Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-Term Dynamics of Poverty Transitions in India (Asian Development Review Volume 38 Number 2)

I use a stochastic model to explore the dynamics of poverty in India from 1952 to 2006 and find that temporal transitions into and out of poverty are common. Model outcomes suggest that transitions out of poverty outnumber transitions into poverty in recent times, but that there is still a nontrivial proportion of individuals transitioning annually into poverty, highlighting the economic fragility of those near the poverty line. There is also a marked persistence of poverty over time, and although this has been slowly declining, past poverty remains a good predictor of current poverty. Particularly concerning in this context are the income trajectories of those in the bottom decile of the income distribution for whom escape from poverty appears infeasible given extant income dynamics. Finally, the dynamics suggest that transitional and persistent poverty are distinct phenomena that require distinct policy responses involving both missing markets and state action.
Bragg Reflection of Waves by Different Shapes of Artificial Bars

Experiments are performed in a wave flume to demonstrate the Bragg reflection of linear gravity waves by artificial bars. Three different artificial bars with rectangular, triangular and rectified cosinoidal shapes are placed discretely on the seabed for measurement of the Bragg reflection. A series of experimental conditions including the number of bars, the pe-riodic bar spacing, the water depth and various wave conditions are tested. Key parameters influencing the Bragg resonances are investigated. The experimental data are compared with the values from both theoretical and numerical models. Some key parameters have proved to be effective in describing the primary resonances. Predictive equations of the charac-teristics for the Bragg reflection are proposed in this paper.
Aflatoxin detection in whole corn kernels using hyperspectral methods

Hyperspectral (HS) data for the inspection of whole corn kernels for aflatoxin is considered. The high-dimensionality of HS data requires feature extraction or selection for good classifier generalization. For fast and inexpensive data collection, only several features (λ responses) can be used. These are obtained by feature selection from the full HS response. A new high dimensionality branch and bound (HDBB) feature selection algorithm is used; it is found to be optimum, fast and very efficient. Initial results indicate that HS data is very promising for aflatoxin detection in whole kernel corn.
Internal Erosion of Clayey Soils Protected by Granular Filters

The process of internal erosion in an embankment dam with granular filters can be divided in five stages : (i) formation of the crack through the core, (ii) erosion of material from the crack walls due to the shear stress applied by flowing water, (iii) transport of eroded particles to the filter, (iv) retention or percolation of these particles within the filter, (v) continuation of erosion leading to piping failure, or sealing of the crack. The process is quite well known in case of non-cohesive base soils, but if the base is a clayey soil, the process is much more complex. Based on a large number of No Erosion Filter tests performed at the University of Granada, (Spain), this paper analyses the influence that have several base soil’s variables in the internal erodability of clayey soils protected by granular filters, such as plasticity, mineralogy, water content, additives and hydraulic gradient.
Creative Milieux of Fashion and Reuse in Tokyo, Bangkok and Singapore

This paper explores bottom-up urban regeneration in Tokyo, Bangkok and Singapore. It looks at the contribution of specific local creativities which, in association with an increasingly popular practice of the reuse of existing urban artefacts, provides a critical contribution to local urban culture. These synergies between reuse and local creativities seem to be capable of generating alternatives to the dominant development trends. Those alternatives promote the local, the ordinary and the banal to the benefit of urban quality. A specific focus of the paper is on requalification of existing places by bottom-up fashion-related activities.
Accuracy Evaluation of an Aircraft Performance Model with Airliner Flight Data

This paper quantitatively evaluates the accuracy of the base of aircraft data (BADA) model by comparing calculated fuel flow and total fuel consumption with flight data recorded by airliners’ quick access recorder systems. For future more efficient air transportation system research, it is necessary to derive fuel consumption for an arbitrary flight trajectory with good accuracy. BADA, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (EUROCONTROL) aircraft performance model is widely used for such purposes, but there is only a small number of papers which discuss its accuracy with actual flight data. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the BADA model has sufficient accuracy to deal with the study of air transportation systems. As a result of comparison conducted for a single fleet of twin engine wide-body jet passenger aircraft, calculated fuel flow showed good agreement with the flight data in the cruise phase and it was found that the error between the BADA model and flight data falls within plus or minus 5 [%] for a whole flight.
Processing of PZT piezoelectric thick films on silicon for microelectromechancial systems

Thick-film printed lead zirconate titanate (PZT) structures can be combined with micromachined silicon structures and offer relatively large actuation forces compared to alternative techniques. This paper describes the initial investigation into the compatibility issues of micromachining silicon wafers with PZT layers printed on the surface. It assesses the effect of many standard photolithography and micromachining upon the printed PZT layer. In particular the adhesion of the printed layer to the substrate and its internal structure have been studied after exposure to each process. Standard photolithography using positive resists has been found to destroy the adhesion of the platinum electrode and an alternative masking technique using a thick-film printed dielectric polymer has been developed. Aluminium top electrodes have been fabricated using this masking technique combined with ion beam milling. Finally many standard micromachining etching processes have been carried out on a range of silicon substrates incorporating platinum electrode/thick-film PZT structures. Wet silicon and silicon dioxide etches were found to be unsuitable since they also attacked the adhesion of the bottom electrode. Plasma etching processes appear to be well suited for the combination of materials since there is a wide range of etches available that do not affect the PZT. These can therefore be used for the micromachining of the silicon substrate after thick-film processing greatly expanding the range of applications suited to this combination of technologies.
Factors Affecting the Long-Term Development of Specialized Agricultural Villages North and South of Huai River

Village-level agricultural specialization in China is becoming increasingly important for rural development. However, existing knowledge of specialized agricultural villages (SAVs) based on singular assessment criteria and data describing static time points becomes insufficient in addressing multifaceted developmental questions today. We examined the long-term development patterns of SAVs in Anhui, China, with attributes from multiple angles, and explored how local factors affected SAV development across space and time using random forest regression. We found that as time elapsed, economic rationality drove specialized farmers closer to sale dependency and made SAVs more susceptible to market and economic factors, which builds upon previous findings analyzing SAVs at specific time points and consolidates the importance of market factors in the long-term development of SAVs. However, this susceptibility manifests differently in these two geographically contrasting regions north and south of Huai River. The northern SAVs received increased influences from market and economic factors, while the southern SAVs were continuously controlled by market and location factors. The dynamic spatial and temporal patterns of the two regions point to different dependencies, which emphasized local sales in the north and distant sales in the south. We propose that policies and strategies regarding SAV development accommodate these dynamics and address appropriate influencing factors accordingly.
The Relationship of Neighbourhood Built Environment Features and Adult Parents' Walking

Research on urban design and walking often emphasizes macro-scale features of the physical environment, such as block length and number of intersections, that can be measured remotely using GIS and or aerial photographs. In contrast, urban designers emphasize the importance of micro-scale features in individuals' use and experience of neighbourhood environments. This paper moves beyond examining correlations of individual built environment features and walking, to begin to test proposals about which composite characteristics of the built environment (safety, comfort, etc.) may have the greatest impact on walking. Several urban design characteristics of 11 neighbourhoods throughout California were observed. Self-report, adult walking data on the number and types of walking trips were obtained from surveys administered to parents of 3rd–5th graders. Urban design features related to both accessibility and safety are associated with the amount of walking that adults do in their neighbourhoods. Grouping related urban design variables into indices provides some clarity as to how the built environment may impact walking. Safety emerges as the most important built environment characteristic (of those tested), related to both destination and recreational walking.
Study and implementation for range-gated underwater laser imaging system

The report provides the principle and advances of range-gated Underwater Laser Imaging Technology. A prototype Underwater Laser Imaging System has been designed and developed. The range-gated technique is one of the effective methods to decrease the backward scattering of the water media. This report provides the study and implementation for range-gated Underwater Laser Imaging System (ULIS). A careful analysis of the novel Underwater Laser Imaging System (ULIS) shows that a range-gated system will have a significantly improved viewing performance over conventional systems. The system uses a 2-kHz diode-pumped frequency doubled Nd:YAG laser as an illumination source. The light is collected by a 5-cm-diam zoom lens. The detector is a gated image CCD detector with a 10-ns gate. In the strongly scattering waters, this system has a range of from three to five times that of a conventional camera with floodlights. By the use of the lower attenuation window for the water media in the visible light spectrum, pulse laser with the blue-green wavelength has been adopted as an illumination source and CCD as the receiver. The range-gated underwater laser imaging system has been successfully fulfilled. The system can decrease the influence of backward scattering and at the same time the system can improve target luminance. The detail schematic principle and realization scheme have been analyzed. It has been found that the range-gated underwater laser imaging system could improve the imaging quality and the imaging distance by conveniently adjusting the pulse delay and the pulse width. It has been become one of the key techniques in underwater laser imaging research field.
Stresses and Displacements in an Elliptically Perforated Circular Disc Under Radial Pressure

The complex potentials governing the elastic equilibrium of a finite circular disc, elliptically perforated at its center, are obtained using Muskhelishvili’s formulation. The disc is subjected to non-uniform distribution of pressure along two symmetric finite arcs of its periphery. Given the complex potentials, the stress- and displacement-fields can be determined everywhere on the disc by introducing a novel flexible interpretation of the conformal mapping, suitably adjusted to the computational process. The results of this procedure are given for various strategic loci and are critically discussed. The length of the loaded arc is considered similar to that obtained from the solution of the intact disc-circular jaw elastic contact problem assuming that the disc is compressed between the steel jaws of the device suggested by the International Society for Rock Mechanics for the implementation of the Brazilian-disc test. Concerning the distribution of the externally induced pressure along the loaded arcs, it is proven that for the general asymmetric configuration (i.e. the axes of the elliptical hole are neither parallel nor normal to the loading axis) the induced asymmetric displacement field does not permit maintenance of equilibrium of the disc as a whole in case the disc is considered exclusively under a distribution of radial pressure: Additional tractions must be exerted along the loaded arcs, obviously in the form of frictional stresses. Besides, providing full-field, analytic expressions for stresses and displacements, the main advantage of the present solution is that, by properly choosing the ratio of the ellipse’s semi-axes, the solution of three additional configurations, of major importance in engineering praxis, are obtained: These of the intact disc, the circular ring and the cracked disc.
The Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Fear Memory: Dynamics, Connectivity, and Engrams

It is becoming increasingly apparent that long-term memory formation relies on a distributed network of brain areas. While the hippocampus has been at the center of attention for decades, it is now clear that other regions, in particular the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), are taking an active part as well. Recent evidence suggests that the mPFC—traditionally implicated in the long-term storage of memories—is already critical for the early phases of memory formation such as encoding. In this review, we summarize these findings, relate them to the functional importance of the mPFC connectivity, and discuss the role of the mPFC during memory consolidation with respect to the different theories of memory storage. Owing to its high functional connectivity to other brain areas subserving memory formation and storage, the mPFC emerges as a central hub across the lifetime of a memory, although much still remains to be discovered.
Progress in GaN devices performances and reliability

With the DARPA Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Technology RF Thrust Contract, TriQuint Semiconductor and its partners, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, IQE-RF, II-VI, Nitronex, M.I. T. , and R.P.I. are achieving great progress towards the overall goal of making Gallium Nitride a revolutionary RF technology ready to be inserted in defense and commercial applications. Performance and reliability are two critical components of success (along with cost and manufacturability). In this paper we will discuss these two aspects. Our emphasis is now operation at 40 V bias voltage (we had been working at 28 V). 1250 µm devices have power densities in the 6 to 9 W/mm with associated efficiencies in the low- to mid 60 % and associated gain in the 12 to 12.5 dB at 10 GHz. We are using a dual field-plate structure to optimize these performances. Very good performances have also been achieved at 18 GHz with 400 µm devices. Excellent progress has been made in reliability. Our preliminary DC and RF reliability tests at 40 V indicate a MTTF of 1E6hrs with1.3 eV activation energy at 150 0C channel temperature. Jesus Del Alamo at MIT has greatly refined our initial findings leading to a strain related theory of degradation that is driven by electric fields. Degradation can occur on the drain edge of the gate due to excessive strain given by inverse piezoelectric effect.
Coupled Electro-Mechanical Analysis of Adaptive Material Systems — Determination of the Actuator Power Consumption and System Energy Transfer

This article presents a coupled electro-mechanical analysis of piezoelectric ceramic (PZT) actuators integrated in mechanical systems to determine the actuator power consumption and energy transfer in the electro-mechanical systems. For a material system with integrated PZT actua tors, the power consumed by the PZT actuators consists of two parts: the energy used to drive the system, which is dissipated in terms of heat as a result of the structural damping, and energy dissi pated by the PZT actuators themselves because of their dielectric loss and internal damping. The coupled analysis presented herein uses a simple model, a PZT actuator-driven one-degree-of- freedom spring-mass-damper system, to illustrate the methodology used to determine the actuator power consumption and energy flow in the coupled electro-mechanical systems. This method can be applied to more complicated mechanical structures or systems, such as a fluid-loaded shell for active structural acoustic control. The determination of the actuator power consumption can be very im portant in the design and application of intelligent material systems and structures and of particular relevance to designs that must be optimized to reduce mass and energy consumption.
Impacts Analysis of Alien Macroinvertebrate Species in the Hydrographic System of a Subalpine Lake on the Italian–Swiss Border

The potential invasiveness of alien macroinvertebrate species in the Italian/Swiss hydrographic system of Lake Maggiore (NW Italy) was assessed through the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit, a risk assessment tool developed for quantifying the impacts of alien species on the commercial, environmental, and species traits sectors. Data were collected using the databases provided by two regional environmental agencies in northern Italy (Lombardy and Piedmont regions) and by the governmental monitoring program of Switzerland, which were integrated with a systematic literature search on Google scholar and ISI Web of Science. In the assessment area, 16 macroinvertebrate invasive alien species were reported: nine mollusks, four decapods, and three amphipods. The species assessment indicated seven species with a high level of invasiveness: Procambarus clarkii, Faxonius limosus (formerly, Orconectes limosus) and Pacifastacus leniusculus, Dreissena polymorpha, Corbicula fluminea, Sinanodonta woodiana, and Pseudosuccinea columella. The results allow invasive species managers to understand which species to focus their monitoring on in the near future in order to track IAS movements and limit their spread within the hydrographic system and to provide the identification and refinement of concerted bilateral strategies aimed at limiting the impacts of these species. They also account for the implications of future climate change on the invasion potential of each species.
Nonlinear Seismic Soil-Pile Structure Interaction

Analytical design tools for evaluation of soil-pile-structure interaction during seismic events are evaluated and modified. Several implementations of the “Beam on Nonlinear Winkler Foundation” (BNWF) method were used to predict results of centrifuge model tests of single piles in a soft clay soil profile. This paper shows that calculations from these computer codes can be sensitive to the details of the arrangement of nonlinear springs and linear viscous dashpots. Placing the linear viscous dashpots (representing radiation damping in the far field) in series with the hysteretic component of the p-y elements (representing the nonlinear soil-pile response in the near field) is shown to be technically preferable to a parallel arrangement of the viscous and hysteretic damping components. Preliminary centrifuge data is reasonably modeled by the numerical calculations using this implementation of damping, but additional field or physical model data are needed to fully evaluate the reliability of BNWF procedures.
Drosophila Heart as a Model for Cardiac Development and Diseases

The Drosophila heart, also referred to as the dorsal vessel, pumps the insect blood, the hemolymph. The bilateral heart primordia develop from the most dorsally located mesodermal cells, migrate coordinately, and fuse to form the cardiac tube. Though much simpler, the fruit fly heart displays several developmental and functional similarities to the vertebrate heart and, as we discuss here, represents an attractive model system for dissecting mechanisms of cardiac aging and heart failure and identifying genes causing congenital heart diseases. Fast imaging technologies allow for the characterization of heartbeat parameters in the adult fly and there is growing evidence that cardiac dysfunction in human diseases could be reproduced and analyzed in Drosophila, as discussed here for heart defects associated with the myotonic dystrophy type 1. Overall, the power of genetics and unsuspected conservation of genes and pathways puts Drosophila at the heart of fundamental and applied cardiac research.
Cost Modelling and Seismic Evaluation of Lateral load resisting systems for High rise RCC structures

Even though the structures are designed for seismic resistance, the structures may or may not perform to the extent that they are designed for. Increasing height and slenderness has changed the view from static vertical loads to lateral dynamic loads generated by earthquakes and wind. Hence the impact of earthquake or wind loads acting on the structures become an important part of the design. The study has been done for different zones and different soils as specified in IS 1893 on case studies. Shear wall and steel bracing systems are most effective means to adopt to add more stiffness in frames. Different kinds of lateral load resisting structures available like moment resisting structures, bracing systems and shear walls have been studied. Usage of these systems in the structure are different for given site conditions and location since the parameters are changed based on parameters. In multi-storied structures the lateral load consists of both the seismic loads as well as wind loads. At varying multiple heights the factors like story displacement, story drifts and base shear are changed based on conditions. Implications of the cost is studied using a dual configuration of the structural systems such as shear wall and bracing provided for seismic resistance. Index Terms Bracing, Shear wall, Storey drift, Base shear, Seismic analysis, lateral load systems