Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Corporate Cash Holdings in the Shipping Industry First version : November 2014

We examine the corporate cash holdings of listed shipping companies and show that shipping firms hold more cash than similar firms in other asset-heavy industries. Higher cash holdings in the shipping industry are not attributable to firmor country-level characteristics, but rather to the higher marginal value of cash. Shipping firms value an additional dollar of cash higher than matched manufacturing firms, regardless of their financial constraints status, but depending on their cultural background and the cyclicality of their expansion opportunities. Less procyclical shipping firms have a higher marginal value of cash, and this valuation effect is most pronounced in bad times of the business cycle when external capital supply tends to become scarce. Overall, it appears that shipping companies are more conservative than their peers in managing their cash positions.
Draft Nano-drug delivery platform for glucocorticoid use in skeletal muscle injury

Complete List of Authors: Sutariya, Vijaykumar; University of South Florida, Pharmaceutical Sciences Tur, Jared; University of South Florida, Pharmaceutical Sciences Kelly, Shannon; University of South Florida, Pharmaceutical Sciences Halasz, Kathleen; University of South Florida, Pharmaceutical Sciences Chapalamadugu, Kalyan ; University of South Florida, Pharmaceutical Sciences Nimbalkar, Rohini ; University of South Florida, Pharmaceutical Sciences Pathak, Yashwant; University of South Florida, Pharmaceutical Sciences Weigel, Robert; University of South Florida, Pharmaceutical Sciences Daviau, Todd; Core Rx Inc. Cacace, Janice ; Core Rx Inc. Webb, Travis ; Core Rx Inc. Brotto, Marco; University of Texas at Arlington, Bone-Muscle Collaborative Sciences Tipparaju, Srinivas; University of South Florida, Pharmaceutical Sciences
NUMERICAL STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF HOT SPOT FORMATION AND EGR ON KNOCK ONSET IN SI-ENGINES

A multidimensional numerical study of the autoignition onset in SI engine is performed in scope of 2D and 3D simulation of the reactive Navier-Stokes equations. The chemical kinetic model takes into account both the lowtemperature and high-temperature kinetics and yields correct induction times for hydrocarbon autoignition. The calculations show two feedback processes: flame is accelerated by the temperature increase due to the development of the cool flames in the end gas, and the development of the autoignition is enhanced by the flame acceleration. Knocking onset is the self-ignition of the end-gas, which occurs as a result of combined effects of the end-gas compression by the moving piston during the compression stroke and by the propagating flame. The development of the autoignition is tightly connected to the formation of hot spots that caused by the pressure waves emitted by the propagating flame. The calculated dependences of the temperature and pressure on crank angle and predicted time of the autoignition onset for different engine operation conditions, and for different percentage of EGR are in a good agreement with the experimental data.
Microbial Degradation of Neonicotinoid Insecticides in the Soil and Potential Implication on Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) Control in Cotton

An experiment was conducted in 2013 to determine the extent that soil microbes degrade neonicotinoid insecticides, commonly used as insecticide seed treatments, into secondary metabolites. Soil was collected from a field where efficacy problems against thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) were observed in cotton during 2013. At the same time, soil was also collected from an area with no previous exposure to insecticides. Part of the soil from each location was sterilized by autoclaving. Both sterilized and unsterilized soil were treated with an identical dilution of either Gaucho 600 (imidacloprid) or Cruiser 5F (thiamethoxam). After 25 days, samples were tested to determine the concentrations of neonicotinoid insecticides, including metabolites. Thiamethoxam and two of its metabolites were detected in soil treated with the Cruiser dilution. Imidacloprid and three of its metabolites were detected in soil treated with Gaucho. Sterilizing the soil sample significantly reduced the concentrations of imidacloprid and thiamethoxam metabolites. These results suggested that soil microbes were present in the soil samples from both locations that can degrade insecticides. The levels of degradation to secondary metabolites were approximately 14% and 2% or less for imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, respectively. It is unlikely that these relatively low levels of microbial metabolism would substantially impact the efficacy of insecticide seed treatments, especially considering the primary metabolites found retain some insecticidal activity.
Sensor Based Automated Irrigation System

In a country like India, the agriculture plays the important role in the economy and development of the country. In the field of agriculture, use of proper method of irrigation is important and it is well known that irrigation by drip is very economical and efficient. At the present era, the farmers have been using irrigation technique in India through the manual control in which the farmers irrigate the land at the regular intervals. This process sometimes consumes more water or sometimes the water reaches late due to which the crops get dried. Over-irrigation can increase energy consumption and water cost as well as leaching of fertilizers below the root zone, erosion, and transport of soil and chemical particles to the drainage ditches. Irrigators who monitor soil moisture levels in the field greatly increase their ability to conserve water and energy, optimize crop yields, and avoid soil erosion and water pollution. The objective of this paper is to develop sensor based automated irrigation system to reduce water requirement and increase the productivity of orange orchard in Vidarbha region. This system is best suited for places where water is scarce and has to be used in limited quantity. Also, third world countries can afford this simple and low cost solution for irrigation and obtain good yield on crops. Keywords— Irrigation, Sensors, Soil moisture
Hardware-Oriented Multiple Camera Disparity Map Estimation

Depth information is used in a variety of 3D based signal processing applications such as autonomous navigation, robot and driving systems, object detection and tracking, 3D television, and disparity-based rendering. In these applications, high accuracy and speed performances are required for depth map estimation. Depth maps can be generated by using disparity estimation methods, which are obtained from stereo matching between the stereo images. The computational complexity of disparity estimation algorithms and the need of large size memory make the real-time processing of disparity estimation challenging, especially for high resolution images. This thesis proposes binocular (AWDE) and trinocular (TAWDE) hardware-oriented adaptive window size disparity estimation algorithms, which target high resolution video with high quality disparity results. Furthermore, in depth map estimation based applications, disparity estimation should be performed in real-time. To reach real-time, the algorithms also should be suitable for hardware implementation. The proposed binocular and trinocular algorithms can be implemented in hardware very efficiently. We first propose a novel binocular disparity estimation algorithm that is a hybrid solution involving the Binary Window Sum of Absolute Differences and the Census cost computation methods to vote and select the best suitable disparity candidates. It utilizes a pixel intensity based refinement step to remove faulty disparity computations. The AWDE algorithm dynamically adapts the window size considering the local texture of the image to increase the disparity estimation quality. We then propose a new trinocular adaptive window size disparity estimation algorithm. Our trinocular algorithm is the extended version of the binocular algorithm. A novel disparity map fusion method is developed. The proposed trinocular algorithm carefully handles the problem in the binocular disparity estimation results by adding a third camera into the system. Finally, the algorithms are evaluated on the different stereo datasets. The results demonstrate that the proposed AWDE and T-AWDE algorithms are suitable for real-time hardware implementation and their reconfigurable hardware can be used in consumer electronics products where high-quality real time disparity estimation is needed for high resolution video.
Calculated Quantum Yield of Photosynthesis of Phytoplankton in the Marine Light-Mixed Layers (59-Degrees-N, 21-Degrees-W)

The quantum yield •b of photosynthesis (mol C (mol photons) -1) was calculated at six depths for the waters of the Marine Light-Mixed Layer (MLML) cruise of May 1991. As there were photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) but no spectral irradiance measurements for the primary production incubations, three ways are presented here for the calculation of the absorbed photons (AP) by phytoplankton for the purpose of calculating •b. The first is based on a simple, nonspectral model; the second is based on a nonlinear regression using measured PAR values with depth; and the third is derived through remote sensing measurements. We show that the results of •b calculated using the nonlinear regression method and those using remote sensing are in good agreement with each other, and are consistent with the reported values of other studies. In deep waters, however, the simple nonspectral model may cause quantum yield values much higher than theoretically possible.
Experience Prospective Life-Tables for the Algerian Retirees

The aim of this paper is to construct prospective life tables adapted to the experience ofAlgerian retirees. Mortality data of the retired population are only available for the age interval[45,95[ and for the period from 2004 to 2013. The use of the conventional prospective mortalitymodels is not supposed to provide robust forecasts given data limitation in terms of eitherexposure to death risk or data length. To improve forecasting robustness, we use the globalpopulation mortality as an external reference. The adjustment of the experience mortality on thereference allows projecting the age-specific death rates calculated based on the experience of theretired population. We propose a generalized version of the Brass-type relation modelincorporating a quadratic effect to perform the adjustment. Results show no significant differencefor men, either retired or not, but reveal a gap of over three years in the remaining life expectancyat age 50 in favor of retired women compared to those of the global population.
Emissions Characteristics of Ethyl and Methyl Ester of Rapeseed Oil Compared with Low Sulfur Diesel Control Fuel in a Chassis Dynamometer Test of a Pickup Truck

Comprehensive tests were performed on an on-road vehicle in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority emissions test facility. All tests were with a transient chassis dynamometer. Tests included both a double arterial cycle of 768 s duration and an EPA heavy duty vehicle cycle of 1,060 s duration. The test vehicle was a 1994 pickup truck with a 5.9-L turbocharged and intercooled, direct injection diesel engine. Rapeseed methyl (RME) and ethyl esters (REE) and blends were compared with low sulfur diesel control fuel. Emissions data includes all regulated emissions: hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), and particulate matter (PM). In these tests the average of 100% RME and 100% REE reduced HC (52.4%), CO (47.6%), NOx (10.0%), and increases in CO2 (0.9%) and PM (9.9%) compared to the diesel control fuel. Also, 100% REE reduced HC (8.7%), CO (4.3%), and NOx (3.4%) compared to 100% RME.
Effect of nano-silicon foliar application on safflower growth under organic and inorganic fertilizer regimes

Abstract Silicon nanoparticles have distinctive physicochemical characteristics and are able to enter into plants and impact the metabolism of plants as well as improve plant growth and yield under unfavourable environmental conditions. Besides, low soil organic matter content, imbalanced nutrient and inadequate water supply may adversely affect crop productivity in semiarid areas. To understand the effects of foliar spray of silicon dioxide nanoparticles (nSiO2) with application of farmyard manure (FYM) or inorganic fertilizer on morpho-physiological traits and yield of safflower, a field experiment was carried out in a highland semiarid region of Maragheh, northwest Iran. The experiment consisted of two levels of nSiO2 (0 and 20 mM) and four fertilizer regimes (control, 15 t ha−1 FYM, 30 t ha−1 FYM, 90 kg ha−1 N-P-K chemical fertilizer). Safflower plants were treated with nSiO2 suspension at leaf development, branching and capitulum emergence stages. Although the nSiO2 significantly improved some growth parameters such as canopy spread, stem diameter, plant height, ground cover and the number of achenes in capitulum, it did not affect achene yield and harvest index. However, fertilizer treatments considerably affected most of morpho-physiological traits, achene yield and yield components. The result showed that the best growth and the highest achene yield were achieved by application of 30 t ha−1 FYM before sowing. Application of high FYM increased the achene yield by 48% compared to the control, however, application of N-P-K chemical fertilizer or of 15 t ha−1 FYM improved achene yield only up to 17% over the no fertilizer condition. Moreover, this work revealed some positive effects of exogenous application of nSiO2 on safflower growth. This finding suggests that application of organic fertilizers with foliar spray of nSiO2 can improve safflower production and is an advisable agronomic option.
Life satisfaction in Romanian cities on the road from post-communism transition to EU accession

The literature on life satisfaction in transition countries, and in particular on Romania, demonstrated that life satisfaction significantly differs across rural communities and cities of different sizes. The question addressed in this paper is whether these imbalances are stable over time, or instead, they become manifest in the presence of strong divergences in the economic growth rates of different kinds of communities. Results point out that in the period of sharp economic growth led by large urban areas, as the one experienced by Romania on the road to EU accession, rural/urban disparities in life satisfaction widened, favoring cities of intermediate size.
Study of Localized Corrosion of AISI 430 and AISI 304 Batches Having Different Roughness

In this work, the localized corrosion resistance of different batches of AISI 430 and AISI 304 stainless steels, having Scotch-Brite surface finishing, was investigated as a function of their roughness (in terms of Rz) and chemical composition. The study was performed by recording anodic cyclic potentiodynamic polarization curves at room temperature in two NaCl solutions (0.35 and 1.75 wt %). From the anodic curves, corrosion potential (Ecorr), protection potential (Eprot), and pitting potential (Epit) were obtained. In general, the results indicate that AISI 304 has better localized corrosion resistance than AISI 430, both in terms of pitting initiation and repassivation ability, independently from roughness. In particular, an increase of roughness determined a decrease of Epit only in the case of AISI 304 in the less concentrated NaCl solution. This result was related to the higher variability of the corresponding Rz values compared to those of AISI 430. Finally, from the analysis of the loop hysteresis of the anodic curves, in relation to Epit−Eprot values, durability information on the tested stainless steels were obtained: AISI 304 shows higher corrosion performances with respect to AISI 430, thanks to the higher chromium content of the former compared to the latter.
Empirical Evidence on the Audit of Fair Value Estimates : Do Auditors Respond to Cues Consistent with Management Bias ?

In this study, we empirically examine whether expert auditors are better able to constrain management bias in fair value estimations, and in particular when presented with cues suggesting a heightened risk of material misstatement. Situations where auditor professional skepticism can be heightened is a focus of the PCAOB’s recently issued standard on auditing estimates. Using security-level fair value estimates for property and casualty insurers, we examine the two different types of auditor expertise (Big 4 and local-level industry expertise) and the interaction of these expert auditors with three different cues highlighting enhanced risk of misstatement (opportunistic fair value level classification, internal as opposed to third-party pricing method, and evidence of prior period bias in another significant estimate). We find that auditors with greater expertise reduce both inflation and deflation of fair values. Moreover, the auditor’s ability to effectively identify and incorporate information from the cues varies based on the type of cue and auditor experience, with both Big 4 and local-level industry experts constraining management bias in the presence of cues in certain circumstances.
Theory III: Dynamics and Generalization in Deep Networks

The key to generalization is controlling the complexity of the network. However, there is no obvious control of complexity -- such as an explicit regularization term -- in the training of deep networks for classification. We will show that a classical form of norm control -- but kind of hidden -- is present in deep networks trained with gradient descent techniques on exponential-type losses. In particular, gradient descent induces a dynamics of the normalized weights which converge for $t \to \infty$ to an equilibrium which corresponds to a minimum norm (or maximum margin) solution. For sufficiently large but finite $\rho$ -- and thus finite $t$ -- the dynamics converges to one of several margin maximizers, with the margin monotonically increasing towards a limit stationary point of the flow. In the usual case of stochastic gradient descent, most of the stationary points are likely to be convex minima corresponding to a constrained minimizer -- the network with normalized weights-- which corresponds to vanishing regularization. The solution has zero generalization gap, for fixed architecture, asymptotically for $N \to \infty$, where $N$ is the number of training examples. Our approach extends some of the original results of Srebro from linear networks to deep networks and provides a new perspective on the implicit bias of gradient descent. We believe that the elusive complexity control we describe is responsible for the puzzling empirical finding of good predictive performance by deep networks, despite overparametrization.
Effect of snow grain shape on snow albedo

AbstractRadiative transfer models of snow albedo have usually assumed a spherical shape for the snow grains, using Mie theory to compute single-scattering properties. The scattering by more realistic nonspherical snow grains is less in the forward direction and more to the sides, resulting in a smaller asymmetry factor g (the mean cosine of the scattering angle). Compared to a snowpack of spherical grains with the same area-to-mass ratio, a snowpack of nonspherical grains will have a higher albedo, thin snowpacks of nonspherical grains will more effectively hide the underlying surface, and light-absorbing particles in the snowpack will be exposed to less sunlight. These effects are examined here for nonspherical snow grains with aspect ratios from 0.1 to 10. The albedo of an opaque snowpack with equidimensional (i.e., aspect ratio 1) nonspherical snow grains is higher than that with spherical snow grains by 0.032 and 0.050, for effective grain radii of 100 and 1000 μm, respectively. For an effective radiu.
Collaborative Manufacturing Network For Small And Medium Manufacturing Enterprises

Due to the increased exposure to competition through globalisation and free trade agreements, leading manufacturers are continuously challenged to provide high quality products at similar prices that low cost countries offer. Small and Medium Manufacturing Enterprises (SMMEs) face the same pressures as large companies, but often do not have adequate resources to remain competitive and grow. Therefore, SMMEs need to innovate and find new ways to overcome these challenges. Collaborative Manufacturing Network (CMN) promises flexibility and competitive capability, particularly for SMMEs. This paper analyses the issues, challenges and concerns faced by SMMEs in forming a CMN. Further, it explores the impacts on manufacturing industries due to the emergence of CMNs, particularly on SMMEs, since CMN challenges current business models and existing concepts.
Exploring cosmic origins with CORE: Extragalactic sources in cosmic microwave background maps

We discuss the potential of a next generation space-borne Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiment for studies of extragalactic sources. Our analysis has particular bearing on the definition of the future space project, CORE, that has been submitted in response to ESA's call for a Medium-size mission opportunity as the successor of the Planck satellite. Even though the effective telescope size will be somewhat smaller than that of Planck, CORE will have a considerably better angular resolution at its highest frequencies, since, in contrast with Planck, it will be diffraction limited at all frequencies. The improved resolution implies a considerable decrease of the source confusion, i.e. substantially fainter detection limits. In particular, CORE will detect thousands of strongly lensed high-z galaxies distributed over the full sky. The extreme brightness of these galaxies will make it possible to study them, via follow-up observations, in extraordinary detail. Also, the CORE resolution matches the typical sizes of high-z galaxy proto-clusters much better than the Planck resolution, resulting in a much higher detection efficiency; these objects will be caught in an evolutionary phase beyond the reach of surveys in other wavebands. Furthermore, CORE will provide unique information on the evolution of the star formation in virialized groups and clusters of galaxies up to the highest possible redshifts. Finally, thanks to its very high sensitivity, CORE will detect the polarized emission of thousands of radio sources and, for the first time, of dusty galaxies, at mm and sub-mm wavelengths, respectively.
Gotta Adapt 'Em All: Joint Pixel and Feature-Level Domain Adaptation for Recognition in the Wild

Recent developments in deep domain adaptation have allowed knowledge transfer from a labeled source domain to an unlabeled target domain at the level of intermediate features or input pixels. We propose that advantages may be derived by combining them, in the form of different insights that lead to a novel design and complementary properties that result in better performance. At the feature level, inspired by insights from semi-supervised learning, we propose a classification-aware domain adversarial neural network that brings target examples into more classifiable regions of source domain. Next, we posit that computer vision insights are more amenable to injection at the pixel level. In particular, we use 3D geometry and image synthesis based on a generalized appearance flow to preserve identity across pose transformations, while using an attribute-conditioned CycleGAN to translate a single source into multiple target images that differ in lower-level properties such as lighting. Besides standard UDA benchmark, we validate on a novel and apt problem of car recognition in unlabeled surveillance images using labeled images from the web, handling explicitly specified, nameable factors of variation through pixel-level and implicit, unspecified factors through feature-level adaptation.