Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Arctic haze: current trends and knowledge gaps

Trend analyses were performed on several indicators of Arctic haze using data from sites located in the North American, Norwegian, Finnish and Russian Arctic for the spring months of March and April. Concentrations of nonseasalt (nss) SO4= in the Canadian, Norwegian and Finnish Arctic were found to have decreased by 30–70% from the early 1990s to present. The magnitude of the decrease depended on location. The trend in nss SO4= at Barrow, Alaska from 1997 to present, is unclear. Measurements at Barrow of light scattering by aerosols show a decrease of about 50% between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s for both March and April. Restricting the analysis to the more recent period of 1997 to present indicates an increase in scattering of about 50% during March. Aerosol NO3- measured at Alert, Canada has increased by about 50% between the early 1990s and 2003. Nss K+ and light absorption, indicators of forest fires, have a seasonal maximum during the winter and spring and minimum during the summer and fall at both Alert and Barrow. Based on these data, the impact of summertime forest fire emissions on low-altitude surface sites within the Arctic is relatively small compared to winter/spring emissions. Key uncertainties about the impact of long range transport of pollution to the Arctic remain including the certainty of the recent detected trends; sources, transport and trends of soot; and radiative effects due to complex interactions between aerosols, clouds and radiation in the Arctic.
The effects of varying levels of object change on explicit and implicit memory for brand messages within advergames

This study examined the effects of varying levels of object change in advergames on implicit and explicit memory for the brand sponsoring the game. For the purposes of this thesis, object change was defined as an object entering the screen of an advergame to which a player must react to with a motor response using a mouse or keyboard. This study utilized a 2 (level of object change) x 5 (advergame) repeatedmeasures experiment. Explicit memory was measured using a speeded recognition test. Implicit memory was measured via a word-fill task assignment. A signal detection analysis of explicit memory data revealed that participants were less able to recognize brands they had seen in high object change games versus brands in low object change games. Variations in the levels of object change created no significant differences in implicit memory.
Ovariectomy decreases biomechanical quality of skin via oxidative stress in rat

To investigate the effect of ovariectomy on the skin using biomechanical, biochemical, and histological techniques in the ovariectomized rat model. Ovariectomy causes significant changes in the physical characteristics of the skin. Materials and methods: Twenty female Wistar albino rats were divided into 2 groups, with each group consisting of 10 rats: the control group and the ovariectomized group. The ovariectomized group underwent bilateral ovariectomy via ventral incision and the control group underwent a sham operation. Skin biomechanics were measured 3 months following the ovariectomy with a tensile test using a biomaterial testing machine, and tensile strength, stress, strain, and toughness were calculated. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities and the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) in the skin of the rats were also measured using the biochemical methods. Thickness of the epidermis was determined by light microscopy. Results: Strength, stress, strain, SOD activity, and thickness of epidermis values were significantly decreased and the MDA level was increased in the ovariectomized rats compared to the control group. Conclusion: Our results showed that ovariectomy decreased the biomechanical quality of skin. This result may be related to reactive oxygen species generated by the induction of ovariectomy in rat skin damaging the connective tissue components of the dermis.
The mediating effects of role stressors in supervisor-to-subordinate burnout

Several scholars have cited the importance of the role of the supervisor in providing employees with key resources enabling them to effectively cope with job demands, thereby reducing the risk of burnout. However, although literature continues to cite the importance of supervisory behavior as a factor contributing to subordinate burnout, a cogent model detailing the role of the supervisor in the subordinate burnout process has yet to be articulated. Understanding the role of the supervisor in the subordinate burnout process is critical because as it may help organizations develop leadership practices that reduce and eliminate burnout’s prevalence in the workplace. This paper articulates and tests a model whereby subordinate role stressors mediate the supervisor to subordinate burnout relationship. Drawing from a sample of 164 dyads, results and implications are discussed.
Role of swelling mineral in fixing lower limit of exchangeable sodium percentage for sodic soils

Explanations with regard to the observed loss of soil productivity due to poor drainage condition below and at 15 ESP (exchangeable sodium percentage) of deep black soils (Sodic Haplusterts and Sodic Calciusterts) and also at 50 ESP of alluvial soils (Typic Natrustalfs) in contrast to current universal minimum value of 15 ESP, are lacking at present. As the poor drainage condition is related to dispersion and swelling of clay minerals, two benchmark soils representing two types of soils were analysed for their detailed qualitative and quantitative mineralogy alongwith with their sodicity related physical and chemical properties. Results of this study indicate that the variance in the lower limit of ESP is due to huge amounts of smectite (491 g kg- 1) in the former and to very small amount of smectite (46 g kg-I) in the latter soil. The study suggests that the current lower limit of 15 ESP of United States Salinity Laboratory for all the soils is arbitrary and tentative and thus it would be prudent to evaluate the lower limit of ESP in view of loss of productivity in different group of soils.
A century of changes in wild food plant use in coastal Croatia: the example of Krk and Poljica

The aim of this study was to document the use of wild foods in two locations in the coastal part of Croatia – on the island of Krk and in the Poljica area, near Split. We chose these places as they have historical data on plant use (1900 and 1903 respectively). We carried out 67 interviews in Poljica and 55 interviews in Krk to estimate the current use and knowledge of wild foods. Altogether, 80 species of wild food and herbal tea species of plants were recorded in Poljica and 76 in Krk. On average, 13.2 species were listed by per interview in Poljica, including 7.1 species of wild vegetables, and in Krk 14.6 species, including 7.9 species of wild vegetables. Out of the list of plant names recorded in the past, in Krk, we identified 82% of the taxa and in Poljica 86%.
Equilibrium and Kinetic Modelling of Methyl Orange Adsorption from Aqueous Solution using Rice Husk and Egussi Peeling

The removal of methyl orange from aqueous solution by egussi peeling and rice husk was studied in a batch mode at room temperature. The study highlighted several parameters, such as the contact time, the mass of the adsorbent, the pH of the solution, and the initial concentration of the dye. The results showed that the removal of dyes by the bioadsorbents depended on the pH and the initial concentration of the sorbate. The adsorption capacity increased with increasing methyl orange concentration and the mass of the bioadsorbent. It was also established that maximum adsorption took place at pH = 2 for the two adsorbents. Using adsorbent masses of 1.3 g and initial concentration of 35 mg/L, the percentage removal of 69.45 and 70.31 were recorded for egussi peeling and rice husk, respectively. In order to deduce the adsorption mechanism, three simplified kinetic models were investigated. The kinetic study data were well represented by the pseudo second order kinetic model giving correlation coefficients (R2 ) values of 0.990 for rice husk and 0.992 for egussi peeling suggesting that chemisorption was the rate determining step. An equilibrium sudy of the adsorption process also showed that the Langmuir model best described the adsorption on egussi peeling, while Freundlich desribed that on rice husk. These results indicate that rice husk and egussi peeling have a high potential as adsorbents for removing methyl orange from aqueous solutions
Impact of the 1998 bleaching event on δ18O records of Okinawa corals

Oxygen isotope compositions of Porites sp. were measured in order to examine the effect of the 1998 bleaching event on the skeletal record of 6 neighboring colonies from Sesoko Island, Okinawa, Japan. A δ 18 O c -SST dependency of 0.18‰°C was calculated using a 10 yr record, well within accepted calibrations. The skeleton portion accreted during 1998 exhibited 0.3‰ enrichment in δ 18 O, which differs from the depleted values expected during abnormally high SST conditions. Growth rate changed significantly during the bleaching event, and its manifestation in skeletal δ 18 O masked the temperature signal. The δ 18 O variance among the 6 colonies was noticeably higher during 1998 in comparison with 1997 and 1999. A residual analysis revealed that 75% of the inter-annual variation of the δ 18 O record is explained by variation in annual extension rate. The increase in δ 18 O variance is proposed as a novel indicator for stressful environmental conditions.
The reassigned spectrogram as a tool for voice identication

A precise imaging scheme, the reassigned (or timecorrected instantaneous frequency) spectrogram, holds out considerable promise for identifying the speaker of an utterance. Unlike conventional spectrograms, reassigned spectrograms can display a few tens of milliseconds of phonation in great detail, without blurring in the time or frequency domains, and they are also impervious to many forms of noise or channel contamination. They are thus able to reveal some unique time-frequency features of an individual’s phonatory process. While further testing is needed to establish evaluation criteria and condence estimates, it is encouraging to see how readily pairs of reassigned spectrograms can be matched in the set illustrated herein. At the very least, such images can augment the techniques that are currently in use for speaker identication and verication.
Social expectations, gender and job satisfaction: Front-line employees in China's retail sector

This study aims to enhance our understanding of gender and employment in China. Analysing data collected from over 1,800 employees at 22 foreign-invested and locally owned retail stores in eight Chinese cities, it firstly explores whether, like their counterparts in Western countries, female employees have higher levels of job satisfaction than their male colleagues. Secondly, it distinguishes the key differential predictors of female and male employees’ job satisfaction levels. This article extends gender role theory on job satisfaction by showing how traditional values, the structure of work and a nation’s dominant gender ideology combine to shape women and men’s job satisfaction and work experiences in a transitional context.
A green managerial criteria pyramid model and key criteria for green supplier evaluation

Today the green supply chain management (GSCM) has been growing in recent years with an interest from both academia and industry. A greater degree of integration between suppliers and customers in the supply chain results in a greater competitive advantage such as managerial advantage. Adopting the proper supplier group to promote competitive capability and supplier performance is the greatest task so choosing the suitable supplier is a key strategic decision for management in many firms. Considering the effect of management in organizations and activities and fulfilling the goals, this paper attempts to look at the green supply chain management topics from managerial perspective. And in this regard, by using Fuzzy DEMATEL method, tries to evaluate the influential of factors among twenty tow criteria of five main managerial factors included: production management, financial management, strategic management, supplier management and customer management, for the selection of suitable suppliers and proponents of environment. The results show that customer cooperation with environmental considerations has the greatest influence among the criteria for selecting green suppliers.
From Theories to Queries

This article surveys recent work in active learning aimed at making it more practical for real-world use. In general, active learning systems aim to make machine learning more economical, since they can participate in the acquisition of their own training data. An active learner might iteratively select informative query instances to be labeled by an oracle, for example. Work over the last two decades has shown that such approaches are eective at maintaining accuracy while reducing training set size in many machine learning applications. However, as we begin to deploy active learning in real ongoing learning systems and data annotation projects, we are encountering unexpected problems|due in part to practical realities that violate the basic assumptions of earlier foundational work. I review some of these issues, and discuss recent work being done to address the challenges.
Knowledge Generation for National Development: Issues and Challenges

Some of the major issues and challenges involved in the process of knowledge generation for national development are discussed in this paper. The purpose of knowledge generation for national development is highlighted as well as the group of professionals involved in knowledge generation. The role of Research Institutions in knowledge generation is brought to the fore, with a particular focus on the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER). The challenges of the attainment of an improved state of knowledge generation for national development in Nigeria are also discussed. Keywords : Knowledge generation; National development; Research Institutions, NISER
Study of robust H(infinity) filtering application in loosely coupled INS/GPS system

Since a celebrate linear minimum mean square (MMS) Kalman filter in integration GPS/INS system cannot guarantee the robustness performance, a H(infinity) filtering with respect to polytopic uncertainty is designed. The purpose of this paper is to give an illustration of this application and a contrast with traditional Kalman filter. A game theory H(infinity) filter is first reviewed; next we utilize linear matrix inequalities (LMI) approach to design the robust H(infinity) filter. For the special INS/GPS model, unstable model case is considered. We give an explanation for Kalman filter divergence under uncertain dynamic system and simultaneously investigate the relationship between H(infinity) filter and Kalman filter. A loosely coupled INS/GPS simulation system is given here to verify this application. Result shows that the robust H(infinity) filter has a better performance when system suffers uncertainty; also it is more robust compared to the conventional Kalman filter.
Study on electromechanical coupling coefficients of surface acoustic waves in layered systems

Abstract The aim of this paper is to utilize the effective permittivity approach to calculate the electromechanical coupling coefficients of surface acoustic waves in layered systems. The effective permittivity offers a direct relation to the voltage‐induced charge density at the interface, and can be used to calculate the phase velocity dispersion and the electromechanical coupling coefficients of a layered piezoelectric medium exactly. In this paper, the formulation based on the matrix method for calculating the effective permittivity of a layered piezoelectric medium with three types of electrode arrangements is given first. Then, based on this formulation, we calculated phase velocity dispersions of the generalized SAW mode and the HVPSAW mode in layered systems of ZnO/Diamond and LiNbO3/Diamond. In addition, the electromechanical coupling coefficients of surface acoustic waves in the aforementioned layered systems with three different electrical boundary conditions were analyzed and discussed.
Astrophysics and Dark Matter Theory

Space-Time Quantization implies that the cosmic dark matter gas is subjected to pressure effects. We prove this by accounting for the mass-density distribution of dark matter in galactic halos. It can be directly deduced from observed rotation curves and coincides with theoretical predictions for dark matter atmospheres in hydrostatic equilibrium. Through embedding, the pressure of the cosmic dark matter gas prevents also the gravitational collapse of the Oort cloud, globular star clusters and cosmic filaments. The Sun has only a very small dark matter atmosphere, but observations confirm that dark matter is orbiting around the Sun. Other facts are explained by planetary dark matter disks. Space-Time quantization accounts also for dark matter-electron interaction, which allowed already for direct detection of galactic dark matter particles.
La théorie de la cohérence narrative en droit : Le débat Dworkin-MacCormick

Il s'agit de montrer en quoi la theorie de R. Dworkin rencontre les exigences du paradigme hermeneutique, qui domine la philosophie du droit depuis H. Hart. A cette fin, est analyse le debat qui oppose N. McCormick et A. Aarnio a R. Dworkin, dont la position s'eclaire d'etre rapprochee de la philosophie de Jurgens Habermas.
long-standing financing difficulties for the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in China. The SMEs act as a pivotal role in terms of boosting economy, creating employment opportunities, advancing innovations in China. By the end of 2011, Chinese SMEs

A successful IPO is determined by many different factors across listing markets. Identifying the principal factors and satisfying with them are prerequisites for an IPO firm. The purpose of this study is through Principal Factor Analysis (PFA) to investigate these determinants in the emerging Growth Enterprise Market of China. Based on a sample of the initial 243 IPOs in the market over 2009-2011 period, this study shows the five factors — firms size, profitability, growth rate, IPO volume, and dividend rate are the most significant factors for a successful IPO in the market.
Model system study of recycled polyethylene terephtalate and polyprpylene blends

Recycling of polymers becomes an increasingly important issue because of the environmental impact of petroleum-based polymer production. Legislative motivation also pushes for polymer recycling with the End-of-Life-Vehicles (ELV) directive dictated by the European Union requiring that a minimum of 85 wt% of vehicles are materials recycled. This creates a need to recycle interior parts from cars for example compression molded panels that consist of several polymers, such as polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Recycling of polymer blends can be a problematic process due to phase incompatibility. The compatibility of PP and PET, can be increased by adding compatibilizing agents that lower the interfacial tension. Adhesion between the phases can be increased as well resulting in a stronger and more elastic material. During processing of PET, degradation by hydrolysis results in loss in molecular weight. Chain extenders can be added to counteract this effect and thereby strengthening the material. The aim of the master’s thesis work was to investigate a system model for processing and upgrading recycled PP and PET fibers that can be industrially applicable. This was done by evaluating virgin PP pellets and PET fiber blends. The upgrading was performed by adding compatibilizing agents and chain extenders to the PP and PET blends. The study focused on maximizing the mechanical properties for the blends produced. The effect of compatibilizers, chain extenders and glass fiber was analyzed with mechanical analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that for maleic anhydride grafted PP compatibilized blends the yield strength was increased and combined with epoxy or oxazoline chain extenders even higher yield strength was observed. This was achieved by a very good dispersion of PET the phase in the PP matrix. High shear mixing in a regular twin screw extruder showed that the concept is industrially applicable.
Ensuring living condition for ageing population by public–private partnership (PPP)

Lack of financial resources has become one of the main issues in fulfilling social and physical needs in urban development. The declining levels of public resources make the collaboration between public and private investors necessary. When facing the challenges of ageing population, shared investment may contribute to the appropriate development of sheltered housing to meet the goals of spatial planning as well as certain standards at the level of urban design. By ensuring appropriate living conditions for all generations such urban PPP projects may contribute to the fulfilment of the public interest. The paper presents practice of PPP implementation in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where local authority with the collaboration of private partners ensured more than 400 sheltered apartments in the last years. Examples show the extension of the idea from the 70s onwards in finding new models of housing for the aging population. The development of new models can be a good example of strengthening the cooperation between public and private partners in the field of urban development practice.
Investigation of challenges faced by small and medium enterprises in new product development

A case study research was carried out on four manufacturing small and medium enterprises that are involved with new product development. Literature suggests that survival, growth and competitiveness of small and medium manufacturing enterprises are based on their ability to develop and introduce new products into the market. New product development has become a central mechanism through which a company’s strategy can be put into practice. Literature suggests that few articles have been written on new product development problems faced by small and medium manufacturing companies. The paper confirmed constraints faced by small and medium enterprises in developing new products such as lack of resources, poor coordination among various departments, lack of project management structures, weak strategic thinking, poor absorptive capacity and non-use of new product development frameworks. Small and medium companies must enable flexibility of staff movement among various departments to enable concurrent development of new products. Problems associated with lack of resources can be averted through formation of industry portals that can aggregate flexibility and agility. The time taken to develop new products can be reduced through sharing of information with their alliances and external networks including universities.