Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inspecting the Effect of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor on Quality of Life: The Moderating Role of Economic Benefit

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is serving as a promising project for the citizens of Pakistan. The basic purpose of this research is to explore the influence of CPEC infrastructural development on the local community of Baluchistan and northern areas of Pakistan. This project tends to improve the quality of life of common man with the help of economic boost-up. The survey approach was utilized to collect the data from 385 locals of targeted areas. In order to analyze data, structural equation modeling (AMOS) method was used. The findings of the current study showed that economic benefit moderates the relationship of quality of life and perceived positive impact in positive direction. It is evident from the responses of local population of Baluchistan and northern areas of Pakistan that CPEC will enhance their quality of life.
Multistory transmission tower model for lightning surge analysis

A multistory transmission tower model to be used in multiconductor analysis by EMTP (Electromagnetic Transients Program) is proposed. The circuit parameters of the model are determined based on the measurement of voltages across the insulator strings on an actual 500 kV transmission tower. The multiconductor lightning surge analysis considered enables one to predict the waveform of each insulator voltage, which is useful in determining the phase and the instant of a back flashover. The new tower model is recommended in Japan to be used in the new multiconductor analysis of EHV and UHV class double circuit transmission lines. The new tower model and conventional tower models are compared in the analysis of minimum back flashover lightning currents at a UHV transmission line. The new model gives about 20% smaller current. >
Mobile Banking App as a Medium of Engagement For Customers in a Developing Country

ABSTRACT:Banking hall congestion in Nigeria persists in affecting banking customers. Besides, limited models are used in the existing studies for mobile banking app use prediction. This problem creates a wide disparity in mobile banking apps between developed and developing economies and requires mobile banking app intervention in developing nations. We used a quantitative research method to lay the foundation for the study's replicability. During this study, we collected data using a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of demography and Likert scale questions which contained 5-7 response options. We focused on Nigerian banking customers irrespective of Nigeria's region or location to achieve this research's objectives. The study considered banking customers that are using mobile apps for daily transactions. Using Structural Equation Modelling and multigroup analysis techniques, the data was analyzed with SmartPLS (v. 3.2.9). After the data cleansing, we followed a three-step approach to analyze the data. This study confirms the factors that are responsible for the use and continual use of mobile banking apps as trusting factors and relaxation and how comparison of male and female users of mobile banking apps shows dissimilarity of the perceptions of the factors that make the use and continual use of mobile banking app possible. It shows variation in the perception of mobile banking app users' education levels and establishes how education levels affect the use and continual use of mobile banking apps through the agency of trusting factors and relaxation. Also, it established a complementary mediation of Tension Free and how tension-free moderates and strengthens the relationship of privacy and app continuous use. It integrates and extends the theory of trust with mediation and moderation. The mobile commerce managers in banking and other related areas can use these discoveries to inform their operations and marketing strategies on online banking based on these research results as they put the spotlight on a tension-free for customers to continue to use a mobile application. Additionally, managers should integrate tension-free, which is associated with trust, security, and privacy, which is also impacted by the end user's education level.
Deep-Learning-Based Approach for Iraqi and Malaysian Vehicle License Plate Recognition

Recognizing vehicle plate numbers is a key step towards implementing the legislation on traffic and reducing the number of daily traffic accidents. Although machine learning has advanced considerably, the recognition of license plates remains an obstacle, particularly in countries whose plate numbers are written in different languages or blended with Latin alphabets. This paper introduces a recognition system for Arabic and Latin alphabet license plates using a deep-learning-based approach in conjugation with data collected from two specific countries: Iraq and Malaysia. The system under study is proposed to detect, segment, and recognize vehicle plate numbers. Moreover, Iraqi and Malaysian plates were used to compare these processes. A total of 404 Iraqi images and 681 Malaysian images were tested and used for the proposed techniques. The evaluation took place under various atmospheric environments, including fog, different contrasts, dirt, different colours, and distortion problems. The proposed approach showed an average recognition rate of 85.56% and 88.86% on Iraqi and Malaysian datasets, respectively. Thus, this evidences that the deep-learning-based method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods as it can successfully detect plate numbers regardless of the deterioration level of image quality.
Hot Issues Detection on Weibo Based on Social Network Analysis

Weibo is a leading twitter-like microblog service in China, acting as the key barometer of social changes. This paper proposes an innovative model, which automatically detects hot issues on Weibo based on social network analysis instead of search-based approaches. Three stages are consecutively collaborated to discover the hot issues and each issue was presented by a group of distinguished keywords as outcome of the model, i.e., firstly self-revised opinion leaders list construction, secondly keywords selection according to a weighting criterion, and finally keyword co-occurrence network building and event detection through community detection on the network.
Computational characterization of recombinase circuits for periodic behaviors

In nature, recombinases are site-specific proteins capable of rearranging DNA, and they are expanding the repertoire of gene editing tools used in synthetic biology. The on/off response of recombinases, achieved by inverting the direction of a promoter, makes them suitable for Boolean logic computation; however, recombinase-based logic gate circuits are single-use due to the irreversibility of the DNA rearrangement, and it is still unclear how a dynamical circuit, such as an oscillator, could be engineered using recombinases. Preliminary work has demonstrated that recombinase-based circuits can yield periodic behaviors in a deterministic setting. However, since a few molecules of recombinase are enough to perform the inverting function, it is crucial to assess how the inherent stochasticity at low copy number affects the periodic behavior. Here, we propose six different circuit designs for recombinase-based oscillators. We model them in a stochastic setting, leveraging the Gillespie algorithm for extensive simulations, and we show that they can yield periodic behaviors. To evaluate the incoherence of oscillations, we use a metric based on the statistical properties of auto-correlation functions. The main core of our design consists of two self-inhibitory, recombinase-based modules coupled by a common promoter. Since each recombinase inverts its own promoter, the overall circuit can give rise to switching behavior characterized by a regular period. We introduce different molecular mechanisms (transcriptional regulation, degradation, sequestration) to tighten the control of recombinase levels, which slows down the response timescale of the system and thus improves the coherence of oscillations. Our results support the experimental realization of recombinase-based oscillators and, more generally, the use of recombinases to generate dynamic behaviors in synthetic biology.
Spatial prediction of soil properties : the Bayesian Maximum Entropy approach

Soil properties play important roles in a lot of environmental issues like diffuse pollution, erosion hazards or precision agriculture. With the developments of soil process models and geographical information systems, the need for accurate knowledge about soil properties becomes more acute. However, while the sources of information become each year more numerous and diversified, they rarely provide us with data at the same time having the required level of spatial and attribute accuracy. An important challenge thus consists in combining those data sources at best so as to meet the high accuracy requirements. The Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) approach appears as a potential candidate for achieving this task: it is especially designed for managing simultaneously data of various nature and quality ("hard" and "soft" data, continuous or categorical). It relies on a two-steps procedure involving an objective way for obtaining a prior distribution in accordance with the general knowledge at hand (the ME part), and a Bayesian conditionalization step for updating this prior probability distribution function (pdf) with respect to the specific data collected on the study site. At each prediction location, an entire pdf is obtained, allowing subsequently the easy computation of elaborate statistics chosen for their adequacy with the objectives of the study. In this thesis, the theory of BME is explained in a simplified way using standard probabilistic notations. The recent developments towards categorical variables are incorporated and an attempt is made to formulate a unified framework for both categorical and continuous variables, thus emphasizing the generality and flexibility of the BME approach. The potential of the method for predicting continuous variables is then illustrated by a series of studies dealing with the soil texture fractions (sand, silt and clay). For the categorical variables, a case study focusing on the prediction of the status of the water table is presented. The use of multiple and sometimes contradictory data sources is also analyzed. Throughout the document, BME is compared to classic geostatistical techniques like simple, ordinary or indicator kriging. Thorough discussions point out the inconsistencies of those methods and explain how BME is solving the problems. Rather than being but another geostatistical technique, BME has to be considered as a knowledge processing approach. With BME, practitioners will find a valuable tool for analyzing their spatio-temporal data sets and for providing the stake-holders with accurate information about the environmental issues to which they are confronted.
An Empirical Analysis of the Patterns in Defense Industry Consolidation and Their Subsequent Impact

Abstract : The defense industry has witnessed significant consolidation since the end of the Cold War. This paper explores the causes of the wave of defense mergers, as well as their impact. The analysis finds that the frequency of defense mergers is more strongly correlated with overall merger activity in the economy than with DoD outlays. In examining SAR cost data on weapons systems, only 50-65% of the weapons systems' costs were affected following consolidation activity by the primary contractor that made them, of which 40% of the systems experienced a statistically significant decrease in their costs, and 15-20% experienced a statistically significant increase. Despite a 2/3 reduction in the number of prime contractors in the fixed-wing aircraft sector between 1990 and 1998, about 60% of the systems experienced a statistically significant lower cost estimate. For the tactical missile category, in which the number of prime contractors also fell by 2/3, 28.6% of the systems indicated statistically significant higher post-merger estimates and 28.6% of them indicated statistically significant lower post-merger estimates. Boeing, Lockheed, and Raytheon were among the few main primary contractors following the consolidation wave. About 70-80% of the weapons systems examined in this analysis which were produced by them indicated a statistically significant change in their cost estimates. For Boeing and Lockheed, 50-57% of the systems exhibited a statistically significant reduction in cost estimates, while, for Raytheon, 60% of the systems experienced a significant cost increase. About 2/3 of the systems made by Lockheed and Martin Marietta manifested significant cost declines following the Lockheed-Martin Marietta merger, and about 1/2 of the systems made by Boeing and McDonnell Douglas experienced a statistically significant decline in cost estimates following their merger. The paper includes 23 briefing charts that summarize the presentation.
Farm-n-Pedia: Expert mobile agricultural knowledge-based system for Indian Farmers

Efficiency in farming productivity and optimum utilization of resources in the agriculture sector in developing countries is a challenge that can be addressed with technological advancement. There is also a strong need to work on the farming community’s engagement to make better farming decisions. This study aims to create an expert knowledge-based system (KBS) in a mobile application to help Indian farmers improve their agricultural practices and increase crop productivity. A prototype mobile application, ‘Farm-n-Pedia,’ is designed and used to fulfill the farmers’ informational and engagement needs. It provides a tool for agriculture management using a single platform. The expert KBS incorporates a crowdsourcing system as part of the knowledge base and interface design. The mobile application enables the users to access the worldwide information they want, get personalized expert guidance, interact with the local agrarian community, know about the latest farming techniques and technology, crowdsource data collection and increase agricultural productivity.
Financial Drivers of Corporate Cash holdings and its Implications: Evidence from Pakistan Stock Exchange

1. PhD Scholar, Department of Commerce, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan 2. Associate Professor, Institute of Management Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan 3. Chairperson, Department of Commerce, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan PAPER INFO ABSTRACT Received: June 29, 2021 Accepted: October 01, 2021 Online: October 05, 2021 The study inspects corporate cash holding behavior of firms
Analisa Pengaruh Total Quality Management Terhadap Keunggulan Bersaing dan Kinerja Perusahaan

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apakah terdapat pengaruh signifikan antara Total Quality Management terhadap keunggulan bersaing dan kinerja perusahaan. Variabel TQM diukur dari delapan indikator, yaitu Top Management Support, Quality Information, Process Management, Product Design, Workforce M a nagement, Supplier Involment, Customer Involment, Employee Empowerment . Variabel keunggulan bersaing diukur dari lima indikator, yaitu harga, kualitas, delivery dependability , inovasi produk, dan time to market . Sedangkan variabel kinerja perusahaan akan diukur dari dua indikator, yaitu kinerja keuangan dan kinerja operasional. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan cara membagikan kuesioner. Unit analisis penelitian adalah perusahaan di Surabaya. Responden yang dijadikan sampel sebanyak 90 orang manajer puncak. Metode analisis yang digunakan dalam menguji hipotesis adalah Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) dengan menggunakan Partial Least Square (PLS). Penelitian ini berhasil membuktikan adanya hubungan yang signifikan antara Total Quality Management terhadap keunggulan bersaing, Total Quality Management terhadap kinerja perusahaan, dan keunggulan bersaing terhadap kinerja perusahaan.
An explicit relation between mutual coupling and the pattern of an antenna array

The effect of mutual coupling among the elementary antennas comprising an array in producing the radiation pattern of the array antenna is explicitly evaluated via a scattering formalism based on spherical modes. A relation between the coupling matrix of an N -element array, considered as a dissipative N -port, and the complex radiation pattern of the array antenna is obtained in terms of patterns associated with the elementary antennas. While the elementary patterns required are, in general, not those produced by each element when isolated from all others, for an array composed of (canonical) minimum scattering-antennas (e. g. dipoles) just these conventional patterns of the isolated elements are involved.
A method for synchronizing low cost energy aware sensors used in industrial process monitoring

Time synchronization is needed in distributed industrial systems. When wireless low cost energy aware sensors are used for monitoring industrial processes a new concept for time and synchronization must be developed. These sensor systems are much more heterogeneous and energy aware than traditional systems, making standard time synchronization methods inadequate. Implementation differences, energy resources and environmental conditions may greatly vary even inside one cell of sensors. This must be considered in the design. The authors propose a new time synchronization method that scales to the real synchronization requirements of the cell application. The method has been designed to be energy efficient, flexible and robust. It is based on three steps that respectively learn the system and its behavior, make coarse synchronization and perform precise synchronization according to the desired synchronization level and the energy available in each sensor. They show some early simulation results that indicate the potential of the method discussed in the paper.
Visualisation of voltage stability in large electric power systems

Information technology offers much data from electric power systems that can be condensed into high-quality information with the techniques of computational intelligence to enable a precise assessment of the system's condition. A self-organising feature map (SOM) is used both for the indication and visualisation of voltage stability in large electric power systems. A conclusive mathematical description and selection of input data for the assessment of voltage stability is given. The application of a SOM is worked out bypassing the disadvantages of standard voltage stability indicators. The SOM is applicable to the analysis of power systems and the development of stabilising measures. The method is tested on a model of a real voltage-critical transmission system.
An interactive approach for selecting IR&D projects

The authors present a strategy for systematically allocating resources to competing independent research and development (IR&D) projects in a company building systems for the US Department of Defense. The approach is less mathematically complex than many techniques reported in the literature, utilizing the judgement of key business and technical elements in the organization. The authors first give a taxonomy characterizing various approaches and briefly review R&D selection methods reported in literature. Then they describe an interactive process that they have developed for selecting IR&D projects which, rather than substituting complex calculations for good technical and material judgement, facilitates better utilization of the expertise of various organizational elements within the context of corporate strategic planning. Procedures are included for idea submittal and evaluation. Experiences are discussed obtained during the application of the process to a corporation with multiple business units. >
Factors Affecting the Production of the Coffee Farming in Uluway Village Mengkendek Sub District Tana Toraja District

This study aimed to determine what factors influence coffee production in Uluway Village, Mengkendek Sub District of Tana Toraja District. The research was conducted from March to May 2020 where these factors include land area, labor, fertilizers, and pesticides. This study aimed to determine what factors influence the people's coffee production in Uluway Village, Mengkendek Sub District of Tana Toraja District. The population of this study was all the farmers who cultivated coffee in Uluway Village, Mengkendek Sub District of Tana Toraja District. The sample of this study was 78 respondents who were determined by using the census method. The analytical method used is descriptive qualitative data analysis, the second data analysis using multiple linear regression analysis, and the third. The research results can be drawn from several conclusions, including the coffee farming processing techniques in Uluway Village, namely land preparation, planting, maintenance, harvesting, and postharvest. Factors that have a real effect include land area, fertilizers, and pesticides, while factors that do not affect coffee production are labor
Efficacy of leaves and flowers ethanol extracts of the invasive species Lantana camara Linn as a Mosquito larvicidal

Lantana camara is a perennial shrub belongs to the family Verbanaceae, and is considered to be one of the most invasive plant species worldwide. It is well known of having many phytoconstituents of medicinal value which can be exploited as eco-friendly biocontrol agents against harmful insects. Therefore, the current study aimed to evaluate the larvicidal effect of ethanol extract of L. camara leaves and flowers against Anopheles arabiensis and Culex quinquefasciatus larvae. Results showed that concentrations of flower extracts reflected an LC50 of 15.84 ppm for A. arabiensis and 21.37 ppm for C. quinquefasciatus, while, it reflected an LC95 of 50.11 ppm for A. arabiensis and 63.09 ppm for C. quinquefasciatus. Also, leaves extracts reflected an LC50 of 9.54 ppm for A. arabiensis and 5.01 ppm for C. quinquefasciatus, while, it reflected an LC95 of 21.11 ppm for both A. arabiensis and C. quinquefasciatus. According to the obtained LC50 values, ethanol extract of L. camara leaves showed relatively higher larvicidal potentiality against C. quinquefasciatus larvae than A. arabiensis larvae. Also, leaves extract showed more potent effect on larvae of both species than flower extract. In addition, some morphological changes were noticed on both species when they submitted to higher extracts of leaves and flower. Changes include larva and pupa damage with disconnected alimentary canal and head loss, as well as to failure to pupate on color pupa and morphogenesis termination of A. arabiensis and C. quinquefasciatus. Finally, the change in the larval color was higher when submitted to leaves than flower extracts. Current study concludes that the use of Lantana camara active substances in mosquito control instead of synthetic insecticides could reduce the cost and environmental pollution.
ACT-R model for cognitive assistance in handling flight deck alerts

The ability to respond to the needs of an individual operator is key for cognitive assistance in naturalistic settings. In order to keep track of changing operator demands in dynamic situations, a model-based approach for cognitive assistance is proposed. Based on model tracing with flight deck interactions and EEG recordings, the model is able to represent individual pilots’ behavior in response to flight deck alerts. As a first application of the concept, an ACT-R cognitive model is created using data from an empirical flight simulator study on neurophysiological signals of missed acoustic alerts. Results show that uncertainty of individual behavior representation can be significantly reduced by the combination of cognitive modeling and EEG data. Implications for model-based cognitive assistance in flight deck operations are discussed.