Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maximising rates of productivity at mine, quarry and construction sites using engineering optimisation and Monte-Carlo simulation

Industrial activities comprised of fixed and mobile noise sources such as mines, quarries and construction sites often operate under environmental noise limitations that can restrict site activity at certain times. The noise immission levels at receptors vary continuously due to unsteady noise emissions of plant and/or because of changes in mobile equipment location and/or orientation and also because of the continually changing attenuation properties of the atmosphere affecting the sound propagation. These sites often want to maximise their production rates utilising as much of their fleet and equipment inventory as possible while still complying with their environmental noise limits. This paper presents a method to maximise the size of the operating fleet within the site’s environmental noise constraints, taking into account the inherent variability of noise sources using engineering optimisation and Monte-Carlo simulation.
Effect of Mobility Models on Performance of Novel Centralized Clustering Approach based on K-means for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor network consists of sensor nodes which are deployed in the area in order to collect and transmit information about a phenomenon. In some applications of WSN, the nodes are more mobile than static where in each of them has a limited energy and random mobility. Therefore, the mobility and routing are important issues and they are considered as key to researchers in WSN. In this paper, we propose a new improved version of the LEACH-C protocol based on the clustering approach. Our main contribution consists of the evaluation of the performance of integration an unsupervised algorithm which is inspired from K-means method under diverse mobility models with varying the density of mobile nodes in order to produce a new cluster scheme and find the optimal clusters. Three mobility models (Random Waypoint Mobility Model, Manhattan Mobility Model and Gauss Markov Mobility Model) were used for performance analysis with respect to Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Average Throughput, Normalized Routing Load (NRL), Average Endto-End Delay and Energy Consumption for nodes. Simulation results verify that our new approach called LEACH-CKMEANS for mobility models Random Waypoint and Gauss Markov under different densities gives better results than the LEACH-C protocol in terms of energy consumption and performance parameters.
The Application Development Outsourcing Decision: An Application of the Technology Acceptance Model

The outsourcing industry has grown rapidly. This study synthesizes factors from prior outsourcing research and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with information gathered from structured interviews of nine IT executives from seven companies to propose a model of outsourcing acceptance. TAM suggested that perceived usefulness and ease of use mediate the effects of other variables on users' attitudes toward technology. The model in this study suggests that perceived usefulness and ease of use of outsourcing mediate the effects of the external environment, prior outsourcing relationships and risks on outsourcing decision-makers.
Genome-wide analysis identifies a functional association of Tet 1 and Polycomb repressive complex 2 in mouse embryonic stem cells

Background: Ten-Eleven Translocation (TETs)proteins mediate the oxidation of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) to 5hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC). Tet1 is expressed at high levels in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), where it mediates the induction of 5hmC decoration on gene-regulatory elements. While the function of Tet1 is known, the mechanisms of its specificity remain unclear. Results: We perform a genome-wide comparative analysis of 5hmC in pluripotent ESCs, as well as in differentiated embryonic and adult cells. We find that 5hmC co-localization with Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is specific to ESCs and is absent in differentiated cells. Tet1 in ESCs is distributed on bivalent genes in two independent pools: one with Sin3a centered at non-hydroxymethylated transcription start sites and another centered downstream from these sites. This latter pool of Tet1 co-localizes with 5hmC and PRC2. Through coimmunoprecipitation experiments, we show that Tet1 forms a complex with PRC2 specifically in ESCs. Genomewide analysis of 5hmC profiles in ESCs following knockdown of the PRC2 subunit Suz12 shows a reduction of 5hmC within promoter sequences, specifically at H3K27me3-positive regions of bivalent promoters. Conclusions: In ESCs, PRC2 recruits Tet1 to chromatin at H3K27me3 positive regions of the genome, with 5hmC enriched in a broad peak centered 455 bp after the transcription start site and dependent on the PRC2 component Suz12. These results suggest that PRC2-dependent recruitment of Tet1 contributes to epigenetic plasticity throughout cell differentiation.
Social Security and Poverty Reduction Cracks in the Post-war Policy Paradigm, Avenues for the Future1

For more than a decade, organisations such as the IMF, OECD and ILO have issued concerns about the trend of increased inequality in rich welfare states. The influential works of globally leading experts such as Sir Anthony Barnes Atkinson, Nobel Prize winners Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty and, more recently, Branko Milanovic converge on one point: globalisation and technological progress are making the currents of social market economies more unequal. Even more worrying is the observation that since the beginning of the 1970s, rich welfare states have largely failed to make any further progress in combating relative income poverty, especially among the working age population. On the contrary, over the long run, in the Anglo-Saxon world poverty has increased in many countries. On the European continent, too, poverty remains a largely intractable problem for policy-makers (Cantillon and Vandenbroucke, 2014; Cantillon, Goedemé and Hills, 2018).
Contactless heart rate and respiratory measurement for sleep monitoring

Heart rate and respiration, which are physiological indicators closely related to cardiopulmonary function, are widely used in clinical diagnosis and daily monitoring. This paper proposes a heart rate measurement based on imaging photovoltaic plethysmography (iPPG) and a respiratory measurement method of sift algorithm. We mark the region of interest by dlib. Signal is obtained by color channels separation of ROI and independent component analysis. Next we filter signal with bandpass filter and extract heart rate from the blood volume pulse via Fourier transform. Meanwhile, the trajectory is decomposed into a set of component motions by calculating the feature points at the chest and performing principal component analysis. The composition of the respiration that is most suitable for the calculation is then selected based on its time spectrum. Finally, the peak of the trajectory corresponding to the respiration is determined. This method could be used for contactless sleep monitoring .
The effect of salinity on germination , vegetative and final growth stage of different rice ( Oryza sativa L . ) genotypes

1 SUMMARY The experiment was done in a laboratory for germination test and a pot experiment in the lath house at Werer Agricultural Research Centre, eastern part of Ethiopia from August, 2014 to February 2015. The objective was to identify salt tolerant genotypes of rice at different growth stage. Thirteen genotypes along with two controls were tested at four salinity levels in factorial combination in completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. The ANOVA for these two experiments revealed very highly significant (P< 0.0001) differences between the genotypes in all studied traits witnessing the genetic variability, which can be used in breeding rice for salinity tolerance. Salinity levels in both experiments affected traits during germination and vegetative growth. The genotype by salinity interaction was also very highly significant for all traits showing the inconsistency of the performance of genotypes across the salinity levels that also caused rank change in most of the genotypes. In the germination experiment, it was found that the increase in salinity caused a reduction in germination percentage, plumule and radicle length. IR 71991and IR 71901 were found tolerant, showing relatively low reduction in the three traits compared to the remaining genotypes. In the plant growth, experiment salinity caused delay emergence by 0.55 days and reduced chlorophyll content by 2.12 spad value in every ds/m increase of salinity between 0 and 12 ds/m. In plant growth experiment, IR 70023 and IR 71810 were found tolerant. As a recommendation, these tolerant genotypes can be used for salinity problematic soils but on the ground, there should field experiment, which confirms the resistance of the genotypes.
Employee Rewards in HRM and its impact on Employee Engagement in an Organization

This research paper focuses on the effect of reward systems on employee engagement in the modern work environment. Reward Systems have evolved over the years beginning effectively from the era of Industrial Revolution that unleashed mankind’s creative potential. Over a period of time Reward Systems have been structured and subjected to severe transition to be equitable and fit effectively with the organizational goals and to fulfill various organizational needs. This paper endeavors to explore the relation between Rewards and one such crucial organizational requirement, ‘Employee Engagement’. It highlights the role of rewards and traces its significance to enhance employee engagement in today’s organization. Finally, it discusses the measures that can be adopted to improve this relation.
The Association between Expected Synergies and Post-Acquisition Performance in Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions

We investigate whether the relation between expec ted synergies and postacquisition performance differs between cross-borde r M&As and domestic M&As. Managers may, on average, fail to accurately estimate synerg ies resulting from cross-border M&As because of geographical, cultural, and institutiona l factors, or because of the greater difficulty to forecast integration costs ex post. Alternativel y, managers may engage in cross-border deals only if they perceive that they can realistic ally estimate synergies. We exploit an accounting rule which requires managers to disclose their estimate of expected synergies. This estimate, referred to as “goodwill”, is the excess of the purchase price over the net fair value of acquired assets. Using a sample of M&As complete d by US acquirers, we show that, relative to domestic goodwill, cross-border goodwil l is positively associated with increasing post-acquisition operating performance, sales growt h, stock returns, and Tobin’s q. In addition, we find that cross-border acquirers are l ess likely to impair goodwill in the year following the acquisition. We also document that th e ability to accurately forecast synergies in cross-border deals is decreasing in cultural and in stitutional distance from the US. These results suggest that although managers are able to forecast synergies more accurately for deals in relatively similar countries than for domestic d eals, they are not as accurate at forecasting synergies for cross-border deals as for domestic de als when the additional complexities exceed the additional managerial effort.
ReCoIL Project and CoLab Modelling Tool

In this communication the European ReCoIL project will be presented together with an introduction to the system dynamics like modelling editor used in Co-Lab, a previous European project included as part of ReCoIL. ReCoIL project aims to facilitate teachers the adoption of a collaborative inquiry learning approach. In ReCoIL three former projects have participated: Co-Lab, ModellingSpace and Viten. Support to the teachers comes in the form of a web based Access Point including some ready to use material configured as CoILs (collaborative inquiry learning stuff) oriented to allow the students to act as scientists, making empirical research, expressing and communicating their knowledge and working together. The model editor, developed for Co-Lab and used in the Co-Lab like CoILs of ReCoIL, is in the line of the system dynamics modelling tool used by STELLA, allowing not only quantitative modelling but also qualitative one, somewhat similar to Model-It. It has been written in Java as an open source tool.
M ay 2 01 4 Dichroism for Orbital Angular Momentum using Stimulated Parametric Down Conversion

One usage of the term dichroism in optics is to describe the differential loss of monochromatic light in one of two orthogonal polarization states with respect to some reference axis. This definition encompasses the case of both linear and circular dichroism, and also gain and/or loss if one allows for negative absorption. For example, circular dichroism refers to case in which right-handed (RHC) and left-handed circular (LHC) polarizations experience different propagation losses in the dichroic medium. As is well known the RHC and LHC polarized states represent two orthogonal spin angular momentum (SAM) states for the light field. Then another way to express circular dichroism is that it is a dichroism based on the spin angular momentum (SAM) state of the incident light field, or simply dichroism for SAM. The goal of this paper is propose and theoretically investigate stimulated Parametric Down Conversion (PDC) as a means to produce dichroism based on the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of an incident signal field. The nonlinear interaction is shown to provide differential gain between signal states of differing OAM, the peak gain occurring at half the OAM of the pump field. Stimulated PDC involving fundamental and second-harmonic fields carrying OAM has previously been explored both experimentally and theoretically but mainly in the context of the conservation of OAM for the PDC process [1–3] as opposed to creating dichroism for OAM. A recent paper has discussed circular dichroism that has its origin in the OAM of a beam incident on a non-chiral structure [4] whereas here we elucidate a means to produce dichroism that acts on the incident beam OAM directly. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the geometry and governing equations for our system, and Sec. III presents a simplified analytic theory of stimulated PDC and dichroism for OAM for pump and signal beams that are perfect optical vortices. In Sec. IV numerical results are presented for the case of signal and pump fields that are imperfect
Immediate Effects of Cervical Spine Thrust Joint Manipulation on Gait Parameters in Individuals with Neck Pain

Purpose/Hypotheses: 1. To investigate for any change in gait parameters in individuals with neck pain while walking with different functional neck conditions immediately following cervical thrust joint manipulation (TJM) versus a sham intervention. 2. To investigate any association between Global Rating of Change (GROC) scores and gait parameters immediately following cervical thrust joint manipulation versus a sham intervention. The hypotheses were that, a) cervical TJM would have an immediate effect on gait parameters during walking with the neck in at least one of three conditions (neutral, flexion/extension and rotation) among individuals with neck pain; and b) higher scores on the GROC would be associated with improved gait parameters post-intervention. Subjects: Convenience sample of 40 individuals (30 female; mean age 24.5 ± 6.78 years) with neck pain. To qualify, subjects had to have a score >0 on the question of pain intensity in the neck on the Neck Disability Index (NDI) questionnaire and have no contraindications or precautions for cervical TJM. Materials/Methods: Subjects walked on a Zeno Walkway under the following conditions: 1) head in neutral; 2) head rotating from side-to-side, and 3) head nodding up and down. After completing 30 practice trials (10 in each condition), pre-intervention trial 1 gait parameters were recorded for each of the three neck conditions in a randomized order. After a 5-minute rest period, pre-intervention trial 2 was conducted for each condition in same order as trial 1. Subjects then received one of two randomly assigned interventions: cervical spine TJM or active cervical rotation. Immediately after the intervention, the subject returned to the Zeno Walkway for the post-intervention trial 3 in each of the three conditions, in the same order as their previous trials. Gait parameters of average step length, stride length, stride width, velocity, and cadence were analyzed using a 2x2 repeated measures ANOVA (of trials 2 and 3), as well as independent and paired t-tests, to determine if there were any significant changes based on intervention when comparing TJM to sham groups. Results: The results of the 2x2 ANOVA revealed significant interactions between group and time on average gait velocity (p=0.008), step length (p=<0.001), and stride length (p=0.009) when the head was in a neutral position. The TJM group experienced significant increases from pre to post-intervention as shown by paired samples t-test for average gait velocity (p=0.003), step length (p<0.001), and stride length (p=0.008). The sham group however, experienced no significant change in gait velocity (p = 0.290), average step length (p = 0.299), and stride length (p = 0.292). There was also a significant decrease in the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) (mean decrease of 1.25; p=0.003) and the group that received cervical TJM reported an improved perception of change demonstrated by an average increase in GROC score by 2.85 (p=0.001). Conclusions: Although our results demonstrate a statistically significant…
de Do short-lived ruderal and arable weed communities reflect regional climate differences ?

The Feldbach district is situated near the town of Feldbach in the southeastern province of Styria, Austria. Since 2007, a climate observation network of 151 climate stations within an area of approximately 20 x 15 km (grid cell 1.4 × 1.4 km) has provided a unique collection of spatial and temporal meteorological data. Examining short-lived ruderal and arable weed communities, we search for correlations and spatial patterns between the community composition and climate data. Do such plant communities respond to temperature differences within an agricultural landscape and on a regional scale? Data of 277 relevés from short-lived weed communities were collected across the investigated area during the summer of 2011. Relevés were assigned to the corresponding climate stations and classified. Average Ellenberg indicator values for temperature were calculated for each relevé and community cluster. Measured temperature data were assigned and correlated with community data by applying linear regression and redundancy analyses (RDA). The classification resulted in six associations; the two most frequently observed associations were divided into subtypes resulting in 13 vegetation clusters that could be analyzed further. A significant relationship could be found only between the clusters of arable weed communities and the average winter temperatures. Site variables explain twice as much variance as measured climate variables; this ratio changes to 50 : 50 when we analyzed only arable field community data. No clear spatial patterns concerning mean annual temperature were visible. However, the Setaria faberi subtype of the Echinochloo-Setarietum and the Sorghum halepense subtype of the Convolvulo-Agropyretum show a tendency toward a temperature-induced spatial pattern, such that both were sensitive to winter temperature. On a regional scale, the occurrence and composition of short-lived ruderal plant communities correlated weakly with climate variables. However, the studied arable weed communities showed a certain tendency to follow small-scale temperature differences, especially those of average winter temperature. We conclude that short-lived weed communities have the potential to be indicators for global warming, but the spatial temperature gradients are not clear enough in our approach to allow the production of better regression models and elucidation of distinct spatial patterns.
EFFECT OF SUBSTRATE BIAS VOLTAGE PARAMETERS ON SURFACE PROPERTIES OF taC COATINGS

The study presents the technology of the formation of amorphous ta-C films, deposited by pulsed vacuum-arc method with the use of a water-cooled electromagnetic Venetian blind plasma filter. The effect of the substrate bias voltage, in the range of -25 to -200 V, on the structural and surface properties of ta-C coatings was analyzed. The strong correlation between surface properties of amorphous ta-C films depending on substrate bias voltage variations and characteristic changes in the content of the diamond-like sp 3 fraction was observed. PACS: 68.55
INVESTIGATING THE PHONOLOGICAL CONTENT OF LEARNERS' "FUZZY" LEXICAL REPRESENTATION FOR NEW L2 WORDS

Adult learners are known to experience difficulty using novel second language (L2) phonological contrasts to distinguish words. Indeed, even the ability to perceive and produce a novel contrast with relative accuracy does not guarantee an ability to implement the contrast to distinguish words in tasks requiring lexical access. These observations lead to questions regarding the phonological content of learners’ lexical representations of difficult L2 contrasts. In the present study we use an artificial lexicon design involving naïve L2 learners to examine the lexical encoding and retrieval of words containing novel L2 phonological contrasts. In each of two experiments, native English speakers were taught a set of six Japanese-like auditory minimal pairs along with pictured meanings. The members of each pair were differentiated by either consonant length (e.g., [teki] vs. [tekki]) or vowel length (e.g., [teki] vs. [teeki]), which are contrastive in Japanese but not in English. Participants were then tested on their ability to match the pictures to auditory words. These test items were matched (e.g., see picture of ‘teki’, hear [teki]) or mismatched (e.g., see ‘teki’, hear [teeki] for segment length). The results are compared to the predictions of several possible scenarios with respect to the ways in which participants might encode and retrieve words varying in segment length.
ISSN 8755-6839 SCIENCE OF TSUNAMI HAZARDS Journal of Tsunami Society International Volume 37 Number 4 2018 ANALYSIS OF TRAVEL TIME DELAY FOR LARGE TSUNAMIS ACROSS THE PACIFIC AND INDIAN OCEANS

Travel time delay for a tsunami has been an increasingly important issue in recent years. The delay in time is calculated from a difference in arrival times between simulated waveforms and waves recorded by DART and gauge stations. In this study, we estimate travel times for the 2011 Tohoku, the 2014 Iquique, the 2004 Aceh, and the 2010 Mentawai events. We compare estimated travel times with travel times from field records and find that the time delay is increasing with epicentral distance, following reduced speeds during propagation. From analyses of the delays, we conclude that speed reduction in the Pacific is 1-2% from the long-wave speed but twice larger or more in the Indian Ocean due to its complex bathymetry. For far-field propagation in the Pacific, the delays could be approximately 17 minutes whereas the same amount of delay was attained at a shorter distance in the Indian Ocean.