Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The evolution of streams in a time-dependent potential

We study the evolution of streams in a time-dependent spherical gravitational potential. Our goal is to establish what are the imprints of this time evolution on the properties of streams as well as their observability. To this end, we have performed a suite of test-particle experiments for a host system that doubles its mass during the integration time and for a variety of initial conditions. In these experiments we found that the most striking imprint is a misalignment of ~10° in the angular location of the apocentres of the streams compared to the static case (and to the orbit of the centre of mass), which only becomes apparent for sufficiently long streams. We have also developed an analytic model using action-angle variables which allows us to explain this behaviour and to identify the most important signature of time evolution, namely a difference in the slope defined by the distribution of particles along a stream in frequency and in angle space. Although a difference in slope can arise when the present-day potential is not correctly modelled, this shortcoming can be by-passed because in this case, streams are no longer straight lines in angle space, but depict a wiggly appearance and an implausible energy gradient. The difference in slope due to time evolution is small, typically ~10-2 and its amplitude depends on the growth rate of the potential, but nonetheless we find that it could be observable if accurate full-space information for nearby long streams is available. On the other hand, disregarding this effect may bias the determination of the present-day characteristics of the potential. Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda. org
A multi-instrument comparison of integrated water vapour measurements at a high latitude site

We compare measurements of integrated water vapour (IWV) over a subarctic site (Kiruna, Northern Sweden) from five different sensors and retrieval methods: Radiosondes, Global Positioning System (GPS), ground-based Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, groundbased microwave radiometer, and satellite-based microwave radiometer (AMSU-B). Additionally, we compare also to ERA-Interim model reanalysis data. GPS-based IWV data have the highest temporal coverage and resolution and are chosen as reference data set. All datasets agree reasonably well, but the ground-based microwave instrument only if the data are cloud-filtered. We also address two issues that are general for such intercomparison studies, the impact of different lower altitude limits for the IWV integration, and the impact of representativeness error. We develop methods for correcting for the former, and estimating the random error contribution of the latter. A literature survey reveals that reported systematic differences between different techniques are study-dependent and show no overall consistent pattern. Further improving the absolute accuracy of IWV measurements and providing climate-quality time series therefore remain challenging problems.
The "Dominant Bank Effect:" How High Lender Reputation Affects the Information Content and Terms of Bank Loans

Three large banks control over half of the U.S. commercial loan market by volume through the syndication process. Using attributes of a borrower's location to instrument for lender-- borrower matching, I show that the borrower stock price response to a loan announcement is more favorable if one of these dominant banks is the lender, especially if the borrower is "opaque. " I then show that these banks charge lower interest rates and are more likely to lend without the protection of a borrowing base. The results suggest that the dominant banks have a particularly high reputation for screening and monitoring borrowers. The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org. , Oxford University Press.
Scanning Electron Microscopical Observation on the Mucosal Epithelium of Hens' Oviduct with Special Reference to the Transport Mechanism of Spermatozoa through the Oviduct

鶏の卵管粘膜上皮の構造と,これに関連して卵管内の精子移動の機構を,走査電子顕微鏡を用いて形態的に観察した。 卵管の粘膜上皮は,卵管の全長にわたって線毛細胞と非線毛細胞の2種の細胞から構成されていた。 しかしこの両細胞の細胞形態,分布状態は,卵管の各部位によってかなり異なっていた。 とくに漏斗部と子宮・腔移行部は類似の上皮構造をもっており,ここでは非線毛細胞を欠き,線毛細胞のみから成っているのが特徴であった。 一方,実験的に卵管腔部に注入された精子は・漏斗部と子宮・腔移行部に選択的に貯溜する傾向がみられた。 この両部への精子の貯溜は,該部の線毛細胞の強力な線毛運動によって精子の前進が阻止されるためと推察された。
Is urbanization contributing to higher food prices?

Urbanization has been mentioned as one possible cause of higher food prices, and in this paper we examine some of the suggested links between urbanization and food prices. We conclude that urbanization, conventionally defined as the increasing share of the population living in urban settlements, is being conflated with related but separate processes, such as economic growth, population growth and environmental degradation. We discuss factors that affect food prices and conclude that the one important way in which urbanization in poor countries may affect food prices is that it increases the number of households that depend on commercial food supplies, rather than on own production, as their main source, and hence are likely to hoard food if they fear future price increases. One policy option for managing this is larger food reserves. Attempts to curb urbanization, on the other hand, would be ill-advised.
Prevalence of Toxocara species in park soils of Ahvaz City, southwest of Iran

Prevalence of Toxocara species in park soils of Ahvaz City, southwest of Iran Forough Kazemi, Reza Arjmand, Mehdi Tavalla Student Research Committee, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Golestan Hospital Clinical Research Development Unit, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Health Research Institute, Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Asian Pac J Trop Dis 2017; 7(12): 705-707
Craftsmanship in the machine: sustainability through new roles in building craft at the technologized building site

The building industry is becoming increasingly characterized by automated production, and in line with this, the nature of craftsmanship is transforming. In this article, we look for a sustainable path for this transformation through a case study that follows a team of carpenters building a set of tower blocks at a high-tech building site using “lean” construction techniques and robotic production technology. The builders are organized according to complex schedules of lean construction, making work at the building site resemble that of a large machine. The builders hold multiple roles within this machine: more than simply “living mechanisms” inside the machine, they also take on more parental roles as “machinists,” employing their crafting skills in planning, problem solving, improvising, coordinating and fettling in order to make the building machine run smoothly and to minimize environmental uncertainty. The craftsmanship in action is characterized by what we call workmanship of uncertainty – the ability to produce certain results in uncertain conditions. We identify this as the collective skill of a community of practice. The sustainability of craftsmanship in the machine is analyzed according to three kinds of sustainability: cultural, social and ecological. We suggest that all three forms depend on the building company’s ability to provide working conditions that allow the builders to form stable communities of practice in order to perform, share and develop craftmanship. Finally, we show that working in and with technological production systems does not require fewer skills (of craftsmanship) than traditional building, but a nuanced application of these skills.
Investigating ePortfolios from Teacher Training to the Workplace

This study investigates the transfer of ePortfolio practice from teacher training to the workplace, drawing on three case studies of secondary school teachers from different disciplines (IT, science, maths and foreign languages) who built their ePortfolios during pre-service training. It examines why teachers continue or cease ePortfolio practice, their trainers’ and supervisors’ perceptions of ePortfolio transfer, and the perceived usefulness of continuing ePortfolio practice at work. It also explores the hypothesis that ePortfolio practices, as a process, may be more subject to transfer than ePortfolios themselves, and compares results to other interviews with in-service teachers made during the preparation of this study and to the latest research on ePortfolio practice in teacher training. The study adopts a practical method of enquiry, based on artefacts produced by teachers. The theoretical framework is based on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to analyse external and internal causes that may impact on transfer of ePortfolio practice. The main research method was face to face and computer mediated semi-structured interviews, together with post-interview questionnaires and analysis of teachers’ ePortfolio artefacts. The findings reveal that teachers’ ePortfolio practice rapidly fades after they begin work, or in many cases is never transferred. Analysis shows that the main reason for this is the lack of perceived usefulness of the ePortfolio at the workplace, together with the absence of communities of practice within schools where participants were working: social or geographical variables such as provenance, sex or age do not appear to play a role. The conclusion suggests separating the teaching of the use of ePortfolio management systems from the teaching of ePortfolio practices and offers a model for studying the latter which pays particular attention to the impact of the tensions between different elements which CHAT identifies.
Rotation curves of high-resolution LSB and SPARC galaxies with fuzzy and multistate (ultralight boson) scalar field dark matter

Cold dark matter (CDM) has shown to be an excellent candidate for the dark matter (DM) of the Universe at large scales, however it presents some challenges at the galactic level. The scalar field dark matter (SFDM), also called fuzzy, wave, Bose-Einstein condensate or ultra-light axion DM, is identical to CDM at cosmological scales but different at the galactic ones. SFDM forms core halos, it has a natural cut-off in its matter power spectrum and it predicts well-formed galaxies at high redshifts. In this work we reproduce the rotation curves of high-resolution low surface brightness (LSB) and SPARC galaxies with two SFDM profiles: (1)~The soliton+NFW profile in the fuzzy DM (FDM) model, arising empirically from cosmological simulations of real, non-interacting scalar field (SF) at zero temperature, and (2)~the multistate SFDM (mSFDM) profile, an exact solution to the Einstein-Klein-Gordon equations for a real, self-interacting SF, with finite temperature into the SF potential, introducing several quantum states as a realistic model for a SFDM halo. From the fits with the soliton+NFW profile, we obtained for the boson mass $0.212< m_\psi/(10^{-23} \mathrm{eV}/c^2)<27.0$ and for the core radius $0.326< r_c/\mathrm{kpc}<8.96$. From the combined analysis with the LSB galaxies, we obtained $m_\psi = 0.554 \times10^{-23}\mathrm{eV}$, a result in tension with the severe cosmological constraints. Also, we show the analytical mSFDM model fits the observations as well as or better than the empirical soliton+NFW profile, and it reproduces naturally the wiggles present in some galaxies, being a theoretically motivated framework additional or alternative to the FDM profile.
Improving Communication among Multidisciplinary Team Members through Simulation-Based Competency

The importance of nursing competency and development of expertise in the health care environment has been validated in the literature. Simulation is one evidence-based option for development of knowledge and competency that has been shown to be successful in aviation, college-based nursing education, and in nursing staff education. Results of this project support the benefit of a simulation-based program for evaluation and assurance of staff nurses’ competencies. Simulation-based competency was successful in improving communication among multidisciplinary team members through a specific communication technique: SituationBackground-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR). The nurses showed significant improvements in both knowledge and confidence of SBAR and the majority of nurses rated the experience as positive.
Product Market Competition and Earnings Management: Some International Evidence

We provide international evidence that industries with increased intensity of import penetration and lower price-cost margins induce insiders of firms in these industries to more aggressively manage earnings. We interpret this result to be consistent with the explanation that competition reduces the firm’s profitability and the aggressive earnings management may stem from managerial desire to distort true economic performance. Doing so enables the manager to protect a portion of his or her private control benefits. To confirm the plausibility of this explanation, we correlate our earnings management proxies with a widely used measure of private benefits i.e. the voting premium between shares with differential voting rights. We find a strong positive correlation between the voting premium and our earnings management proxies. This helps us strengthen the likelihood of the private benefits hypothesis relative to other alternative explanations. We also confirm the findings of prior research that competition mitigates managerial private benefits of control. However, this effect is found to be less pronounced in firms that aggressively manage earnings. We interpret this result to be consistent with the possibility of competition to more likely reveal inefficiencies or funds diversion in low earnings management firms relative to high earnings management firms.
Robust Loop-Shaping Control Design and Implementation for an Automatic Neuro-Developmental-Treatment Device

This paper applies robust control to an automated device that are developed to assist neuro-developmental treatment (NDT) rehabilitation. NDT training is an effective rehabilitation for stroke patients but labor-intensive for therapists. Hence, patients usually do not have sufficient training because of the shortage of therapist assistance. The purpose of this paper is to develop an automated device that can help NDT training and reduce therapists’ workloads. We first record the therapist’s actions and the test subject’s motions during NDT training. Then we develop an automatic NDT trainer that can repeat the therapist’s intervention by motor control systems. We apply robust loop-shaping control to cope with the system variation during the training. Last, we conduct experiments and discuss the effectiveness of the designed NDT trainer by two specified performance indexes.
On the Influence of Stroke on Willingness to Attend Classes and Foreign Language Achievement

Given the significance of teacher care and its impact on student motivation, stroke as a unit of recognition seems to be related to motivation for class attendance and language learning. In this regard, this paper aimed to investigate the role of stroke in students’ willingness to attend classes (WTAC) and their foreign language achievement (FLA) in the foreign language context. To this end, a scale was developed and validated through structural equation modeling (SEM) to measure learners` WTAC. A total number of 260 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners completed the newly developed scale along with the stroke scale. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationships among the variables. The results demonstrated that WTAC, Non-verbal, and Valuing subscales of stroke were the strongest predictors and Teacher Characteristics (TCH) subscale of WTAC was the only predictor for FLA. Finally, the results were discussed, and some implications were provided for educational settings. تاثیر نوازه بر تمایل به شرکت در کلاس درس و یادگیری زبان خارجی با توجه به اهمیت توجه معلم و تاثیر آن بر انگیزه شاگردان، نوازه به عنوان واحد دیده شدن افراد، به نظر می رسد با انگیزه شاگردان برای شرکت در کلاس و یادگیری زبان ارتباط دارد. در همین راستا، در این پژوهش به دنبال بررسی نقش نوازه در تمایل به شرکت در کلاس درس و یادگیری زبان خارجی هستیم. بدین منظور، پرسشنامه ای برای سنجش میزان تمایل برای شرکت در کلاس با مدل معادلات ساختاری تهیه و هنجاریابی گردید. از 260 نفر فراگیر زبان انگلیسی خواسته شد به این پرسشنامه و پرسشنامه نوازه پاسخ دهند. از تحلیل رگرسیون برای بررسی ارتباطات بین زیر سازه ها استفاده شد. نتایج نشان داد پرسشنامه جدید با زیر سازه غیر کلامی و ارزشیابی نوازه و ویژگیهای معلمی با یادگیری زبان ارتباط معنادار دارد. در پایان، نتایج بحث شد و برخی از کاربردهای این پژوهش برای محیطهای آموزشی ارایه شد. کلیدواژه ها: نوازه، تمایل به شرکت در کلاس، حضور در کلاس، یادگیری زبان خارجی
Who Needs to be Informed? - Empirical Results From a Field Experiment on The Adoption of IOIS Among SMEs

Inter-organizational information systems (IOIS) play a critical role in today’s organizations and their relationships with business partners. While large organizations already began utilizing IOIS at the outset, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) have subsequently been reluctant to adopt and use IOIS. As such systems are subject to high network effects, a firm thus has to reach out especially to its SME partners to achieve a critical mass of adopters among them. Prior research agrees that the provision of support in terms of circumstantial information and expertise can influence organizational adoption decisions. However, research in this direction has remained inconclusive. This study conducts a controlled field experiment at the organizational level to investigate the provision of support as a non-coercive persuasion strategy to foster the adoption of IOIS among 203 SME business partners of a large German organization. A cluster analysis is further conducted to identify distinct clusters of IOIS adopters showing significantly different adoption rates that result from informing them as a strategy. The results first offer evidence for the importance of informing SMEs as a viable strategy to foster IOIS adoption among them. Furthermore, the results provide empirical evidence for the presence of particular arrangements of characteristics describing the strategy and structure of analyzed organizations that ultimately interact with the effect of the provision of support as a persuasion strategy.
Large time asymptotics for the parabolic Anderson model driven by spatially correlated noise

In this paper we study the linear stochastic heat equation, also known as parabolic Anderson model, in multidimension driven by a Gaussian noise which is white in time and it has a correlated spatial covariance. Examples of such covariance include the Riesz kernel in any dimension and the covariance of the fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter $H\in (\frac 14, \frac 12]$ in dimension one. First we establish the existence of a unique mild solution and we derive a Feynman-Kac formula for its moments using a family of independent Brownian bridges and assuming a general integrability condition on the initial data. In the second part of the paper we compute Lyapunov exponents, lower and upper exponential growth indices in terms of a variational quantity. The last part of the paper is devoted to study the phase transition property of the Anderson model.
Investigation of the effect of Reynolds number and inflow parameters on mean and turbulent flow over complex topography

A characterization of mean and turbulent flow behaviour over complex topography was conducted using a large-scale (1 : 25) model in the WindEEE Dome at Western University. The specific topographic feature considered was the Bolund Hill escarpment facing westerly winds. A total of eight unique inflow conditions were tested in order to isolate the impact of key parameters such as Reynolds number, inflow shear profile, and effective roughness, on flow behaviour over the escarpment. The results show that the mean flow behaviour was generally not affected by the Reynolds number; however, a slight increase in speed-up over the escarpment was observed for cases with lower inflow roughness. The shape of the inflow wind shear profile also had a minor impact on the mean flow near the escarpment. More significant effects were observed in the turbulent flow behaviour, where the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) over the escarpment was found be a strong function of inflow roughness and a weak function of the Reynolds number. The local change in the inflow wind shear was found to have the most significant influence on the TKE magnitude, which more closely approximated the full-scale TKE data, a result which had not been previously observed in wind tunnel modelling of this topography.
Pre-service Science Teachers’ Understanding of Chemistry: A Factorial Design Study

This study compared the effect of the instructional treatments (guided inquiry-based and traditional recipe-like approach) and the learning environments (authentic and virtual learning environments) on pre-service science teachers’ understanding of chemistry concepts. For this purpose, Authentic Inquiry-based Laboratory, Virtual Inquiry-based Laboratory, Authentic Recipe-like Laboratory and Virtual Recipe-like Laboratory were designed. Eight laboratory activities related to thermochemistry, chemical kinetics, chemical equilibrium, acids and bases and electrochemistry were developed. Sixty-eight pre-service science teachers were randomly stratified into four equal groups: Authentic Inquiry-based Laboratory, Virtual Inquiry-based Laboratory, Virtual Recipe-like Laboratory and Authentic Recipe-like Laboratory. A two-tier General Chemistry Concept Test developed by researchers was used for the data collection tool before and after the treatment and data were analysed using nonparametric statistical methods. According to the results there was a significant difference between post test scores of groups and this difference was between Authentic Inquiry-based Laboratory and Authentic Recipe-like Laboratory, Virtual Inquiry-based Laboratory and Authentic Recipe-like Laboratory. Mean scores of groups were arranged from the highest to the least as Authentic Inquiry-based Laboratory, Virtual Inquiry-based Laboratory, Virtual Recipe-like Laboratory and Authentic Recipe-like Laboratory. Each item of the test was also analysed and changing of alternative conceptions was assessed. Decreasing of frequencies of alternative conceptions were generally arranged same as mean scores except for chemical kinetics.
The distributional impact of increased school resources: the Specialist Schools Initiative and the Excellence in Cities Programme

This paper estimates the impact of the Specialist Schools initiative and the Excellence in Cities programme on the attainment of secondary school pupils in England. The focus is on their relative impact across gender and ethnic groups. Using pupil-level data, we find that both policies have had positive effects on test score gain but that these effects vary substantially between boys and girls and across ethnic groups. Both policies have been more effective for boys than for girls. The Excellence in Cities programme is estimated have had a positive impact on the test score gain of ethnic minority pupils but not for whites, who have benefited only from the Specialist Schools initiative. The greatest impact is estimated to have occurred for schools which have had specialist and EiC status simultaneously.