Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modeling and Analysis of the Effect of Dip-Spin Coating Process Parameters on Coating Thickness Using Factorial Design Method

Statistical modeling of the dip-spin coating process to describe colloidal PTFE dispersion coating on the external surface of a small diameter hollow tube was developed by using 24 factorial design with a center point to predict the coating thickness in a range of 4–10 μm. The coating parameters included viscosity, withdrawal rate, spin speed, and immersion time. The adequacy of the predicted model was verified by coefficients of determination and lack-of-fit test. Model accuracy was verified by comparing predicted values with experimental results. The significant interaction effects on the coating thickness were three-way interaction among withdrawal rate, spin speed, and immersion time and two-way interactions between viscosity and withdrawal rate, viscosity and spin speed, and viscosity and immersion time. Cube plot for coating thickness reveals a trend of increasing coating thickness towards high levels of viscosity, withdrawal rate, and immersion time and lower level of spin speed.
Biomarkers of petroleum contamination in the digestive gland of Perna viridis (L.)

Oxidative stress responses were evaluated in the digestive gland tissue of Perna viridis exposed to water- accommodated fractions (WAFs) of petrol and diesel at 0.5% and 5% concentrations over 5-, 10-, and 15-day periods. Increased lipid peroxidation, protein carbonyl, DNA integrity, and hydrogen peroxide in WAF-exposed specimens are indicative of oxidative damage due to dissolved petroleum extracts. A consistent increase in superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione-S-transferase, reduced glutathione, and ascorbic acid in WAF-exposed specimens signify the importance of antioxidants in protecting the cell against the oxidative damage arising from petroleum contamination. Th e responses of fi eld specimens collected from petroleum-contaminated sites support the observed laboratory experimental results. Th is research recommends the use of these oxidative stress indices in the digestive gland tissue of Perna viridis as biomarkers of petroleum contamination.
Edifice an Educational Framework using Educational Data Mining and Visual Analytics

Educational Data Mining and Visual analytics are two emerging trends in the industry that plays a major role in bringing out changes in the educational institutions. This paper discusses about building an educational framework that suits the higher education in India using the above mentioned technologies. Educational data mining comprises of various technologies and tasks which can applied on educational data to bring out useful information. In this research work, a data ware house is built to store the student data, two data mining tasks classification and association rule mining are applied over the student data set to analyse their performance in the examination. Decision tree algorithm is used to predict the course and program outcome. Association mining is used to analyze the outcome and understand technical capability of the students. The algorithms were found very accurate in predicting and analyzing the performance. Visual analytics is used in the framework to depict the analysis of the student’s performance.
Improvement of OMI ozone profile retrievals in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere by the use of a tropopause-based ozone profile climatology

Abstract. Motivated by the need of obtaining a more accurate global ozone distribution in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), we have investigated the use of a tropopause-based (TB) ozone climatology in ozone profile retrieval from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). Due to the limited vertical ozone information in the UTLS region from OMI backscattered ultraviolet radiances, better climatological a priori information is important for improving ozone profile retrievals. We present the new TB climatology and evaluate the result of retrievals against previous work. The TB climatology is created using ozonesonde profiles from 1983 through 2008 extended with climatological ozone data above sonde burst altitude (~35 km) with the corresponding temperature profiles used to identify the thermal tropopause. The TB climatology consists of the mean states and 1σ standard deviations for every month for each 10° latitude band. Compared to the previous TB climatology by Wei et al. (2010), three additional processes are applied in deriving our climatology: (1) using a variable shifting offset to define the TB coordinate, (2) separating ozonesonde profiles into tropical and extratropical regimes based on a threshold of 14 km in the thermal tropopause height, and (3) merging with an existing climatology from 5–10 km above the tropopause. The first process changes the reference of profiles to a variable position between local and mean tropopause heights within ±5 km of the tropopause and to the mean tropopause elsewhere. The second helps to preserve characteristics of either tropical or extratropical ozone structures depending on tropopause height, especially in the subtropical region. The third improves the climatology above ozonesonde burst altitudes and in the stratosphere by using climatology derived from many more satellite observations of ozone profiles. With aid from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System (GFS) tropopause height, the new climatology and retrieval can better represent the dynamical variability of ozone in the tropopause region. The new retrieval result demonstrates significant improvement of UTLS ozone, especially in the extratropical UTLS, when evaluated using ozonesonde measurements and the meteorological data. The use of TB climatology significantly enhances the spatial consistency and the statistical relationship between ozone and potential vorticity/tropopause height in the extratropical UTLS region. Comparisons with ozonesonde measurements show substantial improvements in both mean biases and their standard deviations over the extratropical lowermost stratosphere and upper troposphere. Overall, OMI retrievals with the TB climatology show improved ability in capturing ozone gradients across the tropopause found in tropical/extratropical ozonesonde measurements.
The role of credit card behavior in auto loan grant decision. An application of survival table

Most of auto loan grant decisions are made on application data and these static data cannot capture the consuming behavior of applicants that contains more information about credit risk of auto loans. To improve the efficiency of auto loan grant decision model, not only auto loan application data but also credit card behavioral variables of applicants are included in this study because credit card is the most commonly held nonfinancial asset and most of auto loan applicants have credit cards. Based on above explanatory variables, a survival pre-warning model, proportional hazards model, is built in this study for auto loan grant decision since it tells not only if but also when will a loan default which may turn a loan of high default probability into a welcomed loan if the expected profit before default is higher than cost. This study also introduces a new credit-scoring system: survival table, similar to life table in insurance industry, provides probability of default or prepayment at every time point in the loan term which reduces the complication of auto loan grant decision. Evidence from Taiwan shows that both survival model and survival table are competitive with logistic model, the most widely-used credit model, in auto loan grant decision.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONS:TOWARDS A COGNITIVE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF MEANING IN HUMAN TECHNOLOGY INTERACTION

Information technology has perpetuated the role of symbolism in everyday life practice, through its reliance on sign systems for its creation and operation. Increasingly attention has been placed on applying semiotic techniques to analyze user interface design and usability. Surprisingly, although the move towards symbolic interaction has been one of the most striking components of the digital shift, it has proven difficult to build bridges between semiotics and HTI-design thinking. In this article we argue that the problems in linking semiotic analysis of human technology interaction with modern HTI-design paradigms such as usability or user experience arise from a theoretical gap between the paradigms of semiotics, human cognition and thinking. Consequently, it is necessary to reformulate principal insights of semiotics such as the triangle of reference, by replacing the intuitive concept of thought, with modern philosophical and psychological concepts of human thinking. This allows the unification of usability research based on cognitive research with the analysis of signs in modern semiotics. It is possible to unify the conceptual analysis of signification and semiosis with conceptual and empirical work typical to modern human technology interaction research and design, thus making semiotics an essential tool within the swiftly developing paradigms of interaction design.
Causes, analyses and countermeasures with respect to blackout in Croatia on January 12, 2003

Causes, analyses and countermeasures of the blackout that happened on January 12, 2003 in southern part of Croatia (HR) and Bosnia Herzegovina (BH) are presented here. First, root causes and consequences of the blackout are recognized through data analysis based on all relevant documentation obtained from different sources within HR and BH systems. Then, numerical analysis is conducted to provide additional insight during blackout evolution. Analytical findings are used to point out on available countermeasures aimed for alleviation of consequences in each of different blackout phases as well as for prevention of future incidents. A set of countermeasures is proposed to the utilities in order to prevent its reoccurrence. Role of system operators and special protection system (SPS) during chronological sequence of the blackout events are discussed in more details. project study contains results of data analysis of the blackout sequence followed by static and dynamic numerical approach. It is applied in order to mutually relate findings. The blackout was confined to southern part of Croatia (called Dalmatia) and a part of Bosnia Herzegovina which was at that time connected to the first UCTE synchronous zone. Root causes, consequences and countermeasures are analyzed in detail with respect to all relevant events recorded in collected documentation. The role of the system operators and the activation of the special protection system (SPS) during chronological sequence of the blackout events are discussed in more details. The role of the system operators is primarily analyzed
Nonparametric Bayesian Multitask Learning with Max-margin Posterior Regularization

Learning a common latent representation can capture the relationships and share statistic strength among multiple tasks. To automatically resolve the unknown dimensionality of the latent representation, nonparametric Bayesian methods have been successfully developed with a generative process describing the observed data. In this paper, we present a discriminative approach to learning nonparametric Bayesian models under a computational framework called regularized Bayesian inference. In particular, we will discuss how to use the successful principle of max-margin learning to improve the prediction performance of nonparametric Bayesian multi-task models. We will discuss both variational approximation and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods to do posterior inference, with real-world experimental results demonstrating their efficacy.
Preparation of a Microbial Time-temperature Indicator by Using the Vegetative Form of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens for Monitoring the Quality of Chilled Food Products

Background and Objective: Time-temperature indicators are used in smart packaging, and described as intelligent tools attached to the label of food products to monitor their timetemperature history. Since the previous studies on microbial time-temperature indicators were only based on pH-dependent changes, and they were long-time response indicators, in the present work, a new microbial time-temperature indicator was designed by using the alpha amylase activity of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens vegetative cells.Material and Methods: The designed time-temperature indicator system consists of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, specific substrate medium and iodine reagent. The relation of the timetemperatureindicator’ response to the growth and metabolic activity (starch consumption and production of reduced sugars) of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens was studied. In addition, the temperature dependence of the time-temperature indicator was considered at 8 and 28˚C. Finally, in order to adjust time-temperature indicator endpoint, the effect of the inoculum level was investigated at 8oC.Results and Conclusion: In the designed system, a color change of an iodine reagent to yellow progressively occurs due to the starch hydrolysis. The effect of the inoculum level showed the negative linear relationship between the levels of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens inoculated in the medium and the endpoints of the time-temperature indicators. The endpoints were adjusted to 156, 72 and 36 hours at the inoculum levels of 102, 104 and 106 CFU ml-1, respectively. The main advantages of the time-temperature indicator is low cost and application for monitoring the quality of chilled food products.Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Reflexive Spirituality and Metanoia in High Modernity

This paper explores a significant recent departure in the sociology of religion, the theory of 'reflexive spirituality'. This notion addresses problems of meaninglessness arising from the domination of rationality in modern society, where overarching systems of belief are fractured and fundamental trust and a sense of ontological security are threatened. Reflexive spirituality is a suggestive and fertile conception that suggests many avenues of analysis into contemporary spirituality. However, it also has weaknesses, which this paper addresses, principally by introducing the notion of metanoia and emphasizing the crucial role that it has to play in spiritual experience and the implications this has for the expert-systems within which religion and spirituality are increasingly appropriated in high modernity.
Work Organisation and Innovation

Excerpt] Innovations in work organisation have the potential to optimise production processes in companies and improve employees’ overall experience of work. This report explores the links between innovations in work organisation – under the broader label of high performance work practices (HPWPs) – and the potential benefits for both employees and organisations. It draws on empirical evidence from case studies carried out in 13 Member States of the European Union where workplace innovations have resulted in positive outcomes.
Effects of IT-Culture Conflict and User Dissatisfaction on Information Security Policy Non-Compliance: A Sensemaking Perspective

Majority of organizational information security (InfoSec) breaches are caused by employees' InfoSec noncompliance. Thus, InfoSec policy (ISP) is implemented to counteract breaches and various approaches attempted to mitigate the phenomenon of ISP non-compliance. Yet, those approaches assume that employees will passively comply after they are enforced, and overlooked that human feelings, behavior and thoughts can affect the decision on whether to comply with the ISP. Accordingly, we offer Weick's sensemaking theory to explain the issue of ISP non-compliance. Specifically, the ISP generates a new institutional logic featuring practices that collide with the existing institutional logic. This collision represent critical changes that are perceived as threats because the ISP values embedded in the practices are contrary to the employees' practices. These value changes significantly impacts ISP non-compliance because the employees’ values misalign with the ISP values. Therefore, we empirically examine these values conflicts with Leidner and Kayworth's IT-culture conflict framework.
Patterns of extreme weather associated with observed and proxy River Ammer floodrecords

Abstract. We investigate the relationship between the variability in the frequency of River Ammer floods (southern Germany) and temperature/precipitation extremes over Europe using observational River Ammer discharge data back to 1926 and the 5500-year-long flood layer record from varved Lake Ammersee sediments. We show that observed River Ammer flood frequency variability is not only related with local extreme precipitation, but also with large-scale temperature extreme anomalies. Less (more) extreme high temperatures over central and western (northeastern) Europe are recorded during periods of increased River Ammer flood frequency. We argue that changing radiative forcing due to cloudiness anomaly patterns associated with River Ammer floods induce these extreme temperature anomalies. Consistent patterns are obtained using observed discharge and proxy flood layer frequency data. Furthermore, a higher frequency of observed River Ammer floods and flood layers is associated with enhanced blocking activity over northeastern Europe. A blocking high over this region increases the probability of wave breaking and associated heavy precipitation over western Europe. A similar blocking pattern is associated with periods of reduced solar activity. Consequently, solar modulated changes in blocking frequency over northeastern Europe could explain the connection between River Ammer floods and solar activity, as also identified in previous studies. We argue that multi-decadal to millennial flood frequency variations in the Mid- to Late Holocene flood layer record from Lake Ammersee characterizes also the extreme temperatures in northeastern Europe.
Pattern Formation Dynamics in Diverse Physico- Chemical Systems

Complex reaction-transport dynamics can lead to the formation of ordered structures. A constant dissipation of free energy is a requirement for sustaining macroscopic order, especially in solution. In the solid phase, the evolved pattern can be locked for days, months or even years. Liesegang bands are stratified stripes of precipitate that appear and persist, when co-precipitate ions interdiffuse in a gel medium. A host of interesting properties characterize such rich dynamical systems: band spacing laws (direct and revert), band splitting, rhythmic multiplicity, multiple precipitate formation and band redissolution are but a few manifested characteristics, emerging from a complex dynamics with a great diversity of scenarios. The familiar and well-known band formation in rocks could be the result of a complex coupled diffusion-percolation-chemical reaction mechanism. Similarities between geochemical self-organization and the Liesegang phenomenon are surveyed and analyzed. The simulation of band generation in a rock bed is realized and carried out in- situ, by injection and infusion of the reactant components into the rock medium. Ramified, tree-like structures (dendrites) are obtained during the electrodeposition or simple electroless redox deposition of metal systems. A great variety of morphologies
Shifting Governance. Managing the Commons: the Case of Slovensky Raj National Park. 1

This paper explores the role of social capital and governance in rural development within the Slovensky Raj National Park. Based on the theory of Common Pool Resources and Network Governance, the case study explores the external and internal influences on cooperation. Current decision making in the Park is still affected by post socialist relations. In particular, inefficient institutional design and non-robust governance of the resources have resulted in over-exploitation of natural resources and treating common property as open-access. On one hand, evidence emerged on domination of interpersonal trust and failure of institutional design. These were found as barriers for the National Park to be viewed by various actors as an asset. On the other hand, municipal and tourism networks show that cooperation is gradually moving from being externally to internally driven, while displaying characteristics of bottom-up development. A hierarchical governance structure is thus slowly opening up, shifting towards networks.
SPEECH FEATURE EXTRACTION USING WEIGHTED HIGHER-ORDER LOCAL AUTO-CORRELATION

In this paper, we propose a new feature extraction method based on higher-order local auto-correlation (HLAC) and Fisher weight maps (FWM). Widely used MFCC features lack temporal dynamics. To solve this problem, 35 types of local auto-correlation features are computed within two-dimensional local regions. These local features are accumulated over more global regions by placing high scores on the discriminative areas, where the typical features among all phonemes are well expressed. This score map is called a Fisher weight map. We verified the effectiveness of the HLAC and FWM through speaker-independent phoneme recognition. The proposed method showed an 82.1% recognition rate, 8.9 points higher than the result by MFCC. Furthermore, by combining the proposed feature with MFCC, ΔMFCC and ΔΔMFCC, the recognition rate improved to 86.6%. Experimental results also demonstrate the robustness of the proposed method in noisy environments in comparison with MFCC-based features.
Numerical investigation of the effect of nonlinear propagation distortion on helicopter noise

Nonlinear propagation distortion causes energy to be shifted to the high frequency end of the spectrum. This leads to underestimation of the noise levels at high frequencies. The effect has been demonstrated in the case of aircraft noise, but less attention has been given to helicopters. In the present work, the effect of nonlinear propagation distortion on helicopter noise is demonstrated based on measured data for low‐speed descent and numerical calculations that predict the noise level away from the helicopter with and without nonlinear effects. It is shown that (i) for some frequency bands the difference between linear and nonlinear calculations can be as high as 8 dB, (ii) frequencies between 1000 and 3000 Hz are more affected, and (iii) the effect is highly directional depending on the receiver location around the helicopter. It is further shown that nonlinear effects manifest themselves differently than in the case of aircraft noise and that they depend on the specific helicopter noise mechanism. M.
On Fostering a Co-Creative Process within a CSCL Framework

In this article is introduced a co-creative process fostered by a Collaborative Learning Framework which pursues to engage peers of students in a synchronous collaborative dynamic to build the knowledge by representing it by a formal digraph called Networks of Concepts (NoC). This digraph, the NoC, allows building and representing the knowledge in a synthetic way, whilethe co-creative process aims at developing cognitive skills and collaborative attitudes as essential part of 21st century skills for students. Nowadays,the Collaborative Learning Framework has been and is currently being used in Mexican universities in different undergraduate programs such as Industrial Engineering, Computer Science, Sociology, Accounting, Business Administration, and Molecular Biology; in this article we analyze and discuss a particular case of an example in the Engineering program. Thus, the analyzed digraphs are the outcome of a co-creative process that is carried out through synchronous-mode argumentation and shared interactions by peers of students.