Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Uptake of Courses and Finance Availability as Predictors of the Success of Expansion Strategies in Public Training Institutions: A Case Study of Kenya Medical Training College

This study investigates the influence of uptake of courses and finance availability on the expansion strategies in public training institutions with reference to the Kenya Medical Training College. The specific objectives of the study are to: reveal the influence of uptake of courses on the success of expansion strategies in the public training institutions and; assess the influence of finances on the success of expansion strategies in the public training institutions. This study is based on the Ansoff Growth Matrix (AGM) and the theory of customer responsiveness. It adopts the descriptive survey design. The study focuses on 2393 KMTC officers from the 73 KMTC campuses in Kenya, 42 ministries of health officials in the 42 counties that have KMTC campuses, and 42 local leaders from those counties that have KMTC campuses. The total targeted study participants were thus 2477. From these, 10% (248 persons) were sampled. The study used purposive and stratified random sampling techniques to obtain the study sample. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires and interviews. Data from questionnaires were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, and means) were used to describe the central tendencies of the data. In addition, inferential statistics (Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis) were also used. Data from key informants were analysed using content analysis techniques. The findings show that the two study variables influenced the success of expansion strategies at KMTC campuses. In this regard, Pearson correlation shows that there was statistical significant relationship between uptake of courses (r=.308, p<0.001)and; finance availability (r=0.673, p<0.001) and success of expansion strategies. These findings show that finance availability was the strongest factor that influenced the success of expansion strategies. As such, the success of expansion strategies can only be successful if the college put in place strategies aimed at ensuring that there was sufficient finances. This could go on to enhance the development of facilities and equipping them. An effort aimed at ensuring that new campuses had a high intake of students could also contribute to the level of success of expansion strategies at KMTC. High intakes could enhance the revenue generation, further enhancing the funding and success of new KMTC campuses.
Scalable inference for high-dimensional precision matrix

Abstract Statistical inference for precision matrix is of fundamental importance nowadays for learning conditional dependence structure in high-dimensional graphical models. Despite the fast growing literature, how to develop scalable inference with insensitive tuning of the regularization parameters still remains unclear in high dimensions. In this paper, we develop a new method called the graphical constrained projection inference (GCPI) to test individual entry of the precision matrix in a scalable and efficient way. The proposed test statistics are based on the constrained projection space yielded by certain screening procedures, which combine the strengths of the constrained projection and the screening procedures, thus enjoying the scalability and the tuning free property inherited from the above two methods. Theoretically, we prove that the new statistics enjoy the asymptotic normality and achieve the exact inference. Both numerical results and real data analysis confirm the advantage of our method.
An evolutionary explanation of female‐biased sexual size dimorphism in North Sea plaice, Pleuronectes platessa L.

Abstract Sexual size dimorphism (SSD) is caused by differences in selection pressures and life‐history trade‐offs faced by males and females. Proximate causes of SSD may involve sex‐specific mortality, energy acquisition, and energy expenditure for maintenance, reproductive tissues, and reproductive behavior. Using a quantitative, individual‐based, eco‐genetic model parameterized for North Sea plaice, we explore the importance of these mechanisms for female‐biased SSD, under which males are smaller and reach sexual maturity earlier than females (common among fish, but also arising in arthropods and mammals). We consider two mechanisms potentially serving as ultimate causes: (a) Male investments in male reproductive behavior might evolve to detract energy resources that would otherwise be available for somatic growth, and (b) diminishing returns on male reproductive investments might evolve to reduce energy acquisition. In general, both of these can bring about smaller male body sizes. We report the following findings. First, higher investments in male reproductive behavior alone cannot explain the North Sea plaice SSD. This is because such higher reproductive investments require increased energy acquisition, which would cause a delay in maturation, leading to male‐biased SSD contrary to observations. When accounting for the observed differential (lower) male mortality, maturation is postponed even further, leading to even larger males. Second, diminishing returns on male reproductive investments alone can qualitatively account for the North Sea plaice SSD, even though the quantitative match is imperfect. Third, both mechanisms can be reconciled with, and thus provide a mechanistic basis for, the previously advanced Ghiselin–Reiss hypothesis, according to which smaller males will evolve if their reproductive success is dominated by scramble competition for fertilizing females, as males would consequently invest more in reproduction than growth, potentially implying lower survival rates, and thus relaxing male–male competition. Fourth, a good quantitative fit with the North Sea plaice SSD is achieved by combining both mechanisms while accounting for sex‐specific costs males incur during their spawning season. Fifth, evolution caused by fishing is likely to have modified the North Sea plaice SSD.
A facile microwave-assisted synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles and their photocatalytic activity: Effect of pH

Este estudio reporta una síntesis fácil, libre de surfactantes y asistida por microondas para la producción de nanopartículas de óxido de zinc (ZnO). Se investigó el efecto del valor del pH sobre las propiedades químicas, ópticas, morfológicas y fotocatalíticas de las nanopartículas de ZnO. Las nanopartículas se caracterizaron mediante microscopía electrónica de barrido (SEM), espectroscopía infrarroja por transformada de Fourier (FTIR), espectroscopía de rayos X por dispersión de energía (EDS) y espectroscopía UV-visible (UV-Vis). El análisis SEM muestra que el tamaño de las partículas disminuye con el aumento del valor de pH. Los espectros UV-Vis muestran picos de absorción excitónica alrededor de 334-359 nm. Se encontró que la brecha de energía de las muestras disminuye con el aumento del valor de pH. Finalmente, se evaluó la eficiencia fotocatalítica de los nanomateriales de ZnO mediante la degradación de naranja de metileno (MO) bajo irradiación de luz UV-A y se logró una eficiencia de degradación del colorante del 93.04% para la muestra de ZnO con pH-13. Los resultados experimentales confirman que la ruta propuesta para producir ZnO es fácil, reproducible y amigable con el medio ambiente. Además, el nano ZnO tiene un gran potencial como fotocatalizador para eliminar compuestos orgánicos.
Comparative Study Between Fiscal Poverty Alleviation and Financial Poverty Alleviation in Tibetan Areas of Sichuan Province

In the post-poverty alleviation era, how to achieve sustainable poverty reduction is the most concerned issue. Therefore, adjusting the means of poverty alleviation is very important. Based on the data from 2014-2016 Statistical Yearbook of Tibetan Areas in Sichuan, this paper used the DEA-Malmquist (Data Envelopment Analysis-Malmquist) index model to measure the efficiency of fiscal and financial poverty alleviation in Aba and Ganzi prefectures. On the basis of whole, horizontal and vertical comparison, it can be found that the efficiency of fiscal and financial poverty alleviation in most counties is high, which shows that the poverty-alleviation policies in recent years have great effects. However, from any point of view, the efficiency of financial poverty alleviation is higher than that of fiscal poverty alleviation. Therefore, in the future, we should pay attention to the credit to achieve sustainable poverty reduction and income increase. In other words, we must improve the financial service system, innovate financial service products, and strive to achieve the match between credit supply and credit demand.
Improving Performance Estimation for Design Space Exploration for Convolutional Neural Network Accelerators

Contemporary advances in neural networks (NNs) have demonstrated their potential in different applications such as in image classification, object detection or natural language processing. In particular, reconfigurable accelerators have been widely used for the acceleration of NNs due to their reconfigurability and efficiency in specific application instances. To determine the configuration of the accelerator, it is necessary to conduct design space exploration to optimize the performance. However, the process of design space exploration is time consuming because of the slow performance evaluation for different configurations. Therefore, there is a demand for an accurate and fast performance prediction method to speed up design space exploration. This work introduces a novel method for fast and accurate estimation of different metrics that are of importance when performing design space exploration. The method is based on a Gaussian process regression model parametrised by the features of the accelerator and the target NN to be accelerated. We evaluate the proposed method together with other popular machine learning based methods in estimating the latency and energy consumption of our implemented accelerator on two different hardware platforms targeting convolutional neural networks. We demonstrate improvements in estimation accuracy, without the need for significant implementation effort or tuning.
Preparation of Boron Nitride and Silicone Rubber Composite Material for Application in Lithium Batteries

Hexagonal boron nitride and silicone rubber (h-BN/SR) composites were prepared by the mechanical stirring method, and their crystal morphology, chemical structure, thermal properties, and compression stress–strain performance were investigated. The experimental results suggest that silicone rubber combined with h-BN exhibits better thermal conductivity and mechanical properties. When the proportion of h-BN is 30 wt%, the thermal conductivity of the h-BN/SR composite material is 0.58 W/m∙K, which is 3.4 times that of pure silicone rubber. At the same time, the compressive strength of h-BN/SR is 4.27 MPa, which is 6.7 times that of pure silicone rubber. Furthermore, the finite element model was employed to numerically analyze the thermal behavior of a battery with a h-BN/SR composite as the thermal interface material. The analytical results show that the highest temperature of the battery decreased when using h-BN/SR as the thermal interface material in the battery thermal management system. The h-BN/SR composite can thus effectively improve the safety properties of batteries.
Modeling and simulation of bonded-type piezoelectric linear motors considering the stress transfer in adhesive layer

This paper provides a general framework for modeling bonded-type piezoelectric linear motors considering the stress transferred by adhesive layer. A three-dimensional static model of stator is first developed by the principle of minimum potential energy and finite element. The stress transferred by adhesive layer could be simulated and analyzed for arbitrary bonding conditions. Basing on the static stress-transfer analysis, a quasi-static stress acted to substrate by piezoelectric elements is assumed and integrated into the substrate dynamic model. A pure mechanical dynamic model is developed for the electromechanical coupling system of stator. Furthermore, the whole-machine dynamic model of motor is presented by incorporating the frictional contact force into the dynamic model of the stator and an analytical model of the mover. Finally, a bonded-type piezoelectric linear motor with V-shaped stator is investigated as an example for simulations and experiments. The methodology presented here for simulating the transferred load of adhesive layer in bonded-type piezoelectric motor as well as for estimating the vibration characteristics of stator and output performances of motor. It is believed that the proposed method would be helpful to design and manufacture the prototypes due to the wider applicability of allowing for irregular geometry and any bonding conditions.
Profiles of Calling and Their Relation to University-to-Work Transition Outcomes

In this study, we adopted a person-centered approach using latent profile analysis to explore whether profiles of calling based on the internal and external sources of a calling are identified and how these profiles relate to successful university-to-work transition outcomes (i.e., higher career satisfaction, higher person-job fit, and lower turnover intentions). We assessed a sample of 684 Chinese university graduates 1 week before and 6 months after graduation and found five profiles of calling: strongly undeveloped calling, moderately undeveloped calling, transcendent calling, highly transcendent calling, and modern calling. We found that a calling that was driven by internal and external sources (i.e., transcendent calling) or predominantly by internal sources (i.e., modern calling) was related to more successful university-to-work transition outcomes. Our findings contribute to the literature on calling by showing that the sources of calling are important to conceptualize different types of calling and differentiate the role of different callings.
Sakarya University Journal of Science SAUJS

Genetic Programming (GP) is one of the evolutionary computation (EC) methods followed with great interest by many researchers. When GP first appeared, it has become a popular computational intelligence method because of its successful applications and its potentials to find effective solutions for difficult practical problems of many different disciplines. With the use of GP in a wide variety of areas, numerous variants of GP methods have emerged to provide more effective solutions for computation problems of diverse application fields. Therefore, GP has a very rich literature that is progressively growing. Many GP software tools developed along with process of GP algorithms. There is a need for an inclusive survey of GP literature from the beginning to today of GP in order to reveal the role of GP in the computational intelligence field. This survey study aims to provide an overview of the growing GP literature in a systematic way. The researchers, who need to implement GP methods, can gain insight of potentials in GP methods, their essential drawbacks and prevalent superiorities. Accordingly, taxonomy of GP methods is given by a systematic review of popular GP methods. In this manner, GP methods are analyzed according to two main categories, which consider the discrepancies in their program (chromosome) representation styles and their methodologies. Besides, GP applications in diverse problems are summarized. This literature survey is especially useful for new researchers to gain the required broad perspective before implementing a GP method in their problems.
Impact of Different Boiling and Soaking Treatments on the Release and Retention of Antinutrients and Nutrients from the Edible Shoots of Three Bamboo Species

Young shoots of some bamboo species require precooking processing to remove antinutrients to make them palatable and safe for consumption; however some nutrient elements are also removed during the process. This study was conducted to select appropriate precook processing treatments that retain nutrients with maximum release of antinutrients. Different durations of boiling (10, 20 and 30 minutes) and soaking (6, 12 and 24 hours) as precooking methods, were studied on the antinutritional, nutritional, phytochemical and organoleptic characteristics on shoots of three species of Dendrocalamus namely, D. giganteus , D. latiflorus and D. sikkimensis. These precooking processes affected shoots variously. Nutrients viz carbohydrate, amino acid, protein, fat, ash, vitamin E and vitamin C showed a decrease in processed shoots as compared to the fresh shoots, whereas an increase in starch (2.52%-27.61%) and moisture (0.09%-4.91%) was observed after boiling. Neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and total phenolic content reduced significantly ( p <0.05) with all the processing treatments; acid detergent fiber (ADF) increased (13.25%-26.88%) after boiling and decreased (1.20%-2.33%) after soaking and the phytosterol increased (2.54%-5.67%) after all treatments in all the three species. Antinutrients (cyanogenic glycosides) were reduced by 75.76% - 96.10% after boiling and 51.71% - 86.59% after soaking treatments. Contemplating overall antinutritional, nutritional, phytochemical and organoleptic characteristics, 20 minutes boiling and 12 hours soaking treatments were found to be the most appropriate and time efficient preparatory method of shoots for safe consumption. Current optimized treatments for shoot processing can be utilized in preparation of traditional and contemporary gastronomies as well as in pharmaceutical industries and for fortification of various food items.
Data Needs for Modeling Low-Temperature Non-Equilibrium Plasmas: The LXCat Project, History, Perspectives and a Tutorial

Technologies based on non-equilibrium, low-temperature plasmas are ubiquitous in today’s society. Plasma modeling plays an essential role in their understanding, development and optimization. An accurate description of electron and ion collisions with neutrals and their transport is required to correctly describe plasma properties as a function of external parameters. LXCat is an open-access, web-based platform for storing, exchanging and manipulating data needed for modeling the electron and ion components of non-equilibrium, low-temperature plasmas. The data types supported by LXCat are electron- and ion-scattering cross-sections with neutrals (total and differential), interaction potentials, oscillator strengths, and electron- and ion-swarm/transport parameters. Online tools allow users to identify and compare the data through plotting routines, and use the data to generate swarm parameters and reaction rates with the integrated electron Boltzmann solver. In this review, the historical evolution of the project and some perspectives on its future are discussed together with a tutorial review for using data from LXCat.
Amorphous Nb2O5 as a Selective and Reusable Catalyst for Furfural Production from Xylose in Biphasic Water and Toluene

Aqueous-phase dehydration of xylose into furfural was studied in the presence of amorphous Nb2O5 with water-compatible Bronsted and Lewis acid sites. Nb2O5 was determined as a more active and selective catalyst for xylose dehydration than typical homogeneous Bronsted and Lewis acid catalysts including HCl and Sc(OTf)3, and Nb2O5 converted 93% of xylose with 48% selectivity toward furfural in water at 393 K. No significant loss of the original catalytic activity was observed after Na+-exchange treatment, which indicates that the reaction proceeded only on Lewis acid sites. Isotope-labeling experiments using D2O and xylose suggested that furfural is formed through stepwise dehydration via a highly reactive dicarbonyl intermediate on Nb2O5, whereas typical Lewis acids such as CrCl3 and Sc(OTf)3 convert xylose to furfural in water through hydride transfer and subsequent dehydration via xylulose as a ketose-type intermediate. The difference in the reaction mechanism accounts for the lower activation energy (83.
Rediscovery and taxonomic analysis of Romulea melitensis (Iridaceae) from the Maltese islands

The status of the Maltese endemic Romulea melitensis remained doubtful since its description by Beguinot in 1907, primarily because plants with the morphological characters as referred in the diagnosis have not been substantiated in situ. A sand crocus with the combination of a smallish, dark violet corolla with a yellow throat and perianth segments up to 1.5 mm wide have never been witnessed in the Maltese Islands. A detailed analysis of the protologue and the type of R. melitensis has resulted that when Beguinot examined the 30-year-old exsiccatae, two important characters were misinterpreted, leading to the current ambiguous status of R. melitensis. A detailed account accompanied by specific illustrations and tabulated datasets are given to address this taxonomic misconception. In effect, R. melitensis has wider tepals and the dark colour of the corolla referred in the protologue is exhibited only at the abaxial surface of the tepals in some individuals. Under this adjusted morphological approach, ten populations corresponding to R. melitensis have been found in the Maltese islands, three of which matching completely with the taxon’s lectotype. In addition, morphological, palynological and chorological studies on these populations strongly suggest that R. melitensis is a hybrid between R. columnae and R. variicolor - a Siculo-Maltese endemic species. An identification key to the species of Romulea occurring or reported in the past from the Maltese Islands is supplied in this work.
Effect of Climate Variability on Green and Blue Water Resources in a Temperate Monsoon Watershed, Northeastern China

Over 80% of global grain production relies on green water, water from precipitation that is stored in unsaturated soil and supports plant growth. Blue water, precipitation that turns into surface water and groundwater, is also a vital surface water resource, and it can be directly utilized. The Tanghe River Basin is a typical temperate continental monsoon watershed in Northern China where residents and crops rely on blue and green water resources. In this study, the spatiotemporal distributions of water resources in the Tanghe River Basin were simulated using the soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model for the period between 1970 and 2015. The results demonstrate that the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency and coefficient of determination were both higher than 0.64 during the calibration and validation periods at all hydrological stations, indicating high simulation accuracy. The average annual water resources of the Tanghe River Basin are 759.37 mm. Green and blue water account for 68% and 32% of the total water resources, respectively. The study period was divided into the reference period (1970–1976) and the variation period (1977–2015), to explore the impact of climate change on the green and blue water resources of the Tanghe River Basin water resources. Compared with the reference period, the average green and blue water resources in the variation period decreased by 78.48 and 35.94 mm/year, and their rate changes were −13.45% and −13.17%, respectively. The water resource relative change rates were high in the south and low in the north, and they were predominantly affected by precipitation. This study improves our understanding of the hydrological processes as well as the availability of blue and green water in the study region, and can prove beneficial in promoting the sustainable development of small basins and the integrated watershed management in areas with similar climatic conditions.