Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STUDY OF INTERRELATIONSHIP AND CAUSE-EFFECT OF MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS OF RICE UNDER NORMAL AND AEROBIC CONDITIONS

Twenty five genotypes of rice were evaluated under aerobic and normal conditions to study the correlation and path coefficient analysis based on fifteen morpho-physiological traits. Correlation studies indicated that, grain yield per plot exhibited significant and positive association(with plant height (0.28,0.63), panicle length (0.39,0.69), number of tillers per plant (0.35,0.60), number of spikelets per panicle (0.62,0.49), relative water content (0.36,0.72), maximum root length (0.44,0.72), flag leaf area (0.58,0.73), harvest index (0.61,0.27), chlorophyll content (0.68,0.59) and 1000 grain weight (0.58,0.68), at phenotypic level under both normal and aerobic condition. Path analysis revealed at genotypic level that under aerobic and normal condition traits like days to fifty percent flowering (0.487), no. of spikelet per panicle (0.572), no. of tillers per plant (0.688), relative water content in flag leaf (0.98) and maximum root length (0.832, 1.18) had highest positive direct effect whereas proline accumulation in leaves(-0.31) had high negative direct effect under normal condition and these important plant traits must be taken into consideration when any breeding program for higher paddy yield in rice under aerobic condition is to be planned.
MEASURING OPENNESS OF THE CAPITAL MARKET IN MACEDONIA

Macedonia is a small and open economy and its interest rate policy is very much linked to its exchange rate policy. The more integrated it became with the international financial market the more the interest rate policy will be dependent on the exchange rate regime. In accordance with the uncovered interest rate parity, the more open the economy is the domestic interest rate should be converging to the Euro zone interest rate. If the difference, i.e. the parity spread, is high in an environment of integrated financial sector and Macedonia is still experiencing high interest rates, then the differential may be explained as a premium for the expectation of future depreciation and/or devaluation of the Macedonian Denar. Explanation might be that there exist a misalignment within the fixed exchange rate regime in Macedonia thus, creating incentives for the market to expect depreciation/devaluation. The type of expectation (whether they are rational or adaptive) is very important, as shown in this paper as well as the degree of openness of capital account.
Random‐weight particle filtering of continuous time processes

Summary. It is possible to implement importance sampling, and particle filter algorithms, where the importance sampling weight is random. Such random‐weight algorithms have been shown to be efficient for inference for a class of diffusion models, as they enable inference without any (time discretization) approximation of the underlying diffusion model. One difficulty of implementing such random‐weight algorithms is the requirement to have weights that are positive with probability 1. We show how Wald's identity for martingales can be used to ensure positive weights. We apply this idea to analysis of diffusion models from high frequency data. For a class of diffusion models we show how to implement a particle filter, which uses all the information in the data, but whose computational cost is independent of the frequency of the data. We use the Wald identity to implement a random‐weight particle filter for these models which avoids time discretization error.
STUDY OF CRYPTOLOGY AND ITS FORMS IN TODAY’S SECURE WORLD

: Nowadays every communication and data exchange has been digitized. So everyone thinks about privacy and security. In this paper, we are highlighting the need for security in daily data transmissions and the role of cryptography in order to handle demands of today’s secure world. We study various cryptographic techniques that can be used and applied to our needs. This also initiates the comparison of security level with the other methodologies. There are different cryptographic methodologies available to perform uniquely specified tasks like-encryption, decryption, key agreement and digital signatures. In this paper, we review the study of different encryption schemes and its usage along with different key management techniques and the application of digital signature with its complete operational principle that is used in daily life as a part of secure communication.
Antibacterial Studies of Gamma Irradiated Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles on Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

In this study, evaluation of antibacterial activity of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles treated with gamma radiations of different dosages on Kliebsiella pneumonia (K pneumonia) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P aeruginosa) bacteria has been carried out. The ZnO nanoparticles have been synthesized by solution combustion method, and these synthesized samples were irradiated with gamma radiation of different dosages from 0 to 200 kGy. All the samples were characterized using Powder X-ray Diffractometer (Powder XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR), Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometer (UV-Vis), and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). The antibacterial activity of gamma irradiated samples was studied against gram negative bacteria K pneumonia and P aeruginosa. The gamma irradiated ZnO nanoparticles show significant variation in the inhibition of cell growth and eventually cell death of the gram negative bacteria. The study shows remarkable antibacterial activity and the lethal effect of gamma irradiated ZnO nanoparticles against K pneumonia and P aeruginosa. Keywords - Antibacterial, Gamma irradiation, SEM, XRD, Zinc oxide.
Bone levels in patients with osteoporosis and periodontal disease

The constantly present dilemmas concerning the existence/non-existence of a relationship between bone density andperiodontal disease gave us the idea to do this research. Ourstudy covered 128 female patients in post menopause whowere, on the basis of their densitometry findings, divided intothree groups (healthy, with osteopenia, with osteoporosis). All the patients under research were clinically examined anddental X-rayed (orthopantomogram). Results were processedstatistically and compared to the relevant reference data. Onthe basis of the obtained results we came to the conclusionthat there is a relationship between periodontal disease andsystemic osteoporosis.
Effect of Sugarcane Molasses on Compressive Strength and Workability of Fly Ash Mixed Concrete

Molasses, a by-product of sugar industry, is used as a water reducing, retarding admixture in fly ash mixed concrete. The positive effects of fly ash as a partial replacement of cement on the strength and durability of concrete are recognized through numerous researches. In this study, mechanical property such as compressive strength and workability of concrete adding fly ash and sugarcane molasses sourced from southern Maharashtra has been investigated. Effect of molasses with concentrations of 0.1%, 0.15%, 0.2% and 0.25% by weight of cement, cured at 7, 28 and 56 days were examined. The strength of concretes with various dosages of molasses showed slight increase at 7-day age against concrete without molasses. The compressive strength test results showed significant strength gain at all ages for 0.15% dosage molasses but peaks at 43.89% at 28 days. However, there was no significant increase in strength from 28 to 56 days which peaks 4.8% for 0.15% dosage. The slump values were observed to increase linearly with increase in dosage of molasses from 0.1% to 0.25% respectively.
Fusion, space and solar plasmas as complex systems

Complex systems science seeks to identify simple universal models that capture the key physics of extended macroscopic systems, whose behaviour is governed by multiple nonlinear coupled processes that operate across a wide range of spatiotemporal scales. In such systems, it is often the case that energy release occurs intermittently, in bursty events, and the phenomenology can exhibit scaling, that is a significant degree of self-similarity. Within plasma physics, such systems include Earth's magnetosphere, the solar corona and toroidal magnetic confinement experiments. Guided by broad understanding of the dominant plasma processes—for example, turbulent transport in tokamaks or reconnection in some space and solar contexts—one may construct minimalist complex systems models that yield relevant global behaviour. Examples considered here include the sandpile approach to tokamaks and the magnetosphere and a multiple loops model for the solar coronal magnetic carpet. Such models can address questions that are inaccessible to analytical treatment and are too demanding for contemporary computational resources; thus they potentially yield new insights, but risk being simplistic. Central to the utility of these models is their capacity to replicate distinctive aspects of observed global phenomenology, often strongly nonlinear, or of event statistics, for which no explanation can be obtained from first principles considerations such as the underlying equations. For example, a sandpile model, which embodies critical-gradient-triggered avalanching transport associated with nearest-neighbour mode coupling and simple boundary conditions (and little else), can be used to generate some of the distinctive observed elements of tokamak confinement phenomenology such as ELMing and edge pedestals. The same sandpile model can also generate distributions of energy-release events whose distinctive statistics resemble those observed in the auroral zone. Similarly, a multiple loops model, which embodies random footpoint motion combined with reconnection of intersecting loops (and little else), can generate global magnetic field structure resembling the solar coronal magnetic carpet, with power law distributions for energy-release events also similar to those observed in the solar corona. These reduced models thus focus on identifying the key physical ingredients that are necessary and sufficient to generate the observed phenomenology.
Succession in ant communities (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in deciduous forest clear-cuts - an Eastern European case study

Clear-cutting, the main method of harvesting in many forests in the world, causes a series of dramatic environmental changes to the forest habitat and removes habitat resources for arboreal and epigeal species. It results in considerable changes in the composition of both plant and animal communities. Ants have many critical roles in the maintenance and functioning of forest ecosystems. Therefore, the response of ants to clear-cutting and the time it takes for an ant community to recover after clear-cutting are important indicators of the effect of this harvesting technique on the forest ecosystem. We investigated ground-dwelling ant communities during secondary succession of deciduous forests in Transylvania, Romania. Using space-for-time substitution, we explored a chronosequence from clear-cuts to mature forests (> 120 years). The object was to determine if cutting has measurable effects on ant community structure, and if ant species richness differs between successional stages. We recorded a total of 24 species of ants, 11 characteristic of forests and seven of open landscape. Ant species richness was higher in clear-cuts compared to closed-canopy and old stands. Number of ant individuals was highest in young age classes and lowest in closed-canopy age classes. There was no drastic change in species richness during the succession, however differences in community composition at different stages were recorded. Open landscape species are able to rapidly colonize following disturbance but disappear when the forest sites mature and many forest ant species are capable of surviving clear cutting.
Foreign Firms and Host-Country Productivity: Does the Mode of Entry Matter? ∗

Foreign direct investment is considered an important source of knowledge spillovers. We argue that the effects of foreign presence on host-country productivity may differ depending on the mode of foreign entry. Using a long panel from the Norwegian Manufacturing Census, we find that greenfield entry both in the same industry and in the same labour market region has a negative impact on the productivity of domestic plants, while entry via acquisition affects the productivity of domestic plants in the same industry positively. The positive effect from acquisitions is consistent with knowledge spillovers as these plants have pre-established linkages within the industry. The negative effects from greenfield entry can be attributed to increased competition both in the product market and for qualified employees in a tight labour market. Our results help to explain the ambiguity of results in the empirical literature that relates overall foreign presence to host-country productivity. Copyright 2011 Oxford University Press 2010 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.
Child Nutrition and Vietnam's Transition to the Market

This paper measures the social cost of economic transition in terms of child health, as measured by nutritional status. It sets to answer the question if children are better-off or worse-off nutritionally during the early stages of market openness. Focusing on Viet Nam, we explore this question empirically by developing a pseudo panel approach using household cross-sectional living standards data. We find that in the short-run, market openness did not improve child growth.
CORRECTION OF MODEL DEFORMATION EFFECTS FOR A SUPERCRITICAL WING IN TRANSONIC WIND TUNNEL

Original scientific paper This paper presents a method to correct test model deformation effects due to aerodynamic loads in transonic wind tunnel. Deformation for a supercritical wing test model was measured under variation of dynamic pressure in the European Transonic Wind tunnel (ETW) using the Stereo Pattern Tracking (SPT) system. Deformed model mesh was generated by the structure grids deformation technology developed in this paper, and numerical results of rigid and deformed models were achieved based on the RANS solver. Then, correction of model deformation was obtained by subtracting the computational longitudinal aerodynamic coefficients of original model from those of deformed one. Results indicated that a good correlation of experimental and numerical results of deformed model was achieved, validating the reliability of numerical method developed to simulate model deformation. It is also suggested that the method developed in this paper could be used to correct test model deformation for original wind tunnel data.
A Tale of Two Sisters Investigating the Socio-Economic Outcomes of Teen Childbearing in South Africa

This mixed methods study attempts to understand the effect of teenage childbearing in determining future socio-economic consequences for teenage mothers. This is accomplished by assessing the effect of a teen birth on outcomes such as educational attainment, employment, welfare and poverty in South Africa by applying a sibling-fixed effects technique. Using the National Income Dynamics Study dataset (2012), the paper compares siblings to control for family background heterogeneity and finds that teenage childbearing has a strong negative relationship with the completion of matric and a positive relationship with employment and welfare. This relationship is underestimated by traditional cross-sectional estimates which points to the importance of controlling for unobserved family heterogeneity. To complement these findings, the study also highlights the role of the family and the school in providing support structures to smoothen the immediate adverse effects of teenage childbearing. These findings indicate that interventions are needed which directly delay childbearing as well as create supportive environments at the family and school level.
Proposed Algorithms Based on Accelerated Quantized Iterative Hard Thresholding for Compressed Sensing

Compressive sampling (CS) is a signal recovery technique that can effectively recover a sparse signal using fewer measurements than its dimension. Different recovery algorithms such as convex optimization, greedy algorithms, and iterative hard thresholding are used for exact recovery. The iterative hard thresholding algorithms are faster than convex optimization for compressed sensing recovery problems. In this paper, three proposed algorithms are introduced. These three proposed algorithms are based on Accelerated Quantized Iterative Hard Thresholding (AQIHT). They are double-over-relaxation AQIHT (AQIHTDR), conjugate gradient AQIHT (AQIHTCG) and a conjugate gradient double-over-relaxation AQIHT (AQIHTCGDR). The double-overrelaxation algorithm (DR) is based on two over-relaxation steps and the conjugate gradient algorithm (CG) is based on computing the directional update and step size for efficient recovery. Extensive matlab simulation programs are executed to simulate the performance of the three proposed schemes. In addition, they are compared with the related ones. The performance metrics are signal to noise ratio (SNR), error (E) and iteration time. The proposed schemes have superior performance over the traditional ones. Moreover, the proposed mixed scheme has the best performance when compared to all other schemes.
A method of parameterising a feed forward multi-layered perceptron artificial neural network, with reference to South African financial markets

No analytic procedures currently exist for determining optimal artificial neural network structures and parameters for any given application. Traditionally, when artificial neural networks have been applied to financial modelling problems, structure and parameter choices are often made a priori without sufficient consideration of the effect of such choices. A key aim of this study is to develop a general method that could be used to construct artificial neural networks by exploring the model structure and parameter space so that informed decisions could be made relating to the model design. In this study, a formal approach is followed to determine suitable structures and parameters for a Feed Forward Multi-layered Perceptron artificial neural network with a Resilient Propagation learning algorithm with a single hidden layer. This approach is demonstrated through the modelling of four South African economic variables, namely the average monthly returns on the money, bond and equity markets as well as monthly inflation. Artificial neural networks can be constructed on the aforementioned variables in isolation or, jointly, in an integrated model. The performance of a range of more traditional time series models is compared with that of the artificial neural network models. The results suggest that, on a statistical level, artificial neural networks perform as well as time series models at forecasting the returns for financial markets. Hybrid models, combining artificial neural networks with the time series models, are constructed, trained and tested for the money market and for the rate of inflation. They appear to add value to the time series models when forecasting inflation, but not for the money market.
Lean Bundles and Performance Outcomes in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Benchmarking a Jordanian Company and Operational Excellence International Project

This study benchmarks the implementation levels and performance outcomes of lean bundles of a Jordanian pharmaceutical manufacturing company with the results of the Operational Excellence (OPEX) model. The OPEX model is an ongoing international research project in the pharmaceutical industry. The results of the OPEX project were obtained, along with permission to use them in the present study. The same question items used in the OPEX project were used to prepare a questionnaire to collect data from the Jordanian pharmaceutical company. Fifteen managers from the Jordanian company with responsibilities related to lean management completed the questionnaire. The results demonstrated that the implementation levels of lean practices and the lean performance outcomes of the Jordanian pharmaceutical company varied in comparison to the OPEX project. The overall assessment showed that the Jordanian company is excellent in the total quality management bundle (at or above the levels of the benchmarked data), good in the human resource bundle (almost at the levels of the benchmarked data), acceptable in the just-in-time bundle (below the levels of the benchmarked data), and weak in the total preventive maintenance bundle (considerably below the levels of the benchmarked data). There are few benchmarking studies in the pharmaceutical industry in the area of lean management. In particular, this area is under-investigated in the developing world. The current study provides insights into the value of benchmarking key lean metrics against leading companies. This approach is expected to support pharmaceutical industry managers in the developing world to evaluate their current lean state, estimate the desired state based on the benchmarking results, and set appropriate strategies to promote lean management and operational excellence in their companies.
Unexpected effects of starfish grazing on sandflat communities following an outbreak

Starfish are significant determinants of community structure in marine ecosystems. The starfish Parvulastra (Patiriella) exigua is normally found on intertidal rocky shores. We examined a major outbreak of this species in Langebaan Lagoon, a marine embayment on the west coast of South Africa, and the only known soft-sediment ecosystem where P. exigua flourishes. We document this outbreak and describe subsequent field caging experiments testing the influence of this starfish on soft-sediment community structure. Grazing by P. exigua resulted in a reduction in microalgal bio- mass that was linearly related to starfish density, but it promoted bacterial density. Macrofaunal com- munities at intermediate densities of P. exigua were different and more diverse to those at high and low starfish densities, with Shannon-Wiener and Fischer's α indices peaking at intermediate density of P. exigua. It is possible that P. exigua at intermediate densities promotes co-existence of macro- fauna by reducing the competitive edge held by dominant species. However, this effect may also be due to the balance between (1) negative effects of microalgal depletion and incidental grazing on invertebrate recruits at high densities of P. exigua, and (2) enhancement of bacteria by P. exigua lead- ing to increased biofilm coverage on the sediment, which promotes macrofaunal recruit diversity in soft sediments. We suggest a need for caution when citing results from marine soft sediments as evi- dence for the intermediate disturbance hypothesis without knowledge of the promotive and inhibitory effects of the target organism.
Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus-Encoded Viral IL-6 (vIL-6) Enhances Immunoglobulin Class-Switch Recombination

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is an oncogenic gamma-herpesvirus that causes AIDS-associated Kaposi sarcoma (KS) and several lymphoproliferative disorders. During the humoral immune response antigen-activated mature B cells acquire functional diversification by immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) class-switch recombination (CSR). CSR is initiated by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) which targets highly repetitive switch (S)-regions to mediate DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) in the IgH locus facilitating intramolecular recombination. Here we show that in the context of cytokine stimulation, CSR is enhanced in murine B cells exposed only to replication-competent KSHV in an environment of KSHV infection, which coincided with elevated AID transcripts. Using murine splenic B cells and the mouse lymphoma CH12F3-2 CSR system, we identified that vIL-6, but not murine IL-6, increased class-switching, which correlated with upregulated AID expression. Together, these data suggest a regulatory role for KSHV vIL-6 in functionally modulating B cell biology by promoting CSR, which may in part explain how KSHV infection influences humoral immunity and affect KSHV pathogenesis.