Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Democratization and civil war: Empirical evidence

The hypothesis that democratization triggers political violence has been proposed repeatedly in the quantitative literature, but it remains controversial with respect to both interstate and civil wars. Current empirical research continues to be afflicted by methodological and data problems related to the measurement of democracy and the task of detecting changes in such scores. In order to gain further clarity into the link between democratization and civil war, the current study introduces a new period-finding algorithm that is able to detect periods of democratization and autocratization. This allows for a more flexible way of finding directional changes in governance indicators than is possible with the rigid lag structures commonly employed in previous studies. When regressed on various measures of civil-war onset, the indicator for the initiation of a period of democratization has a strong and robust effect on conflict even in the presence of static measures of regime type. The same applies to autocratization, but its impact is much more sudden than that of democratization. Moreover, we find that the democratization effect is limited to governmental rather than territorial conflicts. Further research will be needed to confirm these results in terms of the relevant causal mechanisms, especially in ethno-nationalist civil wars.
2D versus 1D ground-motion modelling for the Friuli region, north-eastern Italy

We perform a series of simulations of seismic wave propagation from potential earthquakes to evaluate how the 2D (in the NW-SE direction) geological structure of the Friuli (NE Italy) basin affects ground motions, particularly in terms of peak ground velocity (PGV). The decay of PGV with source-receiver distance from the 2D modelling is compared to that obtained from 1D modelling, using a standard model for seismological studies in this region, one obtained by averaging the 2D model along the source-receiver distance and one based on the local structure under the receiver. Synthetic seismograms are computed using a finite-difference technique for point sources with an upper frequency cut-off of 0.6 Hz. 2D effects are clearly seen, particularly in the centre of the sedimentary basin, for certain earthquake scenarios. The analysis of the role played by the main heterogeneities on the propagating wavefield permits us to conclude that an acceptable fit to the 2D PGV values for the entire section is possible using a series of 1D models for the Friuli region except for shallow earthquakes located to the north-west of the basin, where the structure of the basin edge is complex.
The Relations between Management Style, Work Motivation and Feeling of Stress among the Arab School Community

The current research is based on the examination of the relationship between the level of the teacher’s motivation, and between the leadership of the manager and the educational climate, and because of the scientific importance attributed to the term of motivation and its impact on the quality of the work. In the current research, we examine a part of the factors that could affect the level of the teacher’s motivation. Therefore, the goal of this research is to enrich the existing knowledge in the field of motivating teachers by proposing and testing a theoretical model, in order to explain the difference in the motivations through interaction between personal variables for leadership of the manager and the environment (school climate), and the research group that has been tested, and consists of Arab teachers in Israel. The question that led to this study is: to what extent the level of motivation can be explained through leadership, school climate and work stress? The main hypothesis of this study is a positive relationship between the level of the teacher’s motivation, the manager leadership, and the school climate. In addition this research claims that work stress is the mediator variable which supports the previous relationship. The research was conducted in the framework of a survey, which included 200 teachers of teachers among Arabs in Israel, so that the method of selection of the participants in the survey was random. The main conclusion of this study is that the most influential factor on the motivation of teachers is the principal’s leadership. Apparently, the great majority of the population of teachers in the Arab sector in Israel is influenced primarily by their direct manager, rather than from the work environment. In other words, Israeli Arab teachers prefer to receive positive feedback and strengthening through the continuance of their work, from their immediate manager, and they don’t necessarily rely and get stronger from a cooperative atmosphere.
Gossypium Herbaceum Ghcyp1 Regulates Water-Use Efficiency and Drought Tolerance by Modulating Stomatal Activity and Photosynthesis in Transgenic Tobacco

The cyclophilins genes are induced by abiotic stresses, yet their detailed function in drought and salinity remain largely unclear and need to be elaborately validated. Expression of cyclophilin was drastically induced under drought conditions in Gossypium herbaceum L. suggesting its stress-responsive function. In an attempt to characterize the role of G. herbacuem cyclophilin gene GhCYP1, we over expressed the GhCYP1 in tobacco using Agrobacterium mediated transformation and explored its possible involvement in drought and salt stress tolerance. The transgenic plants over expressing GhCYP1 exhibited tolerance against drought stress as evidenced by leaf disc assay, estimation of chlorophyll and proline content along with various physiological parameters such as stomatal conductance, rate of photosynthesis and water use efficiency. The drought stressed transgenic tobacco plants exhibited higher proline content in leaf ( 1.84 μ mol-g fw) and root (2.02μ mol-g fw ), while a reverse trend was observed in the drought stressed wild type plants, implicating the involvement of GhCYP1 in the maintenance of physiological homeostasis. The detail physiological, biochemical and molecular analysis results demonstrate the implicit role of GhCYP1 in conferring multiple abiotic stress tolerance at whole-plant level.
Analytical estimates of eigenfrequencies, dispersion, and field distribution in whispering gallery resonators

The problem of accurate calculation of eigenfrequencies in resonators of complex geometry is not only fundamental but also has many practical applications. In particular, a possibility for calculating the eigenfrequencies and geometry dependent dispersion of whispering gallery modes is important for optimization of dielectric microresonator-based Kerr frequency combs. In this case, the required anomalous second-order dispersion may be controlled by means of small shape variations of the resonator. Unfortunately, all uniform approximations for the eigenfrequencies do not reach the required precision for this purpose. We propose new approximations for spheroids, quartics, and toroids with better precision, which also allow for the estimation of the second-order dispersion. We also obtain analytical expressions for field distribution in microresonators and investigate the possibility of achieving better approximations by combining analytical and numerical methods.
An Empirical Analysis of Perceived Transaction Convenience, Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy and Behavior Intention to Mobile Payment of Cambodian Users

Mobile payment (m-payment) is determined as modern application of electronic commerce. It helps financial institutions to widen the financial services to existing customers in developed countries and to increase financial inclusion in developing and emerging countries. Cambodia is a country with low financial inclusion and National Bank of Cambodia perceives that the usage of m-payment can help to increase financial deepness. However, the lack of empirical evidences is a concern and this study is developed to fill the literature gaps. A research model as proposed in which behavior intention towards m-payment is affected by performance expectancy and effort expectancy. This model involves perceived transaction convenience as direct impact on performance expectancy and effort expectancy. Four research hypotheses were proposed and data was collected from 252 questionnaires. Obtained result showed that three hypotheses were supported. Only the effect of perceived transaction convenience on performance expectancy was not significantly. All factors qualified for reliability test’s requirement. EFA Analysis was conducted to verify the construct between factors and belonged items. Based on empirical results, recommendations and future researches were proposed.
Geospatial modeling approaches for mapping topsoil organic carbon stock in northern part of Mongolia

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is one of the most important indicators of soil quality and agricultural productivity. This paper presents the application of Regression Kriging (RK), geographically weighted regression (GWR) and Geographically Weighted Regression Kriging (GWRK) for prediction of topsoil organic carbon stock in Tarialan. A total of 25 topsoil (0-30 cm) samples were collected from Tarialan soum of Khuvsgul aimag in Mongolia. In this study, seven independent variables were used including normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), normalised difference moisture index (NDMI), land surface temperature (LST) and terrain factors (DEM, Slope, Aspect). We used root-mean-square error (RMSE), mean error (ME) and determination coefficient (R2) to evaluate the performance of these methods. Validation results showed that performance of the GWRK, GWR, and RK approaches were good with not only low values of root-mean-square error (1.38 kg/m2, 1.48 kg/m2, 0.69 kg/m2), mean error (0.28 kg/m2, -0.22 kg/m2, 0.17 kg/m2) but also high values of R2 (0.76, 0.72, 0.94). The estimated SOC stock values ranged from 0.28-16.26 kg/m2, 0.72–15.24 kg/m2, 0.16–15.83 kg/m2 using GWRK, GWR, RK approaches in the study area. The highest average SOC stock value was in the wetland (6.47 kg/m2, 6.08 kg/m2, 6.44 kg/m2) and the lowest was in cropland (1.63 kg/m2, 1.48 kg/m2, 1.80 kg/m2) using these approaches. According to the validation, GWRK, GWR, and RK approaches produced satisfactory results for estimating and mapping SOC stock. However, Regression Kriging was the best model, followed by GWRK and GWR to predict topsoil organic carbon stock in Tarialan.
Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy with Error Injection

Adaptive-Hybrid Redundancy (AHR) shows promise as a method to allow flexibility when selecting between processing speed and energy efficiency while maintaining a level of error mitigation in space radiation environments. Whereas previous work demonstrated AHR’s feasibility in an error free environment, this work analyzes AHR performance in the presence of errors. Errors are deliberately injected into AHR at specific times in the processing chain to demonstrate best and worst case performance impacts. This analysis demonstrates that AHR provides flexibility in processing speed and energy efficiency in the presence of errors.
Supporting Social Change Collective Futures : How Projections About the Future of Society Are Related to Actions and Attitudes

We identified the active ingredients in people’s visions of society’s future (“collective futures”) that could drive political behavior in the present. In eight studies (N = 595), people imagined society in 2050 where climate change was mitigated (Study 1), abortion laws relaxed (Study 2), marijuana legalized (Study 3), or the power of different religious groups had increased (Studies 4-8). Participants rated how this future society would differ from today in terms of societal-level dysfunction and development (e.g., crime, inequality, education, technology), people’s character (warmth, competence, morality), and their values (e.g., conservation, self-transcendence). These measures were related to present-day attitudes/intentions that would promote/prevent this future (e.g., act on climate change, vote for a Muslim politician). A projection about benevolence in society (i.e., warmth/morality of people’s character) was the only dimension consistently and uniquely associated with present-day attitudes and intentions across contexts. Implications for social change theories, political communication, and policy design are discussed.
CRIMINAL NETWORK MINING AND ANALYSIS FOR FORENSIC INVESTIGATIONS

Criminal network analysis tools are widely used by law enforcement, mainly in cases of organized crime. The data required for a majority of these tools are police records and databases. In many cases, forensically collected data contains valuable information about the suspect’s social network. This information is normally obtained by manual inspection of the collected documents using forensic tools’ queries and other basic search features. The information is then manually entered in the police database. There are no known tools that provide methods to automatically extract social networks from raw documents on behalf of the investigator add them to a knowledge base and then analyze them. In this thesis, we propose a method that is capable of performing these tasks. In our proposed system, we claim three distinct contributions to cyber forensics investigations. The first is by constructing the social network of one or multiple suspects from documents in a file system. Secondly, we provide an analysis of the interactions and structures of these social networks and the communities comprising them. Thirdly, potential evidence and leads are identified by extracting conceptual links between members of the social network across the document set. Finally, the proposed method is implemented and experimental results are obtained to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.
The pursuit of subtlety in persuasion

Subtlety in persuasive technology is difficult to define, measure, and evaluate. It relates to a subtle implementation of persuasive principles in applications but also to a subtle balance, variation, combination, or adaptation of persuasive principles. Understanding subtlety in persuasion benefits the effectiveness of persuasive technology because more intrusive non-subtle persuasive cues can have a direct positive contribution, but at the same time might lead to higher resistance or hesitation to users which has a negative contribution to effectiveness. We explore the notion of subtlety and we propose an attempt to make subtlety measurable by relating it to the psychological notion of reactance. An experiment has been set up to research the proposed coupling. An existing persuasive software product is used as a research carrier. The most important result is that persuasive feedback indeed results in a significant increase in reactance arousal.
17 Haploid Independent Unreductional Meiosis in Hexaploid Wheat

Polyploidy correspond to the presence of more than two complete sets of chromosomes and is considered a major plant evolutionary force connected with adaptive plasticity (review in Comai, 2005). Within angiosperms it is estimated that at least 50% of its members have suffered one or more rounds of polyploidization (Wendel, 2000). Formation of functional unreduced gametes (2n) due to meiotic abnormalities is considered the key event associated with chromosome doubling and has been described in several dicot and monocot plant species (Ramanna and Jacobsen, 2003, Fawcett and Van de Peer, 2010). While autopolyploids are a direct result of duplication thus having multiple chromosome sets of the same origin, allopolyploids result from interspecific or intergeneric hybridization associated or followed by chromosome doubling, allowing for the emergence of new sexually reproduced species. Among sexual polyploids are many of the most important crops worldwide as it is the case of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).
FIRST DESCRIPTION OF ANTIBACTERIAL AND IN VITRO WOUND HEALING PROPERTIES OF COCOS NUCIFERA TOMENTUM

Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the antibacterial, antioxidant, and in vitro wound healing property of Cocos nucifera tomentum. Methods: Ethanolic and methanolic extracts of C. nucifera tomentum were prepared using the Soxhlet extraction method and aqueous extract was prepared by the shaker flask method. These extracts were investigated for the phytochemical profile by gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-Q-ToF MS), for antibacterial activity by microdilution method, for the antioxidant property by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assay, and for in vitro wound healing activity on cell lines. Results: The preliminary phytochemical screening showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, and various bioactive components. GC-MS and LC-Q-ToF MS analysis of extracts revealed the presence of bioactive compounds known to have wound healing properties as well as antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The methanolic extract had better antibacterial activity against Proteus vulgaris and Escherichia coli, and better antioxidant and wound healing activity, when compared to the ethanolic and aqueous extracts. Conclusion: The present study suggests that C. nucifera tomentum might be a potential therapeutic source for topical antibacterial and wound healing applications.
Interactive comment on “Bayesian uncertainty assessment of flood predictions in ungauged urban basins for conceptual rainfall-runoff models” by A. E. Sikorska et al

This paper presents a method for flow prediction and uncertainty assessment suitable for small/poorly-gauged basins, using Bayesian methods including explicit representation of input rainfall errors. Flow measurement and structure errors are represented jointly by an autoregressive error model using a Box-Cox transformation. In general I found the paper to be very well organised and well explained. Although similar methods may have previously been applied, this paper is a worthwhile addition to the literature since it demonstrates clearly how to apply the most recent techniques to a typical urban
Development of Decision Support Systems for Estimating Salinity Instrusion Effects due to Climate Change on the South Carolina and Georgia Coast

Salinity intrusion results from the interac- tion of three principal forces - streamflow, mean tidal water-levels, and tidal range. To analyze, model, and simulate hydrodynamic behaviors at critical coastal gage locations along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and Waccamaw River near Myrtle Beach, SC, and Savannah River near Savan- nah, GA, data-mining techniques were applied to over twenty years of hourly streamflow, coastal water-quality, and water-level data. Artificial neur- al network (ANN) models were trained to learn the specific variable interactions that cause salinity in- trusions. Streamflows into the estuarine systems are input to the models as time-delayed variables and accumulated tributary inflows. Tidal inputs to the models were obtained by decomposing tidal water- level data into a "periodic" signal of tidal range and a "chaotic" signal of mean water levels. The ANN models were able to convincingly reproduce histor- ical salinity dynamic behaviors in both systems. For a 7 ½ year simulation period, preliminary model results near a municipal freshwater intake on the Savannah River indicate that a sea-level rise of 1 foot (ft, 30.5 centimeters (cm)) increases the number of days from zero to 47 that brackish water occurs, or 2 percent of the time. A 2-ft rise increas- es days of brackish water from zero to 278 days, or 12 percent of the time. The 1- and 2-ft sea-level rise would shift the portion of the estuary by I-95 during periods of low streamflow from a tidal freshwater system (less than 0.5 psu) to an oligohaline system (less than 5.0 psu).
Dynamics of positrons during relativistic electron runaway

Sufficiently strong electric fields in plasmas can accelerate charged particles to relativistic energies. In this paper we describe the dynamics of positrons accelerated in such electric fields, and calculate the fraction of created positrons that become runaway accelerated, along with the amount of radiation that they emit. We derive an analytical formula that shows the relative importance of the different positron production processes, and show that, above a certain threshold electric field, the pair production by photons is lower than that by collisions. We furthermore present analytical and numerical solutions to the positron kinetic equation; these are applied to calculate the fraction of positrons that become accelerated or thermalized, which enters into rate equations that describe the evolution of the density of the slow and fast positron populations. Finally, to indicate operational parameters required for positron detection during runaway in tokamak discharges, we give expressions for the parameter dependencies of detected annihilation radiation compared to bremsstrahlung detected at an angle perpendicular to the direction of runaway acceleration. Using the full leading-order pair-production cross-section, we demonstrate that previous related work has overestimated the collisional pair production by at least a factor of four.
In situ conservation of black poplar (Populus nigra L.) gene pool in the protected area "Great War Island"

The conducted research that involved the assessment of the census size of the black poplar population on The Great War Island, its viability and health status, levels of genetic diversity and recent changes in population served as the basis for defining the measures of in situ conservation of the available gene pool. A network of in situ conservation habitats, labeled A, B and C, were formed. The area of conservation habitat A is 27.90 ha and includes 455 individual trees of black poplar. Conservation habitat B spreads over an area of 7.84 ha and includes 192 individual trees of black poplar. Conservation site C spreads over an area of 21.25 ha and includes 260 individual trees of black poplar. Potential new areas suitable for natural regeneration have been identified in the vicinity of the conservation habitats. Their total area amounts to 16.50 ha and they are surrounded by reproductively mature black poplar trees and thus, seeds can easily be transferred to these areas. The suggested measures of in situ conservation are aimed at the maintenance and conservation of existing black poplar population in the area of Great War Island.
SIMILARITY DH-ALGEBRAS FEDERICO GABRIEL ALMIÑANA AND MATHIAS EXEQUIEL PELAYES

In [7], B. Gerla and I. Leuştean introduced the notion of similarity on MValgebra. A similarity MV-algebra is an MV-algebra endowed with a binary operation S that verifies certain additional properties. Also, Chirteş in [4], study the notion of similarity on Lukasiewicz-Moisil algebras. In particular, strong similarity Lukasiewicz-Moisil algebras were defined. In this paper we define and study the variety of similarity symmetric Heyting algebras (or similarity DH-algebras), i.e. symmetric Heyting algebras endowed with an operation of similarity S. These algebras are a generalization of strong similarity Lukasiewicz-Moisil algebras. In addition, we introduce a propositional calculus and prove this calculus has similarity DH-algebras as algebraic counterpart.