Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inertage et valorisation des sédiments de dragage marins

L'accumulation des sediments au fond des cours d'eau et des ports pose un probleme economique et environnemental. En effet, les particules les plus fines fixent une contamination a la fois organique (HAP, PCB, hydrocarbures) et inorganique (metaux lourds). Une legislation de plus en plus sensible a la protection de l'environnement reglemente desormais le dragage et le relargage des sediments. La societe Solvay a mis au point un procede de traitement baptise Novosol®, base sur l'immobilisation des metaux lourds par phosphatation et sur l'elimination des matieres organiques par calcination. La valorisation des sediments traites comme granulat de substitution dans les materiaux a matrice cimentaire fait l'objet de ce travail de these. La caracterisation de ces granulats a revele une porosite et une absorption d'eau tres elevees. Constitues par l'agglomeration de particules plus fines ils se revelent friables. Cependant, utilises en substitution d'un sable de Seine classique pour la confection d'un mortier, l'etude experimentale de valorisation a montre des gains de resistance a la compression uniaxiale, et ce, meme pour une substitution complete du sable. Ces gains ont ete attribues au phenomene de cure interne, a l'amelioration de l'interface pâte granulat ainsi qu'a un effet filler. Cela pourrait egalement expliquer la reduction observee de la permeabilite au gaz. La deformabilite des granulats conduit toutefois a un retrait de dessiccation eleve. Une formulation appropriee permet egalement l'obtention d'un materiau durable vis-a-vis, notamment, du gel/degel ou de l'exposition a l'eau de mer. La valorisation dans les materiaux cimentaires est donc envisageable.
A Lie Group Variational Integrator for Rigid Body Dynamics Using Dual Quaternion

In rigid body dynamic simulations, often the algorithm is required to deal with general situations where both reference point and inertia matrix are arbitrarily defined. We introduce a novel Lie group variational integrator using dual quaternion for simulating rigid body dynamics in all six degrees of freedom. Dual quaternion is used to represent rigid body kinematics and one-step Lie group method is used to derive dynamic equations. The combination of these two becomes the first Lie group variational integrator for rigid body dynamics without decoupling translations and rotations. Newton-Raphson method is used to solve the recursive dynamic equation. Our method is suitable for rigid body simulations with high accuracy under large time step. The entire dynamics-control system can now be established based on dual quaternions without re-projection from Cartesian frame. A numerical example of spacecraft-cargo separation process proves that our method respects the symplectic structure of the system with excellent long-term conservation of geometry structure, momentum and energy. In instants where separation happens, reference point transformation is no longer required.
The Relationship Between Trade Openness and Economic Growth in Muslim Countries: An Empirical Investigation

This paper studies the association between openness and growth for selected Muslim countries. The rational for conducting this study only on Muslim countries is to explore this relationship among economies having different religion, economic and social characteristics. This paper employed random and fixed effect model (RE & FE). Also, Pedroni and Kao Cointegration test is used to explore the long run relationship between openness and growth. The finding from Pedroni Cointegration test has indicated the long run relationship among variables. However, this long run relationship is absent in Kao Cointegration test. The results of RE and FE model have shown that openness has significant and positive effect on growth. In addition, foreign direct investment, inflation and human capital are also affecting growth in Muslim countries.
On the Look-Out for the Bear: Predicting Stock Market Downturns in G7 Countries

The paper examines the informational content of a series of macroeconomic indicator variables with the intention to predict stock market downturns - colloquially also referred to as 'bear markets' - for G7 countries. The sample consists of monthly stock market indices and a set of exogenous indicator variables that are subject to examination, ranging from January 1970 to September 2008. The methodical approach is twofold. In the first step, a modified version of the Bry-Boschan business cycle dating algorithm is used to identify bull and bear markets from the data by creating dummy variable series. In the second step, a substantial number of probit estimations is carried out, by regressing the newly identified dummy variable series on different specifications of indicator variables. By applying widely used in- and out-of-sample measures, the specifications are evaluated and the forecasting performance of the indicators is assessed. The results are mixed. While industrial production, and money stock measures seem to have no predictive power, short and long term interest rates, term spreads as well as unemployment rate exhibit some. Here, it is clearly possible to extract some informational content even three months in advance and so to beat the predictions made by a recursively estimated constant.
Stochastic Collapsed Variational Inference for Sequential Data

Stochastic variational inference for collapsed models has recently been successfully applied to large scale topic modelling. In this paper, we propose a stochastic collapsed variational inference algorithm in the sequential data setting. Our algorithm is applicable to both finite hidden Markov models and hierarchical Dirichlet process hidden Markov models, and to any datasets generated by emission distributions in the exponential family. Our experiment results on two discrete datasets show that our inference is both more efficient and more accurate than its uncollapsed version, stochastic variational inference.
The role of phenolic compounds in the defense of sooty mold of olive leaves (Olea europea L.)

The aim of this study is to demonstrate the role of phenolic compounds in the olive leaves infected by sooty mold. The results show that the presence of sooty mold induces a high production of polyphenols in infected leaves of olive compared to the uninfected ones. The high concentrations of flavonoids and alkaloids in the infected trees suggest that they make the olive tree resistant to this fungi disease. Analyses by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) confirmed the presence of verbascoside acid, oleuropeinacid, caffeic acid and for the first time, tannic acid. These substances are good resistance markers and should help to make efficient strategies for the bio-control of this kind of fungal disease. Key words: Olea europea L. , fungi, phenolic compounds, defense, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Modification of the Uranyl Acetate Replacement Staining Protocol for Transmission Electron Microscopy

C l i n M e d International Library Citation: Santhana RL, Paramsavaran S, Koay BT, Izan SA, Siti AN (2016) Modification of the Uranyl Acetate Replacement Staining Protocol for Transmission Electron Microscopy. Int J Med Nano Res 3:013 Received: November 04, 2015: Accepted: December 28, 2015: Published: January 02, 2016 Copyright: © 2016 Santhana RL, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Volume 3 | Issue 1
Effects of a tropical cyclone on a pelagic ecosystem from the physical environment to top predators

Tropical cyclones are environmental disturbances that may have important effects on open-ocean ecosystem structure and function, but their overall impact has rarely been assessed. The Stenella Abundance Research Line Transect and Ecosystem (STARLITE) survey, in AugustNovember 2007, investigated spatial and temporal ecosystem variability in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean off southwestern Mexico. Oceanographic, plankton, fly- ingfish, seabird, and cetacean sampling was con- ducted along eight 170 km transect lines, each of which were surveyed on 2 consecutive days at ~3 wk intervals. Tropical storm Kiko passed though the study area on 15�17 October and forced changes in the physical environment and in the ecosystem, from plankton to top predators. Kiko mixed water from beneath the strong, shallow thermocline to the sur- face. As a result, surface temperature decreased by 0.6°C, the thermocline and chlorophyll maximum layer shoaled by 10�20 m, stratification decreased by 27%, and chlorophyll increased by 33% at the sur- face and 35% over the euphotic zone. These changes persisted for at least 4 wk. Zooplankton biomass increased by 59% about 3 wk after the phyto - plankton increase. Changes in the stomach fullness and diet composition of planktivorous flyingfish were consistent with the increase in zooplankton biomass. Among top predators, the sighting rate of dolphins declined, while the response of seabirds varied by species and was confounded by seasonal migration patterns. Tropical cyclones are a recurrent distur- bance in this region. They initiate a bottom-up forc- ing of the ecosystem, creating persistent patches of higher primary and secondary production, and may be regarded as a disturbance regime.
The Role of Attention in the Other-Species Effect in Infancy

Infants experience a gradual decline in the ability to discriminate other-species faces during the first year of life (Pascalis, de Haan, & Nelson, 2006). It is possible that this decline is due to infants distributing more attention to human faces than to otherspecies faces. The current study explored the effect of modifying the distribution of 9month-old infants’ selective attention during the processing of monkey faces. After familiarization with monkey faces with successively highlighted internal features, infants showed significant preference to novel faces in paired-comparison tasks. In contrast, infants in a control group with no highlighting during familiarization did not show evidence of discrimination. These findings support the possibility that modifying infants’ selective attention facilitates recognition of other-species faces, and indicate that perceptual narrowing may work at the level of selective attention.
An Axiomatic Analysis of Joint Liability Problems with Rooted ― Tree Structure

For joint liability problems concerning tort law, a legal compensation scheme may be based on lower and upper bounds of compensation for injury and on case-system consistency. Introducing several properties inspired from this observation, we analyze compensation schemes axiomatically under the situation where causation of the cumulative injury appears in multiple sequences of wrongful acts. The situation underlying the model is described by a rooted-tree graph. We show that there is a unique compensation scheme that satisfies three axioms, one about lower bounds of individual compensations, one about upper bounds of individual compensations, and one about case-system consistency. This unique compensation scheme is the nucleolus of an associated liability game.
The Impact of Short Fiber Content on the Quality of Cotton Ring Spun Yarn

This study was designed to quantitatively assess the effects of short fiber (< 12.7 mm long) in raw cotton on the quality of 20s ring spun yarn. Twenty-eight bales of cotton with a wide range of fiber properties and an especially diverse population of short fiber content were utilized. Properties of the raw cotton were measured by High Volume Instrumentation (HVI), Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS) instruments, and the manual Suter-Webb (SW) Array method. Ring spun yarns produced from these cottons were tested for process and product quality. Results indicate that most of the yarn properties--especially yarn strength, irregularity, and frequency of thick and thin defects--are strongly correlated with each of the three measures of short fiber content. A pool of 23 potential predictors from the AFIS, HVI, and SW fiber properties was utilized to develop "best" regression models for seven yarn properties. In five of the seven models, the short fiber content variable was the most important predictor, exceptions being the models for yarn strength and elongation. For five of the yarn properties, models developed using the four basic HVI properties alone were nearly as good in predicting yarn quality as those using all 23 fiber properties. Exceptions were models for elongation and for ends down.
Interspecific hybridization between Cajanus cajan and Cajanus cajanifolius

Interspecific hybridization between five Canajus cajan genotypes viz., ICPL 87, CORG 9302, CORG 5, TAT 93- 47 and AS 46 and the wild species C. cajanifolius was attempted. Successful pod set was observed in direct crosses involving C. cajan as ovule parent and C. cajanifolius as pollen parent while the reciprocal crosses failed to set pods. The only surviving F1 of ICPL 87 × C. cajanifolius was vigorous in growth and exhibited intermediate leaf and flower morphology with predominance of C. cajanifolius plant type. Chromosome pairing was rather irregular in the F1 hybrid with loose pairing, univalents, quadrivalents and abnormalities like laggards, stickiness, bridges, precocious separation and non-synchronization of the genomes. Pollen fertility of the hybrid was low and occurrence of triads was noticed. The partial homology coupled with seed set suggested the possibility of incorporating traits of economic importance such as pest resistance from C. cajanifolius into C. cajan.
Comparative Study of Five Maximum Power Point Tracking Techniques for Photovoltaic Systems

Since the output characteristics of photovoltaic (PV) system depends on the ambient temperature, solar radiation and load impedance, its maximum power point (MPP) is not constant. Under each condition PV module has a point at which it can produce its MPP. Therefore, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods can be used to uphold the PV panel operating at its MPP. In this survey, five MPPT algorithms are presented and compared under different atmosphere conditions: Perturb and Observe (P&O) Methods, Incremental Conductance (IncCond) Methods, Constant Voltage (CV), Short Circuit Current (SCC) and Open Circuit Voltage (OCV). These algorithms are widely used in PV systems as a result of their easy implementation as well as their low cost. These techniques were analysed and their performance was evaluated by using the Matlab tool Simulink under various types of solar radiation and temperature. The IncCond method was the most efficient, at rapidly changing conditions.
Design of a robust mean-square stabilizing data-driven controller - With implementation to a 2 DoF inverted pendulum

Data-Driven (DD) controllers are derived purely from measured input-output (I/O) data collected from the target plant. Compared with traditional controller design techniques (such as PID, LQ, MPC), DD controller design bypasses the first principle modelling of the system. Instead, a model in the subspace which is a simple but direct implication of the I/O relation is setup to represent the dynamic behavior of the system. In this work, a robust mean-square stabilizing data-driven control algorithm is designed for Linear Time Invariant (LTI) systems. For LTI systems, a Vector Auto Regressive model with eXogenous(VARX) input structured subspace model is chosen as it is easy to identify by a simply linear Least Squares (LS) estimate. Different from other subspace DD controller design methods, the proposed algorithm in this work also takes into account the noise corruption in the identification together with the uncertainties brought by the finite window size of the subspace model. The proposed controller guarantees the stability of the closed-loop system in the Root Mean Square (RMS) sense based on a manually pre-defined performance output vector. Furthermore, the performance output vector can be used to tune the closed-loop dynamics. Finally, the proposed data-driven control algorithm is tested on a real 2 Degreeof-Freedom (DoF) inverted pendulum device to show the reliability. By analyzing the experimental data, the proposed algorithm shows the potential to perform in a Plug-and-Play manner and to provide a control strategy with improved closed-loop dynamics and better energy saving performance in practice.
CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG Cognitive and Emotional Determinants of Delinquent Behaviour

Objectives: This article was designed to explore the relationships and the effects of negative emotions and self concepts on delinquent behaviour in a sample of Hong Kong young people (N=269). Method: With the use of self-report method, prevalence of deviant behaviours, negative emotions (stress, anxiety, and depression) and self concepts (moral reasoning, selfesteem, and moral self) were measured. Results: Findings revealed that all negative emotions and self concepts (except general self-esteem) were significantly predictive of delinquent behaviour in general. Mediation analysis showed that depression significantly mediated the effect of moral self on delinquent behaviour, whereas stress mediated the effect of moral reasoning on delinquent behaviour. Conclusions: Overall, the current study provided evidences for the facilitating effect of negative emotions with the association of moral self or moral reasoning on deviant behaviour, suggesting negative emotions, the personal formation of moral self and the development of moral reasoning are significant treatment targets in dealing with the problems of delinquents. EMOTION, SELF COGNITION, AND DELINQUENT BEHAVIOUR iii
Effects of Service Brand Identity Building on Brand Performance in the Insurance Sector of Kenya

The increasingly competitive contemporary business environments demands that companies’ brand management teams create differentiation in the way they communicate to consumers to make their brands stand out of competition, while ensuring that the brand communications and the intended messages reach the right target group. While brand management theories have espoused the benefits of building strong brand identity there is still a paucity of empirical evidence to support theory. Thus, the main objective of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of marketers on their companies' brand identity building activities and their effects on brand performance in the insurance services sector in Kenya. The study adopts the quantitative social survey research approaches and utilizes a sample of 214 insurance entities, the study validates a three-dimensional service brand identity measurement scale applicable to the Kenyan insurance sector and establishes that the three service brand identity constructs namely corporate visual identity, consistent communications and human resource initiatives have positive and significant effects on brand performance. The paper recommends that marketing managers should be strategic in the allocation of marketing resources so as to focus on brand identity building activities that have the highest likelihood of enhancing brand performance. Keywords: Brand Performance; Corporate Visual Identity, Consistent Communications; Human Resource Initiatives; Service Brand Identity.
Does Fertility Decrease the Welfare of Households? An Analysis of Poverty Dynamics and Fertility in Indonesia

It is generally accepted that lower population growth is associated with positive economic development. Although there is a large body of literature supporting this hypothesis at the macro level, few studies have analyzed the causal e®ect of fertility on household welfare at the micro level. In this paper we present an empirical analysis of the relationship between household welfare and fertility for Indonesia - a country which has experienced unprecedented economic growth and sharp fertility declines over recent decades. The focus of our paper is twofold: First, we introduce and apply propensity score matching methods to study the rela- tionship between fertility outcomes and economic variables at the household level. Secondly, we explicitly test for the sensitivity of our results with respect to alternative measures of welfare at the household level. When consumption expenditure per person is used as a measure of welfare, the analysis suggests that the correlation between fertility and household welfare is sensitive to the choice of the parameters governing economics of scale and equivalence scales at the household level. The lower these values are the less likely will an additional child depress household welfare. On the other hand, when the share of food in total expenditure is used as a measure of welfare, the result does not produce a decisive sign of the correlation between fertility and household welfare.
The Diagnostic of Cervical Carcinoma: From Theory to Practice

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) are naked particles composed of 72 subunits, each formed by 2 structural proteins designated L1 and L2 (L = late). HPV does not grow outside of squamous epithelium cells, in which it infects the suprabasal prickle cell layer. The viral double-stranded DNA (vDNA) has about 8 kilobase pairs (kbp) and also encodes several non-structural polypeptides, designated E1–E7 (E = early). At least 3 early oncoproteins (E5, E6, and E7) induce host cell proliferation, driving them into permanent division. During long-term latency, the circularized HPV DNA may get integrated into the host cell DNA molecule. The circular HPV DNA is then interrupted, usually within the E2 open reading frame (ORF), which then cannot exert its regulatory (feedback) effect on the early gene expression. The increased expression of E6/E7 proteins seriously affects the regulation of host cell division mainly via dysregulation of the functions of p53 and Rp proteins. HPV infects the female genital tract representing the main cause of cervical dysplasia and subsequent squamous cell carcinoma (SCa). The HPV isolates exist mainly in the form of amplified DNAs; based on the similarity and/or variations (dissimilarity) of their L1 capsid polypeptide sequence, 96 human genotypes were included into five genera of the Papillomaviridae family. The clinically most important genotypes that cause lesions at mucosal membranes and/or on the skin, belong mainly to the Alphapapillo‐ mavirus genus. The genotypes, associated with severe dysplastic changes and/or cervical cancer, were designated as high risk (HR-HPV). The prevalence of the designation CIN II/HSIL is correct, and at the stage of CIN III/HSIL, dysplastic cells replace the entire squamous epithelium. Another frequently used immunohistochemical marker of intraepithelial cervical dysplasia so far is the Ki-67 antigen, which occurs in the nuclei of proliferating and/or repeatedly dividing (immortalized) cells. Women revealing p16- positive ASCUS (atypical smear cells of unknown significance) as well as those showing LSIL (low-grade cytological changes) should be examined for the presence of the HPV DNA. The detection of HPV DNA alone, that is, in the absence of cytological screening, has a relatively lower prediction value, though the HR HPV positive DNA test in the absence of morphological alterations may in part predict the possible progression into malignancy. Nevertheless, only the combined cytological as well as molecular follow- up (cervical smear examined for cytology as well as for HPV DNA) is regarded for the most reliable diagnostic approach. Test polymorphic A sequence defined primers.