Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stick-Slip Motion of Moving Contact Line on Chemically Patterned Surfaces

Based on our continuum hydrodynamic model for immiscible two-phase flows at solid surfaces, the stick-slip motion has been predicted for moving contact line at chemically patterned surfaces [Wang et al., J. Fluid Mech. , 605 (2008), pp. 59-78]. In this paper we show that the continuum predictions can be quantitatively verified by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Our MD simulations are carried out for two immiscible Lennard-Jones fluids confined by two planar solid walls in Poiseuille flow geometry. In particular, one solid surface is chemically patterned with alternating stripes. For comparison, the continuum model is numerically solved using material parameters directly measured in MD simulations. From oscillatory fluid-fluid interface to intermittent stick-slip motion of moving contact line, we have quantitative agreement between the continuum and MD results. This agreement is attributed to the accurate description down to molecular scale by the generalized Navier boundary condition in our continuum model. Numerical results are also presented for the relaxational dynamics of fluid-fluid interface, in agreement with a theoretical analysis based on the Onsager principle of minimum energy dissipation. PACS: 68.08. -p, 83.50. Rp, 83.10. Mj, 83.10. Ff
Heat Transfer Measurements of an Impinging Synthetic Air Jet with Constant Stroke Length

Synthetic jets are a relatively new technology and have shown great promise in a number of practical applications such as flow control through active boundary layer mixing and enhanced heat transfer through forced convection. It has been shown by Kercher et al. (2003) that synthetic jets can deliver similar cooling effects to conventional steady flow impinging jets without the need for an external air supply system. As highlighted in a review article by Glezer and Amitay (2002), impinging synthetic jets are therefore an extremely promising technology for applications in electronics cooling. The current research is concerned with the heat transfer distribution and flow characteristics of an impinging synthetic jet. Tests were conducted for Reynolds numbers ranging from 1100 to 4900, and nozzle to impingement surface spacings from 1 to 6 diameters. The dimensionless stroke length (L0/D) was maintained constant and equal to 17 in all the reported data. The results obtained show a strong correspondence between measurements of the mean and fluctuating heat transfer distributions and local velocity and turbulence intensity measurements along the heated surface. Strong coherent vortices impact the heated surface, travel outwards while promoting mixing in the wall jet region, and finally break down into small scale turbulence.
WHAT WORKS BEST AND WHEN: ACCOUNTING FOR MULTIPLE SOURCES OF PURESELECTION BIAS IN PROGRAM EVALUATIONS

Most evaluations are still quasi‐experimental and most recent quasi‐experimental methodological research has focused on various types of propensity score matching to minimize conventional selection bias on observables. Although these methods create better‐matched treatment and comparison groups on observables, the issue of selection on unobservables still looms large. Thus, in the absence of being able to run randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or natural experiments, it is important to understand how well different regression‐based estimators perform in terms of minimizing pure selection bias, that is, selection on unobservables. We examine the relative magnitudes of three sources of pure selection bias: heterogeneous response bias, time‐invariant individual heterogeneity (fixed effects [FEs]), and intertemporal dependence (autoregressive process of order one [AR(1)]). Because the relative magnitude of each source of pure selection bias may vary in different policy contexts, it is important to understand how well different regression‐based estimators handle each source of selection bias. Expanding simulations that have their origins in the work of Heckman, LaLonde, and Smith ( ), we find that difference‐in‐differences (DID) using equidistant pre‐ and postperiods and FEs estimators are less biased and have smaller standard errors in estimating the Treatment on the Treated (TT) than other regression‐based estimators. Our data analysis using the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) program replicates our simulation findings in estimating the TT.
Functional characterization of a class III acid endochitinase from the traps of the carnivorous pitcher plant genus, Nepenthes

Carnivory in plants is an adaptation strategy to nutrient-poor environments and soils. Carnivorous plants obtain some additional mineral nutrients by trapping and digesting prey; the genus Nepenthes is helped by its specialized pitcher traps. To make the nutrients available, the caught prey needs to be digested, a process that requires the concerted activity of several hydrolytic enzymes. To identify and investigate the various enzymes involved in this process, fluid from Nepenthes traps has been analysed in detail. In this study, a novel type of Nepenthes endochitinase was identified in the digestion fluid of closed pitchers. The encoding endochitinase genes have been cloned from eight different Nepenthes species. Among these, the deduced amino acid sequence similarity was at least 94.9%. The corresponding cDNA from N. rafflesiana was heterologously expressed, and the purified protein, NrChit1, was biochemically characterized. The enzyme, classified as a class III acid endochitinase belonging to family 18 of the glycoside hydrolases, is secreted into the pitcher fluid very probably due to the presence of an N-terminal signal peptide. Transcriptome analyses using real-time PCR indicated that the presence of prey in the pitcher up-regulates the endochitinase gene not only in the glands, which are responsible for enzyme secretion, but at an even higher level, in the glands’ surrounding tissue. These results suggest that in the pitchers’ tissues, the endochitinase as well as other proteins from the pitcher fluid might fulfil a different, primary function as pathogenesis-related proteins.
Market Efficiency, Asymmetric Price Adjustment and Over-Evaluation: Linking Investor Behaviors to EGARCH

The paper incorporates a partial asymmetric price adjustment model for individual investors action into an EGARCH model, clarifies the relationship between the price adjustment speed, the market efficiency and asymmetric price adjustment, and measures over (under)-evaluation of stock value. The stock price does not fully adjust to the market value of stocks hoped by investors and does not adjust symmetrically in upturn and downturn, if and only if the market is not efficient, and moreover the market value generally diverts from the fundamental value of stocks even though the market is efficient. As an operational example, the Tokyo stock market is found to be inefficient during 1980-2005. The speed of price adjustment is asymmetric in the 80s but symmetric in the 90s and 2000s. The over-evaluation of the market value is remarkably observed in the 80s but not in the 90s and 2000s.
Performance of Municipal Cycling Policies in Medium-Sized Cities in the Netherlands since 2000

Abstract With its high cycling mode share, the Netherlands is often seen as a best practice for cycling policies. However, there is little insight into the drivers behind this phenomenon, specifically which policy interventions increased cycling rates and which did not. The knowledge gap on the effectiveness of cycling policies seriously limits the potential for learning from the Dutch experience. This paper will address this gap, by exploring the performance of Dutch cycling policies in 22 medium-sized cities since 2000. First, the existing ideas regarding the effectiveness of cycling policy are reviewed. These insights structure the exploration of data from Statistics Netherlands and the Dutch Cyclists' Union, complemented with a survey of local policy-makers by means of an explorative data-mining methodology called rough set analysis. Our findings support the following hypotheses regarding the performance of cycling policy in Dutch cities: first of all, the way cycling policy is implemented seems important: setting measurable and verifiable goals, following through with most of the proposed policy interventions, allowing for experimental measures to be explored and showing strong leadership. Second, providing adequate cycling infrastructure and decreasing the attractiveness of car use (e.g. by increasing parking tariffs and increasing the area of paid on-street car parking) seem to be key drivers. Finally, we found that external circumstances, such as demographic trends, seem to influence cycling policy outcomes. Future research is needed to test these hypotheses.
The visiting specialist model of rural health care delivery: a survey in Massachusetts.

CONTEXT Hospitals in rural communities may seek to increase specialty care access by establishing clinics staffed by visiting specialists. PURPOSE To examine the visiting specialist care delivery model in Massachusetts, including reasons specialists develop secondary rural practices and distances they travel, as well as their degree of satisfaction and intention to continue the visiting arrangement. METHODS Visiting specialists at 11 rural hospitals were asked to complete a mailed survey. FINDINGS Visiting specialists were almost evenly split between the medical (54%) and surgical (46%) specialties, with ophthalmology, nephrology, and obstetrics/gynecology the most common specialties reported. A higher proportion of visiting specialists than specialists statewide were male (P = .001). Supplementing their patient base and income were the most important reasons visiting specialists reported for having initiated an ancillary clinic. There was a significant negative correlation between a hospital's number of staffed beds and the total number of visiting specialists it hosted (r =-0.573, P = .032); study hospitals ranged in bed size from 15 to 129. CONCLUSIONS The goal of matching supply of health care services with demand has been elusive. Visiting specialist clinics may represent an element of a market structure that expands access to needed services in rural areas. They should be included in any enumeration of physician availability.
A Xanthomonas Alkyl Hydroperoxide Reductase Subunit C (ahpC) Mutant Showed an Altered Peroxide Stress Response and Complex Regulation of the Compensatory Response of Peroxide Detoxification Enzymes

ABSTRACT Alkyl hydroperoxide reductase subunit C (AhpC) is the catalytic subunit responsible for alkyl peroxide metabolism. A Xanthomonas ahpC mutant was constructed. The mutant had increased sensitivity to organic peroxide killing, but was unexpectedly hyperresistant to H2O2 killing. Analysis of peroxide detoxification enzymes in this mutant revealed differential alteration in catalase activities in that its bifunctional catalase-peroxidase enzyme and major monofunctional catalase (Kat1) increased severalfold, while levels of its third growth-phase-regulated catalase (KatE) did not change. The increase in catalase activities was a compensatory response to lack of AhpC, and the phenotype was complemented by expression of a functional ahpC gene. Regulation of the catalase compensatory response was complex. The Kat1 compensatory response increase in activity was mediated by OxyR, since it was abolished in an oxyR mutant. In contrast, the compensatory response increase in activity for the bifunctional catalase-peroxidase enzyme was mediated by an unknown regulator, independent of OxyR. Moreover, the mutation in ahpC appeared to convert OxyR from a reduced form to an oxidized form that activated genes in the OxyR regulon in uninduced cells. This complex regulation of the peroxide stress response in Xanthomonas differed from that in other bacteria.
Conscious Image Processing: An Integrated Neural and Quantum Model

An integrated model of conscious image processing in human cortex is proposed based on the Holonomic Brain Theory by Karl Pribram and related models. After optimal delineation of the neural and quantum ingredients, the model combines the predominantly (sub)neuronal image processing and the essentially quantum-based repetitive act of becoming-conscious of the resulting phenomenal image. The model optimally incorporates contemporary limited knowledge starting from a systematic search for fit between existing computational models, and between available experimental data, and between data and models. Since we are not yet able to tackle qualitative conscious experience directly, processes for making an image (or result of image processing, respectively) conscious are discussed. A quantum implementation of holography-like processing of images in the striate cortex (V1) is proposed using a computational model called quantum associative network. The input to the quantum net could be the Gabor wavelets, together with their coefficients, which are infomax-constrained spectral and sparse neural codes produced in the convolutional cascade along the retino-geniculo-striate visual pathway using the receptive fields as determined by dendritic processes. Perceptual projections are used as argument for holography-like and quantum essence of visual phenomena, because classically (neurally) alone they could not be produced in such a quality. Level-invariant image attractors are argued to be representations to become conscious in/by a subject, after a similar stimulus has triggered the wave-function collapse (i.e., recall from memory). Auxiliary representations for simultaneous subconscious processing, based on phase-information, for associative vision-based cognition are proposed to be Gabor wavelets (i.e., spectral codes in V1 receptive fields, or dendritic trees, respectively) and their coefficients (i.e., sparse codes in activities of V1 neurons).
Adenosine Kinase Expression in Cortical Dysplasia With Balloon Cells: Analysis of Developmental Lineage of Cell Types

Abstract Focal cortical dysplasia type IIB (FCDIIB) is a developmental malformation of the cerebral cortex that is associated with pharmacoresistant epilepsy. Overexpression of adenosine kinase (ADK) has been regarded as a pathologic hallmark of epilepsy. We hypothesized that the epileptogenic mechanisms underlying FCDIIB are related to abnormal ADK expression. We used immunohistochemistry to examine the expression of ADK and of heterogeneous cell population markers of astrocytes (glial fibrillary acidic protein), immature glia (vimentin), immature neurons (neuronal class III beta-tubulin, TUJ1), multipotential progenitor cells (nestin), mature neurons (microtubule-associated protein 2), and antiapoptotic gene products (Bcl-2) in surgically resected human epileptic cortical specimens from FCDIIB patients (n = 20). Expression patterns were compared with those in normal autopsy (n = 6) and surgical control (n = 6) brain samples. Balloon cells in FCDII lesions were immunoreactive for ADK (77%) and balloon cells expressing the different cell markers expressing different degrees of ADK. Adenosine kinase expression assessed by Western blot and enzymatic activity were also greater in FCD versus control samples. These results suggest that upregulation of ADK is a common pathologic component of FCDIIB. Adenosine kinase might, therefore, be a target in the treatment of epilepsy associated with FCD.
Autoregressive Approximations of Multiple Frequency I(1) Processes

We investigate autoregressive approximations of multiple frequency I(1) processes, of which I(1) processes are a special class. The underlying data generating process is assumed to allow for an infinite order autoregressive representation where the coefficients of the Wold representation of the suitably differenced process satisfy mild summability constraints. An important special case of this process class are VARMA processes. The main results link the approximation properties of autoregressions for the nonstationary multiple frequency I(1) process to the corresponding properties of a related stationary process, which are well known (cf. Section 7.4 of Hannan and Deistler, 1988). First, error bounds on the estimators of the autoregressive coefficients are derived that hold uniformly in the lag length. Second, the asymptotic properties of order estimators obtained with information criteria are shown to be closely related to those for the associated stationary process obtained by suitable differencing. For multiple frequency I(1) VARMA processes we establish divergence of order estimators based on the BIC criterion at a rate proportional to the logarithm of the sample size.
New Explicit Conditions of Elliptic Curve Traces for FR-Reduction

Elliptic curve cryptosystems([19],[25]) are based on the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem(ECDLP). If elliptic curve cryptosystems avoid FRreduction([11],[17]) and anomalous elliptic curve over Fq ([3], [33], [35]), then with current knowledge we can construct elliptic curve cryptosystems over a smaller definition field. ECDLP has an interesting property that the security deeply depends on elliptic curve traces rather than definition fields, which does not occur in the case of the discrete logarithm problem(DLP). Therefore it is important to characterize elliptic curve traces explicitly from the security point of view. As for FR-reduction, supersingular elliptic curves or elliptic curve E/Fq with trace 2 have been reported to be vulnerable. However unfortunately these have been only results that characterize elliptic curve traces explicitly for FRand MOV-reductions. More importantly, the secure trace against FR-reduction has not been reported at all. Elliptic curves with the secure trace means that the reduced extension degree is always higher than a certain level. In this paper, we aim at characterizing elliptic curve traces by FR-reduction and investigate explicit conditions of traces vulnerable or secure against FR-reduction. We show new explicit conditions of elliptic curve traces for FRreduction. We also present algorithms to construct such elliptic curves, which have relation to famous number theory problems. key words: elliptic curve cryptosystems, trace, FRreduction
Dominant political parties and democracy : concepts, measures, cases, and comparisons

1. Introduction: Setting a New Agenda for Research - Francoise Boucek and Matthijs Bogaards PART I: Concepts and Measures 2. Rethinking Dominant Party Systems - Patrick Dunleavy 3. Measuring One-Party Dominance with Voting Power Indices - Jean-Francois Caulier and Patrick Dumont 4. District-Level Dominance and Vulnerability under the French Fifth Republic - Nicolas Sauger PART II: Cases and Comparisons i: Sub-national Dominance 5. Big Fish in Small Ponds: A Comparison of Dominant Parties in the Canadian Provinces and German Lander - Amir Abedi and Steffen Schneider 6. Hard and Soft Dominance: Assessing the Case of the Bavarian CSU - Gordon Smith ii: The Intra-Party Dimension of Dominance 7. The Factional Politics of Dominant Parties: Evidence from Britain, Italy and Japan - Francoise Boucek 8. Dominance without Factions: The Liberal Party of Canada - R. Kenneth Carty iii: Dominance and Democracy 9. A Resource Theory of Single Party Dominance: The PRI in Mexico - Kenneth F. Greene 10. One-Party Dominance in South-Africa - James Myburgh and Hermann Giliomee 11. Laying a Foundation for Democracy or Undermining It? Dominant Parties in Africa's Burgeoning Democracies - Staffan I. Lindberg and Jonathan Jones 12. Conclusion - Francoise Boucek and Matthijs Bogaards
Policy Uncertainty and Aggregate Fluctuations

This paper estimates the impact on the US economy of four types of uncertainty about (i) government spending, (ii) tax changes, (iii) public debt sustainability and (iv) monetary policy. Following a one standard deviation shock, uncertainty about debt sustainability has the largest and most significant impact on real activity, with negative effects on output, consumption and investment after two years around 0.5%, 0.3% and 1.5% respectively. Uncertainty on the other economic policies has also detrimental consequences but these tend to be smaller and short-lived, especially for taxes and monetary policy. About 30% of output fluctuations are explained by policy uncertainty at most frequencies, with the lion's share accounted for by debt sustainability. Our results are based on a new empirical framework that allows the volatility of identified shocks to have a direct impact on the endogenous variables of an otherwise standard structural VAR.
Geographies of labour market regulation: Industrial training in government training centres and skillcentres in Britain and London, 1917-93.

This thesis is concerned with one aspect of the state's intervention into industrial training in Britain, namely the policy programmes which constituted between 1917-93 the Government Training Centre and subsequent Skillcentre networks. These training initiatives are presented as one example of government's attempts at national and local labour market regulation and governance, placed within the context of industrial, social and political change within Britain and Greater London. This analysis of state intervention and policy formulation is set into a theoretical and explanatory framework which is both historically and geographically located. The thesis is structured into three distinct parts. Part one establishes the theoretical framework and is based upon a critique of selected local labour market research maintaining that an interpretation of regulation theory, involving the identification of sub-national landscapes of labour regulation and governance, offers an important basis for the study of labour market process within any particular geographical context. Part two provides a detailed presentation of the development of state-funded adult industrial training in Britain from the instructional factories of 1917, through the subsequent Government Training Centre and Skillcentre initiatives and concluding with the privatisation and eventual closure of the Skillcentre network in 1993. This historical perspective is presented in terms of nine distinct regulatory periods and a series of distinctive geographies of labour market regulation. Part three sets the findings of a survey of Skillcentre trainees in Greater London into this context. Skillcentre catchment areas in London in the early 1980s are identified and interpreted in terms of both contemporary processes of labour market change and the residual consequences of policy formulation and implementation derived under previous conditions of regulatory need. Access to Skillcentre training in the local labour market context of Greater London is seen to be the outcome of the intersection and interaction of a range of economic, social and political processes, operating over time and at a variety of spatial scales.
An Introduction to Data Envelopment Analysis: A Tool for Performance Measurement

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Decision-Making Units Basic Concepts of Efficiency Measurement Graphical Description - Frontier Analysis Strongly and Weakly Efficient DMUs Exercises PART TWO: MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING ASPECTS OF DEA Mathematical Formulation Exercises Dual DEA Models Multiplier and Envelopment DEA Programmes Input and Output Oriented Envelopment DEA Programs Relationships among Different DEA Formulations Exercises PART THREE: ECONOMIES OF SCALE Returns to Scale and DEA Variable Returns to Scales Multiplier DEA Programs Technical and Scale Efficiencies Estimation of the Most Productive Scale Size Investigating the Returns to Scale Properties of a DMU Exercises PART FOUR: MISCELLANEOUS DEA MODELS AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Multiplicative DEA Models Additive Models Time Series Analysis using DEA Some Extensions of DEA Exercises Other DEA Models and Extensions PART FIVE: COMPUTER-BASED SUPPORT FOR DEA Computational Features of DEA DEA Software Internet Support for DEA A Brief Description of DEA Software PART SIX: DEA BIBLIOGRAPHY AND APPLICATIONS Brief Literature Survey Selected DEA Applications PART SEVEN: SOME ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION ON DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS Some Considerations on the Application Procedure of DEA Strengths and Limitations