Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship Of Internationalization And Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence From SME Perspective

Firms internationalize in order to capture potential profit opportunities outside the home market or to withstand its competitive pressure, i.e. the factors that influence the firm to internationalize contributing to its increased profitability. It was in other words assumed that the more inclination towards internationalizing a firm , the better is its performance. The results from the previous research studies has confirmed a positive, but marginally, significant relationship between internationalization and performance of the firm. In this study, we lay emphasis on SMEs (small and medium manufacturing enterprises) of pumps and motors in Coimbatore district that have an international exposure in terms of foreign sales. This article proposes an extension of the internationalization performance based on the ‘Entrepreneurship Theory’ variables in relationship with the firm’s sales and profit growth. For this purpose, 143 firms in Coimbatore were surveyed and the findings revealed that these firms show a significant inclination towards the financial predictors such as Sales volume, Profit growth, Enterprise value and Asset value for assessing the total performance of the company. To assess the performance and growth of the internationalization firms, Pearson Correlation of firm’s export performance variables, Multiple Regression Analysis and Correlation of subjective and objective performance variables were applied in this study.
Modeling of Reinforced Concrete Beams Exposed to Fire by Using a Spectral Approach

This paper presents a numerical procedure for predicting the mechanical behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams exposed to fire. Thermal behavior is captured using a two-dimensional finite element (FE) model in an environment of elevated temperatures, while a one-dimensional spectral numerical model is formulated to simulate the mechanical response of the beam under increasing loads. Both models are integrated. Previous thermal results obtained from the FE model are provided for the proposed numerical model to calculate the responses of the RC beam for different levels of fire exposure. Few elements are deployed in this study due to the simplicity and efficiency of the proposed numerical model. Consequently, the computational burden of the numerical simulation for predicting the structural performances of RC beams exposed to fire is released comparing with conventional FE model. The numerical results are consistent with the test data, which demonstrate the model’s capability of efficiently simulating the thermomechanical behaviors of RC beams due to its simplicity and accuracy.
Synchronization of Grid Connected PV System Using PI Controller

Grid connected solar system consists ofconverters Circuits are organized in two differentways one is DC/DC boosters and another is PWMInverter. This combination results decrement ofQuality and efficiency of electric power, this paperreflects the use of a single phase 13- level photovoltaic (PV) inverter in solar system connected togrid with a pulse width-modulated (PWM) controlsystem. The rapid variations in radiation can beremunerated by Digital proportional-integralcontroller. This inverter gives a less harmonicdistortion and significant power factor over fivelevel inverters and is examined and experimentedthrough simulation.
Oral Health Perception and Practices among School Children Froma Low Socio Economic Locality in Mumbai, India.

Dental caries is the most common chronic disease of childhood that interferes with normal nutrition intake, speech, self-esteem and daily routine activities. Only sporadic data is available on the oral health condition in different states in India. In a metropolitan city like Mumbai, no systematic assessment on the oral health problems is available, especially among the children belonging to low socio-economic class, studying in municipal schools. Hence the current study was planned to provide the base line data of oral health perception and practices among the children studying in (V-VII Std.) suburban municipal school and predominantly from a low socio-economic area, located in the field practice area of a teaching medical college. The present cross sectional study was conducted among 299 school children of the age 9 to 13 years using a pre-tested semistructured questionnaire for face to face interview to assess their oral hygiene knowledge, perception and practices. Majority of the children were aware about importance of daily tooth brushing, avoidance of sweets especially at bedtime. Statistically significant association was found between awareness and practice of daily tooth brushing. Significantly more girls brushed their teeth daily. School oral health program to impart awareness about good oral habits needs to be implemented through all the schools.
Robotic Pollination - Targeting kiwifruit flowers for commercial application

This paper contains the initial evaluation of a novel platform mounted robotic pollination system. Advancement in artificial pollination is an important step forward in agricultural sectors due to the global decline of natural pollinators. Robotic pollination allows for potentially autonomous, precision operation; however, background research suggested that prior development in the area has been sparse. The featured wet-application robotic pollination system was capable of detecting >70% of flowers whilst driving at a slow-pace through kiwifruit orchard rows. Over 80% of flowers were robotically pollinated.
Solving CAPTCHAs Automatically for Web Crawling

Web crawler is an automated script which browses the World Wide Web in methodical, automated manner. This process is called as web crawling or web spidering. Web crawler is also known as web spider or web robot. Crawler needs to catch web pages frequently for updating the data. But by this process, performance and speed may get affected. Crawler can not retrieve data in a great depth. Hence, to reduce load and also for authentication, web server requests web crawler to verify or cross check themselves against CAPTCHAs. Today, more than two billion web pages are there on web server. One human can not enter CAPTCHAs for every time while entering to required web page. Hence, to solve CAPTCHAs automatically we explained a system for text or image recognition from CAPTCHA images. Our focus is on reliable and firm text or image extraction, recognition, putting resolved CAPTCHA to crawler system to continue the web crawling process without involving human directly.
Testing for presence of radioactivity in BC Pacific Ocean’s seafood supply

Due to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant incident in March 2011, large quantities of contaminated water were released to the Pacific Ocean in Japan. The severity of contamination on the marine environment is unclear, therefore, the public is concerned with the possible internal radiation exposure from ingesting contaminated seafood products caught in the Pacific Ocean. This study was aimed to investigate the presence or absence of gamma radioactivity in commonly consumed seafood products from B.C. In total, ten different species of fish and three different species of shellfish were selected for analysis. For each species of fish, two samples were collected and each sample was from a different local seafood market. For each species of shellfish, ten samples were collected from three different sources. Using the portable GR-135 Plus gamma ray spectrometer, the samples were tested and analyzed for the presence of Fukushima radionuclides, particularly Cesium-137 (Cs-137) and Cesium134 (Cs-134). Based on the analyzed fish and shellfish, no gamma radiation was detected. The detector did not identify any gamma radiation over the normal background readings.
Mode Choice and Number of Non-Work Stops during the Commute: Application of a Copula-Based Joint Model

Commute mode choice and number of non-work stops during the commute are joint decisions that have interaction. If an individual chooses a vehicle for the commute, regarding restriction of that vehicle, could has some stops. On the other hand, if an individual need to has some stops, chooses a vehicle for commute regarding number of stops. In this study to consider the interaction between these decisions, we employed copula-based joint modeling framework. The data used in this study is drawn from origin-destination travels data of Shiraz-Iran conducted in 1997. The commute mode choice modeling is undertaken using a multinomial logit model and the number of non-work stops is modeled using an ordered response formulation. To capturing interactive between these decisions several copula functions have been used. Results approve that mode and number of none-work stop choices are interrelated choices by estimating commonly observed factors and dependence parameters with high statistical significance. By determining common effective factors, we can analyze the current situation in the community. also, we can use results for forecasting future travel demand and set some policies leading to promoting trip chaining.
Software development productivity impact from an industrial perspective

Software development productivity is one of the major and vital aspects that impacts software industry and time to market of many software products. Although many studies have been conducted to improve the productivity measurements within software engineering research domain, productivity is still an issue in current software development industry because not all impacting factors and their relationships are known. This paper sheds a light on some of these factors and assesses their impacts as seen by random sample of industrial software SMEs. It also elaborates the main best practices that help in improve the software productivity based on real industrial projects. The resulting list of factors and best practices can be utilized to guide further productivity analysis and taken as basis for building improved and more optimized productivity models. Paper identifies the productivity measurements challenges and recommend set of metrics that can be utilized as basis for productivity estimation models
Understanding Industrial Energy Use through Lean Energy Analysis

This paper describes a simple statistical method to statistically disaggregate industrial energy use into production-dependent, weatherdependent and independent components. This simple statistical disaggregation has many uses, including improving model calibration, quantifying non-productive energy use and identifying energy efficiency opportunities. The process is called Lean Energy Analysis (LEA) because of its relationship to Lean Manufacturing, which seeks to reduce non-productive activity. This paper describes the statistical models, discusses the application of the LEA approach to over 40 industrial facilities, and provides case study examples of the benefits.
Comparative Analysis of Bee-Ant Colony Optimized Routing (BACOR) with Existing Routing Protocols for Scalable Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) based on Pause Time

In this paper based on swarm intelligence a new approach for an on demand ad-hoc routing algorithm is proposed. The foraging behavior of Ant colony optimization and Bee colony optimization, which are the subset of swarm intelligence and considering the ability of simple ants to solve complex problems by cooperation. Several algorithms which are based on ant colony problems were introduced in the literatures to solve different problems, e.g., optimization problems. The proposed algorithm is compared and proven by results that the approach has the potential to become an appropriate routing tactics for mobile ad-hoc networks. The results were presented based on the simulations made with the implementation in ns-2.
Development of a Lower Limb Stroke Rehabilitation Machine

This paper explains the development of a lower limb stroke rehabilitation machine designed for subacute stroke patients. The system is capable of measuring the muscle force and providing goal-oriented feedback in real-time and running in two different rehabilitation modes. The mean value of engagement metric of healthy subjects using this machine with feedback was 24.53% higher than without feedback. This proved that feedback can help the patients to be fully engaged during the rehab session and this can be useful in strengthening the neuromotor pathways. The brain recovery based on the motor cortex correlation quantification algorithm based on the electroencephalography (EEG) signals which is validated against the established technique based on the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). From the results, the resting-state EEG beta coherence of healthy subjects was found to be 0.474±0.06, whereas the average fMRI functional connectivity between left and right primary motor areas of healthy subjects was 0.537±0.08. The percentage difference was only 11.7%. clinical trial will be carried out to further measure the efficacy of the rehabilitation treatment using this system.
AgeRegression: Rejuvenating 3D-Facial Scans

The majority of virtual agents have adult bodies. There are, however, a number of reasons for using younger avatars. For example, an adult interface agent usually leads users to expect adult-level communicational and social skills. As a result, users tend to be rather intolerant when the interface agent makes obvious mistakes (e.g., incorrect grammar) or uses inappropriate behavior (e.g., looking away from the interlocutor). Since computer social-skills are still under-developed, it seems reasonable to use a body model that reflects this: child avatars. Unfortunately, the use of database-driven techniques for creating a variable-aged animation system would require a very large number of scans of children at different ages, making such a system impractical for technical and ethical reasons. As an alternative, this paper develops and validates a method for synthetically and systematically altering the apparent age of a virtual character. The here proposed technique is able to create younger and older versions of a facial scan and guarantees that the resulting meshes can be animated. Starting with a three-dimensional, adult facial scan, we use a physiologically-inspired, trigonometric polynomial to age-regress the model to a desired age. Quantitative measurements show that the technique can reconstruct the correct anthropometric proportions of 2-10 year-old children. A perceptual experiment provides an initial mapping of the technique’s parameters onto the perceived age and realism.
Types and Motives of Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Reporting in Libyan Companies

This study examined the types and the motives of Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Reporting (CSER) in Libya, a developing country, which has undergone many economic, political and social changes over a short period of time. An influential factor that regulates Libyan society is Islam. Drawing from the assumption that Islamic values in business include the fair treatment of employees, fair prices, honesty, and customer service respect for environment, charitable donations, and complete disclosures, the current study aims to investigate if types and motives of CSER have been influenced by the Islamic environment in which they operate. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to collect data relating to CSER in Libyan firms. The quantitative study involved analysing the contents of 162 annual company reports produced between 2006 and 2012, while the qualitative study examined the perceptions of public relations managers and financial managers, which using interviews. Results from the quantitative study revealed that annual reports issued by Libyan companies actually give social and environmental disclosure, even if it is smaller than it was expected on the basses of the Islamic background of people operating in Libyan companies. In particular, that disclosure of environmental and employee information was higher than the disclosure of community, customers and product information. The qualitative results also revealed that Islam was a significant factor in increasing CSER disclosure. In addition, the managers believed that other motives such as government ownership and company characteristics influence CSER by companies. Both quantitative and qualitative results indicated that environmental, employee and customer information features were prominent in the annual reports of Libyan companies. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Reporting, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Reporting, Libya, Islam
Glacial cycles: drivers

Glacial cycles: exogenous orbital changes vs. endogenous climate dynamics R. K. Kaufmann and K. Juselius Department of Geography and Environment, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA University of Copenhagen, Department of Economics, Øster Farimasgade 5, Building 26, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark Received: 22 March 2010 – Accepted: 9 April 2010 – Published: 20 April 2010 Correspondence to: R. K. Kaufmann (kaufmann@bu.edu) Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.
Comparison of Extraction Different Methods of Sodium Alginate from Brown Alga Sargassum sp. Localized in the Southern of Iran

The alginate was extracted with six different methods from Iran south seacoast algae, Sargassum sp, and the percentage yield of alginate was determined. We divided our methods to two groups including acidic extraction and non-acidic. In acidic methods, HCL and H2SO4 were used as a detergent in extraction process and CaCl2 was exerted in non-acidic treatments. All treatments compared with each other and indicated an increasing in alginate yield when different methods used EDTA in extraction process. Finally, the main characteristics of sodium alginate were realized with FT-IR and H-NMR.
Development of 15 genic-ssr markers in oil-tea tree (Camellia oleifera) based on transcriptome sequencing

Oil-tea tree is one of the most important woody edible oil plants; however, lack of useful molecular markers hinders current genetic research. We performed transcriptome sequencing of developing seeds and characterized microsatellites from transcriptome sequences to identify valuable markers for C. oleifera molecular genetics research. A total of 69,798 unigenes were identified, in which 6,949 putative SSR motifs from 6,042 SSR-containing unique putative transcripts were discovered. Twenty-nine primer pairs corresponding to 29 unigene loci were designed, of which 15 polymorphic genic-SSR markers were developed in 18 varieties and characterized by capillary electrophoresis. The number of alleles per locus (Na) ranged from 2 to 14, the expected heterozygosity (He) ranged from 0.374 to 0.876, and the polymorphism information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.498 to 0.887, respectively. Cross-species amplification was also conducted in 15 varieties of C. japonica. All 15 markers successfully amplified PCR products with expected size in C. japonica and exhibited polymorphisms. The 15 polymorphic genic- SSR markers will have potential for applications in genetic diversity evaluation, molecular fingerprinting identification, comparative genome analysis, and genetic mapping in the C. oleifera and C. japonica.
Effect of wind turbine converter control on wind power plant harmonic response and resonances

Wind turbine harmonic emissions due to power electronics are a well-known power quality concern in wind power plants (WPPs). This problem may be increased by resonances because they amplify harmonic distortion around resonance frequencies. Hence, the resonance phenomenon is widely analysed in the literature. Resonance studies usually consider wind turbines (WTs) as ideal current sources, which can lead to inaccurate results. The study explores the effect of WT converter control on WPP harmonic response. It contributes expressions of WT equivalent harmonic impedance including current control of the grid side converter. This impedance allows WT converter control to be considered in WPP modelling to analyse its effect on harmonic response and resonances. PSCAD and Matlab/Simulink simulations were performed to validate the analytical expressions and illustrate the usefulness of the work in predicting harmonic distortions at WT terminals in actual WPPs.
Screening of common tropical grass and legume forages in Ethiopia for their nutrient composition and methane production profile in vitro

A study was conducted to assess the nutrient composition, in vitro gas production (GP) characteristics and methane (CH 4 ) production potential of some common Ethiopian grass and legume forages. Crude protein (CP) concentration was lower in grasses than in legumes, while the reverse was observed for neutral detergent fiber (aNDFom) and acid detergent fiber (ADFom) concentrations. Within the 9 grasses tested, Cynodon dactylon had the highest CP concentration (187 g/kg DM), while Panicum coloratum and Cenchrus ciliaris had the lowest (70 and 82 g/kg DM, respectively) values. Chloris gayana contained the highest aNDFom (651 g/kg DM) concentration, while Avena sativa had the lowest (484 g/kg DM). Among the 3 legumes tested, Vicia sativa had the highest CP concentration (346 g/kg DM). The aNDFom and ADFom concentrations were highest in V. sativa and lowest in Medicago sativa . In grasses, Brachiaria mutica had the highest calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese concentrations, while in legumes the highest concentrations of phosphorus, potassium and zinc were observed in V. sativa . Methane production was generally higher (P<0.05) in grasses than in legumes. Panicum coloratum produced the lowest (P<0.05) CH 4 levels within the grasses followed by B. mutica, while Desmodium intortum produced the lowest (P<0.05) CH 4 levels within the legumes. Panicum coloratum and D. intortum appear to have potential as suitable forage species for ruminants, resulting in reduced CH 4 emissions. Studies with animals are needed to verify these in vitro findings.
Aqueous Molecular Sieving and Strong Gas Adsorption in Highly Porous MOFs with a Facile Synthesis

Aqueous molecular sieving is demonstrated in a new series of isostructural metal organic frameworks based on the perylene tetracarboxylate (PTC) ligand. The frameworks can be formed in water at room temperature with Mg, Ni, and other first row transition metal ions and adopt a highly porous topology that results in predicted surface areas of over 2000 m2 g–1 and periodic channels of around 6 A in diameter. Unusually, the M-PTC MOFs are highly resistant to moisture and can be readily synthesized on multigram scales. The frameworks have been shown to exhibit molecular sieving in the absorption from mixtures of organic molecules at low aqueous concentrations, with an application demonstrated on a dangerous water-borne herbicide, Paraquat. Ni-PTC also exhibits a structural flexibility that leads to strong and selective gas adsorption characteristics, with an IAST selectivity of 300 for carbon dioxide being adsorbed over nitrogen. Binding enthalpies for hydrogen and carbon dioxide are also very strong in compa.
Temporal biomass variability and production/biomass relationships of seagrass communities

Data on blomass vanablllty and productlon/biomass ratlos of seagrass communltles were analysed to descrlbe the relationship between the trophic (I e pnmary production) and structural (I e b~omass) roles of manne submerged macrophytes The analyses revealed that most (>70%) of the b~omass varlablllty appears to reflect seasonal responses and that the extent of varlabllity IS constrained by the latltudlnal posltlon of the plant stands, those at lower latltudes sustaining a more unlform blomass throughout the year Annual product~on/biomass ratlos are qulte varlable although tend to be greater (average = 4 6) than those for freshwate~ submerged plants, and tend to lncrease at lower latltudes Thls trend IS not attributable to greater dally product~on/b~omass r a t~os for troplcal and subtropical communities but appears to be a consequence of thelr small blomass seasonallty