Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The XMM-Newton view of Mrk 3 and IXO 30

We present the analysis of the XMM-Newton EPIC pn spectrum of the Seyfert 2 galaxy, Mrk 3. We confirm that the source is dominated by a pure Compton reflection component and an iron Kα line, both produced as reflection from a Compton-thick torus, likely responsible also for the large column density (1.36 +0.03 0.04 × 10 24 cm 2 ) which is pierced by the primary powerlaw only at high energies. A low inclination angle and an iron underabundance of a factor ≃ 0.82, suggested by the amount of reflection and the depth of the iron edge, are consistent with the iron Kα line EW with respect to the Compton reflection component, being 610 +30 50 eV. Moreover, the iron line width, σ = 32 +13 14 eV, if interpreted in terms of Doppler broadening due to the Keplerian rotation of the torus, puts an estimate to the inner radius of the latter, r = 0.6 +1.3 0.3 sin 2 i pc. Finally, two different photoionised reflectors are needed to take into account a large number of soft X-ray emission lines from N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, Fe L and the Fe xxv emission line at 6.71 +0.03
Are life history events of a northern breeding population of Cooper's Hawks influenced by changing climate?

Abstract Numerous studies have demonstrated earlier timing of spring migration and egg‐laying in small passerines, but documentation of such responses to recent climate change in the life histories of higher trophic feeding birds such as raptors is relatively scarce. Raptors may be particularly susceptible to possible adverse effects of climate change due to their longer generation turnover times and lower reproductive capacity, which could lead to population declines because of an inability to match reproductive timing with optimal brood rearing conditions. Conversely adaptively favorable outcomes due to the influence of changing climate may occur. In general, birds that seasonally nest earlier typically have higher reproductive output compared to conspecifics that nest later in the season. Given the strong seasonal decline in reproductive output, and the heritability of nesting phenology, it is possible that nesting seasons would (adaptively) advance over time. Recent climate warming may release prior ecological constraints on birds that depend on food availability at the time of egg production, as do various raptors including Cooper's Hawks (Accipiter cooperii). Under this scenario, productivity, especially clutch size, might increase because it is likely that this reproductive demographic may be the most immediate response to the earlier seasonal presence of food resources. We demonstrated a statistically significant shift of about 4–5 days to an earlier timing of egg‐hatching in spring across 36 years during 1980–2015 for a partially migratory population of Cooper's Hawks in Wisconsin, United States, which is consistent with a recent study that showed that Cooper's Hawks had advanced their timing of spring migration during 1979–2012. Both studies occurred in the Great Lakes region, an area that compared to global averages is experiencing earlier and increased warming particularly in the spring in Wisconsin. The nesting period did not lengthen. We suggest that the gradual shift of six consecutive generations of hawks was likely in response to recent climate change or warming. We did not detect any long‐term temporal change in average clutch or brood sizes. However, such indices of reproduction are among the highest known for the species and thus may be at their physio‐ecological maximum for this population. Our study population appears to show resilience to and does not appear to be adversely influenced by the recent rate of changing climate at this time.
Effect of Brainstorming Learning Strategy on Junior Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement in Social Studies in Yola Educational Zone, Adamawa State, Nigeria

The study investigated the Effect of Brainstorming Learning Strategy on Junior Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement in Social Studies in Yola Educational Zone, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design, non-randomized pre-test, post-test control group comprising two groups made up of one experimental group and a control group. Four schools and two hundred and three (203) JS II Social Studies Students made up the sample for the study. Four intact classes (two each) were randomly selected and assigned to experimental and control groups. The instrument used for data collection in this study was tagged “Social Studies Achievement Test” (SSAT), constructed by the researcher but patterned in line with BECE test items in Social Studies. The validity of this instrument was established by two experts in counseling psychology and test and measurement. The reliability of the instrument was established using Guttmann’s Split-Half statistic; which yielded a reliability index of 0.72. Independent samples t-Test and chi-square analysis of data revealed that there was a significant difference in the mean score of students taught social studies using brainstorming learning strategy and lecture method. There was a statistically significant difference in the retention rate of students taught social studies using brainstorming learning strategy and lecture method. There was no significant effect of gender on the academic achievement of students taught social studies using brainstorming learning strategy. Based on the findings, it was recommended that social studies teachers should incorporate brainstorming learning strategy with other instructional approaches in lesson delivery in order to improve students’ ability in learning and understanding social studies in junior secondary schools.
Association between Farming and Chronic Energy Deficiency in Rural South India

Objective To examine factors associated with chronic energy deficiency (CED) and anaemia in disadvantaged Indian adults who are mostly involved in subsistence farming. Design A cross-sectional study in which we collected information on socio-demographic factors, physical activity, anthropometry, blood haemoglobin concentration, and daily household food intake. These data were used to calculate body mass index (BMI), basal metabolic rate (BMR), daily energy expenditure, and energy and nutrient intake. Multivariable backward stepwise logistic regression was used to assess socioeconomic and lifestyle factors associated with CED (defined as BMI<18 kg/m2) and anaemia. Setting The study was conducted in 12 villages, in the Rishi Valley, Andhra Pradesh, India. Subjects Individuals aged 18 years and above, residing in the 12 villages, were eligible to participate. Results Data were available for 1178 individuals (45% male, median age 36 years (inter quartile range (IQR 27–50)). The prevalence of CED (38%) and anaemia (25%) was high. Farming was associated with CED in women (2.20, 95% CI: 1.39–3.49) and men (1.71, 95% CI: (1.06–2.74). Low income was also significantly associated with CED, while not completing high school was positively associated with anaemia. Median iron intake was high: 35.7 mg/day (IQR 26–46) in women and 43.4 mg/day (IQR 34–55) in men. Conclusions Farming is an important risk factor associated with CED in this rural Indian population and low dietary iron is not the main cause of anaemia. Better farming practice may help to reduce CED in this population.
Fostering customers' pro-environmental behavior at a museum

ABSTRACT Understanding visitors' pro-environmental behavior is vital as sustainability is currently a critical issue in the museum industry, yet visitors' pro-environmental decision-making process has not been sufficiently investigated. This study fills this void in the extant tourism literature. While the theoretical base for comprehending the nature of museum visitors' pro-environmental behaviors is still in the introduction stage, our proposed framework for encouraging pro-environmental behavior among museum visitors including cognitive variables, affective variables, willingness to sacrifice, connectedness to nature and pro-environmental intentions was supported through empirical testing. The present study also contributes to helping museum researchers and practitioners clearly understand the dynamic role of each study construct in generating museum visitors' intentions for environmentally responsible behaviors while visiting a museum.
ASM: A Programmable Interface for Extending Android Security

Android, iOS, and Windows 8 are changing the application architecture of consumer operating systems. These new architectures required OS designers to rethink security and access control. While the new security architectures improve on traditional desktop and server OS designs, they lack sufficient protection semantics for different classes of OS customers (e.g., consumer, enterprise, and government). The Android OS in particular has seen over a dozen research proposals for security enhancements. This paper seeks to promote OS security extensibility in the Android OS. We propose the Android Security Modules (ASM) framework, which provides a programmable interface for defining new reference monitors for Android. We drive the ASM design by studying the authorization hook requirements of recent security enhancement proposals and identify that new OSes such as Android require new types of authorization hooks (e.g., replacing data). We describe the design and implementation of ASM and demonstrate its utility by developing reference monitors called ASM apps. Finally, ASM is not only beneficial for security researchers. If adopted by Google, we envision ASM enabling in-the-field security enhancement of Android devices without requiring root access, a significant limitation of existing bring-your-own-device solutions.
Massively Parallel Parsing: A Strongly Interactive Model of Natural Language Interpretation

This is a description of research in developing a natural language processing system with modular knowledge sources but strongly interactive processing. The system offers insights into a variety of linguistic phenomena and allows easy testing of a variety of hypotheses. Language interpretation takes place on a activation network which is dynamically created from input, recent context, and long-term knowledge. Initially ambiguous and unstable, the network settles on a single interpretation, using a parallel, analog relaxation process. We also describe a parallel model for the representation of context and of the priming of concepts. Examples illustrating contextual influence on meaning interpretation and “semantic garden path” sentence processing, among other issues, are included.
Broadband $Gm$ -Boosted Differential HBT Doublers With Transformer Balun

Broadband monolithic InGaP HBT frequency doublers for K-band application have been developed. The designs employ a Gm-boosted differential common-base configuration using either capacitive or transformer-based coupling between base and emitters. To the authors' best knowledge, these are the first frequency doublers utilizing the Gm-boosted configuration and the result demonstrate larger bandwidth and higher output power than any previously reported frequency doublers. The design with cross-coupled capacitors presents a fundamental rejection better than 20 dB over a 100% 3-dB bandwidth, extending from 6 to 18 GHz. The transformer-coupled design has about 15-dB fundamental rejection over a slightly narrower bandwidth extending from 7 to 16 GHz. Both doublers have conversion gain peaking at more than -0.8 dB and output powerPsat >; 13 dBm . The designs are also very compact with chip sizes less than 0.5 mm2.
Design and Modeling of Microstrip Line to Substrate Integrated Waveguide Transitions

Microstrip lines (MSL) are widely used in microwave systems because of its low cost, light weight, and easy integration with other components. Substrate integrated waveguides (SIW), which inherit the advantages from traditional rectangular waveguides without their bulky configuration, aroused recently in low loss and high power planar applications. This chapter proposed the design and modeling of transitions between these two common structures. Research motives will be described firstly in the next subsection, followed by a literature survey on the proposed MSL to SIW transition structures. Outlines of the following sections in this chapter will also be given in the end of this section.
Comparing Algorithms for Scenario Discovery

While attractive in many ways, traditional scenarios have lacked an appropriate analytic foundation for inclusion in quantitative decision analyses. In previous work, we have proposed to remedy this situation with a systematic, analytic process we call "scenario discovery" that has already proved useful in a wide variety of applications. This study aims to evaluate alternative algorithms needed to implement this novel scenario discovery task, in which users identify concise descriptions of the combinations of input parameters to a simulation model that are strongly predictive of specified policy-relevant results. This study offers three measures of merit -coverage, density, and interpretability and uses them to evaluate the capabilities of PRIM, a bump-hunting algorithm, and CART, a classification algorithm. The algorithms are first applied to datasets containing clusters of known and easily visualized shapes, then to datasets with unknown shapes generated by a simulation model used previously in a decision analytic application. We find both algorithms can perform the required task, but often imperfectly. The study proposes statistical tests to help evaluate the algorithms' scenarios and suggests simple modifications to the algorithms and their implementing software that might improve their ability to support decision analysis with this scenario discovery task.
A Robust Folk Theorem for the Prisoner's Dilemma

We prove the folk theorem for the Prisoner's dilemma using strategies that are robust to private monitoring. From this follows a limit folk theorem: when players are patient and monitoring is sufficiently accurate, (but private and possibly independent) any feasible individually rational payoff can be obtained in sequential equilibrium. The strategies used can be implemented by finite (randomizing) automata.
Almost Strong Consistency: "Good Enough" in Distributed Storage Systems

A consistency/latency tradeoff arises as soon as a distributed storage system replicates data. For low latency, modern storage systems often settle for weak consistency conditions, which provide little, or even worse, no guarantee for data consistency. In this paper we propose the notion of almost strong consistency as a better balance option for the consistency/latency tradeoff. It provides both deterministically bounded staleness of data versions for each read and probabilistic quantification on the rate of "reading stale values", while achieving low latency. In the context of distributed storage systems, we investigate almost strong consistency in terms of 2-atomicity. Our 2AM (2-Atomicity Maintenance) algorithm completes both reads and writes in one communication round-trip, and guarantees that each read obtains the value of within the latest 2 versions. To quantify the rate of "reading stale values", we decompose the so-called "old-new inversion" phenomenon into concurrency patterns and read-write patterns, and propose a stochastic queueing model and a "timed balls-into-bins model" to analyze them, respectively. The theoretical analysis not only demonstrates that "old-new inversions" rarely occur as expected, but also reveals that the read-write pattern dominates in guaranteeing such rare data inconsistencies. These are further confirmed by the experimental results, showing that 2-atomicity is "good enough" in distributed storage systems by achieving low latency, bounded staleness, and rare data inconsistencies.
Fluorescent Labeling of Newborn Dentate Granule Cells in GAD67-GFP Transgenic Mice: A Genetic Tool for the Study of Adult Neurogenesis

Neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus is an important form of structural plasticity in the brain. Here we report a line of BAC transgenic mice (GAD67-GFP mice) that selectively and transitorily express GFP in newborn dentate granule cells of the adult hippocampus. These GFP+ cells show a high degree of colocalization with BrdU-labeled nuclei one week after BrdU injection and express the newborn neuron marker doublecortin and PSA-NCAM. Compared to mature dentate granule cells, these newborn neurons show immature morphological features: dendritic beading, fewer dendritic branches and spines. These GFP+ newborn neurons also show immature electrophysiological properties: higher input resistance, more depolarized resting membrane potentials, small and non-typical action potentials. The bright labeling of newborn neurons with GFP makes it possible to visualize the details of dendrites, which reach the outer edge of the molecular layer, and their axon (mossy fiber) terminals, which project to the CA3 region where they form synaptic boutons. GFP expression covers the whole developmental stage of newborn neurons, beginning within the first week of cell division and disappearing as newborn neurons mature, about 4 weeks postmitotic. Thus, the GAD67-GFP transgenic mice provide a useful genetic tool for studying the development and regulation of newborn dentate granule cells.
A Genetic Algorithm for Texture Synthesis and Transfer

We present a patch based method for texture synthesis and transfer. The method combines the non-iterative version of the quilting technique of Efros and Freeman as a fast, general, and simple texture synthesizer with the evolutionary model of genetic algorithm. Within a single generation, our algorithm adaptively searches the candidate patches of the available solutions so as to inherent as more as possible vital patches. The mechanism of the traditional uniform crossover used in genetic algorithm is altered here so as to accommodate texture synthesis and transfer problem. We call this crossover Semi Uniform crossover (SUX). Moreover, the mating process of the genetic algorithm is turned from its usual bisexual recombination scheme into a global recombination fashion where SUX is applied among all individuals to form a new single offspring. All other offspring are then obtained by mutation only. Examples and visual comparisons with image quilting, coherent synthesis, and image analogies demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can give acceptable results.
Obstructive sleep apnoea and its association with gestational hypertension

Hypertension develops in 10% of pregnancies. Snoring, a marker of obstructive sleep apnoea, is a newly identified risk factor for gestational hypertension. Moreover, obstructive sleep apnoea is an independent risk factor for incident hypertension in the non-pregnant population. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that obstructive sleep apnoea is associated with new onset of hypertension among pregnant females. A case–control study was performed involving 17 pregnant females with gestational hypertension and 33 pregnant females without hypertension. Subjects were frequency-matched for gestational age and recruited in a tertiary obstetrical centre. Obstructive sleep apnoea was ascertained by polysomnography and defined by an apnoea/hypopnoea index (AHI) of ≥15 events·h−1, without requirement for desaturation. The mean±sd AHI for normotensive pregnant females was 18.2±12.2 events·h−1 compared with 38.6±36.7 events·h−1 for females with hypertensive pregnancies. The crude odds ratio for the presence of obstructive sleep apnoea given the presence of gestational hypertension was 5.6. The odds ratio was 7.5 (95% confidence interval 3.5–16.2), based on a logistic regression model with adjustment for maternal age, gestational age, pre-pregnancy body mass index, prior pregnancies, and previous live births. In conclusion, gestational hypertension appears to be strongly associated with the presence of obstructive sleep apnoea.
Corporate Governance, Companies’ Disclosure Practices and Market Transparency: A Cross Country Study

We examine the link between corporate governance, companies’ disclosure practices and their equity market transparency in a study of more than 5,000 listed companies in 23 countries covering the period 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2008. Our results confirm the belief that better-governed firms make more frequent disclosures to the market. We also find greater disclosure in common law relative to code law countries. However firms with better governance in both code and common law countries make more frequent disclosures. We measure market transparency by the timeliness of prices. In contrast to single country studies, results show, for the 23 countries collectively, better corporate governance is associated with less timely share prices. This would suggest that a firm substitutes better corporate governance for transparency. We are thus led to the conclusion that even if information is disclosed more frequently by better-governed firms, it does not necessarily follow that information is reflected in share prices on a timelier basis.
Proactive Privacy Practices In The Trend Of Ubiquitous Services: An Integrative Social Contracts Perspective

Privacy is a strategic issue that deserves great attention from enterprises because the convergence of customer information and advanced technologies that they engage in diverse business processes in response to competitive pressure, particularly when businesses promote their traditional e-services to ubiquitous services (u-services). The underlying vision of u-services is to overcome spatial and temporal boundaries in traditional services, such as m-services and e-services. U-services will be the next wave and can be recognized as a logical extension of traditional e-services because u-services are initiated by e-services based on current potential customer pool and further propagated by mservices. In the context of u-services, customers are always connected seamlessly in contextawareness networks so that a higher degree of customized and personalized services can be timely provided. While people are served with more convenience and efficiency, they may also well be aware of privacy threats behind that. Hence, privacy concerns have been recognized as a critical impediment for boosting u-services. Drawing upon integrative social contracts theory, this study undertakes to explore a proactive privacy practices framework that embraces technical and nontechnical elements such as human, legal, and economic relevant perspectives. The results of this study are expected to shed light on privacy practices.
How Hard is a Commercial Puzzle: the Eternity II Challenge

Recently, edge matching puzzles, an NP-complete problem, have received, thanks to money-prized contests, considerable attention from wide audiences. We consider these competitions not only a challenge for SAT/CSP solving techniques but also as an opportunity to showcase the advances in the SAT/CSP community to a general audience. This paper studies the NP-complete problem of edge matching puzzles focusing on providing generation models of problem instances of variable hardness and on its resolution through the application of SAT and CSP techniques. From the generation side, we also identify the phase transition phenomena for each model. As solving methods, we employ both; SAT solvers through the translation to a SAT formula, and two ad-hoc CSP solvers we have developed, with different levels of consistency, employing several generic and specialized heuristics. Finally, we conducted an extensive experimental investigation to identify the hardest generation models and the best performing solving techniques.