Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fact-checking platforms in Spanish. Features, organisation and method

Fact-checking has become one of the most relevant activities of recent years, as a result of the increase in the flow of fake news and of the ease to spread news through platforms such as social media. The goal of the research is to assess the task of fact-checking developed by initiatives that use Spanish as a vehicle for comparing inaccurate and false information. We carried out a case study of 19 international projects that use Spanish as the main language to materialise their fact-checking actions and the analysis of contents published aims at understanding where these companies develop their activities, how are them internally organized and which methods they use to translate the data obtained to the audience. Results show that most of fact-checking projects in Spanish –launched most of them in the period 2014-2016– remain active. In South America, these organizations have more weight. Most of them have a journalistic nature, although there is a large number of civic and independent projects. Among strategies for verification, text is the preferred formula, although some innovative methods to present the degree of accuracy of assessed contents have been found.
Pattern Classification and PSO Optimal Weights Based Sky Images Cloud Motion Speed Calculation Method for Solar PV Power Forecasting

The motion of cloud over photovoltaic (PV) power station will directly cause the change of solar irradiance, which indirectly affects the prediction of minute-level PV power, so the tracking of cloud motion is very crucial. In this study, Block-matching algorithm, Optical Flow algorithm and feature matching algorithm are three prevailing methods. However, as a rigid registration method, Block-matching cannot obtain the parameters of cloud deformation or rotation. The accuracy of the optical flow, which is based on the assumption that the image grayscale is not changed, is easily disturbed by noise. When the image texture information is not rich enough, the accuracy of the feature matching will also be reduced. That is, in order to improve their robustness, they must be combined through a certain strategy. Therefore, a pattern classification and PSO optimal weights based sky images cloud motion speed calculation method for solar PV power forecasting (PCPOW) is proposed in this paper. The method consists of two parts. Firstly, we use k-means clustering method and texture features based on Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) to classify the clouds. Because texture can adequately reflect image information, compared with other image features, it can better take into account both the macro nature and the fine structure of images. Secondly, for different cloud classes, we build the corresponding combined calculation modeling to obtain cloud motion speed. The Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm is used to give different weights to different methods to adapt to different clouds. The performances of the method are investigated using real data recorded at Yunnan Electric Power Research Institute. Under the measurement of common precision index, the comparisons with various benchmark methods show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches over cloud tracing.
Frequency and Comparison of Each icaA and icaD gene Sequences in Bacteria isolated from Otitis Patients

Biofilm formation is a part of the pathogenicity by allowing the bacteria to colonize and multiply within the host. Different bacterial species (n=43) of otitis were tested for iacAD genes, then compared by sequencing these genes. All isolates showed positive to icaA gene and / or icaD gene with the frequency of 88.4% for each gene. Serratia marcescens , Providencia vermicola , P. stuartti , Bacillus subtilis , Enterobacter asburiae , E. cloacae , Corynebacterium amycolatum , Bordetella trematum , Proteus mirabilis , P. penneri , Lysinibacillus fusiformis , Pseudomonas putida and Enterococcus faecalis were appeared to have ica gene for the first time. Therefore, the investigation to own ica gene should be in regardless of a selected bacteria. icaD gene showed many mutations in its sequence among five isolates changing a number of amino acids. So, four strains of S. aureus and one Serratia marcescens were recorded as new within the GenBank. ica gene is not confined to certain genera of bacteria, however is diffused among strains, particularly pathogens. Generally, ica genes have many various alleles among the bacteria revealing to give new serious of illness strains. Keywords: icaAD, sequence, otitis, mutation, alleles
Theoretical Calculation of the Photo-generated Current Density by Using Optical Path-length Enhancement Factor for Si-based PV Devices in the Atacama Desert

The implementation of a different approach for the estimation of the maximum photo-generated current density ($J_{\max}$) regarding internal parameters of the cell and its optical performance was performed introducing an effective optical pathlength enhancement factor, Z($\lambda$). Different PV devices were considered, including dssc, under the world reference and averaged local spectra estimated for the Atacama Desert, under air masses equal to 1.5 and 1.08, respectively. This model was successfully implemented to predict $J_{\max}$ with higher reliability which makes it suitable to be applied to any type of solar cell developed or simulated.
Identification of Meconopsis species by a DNA barcode sequence: The nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) barcoding is a novel technology that uses a standard DNA sequence to facilitate species identification. Species identification is necessary for the authentication of traditional plant based medicines. Although a consensus has not been agreed regarding which DNA sequences can be used as the best plant barcode, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA has been tested and applied extensively in recent years. In this study, we used the ITS region to test its possibility to serve as barcodes for Meconopsis species which are widely used in traditional Tibetan medicines that are used throughout the Himalayas. We sequenced 14 accessions representing four Meconopsis species. The result shows ITS sequences were found to be unique for each species, with the interspecies percentages of nucleotide differences averaging 5.1% and ranging from 0.2 to 9.6%. In contrast, the intraspecies percentages of nucleotide differences among the Meconopsis species studied ranged from 0 to 1.9%. Our results indicate that the ITS region can be used as a barcode to distinguish Meconopsis species.
Smokers with type 1 diabetes are more insulin-resistant. Results from Poznan Prospective Study (PoProStu)

Aim. The aim of the study was to evaluate the rela­tionship between smoking and insulin resistance in patients with type 1 diabetes (DM1). Material and methods. The study group consisted of 81 patients with DM1 (51 men, 30 women) from the Poznan Prospective Study (PoProStu), aged 34 ± 6 years, and with diabetes duration 10 ± 1.5 years. Patients were divided into two groups depending on the smoking status: smokers and non-smokers. Insulin resistance was assessed on the basis of indirect param­eters such as: estimated glucose disposal rate (eGDR), anthropometric data and liver function. Results. Smokers (n = 36) in comparison with non-smokers (n = 45) had: higher weight (80.4 ± 14.4 vs. 72.9 ± 15 kg, p = 0.02), larger waist circumference (89.6 ± 10.5 vs. 83.1 ± 10.9 cm, p = 0.003), higher waist-to-hip ratio (0.9 ± 0.08 vs. 0.86 ± 0.09, p = 0.006), higher level of gamma-glutamyl transferase [23 (15–36) vs. 15 (11–21) U/l, p = 0.003] and lower eGDR (7.11 ± 2.47 vs. 8.82 ± 1.79 mg/kg/min, p = 0.001). A significant relationship, adjusted for age, duration of diabetes, triglycerids (TG) and high density lipoproteins (HDL) cholesterol level between smoking and eGDR < 7.5 mg/kg/min was revealed [odds ratio OR 4.39 (95% confidence interval CI 1.52–12.66); p = 0.005]. Conclusions. The results of this study confirm the healthy dimension of not smoking among people with type 1 diabetes. Smoking in patients with type 1 dia­betes, treated from the initial diagnosis with intensive insulin therapy, is associated with insulin resistance. (Clin Diabetol 2018; 7, 2: 122–127)
In situ mountain-wave polar stratospheric cloud measurements: Implications for nitric acid trihydrate formation

0.2 cm 3 , median radii of 1 to 2 mm and volumes up to 1 mm 3 cm 3 . A comparison between optical PSC data and optical simulations based on the measured particle size distribution indicates that the NAT particles were aspherical with an aspect ratio of 0.5. The NAT particle properties have been compared to another PSC observation on 25 January 2000, where NAT particle number densities were about an order of magnitude higher. In both cases, microphysical modeling indicates that the NAT particles have formed on ice particles in the mountain-wave events. Differences in the NAT particle number density can be explained by the meteorological conditions. We suggest that the higher NAT number density on 25 January can be caused by stronger wave activity observed on that day, larger cooling rates and therefore higher NAT supersaturation. INDEX TERMS: 0305 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801); 0320 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Cloud physics and chemistry; 0340 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Middle atmosphere— composition and chemistry; KEYWORDS: polar stratospheric cloud (PSC), nitric acid trihydrate (NAT), ozone, gravity wave, PSC formation
Examining Success and Sustainability of Academic Writing: A Case Study of Two Writing-Group Models

In contemporary higher education there is a growing demand for academics to increase their publication output. This requirement raises the question of how institutions can best support a sustainable academic writing culture, which is needed to challenge the assumption that all academics know how to write for publication. This case study examines two models used in a Faculty of Education to support writing groups for academic staff. From the analysis of reflective journals, interviews, and field notes, we identified four factors that influence the success of writing groups, as well as six conditions that support the development of sustainable academic writing. We have learned from the study that the success of a writing group is predicated on a collaborative practice that blends relational, communal, and institutional forms of sustainability in a purposeful, engaged, and reflexive way.
The 6-GHz multibeam maser survey - II. Statistical analysis and galactic distribution of 6668-MHz methanol masers

The Methanol Multibeam survey has produced the largest and most complete census of methanol and excited-state hydroxyl masers in the Galaxy to date. Observing the entire Galactic plane visible from the Southern hemisphere for 6668-MHz methanol and 6030/6035-MHz hydroxyl masers, to an rms sensitivity of 0.015 Jy km s−1, the survey has detected a total of 972 methanol maser sources, implying a total Galactic population of ∼1290 sources with flux densities above the survey 3σ peak flux density limit of 0.51 Jy. We present here the statistical properties of the methanol detections of the survey, including distributions in flux density, variability and range of source velocities. The data suggest that the weaker masers exhibit greater variability. We also present an analysis of the Galactic distribution of 6668-MHz methanol masers. For the Galactic distribution, we present kinematic distance resolutions to an additional 202 sources to those published previously, and collate these with previous allocations, as well as exploring a recent Bayesian distance approach based on maser parallaxes to separately determine distances. We examine Galactic structure and determine the luminosity function of the Galactic population of methanol masers. We find that more luminous masers have an evenly distributed wide range of velocity widths compared with less luminous masers being dominated by narrow velocity ranges, with the implication that this may be tied to the evolution of the host protostar(s). We also see an indication that brighter sources are seen towards the arm origins.
Effect of the extract of Ulva sp on pathogenic microorganisms

Seaweed extracts in different solvents exhibited different antimicrobial activities.Solvents like methanol, ethanol, chloroform or a mixture of these are widely used to extract active princples from living organisms. No specific solvent exhibited activity against all the test organisms effectively. In the present study the marine algae Ulva sp was tested for its antimicrobial properties against six pathogenic bacteria. There was activity in all the three solvent systems used. All the algal extracts investigated, showed activity against Pseudomonas fluorescens.
Adoption of Maize Production Technologies in the Coastal Lowlands of Kenya

Maize is the major food crop grown in the coastal region of Kenya and constitutes a major component of the diet of the population in the region. However, average yields are far below the potential for the region and low production levels create serious food deficits. Over the years, new technologies have been introduced but adoption has remained low, especially for fertilizer. This paper examined current maize-farming practices and technological and socioeconomic factors that influenced adoption in the Kilifi and Kwale Districts of the Coast Province, that together account for half of maize production in the region. The study found low adoption levels for improved maize varieties and technology, especially fertilizer, among farmers in the area. Farmers cited poor availability of improved varieties, high cost, lack of knowledge, and unfavourable characteristics of improved varieties as reasons for non-adoption. The high price and poor availability of fertilizers, farmers’ inexperience with them, and their perception that soils were already fertile were among reasons given for low fertilizer use. The low levels of adoption of improved varieties indicate that they are not meeting farmers’ needs. The authors recommend that researchers communicate with and include farmers’ criteria when breeding varieties. In addition, alternative options should be extended to farmers who are not able to use inorganic fertilizers. Finally, given the major influence of the institutional environment found in the study, it is recommended that extension services be strengthened, especially where lack of knowledge was cited as a hindrance to adoption.
Health Insurance, Fertility, and the Wantedness of Pregnancies: Evidence from Massachusetts

Health insurance reform in Massachusetts lowered the financial cost of both pregnancy (by increased coverage of pregnancy-related medical events) and pregnancy prevention (by increasing access to reliable contraception and family planning). We examine fertility responses for women of childbearing age in Massachusetts and, on net, find no effect from increasing health insurance coverage. This finding, however, masks substantial heterogeneity. For married women aged 20 to 34 – who have high latent fertility and for whom pregnancies are typically wanted – fertility increased by approximately 1 percent. For unmarried women in the same age range – for whom pregnancies are typically unwanted – fertility declined by 9 percent. Fertility rates changed very little for other groups, in part because of low latent fertility or minimal gains in insurance coverage. Pregnancy wantedness increased in the aggregate through a combination of increasing wanted births and decreasing unwanted births.
An Efficient Iris Recognition System Using Integer Wavelet Transform

An iris recognition mechanism is being discussed in presented paper, which is based on Integer Wavelet Transform (IWT). UBIRIS. v2 iris database is works as the input image for implementation of this mechanism. For efficient iris region localization combination of Total Variation Model and Hough Transform is used. An iris recognition algorithm is developed by using four level integer wavelet transform (IWT). IWT is an interesting alternative of discrete wavelet transform, which gives less computational complexity because it gives integer value as the coefficient. Four level IWT is firstly applying into the segmented iris image, which generates 256 sub-bands. But only 192 sub-images are taken into consideration after ignoring the high frequency sub-bands. After that the energy of 192 sub-bands is calculated for feature extraction, which helps to generate a 192 bit binary code. For recognition of individuals, normalized hamming distance is computed between the trained and input binary codes of 1-D feature vector. Matching results have been plotted and discussed in the paper.
Transferring Age and Gender Attributes for Dimensional Emotion Prediction from Big Speech Data Using Hierarchical Deep Learning

The continous speech emotion prediction is a chal-lenging task. This research has many important applications in real-life, especially on human-computer interaction and its applications are expected to become increasingly wider and deep-er. Previous studies have show that three dimensional attributes of emotion such as arousal, valence and dominance are related each other. Moreover, age and gender of speaker affect the recognition of speech emotion. Based on these observation, we propose a new dimensional attributes prediction model using multi-task learning, aiming to improve the emotion recognition performance and generalization capabilities. The present methods utilize the big speech data to train the age and gender submodel, which will be transferred to the main model? a hierarchical deep learning model, using age and gender as the high level attributes of the emotion. The publicly available databases IEMOCAP and aGender have been conducted to evaluate the performance and the accuracy of the proposed work. Experiment results of within-corpus evaluation show that the proposed approach has superior performance compared to state of the art result.
Nutrient Uptake of Swine Effluent-Fertilized Bermudagrass During Primary Spring and Summer Growth

ABSTRACT Production of bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. ] hay to manage manure nutrients may differ from production of hay intended for livestock consumption. The objective of this study was to determine the relationships between maturity and yield, nutrient concentration, and nutrient uptake in bermudagrass fertilized with swine effluent. Primary spring and summer growth of ‘Coastal’ hybrid and common bermudagrass was harvested every 7 d to 63 d maturity. Effluent applied to Brooksville silty clay loam (fine, smectitic, thermic Aquic Hapludert) during each harvest period contained 140 kg nitrogen (N), 240 kg potassium (K), and 25 kg phosphorus (P) ha− 1 (mean of 2 years). Coastal and common bermudagrass had similar trends for yield, nutrient concentration, and nutrient uptake. Dry-matter production followed a linear trend in the spring (maximum of 1.11kg m− 2 after 63 d) and a quadratic trend in the summer (maximum of 0.96 kg m− 2 after 56 d). Herbage N concentration declined from 33 to 17 g kg− 1 during the spring and summer harvest period, while P concentration declined from 3.8 to 2.4 g kg− 1. Maximum K concentration (26 g kg− 1) occurred at 28 d of growth. Nitrogen, P, and K uptake exhibited a quadratic response to increasing maturity during the spring and summer harvest periods, but maximum uptake was greater in the spring than in the summer. These results suggest that the spring harvest period is the best time to maximize nutrient uptake by delaying bermudagrass harvest to more mature stages.
The Radiative Forcing Model Intercomparison Project (RFMIP): Experimental Protocol for CMIP6

Abstract. The phrasing of the first of three questions motivating CMIP6 – “How does the Earth system respond to forcing? ” – suggests that forcing is always well-known, yet the radiative forcing to which this question refers has historically been uncertain in coordinated experiments even as understanding of how best to infer radiative forcing has evolved. The Radiative Forcing Model Intercomparison Project (RFMIP) endorsed by CMIP6 seeks to provide a foundation for answering the question through three related activities: (i) accurate characterization of the effective radiative forcing relative to a near-preindustrial baseline and careful diagnosis of the components of this forcing; (ii) assessment of the absolute accuracy of clear-sky radiative transfer parameterizations against reference models on the global scales relevant for climate modeling; and (iii) identification of robust model responses to tightly specified aerosol radiative forcing from 1850 to present. Complete characterization of effective radiative forcing can be accomplished with 180 years (Tier 1) of atmosphere-only simulation using a sea-surface temperature and sea ice concentration climatology derived from the host model's preindustrial control simulation. Assessment of parameterization error requires trivial amounts of computation but the development of small amounts of infrastructure: new, spectrally detailed diagnostic output requested as two snapshots at present-day and preindustrial conditions, and results from the model's radiation code applied to specified atmospheric conditions. The search for robust responses to aerosol changes relies on the CMIP6 specification of anthropogenic aerosol properties; models using this specification can contribute to RFMIP with no additional simulation, while those using a full aerosol model are requested to perform at least one and up to four 165-year coupled ocean–atmosphere simulations at Tier 1.
MODIFICATION OF THE BUILDING DYNAMIC RESPONSE DUE TO STRUCTURAL DAMAGING DURING STRONG EARTHQUAKEs.

The paper is an analysis of buildings behavior during strong earthquakes, considering the modifications of the structural dynamic characteristics due to strong earthquake - generated damages. The study is focused on the difference in a building behavior, function of the mode the structure is situated relative to the seismic ground motion from the spectral point of view: above resonance or below resonance. Experimental and simulation results are presented for simplified mechanical models of building structures with stiffness degradation. As a convenient measure of the effect of duration and severity of the building seismic loads, the total energy dissipated through hysteresis is considered.
High Alpine landscape evolution in Val di Sole (Trentino, Italy) during the Holocene based on charcoal, soil chemistry and mineralogy

We investigated five soil profiles developed on subalpine and alpine environment in northern Italy (Val di Sole, Trentino) with respect to their radiocarbon ages, soil mineralogy and chemistry. The purpose of this research was to document chemical weathering in a periglacial environment and to use the clay mineralogy and radiocarbon ages to explain landscape evolution. The time of developing of the soil horizons, obtained by the extraction of the stable pool of the soil organic matter (SOM) ranged between 2500 and 17000 years. The extraction of the oldest and most stable organic matter was carried out by the oxidation of organic matter using H2O2. The development of clay minerals and especially of smectite reflects weathering intensity. Smectite and mixed-layered minerals were discernible in the surface horizons at all sites, except for one soil developed in the high alpine zone (2370 m asl). The oldest surfaces developed for about 17000 years (since the oldest Dryas equivalent). Chemical and mineralogical analyses were in good agreement with numerical dating techniques and showed the dynamics of Alpine landscape within a relatively small area.