Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling the effects of biodiesel-diesel fuel blends on CO2 emission of a diesel engine by response surface methodology

Nowadays biodiesel is receiving more attention as a most important renewable energy for using in diesel engines. Inthis research, the application of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was highlighted to investigate the effects of biodiesel-diesel blends (B0, B20, B50 and B100), engine operating parameters (engine load and speed) on CO2 emission of a diesel engine. The experiments were conducted on a four cylinder direct-injection diesel engine based on three-factor five-level central composite rotatable design. The developed mathematical models were helpful to predict the response parameters and further to identify the significant interactions between the input factors and the responses. The use of biodiesel resulted in higher emission of CO2. The results also showed that an increase in engine speed leads to an increase in the emission of CO2.On the other hand,CO2 emission is higher at low engine loads,while is lower at high engine loads.
A Discussion of the Ins and Outs of L2 Pronunciation Instruction: A Clash of Methodologies*

The value attached to pronunciation has kept changing continually in the methodological history of language instruction. Depending on the nature of methodological considerations that dominated research and teaching agenda, it either received too much attention or was marginalized. This study sets out to provide a comprehensive overview of pronunciation instruction from the 1950s to the present day, with a particular reference to popular bipolar debates that characterized this methodologically fluctuating period. Moreover, it attempts to examine the general outlook on pronunciation and summarize major issues concerning what components of pronunciation to include in the syllabus and how to teach it. The study also discusses the role of computers and technology in pronunciation instruction by incorporating data from empirical studies. Although some of the debates have been inconclusive up until today, the intellectual effort put in the process seems to have proved fruitful in providing some guidelines for dealing with the challenging task of improving learners’ pronunciation.
Financial Liberalization and Determinants of Investment: A Study of Indian Manufacturing Firms

The study analyses the determinants of investment of the private corporate manufacturing sector in India in the context of financial liberalization. Though financial liberalization is still on the way, based on the theoretical argument of financial liberalization and its limitations in the context of asymmetric information and market imperfections, such an analysis assumes significance. Because, in imperfect financial markets with asymmetric information, external funds are more expensive than internal funds and firms have to follow a hierarchy in which cheaper funds are preferable to more expensive ones and internal funds are the most preferred ones. We tested the hypothesis that whether financial liberalization had an impact on firms’ investment decisions with respect to cash flow and debt. The study found that small firms are facing financial market imperfections in the form of liquidity constraints since it is seen that credit constraints were not eliminated or relaxed for these firms. Against this, one surprising result is the positive and significant coefficient of debt-to-capital ratio for large firms irrespective of the financial liberalization effect. From further enquiry we found that the positive and significant impact of debt on investment for large firms has changed once we estimate the model for large firms according other categories based on group and export orientation. It is seen that the positive and significant impact of debt does not hold for large non-group and non-exporting firms. On the other hand, the positive effect of debt remains the same for large group and exporting firms. To conclude, market imperfections exist in the financial markets that prevent an economy wide efficiency in the post liberalization period.
Measuring Teacher Implementation of the BEST in CLASS Intervention Program and Corollary Child Outcomes

This study is part of a larger randomized efficacy trial examining the impact of Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Training: Competent Learners Achieving School Success (BEST in CLASS), a Tier 2 intervention that targets the prevention of emotional/behavioral disorders in young, high risk children. In this investigation, we examined teachers’ implementation and maintenance of instructional practices in early childhood classrooms and the corollary relationships between teacher implementation of the specific instructional practices associated with BEST in CLASS and child engagement and problem behaviors. Fifty-three teachers (26 in treatment and 27 in comparison) and 130 preschool-aged children (66 in treatment and 64 in comparison) participated. Findings indicated that teachers’ who received training and coaching in the BEST in CLASS intervention increased their use of specific instructional practices in comparison with teachers in the control condition. In addition, children whose teachers’ received the BEST in CLASS intervention demonstrated increased engagement and a decrease in problem behaviors in comparison with those children who were in the control group. Positive teacher–child interactions increased and negative teacher–child interactions decreased in the intervention group in comparison with the control group. Results are discussed in relation to measuring teachers’ implementation of instructional practices and implementation science.
Discretization of a fractional order ratio-dependent functional response predator-prey model, bifurcation and chaos

This paper deals with a ratio-dependent functional response predator-prey model with a fractional order derivative. The ratio-dependent models are very interesting, since they expose neither the paradox of enrichment nor the biological control paradox. We study the local stability of equilibria of the original system and its discretized counterpart. We show that the discretized system, which is not more of fractional order, exhibits much richer dynamical behavior than its corresponding fractional order model. Specially, in the discretized system, many types of bifurcations (transcritical, flip, Neimark-Sacker) and chaos may happen, however, the local analysis of the fractional-order counterpart, only deals with the stability (unstability) of the equilibria. Finally, some numerical simulations are performed by MATLAB, to support our analytic results.
Prevalence of Eimeria species of the domestic goats Capra hircus Linnaeus, 1758 in Al-Baha area, Saudi Arabia

This work aimed to identify Eimeria species of goats and to investigate the factors that might potentially influence their prevalence and parasite load. This study was conducted in Al-Baha area, south-west Saudi Arabia from September 2011 to June 2012. Out of 336 faecal samples examined, 180 (53.57%) were positive for Eimeria oocysts. The prevalence of Eimeria ranged from 39.64% to 61.40% in different localities. Nine different Eimeria species were identified from faecal samples of goats. Eimeria species were: Eimeria arloingi (35.71%), E. alijevi (26.19%), E. hirci (25.29%), E. ninakohlyakimovae (16.36%), E. christenseni (14.59%), E. caprina (11.31%), E. jolchijevi (9.52%), E. caprovina (5.59%) and E. apsheronica (3.27%). E. arloingi (35.71%), E. alijevi (26.19%) and E. hirci (25.29%) were the most prevalent species and E. apsheronica (3.27%) was the least prevalent one. The main factors affecting prevalence and parasite load of Eimeria species were host age, locality and season. Significant negative correlations were found between host age and both prevalence and OPG number. Multiple-species infections were detected in 89.44% of positive goats which carried two to five species. In conclusion, the prevalence of coccidiosis is relatively low compared to other studies. Moreover, no signs of clinical coccidiosis were found in this study. We need further research to study the interaction between multiple-species infections in coccidiosis and parasite load in natural host-parasite systems.
Gas Turbine Gas Path Fault Diagnosis based on Adaptive Nonlinear Steady-State Thermodynamic Model

Gas turbine engines always run during poor working conditions that have high temperatures, high pressures, and high mechanical and thermal stress. Thus, the performance of the gas path components gradually degrades, leading to serious faults. So, the health status of the engine gas path components provides essential information for users and operators. Here, a new gas path analysis approach has been developed to predict gas turbine engine health status by using gas path measurements. The developed approach has been tested in seven test cases where the degradation of a model gas turbine engine similar to a three-shaft marine engine has been analyzed. The case studies have shown that the approach can accurately and quickly detect, isolate, and quantify the degradation of major engine gas path components with the existence of measurement noise. The test cases have also shown that the time cost by the approach is short enough for its potential application of online health monitoring.
Estimating Trade and Investment Flows: Partners and Volumes

I present a new stylized fact from a large sample of countries for the period 2000-2006: bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) flows are almost never observed in the absence of bilateral trade flows. I document a similar pattern using bilateral foreign affiliate sales (FAS), aggregating them up from a large firm level dataset (ORBIS), which includes over 45,000 firms. I propose a model where heterogeneous firms can decide whether to serve foreign markets through export or FDI. I derive theory-based gravity-type equations for the aggregate bilateral trade and foreign affiliate sales (FAS) flows. I then suggest a two-stage estimation procedure structurally derived from the model. In the first stage, an ordered Probit model is used to retrieve consistent estimates of the terms needed to correct the flows equations for firms’ heterogeneity and selection into exports and FDI. In the second stage, a maximum likelihood estimator is applied to the corrected trade and FAS equations. The main results of the analysis are as follows: 1) The impact of distance, border and regional trade agreements on the amount bilateral foreign affiliate sales becomes substantially smaller after controlling for selection and firms’ heterogeneity (hence separating the impact on the extensive versus the intensive margin). 2) The same “attenuation” result is found also for the trade equations, consistently with previous literature. 3) When FAS are observed, failing to take this into account when correcting for heterogeneity and selection in the trade equations does not leads to significant differences in the estimated coefficients.
International Journal of Food Engineering Effects of Different Solar Drying Methods on Drying Time and Rice Grain Quality

Paddy rice was sun dried in Cambodia in 2004 using a range of methods practiced by local rice farmers. For each treatment in the experiment, a grain sample at about 22% moisture (typical harvest moisture content) was sun dried between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. During experiments, the grain moisture content was measured at regular intervals. The grain varieties used, bed depths, stirring of the grain, bulk tempering after drying and the drying pads had significant effects on the drying time. Drying was faster when bed depth was reduced, regularly stirred but not shaded or covered and when the drying was carried out on a porous pad. Damage to the dried grain was reduced when the bed was thin, stirred and shaded and when the drying was slow on pads with less air circulation.
Design of On-Line Tuned Controller for Congestion Avoidance in Computer Networks

Active Queue Management (AQM) applies a suitable control policy upon detecting congestion in networks. In this paper, a Proportional-I ntegral (PI) controller based on the optimization algorithm of MATLAB/Nonlin ear Control Design Blockset (NCD) which is adapted as On-line tuning for controller parameters is applied to AQM for the objective of congestion avoidance and control in middle nodes. To present the methodology, a Proportional Integral (PI) controller is verified with the TCP/AQM model as an Active Queue Management (AQM) in internet routers The analytical results for linearized TCP/AQM model are presented in MATLAB/Simulink. From the obtained results, a faster response time as well as the regulation of the output to a constant value by the PI controller is clearly observed and it is noted that the PI controller based NCD provides good tracking performance for congestion avoidance in computer networks.
The Impact of Secondary Schooling in Kenya

I estimate the impacts of secondary school on human capital, occupational choice, and fertility for young adults in Kenya. Probability of admission to government secondary school rises sharply at a score close to the national mean on a standardized eighth grade examination, permitting me to estimate causal effects of schooling in a regression discontinuity framework. I combine administrative test score data with a survey of young adults to estimate these impacts. My results show that secondary schooling increases human capital. For men, I find a drop in low-skill self-employment; for women, I find a reduction in teen pregnancy.
Elevated Plasma Total Homocysteine and Vascular Disease About Seventy-Two Cases

Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of mortality worldwide [13]. While high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, obesity and smoking are known risk factors, epidemiological data collected during the last thirty years suggest that other biological factors may be associated with increased cardiovascular risk [1-3]. Of these, one is increasing interest in moderate hyper homocysteinemia (HH), numerous studies attempt to clarify the relationship moderate HH, and cardiovascular disease and thromboembolism [1-4].
NUMERICAL ACCURACY OF TWO BENCHMARK MODELS OF WALKING: THE RIMLESS SPOKED WHEEL AND THE SIMPLEST WALKER

The eigenvalues of the Jacobian of the return map are used to quantify the stability of discrete dynamical systems, such as, the rimless wheel and the simplest walker. The accuracy this Jacobian, usually obtained by nite dierencing, depends on the step size. Even with the most optimal step size, only moderate accuracy is obtained. Here, we obtain the Jacobian by numerically integrating the gradient of the equations of motion. For the rimless wheel, our eigenvalue estimate is accurate to 12 signicant digits and is better than 9 signicant digits obtained by nite dierencing with optimal step size obtained by Coleman (Dynamics of Continuous, Discrete and Impulsive Systems Series B, 16, 2009). We rst show that our method is able to produce the eigenvalues accurate to 12 signi- cant digits obtained by known analytical solution for the rimless wheel. This benchmark calculation then permits us to make the claim that the eigenvalues of the simplest walker, for which the analytical solution is unknown, obtained using our method are accurate to 12 signicant digits.
Exporters versus domestic wage adjustment during the Great Recession in Spain

During the Great Recession southern European economies belonging to the Euro area could not devaluate their domestic currency as they did in previous recessions. In the absence of an exchange rate devaluation policy option, they were forced to an internal devaluation (i.e. to reduce domestic prices and wages in order to stimulate exports and job creation). In this paper we document the extent of the wage adjustment and the differences in the adjustment patterns followed by exporting versus domestically-oriented firms in Spain during the Great Recession. We use linked employer -- employee data to document that wages at exporting firms are higher than at domestic firms, due in part to a composition effect, and mainly to the existence of a wage premium. We show a significant reduction in the exporter wage gap between 2006 and 2010 due to changes in characteristics but more importantly to a sharp reduction of the wage premium paid by exporters. This finding suggests that exporting firms are showing a higher wage moderation than domestically-oriented firms.
Weak magnetic fields in Ap/Bp stars - Evidence for a dipole field lower limit and a tentative interp

Aims. We investigated a sample of 28 well-known spectroscopically-identified magnetic Ap/Bp stars, with weak, poorly-determined or previously undetected magnetic fields. The aim of this study is to explore the weak part of the magnetic field distribution of Ap/Bp stars. Methods. Using the MuSiCoS and NARVAL spectropolarimeters at Telescope Bernard Lyot (Observatoire du Pic du Midi, France) and the cross-correlation technique Least Squares Deconvolution (LSD), we obtained 282 LSD Stokes V signatures of our 28 sample stars, in order to detect the magnetic field and to infer its longitudinal component with high precision (median σ = 40 G). Results. For the 28 studied stars, we obtained 27 detections of StokesV Zeeman signatures from the MuSiCoS observations. Detection of the Stokes V signature of the 28th star (HD 32650) was obtained during science demonstration time of the new NARVAL spectropolarimeter at Pic du Midi. This result clearly shows that when observed with sufficient precision, all firmly classified Ap/Bp stars show detectable surface magnetic fields. Furthermore, all detected magnetic fields correspond to longitudinal fields which are significantly greater than some tens of G. To better characterise the surface magnetic field intensities and geometries of the sample, we phased the longitudinal field measurements of each star using new and previously-published rotational periods, and modeled them to infer the dipolar field intensity (Bd, measured at the magnetic pole) and the magnetic obliquity (β). The distribution of derived dipole strengths for these stars exhibits a plateau at about 1 kG, falling off to larger and smaller field strengths. Remarkably, in this sample of stars selected for their presumably weak magnetic fields, we find only 2 stars for which the derived dipole strength is weaker than 300 G. We interpret this “magnetic threshold” as a critical value necessary for the stability of large-scale magnetic fields, and develop a simple quantitative model that is able to approximately reproduce the observed threshold characteristics. This scenario leads to a natural explanation of the small fraction of intermediate-mass magnetic stars. It may also explain the near-absence of magnetic fields in more massive B and O-type stars.
X-ray diffraction and biocompatibility of glass ionomer cement reinforced by different ratios of synthetic hydroxyapatite

This study was done to assist X-ray diffraction and biocompatability of glass ionomer cement reinforced by different ratios of Hydroxyapatite. Materials and Methods: The powder of glass ionomer cement reinforced by different ratios of Hydroxyapatite were used to get X-ray diffraction pattern by X-ray diffraction machine, While for biocompatibility test, A polyethylene tubes containing glass ionomer cement reinforced by different ratios of Hydroxyapatit e were implanted on the dorsal submucosal site of Rabbit's tissues and histological slide were prepared for histopathological study. Results: X-ray diffraction test showed that all elements of glass ionomer cement reinforced by different ratios of Hydroxyapatite were react with each other and all the final products none crystalline in nature with small amount of Hydroxyapatite present unreacted may be act as cores for final reacted elements. The histological test showed mild irritation to Rabbit 's tissues by glass ionomer cement reinforced by different ratios of Hydroxyapatit e, this irritation subsided with time. Conclusions: there is chemical reaction of all elements of glass ionomer cement reinforced by different ratios of Hydroxyapatite and new final products were results . Also glass ionomer cements reinforced by different ratios of Hydroxyapatite were biocompatible with Rabbit's tissues.
Situating Performative Neogeography : Tracing , Mapping , and Performing “ Everyone ’ s East Lake ”

The emergence and proliferation of neogeographic practices since the mid 2000s have drawn significant attention from GIS scholars. This paper seeks to contribute to the discussion on situating neogeography, particularly through examining the performative dimension of neogeography. To understand performative neogeographic practices I enroll de Certeau’s notion of tactics to read these practices as tactical spatial narratives, which may provide different possibilities for spaces of civic engagement and political intervention in an increasingly networked and yet individualized society. I also draw upon theoretical insights from critical GIS and critical social theory to situate and trace the constructions of performative neogeographic practices within particular sociopolitical contexts. Through this synthesized framework, I discuss a case study involved in a participatory art performance project entitled “Everyone’s East Lake” in China. Drawing upon interviews and document analysis, I examine how participants utilize neogeographic mapping as a form of performance and tactical act in response to the dominant corporate and state power. While performative mapping has long been used by artists and cartographers, this case study illustrates how these performative neogeographic practices might highlight different intersections between self identities, community participation, and sociopolitical conditions, through reconfigurations of mobile and networked mapping technologies. These dynamic, hybrid and networked mapping practices necessitate a broader conceptualization of activism through mapping in critical GIS research.
EXPLORING THE MOMENT OF CONSUMPTION USING CELL PHONES

Most mobile commerce strategies focus on “pushing” information onto consumers through wireless media devices such as cell phones. However, if marketing or consumer researchers direct their attention toward the latest developments in cell phone technology, such as internet accessibility and built-in digital cameras, they may discover its potential for “pulling” information from consumers. This paper introduces an alternative use of cell phones—the capturing of scenes of ongoing consumption moments by using a Web-based database system, which could lead to a better understanding of consumer behavior. Inspired by a unique data collecting process termed as the Experience Sampling Method, the study succeeds in developing a system for recording its informants’ consumption as “data in progress. ” Text and image data are recorded with internet accessible cell phones, wirelessly transmitted to a database, and used for real-time analysis by an observer group. The paper presents several case studies from Japan in order to prove that the cell phone is a powerful tool for gathering micro-ethnographic data of the daily experiences of consumers.
A Simple Analytic Approximation for Entropy of Student-t Distribution and its Relation with Normal Distribution

In the expression corresponding to the Shannon’s entropy of the Student-t distribution the gamma and digamma integral functions appear. We propose a simple analytical approximation for its entropy function for all degrees of freedom which assures the continuity between normal and Cauchy distributions. A possible application is to define a normal distribution “equivalent” of the Student-t, usable for any degrees of freedom (integral or fractional) larger than 7.