Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Computational study of Silicene-CNT double junctions

In this work, we investigate the contact and channel material dependency of the transport properties of Siticene and Armchair CNT based heterostructure devices. The Density of States (DOS) of the heterojunction materials and transport properties like Device Density of States, transmission eigenstate, transmission pathway, transmission spectrum and I-V characteristics of two structures — CNT-Si-CNT and Si-CNT-Si are investigated. We see that CNT-Silicene-CNT heterojunction gives higher current and it is more conducive for FET device application. This device also shows better transport properties in terms of transmission Eigenstate, Transmission pathway and IV characteristics.
Unidirectional Antenna With Loaded Dielectric Substrate

A unidirectional antenna with loaded dielectric substrate composed of two shorted-circuited rectangular patches and a printed Gamma-shaped probe feed operated at 2.5 GHz is presented. The antenna is fully filled with dielectric substrate isinr = 2.65. The height of the antenna is only 18 mm. A wide impedance bandwidth of 45.3% (SWR les 2) is achieved. The average gain is about 6.7 dBi. The antenna performance can be improved by introducing of a metallic wall. The backlobe is reduced from -11.1 to -20.1 dB at the lower frequency.
Locus Control Region of the Human CD2Gene in a Lentivirus Vector Confers Position-Independent Transgene Expression

ABSTRACT Vectors derived from murine leukemia virus (MLV) have been used in many human gene therapy clinical trials. However, insertion of the locus control regions (LCRs) derived from the β-globin gene locus or the CD2 gene into MLV vectors frequently led to vector rearrangement. Since the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) sequence diverges significantly from the MLV sequence, we tested whether the LCR sequence is more stable in the context of an HIV vector. Clones derived from human fibrosarcoma line HT1080 cells transduced with an HIV vector containing the T-cell-specific CD2 LCR exhibit the same wide range of transgene expression as clones lacking the LCR. In contrast, Jurkat and primary T-cell clones derived from the transduction of the LCR-containing vector show, on average, a three- to fourfold increase in transgene expression relative to that of the control vector. This is consistent with previous observations that the CD2 LCR contains a T-cell-specific enhancer. In addition, the clones derived from the LCR-containing vector have a much lower clonal variation in transgene expression than those derived from the control vector. We also demonstrate that the level of transgene expression is proportional to the vector copy number. These results suggest that the human CD2 LCR sequence is compatible with HIV vector sequences and confers enhanced integration site-independent and copy number-dependent expression of the transgene. Thus, HIV vectors may represent the ideal vehicle to deliver genes controlled by various cis-acting elements such as LCRs.
Energy efficient multiple sink placement in wireless sensor networks

Minimizing energy consumption and maximizing network lifetime are two important challenges in battery operated Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Sensor nodes sense the environment periodically and forward the collected data to a sink. In a single sink WSNs, nodes closer to the sink become overburdened for relaying excessive data. This may incur faster energy consumption by nodes and lead an energy hole around the sink. As a result, the network lifetime is shortened. Multiple sinks mitigate this problem, reduce energy consumption at nodes and prolong the network lifetime by distributing the traffic over multiple sinks. This paper focuses on multiple sink placement problem and proposes two local search technique based energy aware multiple sink placement strategies for WSNs. The lifetime oriented approach based sink placement takes into account the lifetime of nodes and places the sinks at suitable locations such that the average network lifetime is increased. While the energy oriented approach focuses on minimizing the average energy consumption of the network. We evaluate the performance of both the strategies via simulations and compare them with random sink placement strategy. Simulation results highlight that the lifetime oriented approach improves the lifetime significantly.
General Practitioners’ Perceptions of Heat Health Impacts on the Elderly in the Face of Climate Change—A Qualitative Study in Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Heat health impacts (HHI) on the elderly are a growing concern in the face of climate change and aging populations. General practitioners (GPs) have an important role in health care for the elderly. To inform the development of effective prevention measures, it is important to investigate GPs’ perceptions of HHI. Twenty four qualitative expert interviews were conducted with GPs and analyzed using the framework approach. GPs were generally aware of heat health impacts, focusing on cardiovascular morbidity and volume imbalances. Perceptions of mortality and for instance impacts on respiratory diseases or potentially risky drugs in heat waves partly diverged from findings in literature. GPs judged the current relevance of HHI differently depending on their attitudes towards: (i) sensitivity of the elderly, (ii) status of nursing care and (iii) heat exposure in Baden-Württemberg. Future relevance of HHI was perceived to be increasing by most GPs. The main cause identified for this was population aging, while impacts of climate change were judged as uncertain by many. GPs’ perceptions, partly diverging from literature, show that GPs’ knowledge and awareness on HHI and climate change needs to be strengthened. However, they also emphasize the need for more research on HHI in the ambulant health care setting. Furthermore, GPs perceptions suggest that strong nursing care and social networks for elderly are major elements of a climate resilient health system.
Do Macroeconomic Variables Affect Stock Returns in BRICS Markets? An ARDL Approach

The Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) propounded by Ross in 1976 argued for a variety of macro economic variables (sources of systematic risk) in explaining stock returns. In the same vein, this paper examines the relationship between macroeconomic variables (GDP, inflation, interest rate, exchange rate, money supply, and oil prices) and aggregate stock returns in BRICS markets over the period 1995-2014 using quarterly data. We have applied Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to document such a relationship for individual countries as well as for panel data.Contrary to general belief, we find that GDP and inflation are not found to be significantly affecting stock returns in most of BRICS markets mainly because Stock returns generally tend to lead rather than follow GDP and inflation. In line with the theory and literature, we find significant negative impact of interest rate, exchange rate and oil prices on stock returns and a positive impact of money supply.This study would be a valuable addition to the growing body of empirical literature on the subject besides being useful to policy makers, regulators and investment community. Policy makers and regulator should watch out for impact of fluctuations in exchange rate, interest rate, money supply, and oil prices on volatility in their stock markets. Investor can search for arbitrage opportunities in BRICS markets on the basis of these variables but not the basis of GDP or inflation.
Quantitative evidence of an intrinsic luminosity spread in the Orion nebula cluster

Aims. We study the distribution of stellar ages in the Orion nebula cluster (ONC) using accurate HST photometry taken from HST Treasury Program observations of the ONC utilizing the cluster distance estimated by Menten and collaborators. We investigate whether there is an intrinsic age spread in the region and whether the age depends on the spatial distribution. Methods. We estimate the extinction and accretion luminosity towards each source by performing synthetic photometry on an empirical calibration of atmospheric models using the package Chorizos of Maiz-Apellaniz. The position of the sources in the HR-diagram is compared with different theoretical isochrones to estimate the mean cluster age and age dispersion. On the basis of Monte Carlo simulations, we quantify the amount of intrinsic age spread in the region, taking into account uncertainties in the distance, spectral type, extinction, unresolved binaries, accretion, and photometric variability. Results. According to the evolutionary models of Siess and collaborators, the mean age of the Cluster is 2.2 Myr with a scatter of few Myr. With Monte Carlo simulations, we find that the observed age spread is inconsistent with that of a coeval stellar population, but in agreement with a star formation activity between 1.5 and 3.5 Myr. We also observe some evidence that ages depends on the spatial distribution.
Attraction and Influence On the Employment Decision of the Recent Hotel and Restaurant Graduate

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate, identify, and analyze what influences and/or attracts graduating seniors to their choice of employment. Two majorsources of information on potential employers: personnel recruiters and hotel and restaurant school faculty were highlighted in this study. Forty-seven graduating seniors, from five different hotel and restaurant programs, were surveyed at two points in time concerning the perceived influence of various aspects of a job, the organization and the sources of influence on their employment decision. Twenty- seven faculty, from the five institutions were also surveyed. Three sets of compari sons were made. The first set of comparisons was between students before and after their employment decision. The second set of comparisons contrasted faculty and student's perceptions of the sources of influence on the student's employment decision; the job and organizational aspects that did or would influence the student's choice of employment; and their impression of recruiters and the campus interview. A third set of comparisons contrasted the factors that influence who seniors would interview with vs. what position they would accept.
Increases in Emotional Intelligence After an Online Training Program Are Associated With Better Decision-Making on the Iowa Gambling Task

Higher levels of emotional intelligence have been associated with better inter and intrapersonal functioning. In the present study, 59 healthy men and women were randomized into either a three-week online training program targeted to improve emotional intelligence (n = 29), or a placebo control training program targeted to improve awareness of nonemotional aspects of the environment (n = 30). Compared to placebo, participants in the emotional intelligence training group showed increased performance on the total emotional intelligence score of the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, a performance measure of emotional intelligence, as well as subscales of perceiving emotions and facilitating thought. Moreover, after emotional intelligence training, but not after placebo training, individuals displayed the ability to arrive at optimal performance faster (i.e., they showed a faster learning rate) during an emotion-guided decision-making task (i.e., the Iowa Gambling Task). More specifically, although both groups showed similar performance at the start of the Iowa Gambling Task from pre- to posttraining, the participants in the emotional intelligence training group learned to choose more advantageous than disadvantageous decks than those in the placebo training group by the time they reached the “hunch” period of the task (i.e., the point in the task when implicit task learning is thought to have occurred). Greater total improvements in performance on the Iowa Gambling Task from pre- to posttraining in the emotional intelligence training group were also positively correlated with pre- to posttraining changes in Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test scores, in particular with changes in the ability to perceive emotions. The present study provides preliminary evidence that emotional intelligence can be trained with the help of an online training program targeted at adults; it also suggests that changes in emotional intelligence, as a result of such a program, can lead to improved emotion-guided decision-making.
Prevalence and characterization of Listeria monocytogenes in the feces of healthy Austrians.

The aims of the study were to determine the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in the feces of healthy Austrians and to characterize the isolates by various typing methods. Stool specimens from 505 healthy volunteers from the Tyrol were tested for the presence of L. monocytogenes using cold enrichment for 6 months and five different detection methods: conventional plating onto Palcam and Rapid'L.MONO agar, immunomagnetic separation (IMS) followed by conventional plating, enzyme-linked fluorescent immunoassay (ELFA), ELISA, and PCR. L. monocytogenes was isolated by conventional plating from one specimen (0.2%), and a further three were positive on immunomagnetic separation (0.8%). Only one specimen tested positive with ELFA and EIA, although it tested negative by conventional culture, IMS, and PCR. Eighteen of 505 samples were positive by PCR (3.6%), and this included three of the four culture-confirmed specimens. Serotyping, phage-typing, arsenic cadmium, antimicrobial-resistance typing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed that multiple L. monocytogenes isolates from three of the four carriers were indistinguishable. Our data indicate that the Austrian fecal carriage rate is at least 0.8%. In view of a listeriosis incidence of 0.16/100,000 per year, the chances of fecal carriage developing into listeriosis appear to be very low.
Output impedance modeling of grid-connected inverters considering nonlinear effects

Accurate modeling of a single-phase grid-connected inverter with LCL filter considering the dead-time effects and nonlinear characteristics of switching devices is addressed in this paper. By comparing with the conventional averaged model and switching model, the equivalence of the derived model is verified. Further, an output impedance model of the grid-connected inverter is proposed and applied to the analysis of grid harmonic interactions. It is shown such a model can be used to identify the root cause of harmonic generation of grid-connected inverter systems. Theoretical analysis and simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed output impedance modeling.
Drivers of Sustainability Strategies in Spain’s Wine Tourism Industry

Confusion about what constitutes sustainability and the lack of incentives are two major factors interfering with the expansion of sustainability efforts in Spain’s wine tourism industry, according to a survey of forty-nine wine practitioners at forty-six small- and medium-size Spanish wineries. The study identified the following four overall strategies: (1) reducing waste and toxicity, (2) highlighting sustainability in products and regulations, (3) sustainability in energy consumption, and (4) developing new sustainability-related business opportunities. The fact that these strategies are heavily weighted toward production may be a function of the nascent state of Spain’s wine tourism but also because the structured interviews were more heavily weighted toward production issues. On balance, the study indicates that more education about sustainability, both for producers and tourists, should be paired with economic incentives to encourage greater sustainability in Spain’s wine tourism industry.
A Sub-0.3 V Area-Efficient L-Shaped 7T SRAM With Read Bitline Swing Expansion Schemes Based on Boosted Read-Bitline, Asymmetric-V$_{\rm TH}$ Read-Port, and Offset Cell VDD Biasing Techniques

In previous SRAM designs, reducing minimum operating voltage (VDDmin) inevitably resulted in devices with a large cell area (A). This work proposes an L-shaped 7T cell (L7T) and read-bitline (RBL) swing expansion scheme (RBL-EXPD) to minimize A*VDDmin for low-voltage applications. This L7T features an area-efficient cell layout and a read-disturb free decoupled 1T read port (RP) capable of providing a wide space for write margin improvement. The RBL-EXPD employs (1) boosted RBL (BRBL), (2) 1T-RP with asymmetric-VTH, (AV-1TRP) and (3) offset cell-VDD biasing (OFS-CVDD) to expand RBL swing in both the upward and downward directions securing both `High' and `Low' sensing margins. A 65 nm 256-row 32 Kb L7T SRAM macro-fabricated using BRBL and AVTH-RP achieved a 260 mV VDDmin. The resulting A*VDDmin is ~50% lower than that of conventional 8T SRAM devices.
New Approach to VLSI Buffer Modeling, Considering Overshooting Effect

In this brief, we use the alpha power law model for MOS devices to reach a more accurate modeling of CMOS buffers in very deep submicrometer technologies. We derive alpha model parameters of a CMOS buffer for 90-, 65-, and 45-nm technologies using HSPICE simulations. By analytical efforts we find the output resistance of a minimum-size buffer and compare it with those extracted from HSPICE simulations. We propose a new model for the output resistance of a given-size buffer in any technology, which demonstrates 3% error on average as opposed to the conventional model. Also a new buffer resistance is proposed analytically and numerically to calculate the crosstalk for interconnect analysis applications. In addition, we propose a model for the transfer function zero generated by the gate-drain capacitances of MOS transistors, which cause the overshooting effect, and develop an accurate expression for modeling this phenomenon. As the final point, together with the input-to-output capacitance, the equivalent output resistors present a simple and accurate macromodel for the CMOS buffer.
Employment Effectiveness of China's Economic Stimulus Package

Using an input-output method, this paper simulates the impacts of the global financial crisis and the decline of exports on China's economy and employment. With shrinking external demand, boosting domestic demand becomes crucial for maintaining economic growth and promoting employment. Our simulated results indicate that an investment scenario with employment as a priority can achieve the objective of employment maximization without significantly reducing growth. Public investment should focus on employment, education, health, housing and social security to rebalance China's economy so that it can realize sustained and stable economic growth.
Democracy as first practice in early childhood education and care

Introduction There is a long tradition of viewing democracy and education as inseparably interconnected: democracy as a basic value and practice in education; and education as a means to strengthen and sustain democracy. Democracy was a central theme for major educational thinkers of the last century, such as John Dewey, Paolo Freire and Loris Malaguzzi. Today it still has proponents, however the discourse of democratic education is in danger of being drowned out by two other discourses, that of quality and that of markets. The discourse of quality is strongly managerial and understands education as a technology for delivering predetermined outcomes. It is concerned to bring children, teachers and institutions into conformity with expert-derived norms. By contrast, the discourse of markets favors deregulation but understands early childhood education and care as a commodity for sale to parent-consumers. Neither discourse values democracy in the practice of early childhood education. As Carr and Hartnett observe, in their book Education and the Struggle for Democracy:
Genetic neuro-fuzzy approach for unmanned fixed wing attitude control

With the imminent growth and the progressive interest in the subject, the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are already a reality in our daily life. The search for air vehicles, which is ambitious for a future in which the UAVs can act autonomously and safely, continuously drives this sector. The present work aims to apply artificial intelligence techniques to classical control systems, in order to control the attitude of a fixed wing aircraft adaptively. The open source software ArduPlane was used as the basis for this project, which has an enhanced implementation of a PID controller for attitude. It is noteworthy the need to frequent adjustment for gains tied to the attitude control system; either for basic adjustment constants, as well as for parameters whose calibration needs specific technical knowledge of the system. In order to automate this process and ensure the optimization of these parameters throughout the mission, a genetic neuro-fuzzy approach was proposed to make this procedure implicit and transparent to the flight operator. With the use of an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) capable of predicting the attitude of the aircraft, together with an optimization system (genetic algorithm), it is possible to construct an efficient control architecture, which ensures an improved control that always searches for optimized parameters throughout the mission autonomously.
EVALUATION OF THE COURT SUPPORT SERVICES DIVISION'S PROBATION TRANSITION PROGRAM AND TECHNICAL VIOLATION UNIT

Court Support Services Division within the Judicial Branch designed and implemented two pilot probation programs that sought to decrease probation violations and subsequent incarceration. These programs are the Probation Transition Program (PTP) and the Technical Violation Unit (TVU). Description of the Probation Transition Program and Technical Violation Unit The PTP targets inmates who have terms of probation upon their discharge from the Department of Correction (e.g., those discharged at the end of sentence from a correctional facility, halfway house, parole, transitional supervision or a furlough). The goal of this program is to increase the likelihood of a successful probation period for split sentence probationers by reducing the number and intensity of technical violations during the initial period of probation. The TVU also focuses on probationers about to be violated for technical reasons (e.g., deliberate or repeated non-compliance with court ordered conditions, reporting requirements, and service treatment requirements). However, it addresses all probationers regardless of whether they have been incarcerated or not. The goal of the TVU is to reduce the number of probationers sentenced to incarceration as a result of technical violations of probation. Prior Research on Probation Best Practices These programs were created around best practices of probation. Prior probation research brings forward several important issues that were considered during the development of the PTP and the TVU. These are: (1) probation violation rates have been found to be as low as 12% and as high as 62%; (2) while probation violations have led to increased prison populations, little is known as to the extent that these increases are the result of new offenses or technical violations (although the majority of probation violators sent to prison are for technical violations); (3) substance abuse issues among probationers are highly related to probation violations; (4) probation supervision techniques that are less controlling and enforcement oriented are more effective; (5) better communication between probation officers and other court personnel result in lower incarceration rates of probation violators; (6) role clarity and comprehensive training of probation officers on rehabilitation principles increases probation officers' receptiveness to less strict control and enforcement oriented supervision. Evaluation Description and Findings To measure the effectiveness of the PTP and the TVU programs in reducing probation violations and reincarceration, the Co urt Support Services Division contracted with faculty from the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) to conduct a process and outcome evaluation …