Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conserving and sustaining culture through traditional dress

The government of Botswana through its National Policy on Culture (2001) and the National Ecotourism Strategy (2002) is committed to preserving national culture and historical heritage. The policy stipulates that valuable heritage must be preserved and developed in order to foster a sense of national identity, pride and unity. It is necessary to reformulate cultural values and valuing processes, in order to better understand the Setswana culture and its meaning in material objects. To this end, dress as one of the valuable material culture objects is essential for signifying and expressing subtle cultural value and social relationships. The intimate link between people and their traditional dress lies at the core of ethnic identity, and has assumed a higher level of significance among consumers and tourists who collect symbolic items. A specific emphasis on a national traditional dress seems to be lacking in Botswana. This paper argues that there is need to restore traditional dress in Botswana, which would serve as a symbol of national identity and cultural heritage. The paper is based on the findings of a study that explored the historical underpinnings of national dress in Botswana, and how national dress could be used to sustain culture.
Positron Annihilation in MnFe_2O_4/MCM-41 Nanocomposite

Positron Annihilation in MnFe2O4/MCM-41 Nanocomposite M. Wiertela,∗, Z. Surowiec, W. Gac and M. Budzy«ski Department of Nuclear Methods, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science Maria Curie-Skaodowska University, pl. M. Curie-Skaodowskiej 1, 20-031 Lublin, Poland Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Skaodowska University pl. M. Curie-Skaodowskiej 3, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
Adaptation Mechanisms and Coping Strategies to the Effects of Climate Variability on Maize Yield with Focus on Matungulu West, Machakos County Kenya

Climate variability is a phenomenal challenge to the citizens of the globe. It is noticeable from many documented studies that climate variability is taking place at an alarming rate. The globe has been experiencing an increase in temperature of approximately ≈ 0.2 C after every ten years for the last three decades. It is also established that rainfall increased significantly from 1900 to the 1950 then dropped from 1970 to present. The total sum of such extremes is a terribly affected livelihood in particular those living below the dollar. However, farmers in Matungulu West, in Machakos County Kenya have established their own measures and strategies to address the effects posed by climate variability. That informed the main objective of this study which was To determine adaptation measures and coping strategies being practiced by households in Matungulu West in Machakos County Kenya in addressing climate variability. A structured questionnaire which was developed and pre-tested was used to interview 380 randomly selected household heads to elicit information. Findings of the study indicate that most (52.2%) of the farmers have reduced or spread risks by replanting with early maturing maize, (26.4%) staggering planting dates, (2.9%) changing crops when replanting, (6.6%) grazing of failed parcels of land and (11.9%) carrying out varietal selection of stress resistant to suit the prevailing conditions. It was established further that (64.8%) of the respondents preferred early sowing as an adaptation option while (1.4%) indicated that they were practicing irrigation farming to combat climate variability. This study made a conclusion that there is a broad range of contrasting diversification strategies employed between different types of households headed by either females or males with the ownership or lack of ownership of cattle being a key factor that cuts across household types and which provided considerable additional flexibility.
Development of an integrated building and sensor data model with contextual data for data mining

Very large amount of sensor data will possibly be stored in many computers in the near future as wireless sensors will become smaller and cheaper. In order to find meaningful information and knowledge from a large amount of sensor data, data mining has attracted considerable attention. Judging from our experiences, however, simple application of the data mining technique to sensor data may not be so successful as expected. Thus, in order to discover meaningful knowledge from a large amount of sensor data, contextual data of sensors is required for data mining because sensor data are mostly mere numerical values. Since input data for most data mining algorithms are formulated as tables, relational database seems to be suitable for data mining. However, sensor data are stored in various formats. Furthermore, the sensor application situations are numerous and various. Therefore, the sufficient flexibility is required for a data model for data mining. In this research, first, Addition & Absorption (A&A) method was proposed in order to enhance the flexibility of a data model for data mining. Next, proposed method was applied for representation of contextual data for sensors installed in a building. Then, an integrated building and sensor data model with contextual data was developed and is named A&A data model. Third, the A&A data model was verified about the flexibility for addition of contextual data. Finally, data mining was executed storing sensor and contextual data based on proposed method. All required data for each step in data mining were stored in a database and appropriate knowledge was induced using contextual data.
Effect of Green Tea Probiotics on the Growth Performance, Meat Quality and Immune Response in Finishing Pigs

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of green tea probiotics on growth performance, meat quality and immune response in finishing pigs, and to assess the possibility of substituting green tea probiotics for antibiotics in diets of finishing pigs. This green tea probiotics is made by mixing green tea powder and excipients (defatted rice bran and wheat bran) and fermenting the mixture with beneficial bacteria. A total of 90 crossbreed "LandracexYorkshire" finishing pigs with an average body weight of 72.5±2.5 kg were assigned to 5 dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. Each treatment had 3 replications with 6 pigs per replication. The five dietary treatments were control, antibiotic (0.003% chlortetracycline added) and 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0% of green tea probiotics. There were no significant differences in final body weight, daily weight gain, daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio in the green tea probiotics and antibiotic treatments (p>0.05). Crude protein content was significantly increased in the 0.1 and 1.0% green tea probiotics treatment groups (p<0.05) and there was no significant difference in crude fat content of the meat among the treatments. The TBA value of meat was significantly lowered with 0.5 and 1.0% green tea probiotics treatments compared to that of controls and statistically similar to the antibiotic treatment after 3 weeks of storage (p<0.05). The growth of spleen cells stimulated with Con A (0.1 and 1.0 μg/ml) was significantly increased with 1.0% green tea probiotics treatment compared to that of the control treatment (p<0.05). The growth of spleen cells stimulated with LPS (1.0, 3.0 and 10 μg/ml) was significantly increased in the 0.5% green tea probiotics group compared to the antibiotic group (p<0.05). In Con A (1.0 μg/ml) medium, IL-6 production of spleen cells was significantly increased with 1.0% green tea probiotics treatment compared to that of the control (p<0.05). In LPS (10.0 μg/ml) medium, TNF-a production of spleen cells increased significantly in all green tea probiotics treatment groups compared to that of the control (p<0.05). Finally it can be summarized that addition of green tea probiotic has a positive effect similar to antibiotic and 0.5% is the suitable dietary supplementation dose for finishing pig production.
Emissions of Organic Compounds in Surfactant Solutions under Air Turbulence

ABSTRACTThe objective of this study was to investigate the effects of surfactants aggregating the gas-liquid interface on the volatilization rates of the organic compounds. The changes in the overall mass transfer coefficient (KOL) and concentration at gas-liquid interface of organic compounds in surfactant (dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid sodium, DBS) solutions under wind speed conditions were used to elucidate the results. The studied compounds consisted of aromatic compounds, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m-dichlorobenzene, and propylbenzene with relatively higher Henry’s law constants (H) and water solubilities (Sw), and chlorinated pesticides, α-endosulfan, heptachlor epoxide, endrin, and dieldrin, with relatively lower H and Sw. Various surfactant concentrations, from 0 to 1000 mg/L under various wind speeds from 0 to 6.0 m/s, were used to examine the influence of the surfactant on the volatilization of the test organic compounds. The results indicated that the surfactant in the solution suppressed the volatilization of organic compounds. The degree of volatilization reduction was inversely proportional to the Sw values of the test organic compounds. The curve profiles for the KOL values of the organic compounds in the surfactant solutions, relative to the selected wind speed, were divided into the following two stages: the sharp-rise stage and the stable-linearity stage. The critical finding was that the surfactant markedly enhanced the concentrations of the low Sw compounds at the interface. The wind may cause an unexpected increase in the KOL value of the low Sw compound in the solution that contains a high surfactant concentration.
The Concept of ‘Diversity’ among Swedish Consultants

This paper examines Swedish diversity consultants’ definition of ‘diversity’ and its management. While research from the USA and the UK asserts a tension between the concepts of ‘diversity’ and legal ‘equality’, studies on continental Europe and Scandinavia tend to posit their reconciliation. This paper adds to research by using the case of Swedish diversity consultants. While confirming previous reports from the USA on diversity rhetoric’s ‘managerialization of law’, the essay’s interpretative approach brings insight into the strategic ambiguity and the subjective motives underpinning diversity rhetoric. The examination suggests that the same diversity rhetoric that creates managerialization may be used to further other than typically managerial interests. In particular it is suggested that what might be seen, from the researcher’s perspective, as a weakening of legal ideals, may simultaneously be seen by the actors themselves as an extension of legal ideals beyond the limits of antidiscrimination law.
Seasonal Variability in Trypsin and &agr;-Amylase Activities Caused by the Molting Cycle and Feeding Habits of Juvenile Pink Shrimp Farfantepenaeus duorarum (Burkenroad, 1939)

ABSTRACT In view of the relationship between shifts in diet composition and the activity of digestive enzymes in penaeid shrimp, the present study focused on the analysis of digestive trypsin and &agr;-amylase activities of wild Farfantepenaeus duorarum (Burkenroad, 1939) juveniles and their changes in phenotypic expression, during the molt cycle as endogenous factor and their changes due to different feeding regimes (exogenous factor) in relation with &dgr;13C and &dgr;15N isotopic signature as an index of food assimilation induced by the seasonal availability of food items in the nursery area. Wild juveniles of F. duorarum were captured from April 2007 to February 2008, in the Celestun coastal lagoon, Yucatan, Mexico. Samplings were carried out considering all quarters of the lunar cycle and in each of the recognized seasons for this region: dry, rainy, and the Nortes (North Wind). Copepods and amphipods were the main source of food for juveniles of F. duorarum. Values of &dgr;13C in the muscular tissue were near -20‰ hence the feeding regime of F. duorarum in the lagoon was composed by material of marine origin. Isotopic signature differences were found between the three annual seasons. It is an opportunist generalist organism that is located in the 4th trophic level. The digestive enzymatic activities of both trypsin and &agr;-amylase in fresh hepatopancreas tissue showed an interaction between season and molt stages (p < 0.05). Activity of the trypsin was highest during the Nortes at molt stage C (140 mU mg-1 HP) and activity of &agr;-amylase was higher in the Nortes at stage B2 (674 mU mg-1 HP). The amylase/trypsin ratio also showed significant interaction between season and molt stages (p < 0.05), with higher values in premolt stages during the rainy and Nortes seasons. Isoforms of these digestive enzymes differed in expression according to the molt stage and also to the season with expression generally being greater at stage C.
Estimating Origin-Destination Matrices Using AN Efficient Moth Flame-Based Spatial Clustering Approach

Abstract. Automated fare collection (AFC) systems are regarded as valuable resources for public transport planners. In this paper, the AFC data are utilized to analysis and extract mobility patterns in a public transportation system. For this purpose, the smart card data are inserted into a proposed metaheuristic-based aggregation model and then converted to O-D matrix between stops, since the size of O-D matrices makes it difficult to reproduce the measured passenger flows precisely. The proposed strategy is applied to a case study from Haaglanden, Netherlands. In this research, moth-flame optimizer (MFO) is utilized and evaluated for the first time as a new metaheuristic algorithm (MA) in estimating transit origin-destination matrices. The MFO is a novel, efficient swarm-based MA inspired from the celestial navigation of moth insects in nature. To investigate the capabilities of the proposed MFO-based approach, it is compared to methods that utilize the K-means algorithm, gray wolf optimization algorithm (GWO) and genetic algorithm (GA). The sum of the intra-cluster distances and computational time of operations are considered as the evaluation criteria to assess the efficacy of the optimizers. The optimality of solutions of different algorithms is measured in detail. The traveler's behavior is analyzed to achieve to a smooth and optimized transport system. The results reveal that the proposed MFO-based aggregation strategy can outperform other evaluated approaches in terms of convergence tendency and optimality of the results. The results show that it can be utilized as an efficient approach to estimating the transit O-D matrices.
Acta Polytechnica

This paper proposes the real-time implementation of an algorithm for collision-free motion planning based on a receding horizon approach, for the navigation of a team of mobile robots in the presence of obstacles of different shapes. The method is simulated with three robots. The impact of the parameters is studied with regard to computation time, obstacle avoidance and travel time.
Insider Trading Laws and Stock Price Informativeness

We investigate the relation between a country's first-time enforcement of insider trading laws and stock price informativeness using data from 48 countries over 1980--2003. Enforcement of insider trading laws improves price informativeness, as measured by firm-specific stock return variation, but this increase is concentrated in developed markets. In emerging market countries, price informativeness changes insignificantly after the enforcement, as the important contribution of insiders in impounding information into stock prices largely disappears. The enforcement does not achieve the goal of improving price informativeness in countries with poor legal institutions. It does turn some private information into public information, thereby reducing the cost of equity in emerging markets. The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.
STRUCTURE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ANTIBACTERIAL CHLORHEXIDINE / KAOLINITE COMPOSITE

Chlorhexidine/kaolinite (CH/KLT) composite is the nanostructured material exhibiting antibacterial properties. Distribution of the CH molecules in the structure of composite, i.e. the proportion of CH molecules on the KLT surface and in the KLT interlayer space, is one of the crucial factors affecting the antibacterial properties. In present work, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis and molecular modeling using empirical force field were involved to study the structure of CH/KLT composite. Since the X-ray diffraction analysis of real samples revealed the presence of more than one distinct KLT basal spacing suggesting the non-uniform intercalation, various models of KLT interlayer space and simulated diffractograms of these models were used in order to estimate the most probable composition and space arrangement of the KLT interlayer.
Statistical evidence for the natural variation of the central Pacific El Niño

[1] Extensive studies claimed that the central equatorial Pacific (CP) El Nino has occurred more frequently and strongly than the eastern equatorial Pacific El Nino in recent years. To explain this phenomenon, spatial patterns and principal component time series from several sea surface temperature (SST) data sets in the tropical Pacific are analyzed for the period of 1951–2010. Cyclostationary empirical orthogonal function analysis separates two modes of SST variability, which explain about 50% and 10% of the total SST variability, respectively. Their spatial and temporal patterns are similar among the different SST data sets. The first mode captures the typical El Nino pattern, while the second mode is a dipole pattern in the tropical Pacific. The two modes are, by definition, uncorrelated over the analysis period but are in phase since the late 1990s; superposition of the two modes results in a significant warming in the CP region, which is a potential explanation for a more frequent occurrence of the CP El Nino in the recent decades. Similar analysis is conducted based on the 500 year data from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Climate Model version 2.1 under the preindustrial condition. The result is generally consistent with the observations yielding occasional in-phase relationship between the two modes. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that a more frequent occurrence of the CP El Nino in recent years is a natural feature of the equatorial climate system.
Optimal Power Consumption Analysis of Two-Level Hierarchical Model and Non-Hierarchical Model

Energy scarcity is one of the most critical problems that occur in wireless sensor networks compared to traditional networks. However, the problem has been partly solved by building the power consumption model of WSN. This paper is based on a simple wireless sensor network model, it gives the optimal location of the CH nodes in a cluster and the best parameter about how to divided the cluster amongst hierarchy networks. As shown last, the proposed scheme can save up to 95% of power consumption.
Utilization of malted sorghum sprout in the diet of rearing pullets and laying hens

Two studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of long term feeding of malted sorghum sprouts (MSP) on the overall performance of egg-type chickens. Diets were formulated to include 0, 150 and 300 g/kg MSP levels for both growing and laying phases. A total of one hundred and forty-four (144) ten weeks old pullets were assigned to each of the four experimental groups. Overall final weight, feed consumption, daily weight gain, feed to gain ratio and age at first lay were measured in the first experiment. Average weight of the experimental birds increased with increasing levels of MSP. Higher levels of MSP did not affect feed to gain ratios (p>0.05) at the growing phase. Age at first lay was not significantly affected as the level of MSP inclusion increased. In the second experiment, egg produced per hen-day of the birds fed 0 g/kg MSP was significantly (p<0.05) higher than those that received 150 and 300 g/kg MSP diets. Serum albumin and serum globulin were significantly reduced (p<0.05) when birds were fed MSP diets while the serum uric acid levels were elevated. MSP inclusion in the diet significantly reduced egg cholesterol content. It was concluded that MSP can be included in the diets of growing pullets up to 300 g/kg. However, inclusion of MSP in laying hen"s diet even at 150 g/kg did not yield satisfactory results. There is need to develop simple processing techniques to improve the utilization of MSP by laying hens.
Foul release systems and drag

Research carried out at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK has investigated whether the specific surface properties of Foul Release systems have a beneficial effect on drag. Flat plate towing tank experiments carried out in the Department of Marine Technology and in collaboration with CEHIPAR, Spain∗, have shown that the total resistance of Foul Release coatings is lower than that of biocidal SPC antifouling systems, when first applied.
Comparative study of current-mode controllers for the positive output elementary Luo converter via state-space and frequency response approaches

This study presents the comparative study of dual-loop current-mode controllers to achieve the output voltage regulation of the positive output elementary Luo (POEL) converter. The POEL converter is a fourth-order dc–dc boost converter developed using the voltage lift technique that gives a positive load voltage. Two current-mode controllers, one using the input inductor current and one using the output inductor current, are studied. Both state-space and frequency response approaches are used in the study to obtain a better insight of the comparative study. It is demonstrated that the controller using the input inductor current is more suitable for the regulation of the POEL converter. Experimental results showing the features of the controller in the presence of load and reference voltage changes are also provided to validate the theoretical conclusions.
Trends in Dissertations Involving Technology-Assisted Mathematics Instruction: The Case of Turkey.

The purpose of this study is to examine thesis studies on technology-supported mathematics education in Turkey in terms of the keywords, mathematical areas, technologies and methodology used and results obtained. Data were obtained from 105 graduate theses. At the end of the analysis of the data, it was determined that most used keywords were from the subject area of mathematics education and there were more studies that focused on algebra in comparison with those on geometry, and the computer was the most frequently preferred technology employed. Researchers mostly preferred to take primary education 6th, 7th, 8th grade students as their population samples, and used achievement tests as the data collection instrument. It was found that mixed research methods were the most frequently employed ones, quantitative studies were preferred more than qualitative studies, mean/standard deviation data were used more in the analysis of quantitative data while descriptive analysis was preferred more in the analysis of qualitative data. When the results obtained from experimental studies in the theses were compared, it was seen that higher values were obtained in treatment groups receiving technology-supported education in terms of achievement, attitude towards mathematics, interest in mathematics, motivation for mathematics and retention of learning.