Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hydrogen isotope evidence for loss of water from Mars through time

The high D/H of the Martian atmosphere (∼5–6 × terrestrial) is considered strong evidence for the loss of Martian water to space. The timing and magnitude of the loss of water from Mars can be constrained by measurements of D/H in Martian meteorites. Previous studies of Martian meteorites have shown a large range in D/H, from terrestrial values to as high as the current Martian atmosphere. Here we show that the ancient (∼4 Ga) Mars meteorite ALH84001 has a D/H 4 × terrestrial and that the young (∼0.17 Ga) Shergotty meteorite has a D/H 5.6 × terrestrial. We also find that the young Los Angeles shergottite has zoning in D/H that can be correlated to igneous growth zoning, strongly suggesting assimilation of D‐enriched water during igneous crystallization near the Martian surface. In contrast to previous studies, we find higher and less variable D/H ratios in these three meteorites. Our results suggest a two‐stage evolution for Martian water—a significant early loss of water to space (prior to 3.9 Ga) followed by only modest loss to space in the last 4 billion years. The current Martian atmospheric D/H has remained essentially unchanged for the last 165 Ma.
Analysis of a Global Online Debate and the Development of an Interaction Analysis Model for Examining Social Construction of Knowledge in Computer Conferencing

This study attempts to find appropriate interaction analysis/content analysis techniques that assist in examining the negotiation of meaning and co-construction of knowledge in collaborative learning environments facilitated by computer conferencing. The authors review strengths and shortcomings of existing interaction analysis techniques and propose a new model based on grounded theory building for analyzing the quality of CMC interactions and learning experiences. This new Interaction Analysis Model for Examining Social Construction of Knowledge in Computer Conferencing was developed after proposing a new definition of “interaction” for the CMC context and after analyzing interactions that occurred in a Global Online Debate. The application of the new model for analysis of collaborative construction of knowledge in the online debate and in a subsequent computer conference are discussed and future research suggested.
Simulated Learning for Clinical Skill Acquisition and Retention

This paper reports on a research project conducted at the Advanced Clinical Skills Centre, University of Auckland, to determine whether the provision of a carefully engineered integrated virtual reality simulator for male and female urinary catheter insertion would increase student confidence levels and competency for those two skills. We present a literature review that demonstrates the increasing importance of simulation in medical education whilst detailing the perceived benefits and drawbacks of using simulations in medical education. We then present our research methodology including student numbers, procedures followed during the research, forms of evaluation carried out during the research and the current research stage. We conclude with the difficulties encountered in our study and a statement concerning the current status of our research.
Performance Measurement System, Organisational Learning and Business Unit Performance in Islamic Banks

This study examines the relationship between performance measurement systems (PMS), business unit, and profit and loss sharing (PLS) financing performance in Islamic Banks. Two elements of PMS were studied –strategic PMS and interactive use of PMS. Utilising the survey method, questionnaires were mailed to 256 business units of Islamic Banks in Indonesia, of which 99 were returned. Employing the resourced-based view, it is expected that the effect of PMS on both performances is indirect through organisational learning. Nevertheless, strategic PMS is also expected to have a direct relationship with business unit performance. Tested using Partial Least Squares regression, the results indicate that the interactive use of PMS is indirectly related to performances through organisational learning. Strategic PMS was found to be directly related to business unit performance. The findings highlight the role of PMS in enhancing organisational learning in Islamic Banks, which translates into high performance.
Topic Discovery from Tweet Replies

Twitter is a popular online social information network service which allows people to read and post messages up to 140 characters, known as “tweets”. In this paper, we focus on the tweets between pairs of individuals, i.e., the tweet replies, and propose a generative model to discover topics among groups of twitter users. Our model has then been evaluated with a tweet dataset to show its effectiveness.
Niche Relationships of Carnivores in a Subtropical Primary Forest in Southern Taiwan

Southern Taiwan Po-Jen Chiang1,*, Kurtis Jai-Chyi Pei2, Michael R. Vaughan1, and Ching-Feng Li3 1Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA 2Institute of Wildlife Conservation, National Pingtung Univ. of Science and Technology, Neipu, Pingtung 912, Taiwan 3Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk Univ., 61137 Brno, Czech Republic
Review of challenges and opportunities for dairy cattle farming under mixed system of Homa Bay County, Western Kenya

The objective of this review was to determine challenges and opportunities facing dairy cattle production in Homa Bay County, which lies within the Lake Victoria basin. Three cattle production systems were included: farms keeping indigenous breeds; farms keeping crosses of indigenous and exotic breeds and farms keeping exotic breeds. Both primary and secondary data were collected using questionnaires, key informant interview, published grey literature sources and institutional websites. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and One-way analysis of variance used as inferential analysis at 5% level of significance, while qualitative data were summarized using themes. Among the different cattle breeds raised, milk was predominantly produced by indigenous type. Most farms owned about 4 acres of land, with farms keeping indigenous breeds owning 7 herds of cattle while farms keeping crosses and pure exotic breeds kept 4 and 3 herds of cattle, respectively. Daily milk yield from exotic breeds was 18 L, while indigenous breed produced 1.7 L. Milk was sold to neighbours, local markets and for household consumption. Farmers faced challenges with regard to quality and unavailability of feeds during drought periods, controlling livestock diseases, sources of information and breeding services. The County government and its development partners implemented projects on dairy productivity: fixed-time artificial insemination project and introduction of Brachiaria grass which is drought resistant and have high protein content. This report presents findings which are important for policy making on dairy farming and lessons on how public and private sector partnership can alleviate challenges facing dairy farming. Key words: Challenges and opportunities, dairy cattle farming, western Kenya.
Perception of physical beauty among boys and girls in Hong Kong

Beauty is an important currency in how we see ourselves and others. Hong Kong is flooded with commercial messages on physical attractiveness. How do children respond to the beauty culture so prevent in our society? This study aims at (1) examining the cultural concepts of beauty, and (2) how children perceive the relationship between physical attractiveness, personality and friendship. We asked 114 children aged 9 to 12 to draw and verbalize a girl or a boy who was described as good-looking, and a girl or a boy described as not so good-looking. Results indicated that most of the interviewees associated “being not so good-looking” with ugliness. Physical beauty was associated with personality, social relations, happiness, and materialism. Results show a strong stereotype of “beauty-is-good”. Further studies are needed to identify source of the stereotypes and how these perceptions may affect children’s choices in their daily lives.
DIFFERENT RESPONSES OF PREEMERGENCE AND EARLY SEEDLING GROWTH TO PLANTING DEPTH BETWEEN VEGETABLE SOYBEAN AND GRAIN SOYBEANS

Planting depth can cause nonuniform emergence and poor field stands. There have been no investigations to compare the planting depth on field emergence between vegetable soybean and grain soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ]. This study examined the effect of planting depth on preemergence and seedling emergence in growth chamber conditions using one vegetable soybean and one grain soybean cultivar. The hypocotyl and radicle length in the vegetable soybean were significantly longer than that of the grain soybean at emergence, while the hypocotyl and radicle diameter in the vegetable soybean were significantly larger than that of the grain soybean during emergence period irrespective of planting depth. The weight of hypocotyl + radicle in the vegetable soybean was significantly greater than that ofthe grain soybean during emergence period irrespective of planting depth and days after planting, but deeper planting depth reduced cotyledon weight in the vegetable soybean strongly at emergence. As planting depth increased from shallow (1-cm) to deep (5-cm), emergence declined. However, the grain soybean seed consistently emerged better than the vegetable soybean seed. Emergence of both the grain soybean seed and the vegetable soybean was > 65% until planting depth increased to 3-cm, while the vegetable soybean seed had the lowest emergence (< 30%) at the deepest (5-cm) level. The 3-cm planting depth had no effect on the emergence of both the grain soybean and the vegetable soybean. The vegetable soybean was more susceptible to deeper planting depth than the grain soybean.
Scintillation mitigation for long-range surveillance video

Atmospheric turbulence is a naturally occurring phenomenon that can severely degrade the quality of long-range surveillance video footage. Major effects include image blurring, image warping and temporal wavering of objects in the scene. Mitigating these effects, while preserving motion not caused by turbulence, can increase the effectiveness of a camera system designed for long-range surveillance.
Denitrification with dissolved methane for energy efficient wastewater treatment

Despite many advantages of anaerobic wastewater tre atment over conventional activated sludge treatment, it has not yet been applied in temperate zones. This is mainly because effluent from anaerobic treatment still contains nitrogen and dis solved methane. A new concept for energyefficient anaerobic wastewater treatment at low tem p ratures is proposed, consisting of a UASBdigester system and, for treatment of the anaerobic effluent, a reactor with denitrifying methanotrophic bacteria for nitrogen and dissolved methane removal and a nitritation reactor. Before application of the denitrification process, volumetric denitrification rates have to be increased. In this research denitrifying methanotro phic bacteria, ‘ Candidatus Methylomirabilis oxyfera’, were enriched in a membrane bioreactor, o perated at 20 °C, inoculated with a mixture of wastewater treatment sludge and fed with medium con taini g effluent from municipal wastewater treatment as a source of potential growth factors. After a lag phase of 300 days, the volumetric consumption rate increased to 11 mg NO 2 -N/L·d at day 421. After spiking with denitrifying methanotrophic bacteria from another reactor, the r at increased to a new maximum of 36 mg NO2 -N/L·d at day 655. These results indicate the poten tial applicability of the process for wastewater treatment, but still rates have to be in creased by an order of magnitude.
Revenue Maximization with Good Quality of Service in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing enables people to use resources and services without implementing them on their systems. Profit and quality of service is the most important factor for service providers and it is mainly determined by the configuration of a cloud service platform under given market demand. Single long term renting scheme is usually adopted to design a cloud platform which leads to resource waste and having more renting charges. The novel double renting scheme which is combination of short term and long term renting is aiming at existing issue. This double renting scheme will effectively and efficiently promises a good quality of service of all request and reduces the resource waste significantly. It also provides services with lower cost compared to short term renting scheme. It uses optimal queuing model to maximize the profit. That means the users can access the services simultaneously. The main objective of proposed system is, to maximize profit of service provider by providing efficient and effective services to user.
Utilization of FPGA Architectures for High Performance Computations

The primary intention of this paper is to present the results of several cases where the FPGA technology was used for high performance calculations. We gathered applications that had been developed over the last couple of years. Over this period of time we observed that there had been a rapid growth of interest in the utilization of FPGA for HPC. Basing on our expertise we give selected metrics, results and conclusions which, in our opinion, are important for anyone who is interested in FPGA as an alternative for faster computations. A brief description of the characteristics of FPGA and FPGA usage for acceleration are also included for novices on the subject.
Dynamics of rotifer and cladoceran resting stages during copper pollution and recovery in a subalpine lake

Despite their ecological importance and ability to react to environmental changes, including pol- lution, monogonont rotifers have never been used in palaeolimnological studies because they do not leave subfossil remains. In this study, we tested the possibility of using rotifer resting eggs as a proxy for reconstruc- tion of changes in biodiversity during chronic copper pollution and recovery of a deep sudalpine lake (Lake Orta, Italy). The lake was selected owing to a rich history of previous studies that explored species-specific responses to environmental stressors. Rotifer-based results were compared with those on ephippia and on previously investigated Cladocera subfossil remains. Responses of Rotifera resting eggs to environmental changes were clear and consistent with those previously observed on Cladocera. The abundance of resting eggs increased during pollution, and new morphotypes appeared in addition to those already present. However, overall diversity decreased sharply, as a few morphotypes became dominant. Resting eggs of Brachionus calyciflorus as old as ca. 100 years were still fully viable; viability was not affected by toxic condi- tions of the environment in which the eggs were produced. Over a period of ca. 80 years, all resting eggs of B. calyciflorus belonged to a single clone, the most widely distributed one in North America. Cladocera ephip- pia started to accumulate later and at a lower level of abundance than rotifer resting eggs. Overall, Cladocera ephippia were, however, less effective than rotifers in tracing lake historical changes. The results point out at the great potential of using rotifer resting eggs in palaeolimnological reconstructions.
Blended Learning: Correlations on the Effectiveness of the Different Learning Environment

Utilization of technology in the teaching and learning process has brought a significant impact to the education sector. Technology offers educators and learners a new learning experience to encourage and enrich the teaching and learning process. The study used descriptive-correlation to know the effectiveness of the different learning environment through pretest and post-test and to determine the satisfaction rating of the respondents towards the different kinds of learning environment. It was found out in the result that blended learning shows an effective tool to enriched student performance in programming. It is recommended to use different learning mode of delivery to shows a significant increase and improvement in the academic performance.
AN APPLIED COMPARISON BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL PRE-DISPERSED SOLVENT EXTRACTION (PDSE) CONTACTORS AND NEW DISSOLVED NITROGEN PDSE (DNPDSE) ONES

Efforts to increase the mass transfer coefficient, enhance the contact area, and decrease the power input of contractors have given risen to the development of the pre-dispersed solvent extraction (PDSE) contactor and the devise of the new dissolved nitrogen PDSE (DNPDSE) contactors. The studies conducted after the design of the new contactor to determine the working conditions for its suitable performance (2.5-3.5 bar pressure, 0.1 L/min sparger flow rate, and 1.5 L of the aqueous phase) showed that for all the evaluated conditions (i.e. the pressure, polyaphron type, and dilution percentage), the recovery in the DNPDSE contactor was higher than that in the PDSE one. In addition, pictures of the performance modes of the two contactor indicated the presence of the organic phase in the form of colloidal gas aphrons (CGAs) in the DNPDSE contactor and of polyaphron aggregations in the PDSE one. This is a good reason for the increased copper recovery in the DNPDSE contactor. The best recovery for the extraction process in the DNPDSE contactor was achieved using the anionic polyaphron of sodium dodecylbenzene sulphonate (NaDBS) with five-fold dilution at 3.5 bar.
NOVEL CHRONOTHERAPEUTIC MULTIPARTICULATE DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM OF FELODIPINE: AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT FOR CARDIAC ARRHYTHMIA

Arrhythmia follows chronobiology, thus necessitating development of time-dependent formulation for its treatment. The aim of the current work was to develop a solubility-enhanced chronotherapeutic system of felodipine, a widely prescribed anti-arrhythmic. Systematically optimized hot-melt extrusion process was employed to formulate solubility-enhanced extrudates. Film-casting method was adopted for the selection of polymers. Drug released at 5, 15, 30min was taken as response variables in 3 2 face-centered cube design. Nearly 10-fold increase was observed in the solubility of the optimized extrudates in comparison to pure drug. Physical characterization of the extrudates depicted complete amorphization of drug. Sequential coating was performed on to the extrudates to enable a time-dependent release. In-vitro studies clearly demonstrated that 25% of drug was available rapidly within 10 min of administration. The remaining 75% of drug was available over a period of 4, 8 and 12h. Stability studies performed for 6 months at accelerated conditions depicted no significant change in the physicochemical characteristics of the optimized formulation. In-vivo pharmacokinetic studies conducted in beagle dogs ratified the results of in-vitro studies where a sequential time dependent absorption of felodipine was observed over a period of 12h. Concisely, the studies demonstrated successful development of solubility-enhanced chronotherapeutic system of felodipine.
Validation of PSIAC Model for Sediment Yields Estimation in Ungauged Catchments of Tanzania

The main objective of this paper is to report on preliminary validation results of the newly applied sediment yields estimation model in Tanzania, the Pacific Southwest Inter-Agency Committee (PSIAC). This is a follow-up research on the call to customize simple and/or multi-processes sediment yields estimation models such as PSIAC in the region. The PSIAC approach is based on a sediment yield classification scheme employing individual drainage basin characteristics: surface geology, soils, climate, runoff, topography, ground cover, land use, upland erosion, channel erosion, and sediment transport. In this study, PSIAC model is built from readily available environmental variables sourced from Government ministries/agencies and public domain global spatial data. The sediment classification exercise was verified with field observations. The set up model was then validated by 31 small dams’ siltation surveys and previous sedimentation study findings. PSIAC model performance for major part of central Tanzania was good during calibration (BIAS = 7.88%) and validation (BIAS = 18.12%). Another observation was that uncalibrated model performs fairly well, though performance improves with calibration. The extension of the uncalibrated PSIAC model to 3 selected large basins of Tanzania, with drainage areas size up to 223,000 km2, registered a satisfactory performance in one of them with fair performance in the rest. For large basins, the performance seems to correlate with general ground slope. The higher the slope, the better the performance. It is, however, not apparent from this study on the threshold drainage area and slope requirements for better performance of the model. Notwithstanding, the PSIAC model has improved previous sediment yields estimates based on simple regressive models. Finally, the paper proposes two main further research works: use of high resolution geospatial data and additional validation dams siltation data even beyond the central part of Tanzania, and carries out rigorous study on spatial scale model application limitations.
The Role of "Volume Dispersion" in Explaining the Price-Change Volume Relation at the Index Level

In this paper, we examine the dynamics of the price change-trading volume relation at the aggregate market/index level. We introduce the use of a novel “volume dispersion” measure designed to proxy for the variability in firm-specific information flows across securities that comprise the market. Our results suggest that the price change-volume relation can be strengthened by the introduction of this measure. We also offer evidence of a positive relation between market volatility and trading volume and a negative relation between market volatility and volume dispersion. Furthermore, we demonstrate that lagged values of market level trading volume and volume dispersion can predict the next day’s index level volatility. Our findings remain robust when the implied volatility of the S&P 100 index options is used in the analysis. This suggests that index option traders need to pay close attention to both aggregate market level trading volume and volume dispersion to better capture the dynamics of daily market volatility.
Public preferences and values for rural land preservation in Florida

This study develops a method to evaluate the influence of local geography on respondents values for land conservation programs. The study employs a choice experiment to evaluate alternative conservation plans. Results indicate that residents local landscapes do matter to the estimated values for such conservation programs. Our results also provide information about the divergence of political and economic jurisdictions for land conservation programs in Florida.