Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Speech Act of Apology for Saudi EFL Students

This research will find out the nonverbal communication tools used by the students with Arabic background which they use while talking in English to their counter parts. The research will use the techniques designed by Cohen, Olshtain & Rosenstein (1986) commonly known as Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and the Apology Introspection Questionnaire (AIQ), which was first introduced by Ismail (1998). The research was conducted on various techniques used by the students to apologize when they were alone or when they were in groups. The aim of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of English teaching techniques used by the student whose mother tongue was Arabic. This research was particularly focused to find out the apology technique learned by such students. There are issues in speech acts (Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984; Cohen, et al., 1986) which are an integral part of the culture and these cultural aspects ultimately result in misleading differences in the way student convey their thoughts and apologies in English. The language skills were tested along with discourse completion test (DCT) and the apology introspection questionnaire (AIQ), this was accompanied by the type of misconduct, relationship of two parties and the way apology was offered. The findings in this respect revealed that the direct apology was effectively used in Arabic and English languages. However, there were some situations where indirect apologies were found effective in both languages as well as a mix of direct and indirect apologies was also used. The study proved that grammar, syntax, and spelling were not the only tools to articulate an apology.
To study ammonia metabolism through activities of glutamine synthetase (GS) and phosphate-activated glutaminase in pigs with acute liver failure

3 Background.4 METHODS.6 Study outline.6 Glutamine synthetase activity assay.6 Phosphate-activated glutaminase activity assay.7 RESULTS.8 GS activity.8 PAG activity.9 DISCUSSIONS.10 Acknowledgements.13 References.14 Legends to figures.17 Figures.19
Locality-based Partitioning for Spark

Spark is a memory-based distributed data processing framework. Lots of data is transmitted through the network in the shuffle process, which is the main bottleneck of the Spark. Because the partitions are unbalanced in different nodes , the Reduce task input are unbalanced. In order to solve this problem, a partition policy based on task local level is designed to balance the task input. Finally, the optimization mechanism is verified by experiments, which can alleviate the data-skew and improve the efficiency of the job process.
Optimization of Enzyme Dilution Buffer and Reaction Buffer for Vaccinia H-1 Related Wild Enzyme Assay and Its Stability at 4°C

A human dual specific phosphates (DUSP), Vaccinia H-1 related wild enzyme (VHR), dephosphorylates both phosphotyrosine and phosphoserine/phosphothreonine residue of a protein. VHR is considered as a promising therapeutic target for cancer because the cells lacking VHR are arrested at the G1-S and G2-M transitions of the cell cycle with a decreased telomerase activity. VHR being a therapeutic target for cancer is crucial to know about its stability and its assay procedure conditions. This study was conducted to verify the viability of VHR enzyme at 4°C. Protein concentration and specific activity were calculated from Bradford method and p-nitrophenylphosphate ( p NPP) assay by measuring the absorbance at 595 nm and 405 nm respectively in each respective day. The absorbance showed invariable difference in protein concentration and specific activity from starting to final days. Buffers like enzyme dilution and reaction buffers played significant role in VHR enzyme stability and activity. To find out the correct buffer components for carrying out the VHR enzyme assay, several experiments were carried out by using variable constituents in enzyme dilution buffer and reaction buffer. The present study revealed that 3- component buffer system without thiol i.e. Dithiothreitol (DTT) or β-Mercaptoethanol (β-ME) as a reaction buffer and 2- N -morpholino ethanesulfonic acid (MES) buffer with DTT as an enzyme dilution buffer demonstrated invariably different in the stability throughout the experiment. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/njst.v15i2. 12127 Nepal Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 15, No.2 (2014) 117-122
The world behind the world coffee market

ResumeLes liens entre la production du cafe dans les pays en voie de developpement et sa consommation dans les pays developpes ont ete l'objet de tensions frequentes. Nous recourons ici a une approche qui rend compte, de maniere globale, de la chaine production-consommation pour analyser ces problemes et proposer des solutions. Les desequilibres sur les marches internationaux de credits spot resultent de l'acces facile a la production et au commerce du cafe, des inconvenients climatiques dont souffrent les grands pays producteurs, ainsi que des decalages qui existent entre l'offre et le gout des consommateurs. Le recours aux fonds speculatifs et aux contrats a terme sur devises accroit plus encore la volatilite des prix. Les grands torrefacteurs et detaillants internationaux controlent le transfert des denrees, les flux de valeur et d'information dans les secteurs strategiques de la chaine grâce au pouvoir qu'ils exercent sur le marche et aux outils de coordination dont ils disposent. Il en resulte des prix eleves pour les consommateurs et tres bas pour les producteurs. La structure de gouvernance qui regit actuellement le systeme cafeier n'offre ainsi aucune solution durable aux desequilibres du marche et des revenus. Il faut donc donner plus de poids a la coordination verticale en partageant l'information, en reformant les institutions qui regissent l'industrie dans les pays producteurs et en introduisant des mecanismes de redistribution des surplus, susceptibles de renforcer les maillons les plus faibles.
Woody plant encroachment paradox: Rivers rebound as degraded grasslands convert to woodlands

The related phenomena of degradation and woody plant encroachment have transformed huge tracts of rangelands. Woody encroachment is assumed to reduce groundwater recharge and streamflow. We analyzed the long‐term (85 years) trends of four major river basins in the Edwards Plateau region of Texas. This region, in which springs are abundant because of the karst geology, has undergone degradation and woody encroachment. We found that, contrary to widespread perceptions, streamflows have not been declining. The contribution of baseflow has doubled—even though woody cover has expanded and rainfall amounts have remained constant. We attribute this increase in springflow to a landscape recovery that has taken place concurrently with woody expansion—a recovery brought about by lower grazing pressure. Our results indicate that for drylands where the geology supports springs, it is degradation and not woody encroachment that leads to regional‐scale declines in groundwater recharge and streamflows.
Should we tax overtime, subsidize the wage or subsidize employment?

This paper compares the macroeconomic implications of taxing overtime and using two kinds of subsidies, an employment and a wage subsidy, in a model where team work and commuting costs subject to congestion are key determinants of the choice of the workweek. To obtain reliable estimates, I calibrate the model to the substitutability between the workweek and employment using business cycle information. I find that subsidizing employment can achieve the same employment increase than taxing overtime but at a lower cost in terms of output, productivity, wages and welfare. The wage subsidy that achieves the same employment increase turns out to be very costly from a fiscal point of view, 12.7% of output versus 4.57% of output in the employment subsidy experiment.
A Heuristic Based Approach to Solve a Capacitated Location-routing Problem

In this paper we define a new approach to solve the location routing problem (LRP). LRP is a relatively new research direction within location analysis that takes into account vehicle routing aspects. In this research it is proposed a new heuristic method base on simulated annealing to solve a capacitated location routing problem. At first an initial solution is produced by a greedy approach and then encoding this initial solution to use in optimization language and finally apply neighborhood search method to improve the initial solution. Finally, to verify the quality of our new approach in term of solution quality, one well-known data problem set is selected. The numerical examples show the efficiency of our approach.
B UYER POWER AND PASS-THROUGH OF LARGE RETAILING GROUPS IN THE P ORTUGUESE FOOD SECTOR

The fast development of large retailing groups has raised two major issues in the literature. First, it is usually claimed that these groups have, through the increasing concentration of their demand in the supplying market, benefited from a substantial rent shift from suppliers. A second issue is whether this rent shift passes-through to final consumers, thus increasing consumer welfare. The literature is rather inconclusive on these issues and mostly on the buyer power of large retailing groups and its impact on suppliers. This paper aims to fill in this gap by tackling buyer power and pass-through departing from the supply-side of the market. We do so on the basis of an instrumental variables panel-based econometric approach applied to purchases and sales data specific to large retailing groups, over 16 quarters from 2000 to 2003, and disaggregated at the brand, product, and supplier levels. Results reveal that purchasing pools and vertical agreements lower large retailing groups‟ acquisition prices and that these gains tend to pass-through to consumers. In parallel, additional findings suggest that these groups tend to increase their prices less than national trade.  This paper is the main econometric contribution to the Project on the “Vertical relations between large retailing groups and their suppliers in the Portuguese food sector” put forward by Rosa Dias with whom I had the pleasure of collaborating until recently. Since then, I have an equal pleasure of developing this project in collaboration with Celeste Fonseca. I would mostly likely to thank Abel M. Mateus, Rosa Dias, Celeste Fonseca, Eugenio Miravete, Luís Cabral, and the internal seminar participants for helpful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.
Design , development , and fabrication of a vibration detecting robotic foot-pad using embedded PVDF strips by Negin

This thesis shows the design, fabrication, and early characterization process of a slipsensing foot-pad made from PVDF strips embedded in a rubber molded structure. What follows suggests a proof-of-concept for a design that can be used to detect vibrations on the edges of a teethed structure. The ability to detect localized vibrations in the embedded PVDF sensors in this foot-pad can be used in future studies to measure the contact-patch area and investigate the relationship between the change in such area and incipient slip. The future iterations of the proposed foot-pad can be used to integrate with current foot-pads worn by legged robots such as MIT Cheetah to enable them to predict slippage. An experimental procedure was used to find the effect of a localized stress on the embedded sensors' data. Three iterations of the foot-pad were designed and fabricated. Furthermore, a custom slippage tester was designed and built for future studies. The experimental results suggested that the effect of triggering on the foot-pad was highly localized since it did not affect neighboring sensors. This behavior can be used to measure changes in the contact-patch area since loss of contact between the ground and foot-pad introduces vibrations on the edges of the pad. Though further data collection and mapping should be conducted for this foot-pad to be able to predict slippage, the experimental results suggest that usage of urethane embedded PVDF sensors can be a viable and promising approach in achieving this goal by detecting the localized vibrations induced by the slip incident. Thesis Supervisor: Sangbae Kim Title: Associate Professor
Photosensitizer effect in Aeromonas salmonicida lipids Efeito do fotosensibilizador nos lípidos de Aeromonas salmonicida

Photodynamic inactivation is a simple and effective method to destroy microorganism. PDI combines the use of light with a photosensitizer, as porphyrins, which in the presence of oxygen, leads to the formation of reactive oxygen species, such as singlet oxygen and free radicals, capable to oxidize vital membrane structures. The key advantages of Photodynamic Therapy (PDI) are the efficacy in bacteria, fungi, yeasts and protozoa; the low level of resistance induction; and the use of a cheap light source. It is fundamental to understand the importance of cell targets to better understand the photooxidation process. Lipids are important membrane components in bacteria. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the charge effect of four porphyrin derivatives used as photosensitizers in PDI in the photo-oxidation of membrane lipids of Aeromonas salmonicida and relate with the inactivation of this bacterium. The goal was achieved by quantification of lipid hydroperoxides by FOX II method, fatty acid profiles analysis by GC-FID and viability assays; in different periods of light exposure. After PDI it was observed formation of lipid hydroperoxides, changes in the fatty acids profile and a decrease on cell survival. However the results are dependent on the porphyrin used. According to these results, the photooxidation is not directly proportional with the number of charges in the photosensitizers, as other studies had been reported. A direct relation between the photo-oxidation of membrane lipids with the photo-inactivation in the studied bacterium was observed and an order of effectiveness was established. This study reinforces that cationic porphyrins are effective to inactivate bacteria and the importance and efficiency of photodynamic inactivation, as a viable alternative to traditional procedures.
A pr 2 01 8 Dispersive detection of radio-frequency dressed states

We introduce a method to dispersively detect alkali atoms in radio-frequency dressed states. In particular, we use dressed detection to measure populations and population differences of atoms prepared in their clock states. Linear birefringence of the atomic medium enables atom number detection via polarization homodyning, a form of common path interferometry. In order to achieve low technical noise levels, we perform optical sideband detection after adiabatic transformation of bare states into dressed states. The balanced homodyne signal then oscillates independently of field fluctuations at twice the dressing frequency, thus allowing for robust, phase-locked detection that circumvents low-frequency noise. Using probe pulses of two optical frequencies, we can detect both clock states simultaneously and obtain population difference as well as the total atom number. The scheme also allows for difference measurements by direct subtraction of the homodyne signals at the balanced detector, which should technically enable quantum noise limited measurements with prospects for the preparation of spin squeezed states. The method extends to other Zeeman sublevels and can be employed in a range of atomic clock schemes, atom interferometers, and other experiments using dressed atoms.
The "Dark Traits" of Sociopathic Leaders: Could They Be a Threat to Universities?.

Some sociopathic personality traits in managers can derail business organisations even though the leaders have been carefully selected and considered 'high flyers'. Three of those traits are narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. These traits are 'socially-aversive' because the sociopaths have an ingrained disregard for relationships. We will 'very likely' come into hurtful contact with a sociopath. This study addresses the problem: Could a leader of a university unit with strong levels of the dark triad traits derail their unit? After considering the literature about the dark triad and university leadership, this study argues that a sociopathic leader could degrade the collaborative nature of much of academics' work with other staff, students and society enough to produce mediocrity in their part of a university, but not enough to derail it. Implications for universities selecting non-sociopathic leaders and for individuals being led by sociopaths are suggested.
Growth and Properties of ZnO:Al on Textured Glass for Thin Film Solar Cells

Aluminium induced texturing (AIT) method has been used to texture glass substrates in order to enhance the photon absorption in thin film solar cells. The resultant glass roughness has been analyzed by varying the AIT process parameters and it has been found that the deposition method of Al is a decisive factor in tuning the texture. Two types of textures, a soft (texture E) and a rough texture (texture S), were achieved from the thermally evaporated and sputtered Al layers through AIT process. Aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) layers of different thickness were deposited over both textures and over smooth glass. Haze values above 30% were obtained for texture S
Investors’ Expertise, Personality Traits and Susceptibility to Behavioral Biases in the Decision Making Process

The aim of this paper is to investigate the degree of susceptibility to behavioral biases (the certainty effect, the sunk cost fallacy, and mental accounting) among people of various levels of expertise in market investments and to determine whether this susceptibility is correlated with certain personality traits (impulsivity, venturesomeness, and empathy). The study included 200 participants: 100 retail investors who regularly invest in the Warsaw Stock Exchange and 100 students of the Warsaw School of Economics who are casually involved in investing. In this study, employing a survey methodology, we conducted a laboratory experiment that allowed us to isolate behavioral biases and personality traits and measure their influence on investors’ decision-making processes. The participants filled out questionnaires containing two parts: 1) three situational exercises, which assessed susceptibility to behavioral biases, and 2) the Impulsivity, Venturesomeness, Empathy Questionnaire (IVE) Questionnaire which measures three personality traits (impulsivity, venturesomeness, and empathy). Statistical analyses demonstrated that susceptibility to behavioral biases depends on the level of expertise in market investing such that expertise increases susceptibility to behavioral biases. Some personality traits influenced the participants’ likelihood of displaying these biases.
Macroprudential, Microprudential and Monetary Policies: Conflicts, Complementarities and Trade-Offs

We review the recent literature on macroprudential policy and its interaction with other policies, extracting several points. First, there are externalities in the financial sector, often in the form of excessive credit growth. Second, monetary policy needs to take financial stability into account. Third, macroprudential instruments can moderate the financial cycle. Finally, there are complementarities between monetary and macroprudential policies, but also potential conflict. We then relate these points to recent events in the euro area where, following the sovereign debt crisis, a retrenchment of finance within national borders is taking place, amplifying the divergences across economies. We argue that in principle national authorities would like to adjust macroprudential instruments to compensate for the highly heterogeneous financial conditions, but at present they have little leeway to do so, since in the run-up to the crisis insufficient capital buffers had been accumulated. Various factors may explain low bank capitalization levels worldwide. We discuss the role of risk-weighted assets, which may have inadequately captured actual risks in many jurisdictions; we also document that European and US banks’ capital ratios decline monotonically with bank size. This confirms that key features of the microprudential apparatus are crucial for preventing financial instability.
Prediction of Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium of Polypropylene Oxide Solution Systems by Cubic Equations of State

In this research, vapor-liquid equilibrium behavior of Polypropylene oxide (PPO)/solvent and Polypropylene glycol (PPG)/solvent were calculated using cubic equation of states. Eight models containing PRSV and SRK CEOS with four mixing rules namely vdW1, vdW2, Wong-Sandler (WS), and Zhong-Masuoka (ZM) were applied to calculations of bubble point pressure. For the better prediction, the adjustable binary interaction parameters existing in any mixing rule were optimized. The results of absolute average deviations (%AAD) between predicted and experimental bubble point pressure were calculated and presented. The PRSV+vdW2 model was the best predictive model with the highest accuracy (AAD=1.021%) between other models.
Absolute Electronegativity and Hardness: Application to Inorganic Chemistry

The recent concepts of absolute electronegativity, {chi}, and absolute hardness, {eta}, are briefly reviewed. Experimental values for a large number of molecules and radicals are presented. The values are shown to be in good agreement with the known chemical behavior, both as to nucleophilic-electrophilic properties and as to rates of reaction. Applications are also given for the use of empirical rank orders of the local hardness, {bar {eta}}. The uses of {chi} and {eta} are consistent with frontier orbital theory. To make meaningful comparisons in a series of molecules, it is necessary that these orbitals remain the same. Also it is necessary that the observed I and A values of the molecules relate to the appropriate frontier orbitals. 39 refs., 10 tabs.
Multi-Condition Training for Unknown Environment Adaptation in Robust ASR Under Real Conditions

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems frequently work in a noisy environment. As they are often trained on clean speech data, noise reduction or adaptation techniques are applied to decrease the influence of background disturbance even in the case of unknown conditions. Speech data mixed with noise recordings from particular environment are often used for the purposes of model adaptation. This paper analyses the improvement of recognition performance within such adaptation when multi-condition training data from a real environment is used for training initial models. Although the quality of such models can decrease with the presence of noise in the training material, they are assumed to include initial information about noise and consequently support the adaptation procedure. Experimental results show significant improvement of the proposed training method in a robust ASR task under unknown noisy conditions. The decrease by 29 % and 14 % in word error rate in comparison with clean speech training data was achieved for the non-adapted and adapted system, respectively.
Wage punishment and place of residence

This article tests the hypothesis of wage punishment against workers living in poor counties. That is, we explicitly test the idea that workers living in poor counts receive a wage punishment in relation to similar skilled workers living in rich counties. The econometric results are robust to both a large set of explanatory variables and different econometric specifications. The 2 Stages and the 3 Stages Least Squares approach are used to correct both the endogeneity of the place of residence and the omission of the variable ability (ability bias). After all, the results suggest expressive wage punishment against workers that lived in poor areas. Furthermore, four alternative explanations for the correlation between wages and place of residence are tested and the results provide evidence in favor of i) a link between time spent commuting to workplace and productivity of the worker; and ii) statistical discrimination against workers that live in poor areas.