Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The HERMES Recoil Detector : Particle Identification and Determination of Detector Efficiency of the Scintillating Fiber Tracker

HERMES is a fixed target experiment using the HERA 27.6 GeV polarized electron/positron beams. With the polarized beams and its gas targets, which can be highly polarized, HERMES is dedicated to study the nucleon spin structure. One of its current physics programs is to measure deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS). In order to detect the recoiling proton the Recoil Detector was installed in the target region in the winter of 2005, taking data until the HERA-shutdown in the summer of 2007. The Recoil Detector measured energy loss of the traversing particles with its sub-detectors, including the silicon strip detector and the scintillating fiber tracker. This enables particle identification for protons and pions. In this work a systematic particle identification procedure is developed, whose performance is quantified. Another aspect of this work is the determination of the detector efficiency of the scintillating fiber tracker. Kurzfassung HERMES ist ein Fixed-Target-Experiment zur Untersuchung des Nukleonenspins. Der 27.6 GeV polarisierter Elektron-/Positron-Strahl von HERA wurde auf das hoch polarisierbare Gastarget geleitet. Eines der aktuellen Physikprogramme bei HERMES ist die Messung der tief virtuellen Compton-Streuung (DVCS). Um das rückgestreute Proton nachzuweisen wurde im Winter 2005 der Recoil-Detektor um das Target installiert, der bis zum HERA-Shutdown im Sommer 2007 Daten genommen hat. Der Recoil-Detektor maß den Energieverlust der durchgehenden Teilchen mittels eines Silizium-Streifen-Detektors und eines Trackers aus szintillierenden Fasern. Er ermöglicht so eine Teilchenidentifizierung für Protonen und Pionen. In dieser Arbeit wurde ein systematisches Teilchenidentifizierungsverfahren entwickelt, dessen Leistung quantitativ beschrieben wird. Ein anderer Aspekt dieser Arbeit ist die Bestimmung der Detektoreffizienz des Szintillierenden-Fasern-Trackers.
Numerical Simulation of Scour Depth Variation Around Vertical Wall Abutments

 Abstract — The HEC-RAS one dimensional, free-surface numerical model was used to simulate bed formation in alluvial channels. Based on the hydraulic equations all the hydrodynamic parameters were firstly simulated and then a sediment transport simulation was performed. The model can compute the sediment transport using a hydrodynamic simplification, the quasi-unsteady flow assumption, which approximates a continuous hydrograph with a series of discrete steady flow profiles. The current research work aims to investigate scour depth variation in the region of vertical wall abutments. Numerical computations of scour depth variation around a vertical wall abutment are verified by comparing them with available measurements. Moreover the study reports experimental results of scour depth variation along the center flow line of a channel in the vicinity of a vertical wall abutment. The experimental measurements of bed variation for six different inflow discharges and three different abutment widths, after a specified flow duration, are graphically presented and can be used by other researchers in order to validate their simulations. Comparison between computed results and available measurements of scour depths is satisfactory along the center flow line as the numerical simulation is one dimensional. The one dimensional model gives an accurate estimation of the maximum scour depth near the obstruction and it is applicable for a safe design criteria for the assessment of bridge vulnerability which is very important in river engineering works. of natural
A Simple Model of a Poverty Trap at a Country Level

I n 1960, per capita incomes in Burundi, Haiti, and Nicaragua were $347, $1,512, and $2,491, respectively. Despite the sevenfold difference in incomes between Nicaragua and Burundi, all three countries were poor by developed-country standards. Nicaragua’s per capita income was just 16 percent of the level enjoyed by citizens of the United States at the time, while Burundi’s income was a paltry 2 percent of US levels. Fifty years later in 2010, per capita incomes in these three countries were basically unchanged, at $396, $1,411, and $2,289 respectively (all measured in 2005 purchasing power parity-adjusted US dollars as reported in the Penn World Tables), reflecting negligible real growth in per capita income over this half-century. Why did per capita incomes not increase in these countries? One possible explanation is a “poverty trap,” which can be understood as a set of self-reinforcing mechanisms whereby countries start poor and remain poor: poverty begets poverty, so that current poverty is itself a direct cause of poverty in the future (Azariadis and Stachurski 2005). The idea of a poverty trap has a striking implication for policy. It implies that much poverty is needless, in the sense that a different equilibrium is possible and also that one-time policy efforts that break the poverty trap may have lasting effects. For example, poverty trap analysis is often used as the basis for advocating a massive increase in foreign aid to low-income counties that would act as
Applying Rhizobacteria on Maize Cultivation in Northern Benin: Effect on Growth and Yield

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of five plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) (Bacillus panthothenicus; Pseudomonas Cichorii; Pseudomonas Putida; Pseudomonas syringae and Serratia marcescens) on the growth and yield of maize on a ferruginous soil under field condition. Maize seeds were inoculated with 10 ml of bacterial suspension. Study was conducted in a completely randomized design with fifteen treatments and three replicates. A half-dose of recommended (13, 17, 17 kg? ha? 1) NPK was applied 15 days after emergence. The results show that the Serratia marcescens + 50% NPK treatment yielded the best results for height, fresh underground biomass, dry aboveground biomass, dry underground biomass, and grain yield with respective increases of 41.09%, 217.5%, 213.34%, 93.82%, and 39.05% compared to the control. Maximum stem diameter (increases of 49.65%) was recorded in the plants treated with 100% NPK (full dose NPK) while the highest leaf area (466.36 ± 9.57 cm2), obtained on plant treated with Pseudomonas putida + 50% NPK was 32.08% greater than in the non-inoculated control. Our results suggest the use of these rhizobacteria as biological fertilizers for enhancing the growth and maize seed yield in ferruginous soil in the North of Benin.
Relationships Among Exceedances of Chemical Criteria or Guidelines , the Results of Ambient Toxicity Tests , and Community Metrics in Aquatic Ecosystems

In order to use bioassessments to help to diagnose or identify the specific environmental stressors affecting aquatic or marine ecosystems, a better understanding is needed of the relationships among community metrics, ambient chemical criteria or guidelines and ambient toxicity tests. However, these relationships are not necessarily simple, because metrics generally assess measurement endpoints at the community level of biological organization, while ambient criteria or guidelines and ambient toxicity tests assess measurement endpoints at the organism level. Although a basic hierarchical relationship exists between the levels of biological organization used as measurement endpoints by these methods, quantification of this relationship may be further complicated by the influence of other differences among these methods that affect their sensitivity and specificity to the stressors present at individual sites. Since 1990, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has conducted Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program surveys of both wadeable stream and estuarine sites. These surveys have collected data on biotic assemblages, physical and chemical habitat characteristics and, in some cases, water and sediment chemistry and toxicity. Among these studies is a survey of wadeable streams in the Southern Rockies ecoregion of Colorado in 1994 and 1995 and a survey of estuaries in the Virginian Province of the eastern United States from 1990 to 1993. Streams in the Southern Rockies ecoregion are affected by contamination from hardrock metal mining, while the estuarine sites may be affected by sediment contamination by polyaromatic hydrocarbons and metals. We characterized streams as metals-affected based on exceedance of hardness-adjusted metals criteria for Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in surface water; on water column toxicity tests (48-hour Pimephales promelas and Ceriodaphnia dubia survival); on exceedance of sediment threshold effect levels; or on sediment toxicity tests (7-day Hyalella azteca survival and growth). Estuarine sites were characterized as affected by sediment contamination based on exceedance of sediment guidelines or on sediment toxicity tests (i.e., 10-day Ampelisca abdita survival). The results of these classifications were contrasted by use of contingency tables and a measure of association, (. Then, assemblage metrics were compared statistically among affected and unaffected sites to identify metrics sensitive to the contamination. In streams, a number of macroinvertebrate metrics, particularly richness metrics, were less in groups of sites identified as affected by metals with the criteria or
The Effects of Heat-Killed Echinostomatid Parasites on Mice Treated with Dextran Sodium Sulfate (DSS)

Objective: Autoimmune diseases are chronic, incurable, and affect approximately 50 million Americans. This is a strong need for better ways to treat autoimmune diseases. Parasites and parasite proteins have been observed to protect mice from symptoms of induced colitis in mice treated with dextran sodium sulfate (DSS), a model for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). I hypothesize that non-living echinostomatid parasites, given during DSS treatment, can decrease intestinal inflammation and weight loss, providing a possible novel treatment for IBD. Methods: A range of DSS concentrations (0.5%-3%) were delivered to female C57BL/6 mice in their drinking water in order to determine the concentration that induced colitis but not severe morbidity; 1% DSS was determined to be optimal. Next, two groups of mice were administered 1% DSS in their drinking water for the first six days of the nine-day experiment, while two groups received regular water throughout. The mice in one of the DSS treatment groups and one of the water control groups were orally administered heat-killed metacercariae in PBS on the third day of the experiment, while the remaining mice were administered just PBS as a control treatment. Weight of the mice and intestinal distress were monitored, as was water and food consumption. At the end of the experiment, colon lengths were measured and splenic cytokines (IL-4, IFN-γ, IL10, and IL-2) were assessed by ELISA. Results: Mice with DSS induced colitis that received the parasite treatment demonstrated more weight loss (p=0.01) and poorer intestinal distress (p=0.02) on the ninth day when compared to mice with DSS induced colitis that did not receive parasite treatment. The spleens from mice
Housing Debt and Consumption

The interaction between housing wealth, the nancial portfolio of the consumer and consumption is a live issue. Life cycle models with closed form solutions under uncertainty are hard to nd. In this paper we nd analytical solutions for the e¤ects of house price uncertainty and employment risk on consumption, savings and mortgage nance in a nite horizon life-cycle model. In each period the consumer decides whether to withdraw equity from the house or not, subject to a transaction cost and a constraint on the maximum mortgage loan to value ratio. Despite risk aversion we nd that, if borrowing is allowed in the nancial asset, the prime portfolio e¤ect is the spread between the interest rate and the mortgage rate. House price uncertainty has an ambiguous e¤ect on consumption, which depends on the interest rate di¤erential and house price expectations since future house prices a¤ect future remortgage possibilities. If unsecured debt is not possible, we nd that the possibility of future liquidity constraints can reduce mortgage borrowing below the maximum possible.
HIGH-RESOLUTION LARGE-EDDY SIMULATIONS OF THE RIVIERA VALLEY: METHODOLOGY AND SENSITIVITY STUDIES

Fotini Katopodes Chow , Andreas P. Weigel , Robert L. Street , Mathias W. Rotach , and Ming Xue Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Federal Office for Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss, Zurich, Switzerland School of Meteorology and Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms, University of Oklahoma
Visual Mapping to Enhance Learning and Critical Thinking Skills

Visual mapping allows the learner to explicitly explore, analyze, synthesize and share ideas.This paper reviews mapping tools suited for brainstorming and pic turing the thinking process (mind mapping), exploring the structure of knowledge (concept mapping), developing premises, counter arguments and conclusions around a contention (argument maps), exploring the learner’s own thinking process (®Thinking Maps), seeking the inter-relation among variables (general systems thinking) and developing simulation models (system dynamics). The paper also presents the evidence on the effectiveness of these tools in promoting recall, comprehension and general critical thinking skills.
Influence of Budget Execution Practices on Financial Management in Public Secondary School Resources in Mandera County , Kenya

Amid the need to foster efficiency and effectiveness in schools, budgetary practices have been embraced by public secondary schools in different part of the world. Key of which is to compel planning and to provide best practices criteria in financial management in the public institutions, however, criticism has been leveled against the school management on issues of wastages and misappropriation of public resources. Thus, the study intended to investigate the influence budget execution practices on financial management in public secondary schools in Mandera County, Kenya. The study was guided by financial prudential and zero-based budgeting theories. The study adopted a mixed methods approach and applied concurrent triangulation design. The study targeted 981 respondents comprising of 42 principals, 350 teachers and 588 School Board of Management. The Yamane’s formula was used to sample 294 respondents comprising of 13 principals, 105 teachers, 176 Poems and County Schools Auditor. Stratified sampling was used to create 6 different strata based on the number of sub-counties in Mandera County. From each subcounty, 2 principals were selected using simple random sampling. From each sub-county, 18 teachers and 30 members of school Board of Management were selected using simple random sampling. Questionnaires were used to collect data from teachers, interview guide from principals and the County Schools Auditor and focus group discussion guide from the school Board of Management. Data analysis began by identifying common themes from the respondents’ description of their experiences. Frequency counts of the responses were then obtained to generate information about the respondents. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically along the objectives and presented in narrative forms, whereas quantitative data was analyzed descriptively and inferentially using One-Sample t-Test using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS Version 23) and presented using tables. The study established that secondary schools in Mandera County rarely adhere to budget formulation practices geared toward to improving financial management. In conclusion, budget execution practices adopted by secondary schools influence financial management. Thus, the study recommends that schools should adhere to the well-laid down budget execution procedures. The Ministry of Education should ensure timely and efficient disbursement of school funds to allow time for effective scrutiny of the school budget.
Using Clickstream Data to Improve Flash Sales Effectiveness

Flash sales retailers organize online campaigns where products are sold for a short period of time at a deep discount. The demand in these events is very uncertain, but clickstream data can potentially help retailers with detailed information about the shopping process, thereby allowing them to manage such risks. For this purpose, we build a predictive model for shoppers' sequential decisions about visiting a campaign, obtaining product information and placing a purchase, which we validate using a large data set from a leading ash sales rm. The proposed hierarchical approach mirrors the di erent stages of the shopping funnel and allows for a direct decomposition of its main sources of variation, from customers arrival to products purchase. We identify lifecycle dynamics and heterogeneity across campaigns and products as the main sources of variation: these allow us to provide the best predictions from a statistical standpoint, which outperform machine learning alternatives in out-of-sample accuracy. Our model thus enables ash sales retailers to learn about the performance of new products in a few hours and to update prices so as to better match supply and demand forecast and improve pro ts. We simulate our forecasting and optimization procedures on several campaigns including thousands of products and show that our model can successfully separate popular and unpopular products and lift revenues signi cantly.
McDonald player racial dissimilarity on experienced incivility − coach Being different and suffering the consequences : The influence of head

The purpose of the current study was to examine how head coach–player racial dissimilarity was associated with negative treatment from the head coach. Data were collected from 212 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women’s basketball players (124 Whites, 88 African Americans). Results indicate that racial dissimilarity was associated with greater incivility when the head coach was White, but not when the head coach was African American. In addition, incivility was negatively associated with players’ commitment to the team. The authors discuss theoretical contributions and practical implications.
DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF NAILED WOOD-FRAME SHEAR WALLS

Most design codes contain force modification factors to account for the energy dissipating characteristics of the structural system under earthquake loads. These factors are generally selected to result in designs that are consistent with the observed performance history. In order to assess the appropriateness of these factors, a methodology consisting of testing and dynamic analysis of wood-frame shear walls was developed.
Credit Supply Shocks, Networks Effects, and the Real Economy∗

We consider the real effects of the bank lending channel and how bank-lending shocks permeate through the economy using input-output linkages. We combine a matched bank-firm-loan dataset with information on the universe of corporate loans in Spain over the period 2003-2013. Using the empirical approach from the matched employer-employee literature, we identify bankspecific shocks for each year in our sample. We then construct firm-specific credit supply shocks and estimate their effects on firm credit, employment, output and investment. We find sizable effects at the firm level. A one standard deviation increase in credit supply shocks generates an increase of 3.2 pp. in firm credit growth. Turning to employment growth, output and investment, the estimated effects are 0.3, 0.1 and 0.8 pp., respectively. Also, using the Spanish Input-Output structure and firm-specific measures of upstream and downstream exposure, we find that our identified bank credit supply shocks have strong downstream propagation effects for investment, employment and output. Finally, we aggregate the firm-specific credit-supply shocks at the industry level and plug them into a general equilibrium model in which these industry-specific shocks propagate to the rest of the economy through input-output linkages. We find that this propagation effect is of the same magnitude as the direct effect typically estimated in the literature in the case of employment. Both direct and propagation effects of credit supply account for 20% of employment growth in Spain during the 2004-2007 period (and 20% of the employment fall over 2008-2010). JEL Codes: E44, G21, L25.
A low-voltage line driver for digital signaling interface

This paper describes a CMOS line driver that operates from a 3 V power supply and delivers a peak current of about 100 mA to the load. The novel features of the circuit are high power efficiency, an output pulse shape and amplitude independent of power supply and temperature variations, and the ability to handle abnormal load termination conditions. The circuit has been designed in a 0.9 /spl mu/m CMOS technology and does not require any low-threshold devices.
How Should Capital Be Taxed?

This survey discusses how capital should be taxed in advanced economies. We review the theoretical optimal tax literature, survey empirical studies on the distribution of capital and the distortionary costs of capital taxation, and analyze the desirability of specific taxes on capital income, wealth, property, inheritances, and corporate profits. Our overall conclusion is that capital taxation plays an important role in an optimal tax system, but only certain ways of taxing capital are able to strike a balance between optimality and administrative feasibility.
Issues in the syntax of Scandinavian embedded clauses

The paper focuses on the syntactic and interpretive properties of subordinate clauses in Mainland Scandinavian and Icelandic. Assuming a cartographic CP structure (Rizzi 1997; Haegeman 2006, a.o.), the V-to-Fin movement surfacing as linear V2 is determined by structural and interpretive properties of the complementizer domain in some embedded clauses. It is illustrated how the syntactic properties and distribution of embedded V2 in Scandinavian follow from restrictions imposed by minimality. A separate section addresses the issue of embedded subject-initial clauses in Icelandic where the inflected verb precedes phrasal adverbs or negation, by contrast to the linear order commonly encountered in Mainland Scandinavian embedded clauses.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction: A review

Heart failure is the final stage of evolution of a large number of cardiovascular diseases and represents a health problem worldwide, due to increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. The patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) represent about a half of the patients with heart failure and the prevalence of HFpEF is on the rise. HFpEF is mainly a disease of the elderly patients, who have numerous cardiovascular diseases – hypertension, myocardial ischaemia, atrial fibrillation, valvular disease, and also non-cardiovascular comorbidities, such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and obstructive sleep apnoea. HFpEF is more prevalent in women than in men, but women have a better prognosis than men. The pathophysiological changes that appear in HFpEF are: ventricular stiffening, cardiomyocite hypertrophy and hypercontractility, myocardial fibrosis and inflammation, which lead to abnormal diastolic function with delayed relaxation and inappropriate filling, in the presence of a normal systolic function of the left ventricle. The diagnosis of HFpEF is based on clinical, echocardiographic and biological criteria. In contrast to HFrEF, there is no effective treatment for HFpEF. The treatment of HFpEF includes diuretics for clinical improvement and treatment of comorbidities. The prognosis of patients with HFpEF is similar with those with HFrEF. Currently, the main objectives of the treatment in patients with HFpEF are to improve clinical status and decrease hospitalizations. Further studies are needed to establish an effective treatment to increase survival in these patients. Therefore, HFpEF continues to be a challenge for clinicians regarding the optimal therapy.