Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of centrifugal acceleration on the flows and segregation in vertical Bridgman crystal growth with steady ampoule rotation

The effects of centrifugal acceleration on the flows and segregation in vertical Bridgman crystal growth with steady ampoule rotation are investigated through numerical simulation. The numerical model is based on the Boussinesq approximation in a rotating frame, and the fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, and the growth interface are solved simultaneously by a robust finite-volume/Newton method. The growth of gallium-doped germanium (GaGe) in the Grenoble furnace is adopted as an example. The calculated results at small Froude number (Fr551) are consistent with the previous prediction (Lan, J. Crystal growth 197 (1999) 983). However, at a high rotation speed or in reduced gravity, where the centrifugal acceleration becomes important (Fr 1), the results are quite different due to the secondary flow induced. Since the direction of the induced flow is different from that of the buoyancy convection due to the concave interface, the flow damping is more effective than that due to the Coriolis force alone. More importantly, radial segregation can be reversed during the flow transition from one to the other. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 44.25. +f; 47.27. Te; 81.10. Fq; 02.60. c6; 02.70Fj
A comparative analysis of locally owned banks in the United Arab Emirates

All UAE banks perform the dual role of intermediaries for both the money and capital markets. They are entering a crucial stage of banking development towards global competition with new banking laws imminent and the Basel II Capital accord being effective by December 2006. Within a challenging climate of financial transparency and limited data availability, this research provides a benchmark and a unique league table of efficiency performances between 1998 and 2003 for comparative analysis between local banks in the UAE for present and future operational policymakers and researchers. This study offers an analysis and insight into UAE local banks, in one of the world's fastest growing financial sectors. The study sets out to answer several important questions. First, are the record profits, enjoyed by local banks, consistent with best­ practice or do they conceal inefficiencies? Second, has productivity improved during the period of rapid assets growth and profitability? Finally, does size matter, that is, are bigger banks more efficient? The relative efficiency of UAE banks is measured through a construction of a series of productivity and efficiency measures. Consequently important insights and a richer understanding of the sources of improvements in bank performance are gained. This research reveals whether these efficiency performance measures are explained by structural factors such as the size of the banks (total assets), profitability, earnings per share (EPS); market power, risk, or capitalisation (total equity). Despite the vast amount of research in the areas of efficiency measures of industrialised countries' banking sectors, the Middle East, and in particular the UAE, remain relatively under researched in comparison. This research empirically investigates annual reports of the UAE local banks since 1998, thereby identifying and emphasizing the 'best practices' associated with high efficiency measures. Despite overall growing profits in the banking sector, results reveal evidence of over­ banking and cost inefficiency by the sector as a whole and several banks in particular. The results suggest that some regulatory and not managerial policies may be responsible for poor cost efficiency results. The research reveals wide efficiency disparities amongst the UAE local banks, showing distinct economies of scale advantages for the
WINGS: a WIde-field nearby Galaxy-cluster survey. III. Deep near-infrared photometry of 28 nearby cl

Context. This is the third paper in a series devoted to the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS). WINGS is a long-term project aimed at gathering wide-field, multiband imaging and spectroscopy of galaxies in a complete sample of 77 X-ray selected, nearby clusters (0.04 < z < 0.07) located far from the galactic plane (|b |≥ 20 ◦ ). The main goal of this project is to establish a local reference sample for evolutionary studies of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Aims. This paper presents the near-infrared (J,K) photometric catalogs of 28 clusters of the WINGS sample and describes the procedures followed to construct them. Methods. The raw data has been reduced at CASU and special care has been devoted to the final coadding, drizzling technique, astrometric solution, and magnitude calibration for the WFCAM pipeline-processed data. We constructed the photometric catalogs based on the final calibrated, coadded mosaics (≈0.79 deg 2 )i nJ (19 clusters) and K (27 clusters) bands. A customized interactive pipeline was used to clean the catalogs and to make mock images for photometric errors and completeness estimates. Results. We provide deep near-infrared photometric catalogs (90% complete in detection rate at total magnitudes J ≈ 20.5, K ≈ 19.4, and in classification rate at J ≈ 19. 5a ndK ≈ 18.5), giving positions, geometrical parameters, total and aperture magnitudes for all detected sources. For each field we classify the detected sources as stars, galaxies, and objects of “unknown” nature.
Impact of silver ions and silver nanoparticles on the plant growth and soil microorganisms

There is a growing consumer market for products that proclaim to decrease microorganism counts to prevent infections. Most of these products are loaded with silver in its ionic or nanoparticle form. Through use or during production, these particles can find their way into the soil and cause an impact in microbial and plant communities. This study aims to evaluate the impact of silver based particles in Avena byzantina (oat), Lactuca sativa (lettuce) and Raphanus sativus (radish) development and in the soil microorganism abundance. Oat, lettuce and radish plants were cultivated in soil contaminated with particles of bentonite organomodified with silver (Ag+_bentonite), silver phosphate glass (Ag+_phosphate) and silver nanoparticles adsorbed on fumed silica (AgNp_silica). Plant development and microorganisms’ abundance were evaluated. To some degree, Ag+_bentonite impacted plants development and AgNp_silica causes an adverse effect on microbial abundance. The impact on plants and microorganisms was contradictory and varied according to soil and particles physicochemical characteristics.
Boom and Bust Cycle of the Stock Market, and Economic Growth in a Vintage Capital Model

We construct a growth model of overlapping generations with vintage capital. There exists an equilibrium that converges to the balanced growth path through endogenous fluctuations of investment, consumption, and output in terms of the growth rate. When the technological change arrives and a rise in productivity is embodied only in newly invested capital, the economy converges to a new balanced growth path with a higher growth rate of output, but when we interpret the price of existing old capital as the stock market capitalization, the rise in productivity is accompanied by an initial decline in the stock market. Oscillatory equilibria are supported as perfect‐foresight equilibria in the present framework with finitely lived agents and capital. Any oscillatory equilibrium is associated with the regime switch from an economy with both young and old capital in use into one with only old capital in use.
Automated Segmentation for Quantitative Analysis of Breast Thermograms

Thermography in breast cancer detection presents promising diagnosis when used as a first line screening tool in adjunct to mammography. A thermogram consists of various regions such as patient's arms, chest and breasts. Segmentation of the breast region is an important step in classification of normal and abnormal thermogram. This paper deals with image pre-processing using inpaint algorithm and automated segmentation of breast regions using anisotropic diffusion filter along with level-set evolution without reinitialization. Three types of breast thermograms which include one normal and two abnormal were considered for this study. The segmented results were tested using performance measures and 98% of accuracy is obtained.
Evidence of gene flow between sympatric populations of the Middle East‐Asia Minor 1 and Mediterranean putative species of Bemisia tabaci

Bemisia tabaci is a complex of putative species that exhibit a strong geographical pattern. Crossing experiments have revealed various degrees of reproductive isolation between these nascent species, ranging between fertile first-generation hybrids (F1) and no F1 at all. However, the relevance of these results under natural conditions is generally not known. The worldwide invasion of the putative species Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) has caused secondary contacts between allopatric species, which in turn provide an opportunity to detect potential hybrids in nature. A total of 346 female B. tabaci were collected in 2003 and 2005 in the North East of Morocco and assigned to MEAM1 (119), Mediterranean (Med) (225) and a new putative species (2) using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase (mtCOI) gene sequences. MEAM1 and Med individuals were characterized at seven microsatellite loci. MEAM1 and Med were found to be sympatric in 11 of 12 samples (6 fields/year). As previously reported from Spain, MEAM1 frequency decreased over time. The genetic data are consistent with a recent introduction of MEAM1. A Bayesian clustering analysis (Structure) distinguished two groups, which were 100% consistent with the mtCOI groups. From several lines of evidence, two individuals were identified as hybrids. Assignment profiles using NewHybrids and allele composition indicated that they were not F1 hybrids. The results are discussed in relation to the secondary endosymbiont infection status determined on a sample of individuals, and the contrasting outcomes of the reported crossing experiments between MEAM1 and Med.
Subjective-Objective Matching Evaluation Approach for Enhanced Dental Images

Cases of misdiagnosis and variability evaluation among the dentists do happen. The complexity of anatomical structures and the low contrast of the original images are factors that contribute to the problems. Image enhancement is often used to enhance medical images. However, currently limited work has been done in enhancing the dental pathological features. Dentists come from different background in terms of experience, place of study, method of practices and emotional quotient. These are some of the factors that may cause differences in subjective evaluation among dentists. Therefore, this research focused on identifying objective measurements based on dentists’ subjective evaluation on abnormalities’ detection in jaw area. Objective measurement is based on contrast improvement index (CII) and subjective evaluation is derived from dentists’ questionnaire answering. This paper contributes to new knowledge in the initial phase of identifying dental disease characteristics by means of correlation between the subjective and objective evaluation.
Uncovering novel genetic etiologies of childhood herpes simplex encephalitis : hypothesis-based candidate gene approach

L'encephalite herpetique (EH), causee par l'herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1), peut resulter de defauts monogeniques de l'immunite mediee par TLR3. L'induction d'interferons (IFNs)-α/β ou -λ via TLR3 est cruciale a la protection apres infection primaire avec HSV-1 dans le systeme nerveux central (SNC). Nous decrivons deux enfants avec l’EH portant differentes mutations heterozygotes (D50A et G159A) dans TBK1, encodant TANK-Binding Kinase 1, une kinase aux carrefours de multiples voies de signalisation induisant des IFNs. Les deux alleles mutants de TBK1 sont perte-de-fonction par des mecanismes differents: instabilite de la proteine (D50A) ou perte d'activite kinase (G159A). Ces alleles sont associes a un trait autosomal dominant (AD) par des mecanismes differents: haplotype-insuffisance (D50A) ou dominance negative (G159A). Un defaut de reponses a poly(I:C) par TLR3 est observable dans les fibroblastes heterozygotes pour G159A, et non pour D50A TBK1. Neanmoins, la replication virale et la mortalite cellulaire apres infection par deux virus dependants de TLR3 (HSV-1 et VSV) etaient elevees dans les fibroblastes des deux patients. Ces phenotypes peuvent etre sauves par IFN-α2b. De plus, la production d’IFNs en reponse a des agonistes et virus independants de TLR3 est maintenue dans les PBMCs et fibroblastes des patients. Le phenotype cellulaire restreint, partiel represente ainsi le phenotype clinique de ces patients, limite a l’EH. Ces donnees identifient la deficience partielle AD de TBK1 comme une nouvelle etiologie genetique de l’EH de l’enfance, et indiquent que TBK1 est essentiel pour le controle de HSV-1 dans le SNC, medie par TLR3 et dependant des IFNs
Assessment of Hypoxia and its Relationship with Nutrient Loads and Wind, and Implication to the Chesapeake Bay Management

Statistics are applied to analyze the correlations of summer hypoxia in the Chesapeake Bay with watershed input and wind conditions based on nearly three decades of monitoring data. The Pearson correlation coefficients indicate that the averaged summer hypoxia has strong positive correlation with watershed nutrient load and discharge, and moderate negative correlation with summer average wind speed. Nutrient inputs and the subsequent decay of organic matter are the primary factor that controls the oxygen demand causing summer hypoxia, while episodic wind can partly erode stratification and hypoxia. The interannual variation of hypoxia is mainly controlled by watershed input, but wind plays an important role in modulating hypoxia, such as variations of hypoxic volumes in individual summer months. Although the extent of hypoxia reduction is different with different wind directions, a faster wind speed (above certain strength) causes stronger destratification and hypoxia reduction than weaker speeds, which is generally more important than the effect due to wind directions. Computer modelling is used to obtain dissolved oxygen conditions in finer temporal and spatial scales to supplement the discrete observations in scattered monitoring stations to better understand hypoxia development under episodic wind events, which enhances the understanding on physical relationships among the concerned constituents beyond the statistical analysis.
Laser Interference Lithography for Fabricating Nanowires and Nanoribbons

Nanowires have been extensively studied for the last decade due to their superior electrical, optical, and mechanical properties when compared they are bulk. Their interesting properties are due to their simple nature (Wu B. et al., 2005). Various fabrication methods of nanowires have been in development including nanoimprint (Guo L., 2007; Chen L. et al., 2007), side electroplating (Shankar & Raychaudhuri, 2005; Xiang et al., 2008), self assembly (Pauzauskie & Yang, 2006), and stencil lithography (Vazquez-Mena et al., 2008) etc. We have developed a simple, cost efficient and mass producible fabrication method for metal nanowires. First, a polymer mask is fabricated with a photosensitive material, a photoresist, using laser interference holography. Then metal is coated by physical vapor deposition (Xue et al., 2008; Kang and Guo, 2007; Kang et al., 2008), either in single or multistage depositions. After chemically removing the photoresist, parts of the metal nanowires remained on the substrate as ordered structures and parts are detached from the substrate which can be recovered for further analysis. This technique yields high quality nanowires (which are few cm long) either in ordered or free standing form. In this chapter, nanowires are defined as being straight as-deposited whereas nanoribbons are freestanding and are curved compared to their original configuration. The dimensions of the nanowires can be controlled by tailoring dimensions of the polymer patterns and deposition conditions such as angle and thickness. Their structural, electrical, and optical properties are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and four point probe resistivity measurements. This fabrication method can be used for most metals (even semiconductor or insulators) to form nanowires and nanoribbons.
Identification Issues in Forward-Looking Models Estimated by GMM, with an Application to the Phillips Curve

Limited-information methods are commonly used to estimate forwardlooking models with rational expectations, such as the "New Keynesian Phillips Curve" of Galí and Gertler (1999). In this paper, we address issues of identification that have been overlooked due to the incompleteness of the single-equation formulation. We show that problems of weak instruments may arise, depending on the properties of the 'exogenous' variables, and that they are empirically relevant. We also uncover a link between identification and dynamic mis-specification, and examine the (lack of) power of Hansen's (1982) J test to detect invalid over-identifying restrictions. With regards to the New Phillips curve, we find that problems of identification cannot be ruled out, and they deserve further attention.
In the transmission of information, the great potential of model-based coding with the SP theory of intelligence

Model-based coding, described by John Pierce in 1961, has great potential to reduce the volume of information that needs to be transmitted in moving big data, without loss of information, from one place to another, or in lossless communications via the internet. Compared with ordinary compression methods, this potential advantage of model-based coding in the transmission of data arises from the fact that both the transmitter ("Alice") and the receiver ("Bob") are equipped with a grammar for the kind of data that is to be transmitted, which means that, to achieve lossless transmission of a body of data from Alice and Bob, a relatively small amount of information needs to be sent. Preliminary trials indicate that, with model-based coding, the volume of information to be sent from Alice to Bob to achieve lossless transmission of a given body of data may be less than $6\%$ of the volume of information that needs to be sent when ordinary compression methods are used. Until recently, it has not been feasible to convert John Pierce's vision into something that may be applied in practice. Now, with the development of the "SP theory of intelligence" and its realisation in the "SP computer model", there is clear potential to realise the three main functions that will be needed: unsupervised learning of a grammar for the kind of data that is to be transmitted using a relatively powerful computer that is independent of Alice and Bob; the encoding by Alice of any one example of such data in terms of the grammar; and, with the grammar, decoding of the encoding by Bob to retrieve the given example. It appears now to be feasible, within reasonable timescales, to bring these capabilities to a level where they may be applied to the transmission of realistically large bodies of data.
pH-responsive magnesium- and carbonate-substituted apatite nano-crystals for efficient and cell-targeted delivery of transgenes

The short half-lives due to the enzymatic degradation in blood, the lack of tissue targetability and the incapability to passively diffuse across the plasma membrane and smoothly traffic across the harsh intracelluar environment are the major shortcomings for nucleic acid-based potential therapeutics, such as recombinant plasmid and antisense oligonucleotides or small interferring RNA (siRNA). Plasmid DNA containing a gene of interest could have immense impact as a promising therapeutic drug for treating genetic as well as acquired human diseases at the molecular level with high level of efficacy and precision. Thus both viral and non-viral synthetic vectors have been developed in the past decades to address the aforementioned challenges of naked DNA. While in the viral particles plasmid DNA is integrated into the viral genome, in most non-viral cases the DNA being anionic in nature is electrostatically associated with a cationic lipid or polymer forming lipoplex or polyplex, respectively, or a cationized inorganic gold, silica or iron oxide particle. Due to the potential immunogenicity and carcinogenicity issues with the viral particles, non-viral vectors have drawn much more attention for the clinical evaluation. However, the main concern of using non-biodegradable particles, specially the inorganic ones, is the adverse effects owing to their long term interactions with body components. We have recently developed biodegradable pH-sensitive inorganic nanoparticles of Mg/CaPi and carbonate apatite for efficient transgene delivery to primary, cancer and embryonic stem cells, by virtue of their high affinity binding with the DNA, ability to contact the cell membrane by ionic or ligand-receptor interactions and fast dissolution kinectis in endosomal acidic pH facilitating release of the DNA from the dissolving particles and also from the endosomes.
Tubeless Siphon Flow of Room Temperature Liquid Metal.

Tubeless siphon flow of liquid metal was made possible by way of sucking the fluid via a syringe pump with a rubber tube. Through adjusting the flow rate and tube diameter, the liquid column height and diameter can be changed accordingly. A theoretical model was derived to predict the flow configuration thus enabled. Adding micro copper particles evidently increased the extensional viscosity of liquid metal. With the increase of particle concentration, the enhancement of tubeless siphon becomes more remarkable. The intermetallic compound CuGa2 produced by corrosion was considered as the reason for the variation of rheological property of liquid metal.
Optimal Need-Based Financial Aid

We study the optimal design of student financial aid as a function of parental income. We derive optimal financial aid formulas in a general model. We estimate a model of selection into college for the United States that comprises multidimensional heterogeneity, endogenous parental transfers, dropout, labor supply in college, and uncertain returns. We quantify optimal financial aid in the estimated model and find it is strongly declining in parental income even without distributional concerns. Equity and efficiency go hand in hand.
From Image Segmentation to Classification . A Pattern Recognition-based Approach

In this paper we present our approach on real-time polyp detection in colonoscopy videos. Our method consists of three stages: Image Segmentation, Region Description and Image Classification. Taking into account the constraints of our project, we introduce our segmentation system that is based on the model of appearance of the polyp that we have defined after observing real videos from colonoscopy processes. The output of this stage will ideally be a low number of regions of which one of them should cover the whole polyp region (if there is one in the image). This regions will be described in terms of features and, as a result of a machine learning schema, classified based on the values that they have for the several features that we will use on their description. Although we are still on the early stages of the project, we present some preliminary segmentation results that indicates that we are going in a good direction.