Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
After Unipolarity: China's Visions of International Order in an Era of U.S. Decline

The emerging transition from unipolarity to a more multipolar distribution of global power presents a unique and unappreciated problem that largely explains why, contrary to the expectations of balance of power theory, a counterbalancing reaction to U.S. primacy has not yet taken place. The problem is that, under unipolarity and only unipolarity, balancing is a revisionist, not a status quo, behavior: its purpose is to replace the existing unbalanced unipolar structure with a balance of power system. Thus, any state that seeks to restore a global balance of power will be labeled a revisionist aggressor. To overcome this ideational hurdle to balancing behavior, a rising power must delegitimize the unipole's global authority and order through discursive and cost-imposing practices of resistance that pave the way for the next phase of full-fledged balancing and global contestation. The type of international order that emerges on the other side of the transition out of unipolarity depends on whether the emerging powers assume the role of supporters, spoilers, or shirkers. As the most viable peer competitor to U.S. power, China will play an especially important role in determining the future shape of international politics. At this relatively early stage in its development, however, China does not yet have a fixed blueprint for a new world order. Instead, competing Chinese visions of order map on to various delegitimation strategies and scenarios about how the transition from unipolarity to a restored global balance of power will develop.
The impact of air exchange effectiveness on thermal comfort in an air-conditioned office

Problem statement: Impact of air exchange effectiveness on thermal comfort has not been investigated and, therefore, not well understood . Therefore, the influence of air exchange effectiveness on thermal comfort is investigated in this study. Approach: The main objective of this research is to investigate the thermal comfort level of an air-conditioned office room under 14 windows-door opening arrangements as a function of maximum, minimum and mean Air Exchange Effectiveness (AEE), as has not been inquired into already. The tracer gas decay method has been applied during the experimental procedures to estimate air exchange effectiveness, on the basis of room average and local mean age of air. Simultaneously, thermal comfort variables were measured and through these data, the thermal comforts Fanger's indices (PMV and PPD) were calculated. Staff answered a survey on their sensation of the indoor climate. Results: Results of 60 survey responses to thermal comfort questions in office and indoor air quality are presented. This study has shown that there are relationship between AEE and thermal comfort and three linear regression equations of PMV versus AEE can be derived for this air-conditioned office. Conclusion: Studies on the effect of air exchange effectiveness on thermal comfort in an office have shown that Thermal comfort is influenced by AEE, which go beyond the six factors which have been taken into account in PMV modeling.
Extended Kalman Doppler tracking and model determination for multi-sensor short-range radar

Abstract. A tracking solution for collision avoidance in industrial machine tools based on short-range millimeter-wave radar Doppler observations is presented. At the core of the tracking algorithm there is an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) that provides dynamic estimation and localization in real-time. The underlying sensor platform consists of several homodyne continuous wave (CW) radar modules. Based on In-phase-Quadrature (IQ) processing and down-conversion, they provide only Doppler shift information about the observed target. Localization with Doppler shift estimates is a nonlinear problem that needs to be linearized before the linear KF can be applied. The accuracy of state estimation depends highly on the introduced linearization errors, the initialization and the models that represent the true physics as well as the stochastic properties. The important issue of filter consistency is addressed and an initialization procedure based on data fitting and maximum likelihood estimation is suggested. Models for both, measurement and process noise are developed. Tracking results from typical three-dimensional courses of movement at short distances in front of a multi-sensor radar platform are presented.
Heritability of acoustic signalling time in the Texas field cricket, Gryllus texensis

Hypothesis: Heritability estimates of total nightly signalling time will be equal for a contemporary data set in Austin (Texas) and an earlier data set collected 127 km away in San Antonio (Texas). Organism: Texas field cricket, Gryllus texensis (Gryllidae: Orthoptera). Background: A corpus of work has been done on Gryllus texensis in Austin, Texas with the underlying assumption that heritability values from San Antonio, Texas apply. Methods: Previous study – realized heritability estimated using an artificial selection experiment. Current study – narrow sense heritability estimated using parent–offspring, full-sib/half-sib, and restricted maximum likelihood methods. Results: Heritability of total nightly signalling time was previously computed as 0.50 and 0.53 for the San Antonio crickets. However, heritability of total nightly signalling time in the Austin crickets is estimated at only 0.006 ± 0.045. In Austin, only a small portion (1.5 ± 11%) of the genetic variance in total signalling time is additive.
Economics of Paper Use in Higher Learning Institutions and ItsImplications to Climate Change

This paper was an attempt to reveal the less known economics of paper use in higher learning institutions and its contribution to climate change using The Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy (MNMA)-Zanzibar as a case study. The cross-sectional research design was employed. Data were collected using a paper survey tool and interviews. Simple calculations were used to address the cost incurred each semester to buy paper at MNMA. The annual amount of trees exploited from the environment to make paper used by MNMA was estimated using a conversion ratio developed by FAO. Amount of carbon released to the atmosphere was estimated by using formula adopted by WWF. The investigation found that MNMA-Zanzibar has a total semester paper consumption of about 364 reams of different types. The semester cost of buying these reams was found to be about 2,910,000 TZS. Environmental cost was estimated at about 27 trees exploited to suffice semester paper use at MNMA-Zanzibar. The exploited trees per semester releases total carbon of 6.91 tons+2.01 tons and 2.78 tons+1.15 tons for Montane and Lowland forest trees species respectively suitable for paper production. The study concluded that, there is huge consumption of paper in higher learning institutions. The study suggested interventions for reducing massive consumption of papers in higher learning institutions includes introduction of paper use policy which will include among other measures such as electronic storage; paperless meeting, paper reuse, two side printing, sharing of documents electronically and awareness creation on paper use.
Tuning fractional PID controllers for a Steward platform based on frequency domain and artificial intelligence methods

In this paper, two methods to tune a fractional-order PIλDμ controller for a mechatronic system are presented. The first method is based on a genetic algorithm to obtain the parameter values for the fractionalorder PIλDμ controller by global optimization. The second method used to design the fractional-order PIλDμ controller relies on an auto-tuning approach by meeting some specifications in the frequency domain. The real-time experiments are conducted using a Steward platform which consists of a table tilted by six servo-motors with a ball on the top of the table. The considered system is a 6 degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) motion platform. The feedback on the position of the ball is obtained from images acquired by a visual sensor mounted above the platform. The fractional-order controllers were implemented and the performances of the steward platform are analyzed.
Development of a hybrid meta-model for material selection using design of experiments and EDAS method

Selection of materials for a specific application is one of the extremely demanding problems in a synchronised manufacturing environment as it directly determines perceptible quality and cost of the product. Material selection is a complex process, intending to choose the best material while satisfying a pre-decided set of requirements. Material selection decision is made during preliminary product design stage. An improperly chosen material leads not only to an early component failure but also to a redundant cost involvement. There are numerous materials and various criteria influencing the material selection process for a particular application. Although a good amount of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are available to deal with this type of selection applications, this paper aims to propose a hybrid method of design of experiments (DOE) and evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS) to solve material selection problems in current industrial applications. DOE and EDAS are used jointly to determine the critical material selection criteria and their interactions by fitting a polynomial to the experimental data in a multiple linear regression analysis. A gear material selection problem is demonstrated to establish the application competence of the DOE-EDAS method. Application results were validated with the results of the previous researchers and they indicate that the proposed DOE-EDAS hybrid model is straightforward, robust and practical in solving complex MCDM problems.
The Structure of the Sense of Solidarity: Notes on 2012 Solidarity Survey

In studying solidarity theoretically interesting question is extended solidarity among different communities, because this extension process should include some kind of emergent properties. In this paper we seek out empirical approaches to exploring this theoretical issue. For data, we mainly use 2012 Solidarity Survey in Kyushu area and additionally use 2007 Solidarity Survey in Fukuoka for comparison, both of which the author conducted under the similar framework. At first, in terms of factor analysis we extract two basic axes of solidarity, homophilic and heterophilic, and fix four types of sense of solidarity based on the combination patterns between the two. Considering the above-mentioned extension process, the most attracting type is the coexistence type that indicates high scores both for hemophilic solidarity and heterophlic solidarity. We will find two important factors, family unity and diversity of net-base, that determine this type of coexistence, suggesting that issues of coordination of bonding and bridging social capital are related to the abovementioned emergent properties. Since coexistence type is also determined by gender and social class, the extension of solidarity can be related with these barriers of difference. Secondly, we explore the extension process of solidarity from the viewpoint of impact of external factors, in this case, the Kyushu Shinkansen and the Great East Japan Earthquake. Unforeseen overlapping of these two events and resonation of their impacts through the discourse space seemed to strengthen Japanese people’ s sense of solidarity at the national level beyond the boundaries of concrete regional solidarity. In fact, we will find some empirical evidence that solidarity as Japanese people was strengthened between 2007 and 2012 . We will also find that the Kyushu Shinkansen did not cause breakdown of solidarity as Kyushu, however it is difficult to identify its unique effect of strengthening it.
Exceptional Dehn surgery on the minimally twisted five-chain link

We consider in this paper the minimally twisted chain link with 5 components in the 3-sphere, and we analyze the Dehn surgeries on it, namely the Dehn fillings on its exterior M5. The 3-manifold M5 is a nicely symmetric hyperbolic one, filling which one gets a wealth of hyperbolic 3-manifolds having 4 or fewer (including 0) cusps. In view of Thurston's hyperbolic Dehn filling theorem it is then natural to face the problem of classifying all the exceptional fillings on M5, namely those yielding non-hyperbolic 3-manifolds. Here we completely solve this problem, also showing that, thanks to the symmetries of M5 and of some hyperbolic manifolds resulting from fillings of M5, the set of exceptional fillings on M5 is described by a very small amount of information.
Impact of HR Practices on Perceived Performance of Hospital Employees in Pakistan

The objective of our study is to establish the relationship between Employee’s Performance and HR practices in the developing countries like Pakistan. Few studies have been conducted to examine the relationship between employee’s performance and HR practices in the developing countries. The core aim of our study is to investigate relationship between employee’s performance and three Human Resource practices (Performance Evaluation, Promotion and Compensation) among hospital employees in Pakistan. The outcomes of this paper shows the positive association between promotion practices and compensation practices with employee performance but employee performance are not significantly associated with performance evaluation. Pakistani hospitals need to change some compensation practices for the improvement of hospital employee’s performance. Keywords: Employee performance, HR practices, Hospital employees, Pakistan.
Genetic evaluation of Ethiopian Boran cattle and their crosses with Holstein Friesian for milk constituent traits in central Ethiopia

Breed additive and non-additive effects, and genetic parameters of milk fat, protein, solids not fat (SNF) and total solids (TS) percents, were estimated in Ethiopian Boran cattle and their crosses with Friesian in central Ethiopia. Ethiopian Boran cattle were consistently superior (P 0.05) in milk constituents. It was apparent, therefore, that as the exotic gene level increased the percentages of the milk constituents declined significantly. The individual additive genetic breed difference for milk composition traits were all significant (P 0.05) for all traits except for fat percent. Heritabilities of fat, protein, SNF and TS percents for Ethiopian Boran were 0.49 ± 0.03, 0.26 ± 0.05, 0.46 ± 0.04 and 0.45 ± 0.04, respectively. The corresponding estimates for crosses were 0.32 ± 0.04, 0.49 ± 0.03, 0.39 ± 0.04 and 0.41 ± 0.04, respectively. Within Ethiopian Boran breed selection accompanied by crossing should enormously improve these traits in crossbreds under such production system.
Discerning Customer Relationship Management: An Exploration in Business Anthropology

Customer Relationship Management is a modern business concept that primarily focuses on customer and considers them as one of the important resources for the development of enterprise. It is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. The research attempts to understand the Market Realities, Sales Strategies and the opportunities on which the cement companies can able to sustain and plan to grow in an environment of cut throat competition as Cement is the most important and profitable product in the building material sector with soaring demand which is further anticipated to rise due to government’s push for large infrastructure projects. Since the channel members that are referred as Customers in the research holds major role in influencing the end customer’s purchase, the study explored the customer-centric strategies, and loyalty programs to better push their product in the market through channel members as well as for efficient and effective customer relationship management.
The disclosure of non-performing loan prevented banks' evergreening policy? : Lessons from Japanese banks' experiences

This paper examines how the Basel Accord and an increase of non-performing loans affected Japanese banks’ lending behaviors during the recent Japanese recession following the collapse of Japan’s “bubble economy” in the early 1990s. I show that the “credit crunch” hypothesis applies to Japanese banks in this period; Japanese banks’ lending decreased when the risk based capital (RBC) ratio decreased. Non-performing loans also had a big impact on Japanese banks; banks lend less when non-performing loans increase. This paper found these effects on lending behavior across nearly all industries, with the construction and real estate sectors as the only exceptions. Lending was not effected by either the RBC ratio or non-performing loans in these two sectors. This may be due to the fact that banks continued to roll over loans to insolvent borrowers to avoid more bankruptcies; they wished to delay the bailout of the non-performing loans’ hidden parts. In this sense, the Basel Accord seems to have accelerated Japanese banks’ evergreening policy.
PHYSICAL DETERMINATION OF PERMEABILITY VARIATION WITH POROSITY FOR COMPOSIT'E PERFORMS

This paper presents the results of experimental determination of fiber bed permeability variation with porosity. Flow measurement experiments were designed to measure fiber mat permeability for fiber beds with various fiber volume fractions. Woven fiberglass, chopped fiberglass, and carbon fiber mats were used as reinforcements. The effects of reinforcement type and porosity on fiber bed permeability were investigated. Fiber mat permeability of woven mats showed large degrees of anisotropy, whereas chopped fiberglass mats had isotropic permeability. In all cases perform permeability increased with fiber bed porosity. Fiber mat permeability of woven carbon was found to be about four times lower than that of woven fiberglass mats at the same porosity. This lower permeability results in longer injection time and higher manufacturing cost for composite parts made with carbon fiber mats. The results of this investigation could be employed in process/product optimization in Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) processes.
Going 100% On-line with Language Courses: Possible?

The word around us is changing constantly and it has an enormous impact on the learning environment and students´ learning styles. Sometimes, technological change is said to be the only constant in our life. Thus, applying modern IT solutions in teaching and learning has become a part and parcel of an increasing number of learning programmes. In language teaching, however, resorting to ICT solutions is sometimes considered to be controversial. This article explores some positive aspects of using ICT that have been acknowledged and stimulating both for students and the teacher. We share our experience in using the Blackboard e-learning environment for teaching genese language courses at different levels and different languages (English and Swedish), and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). We have experienced that the web-based environment can be successfully used for supporting student-centred learning and increasing student motivation. It is also a flexible environment for developing individualisation and enabling cooperation with the students. These topic areas will be the main focus of our paper. By way of introduction we shall analyse different past and current courses where the web-based environment has been used as a support for in-class teaching. We will view different ways of motivating students and engaging them in the learning process. We will then move on to discuss the experience of going 100% on-line with the language courses and analyse the feedback from students questionnaires and self-analysis reports, as well as the results of our participant observation of the process, with a special focus on examining the possibilities for supporting and encouraging student-centred learning and increasing student responsibility in their learning process.
Homogeneity of Interspecific Hybrids Between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces uvarum by Phenotypic and Transcriptional Analysis

Oenological traits, such as temperature profile and production of certain metabolites, were tested for four interspecifc hybrids obtained by “spore to spore” crossing between Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces uvarum strains and uniformity of their inheritance was found. PCR/RFLP analysis of ITS regions was carried out to confirm the hybrid nature of the strains. They showed an additive profile with five bands of the respective 325, 230, 170 and 125 bp. Finally gene expression study was performed by comparative DNA macroarray analysis of the hybrids and the preliminary results showed that the global gene expression patterns of hybrids are remarkably similar to one another. In conclusion, the data obtained by two different approaches, such as metabolic and transcriptomic strategies, suggest a large degree of homogeneity among interspecific hybrids between S. cerevisiae and S. uvarum. Moreover, the uniformity of F1 hybrids advises that the oenological trait inheritance mechanism is highly constant and reproducible.
Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal Chromium using Allium cepa L. as Model System

Phytoremediation is the use of living green plants for removal or degradation of contaminants. The aim of this research is to study the use of Allium cepa L. to assess the phytoremediation capacity of Chromium (Cr). The A.cepa seeds were grown in heavy metal Cr solutions. The Cr treated germinated seed extract were evaluated for their protein content. The SEM-EDX was useful to investigate structural modifications and to identify concentration and distribution of Cr in roots and seed surface. FTIR analysis was used to identify the surface functional groups. The results showed that germinated A.cepa seed has the ability to accumulate Cr in their tissue. The SEM- EDX result indicates the presence of Cr in the roots and seed surface. A.cepa roots have marked amount of protein content. In this study increasing concentration of Cr showed higher accumulation capacities and may be better treatment option by means of phytoremediation. Based on the results, the plant species Allium cepa L. is a heavy metal accumulator.
PULMONARY MUCOEPIDERMOID CARCINOMA: DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

Pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is a rare malignant neoplasm with the clinical picture mimicking infectious aetiologies in most of the patients. Hence, this rare entity poses a great challenge to the pathologist in terms of diagnosis and to the oncologist in terms of treatment. This case report aims to look at the clinicopathological features of pulmonary MEC, the role of immunohistochemical analysis in diagnosis and choice of chemotherapeutic agent. The objective of reporting this case on MEC is not only the rare frequency of this carcinoma but also to highlight the importance of adequate immunohistochemical analysis in establishing the diagnosis. Key words: Lung cancer, mucoepidermoid carcinoma, chemotherapy
Methodologies for Evaluating Disparity Estimation Algorithms

The use of disparity estimation algorithms is required in the 3D recovery process from stereo images. These algorithms tackle the correspondence problem by computing a disparity map. The accuracy assessment of a disparity estimation process has multiple applications such as comparing among different algorithms’ performance, tuning algorithm’s parameters within a particular context, and determining the impact of components, among others. Disparity estimation algorithms can be assessed by following an evaluation methodology. This chapter is dedicated to present and discuss methodologies for evaluating disparity estimation algorithms. The discussion begins with a review of the state-of-the-art. The constitutive components of a methodology are analysed. Finally, advantages and drawbacks of existing methodologies are presented. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2672-0.ch010