Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Talking about Europe? Explaining the salience of the European Union in the plenaries of 17 national parliaments during 2006–2019

To provide accountability, Members of Parliament (MPs) are expected to publicly communicate European Union (EU) affairs. Yet, parliamentary communication of EU affairs remains underexplored and existing analyses are conflicting. Against this background, this article sheds light on what drives MPs to talk about the EU, utilizing a novel dataset based on over 20,000 plenary protocols from 17 parliaments during 2006–2019. The study highlights that EU mentions increase in connection to referendums, summits, treaty ratifications, and European elections. Additional drivers include transfers of authority to the EU level, EU legislation, and political incentives. The findings provide some nuance to more pessimistic evaluations of the EU's accountability deficit, but major legitimacy challenges remain concerning national elections and Eurozone integration.
Rethinking the default construction of multi-model climate ensembles

AbstractWe discuss the current code of practice in the climate sciences to routinely create climate model ensembles as ensembles of opportunity from the newest phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). We give a two-step argument to rethink this process. First, the differences between generations of ensembles corresponding to different CMIP phases in key climate quantities are not large enough to warrant an automatic separation into generational ensembles for CMIP3 and CMIP5. Second, we suggest that climate model ensembles cannot continue to be mere ensembles of opportunity but should always be based on a transparent scientific decision process. If ensembles can be constrained by observation, then they should be constructed as target ensembles that are specifically tailored to a physical question. If model ensembles cannot be constrained by observation, then they should be constructed as cross-generational ensembles, including all available model data to enhance structural model diversity.
Self-Preserving Properties of Unsteady Round Buoyant Turbulent Plumes and Thermals in Still Fluids

The self-preserving properties of round buoyant turbulent starting plumes and starting jets in unstratified environments. The experiments involved dye-containing salt water sources injected vertically downward into still fresh water within a windowed tank. Time-resolved images of the flows were obtained using a CCD camera. Experimental conditions were as follows: source diameters of 3.2 and 6.4 mm, source/ambient density ratios of 1.070 and 1,150, source Reynolds numbers of 4,000-11,000, source Froude numbers of 10-82, volume of source fluid for thermals comprising cylinders having the same cross-sectional areas as the source exit and lengths of 50-382 source diameters, and stream-wise flow penetration lengths up to 110 source diameters and 5.05 Morton length scales from the source. Near-source flow properties varied significantly with source properties but the flows generally became turbulent and then became self-preserving within 5 and 20-30 source diameters from the source, respectively. Within the self-preserving region, both normalized streamwise penetration distances and normalised maximum radial penetration distances as functions of time were in agreement with the scaling relationships for the behavior of self-preserving round buoyant turbulent flows to the following powers: time to the 3/4 power for starting plumes and to the 1/2 power for thermals. Finally, the virtual origins of thermals were independent of source fluid volume for the present test conditions.
Adjoint Sensitivity and Predictability of Tropical Cyclogenesis

AbstractThe sensitivity of tropical cyclogenesis and subsequent intensification is explored by applying small perturbations to the initial state in the presence of organized mesoscale convection and synoptic-scale forcing using the adjoint and tangent linear models for the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS). The forward, adjoint, and tangent linear models are used to compare and contrast predictability characteristics for the disturbance that became Typhoon Nuri and a nondeveloping organized convective cluster in the western Pacific during The Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment (THORPEX) Pacific Asian Regional Campaign (T-PARC) and the Tropical Cyclone Structure-2008 (TCS-08) experiments.The adjoint diagnostics indicate that the intensity (e.g., maximum surface wind speed, minimum surface pressure) of a tropical disturbance is very sensitive to perturbations in the moisture and temperature fields and to a lesser degree the wind fields. The highest-resolution.
The Burden of a Multiple Myeloma Diagnosis on Patients and Caregivers in the First Year: Western European Findings

Background This research aimed to quantify the burden of illness (BoI) in transplant eligible (TE) and transplant non-eligible (TNE) newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) patients and their caregivers, in the first year after diagnosis: at months 0, 3, and 12. Methods Prospective, cross-sectional, observational NDMM study of TE and TNE patients and their caregivers from France, Germany, Italy, and Spain was conducted between May 2019 and January 2021. A structured, online questionnaire measuring disease burden, direct and costs, out-of-pocket expenses, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was used. Descriptive statistics were performed. Results A total of 164, 160, and 190 NDMM patients [>65 years; self-described healthy; not working; living with caregiver] answered at months 0, 3, and 12. Patients lost independence to perform daily activities; mean pain intensity rose and opioid utilization increased, more significantly among TNE patients. Overall health status and HRQoL remained stable. Median 3-month direct medical costs peaked at month 3. Specialist consultations and hospital admissions were the greatest cost amongst TE and TNE patients. Home adaptations increased out-of-pocket expenditures amongst TNE patients. Patients describing themselves as working spent a median 0 hours in the office at all time points. A total of 131, 122, and 124 caregivers answered at months 0, 3, and 12. Mean self-rated burden score rose. By month 12, half of caregivers developed stress, anxiety or depression. Most employed caregivers continued working. Productivity was low at month 0 with a trend of recovering at month 12. Caregivers of TNE compared to TE patients reported greater time burden. Caregivers’ HRQoL was stable over time. Conclusion NDMM is burdensome for patients and caregivers in the first year after diagnosis. TNE patients are more dependent on caregivers and incur higher care costs than TE patients. Despite the financial, physical, and emotional burden, HRQoL remains stable possibly indicating resilience and illness adjustment amongst patients and caregivers.
A Novel Used Vehicles Price Prediction Model Based on Denoising Autoencoder With Convolution Operation

Accurate prediction of the price of used vehicles can effectively reduce the undesirable behavior of intermediary platforms that mark up prices indiscriminately, make the link of vehicle sales more transparent and fair, reduce the losses of buyers and sellers, and have great economic significance. However, the previous used vehicle price prediction model suffers from redundant and noisy explicit features, resulting in its poor learning efficiency and prediction ability. Moreover, the previous models did not consider the interaction information among features, resulting in the model missing the acquisition of this information during the learning process, which determines its poor generalization effect during the prediction stage. Therefore, to overcome the shortcomings of previous models, we propose a novel used vehicle price prediction model with denoising autoencoder based on convolution operations (DAECO). Firstly, the DAECO model extracts the latent features of used vehicles using denoising autoencoder to remove the non-discriminatory redundant features. Then the DAECO model uses convolution operation to obtain the interaction information between the latent features. Finally, the DAECO model adds up the interaction information between the latent features and the linear combination information by assigning a certain weight to each of them to obtain the final prediction value. The values of the DAECO model on two real used vehicle transaction datasets with MSE, RMSE and MAE metrics are 1.523 and 2.278, 1.234 and 1.509, 1.009 and 1.226, respectively. Through the comprehensive experimental results on the real used vehicle price dataset, the DAECO model outperforms the current popular baseline algorithms.
Measurement of the ratio GF=Gf for numerical analysis of concrete structures

THE FRACTURE ENERGIES GF , OBTAINED BY THE WORK-OF-FRACTURE METHOD, AND GF , OBTAINED BY THE SIZE EFFECT METHOD, ARE TWO DIFFERENT MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS. THE FRACTURE ENERGY GF REPRESENTS THE AREA UNDER THE COMPLETE LOAD-DEFLECTION CURVE, AND THE FRACTURE ENERGY GF REPRESENTS THE AREA UNDER THE INITIAL TANGENT OF THE SOFTENING CURVE. IT IS POSSIBLE TO SHOW THROUGH NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF NOTCHED FRACTURE SPECIMENS THAT, AT MAXIMUM LOAD, THE COHESIVE CRACK WILL NEVER BE OPENED ENOUGH FOR THE TAIL STRESSES OF THE SOFTENING CURVE TO OCCUR. CONSEQUENTLY, GF DETERMINES THE MAXIMUM LOAD OF MOST CONCRETE STRUCTURES IN PRACTICE. NEVERTHELESS, MANY Â¯NITE ELEMENT PROGRAMS REQUEST THE COMPLETE SOFTENING CURVE CORRESPONDING TO THE FRACTURE ENERGY GF . IN THIS CASE, THE RATIO GF=GF IS WORTHY TO BEINVESTIGATED BECAUSE THE ENERGY GF IS EASIER TO BE OBTAINED THROUGH THE EXPERIMENTS. IN THIS WORK, THE CORRELATION BETWEEN GF AND GF IS INVESTIGATED. THE RESULTS OBTAINED IN AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM, DEVELOPED AT PUC-RIO IN ORDER TO STUDY THE FRACTURE PROPERTIES OF IGH-PERFORMANCE CONCRETE, ARE PRESENTED AND COMPARED WITH SOME RESULTS SHOWED IN THE LITERATURE. A NUMERICAL EXAMPLE ILLUSTRATES THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COHESIVE ZONE DURING SPECIMEN TESTING.
(Non-)Blocking in the voice system

Abstract This paper deals with (non-) blocking phenomena arising in the context of morphological voice marking patterns, such as active versus passive (as in e.g. Latin), or active versus non-active (as in e.g. Albanian and Modern Greek). Starting from the observation that across languages with voice (or voice-related) marking non-blocking effects arise only with unaccusatives (specifically, with so-called “alternating unaccusatives”), but not for instance with passives or reflexives, the paper presents a variety of facts that converge in showing that this situation is due to a difference in the respective featural make-up of passives and unaccusatives. The central claim that is defended is that the passive morphology is being reanalysed as a morpheme that relates not just to an [–external argument] feature, but to a [+activity] feature (in the sense of Kallulli 2007) in a predicate structure (here: v0) also containing a [–external argument] feature.
Linear preservers of rank-sum-maximum, rank, rank-subtractivity, and rank-sum-minimum on symmetric matrices

Let Sn (F) be the set of all n × n symmetric matrices over a field F. For a matrix denotes the rank of A. A pair of n × n matrices ( A, B ) is said to be rank-sum-maximal if , rank-sum-minimal if and rank-subtractive if . We say that a linear operator ϕ from Sn (F) to itself is a linear preserver of rank-sum-maximum (respectively, rank-sum-minimum and rank-subtractivity) on Sn (F) if it preserves the set of all rank-sum-maximal (respectively, rank-sum-minimal and rank-subtractive) pairs, and of rank on Sn (F) if ρ(ϕ(X)) = ρ(X) for every . We first characterize the linear preservers of rank-sum-maximum on Sn (F) when F is arbitrary, and thereby, linear preservers of rank (respectively, rank-subtractivity and rank-sum-minimum) on Sn (F) are characterized.
Reflection and absorption of Alfvénic power in the low‐altitude magnetosphere

[1] Results from a numerical study of the nonlinear interaction between large-amplitude Alfven waves and the low-altitude auroral magnetosphere and ionosphere are presented. In the model the Alfven wave encounters collisionless resistive dissipation when and where the effective parallel drift of electrons carrying the wave field-aligned current density exceeds a critical threshold corresponding to onset of current-driven microinstability. The resulting parallel electric field and parallel potential drop introduce frequency, amplitude, and perpendicular length-scale dependence in the absorption of Alfven wave power. Analysis of the power flow shows that (1) most of the power generated by a constant-current source in the magnetosphere and carried by relatively small-amplitude, high-frequency, and short transverse wavelength Alfven waves is reflected at low altitudes by the wave-induced collisionless resistive layer (RL); (2) Alfven wave power is absorbed primarily in the RL except when stimulated by a constant-voltage generator, wherein ionospheric Joule heating dominates the absorption at large transverse length scales; (3) the absorption is high (≈0.8) at length scales of 10–20 km (ionospheric projection) for constant voltage source conditions; and (4) the relation between the wave-induced parallel potential drop and wave field-aligned current is linear with proportionality constant of order 109 Ω-m2 over much of the range of interest. Correspondence between predicted properties and satellite observations is demonstrated.
Delay‐distribution‐dependent robust stability of uncertain systems with time‐varying delay

By employing the information of the probability distribution of the time delay, this paper investigates the problem of robust stability for uncertain systems with time‐varying delay satisfying some probabilistic properties. Different from the common assumptions on the time delay in the existing literatures, it is assumed in this paper that the delay is random and its probability distribution is known a priori. In terms of the probability distribution of the delay, a new type of system model with stochastic parameter matrices is proposed. Based on the new system model, sufficient conditions for the exponential mean square stability of the original system are derived by using the Lyapunov functional method and the linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique. The derived criteria, which are expressed in terms of a set of LMIs, are delay‐distribution‐dependent, that is, the solvability of the criteria depends on not only the variation range of the delay but also the probability distribution of it. Finally, three numerical examples are given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Qualitative Exploration of Frontline Homeless Service Worker Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Research has illustrated how homeless service organizations have adjusted policies and services during the COVID-19 pandemic and how frontline workers have taken on the work of implementing new procedures, fine-tuning service strategies, and navigating challenges. This qualitative study sought to describe how the pandemic has impacted the day-to-day service provision experiences of homeless service workers to gain insight into how the sector might prepare itself for the next COVID-19 wave, next pandemic, or other crisis. Drawing on interviews conducted with 21 frontline workers across Texas in fall of 2021, findings highlight the challenges of shifting to remote work and virtual service provision, reduced client engagement and rapport building, creating and enforcing health policies, and persistent service system disruptions. Recommendations include investing time and resources into creating more nimble work systems, moving away from paper-based processes, and making telehealth strategies a permanent part of homeless service provision. Additionally, there are research opportunities to develop and test coworker peer support models and to study the value and viability of tele-health in this sector, including worker and client perspectives of these technologies. Findings underscore how the pandemic disrupted homeless service design and delivery, which in turn hampered service access, use, and engagement.
Inverse synthetic aperture radar rotation velocity estimation based on phase slope difference of two prominent scatterers

In order to rescale an inverse synthetic aperture radar image into a homogeneous range cross-range domain, a novel method is proposed to estimate rotation velocity (RV) by exploiting the phase slope difference of two prominent scatterers on a complex image. Firstly, two prominent scatterers are automatically extracted in a range-Doppler image via watershed method. Subsequently, the signal obtained by the two scatterers is divided into two equal segments, each of which provides an estimation of the phase slope via phase unwrapping and the least-square fitting. Finally, the target RV can be estimated based on the difference of the two phase slopes. The proposed method can be implemented automatically and is more computationally efficient than the traditional methods. Finally, the results based on simulation data and real data are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Unveiling Dark Matter through Gamma Rays : Spectral Features, Spatial Signatures and Astrophysical Backgrounds

Although the existence of Dark Matter (DM) is supported by multiple unrelated evidences at different scales, its intimate nature is far from been unveiled by current detection strategies. This thesis focuses on indirect searches of DM Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) through gamma-rays. In order to accurately model the spectral DM distribution, we perform the first fully general calculation of leading electroweak corrections to the annihilation rate of supersymmetric neutralino DM and we demonstrate that these corrections significantly enhance the total photon yield, partially because of contributions that have been overlooked so far. Besides spectral signatures, DM is expected to show distinctive spatial features because of DM subhalos of various sizes and masses hosted by the main galactic halo as predicted by N-body simulations. We compute the gamma-ray angular power spectrum of galactic DM by exploiting the results of recent N-body simulations. Notably, we emphasize the theoretical uncertainty associated to such a calculation which may turn out to be relevant for current DM searches by means of gamma-ray anisotropies. A good DM detection strategy should optimize methods and choice of targets. We demonstrate that traditional methods for gamma-ray line searches, which greatly reduce the uncertainties related to astrophysical background fluxes, can successfully be extended to look for any spectral feature at photon energies close to the DM particle mass and that projected constraints on the DM annihilation cross section by means of the next generation of Cherenkov telescopes turn out to be considerably improved with respect to current limits. Moreover, we prove the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray background (IGRB) to be one of the most promising targets for testing the WIMP hypothesis once the uncertainties on the unavoidable astrophysical background will be reduced by further data. We indeed show that the most important astrophysical contribution to the IGRB is due to the unresolved population of mis-aligned active galactic nuclei. Taking into account this additional contribution to the IGRB, thermally produced WIMPs may be severely constrained for masses up to several TeV.
Does Stretching Training Influence Muscular Strength? A Systematic Review With Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Abstract Thomas, E, Ficarra, S, Nunes, JP, Paoli, A, Bellafiore, M, Palma, A, and Bianco, A. Does stretching training influence muscular strength? A systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regression. J Strength Cond Res 37(5): 1145–1156, 2023—The aim of this study was to review articles that performed stretching training and evaluated the effects on muscular strength. Literature search was performed using 3 databases. Studies were included if they compared the effects on strength following stretching training vs. a nontraining control group or stretching training combined with resistance training (RT) vs. an RT-only group, after at least 4 weeks of intervention. The meta-analyses were performed using a random-effect model with Hedges' g effect size (ES). A total of 35 studies (n = 1,179 subjects) were included in this review. The interventions lasted for a mean period of 8 weeks (range, 4–24 weeks), 3–4 days per week, applying approximately 4 sets of stretching of approximately 1-minute duration. The meta-analysis for the stretching vs. nontraining control group showed a significant small effect on improving dynamic (k = 14; ES = 0.33; p = 0.007) but not isometric strength (k = 8; ES = 0.10; p = 0.377), following static stretching programs (k = 17; ES = 0.28; p = 0.006). When stretching was added to RT interventions, the main analysis indicated no significant effect (k = 17; ES = −0.15; p = 0.136); however, moderator analysis indicated that performing stretching before RT sessions has a small but negative effect (k = 7; ES = −0.43; p = 0.014); the meta-regression revealed a significant negative association with study length (β = −0.100; p = 0.004). Chronic static stretching programs increase dynamic muscular strength to a small magnitude. Performing stretching before RT and for a prolonged time (>8 weeks) can blunt the strength gains to a small-to-moderate magnitude. Performing stretching in sessions distant from RT sessions might be a strategy to not hinder strength development.
Changes in Phylogenetic and Functional Diversity of Ciliates along the Course of a Mediterranean Karstic River

Ciliates are a group of phagotrophic protists found in a wide variety of ecosystems. This study builds on recent studies of ciliates in the Krka river and investigates changes in the phylogenetic and functional diversity of ciliates in biofilm to predict the phylogenetic and functional structure of ciliates in other karstic rivers. Biofilm samples were collected from four representative locations: upstream (Krka spring), midstream (Marasovine), and downstream (Roški slap, Skradinski buk) of the Krka river to test for differences in phylogenetic and functional diversity of ciliates in relation to location and positioning on tufa stones (light/dark-exposed side of tufa stone). Our results showed that Krka spring had higher phylogenetic species variability, lower phylogenetic diversity, and lower functional richness than Skradinski buk, suggesting phylogenetic overdispersal at Krka spring. This could be due to environmental filtering, competitive exclusion, or a combination of these factors. As the first study of its kind in the Mediterranean, our results shed light on the phylogenetic and functional diversity of ciliates in karst ecosystems and provide a basis for future ecological and conservation efforts.