Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Valuing natural and cultural resources for eco-cultural tourism development : Libya's Green Mountain

This study focuses on achieving eco-cultural tourism development via identification and evaluation of natural, cultural and then eco-cultural resources (in terms of capital and criticality) for identifying the potential of eco-cultural tourism development and also determining the drivers of and barriers to tourism development. This is achieved through the views and perceptions of different cohorts of stakeholders. The case study is Libya's Green Mountain region (hereafter known as LGM). This study has developed a new framework for the identification and evaluation of 'Eco-Cultural Tourism Capital' (ECTC) and 'Critical Eco-Cultural Tourism Capital' (CECTC), to indicate eco-cultural tourism development potential, and also to determine the drivers of and barriers to tourism development. The framework ultimately aims to achieve eco-cultural tourism development. For the purposes of this study, eco-cultural resources are a combination of natural and cultural resources. 'Potential' means resources that can be exploited for tourism development (in this case eco-cultural resources). 'Capital' refers to resources that are perceived to have touristic value and commoditisation value. 'Critical Capital' refers to the extent to which this capital is perceived to be important, unique and non-substitutable. The study found that many of the eco-cultural resources in LGM can be considered as ECTC because they have touristic value which refers to recreational, cultural, historical, health and other value. Such ECTC are considered CECTC because they are important, unique and non-substitutable. CECTC indicates the potential for eco-cultural tourism development and needs to be more carefully focused as well as managed and developed sustainably. There are many factors that encourage tourism development which are considered drivers of tourism development in LGM. On the other hand, there are barriers facing tourism development regarding the local community and lack of infrastructure, facilities and services. Determining drivers and barriers helps to identify the key elements that should be considered and involved in achieving eco-cultural tourism development. Therefore, for developing eco-cultural tourism in LGM, it is necessary to identify potential, local community involvement, investment, and take advantage of the drivers. The results of the study can be applied in other destinations where eco-cultural tourism is underdeveloped. This study contributes to the literature in regard to eco-cultural tourism development and its potential. It explains the ideas of ECTC and CECTC and how they can be used for developing eco-cultural tourism. It then develops a framework for developing eco-cultural tourism. The study also contributes to the body of knowledge about tourism industry in Libya and LGM and eco-cultural tourism in particular.
A Study of the Design and Implementation of the ASR-based iCASL System with Corrective Feedback to Facilitate English Learning

The purpose of the study is to explore and describe how to implement a pedagogical ASR-based intelligent computer-assisted speaking learning (iCASL) system to support adult learners with a private, flexible and individual learning environment to practice English pronunciation. The iCASL system integrates multiple levels of corrective feedback and allows learners to practice English speaking with immediate diagnosis of their utterances. The information of the multiple levels of feedback includes a list of words that are pronounced accurately and inaccurately, while audio recasting and demonstration of model utterances are adopted to facilitate speaking. To evaluate the effectiveness of the system, a total of 38 adults from Taiwan participated in this experiment, divided into an experimental and a control group. The control group practiced English speaking using the single-level-feedback system in which only a speaking score and waveform diagram was presented as feedback, while the experimental group was given the three-level-feedback iCASL system integrating implicit and explicit elements in the feedback presentation. The empirical evaluation reveals that there were significant differences between the pre-test and post-test speaking scores only for the learners with three-level-feedback iCASL system. The study is in accordance with the previous research that indicates specific feedback is needed and helpful for further enhancing their English pronunciation. Within the three-level feedback, the second level, which provides an explicit textual description with immediate recasting of the learners' utterances, is the most useful feedback for self-correcting learning. The learners received simultaneous dual information from the audio and visual presentation and hence had better potential to improve their English speaking than the learners who were provided with single modality feedback. Moreover, the learners were satisfied with the iCASL system for self-paced learning and they mentioned that the path suggestion function was especially beneficial because it helped them to manage their learning. The adult learners used the accumulated fragmented time of the informal learning opportunities to achieve improvement in their spoken language. Some research issues and suggestions are also presented for future reference.
The random-bond Ising model in 2.01 and 3 dimensions

We consider the Ising model between 2 and 4 dimensions perturbed by quenched disorder in the strength of the interaction between nearby spins. In the interval 2 < d < 4 this disorder is a relevant perturbation that drives the system to a new fixed point of the renormalization group. At d = 2 such disorder is marginally irrelevant and can be studied using conformal perturbation theory. Combining conformal perturbation theory with recent results from the conformal bootstrap we compute some scaling exponents in an expansion around d = 2. If one trusts these computations also in d = 3, one finds results consistent with experimental data and Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, we perform a direct uncontrolled computation in d = 3 using new results for low-lying operator dimensions and OPE coefficients in the 3d Ising model. We compare these new methods with previous studies. Finally, we comment about the O(2) model in d = 3, where we predict a large logarithmic correction to the infrared scaling of disorder.
Progress in medical ultrasound exposimetry

Biomedical applications of ultrasound have experienced tremendous growth over the past 50 years. Early work in thermal therapy and surgery soon was followed by diagnostic imaging and Doppler. Because patient safety was an important issue from the beginning, the study of methods for measuring exposure levels, and their relationship to possible biological effects, paralleled the growth of the various therapeutic and diagnostic techniques. The diverse conditions of use have presented a range of exposure measurement challenges, and the sensors and techniques used to evaluate ultrasound fields have had to evolve as new or expanded clinical applications have emerged. In this paper some of the more notable of these developments are presented and discussed. Topics covered include devices and techniques, methods of calibration, progress in standardization, and current problem areas, including the effects of nonlinear propagation. Some early methods are described, but emphasis is given to more recent work applicable to present and future uses of ultrasound in medicine and biology.
Anxiety, depressive, and posttraumatic stress disorders among mothers of pediatric survivors of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

OBJECTIVE To examine the prevalence and predictors of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder among mothers of children who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). METHODS A total of 111 mothers of children who survived HSCT completed self-report measures of psychological functioning at the time of HSCT and self-report measures and a structured psychiatric interview 18 months after HSCT. Demographic data and medical data were also collected. RESULTS Approximately 20% of mothers had clinically significant distress reactions. When subthreshold posttraumatic stress disorder was included, nearly one third of mothers met the criterion for persistent distress. Mothers with 1 of the 4 psychiatric diagnoses reported a significantly lower quality of life, suggesting that the diagnoses had an impact on their general quality of life. Mothers who had 1 of the 4 diagnoses at 18 months were younger and had higher anxiety and depressive symptoms at the time of HSCT. CONCLUSIONS A subset of mothers of children who survive HSCT may require psychological intervention. Mothers who are most at risk are younger and evidence anxiety and depressive symptoms at the time of transplantation.
Spin-Dependent Bandgap Structures and Spin Filtering in Graphene With Multiple Ferromagnetic Barriers

We investigate spin-dependent bandgap structures and spin filtering in graphene with multiple ferromagnetic barriers. Using the transfer matrix method, we have calculated the spin-dependent transmission coefficients, the spin polarization, the conductance, and the electronic energy spectra of the systems. It is shown that the spinup and spindown electrons possess different bandgap structures. As a result, full spin polarization can be achieved within several separated energy zones. The width of the energy zone with full spin polarization can be effectively manipulated by adjusting the exchange field. Correspondingly, conductance steps with full spin polarization are observed in the systems. Our investigations may have potential applications in the design of carbon-based spin filters.
Voter Migration and the Geographic Sorting of the American Electorate

Questions have been raised in recent years about the extent to which the nation is segregated by the political preferences of its electorate. Some have argued that internal migration selects either directly or indirectly on political criteria and thereby produces increasingly one-sided Republican and Democratic neighborhoods. We are among the first to empirically examine voter migration on a large scale. Relying on data for millions of partisan migrants across seven states, we show that partisans relocate based on destination characteristics such as racial composition, income, and population density but additionally prefer to relocate in areas populated with copartisans. This tendency is stronger among Republicans but is also true of Democratic registrants. Whether the role of partisanship is central or ancillary, if it is any part of the decision process it has the potential to make important imprints on the political landscape of the United States.
Postoperative interventions to reduce inflammatory complications after third molar surgery: review of the current evidence

Inflammatory complications such as pain, swelling, trismus, infection and alveolar osteitis have an adverse affect on the quality of life of patients after third molar removal. This review presents the current evidence on postoperative strategies to reduce these complications. A literature search was performed to identify articles published in English between 2000 to 2016 using the following keywords: third molar(s), wisdom tooth/teeth, pain, swelling, trismus, infection, alveolar osteitis and dry socket. In total, 221 papers were reviewed. Methods published included analgesics, antibiotics, corticosteroids, mouthwashes, topical gels, cryotherapy and ozone therapy. This review highlights the variability in evidence available and summarizes the findings from best-quality evidence. In conclusion, paracetamol and ibuprofen are efficacious in managing postoperative pain. Corticosteroids and antibiotics should only be used in selected cases. Chlorhexidine reduces alveolar osteitis. The benefits of cryotherapy, postoperative irrigation and ozone gel are yet to be established.
Statistical Distributions of the Copolarized and Cross-Polarized Phase Differences of Stratified Media

We determine the statistical distributions of the copolarized and cross-polarized phase differences of fields scattered from a stack of two 2-D rough interfaces in any observation plane. This communication is carried within the framework of the first-order small perturbation method. The probability laws are established for Gaussian distributions of heights and for infinite extension interfaces. We show that, outside the incidence plane, the cross-polarized phase difference is not uniformly distributed and contains information about the stratified medium.
Cinema at the service of Natural Language Processing

In the Natural Language Processing area, many systems require the existence of training data in order to improve their results. Typically, increasing the training data amount in a Natural Language Processing system leads to a great improvement on system performance. But, sometimes it can be difficult to find adequate corpora for training purposes. Movie subtitles are a very important resource that is available for free and in large amounts for almost every language and can be used to obtain parallel corpora. Using different movie subtitle files for the same movie, we can extract useful information. In this work, we explore the potential of movie subtitles to produce aligned parallel corpora and extract information from them. This is done by correctly aligning the subtitle files, through the combination of state-of-the-art techniques that use not only the timing information present in subtitle files, but also the textual similarity between sentences. This represents a way of producing aligned parallel corpora that can be used in Machine Translation systems, due to the characteristics of movie dialogs. Besides the subtitle aligner, we have contributed with the creation of a subtitle dataset and reference alignments that can be used to evaluate any subtitle aligner. Using the created dataset and reference alignments, we have observed that the developed subtitle aligner successfully improves state-of-the-art results.
Role of Indoleamine 2,3‐Dioxygenase and Tryptophan 2,3‐Dioxygenase in Patients with Recurrent Miscarriage

An indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase (IDO) and a tryptophan 2,3‐dioxygenase (TDO) lead to dysfunction of T cell and immunological tolerance between fetus and mother in early pregnancy. We investigated the role of IDO and TDO in patients with recurrent miscarriage.
Joint Rate, Power, and Decoding Order Optimization of Multiuser MIMO Systems

We consider multiuser MIMO systems with some of the users having target-rate requirements while the other users are working on best-effort data transmission. Both multiple-access channels (MAC) and broadcast channels (BC) are considered. We show that the best-effort users can achieve higher rates when the data streams of any user are not restricted to be decoded consecutively and when time-sharing between different decoding orders is allowed. For MIMO-MAC, we show that the problem can be formulated as a convex optimization problem, and hence efficient algorithms can be used to obtain the globally optimal solution. We also show that in some cases it is possible to reduce the transmission power of some users without affecting the optimal solution, and we show that the power minimization problem is convex. We also exploit the MAC-BC duality in order to solve the same problem for the MIMO-BC channel.
Strategies for the Analysis of Accessory‐Cell Function: The in vitro Cloning and Characterization of the P Cell

Work on B and T cell activation, particularly in in vitro tissue culture system, has defined two broad and probably overlapping categories of accessory cells, macrophages and la-positive cells, that appear to be crucially involved in lymphocyte activation and clonal expansion. The virtue of in vitro techniques in the analysis of the role of accessory cells is that the composition of cell populations can be manipulated. However, to date severe methodological constraints have limited the information derived from this approach. For example, experiments designed to study the effect of depletion of putative accessory cells have been limited by the fact that the depletion techniques are not wholly specific for the accessory cells under study, and frequently are incomplete. Given the low molarity at which monokines and lymphokines appear to act, it is difficult to rule out a contribution by very small numbers of residual accessory cells or accessory cells that have matured during the culture from less differentiated progenitor cells that were not removed by the depletion technique. Furthermore, because depletion techniques may have effects on other than the desired cell types, it is also necessary to demonstrate that a pure population of the putative accessory cell can reconstitute the function of the depleted population. However, it has been difficult to prepare pure populations of accessory cells.
IMPACT OF A PREVIOUS AUDIT ON TAX AGGRESSIVENESS OF A FIRM TAXPAYER

This study aims to analyze the effect of a previous tax audit on tax aggressiveness of a firm taxpayer who submits Overpayment Annual Tax Return. The degree of tax aggressiveness itself uses Delta Effective Tax Rate as a proxy, generated from Annual Tax Return data from 2011 to 2016. Using multinomial logit regression as a method, this study found that a previous Tax Audit and tax audit result made a firm prefer to choose a positive Delta Effective Tax Rate.
Adaptive OFDM subcarrier design for SAR Cross-Range Profile Reconstruction

In this paper, we investigate an adaptive Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) subcarrier design for a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system that can be used in Through-the-Wall radar Imaging (TWI), detection of hidden object and pipelines inspection. At first, an OFDM SAR model is developed for a single target detection. The target is reconstructed via match filtering of the estimated phase history with a reference function. The phase history is estimated using Least Square Estimate (LSE) and parameters such as Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), cumulative side lobe levels and the main lobe width are used to test and compare the accuracy of the reconstruction process. Simulation results shows that increasing the number of subcarriers results in an improvement in the target reconstruction but at the cost of having a wider main lobe. The results are also compared with the Single Frequency (SF) case. Initial results shows that OFDM SAR method is a promising technique in SAR reconstruction process as compared with SF case such as Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW). The technique is later extended to the detection of multiple targets scene.
Irreversible JPEG compression of digital chest radiographs for primary interpretation: assessment of visually lossless threshold.

PURPOSE To determine if digital chest images could be compressed in a primary interpretation context without perceived loss of fidelity (below the visually lossless threshold) at transilluminated film or cathode ray tube (CRT) display. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred forty-four posteroanterior radiographs were obtained with a digital chest radiography system. At both film and CRT display, an identified original image was presented side by side with a replicate, which was either an unaltered image or an image that had been Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) compressed to 10:1, 20:1, or 50:1 and reconstructed. Each of the 10 readers indicated whether the replicate was "indistinguishable from the original" or "degraded" at clinical reading distance and at close inspection. The readers' ability to detect compressed images was examined for patterns; 95% CIs were used for statistical testing. RESULTS With transilluminated film at clinical reading distance, readers were as likely to rate originals (48 [20%] of 240 readings) as degraded as they were to rate 20:1 replicates (106 [22%] of 480 readings) as degraded, but they frequently identified 50:1 replicates (283 [59%] of 480 readings) as degraded. At close inspection, 20:1 replicates (163 [34%] of 480 readings) were often identified as degraded, but 10:1 replicates (19 [8%] of 240 readings) were not identified as degraded more often than originals (17 [7%] of 240 readings). With CRT display, the results were nearly identical. CONCLUSION At reading distance for primary interpretation, full-size digital chest radiographs that have been JPEG compressed to 10:1 or 20:1 and reconstructed are visually lossless at film or CRT display. Images compressed to 10:1 remain visually lossless at close inspection.
Diagnostic and analytical mutation scanning of Cryptosporidium: utility and advantages

Cryptosporidiosis is predominantly a disease of the alimentary tract of humans and other vertebrates, caused by parasitic protists of the genus Cryptosporidium. This disease, transmitted mainly via the fecal–oral route (in water or food), is of major socioeconomic importance globally. The diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis, including the genetic characterization of the different species, genotypes and subgenotypes (population variants) of Cryptosporidium, is crucial to prevention and control, particularly as there is no cost-effective treatment against this disease. Although traditional phenetic techniques have had major deficiencies for the specific diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis, there has been substantial progress in the establishment of molecular tools. In this article, we review key genetic markers used for the specific identification of Cryptosporidium, diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis and analysis of genetic variation in Cryptosporidium populations. We also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of selected techniques, and emphasize the benefits of utilizing rapid mutation scanning in achieving improved insights into the population genetics and epidemiology of Cryptosporidium.
Market Structure and Performance of Bangladesh Banking Industry: A Panel Data Analysis

The study examines the degree of concentration and performance of the Bangladesh banking industry for the period 1999-2011 by using the random effects (RE) estimator. It applies two competing hypotheses of the traditional industrial organisation theory e.g. the structure conduct performance (SCP) paradigm and efficient structure hypothesis (ESH) to investigate the relationship between the concentration and competition in the banking sector. The results of the main sample (1999-2011) do not find any support for either of the hypotheses. However, a sub-sample (2002-2011) of the study supports the SCP hypothesis that the profitability of Bangladesh banking market is determined by concentration and not by the market share of banks. It implies that concentration lowers the cost of collusion between banks and results in higher than normal profits for all market participants. Bank performance is positively associated with capitalisation, liquidity and assets size of the banks. The ownership variable suggests that government-owned banks are less profitable than other commercial banks in the market.