Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Book Reviews

Book Review of: Set-theoretic methods for the social sciences: a guide to qualitative comparative analysis, by C. Q. Schneider and C. Wagemann, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012, 367 pp., £60.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-107-01352-0, £23.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-107-60113-0. Since its launch in 1987 by Ragin as a methodology intended to bridge the gap between quantitative variable-based and qualitative case-based research approaches, social science researchers have increasingly turned to Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) for conducting comparative empirical social science research. Throughout the years, QCA has become an umbrella term for a set-theoretic configurational research approach encompassing a number of variants and techniques for systematically comparing cases (Rihoux & Ragin, 2009). This textbook by Schneider and Wagemann is ‘dedicated to explaining QCA’ (p. 9), where the ‘focus will be more on the technical aspects’ (p. 11). They concentrate on the most popular variants: crisp sets (csQCA) and fuzzy sets (fsQCA). The book is aimed ‘to cater to both beginners and very advanced readers’ (p. 19).
Anon 17 : Network Traffic Dataset of Anonymity Services

One of the difficulties that face researchers on the anonymity networks field is the lack of anonymity dataset. Researchers need to collect their data to conduct a research or to use a simulated environment to collect the data they need. The lack of such a dataset is due to the nature of the anonymity networks. These anonymity networks aim to provide certain level of privacy for the users. In this paper, we present Anon17, a traffic flow dataset of different anonymity services. Anon17 specifically contains data collected from three anonymity networks; Tor, JonDonym, and I2P. Keywords— Dataset; Tor; I2P; JonDonym; Traffic Flow; Anonymity
Educational Environment (Coeducation / Segregated) and the Progress of Speaking Ability among Iranian EFL Students

Coeducation environment _which in Iran is just enjoyed in universities_ is an unfamiliar educational environment for Iranian students and may influence the total outcome of teaching and learning. The present research focuses on the impact of coeducation on speaking ability. A longitudinal study was undertaken on 20 subjects, chosen from 2 universities in which both coeducation and single-sex education were enjoyed. The probable influence of sex, family income, language proficiency, and extroversion/introversion variables were controlled. Furthermore, the probable impact of attending extra conversation classes was eliminated. Analyzing the results of pre-test and post-test of speaking indicated that single-sex system is better for male students, but no significant difference was observed for female students. This negative influence of coeducation system on the speaking ability of the male students and probably the total gains of teaching and learning do worth revisions on educational system provided that it could be confirmed by meticulous replications.
Accounting students’ information disclosure decisions: is there a need for changing the status quo on disclosure through accounting education?

The disclosure of minimum information required by law and accounting standards appears to be the status quo on corporate disclosure. This brings into question the fairness of corporate financial statements. The paper reports experimental results that indicate when students have reasons to be concerned about what others may think of their decisions, they are willing to support corporate disclosure policies that include only the legally required minimum information and unwilling to support certain additional disclosures. Arguably, a major re-think of what constitutes an adequate level of disclosure is essential for changing the disclosure status quo. Accounting education has much potential for initiating such a re-think. To this end, the paper identifies the relevance of two measures. That is, students need to be encouraged (a) to recognise the importance of relative accuracy of accounting standards and (b) to recognise the relevance and importance of current debates on corporate disclosure and notions such as fairness when evaluating the adequacy of corporate disclosures.
Potential rent and overcapacity in the Swedish Baltic Sea trawl fishery for cod (Gadus morhua)

Eggert, H. and Tveteras, R. 2007. Potential rent and overcapacity in the Swedish Baltic Sea trawl fishery for cod (Gadus morhua). - ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64: 439-445.Many European Union (EU) fisheries have problems with depleted stocks and fleet overcapacity following the regulation of open-access regimes. Some EU countries have introduced individual vessel quotas (IVQs), which can stop “the race to catch” and provide fishers with incentives to minimize costs for a given catch. We model an IVQ fishery using a cost function approach and apply the methodology to the Swedish cod fishery in the Baltic Sea. Estimating a translog cost function for a data set of Swedish trawlers in 2001, we assess the potential gains from structural adjustment of the fleet. Results suggest a desired fleet reduction of 50-60% and a potential resource rent amounting to 25-30% of the landing value.
Biofilm Forming Ability Of Salmonella Enteritidis In Vitro

Abstract Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis is an important alimentary pathogen that recently gained special attention due to the ability of a large number of strains to form biofilms. Qualitative testing of biofilm forming ability was performed by observing the morphotype of the colonies on Congo Red agar and by conducting the pellicle test, while quantitative testing was carried out by Cristal violet assay on microtiter plates. A total of 14 isolates of S. Enteritidis were tested for biofilm forming ability, while Salmonella Enteritidis ATTC 13076 was used as the reference strain. Based on the morphotype of colonies cultivated on Congo Red agar at 25°C incubation temperature, among tested isolates three morphotypes were detected – red, dry and rough (rdar), brown, dry and rough (bdar) and smooth and white (saw). Half of the tested isolates demonstrated rdar morphotype. All isolates that showed a specific morphotype at this incubation temperature also formed the corresponding type of pellicle at the air-liquid interface. Additionally, comparing OD (optical density) values obtained by crystal violet test between groups of isolates that represent one of the three detected morphotypes (rdar, bdar and saw), statistically significant differences were detected. Based on OD values obtained by crystal violet test at both applied incubation temperatures, isolates were classified into three categories, regarding their ability to form biofilms: strong, moderate and weak biofilm producers. By comparing the amounts of the biofilms formed after 48h at 25°C and 37°C, statistically significant differences were noted (P<0.05). In this research we presented micrographs and a reconstruction of three-dimensional projections of biofilm developing phases of rdar morphotype isolates, which were obtained using confocal laser scanning microscopy.
Damage to diving beetles (Dytiscidae) from willow traps in Lipetsk oblast (Russia) and features of Cybister lateralimarginalis and Dytiscus circumcinctus populations in winter

1 Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters, Russian Academy of Sciences, Borok, Nekouzsky District, Yaroslavl Oblast’, 152742 Russia. E-mail: prokina@mail.ru 1 Институт биологии внутренних вод им. И. Д. Папанина РАН, Борок, Некоузский р-н, Ярославская обл. 152742 Россия. 2 Cherepovets State University, prosp. Lunacharskogo 5, Cherepovets, Vologda Oblast’, 162600 Russia. 2 Череповецкий государственный университет, просп. Луначарского 5, Череповец, Вологодская обл. 162600 Россия. 3 Semenov-Tian-Shansky Lipetsk State Pedagogical University, Lenina street 42, Lipetsk, 398020 Russia. E-mail: zem-valery@mail.ru 3 Липецкий государственный педагогический университет им. П. П. Семёнова-Тян-Шанского, ул. Ленина 42, Липецк, 398020 Россия.
Diatom fluxes to the deep sea in the oligotrophic North Pacific gyre at Station ALOHA

Planktonic diatoms are important agents of vertical transport of photosynthetically fixed organic carbon to the ocean's interior and seafloor. Diatom fluxes to the deep sea were studied for 2 yr using bottom-moored sequencing sediment traps located in the vicinity of the Hawaii Ocean Time-series (HOT) program station 'ALOHA' (22°45'N, 158°W). The average flux of empty diatom frustules was around 2.8 x 10 5 cells m -2 d -1 in both years, except in late summer when it increased approximately 30-fold. Flux of cytoplasm-containing diatom cells was much lower (about 8 x 10 3 cells m -2 d -1 ) but increased 500-fold in late July 1992 and 1250-fold in August 1994. Mastogloia woodiana Taylor, Hemiaulus hauckii Grunow and Rhizosolenia cf. clevei var. communis Sundstrom were the dominant diatom species observed during the July 1992 event, with the former 2 species again dominant in August 1994. The 1994 summer flux event occurred about 3 wk after a documented bloom of H. hauckii and M. woodiana in the mixed-layer and a simultaneous increase in vertical flux of these species. This surface flux signal was clearly detectable at 4000 m, suggesting rapid settling rates. A further indication of very high sinking speeds of the diatoms was the much larger proportion of cytoplasm-containing cells in the bottom-moored traps during the 2 summer events. Cells of H. hauckii and R. cf. clevei var. communis frequently contained endosymbiotic cyanobacteria with heterocysts (cf. Richelia), similar to the cells of these species in the mixed-layer. Our data show for the first time that diatoms containing nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria contribute directly to the vertical flux of organic matter to the deep sea in the oligotrophic regions. The peak of diatom flux coincided with a significant flux increase of biogenic silica in both years. During periods of rapid sinking, the vertical flux of diatom assemblages out of the uppermost water column seems to be more important than the diatom flux out of the deep chlorophyll maximum layer (DCML). Aggregate formation may be responsible for the fast sinking of the diatoms.
Quantifying Suicidal Ideation via Language Usage on Social Media

Suicide is a large and growing problem, yet relevant data to draw informed decisions and assess intervention strategies is sorely lacking, and often at least two years out of date. We analyze publicly available data to assess the viability of using it to provide more timely information. We examine quantiﬁable signals related to suicide attempts and suicidal ideation in the language of social media data. Our data consists of Twitter users who have attempted suicide and age-and gender-matched neurotypical controls and similarly matched clinically depressed users. We apply simple language modeling techniques to separate those users automatically, and examine what quantiﬁable signals allow them to function, tying them back to psychometrically validated concepts related to suicide. We then use these scalable classiﬁers with public social media data and open government data to suggest some direction for future epidemiological research. All this research is done with public data, though we take great care to protect the privacy of the users.
Design of a Service-Oriented e-Learning Environment

Within e-learning domain there is a tremendous effort trying to loosely couple the data management and data deployment in e-Learning environments. This paper presents a design of such a architecture which consists of three main pieces: (1) Global Repository, (2) Repository Manager and (3) Web Deployer. The architecture ensures scalability, interoperability and service composition for an enterprise e-Learning environment. The Global Repository consists of a suite of services that actually manage all the assets of the eLearning environment. The Repository Manager is a data management tool which allows the maintenance of all assets from a desktop application. The Web Deployer tool actually creates e-Learning environments by using assets from the Global Repository. The overall architecture is Service Oriented such that each service publishes its functionality in a standardized way letting other services to access and use the functionality in a flexible manner.
Nonlinear rheology of polydisperse blends of entangled linear polymers: Rolie-Double-Poly models

While there has been much success in modeling the linear and nonlinear rheology of monodisperse entangled linear polymers, progress in the constitutive modeling of polymeric materials continues to lag behind the needs of industry. Industrially sourced polymers are typically polydisperse (comprising a broad distribution of molecular weights), making their rheology more suitable for processing but also more difficult to predict. To date, there are no molecular-based constitutive models that are practically suitable for describing industrially relevant polymers in industrially relevant flows. In this article, we extend but strongly simplify the model of Read et al. [J. Rheol. 56, 823–873 (2012)], which is able to predict the linear and nonlinear rheology of bidisperse blends but is prohibitively complex for industrial use. We propose a pair of simplified tube models for polydisperse melts of entangled linear polymers that combine the success of the double reptation approximation [des Cloizeaux, Europhys. Lett. 5, 437–442 (1988)] in the linear regime with the success of the Rolie-Poly constitutive equation [Likhtman et al., J. Non Newtonian Fluid Mech. 114, 1–12 (2003)] in the nonlinear regime. We first review the key concepts of the double reptation approximation and the original (monodisperse) Rolie-Poly constitutive model. Subsequently, we provide the details of our approximate models for the particular case of a bidisperse blend and show that these models naturally identify the effects from couplings between constraint release and chain retraction (i.e., the so-called “enhanced stretch relaxation time”). Finally, we generalize to a multicomponent (polydisperse) model, based on the same underlying principles. Along the way, we also show that both of our models are in qualitative, and largely quantitative, agreement with experimental data for bidisperse and polydisperse melts of entangled linear polymers.
50th Anniversary Perspective: There Is a Great Future in Sustainable Polymers

It is likely that a half-century ago even enthusiastic and optimistic proponents of the synthetic polymer industry (Mr. McGuire included) could not have predicted the massive scale on which synthetic polymers would be manufactured and used today. Ultimately, the future success of this industry will rely on the development of sustainable polymers—materials derived from renewable feedstocks that are safe in both production and use and that can be recycled or disposed of in ways that are environmentally innocuous. Meeting these criteria in an economical manner cannot be achieved without transformative basic research that is the hallmark of this journal. In this Perspective we highlight five research topics—the synthesis of renewable monomers and of degradable polymers, the development of chemical recycling strategies, new classes of reprocessable thermosets, and the design of advanced catalysts—that we believe will play a vital role in the development of sustainable polymers. We also offer our outlook on sev.
Non-Ergodic Alternating Proximal Augmented Lagrangian Algorithms with Optimal Rates

We develop two new non-ergodic alternating proximal augmented Lagrangian algorithms (NEAPAL) to solve a class of nonsmooth constrained convex optimization problems. Our approach relies on a novel combination of the augmented Lagrangian framework, alternating/linearization scheme, Nesterov's acceleration techniques, and adaptive strategy for parameters. Our algorithms have several new features compared to existing methods. Firstly, they have a Nesterov's acceleration step on the primal variables compared to the dual one in several methods in the literature. Secondly, they achieve non-ergodic optimal convergence rates under standard assumptions, i.e. an $\mathcal{O}\left(\frac{1}{k}\right)$ rate without any smoothness or strong convexity-type assumption, or an $\mathcal{O}\left(\frac{1}{k^2}\right)$ rate under only semi-strong convexity, where $k$ is the iteration counter. Thirdly, they preserve or have better per-iteration complexity compared to existing algorithms. Fourthly, they can be implemented in a parallel fashion. Finally, all the parameters are adaptively updated without heuristic tuning. We verify our algorithms on different numerical examples and compare them with some state-of-the-art methods.
An update on the risk of transmission of Ebola virus ( EBOV ) via the food chain 1 European Food Safety Authority

Several animal species were found to harbour Zaïre Ebola virus (ZEBOV), mainly non-human primates and fruit bats. The risk for persons in Europe linked to the transmission of ZEBOV via handling and preparation (by consumers or staff handling the food in kitchens immediately prior to consumption), and consumption of bushmeat illegally imported from Africa was assessed. The outcome was the probability for at least a single human case of ZEBOV in Europe due to transmission via bushmeat. This probability results from a combination of several steps: 1) the bushmeat has to be contaminated with ZEBOV; 2) the bushmeat has to be (illegally) introduced into the EU; 3) the imported bushmeat needs to contain viable virus when it reaches the person; 4) the person has to be exposed to the virus; and 5) the person needs to get infected following exposure. Due to lack of data and knowledge, which results in very high uncertainty, it is not possible to estimate this risk. Considering all these elements, and based on: (i) the limited number of outbreaks confirmed to date in Africa in spite of the routine consumption of bushmeat in that continent, (ii) the handling of bushmeat in Europe not involving high risk practices such as hunting and butchering, and (iii) the assumed low overall consumption of bushmeat in Europe, it can be assumed that the potential for introduction and transmission of ZEBOV via bushmeat in Europe is currently low. The public health consequences of such an event would be very serious given the high lethality and potential for secondary transmission. Hardly any information on ZEBOV infectivity is available on the effect of salting, smoking or drying of meat. Therefore, a conclusion cannot be reached regarding the effectiveness of these methods for virus inactivation. Thorough cooking (100 °C) will destroy the virus. © European Food Safety Authority, 2014
Cytopathological Diagnosis of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer: RecentAdvances Including Rapid On-Site Evaluation, Novel EndoscopicTechniques and Molecular Tests

Important advances in non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) diagnosis, staging and treatment have been made over the last decade. Minimally-invasive endoscopic techniques including endobronchial ultrasound guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) and navigational bronchoscopy have emerged as valid alternatives to transthoracic and/or surgical approaches, providing aspiration cytology material instead of histological material for diagnosis and staging of mediastinal and lung lesions. Several drugs designed to target molecular pathways involved in cancer-cell growth and survival have been shown to be effective in a selected fraction of NSCLC patients, mostly with adenocarcinoma (targeted therapy). Somatic activating mutations in several genes involved in those pathways (EGFR/KRAS) can predict patients’ responses to targeted therapies (individualized therapy). Those mutations are commonly detected in histopathological samples (core-needle biopsy/surgical resection). However, when histological tissues are not available, molecular testing can be performed on cytological specimens. This scenario is increasing in frequency, due to the use of less invasive procedure for diagnosis and staging such EBUS-TBNA and/or patients in advanced stage of disease who are not candidates for surgery. Several strategies exist and may be combined to ensure that the less abundant material that results from minimally invasive techniques can be used efficiently for molecular analyses. These include Rapid On-Site Evaluation (ROSE) of EBUS-TBNA cytological material, to ensure optimal sampling and triage of the material (e.g. cell-block preparation), and microdissection techniques, to select an adequate population of tumor cells. Major issues raised by cytological diagnosis of NSCLC and molecular testing on cytological specimen are discussed in this article.
Efficient and Effective Case Reject-Accept Filtering: A Study Using Machine Learning

The decision whether to accept or reject a new case is a well established task undertaken in legal work. This task frequently necessitates domain knowledge and is consequently resource expensive. In this paper it is proposed that early rejection/acceptance of at least a proportion of new cases can be effectively achieved without requiring significant human intervention. The paper proposes, and evaluates, five different AI techniques whereby early case reject-accept can be achieved. The results suggest it is possible for at least a proportion of cases to be processed in this way.
Palladium‐Catalysed Amination of Electron‐Deficient or Relatively Electron‐Rich Benzo[b]thienyl Bromides − Preliminary Studies of Antimicrobial Activity and SARs

Several diarylamines in the benzo[b]thiophene series were prepared in good to high yields by palladium-catalysed amination of ethyl 3-bromobenzo[b]thiophene-2-carboxylate with anilines and 5-aminoindole in the presence of Pd(OAc)2, BINAP and Cs2CO3 in toluene. The presence of the ester group at the 2-position of the benzo[b]thiophene moiety increases the yields and lowers the heating times relative to the reactions performed with 3-bromobenzo[b]thiophene. When aminopyridines were used instead of anilines, the ligand and the solvent need to be changed to XANTHPHOS and dioxane in the amination reaction. With 2-aminopyridine a onepot C−N coupling and intramolecular cyclization involving the nitrogen atom of the pyridine ring occurred, with loss of
Effect of varying frontal systems on stable oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions of modern planktic foraminifera of Southern Ocean

Studies have been carried out in the Atlantic and Pacific sectors of the Southern Ocean regarding the movement of its fronts (water-masses boundaries) with changing climate and other oceanic parameters. But the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean has received little attention. To fill in this lacuna, during the first Indian expedition to Southern Ocean in 2004, plankton net samples, sediment cores and other physical oceanographic parameters were collected. Here, we present the isotopic results obtained from planktic foraminifera from the plankton net samples and surface sediments. We find that, in this region too, planktic foraminifera secrete their shells in isotopic equilibrium with seawater and the planktic foraminifera from the core top sediments yield values akin to that obtained from plankton net samples. It implies that planktic foraminifera preserved in sediments record overlying seawater signatures in this sector. Thus, down-core foraminiferal isotopic data from the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean can be used as a proxy for reconstructing the temporal variations of different water masses.