Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The internal structure of the syllable in Russian and in Hebrew: Evidence from monolingual kindergarteners

Abstract Notwithstanding remarkable phonological differences, the CV syllable is the most frequent syllable type in both Russian and Hebrew. This led to the prediction that the internal structure of the CVC syllable in the two languages, as reflected in phonological awareness tasks, might be similar. The study tested phonological awareness in two groups of monolingual kindergarteners: Hebrew-speaking (N = 35) and Russian-speaking (N = 20) in order to shed light on the underlying structure of the CVC syllable in the two languages. Phonological awareness tasks targeted awareness of the sub-syllabic structure (structured and unstructured) and phoneme awareness (initial and final). A linear mixed model analysis revealed that children in both groups showed greater facility with body-coda CV-C than with onset-rime C-VC syllable splitting and higher scores on final than on initial phoneme isolation tasks. The unstructured tasks also reflected the cohesion of the CV body in both languages. The findings demonstrate a similar internal representation of the CVC syllable in Russian and in Hebrew speakers as reflected in phonological awareness among preschoolers.
Approval Voting in Box Societies

Under approval voting, every voter may vote for any number of candidates. To model approval voting, we let a political spectrum be the set of all possible political positions, and let each voter have a subset of the spectrum that they approve, called an approval region. The fraction of all voters who approve the most popular position is the agreement proportion for the society. We consider voting in societies whose political spectrum is modeled by d-dimensional space (Rd) with approval regions defined by axis-parallel boxes. For such societies, we first consider a Turan-type problem, attempting to find the maximum agreement between pairs of voters for a society with a given level of overall agreement. We prove a lower bound on this maximum agreement and find in the literature a proof that the lower bound is optimal. By this result we find that for sufficiently large n, any n-voter box society in Rd where at least α(2) pairs of voters agree on some position must have a position contained in βn approval regions, where α = 1 − (1 − β)2/d. We also consider an extension of this problem involving projections of approval regions to axes. Finally we consider the question of (k, m)-agreeable box societies, where a society is said to be (k, m)-agreeable if among every m voters, some k approve a common position. In the m = 2k− 1 case, we use methods from graph theory to prove that the agreement proportion is at least 1/(2d) for any integer k ≥ 2.
Investigation of transient nonlinear optical mechanisms using a variable pulselength laser

We show a variable pulselength laser to be extremely useful when investigating the dynamics and parameters of optomechanical nonlinarities in optical materials. Pulselength variability allows observation of the transient nonlinear behavior using nanosecond pulses and determination of the underlying physical mechanisms using subnanosecond pulses. It also enables observation of the transition response between the two time regimes where intrinsic polarizabilities compete with optomechanical effects. We examine the transient nonlinear scattering properties of an optical power limiter, platinum ethynyl, and compare it to carbon disulfide using degenerate four-wave mixing. Intensity, polarization, and pulselength control allow us to measure acoustic scattering and decay parameters, /spl chi//sup (3)/ magnitudes, and the transient laser-induced grating behavior.
Direct numerical simulations of two-dimensional chaotic natural convection in a differentially heated cavity of aspect ratio 4

Chaotic natural convection in a differentially heated air-filled cavity of aspect ratio 4 with adiabatic horizontal walls is investigated by direct numerical integration of the unsteady two-dimensional equations. Time integration is performed with a spectral algorithm using Chebyshev spatial approximations and a second-order finite-difference time-stepping scheme. Asymptotic solutions have been obtained for three values of the Rayleigh number based on cavity height up to 1010. The time-averaged flow fields show that the flow structure increasingly departs from the well-known laminar one. Large recirculating zones located on the outer edge of the boundary layers form and move upstream with increasing Rayleigh number. The time-dependent solution is made up of travelling waves which run downstream in the boundary layers. The amplitude of these waves grows as they travel downstream and hook-like temperature patterns form at the outer edge of the thermal boundary layer. At the largest Rayleigh number investigated they grow to such a point that they result in the formation of large unsteady eddies that totally disrupt the boundary layers. These eddies throw hot and cold fluid into the upper and lower parts of the core region, resulting in thermally more homogeneous top and bottom regions that squeeze a region of increased stratification near the mid-cavity height. It is also shown that these large unsteady eddies keep the internal waves in the stratified core region excited. These simulations also give access to the second-order statistics such as turbulent kinetic energy, thermal and viscous dissipation, Reynolds stresses and turbulent heat fluxes.
High-inversion densities in Nd:YAG-upconversion and bleaching

We report on the investigation of upconversion in Nd:YAG and its implications for intensely pumped devices. Analysis of lifetime measurements and the performance of a 1 at. % Nd-doped YAG amplifier give an Auger upconversion rate of 7/spl times/10/sup 3/ s/sup -1/. This is significantly smaller than previously reported, but modeling of the performance of Nd:YAG devices with high-inversion densities shows that even this rate can still seriously degrade the small-signal gain and significantly increase the thermal load. The variation of cross-relaxation and upconversion rates with doping level is also described. Finally, it is found that the effect of bleaching of the Nd:YAG absorption can lead to a reduced spatial overlap between the signal and inversion profiles and thus can also significantly reduce the gain.
Undisturbed tubal pregnancies with positive fetal heart treated medically: Case study

Abstract The incidence of ectopic pregnancy (EP) is 1.3-2.4%. Suspicion of EP starts after a positive serum pregnancy test and failure to visualize the intrauterine gestational sac (GS) by transvaginal sonography (TVS). About 88% of tubal EPs are diagnosed by absent intrauterine GS and the presence of an adnexal mass during TVS. Medical treatment of EP using methotrexate (MTX) is cost-effective with a similar success rate to surgical treatment. The presence of fetal heart beats, β-human chorionic gonadotropin >5000 mIU/mL, and EP size >4 cm are relative contraindications for using MTX in the treatment of EP.
Complexity of nonholonomic motion planning

The complexity of motion planning amidst obstacles is a well modeled and understood notion. What is the increase of the complexity when the problem is to plan the trajectories of a nonholonomic robot? We show that this quantity can be seen as a function of paths and of the distance between the paths and the obstacles. We propose various definitions of it, from both topological and metric points of view, and compare their values. For two of them we give estimates which involve some E-norm on the tangent space to the configuration space. Finally we apply these results to compute the complexity needed to park a car-like robot with trailers.
CH+(1-0) and 13CH+(1-0) absorption lines in the direction of massive star-forming regions

We report the detection of the ground-state rotational transition of the methylidyne cation CH+ and its isotopologue 13CH+ toward the remote massive star-forming regions W33A, W49N, and W51 with the HIFI instrument onboard the Herschel satellite. Both lines are seen only in absorption against the dust continuum emission of the star-forming regions. The CH+ absorption is saturated over almost the entire velocity ranges sampled by the lines-of-sight that include gas associated with the star-forming regions (SFR) and Galactic foreground material. The CH+ column densities are inferred from the optically thin components. A lower limit of the isotopic ratio [ 12CH+] /[ 13CH+] > 35.5 is derived from the absorptions of foreground material toward W49N. The column density ratio, N(CH+)/N(HCO+), is found to vary by at least a factor 10, between 4 and >40, in the Galactic foreground material. Line-of-sight 12CH+ average abundances relative to total hydrogen are estimated. Their average value, N(CH+)/NH > 2.6×10-8, is higher than that observed in the solar neighborhood and confirms the high abundances of CH+ in the Galactic interstellar medium. We compare this result to the predictions of turbulent dissipation regions (TDR) models and find that these high abundances can be reproduced for the inner Galaxy conditions. It is remarkable that the range of predicted N(CH+)/N(HCO+) ratios, from 1 to ~50, is comparable to that observed. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Appendix (page 6) is only available in electronic form at http://www.aanda. org
Electromagnetic scattering analysis of coated conductors with edges using the method of auxiliary sources (MAS) in conjunction with the standard impedance boundary condition (SIBC)

A novel combination of the method of auxiliary sources (MAS) and the standard impedance boundary condition (SIBC) is employed in the analysis of transverse magnetic (TM) plane wave scattering from infinite, coated, perfectly conducting cylinders with square cross sections. The scatterer is initially modeled by a SIBC surface and the scattering mechanism is subsequently analyzed via MAS. Although SIBC as well as MAS possess theoretical limitations with regard to an edge, the numerical results show that the MAS/SIBC method provides results of high accuracy for a range of structures with edges. The SIBC modeling of coated conductors with edges has previously been investigated in the literature and thus, this work focuses on comparing MAS and the method of moments (MoM) for SIBC surfaces (MoM/SIBC). A detailed complexity analysis shows that the MAS/SIBC method is, under certain conditions, more efficient than the MoM/SIBC method, proving that the proposed novel combination is a powerful and advantageous computational tool.
The association of serum leptin with anthropometric indices, lipid metabolism and inflammatory biomarkers in patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing dialysis

Introduction: Introduction: The close link between leptin and kidney function is now concerned that a significant increase in the level of bioactive form of leptin in progressive kidney injuries has been recently revealed. Objectives: This study assessed the levels of leptin and its main determinants among endstage renal disease (ESRD) patients on hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 78 patients suffering from ESRD that were planned for hemodialysis (68 patients) or peritoneal dialysis (10 patients) three times a week. The baseline characteristics including demographics, medical history, and medications were collected. The level of laboratory parameters including fasting blood sugar, lipid profile, urea, creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, and parathormone were determined using the special kits. Results: The mean level of leptin was lower than 7.8 ng/mL in 35.9% of patients Serum leptin of 8.7 to 13.1 ng/mL in 7.7% of cases and higher than 13.1 ng/mL in 56.4% of patients was detected. A direct association of plasma leptin with body weight, body mass index (BMI), and serum levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, LDL-C, VLDL and uric acid was seen. Serum levels of leptin were adversely associated with the duration of dialysis. In other patients who underwent peritoneal dialysis, the serum levels of leptin were significantly related to leptin with body weight and BMI while adversely with the duration of dialysis. Regarding association of inflammatory markers, this hormone was adversely associated with levels of β2 microglobulin in the hemodialysis group but not in the peritoneal dialysis group. The level of leptin was not associated with the concentrations of IL6 and IFN-γ in both dialysis groups. Conclusion: In ESRD patients undergoing dialysis, the serum level of leptin is associated with lipid metabolism and BMI. These associations are expected more in the hemodialysis group than in the peritoneal dialysis group.
A group-based FMEA approach with dynamic heterogeneous social network consensus reaching model for uncertain reliability assessment

Abstract Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is a systematic and multidisciplinary team-based reliability analysis technology used in various industries, which can alleviate the failure risk of products, systems and services. The experts are usually drawn from different departments or areas. Thus, it is important to promote the consensus of experts to produce a collective solution with a high degree of acceptability for reliability assessment of FMEA. Meanwhile, there may be social influence relationships between experts, i.e., their opinions can interact and evolve. Hence, this study first integrates group consensus-reaching mechanism into the FMEA approach. Then, according to the uncertainty and similarity of expert assessments of each risk factor of FMEA, heterogeneous social networks among experts are constructed for opinion interaction, which exactly describes the professional expertise and influence of experts. Considering the important role of opinion dynamics and social network dissemination, dynamic heterogeneous social network consensus reaching model (DHSNCRM) with the minimum adjustment distance is further designed to help experts reach a consensus and obtain the consentient priority of failure modes by using a two-stage feedback process. Finally, a case study of reliability management of the intelligent minimally invasive medical equipment system is presented to verify the effectiveness of our proposed FMEA method.
Long-Lived Air Temperature Anomalies in the Midlatitudes Forced by the Surface

Abstract A study of long records of monthly mean air temperature (MMAT) for many stations in the Netherlands indicates that the atmosphere's response to surface boundary forcing is often of a very simple local nature. In the Dutch area, the atmosphere seems to respond to a sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly in the North Sea with an air temperature anomaly of the same sign. Because of the abrupt change in lower boundary forcing near the coastline, very small spatial scales are introduced in air temperature anomalies at long time scales. Over the sea MMAT anomalies have much larger time scales than over the land; a similar increase in time scale can be found in the delay of the climatologically normal temperature with respect to the solar forcing. When extended to the United States, the study showed very similar results; that is, monthly mean surface air temperature (MMAT) anomalies live longest in areas where the air temperature response is slowest to the annual cycle in incoming radiation. Apart from b.
Has the national minimum wage reduced UK wage inequality?

Summary. The paper investigates the effect on the wage distribution of the introduction, in April 1999, of the national minimum wage (NMW) in the UK. Because of the structure of UK earnings statistics, it is not straightforward to investigate this and various methods for adjusting the published statistics are discussed. The main conclusions are that the NMW does have a detectable effect on the wage distribution and that compliance with the NMW is widespread but the effect is limited because the NMW has been set at a level such that only 6–7% of workers are directly affected and the NMW has had virtually no effect on the pay of workers who are not directly affected. Furthermore, virtually all the changes occurred within 2 months of the introduction in April 1999 and its effect declined over time from April 1999 to September 2001 as the minimum wage was not uprated in line with the increase in average earnings. The more substantial increase in the NMW in October 2001 partially, but not wholly, restored some of this decline in impact.
Measurements and modeling of reflective bistability in 1.55-/spl mu/m laser diode amplifiers

We present experimental measurements of bistable characteristics for the case of a 1.55-/spl mu/m symmetric Fabry-Perot laser amplifier with a particularly rich variety of behavior for reflected signals. Three main forms of hysteresis loops are observed on reflection. The hysteresis loop changes from anticlockwise to clockwise hysteresis in the optical output-input characteristic when the drive current or initial phase detuning is changed. A "butterfly" hysteresis loop is observed experimentally at an optical input power as low as 300 /spl mu/W for a drive current equal to 94% of the lasing threshold. The dependence of the reflective optical bistability on drive current, initial phase detuning, and injected optical pewter has been investigated for the first time in an uncoated 1.55-/spl mu/m amplifier. Measurements of the device voltage shifts on switching reveal hysteresis loops which match those in the corresponding optical powers and which indicate the amount of gain saturation and nonlinear refraction responsible for bistability. An analytical model is used to describe the observed reflective bistability and to give insight into the detailed physical mechanisms responsible.
The opacities of spiral galaxies using volume-representative samples

The study of the opacities of spiral galaxies is focused here on the optical depth in the blue band in the regions of the discs between the effective radius and the 26 mag arcsec^-2^ blue isophote. A sample of galaxies drawn from the ESO-LV catalogue is explored using completeness tests which employ the V/V_max_ technique. The results allow a comparison between results from various inclination tests that use different photometric parameters and sample selection criteria. For Sb-Sc galaxies, isophotal diameters do not increase with inclination in complete samples, but do so in incomplete samples. This result explains part of the diversity of the literature. An additional analysis, incorporating the effect of interlopers in a diameter-selected sample, employs log N-log diameter distributions and provides new results on the transparency in the outer regions for several central surface brightness `families' of Sb, Sc and Sd galaxies. These results and earlier findings match well, and suggest an average overall picture of the optical depth at various locations in the discs of these galaxies. Sb galaxies and high surface brightness galaxies of later type (Sc, Sd) are found to have low C values (optically thick, high internal extinctions) over the whole of their discs, while the fainter surface brightness Sc and Sd galaxies are best modelled with C= 0.5-0.6 at the effective radius (semi-transparent) and C = 0.7-0.9 at the 26 mag arcsec^-2^ isophote (nearly transparent). A relatively large optical depth and a corresponding low overall disc C value at the outer radii are best understood in terms of an obscuring component with a scaleheight of the same order as that of the stars and a scalelength larger than that of the stars. The IRAS 60-micron data are not really mapping this component.
Dynamic Choice, Independence and Emotions

From the viewpoint of the independence axiom of expected utility theory, an interesting empirical dynamic choice problem involves the presence of a “global risk,” that is, a chance of losing everything whichever safe or risky option is chosen. In this experimental study, participants have to allocate real money between a safe and a risky project. Treatment variable is the particular decision stage at which a global risk is resolved: (i) before the investment decision; (ii) after the investment decision, but before the resolution of the decision risk; (iii) after the resolution of the decision risk. The baseline treatment is without global risk. Our goal is to investigate the isolation effect and the principle of timing independence under the different timing options of the global risk. In addition, we examine the role played by anticipated and experienced emotions in the choice problem. Main findings are a violation of the isolation effect, and support for the principle of timing independence. Although behavior across the different global risk cases shows similarities, we observe clear differences in people’s affective responses. This may be responsible for the conflicting results observed in earlier experiments. Dependent on the timing of the global risk different combinations of anticipated and experienced emotions influence decision making.
Prediction of the Nonlinear Dynamics of a Multiple Flame Combustor by Coupling the Describing Function Methodology With a Helmholtz Solver

This study focuses on the numerical determination of thermo-acoustic instabilities using a combination of the Flame Describing Function (FDF) methodology and a numerical code solving the Helmholtz equation. In this framework, the FDF is defined by a set of Flame Transfer Functions (FTF) that depend on both the frequency and amplitude of acoustic perturbations. The FDF methodology has been recently used in combination with acoustic network methods to examine the nonlinear stability of generic configurations with simplified geometries. Its extension to complex 3D geometries requires the use of numerical tools such as a Helmholtz solver. In the present work, that combination is validated on a multiple injection combustor. The implementation of the FDF methodology in the Helmholtz solver is detailed before examining numerical predictions obtained by the use of an experimentally determined FDF in the Helmholtz solver. The instability frequencies and growth rates are determined for each perturbation level and different nonlinear behaviors are exhibited depending on the combustor geometry. The case of linearly unstable modes reaching limit cycles is first examined. A more complex case involving mode switching is then examined when two unstable modes are present. In this situation, the most unstable mode in the linear regime triggers another
Formulation variationnelle pour le calcul de la diffraction d'une onde acoustique par une surface rigide

This work is a continuation of our paper Formulation variationnelle espace-temps pour le calcul par potentiel retarde de la diffraction d'une onde acoustique . We give a space·time variational formula to the problem of the scattered acoutic wave by a hard body, using the double layer retarded potential technique. New schemes are constructed from this variationnal formula, for which we prove the stability and errors estimates.