Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of Chinese Calligraphy by Using DBSC Vectorization and ICP Algorithm

Chinese calligraphy is a charismatic ancient art form with high artistic value in Chinese culture. Virtual calligraphy learning system is a research hotspot in recent years. In such system, a judging mechanism for user’s practice result is quite important. Sometimes, user’s handwritten character is not that standard, the size and position are not fixed, and the whole character may be even askew, which brings difficulty for its evaluation. In this paper, we propose an approach by using DBSCs (disk B-spline curves) vectorization and ICP (iterative closest point) algorithm, which cannot only evaluate a calligraphic character without knowing what it is, but also deal with the above problems commendably. Firstly we find the promising candidate characters from the database according to the angular difference relations as quickly as possible. Then we check these vectorized candidates by using ICP algorithm based upon the skeleton, hence finding out the best matching character. Finally a comprehensive evaluation involving global (the whole character) and local (strokes) similarities is implemented, and a final composited evaluation score can be worked out.
Nutritional characteristics and consumer acceptability of sausages with different combinations of goat and beef meats

Background: Obesity and cardiovascular heart diseases are growing problems in the United States. This is partially due to the consumption of the primary red meats such as pork and beef. Goat meat has the potential to replace these traditionally consumed meats. Rice bran is a rich source of antioxidants such as vitamin E and can be utilized as a binder in meat and meat products. Methods: Goat meat/beef sausages were formulated to contain either 50/50, 75/25 or 100/0 percent goat meat/beef, with either no added rice bran (NRB) or 3 percent stabilized rice bran (RB). Proximate analysis, fatty acids, 𝛼-tocopherol and cholesterol concentrations of the six cooked formulations were determined. The six sausage formulations were compared in a consumer acceptability taste test. Results: The fat concentration of the NRB and RB formulations decreased linearly with increasing percentages of goat meat (p < 0.001). The sum of the saturated fatty acids decreased linearly with increasing percentages of goat meat (p < 0.01). Polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid and conjugated linoleic acid concentrations increased linearly (p < 0.05) with increasing percentages of goat meat in both the NRB and RB sausage formulations. The α-tocopherol concentration of the NRB formulations did not change across the goat meat percentages, but in the RB formulations it increased linearly with increasing percentages of goat meat (p < 0.001). The cholesterol concentration decreased linearly with increasing percentages of goat meat in both the NRB and RB formulations (p <0.01, < 0.05 respectively). The tasters preferred the NRB with higher goat meat percentage to the RB formulations. Conclusions: The NRB and RB sausage formulations with higher percentages of goat meat had higher concentrations of 𝛼-tocopherol, CLA (18:2 cis 9 Trans 11), total n-3, total PUFA, total n-3/total n-6 ratio, and a lower cholesterol concentration. The RB sausage formulations with higher percentages of goat meat had lower total saturated and an acceptable ratio of (C18:0 + C18:1) to C16:0. The NRB formulations with greater percentage of goat meat were more acceptable by the taters than the RB formulations. Key words : Goat meat; rice bran; fatty acids; 𝛼 -tocopherol; cholesterol
Studying the Effects of Household and Firm Credit on the Trade Balance: The Composition of Funds Matters

One of the most widely used indicators of financial development in the empirical literature is the Private Credit to GDP ratio. A key shortcoming of this measure is that it does not distinguish between the share of credit extended to households vis-a-vis firms. It is our contention that this distinction is crucial to analyze the effects of financial development on the trade balance: Changes in the composition of private credit should have an impact on the foreign trade deficit. Our empirical findings show that: 1) Private credit to households is negatively and significantly correlated with net exports; 2) Private credit to firms is not significantly correlated with net exports; and 3) The allocation of credit matters; a higher proportion of firm credit is positively and significantly correlated with net exports. A key implication of these results is that, whenever there is a sizeable trade deficit or a high risk of a currency crisis, policy makers should limit the growth of household credit while, at the same time, encourage further allocation of funds to firms.
The effect of cattle slurry in combination with nitrate and the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide on in situ nitrous oxide and dinitrogen emissions

Abstract. A field study was conducted to determine the effect of the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) on N2O and N2 emissions after cattle slurry (CS) application in the presence of nitrate (NO3) fertiliser on seven different occasions (between March 2009 and March 2011). N2O emissions from CS in the presence of NO3 fertiliser were very high (0.4–8.7% of applied N) over a 20-day period, under mild moist conditions. Emissions were significantly larger from the CS treatment compared to an NH4p-N source, supplying the same rate of N as in the slurry. This study supports the view that organic fertilisers should not be applied at the same time as nitrate-based fertilisers, as significant increases in N2O emissions occur. The average N2O mole fraction (N2O/(N2O p N2)) over all seven application dates was 0.34 for CSNO3 compared to 0.24 for the NH4ClNO3 treatment, indicating the dominance of N2 emissions. The rate of nitrification in CSNO3 was slower than in NH4ClNO3, and DCD was found to be an effective nitrification inhibitor in both treatments. However, as N2O emissions were found to be predominantly associated with the NO3 pool, the effect of DCD in lowering N2O emissions is limited in the presence of a NO3 fertiliser. To obtain the maximum cost-benefit of DCD in lowering N2O emissions, under mild moist conditions, it should not be applied to a nitrate containing fertiliser (e.g. ammonium nitrate or calcium ammonium nitrate), and therefore the application of DCD should be restricted to ammonium-based organic or synthetic fertilisers.
Microsoft Word-NewburyCombOutputFinal2withheader.DOC

The output of a femtosecond fiber laser will form a frequency comb that can be phase-locked through feedback to the cavity length and pump power. A perturbative theory is developed to describe this frequency comb output, in particular for a solitonic fiber laser. The effects of resonant dispersion, saturation of the self-amplitude modulation, cavity loss, thirdorder dispersion, Raman scattering, self-phase modulation, and self-steepening on the spacing and offset of the fiber-laser frequency comb are given. The mechanisms by which the pump power, cavity length and cavity loss control the frequency comb spacing and offset are identified. Transfer functions are derived for the comb response to change in cavity length, pump power or cavity loss. This theory can potentially be applied to other frequency comb sources as well.
Arsenic intakes from spices and sheep tail (Donbeh) in a high oesophageal cancer area: Pilot study from Iran

Arsenic is a carcinogenic and toxicant element widely found in the environment and might be part of causation web of Oesophageal Cancer (OC), which has one of the highest incidence rates in Golestan Province, Northeast Iran. In this pilot study, we collected 10 Sheep tail (donbeh) and 9 mixed spices samples, as widely consumed foods in the region, from main counties in the province and analyzed for arsenic concentrations using AOAC atomic absorption spectrophotometry method. Findings showed that arsenic levels in all samples were less than the safe level of 1 ppm. Total arsenic intake from sheep tail and mixed spices sources were estimated at 4.68 and 4.24 µg/day in men and women, respectively. Therefore, the study suggests that arsenic intake from these commonly consumed foods do not seem as a major hazard for OC etiology.
Employment and Volunteering for Adults With Intellectual Disability

Employment is a fundamental part of adult life. Adults with intellectual disability (ID) face multiple barriers to employment, however, and are underrepresented in the paid workforce. Formal volunteering has been promoted as both a stepping stone and an alternative to employment for some adults with disability. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of research findings relating to volunteering and employment for work-age adults with ID. Few studies have examined the experiences of adults with ID who volunteer. The findings indicate that volunteering alone is unlikely to lead to employment for adults with ID. However, some adults with ID view volunteering as a meaningful and desirable alternative to paid work. There is a need for further research to examine the relationship between volunteering and employment for adults with ID. In addition, there is a need for practice guidelines to ensure that the outcomes for adults with ID who volunteer, and those who seek paid employment, are successful.
Microfinance Structure of Thailand

This paper was devoted to analyzing the structure of microfinance in Thailand. The theory of industrial organization (IO) was applied as a guideline to measure the degree of monopoly power in microfinance structure. The objective of the study was investigation on Thai microfinance institution marketing structure by using Concentration Ratio (CR) and Herfindahl Hirschman Index (HHI). The data of the study focus on the outstanding loans market share of microfinance institutions (MFIs). The market share of the outstanding loans of MFIs from the largest to the smallest is as follows: Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), Village Fund Cooperatives, Government Saving Bank (GSB), Pawnshop, Self Help group: Saving Group, Commercial Bank, Self Help Group: Sudja Group and Isalamic Bank (IB), respectively. It stated that CR by outstanding loans is as follows: Cr 1, 59.35%; Cr 3, 81.11%; Cr 6, 92.14%; and Cr 9, 94.37%. At the same time HHI is 0.38. Additionally, BAAC remains the majority MFIs even though there are the other MFIs available in the microfinance system. The main role of providing the microfinance services mostly derived from BAAC.
On Establishing Behaviorally Adoptive Semantic Narratives

— Providing personalized consumer contents can be both empowered and simplified through adapting analytics modeling and results with semantic representations. Analytics representations tend to be unique to their proprietary technological solutions, growing silos of non-interoperable, non-shareable results. Our approach to overcoming these obstacles is to pair our analytical modeling solution, Direct Qualification, with middleware integrated algorithms for graph, content, identity, and behavioral-based analytics. This abstraction layer of semantically represented analytics enabled multiple best-fit analytics engines to be deployed in parallel while providing a common query front-end for analytics observations, provenance, and trends. We introduce the establishment and the adaptation of a Behavior Ontology (BO) and Behavior Analytics (BA) modeling. We describe the integration of such behavior modeling with the semantic modeling of analytics and state management for an effective consumer content personalization system. We illustrate our prototype with publish and subscribe middleware and show the preliminary results. These components will be integrated into a holistic semantic analytics solution with autonomous functions for behavior optimizations, pluggable algorithm components, and end-to-end, machine learned personalization for information consumers and producers.
Mechanism of deep low frequency earthquakes: Further evidence that deep non‐volcanic tremor is generated by shear slip on the plate interface

We study the mechanism of low frequency earthquakes (LFEs) in the Nankai Trough in western Shikoku, Japan. Precise locations have previously suggested that they represent shear slip on the plate boundary. In this paper we examine the mechanism of these events. Due to the low signal‐to‐noise ratio, we analyze stacked LFE waveforms and compare them with the waveforms of nearby earthquakes of known mechanism within the subducting Philippine Sea Plate. Analysis of both the focal mechanism using P‐wave first‐motions and the moment tensor using S waveforms indicates that LFEs represent shear slip on a low‐angle thrust fault dipping to the northwest, namely the plate interface. Together with reports that deep tremor consists of a swarm of LFEs, our results suggest that deep tremor is generated directly by shear slip on the plate interface, and as such represents a seismic signature of the accompanying slow slip events.
Multidimensionality of critical thinking: A holistic perspective from multidisciplinary educators in Karachi, Pakistan

Critical thinking (CT) is a phenomenon of worldwide importance and is a desired outcome in higher and professional education. Development of CT is considered a primary responsibility of educators; however, educators find it challenging to foster learners’ CT if their own understanding of CT skills and concepts is not well developed. Limited research is available on how multidisciplinary educators perceive and practice CT. The study aimed to identify perceptions and practices of CT among educators from the disciplines of nursing, medicine, and education in higher education in Karachi, Pakistan. A descriptive exploratory qualitative design was used where 12 purposefully selected educators from three disciplines participated. Semi structured interviews were conducted and content analysis was done. Although the findings revealed four major themes, the focus of this paper is limited to the theme of faculty perceptions. Faculty’s perceptions of nature, acquisition, and application of critical thinking are multidimensional and although the educators were from various disciplines their perceptions of critical thinking were analogous. Thus combined efforts by all multidisciplinary educators in a higher education are needed to assist them to actualize their perceptions to promote CT practices in a classroom setting.
Exposure of biofilms to meiofaunal copepods affects the larval settlement of Hydroides elegans （Polychaeta）

This study reports significant differences in larval settlement of the polychaete Hydroides elegans (Haswell, 1883) on biofilms treated either by different densities of live harpacticoid copepods or conditioned by particulate organic material (POM) retrieved from harpacticoid copepod cultures. The copepods used in this study were the facultatively predatory Tisbe japonica and the detritivorous Nitocra spinipes. The resulting biofilms covering experimental surfaces exhibited differences in bacterial abundances, bacterial community profiles and bioactivity, as evidenced by differential attractivity provided as percentages of larval settlement. The density of settled larvae decreased on biofilms modified by increasing numbers of copepods. The highest bacterial densities (16085 ± 915 cells mm -2 ) were found on natural biofilms conditioned with POM from cultures of T. japonica. The lowest bacterial densities (4020 ± 765 cells mm -2 ) were found on biofilms grown in the presence of the highest numbers of live T japonica. Spearman-rank correlation results revealed a positive trend between increasing bacterial densities and larval settlement. Increasing copepod abundances were correlated with reduced bacterial densities and caused changes in the bacterial community profiles, which were identified by terminal restriction fragment analyses. Changes in microbial biofilms due to the conditioning effects of copepods or their remains/exudates are assumed to be responsible for differential larval settlement. Hence, the present laboratory study demonstrates that effects of predators can be mediated by biofilms and affect larval settlement indirectly.
Genomic Signature of Respiratory Microbes on Human Scalp Epithelia

Despite overlap between habitats occupied by diverse Airborne Respiratory Microbes (ARM), the airway epithelium is known for respiratory microbe infections, human scalp epithelium is undocumented. Analogous to airways epithelium, the scalp epithelium is vulnerable to infection by dormant variants of sensitive microbes that underlie many chronic and relapsing diseases, difficult to eradicate by conventional antibiotics and challenged our ability to treat chronic infection. Hence comprehensive understanding of scalp epithelium ARM load, its disposal and impact on the host, as well as the environment, remains to be defined; we need to know the portals of entry and the virulence potential of ARM in determining the impact on human health and well beings. Here we investigate the genomic signature of diverse ARM in inflammatory scalp programmed for desquamation. Spatial analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), Chlamydophila pnumoniae (Cp), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Respiratory Syncytial virus strain A/B (RSVA/RSVB) and Influenza virus (H1N1) in the Flakes of White Scales (FWS) from the hair bearing areas of the scalp by quantitative (q) PCR reveals flux of microbes ranging from ~106 to 108 copies/ng FWS-DNA. Mtb and 16SrRNA identity reaffirmed by amplicon sequencing. Absence of microbe gene expression signatures in FWS negates the presence of viable ARM, absence of E. coli adhesin mRNA indicates habitat rejection in coculture of epithelial cells and E. coli JM107 and absence of H1N1 hemaglutinin1 (H1) mRNA in FWS rules out canonical binding and downstream infection of neighboring cell by H1N1. We conclude that desquamated epithelium, in addition to Malassezia sp, bear diverse genomic signatures of non-virulent respiratory microbes, suggest an undefined portal of entry, helps in clearance of microbes and possess minimum risk of re-infection to neighboring cells and subjects.
Effect of Calcium Chloride and Hydrocooling on Postharvest Quality of Selected Vegetables

Precooling and postharvest application of calcium chloride (CaCl 2 ) on produce has positive effects in maintaining the produce quality during storage. However, there is variation in the response of the produce to different CaCl 2 concentrations . As a result, there is need to establish optimal concentrations of calcium chloride that can extend postharvest life of targeted produce. Fresh good quality produce (tomatoes, carrots, courgettes and African eggplants) of uniform size and maturity were harvested and sampled into four portions. One was a control, hydrocooled with water only at 2±1 0 C and the others were hydrocooled with water containing CaCl 2 at 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5%. After hydrocooling, tomatoes, African eggplants and courgettes were stored at 10 0 C, while carrots were stored at 7 0 C, all at 95% constant relative humidity, and sampled every two days for quality assessment. Weight loss, chilling injury, vitamin c and beta-carotene loss were reduced by application of calcium chloride. Titratable acidity decrease and increase in total soluble solids and specific sugars was also slowed by application of CaCl 2 .
The role of radiation damping in the modeling of repeated earthquake events

We have investigated the role of the radiation damping term (RDT) on repeated earthquake ruptures by modeling the faulting process through a single one-dimensional analog fault system governed by different constitutive laws. The RDT expresses the energy lost by the seismic waves. The RDT is inherently accounted for in more elaborated, fully dynamic models of extended fault, whereas it is neglected in one-dimensional fault models. In this study, we adopt various formulations of the laboratoryderived rate-dependent and state-dependent friction constitutive laws: the Dieterich-Ruina law, the Ruina-Dieterich law and the Chester and Higgs law. Our numerical results clearly indicate that the RDT significantly affects the system dynamics. More specifically, the more the RDT is effective, the more frequent the slip failures are (with a cycle-time reduction of ca. 30%). We also show that inclusion of the RDT tends to promote smaller but more frequent earthquake instabilities, irrespective of the choice of the governing law. Our data shed light on the limitations implied by the conventional formulation of the equation of motion for the spring system, in which the energy radiation is ignored.
Relative importance of nanoflagellates and ciliates as consumers of bacteria in a coastal sea area dominated by oligotrichous Strombidium and Strobilidium

To examine the relative importance of nanoflagellates and ciliates as grazers of bacteria, we examined seasonal changes in their consumption of bacteria in a coastal sea, where the oligotrichous ciliates Strombidium and Strobilidium are dominant throughout the year. The numbers of these 2 dominant taxa accounted for 16 to 71% (average 55%) of the total ciliate numbers. Other ciliate taxa which seasonally dominated were photosynthetic Myrionecta rubra, the aloricate oligotrichs Laboea and Lohmaniella, the loricate oligotrichs Tintinnopsis, Cyttarocylis, and scuticociliates. Fluorescently labelled 0.5 µm diameter beads were used to determine grazing rates. Bacterivory was detected for nano- flagellates, Strombidium, Strobilidium, Lohmaniella, Tintinnopsis and Cyttarocylis. Ingestion rates on bacteria by nanoflagellates ranged between 0.3 and 2.2 bacteria protistan cell -1 h -1 . Ingestion rates of the dominant ciliate taxa Strombidium and Strobilidium, when feeding on bacteria, varied from 7 to 34 bac- teria protistan cell -1 h -1 , though the rates were low relative to those of other dominant ciliate taxa (14 to 50 bacteria protistan cell -1 h -1 ). Significant relationships (p < 0.01) were found between the cell numbers of bacteria and ingestion rates of nanoflagellates, and between the cell numbers of bacteria and inges- tion rates of Strombidium, whereas the relationship between the cell numbers of bacteria and ingestion rates of the total ciliates was not significant. Turnover rates of bacteria due to grazing by the total ciliates (0 to 0.63% d -1 ) were lower than those by nanoflagellates (1 to 15% d -1 ). Thus, it is likely that the dominant ciliates in the bay are not important grazers of bacteria, and that the main grazers of bacteria are nanoflagellates.
Mobile Learning: Extreme Outcomes of "Everywhere, Anytime".

Mobile learning, if considered in its most enthusiastic versions, promises to transform the world of learning. It seems that mobile devices will lead to overcome the narrow limits of the classroom to achieve ubiquitous learning. But if we analyze critically the promise of the everywhere, anytime, suspending judgment on its feasibility, interesting pedagogical issues arise: the relationship, on the one hand between formal and informal dimensions of learning and, on the other hand, between learning and information.