Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study of the depolarization current in mineral oils

Polarization and depolarization current measurement is a non-destructive testing method to study the dielectric properties of insulating materials. Two kinds of mineral oils with different aging time have been measured and compared. When the charge carriers drift to the electrodes, they may be blocked and accumulated in the vicinity of the electrode to form the charge layers. When the oil is discharged, the charge carriers in these charge layers will start to move backwards to the bulk and result in a depolarization current. The depolarization process can be affected by both diffusion and electric drift. In this paper, the diffusion theory has been used to study the depolarization in mineral oil and the experimental results have been fitted using exponential equations. It seems the depolarization current is mainly contributed by the diffusion of the charge carriers in the mineral oil. The assumption that there are two kinds of charge carriers in the mineral oil that made in frequency domain measurement has been verified in this paper.
Cancer statistics, 2011

Each year, the American Cancer Society estimates the numbers of new cancer cases and deaths expected in the United States in the current year and compiles the most recent data on cancer incidence, mortality, and survival based on incidence data from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries and mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics. A total of 1,596,670 new cancer cases and 571,950 deaths from cancer are projected to occur in the United States in 2011. Overall cancer incidence rates were stable in men in the most recent time period after decreasing by 1.9% per year from 2001 to 2005; in women, incidence rates have been declining by 0.6% annually since 1998. Overall cancer death rates decreased in all racial/ethnic groups in both men and women from 1998 through 2007, with the exception of American Indian/Alaska Native women, in whom rates were stable. African American and Hispanic men showed the largest annual decreases in cancer death rates during this time period (2.6% and 2.5%, respectively). Lung cancer death rates showed a significant decline in women after continuously increasing since the 1930s. The reduction in the overall cancer death rates since 1990 in men and 1991 in women translates to the avoidance of about 898,000 deaths from cancer. However, this progress has not benefitted all segments of the population equally; cancer death rates for individuals with the least education are more than twice those of the most educated. The elimination of educational and racial disparities could potentially have avoided about 37% (60,370) of the premature cancer deaths among individuals aged 25 to 64 years in 2007 alone. Further progress can be accelerated by applying existing cancer control knowledge across all segments of the population with an emphasis on those groups in the lowest socioeconomic bracket. CA Cancer J Clin 2011. © 2011 American Cancer Society.
Efficient Algorithms for ( δ , γ , α )-Matching

We propose new algorithms for (δ, γ, α)-matching. In this string matching problem we are given a pattern P = p0p1 . pm−1 and a text T = t0t1 . tn−1 over some integer alphabet Σ = {0 . σ−1}. The pattern symbol pi matches the text symbol tj iff |pi − tj | ≤ δ. The pattern P (δ, γ)-matches some text substring tj . tj+m−1 iff for all i it holds that |pi − tj+i| ≤ δ and ∑ |pi − tj+i| ≤ γ. Finally, in (δ, γ, α)-matching we also permit at most α length gaps (text substrings) between each matching text symbol. The only known previous algorithm runs in O(mn) time. We give several algorithms that improve the average case up to O(n) for small α, and the worst case to O(min{mn, |M|α}) or O(mn log γ/w), where M = {(i, j) | |pi − tj | ≤ δ} and w is the number of bits in a machine word. We conclude with experimental results showing that the algorithms are very efficient in practice.
Synergistic effect of vegetation and air temperature changes on soil water content in alpine frost meadow soil in the permafrost region of Qinghai‐Tibet

Seasonal changes over 2 years (2004–2006) in soil moisture content (θv) of frozen alpine frost meadow soils of the Qinghai‐Tibet plateau permafrost region under three different levels of vegetation cover were investigated. Vegetation cover and air temperature changes had significant effects (synergistic effect) on θv and its distribution in the soil profile. During periods of soil freezing or thawing, the less the vegetation cover, the quicker the temperature drop or rise of soil water, and the shorter the duration of the soil water freeze–thaw response in the active soil layer. Under 30% and 65% vegetation cover the amplitude of variation in θv during the freezing period was 20–26% greater than that under 93% cover, while during the thawing period, it was 1·5‐ to 40·5‐fold greater. The freezing temperature of the surface soil layer, fTs, was 1·6 °C lower under 30% vegetation cover than under 93% vegetation cover. Changes in vegetation cover of the alpine frost meadow affected θv and its distribution, as well as the relationship between θv and soil temperature (Ts). As vegetation cover decreased, soil water circulation in the active layer increased, and the response to temperature of the water distribution across the soil profile was heightened. The quantity of transitional soil phase water at different depths significantly increased as vegetation cover decreased. The influence of vegetation cover and soil temperature distribution led to a relatively dry soil layer in the middle of the profile (0·70–0·80 m) under high vegetation cover. Alpine meadow θv and its pattern of distribution in the permafrost region were the result of the synergistic effect of air temperature and vegetation cover. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
All in the Family: Comparing Siblings to Test Causal Hypotheses Regarding Environmental Influences on Behavior

Psychologists in both basic and applied fields are keenly interested in the environmental influences that shape our lives. Therefore, researchers test causal hypotheses to construct models of environmental influences that can withstand attempts at refutation. Randomized experiments provide the strongest tests of causal hypotheses but are not always feasible, and their assumptions cannot always be met. In such cases, a number of quasi-experimental research designs can be used to substantially reduce confounding in tests of causal hypotheses. Sibling-comparison designs provide robust quasi-experimental tests of causal environmental hypotheses, but they are underused in psychology in spite of their power, feasibility, and convenience.
Focus and prominence in Chichewa, Chitumbuka and Durban Zulu *

Much work on the interaction of prosody and focus assumes that, cross-linguistically, there is a necessary correlation between the position of main sentence stress (or accent) and focus, and that an intonational pitch change on the focused element is a primary correlate of focus. In this paper, I discuss primary data from three Bantu languages – Chichewa, Durban Zulu and Chitumbuka – and show that in all three languages phonological re-phrasing, not stress, is the main prosodic correlate of focus and that lengthening, not pitch movement, is the main prosodic correlate of phrasing. This result is of interest for the typology of intonation in illustrating languages where intonation has limited use and where, notably, intonation does not highlight focused information in the way we might expect from European stress languages.
How does creativity occur in teams? An empirical test

Title of Dissertation: HOW DOES CREATIVITY OCCUR IN TEAMS? AN EMPIRICAL TEST Sirkwoo Jin, Ph.D., 2010 Directed By: Professor Debra L. Shapiro R. H. Smith School of Business Organizations benefit when workteams produce more rather than less creativity. What actions in organizations help this to occur – on the part of team leaders and team members? This is the primary question that my dissertation aims to answer. More specifically, I hypothesize that team leaders’ behaviors (e.g., transformational, empowering, and boundary-working behaviors) lead to team members’ affective and cognitive experiences (e.g., positive group affective tone, team empowerment) that in turn lead to teamwork processes (e.g., information sharing and boundary-spanning among team members) that ultimately lead to team creativity. Thus, my dissertation attempts to explain how and why team creativity occurs. Results from 52 organizational R&D teams suggest support for these hypothesized relationships and for the theoretical model overall. I conclude by discussing my findings’ implications for managers and management scholars interested in enhancing team creativity. HOW DOES CREATIVITY OCCUR IN TEAMS? AN EMPIRICAL TEST
Coping With the Stress of Parental Depression II: Adolescent and Parent Reports of Coping and Adjustment

This study examined associations between adolescents' self-reports and parents' reports of adolescents' exposure to family stress, coping, and symptoms of anxiety/depression and aggression in a sample of 78 adolescent offspring of depressed parents. Significant cross-informant correlations were found between adolescents' reports of family stress, their stress responses, and their coping and parents' reports of adolescents' symptoms of anxiety/depression and aggression, but not between parents' reports of adolescents' stress and coping and adolescents' self-reported symptoms. Adolescents' reports of secondary control engagement coping and involuntary engagement stress responses mediated the relation between adolescents' reports of parental stress and parents' reports of adolescents' anxiety/depression symptoms. Moderate levels of correspondence were found in the correlations between parent and adolescent reports of adolescents' exposure to stress, coping, stress responses, and symptoms even after controlling for parents' current depressive symptoms. However, depressed parents reported higher levels of symptoms of anxiety/depression and aggression and more family stress than did their adolescent offspring. Implications for future research on coping and adjustment in offspring of depressed parents are highlighted.
Heat spreading packaging solutions for hybrid bonded 3D-ICs

Direct hybrid bonding is considered as one of the most promising technologies for high performance 3D-ICs. Its face-to-face structure allows significant inter-connexion capabilities. Nonetheless, it also implies increased thermal densities that will be reflected in both die tiers due to the lack of insulating barriers. This work investigates the thermal interactions between two hybrid bonded dice for different case scenarios. A specific test vehicle comprising heaters and temperature sensors have been designed. Packaging variables such as silicon thickness, substrate thermal design or TIM conductivity and thickness are studied.
Do Large-Firm Bargaining Models Amplify and Propagate Aggregate Productivity Shocks?

Labor search models struggle to generate empirically-plausible amplication and propagation of productivity shocks. Several authors have argued that allowing for heterogeneity in rm-level employment and employment growth helps. I study a model that can match a wide variety of cross-sectional and time series observations but show that it generates neither amplication nor propagation. In one specication, unemployment and vacancies are analytically constant as aggregate productivity varies, while in a second their behavior is indistinguishable from the Mortensen-Pissarides benchmark. An important contribution of the paper is analytical tractability. Despite allowing for both transitory and permanent idiosyncratic heterogeneity in rm
Visual short-term memory and the bilateral field advantage

Past research has demonstrated superior visual processing when the information is distributed across the left and right visual fields rather than within the same single hemifield. This effect is known as the bilateral field advantage (BFA). Recent studies have recently begun to investigate whether a BFA also arises in visual short-term memory (VSTM), with a direct effect on its storage capacity. In other words, the question is whether it is possible to remember more visual objects when they are distributed between the two hemifields than when they are all located within a single one. The goal of this chapter is to provide a synthesis of the current data regarding the possible existence of a BFA in VSTM. Those data reveal that a BFA can be found in spatial short-term memory, namely when the task requires holding spatial information. However, no BFA has been found in object short-term memory (i.e., when the task is to hold detailed visual properties of the objects), unless attentional selective processes are dominantly engaged in the task, suggesting that the BFA is a general feature of selective attention.
Investigating the Invariance of the ECPE Factor Structure across Different Proficiency Levels

This study investigates the degree of factor differentiation in the factor structure of the Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English (ECPE) across two proficiency level groups. The study uses a split-half technique to obtain an independent measure of language proficiency from one ECPE test half and uses the other test half as the dependent variable. Analyses are based on item-level data from the multiple-choice section of the ECPE and involved multiple group confirmatory factor analysis to test the degree of measurement and structural invariance between the two proficiency groups. The results indicate that four of the five subtests exhibit partial measurement invariance across the low and high proficiency group. Only the cloze subtest showed full measurement invariance. Furthermore, none of the factor correlations and factor variances were invariant. The pattern of the factor correlations indicated weaker correlations among the factors in the low proficiency group and stronger correlations in the high proficiency group. This suggests that, for the particular examinees in this study, the structure of the test becomes increasingly more undifferentiated as language proficiency increases. A major focus in language testing research has been the study of the factorial structure of language proficiency tests. Examining the factor structure of a test plays an important role in establishing validity evidence for the measurement of theoretical constructs such as language proficiency (Nunnally, 1978) and in evaluating whether a test exhibits equivalent measurement properties across different examinee populations (i.e., measurement invariance; Meredith, 1993). An important issue that arises from previous studies investigating the dimensionality of language tests is that the factor structure changes across examinee groups with different levels of language proficiency. Specifically, it has been found that the level of proficiency of the examinee group is related to the degree of factor differentiation exhibited by the test (indicated by a greater number of factors with higher factor loadings and lower factor correlations). However, not all research studies found the same relationship between proficiency level and factor differentiation. At least two studies observed that language proficiency is positively related to the degree of factor differentiation exhibited by the test (Swinton & Powers, 1980; Ginther & Stevens,1995). Other research studies, however, show a negative relationship with a decrease in factor differentiation as language proficiency increases (Hosley & Meredith, 1976; Oltman, Stricker, & Barrows, 1988; Kunnan, 1992). In
Tarnished Plant Bug (Hemiptera: Miridae) Thresholds and Sampling Comparisons for Flowering Cotton in the Midsouthern United States

ABSTRACT The tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois) (Hemiptera: Miridae), has become the primary target of foliar insecticides in cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L. , throughout the Midsouth over the past several years. This prompted a reevaluation of existing action thresholds for flowering cotton under current production practices and economics. A trial was conducted at 19 locations throughout the Midsouth during 2006 and 2007. Threshold treatments ranged from a weekly automatic insecticide application to a very high threshold of 10 tarnished plant bugs per 1.5 row-m on a black drop cloth. Individually, all locations reached the lowest threshold, and eight locations had a significant yield loss from tarnished plant bugs. Across all locations, lint yield decreased 0.85 to 1.72% for each threshold increase of one tarnished plant bug per 1.5 row-m. Yield loss was most closely correlated to pest density during the latter half of the flowering period. The relationship between plant bug density or damage and yield was similar for drop cloth, sweep net, and dirty square sampling methods, but the correlations among these sampling methods were not high. Incorporating actual insecticide application data from the trial and average production and economic factors for Midsouth cotton, the economic threshold, if monitoring once per week, should be between 1.6 and 2.6 tarnished plant bugs per 1.5 row-m during the flowering period. More frequent monitoring or situations where insecticide applications are more efficacious may alter this threshold.
Scalable browsing for large collections: a case study

Phrase browsing techniques use phrases extracted automatically from a large information collection as a basis for browsing and accessing it. This paper describes a case study that uses an automatically constructed phrase hierarchy to facilitate browsing of an ordinary large Web site. Phrases are extracted from the full text using a novel combination of rudimentary syntactic processing and sequential grammar induction techniques. The interface is simple, robust and easy to use. To convey a feeling for the quality of the phrases that are generated automatically, a thesaurus used by the organization responsible for the Web site is studied and its degree of overlap with the phrases in the hierarchy is analyzed. Our ultimate goal is to amalgamate hierarchical phrase browsing and hierarchical thesaurus browsing: the latter provides an authoritative domain vocabulary and the former augments coverage in areas the thesaurus does not reach.
Interprofessional education for practitioners working with the survivors of violence: Exploring early and longer-term outcomes on practice

Traditionally, practitioners working with the survivors of violence have been offered little in the way of formal education to help them understand why violence occurs and how they can collaborate to support survivors in an effective manner. To help address this need, a team led by one of the authors developed an innovative interprofessional course entitled, “Society, Violence and Practice”. The course provided collaborative learning opportunities to practitioners working in various health, welfare and human services settings to equip them further to respond to survivors of violence in a cooperative and holistic manner. To generate an in-depth understanding of participants' views of the impact of the course an exploratory study was undertaken. Drawing upon an interpretivist framework, qualitative data in the form of focus group interviews, individual follow-up telephone interviews, emails and course documentation were collected. Data were analysed inductively to generate themes that could explore the nature of participants' perceptions relating to the differing impact of their interprofessional learning. Findings from this work indicated that the course had a number of early effects in relation to enhancing participants' confidence and knowledge of issues linked to working collaboratively with the survivors of violence. The follow-up data suggested that the course generated a number of longer-term gains on the participants' professional and interprofessional practice. The significance of these findings are discussed in relation to the interprofessional education and adult learning literature before conclusions are presented.
Optimum Power Allocation for Fading Relay Channels

Optimum power allocation is a key technique to realize the full potentials of relay-assisted transmission promised by the recent information-theoretic results. In this paper, we present a comprehensive framework for power allocation problem in a single-relay scenario taking into account the effect of relay location. In particular, we aim to answer the two fundamental questions: Q1) How should the overall transmit power be shared between broadcasting and relaying phases? ; Q2) In the relaying phase, how much power should be allocated to relay-to-destination and source-to-destination links? The power allocation problem is formulated to minimize a union bound on the bit error rate (BER) performance assuming amplify-and-forward (AaF) relaying. We consider three TDMA-based cooperation protocols which correspond to distributed implementations of MIMO (multi-input-multi-output), SIMO (single-input-multi-output), and MISO (multi-input-single-output) schemes. Optimized protocols demonstrate significant performance gains over their original versions which assume equal sharing of overall transmit power between the source and relay terminals as well as between broadcasting and relaying phases. It is observed that optimized virtual (distributed) antenna configurations are able to demonstrate a BER performance as close as 0.4 dB within their counterpart co-located antenna configurations.
The Relationship Between Spiritual Well-Being and Psychosocial Adjustment in Taiwanese Patients With Colorectal Cancer and a Colostomy

PURPOSE: We examined relationships among demographic and clinical characteristics, spiritual well-being, and psychosocial adjustment in Taiwanese patients with colorectal cancer and a colostomy. DESIGN: A descriptive, cross-sectional, exploratory study design was used to answer research questions. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Participants were recruited from the outpatient ambulatory clinic in the gastrointestinal surgical department at the medical center of National Taiwan University. Forty-five Taiwanese patients aged 42 to 83 years who were diagnosed with colorectal cancer and underwent colostomy surgery participated in the study. METHODS: Participants completed a personal data questionnaire designed for this study, along with 2 validated instruments, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and the Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale–Self Report. FINDINGS: Forty-five persons participated in the study; 69% reported a moderate level of spiritual well-being. Participants reported strong adjustment to extended family relationships, but poor adjustment in sexual relationships. Spiritual well-being was significantly associated with psychosocial adjustment (r = −0.52, P < .01), and 4 predictors (income change after surgery, self-rated disease severity, time since surgery, and spiritual well-being) accounted for 53% of the variance in psychosocial adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Spiritual well-being plays an important role for Taiwanese patients when faced with psychosocial adjustment related to life with colorectal cancer and a colostomy.
Performance study of wireless sensor and actuator networks in forest fire scenarios

Wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSANs) for environmental disaster scenarios are considered in this paper. A fully independent and autonomous WSAN system that is able to detect and extinguish a fire in a burning wildland area is proposed. Although forest fire detection is a classical application for sensor networks, in this paper, this research area is extended, taking into account actuators and their ability to put out fire in the presence of measurement inaccuracy and network degradation. A system architecture is proposed, modelled and discussed. An extensive set of computer simulations analysing the system performance is reported. The presented results show the efficiency of fire‐fighting actions depending on the sensors' density and the actuators' mobility. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.