Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Construction of an adult equivalence index to measure intra-household inequality and poverty: case study

More often than not, poverty and inequality measures are based on consumption expenditures of households but this does not represent the welfare of the individuals within the household and hence concern has been raised on policy formulation (Haddad and Kanbur 1990). The strong assumption for such data use has been that resources within a household are divided according to need but a growing body of literature has argued that this is not true and that consumption inequality exists within households (Sen 1984, Thomas 1990, Phipps and Burton 1995, Iversen 2003). These studies have shown that certain social configurations such as discriminations or norms against women, the earning capacity of individuals and power structure within the households (traditionally assigned or acquired through earnings) are causes of inequality within the household. When deprivations within the household are not accounted for and if these are aggregated for the whole population, the underestimation of inequality and poverty could be significant and result in gross policy neglect.
Aerosol optical properties and direct radiative forcing based on measurements from the China Aerosol Remote Sensing Network (CARSNET) in eastern China

Abstract. Aerosol pollution in eastern China is an unfortunate consequence of the region's rapid economic and industrial growth. Here, sun photometer measurements from seven sites in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) from 2011 to 2015 were used to characterize the climatology of aerosol microphysical and optical properties, calculate direct aerosol radiative forcing (DARF) and classify the aerosols based on size and absorption. Bimodal size distributions were found throughout the year, but larger volumes and effective radii of fine-mode particles occurred in June and September due to hygroscopic growth and/or cloud processing. Increases in the fine-mode particles in June and September caused AOD 440 nm > 1.00 at most sites, and annual mean AOD 440 nm values of 0.71–0.76 were found at the urban sites and 0.68 at the rural site. Unlike northern China, the AOD 440 nm was lower in July and August ( ∼ 0.40–0.60) than in January and February (0.71–0.89) due to particle dispersion associated with subtropical anticyclones in summer. Low volumes and large bandwidths of both fine-mode and coarse-mode aerosol size distributions occurred in July and August because of biomass burning. Single-scattering albedos at 440 nm (SSA 440 nm) from 0.91 to 0.94 indicated particles with relatively strong to moderate absorption. Strongly absorbing particles from biomass burning with a significant SSA wavelength dependence were found in July and August at most sites, while coarse particles in March to May were mineral dust. Absorbing aerosols were distributed more or less homogeneously throughout the region with absorption aerosol optical depths at 440 nm ∼ 0.04–0.06, but inter-site differences in the absorption Angstrom exponent indicate a degree of spatial heterogeneity in particle composition. The annual mean DARF was − 93 ± 44 to − 79 ± 39 W m −2 at the Earth's surface and ∼ − 40 W m −2 at the top of the atmosphere (for the solar zenith angle range of 50 to 80 ∘ ) under cloud-free conditions. The fine mode composed a major contribution of the absorbing particles in the classification scheme based on SSA, fine-mode fraction and extinction Angstrom exponent. This study contributes to our understanding of aerosols and regional climate/air quality, and the results will be useful for validating satellite retrievals and for improving climate models and remote sensing algorithms.
Hearing Foreigners’ Voices: Unprecedented Communication for Hearing Foreigners’ Voices in Saudi Arabia

After the Arab Spring uprisings, specifically the events in 2012, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Labor inaugurated a participatory management department to engage with citizens via the introduction of new policies to meet Saudi citizens’ needs. The department adopted two approaches with which to promote citizen participation and hear and respond to the public’s voice. The approaches were social dialogue and the use of digital communication . The objective of this study is to investigate whether the Ministry of Labor allowed foreigners to participate in and engage with other Saudis to meet their interests in terms of employment, education, and other needs to enjoy the life in Saudi Arabia. The theoretical framework adopted for this paper is based on Nico Carpentier’s work. Data for the present study were collected through document analyses, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. The paper shows that opportunities for foreigners to engage and make their voices heard were given to specific groups. These groups, who hold various types of power, were included with ordinary Saudi citizens in terms of the level of participation given by the Saudi government. These foreigner groups were listened to because they had the power to persuade the Minister of Labor to include them with other Saudis. Additionally, ignoring these powerful foreigner groups could have lead them to act against the Saudis’ best interests, which was a main consideration of the Saudi government and Ministry of Labor.
A Review on Existing Opinion Targets and Opinion Words Extracting Methods from Online Reviews

In today’s e-business world or in competitive structure of market, lots of analyzed data is required for betterment of services, probability calculations, predictions, business decisions and summary of market reputation etc. This analysis is achieved through the detail summary of customer feedbacks and product reviews etc. To analyze this kind of data, opinion mining techniques are used. Hence for fine grained output from opinion mining, word alignment model and patterns of sentences are discussed in this project. Getting perfect opinion words and opinion targets is the prime and significant tasks. After detecting these opinion words and opinion targets one important task is to determine relation between them which is useful to analyze the comment. From the review and analysis it is clear that it is achieved using word alignment technique and by defining patterns. Word alignment model is heavy tasks hence to balance the load and gear up the execution process partial supervised technique is used and syntactic patterns are used for it. Opinion relation graph is also formed to get proper analysis using Hill-Climbing algorithm. This opinion mining concept is also merged in web based application that recommends products on the basis of analysis of product reviews. This web based system will be having feedback facility so that web based service is also analyzed. User will get product recommendations as per their requirement. Also as part of contribution regular expressions are also checked in it. Regular expression will reduce tasks of comparison of sentences and analysis of other unnecessary data process.
Role of Process Alignment and End User Participation in Successful Implementation of E-Government Programs: Perspective of Different Stakeholders

In recent years, a number of developing countries have launched e-government programs, and several development agencies and governments have identified e-government implementation as a key policy priority. Driven by the success of a few projects in improving delivery of services to citizens and businesses, an increasing number of governments are making ICT investments in the public sector. Alignment of departmental processes in government and active participation of employee of government departments as well of participation and cooperation of government department’s users play vital role of success in such programs. Therefore, the major objective of the paper is to understand the role of process alignment and end user participation in success of e-government programs from the important stakeholders perspective; leaders, government departments as users, nodal IT agencies, and IT vendor organization. The research findings are based on survey carried out with 152 stakeholders in all categories through a questionnaire targeted in northern states in India.
Fresh and Spray Dried Pitanga (Eugenia uniflora) and Jambolan (Syzygium cumini) Pulps are Natural Sources of Bioactive Compounds with Functional Attributes

This study approaches the physicochemical and bioactive characterization of fresh (FR), spray dried (SD) and freeze dried (FD) jambolan (JA) and pitanga pulps (red: RP and purple: PP) varieties). In general, the concentration of bioactive compounds followed the tendency FR>FD>SD. All samples presented high proanthocyanidin content (18.7 to 121.9 g QTE/Kg-1 DW), ellagic acid (0.203 to 0.943 g/Kg-1 DW) and anthocyanins (up to 15.8 g/Kg-1 DW). In this study, JA, RP and PP powders showed activity against alpha-amylase, alpha-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase. This is the first report of protocatechuic and p-coumaric acids in fresh and spray dried red pitanga pulps. Also, this is the first time that the colorant potential and proanthocyanidin content of dried PP is shown. Overall, this research presents fresh data about these tropical fruits and demonstrates the multifunctional attributes of these understudied Myrtaceae examples of Brazilian biodiversity.
Trace enrichment and sample preparation of alkylthio-s-triazine herbicides in environmental waters using a supported liquid membrane technique in combination with high-performance liquid chromatography

Sample pre-treatment and enrichment using the supported liquid membrane (SLM) technique for the determination of alkylthio-s-triazine herbicides in river water samples was investigated. The uncharged herbicide molecules from the flowing aqueous donor solution diffuse through a porous poly(tetrafluoroethylene) membrane, which is immobilized with a water-immiscible organic solvent, and are trapped in a stagnant acidic acceptor phase since they become protonated. Using undecane as a membrane solvent, the SLM methodology was successfully used for the enrichment and separation of seven alkylthio-s-triazine herbicides in environmental waters with extraction efficiencies of 60% or better. The LC results obtained on spiking the pesticides in river water samples further confirmed the selectivity of the method. The influence of the various SLM extraction parameters on the extraction efficiency was studied. In this system, the partition coefficient, Kp, between the donor and the membrane phases is large, and effects due to carry over and membrane memory are very small. Detection limits of about 0.03 µg l–1 were obtained by extraction of 1.0 µg l–1 samples in both reagent and river water at a donor flow rate of 7.0 ml min–1 for about 70 min. Further advantages of the procedure are the reduced analysis time and an increase in the sample accumulation rate in the acceptor phase.
Price Rigidity: A Survey of Evidence From Micro-Level Data

Over the last decade or more micro price studies have proliferated. In this paper a survey of this literature reveals alternative theoretical explanations of sticky prices: (a) sellers review and change prices only at predetermined intervals (except under extraordinary circumstances), so that any price reaction appears only when that time arrives (referred to as “time dependent pricing”); or (b) prices are always reviewed after a shock or policy move (“state dependent pricing”), but may be altered only if the difference between the actual and the new target price is sufficient to warrant an adjustment. The empirical evidence is that prices take longer to change in developed countries than in developing economies. In addition, the frequency of price movements differs widely across goods and the timing of price changes is not synchronized across sellers.
Heterogeneous earnings stability and the earnings discontinuity

This paper claims that earnings stability explains discontinuities at zero in the distribution of earnings levels and in the distribution of earnings changes. Stable earnings, size deflated earnings with low volatility, tend to be small and positive, whereas unstable earnings have high volatility and tend to be negative. Consequently, earnings have a mixture distribution where the presence of stable earnings causes a peak at small positive earnings such that the whole distribution has a discontinuity at zero. Similarly, heterogeneity in stability of earnings changes produces a discontinuity in the distribution of earnings changes. Latent class analysis supports the presence of stable and unstable firms in the population of listed US firms. Histograms for the most stable and for the most unstable earnings and earnings changes do not exhibit the discontinuity, and probit analyses show that stability predicts the likelihood that companies miss or beat an earnings benchmark.
Controlling Randomness: Using Procedural Generation to Influence Player Uncertainty in Video Games

As video games increase in complexity and length, the use of automatic, or procedural, content generation has become a popular way to reduce the stress on game designers. However, the usage of procedural generation has certain consequences; in many instances, what the computer generates is uncertain to the designer. The intent of this thesis is to demonstrate how procedural generation can be used to intentionally affect the embedded randomness of a game system, enabling game designers to influence the level of uncertainty a player experiences in a nuanced way. This control affords game designers direct control over complex problems like dynamic difficulty adjustment, pacing, or accessibility. Game design will be examined from the perspective of uncertainty and how procedural generation can be used to intentionally add or reduce uncertainty. Various procedural generation techniques will be discussed alongside the types of uncertainty, using case studies to demonstrate the principles in action.
Framework of Matrix Factorization to Achieve Rating Prediction Task

We propose a social client wistful estimation approach and figure every client's notion on things/items. Besides, we consider a client's own wistful properties as well as contemplate relational nostalgic impact. At that point, we consider item notoriety, which can be induced by the sentimental distributions of a client set that mirror clients' exhaustive assessment. Finally, we intertwine three components client sentiment likeness, relational nostalgic impact, and thing's notoriety closeness into our recommender framework to make a precise rating prediction. We lead an execution assessment of the three nostalgic components on a genuine dataset gathered from Yelp.
Wavelength-dependent optical enhancement of superconducting interlayer coupling in La1.885Ba0.115CuO4

We analyze the pump wavelength dependence for the photo-induced enhancement of interlayer coupling in La1.885Ba0. 115CuO4, which is promoted by optical melting of the stripe order. In the equilibrium superconducting state (T < TC = 13 K), in which stripes and superconductivity coexist, time-domain THz spectroscopy reveals a photo-induced blue-shift of the Josephson Plasma Resonance after excitation with optical pulses polarized perpendicular to the CuO2 planes. In the striped, non-superconducting state (TC < T < TSO ≃ 40 K) a transient plasma resonance similar to that seen below TC appears from a featureless equilibrium reflectivity. Most strikingly, both these effects become stronger upon tuning of the pump wavelength from the mid-infrared to the visible, underscoring an unconventional competition between stripe order and superconductivity, which occurs on energy scales far above the ordering temperature.
Capture of exocomets and the erosion of the Oort cloud due to stellar encounters in the Galaxy

The Oort cloud (OC) probably formed more than 4$\,$Gyr ago and has been moving with the Sun in the Galaxy since, exposed to external influences, most prominently to the Galactic tide and passing field stars. Theories suggest that other stars might posses exocomets distributed similarly to our OC. We study the erosion of the OC and the possibility for capturing exocomets during the encounters with such field stars. We carry out simulations of flybys, where both stars are surrounded by a cloud of comets. We measure how many exocomets are transferred to the OC, how many OC's comets are lost, and how this depends on the other star's mass, velocity and impact parameter. Exocomets are transferred to the OC only during relatively slow ($\lesssim0.5\,$km$\,$s$^{-1}$) and close ($\lesssim10^5\,$AU) flybys and these are expected to be extremely rare. Assuming that all passing stars are surrounded by a cloud of exocomets, we derive that the fraction of exocomets in the OC has been about $10^{-5}$--$10^{-4}$. Finally we simulate the OC for the whole lifetime of the Sun, taking into account the encounters and the tidal effects. The OC has lost 25--65% of its mass, mainly due to stellar encounters, and at most 10% (and usually much less) of its mass can be captured. However, exocomets are often lost shortly after the encounter that delivers them, due to the Galactic tide and consecutive encounters.
Translocation of juvenile Chatham Islands tomtits (Petroica macro- cephala chathamensis) from Rangatira and Pitt Islands to Chatham Island

The Chatham Islands tomtit (Petroica macrocephala chathamensis) is a small forest passerine with a threat ranking of nationally endangered. It is restricted to 2 islands of the Chathams group that are free of introduced predators (Rangatira and Mangere Islands), and 1 with mice (Mus musculus) and feral cats (Felis catus) (Pitt Island). We carried out a translocation of 35 juvenile tomtits from Rangatira (10 male, 10 female) and Pitt Islands (6 male, 9 female) to Awatotara Valley, Chatham Island in January 2011. Mean weight at capture of Pitt Island tomtits was lighter than that of the Rangatira Island tomtits. Tomtits were held captive in aviaries for 1-3 days on the source islands and 2-4 days at the release site. Weight loss of tomtits in captivity prior to transfer averaged 1.8% of body mass per day held and was more pronounced in birds sourced from Rangatira than Pitt Island. Two birds died during the first night after transfer, but the other 33 were released in apparently good health. Eighteen of the released birds were seen at least once, and 11 regularly until 28 March (at least 55 days after release). During the following 12 days, all 11 of these tomtits disappeared. We discuss possible reasons for their disappearance, and aspects of the translocation that may be useful for future translocations of tomtits and other species with a similar ecology. Powlesland, R.G. ; Bell, M. ; Tuanui, E.A. ; Tuanui, B.M. ; Monks, J.M. 2013. Translocation of juvenile Chatham Islands tomtits (Petroica macrocephala chathamensis) from Rangatira and Pitt Islands to Chatham Island. Notornis 60(1): 41-48.
EVALUATION OF COSMETICS FOR THEIR POTENTIAL CONTAMINANTS AND DRUG RESISTANT MICROORGANISMS

Cosmetic products are those formulations which are applied on different parts of body including teeth, nails, face and hair. These are used to clean body and improve appearance. On the basis of area on which cosmetics are applied these can be categorized in different categories like cosmetics for oral care, for skin, for hair and perfumes etc. Microorganisms are known for so many years due to their ability to grow and multiply in cosmetic care products. Cosmetic products are not considered to be sterile but there must be a minimum level of microbial contamination. This study was conducted to assess the cosmetic care products for their potential microbial contaminants (both fungal and bacterial). Cosmetic products were collected in two categories; cosmetic creams and moisturizing lotions. Pour plate technique was used to determine total viable count. Sample dilution was made in Phosphate buffer saline containing 0.5% of an emulsifying agent that was polysorbate 80. Different general purpose, selective and differential media were used for culturing. Identification was based upon morphology of colonies, Gram reaction and standard biochemical tests. Antibiotic sensitivity was checked by using different antibiotic and antifungal discs on MullerHinton Agar and Sabouraud Dextrose Agar. In this study the contaminants isolated from creams and lotions were; Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Aspergillus niger. Among these isolates P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and E. coli were sensitive to Ciprofloxacin, Amikacin and Tobramycin while A. niger was sensitive to Streptomycin, Ketoconazole and Clotrimazole.
Wine of cool-climate areas in South Poland

A number of new vinery production regions, especially in the southern parts of Poland, have appeared in the last ten-odd years. This study was aimed at completing the chemical characterisation of wine produced from ten Polish grape cultivars planted near Krakow. The wine was analysed to determine organic acid concentrations, total polyphenols and extract content, antioxidant activity, alcohol content, total acidity and pH. Moreover, a sensory analysis was performed on the wine. Significant differences were recorded between red and white wine. The total acidity expressed as tartaric acid, and tartaric and malic acid concentrations, were significantly higher in white and red wines, whereas antioxidant activity and phenolic content were significantly higher in the red wines. Similarities and relationships between various parameters and specific wine brands were further examined with cluster analysis. Our results show that, under Polish climatic conditions, it is possible to produce wine with quality comparable to wine from established wine denomination regions. Selected wine brands showed high antioxidant activity (FRAP – ferric reducing antioxidant power) and a high level of polyphenols. This study also provides confirmation that wines from colder climates frequently reveal unique and desirable properties.
Deep Learning Based Place Recognition for Challenging Environments

Visual based place recognition involves recognising familiar locations despite changes in environment or view-point of the camera(s) at the locations. There are existing methods that deal with these seasonal changes or view-point changes separately, but few methods exist that deal with these kind of changes simultaneously. Such robust place recognition systems are essential to long term localization and autonomy. Such systems should be able to deal both with conditional and viewpoint changes simultaneously. In recent times Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have shown to outperform other state-of-the art method in task related to classification and recognition including place recognition. In this thesis, we present a deep learning based planar omni-directional place recognition approach that can deal with conditional and viewpoint variations together. The proposed method is able to deal with large viewpoint changes, where current methods fail. We evaluate the proposed method on two real world datasets dealing with four different seasons through out the year along with illumination changes and changes occurred in the environment across a period of 1 year respectively. We provide both quantitative (recall at 100% precision) and qualitative (confusion matrices) comparison of the basic pipeline for place recognition for the omni-directional approach with single-view and side-view camera approaches. The proposed approach is also shown to work very well across different seasons. The results prove the efficacy of the proposed method over the single-view and side-view cameras in dealing with conditional and large viewpoint changes in different conditions including illumination, weather, structural changes etc.