Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intense Pulsed Light Conversion of Anatase to Rutile TiO2 for Hybrid TiO2-SnO2/MWCNTs/PVB Room Temperature VOCs Sensor

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are toxic air pollutants that require cost effective and accurate sensors for environmental monitoring. A VOCs sensing device was fabricated by spin coating low quantities of TiO2-SnO2 loaded multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with a polyvinyl butyral (PVB) support matrix onto a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). TiO2 was partially converted from anatase to rutile phase using rapid microwave and the intense pulsed light (IPL) techniques. Microwave facilitated the drying of the solution and crystal growth while IPL enabled the conversion of TiO2 from anatase to rutile. The sensing properties were investigated with different VOCs, including ethanol, methanol, isopropanol, and toluene, at different concentrations. The anatase and rutile hybrid TiO2-SnO2/MWCNTs/PVB sensing composite film showed an average of 8.8 times higher responses to VOCs compared with pure anatase TiO2-SnO2/MWCNTs/PVB composite film prepared without IPL. The hybrid sensors exhibited negative motional resistance responses to VOCs and positive motional resistance responses to non-VOCs. The hybrid nanocomposite film also showed good stability at room temperature and the highest response towards ethanol with a limit of detection of 1 ppm.
Principles of syntactic reconstruction and "morphology as paleosyntax": The case of some Indo-European secondary verbal formations

The problem of syntactic reconstruction is addressed from the point of view of an Indo-Europeanist. After a short overview over the approaches to syntactic reconstruction in the field of Indo-European linguistics in the last 50 years, the article focuses on the “morphology-as-paleosyntax-method”. This approach assumes that by going backwards on the grammaticalization path from attested synthetic formations one can at least sometimes arrive at the unattested analytic formations underlying the synthetic ones. This is exemplified by way of some Indo-European secondary tense formations for which an analytic origin has been discussed. Unfortunately the idea has some serious drawbacks so that it cannot be made as plausible as one would wish. On the other hand it may be hoped that future research will yield more and resilient results also in the field of Proto-Indo-European syntax.
Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) of Metal Gates for CMOS

The continuous down-scaling of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) field effect transistors (FETs) had been suffering two fateful technical issues, one relative to the thinning of gate dielectric and the other to the aggressive shortening of channel in last 20 years. To solve the first issue, the high-κ dielectric and metal gate technology had been induced to replace the conventional gate stack of silicon dioxide layer and poly-silicon. To suppress the short channel effects, device architecture had changed from planar bulk Si device to fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) and FinFETs, and will transit to gate all-around FETs (GAA-FETs). Different from the planar devices, the FinFETs and GAA-FETs have a 3D channel. The conventional high-κ/metal gate process using sputtering faces conformality difficulty, and all atomic layer deposition (ALD) of gate stack become necessary. This review covers both scientific and technological parts related to the ALD of metal gates including the concept of effect work function, the material selection, the precursors for the deposition, the threshold voltage (Vt) tuning of the metal gate in contact with HfO2/SiO2/Si. The ALD of n-type metal gate will be detailed systematically, based mainly on the authors’ works in last five years, and the all ALD gate stacks will be proposed for the future generations based on the learning.
Elimination of Photovoltaic Mismatching With Improved Submodule Differential Power Processing

Differential power processing (DPP) is a promising architecture to solve the issue caused by mismatches among photovoltaic (PV) submodules. To eliminate the mismatch power losses, this paper presents an optimized PV-to-bus DPP system with submodule-level individual maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and module-level minimum-power tracking (MPT) simultaneous implementation according to the built mathematical model of the power processed by DPP converters with respect to the string current. Furthermore, a flexible time-sharing algorithm is adopted to reduce the number of MPPT units. Compared with other solutions, such as PV optimizer, the proposed scheme can reduce the effects of mismatches to the minimum regardless of mismatch conditions. The system cost is reduced since only one adaptive MPPT controller is required. Besides, the system efficiency is improved due to the true MPPT implementation and MPT control. Both simulation and experimental tests are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Mutual inductance of arbitrary‐shaped coils using shape functions

The mutual inductance between coils is one of the important parameters of a system of coils. However, because the theoretical analysis of mutual inductances is difficult, a precise analysis of racetrack-shaped coils has not yet been conducted. Although a method that involves the use of the finite element method for obtaining an approximation is available, this study aims to obtain the analytical solution which enables the computation of values with very high accuracy. The authors propose a novel magnetic field analysis method for deriving the analytical solution for the magnetic field and for the self-inductance of the arbitrary-shaped coils. In this study, the analytical solution is derived for the mutual inductance using a novel analysis method and numerous experiments using coils of different shapes are carried out. The experimental results were almost identical to the theoretical results, confirming the validity of the proposed analysis method. Furthermore, the authors show that even when the specifications and arrangements of the coils are changed, computational analysis can be performed in a short time.
Practitioners’ Perspectives on Flexible Project Management

Literature defines two main streams in project management: mechanistic and organic. Mechanistic reflects the traditional waterfall approach and organic reflects a more adaptive approach. The organic approach became known by the awareness of dynamic project environment and changing requirements. The organic approach is characterized by flexibility. Accordingly, scholars and practitioners tried to define flexibility and find ways to make project management more flexible. However, scientific literature about practitioners’ perspectives on making project management flexible is lacking. Therefore, this paper explores practitioners’ perspectives on project management flexibility by the use of Q-methodology. The scope of the paper was narrowed down to the front-end phase of infrastructure projects. Two types of organizations were targeted: client and consultancy organizations. Data were gathered from 43 respondents from six organizations (three client and three consultancy organizations) in The Netherlands. The results of the study reveal three distinct perspectives on flexibility for both organization types (client and consultant): flexibility by trust, flexibility by scope management, and flexibility by proactive management. These perspectives partly support defined flexibility categories in literature. Further research could focus on exploring the perspectives in different project phases, operationalizing the perspectives in practice, and team composition taking into account these perspectives.
The Application of Curriculum Components for Course Evaluation

Generally, program evaluation is of prime importance to check the workability of a course. In this way, it can be made sure that the course achieves its intended goals and objectives, and consequently fulfills the learners’ needs, wants, and aspirations. Therefore, an attempt was made to evaluate the instructional functioning of the Simple Prose and Newspaper Articles course which is offered to the undergraduate English majors at the university of Tabriz, Iran and is taught by the researcher/instructor himself. To this end, Brown’s (1995) model of program evaluation was opted for. Based on local needs and objectives, this model was modified and extended to seven curriculum components: objectives, attitudes, needs analysis, time, classroom activities, materials, and assessment. In order to gather quantitative and qualitative data, a mixed methods design was employed. The quantitative data were obtained through a questionnaire which comprised 35 items based on the aforementioned curriculum components, i.e. five items for each component. Also, the qualitative data were collected through a semi-structured interview. The participants consisted of 36 undergraduate English majors, i.e. 12 male, 24 female. The results of the study indicate that this course is quite useful for the students to develop their linguistic, cultural, and social knowledge. However, it needs to be modified in order to be more fruitful. One of the main implications of this study might be that the seven curriculum components proposed by the researcher could be employed for the evaluation of any course of study. Another implication might be that these seven curriculum components could be utilized by syllabus designers or curriculum developers for the development of any syllabus.
Sharing Content at the Edge of the Network Using Game Theoretic Centrality

Content Delivery Networks aim at delivering the desired content to each user at minimum delay and cost. To tackle this problem, the content placement problem considering available cache locations has been widely studied. However, this paper addresses this problem by taking advantage of using existing but still underused Wi-Fi links. Our study considers to cache content in user homes and sharing it among neighbours via Wi-Fi links. To maximizee energy savings and reduce delays, content should be intelligently placed at the caches distributed in different users’ homes. We propose using a ‘game theoretic centrality’ metric, which models the sharing of content among neighbours as a co-operative coalition game. We apply this metric to study the energy savings and evaluate how close the contents are placed to the interested user(s).
Digital or human touchpoints? Insights from consumer-facing in-store services

Purpose Prior research highlights the extent to which consumers largely appreciate the possibility to choose among different digital touchpoints during the in-store experience, which results in a pervasive introduction of digital touchpoints as the first point of contact between retailers and consumers. However, consumers also give value to the human interactions in the service channels. The previous studies do not conclusively indicate the best balance of digital and human services. The purpose of this paper is to understand consumer-facing in-store services in new technology-enriched retail settings. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach involving face-to-face semi structured interviews was applied. To this end, the authors recruited 26 participants in Northern Italy between October and November 2017. Findings Results reveal motivations, preferences and discouraging factors leading consumers’ interactions with digital or human touchpoints. Findings ultimately provide useful guidelines to managers on understanding consumers’ attitudes toward digital vs human touchpoints phenomenon. Originality/value By identifying the key drivers of either digital and human touchpoints selection in offline retail settings, the present study figured out the attributes playing the crucial role in determining consumers’ preference regarding the in-store alternatives. Findings allow a further greater clarification of the practical issues, with emphasis on the new of human–machine integration.
The Effects of System Quality on Social Commerce

This study examines the effect of system quality (SQ) determinants on social commerce (s-commerce) context from the s-commerce consumers’ perspective by adapting IS success model. 220 data samples from online survey were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the structural equitation model (SEM) to test the research model. The findings show that visibility has a significant effect on perceived usefulness, and ease of use and responsiveness has a significant effect on customer satisfaction. In addition, the finding indicates the significant relationship among perceived usefulness, customer satisfaction and net benefits in s-commerce.
Hereditary Portfolio Optimization with Taxes and Fixed Plus Proportional Transaction Costs—Part II

This is the first of the two companion papers which treat an infinite time horizon hereditary portfolio optimization problem in a market that consists of one savings account and one stock account. Within the solvency region, the investor is allowed to consume from the savings account and can make transactions between the two assets subject to paying capital gain taxes as well as a fixed plus proportional transaction cost. The investor is to seek an optimal consumption-trading strategy in order to maximize the expected utility from the total discounted consumption. The portfolio optimization problem is formulated as an infinite dimensional stochastic classical-impulse control problem. The quasi-variational HJB inequality (QVHJBI) for the value function is derived in this paper. The second paper contains the verification theorem for the optimal strategy. It is also shown there that the value function is a viscosity solution of the QVHJBI.
Thickness Vibrations of Piezoelectric Plates

The thickness vibrations of an infinite anisotropic plate with electrodes coated on both surfaces are investigated using the linear piezoelectric equations. In general, the three fundamental solutions of the differential equations are found to couple at the traction‐free surfaces of the plate. The solution reduces to the well‐known uncoupled solution for the purely elastic case when the piezoelectric constants are zero. The transcendental equation which determines the resonant frequencies is derived. The theory is applied to a ferroelectric ceramic in two special cases: one with the plate polarized in the thickness direction, and the other with the plate polarized in its plane. In either of these special cases, the three solutions of the differential equations uncouple. Two of these solutions are identical with the purely elastic solutions and cannot be excited electrically, whereas the third differs from the purely elastic solution and can be excited electrically. The frequency obtained from this piezoel.
Coping with Curvilinear Coordinates in Solid Mechanics

The method of local Cartesian coordinates introduced in the first of a series of three articles on curvilinear coordinates is applied in this second article to some problems of solid mechanics. Additionally, the principle of virtual work is combined with the geometry and the kinematics produced by the method of local Cartesian coordinates to generate appropriate equilibrium equations.
How the Media Contextualize Computer Games: A Comparative Analysis of the U.S. and Korean Game Coverage

Whereas game addiction has attracted scholarly and practical attention, there are ongoing controversies over the causes and consequences of addictive game playing especially among adolescents. In order to investigate how computer games overall and game addiction in particular are contextualized in the media, this study conducted a comparative content analysis of the United States of American (U.S.) and South Korean game coverage between 2011 and 2013. The findings show the press in both countries most often depicted the issue of computer games in terms of business and industry, while dealing with the possible costs and risks associated with excessive game playing to a much lesser degree. This tendency was more prominent in the Korean press. The Korean media contextualized computer games in a more positive light than their U.S. counterparts. These results indicate that the current game coverage has a pro-industry tendency. The media need to focus more on consumer-related issues and perspectives particularly for the welfare of young audiences.
Low‐Metallicity Star Formation

We study the evolution of low‐metallicity star‐forming clouds and discuss their fragmentation mass scales. From the structure of the envelope at the time of protostar formation, we derive the protostellar accretion rate and calculate the evolution of protostars in the main accretion phase. Finally, we evaluate the upper limit on the stellar mass set by stellar feedback.
Introduction to circulating atmospheres: Index

1. The governing physical laws 2. Observing and modelling the global circulation 3. The atmospheric heat engine 4. The zonal mean meridional circulation 5. Transient disturbances in the mid-latitudes 6. Wave propagation and the steady eddies 7. Three dimensional aspects of the global circulation 8. Low frequency variability of the circulation 9. The stratosphere 10. Planetary atmospheres and other fluid systems.
Radiation and reception characteristics of an oblate spheroidal antenna for electron plasma waves 2. Experiment

Unified theory on the radiation and reception characteristics of the oblate spheroidal antenna with an ion sheath or an absorptive surface for an electron plasma wave is presented. The analysis is carried out as a boundary-value problem by using oblate spheroidal functions. The formulas for the radiation and reception characteristics such as the radiation impedance, electron charge distributions, radiated wave potential, directional properties, and receiving voltage of the oblate spheroidal antenna are analytically obtained. It is shown that the theory is applicable to monopole-type plasma wave antennas, such as disk, sphere or thin rod with sheaths in general, depending upon the applied d.c. bias.
The convolution of associated homogeneous distributions on R–Part I

This is the first in a series of two papers in which we construct a convolution product for associated homogeneous distributions (AHDs) with support in R. In this article, we show that if f a and g b are AHDs with degrees of homogeneity a − 1 and b − 1, the convolution f a * g b exists as an AHD, provided the resulting degree of homogeneity a + b − 1 is not a natural number. Under this restriction, it is found that the convolution product of AHDs is bilinear, bicontinuous and associative. New convolution products are derived for several basis AHDs such as half-line distributions, associated Riesz distributions and associated generalizations of Heisenberg distributions.
Detection of synonymy links between terms: experiment and results

This paper presents a new approach for the evaluation of the detection of synonymy relations between terms. Our goal is to help the terminology structuring. This approach exploits the synonymy relationships which have been extracted from lexical resources to infer synonymy links between complex terms. The inferred links are then validated by an human expert in the context of a terminological application. In a previous evaluation on documents dealing with electric power plant, the expert has underlined that the most important point is to increase the recall even if the precision is low and if some links are mistyped. This paper reports new experiments which help to understand how this synonymy detection approach is to be used. Various lexical resources – from general language dictionary to very specialized semantic information – are exploited and compared as bootstrapping knowledge. Results show the complementary of the different sources. The first
A Map of the Brazilian Stock Market

We use the correlation matrix of stocks returns in order to create maps of the S\~ao Paulo Stock Exchange (BM&F-Bovespa), Brazil's main stock exchange. The data reffer to the year 2010, and the correlations between stock returns lead to the construction of a minimum spanning tree and of asset graphs with a variety of threshold values. The results are analised using techniques of network theory.
English 2.0: Learning and Acquisition of English in the Networked Globe with the Connectivist Approach

English is one of the most spoken languages in the world and widely accepted as a foreign language in many parts of the world. However, though there has been a high demand for English as a foreign language in the 21st century, it has still been taught or learned through traditional methods and conventional pedagogical approaches. In the digital age, learner characteristics, learning environments, and learner needs have significantly changed and new pedagogical approaches or learning systems have emerged as a natural result of the paradigm shift. In this article, these changes were explained and suggestions were made for foreign language learning and acquisition based on the networked learning and the connectivist approach to learning.
On the decay and stability of global solutions to the 3‐D inhomogeneous Navier‐Stokes equations

In this paper, we investigate the large‐time decay and stability to any given global smooth solutions of the 3‐D incompressible inhomogeneous Navier‐Stokes equations. In particular, we prove that given any global smooth solution (a,u) of (1.2), the velocity field u decays to 0 with an explicit rate, which coincides with the L2 norm decay for the weak solutions of the 3‐D classical Navier‐Stokes system [26,29] as t goes to ∞. Moreover, a small perturbation to the initial data of (a,u) still generates a unique global smooth solution to (1.2), and this solution keeps close to the reference solution (a,u) for t > 0. We should point out that the main results in this paper work for large solutions of (1.2). © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A simulative method for the analysis of conduction properties of ion channels based on first-principle approaches

The aim of this work is to study the conduction properties of selective ion channels by means of a Monte Carlo simulation that yields both current and its noise under open-gate conditions. A multi-ion model is used, where the ion binding sites around and inside the protein, the allowed transitions between different occupancy states and the associated rate constants are obtained from the atomic structure and ab-initio MD simulations.
Speckle Analysis Using Signal to Noise Ratios Based on Fractional Order Moments

The SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) of the echo envelope image is a monotonically-increasing function of scatterer number density. Various SNRs, like amplitude SNR and intensity SNR, can be used to quantify the scatterer density. The problem of using a SNR based on higher order moments like the intensity SNR is that they require large sample sizes to obtain estimates with high confidence (the variance of the estimate becomes large for higher moments). In this paper, we consider SNRs based on fractional order moments (moments of order less than 1), and obtain mathematical analyses of their properties using the K distribution, which has been shown to be a good model for the density function of backscatter echo envelope signal. Statistics of SNRs based on fractional moment are derived and appear to be more robust and useful than the amplitude and intensity SNRs previously studied. The SNRs based on fractional order moments have greater dynamic range and the sample size requirements are smaller than those for integral order moment SNRs, like amplitude SNR or intensity SNR. Thus, SNRs based on fractional order moments could be used to better quantify the variations in scatterer density which can be used for tissue classification problems.