Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Income and Ideology: How Personality Traits, Cognitive Abilities, and Education Shape Political Attitudes

We find that cognitive abilities, educational attainment, and some personality traits indirectly affect ideological preferences through changes in income. The effects of changes in personality traits on ideology directly and indirectly through income are in the same direction. However, the indirect effects of cognitive abilities and education often offset the direct effects of these variables on ideological preferences. That is, increases in cognitive abilities and education significantly increase income, which reduces the tendency of individuals to express leftist preferences. These indirect effects are in some cases sizeable relative to direct effects. The indirect effects of cognitive abilities through income overwhelm the direct effects such that increasing IQ increases rightwing preferences. For ideological preferences over economic policy the indirect effects of advanced education also overwhelm the direct effects, such that individuals with higher education are more likely to express rightwing preferences than those with lower education.
The contributions of skin structural properties to the friction of human finger-pads

This paper describes three series of tests that were designed to investigate how skin mechanical and structural properties, measured using a ‘Cutometer’ and optical coherence tomography, affect the frictional behaviour of human finger-pads. First, the skin mechanical properties across all fingers and the palm in participants’ dominant hands were assessed. Results showed that the distensibility of skin (total deformation in a suction test) is associated with stratum corneum thickness and that this in turn affects friction (thicker stratum corneum leads to higher friction), giving a link between distensibility and friction. Tape stripping to remove the superficial layer of the skin led to increased moisture (and/or electric charge on the skin surface) that led to higher friction. No accompanying changes were seen in structural properties, so it was concluded that moisture was the main cause of the adhesion increase. More work is required to isolate moisture and possible changes in electric charge using alternative measurement techniques. When rubbing with sand-paper, the stratum corneum thinned considerably and friction reduced. Moisture was ruled out as a cause of friction changes in this instance. Skin normal stiffness also did not change, but lateral stiffness changes have been seen in previous work when the stratum corneum thickness has been reduced, so this is likely to be the cause of the reduced friction. This will be investigated further in future work using dynamic optical coherence tomography measurements.
Impact of Terms-of-Trade on Slovak Business Cycles

There is a theoretical assumption that movements in the terms-of-trade are important source of the small open economy business cycles. This paper answer, how important they are in the Slovak economy. The empirical measure of the contribution of terms-of-trade shocks to aggregate fluctuations based on an SVAR model is provided. The results of the research could help to understand an impact of the movements in oil prices on Slovak economic performance.
Lightweight concrete bridge deck slabs reinforced with GFRP composite bars

The durability of typical reinforced concrete bridge deck slabs is several times shorter than the durability of the main girders or other basic elements of bridges. This is due to ever-increasing traffic loads and the aggressiveness of the environment, which is intensified by the need for winter maintenance of bridges. Over the past several years, numerous technological, material and construction solutions have been developed in order to extend the technical life of the deck slabs of bridge structures. These include, among others, the use of lightweight concrete and also reinforcements made of composite bars. By combining these two materials into lightweight concrete slabs that are reinforced with GFRP composites, it is possible to obtain a synergy of high strength and durability of GFRP composite and also a reduction of the self-weight of a bridge. The paper presents an overview of the applications of lightweight concrete and GFRP composite bars in the deck slabs of bridge structures. Limited research on this constructional solution, which was completed with its first national implementation on a road bridge, was also presented. Moreover, the directions of further studies, which are necessary to develop the design principles that would enable wider use of this type of bridge deck slabs, were also provided.
Evaluation of antibacterial efficacy of leaves of Cleistanthus collinus and Strychnos nux-vomica

Received 10 June 2014; Accepted 20 June 2014 Abstract The in-vitro antibacterial activity of different concentrations of (500, 250 and 125 μg/mL) hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of Cleistanthus collinus and Strychnos nux-vomica leaves were screened against gram positive bacterial strain, Staphylococcus aureus and nine strains of gram negative bacteria viz., Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella flexneri, Proteus mirabilis, P. vulgaris and Vibrio cholerae. The agar disc diffusion method was followed for antibacterial susceptibility test. The MIC and MBC values were determined. The mean zones of inhibition ranged between 7 and 20.8 mm. The highest mean zone of inhibition was recorded in chloroform extract of C. collinus against S. aureus (20.8  0.76). The lowest MIC and MBC (62.5 and 125 μg/mL respectively) were observed in chloroform extract of C. collinus against S. aureus and methanol extract of S. nuxvomica (125 and 250 μg/mL respectively) against S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, E. coli, and S. flexneri. Among the plants tested, the C. collinus showed potential responses against tested pathogens.
A kinetic equation for economic value estimation with irrationality and herding

A kinetic inhomogeneous Boltzmann-type equation is proposed to model the dynamics of the number of agents in a large market depending on the estimated value of an asset and the rationality of the agents. The interaction rules take into account the interplay of the agents with sources of public information, herding phenomena, and irrationality of the individuals. In the formal grazing collision limit, a nonlinear nonlocal Fokker-Planck equation with anisotropic (or incomplete) diffusion is derived. The existence of global-in-time weak solutions to the Fokker-Planck initial-boundary-value problem is proved. Numerical experiments for the Boltzmann equation highlight the importance of the reliability of public information in the formation of bubbles and crashes. The use of Bollinger bands in the simulations shows how herding may lead to strong trends with low volatility of the asset prices, but eventually also to abrupt corrections.
Dentistry teachers and the burnout syndrome

The Burnout Syndrome is considered a psychosocial problem to which teachers are routinely exposed. This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of burnout in Dentistry teachers and its relation to relevant socio-demographic variables. The participants were 70 teachers from the undergraduate Dentistry Course, Faculty of Dentistry of Araraquara – UNESP. Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) was used. The prevalence of burnout was estimated. In order to compare mean scores of burnout dimensions for each variable of interest Student’s t tests, for a significance level of 5%, were performed. Mean age of participants was 46.0 ± 6.1 and teaching experience was 19.6±7.6 years. The prevalence of burnout was 17.1%. Low mean scores for Exhaustion (2.11±0.61) and Disengagement (1.73±0.50) were observed. There were statistically significant differences in the exhaustion dimension between genders (p=0.049), for participants who reported taking medication due to work (p=0.008) and for those who have thought about quit teaching (p=0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between Exhaustion scores as to teaching experience and also Disengagement scores according to the habit of taking medication, the experience as a teacher and gender.
Using Polymeric Scaffolds for Vascular Tissue Engineering

With the high occurrence of cardiovascular disease and increasing numbers of patients requiring vascular access, there is a significant need for small-diameter (<6 mm inner diameter) vascular graft that can provide long-term patency. Despite the technological improvements, restenosis and graft thrombosis continue to hamper the success of the implants. Vascular tissue engineering is a new field that has undergone enormous growth over the last decade and has proposed valid solutions for blood vessels repair. The goal of vascular tissue engineering is to produce neovessels and neoorgan tissue from autologous cells using a biodegradable polymer as a scaffold. The most important advantage of tissue-engineered implants is that these tissues can grow, remodel, rebuild, and respond to injury. This review describes the development of polymeric materials over the years and current tissue engineering strategies for the improvement of vascular conduits.
Conditional Random Fields for Image Labeling

With the rapid development and application of CRFs (Conditional Random Fields) in computer vision, many researchers have made some outstanding progress in this domain because CRFs solve the classical version of the label bias problem with respect to MEMMs (maximum entropy Markov models) and HMMs (hidden Markov models). This paper reviews the research development and status of object recognition with CRFs and especially introduces two main discrete optimization methods for image labeling with CRFs: graph cut and mean field approximation. This paper describes graph cut briefly while it introduces mean field approximation more detailedly which has a substantial speed of inference and is researched popularly in recent years.
Over one decade of invasion: the non-indigenous cladoceran Evadne anonyx G.O. Sars, 1897 in a low-salinity environment

Invasive species are often in focus in the non-indigenous species (NIS) research while low-abundance species receive relatively little attention. However, tracking NIS dynamics since the early stages of an invasion provides valuable information on the ecology of invasions. In the current paper, we investigated the invasion history and population dynamics of the small-bodied cladoceran Evadne anonyx G. O. Sars, 1897 in the Gulf of Riga (Baltic Sea) almost since its first detection in 2000. The species already was widespread the Gulf of Riga in 2001 and has been found in nearly every subsequent sample collected during summer months. However, the abundance of the species remained low, seldom 100 individuals m -3 . Both, salinity and water temperature affected the spatial distribution and population abundance of E. anonyx. The species was found to occur only sporadically at salinities below ca. 6. To obtain reliable presence/absence and density estimates on this small-bodied cladoceran, the entire zooplankton sample needed to be analysed.
Calibrating Net Solar Radiation of FAO56 Penman-Monteith Method to Estimate Reference Evapotranspiration

Estimation of reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) are widely used in irrigation scheduling with using the standardized FAO56 Penman–Monteith equation, which has been the most reasonable method in humid and arid climatic conditions, to provide reference crop evapotranspiration estimation in irrigation schedualing and water resources managment. The source of energy for ETo process is the radiation received from the sun. The goals of this study are to calibrate and evaluate the three empirical radiation equations in FAO56 Penman–Monteith model for the Tabriz region. Determination of radiation equation coefficients carried out by using the solver tool in EXCEL software to decrease the difference between measured (Lysimetric Data) and predicted amount of evapotranspiration. As a result, the Angstrom model coefficients were 0.22 and 0.61 that gained the least error in comparison with measured Rs for the study station. The calibrated net radiation (Rn) served as the basis to estimate ETo accurately, which would be underestimated about 24% if no local calibration is performed on the FAO56 Penman-Monteith model in Tabriz. Although the evaluation process showed that the FAO56-PM net radiation equation error was less than the two others, results of developed Rn equation were satisfied regarding to MEP, NRMSE, NSE and d statistical indexes as 0.34%, 18.44%, 0.74 and 0.95, respectively. The minimum error was in the application of new developed Rn equation to calculate reference evapotranspiration by FAO-PM method. The average ETo was 658 mm per season based on presented new net solar radiation model in this study. The reasonable application of the standardized FAO56-PM model provided a sustainable irrigation schedualing and water resources management if local calibration of radiation equations applied for Tabriz and similiar condition areas.
Soil Properties and Applications Review with NERA (Nonlinear Earthquake Site Response Analyses) in İstanbul-MARMARAY Project between Kazlıçeşme to Sirkeci

Over the course of history Marmara region in North-western Turkey has been the site of numerous destructive earthquakes. Most of the historical documentation is related to damages suffered in Istanbul (then ancient age). Based on historical and instrumental earthquake records, the Marmara sea region is one of the most seismically active regions of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Marmara region is under the influence of the western part of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ) and the N-S extensional regime of Western Turkey. Therefore, the earthquake risk analysis is very important for the MARMARAY Project. 76 km-long MARMARAY Project is an important project not only for Turkey but also for the world because it joins the two continents through railway. It will also serve for a comfortable and healthy way of environment, providing a contemporary solution for urban transportation. In this paper, using average wave velocities in layers, thickness, density and formation data based on the PS logs and 7 different boring logs located in different geological regions with depth range 43-60 m from the ground surface ground response functions have been obtained. The influences of nonlinearity on the site response analysis have been summarized and evaluated with a numerical examples. Based on the soil profiles transferred to NERA (Nonlinear Earthquake Site Response Analyses of Layered Soil Deposits) software, the rock soil record of August 17, 1999 Kocaeli earthquake from a recording site in Beşiktaş town of Istanbul, response and design spectrums that may be considered crucial in case of an earthquake have been obtained. The acceleration record having a PGA value of 0,04287 g in east-west component has been used as an input motion to sublayers (i.e. sand, gravel, clay) with constant damping ratio of 5%, using NERA program. The study also provides a critical overview of the site response analysis of the field under interest.
Modeling the Direct Effect of Climate Change on the Cereal Production in Tunisia: A Micro-spatial Panel Cointegration Analysis

Unlike previous studies, this paper, by employing a cointegration technique on panel data, economically investigates the direct effect of climate change on the cereal production in the long-term via a new cereal disaggregated databases covering the period 1979-2012 for 24 governorates in Tunisia within a multivariate panel framework. The Pedroni panel cointegration test indicates that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between the considered variables with elasticity’s estimated positive and statistically significant in the long-run. The results generally confirm that in the long term there is a strong positive correlation between the cereal production and the direct effect of precipitation and temperature for the whole panel. At the micro-spatial level, results of the long-run equilibrium relationship show that the cereal production is extremely dependent on rainfall in most governorates of cereals producers, especially the Northwest region of Tunisia. In fact, there are several initiatives and policies that must be undertaken by Government in an attempt to improve the long term production of cereals in the most affected governorates by the phenomenon of climate change such as the development of several important and regionally-based institutions and cooperation, providing subsidies to farmers.
Effects of early patent disclosure on knowledge dissemination: evidence from the pre-grant publication system introduced in the United States

In order to assess the disclosure function of the patent system, this study examined the impact of the pre-grant publication system introduced in the United States in 2000. Unlike earlier studies, the applicant (inventor) non-self-citations (excluding examiner citations) were used to track knowledge flow. The causal effects of disclosure were identified by examining the changes in behavior before and after this legal change. The introduction of the pre-grant publication system was found to accelerate the initiation of knowledge diffusion significantly across all technology areas, except for Chemical field. The effect was the strongest in the Computers & Communications field, which had the longest publication lag before the reform. In addition, the initial slope of the diffusion curve rose while the long-term level of citation flow declined in the Computers & Communications field. In contrast, both of them rose in the Electrical & Electronic field. These results suggest the possibility that early disclosure not only stimulated complementary inventions but also helped inventors recognize early the duplications and then helped the reductions of duplicative R&D and/or applications, in a field with a long publication lag. In addition, we found that the examiner citation curve begins significantly earlier and more sharply compared to the applicant citation curve, which shows that examiner citation is a wrong measure of knowledge flow.
Post Common Envelope Binaries from SDSS. XV: Accurate stellar parameters for a cool 0.4-solar mass white dwarf and a 0.16-solar mass M-dwarf in a 3 hour eclipsing binary

We identify SDSSJ121010.1+334722.9 as an eclipsing post-common-envelope binary, with an orbital period of P ~ 3 hrs, containing a very cool, low-mass, DAZ white dwarf and a low-mass main-sequence star of spectral type M5. A model atmosphere analysis of the metal absorption lines detected in the blue part of the optical spectrum, along with the GALEX near-ultraviolet flux, yields a white dwarf temperature of 6000 +/- 200 K and a metallicity value of log(Z/H)= -2.0 +/- 0.3. The sodium absorption doublet is used to measure the radial velocity of the secondary star, K2 ~ 252 km/s and iron absorption lines in the blue part of the spectrum provide the radial velocity of the white dwarf, K1 ~ 95 km/s, yielding a mass ratio of q ~ 0.38. Light curve model fitting, using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, gives the inclination angle as i = (79.05 - 79.36) +/- 0.15 degrees, and the stellar masses as M1 = 0.415 +/- 0.010 solar-masses and M2 = 0.158 +/- 0.006 solar-masses. Systematic uncertainties in the absolute calibration of the photometric data influence the determination of the stellar radii. The radius of the white dwarf is found to be R1 = (0.0157 - 0.0161) +/- 0.0003 solar-radii and the volume-averaged radius of the tidally distorted secondary is R2 = (0.197 - 0.203) +/- 0.003 solar-radii. The white dwarf in J1210+3347 is a very strong He-core candidate.
AN AUTOREGRESSION MODEL FOR A PAIRED WATERSHED COMPARISON

Analysis of water quality data from a paired watershed design is needed to determine if a best fertilizer management practice reduces a specific water quality variable compared to a conventional fertilizer management practice. This study examines an existing recommended method of analysis for paired watershed designs, simple analysis of covariance (ANCQY A) on time aggregated data, then offers two autoregression analyses (AR) as alternatives. The first approach models the sequence of paired differences and estimates its 95% confidence band. The second approach develops individual watershed AR models then examines the joint 95% confidence interval about the predicted difference. A reliability analysis on the water quality data reveals that the data for the controlled watershed, i.e., the covariate, has a sizable measurement error, a factor that is not considered in the usual ANCOY A model. The AR methods avoid the measurement error and other inherent problems with the published recommended method. Graphically both AR analyses are similar and reveal three distinct trend phases: a period of continued similarity; a period of transition; and a period of sustained change. The model for the sequence of paired differences is the easier one of the two AR methods to use and interpret because its trend model of splined linear segments readily defines each response phase. Hence, we recommend it over the given alternatives. It offers water resources researchers an effective and readily adoptable analysis option.
Scenario-Based Evaluation of an Ethical Framework for the Use of Digital Media in Teaching and Learning

Interest in educational podcasting, audio feedback and media-enhanced learning, in its various forms, has grown due to the increased access academic staff and students have to new technologies. The benefits have been widely reported in the educational development and disciplinary literature on learning technology, mobile learning, digital age learning, and assessment and feedback. However, such literature focuses more on what can be done, rather than if it should be done. Hargreaves (2008) signals the need to balance ethical risk in the creative curriculum with actions that maximise beneficence, especially within the context of a sector that espouses to develop critical skills in learners. In a world of constantly developing technology, it is not always easy to appraise the implications of a pedagogic innovation. As practitioners concerned with academic development, our aim is to facilitate academics to reflect on their practice from a variety of perspectives, and we felt that an easy–to-use ethical framework could assist academics to identify potential ethical problems. The Media-Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (MELSIG) is a UK network of academics, developers and learning technologists. They identified the need to consider the ethical risk associated with using digital media in response to examples described in recent literature, and ideas generated by its community. It was as a result of discussions at MELSIG that this collaborative work began. The three members of MELSIG were joined by a colleague with an interest in ethics but who was relatively inexperienced with new technologies. When this work began we looked primarily at digital media, but it is considered that such a framework can be used to appraise the use of other new technologies in learning and teaching. This paper will begin by giving a brief explanation of ethics, as a discipline, and the approach to ethics which underpins this framework. We will then discuss the results from a scenario-based evaluation of the framework, undertaken by the four authors. Following this evaluation, the framework is now being evaluated by a wider community of practitioners, on real examples, and continues to develop as it is exposed to wider use. However, it is considered that the initial scenario-based evaluation raised some interim findings that will be of interest to a wider audience.