Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning via Video in Higher Education: An Exploration of Instructor and Student Perceptions

The purpose of this study was to compare instructors and students perceptions regarding the use of video during instruction.Background Research exploring student opinions regarding their perceived gains in learning may identify learning behaviors that could be exploited by those providing instruction to increase student learning. The intention is to provide instructional designers and college professors with valuable information regarding the use of video for presenting knowledge, explaining cognitive processes, or demonstrating psychomotor skills in a higher education setting. This study used a survey design to explore perceptional differences between professors and students regarding the use and/or effectiveness of video instruction. Results supported multimedia video as a viable teaching resource to communicate course content. This study provided the impetus for further research into actual (versus self-reported) student review of video material and any positive effects on student learning outcomes based on their perceptions of the use of multimedia video presentations.
Dynamic Rocker-Bogie: Kinematical Analysis in a High-Speed Traversal Stability Enhancement

The rocker-bogie suspension system has robust capabilities to deal with uneven terrain because of its distributing of the payload over its six wheels uniformly, while there is one major shortcoming to high-speed traversal over the planar terrain. This paper proposes a new dynamic rocker-bogie suspension system with two modes of operation: it can expand the span of the rocker-bogie support polygon to increase travel rate when the terrain is planar; and it can switch to its original configuration to move by low speed when it is faced with rough terrain. The analysis on dynamic stability margin and kinematical simulation on the two operating modes of rocker-bogie are employed to analyze and verify the rationality and effectiveness of the modification in the structure.
DESIGN OF AN EDGE-FED QUAD-BAND SLOT ANTENNA FOR GPS/WIMAX/WLAN APPLICATIONS

In this letter, a novel compact quad-band microstrip circu- lar slot antenna using edge-feeding is proposed to support the four wire- less communication bands of GPS1.575 (1.525{1.625GHz), WIMAX3.5 (3.3{3.6GHz), WLAN2.45 (2.4{2.485MHz)and WLAN5.2/5.8 (5.15{ 5.825GHz). To expand the bandwidth of the GPS band and induce the WIMAX/WLAN band to support quad-band applications without afiecting the compactness of the proposed antenna, a good method of implanting two T copper slices at the inner boundary of the two circular slots respectively is adopted. By adjusting the diameter of the two circular slots and the size of the T-shaped patch, resonant fre- quencies and bandwidth of the antenna are controlled and the multiple operating bands are achieved. In order to further reduce the size of the antenna that an edge-fed technology is used. This antenna has a simpler structure for realizing quad-band characteristics. Then, a prototype of the proposed antenna was successfully implemented, and good radiation performance is observed in all desired bands.
Design of Engineered Elastomeric Substrate for Stretchable Active Devices and Sensors

In the field of flexible electronics, emerging applications require biocompatible and unobtrusive devices, which can withstand different modes of mechanical deformation and achieve low complexity in the fabrication process. Here, the fabrication of a mesa‐shaped elastomeric substrate, supporting thin‐film transistors (TFTs) and logic circuits (inverters), is reported. High‐relief structures are designed to minimize the strain experienced by the electronics, which are fabricated directly on the pillars' surface. In this design configuration, devices based on amorphous indium‐gallium‐zinc‐oxide can withstand different modes of deformation. Bending, stretching, and twisting experiments up to 6 mm radius, 20% uniaxial strain, and 180° global twisting, respectively, are performed to show stable electrical performance of the TFTs. Similarly, a fully integrated digital inverter is tested while stretched up to 20% elongation. As a proof of the versatility of mesa‐shaped geometry, a biocompatible and stretchable sensor for temperature mapping is also realized. Using pectin, which is a temperature‐sensitive material present in plant cells, the response of the sensor shows current modulation from 13 to 28 °C and functionality up to 15% strain. These results demonstrate the performance of highly flexible electronics for a broad variety of applications, including smart skin and health monitoring.
A Model-Based Framework for Advanced Optimal Operation of Polymerization processes: Application to Emulsion Copolymerization o

A model –based framework is being developed for advanced/optimal operation of polymerization/copolymerization processes and tested using our pilot facilities running under Industrial Distributed Control System. Since the model is a core component of the overall methodology, a comprehensive mathematical model was first developed and validated to simulate the emulsion copolymerization of styrene (St) and Methyl-Methacrylate (MMA). An on-line calorimetry procedure has also been developed and implemented allowing obtaining real time conversion data for control purposes. Optimization of the process for desired particle size distribution (PSD), molecular weight distribution (MWD) and conversion, using the model developed are also presented together with experimental validations along the optimal dynamic trajectories of the main process variables. The whole strategy is being developed within a gPROM-Excel/OPC-DCS environment
Response of Tomatoes to Nitrogen Supply Through Drip Irrigation System under Salt Stress Conditions

Salinity and low soil N availability are important growth limiting factors for most crops particularly under arid and semi-arid conditions. The proper use of N fertilizer in all soils is not only important for plant growth but it may also alter the salinity tolerance of plants depending on the level of salinity, plant growth stage and the extent by which the nutrient in the system is limiting. The present study was undertaken to determine the interaction effects of four N application rates (0, 120, 240 and 360) combined with two water salinity levels (2.5 and 4.8 dS/m) on growth rate, mineral composition and yield of drip irrigated tomato in a field experiment. A positive response of tomato to increasing N was obtained at the lower salinity level while at the higher salinity level increasing N was ineffective in alleviating adverse effects caused by salinity; further application of N beyond 240 kg N/ha under higher salinity interacted to reduce tomato fruit yield and worsened the situation. At low salinity, yield reduction caused mainly by reduction in the average fruit weight, whilst the declining number of fruits explains the main portion of yield reduction at high salinity. Medium and high N rates produced the maximum growth rate up to the first mature fruit stage and thereafter, the maximum growth rate was achieved with the high and the medium N rates under low and high salinity levels, respectively. Total N uptake was linearly increased with the N application rates but it was markedly suppressed by slowing down growth when associated with the higher salinity levels, irrespective of N rate. Leaf K, Ca and Mg concentrations were decreased significantly by increasing salinity levels and this was compensated by the accumulation of Na. T he observed trend suggested that over fertilization may recover some of yield losses, whenever salinity is not so high to inhibit the response of the crop to the fertilizers. Salt stressed plants performed well when adequately fertilized, where N should be applied in amounts that increase with plant need over the growing season.
The Investigation of the Relationship between Economic Value Added (EVA) and Return on Assets (ROA) in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE)

This study investigates the relationship between economic value added (EVA) and return on assets (ROA) in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The aim of the study is to investigate whether ROA is a substitution for EVA in vehicle, food, chemistry and cement industry during the period of 2008 to 2010. After collecting data using listed firms’ financial statements in TSE and calculation of research variables applying Pierson coefficient of correlation, data analysis and statistical model presentation are performed. The results of the study show that there is no relationship between EVA and ROA in TSE.
The Journal of MacroTrends in Energy and Sustainability Advanced Calculations of S809 Aerodynamic Characteristics based on Potential Theory of Wing Sections

E The industrial development based on the massive use of fossil fuels has led to an ecological imbalance and to a depletion of natural energy resources. This energy and ecological deficit has given the first important start to renewable energy, in particular wind energy. Therefore, many countries have begun their investigation in wind power generators. Also, several National Institutes such as NREL (USA), ECN (Netherlands), and Riso (Denmark) have conducted many studies in this area. An accurate prediction of aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbine blade airfoils is considered as the key to achieve satisfactory levels of exactness of aerodynamic loads evaluation, and therefore, in designing reliable and efficient wind turbines. In this context, the 2dimensional pressure coefficients calculations were made for the S809 potential-flow, wind-turbine airfoil using the potential theory of arbitrary wing sections, precisely the Theodorsen’s model. Comparisons of the computed pressure has been made with wind tunnel data from the Delft University 1.8 m × 1.25 m low turbulence wind tunnel. This paper gives an exact solution of the problem of theoretical flow of a frictionless incompressible fluid past S809 airfoil. A numerical method is presented, aimed at determining the velocity of the 2-dimensional flow for any point at the surface of the S809 airfoil, and for any orientation. From this pattern flow, the pressure distribution around the airfoil is obtained thanks to the Bernoulli’s relation for any angle of attack and also for any Reynolds number. A complete computer code package for simulation was developed to obtain accurate numerical values in acceptable computational time.
Deep neural language models: The elicitation of brand similarity from customer reviews

Traditional methods of language modelling in marketing research often rely on an atomistic encoding of brands. This local representation makes it impossible to compare brands numerically. We train deep autoencoders, a dimensionality reduction technique, on customer reviews to circumvent this problem. Our findings suggest, that we can learn distributed representations, which encode information about brands. The representations can then be used to compute brand similarity. An inspection of the brand similarity enables researchers a deeper insight into the market structure.
Educational Data Clustering in a Weighted Feature Space Using Kernel K-Means and Transfer Learning Algorithms

Educational data clustering on the students’ data collected with a program can find several groups of the students sharing the similar characteristics in their behaviors and study performance. For some programs, it is not trivial for us to prepare enough data for the clustering task. Data shortage might then influence the effectiveness of the clustering process and thus, true clusters can not be discovered appropriately. On the other hand, there are other programs that have been well examined with much larger data sets available for the task. Therefore, it is wondered if we can exploit the larger data sets from other source programs to enhance the educational data clustering task on the smaller data sets from the target program. Thanks to transfer learning techniques, a transfer-learning-based clustering method is defined with the kernel k-means and spectral feature alignment algorithms in our paper as a solution to the educational data clustering task in such a context. Moreover, our method is optimized within a weighted feature space so that how much contribution of the larger source data sets to the clustering process can be automatically determined. This ability is the novelty of our proposed transfer learning-based clustering solution as compared to those in the existing works. Experimental results on several real data sets have shown that our method consistently outperforms the other methods using many various approaches with both external and internal validations. Received 16 Nov 2017, Revised 31 Dec 2017; Accepted 31 Dec 2017
Optical Methods for Firmness Assessment of Fresh Produce: A Review

This chapter is devoted to a review of optical techniques to measure the firmness of fresh produce. Emphasis is placed on the techniques that have a potential for online high-speed grading. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and spatially resolved reflectance spectros - copy (SRRS) are discussed in detail because of their advantages for online applications. For both techniques, this chapter reviews the fundamental principles as well as the mea- sured performances for measuring the firmness of fresh produce, particularly fruit. For both techniques, there have been studies that show correlations with penetrometer firm - ness as high as r = 0.8 − 0.9. However, most studies appear to involve bespoke laboratory instruments measuring single produce types under static conditions. Therefore, accurate performance comparison of the two techniques is very difficult. We suggest more studies are now required on a wider variety of produce and particularly comparative studies between the NIRS and SRRS systems on the same samples. Further instrument develop-ments are also likely to be required for the SRRS systems, especially with an online mea - surement where fruit speed and orientation are likely to be issues, before the technique can be considered advantageous compared to the commonly used NIRS systems.
Determination of Enzymatic Reaction Pathways Using QM/MM Methods

Enzymes are among the most powerful known catalysts. Understanding the functions of these proteins is one of the central goals of contemporary chemistry and biochemistry. But, because these systems are large they are difficult to handle using standard theoretical chemistry tools. In the last 10 years, we have seen the rapid development of so-called QM/MM methods that combined quantum chemistry and molecular mechanics to elucidate the structure and functions of systems with many degrees of freedom, including enzymatic systems. In this article, we review the numerical aspects of QM/MM methods applied to enzymes: The energy definition, the special treatment of the covalent QM/MM frontiers, and the exploration of QM/MM potential energy surface. A special emphasis is made on the use of local self-consistent field and rational function optimization. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem 93: 229 -244, 2003
Ownership and Control in Corporate Organisations in Developing Countries: Evidence from a Transition Economy

This study examines how internal governance structures in corporate organisations function in ensuring good corporate governance. It contributes to the extant art of knowledge by shedding light on how ownership and board control structures in corporate organisations operate to achieving good corporate governance in developing countries. Using interviews, observations and archival records, catholic and significant data is collected from four large quoted corporate organisations on the Ghana Stock Exchange for the analysis of the study. By linking the data to the theoretical propositions, the study reveals that these four corporate organisations are characterised by the presence of large shareholders and as a result, they tend to wield extensive control over the activities of the companies through their involvement in the decision-making processes. This sort of involvement by large shareholders in the decision-making processes of the companies is as a result of the incessant flow of information from the companies’ management to them. However, whilst the presence of large shareholders has the tendency to solving the principal-agent problem, it poses challenges in regards to minority shareholders’ interests in these corporate organisations. Small equity holders of the companies only rely on the minimum statutory disclosures in the annual reports of the companies and are always relegated to the background in times of information sharing. The study also highlights that boards of directors tend to exercise control over corporate organisations when majority shareholders stop interfering in their dealings. This implies that when major shareholders fully partake in corporate decision-making processes of companies, boards of directors seem to be sheer advisory bodies to management.
Personal income distribution and inequality at the local level: an estimation for Spain using a tax mocrodata-based model

Local income data is a key element to analyze resid ents� standard of living and wellbeing as well as an important economic indicator, very us ed in a wide range of studies related to regional convergence, urban economics, fiscal feder alism and spatial welfare analysis. Despite its importance, there is a lack of official data on local incomes and, most importantly, on local income distributions. In this paper we use official data on personal income tax returns and a reweighting procedure to d erive a representative income sample at the local level. Unlike previous attempts in the literature to get local income estimates, the results obtained allow us to derive not only an average value of income but its local distribution, a valuable and informative tool for d istributional and income inequality analysis. We apply this methodology to Spanish micr o-data and illustrate its potential use in income inequality analysis by means of computed Gini and Atkinson coefficients for a set of municipalities
Water Resistance of Basic Magnesium Sulfate Cement

Water resistance of basic magnesium sulfate (BMS) cement has been studied in this paper. The solubility of main hydration of 5Mg(OH) 2 ·MgSO 4 ·7H 2 O in BMS cement has been analyzed by analyzing ions changes in 5Mg(OH) 2 ·MgSO 4 ·7H 2 O solution. Compressive strength and softening coefficient changes of BMS cement after immersing in water have been tested to evaluate water resistance of BMS cement. And crystal compositions and microstructure of BMS cement before and after immersing in water has been analyzed by XRD and SEM to study the mechanism. These results show that 5Mg(OH) 2 ·MgSO 4 ·7H 2 O possesses a low solubility at room temperature. Basic magnesium sulfate cement displayed an excellent water resistance based on additives in basic magnesium sulfate cement can inhibit the hydration of hard burnt MgO to sheet-like Mg(OH) 2 and reduce crystallization stress in BMS cement.
Study of Measuring Dissimilarity between Nodes to Optimize the Saliency Map

An analytical conclusion based on eye tracking data sets has shown that Graph Based Visual Saliency (GBVS) measures saliency in a better way. GBVS promotes higher saliency at the center of the image plane and strongly highlights salient regions even for the locations that are far-away from object borders. It predicts human fixations more consistently than the standard algorithms. Every pixel in an image is mapped as an individual graph node in the activation map. This in turn increases the computational time. Hence the objective of this paper is to analyze the performance of saliency measure in GBVS by modeling different grouping strategies to represent a node. Here, we concentrate on finding the dissimilarity between the nodes by grouping pixels as a node with overlapping or non-overlapping pixels in the surrounding nodes which optimize the saliency closer to the Eye-Tracker’s saliency. The different grouping strategies of GBVS are analyzed across several performance measures like Normalized Scanpath Saliency the Linear Correlation Coefficient, Area Under Curve, , Similarity, Kullback – Leibler Divergence to prove its efficiency. Key terms – Visual Attention Models, Saliency maps, Eye-Tracking, Grouping pixels.
Value creation from an In-Vehicle Infotainment Perspective: A Case Study

❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ ❃ Infotainment in the automotive industry is moving to a new level with different customer expectations and a demanding market. This paper set out to investigate what values that could be added by using a infotainment platform with these characteristics. This is approached with a case study at a big automotive company. The study presents which values that could be created by using a new infotainment platform. The paper serves as a report to give a view of values that can be created by using an open source infotainment platform in the automotive industry.
Ethanol extract of Callophyllis japonica enhances nitric oxide and tumor necrosis factor-alpha production in mouse macrophage cell line, RAW 264.7 cells

SUMMARY Red seaweed (Callophyllis japonica) has long formed part of the diet of Asians, but thepharmacological properties of this plant have not been evaluated. In this study, we examined theeffect of an ethanol extract of C. japonica on the generation of nitric oxide (NO) in RAW 264.7 cells.The C. japonica extract increased the generation of NO and tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF-α), whichwere detected by the Griess method and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. Theincreased production of NO by C. japonica extract was inhibited by N G -monomethyl-L-arginine(100 μM), a specific inhibitor of NO production in the L-arginine-dependent pathway, and by thenuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) inhibitor, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (10 - 100 μM) in a dose-dependentmanner. These findings demonstrate that C. japonica extract stimulates the production of NO and TNF- αin RAW 264.7 cells through the activation of NF-κB and that this extract might also inhibit the growth ofthe human leukemic cells. Key words: Callophyllis japonica; Red seaweed; Nitric oxide; RAW 264.7 cells; Tumor necrosisfactor-α
Empirical Investigation on the Relationship Between Strategic Orientations and SMEs Performance in Nigeria

This study examines the relationship between strategic orientations and SMEs performance in Nigeria. The debate on entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation to firm performance will for a long time remain area of research. The population of this paper consists of 3,723 of all the SMEs operating in Kaduna and Sokoto state North West Nigeria. Out of which 351 sample questionnaires were administered to respondents concerning the entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation to SMEs performance. 218 questionnaires were returned. The number of valid questionnaires is 213. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to determine the effect of the variables of the study. The findings of the paper indicated that entrepreneurial orientation promoting SMEs performance in Kaduna and Sokoto state North West Nigeria. Similarly, the result shows a statistically significant positive influence of entrepreneurial orientation to SMEs performance. While market orientation has no relationship with SMEs’ performance in Kaduna and Sokoto state North West Nigeria. The findings will provide the government, policy maker(s) and other SMEs’ stakeholders with the important variables of these entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation to SMEs performance in Nigeria. Implications and Suggestions for future research direction were discussed Keywords: Strategic orientation, entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation, Small and Medium Performance,