Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Methods for Generating Classification Rules Applicable to Credit Risk

Credit risk is defined as the probability of loss due to non-compliance by the borrower with the required payments in relation to any type of debt. When financial institutions select their customers correctly, they can reduce their credit risk. To achieve this, they use various classification methodologies to sort customers based on their risk, analyzing a set of variables such as reputation, leverage, income and so forth. The extensive analysis and processing of these variables is quite time-consuming, partly because the data to be analyzed are not homogeneous. In this paper, we present an alternative method that operates on nominal and numeric attributes, which allows obtaining a predictive model that uses a reduced set of classification rules aimed at reducing credit risk. When the number of rules used decreases, credit analysts need less time to make their decisions, which will also result in better customer service. The methodology proposed here was applied to two databases of the UCI repository and two real databases of Ecuadorian banks that grant various types of credit. The results obtained have been satisfactory. Finally, our conclusions are discussed and future research lines are suggested.
Different long‐term trends of extra‐tropical cyclones and windstorms in ERA‐20C and NOAA‐20CR reanalyses

NOAA 20th century and ERA‐20C reanalysis datasets are evaluated regarding the representation of extra‐tropical cyclones and windstorms over the Northern and Southern Hemisphere during the respective 6‐month winter seasons. The results indicate substantial differences in low‐frequency variability between the two datasets – especially in the first half of the 20th century – expressed in different signs and/or magnitudes of long‐term trends. This is hampering a reliable analysis of real long‐term trends of cyclone and windstorm activity. However, higher‐frequency variability is in good agreement between both datasets especially for the Northern Hemisphere.
Identification of drought-responsive transcripts in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

We have used a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction procedure (differential display) to identify cDNAs corresponding to transcripts affected by water stress in peanuts ( Arachis hypogaea L.). Using this method, we have identified several mRNA transcripts that are up- or down-regulated following water stress. With 21 primer combinations, a total of 1235 differential display products were observed in irrigated samples, compared to 950 differential display products in stressed samples. These products demonstrated qualitative and quantitative differences in the gene expression. The differentially expressed transcripts were collectively named PTRD (Peanut Transcripts Responsive to Drought). We have identified a total of 43 PTRD, which were significantly altered due to water stress. Slot blot analysis of 16 PTRD indicated that 12 were completely suppressed due to prolonged drought, two were down-regulated, and two were up-regulated under drought stress conditions. The 12 completely suppressed transcripts were studied further by RNA dot-blot analysis to compare their expression in drought tolerant and susceptible lines, which underwent three weeks of water stress. PTRD-1, -10, and -16 expressed for longer period in tolerant line compared to the susceptible line and can be used as molecular markers for screening peanut lines for drought tolerance.
TEACHER ASSESSMENT FOR TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT BY KEDIBONE I. MAHLAELA

This study is an investigation of the link between the current South African Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) as an assessment process and teacher professional development in South Africa. A review of literature confirms that teacher assessment should and could facilitate teacher professional development. However, how teacher assessment affects teacher professional development has not been fully recognized. There is, however, little empirical research available on how teacher assessment affects teacher professional development. Steyn and van Niekerk (2002) have noticed that little is known on the kind of support that teachers should receive as a result of teacher assessment. As a result, people are unclear on how teacher assessment should be implemented in order to yield effective teacher professional development. Though the government took numerous efforts to ensure greater teacher accountability and functional schools over some years via policy interventions such as IQMS, there are still deep-seated challenges that hamper these interventions from working effectively. Therefore, the qualitative case study has used three secondary schools in Limpopo, Capricorn District as the research sites to explore the role of IQMS in teacher professional development. The results from the participants indicate that IQMS is effective but only if a numbers of issues can be considered. Participants highlighted issues like, if every teacher can be trained, and there could be quality training with competitive facilitators, also, if there could be a conducive culture and the climate of the school then that could impact positively on teacher development. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
Embedment Effects on Vertical Bearing Capacity of Offshore Bucket Foundations on Cohesionless Soil

AbstractThis paper presents the results from a series of physical modeling and three-dimensional finite-element (FE) analyses in which the authors examined the uniaxial vertical capacity of suction caissons for offshore wind turbines. The experiments were carried out in quartz sand and involved monotonic application of vertical load. It was found that the drained capacity of suction caissons is dependent on embedment ratio. In contrast, predictions from conventional semiempirical depth factors were found to somewhat underestimate when applied to rough foundations. On the basis of the tests and FE analyses, new expressions for the depth factor of shallow foundations were validated for embedment ratios (aspect ratios) up to unity, calibrating the fitting parameters by using data from a range of soil profiles.
« Factors Affecting University-Industry R&D Collaboration : The importance of screening and signalling »

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the determinants of research cooperation between firms and Public Research Organisations (PROs) for a sample of innovating small and mediumsized enterprises. The econometric analysis is based on the results of the KNOW survey carried out in seven EU countries during 2000. In contrast to earlier works that provide information about the importance of PROs’ research, we know how many collaborative projects a firm has had with PROs. This allows us to study the determinants of firms’ collaboration with PROs in terms of both the propensity of a firm to cooperate with a university (do they cooperate or not) and the extent of this cooperation (the number of collaborations). Two questions are addressed. Which firms cooperated with PROs? And what are the firm characteristics that might explain the number of collaborations with PROs? The results of our analysis point to two major phenomena. First, the propensity to forge an agreement with an academic partner depends on the ‘absolute size’ of the industrial partner. Second the openness of firms to the external environment, as measured by their willingness to search, screen and signal, significantly affects the development of cooperations with PROs. Our findings suggest that acquiring knowledge through the screening of publications and involvement in public policies positively affects the probability of signing an agreement with a PRO, but not the level of collaboration developed. In fact, firms that outsource research and development (R&D), and patent to protect innovation and to signal competencies show higher levels of collaboration.
Maximum Power Point Tracking for Solar Photovoltaic System Using Genetic Programming Toolbox for Identification of Physical System

Due to the increasing demands for energy in recent years and declining fossil fuel resources and the pollution that these energy sources are created, the solar energy produced by sun, has attracted much attention. Solar cells are elements that convert the solar energy into electricity. One of the challenges that we encounter is to obtain the most of the solar resource potential in various conditions of radiation, temperature and wind speed. A major task is to find an efficient and fast algorithm for tracking the maximum power point. In this paper, a new method for maximum power point tracking of photovoltaic (PV) cell that based on genetic programming toolbox of identification of physical system (GPTIPS), has been proposed. The maximum values of the voltage and the current of the solar cell is predicted by the GPTIPS algorithm and then the optimum duty cycle is produced for the chopper. Which cause maximum power deliver to the load. It was observed that the mean square error is reached to order of 10-5 approximately, that in similar circumstances, the mean square error and offline training time is less than a multi-layer perceptron of neural network. Simulation results show that the proposed GPTIPS approach is superior to the neural network method.
A 5-Gb/s Half-rate Clock Recovery Circuit in 0.25-μm CMOS Technology

A half-rate clock recovery circuit for 5-Gb/s data rate was designed in 0.25-μm CMOS technology. The bang-bang phase detector was used for high-speed operation. The simulation results show that the half-rate clock was successfully extracted from random bit data sequence up to 6-Gb/s. In initial measurement of the fabricated chip, 2.5-GHz clock was extracted from 2.5Gb/s PRBS 2-1. Further measurement will be done and presented.
Multifractal structure of turbulence in the magnetospheric cusp

Magnetospheric cusps are regions which are characterized by highly turbulent plasma. We have used Polar magnetic field data to study the structure of turbulence in the cusp region. The wavelet transform modulus maxima method (WTMM) has been applied to estimate the scaling exponent of the partition function and singularity spectra. Their features are similar to those found in the nonlinear multifractal systems. We have found that the scaling exponent does not allow one to conclude which intermittency model fits the experiment better. However, the singularity spectra reveal that different models can be ascribed to turbulence observed under various IMF conditions. For northward IMF conditions the turbulence is consistent with the multifractal p-model of fully developed fluid turbulence. For southward IMF experimental data agree with the model of non-fully developed Kolmogorov-like fluid turbulence.
Impact of Military Expenditure and Economic Growth on External Debt: New Evidence from a Panel of SAARC Countries

This paper examines the impact of military expenditure and economic growth on external debt for a panel of five selected AA countries including Bangladesh, India, epal, Pakistan and rilanka, over the period of 1988-2008. sing Pedroni’s (2004) test for panel cointegration, it was found that there is a long-run relationship between external debt, economic growth and military expenditure. The study finds that external debt is elastic with respect to military expenditure in the long run and inelastic in the short run. In the long run, 1% increase in military expenditure increase external debt between 1.18 % and 1.24%, while 1% increases in economic growth reduce external debt between 0.64% and 0.79%, by employed and M estimator respectively. In the short run, 1% increase in military expenditure increases external debt by 0.15%, while 1% increase in economic growth reduces external debt by 0.47 %.
Motion Analysis of a Foldable Barrel Vault Based on Regular and Irregular Yoshimura Origami

This paper investigates the geometry of a foldable barrel vault with Yoshimura Origami patterns during the motion. On the base of the geometry analysis of the origami unit, the radius, span, rise, and longitudinal length of the foldable barrel vault with regular Yoshimura Origami pattern in all configurations throughout the motion are determined. The results show that the radius of curvature and the span increase during deployment. But the rise increases first, followed by a decrease with increasing fold angle. Furthermore, the influence of the apex angle of the origami unit and the numbers of triangular plates in the span direction on the geometric parameters is also investigated. Finally, the method to obtain the rise and span of the barrel vault with irregular origami pattern is also given.
Bacterial Keratitis Infection: A Battle Between Virulence Factors and the Immune Response

Microbial keratitis is a potentially serious corneal infection and a major cause of visual im‐ pairment worldwide. A conservative estimate of the number of corneal ulcers occurring annually in the developing world alone is 1.5–2 million [1]. The incidence of this condi‐ tion varies from 11.0 per 100 000 person years in the United States to 799 per 100 000 per‐ son years the developing nation of Nepal [2, 3]. Microbial keratitis is thus a significant public health problem, and numerous studies have been performed describing the micro‐ biology of corneal infection. Wide geographical variation exists in the epidemiology of mi‐ crobial keratitis based on economic and climate factors. To some degree, this variation is explained by economic factors as well as contact-lens wear. A high proportion of bacterial ulcers were reported from centres in developed countries (North America, Australia and Western Europe). In these countries, patients are far less likely to be agricultural workers, and so have a reduced risk of trauma from organic matter, which is known to be a risk factor for fungal infection.
Exogenous abscisic acid(ABA) and silicon (Si) promote salinity tolerance by reducing sodium (Na+) transport and bypass flow in rice ('Oryza sativa' indica)

Excessive sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl-) concentrations in rice shoots reduce seedlings growth. In a hydroponic study, we investigated the role of abscisic acid (ABA) seed pre-treatment on growth of salt-stressed rice, in the presence and/or absence of silicate (Si). Caryopses of rice IR4630 (salt tolerant) and IR15324 (salt sensitive) were soaked in an ABA solution (10-5 M) for 24 h, and the plants were then allowed to grow in a medium without or with silicate (Si, 0 or 3 mM). Twenty-one-day-old plants were salinised with NaCl (50 mM). We found the application ABA+Si the most effective treatment for improving plant growth under saline conditions. Si treatment alone or with ABA significantly increased the plant total dry biomass under saline or non-saline conditions, whereas, the effect of ABA seed pre-treatment was significant only on total dry biomass of salt sensitive genotype IR15324. Under saline conditions, ABA, Si and ABA+Si application ameliorated plant growth via suppression of Na+ accumulation in shoots and lowering down Na+/K+ ratios in both the rice genotypes. In addition, treatment with Si alone or with ABA significantly reduced Na+ concentrations in the leaf blades and sheaths, increased net assimilation rate and stomatal conductance of salt affected rice seedlings. We concluded that silicon can be applied as a nutrient for rice under saline or non-saline conditions. Furthermore, seed soaking with ABA has a potential for enhancing salt tolerance, particularly in the sensitive rice genotypes.
Forest fire simulation modeling using remote sensing & GIS

Forest fire is one of the major hazards causing destruction to biodiversity, environment and humans in the Taradevi forest of Himachal Pradesh (India). The study was carried out for forest fire spread analysis and loss assessment using simulation modeling techniques. Knowledge of the factors which includes forest types, canopy cover, meteorological status, topographic feature accelerating forest fire were taken into considerations. The parameters derived from remote sensing data and Geographical Information System (GIS) were used to generate input files for forest fire simulation modeling using FARISTE. Finally, a fire spread maps and fire areas were predicted in this simulation, where relative importance is given to each theme built based on GIS and climate parameters. The study aims to develop a simulation method to find out fire spread and direction according to the climate data like wind direction, wind speed, rainfall, forest fuel type & density, canopy cover and other maps required for it. Findings of the research are helpful in development of forest fire management. Fast and appropriate direction will be used by the management to stop the spread of fire effectively. It helps to provides effective means for protecting forests from fires as well as to formulate appropriate methods to control and manage forest fire damages and its spread.
An algorithm for enumerating SLRG diverse path pairs

Many network providers consider sufficient to implement protection schemes which ensure their network (or certain connections in their network) is 100% reliable in single failure scenarios. In this context, a working path and a protection path, can be used to set up a connection, such that only one of them will be affected by the failure of a single network element A network element may affect several arcs in an optical or MPLS network, due to the multi-layer nature of telecommunication networks. This lead to the concept of shared risk link group (SRLG). To ensure global path protection against a failure affecting a single SRLG, a SRLG diverse path pair must be calculated. The problem of finding a shared risk link group (SRLG) diverse path pair was shown to be NPComplete. An algorithm for enumerating SRLG diverse paths, by non decreasing total cost will be presented. The paths may be node or arc disjoint, and may satisfy a length constraint. Furthermore, the possibility of ordered enumeration of diverse SRLG paths will enable a multi-objective routing approach, with survivability requirements.
Invitro Antioxidant Activity of Saraca indica Methanolic Bark Extract

A B S T R A C T Saraca indica is an important plant of Indian system of medicine for its chemical constituents and its well-known pharmacological activities. It belongs to the family Caesalpiniaceae and is a universal panacea in the Ayurveda medicine. The plant bark tends to possess anti-cancer, anti-menorrhagia, anti-oxytocic, anti-microbial activity and has extended uses in all traditional medicinal formulations. In this study, the methanolic extract of the bark has been studied for its antioxidant properties using various assays. The experiment results demonstrated that the extract had antioxidant properties in all invitro models. K e y w o r d s Saracaindica, methanolic, antioxidant, invitro
Locating Two Public Bads in an Interval

Public bads are facilities that are necessary for the whole society, but unfortunately, entail negative externalities for the social-economic welfare in the surrounding areas. The main objective of the present thesis is to find optimal locations of two public bads in a region given the preferences of two agents located there. Based on lexmin preference as the joint preference of each of the agents for locating pairs of public bads, the present thesis has defined and proved eleven lemmas determining the implications of strategy-proofness, anonymity and unanimity properties on the decision rule. As an extension to the traditional approach, this thesis has determined complete characterization of a set of strategy-proof, anonymous and unanimous rules, and shows that combination of these properties allows for inner solutions for optimal locations of two public bads in an interval given the preferences of the agents in the region.
The use of limestone powder as an alternative cement replacement material: An experimental study

This research paper examines the effects of partial substitution of Portland cement clinker with limestone addition on the physical and chemical properties of cement paste and hardened mortar in two ranges of blain fineness values. Laboratory tests were conducted on limestone and clinker samples before used for the intended purpose and then checked for conformity with the Ethiopian and European standards. The laboratory test results revealed that up to 15% replacement of clinker by fine limestone powder having blain fineness values in the range of 4000 to 4500 cm 2 /gm result in comparable compressive strength to similar mixes produced using 100% ordinary Portland cement. It also satisfied the standard compressive strength of high early strength of cement (42.5 MPa) as per EN 197-1 standard requirements. Furthermore, it was found that 25-35% limestone addition by weight results in slightly lesser compressive strength values than the 28 th day’s standard compressive strength requirement. Observations on the test results further indicated that increasing in fineness of the limestone filler addition in Portland cement clinker results in relative increase of rate of hydration and faster development of the early age strength while decreasing slightly the consistency and the setting times (initial and final). The loss on ignition is also observed to increase with the increase in percentage proportion of limestone filler addition where as the percentage by mass of sulphate trioxide and insoluble residue as well as soundness effect of the Portland limestone cement remain within the acceptable range. Keywords: Calcium carbonate, Compressive strength, Early strength, Limestone filler, Loss on ignition, Portland limestone cement
Dogs aren’t jealous – they are just asking for accurate information

: Awake fMRI offers us a unique opportunity to view and understand how dogs see the world and use the information in it. Given the limitations of behavioral assays and the small sample sizes inherent in these studies, labeling of patterns of canine behaviors using pop psychology terms may actually interfere with our understanding of canine brains and obscure for us a more parsimonious but exciting interpretation of canine behavior. We should use this window into how dogs think wisely.
Investigation of the Strength of Textile Bonded Seams

Aprangos gamyboje naudojami ne tik siūliniai, bet ir lydytiniai bei klijuotiniai sujungimai. Tam naudojama termoplastinė plėvelė. Pastarieji būdai pagrįsti pagrindinių ar klijuoti naudojamų medžiagų termoplastinių savybių panaudojimu. Kokybiskai sanklijai gauti parenkami tam tikri klijavimo parametrai: klijavimo temperatūra, slėgis ir trukmė. Suklijavimo stiprumas nustatomas atsluoksniuojant suklijuotus bandinius. Sio darbo tikslas – parinkti siūlės tipą, kuris tiktų įvairaus elastingumo medžiagų sanklijų stiprumui tirti. Tyrimo objektais pasirinktos penkios aprangos medžiagos: trys megztinės (poliesteris ir dvi medvilninės), audinys (poliesteris) ir laminatas (poliesteris). Medžiagoms tarpusavyje sujungti parinkta 0,09 μm storio termoplastinė poliuretaninė plėvelė. Istirtos keturios suklijamo siūlės. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad suklijavimo stiprumui tirti tinkamiausia yra trecioji siūlė, kuri daugiausiai sumažina medžiagos elastingumą. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.ms.18.2. 1922