Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Divided We Rule: Influencer Polarization on Twitter During Political Crises in India

Influencers are key to the nature and networks of information propagation on social media. Influencers are particularly important in political discourse through their engagement with issues, and may derive their legitimacy either solely or in large part through online operation, or have an offline sphere of expertise such as entertainers, journalists etc. To quantify influencers' political engagement and polarity, we use Google's Universal Sentence Encoder (USE) to encode the tweets of 6k influencers and 26k Indian politicians during political crises in India. We then obtain aggregate vector representations of the influencers based on their tweet embeddings, which alongside retweet graphs help compute their stance and polarity with respect to these political issues. We find that influencers engage with the topics in a partisan manner, with polarized influencers being rewarded with increased retweeting and following. Moreover, we observe that specific groups of influencers are consistently polarized across all events. We conclude by discussing how our study provides insights into the political schisms of present-day India, but also offers a means to study the role of influencers in exacerbating political polarization in other contexts.
Wizard of Search Engine: Access to Information Through Conversations with Search Engines

Conversational information seeking (CIS) is playing an increasingly important role in connecting people to information. Due to a lackof suitable resources, previous studies on CIS are limited to thestudy of conceptual frameworks, laboratory-based user studies, or a particular aspect of CIS (e.g., asking clarifying questions). In this work, we make three main contributions to facilitate research into CIS: (1) We formulate a pipeline for CIS with six subtasks: intent detection, keyphrase extraction, action prediction, query selection, passage selection, and response generation. (2) We release a benchmark dataset, called wizard of search engine (WISE), which allows for comprehensive and in-depth research on all aspects of CIS. (3) We design a neural architecture capable of training and evaluating both jointly and separately on the six sub-tasks, and devise a pre-train/fine-tune learning scheme, that can reduce the requirements of WISE in scale by making full use of available data. We report useful characteristics of the CIS task based on statistics of the WISE dataset. We also show that our best performing model variant is able to achieve effective CIS. We release the dataset, code as well as evaluation scripts to facilitate future research by measuring further improvements in this important research direction.
Adaptive ABAC Policy Learning: A Reinforcement Learning Approach

With rapid advances in computing systems, there is an increasing demand for more effective and efficient access control (AC) approaches. Recently, Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) approaches have been shown to be promising in fulfilling the AC needs of such emerging complex computing environments. An ABAC model grants access to a requester based on attributes of entities in a system and an authorization policy; however, its generality and flexibility come with a higher cost. Further, increasing complexities of organizational systems and the need for federated accesses to their resources make the task of AC enforcement and management much more challenging. In this paper, we propose an adaptive ABAC policy learning approach to automate the authorization management task. We model ABAC policy learning as a reinforcement learning problem. In particular, we propose a contextual bandit system, in which an authorization engine adapts an ABAC model through a feedback control loop; it relies on interacting with users/administrators of the system to receive their feedback that assists the model in making authorization decisions. We propose four methods for initializing the learning model and a planning approach based on attribute value hierarchy to accelerate the learning process. We focus on developing an adaptive ABAC policy learning model for a home IoT environment as a running example. We evaluate our proposed approach over real and synthetic data. We consider both complete and sparse datasets in our evaluations. Our experimental results show that the proposed approach achieves performance that is comparable to ones based on supervised learning in many scenarios and even outperforms them in several situations.
Protective Effect of Hydrolea zeylanica Vahl. Leaf extract in Ethanol and Cold Restraint Stress Induced Ulcers in Rats

The present study was designed to investigate the Antiulcer activity of methanolic extract of the leaves of Hydrolea zeylanica (L) Vahl using two different models namely Ethanol and cold restraint stress induced ulcers models in rats. The extract was administered at a dose of 250 and 500 mg/kg orally 30 min prior to ulcer induction. Ranitidine (50 mg/kg) was used as a reference standard. The antiulcer activity was accessed by determining and comparing the ulcer index in the test group with that of the standard group. Gastric volume, total acid and free acid were estimated in rats. Hydrolea zeylanica leaf methanolic extract (HZLME) (500 mg/kg) showed maximum inhibition of gastric acid, free acid and total acid respectively. The ulcer index in the Hydrolea zeylanica leaf methanolic extract treated animals was found to be significantly less in all the models compared to standard drug treated group. However the antiulcer activity of Hydrolea zeylanica leaf methanolic extract was, found to be lesser than that of ranitidine. The results suggest that Hydrolea zeylanica possesses significant antiulcer property which could be due to cytoprotective action of the drug or strengthening of gastric and duodenal mucosa with an enhancement of mucosal defence mechanism.
The Cyclical Electoral Effects of Programmatic Policies: Evidence From Education Reforms in Tanzania

A large literature documents the electoral benefits of clientelistic and programmatic policies in low-income states. We extend this literature by showing the cyclical electoral responses to a large programmatic intervention to expand access to secondary education in Tanzania over multiple electoral periods. Using a difference-in-difference approach, we find that the incumbent party's vote share increased by 2 percentage points in the election following the policy's announcement as a campaign promise (2005), but decreased by -1.4 percentage points in the election following implementation (2010). We find no discernible electoral impact of the policy in 2015, two electoral cycles later. We attribute the electoral penalty in 2010 to how the secondary school expansion policy was implemented. Our findings shed light on the temporally-contingent electoral impacts of programmatic policies, and highlight the need for more research on how policy implementation structures public opinion and vote choice in low-income states.
Application of laser ablation and high resolution icpms to the analysis of metal contents in tree rings, ages of uranium-rich minerals and Se contents in sulphide ores

La resolution accrue en masse de HR-ICPMS, combinee avec la resolution spatiale de l'abalation laser, peut demontrer des avantages analytiques pour des applications impliquant des echantillons complexes. L'analyse de metaux traces dans les anneaux de croissance des arbres par LA-ICPMS, qui fournit des resultats avec resolution spatiale avec un minimum de preparation, utilise 1 3 C pour normaliser la reponse des metaux. La technique LA-HR-ICPMS peut etre avantageuse pour resoudre les interferences venant de 1 2 CH sur 1 3 C, la perte de 1 3 C vers 1 3 CH, autant que pour reduire les nombreuses interferences des elements plus legers. Les mesures de contenu en Se et les distributions dans les minerais sulfures sont facilitees par LA-HR-ICPMS parce que les interferences des argides et oxides metalliques sur les isotopes de Se peuvent etre minimisees, et les isotopes du soufre, qui sont utilises pour normaliser la reponse du Se et des autres metaux, peuvent ainsi etre mesures avec exactitude. De facon similaire, le tracage isotopique et les datations par la systematique des isotopes U-Pb et Pb-Pb dans les minerais riches en uranium devient realisable avec LA-HR-ICPMS, parce que le laser fournit la resolution spatiale requise pour examiner les heterogeneites dans les cristaux uniques et que les interferences des argides, phosphides, sulfures et halogenures sur U et Pb peuvent etre minimisees avec des resolutions de masse accrues de la HR-ICPMS. Meme si ces applications peuvent aussi etre faites avec des systemes a basse resolution de masse, HR-ICPMS permet une mesure plus exacte de quelques elements tels que S et C en evitant les incertitudes associees avec les corrections de la basse resolution de masse.
Hysteresis-free low-temperature-processed planar perovskite solar cells with 19.1% efficiency

Hysteresis-free, highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells processed at low temperatures are strongly demanded to realize flexible or perovskite-based tandem solar cells. Here, we report a hysteresis-free planar CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 19.1% using a room-temperature vacuum-processed C60 electron transport layer (ETL) without the hole blocking layer. By optimizing the thickness of the C60 layer, the highly homogeneous, uniform, and dense ETL with a thickness of 35 nm is found to not only passivate the grain boundaries and surfaces of the perovskite layer, but also enhance charge transport properties. Thus, the C60 layer deposited on perovskites eliminates the photocurrent hysteresis and improves the cell efficiency. Also, compared to the device adopting the C60 and bathocuproine (BCP) combination, the one with the C60 layer without the BCP layer shows better performance due to enhanced electron extraction properties. Furthermore, for the first time, we have demonstrated a hysteresis-free flexible perovskite solar cell using the C60 ETL on a polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate with 16.0% efficiency.
Designing rGO/MoS2 hybrid nanostructures for photocatalytic applications

Graphene and its derivatives exhibit large surface area, being ideal templates to facilitate the nucleation, growth or interaction of a huge variety of structures. Among them, molybdenum disulphide, with its structural and morphological compatibility with graphene, can be a candidate for achieving an excellent integration, to make new hybrid nanocomposites with outstanding characteristics. Among the synthesis methods of graphene/MoS2 composites, the solution-phase exfoliation of a MoS2/graphite mixture, by means of ultrasounds, shows significant advantages in terms of large amount production without altering the main properties of 2D nanomaterials. Moreover MoS2, having a strong absorption in the visible, has been exploited as a novel visible light-sensitive semiconductor photocatalyst. But, due to the quick recombination of photo-generated charge carriers, the photocatalytic efficiency of MoS2 has to be further improved. Graphene and graphene related materials, as excellent electron-acceptor/transport materials, have been applied to photocatalysis, because they are able to decrease the photo-generated electron–hole recombination, thus improving the light absorption. Therefore, MoS2 and graphite oxide (GO) have been simultaneously sonicated in an ethanol/water mixture and characterized from the structure, morphology and electronic properties point of view. The composite was thermally treated in such a way to reduce GO and the photocatalytic activity of the reduced GO/MoS2 has been investigated by means of UV-vis spectroscopy, following the degradation of methylene-blue (MB) under solar-like irradiation.
Tax Uncertainty and Voluntary Real-Time Tax Audits

This study examines the empirical relation between voluntary participation in the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) audit program, and tax uncertainty disclosed in financial statements pursuant to Financial Interpretation No. 48 (FIN 48). Based on the findings of prior analytical and empirical research, we formulate and test hypotheses about the likelihood of voluntary CAP participation and the resulting effect on FIN 48 tax reserves. We find that firms with moderate-sized FIN 48 reserves are more likely to participate in CAP than firms with either small or large reserves, indicating an inverted U-shaped relation between CAP participation rates and firms’ tax reserves. After controlling for non-random sample selection, we find that CAP firms significantly reduce their FIN 48 reserves by about 16.5% relative to non-CAP firms. However, this reduction is concentrated among firms with moderate-sized FIN 48 reserves. These cross-sectional differences are consistent with FIN 48 reserves reflecting both tax uncertainty and tax aggressiveness.
Lateral flow Immunoassay of Sudan I with Direct Calibration Dependence Based on the use of two Kinds of Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles

A novel lateral flow immunoassay based on the use of two kinds of conjugated gold nanoparticles’ preparations was developed and applied to the detection of the toxic food colorant Sudan I. The gold nanoparticles were conjugated with monoclonal antibodies specific to Sudan and a Sudan-ovalbumin conjugate. Before the immunochromatographic process, the two conjugates were incubated with a tested sample. The results obtained a direct calibration curve for the detection of low-molecular-weight antigen, in contrast to common reverse concentration dependencies. In the absence of the target compound, minimal coloration of the test line was observed. An increase in the Sudan content led to staining and the appearance of a test line, which could be observed by the naked eye. The total duration of the assay is 15 minutes. The visual limit of Sudan I detection was 0.25 ng/mL, and the instrumental limit of detection (LOD) was 7.6 pg/mL. These values were at least three-four points lower than the established permissible level of the contaminant content in foodstuffs. This reserve in sensitivity provides the possibility of working with highly diluted samples and thus excludes the influence of their matrixes on the assay results. The direct dependence of the coloration on the concentration of Sudan I in the proposed assay means it is easy to identify the presence of the contaminant at extremely low concentrations. The common nature of the proposed approach allows its use in lateral flow immunoassays of different compounds.
Hydrocarbon potential of cretaceous sediments from lower Indus Basin, Pakistan

ABSTRACT In previous studies, Patala-Nammal Composite Total Petroleum System (TPS) was recognized as a potential source of hydrocarbon in the Upper Indus Basin, and Sembar-Goru Composite TPS in the Lower Indus Basin. However, petroleum source-rock potential of Cretaceous strata in the Indus Basin is poorly known. In the current study, Rock Eval and total organic carbon (TOC) analyses were conducted to investigate the thermal maturity and source-rock potential of Cretaceous unit in the Lower Indus Basin. The Parh Formation of the Lower Indus Basin is lean in organic contents (TOC < 0.73%) and consistent with immature type-III/IV kerogen. The Upper Goru Formation is fair in organic contents and presents similar characteristics to the Parh Formation with respect to the hydrocarbon generation zone. The Lower Goru Formation presents fair to very good organic contents. The members of Lower Goru Formation have enough organic matter (OM) and are mature, with the exception of Badin shales. The OM, throughout the formation, is predominantly gas prone. The Sembar Formation is fair in organic contents and mature with respect to hydrocarbons generation. These results support that the Lower Goru rocks are comparatively more prospective with respect to hydrocarbons.
Phase behaviour of the thermotropic cubic mesogens 1,2-bis-(4-n-undecyl- and 4-n-dodecyl-oxybenzoyl)hydrazine under pressure

The phase transition behaviour of two optically isotropic, thermotropic cubic mesogens 1,2-bis-(4-n-undecyloxy- and 4-n-dodecyloxy-benzoyl)hydrazine, BABH(11) and BABH(12), was investigated under hydrostatic pressures up to 300 MPa using a high pressure differential thermal analyser, a wide angle X-ray diffractometer and a polarizing optical microscope equipped with a high pressure optical cell. It is found that for BABH(11) and BABH(12), a smectic C (SmC) phase is induced between the isotropic liquid (I) and the cubic (Cub) phases by applying pressures above 10–12 and 16–17 MPa, respectively. A sea–island texture consisting of bright sand-like sea regions (SmC phase) and areas of dark islands (Cub phase) appears in the mesophase under pressures up to 140 MPa, while the sand-like texture of the SmC phase is formed predominantly on cooling under pressure. These observations indicate the destabilization of the cubic phase with increasing pressure. The phase transition sequence of BABH(11) and BABH(12), Cr–Cub–I at atmospheric pressure, changes to Cr–Cub–SmC–I under intermediate pressures and would change to Cr–SmC–I under elevated pressure.
Syntheses, electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical characterization of benzothiadiazole and benzoselenadiazole based random copolymers

ABSTRACT Three novel donor-acceptor-donor type random copolymers based on benzothiadiazole (BTh) and benzoselenadiazole (BSe) were synthesized via Pd (0) catalyzed Suzuki polycondensation reaction. The two acceptor units were coupled with electron rich moieties which are carbazole (CZ), fluorene (FL) and silafluorene (SiFL). Monomers were characterized using 1H and 13C-NMR spectroscopy. The number and weight average molecular weights of the polymers were calculated using gel permeation chromatography (GPC). All three polymers were electrochemically and spectroelectrochemically characterized. PBThBSeCZ, PBThBSeFL and PBThBSeSiFL showed only p-dopable character and their doping/dedoping potentials were determined as 1.4 V/1.2 V, 1.53 V/1.27 V and 1.8 V/1.3 V, respectively. Corresponding HOMO energy levels were calculated as −5.85 eV, −6.05 eV and −6.15 eV whereas LUMO energy levels were found to be −3.67 eV, −3.84 eV and −3.77 eV, respectively. PBThBSeCZ had lower HOMO level and band gap than PBThBSeFL and PBThBSeSiFL due to its increased electron donating capability of nitrogen atom in carbazole unit.
Dinámica del crecimiento primario de especies leñosas en bosques lluviosos y de transición de la Patagonia Norte, Argentina

*Corresponding author: a Universidad Nacional de Río Negro-CONICET, Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, 8400 John O’Connor 181, Bariloche, Argentina, tel. : 54 9 2944437496, msalgado@unrn.edu. ar b Universidad Nacional del Comahue-CONICET, Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medio Ambiente, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina. c Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar und Meeresforschung, Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, 27498 Helgoland, Germany. d Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte, CONICET, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina. e Administración de Parques Nacionales, Dirección Regional Patagonia Norte, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina.
Validation of a Model for the Growth and Development of the Thompson Seedless Grapevine. I. Vegetative Growth and Fruit Yield

This validation study compares the simulations of a growth model for the grapevine cultivar Thompson Seedless that is driven by weather (temperature and solar radiation) with vine growth patterns observed in the field. The growth of vegetative (leaf and stem) dry matter was estimated, and harvest fruit yields were measured in six vineyards over a 300 km latitudinal range in the San Joaquin Valley in California in 1983. In general, vegetative dry matter increased linearly when plotted on degree days (°D) above 10°C until veraison, after which time it leveled off. Crop yield was highly variable both within and between the study vineyards. The model simulated leaf and stem growth accurately at two vineyards. At one vineyard, the simulation was consistently higher than the observations after bloom, while at the remaining three, simulations were lower through about mid-season. The model simulated fruit yield accurately at four sites, and underestimated yield at the remaining two, where leaf and stem simulations were also below those observed. The roles of trellis type and of water stress in producing the discrepancies between the model and the observations are discussed. Some problems of using plant models for prediction are briefly discussed.
Introgressive hybridization between the endangered native Bombina pachypus and the introduced B. variegata in a protected area in central Italy

Amphibians are experiencing an ascertained global decline, which causes include the introduction of alien species and the (anthropogenic) hybridization between native and exotic taxa. Detecting introductions and assessing their impact on populations of native species is crucial for amphibian conservation. We used mitochondrial and nuclear markers to reveal introgressive hybridization between the native Bombina pachypus and the exotic B. variegata (probably introduced from Albania) in a population from a protected area of central Italy. Almost all genotyped individuals were genetically admixed, showing a larger proportion of the allochthonous genome. To our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence of successful hybridization between the two species (we found both putative F1 and backcrosses), hence representing a new threat to the conservation of the endangered, Italian-endemic B. pachypus.
Abnormal expression of miR-135a in patients with depression and its possible involvement in the pathogenesis of the condition

At present, due to the increasing pressures on society and the stress of everyday living, the number of individuals suffering from depression has increased. Therefore, the treatment of depression has also received increasing attention. MicroRNA (miRNA/miR)-135a is a well-studied miRNA. It has been reported that miR-135a is significantly downregulated in patients with depression and may be a potential marker for the diagnosis of the condition. However, the specific mechanisms of action of miR-135a in patients with depression remain unclear. In the present study, it was found that miR-135a was downregulated in patients with depression, and in a mouse model of depression. The effects of miR-135a on depression-related symptoms in mice were then explored. In the mice with chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) that were treated with miR-135a for 3 weeks, a significantly reduced level of weight gain was observed in comparison with the control group. In addition, treatment with miR-135a mimic significantly increased sucrose preference in the sucrose preference test in the mice, and reduced the immobility time in the forced swimming test and tail suspension test. Treatment with miR-135a mimic also inhibited CUMS-induced hippocampal cell apoptosis. Furthermore, treatment with miR-135a mimic and fluoxetine significantly reduced the CUMS-induced increase in the expression levels of inflammatory factors (IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α) in the hippocampus of the mice. Subsequently, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis revealed that treatment with miR-135a mimic significantly inhibited the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 in the mouse hippocampus. In conclusion, the findings of the present study indicate that miR-135a may be a novel potential target for the treatment of depression.