Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Slim Accretion Disks Around Black Holes

In this thesis, I study hydrodynamical models of slim accretion disks --- advective, optically thick disks which generalize the standard models of radiatively efficient thin disks to all accretion rates. I start with a general introduction to the theory of accretion onto compact objects. It is followed by a derivation of the commonly-used standard models of thin disks. In the subsequent section I introduce the equations describing slim disks, explain the numerical methods I used to solve them and discuss properties of such solutions. I also give a general derivation of non-stationary equations and present the time evolution of thermally unstable accretion disks. I introduce a state-of-the-art approach coupling the radial and vertical structures of an advective accretion disk and discuss the improvements it brings to vertically-averaged solutions. I also present a numerical model of self-illuminated slim accretion disks. Finally, I present and discuss applications of slim accretion disks: estimating of spin of the central black hole in LMC X-3 through X-ray continuum fitting basing on high-luminosity data, spinning-up of black holes by super-critical accretion flows and normalizing of magnetohydrodynamical global simulations.
Etude de la transition à l'instationnarité des écoulements de convection naturelle en cavité verticale différentiellement chauffée par méthodes spectrales chebyshev

On developpe un algorithme d'integration des equations bidimensionnelles instationnaires de navier-stokes d'un fluide de bomussinesq qui couple une discretisation spatiale des variables dependantes par approximation spectrale de chebyshev a une discretisation temporelle de type differences-finies du second ordre. Les cavites etudiees ont des rapports de forme de 1 a 10. Suivant le rapport de forme et les conditions aux limites thermiques, il existe trois mecanismes differents de transition a l'instationnarite qui correspondent a des bifurcations de hopf supercritiques
The Epistemic Qualities of Quantum Transformation

THE EPISTEMIC QUALITIES OF QUANTUM TRANSFORMATION Jonathan E. Skalski Department of Psychology Master of Science Growth and development are central constituents of the human experience. Although the American Psychological Association aims to understand change and behavior in ways that embrace all aspects of experience (APA, 2008), sudden, lifealtering or quantum transformation has been disregarded throughout the history of psychology until recently (see Miller & C’ de Baca, 1994, 2001). Quantum transformation is similar to self-surrender conversion (James, 1902), but different from peak experiences (Maslow, 1964) and near death experiences (Lorimer, 1990) because quantum transformation, by definition, involves lasting change. Quantum transformation contains epistemic qualities, which refer to the content and process of knowing (Miller & C’ de Baca, 2001), but little is known about these qualities. The current study employed a qualitative method to better understand the epistemic qualities of quantum transformation. Fourteen participants were extensively interviewed about their experience. Analysis involved hermeneutic methods (Kvale, transformation, as positive, discrete, noetic, and life-altering transformation has been overlooked in psychology. Of particular interest are what individuals come to know and the process of coming to know in quantum transformation. 15 individuals were 1996) and phenomenological description (Giorgi & Giorgi, 2003). Quantum transformation is essentially a process of knowing that unfolded in the form of disintegration, insight, and integration in the present study. First, disintegration is presented by themes of Overwhelming stress, Relational struggle, Hopelessness, Holding-on, Control, Psychological turmoil, Self-discrepancy, and Guilt. Second, insight is presented by the Content and Tacit knowing of the experience. Third, integration is presented by Changes in values, Other-orientation, and A process of development. The results suggest that the disintegration and the suffering that characterizes the pre-transformation milieu inform how quantum transformation relates to lasting change. Therapists that automatically aim to alleviate moral-emotional sorrow or guilt should consider whether the emotional experience can bring about positive transformation. Quantum transformation resembles near death experience and likewise has potentially major implications for our understanding of personality change and moral development.
Characteristics of the Avifauna in a Rice Field Dominated Rural Area, and Habitat Use by Grassland Birds in Western Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract Rural areas provide various habitats for birds, and some studies have revealed habitat associations in rural bird communities in Japan. Previous studies have primarily focused on waterbirds or the habitat values of abandoned farmland, thus little is known about the importance of cultivated land for rural bird communities. Therefore, in this study, I clarified the characteristics of the avifauna in a rural area of the Ishikari Plain in Shinshinotsu Village, Western Hokkaido, and examined habitat utilization of cultivated land by eight major grassland species; Bull-headed Shrike Lanius bucephalus, Eurasian Skylark Alauda arvensis, Black-browed Reed Warbler Acrocephalus bistrigiceps, Siberian Rubythroat Calliope calliope, Stejneger's Stonechat Saxicola stejnegeri, Chestnut-eared Bunting Emberiza fucata, Black-faced Bunting E. spodocephala, and Common Reed Bunting E. schoeniclus. I conducted bird surveys along three 2-km line-transect routes among rice fields with some wheat, non-wheat crop fields, and weedy areas from April to October from 2016 to 2018. I recorded a total of 51 species of three general types: grassland birds, residential birds, and water birds. Rice fields in this study areas were flooded during early to mid-May to mid to late August, however species-specific habitat utilization analyses revealed that a small number of Eurasian Skylark, Stejneger's Stonechat, and Chestnut-eared Bunting inhabited the rice fields during study periods other than the flooding season. A relatively large number of Eurasian Skylark was observed in wheat fields and non-wheat crop fields throughout the study period, and Stejneger's Stonechat and Chestnut-eared Bunting were temporarily observed in those habitats. The other five species only rarely observed in rice, wheat, or non-wheat crop fields, but all eight species were observed in weedy areas. The characteristics of the avifauna in this rural area of Western Hokkaido proved to be quite different from previous studies conducted in the Kanto Region of Honshu. For the conservation of biodiversity and birds in rural areas, it is necessary to investigate the avifaunal characteristics of various regions of Japan.
Child and caregiver mental health during 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia: findings from national repeated cross-sectional surveys

Background There are calls for research into the mental health consequences of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. Australia’s initial, effective suppression of COVID-19 offers insights into these indirect impacts in the relative absence of the disease. We aimed to describe the mental health experiences of Australian caregivers and children over 12 months, reporting differences related to demographic, socioeconomic and lockdown characteristics. Methods Data were from Australia’s only nationally representative, repeated cross-sectional survey of caregivers with children (0–17 years). N=2020 caregivers participated in June 2020, N=1434 in September 2020 and N=2508 in July 2021. Caregivers reported their mental health (poor vs not, Kessler-6), and perceived impacts of the pandemic on theirs and their children’s mental health (negative vs none/positive). Data were weighted to approximate population distributions of caregiver age, gender, sole caregiving, number and ages of children, state/territory and neighbourhood-level disadvantage. Results Perceived impacts on mental health were more frequently negative for female (vs male) caregivers and older (vs younger) children. Poor caregiver mental health (Kessler-6) was more common for families experiencing socioeconomic adversity (especially financial), while perceived impacts were more frequently negative for more socially advantaged groups. Caregivers who experienced the least total lockdown reported similar mental health over time. Otherwise, poor mental health and perceived negative impacts increased over time with increasing total length of lockdown. Conclusion Despite Australia’s low infection rates, the negative mental health experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic are real and concerning. Addressing poor mental health must be central to ongoing pandemic recovery efforts for families and children.
The Role of Technology, Government, Law, And Social Trust on E-Commerce Adoption

ABSTRACT This research explores critical factors impacting e-commerce adoption at the country-level. Due to the steady growth in e-commerce trade volumes in recent years, governments of many countries are focused on improving their share in the overall global trade. Therefore, it is crucial to examine the important drivers of e-commerce adoption at a country level rather than just individual and organizational levels. In addition to social trust, the model presented includes technological, governmental, and cultural factors as antecedents of the e-commerce adoption. Secondary data from seventy countries are collected to empirically evaluate the hypotheses presented among the factors of the research model. The hypotheses are assessed using PLS analytical procedures. We found that connectivity and technological efficacy directly influence e-commerce. We also found that legal environment and connectivity impact social trust which in its turn affects uncertainty avoidance. Our results are very important for decision makers. According to the results of our study, policy makers need to consider their country’s institutional, technological, and cultural environments. We discuss the implications of our results for researchers and practitioners.
ICT Leapfrogging and Economic Growth Among SAARC Economies: Evidence From Method of Moments Quantile Regression

ABSTRACT ICT “leapfrogging” is when developing economies adopt the use of technology to jump-start their development agenda. This study positions the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 to test the leapfrogging hypothesis on eight SAARC economies (Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) from 2000 to 2020. We examine if the hypothesis holds using an unbalanced panel data on real per capita GDP and four ICT indicators (mobile phones, fixed telephones, fixed broadband, and Internet users). We deploy panel spatial correlation consistent (PSCC) and method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR) techniques. The MM-QR offers more reliable results than PSCC because it takes into account the conditional heterogeneity issues that are understated. The general consensus indicates that ICT (individual indicators and composite index) exerts a statistically significant positive effect on economic growth mostly at the 1% level. However, the MM-QR reveals that: (1) the leapfrogging hypothesis holds for mobile phones and composite index models; (2) the hypothesis holds only at the lower quantiles of fixed broadband model; and (3) mobile phones show the largest increasing leapfrogging effect of 0.034%, 0.052%, 0.082%, and 0.099%, respectively. Policy recommendations are discussed.
A 3.8-µW 1.5-NEF 15-GΩ Total Input Impedance Chopper Stabilized Amplifier With Auto-Calibrated Dual Positive Feedback in 110-nm CMOS

A capacitively-coupled chopper instrument amplifier (CCIA) for bio-potential monitoring analog front-end (AFE) with auto-calibrated dual positive feedback loops (DPFLs) is presented in this article. The proposed AFE with the DPFL does not only prevent total input impedance degradation by unexpected external and internal parasitic capacitances but also achieves excellent noise efficiency simultaneously. The DPFL consists of a conventional internal positive feedback loop with an attenuator for enhancing calibration resolution and an external positive feedback loop outside of the input chopper to compensate for a large external parasitic capacitance (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C_{P-EXT}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), boosting total input impedance significantly. To precisely determine the feedback factor of the DPFL with respect to parasitic capacitors, an on-chip foreground calibration is also implemented in this work. Fabricated in a 110-nm CMOS process, the prototype AFE consumes 3.83 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> per channel at 1 and 1.5-V supplies and has the input-referred noise of 0.36 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{V}_{rms}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> from 0.5 to 300 Hz with the noise efficiency factor of 1.54. The proposed AFE achieves high-input impedances of 15 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{G}\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 10 Hz and 2 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\text{G}\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 50 Hz, even with an additional <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C_{P-EXT}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 82 pF.
Beyond panoptic surveillance: On the ethical dilemmas of the connected workplace

Technological advances such as the Internet-of-Things, big data, and artificial intelligence have enabled new ways of managerial oversight moving away from panoptic surveillance to what we call “connected surveillance”. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of connected surveillance, which purpose is not only scrutinizing employees’ work performance, but also health, personal beliefs, and other private matters. With the implementation of connected workplaces, therefore, various ethical dilemmas arise. We highlight four emerging dilemmas, namely: (1) the good of the individual versus the good of the community, (2) ownership versus information disclosure, (3) justice versus mercy, and (4) truth versus loyalty. We discuss those ethical dilemmas for the case of corporate wellness programs which is frequently being used as guise to introduce connected surveillance. Following a socio-technical perspective, we discuss ethical responses that focus on people involvement and technology assessment. We highlight practical responses that can aim at mitigating the dilemmas.
Anxiety and depression mediate the relationship between digestive tract conditions and oral health-related quality of life in orthodontic patients

Background Anxiety and depression are common psychological problems in orthodontic patients whose diet habits and oral health status change frequently during treatment. However, relationships between anxiety and depression, digestive tract condition, and impaired oral health-related quality of life remain unknown. Materials and methods In this study, clinical assessments, including anxiety, depression, digestive tract condition, and oral health-related quality of life, were collected from 769 outpatients in the orthodontic department using three self-reported questionnaires. Correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationships among different clinical assessments. A chained mediation analysis model was further conducted to explore the direct and indirect effects of these various clinical factors. Results Changes in digestive tract conditions were positively correlated with the psychological status and oral health-related quality of life. Anxiety and depression partially mediated the relationship between them, and the indirect effect was 0.68 (30%), of which the mediation effect of anxiety accounted for 56%. Conclusion Anxiety and depression mediate the relationship between gastrointestinal conditions and oral health. In particular, anxiety seems to play a significant mediating role. Our findings indicate that psychological status must be paid more attention to in future clinical practices and supervision for digestive tract symptoms of orthodontic patients.
Allocation through stochastic Schur convexity and stochastic transposition increasingness

Consider a stochastic allocation problem where a total resource of R units are to be allocated among m competing facilities in a system. An allocation of r, units to facility i results in a random response Xi(n),i = l,. ,m. The system response is then defined by the random variable Y(r) = Λ(Xi(ri),. ,X m (r m )) where h : Έi m -> R is the system performance function. Let S C 1R+ be the set of all feasible al-locations. We are then interested in the stochastic allocation problem πύn{Eg(Y(r)) : Σ! ϊLi r i = Λ,r G 5} for some utility function g. The aim of the paper is to obtain a partial or a full characterization of the optimal solution to this problem with minimal restriction on g. For this we introduce notions of stochastic Schur convexity and stochastic transposition increasingness and identify sufficient conditions on X, (r t ), i = 1,. , m and h under which Y(r) will be either stochastically Schur convex or transposition increasing with respect to r. Then under appropriate condition on g it can be shown that the stochastic Schur convexity of Y(r) will imply the optimality of balanced resource allocation and the transposition increasingness will imply a partial characterization of the optimal solution thus reducing the computational effort needed to find the optimal solution. Several examples in the telecommunication, manufacturing and reliability /performability systems are presented to illustrate the main results of this paper.
Determinants of patients' satisfaction and trust toward healthcare service environment in general practice clinics

This study aimed to examine the healthcare service environment, patients' experience, and responses toward healthcare services in private general practice (GP) clinics. Self-administered questionnaires were used for collecting data from 367 respondents with prior experience in visiting the general practice clinics in Malaysia. SmartPLS statistical tool was used to test the underlying hypotheses. The results revealed that ambiance, service delivery, interior decor, and cleanliness had a significant influence on patients' trust and satisfaction while the exterior design is neither associated with satisfaction nor trust. Patients' satisfaction and trust had a higher significant effect on their repatronage intention, willingness to pay for a premium healthcare service, and engagement in word-of-mouth for healthcare services. In practice, both the service delivery and ambiance features of the healthcare services environment might be optimized by GP clinics. This research provides significant insights from the patients' perspective toward the GP clinics' healthcare services environment.
Sex and dominance: How to assess and interpret intersexual dominance relationships in mammalian societies

The causes and consequences of being in a particular dominance position have been illuminated in various animal species, and new methods to assess dominance relationships and to describe the structure of dominance hierarchies have been developed in recent years. Most research has focused on same-sex relationships, however, so that intersexual dominance relationships and hierarchies including both sexes have remained much less studied. In particular, different methods continue to be employed to rank males and females along a dominance hierarchy, and sex biases in dominance are still widely regarded as simple byproducts of sexual size dimorphism. However, males and females regularly compete over similar resources when living in the same group, and sexual conflict takes a variety of forms across societies. These processes affect the fitness of both sexes, and are mitigated by intersexual hierarchies. In this study, we draw on data from free-ranging populations of nine species of mammals that vary in the degree to which members of one sex dominate members of the other sex to explore the consequences of using different criteria and procedures for describing intra- and intersexual dominance relationships in these societies. Our analyses confirmed a continuum in patterns of intersexual dominance, from strictly male-dominated species to strictly female-dominated species. All indices of the degree of female dominance were well correlated with each other. The rank order among same-sex individuals was highly correlated between the intra- and intersexual hierarchies, and such correlation was not affected by the degree of female dominance. The relative prevalence of aggression and submission was sensitive to variation in the degree of female dominance across species, with more submissive signals and fewer aggressive acts being used in societies where female dominance prevails. Thus, this study provides important insights and key methodological tools to study intersexual dominance relationships in mammals.
The Effectiveness of a Mindfulness Training Program on Selected Psychological Indices and Sports Performance of Sub-Elite Squash Athletes

Mindfulness Acceptance Commitment (MAC) programs have garnered much support in enhancing sport performance through present-moment focus and non-judgmental thoughts. Expanding on previous studies conducted in collegiate and professional settings, the current study investigates the application of MAC amongst national sub-elite athletes. The study was conducted utilizing a single case A-B design, with a total of six sub-elite Malaysian Squash athletes (2 males, 3 females; Mage = 15 ± 2 years) purposively sampled from the Malaysian national squash team. Participants underwent 6 weeks of baseline testing, 7 weeks of program intervention, and a retention test 4 weeks post-intervention. The intervention consisted of psycho-education, centering and cognitive defusion among other aspects as purported in MAC programs. Changes in proficiency of mindful practice was observed through the Mindfulness Awareness Acceptance Scale (MAAS), experiential avoidance through the Acceptance Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II), stress levels through the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and sport performance through both coach- and self-rated scales. Overall, visual analysis revealed improvements in MAAS levels (M = 1.15 ± 0.15), with no marked changes in AAQ-II (M = –0.002 ± 1.12) and PSS (M = 0.7 ± 0.93) after 7 weeks of intervention. Coach-rated sport performance also improved across the phases (M = 0.86 ± 0.93), with mixed responses for self-rated improvements (M = 0.01 ± 1.19). Overall, the benefits of MAC program were well-maintained past the post-intervention phase. The current study supported the implementation of an MAC program for sub-elite athletes in real-world settings.