media op de smartphone onder Nederlandse jongeren. De verbanden tussen compulsief gebruik van sociale media op de smartphone, impulsiviteit, depressieve klachten en schoolprestaties zijn onderzocht. Daarnaast is de mediërende rol van impulsiviteit en depressieve klachten in de relatie tussen compulsief gebruik van sociale media op de smartphone en schoolprestaties meegenomen. Het onderzoek heeft een cross-sectioneel design. De steekproef bestaat uit 4519 jongeren in de leeftijd van elf tot achttien jaar. De resultaten laten
After It ’ s Too Late : Estimating the Policy Impacts of Black Mayors in U . S . Cities

∗This paper was previously presented at the 2010 meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. The authors are grateful for comments or advice from Richard Bensel, Paru Shah, Rafael Sonenshein, Thomas Stratmann, Erik Voeten, and Hal Wolman, and for research assistance from Anton Strezhnev and William Tamplin. Brian Reaves at the Bureau of Justice Statistics kindly assisted with data, and Fernando Ferreira and Joseph Gyourko graciously made their data on mayoral elections available.
Perceiving and predicting expressive rhythm with recurrent neural networks

Automatically following rhythms by beat tracking is by no means a solved problem, especially when dealing with varying tempo and expressive timing. This paper presents a connectionist machine learning approach to expressive rhythm prediction, based on cognitive and neurological models. We detail a multi-layered recurrent neural network combining two complementary network models as hidden layers within one system. The first layer is a Gradient Frequency Neural Network (GFNN), a network of nonlinear oscillators which acts as an entraining and learning resonant filter to an audio signal. The GFNN resonances are used as inputs to a second layer, a Long Short-term Memory Recurrent Neural Network (LSTM). The LSTM learns the long-term temporal structures present in the GFNN's output, the metrical structure implicit within it. From these inferences, the LSTM predicts when the next rhythmic event is likely to occur. We train the system on a dataset selected for its expressive timing qualities and evaluate the system on its ability to predict rhythmic events. We show that our GFNN-LSTM model performs as well as state-of-the art beat trackers and has the potential to be used in real-time interactive systems, following and generating expressive rhythmic structures.
Speech Enhancement By Exploiting The Baseband Phase Structure Of Voiced Speech For Effective Non-Stationary Noise Estimation

Speech enhancement is one of the most important and challenging issues in the speech communication and signal processing field. It aims to minimize the effect of additive noise on the quality and intelligibility of the speech signal. Speech quality is the measure of noise remaining after the processing on the speech signal and of how pleasant the resulting speech sounds, while intelligibility refers to the accuracy of understanding speech. Speech enhancement algorithms are designed to remove the additive noise with minimum speech distortion.The task of speech enhancement is challenging due to lack of knowledge about the corrupting noise. Hence, the most challenging task is to estimate the noise which degrades the speech. Several approaches has been adopted for noise estimation which mainly fall under two categories: single channel algorithms and multiple channel algorithms. Due to this, the speech enhancement algorithms are also broadly classified as single and multiple channel enhancement algorithms.In this thesis, speech enhancement is studied in acoustic and modulation domains along with both amplitude and phase enhancement. We propose a noise estimation technique based on the spectral sparsity, detected by using the harmonic property of voiced segment of the speech. We estimate the frame to frame phase difference for the clean speech from available corrupted speech. This estimated frame-to-frame phase difference is used as a means of detecting the noise-only frequency bins even in voiced frames. This gives better noise estimation for the highly non-stationary noises like babble, restaurant and subway noise. This noise estimation along with the phase difference as an additional prior is used to extend the standard spectral subtraction algorithm. We also verify the effectiveness of this noise estimation technique when used with the Minimum Mean Squared Error Short Time Spectral Amplitude Estimator (MMSE STSA) speech enhancement algorithm. The combination of MMSE STSA and spectral subtraction results in further improvement of speech quality.
Innovation in Financial Services: A Challenge for Start-Ups Growth

Innovative services offered by a medium-sized bank, deeply rooted in the territory, generate benefits for the local start-ups and consequently for the local context. The present work aims to verify such research hypothesis, focusing on the analysis of economic-financial implications as well as social ones generated by start-ups projects whose initiatives have been considered deserving of funding and then admitted to micro-credit disbursement by Banca Popolare del Cassinate (BPC). The methodology implemented has a dual nature. The work firstly detects literature contributes about innovative services for business growth such allocation of financial resources for company survival. Secondly, the empirical part of the paper explores the results produces by the project "First Idea", financially supporting the creation and growth of new businesses that present innovative projects and are supposed to generate worth. Reasonably, the research is based on the qualitative approach, using the multi-method layout for data collection, whose validation is performed through the triangulation method. As result, the analysis confirms the benefits generated by the BPC initiatives at different levels, and that without innovation there is not economic growth nor local community development.
Adaptabilidade e estabilidade de cultivares de aveia-branca quanto à composição química da cariopse

The objective of this work was to characterize the chemical properties of white oat (Avena sativa) caryopsis and to determine the adaptability and stability of cultivars recommended for cultivation in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The trials were carried out in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 crop seasons, in three municipalities: Augusto Pestana, Capao do Leao, and Passo Fundo. Fifteen cultivars were evaluated in a randomized block design, with four replicates. The contents of protein, lipid, and nitrogen-free extract were evaluated in the caryopsis. Cultivar performances for the measured characters varied according to location and year of cultivation. The cultivar URS Guapa showed high content of nitrogen-free extract and low contents of protein and lipid in the caryopsis. 'FAPA Louise' showed high content of lipid, whereas 'Albasul', 'UPF 15', and 'UPF 18' showed high content of protein and low content of nitrogen-free extract. There is no evidence of an ideal biotype for the evaluated characters, which could simultaneously show high average performance, adaptability to favorable and unfavorable environments, and stability.
Explaining International Business Cycle Synchronization: Recursive Preferences and the Terms of Trade Channel

The business cycles of advanced economies are synchronized. Standard macro models fail to explain that fact. This paper presents a simple model of a two-country, two-traded-good, complete-financial-markets world in which country-specific productivity shocks generate business cycles that are highly correlated internationally. The model assumes recursive intertemporal preferences (Epstein-Zin-Weil), and a muted response of labor hours to household wealth changes (due to Greenwood-Hercowitz-Huffman period utility and demand-determined employment under rigid wages). Recursive intertemporal preferences magnify the terms of trade response to country-specific shocks. Hence, a productivity (and GDP) increase in a given country triggers a strong improvement of the foreign country’s terms of trade, which raises foreign labor demand. With a muted labor wealth effect, foreign labor and GDP rise, i.e. domestic and foreign real activity comove positively.
A RAINFALL SIMULATION STUDY OF EROSION OF SOME CALCAREOUS SOILS

In order to study the erodibility characteristics of some calcareous soils from Central Greece, the instability of aggregates of 2.0-4.7 mm in water was studied. Soil loss experiments were also conducted in the laboratory using a rain simulator where soil loss was measured and the soils attitude was studied under the conditions of simulated rainfall. It was found that the instability of aggregates is negatively correlated with cation exchange capacity and the total specific surface of soils. Also the calcium carbonate content affects positively the aggregates instability. The process which seems to control dominantly the time that runoff occurs and the runoff and soil loss quantity, is the creation of surface seals with raindrop impact due to large calcium carbonate quantities that are met in the clay fraction.
The Impact of the Simulated Digital Data Radio Communication Induced Interference on Voice Radio Communication

Author: Daniela T. Kratchounova Title: The Impact of the Simulated Digital Data Radio Communication Induced Interference on Voice Radio Communication Intelligibility Institution: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Degree: Master of Science in Human Factors Date: 1999 The transition of air/ground communications, from its present analog structure to a new digital communications architecture, will span a 10-year time frame. Testing to date indicates that the potential for interference from the digital system to the analog system would be critical, especially for General Aviation (GA) aircraft. This type of interference can be described as short, random bursts of noise capable of completely obliterating parts of the voice communication. The subsequent degrading effects on voice radio communications could jeopardize flight safety. The masking of parts of important information would result in distracted attention, debilitated cognitive performance, high level of annoyance, and stress. The goal of the proposed experiment was to examine the degree to which such noise impacts voice radio communications intelligibility. A classic, well established psycho-acoustic method of measuring intelligibility was used. It was anticipated that the digital data radio communication interference would influence voice communication intelligibility and the ratio between the length of iv the burst and the length of the affected consonant would be critical for voice communication intelligibility. Based upon the results of the statistical analysis that was exactly what happened. Those words treated with higher LR were more difficult to identify that those treated with lower LR or with no interference at all.
No Tardiness Rescheduling with Order Disruptions

This paper considers a single machine rescheduling problem whose original (efficiency related) objective is minimizing makespan. We assume that disruptions such as order cancelations and newly arrived orders occur after the initial scheduling, and we reschedule this disrupted schedule with the objective of minimizing a disruption related objective while preserving the original objective. The disruption related objective measures the impact of the disruptions as difference of completion times in the remaining (uncanceled) jobs before and after the disruptions. The artificial due dates for the remaining jobs are set to completion times in the original schedule while newly arrived jobs do not have due dates. Then, the objective of the rescheduling is minimizing the maximum earliness without tardiness. In order to preserve the optimality of the original objective, we assume that no-idle time and no tardiness are allowed while rescheduling. We first define this new problem and prove that the general version of the problem is unary NP-complete. Then, we develop three simple but intuitive heuristics. For each of the three heuristics, we find a tight bound on the measure called modified z-approximation ratio. The best theoretical bound is found to be 0.5 ? e for some e ＞ 0, and it implies that the solution value of the best heuristic is at most around a half of the worst possible solution value. Finally, we empirically evaluate the heuristics and demonstrate that the two best heuristics perform much better than the other one.
A CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STANDARDIZATION OF VERTICAL INDUSTRY LANGUAGES

In today’s global economy and E-commerce, there is increasing need to integrate application systems within and across organizations. Additionally, to lower the cost of application development and maintenance, increase reuse, and support outsourcing, the application development is moving towards component-based development and Web services. While great stride has been made in standardization to achieve interoperability and integration at hardware, operating system, data communication, messaging, and common syntax level, the common semantics required for application integration has not been developed. The standardization of common semantics depends on part icular vertical industries such as insurance, banking, healthcare, and manufacturing. The standardization in each of the verticals has proceeded in ad-hoc and very unique ways. Additionally, they are at different stages of development. In some industries, multiple consortia or groups are developing standards, which significantly overlap with each other. Many vertical industries have developed standards that overlap with each other and with horizontal industry standards. The objective of this research is t o develop a conceptual model for comparative analysis of standardizati on of vertical industry languages, which can be used to evaluate the current standardization practices and recommend ways to improve the standardization processes in the vertical industry domains. A pilot study in the insurance industry has been performed, where representatives of two members of the dominating industry standard, ACORD, were interviewed. The interviews are summarized and reported in this paper.