Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geometry of alternating links on surfaces

We consider links that are alternating on surfaces embedded in a compact 3-manifold. We show that under mild restrictions, the complement of the link decomposes into simpler pieces, generalising the polyhedral decomposition of alternating links of Menasco. We use this to prove various facts about the hyperbolic geometry of generalisations of alternating links, including weakly generalised alternating links described by the first author. We give diagrammatical properties that determine when such links are hyperbolic, find the geometry of their checkerboard surfaces, bound volume, and exclude exceptional Dehn fillings.
Regulatory Regime and Finance: Electricity Distribution in Thailand

This paper aims to explore the choice of regulatory regime and form for electricity distribution characterised by natural monopoloy in Thailand. Taking the specificities of developing countries, the level of development concerning regulation and characteristics of the industry into consideration, revenue cap regulation is recommended. This paper further demonstrates that to determine revenue cap, the adoption of regulatory finance from developed countries requires some modifications to fit with Thailand. As one of developing countries, Thailand is characterised by poor accounting and auditing systems and weakly functioning capital and equity markets. The problem of a lack of data and asymmetric information faced by the regulator in Thailand is more severe. The resulting revenue cap suggests that to improve efficiency in the next regulatory period, the regulator will have to reduce the allowable capital base or operating costs.
Non-industrial private land use and forest management

Demand for raw materials and food has long been rewarding intensive production oriented land uses, which has led to various environmental and social issues. Policies attempting to reconcile the interests and claims of different groups in society emerge from political process. Scientific research can support policy making by providing factual information and by generating and analyzing policy options. This thesis is an investigation of the prerequisites and a further development of methodologies and tools for scientific policy support concerning Non-industrial Private (NIP) land use and forest management in Sweden. Three characteristics of NIP (or small-scale, family) landownership are at the focus of the thesis: (i) spatial constraints (estate size) (Paper I), (ii) landowner behavior (Papers I, II and IV), and (iii) spatially explicit information on forest attributes and land use (Papers II and III). Paper I assesses hypothetical scenarios of spatially targeted deciduous forest allocation strategies in the context of small scale forest ownership in southern Sweden. The study demonstrates that in order to avoid a priori unattainable policy goals, theoretical gains from spatial targeting need to be considered against the background of required landowners’ participation. Paper II analyses agricultural land-use change in Kronoberg County during 2000’s. The study shows that a significant portion of the originally reported pastures’ area has been replaced by land previously reported in other categories. Furthermore, the study indicates an overall extensification of grassland utilization in the county. Paper III presents a method for improved classification and accuracy assessment of ad-hoc categorical maps based on continuous-scale remote sensing estimates of forest variables. The method is applied in mapping deciduous dominated forests from an existing spatial dataset. Paper IV deals with a mixed, qualitative-quantitative approach to forest policy scenario construction. The paper proposes facilitating inferences of forest management configurations from assumed external factors by using a structured representation of forest management "behavioral matrix". An application example from a regional case study is provided.
A coke analogue for the study of the effects of minerals on coke reactivity | NOVA. The University of Newcastle's Digital Repository

The properties of metallurgical coke are critical to the performance of the blast furnace for iron making. While extensive work has gone into understanding the relationship between the properties of coke and its behaviour in the blast furnace, the heterogeneous nature of coke makes understanding these relationships difficult. Herein we report the use of a laboratory produced coke analogue to examine the effects of minerals on the reactivity behaviour of coke in a pseudo-CRI test. The effects of a range of minerals on the reactivity of the coke analogue are demonstrated and the effects of binary combinations of silicon and iron bearing minerals are examined. The properties of the metallurgical coke used in the blast furnace for steel making have a direct effect on the quality and productivity of the steel making process. Coke provides three primary functions in the blast furnace. 1) It is fuel for the furnace, the carbon source for the CO to convert iron oxide to metallic iron and provides the structural support for the blast furnace burden. The structural support of the burden during operation of the blast furnace is critical as collapse of the burden reduces gas and liquid permeability 1) consequently reducing the efficiency of the blast furnace operation both in reducing through put and in increasing carbon dioxide emissions per unit of iron produced. A number of factors affect the performance of metallurgical coke in the blast furnace. These include carbon forms (microtextures), pore network and catalytic effects on the reactivity due to minerals present in the coke. 2) It is desirable to predict the reactivity of coke from its key characteristics. Unfortunately this is in part limited by unknown or non-quantified effects of minerals on coke reactivity. Elucidation of the effects of minerals on coke reactivity has proved difficult due to the complex heterogeneous nature of coke and potential non-additive effects of minerals on coke reactivity. Several different approaches have been taken to understanding the effects of minerals on the reactivity of metallurgical coke. Two principle methods have been utilised to study the effects of minerals on coke reactivity. Early attempts were made through doping of coke making coals with mineral additions 3,4) and studying the subsequent reactivity. Later techniques involved statistical analysis of a large range of cokes of known mineralogy and reactivity to attempt to identify the important mineral species with respect to coke reactivity. 5–8) Early studies examining doped coke reactivates 3) indicated that the mineral cations present coke could be ranked as follows in terms of their effect on reactivity:
Influence of Drying Conditions on Ascorbic Acid during Convective Drying of Whole Persimmons

Degradation kinetics of food constituents may be related to the matrix molecular mobility by glass transition temperature. Our objective was to test this approach to describe ascorbic acid degradation during drying of persimmons in an automatically controlled tray dryer with temperatures (40 to 70°C) and air velocities (0.8 to 2.0 m/s) varying according a second order central composite design. The Williams-Landel-Ferry model was satisfactorily adjusted to degradation curves for both control strategies adopted—constant air temperature and temperature fixed inside the fruit. Degradation rates were higher at higher drying temperatures, independent of the necessary time to attain the desired moisture content.
Ricci solitons in manifolds with quasi-constant curvature

The Eisenhart problem of nding parallel tensors treated already in the framework of quasi-constant curvature manifolds in [Jia] is reconsidered for the symmetric case and the result is interpreted in terms of Ricci solitons. If the generator of the manifold provides a Ricci soliton then this is i) expanding on para-Sasakian spaces with constant scalar curvature and vanishing D-concircular tensor eld and ii) shrinking on a class of orientable quasi-umbilical hypersurfaces of a real projective space=elliptic space form.
The Social Status of Street Children in Kakamega Central Sub-County, Kenya

The problem of street children is a worldwide social concern. There is virtually no city in the world without the presence of street children. The study problem was the apparent lack of a comprehensive evaluation that critically analyzes the social status of street children which make them vulnerable in street life of Kakamega Central sub-county, Kenya. The Study objective was to establish the social status of street children in Kakamega Central sub-county, Kenya. This study was guided by the Social learning theory by A. Bandura and the Ecological theory by U. Bronfebrenner. Descriptive research design was employed in the study to enable the examination of the variables. Study population included 220 street children in closed and open rehabilitation systems, 30 Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations rehabilitation staff, 10 social workers, 8 Governmental officers, 5 counselors and 21 businessmen. Primary and secondary data were used. Primary data collection utilized questionnaires, interview guides, observation checklists and Focus Group Discussion. Cluster and snow-ball sampling were used to sample street children. Census and purposive sampling were used to sample rehabilitation stakeholders. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics specifically frequencies, percentages and means. Qualitative data analysis and interpretation utilized narrative analysis. Data was displayed in form of graphs, charts and tables. With regard to social status of street children, this research established that majority (43.6 %) of street children are in the age group 11-15 years. Male Street children were 78.2% compared to female 21.2 % . Those who had spend 1-3 years in street life were 41.8 %. Step mother/father harassment 25.5% and parent’s death 18.2 % were popular reasons for children joining street life. Some street children 27.6 % suffer from malaria whereas 63.6 % dropped school in primary. Economically 21.8% of street children were involved in begging while 41.8% collect scraps. Glue (mbiere) was most abused drug by 38.2 % whereas 60 % have been arrested when in street life and 10.9 % were harassed and remanded for months. Study findings revealed that street children do not enjoy due legal processes when they are in conflict with the law thus they are vulnerable and their social status development is at stake in street life. The study therefore recommends that street children’s social status should be improved by; establishing of a listening platform for stakeholders and street children’s views, establishment of a comprehensive rehabilitation and dropping centre for street children and improvement in socio-vocational skills development so as to make them self independent.
Unions, monopolistic competition and unemployment

This paper develops a general equilibrium dual labour market model which incorporates union bargaining with monopolistically competitive firms. It is shown that not only the degree of union bargaining power but also the market power firms possess on the product market have a positive influence on unemployment. The reason for this is that less intense product market competition increases the negotiated wage rates as well as the price mark-up firms charge over their marginal costs, both of which reduce labour demand. It is also shown that higher competition intensity will force firms to merge to larger units.
State updating and calibration period selection to improve dynamic monthly streamflow forecasts for an environmental flow management application

Abstract. Monthly to seasonal streamflow forecasts provide useful information for a range of water resource management and planning applications. This work focuses on improving such forecasts by considering the following two aspects: (1) state updating to force the models to match observations from the start of the forecast period, and (2) selection of a shorter calibration period that is more representative of the forecast period, compared to a longer calibration period traditionally used. The analysis is undertaken in the context of using streamflow forecasts for environmental flow water management of an open channel drainage network in southern Australia. Forecasts of monthly streamflow are obtained using a conceptual rainfall–runoff model combined with a post-processor error model for uncertainty analysis. This model set-up is applied to two catchments, one with stronger evidence of non-stationarity than the other. A range of metrics are used to assess different aspects of predictive performance, including reliability, sharpness, bias and accuracy. The results indicate that, for most scenarios and metrics, state updating improves predictive performance for both observed rainfall and forecast rainfall sources. Using the shorter calibration period also improves predictive performance, particularly for the catchment with stronger evidence of non-stationarity. The results highlight that a traditional approach of using a long calibration period can degrade predictive performance when there is evidence of non-stationarity. The techniques presented can form the basis for operational monthly streamflow forecasting systems and provide support for environmental decision-making.
Coordinating Gender: What Can Coordinate Structure Agreement Tell Us about Gender?

This paper examines gender agreement with coordinate structures in Serbian, focusing exclusively on coordinate phrases with singular conjuncts. I discuss in detail four unexpected and challenging facts about coordinate structure gender agreement and provide a unified account of them. I argue that a participle or predicative adjective agreeing with a coordinate phrase takes the default masculine form either when the coordinate phrase contains conflicting gender information, which can sometimes surprisingly happen even when all conjuncts have identical gender specifications, or when at least one of the conjuncts is not marked for a gender value. On the bases of behavior of neuter, I also propose that gender in Serbian (and possibly other Slavic languages) should be represented in terms of binary features [±masculine] and [±feminine]
Three-dimensional bluff body aerodynamics and its importance for helicopter sling loads

Fundamental three-dimensional aerodynamic phenomena have been investigated for small-aspect-ratio rectangular prisms and circular cylinders, canonical bluff body geometries representative of typical helicopter sling loads. A detailed identification and quantification of the unsteady aerodynamic phenomena at differing orientation angles associated with instabilities has been undertaken. The numerical experiments indicate that shear layer reattachment is the primary factor in determining the mean forces and moments of the bluff bodies. Many characteristics of the shear layer behavior are similar for the three-dimensional bluff bodies and, in some cases, similar to two-dimensional behavior extant in the literature. Differences in the canonical shape and aspect ratios occur and are quantified with varying reattachment distances as the orientation changes. Strouhal numbers vary in the range from 0.15–0.3 and exhibited a highly threedimensional, multimodal nature at the Reynolds numbers investigated. These findings are significant for the development of reduced-order aerodynamic modeling of sling loads.
Used Oil Storage and Disposal Practices in Automobile Repair Garages in Ghana

This study investigates the used oil storage and disposal practices in automobile repair garages in Ghana. The data for the study were collected using questionnaire, observations and personal discussions. One hundred and fifty informal sector garages and 100 formal sector garages made up the analyzed sample size. The results of the analysis reveal that a very large majority of the auto repair garages in the country lack used oil storage and disposal standards. Also, the garages do not organize training programs to educate and sensitize the mechanics about the health and environmental hazards of used oils. Again, proper used oil storage and disposal practices are virtually absent in the auto repair garages, coupled with lack of licensed used oil collection centers, transporters and recyclers in the country. This therefore, has caused used oil generators in the country to engage in an undesirable used oil disposal practices which pollute the environment excessively. To help address this issue, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-Ghana’s by-laws on used oil handling and disposal practices must be vigorously enforced. The EPA must also intensify its visits to the garages to educate and sensitize them on proper used oil storage and disposal practices. The Government, the Banks, philanthropies and wealthy individuals in the country should help establish used oil collection centers in the country to enable the mechanics sell off their generated used oils for recycling. Government must assistant the endowed garages in the country to enable them develop the capability to recycle their generated used oils. This will help create more jobs and enhance the revenue base of government as a result of cut downs on the importations of virgin motor oils into the country.
PXIE END-TO-END SIMULATIONS

Construction of PXIE, (Project-X Injector Experiment) has recently begun. The goal is to validate the design of the injector and low energy acceleration front-end for a future Project-X. PXIE operates in CW mode and consists in an ion source, a magnetically focused LEBT, a 162.5 MHz RFQ, a MEBT equipped with high bandwidth traveling wave kickers, a cryomodule equipped with 162.5 MHz half-wave resonators and a single cryomodule based on 325 MHz spoke resonators. The arrangement is meant to be closely representative of a future Project-X front end, and will include a variety of diagnostics. In this contribution we present end-to-end tracking simulations. We examine the impact of neutralization effects in the LEBT on the RFQ output emittances and losses within the MEBT and the superconducting cavities.
Defects in III-nitride microdisk cavities

Nitride microcavities offer an exceptional platform for the investigation of light–matter interactions as well as the development of devices such as high efficiency light emitting diodes (LEDs) and low-threshold nanolasers. Microdisk geometries in particular are attractive for low-threshold lasing applications due to their ability to support high finesse whispering gallery modes (WGMs) and small modal volumes. In this article we review the effect of defects on the properties of nitride microdisk cavities fabricated using photoelectrochemical etching of an InGaN sacrificial superlattice (SSL). Threading dislocations originating from either the original GaN pseudosubstrate are shown to hinder the undercutting of microdisk cavities during the photoelectric chemical etching process resulting in whiskers of unetched material on the underside of microdisks. The unetched whiskers provide a pathway for light to escape, reducing microdisk Q-factor if located in the region occupied by the WGMs. Additionally, dislocations can affect the spectral stability of quantum dot emitters, thus hindering their effective integration in microdisk cavities. Though dislocations are clearly undesirable, the limiting factor on nitride microdisk Q-factor is expected to be internal absorption, indicating that the further optimisation of nitride microdisk cavities must incorporate both the elimination of dislocations and careful tailoring of the active region emission wavelength and background doping levels.
Transition to fully funded pension schemes: a non-orthodox criticism

The paper critically examines the dominant neoclassical views on the adoption of mandatory Fully Funded (FF) pension schemes as a partial or complete substitute for the unfunded Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) type. According to this view, such a transition will have the positive real effect of endowing future generations with higher capital and output per head, since it should cause a once and for all increase in aggregate saving and the capital stock. This would prepare the economy for future demographic developments. We examine three obstacles to such a claim. To begin with, the reform may fail to boost workers' marginal propensity to save, since workers may contract their voluntary saving to compensate for the larger mandatory saving to FF schemes. Second, if PAYG's payroll contributions are reduced and diverted to Pension Funds, the larger private saving supply will be balanced by lower government saving, if the government is committed to honouring the current pension payments. Third, Keynes's saving paradox, reinforced by the capital theory critique inspired by Sraffa, shows that the rise in the marginal propensity to save does not result in an increase in capital accumulation, but rather in a fall in income and employment. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
Evaluating black women's participation, development and success in doctoral studies : a capabilities perspective

Although black women show an increased presence in doctoral study, the probability of intersecting gendered and racial disadvantage is often overlooked through relying on separate numerical transformation progress indicators for gender and race. To take a more active approach to furthering social justice for this marginalised group, we need to explore more holistic ways of mapping transformation. In this sense, we argue for the application of the capabilities approach as an evaluative framework which allows for an assessment of freedoms or capabilities students are able to make use of in pursuing the lives they have reason to value. Furthermore, factors impacting on students' capability formation are also considered, thus providing a multidimensional, ethically individualistic exploration of lives. The experiences of seven black women speak of barriers they have experienced throughout their doctoral journeys, but the data also create a sense of optimism as the potential of capability expansion is addressed.
HIV Susceptibility and Risk Behaviors amongst Female Heroin Offenders in Taiwan

A growing body of evidence in earlier studies indicated that injecting drug users (IDUs) experience greater difficulties in making changes when reducing their sexual risk behaviors than to reduce their drug-related risk practices. The purpose of this study is to investigate the correlation between HIV susceptibility and sexual risk behaviors, and injection risk practices among female IDUs in Taiwan. Two hundred and fifty four female IDUs agreed to participate in this study, and signed consent forms between June and August 2007. The questionnaire contained background information, drug-use history, injection-related risk practices, sex-related risk behaviors, HIV susceptibility, and measures of knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission. About 48% of the women reported having IDU sexual partners, and only 17% had used a condom during the last sexual encounter. Regarding injection-related practices, 72% did not share needles, and 58% did not share rinse water with others in the past year. Results from multiple regression analysis revealed that having IDU sexual partners and not using condom during the last sexual encounter were not statistically significant with HIV susceptibility (β=0.09, p＞0.05; β=0.02, p＞0.05, respectively). Age, and sharing needle and rinse water in past year were significantly associated with HIV susceptibility (β=0.19, p＜0.01; β=0.17, p＜0.05; β=0.20, p＜0.05, respectively). The findings provide evidence that injection-related risk practices obviously could raise HIV susceptibility of female IDUs, but sex-related risk behaviors did not. This implies that HIV and sexuality education should be provided to female injection drug users as soon as possible.