Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Personality and Family Context in Explaining Grit of Taiwanese High School Students

Background:Grit, one of the newly developed non-cognitive traits, encompasses the characteristics of perseverance and consistency of interest. Grit is associated with good academic performance, resilience, and well-being. To understand the nature of Grit in detail, this study probed the relationship between Grit and the widely-applied and well-established Big-Five personality. Family context plays a significant role in nurturing all aspects of personality traits. Accordingly, we examined two family-context variables, namely family influence and democratic parenting style, which may be predictive of Grit, particularly in an Asian context.Material and methods:A total of 1504 students from one private comprehensive high school participated. Multiple linear regression was conducted to determine how the various independent variables affect Grit characteristics.Results:The results indicate that grittier high school learners tend to display higher self-report academic performance and academic satisfaction. Multiple regression demonstrated that the four Big-Five personality traits: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Intellect/Imagination, are significantly predictive of Grit, with the exception of Extraversion. While family influence is predictive of Grit, democratic parenting style does not predict Grit.Conclusions:Based on the results, several possible explanations and suggestions are proposed.
Stigmergic Hyperlinks’ contributes to Web search

Stigmergic hyperlinks are hyperlinks with a "heart beat": if used they stay healthy and online; if neglected, they fade, eventually getting replaced. Their life attribute is a relative usage measure that regular hyperlinks do not provide, hence PageRank-like measures have historically been well informed about the structure of webs of documents, but unaware of what users effectively do with the links. This paper elaborates on how to input the users’ perspective into Google’s original, structure centric, PageRank metric. The discussion then bridges to the Deep Web, some search challenges, and how stigmergic hyperlinks could help decentralize the search experience, facilitating user generated search solutions and supporting new related business models.
Experimental Analysis of Roll Damping in Small Fishing Vessels for Large Amplitude Roll Forecasting

In this paper, the practical implementation methodology of an artificial neural network (ANN) based parametric roll prediction system, is studied. In order to avoid expensive scale tests, an uncoupled nonlinear roll model is applied to tune the system. To validate this model, together with the selected roll damping approach, a towing tank test campaign has been carried out. Finally, the behaviour of the ANN system for forecasting roll motion from a realistic sailing condition, obtained from the towing tank campaign, has been investigated, obtaining very promising results.
Comparison between Spectral perturbation and Spectral relaxation approach for unsteady heat and mass transfer by MHD mixed convection flow over an impulsively stretched vertical surface with chemical reaction effect

In this study, the spectral perturbation method (SPM) is utilized to solve the momentum, heat and mass transfer equations describing the unsteady MHD mixed convection flow over an impulsively stretched vertical surface in the presence of chemical reaction effect. The governing partial differential equations are reduced into a set of coupled non similar equations and then solved numerically using the SPM. The SPM combines the standard perturbation method idea with the Chebyshev pseudo-spectral collocation method. In order to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method, the spectral perturbation (SPM) numerical results are compared with numerical results generated using the spectral relaxation method (SRM) and a good agreement between the two methods is observed up to a minimum of eight decimal digits. Several simulation are conducted to ascertain the accuracy of the SPM and the SRM. The computational speed of the SPM is demonstrated by comparing the SPM computational time with the SRM computational time. A residual error analysis is also conducted for the SPM and the SRM in order to further assess the accuracy of the SPM. The study shows that the spectral perturbation method (SPM) is more efficient in terms of computational speed when compared with the SRM. The study also shows that the SPM can be used as an efficient and reliable tool for solving strongly nonlinear boundary value partial differential equation problems that are defined under the Williams and Rhyne [3] transformation. In addition, the study shows that accurate results can be obtained using the perturbation method and thus, the conclusions earlier drawn by researchers regarding the accuracy of perturbation methods is corrected.
Determining EU citizens’ support for European integration

The European integration process is at the crossroads. Should the Member states intensify the efforts to unify or back off from further integrative steps? This paper seeks to contribute to this discourse in pointing out what determines citizens’ support for the European integration, and ultimately legitimates the Union’s governance regime. By using recent Eurobarometer data from November 2016, the support for European integrative policies is regressed on various individual-level factors that have been identified by previous authors to influence the public opinion towards European integration. The analysis shows that citizens may mutually benefit from European integration despite of different socio-economic backgrounds. Still, policy-makers must ensure that integrative efforts actually hold tangible utility for individual citizens. In addition, the analysis contributes to previous research in refining the empirical model that is used to depict the causal relationships between the respective variables. DETERMINING EU CITIZENS’ SUPPORT FOR EUROPEAN INTEGRATION ii
The vertical distribution of biomass burning pollution over tropical South America from aircraft in situ measurements during SAMBBA

Abstract. We examine processes driving the vertical distribution of biomass burning pollution following an integrated analysis of over 200 pollutant and meteorological profiles measured in situ during the South AMerican Biomass Burning Analysis (SAMBBA) field experiment. This study will aid future work examining the impact of biomass burning on weather, climate and air quality. During the dry season there were significant contrasts in the composition and vertical distribution of haze between western and eastern regions of tropical South America. Owing to an active or residual convective mixing layer, the aerosol abundance was similar from the surface to ∼1.5 km in the west and ∼3 km in the east. Black carbon mass loadings were double as much in the east (1.7 µg m−3) than the west (0.85 µg m−3), but aerosol scattering coefficients at 550 nm were similar (∼120 Mm−1), as too were CO near-surface concentrations (310–340 ppb). We attribute these contrasts to the more flaming combustion of Cerrado fires in the east and more smouldering combustion of deforestation and pasture fires in the west. Horizontal wind shear was important in inhibiting mixed layer growth and plume rise, in addition to advecting pollutants from the Cerrado regions into the remote tropical forest of central Amazonia. Thin layers above the mixing layer indicate the roles of both plume injection and shallow moist convection in delivering pollution to the lower free troposphere. However, detrainment of large smoke plumes into the upper free troposphere was very infrequently observed. Our results reiterate that thermodynamics control the pollutant vertical distribution and thus point to the need for correct model representation so that the spatial distribution and vertical structure of biomass burning smoke is captured. We observed an increase of aerosol abundance relative to CO with altitude both in the background haze and plume enhancement ratios. It is unlikely associated with thermodynamic partitioning, aerosol deposition or local non-fire sources. We speculate it may be linked to long-range transport from West Africa or fire combustion efficiency coupled to plume injection height. Further enquiry is required to explain the phenomenon and explore impacts on regional climate and air quality.
Intelligent Optimal Control of a HeatExchanger Using ANFIS and Interval Type-2Based Fuzzy Inference System

In this paper, adaptive network based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was used in control applications of a Heat Exchanger as interval type-2 fuzzy logic controller (IT-2FL). Two adaptive networks based fuzzy inference systems were chosen to design type-2 fuzzy logic controllers for each control applications. The whole integrated system for control of Heat Exchanger is called IT2 FLC+ANFIS controller. Membership functions in interval type-2 fuzzy logic controllers were set as an area called footprint of uncertainty (FOU), which is limited by two membership functions of adaptive network based fuzzy inference systems; they were upper membership function (UMF) and lower membership function (LMF). This work deals with the design and application of an IT2 FLC+ANFIS controller for a heat exchanger. To deal with the problem of parameter adjustment, efficient neuro-fuzzy scheme known as the ANFIS (Adaptive Network-based Fuzzy Inference System) can be used. The IT2 FLC+ANFIS controller of the heat exchanger is compared with classical PID control. System behaviors were defined by Lagrange formulation and MATLAB computer simulations. The simulation results confirm that interval type2 fuzzy is one of the possibilities for successful control of heat exchangers. The advantage of this approach is that it is not a linear-model-based strategy. Comparison of the simulation results obtained using IT2 FLC+ANFIS controller and those obtained using classical PID control demonstrates the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed approach because of the smaller consumption of the heating medium
Alaska landfast sea ice: Links with bathymetry and atmospheric circulation

[1] Using Radarsat Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery of northern Alaska and northwestern Canada, we calculated a mean climatology of the annual landfast ice cycle for the period 1996–2004. We also present the monthly minimum, mean, and maximum landfast ice extents throughout the study area. These data reveal where and when the landfast is most stable and which sections of the coast are susceptible to midseason breakout events. Stabilization of landfast ice is strongly related to the advance of the seaward landfast ice edge (SLIE) into waters around 18 m deep. Isobaths near this depth are a good approximation for midseason landfast ice extent. Comparison with work from the 1970s suggests a reduced presence of landfast ice in this region of the Arctic, due to later formation and earlier breakup. This will likely lead to an increase in coastal erosion and may also have profound effects upon subsistence activities, which are intimately linked to the timing of marine mammal migration patterns. Interannually, landfast ice formation correlates with the incursion of pack ice into coastal waters, suggesting that the later mean date of formation in recent years may be related to the increasingly northward location of the perennial sea ice edge. The timing of breakup correlates well with onset of thawing air temperatures. Analysis of regional data shows a multidecadal trend toward earlier thaw onset, which suggests that the observed change in breakup dates may be part of a longer-term trend.
Car plate recognition by neural networks and image processing

In this paper we describe an experimental system for the recognition of Italian-style car license plates. Images are usually taken from a camera at a toll gate and preprocessed by a fast and robust 1-D DFT scheme to find the plate and character positions. Characters are classified by a multilayer neural network trained by the recently developed BRLS learning algorithm. The same neural network replaces both the traditional feature extractor and the classifier. The percentage of correctly recognized characters reaches the best scores obtained in literature, being highly insensitive to the environment variability, while the architecture appears best suited for parallel implementation on programmable DSP processors.
Interfacial Microstructure and Joint Strength of Sn–3.5Ag–X (X = Cu, In, Ni) Solder Joint

Interfacial phase and microstructure, solder hardness, and joint strength of Sn–3.5Ag–X (X = Cu, In, Ni; compositions are all in wt% unless specified otherwise) solder alloys were investigated. Considering the melting behavior and the mechanical properties, five compositions of Sn–3.5Ag–X solder alloys were selected. To examine the joint characteristics, they were soldered on under bump metallurgy isothermally at 250 °C for 60 s. Aging and thermal cycling (T/C) were also performed on the solder joint. The interfacial microstructure of the joint was observed by scanning electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive x-ray analyses were made toidentify the type of solder phase and to measure compositions. Excessive growth of an interfacial intermetallic layer in the Sn–3.5Ag–6.5 In solder joint led to a brittle fracture. In the other four solder joints, ductile fractures occurred through the solder region and the solder hardness was closely related with the joint strength.
Succession Planning: Does it Matter in the Context of Corporate Leadership?.

Corporations invest heavily in human resource management infrastructures intended amongst other things to provide for the future leadership needs of the corporation. Adopting well-known succession planning techniques, human resource managers routinely engage in corporate leadership identification and development processes, often directly involving the chief executive officer. This paper reports on a tendency for chief executive officers not to take all that much notice of these processes when making appointments to their own senior leadership teams. Drawing on three institutional case studies and in-depth interview data with the 12 chief executive officers, the paper shows that what appears to matter most in these appointments is likely impact of a leadership appointment on corporate profitability, though other pet leadership criteria may also be applied. The paper discusses the implications of this situation for human resource managers.
Molecular Detection of Lentogenic Strain of Newcastle Disease Virus in Commercial Broiler Chickens Using Sentinel Birds in Iran: The First Report

Background and Aims: Newcastle disease (ND) is a highly contagious disease that affects many species of birds and causes significant economic losses to the poultry industry worldwide and the pathogenicity of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strains varies with different virulence. We aim to detect lentogenic (low virulence) ND virus (ND/IR 2010) using sentinel birds and molecular detection system in commercial broiler farms in Iran as the first molecular case. Materials and Methods: Partial sequencing of Fusion gene (F) which revealed that ND/IR 2010 carries the motif (112) GRQGRL (117) indicates that they are lentogenic genotype. Phylogenetic analysis, based on sequences of the F gene, revealed that our isolate should be classified as class II genotype I NDVs and related to the V4-like vaccine strain. Results: Since the V4 vaccine strain is not used as vaccine in Iranian poultry industry, thus findings in this study are important and interesting. The results of alignment of gene showed that ND/IR 2010 has 99.9% amino acid homology with V4, I2 and some other lentogenic NDV from South East Asia (in particular to duck origin virus). Conclusions: This study adds to the understanding of the ecology of ND viruses in Iran and emphasizes the need for constant surveillance for more focus on lentogenic strains and their role in commercial farms and water fowl population as a neglected viral infection agent.
Engineering Nanostructured MnO2 for High Performance Supercapacitors

Manganese oxides (MnO2) have particularly received increasing attention owing to their high theoretical specific capacitance of 1370 F/g, low-cost, natural abundance, and environmental benignity. However, MnO2 suffers from low electrical conductivity (10−5 to 10−6 S/cm), low ionic diffusion constant (~10−13 cm2/V s), and low structural stability, which results in low electrochemical utilization and poor cycling life. It is therefore important to explore new strategies to improve the electrochemical performance of MnO2. The effective methods to maximize the performance involve (i) reducing MnO2 structures to a nanoscale range and (ii) compositing MnO2 with highly conductive materials. In this chapter, we will first introduce the rapid development of MnO2 nanostructures for supercapacitors. Then the fundamental charge storage mechanism of MnO2 will be specifically clarified. The preparation methods of MnO2 nanostructures and their composites will be subsequently summarized. Then, we will pay great attention to the most recent development of MnO2-based nanostructures for supercapacitors, which is the main body of this chapter. The practical application of MnO2 nanostructures for symmetric and asymmetric supercapacitors will be discussed. Finally, we will present a brief perspective regarding the rational design and synthesis of MnO2-based nanostructures.
Surface wave characteristics in a micropolar transversely isotropic halfspace underlying an inviscid liquid layer

Abstract The present investigation deals with the propagation of waves in a micropolar transversely isotropic half space with an overlying inviscid fluid layer. Effects of fluid loading and anisotropy on the phase velocity, attenuation coefficient, specific loss and relative frequency shift. Finally, a numerical solution was carried out for aluminium epoxy material and the computer simulated results for the phase velocity, attenuation coefficient, specific loss and relative frequency shift are presented graphically. A particular case for the propagation of Rayleigh waves in a micropolar transversely isotropic half-space is deduced and dispersion curves are plotted for the same as functions of the wave number. An amplitude of displacements and microrotation together with the path of surface particles are also calculated for the propagation of Rayleigh waves in the latter case
Electoral Consequences of Violent Crime: Evidence from Venezuela

To what extent do voters hold political incumbents accountable for policy outcomes? This paper considers retrospective voting in the context of violent crime. Using a novel panel data set on county -and neighborhood- level homicide incidence and vote shares in Venezuela, I find that, relative to other policy outcomes such as cash transfers, voters are generally unresponsive to changes in homicide incidence. However, responsiveness varies with the type of election and with the nature of local crime control institutions (which change within municipality over time). Noting the role of external shocks (for example, from drug enforcement activities in neighboring Colombia) in producing violence in Venezuela, I interpret these results as evidence that voters (correctly) view homicide outcomes as weak signals of incumbent political quality. The results are therefore consistent with rational retrospective models of voting behavior.
Effect of selenium in organic and inorganic form on liver, kidney, brain and muscle of Wistar rats

AbstractSelenium is a micronutrient, localized in the active sites of enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase and thioredoxin reductase, and participating together with these enzymes in an antioxidant defence system of organisms against free radicals. Administration of selenium is necessary for maintaining oxidative homeostasis. The present experiment is aimed at investigation of selenium impact on basal metabolic processes and selected antioxidants in a Wistar rat model, fed selenium in organic and inorganic forms. Liver, kidney, brain and muscle were sampled during a month-long feeding with four different doses of selenium (0.075 mg or 1.5 mg of inorganic and/or organic selenium per kg of feed). We found a significant reduction in glutathione level in liver tissue regardless of the form of the administered selenium. On the other hand, selenium caused a decreased glutathione reductase level in the liver and metallothionein level in the liver, kidney and muscle.
15. MIDDLE AND LATE EOCENE LARGER FORAMINIFERS FROM SITE 841 (TONGAN PLATFORM)1

Larger foraminifers were recovered from three levels within Hole 841B, located on the Tongan Platform. The lowest faunas are from Eocene beds (Unit V) in fault contact with an older rhyolitic volcanic sequence. These Eocene faunas are typified by two assemblages: one with Amphistegina waiareka, Astewcyclina matanzensis, Discocyclina omphala, Operculina pacifica, together with rare Heterostegina saipanensis and Sherbornina carteri; the second assemblage contains these species and, in addition, Spiroclypeus vermicularis. The lowest assemblage is associated with a middle Eocene planktonic foraminifer fauna (Acarinina, Morozovella), and the upper faunas with a late Eocene assemblage. This Eocene unit is disconformably overlain by a middle Miocene sequence (Unit IV) containing assemblages dominated by planktonic foraminifers. Two samples were found to contain shallow-water benthic foraminifers: one contained Amphistegina radiata, Cycloclypeus sp. , Lepidocyclina (Nephrolepidina) Ihowchini, and Sphaerogypsina globula; a second sample from this section contained only Amphistegina radiata. The third level at which larger foraminifers were found was in the lower part of the late Miocene section (Unit III), where late Eocene larger foraminifers {Astewcyclina matanzensis, Discocyclina omphala, Nummulites pengawnensis, and Pellatispira madaraszi) are present in a conglomeratic sequence with late Miocene planktonic foraminifers present in the matrix. The two larger foraminifer assemblages of Unit V are typical of the Tα3 and lb Letter Stages, which are distinguished by the presence of Spiroclypeus vermicularis. The Tα3 Letter Stage assemblage is associated with a Zone P14 planktonic fauna, and the Tb Letter Stage assemblage with Zones PI5 to PI6 fauna. The larger foraminifers associated with middle and late Eocene planktonic foraminifers are almost certainly in situ, and indicate water depths from between 50 and 100 m in the middle Eocene, shallowing to IOO m by the end of the Eocene. The middle Miocene faunas have been derived from shallow-water environments adjacent to the sites of deposition (which would have been in excess of 100 m), and may have been contemporaneous or reworked from rocks no older than the Te5 Letter Stage. Late Eocene larger foraminifers (Tb Letter Stage) were reworked into the deep-water, late Miocene environments as products of erosion from adjacent exposures of Eocene carbonates. A hiatus is probably present in the lower part of the Eocene section, separating the middle and late Eocene (Tα3 and Tb Letter Stages—Zones P14 and P15). This is probably the result of eustatic changes. Unit V almost certainly contains the Eocene/Oligocene boundary, based on the planktonic foraminifer evidence, but larger foraminifers disappear some distance below this boundary, within Zones PI5 or PI6. The larger foraminifer faunas from Units III and V provide evidence that water depths at this part of the Tongan Platform have increased from approximately 50 m during the late middle Eocene to below the calcium carbonate compensation depth by the late Miocene, respectively.