Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interlinkages between openness and foreign debt in Pakistan

Makale, 1972'den 2010'a dek olan donem icin ceyrek donem verileri kullanarak, Pakistan'daki dis ticaret serbestliginin dis borc uzerine olan etkisini ampirik olarak incelemektedir. Modeldeki potansiyel icsellik probleminin ustesinden gelmek icin Genellestirilmis Momentler Yontemi (GMM) tahmin teknigi kullanilmistir. Calisma, dis ticaret acikliginin dis borc uzerinde anlamli bir pozitif etkisi oldugunu ortaya cikarmaktadir. Sonuclar farkli model tanimlamalarina gore robust bulunmustur. Sonuclar ayrica dis borcun belirlenmesinde diger degiskenlerin rolunun de altini cizer. Doviz rezervleri ve dogrudan yabanci yatirimlarin borc uzerine anlamli bir negatif etkisi varken, ticaret hadleri, mali acik ve enflasyon dis borcu anlamli bir sekilde pozitif olarak etkiler.
Food Defense Best Practices Reported by Public School Food Authorities in Seven Northern U.S. States

Purpose/Objectives This study reported food defense planning, training and best practices implemented in public schools in Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Methods An internet-administered survey was sent to 1,501 school food authorities or food service directors (FSDs) in public schools. Survey items included frequency of implementation of 31 food defense best practices adapted from the work of Yoon and Shanklin (2007) and Yoon (2007). Focus was on practices relating to employee management, utility security, facility security, and communication. Additional items requested information about food defense planning, food defense training, operational, and demographic characteristics. Results Response rate was 36% (543 usable responses). Most (67.2%) survey respondents reported district enrollment < 2,500 students. The majority reported onsite (54.3%) or combination onsite/ commissary (33.0%) food production systems. Few (14.5%) had a food defense plan and 21.6% reported some food defense training. Of the 31 listed practices, 16 practices had mean frequencies of implementation between most of the time and always (M > 4.0 on a 5-point scale with 5 = always). Of these, 13 practices were the responsibility of the foodservice operation, such as inspecting food packages, restricting access to food storage and production areas, training employees about safe chemical use, monitoring food production areas, securing outside entrances and storage units, restricting access to central utility controls, and having procedures to follow if utilities were compromised. Six practices (19.4%) were implemented less than some of the time (M < 3.0): doing criminal background checks on employees periodically after hire, implementing a policy that all delivery trucks be locked when unattended, communicating with emergency responders about food defense and food safety, communicating with administrators about food defense, and monitoring drains and water lines for tampering. Application to Child Nutrition Professionals Food defense practices under the control of the foodservice operation had high rates of implementation. Practices that overlapped with district control, such as monitoring drains and water lines or doing criminal background checks on current employees, had low reported frequencies of implementation. There is a need to involve district administrators in food defense planning.
A Scenario-Based Architecture for Reliability Design of Artificial Intelligent Software

Artificial Intelligent is well invested both in industry and academic fields. However, the software reliability design for the applications is a big challenge. In this paper, we present a scenario-based architecture for reliability design of artificial intelligent Software. Scenarios are divided into environmental scenarios and structured scenarios. Both of the two kinds of scenarios are considered in the framework. The quantitative reliability of the software based on the framework could be evaluated and predicted.
A High Power Factor DC Drive forUniversal Input Voltage Applications

This paper proposes a high power factor DC drive for the speed control of DC motor. In electric power system, load with low power factor draws more current which leads to energy wastage and higher electricity charges. A new configuration of SEPIC converter is used in this paper to improve power factor. Low switch voltage and high static gain of the converter is achieved by employing voltage multiplier method. Simple regenerative snubber is used in order to reduce losses associated with diode reverse recovery current and to achieve ZCS. Operational analysis, design procedure and simulation results for a 5HP, 500V, 1720 RPM DC motor is presented. The system show enhanced dynamic response to sudden change in speed reference, input voltage and load fluctuations.
Pharmacodynamics of Flubendazole for Cryptococcal Meningoencephalitis: Repurposing and Reformulation of an Anti-Parasitic Agent for a Neglected Fungal Disease

Current therapeutic options for cryptococcal meningitis are limited by toxicity, global supply and emergence of resistance. There is an urgent need to develop additional antifungal agents that are fungicidal within the central nervous system and preferably orally bioavailable. The benzimidazoles have broad-spectrum anti-parasitic activity, but also have in vitro antifungal activity that includes Cryptococcus neoformans. Flubendazole (a benzimidazole) has been reformulated by Janssen Pharmaceutica as an amorphous solid drug nanodispersion to develop an orally bioavailable medicine for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases such as onchocerciasis. We investigated the in vitro activity, the structure-activity-relationships and both in vitro and in vivo pharmacodynamics of flubendazole for cryptococcal meningitis. Flubendazole has potent in vitro activity against Cryptococcus neoformans with a modal MIC of 0.125 mg/L using European Committee for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) methodology. Computer models provided an insight into the residues responsible for the binding of flubendazole to cryptococcal s-tubulin. Rapid fungicidal activity was evident in a hollow fiber infection model of cryptococcal meningitis. The solid drug nanodispersion was orally bioavailable in mice with higher drug exposure in the cerebrum. The maximal dose of flubendazole (12 mg/kg/day) orally resulted in a ~2 log10CFU/g reduction in fungal burden compared with vehicle-treated controls. Flubendazole was orally bioavailable in rabbits, but there were no quantifiable drug concentrations in the CSF or cerebrum and no antifungal activity was demonstrated in either CSF or cerebrum. These studies provide evidence for the further study and development of the benzimidazole scaffold for the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis.
The Precondition Model as a Method for Developing Understanding of Female Contact and Non-Contact Sex Offending: A Single Case Study

Abstract This research evaluates the use of an established model, typically used for understanding male sex offenders, to understand the behavior of a female sex offender. The Finkelhor (1984) Precondition Model of offending is used to provide a rare opportunity to explore the process of offending for a female contact and non-contact offender, whose offenses were against children. It reviews the efficacy of utilizing this model in the rehabilitation and collaborative risk management of a female sex offender. The results suggest that this approach can be applied to Internet and contact sex offenses to develop understanding of the progression of offending, including issues such as sexual arousal and the impact of a male co-perpetrator. In this case, the results indicate a post-intervention improvement in areas such as affect control, ability to maintain positive relationships, self-support, and reduced dissociation and dysfunctional sexual behavior. This project provides support for the development of a treatment approach that explores the individual nuances of female sex offending.
Effect of landscape structure on agrobiodiversity in western Iran (Gilan-E Gharb)

ABSTRACT The widespread transition into intensive agroecosystems has led to a considerable decline in plant biodiversity especially for organisms in the field boundaries. The aim of this study was to survey the vegetation of fields and field boundary types located in an agricultural landscape. We provided the structural map of the landscape and classified it into field boundary types nested in three main groups of natural and seminatural elements. Species recorded in all habitat types were categorized into two emergent groups based on their response to land use intensification: 1) agrotolerant species (AT) and 2) high nature-value species (NV). We analyzed the effect of landscape structure and soil physicochemical properties on species richness of these groups. We found both landscape structure and soil properties significant in explaining variation among AT and NV species richness both at 2-m-×-2-m and landscape scales. The most overall species richness was recorded for agricultural fields (43 species) followed by non-crop field edges (37). Woody green veins and permanent ditches were the elements providing high NV species richness clearly, while fields and other field boundary types were mostly supporters of AT species richness. Diversity of AT species increased along nitrogen and clay content gradients of the soil, while NV species benefited where phosphorus and soil moisture content were high. We recommend agricultural landscapes to be more specified with (semi-)natural habitats which embed high a proportion of rare weeds as nature-value plant species.
The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: mock galaxy catalogues for the BOSS Final Data Release

We reproduce the galaxy clustering catalogue from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Final Data Release (BOSS DR11&DR12) with high fidelity on all relevant scales in order to allow a robust analysis of baryon acoustic oscillations and redshift space distortions. We have generated (6000) 12 288 MultiDark PATCHY BOSS (DR11) DR12 light cones corresponding to an effective volume of similar to 192 000 [h(-1) Gpc](3) (the largest ever simulated volume), including cosmic evolution in the redshift range from 0.15 to 0.75. The mocks have been calibrated using a reference galaxy catalogue based on the halo abundance matching modelling of the BOSS DR11&DR12 galaxy clustering data and on the data themselves. The production follows three steps. First, we apply the PATCHY code to generate a dark matter field and an object distribution including non-linear stochastic galaxy bias. Secondly, we run the halo/stellar distribution reconstruction HADRON code to assign masses to the various objects. This step uses the mass distribution as a function of local density and non-local indicators (i.e. tidal field tensor eigenvalues and relative halo exclusion separation for massive objects) from the reference simulation applied to the corresponding patchy dark matter and galaxy distribution. Finally, we apply the SUGAR code to build the light cones. The resulting MultiDarkPATCHY mock light cones reproduce the number density, selection function, survey geometry, and in general within 1 sigma, for arbitrary stellar mass bins, the power spectrum up to k = 0.3 h Mpc(-1), the two-point correlation functions down to a few Mpc scales, and the three-point statistics of the BOSS DR11&DR12 galaxy samples.
Pipeline processing in low-density parity-check codes hardware decoder

Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes are one of the best known error correcting coding methods. This article concerns the hardware iterative decoder for a subclass of LDPC codes that are implementation oriented, known also as Architecture Aware LDPC. The decoder has been implemented in a form of synthesizable VHDL description. To achieve high clock frequency of the decoder hardware implementation – and in consequence high data-throughput, a large number of pipeline registers has been used in the processing chain. However, the registers increase the processing path delay, since the number of clock cycles required for data propagating is increased. Thus in general the idle cycles must be introduced between decoding subiterations. In this paper we study the conditions for necessity of idle cycles and provide a method for calculation the exact number of required idle cycles on the basis of parity check matrix of the code. Then we propose a parity check matrix optimization method to minimize the total number of required idle cycles and hence, maximize the decoder throughput. The proposed matrix optimization by sorting rows and columns does not change the code properties. Results, presented in the paper, show that the decoder throughput can be significantly increased with the proposed optimization method.
Indonesia's Issues and Challenges on Teacher Professional Development

1.1 Issues and challenges of Indonesian teachers. Teachers’ knowledge and skills are necessary to be refreshed and updated since science and technology are growing so fast and the high competitiveness of living in modern society. Without refreshing or updating teachers’ knowledge and skills, teachers may not be able to attract students into learning engagement to provide students with appropriate hard and soft skills for competitive living in modern society. Recently, the Government of Indonesia has paid more attention to the quality of teachers. Based upon Teacher Law 2005, the Government of Indonesia stipulated a teacher as a profession. Teachers should meet the qualification of at least a 4-year Bachelor degree and have teaching certificates. Teachers with a Bachelor degree and teaching experience of at least 10 years may apply for teaching certificates by submiting a portfolio document to be assessed by a panel at a university. A portfolio consists of a copy of the Bachelor certicates, teaching performance certificates issued by principals and supervisors, samples of teaching plans, and attendance evidence at seminars/ workshops/conferences. If the portfolio meets the requirement, teachers pass and get teaching certificates, then their salary is doubled. Otherwise teachers should take 90 hours of training and take examinations; a written test and performance test in the form of peer teaching. If teachers pass the written and performance test, teachers get teaching certificates, otherwise they reapet the examination. However, the Goverment of Indonesia has not prepared a system to regularly maintain teachers’ performance after passing certification.
Effects of Sub Chronic Exposure of Diazinon on Wild Pigeon (Culumba livia gaddi) at Basrah City/Southern Iraq

A three months as sub chronic study of diazinon on male wild pigeons (Culumba livia gaddi) by oral intubation were done. The study consisted of four groups each with six pigeons: A(high dose 0.3 mg), B(intermediate dose of 0.6 mg), C(low dose 1.2 mg) and D(untreated control). Clinical observation of treated pigeons did not show significant changes only the birds appeared to the quite after dosing for short time.
Market behaviour: case studies of NASDAQ OMX Baltic

The paper examines market behaviour, defines the concept of behavioural finance and exhaustively analyzes the varying behaviour of market participants and occurring examples. The article deals with the issues of possible anomalies describing their main features. The conducted research is aimed at investigating two anomalies in the Baltic Stock Exchanges, including branches in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. The publication selects specific stocks listed in the equity market and analyzes their features. The obtained results are compared to discuss differences and characteristics of the markets. The paper also presents an original examination of the practical aspects of momentum and contrarian anomalies, underlies recommendations and helps financial market participants with a better understanding of the influence of anomalies from an economic perspective and with improving their competitiveness thus helping them to make appropriate decisions.
Queuing in front of locks: recreational skippers' willingness to pay for passing through faster

Recreational use of inland waterways is becoming increasingly important for the development of tourism in rural regions throughout Europe. The paper reports results from the application of a choice experiment asking recreational skippers for their WTP to pass faster through locks of inland waterways. During the summer holiday season in July and August recreational skippers in the Muritz area northeast of Berlin often have to wait several hours in front of locks. In order to reduce the queuing time the capacity of the locks could be increased. As it is open to debate whether such an investment program should be carried out and how it could be financed, recreational boaters were asked whether they are willing to pay a fee in exchange for passing through a lock faster. So far boaters do not have to pay for using the locks. Another point of interest was to determine for which locks this would be most beneficial. Accordingly, we used a spatial explicit choice experiment in which the attributes represent different sections of the waterways in question. The findings show that people are willing to pay for reduced queuing times within the holiday season. Implicit prices are the highest for the frequented central section and differ significantly from those prices estimated for the locks in tributaries and less frequented sections.
A Speech Quality and Intelligibility Assessment Project Using Google Voice

Speech quality and intelligibility assessment is an essential topic in the area of audio and speech signal processing. It has become increasingly more important due to the rising demand in areas such as digital protocol analysis, Dolby-dts compliance analysis, audio device testing, etc. “Audio and speech signal processing” or similar courses are widely offered as senior elective or graduate level courses in the electrical engineering curriculum. One of the biggest challenges in conducting a course project focused on speech quality and intelligibility assessment is the lack of available data from real telephony systems. In this paper, a speech quality and intelligibility assessment project using Google Voice is introduced. The voicemail feature of Google Voice allows users to download their own voicemails which are real Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) speech. Google Voice also automatically transcribes the voicemails, providing great material for students to examine the effects of vocabulary and contextual information on the intelligibility of speech. The Students’ feedback regarding their Google Voice user experience and learning experience were collected through an exit-survey. The survey results suggested that in general the students found it convenient and easy to record their speech using Google Voice; they also agreed that using real-life data offered realistic tests of the theory, and that the automatic transcription system allowed them to investigate the performance of a real-life speech recognition system. In closing, the conclusions and future plans are presented.
L*a*b* color model based road lane detection in autonomous vehicles

Autonomous vehicles, as a main part of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), will have great impact on transportation in near future. They could navigate autonomously in specific areas or highways and city streets using maps, GPS, video sensors and so on. To navigate autonomously or follow a road, intelligent vehicles need to detect lanes. This paper presents a method for lane detection in image sequences of a camera on top of a robotic vehicle. The main idea is to find the road area using the L*a*b* color space in consecutive frames. Subsequently, by applying this model in road area and equalization of histogram and calculation of gradient image using Sobel operator, the parameters of the lane can be calculated using a Hough transform. The proposed method is tested under various illumination conditions and experimental results indicate the good performance of the proposed method. Bangladesh J. Sci. Ind. Res. 52(4) , 273-280, 2017
STUDY OF LODGING RESISTANCE AND ITS ASSOCIATED TRAITS IN BREAD WHEAT

Lodging is a yield barrier and has long been a problem in cereal cultivation. The objective of the study was to measure and analyze the genetic variability and evaluate the traits which are closely related to lodging resistance. The study revealed that there have significant differences among the different genotypes of bread wheat. It is observed that genotypes having higher solid pith area have higher lodging resistance capability. Some characters of bread wheat also highly heritable such as length of spike, 100-grain weight, yield etc. So these characters would be effective for selection in breeding programme. Sufi and Gourav varieties are semi dwarf. They possess higher sclerenchyma layer width, sclerenchyma layer number. They are capable to lodging resistance. Pradiv, Shatabdi and Prativa have the higher yield than other varieties are semi dwarf in nature. Higher number of vascular bundle is positively correlated with lodging resistance because vascular bundle possesses some lodging resistance properties. For lodging resistance a more practical approach would be to select amongst progeny plants for shorter and solid stems.
The Role of Product Involvement, Knowledge, and Perceptions in Consumer Purchase Behavior of Counterfeits: Perspective Islamic Country

The current research investigated pervious research about counterfeit branded products (CBP) and consumer behavior, focusing on the effects of product knowledge, product involvement, and consumers’ perceptions of counterfeit branded products (CBP) as well as the interaction between these variables and consumer purchase intention of counterfeit branded products (CBP). We discussed five variables and the interaction among these variables (product knowledge, product involvement, counterfeit branded products, perception and purchase intention). The finding indicated a negative relationship between product knowledge and consumers’ perceptions of CBP mediated the relationship between product involvement and purchase intention of CBP was mediated by consumer’s perception of counterfeit branded products. Product involvement moderated the relationship between Consumer’s Perceptions of counterfeit branded products and purchase intention of CBP.
SEISMIC REINFORCEMENT OF ADOBE HOUSES USING EXTERNAL POLYMER MESH

SUMMARY Earthquakes occurring in developing countries demonstrate again and again that adobe houses are highly vulnerable and that millions of people who live in these houses are at great risk. This underscores the urgency to find simple and economic solutions to reinforce these buildings. This paper summarizes a research project developed to explore the use of plastic meshes as reinforcement for adobe structures. Five full-scale adobe house models were tested on the shaking table of the Catholic University of Peru. The first model was unreinforced and represented a typical adobe dwelling. Its behavior under strong shaking was quite poor, with brittle failure of the walls. The second model was overreinforced by completely wrapping all walls with a geogrid. During the dynamic tests the model moved practically as a rigid body, with little damage on the adobe walls and a sliding failure of the walls on their concrete foundation. The third and fourth models had a more sparse reinforcement consisting of bands of a lighter geogrid, placed at selected locations. Their seismic behavior was adequate. Although the walls were damaged, the reinforcement bands were able to hold the pieces together and collapse was averted. The fifth model was reinforced with a cheaper plastic mesh used as protection in construction sites. Its seismic response was also adequate. These tests show that it is possible to use plastic mesh as a convenient seismic reinforcement of adobe houses.