Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oxygen Abundances in Metal-poor Stars (–2.2 < [Fe/H] < –1.2) from Infrared OH Lines

Infrared OH lines at 1.55-1.56 μm in the H band were obtained with the Phoenix high-resolution spectrograph at the 2.1 m telescope of the Kitt Peak National Observatory for a sample of 14 metal-poor stars. Detailed analyses of the sample stars have been carried out, deriving stellar parameters based on two methods: (a) spectroscopic parameters and (b) infrared flux method (IRFM) effective temperatures, trigonometric gravities, and metallicities from Fe II lines. The Fe I lines present in the H-band region observed were well fitted by the stellar parameters within Δ[Fe/H] ≤ 0.15 dex. The oxygen abundances were derived from fits of spectrum synthesis calculations to the infrared OH lines. CO lines in the H and K bands were obtained for a subsample in order to determine their carbon abundances. Adopting the spectroscopic parameters, a mean oxygen-to-iron ratio of [O/Fe] ≈ 0.52 is obtained, whereas using the IRFM temperatures, Hipparcos gravities, and [Fe II/H], [O/Fe] ≈ 0.25 is found. A mean of the two methods gives a final value of [O/Fe] ≈ 0.4 for the metallicity range -2.2 < [Fe/H] < -1.2 of the sample metal-poor stars.
THE FEEDING BEHAVIOUR OF THE HEDGEHOG ( ERINACEUS EUROPAIWS L . ) IN PASTURE lAND IN NEW ZEALAND

A population of hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus L.) in pasture land in Canterbury was fcund to vary between less than four and eight per hectare. Feeding habits were studied through stomach contents and analysis of faeces. Grass grub beetles (Costelytra ualandica) and porina moths (Wiseana cervinta), both important pasture pests, were relatively important food items. Estimates of the number of grass grubs eaten in relation to their density and that of hedgehogs in pastures show that hedgehogs are potentially capable of consuming 10.40 percent of adult populations.
A Baseline Model for Software Effort Estimation

Software effort estimation (SEE) is a core activity in all software processes and development lifecycles. A range of increasingly complex methods has been considered in the past 30 years for the prediction of effort, often with mixed and contradictory results. The comparative assessment of effort prediction methods has therefore become a common approach when considering how best to predict effort over a range of project types. Unfortunately, these assessments use a variety of sampling methods and error measurements, making comparison with other work difficult. This article proposes an automatically transformed linear model (ATLM) as a suitable baseline model for comparison against SEE methods. ATLM is simple yet performs well over a range of different project types. In addition, ATLM may be used with mixed numeric and categorical data and requires no parameter tuning. It is also deterministic, meaning that results obtained are amenable to replication. These and other arguments for using ATLM as a baseline model are presented, and a reference implementation described and made available. We suggest that ATLM should be used as a baseline of effort prediction quality for all future model comparisons in SEE.
Company-specific characteristics affecting oil and gas reserves disclosure in the United Kingdom

This paper investigates company-specific characteristics affecting oil and gas reserves disclosure in the United Kingdom. Using a sample selected through purposive and stratified random sampling from 83 UK oil and gas exploration and production companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) the paper helped to shed light on this critical disclosure issue. The results provide evidence that company's characteristics of firm size, size of auditor, debt capital and listing status significantly affect the extent of disclosure of oil and gas reserves information, while stage of firm operation was not found significant. Furthermore, the need to reduce the agency cost of information asymmetry and moral hazard, and thus reduce contracting and monitoring cost, as well to signal prospects to stakeholders as determined by the firm size, use of debt capital, size of auditor, and listing status, will compel companies to disclose oil and gas reserves even where such disclosure is discretionary as is the case in the UK. The findings are relevant to analysts and investors who use oil and gas reserve data disclosed by companies in valuing firms. Of interest to them would be information on reserves quantity data and narratives provided in the website in contradistinction to the valuation based on the annual report alone.
Orientation of the central pair complex during flagellar bend formation in Chlamydomonas.

Thin section electron micrographs of rapidly fixed Chlamydomonas cells were used to establish a relationship between flagellar bends and orientation of the central pair microtubule complex. Using conditions that preserve flagellar waveforms during both forward swimming (asymmetric bends) and backward swimming (symmetric bends), we found that central pair orientation differs in bent regions and straight regions. During forward swimming, a plane through the two central pair microtubules is parallel to the bend plane throughout principal bends, in both effective stroke and recovery stroke phases of the beat cycle. In these curved segments, the C1 microtubule always faces the outer edge of the curve. This parallel orientation twists in straight regions both proximal and distal to bends. During backward swimming episodes induced by photoshock, when Chlamydomonas flagella beat with principal and reverse bends of similar magnitude, the central pair twists by 180 degrees between successive bends. These observations support a model in which central pair orientation in Chlamydomonas is linked to doublet-specific dynein activation, and bend propagation is linked to rotation of the central pair complex.
Long ncRNA expression associates with tissue-specific enhancers

Long non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) have recently been demonstrated to be expressed from a subset of enhancers and to be required for the distant regulation of gene expression. Several approaches to predict enhancers have been developed based on various chromatin marks and occupancy of enhancer-binding proteins. Despite the rapid advances in the field, no consensus how to define tissue specific enhancers yet exists. Here, we identify 2,695 long ncRNAs annotated by ENCODE (corresponding to 28% of all ENCODE annotated long ncRNAs) that overlap tissue-specific enhancers. We use a recently developed algorithm to predict tissue-specific enhancers, PreSTIGE, that is based on the H3K4me1 mark and tissue specific expression of mRNAs. The expression of the long ncRNAs overlapping enhancers is significantly higher when the enhancer is predicted as active in a specific cell line, suggesting a general interdependency of active enhancers and expression of long ncRNAs. This dependency is not identified using previous enhancer prediction algorithms that do not account for expression of their downstream targets. The predicted enhancers that overlap annotated long ncRNAs generally have a lower ratio of H3K4me1 to H3K4me3, suggesting that enhancers expressing long ncRNAs might be associated with specific epigenetic marks. In conclusion, we demonstrate the tissue-specific predictive power of PreSTIGE and provide evidence for thousands of long ncRNAs that are expressed from active tissue-specific enhancers, suggesting a particularly important functional relationship between long ncRNAs and enhancer activity in determining tissue-specific gene expression.
NASA / TM-2005-213530 Failure Models and Criteria for FRP Under InP lane or Three-D imensional Stress States Including Shear Non-L inearity

A set of three-dimensional failure criteria for laminated fiber-reinforced composites, denoted LaRC04, is proposed. The criteria are based on physical models for each failure mode and take into consideration non-linear matrix shear behaviour. The model for matrix compressive failure is based on the Mohr-Coulomb criterion and it predicts the fracture angle. Fiber kinking is triggered by an initial fiber misalignment angle and by the rotation of the fibers during compressive loading. The plane of fiber kinking is predicted by the model. LaRC04 consists of 6 expressions that can be used directly for design purposes. Several applications involving a broad range of load combinations are presented and compared to experimental data and other existing criteria. Predictions using LaRC04 correlate well with the experimental data, arguably better than most existing criteria. The good correlation seems to be attributable to the physical soundness of the underlying failure models.
An Agent–Based Model of Tax Compliance with Social Networks

In this paper, we use a computational modeling approach to examine the long-standing social issue of tax compliance. Specifically, we design an agent-based model—the Networked Agent-Based Compliance Model (NACSM)—where taxpayers not only exist within localized social networks, but also possess heterogeneous characteristics such as perceptions about the likelihood of audit and apprehension. When making compliance decisions, agents in our model factor in their neighbors' compliance strategy payoffs. We find that for a given enforcement regime, a world with limited knowledge of neighbor payoffs appears to lead to higher levels of aggregate compliance than when agents are aware of neighbor strategy payoffs and factor these into their individual compliance decisions. As this paper demonstrates the strength and initial results of our approach, we point to the need for further research using the NACSM approach and similar models as well as the development of higher fidelity agent-based compliance models.
Artificial fish swarm algorithm for unconstrained optimization problems

This paper presents an object-oriented software system that implements a modified artificial fish swarm (AFS) algorithm based on a particular intelligent behavior of schools of fish. We outline our implementation of the algorithm for unconstrained optimization problems. The application was implemented in C# with flexible GUI (Graphical User Interface) and it was successfully tested on four standard unconstrained benchmark problems.
Quality of Life, Stress, and Mental Health in Parents of Children with Parentally Diagnosed Food Allergy Compared to Medically Diagnosed and Healthy Controls

Background. Food allergy is related to poorer quality of life (QoL) and mental health of caregivers. Many parents diagnose food allergy in their child without seeking medical care and there is limited research on this group. This study investigated parental QoL and mental health in parents of children with parent-diagnosed food allergy (PA), medically diagnosed food allergy (MA), and a control group with no allergy (NA). Methods. One hundred and fifty parents from a general population completed validated measures of QoL, anxiety, depression, and stress. Results. Parents of children with food allergy (PA or MA) reported higher stress, anxiety, and depression than the control group (all p < 0.05). Parents of children with MA reported poorer food allergy related QoL compared to parents of children with PA (p < 0.05); parents of children with PA reported poorer general QoL compared to parents of children with MA (p < 0.05). Conclusion. Parents of children with food allergy have significantly poorer mental health compared to healthy controls, irrespective of whether food allergy is medically diagnosed or not. It is important to encourage parents to have their child medically tested for food allergy and to recognise and refer for psychological support where needed.
No personality without experience? A test on Rana dalmatina tadpoles

Abstract While the number of studies reporting the presence of individual behavioral consistency (animal personality, behavioral syndrome) has boomed in the recent years, there is still much controversy about the proximate and ultimate mechanisms resulting in the phenomenon. For instance, direct environmental effects during ontogeny (phenotypic plasticity) as the proximate mechanism behind the emergence of consistent individual differences in behavior are usually overlooked compared to environmental effects operating across generations (genetic adaptation). Here, we tested the effects of sociality and perceived predation risk during ontogeny on the strength of behavioral consistency in agile frog (Rana dalmatina) tadpoles in a factorial common garden experiment. Tadpoles reared alone and without predatory cues showed zero repeatability within (i.e., lack of personality) and zero correlation between (i.e., lack of syndrome) activity and risk‐taking. On the other hand, cues from predators alone induced both activity and risk‐taking personalities, while cues from predators and conspecifics together resulted in an activity – risk‐taking behavioral syndrome. Our results show that individual experience has an unequivocal role in the emergence of behavioral consistency. In this particular case, the development of behavioral consistency was most likely the result of genotype × environment interactions, or with other words, individual variation in behavioral plasticity.
Outbursts of EX Hydrae: mass-transfer events or disc instabilities?

We present the 45-yr record of the light curve of EX Hya, and discuss the characteristics of its 15 observed outbursts. We then concentrate on the 1998 outburst, reporting the first outburst X-ray observations. We discover an X-ray beat-cycle modulation, indicating that an enhanced accretion stream couples directly with the magnetosphere in outburst, confirming our previous prediction. Optical eclipse profiles late in outburst show that the visible light is dominated by an enhanced mass-transfer stream overflowing the accretion disc. We are uncertain whether the enhanced mass transfer is triggered by a disc instability, or by some other cause. While in outburst, EX Hya shows some of the characteristics of SW Sex stars.
The exotic chemical composition of the Sagittarius dwarf Spheroidal galaxy

Context. The Sagittarius dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy is the nearest neig hbor of the Milky Way. Moving along a short period quasi-pola r orbit within the Halo, it is being destroyed by the tidal interacti on with our Galaxy, losing its stellar content along a huge st ellar stream. Aims. We study the detailed chemical composition of 12 giant stars in the Sagittarius dwarf Spheroidal main body, together wit h 5 more in the associated globular cluster Terzan 7 by means of high resolu tion VLT-UVES spectra. Methods. Abundances are derived for up to 21 elements from O to Nd, by fit ting lines EW or line profiles against ATLAS 9 model atmospher es and SYNTHE spectral syntheses calculated ad-hoc. Temperat ur s are derived from (V-I) 0 or (B-V)0 colors, gravities from Fe  Fe ionization
The Impact of the 2008 Short Sale Ban on Stock Returns

The ban on short selling exacerbated the asymmetry of the return distribution of the stocks subject to it, and did nothing to limit the extreme variations in their returns. Their volatility increased substantially more than that of the market as a whole. At the same time, and partly as a result of the ban, the betas of these stocks (which reflect their systematic risk) remained unchanged or decreased. Therefore, the ban introduced noise in the stock price fluctuations (idiosyncratic risk increased) and made these prices deviate even farther from their fundamental values. The increase in realized volatility in turn translated into an increase in implied volatilities and thus an increase in option prices.
The Molecular Gas Environment around Two Herbig Ae/Be Stars: Resolving the Outflows of LkHα 198 and LkHα 225S

Observations of outflows associated with pre-main-sequence stars reveal details about morphology, binarity, and evolutionary states of young stellar objects. We present molecular line data from the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association array and Five Colleges Radio Astronomical Observatory toward the regions containing the Herbig Ae/Be stars LkHα 198 and LkHα 225S. Single-dish observations of 12CO J = 1 - 0, 13CO J = 1 - 0, N2H+ J = 1 - 0, and CS J = 2 - 1 were made over a field of 4.3′ × 4.3′ for each species. 12CO J = 1 - 0 data from FCRAO were combined with high-resolution BIMA array data to achieve a naturally weighted synthesized beam of 6.75′′ × 5.5′′ toward LkHα 198 and 5.7′′ × 3.95′′ toward LkHα 225S, representing resolution improvements of factors of approximately 10 and 5 over existing data. By using uniform weighting, we achieved another factor of 2 improvement. The outflow around LkHα 198 resolves into at least four outflows, none of which are centered on LkHα 198-IR, but even at our resolution we cannot exclude the possibility of an outflow associated with this source. In the LkHα 225S region we find evidence for two outflows associated with LkHα 225S itself, and a third outflow is likely driven by this source. Identification of the driving sources is still resolution limited and is also complicated by the presence of three clouds along the line of sight toward the Cygnus molecular cloud. 13CO J = 1 - 0 is present in the environments of both stars along with cold, dense gas as traced by CS J = 2 - 1 and (in LkHα 225S) N2H+ J = 1 - 0. No 2.6 mm continuum is detected in either region in relatively shallow maps compared to existing continuum observations.
Protein models: The Grand Challenge of protein docking

Characterization of life processes at the molecular level requires structural details of protein–protein interactions (PPIs). The number of experimentally determined protein structures accounts only for a fraction of known proteins. This gap has to be bridged by modeling, typically using experimentally determined structures as templates to model related proteins. The fraction of experimentally determined PPI structures is even smaller than that for the individual proteins, due to a larger number of interactions than the number of individual proteins, and a greater difficulty of crystallizing protein–protein complexes. The approaches to structural modeling of PPI (docking) often have to rely on modeled structures of the interactors, especially in the case of large PPI networks. Structures of modeled proteins are typically less accurate than the ones determined by X‐ray crystallography or nuclear magnetic resonance. Thus the utility of approaches to dock these structures should be assessed by thorough benchmarking, specifically designed for protein models. To be credible, such benchmarking has to be based on carefully curated sets of structures with levels of distortion typical for modeled proteins. This article presents such a suite of models built for the benchmark set of the X‐ray structures from the Dockground resource (http://dockground.bioinformatics.ku.edu) by a combination of homology modeling and Nudged Elastic Band method. For each monomer, six models were generated with predefined Cα root mean square deviation from the native structure (1, 2, …, 6 Å). The sets and the accompanying data provide a comprehensive resource for the development of docking methodology for modeled proteins. Proteins 2014; 82:278–287. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Care for the elderly; an exploration of perceived needs, demands and service use

The lack of knowledge concerning the needs of elderly people and the shortage of resources has raised questions about how to care for the growing numbers of elderly in a demand-driven health care system. Therefore, research has been conducted to answer the main question: what are the needs of elderly people regarding health care? Based on a literature review and in-depth interviews with elderly people living at home or in a nursing home, it can be concluded that elderly people generally experience much the same needs; there is no indication of an endless list of needs. Elderly people make clear that their needs for care go beyond health care alone, and also include needs regarding housing, transport and wellbeing. In addition, it was shown that their needs were dictated by more fundamental human needs, such as the need for autonomy or relatedness with important others. In the end none of the elderly did not ask for any special services, which were not already available. Nevertheless they did comment on the current quality and quantity of services offered. Based on the results of this research a measurement will be developed that can be used by planners to set out a health care policy. Chapter 2
Markov Switching VAR Model of Speculative Pressure: An Application to the Asian Financial Crisis

Markov switching models with time-varying transition probabilities address the limitations of the earlier methods in the early warning system literature on currency crises. Most of the Markov switching models in the literature are largely based on univariate models of exchange rate fluctuations. In this thesis, the components of the index of speculative pressure are modeled using the Markov Switching VAR with timevarying transition probabilities of Martinez Peria (2002). Two approaches, both of which are derived from this model, are taken to determine the probability of a currency crisis: the probability of a turbulent regime and the expected value of the index of speculative pressure. This study shows that the Markov Switching VAR model with time-varying transition probabilities is a good method to use in building an early warning system of a currency crisis. Results show significant improvement on predicting the Asian Financial Crisis by signaling its occurrence at an earlier period with a higher probability when the probability of a turbulent regime approach is employed. It is also more sensitive in detecting turbulent periods that are not necessarily currency crises and therefore renders itself useful in short-term forecasting of speculative pressure episodes. The leading indicators of the Asian Financial Crisis identified in this study are real effective exchange rate, export growth, GDP growth, real domestic credit, M2 ratio, deposits to M2 ratio and non-FDI flows. Table of
The Behavior of Law: A Theoretical Integration

Donald Black's The Behavior of Law contains the most powerful sociological theory of legal variation ever produced. Despite the critical reactions of some analysts, the generality, testability, originality, and validity of the theory have been well-established. The one area where the theory can be improved, however, involves the criterion of "parsimony. " The following paper demonstrates that roughly two dozen of Black's original propositions actually reduce to four primary propositions, characterized in terms of status locations along the different vectors of social space. Each of the original propositions can be deduced from these four general propositions without losing any explanatory value or the capacity to order existing "facts" in regard to legal variation.