Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of land‐use changes on the hydrological behaviour of Histic Andosols in south Ecuador

The south Ecuadorian Andean mountain belt between 3500 and 4500 m altitude is covered by a highly endemic and fragile ecosystem called páramo. The Histic Andosols covering this region have highly developed hydric properties and exert a key function in the hydrological regulation of the páramo ecosystem. Unlike most Andosols, their extreme water retention capacity is not due to the presence of typical minerals such as allophane or imogolite. Although these minerals are virtually absent, the large organic carbon content, due to organometallic complexation, gives rise to similar properties. The water content at 1500 kPa can exceed 2000 g kg−1, and the high hydraulic conductivity at saturation (about 15 mm h−1) drops sharply when low suction is applied. The three methods applied, i.e. the inverted auger hole, the tension infiltrometer and the constant‐head permeameter method, give very similar results. The páramo is characterized by a slow hydrological response and a good water regulation, caused by the combination of a high water storage capacity and high conductivity. The wide pore size distribution of the organometallic complexes results in a water retention curve that differs significantly from the classic Mualem–Van Genuchten description, but can better be described with a simple linear or semilogarithmic model. The soils investigated are very prone to irreversible structural changes caused by land‐use changes. The conversion of natural land for cultivation has a large impact on the hydrological function of the region. The water storage capacity increases by 5 to 30%, and the hydraulic conductivity is 31% higher in cultivated catchments. These changes are related to a larger peak flow, a smaller base flow and generally a smaller discharge buffering capacity, despite the higher storage capacity. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
MINING AND SUMMARIZING ONLINE ECOMMERCE REVIEWS WITH WORD ALLIGNMENT MODEL

The mining opinion targets and opinion words from online reviews are important tasks for fine-grained opinion mining, the key component of which detecting opinion relations among the words. In this his paper proposes a novel approach based on the partially-supervised alignment model, which regards identifying opinion relations as an alignment process. A graph-based co-ranking algorithm is exploited to estimate the confidence of each candidate. Finally, the candidates with higher confidence are extracted as opinion words or opinion targets. Compared to the previous methods based on the nearest-neighbor rules, our model is captures opinion relations more precisely, especially for the long-span relations. Compared to syntax-based methods, our word alignment model effectively alleviates negative effects of parsing errors when dealing with informal online texts. Compared to the traditional alignment model, the proposed model obtains better precision because of the usage of partial supervision. In addition to, when estimating the candidate confidence, we penalize higher-degree vertices in our graph-based co-ranking algorithm to decreases the probability of error generation. Our experimental results on three corpora with different sizes and languages show that our approach effectively outperforms state-of-the-art methods.
The Development of the Global Citizenship Inventory for Adolescents.

In this paper we report on the development of an inventory that measures global citizenship among adolescents. The methodology used consists of cognitive interviews for questionnaire design and explorative and confirmatory factor analyses among several datasets. The resulting Global Citizenship Inventory (GCI) includes a global citizenship behaviour index and three scales measuring principles underlying global citizenship: human equality, mutual dependency in the world, and the shared responsibility for solving global issues. The behaviour index measures behaviour connected to efficient use of energy and water, mobility, recycling and handling waste, search for information and expressing an opinion on global issues, donating to charity, and volunteering. The results provide support for our theoretical constructs regarding global citizenship.
STEP EXERCISE PROGRAM FOR ELDERLY WOMEN: SUPPORT LOAD EFFECTS ANALYSIS

The goal of the step program is the improvement of health and physical condition, within the scope of advisable exercise. The purpose of this study was to assess the safety of the program and identify its possible osteogenic effects on the elderly. Fifteen postmenopause women (mean age 61.66 ± 5.10 years) performed two-step patterns (basic step and knee lift). Vertical GRF were measured when stepping down on a Kistler force plate and a two-dimensional kinematics analysis was done using the APAS system. The amount of BMD was collected by DXA before and six months after the program. Although the conclusions drawn from a restricted population cannot be generalized, the results suggest that the mechanical stress associated with the program seems to constitute a positive osteogenic stimulus and is a safe and healthy activity that may be included in the physical activity programs for the elderly.
English Teachers' Use of Learners' L1 (Arabic) in College Classrooms in Kuwait.

This study investigated English teachers' use of learners' L1 (Arabic) in college classrooms in Kuwait. The purpose of the study was three-fold: (1) to describe the functions for which L1 was employed by the teachers, (2) to explore the affective, sociolinguistic, and psycholinguistic factors that may have led teachers to use L1 in L2 teaching, and (3) to measure the teachers’ attitudes toward using L1 in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). 60 EFL teachers at the Language Center in a college in Kuwait agreed to participate in the study. Data collection methods included recorded interviews and a grounded survey that was derived from the data of the interviews. Data analysis methods utilized Ethnograph 6.0, a software program, in order to search for common patterns of L1 use in the teachers’ interviews. Analysis of the survey utilized the Microsoft Excel Software Program to generate the means, percentages, and standard deviations for each of the survey items. The survey results indicated that the teachers used L1 in L2 classrooms as a teaching tool and for classroom management. The participating teachers also indicated that affective, sociolinguistic, and psycholinguistic factors have contributed to their L1 use in L2 teaching. However, the results also showed that the participating teachers exhibited mostly negative attitudes toward L1 use in L2 teaching. This contradiction between classroom practice and attitudes entailed implications for language teacher education programs to better equip EFL bound graduates with appropriate teaching strategies and classroom techniques to use L1 in appropriate ways in the EFL classroom.
Decoding of selective attention to continuous speech from the human auditory brainstem response

Humans are highly skilled at analysing complex acoustic scenes. The segregation of different acoustic streams and the formation of corresponding neural representations is mostly attributed to the auditory cortex. Decoding of selective attention from neuroimaging has therefore focussed on cortical responses to sound. However, the auditory brainstem response to speech is modulated by selective attention as well, as recently shown through measuring the brainstem’s response to running speech. Although the response of the auditory brainstem has a smaller magnitude than that of the auditory cortex, it occurs at much higher frequencies and therefore has a higher information rate. Here we develop statistical models for extracting the brainstem response from multi-channel scalp recordings and for analysing the attentional modulation according to the focus of attention. We demonstrate that the attentional modulation of the brainstem response to speech can be employed to decode the attentional focus of a listener from short measurements of ten seconds or less in duration. The decoding remains accurate when obtained from three EEG channels only. We further show how out-of-the-box decoding that employs subject-independent models, as well as decoding that is independent of the specific attended speaker is capable of achieving similar accuracy. These results open up new avenues for investigating the neural mechanisms for selective attention in the brainstem and for developing efficient auditory brain-computer interfaces.
SCANS AND NARROW-BAND PHOTOMETRY OF LATE-TYPE STARS IN THE ONE-MICRON REGION R. F. WING

A summary is given of the molecular bands occurring in the near-infrared spectra of cool stars, especially those having sufficient strength and freedom from contamination to be measurable by narrow-band photometry. In some cases useful indices of both temperature and luminosity can be obtained from such measurements. Several bands remain unidentified, including the 9910 A band in late M dwarfs and at least nine bands in cool S stars. Three topics of a spectroscopic nature are discussed. (1) In Mira variables, grossly different spectral types are sometimes obtained from zero-volt and excited TiO bands of the same band system. (2) A few M stars have been found to show bands of both VO and CN at the same time. They may be the coolest known supergiants, although there remains some doubt as to their luminosities. (3) The first results are given from a program of measuring crude C/C ratios from narrow-band photometry of sensitive points on the profile of the Av = + 2 band sequence of CN. The observations require only a few minutes per star, and the method can be applied to G and K giants and supergiants as well as to carbon stars.
STRATEGY-AS-PRACTICE PHASES

These studies aimed to analyze the stage of the manufacture strategies in the units of the organization, in agreement with the adaptation of the Manufacture Strategy Model of Bates et al (1995) and the phases that characterizes the strategy-as-practice. This sample composed by 22 leaderships of the units (Goiás/ GO), Rio Grande do Sul (RS) and São Paulo (SP). The research used a diffuse genetic model and the Software MATLAB® 5.0. Regarding the manufactures strategies stage, Goiás meets in the stage 3 (develops basis to business strategy) – and some characteristics belonging to stage 4. The Unit RS meets in stage 4, with some characteristics of stage 3. São Paulo meets in stage 3, with some characteristics still of stage 2. The phase Production Strategy Force appears significantly in the three Units analyzed. Concerning the phases that characterize the strategy-as-practice, the Units RS and Goiás present similarity in most phases.
Screening and identification of biosurfactant producing marine bacteria from the Caspian Sea

Marine microorganisms have unique physiological properties and novel metabolites such as biosurfactant to live in extreme habitats (e.g. oil polluted environment). The aim of this study was to characterize some biosurfactant-producing bacteria collected from sediment and seawater samples from the Caspian Sea. These bacteria were isolated using enrichment method in ONR7a medium with crude oil as sole carbon source. Five screening tests were used for selection of the bacteria including hemolysis in blood agar, oil spreading, drop collapse, emulsification activity and bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbon test (BATH). The bacteria isolated were identified using molecular methods. Eighteen biosurfactant-producing bacteria (from 44 different colonies isolated) were selected and 9 isolates were screened as predominant biosurfactant producer belonging to Pseudomonas stutzeri (Strain S1-4-2), P. balearica (Strain S1-4-1), Pseudomonas sp. (Strain S2-1), P. stutzeri (Strain R3-2), P. chloritidismutans (Strain K4-1), Achromobacter xylosoxidans (Strain K4-3), Acinetobacter radioresistens (Strain S1-2), Acinetobacter calcoaceticus (Strain K4-2) and Citrobacter freundii (Strain R3-1). The largest clear zone diameters for oil spreading method observed for P. balearica strain S1-4-1 (14 mm). Also, this strain has the best emulsification activity (100 %); surface hydrophobicity (BATH: 77 %) and reduction of surface tension (34.5 mN m-1). Thus, this strain selected as the best isolated strains. The results of this study confirmed that there is sufficient diversity of biosurfactant-producing bacteria in the Caspian Sea and the environmental problem can be resolved by application of these bacteria in petrochemical waste water.
Comparative Modal analysis of conventional spur gear with modified involute spur gear

of involute spur gear pair is carried out using finite element analysis tool ANSYS14.5. Gear noise and vibration is a major problem in many power transmission applications this problem becomes more significant in applications with higher operating speeds, where there is vibratory excitation which is related to the gear transmission error. The goal of modal analysis in this research paper is to determine the natural mode shapes and frequencies of the present spur gear pair and to comparatively analyze with frequencies of the geometrically modified involute spur gear pair during free vibration as well as in pre-stress condition.
Absorption-line systems in simulated galaxies fed by cold streams

Hydro-cosmological simulations reveal that massive galaxies at high redshift are fed by long narrow streams of merging galaxies and a smoother component of cold gas. We postprocess seven high-resolution simulated galaxies with radiative transfer to study the absorption characteristics of the gas in galaxies and streams, in comparison with the statistics of observed absorption-line systems. We find that much of the stream gas is ionized by UV radiation from background and local stellar sources, but still optically thick (NH I > 10 17 cm −2 ) so that the streams appear as Lyman-limit systems (LLSs). At z > 3, the fraction of neutral gas in streams becomes non-negligible, giving rise to damped Lyman α absorbers (DLAs) as well. The gas in the central and incoming galaxies remains mostly neutral, responsible for DLAs. Within one (two) virial radii, the covering factor of optically thick gas is 30 per cent of the observed absorbers in the foreground of quasars, the rest possibly arising from smaller galaxies or the intergalactic medium. The mean metallicity in the streams is ∼1 per cent solar, much lower than in the galaxies. The simulated galaxies reproduce the Lyα-absorption equivalent widths observed around Lymanbreak galaxies, but they severely underpredict the equivalent widths in metal lines, suggesting that the latter may arise from outflows. We conclude that the observed metal-poor LLSs are likely detections of the predicted cold streams. Revised analysis of the observed LLSs kinematics and simulations with more massive outflows in conjunction with the inflows may enable a clearer distinction between the signatures of the various gas modes.
Power constrained contrast enhancement for Emissive displays based on Histogram Equalization

A power compelled contrast-improvement algorithm for emissive showcases in light of histogram evening out (HE) is proposed in this paper. We first propose a log-based histogram change plan to decrease overstretching antiquities of the customary HE method. At that point, we build up a power utilization model for emissive shows and plan a target capacity that comprises of the histogram-evening out term and the power term. By minimizing the target capacity in light of the raised advancement hypothesis, the proposed algorithm accomplishes contrast upgrade and power sparing all the while. Additionally, we extend the proposed algorithm to upgrade video arrangements, and also still pictures. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can decrease power utilization essentially while enhancing picture contrast and perceptual quality.
A New UWB Slot Antenna with Rejection of WiMax and WLAN Bands

─ This paper presents a compact coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed ultra wideband (UWB) planar slot antenna with the characteristics of dual band rejection. The antenna consists of a rectangular slot with triangular tuning stub. The band notching of WiMax (3.2-3.8 GHz, with VSWR 68 at 3.5 GHz) is achieved by inserting a ‘U’ slot in the ground plane and band-notching of WLAN 802.11a (5.1-5.9 GHz, with VSWR 14 at 5.5 GHz) is obtained by embedding a ‘U’ type slot in the triangular tuning stub. The characteristics of the proposed antenna are studied both numerically and experimentally, and the design parameters for achieving optimal operation of the antennas are also analyzed extensively. The size of the antenna is around 28mm (L) × 21mm (W) × 1.6mm (T). The prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated for its optimal values and tested. The VSWR, radiation pattern and gain are measured and agree well with the simulation results. The proposed antenna is simple, easy to fabricate and can be integrated into any UWB system, which can work without interference from WiMax, WLAN, and HYPERLAN/2 systems. Index Terms ─ CPW, dual band, slot antenna, UWB.
Modelling argumentation on Axiom of Choice in ASPIC-END -- Technical report

In this technical report, we present an application of the structured argumentation methodology to a debate in the foundations of mathematics. We work with ASPIC-END, a recently proposed adaptation of the structured argumentation framework ASPIC+ which can incorporate debates about logical principles, natural deduction style arguments and explanations. We apply this framework to build a preliminary formal model of parts of the debate that mathematicians had about the Axiom of Choice in the early 20th century. Furthermore, we briefly discuss the insight into the strengths and drawbacks of the modeling capacities of ASPIC-END that we have gained from producing this model.
The Relationship between Creative Thinking and Critical Thinking Skills of Students

This study aimed to determine the relationship between creative thinking and critical thinking skills of students. Participating university students (N= 174) during the 2012 fall semester had a mean age of 21.74 years. The data were obtained using the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory and the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. A quantitative research method was used for collection, analysis and interpretation of data. According to the results, there was a significant positive correlation between creative thinking and critical thinking skills of students in the low level. The strength of this correlation varied from medium to significant in the Visual Arts Education and Religion & Ethics Education departments; however, it was not significant in Mathematics Education or Preschool Education departments. Accordingly, it can be concluded that the significant relationship between creative and critical thinking of students pursuing degrees within the departments of Visual Arts or Religion & Ethics Education originates from the tendency of these students to use non-routine problem solving processes resulting from the nature of their learning climate and educational outcomes. Thus, it can be put forward that the use of non-routine problem solving processes plays a vital role in the significant correlation between creative thinking and critical thinking skills of students.
Exploring a first-principles-based model for zooplankton respiration

accepted version at constant temperature (T )i sR = i0M 0.75 , where i0 is a constant. We argue that, for zooplankton, a F-based, O2consuming algorithm is more consistent with the cause of respiration. Our point: although biomass is related to respiration, the firstprinciples cause of respiration is ETS, because it controls O2 consumption. Biomass itself is indirectly related to respiration, because it packages the ETS. Consequently, we propose bypassing the packaging and modelling respiration from ETS and hence F. This F is regulated by T, according to Arrhenius theory, and by specific reactants (S) that sustain the redox reactions of O2 consumption, according to Michaelis – Menten kinetics. Our model not only describes respiration over a large range of body sizes but also explains and accurately predicts respiration on short time-scales. At constant temperature, our model takes the form: R ¼ FS=ðKm þ SÞ; where Ea is the Arrhenius activation energy, Rg, the gas constant, and Km, the Michaelis –Menten constant.
THE EFFECT OF EARNINGS MANAGEMENT TO ISSUANCE OF AUDIT QUALIFICATION: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

Results: For the first hypothesis results, there is a negative relationship between (ABDA) and (QUAL). This surprisingly means when the company practises (EM) it does not necessarily mean they are likely to receive qualified opinion from their auditors. For the second hypothesis results, there is a positive relationship between (ABDA*AQ) and (QUAL). This means when the company practices (EM) and being audited by the Big 4 and industry specialist auditors, they are likely to render a qualified opinion. However, the results for both hypotheses are insignificant due to extremely low evidence of only 4.76% companies with qualified opinion.
Environmental Values and Response to Ecolabels Among International Visitors to New Zealand

The research reported here documents the awareness of ecolabels among visitors to Christchurch, one important visitor destination in New Zealand. Around the world there is a growing debate about ecolabels and how visitors respond to them. We propose to inform this debate by studying the relationship between visitor response to ecolabels and their environment values. In interviews with 295 visitors to Christchurch it was found that only one-fifth recalled any place with ecolabels, and only 13% had ever heard of any tourism ecolabel. However, 33% of visitors had some experience of ecolabels. Data were cluster analysed to find that 61% of respondents expressed biocentric values and 39% expressed ambivalent values but not anthropocentric values towards nature. Further analysis of the data showed that the clusters had different responses on many dimensions of ecolabels. Biocentric visitors were concerned with the environment in which they travel, believed that ecolabels are needed in New Zealand, and said they would choose accommodation with an ecolabel. Their reports of their actions were consistent with their expressions of concern for the environment. Results suggest that many visitors will favourably receive ecolabel developments in New Zealand and that ecolabel development and use should be supported.
Association between sitting and occupational low back pain (lbp)

Low Back Pain (LBP) has been identified as one of the most costly disorders among the worldwide working population. Sitting has been associated with the risk for having LBP10,20,35,55. The purpose of this literature review is to assemble and describe evidence of research about the association between sitting and the presence of LBP. The literature review was restricted to those occupations that require sitting for more than 50% of their working time and where the workers have physical co-exposure factors such as whole body vibration (WBV) and/or awkward postures. Fifteen studies were carefully selected and critically reviewed, and a model developed that describes the relationships between these factors. Results: The occupational group that showed the strongest association with LBP was Helicopter Pilots (OR = 9.0, 90% C.I = 4.9 -16.4). For all occupations, the odds ratio (OR) increased when WBV and/or awkward postures were analyzed as co-exposure factors. Exposure duration of vibration was associated with LBP to a greater extent than vibration magnitude. Awkward posture was also associated with the presence of LBP. The risk effect of prolonged sitting increased significantly when the factors of WBV and awkward postures were combined. Conclusions: Sitting by itself does not demonstrate an impressive risk association with LBP. However, sitting in combination with whole body vibration and/or awkward postures does increase the association with the presence of LBP.