Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Flip chip assembly challenges using high density, thin core carriers

Electrical performance, signal density and fine core via manufacturing process constraints are driving a reduction in core thickness for flip chip carriers which target mid and high performance applications. While developing new flip chip carrier technologies to support these applications, focus on reliability performance was expected to dominate the development team's work plan. Reliability performance of Endicott Interconnect Technologies' new thin core carrier has proven to be very good and is not as sensitive to the assembly material, design and process variables which drives reliability performance of thicker core carriers. However, thin core carriers can show an increased sensitivity to variables which affect carrier and assembly level flatness. This has resulted in significant focus on the definition of flip chip assembly processes which maintain high yield and conformance to JEDEC component flatness requirements. This paper summarizes the learning and conclusions related to flip chip assembly of Endicott Interconnect Technologies' CoreEASEI dense core carrier technology. The investigation focused on the impact of carrier attributes on carrier level flatness, the impact of underfill attributes on post underfill cure flatness, and the impact of lid attach attributes on post lid attach flatness.
Identifying seeded defects in gearboxes with Acoustic Emission; Limitations

Opportunities exist for developing the Acoustic Emission (AE) technique on various forms of rotating machinery, such as gearboxes. This paper provides a short summary on recent developments in the application of AE to gear defect diagnosis, and, experimental results are presented that examine and explore the effectiveness of AE for seeded gear defect diagnosis. It is concluded that the application of AE to seeded gear defect detection is fraught with difficulties. The viability of the AE technique for seeded gear defect detection is also called into question, particularly if observations are made from the non-rotating components of a machine such as the bearing casing.
What you should know about simulation and derivatives

Derivatives (or gradients) are important for both sensitivity analysis and optimization, and in simulation models, these can often be estimated efficiently using various methods other than brute‐force finite differences. This article briefly summarizes the main approaches and discusses areas in which the approaches can most fruitfully be applied: queueing, inventory, and finance. In finance, the focus is on derivatives of another sort. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008
EXTENDED, DUSTY STAR FORMATION FUELED BY A RESIDUAL COOLING FLOW IN THE CLUSTER OF GALAXIES SÉRSIC 159-03

While the cooling of the hot intracluster medium (ICM) in the cores of galaxy clusters is mostly counteracted by heating from the central active galactic nucleus (AGN), the balance is not perfect. This can lead to residual cooling flows and low-level star formation, the physics of which is not well understood. Here we present a detailed study of the residual cooling flow in the center of the low mass galaxy cluster Sérsic 159-03 (A S1101; z = 0.058) using far-ultraviolet imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope and far-IR (FIR) spectroscopy and photometry from the Herschel Space Observatory, along with a wealth of archival data. We detect extended emission at UV, FIR, and [C ii], indicating a star formation rate of ∼1–3 M ⊙ ? > yr−1, depending on the indicator and assumptions made. The most recently formed stars (as indicated by high Hα/UV ratios) appear spatially coincident with the lowest entropy ICM. We speculate that this low-entropy gas has been displaced by the central AGN ∼7.5 kpc north of the cD galaxy. These data suggest that the displacement of the cooling core from the direct vicinity of the central AGN can temporarily break the feedback cycle and lead to cooling and star formation that is offset from the center of the galaxy. We find an abundance (∼107 M ⊙ ? > ) of cold (20 K) dust in the center of the cluster and a second FIR peak ∼30 kpc to the north of the central galaxy. If confirmed to be associated with the cooling filaments, this would be the most extended complex of dust yet found in a cool core cluster.
Negotiating roles and responsibilities in the context of decentralised school governance : case study of one cluster of schools in Zimbabwe.

On attaining independence in 1980, Zimbabwe invested heavily in its education system in order to redress the colonial inequalities and to 'grow its own timber' in terms of the knowledge and skills desperately needed by the new nation. However, 1°years later, the heavy government expenditure on education was no longer sustainable or defensible. The rapid expansion of the education system gave rise to grave concern for economic efficiency. Critics noted the tumbling pass rates and evident decline in the quality of education, with the concomitant high unemployment rates for the school graduates. Furthermore, the highly centralised, top-down system of education governance made it difficult, if not impossible for stakeholders at the various levels of the system to participate effectively in decision-making. In response to these and other pressures, Zimbabwe adopted a decentralised system of school governance. While decentralisation of school governance and school clustering have become internationally acclaimed reforms targeted at improving the quality of educational provision, and are consistent with the notion of good governance, there remain outstanding questions regarding, among other things, how those tasked to implement such reforms understand, experience and respond to them, and the impact this has on the success or failure of these innovations. This inquiry investigates teachers', school heads' and parents' understandings and experiences of, and responses to decentralised school governance in one
The relationship between the shares of nutrient consumed across selected food groups and income in Nigeria: A short-run demand system

Purpose – The aim of this study is in twofolds. First, to take a critical look at nutrient consumed and its trends and second, to examine the relationship between share of nutrient consumed across selected food groups and per capita income in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – The author uses seemingly unrelated regressions. Findings – The result of the first objective reveals that the average calorie, protein and fat intakes were still below the recommended daily allowance since the 1960s as diets in Nigeria remained very much cereal-based over the years. Also, the results of objective two show that calorie, protein, and fat share of animal products respond positively but inelastic to the per capita income growth in Nigeria over the years. Originality/value – Contrary to previous studies, the present study is designed not to fit aggregated nutrient demand from various food items as a function of income, but to relate the nutrient share of each homogenous and heterogeneous food product categories to the aggregated nutrient intake from these food groups and per capita income in Nigeria.
Societal Innovation: Between Dream and Reality Lies Complexity

Jan Rotmans (1961) is one of the founders of Integrated Assessment (IA), and has outstanding experience in IA modeling, scenario-building, uncertainty management and transition management. During the past twenty years he has led a diversity of innovative projects in the field of climate change, global change, sustainable development and transitions and system innovations. He is founder and director of the International Centre for Integrative Studies (ICIS) (1998) at Maastricht University. Since 2004 he is a full professor in Transitions and Transition Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where he founded the DRIFT-institute: Dutch Research Institute For Transitions. He is vice-president of The Integrated Assessment Society (TIAS), and founder and director of the Dutch Knowledge Network on System Innovations and Transitions (KSI). Jan Rotmans is founder of two scientific journals, Environmental Modeling and Assessment and Integrated Assessment, and has published ten books and more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles in journals and books in the fields of environment, sustainability, governance, transitions and system innovations.
Coastal disasters from the perspective of ecological economics

Article history: Received 16 February 2006 Received in revised form 10 November 2006 Accepted 10 November 2006 Available online 11 January 2007 Natural hazards are recurrent events that frequently result in high death tolls and large economic losses. Because of their large impact, they have concerned the international community for a long time. In spite of the efforts, the impact of natural hazards has increased. Oftentimes, the role of natural ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide to human societies are not considered in risk reduction programs. How relevant are ecosystems? What are the consequences of the depletion of natural ecosystems and the loss of ecosystem services provided by them? Would the alternative vision of ecological economics, in which development and economy are seen as the Whole – the ecosystem – (Daly, H.E. and Farley, J., 2004. Ecological Economics: principles and applications. Island Press,Washington, DC., 454 pp.), be helpful in reducing disaster risk? In this paper we are set to test whether a holistic approach from the perspective of ecological economics is helpful to clarify and reduce the impact of natural hazards.We focused on hurricanes because they are themost frequently reported events of all natural disasters (Hewitt, K., 1997. Regions of Risk. Longman, Edinburgh Gate, 389 pp.). We analyze the relationship between the components of Human, Built, Social and Natural capitals with the damage caused by hurricanes in terms of mortality rate. We then generate a conceptual model to help envision the complexity of the system. A stepwise (back and forth steps) linear regression analysis revealed that mortality rate was significantly and positively affected by hurricane frequency (Pb0.01) while area covered by semi-altered ecosystems (a mosaic of natural and human-altered ecosystems) (Pb0.01) and GDP (Pb0.05) negatively affected mortality rate (R=0.81). The proportion of natural/altered ecosystems yielding the best protection results needs to be determined yet. Natural capital alone does not decrease number of deaths. Rather, its complex interactions with the other capitals and themany feedback loops that are involved need to be considered to achieve effective disaster risk reduction. No single capital is enough to reduce the impact and intensity of natural hazard. A balance between Human, Built, Social and Natural capitals and an increasing awareness of the consequences of different development decisions, will help human societies to live with rather than cope with coastal hazards. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Non-Trivial Equilibrium in an Economy with Stochastic Rationing

Stochastic rationing when the market does not clear draws attention because both Dreze (1975) and Benassy (1975) quantity-constrained equilibria have some undesirable features. Gale (1978)gave the existence proof of trade under uncertainty. His stochastic rationing depends on all the individual effective demands. It is too vague to characterize a rationing mechanism. Moreover, his assumption to ensure a non-trivial equilibrium is economically not clear. In this paper we extend Green (1978) to characterizing the rationing scheme as the individual effective demand times the rationing number which is a function of the aggregate quantity signals. We also construct an economy with money and overlapping generations. We show the existence of the non-trivial equilibrium and provide an example of a non-Wairasian equilibrium at the Walrasian equilibrium prices.
IoT based smart security and home automation system

Internet of Things (IoT) conceptualizes the idea of remotely connecting and monitoring real world objects (things) through the Internet [1]. When it comes to our house, this concept can be aptly incorporated to make it smarter, safer and automated. This IoT project focuses on building a smart wireless home security system which sends alerts to the owner by using Internet in case of any trespass and raises an alarm optionally. Besides, the same can also be utilized for home automation by making use of the same set of sensors. The leverage obtained by prefering this system over the similar kinds of existing systems is that the alerts and the status sent by the wifi connected microcontroller managed system can be received by the user on his phone from any distance irrespective of whether his mobile phone is connected to the internet. The microcontroller used in the current prototype is the TI-CC3200 Launchpad board which comes with an embedded micro-controller and an onboard Wi-Fi shield making use of which all the elctrical appliances inside the home can be controlled and managed.
Relationship of Self-Efficacy to Stages of Concern in the Adoption of Innovation in Higher Education

In this research, it was proposed that self-efficacy is the missing underlying psychological factor in innovation diffusion models of higher education. This is based upon research conducted in the fields of innovation-diffusion in higher education, technology adoption, self-efficacy, health and behavioral change. It was theorized that if self-efficacy is related to adoption, it could provide a quick-scoring method for adoption efficiency and effectiveness that would be easy to administer. The innovation-diffusion model used in this study was Hall and Hord’s (1987) Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) and it’s Seven Stages of Concern (SoC) About an Innovation. The SoC measures a user’s perception of—and concerns about—an innovation over time. The self-efficacies under study were general, teaching, and technology. The scales used in this research instrument were Chen’s New General Self-Efficacy (NGSE), Prieto’s College Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale (CTSES), and Lichty’s Teaching with Technology Self-efficacy scale (MUTEBI), respectively. This research hoped to uncover a relationship between self-efficacies and a Stage of Concern in the adoption of an instructional technology innovation, Google Apps for Education, at a large university institution. Over 150 quantitative responses were collected from a pool of 1,713 instructional faculty between late Fall
A Model for a complex economic system

The thesis is in the field of complex systems, applied to an economic system. In this thesis, an agent-based model has been proposed to model the production cycle. It comprises firms, workers, and a bank, and respects stock-flow consistency. Its central assumption is that firms plan their production based on an expected profit margin. A simple scenario of the model, where the expected profit margin is the same for all firms, has been analyzed in the context of simple stochastic growth models. Results are a firms' size distribution close to a power law, and tent-shaped growth rate distribution, and a growth rate variance scaling with firm size. These results are close to empirically found stylized facts. In a more comprehensive version, the model contains additional features: heterogeneous profits margins, as well as interest payments and the possibility of bankruptcy. This relates the model to agent-based macroeconomic models. The extensions are described theoretically theoretically with replicator dynamics. New results are the age distribution of active firms, their profit rate distribution, debt distribution, bankruptcy statistics, as well as typical life cycles of firms, which are all qualitatively in agreement with studies of firms databases of various countries.The proposed model yields promising results by respecting the principle that jointly found results may be generated by the same process, or by several ones which are compatible.
Modulation of breast cancer cell viability by a cannabinoid receptor 2 agonist, JWH-015, is calcium dependent

Introduction Cannabinoid compounds, both nonspecific as well as agonists selective for either cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) or cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2), have been shown to modulate the tumor microenvironment by inducing apoptosis in tumor cells in several model systems. The mechanism of this modulation remains only partially delineated, and activity induced via the CB1 and CB2 receptors may be distinct despite significant sequence homology and structural similarity of ligands. Methods The CB2-selective agonist JWH-015 was used to investigate mechanisms downstream of CB2 activation in mouse and human breast cancer cell lines in vitro and in a murine mammary tumor model. Results JWH-015 treatment significantly reduced primary tumor burden and metastasis of luciferase-tagged murine mammary carcinoma 4T1 cells in immunocompetent mice in vivo. Furthermore, JWH-015 reduced the viability of murine 4T1 and human MCF7 mammary carcinoma cells in vitro by inducing apoptosis. JWH-015-mediated reduction of breast cancer cell viability was not dependent on Gαi signaling in vitro or modified by classical pharmacological blockade of CB1, GPR55, TRPV1, or TRPA1 receptors. JWH-015 effects were calcium dependent and induced changes in MAPK/ERK signaling. Conclusion The results of this work characterize the actions of a CB2-selective agonist on breast cancer cells in a syngeneic murine model representing how a clinical presentation of cancer progression and metastasis may be significantly modulated by a G-protein-coupled receptor.
Behavioural Procedural Models - a multipurpose mechanistic account

In this paper we outline an epistemological defence of what we call Behavioural Procedural Models (BPMs), which represent the processes of individual decisions that lead to relevant economic patterns as psychologically (rather than rationally) driven. Their general structure, and the way in which they may be incorporated to a multipurpose view of models, where the representational and interventionist goals are combined, is shown. It is argued that BPMs may provide “mechanistic-based explanations” in the sense defended by Hedström and Ylikoski (2010), which involve invariant regularities in Woodward’s sense. Such mechanisms provide a causal sort of explanation of anomalous economic patterns, which allow for extra market intervention and manipulability in order to correct and improve some key individual decisions. This capability sets the basis for the so called libertarian paternalism (Sunstein and Thaler 2003).
Skeletal muscle ultrastructural and plasma biochemical signs of endothelium dysfunction induced by a high-altitude expedition (Pumori, 7161m)

The aim of this study was to analyze whether or not a high-altitude expedition to a Himalayan peak (Pumori, 7161m) induces skeletal muscle ultrastructural and plasma biochemical changes suggestive of microvascular dysfunction. To achieve this purpose 6 mountaineers spent 3 weeks at an altitude range between 5250–7161m after 1 week in an acclimatization trek (2800-5250m). Muscle biopsies from vastus lateralis and blood drawn from antecubital vein were collected at sea level 1 day before and after the expedition to analyze qualitative and quantitative (capillary and fiber basement membrane thickness) ultrastructural muscle alterations as well as the plasma activity of tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1). In contrast with a regular skeletal muscle pattern observed before the expedition, the post-expedition muscle samples revealed profound structure alterations in the tissue organization. Severe and chronic high altitude exposure also induced significant capillary basement membrane thickness as well as a significant increase in plasma tPA, PAI-1 and PAI-1/tPA ratio. From the present data it could be concluded that sustained and severe hypobaric-hypoxia exposure constitutes an insult to skeletal muscle with deleterious microvasculature consequences even in acclimatized climbers.
Surface Plasmon Scattering in Exposed Core Optical Fiber for Enhanced Resolution Refractive Index Sensing

Refractometric sensors based on optical excitation of surface plasmons on the side of an optical fiber is an established sensing architecture that has enabled laboratory demonstrations of cost effective portable devices for biological and chemical applications. Here we report a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) configuration realized in an Exposed Core Microstructured Optical Fiber (ECF) capable of optimizing both sensitivity and resolution. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of fabrication of a rough metal coating suitable for spectral interrogation of scattered plasmonic wave using chemical electroless plating technique on a 10 μm diameter exposed core of the ECF. Performance of the sensor in terms of its refractive index sensitivity and full width at half maximum (FWHM) of SPR response is compared to that achieved with an unstructured bare core fiber with 140 μm core diameter. The experimental improvement in FWHM, and therefore the detection limit, is found to be a factor of two (75 nm for ECF in comparison to 150 nm for the large core fiber). Refractive index sensitivity of 1800 nm/RIU was achieved for both fibers in the sensing range of aqueous environment (1.33–1.37) suitable for biosensing applications.
Iron deficiency anaemia prevalence in a population of immigrated women in Italy.

BACKGROUND Martial deficiency and sideropenic anaemia are the most diffused deficiency pathologies in the world. WHO recommends preventive screening of the new immigrant population. No epidemiological data exist on its prevalence among migrant population in Italy. METHODS A transversal study was conducted at San Gallicano Hospital in Rome through laboratory screening on 821 migrant women and interviews on a sub-sample of 550 women (including socio-demographic, anamnestic and nutritional information). RESULTS The complete sub-sample (laboratory results and questionnaire) shows a 20.5% [95% confidence interval (CI) 16.8-24.3] prevalence of anaemia and a 22.7% (95% CI 18.9-26.6) prevalence of sideropenia. Sideropenic anaemia was found in 11.5% (95% CI 8.5-14.4) of cases. Results are similar in the rest of the sample. There is significant association between anaemia and the clinical conditions of haemorrhoids [odds ratio (OR) 3.8; P < 0.000], hypermenorrhoea (OR 3.3; P < 0.000) and metrorrhagia (OR 5.9; P < 0.000). Africans were found to be at highest risk of anaemia (OR 5.5; P < 0.000). Feeding habits have a milder effect. Unemployed and low educated people are more likely to be affected by non-iron deficiency anaemia. CONCLUSION The observed prevalence of sideropenia and sideropenic anaemia is much greater than what the scientific literature reports for Western populations. Pathologies inducing bleeding and the country of origin (i.e. genetic factors, pre-existing conditions) appear to be associated with anaemia. Nutritional factors are less important because of an adequate nutritional income. Prevention programmes should then aim at screening larger samples for improving the access of migrants to health-care services.