Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Review of Quality Management Research in Higher Education Institutions

The purpose of this study is to determine the state of research in quality management in higher education institutions based on a review of the academic literature. The aim is to provide universities with the best evidence for informing their focus and models for quality improvement. The findings indicate there is very little research on quality management, despite quality’s role growing in importance as universities strive to compete in an increasingly underfunded market for students and research funds. The review explains the common quality topics discussed and the measure of agreement on dimensions of quality that research finds. In addition journal analysis provides information on popular outlets, research methodologies and country focus. The findings show that the three most common topics are quality management implementation issues, quality management models, techniques and tools, and quality management dimensions. The key quality management enabling dimensions found are: people management, process management and information and analysis, while results dimension is predominantly focused on an understanding of stakeholders’ requirements and feedback on their perceptions of performance. We find in this literature that students are discussed as both end customers as graduates and participants in the learning process who have views on their experience. The paper concludes with recommendations for the development of quality management for universities, and a future research agenda
Modelling of proton irradiated GaN-based high-power white light-emitting diodes

We report the effects of high-energy (23 GeV) proton irradiation at large fluences on packaged high-power GaN-based white light-emitting diodes with YAG:Ce phosphors. From optical and electrical measurements, we assume that proton irradiation degrades only the GaN LED die up to fluences of at least 2 × 1014 p/cm2, and we demonstrate that it produces nonradiative recombination centres which increase the leakage current and diminish the carrier density in the quantum wells and hence the output optical power. We also propose for the first time a model correlating optical and electrical degradation induced by radiation.
Differences in Root Growth and Permeability in the Grafted Combinations of Dutch Tomato Cultivars (Starbuck and Maxifort) and Japanese Cultivars (Reiyo, Receive, and Magnet)

Grafting is widely established in agriculture and provides practical advantages for vegetable production. We investigated physiological differences between the grafted combinations of Dutch (Starbuck and Maxifort) and Japanese (Reiyo, Receive and Magnet) tomato cultivars. Plants were grown hydroponically until the flowers on the first truss bloomed, and the following parameters were measured: fresh weight of the aerial parts, root surface area, root permeability (by using a pressure chamber), and water potential of exudates (by using an isopiestic psychrometer). The Starbuck/Maxifort combination had higher values of the aerial part weight, root surface area, and root permeability than Reiyo/Receive, whereas Reiyo/Maxifort tended to have higher values of these parameters than Reiyo/Receive and Reiyo/Magnet. Maxifort had a significantly larger root surface area than Receive, but root permeability was not significantly different. InReiyo/Maxifort and Starbuck/Receive, these parameters were not significantly different except for a single comparison of root permeability. Thus, root permeability and root surface area may depend not only on the rootstock but be also affected by scion in grafted plants. Water potential of exudates was similar in most combinations and experiments. This shows that three rootstock cultivars provided similar nutrient concentrations even with different scions.
Title Topology Optimization for a Dielectric Optical Cloak Based on an Exact Level Set Approach

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California Creepmeters

A handful of faults in California manifest some form of surface creep: afterslip, episodic slip, steady slip, or triggered slip. Creep can be considered a proxy for shear strain applied to a fault, although its rate is sensitive also to fault normal stresses, and variations in the frictional properties of the near-surface fault. Creepmeters afford a view of fault activity with micron precision, at rates of up to 5 mm/minute, though creep rates on most California faults are typically less than a few mm/year. This article summarizes the current status of creepmeters in California and their contribution to the study of plate boundary slip. We describe two new creepmeters: one designed for autonomous yearlong deployment with 10μm precision, and another with mm precision and 3 m range designed to capture pre-seismic, co-seismic and afterslip associated with seismic rupture. We discuss a third system that provides both high resolution and large range. The anticipated availability of displacement and strain-fields applied to California faults following the successful implementation of the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) promises new insights in the mechanism of creep, and its potential utility in the study of the earthquake cycle.
4 WHAT ARE THE ANIMAL EVIDENCE FOR NICKEL CARCINOGENICITY ?

Nickel compounds are classified under the European Union Classification, Labeling and Packaging (CLP) as Carc 1A, known to have carcinogenic potential to humans. A similar classification as Group 1 carcinogens was given by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer). Only the inhalation route is associated with cancer and the tumors are local to the respiratory tract (sino-nasal and lung); oral route is not associated with cancer. The carcinogenicity of nickel compounds is mainly an occupational concern. Epidemiological evidence from workers refining and processing sulfidic ores have shown increased respiratory cancer risks associated with exposures to mixtures of water soluble and insoluble nickel compounds. Animal studies with pure compounds corroborate the respiratory carcinogenicity of insoluble nickel compounds. It is possible that soluble nickel compounds are not carcinogenic by themselves but promote the carcinogenicity of other nickel compounds.
Pixel-wise object tracking using a global attention model and a local segmentation model

In this paper, we propose a novel pixel-wise visual object tracking framework that can track any anonymous object in a noisy background. The framework consists of two submodels, a global attention model and a local segmentation model. The global model generates a region of interests (ROI) that the object may lie in the new frame based on the past object segmentation maps; while the local model segments the new image in the ROI. Each model uses a LSTM structure to model the temporal dynamics of the motion and appearance, respectively. To circumvent the dependency of the training data between the two models, we use an iterative update strategy. Once the models are trained, there is no need to refine them to track specific objects, making our method efficient compared to online learning approaches. We demonstrate our real time pixel-wise object tracking framework on a challenging VOT dataset.
007 AIDA-2020 Advanced European Infrastructures for Detectors at Accelerators Conference / Workshop Paper Irradiation Facilities

CERN provides unique irradiation facilities for applications in many scientific fields. This paper summarizes the facilities currently operating for proton, gamma, mixed-field and electron irradiations, including their main usage, characteristics and information about their operation. The new CERN irradiation facilities database is also presented. This includes not only CERN facilities but also irradiation facilities available worldwide.
Age-Related Changes in Meat Tenderness and Tissue Pentosidine : Effect of Diet Restriction and Aminoguanidine in Broiler Breeder Hens 1

The nonenzymatic glycosylation of tissue protein contributes to the formation of crosslinks that leads to structural and functional deterioration in the long-lived tissue protein, collagen. The accumulation of these crosslinks thus contributes to the objectionable toughness of meat from aged animals, decreases its economic value, and limits its use in whole muscle foods. The objectives of this study were to determine the effectiveness of diet restriction and the crosslinking inhibitor, aminoguanidine (AG), on reducing the accumulation of crosslinks, thereby improving meat tenderness in broiler breeder hens. The glycoxidation product, pentosidine, was also measured in skin (Ps) to determine whether changes in its concentrations correlated with the changes in shear value (SV). Chicks (n = 450) were randomly assigned to four treatment groups from 8 to 125 wk after (
EFFECT OF NATURAL POZZOLAN ON CONCRETE DURABILITY

Sulfate attack and its effects are important from both scientific and industrial viewpoints. It is perceived that cements containing pozzolan have better performance in sulfate solutions, since the pozzolanic reactions reduce the quantity of calcium hydroxide and increase calcium silicate hydrate. This paper investigates the physical and mechanical properties of concretes made by blended cement containing Algerian natural pozzolan of volcanic origin, and Portland cement. In order to better determine the pozzolanic effect of the pozzolan addition in the concrete, the analysis of the experimental results of the effect of the partial replacement of the cement by the natural pozzolan showed that it contributes positively to the improvement of its mechanical characteristics, its durability with respect to the permeability to the chlorine ions, the ultrasonic pulse velocity, the compressive strength as well as the sulphate resistance. The present study confirms the pozzolanic reactivity of the natural pozzolan used
BIM Geometry Generation from Low-resolution Aerial Photographs for Building Energy Modeling

Building Energy Modeling (BEM) is a time consuming and costly process, primarily due to the extensive manual inputs required for model development. The definition of geometry inputs for models of existing buildings is particularly difficult. We present an automatic procedure for the analysis and segmentation of building facades in low-resolution aerial photographs in order to recover their semantic structure as well as to synthesize geometric models for reuse in the BEM process. An iterative approach for facade parsing is developed for the detection of facade structures which is robust to image noise and under-sampling artifacts as they are common in aerial photographs. In each step, a further refined shape grammar representing the high-level facade topology is inferred from the low-level facade element detection. Then, the lowlevel detection is improved by using feedback from the previously generated high-level structure. Based on this iterative analysis, we recover high-level facade topology by deriving a compact procedural description which takes into account symmetries and repeating patterns corresponding to floors and windows. The facade structure is encoded into common BEM formats. Moreover, synthesis of realistic facade textures is achieved by replacing low-resolution segments from the aerial images with best matching high-resolution pictures from a repository of facade elements.
Predicting Achievement with Artificial Neural Networks: The Case of Anadolu University Open Education System

This study aims to predict the final exam scores and pass/fail rates of the students taking the Basic Information Technologies – 1 (BIL101U) course in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 academic years in the Open Education System of Anadolu University, through Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). In this research, data about the demographics, educational background, BIL101U course mid-term, final and success scores of 626,478 students was collected and purged. Data of 195,584 students, obtained after this process was analysed through Multilayer Perception (MLP) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) models. Sixteen different networks attained through the combination of ANN parameters were used to predict the final exam scores and pass/fail rates of the students. As a result of the analyses, it was found out that networks established through MLPs make more exact predictions. In the prediction of the final exam scores, it was determined that there is a low level of correlation between the actual scores and predicted scores. In the analyses for the prediction of pass/fail rates of the students, networks established through MLPs ensured more exact prediction results. Moreover, it was determined that the variables as mid-term exam scores, university entrance scores and secondary school graduation year were of highest importance in explaining the final exam scores and pass/fail rates of the students. It was found out that in the higher institutions serving for Open and Distance Learning, pass/fail state of the students can be predicted through ANN under favour of variables of students which have been found as most the important predictors.
On the Possibility of Using Recycled Mixed Aggregates and GICC Thermal Plant Wastes in Non-Structural Concrete Elements

Industrial wastes are often used as aggregate in concrete production to promote a more sustainable construction and to reduce production costs. This article presents the results of an experimental campaign on the influence of replacing natural aggregate with several construction and demolition wastes (C&DW) as recycled aggregate, as well as the use of fly ash and slag, wastes produced in Gas Incinerator Combined Cycle (GICC) thermal power plants, in the mix design of non-structural concrete. Different percentages of natural aggregates were substituted with recycled aggregates either coming from construction and demolition wastes, or from the coarse fraction of the slags from thermic plants in the manufacture of concrete. The mechanical properties, capillary water absorption, density, carbonation, chloride ingress and sulphate resistance have been tested. The results show a decrease in properties when C&DW are used. Fine fraction of slag and fly ash has an important advantage, and can even improve the long term properties of concrete prepared with natural aggregates. Coarse fraction of slag as a recycled aggregate generally improves most of the properties of manufactured concretes.
An Experimental Study on the Phase Importance in Digital Processing of Speech Signal

This paper presents the results of a late large-scale subjective study of phase importance of speech quality. Present study includes a collection of speech sentences distorted by limited transmission bandwidth and phase degradations. A detailed statistical analysis of the collected subjective judgments is presented. Among the used signal distortions, subjects preferred modification with signal phase preservation. Mean opinion scores of such modification are the closest to the original, undistorted sentences. This subjective study contributes to improving the algorithms of the speech processing, and in addition provide valuable data to develop objective or automatic methods of speech quality assessment, as well as to estimate their performance.
Semiparametric estimation of the canonical permanent‐transitory model of earnings dynamics

This paper presents identification and estimation results for a flexible state space model. Our modification of the canonical model allows the permanent component to follow a unit root process and the transitory component to follow a semiparametric model of a higher‐order autoregressive‐moving‐average (ARMA) process. Using panel data of observed earnings, we establish identification of the nonparametric joint distributions for each of the permanent and transitory components over time. We apply the identification and estimation method to the earnings dynamics of U.S. men using the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID). The results show that the marginal distributions of permanent and transitory earnings components are more dispersed, more skewed, and have fatter tails than the normal and that earnings mobility is much lower than for the normal. We also find strong evidence for the existence of higher‐order ARMA processes in the transitory component, which lead to much different estimates of the distributions of and earnings mobility in the permanent component, implying that misspecification of the process for transitory earnings can affect estimated distributions of the permanent component and estimated earnings dynamics of that component. Thus our flexible model implies earnings dynamics for U.S. men different from much of the prior literature.
Speech Proportion and Accuracy in Simultaneous Interpretation from English into Korean

This article examines the relationship between the speech proportion in the sentences of speaker and interpreter, and the accuracy of simultaneous interpretation from English into Korean. Audio tapes of simultaneous interpretations from TV broadcasts and international conferences by professional interpreters were analyzed with voice-editing computer software, and data were statistically processed. The results suggest that high sentence speech proportion in English had a negative effect on the accuracy of simultaneous interpretation; accuracy increased when the Korean interpreters maintained high sentence speech proportion in their simultaneous interpretation.
University of Groningen Single-chain polymer nanoparticles in controlled drug delivery and targeted imaging

As a relatively new class of materials, single-chain polymer nanoparticles (SCNPs) just entered the field of (biomedical) applications, with recent advances in polymer science enabling the formation of bio-inspired nanosized architectures. Exclusive intramolecular collapse of individual polymer chains results in individual nanoparticles. With sizes an order of magnitude smaller than conventional polymer nanoparticles, SCNPs are in the size regime of many proteins and viruses (1–20 nm). Multifaceted syntheses and design strategies give access to a wide set of highly modular SCNP materials. This review describes how SCNPs have been rendered water-soluble and highlights ongoing research efforts towards biocompatible SCNPs with tunable properties for controlled drug delivery, targeted imaging and protein mimicry.
Performance of the enlarged Rice-FACE system using pure CO2 installed in Tsukuba, Japan

Free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) provides a unique platform for testing the response of future ecosystems to higher atmospheric CO2 concentration ([CO2]) without disturbing various ecosystemscale interactions. To investigate adaptations to climate change, it is crucial to test the responses of diverse cultivars and management conditions to higher [CO2]. The older rice-FACE facility at Shizukuishi had an effective area of about 80 m2 for [CO2] treatment in each replicate, which was not large enough to test multiple genotypes and management practices. We report the first-year performance of the Tsukuba rice-FACE system installed at Tsukubamirai, Ibaraki, Japan. The new system was designed to have twice the usable area (>160 m2) of the Shizukuishi system without deteriorating the ability to control [CO2]. We adopted a pure-CO2 injection type system to elevate [CO2] in the FACE ring by 200 μmol mol-1 above ambient (control) plots. Overall temporal [CO2] control of the Tsukuba FACE system was slightly better than of the Shizukuishi system; mean [CO2] in the FACE plots was 584 μmol mol-1, nearly equal to the target [CO2] of 586 μmol mol-1. The one-minute mean [CO2] deviated by <±10% and <±20% from the target [CO2] 73.9% and 91.3% of the time, respectively. Spatial distribution of [CO2] inside the ring strongly depended on wind direction and speed. Relatively uniform [CO2] was achieved near the ring center and in the northwestern direction, yielding an aerial fraction of 66% that experienced a season-mean [CO2] within ±20% of the target. These aspects of spatio-temporal performance are comparable to those of other FACE facilities, indicating that the Tsukuba system can serve as a useful and reliable platform on which to test various rice genotypes that may be beneficial under projected high [CO2] conditions in the future.
Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori and Its Associated Factors among Healthy Asymptomatic Residents in the United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been under continuous populational influences from Asia, Europe, and Africa, making it an ideal site for epidemiological studies on Helicobacter pylori. However, there has been a paucity of well-designed prevalence studies on H. pylori from UAE. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of H. pylori and its associated risk factors in the UAE. A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted on healthy asymptomatic residents of UAE. Socio-demographic, lifestyle, and gastrointestinal characteristics of participants were obtained through a questionnaire in parallel within the stool sample collection. A total of 350 participants were included in this study and were tested for H. pylori using the stool antigen test (Premier Platinum HpSAT). Out of the total tested study participants, 41% were found to be H. pylori-infected. Logistic regression analysis has shown a significant association between H. pylori infection and gender, age, ethnicity, profession, domestic overcrowding, source of drinking water, and gastrointestinal characteristics of participants. Based on the results from this study, we suggest that preventive measures against H. pylori infection should be considered worthy by public health authorities.
Alternative splicing and bioinformatic analysis of human U 12-type introns

U12-type introns exist, albeit rarely, in a variety of multicellular organisms. Splicing of U12 intron-containing precursor mRNAs takes place in the U12-type spliceosome that is distinct from the major U2-type spliceosome. Due to incompatibility of these two spliceosomes, alternative splicing involving a U12-type intron may give rise to a relatively complicated impact on gene expression. We studied alternative U12-type intron splicing in an attempt to gain more mechanistic insights. First, we characterized mutually exclusive exon selection of the human JNK2 gene, which involves an unusual intron possessing the U12-type 50 splice site and the U2-type 30 splice site. We demonstrated that the long and evolutionary conserved polypyrimidine tract of this hybrid intron provides important signals for inclusion of its downstream alternative exon. In addition, we examined the effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the human WDFY1 U12-type intron on pre-mRNA splicing. These results provide mechanistic implications on splice-site selection of U12-type intron splicing. We finally discuss the potential effects of splicing of a U12-type intron with genetic defects or within a set of genes encoding RNA processing factors on global gene