Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SELECTIVE EXPOSURE TO NEWS CUES TOWARDS A GENERIC APPROACH TO SELECTIVE EXPOSURE RESEARCH

This study argues for a generic approach to selective exposure research. Empirically, we dismantle the relative importance of three different forms of selective exposure to likeminded political news that has dominated the communication literature: message cues, party cues and source cues. In a uniquely designed conjoint experiment, a large probability-based panel of Norwegian citizens was faced with news headline choices, randomly varying several different factors simultaneously. We not only show that the effects are in line with previous research but also, more importantly, that these effects are additive and distinct effects that prevail when three known countervailing forces are accounted for. We conclude that scholars should move towards a more generic and less country specific approach to selective exposure research. ∗The data collection for this study was funded by the Bergen Research Foundation and the University of Bergen. †Corresponding author (erik.knudsen@uib.no).
Income Polarization in the People’s Republic of China: Trends and Changes

This paper estimates income polarization in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from 1978 to 2010 and decomposes the estimated polarization by population subgroup. In addition, a framework is proposed to disentangle a change in polarization into a growth and a redistribution component. This framework is then used to quantify the contributions of various income sources to a rise in polarization in the PRC between 2002 and 2007. The analytical results suggest that (1) income polarization exhibited a broadly increasing trend from 1978 to 2010; (2) income polarization was large and rising among rural citizens, while low and declining among urban citizens; polarization of migrants also declined; (3) geographically, income polarization rose in east and particularly central PRC, while west PRC was most polarized with little change over time; and (4) the rise in polarization between 2002 and 2007 was mainly driven by the investment income, followed by transfers. Conversely, business income is polarization-reducing, especially in rural PRC. To a lesser extent, wage is also polarization-reducing, especially among migrants.
Carbon Dioxide Capture by Functionalized Graphene Oxide Adsorbent

The accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere is a major environmental hazard. As a result various methods for capturing CO2 was suggested. One of such methods included the development of carbon-based adsorbents due to their large surface area and low heat capacity for CO2 capture which was studied in this report. Graphene oxide (GO) was selected as the adsorbent for its potential benefit in CO2 capture. A modified hummers method was used for the synthesis of GO which showed the existence of the hydroxyl (3440 cm-1), epoxyl (1036 cm-1) and carboxyl (1720 cm-1) functional groups in its FTIR spectra. The C/O ratio in the GO was on an average of 2.57. The hydroxyl groups were subjected to a Johnson-Claisen rearrangement which gave rise to an ester functional group attached to GO. The ester group was saponified to carboxylic acid groups and reacted with ethylenediamine to produce an amine-functionalized GO. The amine which increases the CO2/H2 selectivity for pre-combustion CO2 capture got attached to the carboxylic and epoxyl groups in GO. Thermogravimetric analysis was done on the amine-functionalized GO and a weight gain of about 1.173% which signified the adsorption of CO2 was achieved. However, improvements to this procedures need to be taken since a considerable amount of CO2 was not captured in future work.
Evaluation of Tea Wastes as an Alternative Substrate for Oyster Mushroom Cultivation

Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor caju) is locally cultivated on sugarcane bagasse substrate. Due to decreasing supply of bagasse, there was an urgent need to identify alternative substrates. The aim of this study was to evaluate tea wastes as an alternative substrate for oyster mushroom cultivation. The first step was to assess growth of oyster mushroom mycelium on PDA containing tea wastes extract. Antifungal substances found in tea wastes slowed mycelial growth but was not lethal to it. As positive results were obtained, substrate mixtures containing different proportions of tea wastes and sugarcane bagasse were assessed in fruiting bags to identify the most promising substrate mixture on which the effects of supplements such as lime and crushed maize seeds were assessed independently. Substrate containing 75% sugarcane bagasse and 25% tea wastes showed promising results in terms of mycelial growth and fructification. This substrate mixture was selected for further trials with lime and crushed maize. Highest yield of mushroom was obtained with substrate mixture supplemented with 5% lime whereas the substrate mixture gave the highest yield at 0% crushed maize. Results obtained showed that tea wastes can be successfully used to cultivate oyster mushroom but it need to be mixed with sugarcane bagasse for the source of cellulose. Substrate mixture containing 75% sugarcane bagasse and 25% tea wastes, supplemented with 5% lime, yielding about 200g of mushroom can be proposed to growers. Keywords : Oyster, mushroom, substrate, alternative substrate, tea wastes.
Genomic analysis of an atypical Mexican low-pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza virus

We analysed the genome of a low-pathogenic avian H5N2 influenza virus isolated from the faeces of experimentally infected Pekin ducks and Leghorn-type chickens to determine its origin and molecular characteristics. The complete genomic sequence was determined using a Sanger-based genome sequencing method and was subsequently characterized by phylogenetic analysis and genetic comparison. The results of this study showed that 8 genomic segments corresponded to an avian influenza virus that were related with strains isolated in Mexico. Investigation of the haemagglutinin gene revealed the presence of few basic amino acids at the cleavage site and lack of a potential N-glycosylation site at position 11. The gene encoding the PB1 protein lacked PB1-F2 and the basic polymerase gene codes for PA-X. In addition, the basic polymerase gene contained the consensus ribosomal frameshifting motif TCC TTT CGT C, which is required for the expression of the PA-X. Molecular characteristics showed that the virus has features of a low-pathogenic H5 influenza virus with the exception of a potential N-glycosylation site at position 11. The genome information for this particular virus will provide a molecular map for further in vivo studies to identify why some influenza viruses can persist in chickens for long periods of time. Such information will be useful in countries such as Mexico, where the virus has been a poultry health problem since 1994 and has the potential to evolve high pathogenicity.
A New form of an Electromagnetic band-gap structure

Generally speaking, the structure to forbidden electromagnetic band gap (EBG) is defined as being periodic artificial structures (or sometimes not periodic) which prevent the propagation of the electromagnetic waves in a frequency band specified for all the angles of incidence and all the states of polarization. The EBG is normally realized by periodic arrangement of dielectric materials. Within this framework, a new type of metallic electromagnetic structure was finalized. A big impedance of surface and a very precise forbidden bandwidth of frequencies characterize it. It is the flat structure, that we shall call EBG in the shape of dome. To begin the study of this structure, we are going to analyze the coefficients of reflection and transmission feigned. We shall approach then the application of this structure on the environment close to a network of patch antenna, of a micro strip line and a guide of rectangular wave to show the importance of this material in microwave structures.
Fabrication and Analysis of Counter Flow Helical Coil Heat Exchanger

Heat recovery is the capture of energy contained in fluids otherwise that would be lost from a facility. Heat sources may include heat pumps, chillers, steam condensate lines, hot flue gases from boiler, hot air associated with kitchen and laundry facilities, exhaust gases of the engines, power-generation equipment. Helical coil heat exchanger is one of the devices which are used for the heat recovery system. A heat exchanger is a device used to transfer heat between two or more fluids with different temperatures for various application including power plants, nuclear reactors, refrigeration & air condition system, automotive industries, heat recovery system, chemical processing and food industries. Common examples of heat exchangers in everyday use are air pre- heaters and conditioners, automobile radiators, condensers, evaporators, and coolers In present paper analysis of counter flow heat exchanger is done and then variations of various dimensionless numbers i.e. Reynolds Number, Nusselt's Number and Dean's number are studied.
The Impact of Drought Stress of the Cultivation Medium on the Growth and Postharvest Life of Lilium and Chlorophyll in Different Potassium Concentrations of Nutrient Solution

To study the effect of different concentrations of potassium in the nutrient solution and water stress on the quality and quantity yield of Lilium LA cv.Termoli, a pot experiment was conducted based on completely randomized design in sand and perlite medium (50:50) in three levels of potassium (Kfree, 6 mM K and and 12 mM K in Hoagland solution) with three replications. In the present study, the growth indices, post-harvest life of flower and potassium and chlorophyll contents were measured in shoots. The results showed that the plant dry/fresh weight and vegetative height was highest in 6 mM potassium treatments. Lily postharvest life at 6 mM K was increased 5.7 days relative to k-free conditions. The chlorophyll a, b and total content in nutrient solution without K were lower than in nutrient solution with 6 and 12 mM potassium.
A UNIFIED COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FOR SOLAR AND STELLAR FLARES

We present a unified computational framework that can be used to describe impulsive flares on the Sun and on dMe stars. The models assume that the flare impulsive phase is caused by a beam of charged particles that is accelerated in the corona and propagates downward depositing energy and momentum along the way. This rapidly heats the lower stellar atmosphere causing it to explosively expand and dramatically brighten. Our models consist of flux tubes that extend from the sub-photosphere into the corona. We simulate how flare-accelerated charged particles propagate down one-dimensional flux tubes and heat the stellar atmosphere using the Fokker–Planck kinetic theory. Detailed radiative transfer is included so that model predictions can be directly compared with observations. The flux of flare-accelerated particles drives return currents which additionally heat the stellar atmosphere. These effects are also included in our models. We examine the impact of the flare-accelerated particle beams on model solar and dMe stellar atmospheres and perform parameter studies varying the injected particle energy spectra. We find the atmospheric response is strongly dependent on the accelerated particle cutoff energy and spectral index.
Buffalos milk yield analysis using random regression models

Abstract Data comprising 1,719 milk yield records from 357 females (predominantly Murrah breed), daughters of 110 sires, with births from 1974 to 2004, obtained from the Programa de Melhoramento Genètico de Bubalinos (PROMEBUL) and from records of EMBRAPA Amazonia Oriental - EAO herd, located in Belèm, Parä, Brazil, were used to compare random regression models for estimating variance components and predicting breeding values of the sires. The data were analyzed by different models using the Legendre's polynomial functions from second to fourth orders. The random regression models included the effects of herd-year, month of parity date of the control; regression coefficients for age of females (in order to describe the fixed part of the lactation curve) and random regression coefficients related to the direct genetic and permanent environment effects. The comparisons among the models were based on the Akaike Infromation Criterion. The random effects regression model using third order Legendre's polynomials with four classes of the environmental effect were the one that best described the additive genetic variation in milk yield. The heritability estimates varied from 0.08 to 0.40. The genetic correlation between milk yields in younger ages was close to the unit, but in older ages it was low.
FAST ALGORITHM FOR NOISY SPEAKER RECOGNITION USING ANN

Speaker Recognition is a multi-disciplinary technology which uses the vocal characteristics of speakers to deduce information about their identities. It is a branch of biometrics that may be used for identification, verification, and classification of individual speakers, with the capability of tracking, detection, and segmentation by extension. This paper proposed a fast algorithm for speaker recognition. This algorithm first records voice patterns of speakers via noisy channel and use some of noise removal techniques. The feature is extracted by Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient (MFCC). Then the feature is reduced by Principal component analysis technique. Then the result vector is fed to ANN classifier . experimental results indicates that using ANN with weight/bias training algorithm have better performance. The result shows that the proposed algorithm achieved on average about 99% accuracy rate and higher speed rate in comparison with other methods.
Autonomous Genetic Algorithm for Functional Optimization

Genetic algorithm (GA) is effective for global optimizations, but needs the user to define several parameters. Unless these parameters are defined appropriately, search efficiency drops significantly. There are, however, no clear rules for the defining, and almost all users have considerable difficulty to use GA efficiently. A good algorithm must be use-friendly. It should not, if possible, need the user to define such parameters and can play high performance for any optimization problem. This paper proposes an autonomous GA addressing these problems.
The Efflux Transport of Choline through Blood-Brain Barrier is Inhibited by Alzheimer's Disease Therapeutics

In the present study, we examined the effects of several therapeutics of Alzheimer's disease, such as donepezil hydrochloride, tacrine and α-phenyl-n-tert-butyl nitrone (PBN) on choline efflux from brain to circu- lating blood. The brain-to-blood efflux of ( 3 H)choline in rats was significantly inhibited by tacrine and PBN. Also the ( 3 H)choline efflux was reduced by tacrine and donepezil hydrochloride in the TR-BBB cells, in vitro the blood-brain barrier (BBB) model. These results suggest that these drugs may influence choline efflux transport from brain to blood and regulate the choline level in brain resulting in the increase of acetylcholine synthesis.
EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT, TRUST, AND INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOR: TESTING A PATH MODEL

The motive behind this paper was mainly to uncover the trust mechanism in the field of employee empowerment and innovative behavior. It was hypothesized that structural empowerment and psychological empowerment will influence innovative behavior. Empowerment was also hypothesized to influence trust. We also posited that trust will act a mediator. Data came from 410 respondents employed in the manufacturing, banking, cement, telecommunication sector in Pakistan. Regression analysis proved our hypothesis. In the end, suggestions and recommendations have been given.
Effect of explant age, hormones on somatic embryogenesis and production of multiple shoot from cotyledonary leaf explants of Solanum trilobatum L.

The present study examines the effect of explant age and various concentrations of kinetin and BAP on somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis in Solanum trilobatum L. MS medium fortified with 11.1 iM BAP + 13.95 iM KN produced highest frequency of embryogenesis (97.3%) and average number of multiple shoots (48.4 ± 1.33) from cotyledonary leaf explants at two opened leaves stage. The presence of BAP and/or KN was critical in increasing embryos and multiple shoots per explant with its increasing concentrations which was also supported from significant positive corrilation (p observed that embryogenic and organogenic response was significantly affected by explant type in all concentrations of BAP and KN alone as well as in combinations (P on half strength MS medium supplemented with 7.35 and 9.8 iM IBA respectively. The rooted plantlets were well accomplished with a survival frequency of 86.5 ± 5%. Moreover, there were no phenotypic differences observed between the in vitro regenerated and in vivo plantlets.
Influence of image compression on object detection in natural images segmented with mean shift

One of important image processing applications is detection of humans for non-urban Search and Rescue. Authors have previously developed a method which, using mean shift segmentation, searches for objects (humans and artificial objects) in natural images. It is based on assumption that such objects have different color comparing to the rest of image. Main problem in using mean shift algorithm is long processing time. In this paper, influence of image compression ratio on mean shift processing time as well as on detection results has been investigated. It is shown that increase in compression ratio results with shorter processing time while detection of objects (Recall and Precision) is not significantly deteriorated.
Reducing scale dependence in TOPMODEL using a dimensionless topographic index

Abstract. This paper stems from the fact that the topographic index used in TOPMODEL is not dimensionless. In each pixel i in a catchment, it is defined as xi=ln(ai/Si), where ai is the specific contributing area per unit contour length and Si is the topographic slope. In the SI unit system, ai/Si is in meters, and the unit of xi is problematic. We propose a simple solution in the widespread cases where the topographic index is computed from a regular raster digital elevation model (DEM). The pixel length C being constant, we can define a dimensionless topographic index yi=xi-lnC. Reformulating TOPMODEL equations to use yi instead of xi helps giving the units of all their terms and emphasizes the scale dependence of these equations via the explicit use of C outside from the topographic index, in what can be defined as the transmissivity at saturation per unit contour length T0/C. The term lnC defines the numerical effect of DEM resolution, which contributes to shift the spatial mean x of the classical topographic index when the DEM cell size C varies. A key result is that both the spatial mean y of the dimensionless index and T0/C are much more stable with respect to DEM resolution than their counterparts x and T0 in the classical framework. This shows the importance of the numerical effect in the dependence of the classical topographic index to DEM resolution, and reduces the need to recalibrate TOPMODEL when changing DEM resolution.
Land use effects on aerial insect composition on obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Habitat transformation plays crucial role in determining insect diversity at local and landscape scales. Various land use practices may be subjected to different levels of disturbance ranging from pristine habitats with minimal disturbance to modified habitats such as agricultural ecosystems. Little is known about the effect of these different land use types on insect diversity especially in tropical ecosystems. Effects of four land use types; oil palm plantation, cassava field, exotic flower field (University Parks and Gardens) and a natural forest on diversity of aerial insects were investigated. Seven insect orders with a total abundance of 3747 insects were collected during the entire sampling period. Order richness of insects varied significantly among the different land use types with the highest richness found in the oil palm plantation. Abundance of dipterans and coleopterans were also highest in the oil palm plantation and natural vegetation respectively. In addition to natural and semi-natural areas which serve as source habitat for insects, perennial agro-ecosystems such as oil palm plantation with relatively minimal level of disturbance may also provide support for insect diversity. Keywords: Disturbance, Diversity, Insect orders, Oil palm, Perennials.
Total Hip Arthroplasty After Dynamic Hip Screw Failure: Descriptive Results of a 10 Years Retrospective Study

Background: One of implants which is used for fixation of hip fracture (HF) is dynamic hip screw (DHS). Because of the destruction of the head of femur, or even acetabulum, during the cut out process or because of severe osteoporosis, refixation of fracture may be impossible. In this time, total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a good option. Objectives: In this study, we try to retrospectively evaluate the results THA after DHS failure. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was undertaken in Sina hospital, Tehran, Iran, from 2004 to 2014, and included all patients with intertrochanteric HF which was initially fixed with DHS and failed, that was further treated with THA. Results: In the total of 52 patients, nail cut out was responsible for 49 cases (94%) of DHS failure, whereas in three cases (6%) it was the fracture of the side plate. Pre-operative Harris hip score ranged from 30 to 50 (average 36) and post-operative score ranged between 65 and 90 (average 85). There were 12 cemented cups and 40 cementless cups. Fourteen standard stem and 38 long stem were used. Twelve of the 14 standard stems were cemented. Posterior approach was used in 45 cases and direct lateral approach was used in the remaining seven cases. Prophylactic wiring was done in 46 cases. Intraoperative penetration of the floor of acetabulum occurred in two cases. Constrained liner was necessary in five cases, three of which because of sever osteoporosis of trochanter and insecure fixation of it after fracture and two because of recurrent dislocation. Conclusion: For achieving good results, the THA, after failure of DHS, requires the use of posterior approach, extremely careful acetabular reaming, prophylactic wiring of femur and the passing of the holes of screws with long stems.
A SYSTEM FRAMEWORK FOR THE DESIGN OF AN AVIONICS ARCHITECTURE WITH UPGRADE POTENTIAL - AVIONICS ARCHITECTURE ANALYSIS MODULE

The technological growth of ‘avionics systems’ has outpaced the service-life of the aircraft, resulting in avionics upgrade as a preferred cost-effective option to new design. Mid-life upgrade of “avionics systems” by state-of-the-art mission systems has been a challenging engineering task. The complexity of avionics upgrade process is due to the design rigidity of avionics systems architecture. An avionics architecture with growth potential is required to optimise avionics upgrade with state-of-the-art systems. In this paper, the overview of system framework for the development of avionics architecture with growth potential is presented, followed by the detailed discussion on the ‘Avionics Architecture Analysis’ (AAA) module. The AAA module considers various design parameters in identifying the architectural parameters of existing avionics.