Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Star cluster ecology III: Runaway collisions in young compact star clusters

The evolution of young compact star clusters is studied using N-body simulations in which both stellar evolution and physical collisions between stars are taken into account. The initial conditions are chosen to represent R136, a compact star cluster in the 30 Doradus region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The present runs do not include the effects of primordial binaries. We find that physical collisions between stars in these models are frequent, and that the evolution of the most massive stars and the dynamical evolution of the cluster are closely coupled. In all cases, a single star grows steadily in mass through mergers with other stars, forming a very massive (>100 Msun) star in less than 3-4 Myr. The growth rate of this runaway merger is much larger than estimates based on simple cross-section arguments, mainly because the star is typically found in the core and tends to form binaries with other massive stars there. The runaway is ``rejuvenated'' by each new collision, and its lifetime is extended considerably as a consequence. Observationally, such a star will appear in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram as a blue straggler. When the runaway forms a black hole, the binary in which it is found is usually dissociated.
Understanding Cerebral Activations in Neuromarketing - A Neuroelectrical Perspective

This paper aims to be a survey of recent experiments performed in the Neuromarketing field. Our purpose is to illustrate results obtained by employing the popular tools of investigation well known in the international neuroelectrical community such as the MEG, High Resolution EEG techniques and steady-state visually evoked potentials. By means of temporal and frequency patterns of cortical activations we intend to show how the neuroscientific community is nowadays sensible to the needs of companies and, at the same time, how the same tools are able to retrieve hidden information about the demands of consumers. These instruments could be of help both in preand post-design stage of a product, or a service, that a marketer is
Contactless Electrical Sintering of Silver Nanoparticles on Flexible Substrates

Contactless rapid electrical sintering (RES) is demonstrated using microwave power. The method is implemented by coupling the near-field electric field of a sintering head across an underlying nanoparticle layer. We provide appropriate biasing conditions required for controlled power delivery and demonstrate real-time monitoring of the process by measuring the reflected power at 1.8 GHz. A small-scale sintering head is designed and fabricated on a printed circuit board (PCB). The PCB head is shown to provide a tenfold improvement in sintering efficiency when compared to a sintering head with a less focused electric field pattern. Finally, a high-power coaxial sintering head, with a narrow electrode spacing and biasing conditions similar to the PCB head, is used for demonstrating contactless RES over an air gap. Silver nanoparticle patterning inkjet printed on a temperature-sensitive flexible substrate is efficiently sintered in two passes with 50-W input power and 25-mm/s processing speed, when the vertical working distance to the constantly moving substrate is 1 mm. The demonstrated sintering technology can be applied to a number of printed electronics applications.
The extragalactic submillimetre population: predictions for the SCUBA Half-Degree Extragalactic Survey (SHADES)

We present predictions for the angular correlation function and redshift distribution for SHADES, the SCUBA Half-Degree Extragalactic Survey, which will yield a sample of around 300 submillimetre sources in the 850-μm waveband in two separate fields. Complete and unbiased photometric redshift information on these submillimetre sources will be derived by combining the SCUBA data with (i) deep radio imaging already obtained with the Very Large Array, (ii) guaranteed-time Spitzer data at mid-infrared wavelengths, and (iii) far-infrared maps to be produced by BLAST, the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope. Predictions for the redshift distribution and clustering properties of the final anticipated SHADES sample have been computed for a wide variety of models, each constrained to fit the observed number counts. As we are dealing with around 150 sources per field, we use the sky-averaged angular correlation function to produce a more robust fit of a power-law shape w(θ) = (θ/A) -δ to the model data. Comparing the predicted distributions of redshift and of the clustering amplitude A and slope δ, we find that models can be constrained from the combined SHADES data with the expected photometric redshift information.
Shared Parenting in Canada: Increasing Use But Continued Controversy

There is a complex interplay between federal and provincial parenting statutes in Canada. Although most statutes continue to use the traditional concepts of “custody” and “access,” in practice most lawyers and judges use more child-focused terminology for parenting plans. There is a lack of reliable data on postseparation parenting in Canada, though a number of studies and data sources clearly indicate that there is growing use of various forms of shared parenting. Child support law in Canada defines “shared custody,” as occurring if each parent has the child at least 40% of the time, and this arrangement currently is used in about a fifth of parenting orders. Reform of the parenting-related provisions of Canada's Divorce Act remains contentious. We argue for statutory change to abandon the archaic terminology of “custody” and “access” and for adoption of more child-focused terminology. We do not support proposals made by fathers’ rights advocates in Canada for a presumption of equal parenting time.
The Rhetoric of Inequity Aversion- A Reply

In a recent “pamphlet” Shaked (2005) harshly criticizes two of our papers, Fehr and Schmidt (1999, 2003). This reply shows that Shaked's charges are not substantiated in any way. It points out several logical flaws in his arguments and shows that he grossly misquotes and misinterprets our papers. * This note is a reply to A. Shaked, “The Rhetoric of Inequity Aversion”, dated March 1, 2005. a) Ernst Fehr, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Bluemlisalpstrasse 10, CH8006 Zurich, Switzerland, email: efehr@iew.unizh. ch (corresponding author). b) Klaus M. Schmidt, Department of Economics, University of Munich, Ludwigstrasse 28, D-80539 Muenchen, Germany, email: klaus.schmidt@Lrz.uni-muenchen.de.
Examining the Mediating Role of Commitment to the Supervisor in Employees’ Affective Commitment: Temporary Employees Versus Permanent Employees

One of the challenges faced by human resources management departments in recent years is how to manage employees with different employment contracts, in particular, temporary compared with permanent. This study tries to examine commitment to the supervisor as a mediating variable between psychological contract and empowerment, on one hand, and affective commitment, on the other. Commitment to the supervisor is considered a mediating variable since it emphasizes the importance of the supervisor’s role in the relationship between employees and the organization. The differences between commitment to the supervisor among temporary and permanent employees have not yet been studied, nor the effect of empowerment on organizational commitment among temporary employees. The sample comprised 367 permanent employees and 155 temporary employees from 11 organizations operating both in public and private sectors. Commitment to the supervisor partly mediated the relationships between empowerment, fulfillment of the psychological contract, and affective commitment among permanent and temporary employees. In practical terms, supervisors play a role in upholding and maintaining the psychological contract and cultivating employee empowerment, whether the employee is permanent or temporary.
The efficacy of a movement control exercise programme to reduce injuries in youth rugby: a cluster randomised controlled trial

Background Injuries to youth rugby players have become an increasingly prominent health concern, highlighting the importance of developing and implementing appropriate preventive strategies. A growing body of evidence from other youth sports has demonstrated the efficacy of targeted exercise regimens to reduce injury risk. However, studies have yet to investigate the effect of such interventions in youth contact sport populations like rugby union. Objective To determine the efficacy of an evidence-based movement control exercise programme compared with a sham exercise programme to reduce injury risk in youth rugby players. Exercise programme compliance between trial arms and the effect of coach attitudes on compliance will also be evaluated. Setting School rugby coaches in England will be the target of the researcher intervention, with the effects of the injury prevention programmes being measured in male youth players aged 14–18 years in school rugby programmes over the 2015–2016 school winter term. Methods A cluster-randomised controlled trial with schools randomly allocated to either a movement control exercise programme or a sham exercise programme, both of which are coach-delivered. Injury measures will derive from field-based injury surveillance, with match and training exposure and compliance recorded. A questionnaire will be used to evaluate coach attitudes, knowledge, beliefs and behaviours both prior to and on the conclusion of the study period. Outcome measures Summary injury measures (incidence, severity and burden) will be compared between trial arms, as will the influence of coach attitudes on compliance and injury burden. Additionally, changes in these outcomes through using the exercise programmes will be evaluated. Trial registration number ISRTCNN13422001.
Effects of Network Topology on Decision-Making in a Biological Network Model

The topology of a network often plays a crucial role in determining its dynamical features. The present study investigated how the network structure influences decision-making behaviors in the brain. We construct a recurrent network model to simulate the decision-making process of brain with three topological networks: regular, random, and small-world. We found that the regular and the small-world networks show significant better performance of decision-making than that in the random network when the internal noise of the networks is low. However, following the increase of the internal noise, the random network, instead of two other networks, shows better ability to resist the noise. Together, our results indicate that network topology significantly influence the network behaviors in our model of decision-making.
Frequency and Geographic Distribution of gyrA and gyrB Mutations Associated with Fluoroquinolone Resistance in Clinical Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Isolates: A Systematic Review

Background The detection of mutations in the gyrA and gyrB genes in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome that have been demonstrated to confer phenotypic resistance to fluoroquinolones is the most promising technology for rapid diagnosis of fluoroquinolone resistance. Methods In order to characterize the diversity and frequency of gyrA and gyrB mutations and to describe the global distribution of these mutations, we conducted a systematic review, from May 1996 to April 2013, of all published studies evaluating Mycobacterium tuberculosis mutations associated with resistance to fluoroquinolones. The overall goal of the study was to determine the potential utility and reliability of these mutations as diagnostic markers to detect phenotypic fluoroquinolone resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and to describe their geographic distribution. Results Forty-six studies, covering four continents and 18 countries, provided mutation data for 3,846 unique clinical isolates with phenotypic resistance profiles to fluoroquinolones. The gyrA mutations occurring most frequently in fluoroquinolone-resistant isolates, ranged from 21–32% for D94G and 13–20% for A90V, by drug. Eighty seven percent of all strains that were phenotypically resistant to moxifloxacin and 83% of ofloxacin resistant isolates contained mutations in gyrA. Additionally we found that 83% and 80% of moxifloxacin and ofloxacin resistant strains respectively, were observed to have mutations in the gyrA codons interrogated by the existing MTBDRsl line probe assay. In China and Russia, 83% and 84% of fluoroquinolone resistant strains respectively, were observed to have gyrA mutations in the gene regions covered by the MTBDRsl assay. Conclusions Molecular diagnostics, specifically the Genotype MTBDRsl assay, focusing on codons 88–94 should have moderate to high sensitivity in most countries. While we did observe geographic differences in the frequencies of single gyrA mutations across countries, molecular diagnostics based on detection of all gyrA mutations demonstrated to confer resistance should have broad and global utility.
Managerial decision making processes and affective outcomes as a function of individual factors and self-efficacy beliefs

Making decisions in the business environment is arguably the most challenging aspect of managers‘ yet also the easiest to fail in. Unlike individual decisions managers as agents for their organizations make decisions amidst high levels of ambiguity, incomplete information and mostly under time pressure. These are the very conditions that make managers vulnerable to the volition-undermining potential of decision-generated affect precisely when they are feeling over-extended to deal with such demands. Effective managerial decision making (MDM) involves more than applying a set of individual abilities. Managers face numerous obstacles, failures, and setbacks that often carry perturbing self-evaluative implications as well as social consequences that undermine their self-evaluations in ways that impair good use of their decision making skills (Bandura, 1997). Given the absence of a coherent theoretical framework in the literature the conceptual model of relations put forward attempts to organize and simplify how managers make decisions as agents of their organizations. Most conceptualizations apply oversimplified models that focus attention on one or a few variables, neglect the joint constellations of individual variable factors and the influence of individual self-generated influences as a contributing factor in MDM. As an ex post facto explanatory-predictive study the present research offers evidence of these links among the theoretically relevant constructs in order to formulate an account of their relations in a parsimonious framework that could guide future insights to explain and predict the intentions and direction of managerial decision behaviour. Conceptual research has outpaced empirical research in decision making of managers in organizations. A number of mini-theories exists that focus on a few variables using linear, antecedent-consequence relations with manipulations in laboratory environments that deal with decisions in contexts that are very different to those faced by managers. There is limited research on managers as research participants and empirical findings based on non-managerial samples and students may not generalize to managers in real life decision making. The present research used a non-probability, purposive sample (N = 196) of experienced managers in the Western Cape region of South Africa, all employed in private and public organizations (mean age 38.9 years, SD of 7.49, ethnic black managers constituted 15.8% of the sample).
The loss path multiplicity problem in multicast congestion control

An important concern for source-based multicast congestion control algorithms is the loss path multiplicity (LPM) problem that arises because a transmitted packet can be lost on one or more of the many end-to-end paths in a multicast tree. Consequently, if a multicast source's transmission rate is regulated according to loss indications from receivers, the rate may be completely throttled as the number of loss paths increases. In this paper, we analyze a family of additive increase multiplicative decrease congestion control algorithms and show that, unless careful attention is paid to the LPM problem, the average session bandwidth of a multicast session may be reduced drastically as the size of the multicast group increases. This makes it impossible to share bandwidth in a max-min fair manner among unicast and multicast sessions. We show that max-min fairness can be achieved however if every multicast session regulates its rate according to the most congested end-to-end path in its multicast tree. We present an idealized protocol for tracking the most congested path under changing network conditions, and use simulations to illustrate that tracking the most congested path is indeed a promising approach.
Enhanced Water Vapor Transmission through Porous Membranes Based on Melt Blending of Polystyrene Sulfonate with Polyethylene Copolymers and Their CNT Nanocomposites

A novel concept for the use of an immiscible and non-meltable polymer, such as sodium polystyrene sulfonate (PSSNa), in order to prepare polyethylene non-woven breathable membranes is described. Membranes were fabricated by melt compounding of properly functionalized PE (P(E-co-AA)) and PSSNa (P(SSNa-co-GMA)) copolymers in the presence of water soluble polyethylene glycol (PEG). The inability of PSSNa derivatives to be melted was overcome by using PEG, which was easily meltable thus inducing PSSNa processability improvement. PEG was removed after membrane fabrication and therefore also acted as a porogen. Carbon nanotubes, functionalized with PSSNa moieties or alkyl groups, were also incorporated in the membranes with the aim of improving the porous connectivity and increasing the water vapor transmission rate. The morphology of the membranes was investigated through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Water vapor transmission rate (permeation) (WVTR) measurements for the porous membranes showed increased values in comparison with the neat PE ones. A further increase of WVTR was observed with the addition of CNTs to the polymer membranes.
On the propagation of a normal shock wave through a layer of incompressible porous material

A novel numerical formulation of the two‐phase macroscopic balance equations governing the flow field in incompressible porous media is presented. The numerical model makes use of the weighted average flux method and total variation diminishing flux limiting techniques, and results in a second‐order accurate scheme. A shock tube study was carried out to examine the interaction of a normal shock wave with a thin layer of porous, incompressible cellular ceramic foam. Particular attention was paid to the transmitted and reflected flow fields. The numerical model was used to simulate the experimental test cases, and their results compared with a view to validate the numerical model. A phenomenological model is proposed to explain the behaviour of the transmitted flow field.
7Li in Metal-Poor Stars: The Spread of the Li Plateau

A highly homogeneous study of 23 halo field dwarf stars has achieved a Li abundance accuracy of 0.033 dex per star. The work shows that the intrinsic spread of the Li abundances of these stars at a given metallicity is 6 Li in halo dwarfs; (2) GCE models; and (3) data on Li in higher metallicity halo stars. New data have also revealed four new ultra-Li-deficient halo dwarfs, doubling the number known. Based on their propensity to cluster at the halo main sequence turnoff and also to exist redward of the turnoff, we hypothesise that they are the products of binary mergers that ultimately will become blue stragglers. We explain their low Li abundances by normal pre-main-sequence (and possibly main-sequence) destruction in the low mass stars prior to their merging. If this explanation is correct, then such stars need no longer be considered an embarrassment to the existence of negligible Li destruction in the majority of field halo dwarfs.
Variation in Emission and Absorption Lines and Continuum Flux by Orbital Phase in Vela X-1

High-resolution spectral studies were undertaken at orbital phases (ϕ) 0, 0.25, and 0.5 on the high-mass X-ray binary Vela X-1 using archival Chandra data. We present (1) the first detailed analysis of the multiple strong narrow emission lines present in ϕ = 0.5, (2) an analysis of the absorption of the continuum in ϕ = 0.5, and (3) the first detection of narrow emission and absorption lines in ϕ = 0.25. Multiple fluorescent and H- and He-like emission lines in the band 1.6–20 Å in eclipse are partially obscured at ϕ = 0.25 by the X-ray continuum. The ϕ = 0.25 spectrum displays three triplets, two with a blueshifted resonance line in absorption and the intercombination and forbidden lines in emission, and shows in absorption other blueshifted lines seen in emission in eclipse. At ϕ = 0.5 the soft X-ray continuum diminishes revealing an "eclipse-like" spectrum; however, line flux values are around 13-fold those in eclipse. We conclude the narrow emission lines in Vela X-1 become apparent when the continuum is blocked from the line of sight, either by eclipse or by scattering and/or absorption from a wake or cloud. The H- and He-like lines arise in warm photoionized regions in the stellar wind, while the fluorescent lines (including a Ni Kα line) are produced in cooler clumps of gas outside these regions. Absorption of the 5–13 Å continuum at ϕ = 0.5 may be caused by an accretion wake composed of dense stagnant photoionized plasma inside a Stromgren zone. Multiple fluorescent emission lines may be a common feature of the supergiant category of HMXBs.
Businesses Beware

Consumers feeling wronged in the marketplace can respond in a variety of ways both morally appropriate and morally inappropriate. We focus on specific circumstances under which company wrongdoing increases the likelihood for consumers to respond with immoral retaliatory behavior. Importantly, we demonstrate that such immoral retaliation is not directed solely toward the guilty party but may also spill over to guiltless marketplace entities. This research highlights the underlying processes for immoral retaliation against a guilty versus a guiltless company, demonstrating the varying roles of anger and justification as well as assessing the overall effectiveness of such vengeance in offsetting further retaliation. Our findings inform important aspects of effective service recovery by shedding light on the destructive potential of consumer perceptions of immorality of any one company’s actions and by providing recommendations for managing the associated risk factors.
On the Power of Monotonic Language Learning

In the present paper strong{monotonic, monotonic and weak{monotonic reasoning is studied in the context of algorithmic language learning theory from positive as well as from positive and negative data. Strong{monotonicity describes the requirement to only produce better and better generalizations when more and more data are fed to the inference device. Monotonic learning re ects the eventual interplay between generalization and restriction during the process of inferring a language. However, it is demanded that for any two hypotheses the one output later has to be at least as good as the previously produced one with respect to the language to be learnt. Weak{monotonicity is the analogue of cumulativity in learning theory. We relate all these notions one to the other as well as to previously studied modes of identication, thereby in particular obtaining a strong hierarchy. These results have been presented at the 2nd International Workshop on Nonmonotonic and Inductive Logics