Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Survey of Network Topology of Data Center

Data center is used as a network infrastructure for carrying, transmitting, storing and processing big data, which plays an important role in the application of cloud computing, CDN distribution, etc. The network topology is the theoretical foundation and deployment basis of fault-tolerant redundancy and elastic scaling in the data center. The state-of-the-art server-centric network topologies such as DCell were firstly emphatically analyzed, systematical summaries and theoretical analyses were made for their structure definition and generation model. And on this basis, the comparison and evaluation were conducted finally from the dimensions such as coverage diameter, connectivity and equal width etc.
Science Teaching and Learning: Qualitative and Functional Chemistry Education, does Gender and Age Affect Academic Achievement

One of the key points in Late President Yar’adua’s 7- point agenda is the accomplishment of qualitative and functional Education. This can be monitored through assessing academic achievement of students. Chemistry Education occupies a central position to all disciplines. This study examined the correlates between age and gender on academic achievement (CGPA) of Chemistry students. The study used thirty six (36) females and forty (40) males giving a total of sample seventy eight (76). Scatter – plot, mean and standard deviation were used for the descriptive statistics while univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression were used for inferential statistics. T-test was used to test the null hypothesis formulated (P
III-V semiconductor waveguides for photonic functionality at 780 nm

Photonic integrated circuits based on III-V semiconductor polarization-maintaining waveguides were designed and fabricated for the first time for application in a compact cold-atom gravimeter1,2 at an operational wavelength of 780 nm. Compared with optical fiber-based components, semiconductor waveguides achieve very compact guiding of optical signals for both passive functions, such as splitting and recombining, and for active functions, such as switching or modulation. Quantum sensors, which have enhanced sensitivity to a physical parameter as a result of their quantum nature, can be made from quantum gases of ultra-cold atoms. A cloud of ultra-cold atoms may start to exhibit quantum-mechanical properties when it is trapped and cooled using laser cooling in a magneto-optical trap, to reach milli-Kelvin temperatures. The work presented here focuses on the design and fabrication of optical devices for a quantum sensor to measure the acceleration of gravity precisely and accurately. In this case the cloud of ultra-cold atoms consists of rubidium (87Rb) atoms and the sensor exploits the hyperfine structure of the D1 transition, from an outer electronic state of 5 2S ½ to 5 2P3/2 which has an energy of 1.589 eV or 780.241 nm. The short wavelength of operation of the devices dictated stringent requirements on the Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and device fabrication in terms of anisotropy and smoothness of plasma etch processes, cross-wafer uniformities and alignment tolerances. Initial measurements of the optical loss of the polarization-maintaining waveguide, assuming Fresnel reflection losses only at the facets, suggested a loss of 8 dB cm-1, a loss coefficient, α, of 1.9 (±0.3) cm-1.
Data-Selective Conjugate Gradient Algorithm

The conjugate gradient (CG) adaptive filtering algorithm is an alternative to the more widely used Recursive Least Squares (RLS) and Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithms, where the former requires more computations, and the latter leads to slower convergence. In recent years, some adaptive filtering algorithms have been equipped with data selection mechanism to classify if the data currently available consists of an outlier or if it brings about enough innovation. In both cases the data could be discarded avoiding extra computation and performance degradation. This paper proposes a data selection strategy to the CG algorithm and verifies its effectiveness in simulations utilizing synthetic and real data.
A Novel Cooperative NOMA for Designing UAV-Assisted Wireless Backhaul Networks

In this paper, we investigate the downlink transmissions in wireless backhaul (WB) networks when unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used as flying small cell base stations. We propose to employ the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) on the WB transmissions and introduce a novel cooperative transmission scheme for the wireless access links. Then, we formulate an optimization problem which jointly determines the radio resource allocation at the macro cell base station (MBS) and UAVs along with the optimization of the decoding order of the NOMA process and the positions of the UAVs in space to maximize the sum achievable rate of all users. The formulated problem is a general mixed integer non-convex program, which is very difficult to solve optimally within a polynomial time. Therefore, we propose a framework based on the method of difference of convex program characterized by the Lipschitz continuity to transform and approximate the original problem into a series of convex approximate ones and develop a low-complexity algorithm to sequentially solve for each approximate problem until convergence. Numerical evaluation and analysis show that our achieved solution, under the proposed framework and developed algorithm, can outperform the other schemes which aim at either optimizing without using cooperative NOMA or do not optimize the UAVs’ positions.
Analysis of Present Day and Future OH and Methane Lifetime in the ACCMIP Simulations

Results from simulations performed for the At- mospheric Chemistry and Climate Modeling Intercompari- son Project (ACCMIP) are analysed to examine how OH and methane lifetime may change from present day to the future, under different climate and emissions scenarios. Present day (2000) mean tropospheric chemical lifetime derived from the ACCMIP multi-model mean is 9.8± 1.6 yr (9.3± 0.9 yr when only including selected models), lower than a recent
Which Size and Evolution of the Government Expenditure Multiplier in France (1980-2010)?

The importance of the stimulus packages that were injected in most advanced economies from the start of the financial crisis and the speed at which budgets are now being consolidated in Europe has revived the long-lasting debate on the size of fiscal multipliers. In this study, we focus on government expenditures on goods and services. Our conclusion following Blanchard and Perotti (2002) for the identification of government spending shocks is that the multiplier is significant and not far from 1 on impact and becomes statistically insignificant after about 3 years in France. We provide numerous robustness checks concerning the definition of expenditures, assumptions about data stationarity, the role of expectations and the choice of the sample. Moreover, using a time-varying SVAR model, our main findings are (1) that the multiplier did not evolve significantly at any horizon since the beginning of the 1980s and (2) that the variance of shocks hitting the economy evolves a lot more than the model autoregressive parameters. Even in alternative specifications where the Bayesian priors are pushed towards time-variation, the main evolution that we uncover is a (non-significant) decrease of the medium term expenditure multiplier, partly linked to a more aggressive monetary policy since the 1990s. We do not find evidence of an increase of the multiplier during every recession in France, contrary to the finding of Auerbach and Gorodnichenko (2012) for the United States. At least, business cycle conditions do not seem to be the main driver of the evolution of the expenditure multiplier in the last 30 years in France.
Betelnut fibres as an alternative to glass fibres to reinforce thermoset composites: A comparative study

For the current work, investigations were carried out using treated betelnut fibre-reinforced polyester (T-BFRP) and chopped strand mat glass fibre-reinforced polyester (CSM-GFRP) composites. Results revealed that T-BFRP showed competitive performance of about 1.16%, 17.39% and 4.92% for tensile, flexural and compression tests as compared to the latter. Through tribological performance tests, T-BFRP composite showed superiority in wear for the dry and wet tests of about 98% and 90.8% while the friction coefficient was reduced by about 9.4% and 80% respectively. The interface temperature was lower by about 17% for T-BFRP composite subjected to dry test as compared to CSM-GFRP. SEM analysis revealed that the brittle effects observed on glass fibres during the tribo test enhanced the material removal rate which increased the thermo-mechanical effects at the rubbing zone. As such, evidence of adhesive to abrasive wear transition was observed when the CSM-GFRP composite was subjected to the stainless steel counterface. On the contrary, T-BFRP composite formed a thin layer of shield (i.e. back film transfer) on its worn surface during the test, which assisted in lowering the material removal rate.
Production and Characterization of Alkaline Protease from a High Yielding and Moderately Halophilic Strain of SD 11 Marine Bacteria

1College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China 2Hebei Province Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China 3Sansom Institute for Health Research, School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia 4Flinders Centre for Nanoscale Science & Technology, School of Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA 5042, Australia
The Early Experience with Branchless Banking

Branchless banking has great potential to extend the distribution of financial services to poor people who are not reached by traditional bank branch networks; it lowers the cost of delivery, including costs both to banks of building and maintaining a delivery channel and to customers of accessing services. This paper reviews seven key observations, Consultative Group to Assist the Poorest (CGAP) has drawn from its advisory work and research on branchless banking and, particularly, from its support of branchless banking projects around the world over the past year. Each element and player in the branchless banking delivery chain, including customers, financial service providers, agents, products, and technology platforms, is addressed. Most of the observations apply equally to the use of mobile phones to handle remote transactions (or mobile banking) and card based branchless banking networks. However, lessons from mobile banking are emphasized because of its newness relative to card-based networks.
Design of a Tactile Braille Cell

Braille is a vital technique of learning for visually challenged individuals. It is the method which empowers them to get educated. To make the braille cell low cost, energy efficient and minimum latency an attempt is made in this paper. This system can be used for applications like braille keypads and braille monitors. In this system there are two outputs in the form of an audio and the tactile. This helps visually challenged individual to sense the output and listen to it simultaneously. In this work serial communication is used to send and receive data.
Efficient Content Sharing by Multiple Users with RAID Based Multi-Cloud Storages

In this paper, we proposed a content sharing method in multi-cloud environment, applying RAID technology and redundancy avoidance scheme, in order to reduce upload and download time. The effectiveness of the proposed method is evaluated by computer simulations, and the simulation result shows that the proposal is effective to almost the same extent or slightly better comparing with a conventional method, from the viewpoints of the consumption of storage capacity, upload and download time.
Generations and Gender Programme Wave 1 data collection: An overview and assessment of sampling and fieldwork methods, weighting procedures, and cross-sectional representativeness

Background: The Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) was developed to stimulate the study of a broad range of topics of relevance to population scientists. So far, at least one wave of the GGS has been conducted in 19 countries. If scholars want to use the GGS for comparative purposes, it is essential that there be cross-national equivalence in terms of survey implementation and representativeness. Objective: The two main goals are (1) to describe the main features of the implementation of the GGS in participating countries, and (2) to describe and evaluate the quality of the data collection of the GGS in terms of its cross-sectional representativeness. Methods: We use weighted and unweighted GGS data for 18 countries and compare this to country-specific information. Results: The quality of sampling and fieldwork procedures of the GGS is generally good. On average, response rates in the GGS are comparable to those in other cross-national surveys. After weighting, the data are generally representative in terms of age, gender, region, and household size, but less so for marital status and educational attainment. Implications for future waves of the GGS are discussed.
Indoor Scene Layout Estimation from a Single Image

With the popularity of the hand devices and intelligent agents, many aimed to explore machine's potential in interacting with reality. Scene understanding, among the many facets of reality interaction, has gained much attention for its relevance in applications such as augmented reality (AR). Scene understanding can be partitioned into several sub tasks (i.e., layout estimation, scene classification, saliency prediction, etc). In this paper, we propose a deep learning-based approach for estimating the layout of a given indoor image in real-time. Our method consists of a deep fully convolutional network, a novel layout-degeneration augmentation method, and a new training pipeline which integrate an adaptive edge penalty and smoothness terms into the training process. Unlike previous deep learning-based methods that depend on post-processing refinement (e.g., proposal ranking and optimization), our method motivates the generalization ability of the network and the smoothness of estimated layout edges without deploying postprocessing techniques. Moreover, the proposed approach is time-efficient since it only takes the model one forward pass to render accurate layouts. We evaluate our method on LSUN Room Layout and Hedau dataset and obtain estimation results comparable with the state-of-the-art methods.
Climate change and water resources

The consideration of the impact of climate on water resources is placed in a wider context: the chain reaction associated with such an impact crosses the interfaces between climate, hydrology, water-resource systems and society. Each interface demands collaboration and exchange of information between specialists and assurance that current tools and approaches are appropriate for the new environment that may evolve. The chain reaction must be studied from start to finish if the final impact on water resources is to be assessed. Various points are presented for consideration at each stage. Impact du climat sur les ressources en eau RESUME La consideration de l'impact du climat sur les ressources en eau est placee dans un contexte plus large: la reaction en chaine associee a un tel impact comprend les domaines communs au climat, a l'hydrologie, aux systemes de ressources en eau et a la societe. Chaque domaine commun necessite la collaboration et l'echange d'informations entre les specialistes et l'assurance que les outils et approches actuels soient appropries au nouvel environnement susceptible d'evoluer. La reaction en chaine doit etre etudiee du de'but a la fin si l'impact final sur les ressources en eau doit etre evalue. Differents points sont presentes pour etre consideres a chaque stade.
Mobile Resources for Integration: How Availability Meets the Needs of Newly Arrived Arabic-Speaking Migrants in Sweden.

The paper reports on the availability and use of mobile resources by newly arrived Arabic migrants in Sweden, and how the resources meet migrants’ integration needs. Analysis of websites and applications (hereafter apps) in combination with focus group interviews is used. Results show that though a variety of resources are available, translation and vocabulary apps are primarily used. Possible reasons are lack of connection in language training resources to migrants’ immediate needs such as employment and education, accommodation, contact with locals and societal information (Ager & Strang, 2008). Cultural differences might be influential for Arabic-speakers’ low use of chat apps for communication with locals.
KNOWLEDGE-BASED ACADEMIC AND EDUCATIONAL ECOSYSTEM

In this article, we examine the implementation of new innovative operation model in the Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Research Institute of Measuring and Modeling for the Built Environment at Aalto University, and in the School of Civil Engineering and Building Services of the Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The Academy of Finland has selected the Centre of Excellence in Laser Scanning Research, which is represented by the authors, to represent for its part the highest end of research in Finland for the period of 20142019. The need for novel operating models, innovations, multidisciplinary expertise and the transfer and combination of knowledge have required several connecting links to attain this. The approach has evolved to depend on the planned utilization of the cross-disciplinary expertise of the ecosystem and the additional employment of coordination and orchestration. The challenge is to additionally enable teaching and research to benefit fields that are tangential to one’s own, also in the cross-disciplinary context. It is equally important to be able to focus on the essential – scientific impact and the ability of research, development and innovation activity to influence both society and industry. Through orchestration and partnerships it is possible to create networks that possess enough critical mass and expertise to attain results of international level. The ability of these networks to exert an impact is reached by working with different enterprises to develop novel methods that are additionally applicable as product concepts for companies and transfer knowledge to Finnish companies. Within an academic ecosystem we have developed methods concerning e.g. orchestration, new forums, publication culture, best practices, knowledge flows, open innovatios, and knowledge sharing using the Triple Helix model (collaboration between academia – industry – public sector) and the Knowledge Triangle approach (synergy between research – education – innovation).
Centrality of the Supply Chain Network

With the increasing availability of supply chain information, researchers are paying increasing attention to information flows and interactions between suppliers and customers. This paper examines the interactions from the perspective of an economy-wide supply-chain network, and propose a list of network centrality measures to capture the relative importance of each company within this network. Based on information from the FactSet Supply Chain Relationships database, the paper builds a supplier-customer network matrix at the beginning of each year from 2004 to 2014, computes the supplier and customer centralities of each company, and constructs supplier and customer central stock portfolios based on the centrality estimates. Historical analysis shows that supplier central portfolios tend to be more volatile than customer central portfolios. Furthermore, the stock performance of supplier central portfolios tends to predict the movements of the overall stock market.
Fitness and its variation among populations of Acacia tortilis subsp. raddiana in Southern Sinai, Egypt

Acacia tortilis subsp. raddiana (Fabaceae) plays an important role in the life of desert animals and is a major source of livestock feed and firewood for the native Bedouin people in Southern Sinai, Egypt. High mortality and low juvenile recruitment has been reported in recent years leading to decline in population size and number of this species. Small populations tend to be subject to an increased probability of stochastic extinction due to demographic, environmental and genetic factors. Therefore, this study aims to determine if A. tortilis subsp. raddiana populations suffer reduced fitness and its correlation or association with genetic diversity and mating parameters. Correlations and association between fitness, population size, genetic variation, and mating system parameters were tested using Spearman correlation and simple regression analyses. Stepwise regression analyses were used to identify useful predictors for fitness. The results revealed that A. tortilis subsp. raddiana populations’ fitness is generally low to very low (0.1 ± 0.11). There was no relationship detected between A. tortilis subsp. raddiana fitness or population size and observed or expected heterozygosity. While there was no evidence for reduced fitness in A. tortilis subsp. raddiana populations, the study indicated that fitness is negatively associated with population size. Population size was associated also with the number of alleles (A) and number of alleles per polymorphic locus (AP). The study came to the conclusion that although the low to very low values, there is no evidence for reduced fitness in Acacia tortilis subsp. raddiana small populations. Some of the studied populations (L6, L2, L3, and M4) are exceptionally fit which makes them the first candidates as seed source in restoration and both in situ and ex situ conservation efforts.
ANALYTICAL TREATMENT FORNONLINEAR OSCILLATION EQUATIONS AND VIBRATORY SYSTEMOFWAVES

Analytical approximate solutions of Duffing and Van der Pol equations as well as the system of coupled Euler-Bernoulli beams and wave equations are under consideration. To this end, the Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM) and variational iteration method (VIM) have been employed to obtain analytical solutions to these differential equations. The results are compared with accurate numerical computations, which show that ADM is a high performance and accurate method to use for the analytical solution of nonlinear physical problems.
Open Innovation and Involvement of End-Users in the Medical Device Technologies' Design & Development Process: End-Users' Perspectives

Literature and Regulatory bodies growing interest in End-Users’ implication in Medical Device Technologies (MDTs) development processes are a clear proof of the importance of this involvement and the positive impacts it can have on the development, implementation and use of MDTs, thus subsequent improvements in healthcare services’ delivery. However, existing research has mainly been focused on the theoretical importance of this involvement, and the manufacturers’ views and attitudes, with little attention focused on End-Users’ concerns and thoughts concerning this process. The aim of this paper is to identify the perspectives of Nurses and Doctors as the best representatives of MDT End-Users, regarding their own involvement in MDT development processes. The results of 49 semi-structured interviews conducted with End-Users, helped identify a number of high-level themes: 1) End-Users’ conflicting perspective with that of manufacturers regarding the impact of their involvement in MDT development; 2) End-Users’ concerns regarding the nature of their contribution, its level and their suggestions for a potential amelioration. These results reveal the importance End-Users attach to their involvement in MDT development processes, and the added value they perceive for the proper development as well as upgrade of MDTs. It also underlines many concerns they have regarding the current patterns of involvement, and suggests their recommendations for a standardization of this process, with input on forms and levels of involvement.