Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Accretion flows and neutron star heating in low-mass X-ray binaries

X-ray binaries are excellent test beds for studies of high-energy accretion flows and the properties of compact objects. Neutron star (NS) low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) vary in brightness by almost 8 orders of magnitude and are hosts to diverse accretion flows, transporting varying amounts of energy and mass toward the central NS, as well as expelling significant mass from the binary. This thesis aims to shed light on the accretion flow properties across the mass and luminosity scale, with particular emphasis on constraining the matter accreted on the neutron star surface and the resulting heating, which has important implications for measurements of the NS mass and radius. We have utilized X-ray instruments with substantially different sensitivities in flux and resolving power, each suited to our focused study of the accretion flows in a particular luminosity regime. In our study of the accretion disk wind in GX 13+1, we analyzed the Chandra High-Energy Transmission Grating spectrum of the NS binary accreting near its Eddington limit. We found multiple plasmas with different ionization states and velocities produce the observed absorption complex, in contrast to previous analyses that only found one absorption zone. The accretion disk wind expels mass from the disk at a rate comparable to the accretion onto the NS, and is consistent with a Comptonheated outflow, the driving mechanism likely behind all accretion disk winds in NS LMXBs and, possibly, all BH LXMBs. Frequent monitoring with the Swift X-Ray Telescope allowed us to observe SAX J1750.8-2900 in the relatively short-lived transition between outburst and quiescence. We found its X-ray spectrum softens towards lower luminosities, which can either be due to a radiatively-inefficient accretion flow or an increasing contribution of the boundary layer emission as the source's flux decreases. This work contributes to the establishment of spectral softening as a common property of the accretion flow in NS LMXBs between outburst and quiescence. We also found the transition does not produce significant NS heating. In our studies of NS LMXB quiescent emission, we utilized an XMM-Newton observation of Cen X-4 while the source was at its brightest quiescent luminosity ever recorded. We found the first evidence of multi-temperature thermal emission in a
Design and Modeling of a Mars Tumbleweed Rover

WILSON, JAMIE LEIGH. Design and Modeling of a Mars Tumbleweed Rover. (Under the direction of Dr. Andre P. Mazzoleni.) A Mars Tumbleweed Rover is a spherical, wind driven, planetary rover. Compared with conventional rovers, a tumbleweed rover can travel further faster and gain access to areas such as valleys and chasms that previously were inaccessible. This paper will present results of the design, testing, mathematical modeling, and computer simulation of a tumbleweed rover propelled by a constant wind loading over a rough surface representing the planet’s surface. Results will show different trajectories for specific cases where initial conditions such as mass distribution and angular velocity are varied. DESIGN AND MODELING OF A MARS TUMBLEWEED ROVER by Jamie Leigh Wilson a thesis submitted to the graduate faculty of north carolina state university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of science aerospace engineering raleigh, north carolina April 2007
Use of Social Media in Building Brand Identity Among Young Entrepreneurs

Increasing the number of social media users is a potential for entrepreneurs or young entrepreneurs, especially to develop their businesses on social media. The business world has a potential target of 191 million active social media users. Optimum utilization of social media for business can benefit business people and improve their welfare and the people involved, such as expanding employment opportunities to contribute to community welfare and reduce poverty. One effort that can be made is to build a brand identity on social media by young entrepreneurs. As it is well known, social media users in Indonesia, especially Instagram, are young people. The large number of young entrepreneurs doing business on social media is a challenge in itself to be able to compete to attract the attention of consumers; therefore, the products offered must have an identity so that they are easily recognized among competitors. The research method used is descriptive; the research subjects are young entrepreneurs who had used social media for business for at least 1 year and were selected purposively. Keywords: brand identity, social media, young entrepreneurs
Multi-View Faces Detection Using Viola-Jones Method

Face detection has arrested attention because it has many applications in computer vision. Face detection is widely used in many digital image processing as a basis for recognizing and tracing faces. In this paper, we propose multi-view object detection system to count the number of faces in an image. This system uses an AdaBoost algorithm in Viola-Jones method of face detection to built classifiers cascades of faces. The Viola Jones method can reduce face detection errors, the Viola Jones method has several processing steps. It can detect and calculate the number of faces contained in the image. The Viola-Jones method is practically implemented by using Matlab for detecting the human face in images. Testing with the proposed model has been carried out with 40 image data. The test results have shown the level of face detection accuracy of 93.24%
The influence of skepticism on the university Millennials’ organic food product purchase intention

Purpose This study extends the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and analyzes the influence of skepticism (SKP) on the purchase intention (PI) of organic products, through the mediation of subjective norms (SN) and planned behavior control.Design/methodology/approach This was a quantitative, correlational and cross-sectional study. The study population comprised 446 university Millennials from Ecuador. Results were processed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings The study showed that SKP does not directly influence the PI. However, if it does so through the mediating effect of SN and perceived behavior control (PBC). Also, the study found that attitudes (ATTs), SN and PBC influence the PI of organic products in university Millennials.Originality/value The study used TPB constructs and identified the influence of SKP on the intention to buy organic products in Ecuadorian university Millennials.
Time Spent on Private Tutoring and Sleep Patterns of Chinese Adolescents: Evidence from a National Panel Survey

Objective: In recent decades, there has been a marked increase in private tutoring and a decline in sleep health among adolescents. This study aimed to outline the association between time spent on private tutoring and sleep patterns of Chinese adolescents. Methods: Participants were from a nationwide two-wave panel survey. We performed OLS regressions of sleep duration at wave 2 and Poisson regressions of sleep problems at wave 2 on tutoring time at wave 2, adjusting for baseline sleep duration and other covariates. Tutoring time was assessed by three items: daily hours of tutoring, daily hours of tutoring on weekdays, and daily hours of tutoring on weekends. Results: Overall, more time spent on private tutoring was associated with shorter sleep duration and more sleep problems. Furthermore, both weekday and weekend tutoring can have a positive effect on the number of sleep problems. With regard to sleep duration, weekend tutoring time played a negative role, while the effect of weekday tutoring time was negligible. Conclusion: In the Chinese context, which is characterized by intense academic competition, participation in private tutoring plays a significant role in shaping students’ sleep duration and sleep problems. To improve the sleep health of adolescents, the time spent on private tutoring should be carefully monitored and regulated.
PREVALENCE OF CAPILLARIA NEMATODES OF PIGEONS (COLUMBA LIVIA DOMESTICA) IN DISTRICT NAROWAL, PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Pigeons are omnipresent birds which belong to the order, Columbiformes and cover a large part of every town and city, worldwide. Among the parasites of pigeons, Capillaria is found to be more prevalent in them after Eimeria. These worms penetrate deeply in the intestinal mucosa leading to haemorrhages and epithelial necrosis thereby presenting clinical disease and death occurs if left untreated. The major purpose of this study was to determine the burden of Capillaria spp. in domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica) of district Narowal. Total 210 fecal samples from pigeon flocks were processed qualitatively through direct microscopy and floatation method while quantitatively through McMaster technique. The parasitic eggs were diagnosed using standard keys. In this study, 154 (73.33%) out of the 210 samples were found infected with Capillaria spp. The quantitative examination presented the lowest eggs per gram (EPG) of 300 in the Narowal tehsil and highest EPG of 800 in Shakargarh tehsil among the study areas. This study will be helpful in raising awareness to pigeon owners to improve pigeons health status through better control of capillariasis.
Analyse statistique de données fonctionnelles à structures complexes

Longitudinal studies play a salient role in many and various research areas and their relevance is still increasing. The related methods have become a privileged tool for analyzing the evolution of a given phenomenon across time. Longitudinal data arise when measurements for one or more variables are taken at different points of a temporal axis on individuals involved in the study. A key feature of such type of data is that observations within the same subject may be correlated. That fundamental characteristic makes longitudinal data different from other types of data in statistics and motivates specific methodologies. There has been remarkable developments in that field in the past forty years. Typical analysis of longitudinal data relies on parametric, non-parametric or semi-parametric models. However, an important question widely addressed in the analysis of longitudinal data is related to cluster analysis and concerns the existence of groups or clusters (or homogeneous trajectories), suggested by the data, not defined a priori, such that individuals in a given cluster tend to be similar to each other in some sense, and individuals in different clusters tend to be dissimilar. This thesis aims at contributing to that rapidly expanding field of clustering longitudinal data. Indeed, an emerging non-parametric methodology for modeling longitudinal data is based on the functional data analysis approach in which longitudinal trajectories are viewed as a sample of partially observed functions or curves on some interval where these functions are often assumed to be smooth. We then propose in the present thesis, a succinct review of the most commonly used methods to analyze and cluster longitudinal data and two new model-based functional clustering methods. Indeed, we review most of the typical longitudinal data analysis models ranging from the parametric models to the semi and non parametric ones, as well as the recent developments in longitudinal cluster analysis according to the two main approaches : non-parametric and model-based. The purpose of that review is to provide a concise, broad and readily accessible overview of longitudinal data analysis and clustering methods. In the first method developed in this thesis, we use the functional data analysis approach to propose a very flexible model which combines functional principal components analysis and clustering to deal with any type of longitudinal data, even if the
Investigation of the optical and conductive properties of antimony-doped titanium dioxide using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

The refractive index, absorption coefficient, dielectric constant and conductivity of titanium dioxide at different doping concentrations of antimony (Sb) have been investigated using the non-contact and damage-free technique of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. Simple effective medium theory has been applied to composite samples to extract the dielectric and conductive response in the range of 0.2–1.2 THz. The frequency-dependent values of these parameters are observed to increase with doping concentration and also with calcination temperature. Drude–Smith model fitting with the measured conductivity curves reveals that back-scattering is the major conductivity mechanism.
Do Intellectual Capital, Leverage, and Profitability Affect a Company's Value Post COVID-19 Pandemic?

COVID-19 has been shown to have a major impact on companies’ value. Drawing on research before the pandemic as well as during the pandemic, we think it is necessary to analyze the value of the company in the post Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, there is complexity, uncertainty of companies as an important capability, and set of practices appears to many companies as a reasonable approach to reducing the problems. This paper aims to examine how the value of the company is seen from the aspect of the direct effect of intellectual capital, leverage, and profitability. This paper tries to explore the theoretical model of the proposal on how these three variables can directly affect firm value. This study determines the impact post Covid-19 pandemic, especially to explain the phenomenon of components in intellectual capital in Indonesia. This research is expected to provide further research guidelines and facilities to the government for an approach to fostering improvement in the value of companies post Covid-19 pandemic. Keywords: intellectual capital, leverage, post COVID-19 pandemic, profitability
Hydrological change in southern Australia over 1750 years: a bivalve oxygen isotope record from the Coorong Lagoon

Abstract. Multi-centennial records of past hydroclimate change are essential for understanding the resilience of ecosystems to climatic events in addition to guiding conservation and restoration efforts. Such data are also crucial for examining the long-term controls over regional hydroclimate and the inherent variability in extreme droughts and floods. Here, we present a 1750-year record of hydroclimate variability in the Coorong South Lagoon, South Australia, part of an internationally significant wetland system at the mouth of Australia's largest river, the Murray River. Oxygen isotope ratios were measured from Arthritica helmsi bivalve shells preserved in sediments. The oxygen isotope record shows periods of persistent low and high moisture balance, from ∼500 to 1050 years and from ∼1300 to 1800 years, respectively, which is consistent with other hydroclimate reconstructions from the region. The range of oxygen isotope values in the sedimentary shells does not differ significantly from the estimated range of modern specimens from the present-day lagoon. These data suggest that the restricted and highly evaporated modern-day conditions are not markedly different to the pre-impacted state over the last 1750 years, although the absence of A. helmsi in the contemporary lagoon is likely a response to increased salinity, nutrient loading, and anoxia during the last century. These insights are potentially useful both in guiding management efforts to conserve and restore the Coorong Lagoon and for understanding long-term water resource availability in the region.
Good Corporate Governance, Intellectual Capital, And Operational Efficiency: Affect Company Value

Purpose: As the best measure of company health, companies that have gone public often try to increase shareholder value. One of them is the company value because it describes the condition of the company. This study attempts to find out how corporate governance, intellectual capital, and operational efficiency affect company value. Methodology/approach: This study uses quantitative data from 15 companies in the IDX BUMN20 Stock Index for 2018–2021. Findings: The research findings show that institutional ownership and intellectual capital significantly and beneficially affect company value. Meanwhile, independent commissioners, audit committees, managerial ownership, and operational efficiency have no visible impact. This shows how institutional ownership is a component that can improve performance through supervision. At the same time, intellectual capital management is proven to maximize the company's value. Practical and Theoretical contribution/Originality: The implication is that companies that disclose intellectual capital and uphold institutional ownership will give a positive signal to investors in making investment decisions. Research Limitation: Future studies may be useful to compare firm values during and after the COVID-19 pandemic by using the factors examined in this research to provide a specific picture of how investors respond to the two conditions and their relation to signal theory.
Shortening identification times: comparative observational study of three early blood culture testing protocols

Background While early appropriate antibiotic therapy is a proven means of limiting the progression of infections, especially bacteremia, empirical antibiotic therapy in sepsis is ineffective up to 30%. The aim of this study was to compare early blood culture testing protocols in terms of their ability to shorten the delay between blood sampling and appropriate antibiotic therapy. Methods In this french observational study, we compared three blood culture testing protocols. Positive blood cultures were tested using either GenMark ePlex panels (multiplex PCR period), a combination of MRSA/SA PCR, β-Lacta and oxidase tests (multitest period), or conventional identification and susceptibility tests only (reference period). Conventional identification and susceptibility tests were performed in parallel for all samples, as the gold standard. Results Among the 270 patients with positive blood cultures included, early and conventional results were in good agreement, especially for the multitest period. The delay between a blood culture positivity and initial results was 3.8 (2.9–6.9) h in the multiplex PCR period, 2.6 (1.3–4.5) h in the multitest period and 3.7 (1.8–8.2) h in the reference period (p<0.01). Antibiotic therapy was initiated or adjusted in 68 patients based on early analysis results. The proportion of patients receiving appropriate antibiotic therapy within 48 h of blood sampling was higher in the multiplex PCR and multitest periods, (respectively 90% and 88%) than in the reference period (71%). Conclusion These results suggest rapid bacterial identification and antibiotic resistance tests are feasible, efficient and can expedite appropriate antibiotic therapy.
Robust Tracking of Nonrepetitive Learning Control Systems With Iteration-Dependent References

Typically, iterative learning control (ILC) is applied based on a core hypothesis that the strict repetitiveness of control environment, task, and model should be satisfied by the controlled system. The problem of interest in this paper is: whether and how can ILC robustly work for controlled systems subject to iteration-dependent environments, tasks and models? To successfully solve this problem, an ILC algorithm using a high-order internal model (HOIM) is proposed and convergence conditions are developed. It is shown that HOIM-based ILC both possesses robustness against iteration-dependent uncertainties from initial states, disturbances, and plant models and tracks iteration-dependent references. Also, simulation tests validate the effectiveness of HOIM-based ILC.
Exploring Strategies to Strengthen the Integrated Inter-Sectoral Collaboration Among Early Childhood Care and Education Providers

The study explored strategies that could be used to strengthen the integrated inter-sectoral collaboration among Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) providers in the Northern Cape province, South Africa. It is evidenced in the literature that early childhood education centers operate without maximum inter-sectoral collaboration. There is a need therefore for intersectoral collaboration among early childhood providers to ensure a smooth running of the program for children’s development. Semi-structured interviews with a sample of 12 seasoned ECCE providers from the public and private sectors were used to gather the data. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, and themes were formed. The findings of the study among others indicate that a detailed provincial integrated Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) strategy is developed to ensure a properly resourced, coordinated, and managed Early childhood development (ECD) system that forms part of the national ECCE strategy. The study also found that the establishment of a financing model as a strategy can assist to strengthen the integrated inter-sectoral collaboration among ECCE providers.
Factors Affecting Coping Strategies in Post-Stroke Patients: A Literature Study

Strokes can cause disability and death. The disability experienced causes post-stroke stress syndrome, which results in maladaptive coping strategies. Coping strategies is important because it affects the patient’s outcome and recovery. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence coping strategies in post-stroke patients based on the results of a literature study. Journals from several databases such as Google Scholar (n=8), ProQuest (n=5), Science Direct (n=1), PubMed (n=1), and Springer Link (n=3) were selected. The data search used several keywords and conjunctions (AND and OR). Based on specified criteria such as journals within the last 5 years (2016-2020), in English, research articles, open access, and full text, post-stroke patient population, intervention, and comparison according to research methods, journal findings, and outcomes that discuss coping strategies. Journal findings were tested for quality using the adjusted JBI and analysed using thematic analysis. The results showed that several factors influenced coping strategies in post-stroke patients such as psychological (16%), social support (13%), self-ability (13%), sequelae (10%), spiritual (9%), stroke severity (9%), material (6%), dependence (6%), rehabilitation (6%), care (3%), gender (3%), lack of information (3%), and perception of disease (3%). Coping strategies for post-stroke patients that focus on problems and emotions. Keywords: Post Stroke, Coping Strategies, Patient