Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Organizational Preferences and Producer Characteristics in Biomass Supply Chains

Organizational costs in biomass transactions could be a key barrier to commercial development of cellulosic-based industries and will influence the organizational choices of biomass producers and bioenergy processors. Understanding biomass producer characteristics and preferences will be important to the future development of renewable industries like cellulosic ethanol. This paper examines survey data that identify assets biomass producers currently own, services they are willing to provide, and their preferences for selling mechanisms. A transaction cost model is used to analyze producers’ organizational preferences in a multinomial logit empirical framework.
Terms of Use

Conflict Avoidance in Cooperative and Competitive Relationships: A Cross-Cultural Study between Chinese Subordinates and Western Superiors by PENG Chun Yan Master of Philosophy Many international companies have entered China because of its expanding opportunities. However, for expatriate managers to innovate and implement their strategic plans in order to exploit these opportunities, they must know and work with their Chinese subordinates. But conflict is inevitable within organizations, especially when people with different cultural backgrounds work together. Culture not only affects people’s preferred ways of doing things but also influences their styles to deal with conflicts. Compared with Westerners, Chinese people have been found to employ indirect ways and prefer to avoid conflict. To facilitate effective communication, it is imperative for Western managers to understand why local subordinates might avoid conflicts and what strategies they will use. This paper explores the dynamic structure of conflict avoidance between Western managers and Chinese employees; we want to understand the different strategies used to avoid conflict. Specifically, this study uses the theory of cooperation and competition to predict people’s responses toward conflict avoidance. We hypothesize that conflict avoidance is not always negative but depends on the specific actions the protagonists adopt and their perceptions of the goal interdependence with each other (cooperative or competitive) greatly influence their tactics to avoid conflict. The study extends research on conflict avoidance to foreign invested companies in China and develops a typology of the dynamics of conflict avoidance. Altogether 132 face-to-face interviews were carried out in Hong Kong and Beijing, China. Participants who work with Western managers were asked to describe an incident in which they avoided a conflict with their foreign superiors; it included the setting, what occurred, the reasons, and the consequences. Then they rated specific questions on 7-point Likert-type scale based on the recalled incidents. Employees whose bosses are local managers were also recruited as a control group. Structural equation modeling and other analyses will explore the proposed model and help to compare cultural differences in handling conflicts between the Western and Chinese managers. The paper draws implications for managing in foreign invested firms.
A Study on Motion-Based UI for Running Games with Kinect

This study examines the efficiency of human motion-based UI for video games with motion capture system, Kinect. We took an investigation to play with the Kinect sensor in the running game which was developed and designed using two kinds of UI. One UI consists of more intuitive and familiar motions such as turning and jumping. The other UI consists of arm motions like raising hands. As a result, UI with arm motions was easier for users to master and results in higher success rates to play than the other UI. Therefore we can conclude when a game is developed using Kinect and its UI is configured with motion recognition, the motion with the arms rather than the other parts of the body helps player better to enhance the play skills and immerse in the game.
Review of techniques for extraction of bilingual lexicon from comparable corpora

Bilingual lexicons are important resources for performing a number of bilingual tasks in machine translation (MT) and cross-language in-formation retrieval (CLIR). Since the manual building of bilingual extraction is a tedious affair, researchers have focused upon the automatic extraction of bilingual lexicons from corpora. Another issue is the use of parallel and comparable corpora for extraction. Much success has been achieved in the use of parallel corpora but it is only available for a few language pairs and for limited domains. Therefore, the use of comparable corpora comes as an alternative but a lot need to be done in this field. The paper presents a review of different techniques and methods, which have been used for automatic extraction of bilingual lexicon suggesting that an integrated approach can give better results than using individual approaches. The paper also contains a proposed method for extraction of bilingual method using a combined approach.
DIVISIBLE MONEY IN AN ECONOMY WITH VILLAGES

This paper provides a tractable search model with divisible money that encompasses the two frameworks currently used in the literature. In the model, individuals belong to many villages. Inside a village, individuals are not altruistic as in a representative household, but they share information so Þnancial contracts are feasible. Money is essential in the model to facilitate trade with individuals outside the village. The framework proposed by Lagos and Wright (2002) arises as a special case if some goods trade in competitive markets while others trade in search markets, and preferences are quasi-linear. The framework proposed by Shi (1997) arises as a special case if individuals can insure trading risks inside the village. In general, if preferences are not quasi-linear and trading risks cannot be insured, the distribution of money holdings is non-degenerate and monetary transfers have distributional effects. However, neither quasi-linear preferences nor insurance of trading risks are necessary for tractability. Indeed, this paper advances a tractable benchmark with an endogenous frequency of shopping in which all buyers choose to carry the same amount of money even if preferences are not quasi-linear and trading risks cannot be insured.
Boundary-Layer Transition on X-43A

The successful Mach 7 and 10 flights of the first fully integrated scramjet propulsion systems by the Hyper-X (X-43A) program have provided the means with which to verify the original design methodologies and assumptions. As part of Hyper-X's propulsion-airframe integration, the forebody was designed to include a spanwise array of vortex generators to promote boundary layer transition ahead of the engine. Turbulence at the inlet is thought to provide the most reliable engine design and allows direct scaling of flight results to ground- based data. Pre-flight estimations of boundary layer transition, for both Mach 7 and 10 flight conditions, suggested that forebody boundary layer trips were required to ensure fully turbulent conditions upstream of the inlet. This paper presents the results of an analysis of the thermocouple measurements used to infer the dynamics of the transition process during the trajectories for both flights, on both the lower surface (to assess trip performance) and the upper surface (to assess natural transition). The approach used in the analysis of the thermocouple data is outlined, along with a discussion of the calculated local flow properties that correspond to the transition events as identified in the flight data. The present analysis has confirmed that the boundary layer trips performed as expected for both flights, providing turbulent flow ahead of the inlet during critical portions of the trajectory, while the upper surface was laminar as predicted by the pre-flight analysis.
Upconversion luminescence nanoparticles-based lateral flow immunochromatographic assay for cephalexin detection

Because of the near infrared excitation, upconversion luminescence (UCL) rare-earth nanoparticles are very suitable for biological applications in terms of low background interference. NaGdF4:Yb,Er nanoparticles were firstly synthesized through a replacement reaction at high temperature. To improve the upconversion luminescence efficiency, core–shell NaGdF4:Yb,Er@NaGdF4 nanoparticles were then prepared by a seed-mediated method. The core–shell architecture significantly improved the upconversion luminescence and more effectively retained the luminescence during the following phase transfer process by ligand exchange. Upon further coupling with anti-cephalexin monoclonal antibody via “click” reaction, the resultant upconversion luminescence probe was obtained and used in a lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA) to detect the antibiotic residue of cephalexin. The results were compared with those achieved by a nanoprobe assay based on gold nanoparticles. More quantitative results were extracted by luminescent intensity analysis. Under optimized conditions, the detection limit of UCL nanoparticles-based LFIA was considerably comparable with gold nanoparticles-based LFIA.
The ancient mortars of Serravalle fortification (Bosa, Italy): a case study

The case study is the pentagonal tower from Serravalle Castle fortification, located near to the river Temo (west-cost of Sardinia), above the medieval Bosa village (XII-XIV cent.). The castle belongs to the medieval Giudicato di Torres (X cent.) and then to Malaspina from Lunigiana (XII cent.), Turrritani, Arborea, Aragonese, until to the Catalans (from Alghero) that led it to decline (XVI cent.). The aim of this proposal is to analyze from mineralogical-petrographic point of view the mortars used in the construction of the tower. Samples were taken between the volcanic ashlars at different heights with respect to the ground level, to assess any compositional variations during the construction of the building. Through microscopic analysis, the compositional aspects concerning the nature and petro-mineralogical features of the raw materials used for the aggregate were defined. By image analysis (on meso-microscopic photographs) the vol.% of binder/aggregate ratios and their grain-size characteristics were determined and compared with the wt% data obtained from disaggregation method of mortars and acid attack of carbonate binder, in order to understand if the mixing ratios used by constructors have respected the production standards of those historic period. By X-ray diffraction (XRD) and termogravimetric/differential analysis (TGA-DSC) of enriched-binder samples, the presence of C-S-H phases and the hydraulic degree of mortars have been studied, to understand the possible use of pozzolanic material. Finally, to define the physical-mechanical properties of mortars were also determined: porosity, real and bulk density, PLT punching-index, theoretical values of compression and traction strengths.
MICROSIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF INTRAHOUSEHOLD RATEGIC WEIGHT” DIFFERENTIALS AND THEIR DISTRIBUTIONAL OUTCOMES

Equal intra-household sharing is still assumed by the vaste majority of applied analyses in welfare economics. Few pieces of work have tried to depart from the equal sharing hypothesis, but their impact has been limited by lack of data or restricted application to special cases. This paper proposes a new framework to derive sharing rules based on individual bargaining power. The latter is de ned for each household member as the share of resources gained by the household due to his/her presence. The causes of power di¤erentials and their impact on income distribution are analysed in four EU countries presenting signi cantly di¤erent tax-bene t systems: Finland, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom. Key Words : intra-household sharing, tax-bene t systems, microsimulation JEL Classi cation : C70, D1, J16, H31. Acknowledgements : We are grateful to Vincenzo Atella, André Decoster, Jacques Lecacheux and Holly Sutherland for in-depth comments of the rst draft. All errors or omissions remain ours. This paper was written as part of the MICRESA (Micro Analysis of the European Social Agenda) project, nanced by the Improving Human Potential programme of the European Commission (SERD-2001-00099). For the countries considered in this paper, EUROMOD relies on the following micro-data: the Income Distribution Survey made available by Statistics Finland; the German Socio-Economic Panel Study made available by DIW; the Survey of Household Income and Wealth, provided by the Bank of Italy and the Family Expenditure Survey provided by the British O¢ ce for National Statistics. We are indebted to our present and former colleagues of the EUROMOD team. Amedeo Spadaro acknowledges nancial support of Spanish GovernmentMCYT, (Programa de Acciones Integradas HP2002-0031, Programa Nacional de Promoción General del Conocimiento SEC2002-02606). yCES, KULeuven, 69 Naamsestraat, Leuven, Belgium. Email: kristian.orsini@econ.kuleuven. ac.be zPSE Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques (Joint Research Unit CNRS-EHESS-ENPCENS) Paris and Departement of Economics, Universitat de les Iles Balears Palma de Mallorca. email: amedeo.spadaro@uib.es
The pharmacy care plan service: Service evaluation and estimate of cost- effectiveness

Background: The UK Community Pharmacy Future group developed the Pharmacy Care Plan (PCP) service with a focus on patient activation, goal setting and therapy management. Objective: To estimate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the PCP service from a health services perspective. Methods: Patients over 50 years of age prescribed one or more medicines including at least one for cardiovascular disease or diabetes were eligible. Medication review and person-centred consultation resulted in agreed health goals and actions towards achieving them. Clinical, process and cost-effectiveness data were collected at baseline and 12-months between February 2015 and June 2016. Mean differences are reported for clinical and process measures. Costs (NHS) and quality-adjusted life year scores were estimated and compared for 12 months preand post-baseline. Results: Seven hundred patients attended the initial consultation and 54% had a complete set of data obtained. There was a significant improvement in patient activation score (mean difference 5.39; 95% CI 3.9–6.9; p < 0.001), systolic (mean difference −2.90mmHg; 95% CI -4.7 to −1; p= 0.002) and diastolic blood pressure (mean difference −1.81mmHg; 95% CI -2.8 to −0.8; p < 0.001), adherence (mean difference 0.26; 95% CI 0.1–0.4; p < 0.001) and quality of life (mean difference 0.029; 95% CI 0.015–0.044; p < 0.001). HDL cholesterol reduced significantly and QRisk2 scores increased significantly over the course of the 12 months. The mean incremental cost associated with the intervention was estimated to be £202.91 (95% CI 58.26 to £346.41) and the incremental QALY gain was 0.024 (95% CI 0.014 to 0.034), giving an incremental cost per QALY of £8495. Conclusions: Enrolment in the PCP service was generally associated with an improvement over 12 months in key clinical and process metrics. Results also suggest that the service would be cost-effective to the health system even when using worst case assumptions.
Jet opening angles and gamma-ray brightness of AGN

We have investigated the differences in apparent opening angles between the parsec-scale jets of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) during its first three months of operations and those of non-LAT-detected AGN. We used 15.4 GHz VLBA observations of sources from the 2 cm VLBA MOJAVE program, a subset of which comprise the statistically complete flux density limited MOJAVE sample. We determined the apparent opening angles by analyzing transverse jet profiles from the data in the image plane and by applying a model fitting technique to the data in the (u,v) plane. Both methods provided comparable opening angle estimates. The apparent opening angles of gamma-ray bright blazars are preferentially larger than those of gamma-ray weak sources. At the same time, we have found the two groups to have similar intrinsic opening angle distributions, based on a smaller subset of sources. This suggests that the jets in gamma-ray bright AGN are oriented at preferentially smaller angles to the line of sight resulting in a stronger relativistic beaming. The intrinsic jet opening angle and bulk flow Lorentz factor are found to be inversely proportional, as predicted by standard models of compact relativistic jets. If a gas dynamical jet acceleration model is assumed, the ratio of the initial pressure of the plasma in the core region P_0 to the external pressure P_ext lies within the range 1.1 to 34.6, with a best fit estimate of P_0/P_ext=2.
An Improved Image Filtering Method for Weld Bead Inspection using Unsharp Masking Technique

There are many disturbances that occur during image capturing process. One of the common disturbances is noise. Consequently, various methods were developed to improve image quality. In this study, the proposed method consists of an enhanced Unsharp Masking Technique that is combined with common filtering methods. The method was applied in different noise situations. The image filtering methods involved were common filter which Mean, Median and Gaussian filters. The images of welding process were converted into RGB for ease of calculation. Mean Square Error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) were used to determine the quality of the image. Graph generated to reinforce the PSNR value. The results obtained proved that the proposed method could yield better filtering performance.
Backpropagation Neural Network as Earthquake Early WarningTool using a new Elementary Modified Levenberg–MarquardtAlgorithm to minimise Backpropagation Errors

Abstract. A new Elementary Modified Levenberg–Marquardt Algorithm (M-LMA) was used to minimise backpropagation errors in training a backpropagation neural network (BPNN) to predict the records related to the Chi-Chi earthquake from four seismic stations, Station-TAP003, Station-TAP005, Station-TCU084 and Station-TCU078, with the learning rates of 0.3, 0.05, 0.2 and 0.28, respectively. For these four recording stations, the M-LMA has been shown to produce smaller predicted errors compared to LMA. A sudden predicted error could be an indicator for Early Earthquake Warning (EEW), which indicated the initiation of strong motion due to large earthquakes. a trade-off decision-making process with BPNN (TDPB), using two alarms, adjusted the threshold of the magnitude of predicted error without a mistaken alarm. This approach was not necessary to consider the problems of characterising the wave phases and pre-processing, but did not require complex hardware; an existing seismic monitoring network-covered researched area was already sufficient for these purposes.
Tropical Cold-Point Tropopause: Climatology, Seasonal Cycle, and Intraseasonal Variability Derived from COSMIC GPS Radio Occultation Measurements

AbstractThe finescale structure of the tropical cold-point tropopause (CPT) is examined using high-resolution temperature profiles derived from Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) global positioning system (GPS) radio occultation measurements for 4 yr from September 2006 to August 2010. The climatology, seasonal cycle, and intraseasonal variability are analyzed for three CPT properties: temperature (T-CPT), pressure (P-CPT), and sharpness (S-CPT). Their relationships with tropospheric and stratospheric processes are also discussed.The climatological P-CPT is largely homogeneous in the deep tropics, whereas T-CPT and S-CPT exhibit local minima and maxima, respectively, at the equator in the vicinity of deep convection regions. All three CPT properties, however, show coherent seasonal cycle in the tropics; the CPT is colder, higher (lower in pressure), and sharper during boreal winter than during boreal summer. This seasonality is consistent with the seasonal cycl.
Nainital Microlensing Survey - detection of short period Cepheids in the disk of M 31

Context. Cepheids are the primary distance indicators for the external galaxies, so discovery of large number of Cepheid variables in far-off galaxies offers a unique opportunity to determine the accurate distance of the host galaxy through their period-luminosity relation. Aims. The main purpose of this study is to identify short-period and relatively faint Cepheids in the crowded field of M 31 disk, which was observed as part of the Nainital Microlensing Survey. Methods. The Cousins R and I band photometric observations were carried out in the direction of M 31 with the aim of detecting microlensing events. The data was obtained with a 1-m telescope on more than 150 nights over the period between November 1998 and January 2002. The data was analysed using the pixel technique and the mean magnitudes of the Cepheids were determined by correlating their pixel fluxes with the corresponding PSF-fitted photometric magnitudes. Results. In the present study we report identification of short-period Cepheid variables in the M 31 disk. We present a catalogue of 39 short-period (P < 15 days) Cepheids in a ∼13 � × 13 � region of the M 31 disk and give positions and pulsation periods along with their R and I bands photometric magnitudes wherever possible. Most of the Cepheids are found with R (mean) ∼ 20–21 mag, and the dense phase coverage of our observations enabled us to identify Cepheids with periods as short as 3.4 days. The period distribution of these Cepheids peaks at log P ∼ 0.9 and 1.1 days. Conclusions. We demonstrate that using the pixel method, faint and short-period Cepheids in M 31 can even be detected with smallsize telescopes and moderate observing conditions.
Analysis of Corrosion Process Development on Metals by Means of Computer Vision

The paper deals with computer vision and image processing methods applied to the task of corrosion damage search. A step-by-step algorithm is given for processing of the data from a chemical corrosion experiment on a metal surface: image preprocessing, image binarization and identification of object contours, and analysis of object characteristics. The application of the developed methods is exemplified by detection and recognition of corrosion damage on a steel specimen, pitting corrosion, and corrosion of an aluminum specimen. Furthermore, the mechanism of fractal analysis for corrosion cracking specimens was studied and fractal dimension was selected as characteristics of
OREOCNIDE INTEGRIFOLIA (GAUD.)MIQ EXHIBITS HYPOGLYCEMIC AND HYPOLIPIDEMIC POTENTIALS ON STREPTOZOTOCIN DIABETIC RATS: A PRELIMINARY DOSE AND DURATION DEPENDENT STUDY

Oreocnide integrifolia (Gaud.)Miq (Urticaceae) leaves are used to alleviate diabetic symptoms in folk medicine in northeast India. In the present study, dose and duration dependent hypoglycemic potentials were evaluated in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. Administration of aqueous leaf extract (100, 250, 500 and 750 mg/kg body weight orally once daily) to diabetic rats reduced glycemic levels by 56 % by 4 weeks of treatment and was comparable to standard reference drug Metformin. The experimental data also revealed significant improvement in lowering lipid profile, Urea, Creatinine, Hb, HbA1c and insulin levels. The present study clearly demonstrates hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic potential of Oreocnide integrifolia leaf extract.