Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
NanoLab 2010-0401 A Raman Spectroscopy Study of the Solubilisation of SWCNTS by POlycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

The effectiveness of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for selective solubilisation of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) has been studied by Raman spectroscopy. Polyphenyl and polyacene PAHs of different lengths are used. Selective interaction between the PAHs and SWCNT is investigated by analyzing the Raman radial breathing modes the frequency positioning of which yields information concerning the diameter distribution of the SWCNT sample. Samples were dispersed at concentrations below the debundling limit and deposited on quartz substrates. A combination of four laser excitation energies was utilized to establish the distribution of diameters present. The results show that the PAHs interact with a range of SWCNT diameters. In general a preference for smaller diameter SWCNTs is evident, although the longer PAHs have the capacity to solubilise larger diameter SWCNTs, due to their increased binding energy. Although a small degree of structural specificity is evident, all PAHs solubilise both chiral and nonchiral SWCNTs. *Corresponding author. Tel: +353 1 4027932. E-mail: Sourabhi.debnath@dit.ie (S.Debnath)
Hatcheries, phenology, and families: Juvenile steelhead ecology in Forks Creek, Washington

Propagated organisms may have maladaptive timing for environmental conditions, but an advantage in terms of intraspecific competition. We investigated this tradeoff in a system where hatchery-origin steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) that have been bred to spawn about four months earlier than wild-origin fish were released into the wild as adults and allowed to breed in common with wild fish. We assigned naturally-spawned offspring from these matings hatchery, wild, or hybrid lineages using a panel of 96 single-nucleotide polymorphisms and then tested for differences in abundance, body size and condition, and geographic distribution. The observed mixture proportions were 0.005 hatchery-linage, 0.313 hybrid, and 0.682 wild-lineage fry. There were significant differences in fork length (hatchery > hybrid > wild), but no difference in body condition. We also modeled emergence dates of the fish we sampled to test for associations between environmental conditions and fish abundance. We estimated that 72.2% of wild-lineage fish emerged after the arrival of temperate spring conditions, compared to 47.3% of hybridlineage and 27.0% of hatchery-lineage fish. We hypothesize that the low abundance of pure hatchery-lineage fry may be due to a mismatch between the timing of breeding by the parents and suitable river conditions, resulting in low survival and physical displacement from the system. We draw this inference from the low representation of hatchery-lineage fry despite the preponderance of hatchery-origin parents, and from incubation models indicating that most 2 hatchery-lineage fish would have incubated and emerged during conditions of high river flows and low temperatures. Thus the advantages in early emergence and large size associated with hatchery origin did not mitigate the disadvantages of breeding early.
Full 3D Modeling of Waveguide-Embedded Frequency Multiplier Arrays

The frequency region between 300 GHz - 10 THz has long been in interest of many scientific and industrial branches. However, the traditional ways to provide continuous wave (CW) signals are inapplicable at these frequencies due to fundamental limitations. There have been many approaches to bridge the lack of sources, commonly referred as the THz gap, both from the electronics and photonics side. To overcome the input power limitation of solid state electronics, quasi-optical grid arrays have been presented in order to spatially combine contributions from a large number of active devices. Originally they operate in free space environment, but to gain a compact component for i.e. satellite applications, the device can be enclosed in a waveguide. The interaction between the large number of nonlinear devices and the confined field in a waveguide cavity poses great modeling challenges. The thesis is investigating different modeling techniques for waveguide embedded varactor frequency multiplier arrays. A Heterostructure Barrier Varactor (HBV) frequency tripler array operating at 250 GHz output frequency was experimentally tested and modeled with the traditional unit cell method and a novel approach using full 3D electromagnetic simulation. The full 3D model follows the abrupt changes of the measured results both as a function of frequency and input power due to the interaction between all the nonlinear elements. Furthermore, it enables the quantitative characterisation of individual diodes and provides knowledge of the total field distribution. In the evaluated example, higher order mode excitation was found due to the interaction between the filter and antenna array. An analysis to account for diode failures using the full 3D model is presented. Due to the results obtained from the full 3D model, a new output filter was designed for the device. By matching the filter’s periodicity to the antenna array, simulations show a decreased higher order mode excitation and therefore an increase of 1 dB in peak output power. RF measurements on the fabricated filter are reported, showing an increased output power at the lower edge of the measured band with a maximum increase of 0.8 dB at 243 GHz. Altogether, the full 3D model provides a useful complementary to the present tools for waveguide-embedded grid array design. Taking into account the resource needs of the two models, the unit cell model is recommended for a quick design synthesis and the full 3D model can be employed for further improvements.
Gmm Estimation And Shapiro-Francia Normality Test: A Case Study Of Developing Countries

The study of relationships between economic and financial system indicators in developing countries became contemporary issue taking into account the influence of the last crisis. This paper aims to analyze the correlation of number of explanatory variables with portfolio investments in 38 emerging markets in the period from 2005 to 2009. As a empirical methodology of this research serves Arellano-Bond and Arellano/Bover-Blundell/Bond estimations and Shapiro-Francia normality test. We identify that the capital market indicators, in particular, the stock market capitalization, stock market total value traded to GDP are considered the main positive and statistically significant variables. Since the outbreak of the crisis, investors start to pay their attention to almost every indicator affecting the flows of portfolio investments. Almost all banking and economic indicators (except some business environment indicators, bank non-performing loans to gross loans (%), lending interest rate (%), banks Z-score and official exchange rate) are highly associated with portfolio investments.
Monetary Transmission Mechanisms in a Small Open Economy: A Bayesian Structural VAR Approach (Mécanismes De Transmission Monétaire Dans Une Petite Économie Ouverte: Une Approche Structurelle VAR Bayesienne)

This paper develops a Bayesian structural VAR model for Canada in order to estimate the effects of monetary policy shocks, using the overnight rate target as the policy instrument. I allow the policy variable and other home and foreign variables to interact with each other contemporaneously. The key finding is that monetary policy affects the real economy through both the market interest rate and the exchange rate. I also find that the Bank of Canada responds to any home and foreign variables that embodies information about future inflation and that external shocks are an important source of output fluctuations. Ce texte developpe un modele structurel VAR bayesien pour estimer les effets des chocs de politique monetaire, en utilisant le taux de financement a un jour comme l’instrument de politique. On permet a la variable politique et aux autres variables domestiques et etrangeres d’interagir en temps reel. Le resultat cle est que la politique monetaire affecte l’economie reelle via a la fois le taux d’interet du marche et le taux de change. On decouvre aussi que la Banque du Canada reagit a toute variable domestique ou etrangere qui contient des renseignements a propos de l’inflation future, et que les chocs externes sont une source importante de fluctuations du produit.
Silicon Micromechanical Resonators for RF-Applications

The small size and integrability make the silicon micromechanical rf-resonators attractive components for future wireless communication devices. In particular, we show that using the microresonators one can construct oscillators exhibiting low phase noise and good long-term stability. Such compact solutions challenge conventional quartz crystals in frequency reference applications.
The Effect of Shift Structure on Performance

The effect of shift structure on worker performance and productivity is of increasing interest to firms and regulatory bodies. Using approximately 743,000 emergency medical incidents attended by 2,381 paramedics in Mississippi, we evaluate the extent that paramedics' performance toward the end of shifts is impacted by shift length. We find evidence that performance deteriorates toward the end of long shifts, and argue that fatigue is the mediating factor. Our calculations imply that such deterioration may result in a 0.76 percent increase in 30-day mortality. These findings have implications for workforce organization, calling attention to regulation designed to limit extended work hours. (JEL J22, J24, J28, J45, M12)
WATER MAPPING USING MULTISPECTRAL AIRBORNE LIDAR DATA

Abstract. This study investigates the use of the world’s first multispectral airborne LiDAR sensor, Optech Titan, manufactured by Teledyne Optech to serve the purpose of automatic land-water classification with a particular focus on near shore region and river environment. Although there exist recent studies utilizing airborne LiDAR data for shoreline detection and water surface mapping, the majority of them only perform experimental testing on clipped data subset or rely on data fusion with aerial/satellite image. In addition, most of the existing approaches require manual intervention or existing tidal/datum data for sample collection of training data. To tackle the drawbacks of previous approaches, we propose and develop an automatic data processing workflow for land-water classification using multispectral airborne LiDAR data. Depending on the nature of the study scene, two methods are proposed for automatic training data selection. The first method utilizes the elevation/intensity histogram fitted with Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to preliminarily split the land and water bodies. The second method mainly relies on the use of a newly developed scan line elevation intensity ratio (SLIER) to estimate the water surface data points. Regardless of the training methods being used, feature spaces can be constructed using the multispectral LiDAR intensity, elevation and other features derived from these parameters. The comprehensive workflow was tested with two datasets collected for different near shore region and river environment, where the overall accuracy yielded better than 96 %.
Dieback of Fraxinus excelsior in the Baltic Sea Region

This thesis is comprised of three main studies: (1) the wood-inhabiting fungi found in declining European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) and their pathogenicity; (2) the relationship between F. excelsior phenology, site density and the susceptibility to the dieback; and (3) the potential of natural regeneration of dieback affected ash stands. The studies that are presented here were conducted in Denmark, Lithuania and Sweden. Combination of different sampling and detection methods revealed a high diversity of fungi in both healthy looking and symptomatic tissues of declining F. excelsior. The most frequently detected fungal taxa were Alternaria alternata, Armillaria cepistipes, Aureobasidium pullulans, Botryosphaeria stevensii, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Cryptococcus foliicola, Epicoccum nigrum, Gibberella avenacea, Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus, Lewia sp. , Phoma spp. and Phomopsis sp. In pathogenicity tests nine fungal taxa caused symptomatic discoloration of bark and cambium on F. excelsior saplings, though only H. pseudoalbidus infected substantial proportion (50-100%) of tested trees. The seasonal pattern of ash dieback severity, attributed to crown damage of F. excelsior trees, significantly increased towards the end of the investigated growth season. Severity of dieback symptoms was more pronounced in the unthinned stands, but otherwise was not related with stand density. However, susceptibility of F. excelsior to the disease was found to be dependent on the flushing (bud-bursting) phenology of the trees - late-flushing F. excelsior were most severely affected. Our study demonstrated that vigorous natural regeneration of F. excelsior in examined clear-felled sites cannot be expected. Regenerating F. excelsior exhibited abundant dieback symptoms. The species composition in sites with long disease history is likely to shift away from F. excelsior to early successional pioneer species such as Alnus incana, Betula spp. , and in some instances Populus tremula.
Pengembangan Alat Peraga Fisika Pada Materi Gaya Gesek Berbasis Sensor Ultrasonik

Penelitian pengembangan ini bertujuan untuk sistem sensor ultrasonik yang dapat digunakan untuk mengukur percepatan gerak benda uji pada sistem bidang miring untuk mempelajari gaya gesek dari nilai koefisien gesek antar dua benda. Metode penelitian pengembangan diterapkan untuk percobaan gaya gesek menerapkan sensor gerak berbasis gelombang ultrasonik yang menggunakan IC Atmega 8535 sebagai pengendali untuk mengukur percepatan benda uji. Temuan penelitian menunjukkan (1)kayu terhadap karet didapatkan rata – rata koefisien gesek (µk) = 0,48, deviasi standart (σ) = 0,007 dan kesalahan yang mungkin = 0,004; (2) kayu dengan PVC didapatkan rata – rata koefisien gesek (µk) = 0,39, deviasi standart (σ) = 0,006 dan kesalahaan yang mungkin = 0,004; dan (3)kayu dengan kayu PVC didapatkan rata – rata koefisien gesek (µk) = 0,39, deviasi setandart (σ) = 0,01 dan kesalahaan yang mungkin = 0,006. Dari hasil analisis hasil analisa koefisien gesek kayu dengan kayu sebesar 0,39±0,006, sedangkan koefisien gesek kayu terhadap PVC sebesar 0,39±0,004 dan koefisien gesek kayu dengan karet sebesar 0,48±0,004 sehingga perangkat sensor belum dapat digunakan karena kurang akurat namun demikian perangkat papan luncur dapat sudah dapat digunakan.
Bringing the research lab into everyday life: exploiting sensitive environments to acquire data for social research

This chapter discusses the concept of sensitive environments. Sensitive environments are essentially spatial and public areas like streets or school that are provided with an intelligent infrastructure that collects sensory information of users while they move and interact. Such sensitive environments offer researchers an environment which enables them to automatically collect lots of data. However, when data collection takes place through a sensitive environment instead of by interviews, questionnaires and structured observations, it consequently changes the nature of social research and imposes new types of questions: How to design the environment to fit the research questions. How do we deal with huge datasets in a sensible way? How can we interpret data that might be incomplete or uncertain in a meaningful and useful way? In the remainder of this work, we discus the use of sensitive environments as a tool for social research embedded within everyday life.
Improvements to resampling measures of group support

Several aspects of current resampling methods to assess group support are reviewed. When the characters have different prior weights or some state transformation costs are different, the frequencies under either bootstrapping or jackknifing can be distorted, producing either under‐ or overestimations of the actual group support. This is avoided by symmetric resampling, where the probability p of increasing the weight of a character equals the probability of decreasing it. Problems with interpreting absolute group frequencies as a measure of the support are discussed; group support does not necessarily vary with the frequency itself, since in some cases groups with positive support may have much lower frequencies than groups with no support at all. Three possible solutions for this problem are suggested. The first is measuring the support as the difference in frequency between the group and its most frequent contradictory group. The second is calculating frequencies for values of p below the threshold under which the frequency ranks the groups in the right order of support (this threshold may vary from data set to data set). The third is estimating the support by using the slope of the frequency as a function of different (low) values of p; when p is low, groups with actual support have negative slopes (closer to 0 when the support is higher), and groups with no support have positive slopes (larger when evidence for and against the group is more abundant).
Theoretical framework to estimate spatial rainfall averages conditional on river discharges and point rainfall measurements from a single location: an application to western Greece

Abstract. We focus on the special case of catchments covered by a single rain gauge and develop a theoretical framework to obtain estimates of spatial rainfall averages conditional on rainfall measurements from a single location, and the flow conditions at the catchment outlet. In doing so we use (a) statistical tools to identify and correct inconsistencies between daily rainfall occurrence and amount and the flow conditions at the outlet of the basin; (b) concepts from multifractal theory to relate the fraction of wet intervals in point rainfall measurements and that in spatial rainfall averages, while accounting for the shape and size of the catchment, the size, lifetime and advection velocity of rainfall-generating features and the location of the rain gauge inside the basin; and (c) semi-theoretical arguments to assure consistency between rainfall and runoff volumes at an inter-annual level, implicitly accounting for spatial heterogeneities of rainfall caused by orographic influences. In an application study, using point rainfall records from the Glafkos river basin in western Greece, we find the suggested approach to demonstrate significant skill in resolving rainfall–runoff incompatibilities at a daily level, while reproducing the statistics of spatial rainfall averages at both monthly and annual time scales, independent of the location of the rain gauge and the magnitude of the observed deviations between point rainfall measurements and spatial rainfall averages. The developed scheme should serve as an important tool for the effective calibration of rainfall–runoff models in basins covered by a single rain gauge and, also, improve hydrologic impact assessment at a river basin level under changing climatic conditions.
A lesson from associative learning: asymmetry and productivity in multiple-slot constructions

Abstract Non-redundant taxonomic models of construction grammar posit that only fully productive patterns qualify as constructions because they license an infinity of expressions. Redundant models claim that, despite subregularities and exceptions, partially productive patterns also count as constructions, providing the overall meanings of such patterns are not the strict sums of their parts. Because productivity is a major bone of contention between redundant and non-redundant construction grammar taxonomies, I examine the productivity of A as NP which, according to Kay (2013), is not a “construction” but merely a “pattern of coining” due to its limited type productivity. Expanding on Gries (2013), this paper explores how a combination of symmetric and asymmetric association measures can contribute to the study of the “Productivity Complex” described in Zeldes (2012). Although the productivity of A as NP is admittedly limited at its most schematic level, some partially filled subschemas such as white/black as NP or A as hell/death are arguably productive.
An Empirical Study on the Customer Reponses to Service Recovery in the Context of Service Failure

This article examines how customers respond to various service recoveries by investigating the moderating role of service failure severity. Using a scenario-based experiment, the proposed model was tested in a mobile phone service industry. The results show that under the core service failure, high recoveries are more effective than low recoveries, whereas low recoveries are as effective as high recoveries under the peripheral service failure. The effects were assessed in terms of customers’ intentions such as repurchase intention and word-of-mouth communication.
Explaining bank failures in the United States: The role of self-fulfilling prophecies, systemic risk, banking regulation, and contagion

Using count data on the number of bank failures in US states during the 1960 to 2006 period, this paper endeavors to establish how far sources of economic risk (recessions, high interest rates, ination) or dierences in solvency and branching regulation can explain some of the fragility in banking. Assuming that variables are predetermined, lagged values provide instruments to absorb potential endogeneity between the number of bank failures and economic and regulatory conditions. Results suggest that bank failures are not merely self-fullling prophecies but relate systematically to ination as well as to policy changes in banking regulation. Furthermore, in terms of statistical and economic signicance, the distribution and development of bankruptcies across US states depends crucially on past bank failures suggesting that contagion provides an important channel through which banking crises emerge. JEL classication: G21, G28
Prognostics and Health Management for Maintenance Practitioners - Review, Implementation and Tools Evaluation

In literature, prognostics and health management (PHM) systems have been studied by many researchers from many different engineering fields to increase system reliability, availability, safety and to reduce the maintenance cost of engineering assets. Many works conducted in PHM research concentrate on designing robust and accurate models to assess the health state of components for particular applications to support decision making. Models which involve mathematical interpretations, assumptions and approximations make PHM hard to understand and implement in real world applications, especially by maintenance practitioners in industry. Prior knowledge to implement PHM in complex systems is crucial to building highly reliable systems. To fill this gap and motivate industry practitioners, this paper attempts to provide a comprehensive review on PHM domain and discusses important issues on uncertainty quantification, implementation aspects next to prognostics feature and tool evaluation. In this paper, PHM implementation steps consists of; (1) critical component analysis, (2) appropriate sensor selection for condition monitoring (CM), (3) prognostics feature evaluation under data analysis and (4) prognostics methodology and tool evaluation matrices derived from PHM literature. Besides PHM implementation aspects, this paper also reviews previous and on-going research in high-speed train bogies to highlight problems faced in train industry and emphasize the significance of PHM for further investigations.