Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Equity Risk, Credit Risk, Default Correlation, and Corporate Sustainability

Financial researchers have long understood the theoretical links between equity risk and credit risk. Although structural models of credit risk, such Moody’s KMV, have been available for some time, the author develops a new approach to the use of such models. The author derives the market-implied expected life of a firm based on the firm’s stock price, balance sheet leverage, and the equity risk forecast from his models. The first step is to translate the equity risk forecast into a forecast of the volatility of a firm’s assets. An option framework is then used to derive an expectation of the market-implied expiration date of the option, which is a proxy for the expected life of the firm. Two methods for improving estimates of default correlation are provided. The article also shows empirical uses of the technique at both the firm level as a measure of credit risk and the market level as a metric for systemic risk. Finally, brief evidence is presented that the concept of corporate “sustainability” as broadly used by socially responsible investors appears to be supported, with purportedly sustainable firms having average expected lives that are longer than those of non-sustainable firms to a statistically significant degree.
Nanoscale interfacial electroactivity in PVDF/PVDF-TrFE blended films with enhanced dielectric and ferroelectric properties

The typical limitations of ferroelectric polymers like poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) – low crystallinity and indirect ferroelectric β-phase crystallization – and poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) – high materials and processing costs and a low Curie point – are tackled by a simple and industrially viable melt blending approach. Despite the immiscible nature of PVDF and PVDF-TrFE, strong interactions exist between the two polymers, which substantially affect the morphology and texture of the blends as well as their dielectric and ferroelectric properties. Surprisingly, minor amounts of PVDF-TrFE lead to a significant increase in the β-phase content and preferred orientation of PVDF, well beyond the rule-of-mixtures. Moreover, the blends exhibit maximum increases in the dielectric constant of 80% and 30%, respectively, compared with pure PVDF and PVDF-TrFE. The ferroelectric remnant polarization increases from 0.040 to 0.077 C m−2, while the coercive field decreases from 75 to 32 kV mm−1 with increasing PVDF-TrFE content from 0 to 40 wt%. The enhancement of properties is explained by the strong interactions at the interfaces between PVDF and PVDF-TrFE, which also suppress the Curie transition of PVDF-TrFE, providing a potentially increased working temperature range for blended films, which is important in applications like non-volatile energy storage devices, ferroelectric field-effect transistors and touch sensors.
The dependence of cosmic ray driven galactic winds on halo mass

Galactic winds regulate star formation in disk galaxies and help to enrich the circum-galactic medium. They are therefore crucial for galaxy formation, but their driving mechanism is still poorly understood. Recent studies have demonstrated that cosmic rays (CRs) can drive outflows if active CR transport is taken into account. Using hydrodynamical simulations of isolated galaxies with virial masses between $10^{10}$ and $10^{13}\mathrm{~M_\odot}$, we study how the properties of CR-driven winds depend on halo mass. CRs are treated in a two-fluid approximation and their transport is modelled through isotropic or anisotropic diffusion. We find that CRs are only able to drive mass-loaded winds beyond the virial radius in haloes with masses below $10^{12}\mathrm{~M_\odot}$. For our lowest examined halo mass, the wind is roughly spherical and has velocities of $\sim20\mathrm{~km\;s^{-1}}$. With increasing halo mass, the wind becomes biconical and can reach ten times higher velocities. The mass loading factor drops rapidly with virial mass, a dependence that approximately follows a power-law with a slope between $-1$ and $-2$. This scaling is slightly steeper than observational inferences, and also steeper than commonly used prescriptions for wind feedback in cosmological simulations. The slope is quite robust to variations of the CR injection efficiency or the CR diffusion coefficient. In contrast to the mass loading, the energy loading shows no significant dependence on halo mass. While these scalings are close to successful heuristic models of wind feedback, the CR-driven winds in our present models are not yet powerful enough to fully account for the required feedback strength.
The Third Information Systems International Conference Investigating the Behavior of Citizens to Use ICT in Environmental Impact Assessment ( EIA )

In this paper, the study investigates the behavior of citizens in using information and communication technologies (ICT) in environmental impact assessment (EIA) involvement. Perceived government support, attitude, and perceived behavior control are measured as a predictor model of citizens’ behavior intention. The result reveals that 51 percent of citizens’ intention is well described by the assessment model. The result also reveals the perceived behavior control as a key factor to the involvement intention. This result can be used as a consideration by EIA policy makers and project owner to develop strategies in involving citizens with ICT. © 2015 Published by ISICO
HEAVY METALS CONCENTRATION IN SEDIMENT OF LLUTA RIVER BASIN

Northern Chile is characterized by water scarcity. The Lluta River, located in the XV region of Arica and Parinacota, is the one of the main rivers in northern Chile. The elevated levels of metals and metaloids in the river reduce the agricultural productivity and variety of species can be cultivated within the valley, which are of great importance for the consumption of the inhabitants of the area. Heavy metals in river bottoms may cause various effects on the water quality, as such the capacity to accumulate metals; levels of toxicity and metal stabilization in sediments have often been considered a pollution index of a territory. In this work the concentrations of Al, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Pb and Zn from the pseudo-total and labile fraction of Lluta river sediments were studied. Samples from 10 sites along the river were collected. The sediments were characterized determining: pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon (OC), organic total carbon (OTC), available phosphorus and boron. Heavy metals were analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). For the metals analyzed in the pseudo-total fraction, the highest concentrations found were: Al in the site 10, (17061 mg kg -1 ) and Fe on site 6, (29898 mg kg -1 ). For the labile fraction, highest concentrations of metals were: Al in site 6 (1079 mg kg -1 ), Fe in site 9, (275 mg kg -1 ) and Mn in site 9 (1578 mg kg -1 ). Using the Risk assessment code (RAC), the site 6 presents the greatest risk with high values of Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn, followed by site 1 with high values of Mn, Cu and Zn, and site 9 with high values of Mn, Cu and Pb. On the other hand, the MacDonald PEC (probable effect concentration) and TEC (threshold effect concentration) toxicity criteria, showed that the sites 4 and 6 have levels above the TEC for Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn, and levels above the PEC at six sites for Mn.
"For People Who Aren't Sure Who They Are, Theatre is a Great Place to Be: Narratives of Actors and their Sexual Identities

This narrative study of male actors who identify as other-thanheterosexual explores the participants' stories of sexual identity development and the relationship between acting and identity development. Framed in D'Augelli's (1994) lifespan developmental model, the study illustrates themes of acting as safe space, acting as an embodied experience, acting as an influence on relationships, and acting as a politic. Introduction While adult education literature documents the propensity for theatre to influence in overt or subtle ways, this discussion has historically focused on the experience of the audience as a consumer of the medium. There is a relative paucity in adult education for literature describing the experience of the actor, and how his or her art influences him or her. Few studies attempt to bridge the gap between identity development as a vehicle for adult education and literature from theatre and theatre education that describes the experiences of actors as artists creating identity. My conversations with actors and performers, as well as my own experiences of theatre and performance art, suggest that the process of acting holds significant meaning-making power for the actor, particularly in understanding the actors' own belief sets and motivations. The purpose of this study was to examine the development of sexual identity in adult male actors in order to explore the relationship between acting and sexual identity, and the actors' processes of making meaning about that relationship. Through examining the narratives of actors to determine how their experiences have impacted their sexual identity, I shed light on how acting may initiate and perpetuate personal development and provide a space through which the actor may reflect on sexual identity. Review of Relevant Literature Adult Development As this study is grounded in adult development, it is important to present an operational definition of adult development, and explore its implications. For this study, I follow Merriam and Clark's (2006) model of development as a change over time, in which the change is reflected in learning. As they delineate, development can be a biological process (aging), psychological process (cognition), or a sociocultural process (social role performance). In particular, this notion of development is appropriate for this study because Merriam and Clark focus on development as a learning process, whether that learning is oppressive or liberatory. Much of the sexual identity development presented in this study, as it is understood by the participants, speaks of coming to understand the self as a learning process. In this study, I apply an integrated lens on sexual identity as both the product of psychological change and a response to social mores. From a liberatory perspective, sexual identity as a reflection of development represents the breaking away from preconceived notions and coming to understand new perspectives.
Crime, Ethics and Occupational Choice: Endogenous Sorting in a Closed Model

We consider a simple model in which agents are endowed with heterogeneous abilities and differing degrees of honesty. Agents choose either to become criminals or invest in education and become workers instead. The model is closed in that all criminal proceeds are stolen from agents working in the formal sector and that expenditures on both deterrence and punishment of criminals are paid for through taxes levied on workers. Thus, although we assume that there no direct interactive effects among criminals, criminals crowd each other in two ways: positively in that enforcement and punishment resources become more widely diffused as more agents commit crimes, and negatively in that the presence of more criminals implies that there is less loot to be divided over a larger number of thieves. We establish the possibility of multiple equilibria and characterize the equilibrium properties. We then evaluate the effectiveness of deterrence policies under a balanced government budget.
EMOTIONAL ORIENTATION AND CONTEXT ANALYSIS FOR DESIGN CREATIVITY EXERCISE TEST

An exercise program addressing cognitive elements of creativity was devised so that personalized needs in specific elements could be addressed. The exercise program provides users with an opportunity to enhance the creativity in a personalized adaptive manner with regard to five cognitive elements: fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration and problem sensitivity. Dynamically changing affective states are considered related to contexts in the program and an affective modeling was presented in this regard. The effectiveness of the exercise program was evaluated by using conceptual design tasks, in the form of pre-test and post-test. It was reported, 70% of students achieved enhance in design creativity. Further mining on the log data indicate the enhanced design creativity is reversely associated with negative affective states. In addition, a framework of processing natural language was introduced for estimating emotional orientation from text. It was observed that emotional orientations tend to be context-dependent and the positive emotional orientation appears when users achieve enhance in design creativity. The framework promises its application to affective modeling.
A New Efficient Authenticated and Key Agreement Scheme for SIP Using Digital Signature Algorithm on Elliptic Curves

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has been recently one of the more popular applications in Internet technology. It benefits lower cost of equipment, operation, and better integration with data applications than voice communications over telephone networks. However, the voice packets delivered over the Internet are not protected. The session initiation protocol (SIP) is widely used signaling protocol that controls communications on the Internet, typically using hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) digest authentication, which is vulnerable to many forms of attacks. This paper proposes a new secure authentication and key agreement scheme based on Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) named (ECDSA). Security analysis demonstrates that the proposed scheme can resist various attacks and it can be applied to authenticate the users with different SIP domains. Keywords—authentication, key agreement, session initiation protocol, VoIP.
Australian Senior Mathematics Journal vol. 28 no. 2

is satisfied, the limit of the function of f at the point of a is L. The limit concept has been a research topic in mathematics education for years and in the literature it is a broadly accepted fact that the limit is a difficult notion for most students (e.g., Cornu, 1991; Cottrill et al., 1996; MamonaDowns, 2001; Przenioslo, 2004; Roh, 2007; Sierpinska, 1987; Tall, 1993; Tall & Vinner, 1981; Williams, 1991). In the light of the relevant literature, it is indicated that understanding the formal limit notion is difficult for most students (e.g., Cornu, 1991; Swinyard, 2011). Some researchers (e.g., Tall & Vinner, 1981; Williams, 1991) have argued that the dynamic limit notion is easy and natural for the students, however, it prevents the students from understanding the formal limit notion. Swinyard and Locwood (2007) have stated that students must first consider a range of output values around the candidate for the limit and then project these back to the domain. Swinyard and Locwood, describe this as to reverse one’s thinking and argue this is the main difficulty in constructing the formal limit notion. As Swinyard (2011) has emphasised, there is little research about students’ understanding of the formal limit notion, despite the fact that understanding of the formal limit notion is difficult for most of the students. Additionally, he A usralian S eior M ahem atics Jornal ol. 2 8 o. 2
Genetic population structure of Bemisia tabaci in Spain associated with Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus – short communication

Janssen D. , Simon A. , Crespo O. , Ruiz L. (2017): Genetic population structure of Bemisia tabaci in Spain associated with Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus – short communication. Plant Protect. Sci., 53: 25–31. Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) originates from Asia where it is persistently transmitted by indigenous cryptic species of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. The virus has recently invaded Spain, Tunisia, and Italy, and to investigate whether whitefly species new to the Mediterranean are involved, 35 populations were collected during 2015 from different crops in different regions of southern Spain. Comparison of partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I sequences from the collected whiteflies revealed the existence of 7 different haplotypes belonging to the Mediterranean-Q1 cryptic species. ToLCNDV was detected in 15 populations collected from tomato, zucchini, and melon crops and from 5 different localities. The results suggest that MED-Q1 is also responsible for the current spread of ToLCNDV in Spain.
Realization of optical pulling forces using chirality

We derived an analytical formula for the optical force acting on a small anisotropic chiral particle. The behavior of chiral particles is qualitatively different from achiral particles due to new chirality dependent terms which couple mechanical linear momentum and optical spin angular momentum. Such coupling induced by chirality can serve as a new mechanism to achieve optical pulling force. Our analytical predictions are verified by numerical simulations.
A new disjunct eddy-covariance system for BVOC flux measurements – validation on CO 2 and H 2 O fluxes

Abstract. The disjunct eddy covariance (DEC) method is an interesting alternative to the conventional eddy covariance (EC) method because it allows the estimation of turbulent fluxes of species for which fast sensors are not available. We have developed and validated a new disjunct sampling system (called MEDEE). This system is built with chemically inert materials. Air samples are taken quickly and alternately in two cylindrical reservoirs, the internal pressures of which are regulated by a moving piston. The MEDEE system was designed to be operated either on the ground or aboard an aircraft. It is also compatible with most analysers since it transfers the air samples at a regulated pressure. To validate the system, DEC and EC measurements of CO2 and latent heat fluxes were performed concurrently during a field campaign. EC fluxes were first compared to simulated DEC (SDEC) fluxes and then to actual DEC fluxes. Both the simulated and actual DEC fluxes showed a good agreement with EC fluxes in terms of correlation. The determination coefficients (R2) were 0.93 and 0.91 for DEC and SDEC latent heat fluxes, respectively. For DEC and SDEC CO2 fluxes R2 was 0.69 in both cases. The conditions of low fluxes experienced during the campaign impaired the comparison of the different techniques especially for CO2 flux measurements. Linear regression analysis showed an 14% underestimation of DEC fluxes for both CO2 and latent heat compared to EC fluxes. A first field campaign, focusing on biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions, was carried out to measure isoprene fluxes above a downy oak (Quercus Pubescens) forest in the south-east of France. The measured standard emission rate was in the lower range of reported values in earlier studies. Further analysis will be conducted through ground-based and airborne campaigns in the coming years.
Training a Nonclinician to Become a Leader in Transdisciplinary Clinical Research: Clinical Observerships

As institutions and funders expand their efforts toward multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and even transdisciplinary research, there is a substantial need for scientists who can lead such efforts. The traditional image of a leader of transdisciplinary clinical research is a quantitatively savvy clinician conducting research at some point along the continuum from the “bench to the bedside. ” However, this is not the only alternative. Nonclinician scientists can also provide effective leadership in multidisciplinary clinical research teams. To foster the development of such nonclinicianleaders, we suggest the completion of a comprehensive clinical observership as an appropriate and valuable training activity. The clinical setting can foster unique insight, providing invaluable training for leadership in translational research. Observing both providers and patients immerses nonclinician scientists in the health care experience, providing them with direct exposure to clinicians, patients, and patients’ families, and thereby motivating patient-centered research.
The Evaluation of Initiating Tobacco Cessation Services in the Military-Based Hospital, Northeastern Thailand

Objective: It aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the initial smoking cessation services at amilitary-based hospital in northeastern Thailand . Methods: It was a prospective, descriptive design. Totally, there were 1,094 conscripts who participated in the 6-month cessation program. Patient history data was collected via a patient history record divided into three different periods of time at, 1 st visit, 2 nd visit (3-months), and 3 rd visit (6-months). Each participant underwent ‘going cold turkey’ with tobacco cessation approach. Sociodemographic characteristics and continuous variables (e.g., age, duration of smoking) were analyzed via descriptive statistics. Spearman correlation coefficient was used for the relation between predictor and dependent variables (quit success). The relations between sociodemographic data and the prospects of quitting smoking were analyzed via multiple logistic regression. Results: Most participants were males (99.84%), and regular drinkers (55.50%). They usually smoked 12.37 cigarettes per day. For first visit, every participant underwent ‘going cold turkey’ with tobacco cessation approach to quit smoking (from 1 st to 3 rd visit). An average CO level was 3.23 ppm. Around twelve percent of participants used 0.5% sodium nitrate mouthwash. At the second visit (3-months), numbers of cigarettes decreased to 5.48 cigarettes per day and numbers of participants were decreased to 792 personnel. Only 150 persons continue to quit smoking (18.95%). At the last visit (6-months), a total number of participants were 688 personnel. Numbers of cigarettes were decreased to 5.48 cigarettes per day. Only 78 persons completely quit smoking (11.34%), and approximately 18.02% of participants still used 0.5% sodium nitrate mouthwash. Additionally, only three sociodemographic data including, CO level, duration of counseling, and use of first line treatment were statistically related to the prospects of quitting smoking (p<.05, .001 respectively). The equation of the prospect of quit smoking was statistically related to those sociodemographic characteristics. Conclusion : Tobacco cessation services in a military-based hospital were well received and short term outcomes of conscripts seeking help was encouraging. The integration of tobacco cessation with existing healthcare services in the military-based hospitals is necessary. Finally, further evaluations of the effectiveness of cessation services among conscripts in the military-based hospitals need to be conducted. Keywords: Cessation services, military-based hospital, tobacco
Non-destructive evaluation, inspection and testing of primary aeronautical composite structures using phase contrast X-Ray imaging

The EU-project EVITA (non-destructive EValuation, Inspection and Testing of primary Aeronautical composite structures using phase contrast X-ray imaging) aims at bringing Grating-based Phase Contrast X-ray imaging technology to non-destructive evaluation and inspection of primary and/or complex and thick aeronautical composite structures. In this article, the demonstrator built within the project will be presented as well as the results of the experimental study performed on aeronautical composite test samples.