Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Object Schizophrenia Problem in Modeling Is-role-of Inheritance

Object orientation has evolved on the basis of inheritance mechanism. But, interestingly, the mechanism has assumed varied semantics over the years as many inheritance mechanisms came up in the literature. In this paper, we present the special semantics of is-roleof inheritance which is used for modeling objects that play multiple roles. Further, di erent symptoms of object schizophrenia problem (OSP) in modeling isrole-of inheritance are explained. We conclude that a solution to OSP in modeling the is-role-of inheritance can not avoid all the symptoms of OSP.
2 Scenario 2 : Nonparametric Regression

Given a collection of estimators, the problem of linear, convex or model selection type aggregation consists in constructing a new estimator, called the aggregate, which is nearly as good as the best among them (or nearly as good as their best linear or convex combination), with respect to a given risk criterion. When the underlying model is sparse, which means that it is well approximated by a linear combination of a small number of functions in the dictionary, the aggregation techniques turn out to be very useful in taking advantage of sparsity. On the other hand, aggregation is a general technique of producing adaptive nonparametric estimators, which is more powerful than the classical methods since it allows one to combine estimators of different nature. Aggregates are usually constructed by mixing the initial estimators or functions of the dictionary with datadependent weights that can be computed is several possible ways. Important example is given by aggregates with exponential weights. They satisfy sharp oracle inequalities that allow one to treat in a unified way three different problems: Adaptive nonparametric estimation, aggregation and sparse estimation.
Mobile Phone Banking Usage Behaviour: An Australian Perspective

While the use of mobile phones in financial transactions is witnessing phenomenal growth at the international level, its growth has been relatively slow in Australia. Drawing on the theory of reasoned action and technology adoption framework, this paper reports the results concerning a survey of mobile phone users for banking transactions in Australia. The paper specifically identified the factors affecting usage behaviour when mobile phone banking services were engaged. The findings broaden and deepen our understanding of the usage of mobile-based banking in the information age. This paper contributes to the knowledge of this subject by including identification and testing of constructs of predictors regarding mobile phone banking, which are additional to those employed in the extant theories indicated above. The findings of this paper have important policy implications for banks in terms of understanding the underlying factors that drive customers’ mobile banking for financial transactions. Accordingly, design strategies have been developed to promote mobile phone banking – a cost effective channel for delivering financial services.
Does urbanization select for weak competitors in house sparrows

How urbanization affects animal populations is in the focus of current ecological research. Existing theory of this topic suggests that the cities' more constant food supplies and lower predation pressure lead to a high proportion of weak competitors in urban populations. To evaluate this hypothesis, we tested whether competitive performance differs between differently urbanized populations of house sparrows Passer domesticus. We previously showed that wild urban sparrows are smaller and leaner than rural conspecifics, and this difference persists for months under identical captive conditions. Here we compared several aspects of their competitiveness (fighting, scrambling and searching for food) in captive mixed flocks of urban and rural birds. We found that sparrows exhibited consistent individual differences in competitiveness, but these differences were not related either to the degree of urbanization of their original habitats or to their body mass. Moreover, the variance in competitive abilities also did not differ between birds from more and less urbanized habitats. Thus our results did not support the hypothesis that urbanization shifts population structure towards an over-abundance of weak competitors in house sparrows. We discuss possible explanations why sparrow populations may not differ in competitiveness despite the smaller body mass of urban birds.
Replacement of the First GnRH Administration in the Ovsynch Protocol by Selecting Cows According to the Stage of Follicular Development

Hartman P., J. Zajic, S. âech, Z. Jan, R. DoleIel: Replacement of the First GnRH Administration in the Ovsynch Protocol by Selecting Cows According to the Stage of Follicular Development. Acta Vet. Brno 2006, 75: 65-72. The aim of the study was to replace the first GnRH in the Ovsynch protocol by selecting cows bearing corpus luteum as well as follicles in a defined stage of development at PGF 2α administration. Additionally, various terms of GnRH administration after PGF 2α were tested. Seventy five non-pregnant cows bearing corpus luteum were divided into groups according to the phase of follicular development on D 0 (day of PGF 2α administration) – growth (GR, follicles 3.0 – 7.9 mm in diameter), early dominance (ED, dominant follicle 8.0 – 14.9 mm) and late dominance (LD, dominant follicle 15.0 – 23.0 mm). In addition, the cows were divided into groups according to the terms of GnRH administration (24, 48 or 72 h after PGF2α). In this way, groups GR 48 (n = 5), GR 72 (n = 6), ED 24 (n = 10), ED 48 (n = 12), ED 72 (n = 12), LD 24 (n = 10), LD 48 (n = 10) and LD 72 (n = 10) were established. Growth of ovulatory follicle, term of ovulation, insemination and conception rates as well as relation of the size of preovulatory follicle (day of ovulation) to the size of following corpus luteum (day 14) were evaluated. The highest level of synchronization of ovulation (100% on D 3) as well as conception rate (50%) was achieved in group ED 48. This protocol gives an opportunity of timing artificial insemination to 18 – 24 hours after GnRH administration, as ovulation occurs with a high probability within 24 - 48 hours after GnRH administration. Oestrus synchronization, follicle diameter, ovulation, timing of insemination
The profile of a 'perfect' invader - the case of killer shrimp, Dikerogammarus villosus

The ‘killer shrimp’, Dikerogammarus villosus, has been recognised as one of the 100 worst alien species in Europe, in terms of negative impacts on the biodiversity and functioning of invaded ecosystems. During the last twenty years, this Ponto-Caspian amphipod crustacean has rapidly spread throughout Europe’s freshwaters and its invasion and continued range expansion represents a major conservation management problem. Although a great deal of research has focussed on this almost ‘perfect’ invader as its damaging impacts, realised and potential, have become evident, we now present the first comprehensive review of D. villosus taxonomy, morphology, distribution, community impacts, parasites, life history, physiological tolerance and finally, possible eradication methods. We show the direct and indirect ecosystem impacts of this invader can be profound, as it is a top predator, capable of engaging in a diverse array of other feeding modes. It can quickly dominate resident macroinvertebrate communities in terms of numbers and biomass, with subsequent large-scale reductions in local biodiversity and potentially altering energy cycling, such as leaf litter processing. This damaging European invader has the potential to become a key invader on a global scale as it may be capable of reaching North American freshwaters, such as the Great Lakes. One positive aspect of this invader’s spread and impact is increased interest in alien species research generally, from decision-makers, stakeholders and the general public. This has resulted in greater financial support to study invasion mechanisms, preventative measures to stop invasion spread and ways to minimise damaging impacts. Our review provides a specific example, that studies identifying management strategies that mitigate against a potential invader’s spread should be undertaken at the earliest possible opportunity in order to minimise potentially irreversible ecosystem damage and biodiversity loss.
MODELING OF TWO-PHASE FLOW INSTABILITIES IN CONVECTIVE IN-TUBE BOILING HORIZONTAL SYSTEMS

This work aims to predict the low frequency oscillations in a horizontal in-tube boiling system using a refrigerant-11 as the working fluid. The steady state system pressure-drop characteristics are determined by a numerical solution of the governing equations as derived from the Drift-flux models. Oscillations were obtained for various heat inputs, flow rates and exit restriction diameters. Both numerical solutions of the steady-state and transient solutions obtained are compared by experimental findings and a satisfactory agreement between the theory and experiments is obtained.
Evaluation of the level of prediction errors and sub-hourly variability of PV and wind generation in a future with a large amount of renewables

In this paper we propose a method for the simulation of errors in renewable energy sources generation forecasting (photovoltaic and wind) for use in power system planning studies. The proposed methodology relies on 5 elementary simulation steps. The first step is the simulation of photovoltaic plant and wind farm power production, with a sufficient spatial and temporal resolution (few km and hourly time step), the second is the simulation of the localisation of production sites, the third step is the generation of forecast errors using historic data of numerical weather predictions, and the last step is the simulation of intra-hourly variations of photovoltaic production. Finally, it is discussed how these simulation tools can assist the evaluation of the required tertiary reserves in a power system with a large share of renewable energies into the mix.
Aqueous Phase Lavender Leaf Mediated Green Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles and Evaluation of its Antioxidant Activity

In this paper, green synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using leaf extract of Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and their antioxidant activity was evaluated under the ambient aqueous phase condition. Assynthesized AuNPs were characterized by visual, ultraviolet–visible–near infrared (UV–vis–NIR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique. Formation of AuNPs produces an intense absorbance peak at 530 and 1055 nm in UV–visible spectroscopy. TEM and DLS results confirmed that the synthesized AuNPs were crystalline, polydisperse, quasi-spherical and triangular shape with an average size ranging from 34–300 nm. UV-vis-NIR, TEM, and DLS study showed that the phytochemicals from the Lavender leaf extract have dual properties of reducing and stabilizing agents. Further, AuNPs (21.53%, 0.2 mL) showed higher antioxidant activity than Lavender leaf extract (4.73%, 0.2 mL) against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl. On looking these advantages, green synthesis of AuNPs without inert atmosphere is highly recommended for future medicinal and industrial application.
"Social Pacts in Western Europe: The Roles of European Integration and Electoral Competition"

[From the introduction]. Social pacts – national-level agreements between governments, labor unions and sometimes employer organizations – began to emerge in many Western European countries in the 1980s. Although on the surface, these agreements seemed to bear some resemblance to the neo-corporatist arrangements of the 1970s, several features made them notable and distinct. First, they were signed in countries that did not conform to the characteristics usually identified with neo-corporatism, such as the presence of leftist governments, and strong and centralized social partners. Second, the pacts varied significantly in their contents, including issues as diverse as wage levels, work time, labor market or industrial relations reform, welfare reform, and training. In this paper, we aim to explain the emergence of social pacts in West European countries. We are particularly interested in explaining the variation of the existence of pacts both across and within countries. That is, why do some countries feature a long list of social pacts, while others have few or none? And second, why do some governments pursue social pacts as their preferred way to change policies during certain time periods, but choose the legislative route at other times? In exploring these questions, we diverge from the prevalent explanation centered on economic pressures and instead highlight electoral dynamics. We argue that social pacts will be attractive when party leaders perceive them to be helpful in reducing the potential electoral costs of economic adjustment and wage restraint policies. Alternatively, parties may forgo negotiations with social partners and seek to impose such policies unilaterally if they believe that approach will yield electoral gain or minimize electoral costs. The paper proceeds as follows: The first section will present a brief overview of the dominant explanations of social pacts, focusing on economic pressures and institutions. The second part will ground our argument in existing theoretical and empirical work on parties, governments, and voting behavior. The third section discusses some initial results based on a 16-country comparison of social pacts. Although these results are preliminary and tentative, they indicate the directions our future research will take. The final section summarizes our findings and suggests directions for further research.
DNA aptamer configuration affects the sensitivity and binding kinetics of thrombin

DNA aptamer configuration affects the sensitivity and binding kinetics of thrombin Thrombin is serine protease involved in the coagulation cascade, which converts soluble fibrinogen into insoluble strands of fibrin - a matrix of the blood clot formation. Development of the sensitive method of the thrombin detection in nanomolar level is important for clinical practice. In this work we applied acoustic thickness shear mode method (TSM) for study the binding of human thrombin depending on DNA aptamer configuration. We compared sensitivity of detection and binding kinetics of the thrombin to the conventional DNA aptamers and aptamer dimers immobilized at the surface of quartz crystal transducer. We have shown that aptasensors based on aptamer dimers more sensitively detect thrombin. The aptamer-thrombin complexes were also more stable as revealed from equilibrium dissociation constant, KD, that was 4 times lower for aptamer dimers in comparison with conventional aptamers. Determination of motional resistance, Rm, from acoustic impedance analysis allowed us to find important differences in physico-chemical properties of layers formed by conventional aptamers and aptamer dimers.
PII: S0377-0257(99)00095-6

A new Lagrangian particle method for solving transient viscoelastic flow for both macroscopic and microscopic stress equations is proposed. In this method, referred to as the backward-tracking Lagrangian particle method (BLPM), we specify the particle locations and calculate the trajectories leading to these locations. This backward tracking process is stopped after a specified time (possibly only a single time step), and the initial configuration for the Lagrangian integration of the stress is obtained by interpolating a stored Eulerian field at that time. In order to demonstrate the accuracy, efficiency and stability of the method, we consider two benchmark problems in the context of the FENE dumbbell kinetic theory of dilute polymer solutions and its FENE-P approximate constitutive equation: the high eccentricity journal bearing flow and the 4 : 1 contraction flow. With the help of these examples, we show in which manner accurate and stable results can be obtained, for transients of both polymer stress and stream function, with a minimum number of particles and a minimum particle path length. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Hybrid Differential Evolution Particle Filter for Nonlinear Filtering

─ In this paper we propose a novel method for solving the nonlinear problem of the radar target tracking. The algorithm consists of a Particle Filter (PF) which employs the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) to generate the importance proposal distribution, and adopts the Hybrid Differential Evolution (HDE) algorithm based on Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm as the resampling scheme. Firstly, the Importance Distribution (ID) which contains the newest measurements is constructed by the UKF. In addition, the UKF generates proposal distributions that match the true posterior more closely. Secondly, to solve the particle degeneracy and impoverishment phenomenon, the sampling particles are resampled by the HDE algorithm. The mutation and crossover steps of the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm are executed to generate the trial vectors. Then the selection step is replaced by the Metropolis criterion of the SA algorithm. The proposed algorithm combines the advantages of the SA algorithm with the DE algorithm. It not only has superior estimation performance, but also the convergence speed is fast. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the standard PF, the Auxiliary Particle Filter (APF), the Regularized Particle Filter (RPF) and the Particle Filter based on Differential Evolution (PFDE). Index Terms ─ Hybrid differential evolution, nonlinear filtering, particle filter, radar tracking, simulated annealing algorithm.
CFD analysis to understand the flow behaviour of a single stage transonic Axial flow compressor

This paper comprises the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis to investigate the flow behaviour of a high speed single stage transonic axial flow compressor. Steady state analyses were carried out at design and part speed conditions to obtain the overall performance map using commercial CFD software ANSYS FLUENT. Radial distribution of flow parameters were obtained at 90% of design speed for the choked flow and near stall flow conditions. The predicted data were validated against available experimental results. The end wall flow fields were studied with the help of velocity vector plots and Mach number contours at peak efficiency and near stall flow conditions at 60% and 100% design speeds. This study exhibited the nature of a transonic compressor, having strong interaction between the rotor passage shock and the tip leakage high blockage in the rotor blade passage. The influence of this interaction extends around 15% of the blade outer span at design speed and in the absence of blade passage shock at 60% design speed, the influence of tip leakage flow observed was around 8%.
Corporate social responsibility and consumers' perception of price

Purpose - This study intends to investigate whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) would positively influence the benefit and the value perceived by the consumer in the company's offer, the judgment of fairness in the price differential charged for it, and his/her buying intention, in a context where the socially responsible firm practises a price higher than the competition. It also investigates whether a social action, supported by the firm, with direct impact on the consumer's life, would provoke a higher effect in his/her reactions than a social action with indirect impact. Design/methodology/approach - The objectives were achieved through experimental methodology, using scenarios. Prior studies contributions to CSR and consumer behavior domains and the theoretical framework supporting the model of perceived value generated the study's proposition, which was translated in a set of hypotheses. Findings - The results obtained indicated that consumers perceived greater benefit and value in the offer of the socially responsible firm, and were showed to be willing to pay 10 percent more for its product, judging this price differential as being fair. Moreover, the social action with direct impact on the consumer's life influenced more positively his/her reactions than the social action with indirect impact. Research limitations/implications - The research instrument opens up the possibility for people to try to give answers that are in accordance with socially established rules and conventions. Also, a non-probabilistic convenience sample was adopted. Issues for future studies are: price sensitivity in the context of CSR; the importance of CSR as a factor of influence in buying decision compared with other factors; variables that could exert influence on the impact of CSR on consumers' reactions; the influence of information sources about CSR in the consumer's buying decision. Practical implications - The results of the study indicate that companies have the opportunity to respond to their consumers' desires of feeling good about a purchase (incentivating CSR), while achieving their business goals and, simultaneously, giving their own contribution to society. Also, when deciding on the social project to invest, firms should try to know which social actions are more valued by their consumers, which are those they judge to benefit them more directly. Originality/value - The results achieved the integration of CSR in the field of perception of price fairness, as one motive that contributes to a price differential be judged as fair. As a part of the study, a measurement scale was elaborated and tested for the variable perceived benefit.
CONSIDERING EMOTIONAL IMPRESSIONS IN PRODUCT DESIGN: QUALITY OF LIFE THEORY AND ITS IMPACT ON DESIGN STRATEGY

In this paper, the necessity of emotional considerations in the context of Universal Design is treated. To work out an alternative approach how to integrate emotional aspects in product design processes, we look at quality of life models to locate emotional design in Universal Design research. Based on identified challenges such as complexity, interdisciplinarity, vagueness or subjectivity we present a way to consider emotional impressions by integrating resources from other disciplines. Hence we introduce ACADE - an Application for Computer Aided Design of Emotional impressions.
Roll to roll atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced CVD of titania as a step towards the realisation of large area perovskite solar cell technology

Atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced CVD (AP PECVD) systems have attracted considerable interest in recent years due to the significant benefits for large area, low cost substrates and low temperature operation. In this work we describe the use of a bespoke roll to roll AP PECVD process to produce large area, functional TiO2−x films for use as hole blocking electron transport layers in perovskite solar cell architectures, a critical component typically produced by spin coating or vacuum based technologies. The AP PECVD produced films can be used to construct cells with overall efficiencies greater than from the sputtered reference material (13.57 vs. 13.15% maximum power point for 1 cm2 cells). Discussion of the cell properties suggests scope for further optimisation, maximising the potential of this approach.