Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Planar Mechanical Library for Teaching Modelica

Teaching Modelica to students of a university requires suitable example models. This paper describes a planar mechanical library that is primarily conceived for didactical purposes. It is simple, built out of a few components only, but it enables the modeling of interesting and complex systems. The library is freely available and supported by various Modelica environments.
Isopycnal and diapycnal circulation of the upper equatorial Atlantic Ocean in 1983–1984

Isopycnal circulation and diapycnal processes in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean are investigated using eight cruises from November 1982 to July 1984. An eastward decrease of the transport of the equatorial undercurrent is observed averaging 18.2 106 m3 s−1 at 35°W to 10.2 106 m3 s−1 at 4°W. There is also a meridional convergence at the undercurrent level and a larger meridional divergence in the surface layer of 15 106 m3 s−1 between 35°W and 4°W. In the eastern equatorial Atlantic, the undercurrent core density as well as the salinity above the undercurrent experience a large seasonal cycle. During the season where the eastern Atlantic thermocline is closest to the surface and surface waters are coldest, the current peaks in denser waters and subsurface salinity maximum are weaker. An analysis of the salinity on isopycnal surfaces indicates that there is significant diapycnal mixing in the upper thermocline. In the eastern Atlantic, the upper thermocline vertical heat diffusivity coefficient scaled over 1° of latitude varies between 3 cm2 s−1 during the upwelling season and nearly 0 early in the year. This seasonal mixing is an important element of undercurrent dynamics. The turbulent heat flux at the base of the surface layer averages 50 W m−2 between 1.5°N and 1.5°S. The surface layer heat budget implies an average oceanic gain of 60 W m−2 between 1.5°N and 1.5°S which could result from exchanges with the atmosphere. The heat flux and fresh water seasonal cycles needed to close the budgets are not realistic, however. The eastern equatorial Atlantic thermocline seasonal upwelling is associated with a large inflow into the surface layer. Over the two years, this flow averaging 11–12 × 106 m3 s−1 originates from the upper thermocline, and diapycnal transports near the core of the undercurrent or below are found to be small. Below the core of the undercurrent, we also find that mixing is not intense: for instance, at σθ = 26.5, in the upper part of the thermostad, vertical heat diffusivity is only 0.6 cm2 s−1 (assuming that mixing takes place over 1° of latitude). The uncertainties on these budgets are however large, and assumptions on the dynamics that were used could not be checked.
Livestock effects on reproduction of the Columbia spotted frog.

We evaluated reproduction and recruitment of the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris Thompson) in 70 ponds used by beef cattle and in 57 ponds not used by beef cattle in northeast ern Oregon. No significant differences were detected in the num ber of egg masses or recently metamorphosed frogs in grazed and ungrazed sites. No pond characteristic measured could pre dict egg mass numbers, but percent aquatic vegetation and dis solved oxygen had some ability to predict recently metamorphosed frog numbers. Both variables explained 65% of the variability in recently metamorphosed frog numbers in grazed ponds. At ungrazed ponds, 4 additional variables (presence of fish, elevation, percent of rock, and conductivity) were required to achieve the same level of variability in predicting recently transformed frog abundance. The egg mass volume was larger at grazed than at ungrazed ponds suggesting that grazed ponds may have a greater food abundance or larger (older) individuals.
Conducta de búfalos en pastoreo en humedales de Ciego de Ávila, Cuba

Con el objetivo de caracterizar la conducta de bufalos en pastoreo en el humedal avileno se realizo el presente estudio en areas de la Empresa Agropecuaria del municipio Bolivia, en el Humedal Norte de la provincia Ciego de Avila, Cuba. Se emplearon bufalos de rio, de pantano y bufalipso mestizo, clinicamente sanos. Para determinar la composicion floristica se hicieron diferentes transeptos por el procedimiento de la linea intercepto. Se evaluo el comportamiento bufalino en pastoreo durante 10 dias consecutivos y en ambas epocas del ano, a traves del metodo visual adaptado para esta especie. Se identificaron en el area de pastoreo de los bufalos un total de 165 especies vegetales correspondientes a 20 familias. Los animales dedicaron la mayor parte del tiempo al pastoreo en ambos periodos (58,5 y 64,3% para los periodos I y II, respectivamente), seguido de la rumia (13,2 y 15,1%, respectivamente). Se concluye que el estudio de la conducta resulta una herramienta importante en la explotacion y manejo del bufalo; se aprecio que los bufalos dedicaron el mayor porcentaje del tiempo a la actividad de pastoreo, con tendencia a su incremento en las tres primeras horas del dia. Se recomienda intensificar la siembra de la cobertura vegetal para evitar su deterioro, asi como la migracion de los animales a otros ecosistemas
Prerequisites for person-centered care - As described by community care nurses

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe nurses’ experiences of person-centered care within an integrated care chain. Method: The study included four data sets: Two focus group interviews with a total of 22 nurses; an open questionnaireanswered by 17 nurses; and individual follow-up interviews with 4 volunteers from among the 17 nurses. In total, 39 informantswere included in this study. Qualitative content analysis was carried out to identify the latent content of the focus group andinterview data, and the manifest content of the questionnaire data. Results: The results showed that learning about, from and with each other were prerequisites for achieving person-centeredcare. The ability to provide person-centered care was influenced by factors that could be related to both the organization andto the individual nurse. Important factors were organizational transparency and structure, leadership and collaboration betweenhealthcare centers, partnership, sole caregiver attitudes and skills. Conclusion: In order to develop person-centered care, it is crucial that an integrated care chain feature a joint documentationsystem; efficient use of the resources allocated to the needs of the various healthcare centers; and a change of focus from theprofessional to the person seeking care.
The Theory of Justice and Profit Maximization

At present, all existing so-called theories of justice, except only for utilitarianism, divide the history of humanity into long years of hopeless night and a few minutes of long-awaited dawn. Any theory must be disregarded if it assumes that for centuries people have come to terms with their lack of freedom only because of mental limitations or an unusual strictness of the ruling elite. Of course, 500 or 1000 years ago, as is the case today, many people were dissatisfied with their position in society, but nevertheless the majority of the population of Ancient Egypt, for example, or the Roman Empire considered the established order to be entirely justified. Therefore any theories that are not able to explain historical changes to peoplei¯s perceptions of justice must undoubtedly be deemed unrealistic and incorrect. Utilitarianism does not have this disadvantage, but it does have another well-known defect which has to do with the use of the strange and immeasurable concept of utility. It is rather difficult to give a logical explanation of how a concept that is so actively criticized and despised by many economists can continue to be the foundation of all economic science. In my opinion, to this day there have never been any significant barriers preventing the use of personal profit as the primary motive for human behaviour. This will not only restore the position of utilitarianism so undeservedly lost, but also provide an opportunity to solve a number of theoretical issues and will also fill with optimism the conclusions that follow from Arrowi¯s Impossibility Theorem.
When Do Organizations Need to Change (Part I)? Coping with Incongruence

Abstract : Different organizational structures are better matched to certain mission types than others (organizational congruence). Consequently, one way to achieve superior mission effectiveness is to switch between organizational structures when circumstances dictate. However, little is known about the variables that signal the need for such structural adaptation. To explore this issue, we used a model-based design process to create mission scenarios that were either matched (congruent) or mismatched (incongruent) with two organizational structures (Functional, Divisional). Results indicated that, as predicted on the basis of the coordination requirements imposed by the model-based design process, performance in the incongruent cases was characterized by increased communication, increased perceived workload, and degraded performance. Given these overall results, we explored these data further by analyzing communication patterns to identify how the organizations attempted to cope with the congruence problem. Our results indicated that the communication strategies employed in the face of incongruence depended on organizational structure/mission scenario pairings, suggesting that the specific signals of the need for structural adaptation will likely depend on context.
Beyond Language Policies: Students’ Positioning in the EFL Learning Experiences

El proposito de este estudio cualitativo descriptivo e interpretativo fue describir como los estudiantes se posicionan como aprendices de EFL e interpretar como posicionan a los demas a lo largo de sus procesos de aprendizaje. Para entender estas disputas, los conceptos de identidad y Teoria de Posicionamiento son explorados y colocados en contexto. La investigacion se realizo en una universidad privada en Bogota, Colombia. Los participantes fueron estudiantes de diseno visual y marketing y publicidad que fueron asignados a mi clase de ingles. Los datos cualitativos se recogieron a traves de entrevistas individuales y grupos focales. El analisis de los datos mostro que los estudiantes se posicionaron como seguidores de la politica linguistica, contribuyentes de su experiencia en sus campos, y como inversionistas de su propio aprendizaje. Ademas, posicionaron a otros basados en el rol que habian desempenado en sus vidas como estudiantes de EFL. Los hallazgos tambien revelan que las experiencias de aprendizaje EFL han influido en el posicionamiento de los estudiantes como estudiantes y que sus identidades fueron moldeadas y reformadas de acuerdo con sus experiencias de vida como aprendices de EFL. Estos hallazgos permiten a los profesores-investigadores reflexionar sobre el efecto que las politicas linguisticas han tenido en las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre el lenguaje y su propia concepcion como aprendices de EFL.
Dealing with new multilingualism in Europe : Immigrant minority languages at home and school

Guus Extra, Babylon, Centre for Studies of the Multicultural Society, Tilburg University Guus Extra holds the Chair of Language and Minorities in the Faculty of Humanities at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, and is Director of Babylon, Centre for Studies of the Multicultural Society (www.tilburguniversity.nl/babylon). He has published widely in the domains of multilingualism and education, immigrant minority languages at home and school, and language policies in Europe. Correspondence to Guus Extra: Guus.Extra@uvt.nl
Extraction of Sequence Conservation Features for the Prioritization of Candidate Single Amino Acid Polymorphisms

Although remarkable success has been achieved by genome-wide association (GWA) studies over the past few years, genetic variants discovered in GWA studies can typically account for only a small fraction of heritability of most common diseases. As such, the identification of multiple rare variants that are associated with complex diseases has been receiving more and more attentions. However, most of the recently developed statistical approaches for detecting association of rare variants with diseases require the selection of functional variants before the successive analysis, making an effective bioinformatics method for filtering out non-relevant rare variants indispensible. In this paper, we focus on a specific type of genetic variants called single amino acid polymorphisms (SAAPs). We propose to prioritize candidate SAAPs for a specific disease according to their association scores that are calculated using a guilt-by-association model with a set of features derived from protein sequences. We validate the proposed approach in a systematic way and demonstrate that the proposed model is powerful in distinguishing disease-associated SAAPs for the specific disease of interest.
Somatic growth rates of hawksbill turtles Eretmochelys imbricata in a northern Great Barrier Reef foraging area

An understanding of the rate at which long-lived species grow is essential for determining important life history parameters, including assessments of foraging habitat quality, the time taken to reach sexual maturity, and the age at which maturity is reached. The hawksbill sea turtle Eretmochelys imbricata is a Critically Endangered species that is typically associated with coral reefs throughout the tropical oceans. Little is known about its life history through most age-classes, especially in the western Pacific, one of the last strongholds for the species. We undertook annual surveys of a foraging population of hawksbill turtles on 13 reefs, within the far northern section of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), from 1997 to 2008. We obtained growth rate data from 128 turtles that were recaptured once (n = 103), twice (n = 23), or 3 times (n = 2). The curved carapace length of recaptured turtles ranged from 61.3 to 91.4 cm (x= 79.8 ± 7.26 cm, mean ± SD). Recapture intervals spanned between 11 and 120 mo (mean: 59 mo; median: 72 mo). We show that mean annual growth rates did not differ between sexes and had a non-monotonic growth pattern, reaching peak growth for both sexes within the 65 to 70 cm curved carapace length size-class. Growth slowed thereafter at a linear rate, to negligible growth upon reaching an adult size of >80 cm. Hawksbill turtles grew faster in the southern GBR, compared to those found in the far north of the reef. Understanding spatial and temporal differences in growth rates, and thus age at maturity, is an important step towards resolving life history differences among sea turtle populations.
A Study of normalizing flows for rich posterior approximations

In this research, I have studied a method called Normalizing Flows, to transform probability densities. The idea is to construct complex distributions starting from a simple initial density by applying a sequence of invertible transformations. The flows have been used in conjunction with stochastic recurrent networks which are trained with Stochastic Gradient Variational Bayes (SGVB), a low variance gradient estimator. Two variants of the flows namely ’planar’ and ’radial’ have been used to model time sequences from inverted pendulum dataset. In addition to the aforementioned flows which have already been proposed, a new flow based on 1D convolution, has also been proposed. This has been termed as ’Convolution Planar Flows’. However, despite the fact that this flow has a sound mathematical basis, it was not found to be working satisfactorily.
The Development and Validation of a Tactile Processing Speed Measure

Author(s): McKerracher, Amanda Lee | Advisor(s): Worrell, Frank C | Abstract: Processing speed refers to the cognitive ability that is involved in fluently performing cognitive tasks with simple stimuli. Individual differences in processing speed can predict performance on tests of complex cognitive functions such as memory and fluid reasoning, as well as performance on academic tests in reading, writing, and mathematics. For this reason, measures of processing speed are included in most cognitive assessment batteries. However, extant measures of processing speed rely on visual stimuli, making them inaccessible to individuals with visual impairments. The current study describes the adaptation of one of the most commonly used processing speed measures, WISC-IV Coding, into a tactile task. Using a sample of 19 high school students (Mage = 15.74) with visual impairments who use braille as their primary literacy medium, have no additional disabilities, and are on track to receive their high school diploma by age 22, preliminary validation analyses were conducted. Split-half reliability calculations showed that scores on the instrument were reliable (a = .92). Additional instruments were administered - including the KeyMath-R braille adaptation, DIBELS braille reading fluency, and the Blind Learning Aptitude Test - to examine convergent and discriminant validity, and results provided evidence of convergent validity. Implications for practice and future directions for research are discussed.
Rill Hydraulics - An Experimental Study on Gully Basin in Lateritic Upland of Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India

This paper reports the results of field investigations aimed to establish relationship between morphologic and hydraulic characteristics of rills. A rill network within a small Rangamati Gully Basin, on the bank of Kansai at Paschim Medinipur, in West Bengal, India of 256 m 2 was mapped. Experimental basin is exposed to natural rainfall of varying intensity and characterised with an average of 25-35% slope gradient. The depth, length, gradient, width, runoff contributing areas of all the 33 rills within the basin were recorded and thoroughly mapped. Present study incorporates close monitoring of runoff and velocity along the channels during a storm on 31.08. 2010 at 15 minutes interval using dye tracer technique. The velocity along each rill was linked with gradient, width-depth ratio and Manning’s roughness coefficient. Analysis shows that flow velocity is not directly controlled by rill gradient (R 2 =0.15), but is influenced by hydraulic roughness coefficient (R 2 =0.53). Finally, the relationship between Reynolds number and Froude number reveals that sub-critical turbulent flow is responsible for rilling process. No significant relationship between W/D ratio and channel roughness (n) can be established (R 2 =0.083) by the present study.
Two classes of fast-declining type Ia supernovae

Fast-declining Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) separate into two categories based on their bolometric and near-infrared (NIR) properties. The peak bolometric luminosity ($\mathrm{L_{max}}$), the phase of the first maximum relative to the optical, the NIR peak luminosity and the occurrence of a second maximum in the NIR distinguish a group of very faint SN Ia. Fast-declining supernovae show a large range of peak bolometric luminosities ($\mathrm{L_{max}}$ differing by up to a factor of $\sim$ 8). All fast-declining SN Ia with $\mathrm{L_{max}} 0.5 \cdot$ 10$^{43}\mathrm{erg s}^{-1}$ appear to smoothly connect to normal SN Ia. The total ejecta mass (M$_{ej}$) values for SNe with enough late time data are $\lesssim$1 $M_{\odot}$, indicating a sub-Chandrasekhar mass progenitor for these SNe.
Voluntary Corporate Environmental Initiatives and Shareholder Wealth

Researchers debate whether environmental investments reduce firm value or can actually improve financial performance. We provide some first evidence on shareholder wealth effects of voluntary corporate environmental initiatives. Companies announcing membership in Climate Leaders and Ceres - two voluntary environmental programs related to climate change - experience significantly negative abnormal stock returns. The price decline is smaller in carbon-intensive industries, where regulatory actions are more likely, and for high book-to-market firms, suggesting that "green" expenditures crowd out growth-related investments. We also document insignificant announcement returns for portfolios of industry rivals. Overall, the environmental investments appear to conflict with shareholder value-maximization. This has far reaching implications since the U.S. government relies on voluntary initiatives to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.
Feasibility study to investigate caking in washing powder formulations using a Freeman FT4 powder rheometer

ABSTRACT Because of legislation and environmental concerns, washing powder manufacturers have phased out phosphate builders in favor of substitutes such as sodium carbonate. This has meant that the new formulations have a greater tendency toward unwanted agglomeration (caking), based on moisture uptake and migration. This study examines the feasibility of using a Freeman FT4 powder rheometer to examine the effect of moisture migration, using the basic flow energy value to compare formulations of sodium carbonate content 27–37% and sodium sulfate content 10–20% by mass after 7 d exposure to 80% relative humidity at 20°C. The results showed that 31 and 33% sodium carbonate formulations were the most resistant to caking, with 27 and 37% being the most susceptible under the test conditions. Using the method of Brockbank et al. (2015), the FT4 was also used to detect the presence of a hard crust; under the test conditions, no hard crust was found. However, the presence of soft caking was detected in the force–height profile, showing a less abrupt transition.
Economic impact of Bt corn in the Philippines

A descriptive cost and returns analysis, a Cobb-Douglas Model and a two-step econometric procedure (that includes a Probit Model) were applied to a sample of corn farmers in selected regions of the Philippines in order to determine the economic impact of the Bt corn variety. With and without type of analysis were used to establish the difference between Bt corn and non-Bt corn farms in two cropping seasons. Results showed that yield and income of Bt corn farmers were significantly higher than those of the non-Bt corn farmers. In addition, expenditure on insecticide was significantly lower among Bt corn farmers. Results in all study locations showed a significant welfare effect of using Bt corn variety among corn farmers. Educational level and farm income were among the significant factors that influenced the adoption of Bt corn.
CUTANEOUS MANIFESTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH DIABETES MELLITUS

Diabetes mellitus (DM) refers to a group of common metabolic disorders that share the phenotype of hyperglycemia. The metabolic dysregulation associated with DM causes secondary pathophysiologic changes in multiple organ systems that impose a tremendous burden on the individual with diabetes and on the health care system. AIM: of the study was to evaluate presence and prevalence of common dermatoses in patients. 250 cases of D.M. with various cutaneous manifestations attending in and outpatient department of Dr. D. Y. Patil medical hospital were evaluated. Detailed history was taken as per proforma and patient investigated. Maximum incidence was seen between 40-70 yrs. of age and in middle class. Fungal infection constituted highest number which included dermatophytosis, candidiasis and pityriasis versicolor. No cutaneous reactions to therapy for diabetes were encountered in the present study.