Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fresnel Reflection , and Evanescent Gain

he total internal reflection (TIR) of light at certain angles of incidence on the interface between two lossless dielectric media is a well-known aspect of Fresnel reflection. It is also well understood that adding a small amount of loss or absorption in the evanescent region inside the reflecting medium will reduce the magnitude of this TIR reflection coefficient—an effect that provides the basis for socalled evanescent wave spectroscopy. This situation becomes more controversial with laser gain. The question naturally arises: If the Fresnel reflection from an absorbing or lossy half space under TIR conditions has a magnitude less than unity, shouldn’t Fresnel reflection from an T Lenserf
Heat Conduction Characteristic of Rarefied Gas in Nanochannel

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations is applied to investigate the simultaneous effect of rarefaction and wall force field on the heat conduction characteristics of nano-confined rarefied argon gas. The interactive thermal wall model is used to specify the desired temperature on the walls while the Irving– Kirkwood expression is implemented for calculating the heat flux. It is observed that as the temperature differences between the walls increases by lowering the temperature of the cold wall, the number of adsorbed gas atoms on the cold wall increases notably due to the increment in the residence time of the gas atoms. Consequently, the interfacial thermal resistance between the gas and the cold wall reduces which results in a reduction of the temperature jump. Meanwhile, the increase in the temperature of the hot wall leads to a reduction of the residence time of gas atoms in the near-wall region which decreases the number of absorbed gas atoms on the hot wall. This results in an increase in interfacial thermal resistance which leads to a higher temperature jump. It is observed that the bulk, wall force field and interface regions form approximately 10%, 45% and 45% of the total thermal resistance, respectively. Furthermore, unlike the interfacial thermal resistance, the bulk and the wall force field thermal resistance are approximately independent of the implemented temperature difference.
Digestive dynamics of starch and protein Why it is important in sorghum-based broiler diets ?

Poultry production in Australia has increased on average by around 4 percent a year over the past 20 years, and this is projected to reach 1030 kilo tonnes by 2014-2015 (Fell, 2010). Feed cost is around 60 percent of total production cost in the poultry industry, and about 90 percent of feed volume is grains and/or oilseeds. Sorghum is used as part, or sometimes as the entire, cereal grain base in diets for pigs and poultry. Sorghum, like other cereals, is rich in starch (∼700 g/kg) and has a protein concentration from 115 to 137 g/kg; sorghum has a nitrogen corrected apparent metabolisable energy (AMEn) ranging from 13.5 to 17.7 MJ/kg (Selle et al., 2010).
ltrastructure of the antennal sensilla of Alabama argillacea ( Hübner , 823 ) ( Lepidoptera : Erebidae ) ndrezo

Insects have several types of sensilla, the characterization of which has been fundamental to understanding the mechanisms of sensory perception in different species. This study aimed to describe the ultrastructure of the sensilla present on the antennae of Alabama argillacea (Hübner, 1823) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae), an important pest of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) crops, as well as their possible variation between sexes. To do this, the antennae of males and females of A. argillacea were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. Sensilla morphometry was assessed using photomicrographs, from which the lengths and basal and apical diameters of sensilla were measured using the ImageJ program. Seven types of sensilla were identified on the antennae of A. argillacea: sensilla trichodea, sensilla chaetica, sensilla auricillica, sensilla coeloconica, sensilla styloconica, sensilla basiconica, and sensilla Böhm bristles. Differences between the sensilla of males and females were found in their lengths and basal diameters in canning electron microscopy the distal and proximal regions. This suggests that sensilla functionality may not only vary from one species to another, but also between sexes within the same species. Thus, further transmission electron microscopy and single sensillum recording studies may provide more detailed information on the sensilla
Towards Scalable Personalization

The ever-growing amount of online information calls for Personalization. Among the various personalization systems, recommenders have become increasingly popular in recent years. Recommenders typically use collaborative filtering to suggest the most relevant items to their users. The most prominent challenges underlying personalization are: scalability, privacy, and heterogeneity. Scalability is challenging given the growing rate of the Internet and its dynamics, both in terms of churn (i.e., users might leave/join at any time) and changes of user interests over time. Privacy is also a major concern as users might be reluctant to expose their profiles to unknown parties (e.g., other curious users), unless they have an incentive to significantly improve their navigation experience and sufficient guarantees about their privacy. Heterogeneity poses a major technical difficulty because, to be really meaningful, the profiles of users should be extracted from a number of their navigation activities (heterogeneity of source domains) and represented in a form that is general enough to be leveraged in the context of other applications (heterogeneity of target domains). In this dissertation, we address the above-mentioned challenges. For scalability, we introduce democratization and incrementality. Our democratization approach focuses on iteratively offloading the computationally expensive tasks to the user devices (via browsers or applications). This approach achieves scalability by employing the devices of the users as additional resources and hence the throughput of the approach (i.e., number of updates per unit time) scales with the number of users. Our incrementality approach deals with incremental similarity metrics employing either explicit (e.g., ratings) or implicit (e.g., consumption sequences for users) feedback. This approach achieves scalability by reducing the time complexity of each update, and thereby enabling higher throughput. We tackle the privacy concerns from twoperspectives, i.e., anonymity fromeither other curious users (user-level privacy) or the service provider (system-level privacy). We strengthen the notion of differential privacy in the context of recommenders by introducing distance-based differential privacy (D2P) which prevents curious users from even guessing any category (e.g., genre) in which a user might be interested in. We also briefly introduce a recommender (X-REC) which employs uniform user sampling technique to achieve user-level privacy and an efficient homomorphic encryption scheme (X-HE) to achieve system-level privacy.
EFFECT OF VARYING TIME OF HEAT PROCESSED SOYBEAN DIETS ON GROWTH OF CIRRHINUS MRIGALA

The fry (0.55g) of Cirrhinus mrigala were fed on six (1-6) isonitrogenous (40% protein) diets supplemented with a mineral premix with amino acid (MPA) for 60 days, in duplicates. Fry were randomly distributed @ 15 fish per aquarium for each dietary treatment. Six diets were formed out of which one diet was used as control contained fish meal as main protein source and remaining 5 diets contained soybean as protein source. Soybean was autoclaved for 0, 5, 10, 20, and 40 min at 121 o C at 15 lbs to remove anti-nutritional factors prior to inclusion into diets. Growth performance was evaluated by feeding the fish twice @ 5% BW d -1 for the whole duration i.e. 60 days. The results revealed that fish fed on diet containing 40 min processed soybean based diet and fishmeal containing diet showed maximum increase in growth (% gain in body weight), food conversion ratio (FCR), and specific growth rate (SGR), nutrient retention (GER, GPR) and apparent protein digestibility (APD) values and it get decreasing with decease in processing time of soybean. Fish fed on raw soybean based diet showed minimum growth performance with low values of VSI and HIS but having maximum liver and muscle glycogen values. This study indicated that autoclaving the soybean for 40 min improved its nutritional value in practical feeds for Cirrhinus mrigala fry.
Tools for sustainability assessment in island socio-ecological systems: an application to the Canary Islands

An integral dynamic model, in combination with other methods (indicators, policy and scenario analysis), is presented as a tool for sustainability assessment in island socio-ecological systems (SES). The Fuerteventura sustainability model (FSM), tested for the 1996-2011, allows a better understanding of the dynamic interactions between sustainability indicators and other factors of this island. The FSM was first applied to analyse the vulnerability of this island to climate change for the 2012-2025 period; results point to the need for urgent measures to mitigate its effects on some of the analysed indicators. A set of policy measures was then assessed from the behaviour of nine indicators and their sustainability thresholds. Finally, the FSM facilitated the development of a dynamic model of the island of El Hierro, extrapolating the features common to both SES. We propose this to be a useful tool for the quantitative sustainability assessment and the management of real island socio-ecological systems.
Composite Likelihood Estimation of AR-Probit Model : Application to Credit Ratings ∗ Kerem Tuzcuoglu

In this paper, persistent discrete data are modeled by Autoregressive Probit model and estimated by Composite Likelihood (CL) estimation. Autocorrelation in the latent variable results in an intractable likelihood function containing high dimensional integrals. CL approach offers a fast and reliable estimation compared to computationally demanding simulation methods. I provide consistency and asymptotic normality results of the CL estimator and use it to study the credit ratings. The ratings are modeled as imperfect measures of the latent and autocorrelated creditworthiness of firms explained by the balance sheet ratios and business cycle variables. The empirical results show evidence for rating assignment according to Through-the-cycle methodology, that is, the ratings do not respond to the short-term fluctuations in the financial situation of the firms. Moreover, I show that the ratings become more volatile over time, in particular after the crisis, as a reaction to the regulations and critics on credit rating agencies.
Accelerated development of fusion power

In the last decade there has been great progress in the plasma physics, materials science, and technology of fusion power, which is now moving towards practical realisation. Based on these developments, studies have demonstrated that an economically acceptable first generation of fusion power plants, with major safety and environmental advantages, could be accessed by a “fast track” route of fusion development, through ITER and without major materials advances. Thus the motive and opportunity for a fast track roadmap to fusion power are clear, and in general terms this idea is now well accepted [1–3]. More detailed development of such roadmaps is valuable for providing guidance to the future direction and prioritisation of fusion research and development. This note gives a discussion of the technical elements, and risks and benefits, of fast tracks to fusion power, and an initial development of the sequence of programme elements into a reference fast track and a variant.
Unscented Sampling Techniques For Evolutionary Computation With Applications To Astrodynamic Optimization

Abstract : This dissertation investigates several innovative approaches to evolutionary optimization that are relevant to numerous applications in astronautical engineering. The challenges and shortfalls associated with evolutionary algorithms are translated into three overarching goals that directly motivate the research and innovations of this dissertation. The first goal is to investigate and employ techniques that enable evolutionary algorithms to effectively handle constraints in a way that allows for feasible solutions to constrained optimization problems. The second goal is to improve computation times and efficiencies associated with evolutionary algorithms. The last goal is to enhance the evolutionary algorithms robustness and ability to consistently find accurate solutions within a finite number of iterations. Novel techniques involving the application of unscented sampling, parallel computation, and various forms of exact penalty functions are developed and applied to both genetic algorithms and evolution strategies to achieve these goals. The results of this research offer a promising new set of modified evolutionary algorithms that outperform state-of-the-art techniques on a number of challenging multimodal optimization problems. In addition, these new methods are shown to be very effective in solving a minimum-propellant lunar lander optimal control problem, representing a class of problems that are historically difficult to solve using evolutionary algorithms.
Why Do Older Consumers Tell Us They Are More Satisfied ?

A common consumer complaint is that “they don’t make things the way they used to” (e.g., Moore, 2005). From appliances to furniture and cars, products presumably were sturdier and more reliable in the past. Combined with older people’s general tendency to reminisce about the “good old days” (Bohlmeijer, Roemer, Cuijpers, & Smit, 2007), this complaint might lead one to believe that older consumers are less satisfied with what the marketplace has to offer than younger consumers, who presumably do not know any better. Nothing could be more misleading. Empirically, older consumers reliably report higher customer satisfaction levels than younger consumers, irrespective of demographic characteristics or business sector (Fornell et al., 2005). Moreover, this finding is robust and holds across different countries and cultures (e.g., United States, Sweden, China) and different response modes (e.g., self-report questionnaire, telephone interviewing). The first section of this chapter illustrates this “older-and-more-satisfied ” effect with cross-sectional data, drawing on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The general phenomenon of older consumers’ higher customer satisfaction has received little attention, and viable explanations are missing. The bulk of the chapter begins to fill this gap by reviewing a host of different processes that may plausibly contribute to the older-and-more-satisfied effect. Few of these processes are mutually exclusive, and the available data do not allow us to evaluate their empirical merit and relative contribution. Accordingly, we focus on
Response of Mango Transplants to Bio-Fertilizer Treatments 1-Vegetative growth measurements

The present study was conducted on mango transplants during 2016 & 2017 seasons to investigate the influence of some bio substances as addition nutritive fertilizers i.e. VAM, EM, Blue green algae and Diatom algae extracts. The influence was evaluated through the response of some vegetative growth of "mango transplants. The specific effect of mango cultivars on some vegetative growth, data revealed that, Kent mango cultivar was better than the other investigated cultivar (Keitt) in this respect. Also, fertilizer with soil application of VAM fungi at 4 cm/ transplant + control or soil application of blue green algea extract at 1g/ transplant + control was superior in this respect where it was able to increase significantly vegetative growth as compared with the other different investigated fertilization especially NPK only (control) during both seasons of study. Concerning the interaction effect of the two investigated factors i.e., mango cultivars and different fertilization on some vegetative growth measurements of mango transplants, data show the highest vegetative growth were obtained with the combination between Kent mango cultivar and fertilized with soil application of VAM fungi at 4 cm/ transplant + control or soil application of blue green algea extract at 1g/ transplant + control.
Alternative food for litter-inhabiting predators decreases pest densities and above-ground plant damage

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Financial Market Development and Economic Growth in Nigeria : Evidence from VECM Approach

There has been a series of intensive debate on whether financial market development has the potential to impact positively on long run economic growth of an economy. Thus, this study empirically examines the impact of financial market development on economic growth in Nigeria using annual time series data covering the period of 1981-2014. In achieving this, the study employed the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) as the econometric methodology. The empirical results show that overall there is a positive effect of financial market development on economic growth in Nigeria. Almost, all the financial markets, namely, stock, capital and money market have been found to have a significant positive impact with the exception of only foreign exchange market having a negative impact on economic growth. On the basis of the findings of the study, it was recommended that there is a need for a comprehensive financial reform to overhaul the entire Nigerian financial system so as to boost business and investment activities in the country. The study also recommended for the establishment of effective legal framework to complement the regulatory and supervisory institutions as well as directing the financial reform and credit policy of the apex bank towards improving credit to private sector. Finally, the study recommended a more flexible foreign exchange rate policy and diversification of the export base of the country to make the forex market a positive contributor to the nation’s real GDP.
Market Design : Theory and Pragmatics

Eliciting risk preferences: Text vs. graphical multiple price lists* We introduce new graphical displays that present binary choice lotteries via three dimensional rotating pie charts whose heights represent the prize amounts. We compare four graphical versions to the original text-only Holt & Laury (2002) multiple price list. Parametric and non-parametric measures of risk preferences are found to shift towards risk neutrality for the graphical displays.
Skill Premium , Schooling Decisions , Skill-Biased Technological and Demographic Change : A Macroeconomic Analysis ∗

This paper studies the driving forces behind the dynamics of the skill premium and the college enrollment rate in the postwar U.S. economy. I develop an overlapping generations general equilibrium model with endogenous discrete schooling choice. The production technology features capital-skill complementarity as in Krusell et al. (2000). Within this framework, I quantitatively examine the effects of two exogenous forces, investment-specific technological change (ISTC) and the demographic change known as “the baby boom and the baby bust” on the skill premium and the enrollment rate. I find that in terms of the skill premium, demographic change dwarfs ISTC before the late 1960s and contributes to the decline of the skill premium in the 1970s. However, after the late 1970s, ISTC takes over to drive the dramatic increase in the skill premium. ISTC also explains about 30% of the increases in the enrollment rate for the period 1951-2000, while demographic change does not have a significant effect on the enrollment rate. JEL classification: E25 (Aggregate factor income distribution); I21 (Analysis of education); J24 (Human capital); J31 (Wage differentials by skill); O33 (Technological change).
FRACTURE MECHANISMS IN SPLIT-TENSILE TEST OF FRC BY AE-SiGMA ANALYSIS

Fracture mechanisms of fiber reinforced concrete in the split-tensile tests are studied. In comparison with control specimens of normal concrete, reinforced concrete samples by steel-fiber are tested. Mechanisms of tensile fracture at the meso-scale is identified by applying the SiGMA (Simplified Green's functions for Moment tensor Analysis) analysis to the split-tensile tests. In the Stage 1 of macro-scale fracture, a few AE events are observed and tensile cracks are less dominant than those of normal concrete due to the reinforcing effect of fiber. In the Stage 2, shear cracks and other than tensile cracks are more actively observed than those of normal concrete. This demonstrates that pulling-out of fibers and fretting of cracked surfaces result in AE activity in SFRC.
EFFICACY OF A COMMERCIAL PURIFIED PHYLOSILICATE IN PREVENTING FUMONISIN TOXICITY IN FINISHING PIGS

Two experiments of different length of time (28 and 56 days) were conducted to study the efficacy of a commercial purified phylosilicate (Myco-Ad A-Z) in preventing the deleterious effects of fumonisin (FUM) in finishing pigs. Twelve male pigs averaging 58.5 kg initial body weight were used in each experiment. Pigs were individually housed and randomly distributed into 3 dietary treatments with 4 replications and fed a corn-soy diet containing or exceeding NRC recommendations. All ingredients were tested free of mycotoxins contamination. Treatments were: (1) control diet; (2) control + 25 ppm FUM; and (3) control + 25 ppm FUM + 4.0 kg/mt Myco-Ad A-Z. FUM was obtained from a culture material containing 72% FUM B1 and 38% FUM B2 produced in LAMIC. Performance and organs (lungs, heart, and liver) relative weights (g/kg body weight) were evaluated in experiment 1 (EX1). Performance, lungs relative weight and serum sphinganine / sphingosine ration (SA:SO) were determined in experiment 2 (EX2). Results from both experiments showed that pigs fed 25 ppm of FUM had significantly poorer performance; increased lungs, heart and liver relative weights; and increased SA:SO than pigs fed the control diet. The addition of Myco-Ad A-Z to the contaminated diet significantly improved performance parameters and relative organ weight: feed intake (2615 vs 2315 EX1) (2948 vs 2810 EX2), daily gain (861 vs 722 EX1) (1084 vs 996 EX2), feed efficiency (2.70 vs 3.08 EX1) (3.21 vs 3.46 EX2), lungs (6.68 vs 9.39 EX1) (5.94 vs 6.34 EX2), heart (3.75 vs 4.87 EX1), and liver (18.65 vs 20.89 EX1). Serum SA:SO, a key marker of FUM toxicity, was significantly increased in pigs fed FUM compared to control and Myco-Ad A-Z fed pigs (0.78 vs 0.38 and 0.49). These results indicate that Myco-Ad A-Z was very effective in preventing the toxic effects of FUM in finishing pigs.
Leading and Measuring Improvement in Local Government : The Case of Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council

The word ‘leadership’ generates 173 million references in Google, reflecting, perhaps, a fascination with a quality perceived as being rare and elusive yet somehow achievable, as being desirable and admirable in individuals but essential for organizations. Leadership, however, is multi-faceted and the circumstances in which different facets need to be demonstrated are complex and hugely varied, not least in the case of large private and public sector organizations including local authorities. The range of services that local authorities provide is one that few private sector organizations would contemplate, but the services themselves are vital to the well-being of the communities they serve. This pamphlet provides a case study of leadership in one local authority, within the context of the Labour government’s modernization agenda and initiatives to improve the management and effectiveness of local government.