Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Public Art and Culture in New Urban Environments: The Case of ‘Katara Cultural Village

In recent years, public art has been featured as a trend in urban environments in GCC. During its period of development, the State of Qatar worked on large megaprojects designed to attract global investments and tourists. Also, the current process of globalization has greatly contributed to increasing competition between cities and promoting the development of public art within new urban developments. This research study discusses the role of public art in influencing urban environments in Qatar, namely within Katara Cultural Village. The study explores the extent to which such an approach can raise local communities’ environmental awareness as an indirect input to the process of upgrading the desires of those living in these areas and of international tourists. In addition, it reviews the experiences of different types of catalysts for regeneration, such as art and culture, that can enhance the built environment’s recognition, value, and economic growth. A qualitative evaluation is employed for this research study, which leverages subjective methods such as interviews and observations to collect substantive and relevant data while examining the interaction of connectivity, attraction, and development as they relate to economics and other multifaceted aspects of development. The findings reveal the main advantages and disadvantages of introducing public art to an urban space, namely in regard to acceptance, culture, and social behavior. In addition, the study helps identify new ways to use public art to enhance public interactions and participation in new urban environments.
Statistical methods for modelling neural networks

In this paper modelling time series by single hidden layer feedforward neural network models is considered. A coherent modelling strategy based on statistical inference is discussed. The problems of selecting the variables and the number of hidden units are solved by using statistical model selection criteria and tests. Misspecification tests for evaluating an estimated neural network model are considered. Forecasting with neural network models is discussed and an application to a real time series is presented.
First Record of Marine Dinoflagellate, Alexandrium Tamutum (Dinophyceae) from Malaysia

Several species of dinoflagellates in the genus Alexandrium are known to be toxic, and have been associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) in Malaysia. These Alexandrium species showed high morphological similarity among the toxic and non-toxic species, and detailed observation of the thecal plate's arrangement is required for precise species identification. Co-occurrence of the toxic and non-toxic species has complicated the plankton monitoring of PSP. In this study, a clone of Alexandrium species was established from plankton samples collected from Kota Belud, Sabah. The specimen was observed under epi-fluorescence microscope, and nucleotide sequences of the nuclear-encoded ribosomal RNA gene obtained. Morphologically, the clone showed relatively wide and large sixth precingular plate (6´´) compared to that of A. minutum. The sulcal posterior plate (Sp) is similar to that of A. minutum, which is wider than long. The first apical plate (1´) is irregularly rhomboidal with a small ventral pore (vp) present on its right margin. The morphological characters resembled to the species description of A. tamutum. Phylogenetic analysis of the ITS rDNA region also revealed a monophyly of this clone with other strains of A. tamutum, and separating them from the A. minutum clade. Species-specific sequence signatures of A. tamutum were obtained in silico, which could be as potential oligonucleotide probe regions for species detection by using molecular tool. This represents the first report of A. tamutum found in Malaysian waters. (Alexandrium tamutum, A. minutum, Sabah, Malaysia, thecal plates)
Is Crop Growth Model Able to Reproduce Drought Stress Caused by Rain-Out Shelters Above Winter Wheat?

WIMMEROVÁ MARKÉTA, HLAVINKA PETR, POHANKOVÁ EVA, KERSEBAUM KURT CHRISTIAN, TRNKA MIROSLAV, KLEM KAREL, ŽALUD ZDENĚK. 2018. Is Crop Growth Model Able To Reproduce Drought Stress Caused by Rain-Out Shelters Above Winter Wheat? Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 66(1): 225 – 233. This study evaluates drought stress effect on winter wheat. Simultaneously, the ability of the HERMES crop growth model to reproduce the process correctly was tested. The field experiment was conducted at Domanínek station in 2014 and 2015, where mobile rain-out shelters were installed on plots of winter wheat (May 2015). Precipitation was reduced in three replications and the findings were compared with results from control plots with ambient precipitation. A precipitation reduction of 93 mm led to reduced growth and decrease in grain yields. The results of this study showed that the model was able to reproduce soil moisture content well and reproduce the drought stress for crop yields of winter wheat to a certain extent. When rain-out shelters were used, real winter wheat yields were reduced by 1.7 t / ha. The model underestimated the yields for the sheltered variant by 0.67 t / ha on average against observed yields and overestimated development of leaf area for both unsheltered and sheltered variants. This overestimation was partly explained by the effect of excluded UV radiation. The outcome of this paper may help to reduce uncertainty within simulated yields of winter wheat under extreme weather conditions through a better understanding of model behavior.
Degree Inflation and Hierarchical Labor Demand

This paper develops a multi-sector job search model that incorporates workers’ education choice and firms’ hierarchical labor demand to identify and quantify the underlying channel of ‘degree-inflation’ measured by the share of highly educated workers employed in unskilled positions. Highly educated workers being assumed to not always be qualified for skilled tasks gives rise to a vicious circle whereby (i) the information and communication technology (ICT) shock prompts the creation of vacancies for the highly educated rather than general workforce in both skill-intensive and (general) labor-intensive sectors, (ii) a significant proportion of skilled workers eventually perform unskilled tasks in the latter sectors, (iii) the resulting cross-skill matches crowd out the general workforce and suppress unskilled wages, and (iv) the college premium escalates and the college enrollment rate is self-reinforced. Numerical experiments based on Canadian data from early 1980s to 2000s suggest that without degree inflation, the unskilled, skilled, and overall wages in the Canadian labor market would be higher by (upto) 46, 43, and 56 percent, respectively, in early 2000s. For this extent, resolving the degree inflation problem, for example, through improving the quality of higher education, would induce substantial welfare gains to not only skilled workers but also unskilled workers.
Performance benefits in passive vehicle suspensions employing inerters

A new ideal mechanical one-port network element named the inerter was recently introduced, and shown to be realisable, with the property that the applied force is proportional to the relative acceleration across the element. This paper makes a comparative study of several simple passive suspension struts, each containing at most one damper and inerter as a preliminary investigation into the potential performance advantages of the element. Improved performance for several different measures in a quarter-car model is demonstrated here in comparison with a conventional passive suspension strut. A study of a full-car model is also undertaken where performance improvements are also shown in comparison to conventional passive suspension struts. A prototype inerter has been built and tested. Experimental results are presented which demonstrate a characteristic phase advance property which cannot be achieved with conventional passive struts consisting of springs and dampers only.
Short-lived climate forcers from current shipping and petroleum activities in the Arctic

Abstract. Emissions of short-lived climate forcers (SLCF) in the Arctic region are expected to increase, notably from shipping and petroleum extraction. We here discuss changes in atmospheric SLCF concentrations and resulting radiative forcing (RF) from present day shipping and petroleum activities in the Arctic. The three-dimensional chemistry transport OsloCTM2 and a state of the art radiative forcing model are used, based on a coherent dataset of present day Arctic emissions. We find that the net RF of SLCF of shipping in the Arctic region is negative, mainly due to the direct and indirect RF effects of sulphate emissions, while the net RF of SLCF of petroleum extraction is positive, mainly due to the effects of black carbon aerosols in the air and deposited on snow. Strong seasonal variations of the sensitivities to emissions are found. In terms of annual mean values we find that the Arctic sensitivities to SLCF is similar to global average sensitivities. One exception to this is the stronger snow/ice albedo effect from BC emissions.
Direct and indirect effects of nitrogen deposition on species composition change in calcareous grasslands

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has been identified as a major threat to biodiversity, but field surveys of its effects have rarely focussed on sites which are actively managed to maintain characteristic species. We analysed permanent quadrat data from 106 plots in nature reserves on calcareous grassland sites in the United Kingdom collected during a survey between 1990 and 1993 and compared the data with the results from resurvey of 48 of these plots between 2006 and 2009. N deposition showed no significant spatial association with species richness, species diversity, or the frequency of species adapted to low nutrient conditions in the 1990–1993 dataset. However, temporal analysis showed that N deposition was significantly associated with changes in Shannon diversity and evenness. In plots with high rates of N deposition, there was a decrease in species diversity and evenness, a decline in the frequency of characteristic calcareous grassland species, and a lower number of rare and scarce species. As all sites had active management to maintain a high diversity and characteristic species, our results imply that even focussed management on nature conservation objectives cannot prevent adverse effects of high rates of N deposition. Structural equation modelling was used to compare different causal mechanisms to explain the observed effects. For change in Shannon diversity, direct effects of N deposition were the dominant mechanism and there was an independent effect of change in grazing intensity. In contrast, for change in herb species number, indirect effects on soil acidity, linked to both N and S deposition, were more important than direct effects of N deposition.
A Model to Support Risk Management Decision-Making

This paper considers the issue of designing a framework to efficiently manage the risk due to some adverse events an organization or a system may face. Risk comes from human being’s incapacity to predict the consequences or outcomes of some external events and/or their own actions, or to express precisely their knowledge about things. Thus, risk is linked to uncertainties that are inherent to almost all activities of human being. Designing an effective risk management decision making framework necessitate to correctly address these uncertainties in terms of appropriate mathematical tools along with procedures to identify variables (risk factors, state of the system, consequences, objectives or stakes, possible actions, etc.) impacting decision process and relationships linking them and finally aggregating approaches to present high level managers with concise information. In this paper we will use a meta-matrix analysis to identify relationships between previously determined variables, Bayesian networks and influence diagrams, graphical tools that permit easy representation of probabilistic relationships (independence, causality, correlation, etc.) between variables to quantify these relationships, and Choquet integral as an aggregation tool.
Efficient CUDA Polynomial Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient Solver for Finite Element Computation of Elasticity Problems

Graphics processing unit (GPU) has obtained great success in scientific computations for its tremendous computational horsepower and very high memory bandwidth. This paper discusses the efficient way to implement polynomial preconditioned conjugate gradient solver for the finite element computation of elasticity on NVIDIA GPUs using compute unified device architecture (CUDA). Sliced block ELLPACK (SBELL) format is introduced to store sparse matrix arising from finite element discretization of elasticity with fewer padding zeros than traditional ELLPACK-based formats. Polynomial preconditioning methods have been investigated both in convergence and running time. From the overall performance, the least-squares (L-S) polynomial method is chosen as a preconditioner in PCG solver to finite element equations derived from elasticity for its best results on different example meshes. In the PCG solver, mixed precision algorithm is used not only to reduce the overall computational, storage requirements and bandwidth but to make full use of the capacity of the GPU devices. With SBELL format and mixed precision algorithm, the GPU-based L-S preconditioned CG can get a speedup of about 7–9 to CPU-implementation.
DETERMINATION OF THE GENETICALLY VALUABLE CORN SAMPLES AT THE CREATION OF THE SOURCE MATERIAL FOR THE CORN SELECTION

For selection of the lines of new generation were used the donors of tolerance to the disease exciters and introduced the modified methods of artificial infection and selection that allowed create the new source material of corn. There were received 302 lines of UKC (Ukraine, Kharkiv, Chernobay) tolerant to the bubble smut that are characterized with valuable agricultural signs. Among them were separated 21 lines with the high productivity and valuable agricultural signs: UKC 85-2, UKC 80-3, UKC 80-2, UKC 135-2, UKC 155-2, UKC 96, UKC 86, UKC 142, UKC 83, UKC 96-2, UKC 129-2, UKC 164,UKC 83-2, UKC 88-2, UKC 131, UKC 147, UKC 144-2, UKC 167,UKC 164-2, UKC 90-2, UKC 163-2; were created lines with the complex tolerance to the bubble smut and crop moth with the high productivity: UKC 144-2, UKC 167, UKC 164-2, UKC 90-2, UKC 163-2. The UKC lined were included into selection work in the laboratory of selection and seeding of the corn of the Institute of crop production of V. Y. Yuriev, NAAS of Ukraine.
Isolation of microorganism from soil contaminated with degraded paper in Jharna village

Pulp and paper mills are categorized as a core sector industry and are the fifth largest contributor to industrial water pollution . The pollutant, discharge from the pulp and paper industry, affect all aspects of the environment such as water, air and land. Various studies have reported detrimental effects of pulp and paper mill effluent on animals living in water bodies receiving the effluent. The effects are in form of respiratory stress, oxidative stress, liver damage and genotoxicity. This study aimed to determine the species of fungi present in the soil environment of Jharna area. Different types of fungi were isolated from soil samples contaminated with degraded papers. Identification of fungi was carried out by culturing on Potato dextrose and Sabouraud’s Dextrose agar media and microscopic method. In our study, dominant fungal flora, that is, Aspergillus niger , Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus terrus, Penicillium sp. , Trichoderma sp. and yeast were isolated. These fungi play important role in the paper and pulp industry in degradation of paper waste.
Does the Use of Personally Relevant Stimuli in Semantic Complexity Training Facilitate Improved Functional Communication Performance Compared to Non-Personally Relevant Stimulus Items among Adults with Chronic Aphasia?

v Chapter One: Introduction and Review of the Literature 1 Category Typicality and Semantic Complexity 4 Semantic Complexity in Adults with Aphasia 8 Complexity Account of Treatment Efficacy (CATE). 14 Concrete versus Loose Category Boundaries. 16 Personal Relevance 21 Research Question 26 Hypothesis 26 Chapter Two: Method 27 Experimental Design 27 Participants 29 Stimuli Development 31 Development of personally relevant topics 31 Development of stimuli, semantic features, and typicality rankings 32 Treatment Procedures 34 Baseline measures 35 Treatment probes 36 Treatment protocol for target stimulus items 36 Follow Up 38 Data Analysis 39 Reliability 41 Chapter Three: Results 42 Generative Naming Performance. 42 Standardized Test Performance. 49 CIU Analysis 52 Social Validity 53 Chapter Four: Discussion 57 Failure to Replicate Generative Naming Results 58 Relationship to Semantic Models of Naming 61
Viability of Coffee Leaf Rust ( Hemileia vastatrix ) Urediniospores Stored at Different Temperatures

Viability of spores samples of Hemileia vastatrixf, the fungal pathogen causing leaf rust disease in coffee was checked after storing at room temperature, -20°C and -80°C for one year. While the spore samples lost their viability as early as 45 days at room temperature and thus retained viability for about 120 days at -20°C. Spores stored at -80°C retained about 52% viability even at the end of one year. The results clearly indicated that urediniospores of Hemileia vastatrix can be preserved at -80°C for one year and more.
Factors affecting poverty dynamics and persistence in Uganda.

Despite the excellent progress made by Uganda in reducing poverty since 1992, there have also been substantial movements both into and out of poverty, and a significant minority of households have been persistently poor (Okidi and McKay, 2003). Two different panel data sets over the 1990s establish the significant extent of persistent or chronic poverty, and show that there is a strong associated between poverty persistence and the depth of poverty – in other words many of the persistent poor are also among the poorest of the poor at any point in time. Clearly these households have failed to benefit from Uganda’s impressive macroeconomic development over this period. In addition, the most recent estimates for poverty dynamics suggest that up to one third of households moved out of poverty, and a tenth moved into poverty, over an eight year period to 1999.
In-situ and Ex-situ characterization of III-V semiconductor materials and solar cells upon 10 MEV proton irradiation

In this work we present the results and analysis of a 10 MeV proton irradiation experiment performed on III-V semiconductor materials and solar cells. A set of representative devices including lattice-matched InGaP/GaInAs/Ge triple junction solar cells and single junction GaAs and InGaP component solar cells and a Ge diode were irradiated for different doses. The devices were studied in-situ before and after each exposure at dark and 1 sun AM0 illumination conditions, using a solar simulator connected to the irradiation chamber through a borosilicate glass window. Ex-situ characterization techniques included dark and 1 sun AM0 illumination I-V measurements. Furthermore, numerical simulation of the devices using D-AMPS-1D code together with calculations based on the TRIM software were performed in order to gain physical insight on the experimental results. The experiment also included the proton irradiation of an unprocessed Ge solar cell structure as well as the irradiation of a bare Ge(100) substrate. Ex-situ material characterization, after radioactive deactivation of the samples, includes Raman spectroscopy and spectral reflectivity.
GENERALIZED INVERSE BEAMFORMING INVESTIGATION AND HYBRID ESTIMATION

Conventional beamforming, among the several techniques that can be used for noise source localization, has been widely used in complex problems, including aeroacoustics applications. The sound generated by flow turbulence can present a distributed coherent source region, which presents some challenges to the conventional beamforming localization accuracy. The Generalized Inverse Beamforming (GIB) is a recent method aiming at the identification of coherent or incoherent, distributed or compact, monopole or multipole sources. This method is based on the microphone array cross-spectral eigenstructure, resulting in a robust localization technique. In this work, the performance of the GIB method is investigated for two simple cases in comparison to conventional beamforming. The first test case, a simple monopole, illustrates the frequency range accuracy, and the second test case, two monopoles in coherent radiation, illustrates the different performance in coherent scenarios. Numerical investigation is used to define the test array aperture and distance to the target region. In order to improve the generalized inverse estimation on the coherent case, a new hybrid estimation is proposed. This consists in creating a source mapping that is comparable to the conventional mapping based on the generalized inverse mapping and the array Point Spread Function. The offsetting between the hybrid mapping and the conventional mapping indicates the quality of the generalized inverse estimation and the hybrid estimation points to the actual sources overall strength.
Structural, dielectric and conductivity studies of LiNi0.75Mg0.25-xCuxPO4 synthesized by solid state reaction method

The olivine structured LiNi0.75Mg0. 25-xCuxPO4 (x = 0, 0.05 and 0.1) cathode materials were synthesized by solid state reaction method. The XRD, FTIR and FESEM studies were conducted to investigate the phase purity, crystal structure, lattice parameters and morphology, respectively. The powder X-ray diffraction studies confirmed the single phase formation of the pure and doped compounds which are found to be orthorhombic with the parent LiNiPO4. Morphology and grain sizes of the materials were investigated through FESEM. The FTIR technique was used to characterize the stretching and bending vibrational modes of different functional groups existing in the materials. The cathode properties were analysed through impedance spectroscopy and indicated on improved electrical properties of the doped samples as compared to the pure LiNiPO4. The conductivity and modulus analyses of the samples were carried out at different temperatures and frequencies using the complex impedance spectroscopy technique.
Beliefs about Integration of Environmental Education into the Early Years : Scale Development

Sorumlu Yazar: Zişan Güner-Alpaslan, Res. Asst, Middle East Technical University, Bu çalışmanın 1. yazarı Zişan Güner-Alpaslan makalenin yayına hazırlanma sürecinde elim bir trafik kazasında hayatını kaybetmiştir. Makale 2.ve 3. yazarlar tarafından onun anısına hazırlanmıştır. 2Refika Olgan, Assoc.Prof.Dr., Middle East Technical University, Turkey, e-posta: rolgan@metu.edu.tr ORCID ID: 00000003-1953-7484 3Jale Çakıroğlu, Prof.Dr., Middle East Technical University, Turkey, e-posta: jaleus@metu.edu.tr ORCID ID: 0000-00021014-7650 Paper presented at European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) Conference, (2012). 880 http://kefad.ahievran. edu.tr Ahi Evran Universitesi Kırşehir Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi
Government, Coercive Power and the Perceived Legitimacy of Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions.

Governments regulate and control organizations, yet their role in determining organizational legitimacy is largely unexamined. In the changing Canadian post-secondary landscape, legitimacy is an increasingly important issue for post-secondary institutions as they compete amongst themselves for access to ever-shrinking resources. Using an institutional theory framework, we analyze two examples of government policy and legislation relating to the organizational legitimacy of Canadian post-secondary institutions. Based on this analysis, we suggest a more nuanced understanding of the effects of government’s coercive power on organizational legitimacy.