Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tribological Bench and Engine Dynamometer Tests of a Low Viscosity SAE 0W-16 Engine Oil Using a Combination of Ionic Liquid and ZDDP as Anti-Wear Additives

We have previously reported an oil-miscible phosphonium-organophosphate ionic liquid (IL) with effective anti-wear functionality when added to a base oil by itself or combined with a conventional zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) for a synergistic effect. In this research, we investigated whether this synergy manifests in formulated engine oils. An experimental SAE 0W-16 engine oil was generated using a combination of IL and ZDDP with equal phosphorus contribution. The prototype engine oil was first evaluated using tribological bench tests: anti-wear performance in boundary lubrication and friction behavior (Stribeck curves) in elastohydrodynamic, mixed, and boundary lubrication. The forthcoming standard Sequence VIE engine dynamometer test was then conducted to demonstrate improved fuel economy. Results were benchmarked against those of another experimental engine oil with almost the same formulation except using ZDDP only without the IL (similar total phosphorus content) and a baseline SAE 20W-30 engine oil. The IL-ZDDP formulation consistently outperformed the ZDDP-only formulation and the results from the bench and engine tests are well correlated.
Dominant Cultural Values

SUMMARY This study expands on previous work in exploring dominant cultural values portrayed in print magazine advertisements in the United States of America (U.S.) and India across and within product categories. A modified version of Cheng and Schweitzer's (1996) coding framework is used for the study. The differences and similarities in the observed frequencies of the dominant cultural values portrayed in the print magazine advertisements are discussed. The analysis shows a commonality of the dominant values frequently portrayed in the magazine advertisements of both countries although statistically significant differences in their frequency of occurrence are also present for several of the observed values both across and within product categories. The results are consistent with those of researchers advocating a middle-of-the-road approach in the standardization versus adaptation debate of advertising messages. Advertising campaigns in each country should be assessed carefully in terms of target market, cultural and environmental factors, and also upon the nature of the product.
Wilocsim: Simulation Testbed for WLAN Location Fingerprinting Systems

This paper introduces a novel simulation testbed for investigating WLAN indoor localization systems. This testbed referred to as WiLocSim consists of a novel beacon received signal strength (RSS) simulator which provides realistic modeling of beacon signal characteristics such as multipath propagation, measurement noise and body loss. Each component of the simulator is individually modeled and verifled prior to integration. In addition, the capabilities of the testbed are demonstrated using two variants of the nearest neighbor classiflcation based indoor localization algorithm. Unlike conventional measurement based performance evaluation, the proposed testbed provides a reproducible environment for accurate evaluation and analysis of indoor localization systems. More importantly, it signiflcantly reduces the high labor cost typically required in measurement based testbed.
Monetary Policy in the New Normal

The proposed SDN would take stock of the current debate on the shape that monetary policy should take after the crisis. It revisits the pros and cons of expanding the objectives of monetary policy, the merits of turning unconventional policies into conventional ones, how to make monetary policy frameworks more resilient to the risk of being constrained by the zero-lower bound going forward, and the institutional challenges to preserve central bank independence with regards to monetary policy, while allowing adequate government oversight over central banks’ new responsibilities. It will draw policy conclusions where consensus has been reached, and highlight the areas where more work is needed to get more granular policy advice.
Pili on meningococci from primary cultures of nasopharyngeal carriers and cerebrospinal fluid of patients with acute disease

The nasopharynx of known meningococcal carriers without signs of acute meningococcal disease as well as cerebrospinal fluid from patients with acute meningococcal disease were cultured on Thayer-Martin agar. Pili were observed in negatively stained preparations of over 80% cells from all primary cultures of both nasopharnyx and cerebrospinal fluids. Although pili were abundant on cells from all primary cultures, all pili were lost on serial subculture in the laboratory. This loss of pili from the cell surface on laboratory subculture was not accompanied by a concomitant loss of cell wall blebs.
A unified approach to coding and interpreting face images

Face images are difficult to interpret because they are highly variable. Sources of variability include individual appearance, 3D pose, facial expression and lighting. We describe a compact parametrised model of facial appearance which takes into account all these sources of variability. The model represents both shape and grey-level appearance and is created by performing a statistical analysis over a training set of face images. A robust multi-resolution search algorithm is used to fit the model to faces in new images. This allows the main facial features to be located and a set of shape and grey-level appearance parameters to be recovered. A good approximation to a given face can be reconstructed using less than 100 of these parameters. This representation can be used for tasks such as image coding, person identification, pose recovery, gender recognition and expression recognition. The system performs well on all the tasks listed above. <<ETX>>
What are the real differences of children's and adults' web search

We present first results of a logfile analysis on web search engines for children. The aim of this research is to analyse fundamental facts about how children's web search behaviour differs from that of adults. We show differences to previous results, which are often based on small lab experiments. Our large-scale analysis suggests that children search queries are more information-oriented and shorter on average. Children indeed make a lot of spelling errors and often repeat searches and revisit web pages.
A new theory of pricing and decision- making for public investment

This paper presents a theory for price-setting in public utilities, of which public goods will be considered a special case. Both public goods and utilities are cases of joint supplies and costs, where a good is to be supplied to and paid for by several users, and any increase in the quantity of the good is equally available to all users. The pricing system proposed will be based on the idea of each user's paying the social incremental costs due to his demands. To a certain extent, Coase proposed a similar idea, but it was not worked out except in special cases. The concept has been difficult to apply due to problems in defining incremental cost when there are joint costs. A meaningful definition of social incremental cost will be given here. Where the classical assumptions hold, our theory reduces to marginal-cost pricing; however, in the case of decreasing costs, results different from marginal-cost pricing are obtained. Since users may have quite different demands, incremental-cost charges will not be uniform. However, the incremental-cost system does posses certain equity properties. Furthermore, this system of charges will cover the complete costs of supplying a public service. Finally, the concept of incremental cost implies that, at the optimum investment, the marginal unit should be charged marginal cost, which is the condition necessary for welfare maximization.
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Research and Practice

Positive Behavior Support (PBS) is a systematic, proactive approach for promoting adaptive behaviors and reducing behaviors that interfere with meaningful community participation and social relationships. A PBS approach integrates valued outcomes, behavioral and biomedical science, empirically validated procedures, and systems change to enhance an individual’s quality of life and prevent or minimize problem behaviors (Carr, Dunlap, Horner, Koegel, Turnbull, & Sailor, 2002). The PBS approach emerged from the blending of the practical science of applied behavior analysis, systems change perspectives, the inclusion movement, and values for the person-centered planning. PBS strategies are based on a scientific understanding of behavior and a fundamental belief that behavior represents a message and is a form of communication. From these understandings emerge systematic and well-developed support strategies in three key categories: 1) ways to prevent the need for the problem behavior, 2) plans for teaching new skills, and 3) changes to the way others respond to a person’s behavior in order to promote positive behavior change. For students, intervention is provided in the school environments, alongside the student's peers without disabilities. Positive Behavior Support emphasizes a team-based approach to intervention. These principles, initially designed for persons with disabilities how presented significant behavioral challenges, have been refined for whole-school applications to change school-wide practices to reduce office referrals, suspensions, expulsions, and drop out from school prior to graduation. This paper describes the school-wide intervention approach with evidence of its impact on student performance.
Procalcitonin - Influence of Temperature, Storage, Anticoagulation and Arterial or Venous Asservation of Blood Samples on Procalcitonin Concentrations

In this study we have analysed the influence of temperature and time of storage and of repeated freezing on procalcitonin plasma concentrations ex vivo. We have also analysed the difference of procalcitonin concentrations in arterial or venous blood samples and the influence of different anticoagulation techniques on procalcitonin concentrations (serum, EDTA-, lithium-heparin- or citrate plasma). At room temperature (25 degrees C) a loss of procalcitonin plasma concentrations of 6.4% +/- 2.6% (mean, 2 standard error of the mean) after 3 hours (4.6% +/- 5.2% at 4 degrees C) and 12.3% +/- 3.1% after 24 hours occurred (6.3% +/- 5.0% at 4 degrees C, n = 17 each). Comparing the procalcitonin concentrations of blood samples with different anticoagulants (n = 24 each), there was only a significant difference between procalcitonin concentrations in heparinized plasma and serum (+ 7.6%, difference of the mean). There was no significant influence of the blood sampling technique (arterial or venous line) and of repeated freezing/thawing cycles (up to 3 times) on the procalcitonin concentrations measured. Although the difference of sampling and storage of the blood on procalcitonin concentrations is not significant, multiple factors may act synergistically on the result of procalcitonin measurement. To keep variations of ex vivo conditions as minimal as possible, a standardized technique of anticoagulation, time and temperature of storage is recommended, e.g. the use of EDTA-plasma and storage at room temperature, when samples are measured within 4 hours after blood drawing.
Conditional Volatility and the GARCH Option Pricing Model with Non-Normal Innovations

Based on the theory of a wedge between the physical and risk-neutral conditional volatilities in Christoffersen, Elkamhi, Feunou, and Jacobs (2009), we develop a modification on the GARCH option pricing model with the filtered historical simulation proposed in Barone-Adesi, Engle, and Mancini (2008). The current conditional volatilities under the physical and risk-neutral measures are the same in the previous model, but should have been allowed to be different. Using an extensive data on S&P 500 index options, our approach, which employs the current risk-neutral conditional volatility estimated from the cross-section of the option prices (in contrast to the existing GARCH option pricing models), maintains theoretical consistency under conditional non-normality as well as improves the empirical performances. Remarkably, the risk-neutral volatility dynamics are stable over time under this model. In addition, the comparison between the VIX index and the risk-neutral integrated volatility validates our approach economically.
How Much Do National Borders Matter

It is widely believed that globalization has proceeded to the point where international economic linkages are as strong as those within nations. Struck by research suggesting that this perception is dramatically mistaken, John Helliwell spent three years assessing the evidence. The results are reported in this book, the latest in Brookings' Integrating National Economies series. It provides the most systematic measurements yet available of the relative importance of global and national economic ties. The original finding, based on a gravity model of trade flows, was that 1988 trade linkages between Canadian provinces were twenty times as dense as those between Canadian provinces and U.S. states of similar size and distance. A much longer and more detailed body of data is used to expand and explain these findings. Data for trade within and among OECD and some developing countries are used to show that the Canadian-U.S. results are applicable to other countries. Helliwell then surveys and extends the evidence relating to price linkages, capital mobility, migration, and knowledge spillovers, finding in all cases very large border effects. The evidence offers a challenge to economists, policymakers, and citizens to explain why national economies have so much staying power, and to consider whether this is a good or bad thing. Helliwell argues that since large and small industrial economies have similar levels of income, there are likely to be diminishing returns from increases in globalization beyond levels sufficient to permit the ready exploitation of comparative advantages in trade, and relatively easy access to knowledge developed elsewhere.
2 Stochastic Investment Modelling : A Multiple Time-Series Approach among many others

abstract In this paper we adopt the multiple time-series modelling approach suggested by Tiao & Box (1981) to construct a stochastic investment model for price inflation, share dividends, share dividend yields and long-term interest rates in the United Kingdom. This method has the advantage of being direct and transparent. The sequential and iterative steps of tentative specification, estimation and diagnostic checking parallel those of the well-known Box-Jenkins method in the univariate time-series analysis. It is not required to specify any a priori causality as compared to some other stochastic asset models in the literature.
Bacterial Community Responses to Soils along a Latitudinal and Vegetation Gradient on the Loess Plateau, China

Soil bacterial communities play an important role in nutrient recycling and storage in terrestrial ecosystems. Loess soils are one of the most important soil resources for maintaining the stability of vegetation ecosystems and are mainly distributed in northwest China. Estimating the distributions and affecting factors of soil bacterial communities associated with various types of vegetation will inform our understanding of the effect of vegetation restoration and climate change on these processes. In this study, we collected soil samples from 15 sites from north to south on the Loess Plateau of China that represent different ecosystem types and analyzed the distributions of soil bacterial communities by high-throughput 454 pyrosequencing. The results showed that the 142444 sequences were grouped into 36816 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) based on 97% similarity. The results of the analysis showed that the dominant taxonomic phyla observed in all samples were Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria and Planctomycetes. Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were the two most abundant groups in all samples. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria increased from 14.73% to 40.22% as the ecosystem changed from forest to sandy, while the relative abundance of Proteobacteria decreased from 35.35% to 21.40%. Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria had significant correlations with mean annual precipitation (MAP), pH, and soil moisture and nutrients. MAP was significantly correlated with soil chemical and physical properties. The relative abundance of Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Planctomycetes correlated significantly with MAP, suggesting that MAP was a key factor that affected the soil bacterial community composition. However, along with the MAP gradient, Chloroflexi, Bacteroidetes and Cyanobacteria had narrow ranges that did not significantly vary with the soil and environmental factors. Overall, we conclude that the edaphic properties and/or vegetation types are driving bacterial community composition. MAP was a key factor that affects the composition of the soil bacteria on the Loess Plateau of China.
Historical Review of Control Programs for Levuana iridescens (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae) in Fiji and Examination of Possible Extinction of This Moth by Bessa remota (Diptera: Tachinidae)

ABSTRACT Coconut production in Fiji was a mainstay of the economy and indigenous culture in the late 1800s to early 1900s. From around 1877 coconut production on Viti Levu was severely affected by Levuana iridescens Betheune-Baker, a small purple moth, whose larvae trenched the underside of coconut leaves. A variety of cultural and chemical control strategies over approximately a 16-yr period failed to bring this pest under effective control. A biological control program initiated in 1925 resulted in importation and release of a parasitic fly, Bessa remota (Aldrich), which provided immediate and effective control of L. iridescens. This well-documented classical biological control program has subsequently become highly controversial with regard to arguments over endemicism of L. iridescens to the Fijian archipelago and the possibility that B. remota has caused the extirpation of L. iridescens and the endemic Heteropan dolens Druce in Fiji. A synopsis is provided of the cultural, chemical, and biological control programs for L. iridescens in Fiji. In addition, evidence for extinction of L. iridescens and H. dolens is examined through an analysis of little-known literature and neglected museum records. It is suggested that the reason for lack of reports of L. iridescens after 1956 was due to the declining value of copra, which resulted in less research on coconuts; the recall from Fiji of entomologists that worked on the L. iridescens control program by the Imperial Bureau of Entomology; and the subsequent increased abundance of another leaf-trenching lepidopteran, Agonoxena argaula Meyrick, which would have made easy detection of low-density L. iridescens populations difficult. To verify the continued presence of L. iridescens and H. dolens in Fiji will require a comprehensive campaign employing visual searches of coconut palm fronds, the use of ground and aerial malaise traps, canopy fogging, and perhaps chemical analysis of unidentified lepidopteran pupal cocoons found on the thatch of coconut fronds for comparison with chemical profiles of known L. iridescens cocoons.
Freezing by heating in a driven mesoscopic system

We investigate a simple model corresponding to particles driven in opposite directions and interacting via a repulsive potential. The particles move off-lattice on a periodic strip and are subject to random forces as well. We show that this model-which can be considered as a continuum version of some driven diffusive systems-exhibits a paradoxical, new kind of transition called here "freezing by heating. " One interesting feature of this transition is that a crystallized state with a higher total energy is obtained from a fluid state by increasing the amount of fluctuations.
Micro and Macro-Habitat Associations in Saproxylic Beetles: Implications for Biodiversity Management

Restoration of habitats is critically important in preventing full realization of the extinction debt owed as a result of anthropogenic habitat destruction. Although much emphasis has been placed on macrohabitats, suitable microhabitats are also vital for the survival of most species. The aim of this large-scale field experiment was to evaluate the relative importance of manipulated microhabitats, i.e., dead wood substrates of spruce (snags, and logs that were burned, inoculated with wood fungi or shaded) and macrohabitats, i.e., stand types (clear-cuts, mature managed forests, and forest reserves) for species richness, abundance and assemblage composition of all saproxylic and red-listed saproxylic beetles. Beetles were collected in emergence traps in 30 forest stands in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006. More individuals emerged from snags and untreated logs than from burned and shaded logs, but species richness did not differ among substrates. Assemblage composition differed among substrates for both all saproxylics and red-listed saproxylic species, mainly attributed to different assemblage composition on snags. This suggests that the practise of leaving snags for conservation purposes should be complemented with log supplementation. Clear-cuts supported fewer species and different assemblages from mature managed forests and reserves. Neither abundance, nor species richness or assemblage composition differed between reserves and mature managed forests. This suggests that managed stands subjected to selective cutting, not clear-felling, maintain sufficient old growth characteristics and continuity to maintain more or less intact assemblages of saproxylic beetles. Thus, alternative management methods, e.g., continuity forestry should be considered for some of these stands to maintain continuity and conservation values. Furthermore, the significantly higher estimated abundance per ha of red-listed beetles in reserves underlines the importance of reserves for maintaining viable populations of rare red-listed species and as source areas for saproxylic species in boreal forest landscapes.
Preparation and Compatibility Evaluation of Polypropylene/High Density Polyethylene Polyblends

This study proposes melt-blending polypropylene (PP) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) that have a similar melt flow index (MFI) to form PP/HDPE polyblends. The influence of the content of HDPE on the properties and compatibility of polyblends is examined by using a tensile test, flexural test, Izod impact test, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized light microscopy (PLM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The SEM results show that PP and HDPE are incompatible polymers with PP being a continuous phase and HDPE being a dispersed phase. The FTIR results show that the combination of HDPE does not influence the chemical structure of PP, indicating that the polyblends are made of a physical blending. The DSC and XRD results show that PP and HDPE are not compatible, and the combination of HDPE is not correlated with the crystalline structure and stability of PP. The PLM results show that the combination of HDPE causes stacking and incompatibility between HDPE and PP spherulites, and PP thus has incomplete spherulite morphology and a smaller spherulite size. However, according to mechanical property test results, the combination of HDPE improves the impact strength of PP.