Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Origin of the heavy elements in HD 140283. Measurement of europium abundance.

Context. HD 140283 is a nearby (V = 7.7) subgiant metal-poor star, extensively analysed in the literature. Although many spectra have been obtained for this star, none showed a signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio high enough to enable a very accurate derivation of abundances from weak lines.Aims. The detection of europium proves that the neutron-capture elements in this star originate in the r-process, and not in the s-process, as recently claimed in the literature.Methods. Based on the OSMARCS 1D LTE atmospheric model and with a consistent approach based on the spectrum synthesis code Turbospectrum, we measured the europium lines at 4129 A and 4205 A, taking into account the hyperfine structure of the transitions. The spectrum, obtained with a long exposure time of seven hours at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), has a resolving power of 81 000 and a S/N ratio of 800 at 4100 A.Results. We were able to determine the abundance A (Eu) = −2.35 ± 0.07 dex, compatible with the value predicted for the europium from the r-process. The abundance ratio [Eu/Ba] = +0.58 ± 0.15 dex agrees with the trend observed in metal-poor stars and is also compatible with a strong r-process contribution to the origin of the neutron-capture elements in HD 140283.
Review of Condition Assessment Methods for Subsea High Voltage Components

This paper presents a review on condition assessment of some of the most critical components in the power grid today, such as transformers, rotating machines and cables and their accessories. The main purpose is to identify methods that can be applicable for high voltage equipment for subsea use. The question addressed is what diagnostic tools should be used to detect apparatuses with a high probability of failure during service. It is shown that today, only distributed temperature sensing systems are used for subsea applications. At the same time, the majority of condition assessment techniques used onshore can be adjusted for subsea use, particularly methods applicable for on-line monitoring.
Pension Funds’ Herding

This paper uses unique and detailed transaction data to analyse herding behavior among pension funds. We distinguish between weak, semi strong and strong herding behaviour. Weak herding occurs if pension funds have similar rebalancing strategies. Semi strong herding arises when pension funds react similarly to other external shocks, such as changes in regulation and exceptional monetary policy operations. Finally, strong herding means that pension funds intentionally replicate changes in the strategic asset allocation of other pension funds. Without an economic reason. We find empirical evidence supporting all three types of herding behaviour in the asset allocation of large Dutch pension funds.
An empirical model of the auroral oval derived from CHAMP field-aligned current signatures – Part 2

Abstract. In this paper we introduce a new model for the location of the auroral oval. The auroral boundaries are derived from small- and medium-scale field-aligned current (FAC) based on the high-resolution CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) magnetic field observations during the years 2000–2010. The basic shape of the auroral oval is controlled by the dayside merging electric field, Em, and can be fitted well by ellipses at all levels of activity. All five ellipse parameters show a dependence on Em which can be described by quadratic functions. Optimal delay times for the merging electric field at the bow shock are 30 and 15 min for the equatorward and poleward boundaries, respectively. A comparison between our model and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) auroral model derived from IMAGE (Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration) optical observations has been performed. There is good agreement between the two models regarding both boundaries, and the differences show a Gaussian distribution with a width of ±2° in latitude. The difference of the equatorward boundary shows a local-time dependence, which is 1° in latitude poleward in the morning sector and 1° equatorward in the afternoon sector of the BAS model. We think the difference between the two models is caused by the appearance of auroral forms in connection with upward FACs. All information required for applying our auroral oval model (CH-Aurora-2014) is provided.
Crop Choice and Infrastructure Accessibility in Tanzania: Subsistence Crops or Export Crops?

Africa has great potential for agriculture. Although international commodity prices have been buoyant, Africa’s supply response seems to be weak. A variety of constraints may exist. Using the case of Tanzania, the paper examines the impact of market connectivity, domestic and international, on farmers’ crop choices. It is shown that the international market connectivity, measured by transport costs to the maritime port, is important for farmers to choose export crops, such as cotton and tobacco. Internal connectivity to the domestic market is also found to be important for growing food crops, such as maize and rice. Among other inputs, access to irrigation and improved seed availability are also important factors in the crop choices of farmers. The size of land area is one constraint to promote the crop shift. The paper also reports the finding that farmers are not using market prices effectively in their choice of crop, even after the endogeneity of local prices is taken into account.
Subalgebras of little Lipschitz algebras

This map is an isometry. The little Lipschitz space lip(X) is then defined to be the subspace of Lip(X) consisting of those functions / with the property that for every e > 0 there exists δ > 0 such that ρ(x,y) < δ implies \Φf(x,y)\ < e. It is easy to check that lip(X) = φ-ι(C0(X)). All of our results hold for complex as well as real scalars, provided that in the complex case one assumes all subalgebras under discussion are selfadjoint (i.e. if / G Λ then / G Λ). Thus the restriction to real scalars is simply a convenience. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the structure of closed subalgebras of lip(X) which contain the constant functions. It is known ([Sh], p. 249; [He], Corollaries 1 and 2) that there can exist such subalgebras which separate points but are not equal to lip(X), so that a naive version of the
On‐Farm Yield Gains with Stress‐Tolerant Maize in Eastern and Southern Africa

Agronomy Journa l • Volume 109, I s sue 2 • 2017 Maize is a major food crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (FAOSTAT, 2015) where it is grown on over 25 m ha mostly by smallholder farmers producing about 38 t of grain (Smale et al., 2011). However, yields remain low ranging from 2 t ha–1 to less than 1.5 t ha–1 (Shiferaw et al., 2011) under smallholder farmer conditions compared to other regions (Ray et al., 2013). Drought and low N stresses are two of the major causes associated with low yields and high seasonto-season yield variability (Shiferaw et al., 2014). In Angola and Zimbabwe more than 70% of maize is grown in areas with a 40 to 60% frequency of a failed season, while over one-third of maize in Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania is grown in areas with this frequency (Kostandini et al., 2013; Tesfaye et al., 2015). Th e annual yield loss in maize due to drought is estimated to be between 15 and 90% depending on the stage when drought occurs (Bänziger and Araus, 2007). In SSA, particularly in southern Africa, season-to-season variability in maize yields is extremely high (Smale et al., 2011). In Lesotho and Zimbabwe the coeffi cient of variation in maize production over the last fi ve seasons was more than 50% (FAOSTAT, 2015), while in Asia and the Americas coeffi cients of variation in production are in single digit (Smale et al., 2011). Drought stress and low N will remain major challenges in the region where most farmers have limited capacity to invest into the inputs (Cairns et al., 2013). At the Abuja Declaration on “Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution” On-Farm Yield Gains with Stress-Tolerant Maize in Eastern and Southern Africa
Weighted Pattern Matching with PWMs on FPGAs

This paper has presented a solution to an FPGA-based PWM matcher in the form of the so-called FPWM Prototype, using the hardware facilities on the Cray XD1 Supercomputer. The prototype implementation currently runs as a single core on a single node of the Cray, and provides a theoretical PWM matching capability roughly 15 times greater than a contemporary Pentium M general-purpose CPU. Theoretical and empirical data regarding performance and resource consumption for this implementation have been provided. A method for increasing the speedup to a theoretical maximum of 480x has also been described, using a multi-core implementation on a single chip. This theoretical limit could potentially be attained with today's hardware, but would require certain compromises with regard to bit resolution and PWM length in order to fit on the FPGA. A full-scale implementation providing the capabilities required by many of today's algorithms would most likely not reach this speed, but as the FPGA currently installed on the Cray is also available in a larger variant (the Virtex-4 family), it is reasonable to assume that such an implementation could indeed be feasible on contemporary hardware. A method for using several nodes on the Cray XD1 transparently for the user application, in order to further increase the performance, has also been described. However, as theoretical performance estimation on such hardware is a highly inexact science, and empirical measurements could not be performed at this time due to the state of the prototype, no estimates have been provided for this method. While some of the original goals were attained, other parts of the project could be considered a failure. Due to a number of implementation problems, a working FPWM was not available in time for use with the two other projects mentioned in the introduction, involving hardware acceleration of the Gibbs Sampling and MEME algorithms. The main problem with the cooperation between these projects was that it relied on the FPWM being in a finished and working condition before the work involving it could begin, which turned out to be much harder and take much longer time than what was first envisioned. The planned empirical measurements of the performance boost for these algorithms are therefore not yet available.
Bone Microstructure and Relative Age of the Holotype Specimen of the Diplodocoid Sauropod Dinosaur Suuwassea emilieae

We present the first study of bone microstructure in Suuwassea emilieae, a diplodocoid sauropod from the Morrison Formation. Although the holotype of Suuwassea was recently identified as a subadult, bone histology demonstrates that this individual had reached sexual maturity at approximately 75–80% of maximum adult size. The smaller size of the holotype of Suuwassea relative to contemporary sauropods is due to ontogeny rather than a true reflection of adult size. A fully adult individual would have likely been similar in size to a fully adult specimen of Apatosaurus. Suuwassea has a number of plesiomorphic characters that might have been explained by its supposed early ontogenetic status, and would then have called the validity of the taxon into question. However, our demonstration that it was an adult confirms that these features represent retention of plesiomorphic character states or evolutionary reversals in a derived animal. Additionally, the specimen shows extensive cortical drift and secondary osteon formation related to skeletal loading, which is often obscured by complete remodeling of Haversian systems in sauropod taxa. There are substantial differences in the microstructure across the bone, which could make histologic samples not based upon complete cross sections problematic. Suuwassea is one of four currently recognized dicraeosaurid taxa, and this study contributes potential taxonomic characters in sauropod bone microstructure.
Bone Mineral Density Study with DXA in Asthmatic Children

Objective: the aim of this work is to assess the effect of asthma and its therapy on bone mineral density in children. Patients and methods: thirty asthmatic children and adolescent, their ages ranged from 7-15 years and 15 apparently healthy age and sex matched children were enrolled in the study. All asthmatic patients were on inhaled corticosteroid therapy for at least 6 months duration. Patients and controls were subjected to full history taking, meticulous clinical examination and laboratory investigations; including serum calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase. Determination of bone minerals density of the lumbar spine by dual energy X-ray absorpiometry (DXA) method at L2 - L4 levels of lumbar vertebrae. Results: showed that height was higher among controls (143.5±12) compared to patients (133.6±11) with statistical significant difference. The study revealed that patients had lower bone mineral density (0.61±0.11) and lower z-score (-2.08±0.5) when compared to control (0.69±0.13) and (-1.4±1.8) respectively with statistically significant difference P<0.05. Conclusion: Bone mineral density was reduced in asthmatic children.
Innovation and Supply Chain Management Competitive session The influence of goal congruence and buyer ’ s dependency factor as antecedents of strategic and operational collaborations in buyer-supplier relationships

In this study we unbundle the concept of collaboration by positing that there are two types of collaborations in buyer-supplier relationships, namely strategic and operational. Using blended theoretical arguments, we argue that strategic and operational collaborations are driven by the buyers’ dependency factor or the extent to which buyers are dependent on suppliers’ critical resources and/or goal congruence between buyers and suppliers. We tested our hypotheses based on data drawn from 204 manufacturing firms in Australia. The results show that buyers’ dependency factor is positively related to both strategic and operational collaborations, while goal congruence is positively associated with strategic collaboration but not with operational collaborations. The result also shows that strategic collaboration is positively related to operational collaboration.
Influence of the Elastane Fibre on the Woven Fabric Structural Mobility

The woven fabrics structural mobility has some influence on the garment design and pattern construction. Deformation peculiarities during six textile fabrics extension were analysed in this work. Four of the tested fabrics had the elastane filaments in their structure. The method of parallelepiped shaped specimen uniaxial extension till fixed strain was used. The experiment was carrying out using a "Tinius Olsen HT10" tension machine. The specimens' deformation exceeds 14 %. The parallelepiped shape of specimen's was received by cut of its top and bottom edges with pitch of 16 degrees. The woven fabrics structure mobility was analyzed using strain-stress curves, numerical and graphical results. The results of this research work have shown that deformation peculiarities of the woven fabrics depend on their structural characteristics: density, thickness, wave and presence of elastane filaments. Taking into account the more considerable extensibility of elastane fibre the shearing phenomenon was not occurred finally during specimens' deformations. The results indicated that for the tested fabrics deformation till stated degree the force from 0.6 N till 9.4 N is necessary. http://dx.doi. org/10.5755/j01.ms.17.4. 779
Predation on artificial ground nests in a subarctic ecosystem

Studies of gallinaceous bird species stress the importance of high nest losses as a factor influencing life histories and populations. Accordingly knowledge of the mechanisms affecting nest losses is essential for understanding the population dynamics. The aim of this one year study was to estimate predation rates on artificial ground nests in ptarmigan habitats, along a landscape gradient which spans from subarctic birch forest to the low-alpine zone. We particularly wanted to investigate the importance of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) as a nest predator, and the study area was divided in three sub-areas according to the red fox density recorded during a winter snow track survey. Artificial nests (track boards) were placed in three different habitats (birch, edge and low-alpine). Vertical vegetation structure along the gradient from the birch forest to the low-alpine zone was surveyed and analyzed to assess how the forest structure could affect the predation rates. Predation rates resulting from different species were analysed using logistic regression models. Total predation rates over all habitats, locations and periods ranged from 47.4 % to 77.5 % and were remarkably constant over all variables. Predation by avian predators was consistently high over both trial periods (59.1 %) and mammalian predation was consistently low (5.6 %). The constant predation rate was mainly due to omnipresent corvids, especially the hooded crow (Corvus cornix), which dominated among the predators in all habitats and locations in the study. The high predation by avian relative to mammal predators may be due to differences in landscape use and searching effort. Differences between locations were insignificant for all species except for raven (Corvus corax) that showed significantly higher predation between two of the locations. Red fox played a minor role as nest predator and no relation between nest predation rates and red fox density was documented. From the perspective of nest predation risk on ground nesting birds like willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus), they would not be expected to be selective with respect to nesting habitats.
Numerical simulation on the impact dynamics of a novel rotation air hammer and experimental research

Novel rotation air hammer (NRAH) is a rock-breaking tool in the gas drilling. The rock-breaking ability of the NRAH is mainly from the collision between piston and drill bit in it. The collision makes the piston and the drill bit suffer from a high instantaneous impact stress, so that they are prone to failure. Thus, both of them are not only the most crucial parts of the NRAH, but also the easily damaged parts. So it is necessary to analyze the impact stress in them and optimize their structure to improve the security and reliability. First of all, we analyzed the working mechanism of the NRAH to understand motion and structure of the piston and the drill bit. Then we used the LS-DYNA program to analyze impact dynamics problem of the piston and the drill bit to obtain their stress change rule in the impact process. According to the structure optimization, the security coefficient of the piston and the drill bit has been obviously improved. Moreover, their energy conversion regulations were studied in the impact process of the NRAH and the last impacting velocity of the piston was computed, which can provide helpful for effective application of this tool in the field. Finally, based on the experimental study on the NRAH after the optimization, we found that its function had satisfied the design requirements as well as overall performance was improved.
Multifaceted impacts of the stony coral Porites astreoides on picoplankton abundance and community composition

Picoplankton foster essential recycling of nutrients in the oligotrophic waters sustaining coral reef ecosystems. Despite this fact, there is a paucity of data on how the specific interactions between corals and planktonic bacteria and archaea (picoplankton) contribute to nutrient dynamics and reef productivity. Here, we utilized mesocosm experiments to investigate how corals and coral mucus influence picoplankton and nutrients in reef waters. Over 12 days, we tracked nutrient concentrations, picoplankton abundances and taxonomic composition of picoplankton using direct cell‐counts, sequencing of SSU rRNA genes and fluorescent in situ hybridization‐based abundances of dominant lineages in the presence or absence of Porites astreoides corals and with mucus additions. Our results demonstrate that when corals are present, Synechococcus, SAR11 and Rhodobacteraceae cells are preferentially removed. When corals were removed, their exudates enhanced the growth of diverse picoplankton, including SAR11 and Rhodobacteraceae. A seven‐fold increase in nitrate concentration, possibly caused by nitrogen remineralization (ammonification coupled to nitrification) within the coral holobiont, may have further facilitated the growth of these taxa. In contrast, the addition of mucus resulted in rapid initial growth of total picoplankton and Rhodobacteraceae, but no measurable change in overall community structure. This study presents evidence of the multifaceted influences of corals on picoplankton, in which the coral holobiont selectively removes and promotes the growth of diverse picoplankton and remineralizes nitrogen.
Pedagogía mediática en la formación de profesores de Alemania y EEUU

Various research works and practitioners conclude that media pedagogy should be integrated in teacher education in order to enable future teachers to use media for their lessons effectively and successfully. However, this realization is not necessarily reflected in actual university curricula, as preservice teachers at some places can still finish their studies without ever dealing with media pedagogical issues. To understand, assess and eventually improve the status of media pedagogical teacher education, comprehensive research is required. Against this background, the following article seeks to present a theory-based and empirical overview of the status quo of preservice teachers’ pedagogical media competencies focusing Germany and the USA exemplarily. To form a basis, different models of pedagogical media competencies from both countries will be introduced and the extent to which these competencies have become part of teacher education programs and related studies will be summarised. Afterwards, method and selected results of a study will be described where the skills in question were measured with students from both countries, based on a comprehensive model of pedagogical media competencies that connects German and international research in this field. The international comparative perspective will help broaden the viewpoint and understand differences, but also similarities. These data serve to identify different ways of integrating media pedagogy into teacher training and draw conclusions on the consequences these processes entail for preservice teachers and their pedagogical media competencies.
Image Denoising Employing Two-Sided Gamma Random Vectors with Cycle-Spinning in Wavelet Domain

In this work, we present new Bayesian estimator for circularly-contoured Two-Sided Gamma random vector in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). This PDF is used in view of the fact that it is more peaked and the tails are heavier to be incorporated in the probabilistic modeling of the wavelet coefficients. One of the cruxes of the Bayesian image denoising methods is to estimate statistical parameters for a shrinkage function. We employ maximum a posterior (MAP) estimation to calculate local variances with Rayleigh density prior for local observed variances and Gaussian distribution for noisy wavelet coefficients. Several denoising methods (ProbShrink with redundant wavelet transform) using undecimated wavelet transforms provide good results. The undecimated wavelet transforms can also be viewed as applying an orthogonal wavelet transform to a set of shifted versions of the signal. This procedure wasfirst suggested by Coifman and Donoho where they termed it cycle-spinning method. We apply cycle spinning with orthogonal wavelet transforms in our work. The experimental results show that the proposed method yields good denoising results.