Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Machine learning and statistical approaches to classification – a case study

The advent of information technology has led to the proliferation of data in disparate databases. Organisations have become data rich but knowledge poor. Users need efficient analysis tools to help them understand their data, predict future trends and relationships and generalise to new situations in order to make proactive knowledge-driven decisions in a competitive business world. Thus, there is an urgent need for techniques and tools that intelligently and automatically transform these data into useful information and knowledge for effective decision making. Data mining is considered to be the most appropriate technology for addressing this need. Datamining is the process of extracting or “mining” knowledge from large amounts of data. Regression analysis and classification are two datamining tasks used to predict future trends. In this study, we investigate the behaviour of a statistical model and three machine learning models (artificial neural network, decision tree and support vector machine) on a large electricity dataset. We evaluate their predictive abilities based on this dataset. Results show that machine learning models, for this real world dataset, outperform statistical regression while artificial neural network outperforms support vector machine and decision tree in the classification task. In terms of comprehensibility, decision tree is the best choice. Although not definitive this research indicates that certainly these machine learning methods are an alternative to regression with certain datasets.
Implication of Radiocarbon Dates from Sohr Damb/Nal, Balochistan

Sohr Damb/Nal, the type site of the Nal complex, is located in Balochistan, Pakistan. After 1 season of excavation by H Hargreaves in 1924, which made the polychrome Nal pottery widely known, no further work took place until the Joint German-Pakistani Archaeological Mission to Kalat resumed excavations in 2001. So far, 4 seasons of excavations have been undertaken, which have revealed 4 periods of occupation, dated from about 3800 to 2000 BC. The well-stratified assemblages provide new insights into cultural processes and developments, and enhance the comparative frameworks through typological series and a comprehensive set of radiocarbon dates. This information is essential for assessing cross-cultural relations and the date of urbanization. In this paper, the 14C dates from Sohr Damb/Nal are presented and their cultural context is discussed. Period III has several links to sites in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, such as Miri Qalat IIIb–c, Mehrgarh VI–VII/Nausharo I, Quetta III, Mundigak IV, and Shahr-e Sokhta II–III. Period IV represents a Kulli-Harappan occupation, which is dated to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC.
APPLICATION OF SILVER NANOPARTICLE PRODUCTION FOR LIPASE MODIFICATION USING PUER TEA

Application of cystine capped silver nanoparticles synthesized using puer tea as the reducing agent to decorate lipase has been reported in the present work. Biodiesel production technology is competitive in terms of low cost and alternative source of energy which should be not only sustainable but also environmentally friendly. Designing of the lipase immobilization for biodiesel production has a remarkable impact and is still challenging. In this work, biodiesel production from soybean oil was enhanced and facilitated by using a novel biocatalyst consisting of commercial lipase (EC 3.1.1.3), silver nanoparticles, and polydopamine. Various parameters such as cystine concentration, pH, temperature and amount of reducing agent were standardized and their effect on the synthesis process has been initially evaluated by surface plasmon resonance peak analysis. Further the synthesized nanoparticles were also characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The transesterification reaction conditions were as follows: oil/alcohol molar ratio 1:4; temperature 40 °C and total reaction time 6 h. Lipozyme TL-100L lipase provided the highest yield of fatty acid methyl esters as 92%. Operational stability was determined with immobilized lipase and it indicated that a small enzyme deactivation occurred after used repeatedly for 10 consecutive batches with each of 24 h. Since the process is yet effective and enzyme does not leak out from the polymer, the method can be proposed for industrial applications. Research highlights Lipozyme TL-100L and Novozym 388 were immobilized onto micro porous polymeric matrix by both physical adsorption and covalent linking. Immobilized enzymes were used for synthesis of fatty acid methyl esters by transesterification of canola oil and methanol using semi-continuous operation system. According to chromatographic analysis, Lipase Lipozyme TL-100L resulted in the highest yield of methyl ester as 92%. The bioconjugates saw 15% loss in its initial activity at the end of five reusability cycles. This decorated reusable system has the potential to be utilized for various applications pertaining to the exploitation of lipase in various industries.
The Coffea arabica Fungal Pathosystem in New Caledonia: Interactions at Two Different Spatial Scales

The simultaneous analysis of epidemiological and environmental variables could contribute to the determination of the main factors which govern the epidemic dynamics of diseases (i.e. rust, anthracnose and Cercospora leaf spot) in Coffea arabica. With this in mind, the condition of previously marked leaves in 29 plots. which were grouped in 11 different sites in New Caledonia. were surveyed monthly. In the same period, the environmental characteristics of the plots (soil type, climate, etc.)were determined. Statistical analysis of these data revealed significant correlations between pathology and the environment. at the sites’ level (analysis of the mean site values) as well as at the plots' level (analysis of the deviations with the mean site value). The site effects predominated: at those sites in which rust was the major disease, leaf and branch mortality were more pronounced than at sites in which anthracnose or Cercospora leaf spot predominated. Rust was generally associated with soil pH values that were favourable for coffee tree development. with poor soil structure and with large temperature ranges. Within a site. plot exposure to sun and wind could enhance anthracnose and Cercospora leaf spot. Finally, in New Caledonia the three variables soil pH, soil structure and temperature range allow a simple and satisfactory estimation of the epidemiological risks in a given plot.
MAP-i: Thesis Proposal Bidirectional Data Transformation by Calculation

Computing is full of situations where transforming a data format into a different format is essential to “bridge the gap” between technology layers and ensure sharing of information among software applications. Changes in data types call for corresponding changes in data values. Moreover, to yield model interoperability, bidirectional transformations capable of translating between models are required.
Uncertainty Quantifications in Chiral Effective Field Theory

The nuclear force is a residual interaction between bound states of quarks and gluons. The most fundamental description of the underlying strong interaction is given by quantum chromodynamics (QCD)that becomes nonperturbative at low energies. A description of low-energy nuclear physics from QCD is currently not feasible. Instead, one can employ the inherent separation of scales between low- and high-energy phenomena, and construct a chiral effective field theory (EFT). The chiral EFT contains unknown coupling coefficients, that absorb unresolved short-distance physics, and that can be constrained by a non-linear least-square fitting of theoretical observables to data from scattering experiments. In this thesis the uncertainties of the coupling coefficients are calculated from the Hessian of the goodness-of-fit measure X2. The Hessian is computed by implementing automatic differentiation (AD)in an already existing computer model, with the help of the Rapsodia AD tool. Only neutron-proton interactions are investigated, and the chiral EFT is studied for leading-order (LO) and next-to-leadingorder (NLO). In addition, the correlations between the coupling coefficients are calculated, and the statistical uncertainties are propagated to the ground state energy of the deuteron. At LO, the relative uncertainties of the coupling coefficients are 0.01%, whereas most of the corresponding uncertainties at NLO are 1%. For the deuteron, the relative uncertainties in the binding energies are 0.2% and 0.5% for LO and NLO, respectively. Moreover, there seems to be no obvious obstacles that prevent the extension of this method to include the proton-proton interaction as well as higher chiral orders of the chiral EFT, e.g. NNLO. Finally, the propagation of uncertainties to heavier many-body systems is a possible further application.
Labour Market Segmentation, Clusters, Mobility and Unemployment Duration with Individual Microdata

This article proposes empirical tools to account for the role of heterogeneities in the labour matching process, and shows an application to the Andalusian labour market which relies on individual microdata. Firstly, by considering that the labour market is segmented when workers of a specific group have greater probability of matching with specific job groups, we propose two empirical measures related to this idea: propensity to match, and segmentation in worker and job groups. Secondly, we use a clustering methodology, based on a similarity measure, to obtain a better overview of the structure of the labour market. Thirdly, we propose a measure of mobility based on our similarity measure, and estimate a regression model that relates mobility to worker and job characteristics and to the economic cycle. Finally, these tools are included in an unemployment duration model. The proposed methodology may be useful in labour intermediation by helping seekers to follow a ‘roadmap’ of successful paths.
The Consumption of DHA during Embryogenesis as an Indicative of the Need to Supply DHA during Early Larval Development: A Review

The establishment of an adequate larval diet for crustacean and fish often involves a series of time-consuming and expensive trial and errors. Despite being nutritionally poor, rotifers and Artemia are the most commonly used preys in larviculture. Whether (and to what extent) the prey needs to be enriched with essential fatty acids differs from species to species. We hypothesized that the DHA content of a newly spawned eggs and its consumption through embryogenesis can be a good indicator of the need to enrich the prey with DHA. In order to assess this hypothesis, we performed a search in the scientific literature and compared DHA consumption through embryogenesis with larval culture success with unenriched and DHA-enriched Artemia nauplii, respectively a prey poor and rich in DHA of fish and crustacean. Data available from previously published studies suggests that, higher the consumption of DHA during embryonic development, greater the requirement of a diet rich in DHA during early larval development; and when, although present, DHA is not consumed during embryogenesis, larvae seem to be able to successfully develop with diet poor in DHA (i.e. using solely their reserves). Further studies will be necessary to better validate this hypothesis, but if confirmed, it may allow a reduction of time and costs associated with the establishment of an adequate larval diet.
MODELING OF SELF–HEALING MATERIALS AND FITTING PARAMETERS PROCEDURE

The surface defects of the material are difficult to detect and difficult to repair. A big challenge in materials science is to design „smart“ synthetic systems that can re-establish the continuity and integrity of the damaged area. Recent research of the nanocontainers with the process of self-healing materials promises a good avenue for new smart nanocoating interfaces. We use continuum modeling approach to investigate coating substrates that contain nanoscale defects with healing agents. Here we use Finite Element Method (FEM) with different diffusivity and fluxes. The fitting procedure from simulations is performed to determine diffusion coefficient and the diameter of nanocontainers to match experimental results. We also show the risk map from the calculations of the creepage and coverage.
Pricing American Call Options with Dividend and Stochastic Interest Rates

This article presents a closed form solution for pricing American stock call options with one known dividend under the Ho-Lee stochastic interest rate assumptions. Both the closed-form pricing formula and delta hedge ratio formula for the discussed American stock call options are derived. The correlation between the underlying stock price process and the discount factor process is suitably established. Numerical analyses demonstrate that there are some crucial parameters, the correlation coefficient between the stock price process and the discount factor process, and the amount of dividend, that have an impact on the option price and the delta hedge ratio. These results provide researchers and participants with some pricing and hedging applications in the real financial market.
Dimensions of Customer-Based Brand Equity in Gold Industry

Purpose - Explore dimensions of customer-based brand equity in gold industry and its relationships. Design/methodology/approach – The techniques of focus-group and direct-interview are employed to explore, adjust scales and collect data. A sample of 200 customers of SJC gold is selected for the research. The scales are evaluated by the analyses of Cronbach’s alpha, EFA and CFA. The hypotheses are verified by SEM, checked by the competitive model and Bootstrap method. Findings - Brand equity is measured by brand awareness, perceived quality, brand trust and brand loyalty; There are positive relationships between brand awareness and other dimensions; perceived quality has positively effect on brand loyalty and trust while brand trust affects brand loyalty. Research limitations – Data is only collected in the southern region of Vietnam among customers of SJC gold. Hence, the authors recommend further tests in associated with other gold brands or regions to increase the theoretical model’s generalizability proposed. Practical implications – Managers should recognize the differences between model of brand equity in gold industry and other industries to design reasonable strategies of communication for enhancing effectiveness of building gold brands. Some solutions are also suggested for government officials in order to develop gold market, such as building detail gold standards and management policies; encouraging and supporting companies in building gold brands; reducing barriers of gold market, especially for retailers. Originality/value - A major contribution is to explore dimensions of customer-based brand equity in gold industry and its relationships. Some scales, which are reliable, unidimensional and obtain convergent, discriminable and theoretical validity, are supplied. Keyword: Brand equity; Gold; Measurement model; Relationships of Dimensions; Vietnam.
Snowmobile impact on diurnal behaviour in the Arctic fox

ABSTRACT As tourism increases globally, studies have documented impacts on wildlife from anthropogenic disturbances. In this observational experiment we aimed to investigate if snowmobile traffic affected the diurnal activity of Arctic fox in High Arctic Svalbard. We conducted the study in two areas in Svalbard, one control area with low snowmobile traffic and one experimental area with high snowmobile traffic. In each area 10 camera-traps, baited with reindeer carcasses, were positioned and programmed to take photographs every five minutes. The proportion of photographs with foxes was higher during the night than during the day, and the difference between night and day was larger in the area with more snowmobile traffic. By using data obtained according to a similar study design in two Arctic Russian sites, Yamal and Nenetsky, with little human activity and low snowmobile traffic, we were able to compare Arctic fox activity patterns in Svalbard on a larger scale. Our results indicate that snowmobile traffic had an impact on the diurnal activity of the Arctic fox in Svalbard, while there were no obvious diurnal activity patterns among Russian foxes. Even the area with low snowmobile traffic in Svalbard showed increased use of the reindeer carcasses during the night compared to one of the Russian sites, where foxes used carcasses equally during day and night. Such knowledge is of importance in designing cautious management practices.
Comparative study of light trapping strategies in thin film solar cells

In this thesis we perform a in-depth comparison study between different geometri- cal possibilities for solar cells to find an optimal design. Basic numerical experiments on the essential parts of the improve- ments in the geometry were performed separately to obtain an indication about increasing efficiency for 2D configurations. Our research has a strong focus on the inclusion of metallic and dielectric nanoparticles to enhance absorption efficiency.
Financial Inclusion, ICBT And The Role Of ICT In COMESA

The unbanked are not financially inactive and neither do they consume all of their income. One of the reasons financial inclusion has become a policy priority is because of the negative macro-economic consequences of the informal sector, which includes an informal financial system and informal trade. Informal Cross Border Trade (ICBT) is prevalent in Africa and particularly in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region. This has negative impact on trade and other macro statistics for member economies and the region as a whole. Financial inclusion is a possible channel towards formalisation of these firms. The paper further discusses the role of developments in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in reaching out to the financially excluded. Trend analysis shows a strong correlation between developments in ICT and Intra-Regional Trade in COMESA. The paper is a preliminary, non-technical discussion.
Concentration maxima of volatile organic iodine compounds in the bottom layer water and the cold, dense water over the Chukchi Sea in the western Arctic Ocean: a possibility of production related to the degradation of organic matter

Abstract. We conducted a shipboard observation over the Chukchi Sea and the Canada Basin in the western Arctic Ocean in September and October 2012 to obtain vertical distributions of four volatile organic iodine compounds (VOIs) in seawater. The VOIs observed in this study were iodomethane (CH3I), iodoethane (C2H5I), diiodomethane (CH2I2), and chloroiodomethane (CH2ClI). Maximum concentrations of the four VOIs were found in the bottom layer water over the Chukchi Sea shelf, in which layer the maximum concentration of ammonium (NH4+) also occurred. A significant correlation was observed between C2H5I and NH4+ (correlation coefficient R = 0.93, P 3 I were found in the subsurface cold, dense water (CDW). A large nitrogen deficit (N deficit = NH4++ NO3−+ NO2−−16PO43−) occurred simultaneously in this water, suggesting the production of the three VOIs in the sediment or the bottom layer water over the shelf, probably in association with the degradation of organic matter. We conclude that VOI production over the Chukchi Sea shelf can be largely attributed to the degradation of organic matter that is produced in the highly productive shelf water. High concentrations of CH2ClI were also found in the Alaskan Coastal Water (ACW) from the Bering Strait to the surface of the northern Chukchi slope. The VOIs that originated at the Chukchi Sea shelf are expected to be laterally transported to the Arctic Ocean basin through the CDW and the surface ACW.
Mercury distribution in the upper troposphere and lowermost stratosphere according to measurements by the IAGOS-CARIBIC observatory: 2014–2016

Abstract. Mercury was measured onboard the IAGOS-CARIBIC passenger aircraft from May 2005 until February 2016 during near monthly sequences of mostly four intercontinental flights from Germany to destinations in North and South America, Africa and South and East Asia. Most of these mercury data were obtained using an internal default signal integration procedure of the Tekran instrument but since April 2014 more precise and accurate data were obtained using post-flight manual integration of the instrument raw signal. In this paper we use the latter data.Increased upper tropospheric total mercury (TM) concentrations due to large scale biomass burning were observed in the upper troposphere (UT) at the equator and southern latitudes during the flights to Latin America and South Africa in boreal autumn (SON) and boreal winter (DJF). TM concentrations in the lowermost stratosphere (LMS) decrease with altitude above the thermal tropopause but the gradient is less steep than reported before. Seasonal variation of the vertical TM distribution in the UT and LMS is similar to that of other trace gases with surface sources and stratospheric sinks. Speciation experiments suggest comparable TM and gaseous elementary mercury (GEM) concentrations at and below the tropopause leaving little space for Hg2+ (TM − GEM) being the dominating component of TM here. In the stratosphere significant GEM concentrations were found to exist up to 4 km altitude above the thermal tropopause. Correlations with N2O as a reference tracer suggest stratospheric lifetimes of 72±37 and 74±27 years for TM and GEM, respectively, comparable to the stratospheric lifetime of COS. This coincidence, combined with pieces of evidence from us and other researchers, corroborates the hypothesis that Hg2+ formed by oxidation in the stratosphere attaches to sulfate particles formed mainly by oxidation of COS and is removed with them from the stratosphere by air mass exchange, gravitational sedimentation and cloud scavenging processes.
Maori-English Machine Translation

In this paper we present our research over machine translation for Maori to English language pairs. The aim of this research is to create a lookup table for Maori-English words or phrases that are extracted from a set of aligned sentences. A major problem in this domain is word/phrase alignment. To overcome this problem, some common approaches have been investigated including statistical analyzing as well as heuristic methods. Although the research is in its initial steps and needs more parallel data, the initial results show that we can rely on statistical approaches to create Maori-English machine translation.
MACROECONOMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL DRIVERS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY. A CROSS-COUNTRY EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT

Our paper aims to investigate how the changes in macroeconomic conditions and the quality of insti-tutions affect the level of entrepreneurial activity in 18 European Union countries, over the period 2002–2016. Using panel-data estimation techniques, we alternatively analyzed the effects of some macroeconomic and institutional framework related factors (in particular, the quality of institutions) on entrepreneurial activity level, proxied by the total early-stage entrepreneurial activity rate, nascent entrepreneurship rate, and new business ownership rate. The results of our empirical analysis show that the economic situation of EU countries and the quality of institutions (reflected in our study through competitiveness, economic freedom, and governance quality) have a significant effect on early-stage entrepreneurs and for some variables the sign of the relationship depends on the age of the business. Our findings may be of interest to policy makers in developing effective policies contributing to enhancing the entrepreneurial capacity in different countries.