Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Teacher training: a model for introducing innovative digital methodologies for learning Mathematics

This paper shows a model of teacher training developed by the XXX of the ZZZ, aimed at introducing teachers to the use of innovative methodologies for learning Mathematics and for developing disciplinary and cross-cutting competences. The learning methodologies proposed are mainly based on Problem Posing and Problem Solving, the use of an Advanced Computing Environment, of a Virtual Learning Environment and of an Automated Assessment System. The training model, designed in blended modality, mainly relies on the creation of an online community of practice, where teachers, supported by tutors, collaborate in the creation of interactive learning materials for their classes. They acquire competences not only in the use of learning technologies, but also on sharing and collaborating in virtual environments; they learn how to develop self-tailored didactic methodologies. The key strengths of this model are highlighted and the results, achieved after the experimentation in several projects, are discussed, showing the effectiveness of the model.
Immunohistochemical and Histopathological Changes in the Skin of Rats after Administration of Lead Acetate

Lead acetate is a chemical compound. Sources of human exposure to this metal include many foods, drinking water and dust. The aim of this study was to determine the immunohistochemical and histopathological changes on the face skin a fter lead acetate application. Wistar Albino rats (180-200 g body weight) were divided into a controlled and lead acetate-exposed gr ou . Rats received lead acetate at 500 ppm in their drinking water for 60 days. Both groups were fed with the same standard food, but lea d acetate was added to the drinking water. During the experimental period, blood samples were drawn from the abdominal aorta of the anest hetis d animals. At the end of exposure, body weight and blood lead levels were measured. Sections of rat facial skin were examined histopathological and immunohistochemical. In the group treated with lead acetate, minimal to slight multifocal hydropic degene ration of basal cell layer, depending on the thinning of the epidermis, the cellular degeneration in the dermis and a increase in the number of necrotic cells was observed in sebaceous glands of the hair follicle hemorrhage. The immunohistochemical results of the present work demonstrated an increase in Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) immunoreactivity in skin specimens from lead acetate trea ted animals. Vimentin immunoreactivity was very dense in hair follicle of the subepidermal region. It was also strongly stained aro und the myoepithelial cells surrounding sebaceous and stromal cells.
Beauty and its opposites

Les concepts evaluatifs se referent, par definition, a l'extension des possibilites entre deux poles, negatif et positif. A cet egard l'A. affirme que toute analyse de la beaute en tant que concept evaluatif est incomplete si les proprietes de son oppose ne sont pas prises en consideration
Parametric studies on artificial Morpho butterfly wing scales for optical device applications

We calculated diffraction efficiencies of grating structures inspired by Morpho butterfly wings by using a rigorous coupled-wave analysis method. The geometrical effects, such as grating width, period, thickness, and material index, were investigated in order to obtain better optical performance. Closely packed grating structures with an optimized membrane thickness show vivid reflected colors and provide high sensitivity to surrounding media variations, which is applicable to vapor sensing or healthcare indicators. Morpho structures with high index materials such as zinc sulfide or gallium phosphide generate white color caused by broadband reflection that can be used as reflected light sources for display applications.
Using Retail Scanner Data to Assess the Demand for Value-based Ground Meat Products in Canada

We apply a set of weekly Nielsen retail scanner data for the period 2006-2007 to estimate consumer demand of value-based ground meat products in the Canadian retail market. Our demand system results indicate that price responses are stronger for organic than for extra lean meat products. Additionally, while rising disposable incomes may shift consumers’ attention and purchases towards extra lean ground meat products, this result does not hold for organic ground beef. Our findings strongly suggest that ground meat demand is affected by traditional meat consumption patterns. Our analysis inform retail managers meat producers about potential market opportunities and expected consumer responses to changing economic determinants of popular retail ground meat demand.
CAP post-2013: alternative greening designs in Tuscany (Italy)

The provision of public goods is at the heart of agriculture’s multifunctionality. Since 1992s, the Common Agricultural Policy has addressed the environmental challenge by designing and implementing a set of environmental instruments, among which the most important are cross-compliance and agri-environmental schemes, respectively under Pillar I and Pillar II. The CAP has faced a reform where one of the main novelty beside to a new payment mechanism is the greening. This paper aims at assessing the ex-ante impact of alternative designs of the greening measure, within the framework of introduction of the new basic payment system. The design of the alternative scenarios encompasses the design of the optimal greening prescription: to increase the cost-effectiveness of the measure. The empirical analysis relies on Tuscany’s micro-data from the Italian agricultural Census 2010. We focus on the province of Grosseto, due to its high concentration of intensive farms. We apply a mathematical programming model at the farm level, which allows simulating the behaviour of farmers facing alternative greening designs under the new payment system. Data about farmers’ cost are derived from the Farm Accountancy Data Network. We assess the cost-effectiveness of alternative greening designs, by upscaling farm-level model’s results about the crop diversification index and the intensity of management.
Improving drought tolerance potential in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) through exogenous silicon supply.

Silicon (Si) an essential plant constituent or metabolite is involved in enhancing metabolic, physiological and structural stability in plants. However, its role under biotic and abiotic stress conditions is still unclear and need to be explored. A study was designed to identify the effective methods of Si application for improving the drought tolerance potential of wheat. Various methods (seed priming, fertigation and foliar spray) of applying Si were evaluated in two local spring wheat genotypes grown in plastic pots under normal and water stress conditions. Water stress caused a marked decrease in water relations and uptake of phosphorous, potassium, magnesium and zinc in plants. The Si application significantly enhanced the plants ability to withstand water deficit conditions through increased Si uptake and improved activity of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT). Among Si supply methods, foliar spray was more effective in alleviating the adverse effects of drought. Further to this, results suggested that fertilizer Si should be foliarly applied at tillering than anthesis stage for maintenance of turgor and better accumulation of nutrients in both normal and water stressed wheat plants.
THE DEMAND FOR MEAT IN SOUTH AFRICA: AN ALMOST IDEAL ESTIMATION

Abstract A Linear Approximated Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS), estimated in first differences, was used to anticipate the demand relations for meat (beef, chicken, pork and mutton) in South Africa from 1970–2000. Two tests for weak separability, including an F and Likelihood ratio version, failed to reject the null hypothesis of weak separability, confirming that the four meat products are separable, and should be modelled together. According to the Hausman exogeneity test, the expenditure term in the South African meat demand model is exogenous. As a result, a Restricted Seemingly Unrelated Regression (RSUR) was used to estimate the model, whereafter the parameters were used as to calculate compensated, uncompensated and expenditure elasticities.
A Novel Method for the Evaluation of Fashion Product Design based on Neuro analysis

It is difficult to qualitatively analyze the design effect of the product. This paper will be applying the mathematical fundamentals of the fuzzy theory to create a novel evaluation model. The neuro attributes are used to quantify the factors of affecting the product appearance and the evaluation indicators. This paper will use EEG Emotive and Tobii mobile eye tracking to monitor and acquire subject's brain activity and eye gaze to quantify evaluation factors. This method can scientifically evaluate the uniqueness of product appearance design quality, and provide objective reference for improving product design. Keywords—product design; evaluation method; EEG; eye tracking; fuzzy model
Ants Alter Herbivore Damage and the Arthropod Community on the Common Milkweed ( Asclepias syriaca )

Ants are important generalist predators that alter both predator and herbivore communities and can therefore indirectly affect the primary producers in an ecosystem. In this study, I evaluated whether excluding ants would change the composition of the arthropod community on 3 different clones of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) and whether these changes would cascade to the plant level and affect herbivory levels and plant performance. The effect of A. syriaca clone on the herbivore community and on the impact of ant exclusion was also examined. Application of a sticky pest barrier around the base of the stem successfully excluded ants from treatment plants. Total spider abundance was greatest for ant-free plants. After subdividing spiders into size and guild groupings, ants reduced the abundances of some groups, while others showed no difference between treatment and control. Coccinellid abundance did not respond to the treatment. The presence of ants increased abundance of the tended aphid Aphis asclepiadis and Lygaeus kalmii and decreased that of the untended aphid Myzocallis asclepiadis. On one clone, ants negatively affected Danaus plexippus larvae, while ants did not affect Liriomyza asclepiadis across all clones. Herbivore damage, as measured by percent leaf area removed, was affected by ants and accumulated only on the ant-exclusion plants on two clones and on both the treatment and control plants for the third. The increase in damage caused by exclusion of ants did not significantly affect the measures of plant performance assessed, relative growth, leaf loss, and fruit production, across all clones. Ant exclusion did reduce fruit production on one clone. These results provide evidence for the importance of ants to the structure of the milkweed community through direct and indirect interactions, although further long-term research is necessary to accurately assess cascading effects on the plant.
Side Information Generation in Distributed Video Coding

Distributed Video Coding (DVC) coding paradigm is based largely on two theorems of Information Theory and Coding, which are Slepian-wolf theorem and Wyner-Ziv theorem that were introduced in 1973 and 1976 respectively. DVC bypasses the need of performing Motion Compensation (MC) and Motion Estimation (ME) which are largely responsible for the complex encoder in devices. DVC instead relies on exploiting the source statistics, totally/partially, at only the decoder. Wyner-Ziv coding, a particular case of DVC, which is explored in detail in this thesis. In this scenario, two correlated sources are independently encoded, while the encoded streams are decoded jointly at the single decoder exploiting the correlation between them. Although the distributed coding study dates back to 1970’s, but the practical efforts and developments in the field began only last decade. Upcoming applications (like those of video surveillance, mobile camera, wireless sensor networks) can rely on DVC, as they don’t have high computational capabilities and/or high storage capacity. Current coding paradigms, MPEG-x and H.26x standards, predicts the frame by means of Motion Compensation and Motion Estimation which leads to highly complex encoder. Whilst in WZ coding, the correlation between temporally adjacent frames is performed only at the decoder, which results in fairly low complex encoder. The main objective of the current thesis is to investigate for an improved scheme for Side Information (SI) generation in DVC framework. SI frames, available at the decoder are generated through the means of Radial Basis Function Network (RBFN) neural network. Frames are estimated from decoded key frames block-by-block. RBFN network is trained offline using training patterns from different frames collected from standard video sequences.
RESEARCH ON THE SUITABLE PARAMETERS FOR HYDROLYSIS REACTION OF RED MEAT OF STRIPED TUNA (SARDA ORIENTALIS) BY USING COMMERCIAL PROTAMEX

Red meat of Sarda orientalis is one of by-products of tuna processing industry, the source of Sarda orientalis red meat is abundant in Vietnam. Red meat of Sarda orientalis contained 27 % of protein and 0.53 % of lipid, thus, it was classified into lean fish meat and a perfect resource for protein hydrolysate production. The purpose of this research is to hydrolyze Sarda orientalis red meat by using protamex enzyme to obtain protein hydrolysates. The suitable parameters for hydrolysis reaction were reaction time of 4 h, ratio of Protamex enzyme to red meat of 0.4 % (based on the weight of red meat, w/w), and reaction temperature of 55 °C with the maximal value of degree of hydrolysis of 7.03 %. The highest degree of hydrolysis in this research can compare to previous researches.
Buckling Optimization and Prebuckling Enhancement of Imperfect Composite Plates Using Piezoelectric Actuators

An imperfect composite plate equipped with piezoelectric actuators is investigated. Geometric nonlinear effects are considered only in the prebuckling regime such that higher order strain energy terms can be disregarded. The actuators are used to achieve two goals: to optimize buckling loads under uncertain loadings via stress stiffening effects and to ameliorate the plate prebuckling response through application of piezoelectric bending moments. A strategy is proposed where the piezoelectric membrane forces and bending moments are separated by proper selection of voltages imposed on symmetrically bonded piezoelectric patches. Piezoelectric forces and moments are then used separately to optimize buckling loads and to improve prebuckling response.
Hyaline mutants from Verticillium dahliae, an example of selection and characterization of strains for host–parasite interaction studies

The objective of the present work was to select stable well-characterized strains of Verticillium dahliae that could be used as biological tools in genetic and plant–microbe interaction studies. Hyaline mutants, known for their stability in pathogenicity were chosen for the study. Diversity in pathogenicity was found among hyaline subclones obtained from a defoliating wild-type clone, but not within those from nondefoliating ones. Most subclones from the defoliating clone had parental pathotypes, but one (V7-2) exhibited weak pathogenicity. This subclone (V7-2), together with a highly virulent one (V7-7) deriving from the same defoliating parent clone (7), were selected for further characterization, because of their differences in pathogenicity. When studied on the basis of their growth requirements, the two subclones expressed marked differences. V7-7 grew better than V7-2 over a wider range of temperature conditions. Both subclones grew similarly in media supplemented with NH4 as nitrogen source, but in those with NO3, V7-7 grew more vigorously than V7-2 and only the former could grow when NO2 was used. In spite of these differences, the two subclones were found to belong to the same vegetative compatibility group, confirming their genetic proximity. These results highlight the physiological and genetic complexity inherent in V. dahliae. In view of their characteristics, the clones obtained in this study should prove to be valuable tools in furthering the understanding of genetic and host–V. dahliae interactions.
Neonatal Mortality, Young Calf Slaughter and Milk Production during the Early Neolithic of North Western Mediterranean

TheNorth-WesternMediterraneanwitnessedarapidexpansionoffarmersandtheirlivestockduringtheEarlyNeo- lithic period. Depending on the region, cattle played a more or less important role in these communities; however howtheseanimals were exploited for their milk is not clear. Here we investigate calf mortality to determine indirectly whether cattle dairying was practised by Early Neolithic stock herders. Age-at-death (AtD) frequencies for calves from two sites: Trasano (Italy, Impressa culture: 7-6 th millennium BC) and La Draga (Spain, Cardial culture: 6 th millennium BC) were estimated from dental eruption and development stages, and measurements of un-fused post-cranial material. Adult age classes are well represented in the dental AtD frequencies and were interpreted as the result of the slaughter of prime beef and retired lactating females. For calves aged less than 12months, there was no statistical difference in the AtD frequencies based on dental and post-cranial material indicating that the data is a good representation of the mortality patterns of calves, either natural or deliberate. At both sites there was a strong mortality peak at 3-6months in all AtD profiles. At La Draga, this peak was clearly differentiated from a peak at 0-1month, which can be interpreted neonatal mortality possible a conse- quence of the birthing season coinciding with the end of winter during more humid climatic conditions that at present. The deliberate slaughter peak around 3-6months is discussed, and we propose that stock herders controlled the mortality of infant classes, possibly in response to variable external environ- ment pressures while maintaining animal productivity. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Cohabitation in Spain: No Longer a Marginal Path to Family Formation

Although many indicators reflect the marked retreat from marriage occurring in Spain since the 1980s, the diffusion of cohabitation has been slow. The confluence of very low and late fertility, latest-late marriage, and low cohabitation has been largely regarded as defying the predictions of the second demographic transition and has fueled a debate over the distinctiveness of the Mediterranean model of family formation. Comparative analyses based on the Family and Fertility Survey documented the marginal role of cohabitation in Spain and in the rest of southern European countries by the mid-1990s. In this research, the authors used more recent data from the 2006 Spanish Fertility, Family and Values Survey (N = 5,750) to reveal that cohabitation has spread significantly among younger cohorts and hence can no longer be considered as playing a marginal role in the family formation process.
The Scholarship of Teaching: A Canadian Perspective with Examples

Scholarship is the heart of academic work. Recognizing this the Carnegie report (Boyer, 1990) urges universities to extend the definition of scholarship to include application, teaching, and integration, as well as discovery, thereby making it possible to value all academic work. Although this inclusive view of scholarship holds promise, questions remain concerning the scholarship of teaching and how such scholarship differs from the activities which presently comprise teaching. How would scholarship be identified with teaching, enhance practices, and foster the development of teaching? These questions are addressed, examples given of teaching scholarship, and of institutional policies which support it. The enhancement of teaching, as it meets scholarship's criteria, is discussed.
Factors Affecting Juvenile Movement in a House Sparrow Metapopulation

Dispersal propensity can vary considerably between individuals in a population. Understanding which individuals disperse- and under what circumstances these individuals disperse is valuable for conservation. Factors influencing juvenile movement and natal dispersal were studied in individually marked house sparrows, Passer domesticus, in an archipelago off the coast of Helgeland, northern Norway. Sex, clutch size, body size and body mass did not significantly explain variation in movement. Movement rate was however negatively related to hatch date on one of the islands. Moreover, there was a decrease in movement rate with increasing patch isolation and hostility of the matrix habitat. This study suggests that habitat configuration is an important factor determining movement of juvenile house sparrows, and that the environment experienced early in life may be related to movement propensity. I strongly recommend incorporating landscape features in further analyses of movement and dispersal rate.
PROVENANCE VARIATION IN SEED, POD, GERMINATION AND SEEDLING CHARACTERISTICS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF DALBERGIA SISSOO IN CHHATTISGARH INDIA.

Sunil Kumar Tiwari andS SDhuria. Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Environmental Sciences School of Natural Resources, Guru GhasidasVishwavidhyalaya, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, India, 495009. Manuscript Info Abstract . Manuscript History
Simulation-Based Dynamic Passenger Flow Assignment Modelling for a Schedule-Based Transit Network

The online operation management and the offline policy evaluation in complex transit networks require an effective dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) method that can capture the temporal-spatial nature of traffic flows. The objective of this work is to propose a simulation-based dynamic passenger assignment framework and models for such applications in the context of schedule-based rail transit systems. In the simulation framework, travellers are regarded as individual agents who are able to obtain complete information on the current traffic conditions. A combined route selection model integrated with pretrip route selection and entrip route switch is established for achieving the dynamic network flow equilibrium status. The train agent is operated strictly with the timetable and its capacity limitation is considered. A continuous time-driven simulator based on the proposed framework and models is developed, whose performance is illustrated through a large-scale network of Beijing subway. The results indicate that more than 0.8 million individual passengers and thousands of trains can be simulated simultaneously at a speed ten times faster than real time. This study provides an efficient approach to analyze the dynamic demand-supply relationship for large schedule-based transit networks.