Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Participants Conform to Humans but Not to Humanoid Robots in an English Past Tense Formation Task

In this article, we discuss the results of an experiment designed to test the boundaries of linguistic imitation in a group setting. While most prior work has focused on convergence in either sound structure or syntax, we investigate whether speakers’ choices in verb morphology are influenced by others. The experiment uses an Asch-type peer pressure methodology. Participants give responses to target stimuli in a verbal and a visual task in a group of human peers, a group of robots, or alone. These results demonstrate that morphological conformity occurs, but that it is socially constrained—it happens with human peers but not with robot peers. This supports a view of linguistic convergence as a deeply social process. The level of linguistic conformity displayed by individuals is related to their degree of conformity in nonlinguistic tasks, suggesting that there are individual propensities toward peer imitation that transcend modalities.
Comparative Analysis of Power Factor Correction Techniques for AC/DC Converter at Various Loads

2 Abstract: In this paper, two generalized topologies of single stage circuits such as Boost+flyback converter & Quasi active power factor correction (PFC) converter circuits are designed and their performance comparison is presented. Converters connected to the mains have the potential of injecting current harmonics that may cause voltage distortion. These harmonics can be significantly reduced if the input power factor is corrected by shaping the input current so that it is sinusoidal and in phase with the supply voltage. In the proposed quasi active PFC system, the power factor is drastically improved by using an auxiliary winding coupled to the transformer of a cascade dc/dc fly back converter. The proposed converter is presented and compared with boost+flyback converter for different loads and inputs. Simulations and analysis are carried out in MATLAB/SIMULINK with this control method for both systems and the results presented show the effectiveness of the improved converter topology.
Stellar Companions of Exoplanet Host Stars in K2

It is well established that roughly half of all nearby solar-type stars have at least one companion. Stellar companions can have significant implications for the detection and characterization of exoplanets, including triggering false positives and masking the true radii of planets. Determining the fraction of exoplanet host stars that are also binaries allows us to better determine planetary characteristics as well as establish the relationship between binarity and planet formation. Using high angular resolution speckle imaging, we detect stellar companions within ∼1 arcsec of K2 planet-candidate host stars. Comparing our detected companion rate to TRILEGAL star count simulations and known detection limits of speckle imaging, we estimate the binary fraction of K2 planet host stars to be 40%–50%, similar to that of Kepler exoplanet hosts and field stars.
Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy as a Predictor of Exclusive Breastfeeding: A Clinical Trial

Background: "Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is globally promoted as the ideal method of infant feeding during the first six months of life due to its health benefits to both the mother and child" (1). The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the interventions leading to increased awareness, knowledge, and self-efficacy regarding exclusive breastfeeding and duration of breastfeeding. Methods: This clinical trial was conducted on 129 pregnant women before the gestational age of 21 weeks and 6 days referring to Vali-e-Asr Hospital in Tehran, Iran. The study population was selected using the convenience sampling method. The participants were randomly assigned into two groups of intervention (n=64) and control (n=65). The mothers in the intervention group received one training session on breastfeeding self-efficacy, as well as training and audio packages regarding postpartum care and relationship with neonates. In addition, the women who suffered from anxiety, stress, or depression were provided with psychotherapies. The data collection instruments included the Self-Efficacy Scale, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results: Exclusive breastfeeding was higher in the intervention group than in the control group during the first six months postpartum (P=0.015). The follow-up study showed that there were higher rates of breastfeeding for the two-year-old children in the intervention group (P<0.001). In addition, self-efficacy was associated with anxiety and depression. Conclusion: As the findings indicated, psychological intervention aimed at increasing self-efficacy had a significant impact on maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy and duration of breastfeeding.
Why Consumers (Do Not) Change Their Mobile Service Providers – a Hungarian Study

The present study introduces the connexions of consumer satisfaction, consumer trust, consumer loyalty and switching costs in one framework. The empirical study took place in the Hungarian mobile telecommunication market, because of the high penetration and the oligopolistic competition in the industry. The results suggest that the major indicator of consumer loyalty is the consumer trust in the companies, and consumer satisfaction is more likely to be an indicator of trust. Switching costs have little effect on loyalty compared with consumer trust or even satisfaction.
Becoming an educational leader – exploring leadership in medical education

Abstract Research on educational leadership emphasizes the importance of having institutional leaders heavily involved with advanced instructional programming. Best practices for developing educational leadership in higher education health care and medical faculties have to be better understood. Within the framework of a seminar series, researchers and practitioners were involved in a dialogical process of inquiry, coupled with an explicit activity-oriented approach emphasizing empowerment among educational leaders. In a reflective paper, 10 participants of the seminar series elaborated on what it meant to develop and to ‘take’ leadership in your professional role and which factors that were identified as adding value to the development of professional leadership expertise. Qualitative content analysis was conducted resulting in thirteen categories reported in relation to Wenger’s theory of communities of practice. The findings show that educational leadership involves processes on the levels of students, teachers as community and at the organizational level. The individuals created a place for backstage conversations at which they got opportunity to develop their thinking and inspiration to break new ideas into their own educational communities. In addition, a systemic approach is essential for the effective implementation of educational leadership to reach all levels via interaction and communication across an organization.
Algorithms for classification and prediction of protein structure and function

The subject of this thesis is predicting the function of a protein. Many aspects of protein function are determined by its shape, or the structure. This thesis discusses methods for converting sets of local predictions concerning the structure of a protein chain to an overall prediction of the structure. One approach was to define a similarity function for chains of “local predictions” and to use this function to rank the prepositions that the input protein belongs to a particular fold from the most likely to the least likely. This is called fold classification. We show how to use information that is not local from the point of view of a protein chain, namely, which loops are closed, to improve the quality of classification. In the process, a weakness in the previous evaluation method was discovered and a better method proposed and tested. The second approach is to start with predictions of secondary structures, strands and helices, and a predictor of propensity of beta-strands to form pairs, and to obtain the overall prediction of the pairing of strands. We discuss global optimization problems that this task can pose, their hardness and approximation algorithms. We also test several algorithms on biological data and find improvement in respect to a previous method. Other aspects of protein function are determined by their place in the networks of cellular interactions. We study the cycles in the transcription regulatory network of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we find the graph-theoretic properties of these cycles, and we characterize the place of these cycles in the regulatory mechanism of the cell in terms of hierarchy. We also establish which life conditions are associated with the cycles and we conjecture the reasons.
Climate change projections for the portuguese viticulture using a multi-model ensemble

SUMMARY Portuguese vitiviniculture represents an extremely important economic activity for the agricultural sector, particularly for some renowned winemaking regions, such as Alentejo, Dao, Douro, and Minho. Viticultural zoning allows tying the suitability of a given grapevine variety to the local soil and climatic conditions. Given the existing climate variability in the Portuguese territory and its likely changes in the future, this zoning is thus of utmost interest. In this study, the current viticultural zoning in Portugal is discussed, as well as changes induced by climate change in the period 2011-2070. For this purpose, daily temperatures and precipitation rates were used to calculate the Huglin, cool night, dryness and hydrothermal indices. A composite index based on the previous indices was also calculated. For the assessment of the recent past conditions (1961-2000), an observational dataset (E-OBS) was used, while for future climate projections, a dataset comprising 16 simulations of regional climate models (produced by the ENSEMBLES project) was considered. In the future climate, statistically signifi cant increases in the thermal indices are projected to occur in the next decades, while for the precipitation-based indices decreases might be expected, particularly over the south and innermost regions of Portugal. A reshaping of the main Portuguese winemaking regions is likely to occur in the upcoming decades, therefore emphasizing the need for the development of appropriate measures for the adaptation to or mitigation of these climatic changes at the level of varieties and rootstocks used, as well as at the implemented cultural practices, keeping the typicity and wine styles. RESUMO
Dynamic Patterns in Processes of Science Systems: Science Academies & their Journals-An illustrative example

The paper presents a quantitative method of comparing the hitherto less explored processes embedded in science activities performed by different organisations. The method requires only time series data of the output of activity. As an illustration, the method is applied to compare the processes embedded in activity of academies in the US, Japan, China (Taiwan) and India; the chosen activity is meant to disseminate results of scientific results through English language journals. The activity is viewed as an activity performed by a complex system involving interactions at different times between paper contributors, finance providers, peers, readers, organisations and structures responsible for its publication and distribution. The paper estimates Permutation Entropy as a complexity index to characterise processes embedded in the activity. The method circumvents the need of measurable data on individual actors and agencies involved in the activity. Results reveal similarities in processes adopted by academies in US and Japan and hence they constitute a cluster; academies of Taiwan and India lay out side this cluster. Referring to literature on organisational learning, it is pointed out that complexity index also reflects the ability of the system to learn from experience, an observation that has policy implications. Finally it is noted that as the method requires only time series data of the activity out put, it can be applied for inter country comparisons of processes and learning abilities embedded in other science and technology sub systems of National Innovation System and can in principle be used as an additional tool for cross-country comparisons of National Innovation Systems.
Experimental and Numerical Investigation on the Flow Characteristics around a Cross-Flow Wind Turbine

This study investigated the flow characteristics around a cross-flow wind turbine. A wind tunnel experiment (WTE) was performed to measure the flow characteristics past the wind turbine when operating at the optimal tip-speed ratio of λ = 0.4. In addition, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed for the flow field around the wind turbine that was operating at tip-speed ratios of λ = 0.1, 0.4, and 0.7. The CFD approach was validated against the WTE measurements. CFD results confirmed that with an increase in λ, the velocity deficit was generally increased in the leeward of the return side of the wind turbine, while it was generally decreased in the leeward of the drive side of the wind turbine. It was also confirmed that with an increase in λ, the turbulence kinetic energy was generally increased in the leeward of the return side of the wind turbine, while it generally decreased in the leeward of the drive side of the wind turbine.
THE DARK ENERGY CAMERA

The Dark Energy Camera is a new imager with a 2. °2 diameter field of view mounted at the prime focus of the Victor M. Blanco 4 m telescope on Cerro Tololo near La Serena, Chile. The camera was designed and constructed by the Dark Energy Survey Collaboration and meets or exceeds the stringent requirements designed for the wide-field and supernova surveys for which the collaboration uses it. The camera consists of a five-element optical corrector, seven filters, a shutter with a 60 cm aperture, and a charge-coupled device (CCD) focal plane of 250 μm thick fully depleted CCDs cooled inside a vacuum Dewar. The 570 megapixel focal plane comprises 62 2k × 4k CCDs for imaging and 12 2k × 2k CCDs for guiding and focus. The CCDs have 15 μm × 15 μm pixels with a plate scale of 0. ″263 pixel−1. A hexapod system provides state-of-the-art focus and alignment capability. The camera is read out in 20 s with 6–9 electron readout noise. This paper provides a technical description of the camera's engineering, construction, installation, and current status.
The Dynamics of Myxobacteria Life Cycle

We develop the off-lattice model to simulate the life cycle of Myxococcus xanthus. When the food is abundant, they grow as swarms that spread away from the colony. In this stage, their movement and coordination are determined by their A-motility and S-motility engines. However, when they are in starvation, C-signaling between cells takes place and changes their cell-cell coordination. This allows them to form an aggregate which eventually develops into a fruiting body. Cells inside the fruiting body differentiate into round nonmotile spores which are resistant to adverse condition. In this paper, the Dynamic Energy Budget model is used as a trigger mechanism for cell growth and cell division, and then for switching from the swarming stage to the stage of fruiting body formation. Moreover, the logistic equation is implemented to count the number of C-signal molecules on each cell surface, which is then used as a switch for transitions between the stages of fruiting body formation.
Queue management of RIO to achieve high throughput and low delay

We focus on the RIO queueing mechanism in statistical bandwidth allocation service, which uses AF-PHB. We study the parameterization of RIO to achieve both high throughput and low delay. We are able to parameterize RIO for that purpose in terms of both min-th and maxp used in dropping "Out" packets. Furthermore, we also examine the parameterization regarding EWMA (exponential weighted moving average), ie, weight factor w/sub qout/, and show that dropping "Out" packets should depend upon the queue length without much delay, unlike RED. From our simulation results, we can see that our parameterization provides high throughput performance and also limits the queue length in a narrow range very well.
TIBA and nitrogen incorporation, senescense and yield in a symbiotically grown vining dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotype

The growth regulator 2, 3, 5 triiodobenzoic add (TIBA) was applied foliarly at the beginning of flowering (R1 stage) to a vining dry bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotype, grown symbiotically in a low nitrogen containing soil. Profiles of root nodule nitrogenase and leaf nitrate reductase activities, as well as of leaf chlorophyll content throughout the postflowering period, indicate that TIBA reduced the duration of nitrogen incorporation and caused early senescence. An increase in the number of pods per plant as well as in dry matter harvest index, supports the theory that TIBA causes bean plants to shift from vegetative to reproductive growth. No seed yield increase occurred as a result of TIBA application. Symbiotic nitrogen fixation alone may not provide sufficient nitrogen to allow optimal development of an increased number of pods. Further trials under higher soil nitrogen levels are suggested.
Simulated Nitrogen Loading from Corn, Sorghum, and Soybean Production in the Upper Mississippi Valley

Nitrogen moving in runoff water and sediment from cropland in the Upper Mississippi River Valley is thought to be one of the contributors to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. The effects of reducing nitrogen fertilizer on corn and sorghum in the Upper Mississippi River Valley to the point that the crop suffers nitrogen stress during five and ten percent of the growing season were simulated. Effects shown included possible changes in N fertilizer use, nitrate and organic N losses, soil erosion, crop yields, crop prices and production levels, and nitrate loadings in the major rivers of the Valley. The ten percent stress level could reduce fertilizer by about 30% and N transport in the Upper Mississippi and Ohio rivers by about three percent while having only a modest impact on agricultural prices and income. The modest economic impact would be due to the net effect of reduced fertilizer expenditure and increased crop prices as crop yields are reduced. Farmers in the area could be grouped according to whether the policy increases or decreases individual profits. For the 10% stress level, aggregate profits could increase by $307 million for the gainers while the group with losses could experience a $314 million decrease. The impact of nitrogen stress induced reductions in crop growth may result in slight increases in soil erosion.
Design as analysis: examining the use of precedents in parliamentary debate

Design continues to look beyond the confines of the studio as both practitioners and researchers engage with wider social and political contexts. This paper takes design into the Parliamentary debating chamber where a country raises and debates problems and proposes and explores solutions. There is an increasing amount of work that explores the use of design in policy-making processes but little that explores design as an interpretation of the Parliamentary process. This paper draws on one characteristic of the design process, the use of precedent, and examines how this appears and functions in Parliamentary debate. The paper argues that this ‘design analysis’ gives insight into debate as a design process and into the debate transcript as a naturally occurring source of design data. This contributes to the scope of design studies and suggests that the UK Parliament could be considered one of the most influential design studios in a country.
A Collaborative Multiagent Framework Based on Online Risk-Aware Planning and Decision-Making. In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (pp

: The ability of an autonomous agent to select rational actions is vital in enabling it to achieve its goals. To do so effectively in a high-stakes setting, the agent must be capable of considering the risk and potential reward of both immediate and future actions. In this paper we provide a novel method for calculating risk alongside utility in online planning algorithms. We integrate such a risk-aware planner with a BDI agent, allowing us to build agents that can set their risk aversion levels dynamically based on their changing beliefs about the environment. To guide the design of a risk-aware agent we propose a number of principles which such an agent should adhere to and show how our proposed framework satisﬁes these principles. Finally, we evaluate our approach and demonstrate that a dynamically risk-averse agent is capable of achieving a higher success rate than an agent that ignores risk, while obtaining a higher utility than an agent with a static risk attitude.
The Use of Avatars in Gender Segregated Online Learning Within MOOCs in Saudi Arabia - A Rwaq Case Study

In Saudi Arabia, gender-segregation is a known issue within higher education that often deprives female tutors from providing online learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). As well, students may not be getting the benefit of their experience and teaching. The purpose of this study is to develop an Avatar tool to represent a female tutor in a MOOC course with the aim of alleviating the issues of a gender-segregated society in online learning. This project will undertake and analyse a case study concerning the experience of females teaching a MOOC course on “Rwaq” the first Saudi Arabian platform, which was launched in September 2013. The literature on gender-segregation and education technology is reviewed. As an example, gender-segregated in higher education and online learning in Saudi Arabia, Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), Avatar technology in higher education, and finally the adoption of an Avatar tool in MOOCs platforms in SA are examined. One of the objectives of the study is to develop a social interaction environment with learners in online learning within MOOCs. The ultimate objective of this study is to examine if this Avatar tool could alleviate issues of gender-segregation for female lecturers in online learning courses within MOOCs in higher education in Saudi Arabia.
Tandem Solar Cells Based on Cu2O and c-Si Subcells in Parallel Configuration: Numerical Simulation

A tandem solar cell consisting of a bottom c-Si high-efficiency subcell and a top low-cost Cu2O subcell in parallel configuration is evaluated for the first time by a use of an electrical model. A numerical simulation based on the single-diode model of the solar cell is performed. The numerical method determines both the model parameters and the parameters of the subcells and tandem from the maximization of output power. The simulations indicate a theoretical limit value of the tandem power conversion efficiency of 31.23% at 298 K. The influence of temperature on the maximum output power is analyzed. This tandem configuration allows a great potential for the development of a new generation of low-cost high-efficiency solar cells.