Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding the dynamical structure of pulsating stars

Context. High-resolution spectroscopy is a powerful tool to study the dynamical structure of a pulsating star’s atmosphere. Aims. We aim at comparing the line asymmetry and velocity of the two δ Sct stars ρ Pup and DX Cet with previous spectroscopic data obtained on classical Cepheids and β Cep stars. Methods. We obtained, analysed and discuss HARPS high-resolution spectra of ρ Pup and DX Cet. We derived the same physical quantities as used in previous studies, which are the first-moment radial velocities and the bi-Gaussian spectral line asymmetries. Results. The identification of f = 7.098 d−1 as a fundamental radial mode and the very accurate Hipparcos parallax promote ρ Pup as the best standard candle to test the period–luminosity relations of δ Sct stars. The action of small-amplitude nonradial modes can be seen as well-defined cycle-to-cycle variations in the radial velocity measurements of ρ Pup. Using the spectral-line asymmetry method, we also found the centre-of-mass velocities of ρ Pup and DX Cet, Vγ = 47.49 ± 0.07 km s−1 and Vγ = 25.75 ± 0.06 km s−1, respectively. By comparing our results with previous HARPS observations of classical Cepheids and β Cep stars, we confirm the linear relation between the atmospheric velocity gradient and the amplitude of the radial velocity curve, but only for amplitudes larger than 22.5 km s−1. For lower values of the velocity amplitude (i.e., <22.5 km s−1), our data on ρ Pup seem to indicate that the velocity gradient is null, but this result needs to be confirmed with additional data. We derived the Baade-Wesselink projection factor p = 1.36 ± 0.02 for ρ Pup and p = 1.39 ± 0.02 for DX Cet. We successfully extended the period–projection factor relation from classical Cepheids to δ Scuti stars.
THE EFFECTS OF AUTOMATION AND TASK DIFFICULTY ON CREW COORDINATION, WORKLOAD, AND PERFORMANCE.

Director: Glynn D. Coates, Ph.D. The purposes of this research were two-fold: (1) to assess the reliability and utility of the Aircrew Coordination Observation and Evaluation scales in describing crew coordination behaviors exhibited during flight and (2) to investigate the effects of automation on crew coordination, workload, and performance. Two levels of automation (i.e., presence or absence of an autopilot) and two levels of task difficulty (i.e., presence or absence of wind and turbulence) were combined to yield a 2 x 2 design. Twentyfour two-person crews performed in both levels of automation and one of two levels of task difficulty. The results of the reliability assessment demonstrated that the training procedures and behavioral summary scale anchors that were developed produced adequate levels of interrater reliability in this investigation. The results of the crew coordination analyses revealed differences in the frequency and quality of crew coordination behaviors between levels of automation. Ratings of crew coordination were also shown to be related to performance. The results also indicated that although crews in the automated condition reported less workload, only one of the three measures of flight performance was improved. In addition, under high task difficulty, problem solving performance was worse in the automated condition
Social Influence, Competition, and Free Riding: Examining Seller Interactions Within an Online Social Network

Online social networks are increasingly being used to conduct commercial activities, and many online social networking platforms allow users to sell products to their online connections. Although extensive research has been conducted on the interactions among buyers within a social network, interactions among sellers have rarely been explored. Using seller data from a company that sells on a major online social networking platform in China, we empirically examine how sellers’ efforts and sales performance are affected by the efforts and sales performance of other sellers they are connected to (i.e., their inviters and invitees) and the commissions they themselves have received. We find evidence for social influence and competition effects in the “inviter-to-invitee” direction and sellers’ free-riding behavior driven by the commissions they receive from their invitees’ sales. These results extend the social network literature that has largely focused on connected buyers (or users) to connected sellers and offer implications for social networking platforms to promote seller participation.
Elite Water Polo: A technical and tactical analysis of the Centre Forward Role.

Introduction Since its origin in the late 1800s, water polo evolved considerably over time according to the different rules adopted, which influence tremendously the physical and technical demands of players (Hughes et al., 2006; Smith, 1989; Smith, 1998). Furthermore, players’ skills and abilities vary according to the different roles. In particular with respect to other playing roles, centre forwarders are more often in contact with opponents, frequently alternate horizontal and vertical body positions, and intense and all-out performances (Smith, 1991). Considering the crucial role of the centre forwarders, the aim of this study was to analyze the technical and tactical aspects of their playing. Methods A notational analysis of 11 elite men’s water-polo matches (7 Italian Championship and 4 Champions League) was performed from VHS recordings. According to the number of players of the attacking and defending teams, the actions were categorized as even-play, counter attack, and man-up play. During even-play, the technical and tactical aspects of the centre forwarders were examined, considering the occurrence of the following indicators: goal, shot with no goal (corner, block out, rebound in, saved or out), exclusion achieved, offensive fault, ball steal, bad pass to the centre. Preliminarily, an ANOVA ascertained that no difference (p<.05) was present between the Italian Championship and Champions League matches. Thus, data were pooled. Results The frequency of occurrence of actions was 76.28+/4.85%, 3.43+/-2.61%, and 20.28+/-3.77% for even-play, counter attack, and man-up play, respectively. The centre forwarders concluded 45.1+/-8.4% of the even-play actions. Considering only the indicators selected for the centre forwarders, goal, no goal shot, exclusion achieved, offensive fault, ball steal, bad pass to the centre represented 6.7+/-7.4%, 7.2+/-6.5%, 41.4+/-12.2%, 17.9+/8.8%, 16.6+/-10.3%, and 10.1+/-6.6% of total, respectively. Centre forwarders also determined 67.58+/-17.16% of the exclusions fault, crucial to score a goal (even-play: n=36.79+/-18.73%; counter attack: n=7.52+/-7.70%; manup: n=50.95+/-20.0%; penalty: n=4.74+/-7.89%). Conclusions The present data show that men’s water polo is highly dependent on the centre forward role. Despite it scores around 13% of total goals (around 29% of even-play), it determines the majority of exclusions fault achieved (around 68%), which in turn lead man-up actions strategies often ending with a goal (around 51%). References Hughes M. , et al. (2006), World Congress of Performance Analysis, Szombathely, Hungary. Smith JR. (1989) Los Olivos (CA): Olive Press. Smith HK. (1998) Sports Med 26: 317-334. Smith HK. (1991) First World Water Polo Coaches seminar. Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur, 183-207.
STE-QUEST: Space Time Explorer and QUantum Equivalence principle Space Test

An M-class mission proposal in response to the 2021 call in ESA’s science programme with a broad range of objectives in fundamental physics, which include testing the Equivalence Principle and Lorentz Invariance, searching for Ultralight Dark Matter and probing Quantum Mechanics. 1 ar X iv :2 21 1. 15 41 2v 1 [ ph ys ic s. sp ac eph ] 2 8 N ov 2 02 2
American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) diet in Uruguay compared with other invasive populations in Southern South America

Between 2000–2020, more than ten new populations of the invasive American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) have been reported in the southern cone of South America. We studied the stomach contents of 126 bullfrogs from a population at an early invasion stage in Uruguay (Aceguá, Cerro Largo Department). We observed a rich diet, with extensive prey volume range (1 mm3 to more than 7 000 mm3); the most frequent items were Hymenoptera (19.6%), Coleoptera (16.4%), Amphipoda (13.3%), Anura (8.9%) and Heteroptera (8.7%). Despite some overlap, differences were observed in volume (χ2 = 54.6, p <0.001, d.f. = 2) and prey quantity (F = 8.1, p <0.001, d.f. = 79) between males, females, and juveniles. Juveniles showed significantly higher consumption of terrestrial prey by count (82% of their total ingestion) than adults (29% for males and 32% for females) (χ2 = 28.5, p <0.001, d.f. = 2). Adults, especially females, showed a high frequency of cannibalism (33% of their total ingestion; χ2 = 20.9, p <0.001, d.f. = 2). Comparing our data with other bullfrog regional studies, we found great plasticity in trophic habits and differences in the incidence of cannibalism (higher incidence in the populations of Aceguá, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina). These differences could be related to local biodiversity, but also could be affected by the invasion phase. Cannibalism frequency was higher in small bullfrog populations, where it could be favoring the establishment success. This shift in foraging strategies during the invasion process had been insufficiently evaluated in amphibians. Knowing the ecological determinants for the invasion by bullfrogs can be useful to the development of management strategies.
Winterspring transition in the subarctic Atlantic: microbial response to deep mixing and pre-bloom production

: In temperate, subpolar and polar marine systems, the classical perception is that diatoms initiate the spring bloom and thereby mark the beginning of the productive season. Con-trary to this view, we document an active microbial food web dominated by pico- and nanoplankton prior to the diatom bloom, a period with excess nutrients and deep convection of the water column. During repeated visits to stations in the deep Iceland and Norwegian basins and the shallow Shetland Shelf (26 March to 29 April 2012), we investigated the succession and dynamics of photo synthetic and heterotrophic microorganisms. We observed that the early phytoplankton production was followed by a decrease in the carbon:nitrogen ratio of the dissolved organic matter in the deep mixed stations, an increase in heterotrophic prokaryote (bacteria) abundance and activity (indicated by the high nucleic acid:low nucleic acid bacteria ratio), and an increase in abundance and size of heterotrophic protists. The major chl a contribution in the early winter−spring transition was found in the fraction <10 µm, i.e. dominated by pico- and small nanophytoplankton. The relative abundance of picophytoplankton decreased towards the end of the cruise at all stations despite nutrient-replete conditions and increasing day length. This decrease is hypothesised to be the result of top-down control by the fast-growing population of heterotrophic protists. As a result, the subsequent succession and nutrient depletion can be left to larger phytoplankton resistant to small grazers. Further, we observed that large phytoplankton (chl a > 50 µm) were stimulated by deep mixing later in the period, while picophytoplankton were unaffected by mixing; both physical and biological reasons for this development are discussed herein.
Trust, Reciprocity, and the Role of Timebanks as Intermediaries: Design Implications for Addressing Healthcare Transportation Barriers

Millions of Americans forego medical care due to a lack of non-emergency transportation, particularly minorities, older adults, and those who have disabilities or chronic conditions. Our study investigates the potential for using timebanks—community-based voluntary services that encourage exchanges of services for “time dollars” rather than money—in interventions to address healthcare transportation barriers to seed design implications for a future affordable ridesharing platform. In partnership with a timebank and a federally qualified healthcare center (FQHC), 30 participants completed activity packets and 29 of them attended online workshop sessions. Our findings suggest that promoting trust between drivers and riders requires systems that prioritize safety and reliability; yet, there were discrepancies in the ability of the timebank and FQHC to moderate trust. We also found that timebank supports reciprocity, but healthcare transportation requires additional support to ensure balanced reciprocity. We explain these findings drawing from network closure and trust literature. Finally, we contribute design implications for systems that promote trust and facilitate relational over transactional interactions, which help to promote reciprocity and reflect participants’ values.
ARCHIE++ : A Cloud-Enabled Framework for Conducting AR System Testing in the Wild

In this paper, we present ARCHIE++, a testing framework for conducting AR system testing and collecting user feedback in the wild. Our system addresses challenges in AR testing practices by aggregating usability feedback data (collected in situ) with system performance data from that same time period. These data packets can then be leveraged to identify edge cases encountered by testers during unconstrained usage scenarios. We begin by presenting a set of current trends in performing human testing of AR systems, identified by reviewing a selection of recent work from leading conferences in mixed reality, human factors, and mobile and pervasive systems. From the trends, we identify a set of challenges to be faced when attempting to adopt these practices to testing in the wild. These challenges are used to inform the design of our framework, which provides a cloud-enabled and device-agnostic way for AR systems developers to improve their knowledge of environmental conditions and to support scalability and reproducibility when testing in the wild. We then present a series of case studies demonstrating how ARCHIE++ can be used to support a range of AR testing scenarios, and demonstrate the limited overhead of the framework through a series of evaluations. We close with additional discussion on the design and utility of ARCHIE++ under various edge conditions.
More Effective Test Case Generation with Multiple Tribes of AI

Software testing is a critical activity in the software development life cycle for quality assurance. Automated Test Case Generation (TCG) can assist developers by speeding up this process. It accomplishes this by evolving an initial set of randomly generated test cases over time to optimize for predefined coverage criteria. One of the key challenges for automated TCG approaches is navigating the large input space. Existing state-of-the-art TCG algorithms struggle with generating highly-structured input data and preserving patterns in test structures, among others. I hypothesize that combining multiple tribes of AI can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of automated TCG. To test this hypothesis, I propose using grammar-based fuzzing and machine learning to augment evolutionary algorithms for generating more structured input data and preserving promising patterns within test cases. Additionally, I propose to use behavioral modeling and interprocedural control dependency analysis to improve test effectiveness. Finally, I propose integrating these novel approaches into a testing framework to promote the adoption of automated TCG in industry.
Conventional Dressing versus Negative Pressure Wound Therapy in Treatment of Diabetic Foot Wound

Background: Foot wounds in people with diabetes mellitus are a common and serious global health issue. Negative pressure wound therapy can be used to treat these wounds and a clear and current overview of current evidence is required to facilitate decision-making regarding its use. Materials and Methods: Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial in kamineni institute of medical sciences, Narketpally . The study included 50 patients randomized into two groups (25 patient for VAC therapy & 25 patient for conventional dressing) suffering from diabetic foot wounds. Results: average Granulation as % of ulcer area and it is significantly high in vacuum dressing. It was 51.92 ±21.03 in Conventional treatment compared with 78.68 ±18.12 in NPWT group (pvalue < 0.05). Wound size was measured at initial presentation and then after treatment. After wound management, mean surface area of the diabetic wounds was 36.08 ±2.56 cm2 in the NPWT group and 37.63 ±2.86 cm2 in the Conventional treatment. This represents a statistically significant difference (P=0.05). At the end of our study the incidence of secondary higher amputation in NPWT group was 5/25 (20%), the Conventional treatment 6/25 (24%). There was no significant difference between both groups (P=0.13). There is a statistically significant difference between average graft take-up and it is higher in vacuum dressing. It was 80.78 ±14.54 in NPWT and 59.58±19.25 in control group. (P-value = 0.035). Daily mean cost in conventional dressing group was 67.43 ±5.3 EP compared to 95.7 ±10.2 EP in VAC group. A difference which is statistically different. Also, at the end of the study, total mean cost in conventional dressing group was 1976 ±123 EP compared to 2275 ±154 EP in VAC group. There was a difference in the total cost finally. Period of hospital stay till the wound was fully granulated and ready for skin grafting was 22.87 ±7.62 in NPWT compared to 32.53 ±10.17 in the conventional group. There is a highly statistically significant difference between average duration of hospital stay and it is reduced significantly in vacuum dressing. (p-value= 0.02). Conclusion: The rate of granulation tissue formation, wound surface area, overall graft survival was better in NPWT group as compared to conventional dressing group. Overall hospital stay and amputation rate were less in the NPWT group. Thus, NPWT can be considered as a superior option in the management of diabetic foot wounds. Cost of VAC therapy was higher than conventional dressing
Does learning offset hubris in serial acquisitions? International Evidence

How do serial mergers affect the Cumulative Abnormal Return (CAR) of the acquiring firms? Although the topic is particularly popular, no consensus has been reached due to contradictory evidence. If management hubris really can explain the declining CAR, how could this be consistent with learning effect through serial acquisitions? Our results reconcile the two competing explanations and indicate that both the quantitative and temporal dimensions of the measure of merger frequency need to carefully considered. With a comprehensive sample of over 14,000 acquisitions announced and completed internationally from 1st January, 2000 to 31st December, 2010, our results suggest that frequent acquisitions within four-year span have significant negative impact on the firm performance five days around announcement date; while with a measure as the cumulative number of the acquisitions across the whole sample period, the impact is insignificant. The results support the management hubris explanation to the negative CAR. However our results also indicate that it takes time for the acquiring firms to digest and learn from the past experience, the benefit of the learning effect will offset the negative impact caused by the management hubris in the long run. Our analysis is robust to that of the subsamples of OECD countries, developed countries, US companies and EU countries, indicating that frequent acquisition within a relatively short to medium interval is perceived negatively by the market regardless of the differences in culture, anti-trust law, investor protection, competition of the mergers and acquisition markets.
Real-time microscopic 3D shape measurement based on optimized pulse-width-modulation binary fringe projection

In recent years, tremendous progress has been made in 3D measurement techniques, contributing to the realization of faster and more accurate 3D measurement. As a representative of these techniques, fringe projection profilometry (FPP) has become a commonly used method for real-time 3D measurement, such as real-time quality control and online inspection. To date, most related research has been concerned with macroscopic 3D measurement, but microscopic 3D measurement, especially real-time microscopic 3D measurement, is rarely reported. However, microscopic 3D measurement plays an important role in 3D metrology and is indispensable in some applications in measuring micro scale objects like the accurate metrology of MEMS components of the final devices to ensure their proper performance. In this paper, we proposed a method which effectively combines optimized binary structured patterns with a number–theoretical phase unwrapping algorithm to realize real-time microscopic 3D measurement. A slight defocusing of our optimized binary patterns can considerably alleviate the measurement error based on four-step phase-shifting FPP, providing the binary patterns with a comparable performance to ideal sinusoidal patterns. The static measurement accuracy can reach 8 μm, and the experimental results of a vibrating earphone diaphragm reveal that our system can successfully realize real-time 3D measurement of 120 frames per second (FPS) with a measurement range of 8 mm×6 mm in lateral and 8 mm in depth.
Effectiveness of FRCM Reinforcement Applied to Masonry Walls Subject to Axial Force and Out-Of-Plane Loads Evaluated by Experimental and Numerical Studies

ABSTRACT An experimental campaign and a numerical analysis devoted to the investigation of the out-of-plane behavior of masonry walls reinforced with Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM) are presented here. The main goal of this study is to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the strengthening system, by discussing failure modes and capacity of strengthened masonry walls, in order to assess their behavior under out-of-plane horizontal actions, such as, for example, seismic actions. A purposely designed experimental set-up, able to separately and independently apply an axial force and out-of-plane horizontal actions on masonry walls, was used. Experimental results are discussed and compared with the outcomes of nonlinear analyses performed on simplified finite element models of the walls. A proper evaluation of the flexural capacity of FRCM strengthened walls is the first step of the ongoing process of drawing reliable code guidelines leading to a safe design of strengthened masonry structures.