Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contactless vector network analysis using diversity calibration with capacitive and inductive coupled probes

Abstract. Contactless vector network analysis based on a diversity calibration is investigated for the measurement of embedded devices in planar circuits. Conventional contactless measurement systems based on two probes for each measurement port have the disadvantage that the signal-to-noise system dynamics strongly depends on the distance between the contactless probes. In order to avoid a decrease in system dynamics a diversity based measurement system is presented. The measurement setup uses one inductive and two capacitive probes. As an inductive probe a half magnetic loop in combination with a broadband balun is introduced. In order to eliminate systematic errors from the measurement results a diversity calibration algorithm is presented. Simulation and measurement results for a one-port configuration are shown.
Nuclear Stopping in Central Au+Au Collisions at RHIC Energies

Nuclear stopping in central Au+Au collisions at relativistic heavy-ion collider (RHIC) energies is studied in the framework of a cascade mode and the modified ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) transport model. In the modified mode, the mean field potentials of both formed and “preformed” hadrons (from string fragmentation) are considered. It is found that the nuclear stopping is increasingly influenced by the mean-field potentials in the projectile and target regions with the increase of the reaction energy. In the central region, the calculations of the cascade model considering the modifying factor can describe the experimental data of the PHOBOS collaboration.
Genre, discourse and imagined communities: the learning gains of academic writing learners

The purpose of this paper is to consider how first year, tertiary-level English as an Additional Language (EAL) academic writing programs for adult learners can use emerging understandings about the importance of discourse communities and imagined communities to guide and inform participation in an Academic Writing (AW) program. It asks what learning gains students have from an AW program using discourse-specific generic tasks to engage learners desiring a range of future destinations. More specifically, this paper considers links between academic genres and students’ desired, future imagined communities (Anderson 1983; Kanno & Norton 2003). It does this by incorporating the literacy practices characteristic of those communities into the drafting/redrafting process. The study maintains that a focussed genre approach can impact learners’ imaginings of themselves as members of future discourse communities through reproducing texts similar to the authentic artefacts of those discourse communities (Flowerdew 2000; Hyland 2003, 2005). This paper outlines a situated pedagogical approach, where students report on their improvement across three drafts and assess their learning reflectively. This approach is compatible with research into the value of genre as a way of preparing learners for future discourse communities. A multicultural group of 41 learners enrolled in the degree-level course, Academic Writing, at a tertiary institution in New Zealand took part in a study reflecting on this approach to building awareness of one’s own writing. Focus group interviews with a researcher at the first and final stages of the program, transcribed and analysed using textual analysis methods (Sandelowski, 1995) provided qualitative data. This core data was triangulated with written student reflections on their progress. Key benefits identified include the facts that the chance to produce texts perceived as useful to the students’ immediate futures reflected the overall value of the AW program, and that the process of reproducing them engaged the learners largely because of their focus on their future, imagined communities.
Applying a Two-Step Maximum Likelihood Method to Examine the Deposit Insurance Program of Taiwan

This paper examines the deposit insurance program of Taiwan. We adopt Duan et al. [4]'s deposit insurance pricing model, and estimate the deposit insurance premium by the Duan and Simonato two-step maximum likelihood method [5]. Our results show that the maximum likelihood estimates for the deposit insurance premium are considerably higher than the official rates currently charged by the Central Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), the deposit insuring agency of Taiwan, indicating that the CDIC deposit insurance program appears to hand out a substantial subsidy to the banks in Taiwan. Our results also show that the CDIC in fact grants too much capital forbearance to the banks, and that the semiannual bank audits currently mandated by the CDIC are in fact much less frequent than our estimated values. These findings may also explain why the estimated rates for the deposit insurance premium are much higher than the current CDIC rates.
The probability of self-employment exit: An event history analysis

This paper examines demographic and career related determinants of the probability of selfemployment survival and exit, separately for prior unemployed and prior employed individuals. Using data from a longitudinal panel of Belgian men and women for the period 1998 Q2 – 2007 Q4, we estimate discrete single and competing risks models. Our results indicate that 48% of the prior unemployed exit self-employment before the end of data collection, compared to 36% of the prior employed. Furthermore, we find that depending on the interest group different variables are strong predictors of self-employment tenure. Additionally, evidence is provided on the conditional probability of leaving self-employment for employment, unemployment and partial self-employment.
A Fuzzy Based Approach for PWM Inverter fed Induction Motor V/f speed control

Induction motors are the most widely used for appliances, industrial control, and automation; however, many applications need variable speed operations. The rapid development of power electronics controllers in recent years has attracted the attention of researchers for making use of flexible characteristics of an induction motor in variable frequency drives. It presents a compact embedded fuzzy system for three-phase induction motor scalar speed control. The control strategy consists of keeping constant the voltage frequency ratio of the induction motor supply source
Dynamic Capital Structure of Japanese Firms: How Far Has the Reduction of Excess Leverage Progressed in Japan?

This paper investigates the dynamics of capital structure of Japanese firms since the early 1990s to shed light on how far the reduction of excess leverage has progressed so far in Japan. Our main findings are as follows. First, the trade-off theory provides an appropriate framework to assess this issue after controlling for various variables as proxies for other hypotheses including governance structure, the pecking order theory, and market timing hypothesis. Among such variables, profitability as a proxy for the pecking order theory has significant explanatory power. Second, governance structure significantly influences the speed at which firms adjust their leverage ratios toward optimal ones. In particular, the higher the shareholding ratio of overseas investors, the more quickly market-value leverage ratios adjust. Third, implied excess leverage ratios show a marked contrast between the firms in good credit standing and others. Reduction of excess leverage by highly-rated firms has substantially progressed so far, while others still have a long way to go.
Poisson's ratio in the lower mantle beneath Alaska: Evidence for compositional heterogeneity

[1] Using waveform cross correlation, we have measured ∼17,000 P and S wave differential travel times from earthquakes and receivers near a great circle path from Japan, across Alaska, to North America. We jointly invert the data for variations in shear and bulk sound speed and derived Poisson's ratio variations in the mantle beneath 1000 km depth. We explore the model space using different levels of regularization and our conclusions are based on a range of models that give acceptable data fits. The correlation between vS and vP variations is good to ∼1500 km depth but gradually degrades in the bottom 1000 km, whereas the ratio R = ∂lnvS/∂lnvP is between 1.0 and 1.8 at most depths. Our data suggest that there is no significant correlation between bulk and shear wave speed, but they appear anticorrelated in several regions. We estimate the effect on the Poisson's ratio of changes in temperature, iron content, and the magnesiowustite (mw) to perovskite (pv) ratio. At all depths the effect of temperature is largest and that of the pv to mw ratio smallest. Our data cannot resolve the trade-off between thermal and compositional effects, but explaining the Poisson's ratio variability by temperature alone would require unrealistic perturbations and it would not explain the inferred anticorrelation between shear and bulk sound speed. Our results suggest that despite R being significantly smaller than 2.5 we need a combination of thermal and compositional effects in order to explain the elastic parameter variations in the deep mantle beneath Alaska, with realistic values of ΔT of ∼300–800 K, variation in XFe of ∼4%, and pv enrichment (or depletion) of up to ∼10% just sufficient for explaining the data.
It’s no Spring Break in Cancun: The Effects of Exposure to Violence on Risk Preferences, Pro-Social Behavior and Mental Health

Exposure to violence has been found to affect behavioral parameters, mental health and social interactions. The literature focuses on large scale political violence. The effects of high levels of criminal violence – a common phenomenon in Latin America and the Caribbean – are largely unknown. We examine drug violence in Mexico and, in particular, the effects of exposure to high municipal levels of homicides on risk aversion, mental health and pro-social behavior. Using a nonlinear difference-in-differences (DID) model and data from the 2005-06 and 2009-12 waves of the Mexican Family Life Survey, we find that the surge in violence in Mexico after 2006 significantly increased risk aversion and reduced trust in civic institutions while simultaneously strengthening kinship relationships. Although the deterioration of mental health due to violence exposure has been hypothesized to explain changes in risk aversion, we find no such effect. This suggests that the literature may be potentially missing out on other relevant channels.
Current Challenges of Requirement Change Management

Nowadays, responding to requirements change in software industry is essential for survival in the competitive market to achieve business objectives. However, it is clearly evident that changing requirements have many problems which causes software failure. This was a great motivation to analyse literature for identifying current challenges of Requirements Change Management (RCM); which in return can improve our ability to make better decisions and resolve changing requirements problems. Major challenges of RCM have been elucidated as reusability, change anticipation, change activity measurement, connectivity with software artifacts and change management automation. Identifying RCM challenges will help to draw a road map for researchers and practioners to find optimal solutions.
Perceived Risk Questionnaire in Canyoners: content validity, cross-validation and transcultural invariance across Portugal and Spain

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire related to the risk perception in canyoning. Cross-validation and transcultural invariance, across Portugal and Spain, were also analysed. A total of 707 canyoners (81.3% males, 18.7% females) from Portugal (47.5%) and Spain (52.5%) participated in this study, with ages between 18 and 57 years old (M = 36.13; SD = 7.71). The initial version of questionnaire had 49 items. With the Temporal Reliability Analysis, the items that showed no correlation between the two moments of the administration of the questionnaire, p>. 05, were removed and only 46 items remained. The Exploratory Factor Analysis was developed by choosing the 25 items with higher factorial weight. Six dimensions were found which we managed to identify and characterise with the help of literature. With the Confirmatory Factor Analysis and based on the analysis of the modification indices, 4 items were eliminated, as they presented very high residual values, which contributed to an inadequacy of the model. In this manner, a questionnaire with 21 items was achieved. The final version of the questionnaire showed acceptable values related to reliability and construct validation. Therefore, this allows it to be used in the risk perception in canyoning, with 21 items, distributed among 6 dimensions.
Two approaches to design of forward adaptive piecewise uniform scalar quantizers

In this paper, two forward adaptive piecewise uniform scalar quantizers are proposed for high-quality quantization of speech signals modeled by the Laplacian probability density function. In designing both forward adaptive piecewise uniform scalar quantizers an equidistant support region partition is assumed and a distribution of the number of reproduction levels per segments is optimized. The proposed models differ in the approach of determining the reproduction levels. In particular, one model defines the reproduction levels as the cell centroids and the other one as the cell midpoints. We show that, in the high-resolution case, the proposed quantizers provide approximately the same performance being close to the one of the forward adaptive nonlinear scalar compandor with equal number of quantization levels.
Factors that determine firm performance of New Zealand listed companies

3 Introduction 4 Literature Review 6 Data and Methodology 16 Analysis 20 Results of the Summary of Descriptive Statistics 20 Results of the Correlation Matrix 21 Entire Sample Period: 1996-2007 22 Recessionary and Expansionary Years 27 Recessionary Years: 1997-1998 27 Expansionary Years: 1999-2007 28 Conclusion 31 Reference and Bibliography 33 Factors that Determine Firm Performance of NZ Listed Companies
Force calculation using analytical and CAE methods for thin-blade slotting process

Abstract A multi-spindle slotting process is taken as the case to analyse the mechanism involved in the cutting process affecting the machining efficiency. The analysis techniques used in this research include force analysis through existing analytical and numerical models and implementing the results to conduct an in-depth analysis of the cutting dynamics. The input parameters considered are blade geometry, cutting speed, and feed rate to investigate their effects on tool life. The study of dynamics of the cutting process was also extended to determine the effect of chatter vibration by determining the stability lobe diagram of the process. Results coupled from these two primary parts of the investigation were used to identify optimal processing conditions. The approaches employed to specify conditions for the stability lobe diagram showed that the method can be applied to analyse different combinations of tool and workpiece materials. Finite element methods along with the obtained force are then applied to simulate the static force distribution for a circular saw blade. The determined blade deformation and a CAD/CAE software are used for the optimization process. Finally, it is possible to compare the resulting deformations for both optimized and original blade geometries.
An Adaptable Business Intelligence Model for Security Organizations

Business Intelligence (BI) shows prospect both in private and public sectors. It answers the questions of how things can be done and what result it holds. It was observed that most of the BI papers have centered on private sector with little or no attention to public sectors like security organizations. With security organizations representing the heart of any society, the need arises for a well-integrated model that could aid security personnel towards an effective security implementation of any society. The paper studied one of the existing and popularly used model in Information System and observed the need to integrate a feasibility study for an effective BI system in the security organization.In conclusion, the paper developed an adaptable model that could help security organizations create better decision system and provision of a data warehouse of information. Keywords: Business Intelligence, knowledge acquisition, Information and Communication Technology.
Cytotoxicity Studies on Combustion Gas of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Resin

In this study we used an oxygen-based bomb calorimetry to combust polyvinyl chlorine (PVC) resin under different oxygen-demanded pressure values, and the generated combustion gas was absorbed by water. Three cultured cells, human fetal lung tissue cell (MRC-5), African green monkey kidney cell (Vero), and Chinese hamster ovary cell (CHO), were used to determine the cytotoxicity of these water adsorbents. The number of dead MRC-5 cells was determined by MTT analysis and that of Vero and CHO were determined by ELISA analysis. Results show that of all the water adsorbents the Vero cell line is most sensitive to the cytotoxicity test. In addition, molecular chlorine was found to be the major toxicant in such a sample.
Trans-border (South-Eastern Serbia/South-Western Bulgaria) correlations of the Jurassic sediments: The Getic and Supra-Getic units

The Getic and Supra-Getic are palaeogeographic units in SE Serbia and SW Bulgaria. Based on the presence (in Eastern) or absence (in Western) of Lower Jurassic marine deposits, the Getic is divided into Eastern and Western. In the Eastern Getic, the Lower Jurassic sedimentation in SE Serbia is represented by the Vidlic Clastites covered by the Lukanja Coal Beds, Lukanja Quartz Sandstones, Lukanja Brachiopods Beds, Lukanja Marlstones, Lukanja Belemnitic-Gryphaean Beds and Lukanja Cephalopod Limestones; in SW Bulgaria, the sedimentation commenced with the Tuden Formation, followed by the Kostina Formation and the Ozirovo Formation with a few members. The Middle Jurassic in SE Serbia commenced with the Senokos Siltstones and Shales and the Gulenovci Beds, while in SW Bulgaria with black shales (the Etropole Formation), followed by marls and clayey limestones of the Bov Formation. The Middle Jurassic sediments are represented in the Western Getic of SE Serbia by the Kurilovo Clastites and the Kurilovo Limestones (synonym to Gumpina Limestones of KRAUTNER & KRSTIC 2003); in the Supra-Getic of SE Serbia they are formed by the Jerma Clastites and Jerma Limestones (synonym of the Gumpina Limestones). In SW Bulgaria the Middle Jurassic sediments are represented by the sandstones of the Gradets Formation and by the bioclastic limestones of the Polaten Formation. During the Callovian (Middle? ) started the formation of a carbonate platform with micritic limestones. In SE Serbia, it is Basara Limestones, Vidlic Limestones, Beljanica and Ždrelo Limestones, and in SW Bulgarian, the Belediehan Formation of Callovian-Kimmeridgian p.p. age. Characteristic for the Supra- Getic is the formation of a few grabens with specific sedimentation: the Svetlya Graben (the Zhablyano and Ozirovo Formations) and the Lobosh Formation; the Treklyano Graben (the Dobridol and Sredorek Formations), and out of it - the Methohya and Sredorek Formation. During the Callovian-Kimmeridgian p.p., in the Svetlya Graben was sedimented the Lobosh Formation, horizontally passing into the Javorets and Gintsi Formations. During the latest Kimmeridgian-Tithonian commenced a big facial diversification: on the Getic in SE Serbia sedimented reef or sub-reef limestones (the Crni Vrh and Kucaj Reef Limestones), while in SW Bulgaria, the Slivnitsa Formation. On the Supra-Getic in SE Serbia formed Lužnica Flysch and in SW Bulgaria pre-flysch of the Neshkovtsi Formation and siliciclastic flysch of the Kostel Formation.
Preconditioning elastic full waveform inversion by scattering theory

The waveform analysis is a powerful tool to investigate the physical properties in the areas of interest. Since the wave propagation is influenced by all elastic parameters, it is necessary to include these parameters in the inversion. On the other hand, multi-parameter FWI is a challenging problem because some elastic parameters increases the dimension of the solution space, in other words desensitization of each parameter occurs due to the difference of each radiation pattern and geometrical spreading. Some previous works used preconditioning gradient method using approximate Hessian that takes radiation pattern and geometrical spreading into account in order to compensate the desensitization. However, such methods solve many forward calculations to make the preconditioning operator so the computational cost becomes expensive. In this paper, we suggest new preconditioning gradient method that seeks preconditioning operator by scattering theory instead of many forward calculation to compensate the desensitization. We conduct numerical experiments to compare the results obtained by the new method with those from a conventional method. This method can estimate more reliable results than conventional one and restrain the rise of computational costs.
3D VS. 2D MODELLING OF CRACKING AND PLASTICITY IN POLYCRYSTALLINE MATERIALS

The problem of cracking and plasticity in face-centered-cubic polycrystals is herein investigated. The aim is to quantify the difference between 3D simulations, computationally expensive but able to model real polycrystalline geometries, and simplified computations on 2D cross-sections with a reduced computational cost. To this aim, a unified finite element formulation with elasto-plastic elements for the grain interior and interface elements for the grain boundaries is developed. This approach is suitable for the analysis of polycrystalline materials with a response intermediate between that of brittle ceramics and that of ductile metals. Crystal plasticity theory is used for 3D computations, whereas isotropic VON MISES plasticity is adopted for the 2D tests. For the grain boundari es, a cohesive zone model (CZM) accounting for Mode Mixity is considered. Examining the nonlinearity due to the CZM only, 3D simulations of uniaxial tensile tests differ from 2D predictions due to the higher tortuos- ity of the crack path in 3D, leading to significant Mixed Mode deformation. Regarding the comparison between 3D and 2D simulations with plasticity only, results show that the satu- ration of the stress field is much faster in 3D than in 2D. Finally, when both nonlinearities are simultaneously present, a strong interplay is evidenced. The CZM prevails over plasticity for low deformation levels. Afterwards, plasticity prevails over CZM. Finally, for a very large deformation, failure is ruled by the CZM formulation which induces a softening in the global structural response and a size-scale dependency of the results.
Auxiliary Principle Technique for Solving Split Feasibility Problems

Let K and C be nonempty, closed and convex sets in R n and R m respectively and A be an m £ n real matrix. The split feasibility problem is to find u 2 K with Au 2 C: Many problems arising in the image reconstruction can be formulated in this form. In this paper, we use the auxiliary principle technique to suggest and analyze some new iterative algorithms for solving the split feasibility problems. Our new algorithms include the previously known ones as special cases. We also study the convergence criteria of these algorithms under some weaker conditions. In this respect, our results present a refinement and improvement of the previously known results.