Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lophura hatinhensis is an invalid taxon

The Vietnamese Pheasant Lophura hatinhensis was described in 1975 from one male specimen which was superficially similar to Edwards’s Pheasant L. edwardsi but for four white (instead of dark metallic blue) tail feathers. Like L. edwardsi it is poorly known and highly threatened in the wild. Its status as a species has rarely been questioned despite its curious distribution and dubious morphological distinctiveness. To elucidate the taxonomic status of L. hatinhensis we examined the morphology of captive birds of both taxa and analysed mitochondrial DNA. These lines of evidence demonstrated that birds exhibiting the L. hatinhensis phenotype probably represent inbred L. edwardsi. Thus L. hatinhensis should be removed from the IUCN Red List and other checklists of valid extant bird species. Its apparent recent appearance alongside wild populations of L. edwardsi might be taken as evidence that wild populations of this species are also highly inbred and possibly close to extinction.
Psychometric properties of the Macedonian version of the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT–M)

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Macedonian version of the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT–M; Quirin, Kazén, & Kuhl, 2009). First, in a pretest study, it was shown that two of the artificial words from the original test needed to be replaced, since they were not free of meaning in a Macedonian context. Two new artificial words were included in the IPANAT–M. Study 1 showed that the IPANAT–M had satisfactory test-retest reliability over a period of one week. In Study 2, the factorial validity of the test was explored. The two factor solution explained 63.91% of the total variance, and the factors could be easily interpreted as implicit positive and implicit negative affect. The results indicate that IPANAT–M has satisfactory psychometric properties. Keywords: implicit affect, IPANAT–M, psychometric properties
Performance Evaluation of New Joint EDF-RM Scheduling Algorithm for Real Time Distributed System

In Real Time System, the achievement of deadline is the main target of every scheduling algorithm. Earliest Deadline First (EDF), Rate Monotonic (RM), and least Laxity First are some renowned algorithms that work well in their own context. As we know, there is a very common problem Domino's effect in EDF that is generated due to overloading condition (EDF is not working well in overloading situation). Similarly, performance of RM is degraded in underloading condition. We can say that both algorithms are complements of each other. Deadline missing in both events happens because of their utilization bounding strategy. Therefore, in this paper we are proposing a new scheduling algorithm that carries through the drawback of both existing algorithms. Joint EDF-RM scheduling algorithm is implemented in global scheduler that permits task migration mechanism in between processors in the system. In order to check the improved behavior of proposed algorithm we perform simulation. Results are achieved and evaluated in terms of Success Ratio (SR), Average CPU Utilization (ECU), Failure Ratio (FR), and Maximum Tardiness parameters. In the end, the results are compared with the existing (EDF, RM, and D_R_EDF) algorithms. It has been shown that the proposed algorithm performs better during overloading condition as well in underloading condition.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) How to assess and improve children ' s reading comprehension ?

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Short-Term Bus Passenger Demand Prediction Based on Time Series Model and Interactive Multiple Model Approach

Although bus passenger demand prediction has attracted increased attention during recent years, limited research has been conducted in the context of short-term passenger demand forecasting. This paper proposes an interactive multiple model (IMM) filter algorithm-based model to predict short-term passenger demand. After aggregated in 15 min interval, passenger demand data collected from a busy bus route over four months were used to generate time series. Considering that passenger demand exhibits various characteristics in different time scales, three time series were developed, named weekly, daily, and 15 min time series. After the correlation, periodicity, and stationarity analyses, time series models were constructed. Particularly, the heteroscedasticity of time series was explored to achieve better prediction performance. Finally, IMM filter algorithm was applied to combine individual forecasting models with dynamically predicted passenger demand for next interval. Different error indices were adopted for the analyses of individual and hybrid models. The performance comparison indicates that hybrid model forecasts are superior to individual ones in accuracy. Findings of this study are of theoretical and practical significance in bus scheduling.
Tax Evasion with Third-Party Reporting

In this thesis I look at income tax evasion for freelancers and employees in small firms when there is third-party tax reporting. I use a game theoretic framework to study two things. Firstly, how the employee and the employer divide their gains from evasion if they come to an agreement, and secondly, why there is less evasion for freelancers and employees in small firms when there is third-party reporting. For the first question I use the Nash cooperative bargaining approach and adapt it to the situation the employer and the employee are facing. For the second question I find that third-party reporting reduces evasion because it makes underreporting more costly, and because uncertainty about the other person’s tax morale makes both players less willing to suggest evasion.
Holographic P-wave Superconductors in 1+1 Dimensions

We study (1 + 1)-dimensional P-wave holographic superconductors described by three-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell gravity coupled to a massive complex vector field in the context of AdS(3)/CFT2 correspondence. In the probe limit, where the backreaction of matter fields is neglected, we show that there is a formation of a vector hair around the black hole below a certain critical temperature. In the dual strongly coupled (1 + 1)-dimensional boundary theory, this holographically corresponds to the formation of a charged vector condensate which breaks spontaneously both the U(1) and SO(1, 1) symmetries. We numerically compute both the free energy and the ac conductivity for the superconducting phase of the boundary field theory. Our numerical computations clearly establish that the superconducting phase of the boundary theory is favorable to the normal phase, and the presence of a magnetic moment term in the dual bulk theory effects the conductivity in the boundary field theory.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE BROADBAND AMPLIFIERS WITHOUT CLASSICAL STAGES WITH A COMMON BASE AND A COMMON EMITTER

This article considers a new design method of broadband amplifiers (BrA) for automation and control systems with higher voltage transfer ratio (Gain = 8÷58 dB). The feature of the proposed architectures of BrA lies in their implementation on the basis of emitter followers and current mirrors in the elemental basis of bipolar n-p-n transistors, for example, designated for the technological process SGB25VD and in the absence of classical stages with a common emitter or a common base. The results of computer simulations in the Cadence and Orcad environments are submitted.
Intrusion Detection Using Combination of Various Kernels Based Support Vector Machine

The success of any Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a complicated problem due to its nonlinearity and the quantitative or qualitative network traffic data stream with many features. To get rid of this problem, several types of intrusion detection methods have been proposed and shown different levels of accuracy. This is why, the choice of the effective and robust method for IDS is very important topic in information security. In this paper, a combining classification approach to network intrusion detection based on the fusion of multiple classifiers is proposed. This approach makes a combination of various kernel based Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier for intrusion detection system using majority voting fusion strategy. The experimental results indicate that combined approach effectively generates a more accurate model compared to single kernel based SVM classifier for the problem of intrusion detection.
Political Communication in Malaysia: A study on the Use of New Media in Politics

To gain and retain political power, politicians use the media to persuade the masses to vote and support them, especially during elections. Barisan Nasional (BN) has successfully used the media to maintain its power for the past 57 years, making it the longest-serving elected government in the world still currently in office. However, the emergence of the Internet has challenged the status quo. The purpose of the research was to investigate how new media has influenced the political process and communication strategies in Malaysia and its impact on the political landscape. The researcher interviewed 19 respondents: politicians, bloggers and media consultants from both sides of the political divide. The findings showed that new media, especially Web 2.0, has expanded the public sphere and enabled more Malaysians to participate in the democratic process, through information dissemination, mobilisation or crowd-sourcing. However, the cyber-war between BN and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has caused confusion and disinformation, affecting the quality of democratic decision-making. Nevertheless, new media has enabled more voices to emerge and challenge the political hegemony.
Logic Synthesis for Regular Fabric realized in Quantum Dot Cellular Automata

Quantum Dot Cellular Automata are one of the most prospective nano-technologies to build digital circuits. Because of the requirements of only 2 layer wiring and noise avoidance, realizing the circuit in a regular fabrics is even more important for this technology than for classical technologies. In this paper, we propose a regular layout geometry called 33 lattice. The main difference of this geometry compared to the known 22 lattices is that it allows the cofactors on a level to propagate to three rather than two nodes on the lower level. This gives additional freedom to synthesize compact functional representations. We propose a SAT-based algorithm, which exploits this freedom to synthesize 33 lattice representations of completely specified Boolean functions. The experimental results show that the algorithm generates compact layouts in reasonable time.
Fostering Moral Competence With the Konstanz Method of Dilemma Discussion

This paper deals with a special program for moral education, specifically using KMDD (the Konstanz method of dilemma discussion). This program is a method that is based on an open moral dilemma discussion in the classroom and has the key intent to cultivate moral competence. According to theory and some research, KMDD has a significant influence on moral competence (Lind, 2012; Nowak, Schrader, & Zizek, 2013). Moral competence means “the ability to cope with problems, and solve conflicts, on the basis of universal moral ideals through thinking and discussion rather than violence, deceit and power” (Lind, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to present the results of the study undertaken to examine this program. During an academic year in school, this method was implemented in ethics classes for Czech teenagers (N = 42). Moral competence was investigated by MCT (Moral Competence Test) in a research group and two control groups before and after the process. However, the results show that there was no significant impact on moral competence KMDD seems to foster different aspects of morality.
Effect of enzyme supplementation on nutritive values of fermented palm kernel cake used to substitute soybean meal in broiler diet.

Two experiments was designed to improve nutritional values of palm kernel cake (PKC) by biofermentation process, followed by enzyme supplementation to substitute soybean meal (SBM) in broilers diet. A factorial of 2 x 2 design was applied in the first experiment, i.e. fermentation process (non fermented PKC and fermented PKC) and enzyme supplementation (no enzyme and +BS4 enzyme). Dry matter (DM) digestibility, AME and amino acids ileal digestibility (IAAD) of the treatment ingredients were measured in broiler chickens. Seven replications were applied for the DM and AME assays and 3 replications for IAAD assay. Second experiment was designed to study the effect of SBM substitution with enzyme supplemented FPKC (EFPKC). Four diets were formulated, i.e., control diet without EFPKC, 10%, 20 and 40% SBM substituted with EFPKC. All diets were formulated to meet the nutrient requirements of broilers. Each diet was fed to broilers from 1 to 35 d. Body weight, feed consumption, FCR and mortalities were measured. Carcass yield, abdominal fat and weight of liver and gizzard were measured at the end of experiment. Results showed that fermentation of PKC increased the DM digestibility, the AME was also increased but not significant. Enzyme supplementation did not affect the DM digestibility and AME of PKC. Fermentation process significantly (P<0.05) decreased IAAD of some indispensable amino acids. However, supplementation of enzyme did not affect the IAAD of indispensable amino acids. Substitution of soybean meal with EFPKC reduced the feed intake and growth rate of broilers.
Transdermal Drug Delivery by Microneedles: Does Skin Metabolism Matter?

Microneedle arrays have been shown to increase skin permeability for the transdermal delivery of drugs with high molecular weights. Various theoretical studies have been proposed to predict the drug transport behaviour after drug injection using microneedles. However it is important for the optimal design of microneedle systems to consider the effects of biological factors such as skin metabolism and variations in pharmacokinetic parameters as well as to improve the enhancement of skin permeability. A mathematical model for microneedle systems is introduced and applied to simulate the verapamil transport with metabolism in the skin. A comparative analysis for a transdermal delivery of verapamil from microneedles is presented in this paper. The results indicate that the skin metabolism does not markedly affect the skin permeation after verapamil injection using microneedles.
Weak bond-linked components of the reserve and fibrillar cell walls of the endosperm of Gleditsia triacanthos (Leguminosae)

The whole system of low molecular weight/highly hydrophilic weak-bond linked components of the endosperm of the legume seed of Gleditsia triacanthos was studied on the basis of previous and new data. This reserve incrustant/fibrillar cell wall system may be considered a continuous phase formed by three types of compounds, namely: a) galactomannans/galactomannan-like oligosaccharides highly substituted (reserve) and with low branching (near mannans, fibrillar); b) "mixed-linkage"-glucans (reserve) and cellulose (fibrillar), and c) arabinans (reserve) and low- substituted arabinogalactans (fibrillar). The biological role of these "weak bond-linked" components is not fully understood but they may be multifunctional molecules, as they provide not only the weak bonds necessary for the swelling properties of the endosperm, but also they may contribute to the stabilization of enzymes in the dry endosperm by preventing dehydration.
Predictive Analysis for the Thermal Diffusion of the Plasma-Assisted Machining of Superalloy Inconel-718 Based on Exponential Smoothing

Nickel base and titanium base materials have been widely applied to engines in aerospace industry, and these engines are essential components of airplanes. The machining characteristics of aerospace materials may cause machining cutters to be worn down in a short time and thus reduce the accuracy of processing. The plasma-assisted machining adopted in the research is a kind of the complex machining method. In the cases of nickel base and titanium base alloys, the method can heat workpieces in an extremely short duration to soften the materials for the ease of cutting so that the cutting force, cutter wear, and machining cost will all be reduced. The research adopted plasma heating to soften parts of the materials and aimed to explore the heating of nickel base alloy. The temperature variation of the materials was investigated and measured by adjusting the current and feed velocity. Moreover, Inconel-718 superalloy was adopted for the comparison with nickel base alloy for the observation of the influence and change brought by heat, and the method of exponential smoothing was adopted to conduct the prediction and analysis of thermal diffusion for understanding the influence and change brought by electric current on nickel base materials. Finally, given the current from 20 A to 80 A and feed velocity from 1,000 mm/min to 3,000 mm/min, the influence of thermal diffusion was investigated and the related model was built.
Consensus for image noise removal with unknown noise

Noise removal has been, and it is nowadays, an important task in computer vision. Usually, it is a previous task preceding other tasks, as segmentation or reconstruction. However, for most existing denoising algorithms the noise model has to be known in advance. In this paper, we introduce a new approach based on consensus to deal with unknown noise models. To do this, different filtered images are obtained, then combined using multifuzzy sets and averaging aggregation functions. The final decison is made by using a penalty function to deliver the compromised image. Results show that this approach is consistent and provides a good compromise between filters.
Numerical simulation of bubble growth and liquid flow in a bubble jet micro actuator

Numerical models of fluid dynamics inside the micro actuator chamber and nozzle are presented. The models include ink flow from reservoir, bubble formation and growth, ejection through the nozzle, and dynamics of refill process. Since high tapered nozzle is one of the very important parameters for overall actuator performance design. The effects of variations of nozzle thickness, diameter, and taper angles are simulated and some results are compared with the experimental results. It is found that the ink droplet ejection through the thinner and high tapered nozzle is more steady, fast, and robust.
Automatic Human Joint Detection Using Microsoft Kinect

Automatic human joint detection has been used in many application nowadays. In this paper, we propose an approach to detect full body human joint method using depth and color image. The proposed solution is divided into 3 stage, which is image preprocess stage, distance transform stage, and anthropometric constraint analysis stage. The output of our solution is a stickman model with the same pose as in the given input image. Our implementation is done by using a Microsoft Kinect RGB and depth camera with 480x640 image resolution. The performance of this solution is demonstrated on several human posture.
LOWER LIMB COORDINATIVE STRUCTURE IN HUMAN WALKING

Human movement engages many body segments which are highly coupled. These couplings, known as synergies, have been widely investigated using principal components analysis (PCA). A primary limitation of the correlation matrices underlying PCA is that they do not account for phase differences or frequency-dependent variations in amplitude ratio between signals, yet such properties are widespread in relations between signals in the sensorimotor system. Coherence derived from dynamic linear systems analyses was introduced here to PCA applied to lower limb movements during normal walking. The results showed that one component could account for over 90% of the total variance in 26 joint angles. The findings confirm that the coordinative structure of walking is very low dimensional, comprising only a single degree of freedom.
Chlorogenic Acid Enhances Glucose Metabolism and Antioxidant System in High-fat Diet and Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic Mice

This study investigated dose-response effects of chlorogenic acid (CA) on glucose metabolism and the antioxidant system in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice with a high-fat diet (HFD). Male ICR mice were fed with a HFD (37% calories from fat) for 4 weeks prior to intraperitoneal injection with STZ (100 mg/kg body weight). Diabetic mice were supplemented with two doses of CA (0.02% and 0.05%, wt/wt) for 6 weeks. Both doses of CA significantly improved fasting blood glucose level, glucose tolerance and insulin tolerance without any changes in plasma insulin and C-peptide levels. Plasma leptin concentration was significantly higher in the CA-supplemented groups than in the diabetic control group. Both doses of CA significantly increased hepatic glucokinase activity and decreased glucose-6-phosphatase activity compared to the diabetic control group. The ratio of glucokinase/glucose-6-phosphatase was dose-independently higher in CA-supplemented mice than in diabetic control mice. CA supplementation dose-independently elevated superoxide dismutase and catalase activities, whereas it lowered lipid peroxide levels compared to the diabetic control mice in the liver and erythrocyte. These results suggest that low-dose CA may be used as a hypoglycemic agent in a high-fat diet and STZ-induced diabetic mice.
The effects of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on air quality and public health

OF THE THESIS . ii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS . iv TABLE OF CONTENTS . vi LIST OF FIGUERS . viii LIST OF TABLES . ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 1 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND: BEIJING 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES AND POLLUTION CONTROL MEASURES . 4 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW . 7 3.1 Air quality and health consequence . 7 3.2 Impact of air quality related events . 10 CHAPTER 4: DATA . 15 4.1 Air Pollution Index (API). 15 4.2 Hospital inpatient records . 17 4.3 Meteorological data . 18 vii 4.4 Socio-Economic data . 18 CHAPTER 5: CONCEPTUAL FREAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY . 20 5.1 Fixed effects and random effects models for panel data . 20 5.2 Specification of the fixed effects model for API. 21 5.3 Logistic regression model for inpatient records. 22 5.4 Difference-in-difference approach . 24 CHAPTER 6: Empirical Analysis . 28 6.1. Empirical Analysis of Air Quality. 28 6.1. 1 Summary Statistics of API by City and time period . 28 6.1. 2 Non-parametric analyses . 30 6.1. 3 Regression Analyses on API . 32 6.2. Empirical Analysis on Public Health . 37 6.2. 1 Summary Statistics of the Hospital Inpatient Data . 37 6.2. 2 Logistic model analysis for inpatient record model . 38 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION. 42
ESDD Prediction of Outdoor Polymer Insulators

A Master of Science thesis in Electrical Engineering by Abdelrahman Khaled entitled, "ESDD Prediction of Outdoor Polymer Insulators," submitted in June 2015. Thesis advisor is Dr. Ayman Hassan El-Hag and thesis co-advisor is Dr. Khaled Assaleh. Soft and hard copy available.
Serum vitamin D concentrations among 609 patients of Endocrine Outpatient Clinic – preliminary report

1Department of Endocrinology, Medical Center of Postgraduate Education, Warszawa Head of Department: prof. Wojciech Zgliczynski, MD, PhD 2Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Warsaw Dean of the Faculty: Marek Kuch, MD, PhD Students Scientific Association, Department of Endocrinology, Medical Center of Postgraduate Education, Warszawa Head of Students Scientific Association: Aleksandra Kruszynska, MD, PhD