Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Counting Periodic Orbits: Conley Conjecture for Lagrangian Correspondences and Resonance Relations for Closed Reeb Orbits

The thesis is centered around the theme of periodic orbits of Hamiltonian systems. More precisely, we prove that on a closed symplectic Calabi--Yau manifold every Lagrangian correspondence Hamiltonian isotopic to the diagonal and satisfying some non-degeneracy condition has infinitely many periodic orbits, and we give a new proof of the theorem that every contact form supporting the standard contact structure on \(S^3\) has at least two periodic Reeb orbits. The former result is obtained by considering the intersection Lagrangian Floer homology of suitable Lagrangians and estimating index growth for iterations, while the latter relies on a new homotopy invariant index which is in turn used to prove a new variant of the resonance relation for Reeb flows.
MODELLING OF THE VIBRO-ACOUSTIC TRANSMISSION ON MULTI-PLATE PERFORATED PANELS USING TWO-SCALE HOMOGENIZATION

Abstract. We consider problems of the acoustic wave propagation through panels consisting of several vibrating periodically perforated Reissner-Mindlin plates. The proposed model of the wave transmission through a layer involving the acoustic fluid and the panel is derived using the homogenization method. This provides homogenized transmission conditions which are prescribed on a flat interface representing the panel, so that the computational complexity of the vibroacoustic problem is reduced, although the geometrical arrangement of pores in the panel is respected in a detail. For a suitable mutual arrangement of holes in two, or more parallel plates there is a coupling between transverse and surface acoustic waves propagating along the panel.
Microquasars in the Galaxy

Microquasars are X-ray binary stars capable of generating relativistic jets. Galactic microquasars are one of the most recent additions to the field of high energy astrophysics and have attracted increasing interest over the last decade. They are now primary targets for all space-based observatories working in the X-ray and γ-ray domains. The hope is that their study will enable us to understand some of the analogous phenomena observed in distant quasars and active galactic nuclei, which have practically the same scaled-up physics as microquasars. Microquasars are also believed to be among the sources responsible for the violent and everchanging appearance of the γ-ray sky. This paper provides a general review of the field of microquasars, including their identification and study, and discusses the recent observational and theoretical discoveries which we regard as being of most relevance. Resum
A Comparative Study for Detection of Methicillin Resistance Staphylococci by Polymerase Chain Reaction and Phenotypic Methods

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococci; both methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and methicillin resistant coagulase negative Staphylococci (MRCNS) have a worldwide distribution and are important causes of clinical and epidemiological problems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of some phenotypic methods for detection of methicillin resistant Staphylococci in clinical laboratories; cefoxitin disc diffusion (CDD), oxacillin resistance screening agar base (ORSAB) and oxacillin E test, in reference to mecA gene based real-time PCR. Also to study the antibiotic resistance pattern of the methicillin resistant Staphylococci isolates. Materials and methods: A total of 95 clinical isolates of Staphylococci were tested for methicillin resistance by CDD test, ORSAB and oxacillin E-test and were compared to mecA based real time PCR as reference method. Results: MecA gene was detected by PCR in 48/95 (51%) of all Staphylococci isolates; 28/57 (49%) in S. aureus and 20/38 (53%) in CNS isolates. CCD test showed 100% sensitivity and 98% specificity for detection of MRSA and MRCNS. ORSAB and Oxacillin E test had 94% and 90% sensitivity and 96% and 98% specificity respectively. In our study, MRSA isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin-78%, erythromycin-74%, clindamycin71%, Gentamicin-70%, amikacin64%, azithromycin-63%, doxycyclin-60%, levofloxacin and linezolid-48%, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole-29% and vancomycin-0%. Conclusion: Cefoxitin disc diffusion can be used as a reliable conventional, simple and cheap alternative to PCR for detection of MRSA and MRCNS in minimal resources circumstances. It can also detect other mechanisms of resistance other than mecA. Additional confirmatory test is needed with oxacillin screening agar and oxacillin E-test for detection of hetero-resistant strains to methicillin. [Samia A. Girgis, Howida E. Gomaa, Nevine E. Saad and Mai M. Salem. A Comparative Study for Detection of Methicillin Resistance Staphylococci by Polymerase Chain Reaction and Phenotypic Methods. Life Sci J 2013; 10(4):3711-3718] (ISSN: 1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com. 499
Copper nanowires for next generation transparent conductors

III RESUMO . V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . VII LIST OF SYMBOLS . IX TABLE OF CONTENTS . XI LIST OF FIGURES . XIII LIST OF TABLES . XV 1. MOTIVATION AND OBJECTIVES. 1 1.1. Motivation . 1 1.2. Objectives . 1 2. INTRODUCTION . 3 2.2. Copper and copper nanowires . 4 2.3. Synthesis of copper nanowires . 4 2.4. Fabrication of copper nanowires films . 5 2.5. Reduction of the contact resistance between copper nanowires . 6 2.6. Protection from oxidation . 6 2.7. Highly stretchable and foldable electrodes . 7 2.8. Device Integration . 7 3. MATERIALS AND METHODS . 9 3.1. Copper nanowires synthesis . 9 3.1.1. Synthesis using copper acetate . 9 3.1.2. Synthesis using copper nitrate . 9 3.1. 3. Materials and reagents . 10 3.1. 4. Cleaning and dispersion of the nanowires . 10 3.1. 5. Characterization of copper nanowires: morphological and structural analysis . 10 3.2. Copper nanowires films . 10 3.2. 1. Materials and reagents . 10 3.2.2. Characterization of copper films: morphological, electrical and optical analysis . 11 3.2.3. Contact angles measurement . 11
Comparison of OSIRIS stratospheric NO2 and O3 measurements with ground-based Fourier transform spectrometer measurements at the Toronto Atmospheric Observatory

Stratospheric NO2 and O3 retrieved from measurements of limb-scattered sunlight made by the Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imager System (OSIRIS) are compared with like observations made by a ground-based infrared Fourier Transform Spectrometer at the Toronto Atmospheric Observatory (TAO-FTS). Two different versions of OSIRIS NO2 are compared (DOAS version 3.0 and MART version 2.0) with partial column concentrations retrieved from the TAO-FTS. Two OSIRIS O3 versions are also compared (Triplet version 3.0 and MART version 2.0) with O3 retrieved from the TAO-FTS. To accommodate the most coincidences, comparisons are based on monthly mean stratospheric partial columns covering 16–50 km. All coincident monthly means display high correlations: 0.82–0.97. The monthly mean NO2 at TAO compared with the monthly mean NO2 from OSIRIS shows an average difference of less than ~3% with standard deviations up to 6%. The OSIRIS NO2 observations show a multiplicative bias of ~0.8–0.9 and a systematic difference of 5–10.
Exploring the African genetic influence in the first settlement founded by African slaves in America

The present study aims to outline the genetic makeup of the current population of the town of Yanga (Veracruz State, Mexico), the first Latin American settlement founded by African slaves in Mexico. For this purpose, we carried out the genetic characterization of 60 individuals from Yanga, analysing 15 autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) and interpreting the results in the context of the admixed population known as Mexican mestizos. The genetic contribution from the three most important human groups in the current admixed Yanga population was calculated using Structure software. We detected a high percentage of Amerindian (48%) and European inheritance (44.7%), and a much less important African contribution (7.3%). These results were then compared with 10 other Mexican mestizo populations. The results fit the tri-hybrid model for admixture characterized by a high genetic contribution from Europeans and Africans in the north—though the African influence is lower—and a decreasing contribution from these two populations to the south and southeast. Conversely, the Amerindian component presents maximum values in the south and minimum values in the north. The Amerindian and European genetic traces are related to their ancestral settlements, but the African contribution can be explained by other parameters. To understand the current African genetic traces, we have to assume that there was a redistribution of these population groups and an important admixture phenomenon which led to the dilution of the African ancestral genetic pool. Furthermore, admixture was favoured by conditions that allowed individuals who intermarried to ascend in social status. These reasons would explain why despite the fact that Yanga was founded by black slaves, high levels of African ancestry are not found in the current population.
Impact of trace metal concentrations on coccolithophore growth and morphology: laboratory simulations of Cretaceous stress

Abstract. The Cretaceous ocean witnessed intervals of profound perturbations such as volcanic input of large amounts of CO2, anoxia, eutrophication and introduction of biologically relevant metals. Some of these extreme events were characterized by size reduction and/or morphological changes of a few calcareous nannofossil species. The correspondence between intervals of high trace metal concentrations and coccolith dwarfism suggests a negative effect of these elements on nannoplankton biocalcification processes in past oceans. In order to test this hypothesis, we explored the potential effect of a mixture of trace metals on growth and morphology of four living coccolithophore species, namely Emiliania huxleyi, Gephyrocapsa oceanica, Pleurochrysis carterae and Coccolithus pelagicus. The phylogenetic history of coccolithophores shows that the selected living species are linked to Mesozoic species showing dwarfism under excess metal concentrations. The trace metals tested were chosen to simulate the environmental stress identified in the geological record and upon known trace metal interactions with living coccolithophore algae. Our laboratory experiments demonstrated that elevated trace metal concentrations, similarly to the fossil record, affect coccolithophore algae size and/or weight. Smaller coccoliths were detected in E. huxleyi and C. pelagicus, while coccoliths of G. oceanica showed a decrease in size only at the highest trace metal concentrations. P. carterae coccolith size was unresponsive to changing trace metal concentrations. These differences among species allow discriminating the most- (P. carterae), intermediate- (E. huxleyi and G. oceanica) and least-tolerant (C. pelagicus) taxa. The fossil record and the experimental results converge on a selective response of coccolithophores to metal availability. These species-specific differences must be considered before morphological features of coccoliths are used to reconstruct paleo-chemical conditions.
Therapeutic interventions in intimate partner violence: an overview

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and its prevention is a global public health priority. There is strong scientific evidence that suggests IPV and symptoms such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, chronic pain, etc . are linked. Despite recommendations and various interventions for the treatment of IPV that have been tried in these last 20 years, the rates of recurrence are still too high. Furthermore, there is a lack of research evidence for the effectiveness of the most common treatments provided for victims and perpetrators of IPVs. The purpose of this paper is to present most used, at a global level, therapeutic interventions for women experiencing IPV (as well as treatments for perpetrators). The possibility of building a preliminary theoretical and clinical model is discussed.
Delayed privatization

This paper studies the timing of privatization in 21 major developed economies in the 1977–2002 period. Duration analysis shows that political fragmentation plays a significant role in explaining government’s decision to privatize: privatization is delayed longer in democracies characterized by a larger number of parties and operating under proportional electoral rules, as predicted by war of attrition models of economic reform. Results are robust to various assumptions on the underlying statistical model and to controlling for other economic and political factors.
Comparison of Wintertime North American Climate Impacts Associated with Multiple ENSO Indices

ABSTRACT This analysis compares the climate impacts over North America during winter associated with various El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices, including the Niño 3.4 index, the leading tropical Pacific outgoing longwave radiation and sea surface temperature (OLR-SST) covariability, and the eastern Pacific (EP) and central Pacific (CP) types of ENSO identified from both partial-regression–empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and regression–EOF approaches. The traditional Niño 3.4 SST index is found to be optimal for monitoring the tropical Pacific OLR-SST covariability and for the tropical SST impact on North America. The circulation anomalies associated with the Niño 3.4 index project on both the Pacific/North American (PNA) and Tropical/Northern Hemisphere (TNH) patterns. The ENSO associated with the PNA tends to come from both the EP and CP ENSOs, whereas that associated with the TNH comes more from the EP ENSO. The variability of ENSO significantly affects North American temperature and precipitation, as well as temperature and precipitation extremes. For either the EP or CP types of ENSO, qualitatively similar patterns of climate and climate extreme anomalies are apparent associated with the indices identified by the two EOF approaches, with differences mainly in the anomalous amplitude. The anomalous patterns are generally field significant over North America for the EP ENSO but not field significant for the CP ENSO. The circulation anomalies associated with ENSO are reinforced and maintained by synoptic vorticity fluxes in the upper troposphere. The anomalous surface temperature is mainly determined by the anomalies in surface radiative heating in the face of upward surface longwave radiative damping. The precipitation anomalies are supported by the vertically integrated moisture transport. The differences in atmospheric circulation, surface temperature, and precipitation among the various ENSO indices, including the intensity and spatial structure of the fields, can be attributed to the corresponding differences in synoptic eddy vorticity forcing, surface radiative heating, and vertically integrated moisture transport.
3D model generation using oblique images acquired by UAV

Abstract. In recent years, many studies revealed the advantages of using airborne oblique images for obtaining improved 3D city models (including facades and building footprints). Here the acquisition and use of oblique images from a low cost and open source Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for the 3D high-level-of-detail reconstruction of historical architectures is evaluated. The critical issues of such acquisitions (flight planning strategies, ground control points distribution, etc.) are described. Several problems should be considered in the flight planning: best approach to cover the whole object with the minimum time of flight; visibility of vertical structures; occlusions due to the context; acquisition of all the parts of the objects (the closest and the farthest) with similar resolution; suitable camera inclination, and so on. In this paper a solution is proposed in order to acquire oblique images with one only flight. The data processing was realized using Structure-from-Motion-based approach for point cloud generation using dense image-matching algorithms implemented in an open source software. The achieved results are analysed considering some check points and some reference LiDAR data. The system was tested for surveying a historical architectonical complex: the “Sacro Mo nte di Varallo Sesia” in north-west of Italy. This study demonstrates that the use of oblique images acquired from a low cost UAV system and processed through an open source software is an effective methodology to survey cultural heritage, characterized by limited accessibility, need for detail and rapidity of the acquisition phase, and often reduced budgets.
Application Of Spline Interpolation Filter In Strip Flatness Detection

According to the analyzing of the vibrations in steel strips and its effect on flatness measurement based on the non-contact strip-flatness detection method, a vibration removing method is presented. The method firstly adopts FIR low-pass filter based on Dolph-Chebyshev Window function designing theory to remove the high frequency noise in the primitive flatness measurement data. As to consider the influence of random noise, there is additional noise message in low frequency range of flatness measurement data. Therefore, the method adopts piece-wise cubic spline interpolation to revise the data processed by low-pass filter. Application results show that the method have satisfied reliability, can effectively shorten the influence that the strip vibration caused on flatness measurement.
A Comparative Study of the Use of Disagreement Strategies Among Iranian EFL Learners and Native Speakers of English

This study aimed to explore the similarities and differences between Iranian EFL learners and English native speakers in terms of the pattern of using different disagreement strategies in relation to people with different social power status. To this end, 90 participants, including 30 Iranian university students majoring in teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL), 30 native English speakers, and 30 native speakers of Persian with no English proficiency were selected to fill out a discourse completion test (DCT). The DCT was comprised of scenarios simulating natural situations in order to elicit the respondents’ reactions while disagreeing with people of higher, equal and lower status. To analyze the responses, Muntigl and Turnbull's (1998) taxonomy for classifying disagreement strategies was used and the strategy tokens for each type of disagreement were tallied and recorded. The results of descriptive analysis of the data revealed that the Persian native speakers used direct contradictions more than the EFL learners and English native speakers who participated in the current study, whereas the English native speakers used counterclaims and contradictions followed by counterclaims more than their EFL and Persian native counterparts. That is, the English native speakers were more concerned with saving their interlocutors' positive face while expressing disagreement with people of higher, equal, and lower status. Besides, the findings of the study implied that despite the variation between the three groups of participants in terms of their preferences for using different disagreement strategies, the only significant difference was found with respect to disagreement with people of equal status.
Morphomeristic study of sympatric Barbus species from a man‐made reservoir in upland Kenya

The small Barbus are a widely distributed group of freshwater fishes in Africa whose taxonomy is yet to be resolved. This study used morphomeristic analysis of characters to distinguish and describe sympatric Barbus species of Chepkoilel reservoir in upland Kenya. A total of 51 fish were collected in November 2007, and 21 morphometric measurements and nine meristic counts were determined on each specimen. Data were entered in an Excel spreadsheet and exported to the PAST programme for analysis using principal component analysis (PCA). The significance of important characters identified in the PCA was determined using nonparametric Mann‐Whitney U tests at a = 0.05. The specimens belonged to three species: Barbus kertenii, B. paludinosus and B. jacksonii. A PCA on their morphometric characters revealed no clear separation of polygons suggesting the species had similar body morphometry. However, a PCA on raw meristics showed complete separation of B. paludinosus and B. jacksonii on the first principal component, which was defined mostly by the number of lateral line scales, branched dorsal rays, branched pectoral rays and branched ventral rays. Our study provides more characters useful for distinguishing the Barbus species in addition to those stated in their respective original species descrip
Two-level Prediction Model using k-means clustering for Web Browsers Usage

Due to the popularity of World Wide Web, many organizations have changed the way of doing business, which supplements the quick development of E-commerce directly and makes the development of web usage mining expertise crucial. Predicting of user's visiting behavior is an important technology of E- commerce application. The prediction results can be used for personalization, building proper websites, improving marketing strategy, promotion, product supply, getting marketing information, predicting market trends, and increasing the competitive strength of organizations etc. Markov model has been used for studying and understanding stochastic processes, and well suited for modeling and predicting a user's browsing behavior on a web at category level. Bayesian theorem can be used to infer users' browsing behaviors at webpage level. In this paper, we use the k-means clustering to cluster users' browsing behaviors. The prediction results by Two Levels of Prediction Model framework work well in general cases. However, Two Levels of Prediction Model suffer from the differences in user's behavior. The experiments will show that our model has higher hit ratio for prediction.
Outer Synchronization of Simple Firefly Discrete Models in Coupled Networks

Synchronization is one of the most important emerging collective behaviors in nature, which results from the interaction in groups of organisms. In this paper, network synchronization of discrete-time dynamical systems is studied. In particular, network synchronization with fireflies oscillators like nodes is achieved by using complex systems theory. Different cases of interest on network synchronization are studied, including for a large number of fireflies oscillators; we consider synchronization in small-world networks and outer synchronization among different coupled networks topologies; for all presented cases, we provide appropriate ranges of values for coupling strength and extensive numerical simulations are included. In addition, for illustrative purposes, we show the effectiveness of network synchronization by means of experimental implementation of coupled nine electronics fireflies in different topologies.