Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The East Anatolian Fault Zone: Seismotectonic setting and spatiotemporal characteristics of seismicity based on precise earthquake locations

[1] The East Anatolian Fault Zone (EAFZ) represents a plate boundary extending over ∼500 km between the Arabian and Anatolian plates. Relative plate motion occurs with slip rates ranging from 6 to 10 mm/yr and has resulted in destructive earthquakes in eastern Turkey as documented by historical records. In this study, we investigate the seismic activity along the EAFZ and fault kinematics based on recordings from a densified regional seismic network providing the best possible azimuthal coverage for the target region. We optimize a reference 1-D velocity model using a grid-search approach and re-locate hypocenters using the Double-Difference earthquake relocation technique. The refined hypocenter catalog provides insights into the kinematics and internal deformation of the fault zone down to a resolution ranging typically between 100 and 200 m. The distribution of hypocenters suggests that the EAFZ is characterized by NE-SW and E-W oriented sub-segments that are sub-parallel to the overall trend of the fault zone. Faulting mechanisms are predominantly left-lateral strike-slip and thus in good correlation with the deformation pattern derived from regional GPS data. However, we also observe local clusters of thrust and normal faulting events, respectively. While normal faulting events typically occur on NS-trending subsidiary faults, thrust faulting is restricted to EW-trending structures. This observation is in good accordance with kinematic models proposed for evolving shear zones. The observed spatiotemporal evolution of hypocenters indicates a systematic migration of micro- and moderate-sized earthquakes from the main fault into adjacent fault segments within several days documenting progressive interaction between the major branch of the EAFZ and its secondary structures. Analyzing the pre versus post-seismic phase for M > 5 events we find that aftershock activities are initially spread to the entire source region for several months but start to cluster at the central part of the main shock rupture thereafter.
Methanol Partition Fraction of Ethanol Extract of Discorea nipponica Makino Inhibits Melanogenesis

Purpose: To investigate the inhibitory effect of the methanol fraction of Dioscorea nipponica Makino ethanol extract (DNM) on melanogenesis both in vitro and in vivo. Methods: Cultured mouse B16 melanoma cell and zebra fish were used to evaluate the melanogenesis inhibitory activity of DNM in vitro and in vivo, respectively. In B16 cells, inhibitory effects on intracellular melanogenesis, tyrosinase activity and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were determined after DNM treatment. In zebra fish, both toxic and antimelanogenic activities of DNM on developed larvae were evaluated. Results: In B16 cells, the results show that DNM dose-dependently inhibited melanogenesis at non-toxic concentrations. Surprisingly, however, DNM had no effect on intracellular tyrosinase activity or the amount of the enzyme in B16 cells. On the other hand, DNM showed strong antioxidant activities against cell-free 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazl (DPPH) and 2,2’-azino-bis (3-etnylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphaonic acid) (ABTS + ) free radical and intracellular ROS in B16 cells. In zebra fish, DNM significantly and dose-dependently inhibited skin melanogenesis of zebra fish larvae at non-toxic concentrations. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that DNM inhibits melanogenesis in vitro in B16 melanoma cells and in vivo in zebrafish. Furthermore, DNM exhibits potent inhibition of melanogenesis probably as a result of its antioxidant activity in the cells.
Monitoring and its Interaction with Punishment in Tax Enforcement : Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

We provide credible evidence on two important issues in tax reform: (i) effects of better monitoring and (ii) possible complementarity between monitoring and punishment. In spite of the importance of monitoring in tax enforcement; there is no estimate of the causal effect of relying on Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) to intensively monitor large firms. Although complementarity between monitoring and punishment is a feature of theoretical models, there is no evidence on its validity. We exploit a regression discontinuity design (RD) in Ecuador to estimate the tax revenue effects of higher monitoring of LTU firms. The RD is based on a discontinuity in LTU eligibility in 2005 and 2007, when a firm was eligible if its ‘index’ was greater than zero. The index incorporates firm characteristics, such as prior revenue and taxes. To test the complementarity hypothesis, we combine RD with a difference-in-difference framework based on a reform instituting prison for tax evasion in 2007. We compare RD estimates of the tax payments between LTU and non-LTU firms for preand post-reform periods. Results show that higher monitoring induces firms to more than double their mean taxes. While mean and median estimates show no complementarity, strong complementarity is observed above the 70th quantile.
National Time Accounting: The Currency of Life

This monograph proposes a new approach for measuring features of society’s subjective well-being, based on time allocation and affective experience. We call this approach National Time Accounting (NTA). National Time Accounting is a set of methods for measuring, comparing and analyzing how people spend and experience their time -across countries, over historical time, or between groups of people within a country at a given time. The approach is based on evaluated time use, or the flow of emotional experience during daily activities. After reviewing evidence on the validity of subjective well-being measures, we present and evaluate diary-based survey techniques designed to measure individuals’ emotional experiences and time use. We illustrate NTA with: (1) a new cross-sectional survey on time use and emotional experience for a representative sample of 4,000 Americans; (2) historical data on the amount of time devoted to various activities in the United States since 1965; and (3) a comparison of time use and wellbeing in the United States and France. In our applications, we focus mainly on the Uindex, a measure of the percentage of time that people spend in an unpleasant state, defined as an instance in which the most intense emotion is a negative one. The U-index helps to overcome some of the limitations of interpersonal comparisons of subjective well-being. National Time Accounting strikes us as a fertile area for future research because of advances in subjective measurement and because time use data are now regularly collected in many countries.
Non‐stationarity in garch models: A bayesian analysis

textabstractFirst, the non-stationarity properties of the conditional variances in the GARCH(1,1) model are analysed using the concept of infinite persistence of shocks. Given a time sequence of probabilities for increasing/decreasing conditional variances, a theoretical formula for quasi-strict non-stationarity is defined. The resulting conditions for the GARCH(1,1) model are shown to differ from the weak stationarity conditions mainly used in the literature. Bayesian statistical analysis using Monte Carlo integration is applied to analyse both stationarity concepts for the conditional variances of the US 3-month treasury bill rate. Interest rates are known for their weakly non-stationary conditional variances but, using a quasi-strict stationarity measure, it is shown that the conditional variances are likely to be stationary. Second, the level of the treasury bill rate is analysed for non-stationarity using Bayesian unit root methods. The disturbances of the GARCH model for the treasury bill rate are t-distributed. It is shown that the unit root parameter is negatively correlated with the degrees-of-freedom parameter. Imposing normally distributed disturbances leads therefore to underestimation of the non-stationarity in the level of the treasury bill rate.
Isolation and characterization of microsatellites in Sparganium emersum and cross‐species amplification in the related species S. erectum

We developed seven novel polymorphic microsatellite loci for the aquatic macrophyte Sparganium emersum (Sparganiaceae). These were characterized on 62 individuals collected from nine different populations. In this set of individuals, seven to 20 alleles per locus were detected and observed heterozygosity ranged between 0.16 and 0.95. Cross-species amplification was tested in the related species Sparganium erectum, and was successful for five of the seven microsatellite loci.
Numerical forecast and analysis of a tropical-like cyclone in the Ionian Sea

Abstract. A forecasting system has been implemented for operational weather prediction over southern Italy in the framework of the RISKMED (INTERREG IIIB) project, which aims at weather-risk reduction in the central and eastern Mediterranean area. The system comprises two different regional forecasting chains, one based on BOLAM and MOLOCH models, the second based on the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. On 26 September 2006, a subsynoptic-scale vortex developed over the Mediterranean Sea and affected south-eastern Italy. The cyclone was documented by radar reflectivity maps, Meteosat Second Generation satellite images and surface stations data. The observational analysis showed that the cyclone possessed the typical characteristics of a Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone. All the limited-area models employed in RISKMED were able to properly forecast the formation of the small-scale vortex, although with differences in intensity, trajectory and evolution. The predictability of the event has been evaluated employing a multi-model, multi-analysis approach. The simulation results show strong sensitivity to the specification of the initial and boundary conditions. Sensitivity experiments were performed in order to analyse the mechanisms responsible for the development and the maintenance of the cyclone over the sea. The life cycle of the vortex turned out to be characterized by different phases: the orographic cyclogenesis on the lee side of the Atlas Mountains; the initial phase of development, characterised by the critical role played by the surface heat fluxes; the transition to a tropical-like cyclone mainly as a consequence of the latent-heat release associated with strong convective activity over the Ionian Sea; finally, the maintenance of the vortex strength due to both the surface fluxes and the release of latent heat.
Preliminary Evaluation of 29 Olive (Olea europaea L.) Cultivars for Production and Alternate Bearing, in the Huasco Valley, Northern Chile

There is increasing interest in the development of intensively managed olive orchards (Olea europaea L.) in northern Chile. �Theselectionofspecificvarietiesthatperformwellonaparticularsiteisconsideredcrucialtomaximizing� productivity. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the productive performance of 29 varieties of olive in the Huasco Valley (28°34' S, 70°47' W), Northern Chile. The traits evaluated were: mean olive production per tree consideringalongitudinal�(PML)�analysisoveraperiodoffiveyears,�2003�to�2007,�totaloliveproductioninthe� sameperiod�(PA03-07)�andalternatebearingindex�(ABI). �Theeffectofvarietywashighlysignificant� (p�<�0.01)�for� alltraits. �Inthefieldtrial,�IAPwasmoderate�(0.52),�withPML�37.7�kgtree -1 and PA-0307 186 kg tree -1 . Spearman correlationcoefficientsbetweenrankingsofeachtraitwerepositiveandsignificantlydifferentfromzero�(p�<�0.05). � 'Leccino' performed best based on fruit production alone. 'Arbequina', 'Picholine', 'Manzanilla Racimo', 'Picual', 'Manzanilla de Sevilla', 'Frantoio' and 'Ascolana Huasco' evidenced both high productivity and the lowest alternate bearing. These cultivars could be recommended in Huasco if a farmer is seeking to recover establishment costs rapidly, but we emphasize that a longer-term longitudinal study should be carried out before large-scale deployment.
Point Thermal Transmittance of Rib Intersections in Concrete Sandwich Wall Panels

ABSTRACT Concrete sandwich panels are building elements made by two concrete wythes separated by a layer of lightweight material: the central layer is inhomogeneous due to the presence of concrete ribs which tie the external wythes and act as thermal bridges. This paper deals with the problem of determining point thermal transmittance associated with rib intersections. Together with previous results by the authors, it allows accurate calculation of thermal transmittance of sandwich panels according to current International Standards. A dataset of 1080 point transmittance values is obtained upon use of a spectral element method, varying systematically material conductivities and thickness of panel layers, for the most common pairs of rib widths in current panel production. To limit the computational cost, a solution strategy based on the use of low-order polynomials on three grids of increasing refinement, coupled with Richardson extrapolation is adopted. Finally, a power law correlation is proposed that allows to estimate point transmittance within a relative error of 10%.
Trilinear resonant interactions of semilinear hyperbolic waves

An important question in the study of nonlinear equations is the understanding of the asymptotic behavior of families of solutions, or approximate solutions. One of the difficulty is known to be the nonlinear interaction of oscillations. This phenomenon has been studied for special classes of solutions, such as oscillatory functions with phases and amplitudes. This is the domain of geometric optics. In some cases, general families of bounded solutions have also been considered. The present paper enters the later category, but is highly inspired by the results of nonlinear geometric optics. Geometric optics provides a precise description of the asymptotic structure of solutions to both linear (e.g. [Wh]) and nonlinear ([J], [HK], [MR], [HMR], [JMR 1], [JMR 2], [S], . . .) hyperbolic PDEs whose initial data u(0, x) = u0(x) + eu1(x, ~ φ0(x) e ) have rapid oscillations with prescribed phases ~ φ0 and a single prescribed scale 1e . Such solutions are important in both theory and applications ([L], [KK]). In the lowest approximation, oscillations having different spatial scales interact only when m equals zero, since otherwise the amplitudes of higher-frequency oscillations become negligible relative to those of lower frequencies. Taking m = 0 requires L∞ estimates. Systems that are well-posed in L∞ occur mostly in one spatial dimension. For such systems, arbitrary uniformly bounded sequences of initial data may be considered, but comparatively little is known about the asymptotic structure of the resulting solutions. Since the oscillations in such solutions may be extremely complex, a natural problem is to determine their non-oscillatory part, which may be identified with the weak limit of the sequence of solutions. The highly oscillatory nature of the solutions manifests itself in the absence of strong convergence in general. Of course, some information about those oscillations will generally be needed in order to determine the weak limit. The asymptotic structure of uniformly bounded solutions depends strongly on the nature of the nonlinearity: For entropy solutions of a genuinely nonlinear conservation law ([T 1]) or of a pair of such equations in one spatial dimension ([DP]), oscillations of amplitude O(1) do not persist for positive times, so a sequence of solutions converges strongly to the solution whose initial data is the weak limit of the initial data. Although oscillations do persist in linear systems, the weak limit of a sequence of solutions to such
Optimisation of alpha mangostin extraction using supercritical co2 from garcinia mangostana

Optimisation of Alpha Mangostin Extraction Using Supercritical CO2 from Garcinia Mangostana Mariani Abdul Hamid*, Norshamiza Abu Bakar, Chang Seo Park, Faiqah Ramli, Wan Rosli Wan Institute of Bio-product Development, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Dongguk University, 3-26, Pil-Dong, Chung-gu, Seoul, Korea Department of Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Energy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia mariani@ibd.utm. my
Milky Way Tomography with K and M Dwarf Stars: The Vertical Structure of the Galactic Disk

We use the number density distributions of K and M dwarf stars with vertical height from the Galactic disk, determined using observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, to probe the structure of the Milky Way disk across the survey’s footprint. Using photometric parallax as a distance estimator we analyze a sample of several million disk stars in matching footprints above and below the Galactic plane, and we determine the location and extent of vertical asymmetries in the number counts in a variety of thin- and thick-disk subsamples in regions of some 200 square degrees within 2 kpc in vertical distance from the Galactic disk. These disk asymmetries present wave-like features as previously observed on other scales and at other distances from the Sun. We additionally explore the scale height of the disk and the implied offset of the Sun from the Galactic plane at different locations, noting that the scale height of the disk can differ significantly when measured using stars only above or only below the plane. Moreover, we compare the shape of the number density distribution in the north for different latitude ranges with a fixed range in longitude and find the shape to be sensitive to the selected latitude window. We explain why this may be indicative of a change in stellar populations in the latitude regions compared, possibly allowing access to the systematic metallicity difference between thin- and thick-disk populations through photometry.
Homogenization of ferromagnetic multilayers in the presence of surface energies

We study the homogenization process of ferromagnetic multilayers in the presence of surface energies: super-exchange, also called interlayer exchange coupling, and surface anisotropy. The two main difficulties are the non-linearity of the Landau-Lifshitz equation and the absence of a good sequence of extension operators for the multilayer geometry. First, we consider the case when surface anisotropy is the dominant term, then the case when the magnitude of the super-exchange interaction is inversely proportional to the interlayer distance. We establish the homogenized equation in these two situations.
Predicting altcoin returns using social media

Cryptocurrencies have recently received large media interest. Especially the great fluctuations in price have attracted such attention. Behavioral sciences and related scientific literature provide evidence that there is a close relationship between social media and price fluctuations of cryptocurrencies. This particularly applies to smaller currencies, which can be substantially influenced by references on Twitter. Although these so-called “altcoins” often have smaller trading volumes they sometimes attract large attention on social media. Here, we show that fluctuations in altcoins can be predicted from social media. In order to do this, we collected a dataset containing prices and the social media activity of 181 altcoins in the form of 426,520 tweets over a timeframe of 71 days. The containing public mood was then estimated using sentiment analysis. To predict altcoin returns, we carried out linear regression analyses based on 45 days of data. We showed that short-term returns can be predicted from activity and sentiments on Twitter.
Assessment of upper extremity movements in persons with stroke using a inertial navigation system

Stroke ranks the top number five cause of lost disability-adjusted-life-years in poor and middle-income countries, and impaired motor function on one side of the body is reported to be present in 80% of the cases. Correct assessment of the motor function in survivors have been shown to play a important part in successful rehabilitation. Previous works have reported that the kinematic variables total movement time, trunk displacement and movement smoothness have high correlation with clinical scales, such as Action Research Arm Test when derived from the every-day task of drinking from a glass of water. Kinematic movement analysis is classically performed using a sophisticated motion capture system, which may be unsuitable for small practises or poor countries. This thesis presents and evaluates the design of a system created to measure the motor impairment in the upper limbs of stroke survivors using only a cheap IMU and a standard computer. A motion capture system using a verified method to derive the two variables movement smoothness and total movement time was used in conjunction with an IMU mounted on the subjects wrist. The study used a population of 16 subjects, out of which 3 subjects were affected by motor impairment due to stroke, for a total of 186 trials. A readily developed navigation algorithm using a unscented Kalman filter fitted with a smoother was used to estimate the trajectory and speed of the IMU. A novel algorithm was developed to derive the total movement time and movement smoothness from the IMU estimate. Using linear regression models, the IMU systems estimate of smoothness predicted the motion capture systems corresponding variable with a RMSE of 2.15 and R2 of 0.83. The estimates of the movement smoothness showed a notable disparity in the two systems, especially when derived from stroke survivors. The IMU system would need considerable rise in overall performance to create a next to perfect match. The movement time showed a high level of correlation, with a RMSE of 0.45. Developing a method to also estimate the trunk-displacement variable and use it together with the two existing estimates would be the next step in improving the method.
Semiosis as a multimodal process

Classical semiotic approaches are too narrow to investigate the didactical phenomena in the mathematics classroom. In addition to the standard semiotic resources used by students and teachers (e.g. written symbols and speech), other important semiotic ressources include also gestures, glances, drawings and extra-linguistic modes of expressions. However, these semiotic ressurces fit with difficulties within the constraints of the classical definitions of semiotic systems. To overcome such difficulties I adopt a vygotskian approach and present an enlarged notion of semiotic system, the semiotic bundle, which reveals particularly useful for framing all the semiotic resources we find in the learning processes in mathematics. The paper stresses some critical points in the usual description of the semiotic systems; it discusses the multimodal and embodied paradigm, which is emerging in these last years from researches in psycholinguistics and neuroscience and analyses gestures from a semiotic point of view. Then it introduces the notion of semiotic bundle and exemplifies it through a case study.
Abelian Floquet symmetry-protected topological phases in one dimension

Time-dependent systems have recently been shown to support novel types of topological order that cannot be realised in static systems. In this paper, we consider a range of time-dependent, interacting systems in one dimension that are protected by an Abelian symmetry group. We classify the distinct topological phases that can exist in this setting and find that they may be described by a bulk invariant associated with the unitary evolution of the closed system. In the open system, nontrivial phases correspond to the appearance of edge modes in the many-body quasienergy spectrum, which relate to the bulk invariant through a form of bulk-edge correspondence. We introduce simple models which realise nontrivial dynamical phases in a number of cases, and outline a loop construction that can be used to generate such phases more generally.