Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Paradoxes and Pitfalls in Using Fuzzy Set QCA: Illustrations from a Critical Review of a Study of Educational Inequality

Charles Ragin's crisp set and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA and fsQCA) are being used by increasing numbers of social scientists interested in combining analytic rigour with case-based approaches. As with all techniques that become available in easy-to-use software packages, there is a danger that QCA will come to be used in a routinised manner, with not enough attention being paid to its particular strengths and weaknesses. Users of fsQCA in particular need to be very aware of particular problems that can arise when fuzzy logic lies behind their analyses. This paper aims to increase its readers' understanding of some of these problems and of some means by which they might be alleviated. We use a critical discussion of a recent paper by Freitag and Schlicht addressing social inequality in education in Germany as our vehicle. After summarising the substantive claims of the paper, we explain some key features of QCA. We subsequently discuss two main issues, (i) limited diversity and the various ways of using counterfactual reasoning to address it, and (ii) the logical paradoxes that can arise when using fsQCA. Making different choices than Freitag and Schlicht do in respect of dealing with these two issues, we undertake some reanalysis of their data, showing that their conclusions must be treated with some caution. We end by drawing some general lessons for users of QCA.
UV-SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC AND RP-HPLC METHODS FOR THE ESTIMATION OF PRASUGREL HYDROCHLORIDE IN BULK AND TABLET FORMULATION

Objective: Prasugrel hydrochloride is used as an anti-platelet drug for the treatment of myocardial infarction prevention, Thrombosis prevention after percutaneous coronary intervention, Platelet-aggregation inhibitors etc. The aim of the present study is to develop a new analytical method for the estimation of Prasugrel hydrochloride in bulk and in tablet dosage form. Methods: Spectroscopic method-1 and RP-HPLC method-2 have been developed for the quantification of Prasugrel hydrochloride in bulk and in the formulation. These methods are simple, cost effective, accurate and precise. Results: In method-1, Prasugrel hydrochloride showed maximum absorbance at 252 nm in methanol which is selected as solvent for analysis based on it stability. Beer’s law obeyed in the concentration range of 10-60 mcg/ml. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) was found to be 1.0195 and 3.0896 mcg/ml respectively. In RP-HPLC (method-2), the mobile phase selected is Acetonitrile: Trifluroacetic acid in the ratio 45:55% v/v. The flow rate was 0.1 ml/min. The linearity range was found to be 10-60 mcg/ml. The formulation EFIPLT was selected for analysis and the amount present was found to be 100.53% and 106.95% for method 1 and 2 respectively. Conclusion: Both the methods are validated as per ICH guidelines. The methods were found to be simple, accurate, precise and rapid.
Liquidity and Capital Structure: The Case of Pakistani Non-Financial Firms

This paper empirically examines the impact of equity market liquidity on firms' leverage decisions in Pakistan using a firm-level panel data covering the period 2000-2013. We use alternative measures of leverage and liquidity to ensure the robustness of equity liquidity effects. We find that equity market liquidity is significantly and negatively related to the leverage decisions of firms. We also show that firms with more liquid stocks are likely to prefer equity to debt financing. The negative effects of equity market liquidity on leverage decisions hold even after controlling for several firm-specific determinants of capital structure.
PEMFC STACKS FOR POWER GENERATION

Industries promoting polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells for stationary and auxiliary power applications are receiving considerable attention because of the attractiveness of the primary markets, such as small, home-based power generation on the roughly 3 – 5 kW level. More recently, interest in auxiliary power applications down to about the 1 kW level has also been steadily increasing. Plug Power, LLC, a fuel cell manufacturer, is primarily pursuing the development of the home-based power systems. Technological advances in PEM fuel cells at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are of potential utility for the development of readily manufacturable, low-cost and high performance fuel cell systems operating at near-ambient reactant pressures. As such, the two parties are collaborating on addressing some of the more pressing needs as well as some longer term issues. The primary tasks involve the investigation of both stainless steel and composite bipolar plates, CO tolerant anodes, and novel fuel cell system operation schemes.
Avian Mycotoxicosis in Developing Countries

Avian mycotoxicosis refers to all the diseases caused by the effect of mycotoxin in birds. These diseases may not be pathognomonic and sometimes subclinical and difficult to diagnose. The problem is worldwide but effort will be made to localise the effect of these diseases in developing countries. Developing countries have more than 50% of total meat and egg production in global poultry market: [1]. The global poultry meat market is 86.8 million tonnes, consisting of chicken: 85.6%, turkey: 6.8%; duck: 4.6%; goose and guinea fowl: 2.6%.
The impact of anterior knee pain on the quality of life among runners in under-resourced communities in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa

Background : Anterior knee pain (AKP) is the most common injury among runners and has a negative impact on the quality of life (QOL) of many athletes. Objectives : To determine the impact of AKP on the QOL among runners in under-resourced communities in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa. Methods : A cross–sectional study design was used. A population of 73 runners with AKP was included. Participants included runners aged 13 to 55 years with no history of knee surgery, traumatic or degenerative knee conditions. The SF-36 questionnaire was used to collect data. Ethical clearance, permission from club managers and consent from participants were obtained. Data were collected over six weeks and analysed using SPSS. Descriptive statistics included frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations and ranges. Inferential statistics included the comparison of means using the ANOVA test. Results : The lowest SF-36 mean scores were in two health domains: role limitation due to emotional problems (59) and vitality (59). Highest scores were in the general physical functioning domain (72). Females presented with lowest SF-36 scores (48) on role limitation due to emotional problems with noticeable difference (p=0.03). Youth presented with lowest scores (62) on the social functioning domain (p=0.001). Significant differences were noted on SF-36 scores between running experienced groups on the following domains: physical functioning (p=0.03), role limitation due to physical problems (p=0.01), vitality (p=0.001), general mental health (p=0.001) and social functioning (p=0.001). The most affected was the group with three-five years of running experience which presented with scores ranging between 46 and 65. Significant mean differences were also noted between BMI groups in the social functioning domain (p=0.01) where overweight and obese groups were mostly affected by AKP. Conclusion : This study highlighted a need to prevent, treat and rehabilitate AKP. Multidimensional community-based rehabilitation programmes are recommended. Keywords : patellofemoral pain, state of health, athletes, poor-resourced communities
Determination of the Dynamic Gain Function of Cortical Interneurons with distinct Electrical Types

In the living brain, individual neurons are constantly bombarded by thousands of synaptic inputs, which results in a fluctuating membrane potential. Neurons under such conditions are said to operate in a “fluctuation-driven regime”, in which stochastic incursions of the membrane potential to suprathreshold values result in the emission of action potentials. The process of transforming inputs, i.e., the fluctuating membrane potential, into an output, the spikes, is called “information encoding”. The dynamic gain function is a way to identify how this encoding takes place, by identifying the relationship between input frequencies and neuronal output. In this thesis, I sought to advance our understanding of how nerve cells encode information by means of two different approaches. In the first approach, a technical one, I characterized optogenetic tools that can be used to facilitate the traditionally laborious and time consuming determination of the neuronal gain function. Among the fast light sensitive channels available to date, chronos was the most promising. However, while it fulfilled all the basic requirements for a noninvasive fluctuating light stimulation, issues with respect to its level of expression in neurons hinder its applicability. In the second front, I used electrophysiological tools to effectively characterize the dynamic gain function of distinct electrical types of interneurons. I showed that fast spiking and adapting interneurons exhibit different frequency preferences, and that the correlation time of the noise input differently affects the gain curves of these cells. In the fast noise regime, adapting neurons exhibited a low-pass filter-like behavior, with peak gain in the theta range (1-10 Hz), while fast spiking cells showed a band-pass filter behavior with strong resonance in the 100-200 Hz band. Interestingly, in the slow noise regime, while fast spiking gain behavior qualitatively did not change, adapting interneurons exhibited a band-pass-like behavior, with peak at 100 Hz. In order to further characterize the gain of fast spiking neurons, these cells were subdivided into three categories: continuous, delayed, and stuttering. The gain calculation of each of these three subtypes showed that, while in the fast regime their responses were considerably similar, in the slow regime they exhibited distinct resonance peaks, with a considerable variation of the gain at the peak. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that the gain of inhibitory interneurons is characterized in the noise-driven regime.
Fish assemblage structure in tributaries of the Meia Ponte River, Goiás, Brazil

This study was conducted in the Meia Ponte River basin, which is located in the Cerrado biome. The objective was to describe the structure of fish assemblages and to evaluate the results with the regard to the position of the tributaries (sampling stations) along the basin. This basin drains 35 municipalities of Goias State. Springs of the Meia Ponte are located in the district of Itaucu (GO), in the Serra dos Brandoes. Two sampling were conducted, one in the rainy season (March/2001) and another in the dry season (August/2001). Thirty sampling sites in tributaries and one in the channel of the Meia Ponte River, in its upper course, were selected to capture fish with dipnets (3 mm mesh) during one hour, along 100-m stretch. Sampling periods (season; rainy and dry) and the categorization according to the distance of the sampling station from the mouth of the Meia Ponte River (position; upper, intermediate and lower) were used to evaluate differences in fish assemblage structure, summarized by a detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), applied on the abundance data matrix, squared root transformed, to eliminate the effect of abundant species. The first two axes were retained for interpretation (eigenvalues = 0.35 and 0.24, for axis 1 and 2, respectively). The two-way ANOVA (factors seasons and positions) identified significant differences (p <0.05) in score averages for axis 1 and 2, for both factors. These results suggest significant differences in fish assemblage structure in the Meia Ponte River basin for the seasons (rainy and dry) and positions (upper, intermediate and lower) studied, in spite of the short spatial scale. These findings demonstrate a great ichthyofauna heterogeneity in the uppermost part of the Parana River.
Barriers to alternative dispute resolution in the construction industry: the Kuwaiti experience

Litigation as a formal way of dispute resolution is time consuming, costly, adversarial and damages, if not destroys, relationships and reputations. There are many alternative forms to litigation and arbitration, also in Kuwait different organisations prepared regulations for different forms of alternative dispute resolution. These forms have been rarely used due to cultural difficulties and to lack of awareness of these forms of dispute resolution. In addition to exploring the advantages of using the alternative dispute resolution forms with construction projects disputes, this paper presents the findings of what alternative dispute resolution strategies are currently been implemented by different organisations in Kuwait. These finding are reinforced by interviews conducted in Kuwait, with workers in the construction industry, to identify the main reasons, in terms of culture and awareness aspects, for not adopting ADR in construction disputes. The barriers to use mediation are found to be, mainly, lack of awareness and another six cultural aspects. However, elimination instruments to the barriers were revealed in this study.
Ungrafting Malicious Code from Piggybacked Android Apps

To devise e cient approaches and tools for detecting malicious code in the Android ecosystem, researchers are increasingly required to have deep understanding of malware. There is thus a need to provide a framework for dissecting malware and localizing malicious program fragments within app code in order to build a comprehensive dataset of malicious samples. In this paper we address this need with an approach for listing malicious packages in an app based on code graph analysis. To that end we focus on piggybacked apps, which are benign apps repackaged with malicious payload. Our approach classifies each app independently from its potential clones based on machine learning, and detects piggybacked apps with a precision of about 97%. With the built classifier we were also able to find new piggybacked apps in market datasets, outside our ground truth. We also identify malicious packages with an accuracy@5 of 83% and an accuracy@1 of around 68%. We further demonstrate the importance of collecting malicious packages by using them to build a performant malware detection system.
The relationships and directions between electricity consumption and economic growth for four regions in China

We investigate the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth for four regions in China. The empirical results show that there are cointegration relationships and short-run bidirectional causality for the four regions. Over the long-run, there is bidirectional in the west, there is unidirectional causality running from economic growth to electricity consumption for the coastal region, whilst there is unidirectional causality running from electricity consumption to economic growth for the northeast and central area. The panel FMOLS estimates also support these results. This can provide a policy-making of demand forecasts and investment orientation in the short and long term.
Undertaking a structured literature review or structuring a literature review: tales from the field

The diversity of sources of literature within the management disciplines has resulted in a growing need for a systematic methodology to map the territory of its associated theories and models. As such, when scoping out a doctoral or policy based study the Structured Literature Review (SLR) can be considered as a means by which critical literature central to and underpinning the research can be rigorously and systematically mapped out. However, there is little guidance, or evidence, of this being the case when undertaking small scale projects for example undergraduate or masters degree dissertations. This paper reports four case studies using semi-structured interviews of masters degree students following management programmes who undertook a Structured Literature Review based dissertation and the issues and problems they had to encounter during their journey. The findings from the case studies suggest that the approach to SLRs, whilst suited to doctoral level and policy based research is not appropriate when dealing with undergraduate and masters dissertations and projects. The case study findings identified that these students conducting a SLR had to deal with a new set of conceptual, methodological and data collection problems relating to this ‘unorthodox’ approach to conducting a postgraduate research dissertation. The findings show that students had to confront new paradigms of enquiry that are not normally taught or found in ‘traditional’ research texts and research methods courses that are taught on degree programmes. However, the findings do reveal that students gained a greater depth and insight into the subject they were researching through a more rigorous and structured approach. The paper then presents alternative remedies by way of the Rapid Structured Literature Review (RSLR) research strategy which is argued as an appropriate approach in conducting small scale literature based research projects when used with undergraduate and masters degree students rather than the SLR, which is better suited for other types of research such as doctoral and policy based activities.
Firms' strategies and voluntary traceability: an empirical analysis in Italian food chains

In international food markets, voluntary traceability systems have increased their role in guaranteeing high safety and quality standards for the consumer. Such systems are also among the strategies firms employ to differentiate products and strengthen competitive advantage in both the national and international market. Voluntary traceability has significant implications on the organisation of economic relationships within food supply chains. This paper focuses on this aspect and analyses the effects of voluntary traceability on vertical co- ordination using a transaction cost perspective. The analysis makes reference to the Italian situation where the national standard organisation has introduced standard rules for voluntary traceability (UNI 10939; ISO 22005 at the international level). A survey was conducted by questionnaire to assess changes in transaction key factors (degree of asset specificity, uncertainty and frequency) and transaction costs after the introduction of voluntary traceability. The sample represent s all Italian firms certified UNI 10939, and consists of 190 firms. Respondents are 146. Factorial and Cluster Analyses were applied to highlight groups of firms with similar features. The empirical results reveal four different clusters in terms of a vertical reorganisation of transactions.
Social Media and Forecasting: What is the potential of Social Media as a forecasting tool?

In pursuance of retaining a competitive advantage on the market, businesses continuously ought to be ahead of time, meaning that they have to produce innovative products which respond to customer needs on a regular basis. This can only be accomplished if organizations are able to detect future market trends and customer needs. Social Media generated data offers the insights which are required to make predictions of future market trends and customer needs. Marketers have to be aware of the complexity of Social Media generated data as it can present various obstacles. Diverse data processing methods need to be applied in order to turn raw data into something meaningful and useful. The purpose of this paper is to review research findings and results on the role of Social Media as a forecasting tool; the study is conducted on the basis of a critical literature review in order to give a clear impression of the potential and the value of Social Media data for forecasting purposes. It was detected that Social Media does have the potential of predicting future market trends and customer needs. Marketers however have to be cautious due to numerous limitations of Social Media data.
Managing Plant Diseases and Promoting Sustainability and Productivity with Trichoderma: The Philippine Experience

Trichoderma is a genus of asexually reproducing fungi that is present in all types of soils. Trichoderma species have been recognized as antagonists of soil-borne and foliage pathogens and as efficient decomposers of cellulosic waste materials. Moreover, they have the ability to increase plant growth and induce plant resistance. Along with mycoparasitism, antibiotics and competition, induced resistance is one of the most important mechanisms of Trichoderma action against fungal plant pathogens. Strategies to enhance biocontrol ability of Trichoderma include use of composts, UV irradiation and gene expression studies as applied to genetic engineering. Of over 50 research projects on Trichoderma in the Philippines as reported in this review, only less than 10% have been published at full length in scientific journals. Trichoderma have been often used in the control of rice and solanaceous crops and vegetables. Most projects have been conducted both in vitro and in vivo including the laboratory and greenhouse but rarely in the field. Most strains reported were not identified up to the species level especially by molecular techniques, an essential requirement for product commercialization. Of the several strains of Trichoderma that have been isolated and screened for biocontrol of plant diseases in the Philippines, only one strain has reached product commercialization. This, however, has led to a promising technology to improve management of vegetable diseases and increase farmers’ income. The continuity in sustaining these programs is vital in maintaining sustainability and productivity of agricultural crops with Trichoderma .
Does the histological structure of spermoviduct and free oviduct correspond with the reproductive mode in Clausiliids (Gastropoda: Pulmonata: Baleinae)?

Spermoviduct and free oviduct of four species of Baleinae door snails of different reproductive strategy: Laciniaria plicata (oviparity), Vestia gulo (egg retention), Alinda biplicata and Vestia turgida (viviparity), were histologically examined. The spermoviduct contains three partly connected canals: autospermiduct, allospermiduct and oviduct. Their walls are built of pseudostratified epithelium which is composed of large, columnar cells and small, much thinner, supporting cells with the apical surface provided with cellular processes. The free oviduct includes two partly connected canals: oviduct and allospermiduct, with their walls also built of pseudostratified epithelium. Both morphology and secretory activity of epithelial cells are very similar in viviparous and oviparous forms. Key worDs: Clausiliidae, reproductive system, Alinda, Laciniaria, Vestia, land snails