Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Three-dimensional seismic modelling of the crustal structure between the South Pacific and the Antarctic Peninsula

During four Polish Geodynamic Expeditions to West Antarctica between 1980 and 1991, seismic measurements were made along 21 deep refraction profiles in the Bransfield Strait and along the coastal area of Antarctic Peninsula using explosion sources. Recordings were made by 16 land stations and 8 ocean bottom seismometers. Good quality recordings were obtained up to c. 250 km distance. This allowed a detailed study of the seismic wave field and crustal structure. Three-dimensional tomographic inversion was carried out, using first arrivals from the complete dataset including off-line recordings. As a result, we obtained a 3D model of the P-wave velocity distribution in the study area. In the area adjacent to the Antarctic Peninsula coast, sedimentary cover of 0.2–3 km thickness was found, whereas in the shelf area and in the Bransfield Strait, sedimentary basins with thickness of 5–8 km were observed. In the Bransfield Strait, a high-velocity body with Vp >7.5 km/s was found at 12 km depth. The use of the offline data allowed for determination of the horizontal extent of the body. The thickness of the crust varies from >35– 40 km in the coastal area south of the Hero Fracture Zone to 30–35 km in Bransfield Strait and South Shetland Islands, and c. 15 km in the Pacific Ocean northwest of South Shetland Islands.
CEP Discussion Paper No 1438 July 2016 Powering Education

More than 1.3 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity and this has first-order effects on several development dimensions. In this paper we focus on the link between access to light and education. We randomly distribute solar lamps to 7th grade pupils in rural Kenya and monitor their educational outcomes throughout the year at quarterly frequency. We find that access to lights through solar lamps is a relevant and effective input to education. Our identification strategy accounts for spillovers by exploiting the variation in treatment at the pupil level and in treatment intensity across classes. We find a positive and significant intention-to-treat effect as well as a positive and significant spillover effect on control students. In a class with the average treatment intensity of our sample (43%), treated students experience an increase in math grades of 0.88 standard deviations. Moreover, we find a positive marginal effect of treatment intensity on control students: raising the share of treated students in a class by 10% increases grades of control students by 0.22 standard deviations. We exploit household geolocation to disentangle within-class and geographical spillovers. We show that geographical spillovers do not have a significant impact and within-school interaction is the main source of spillovers. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence that the mechanism through which lamps affect students is by increasing co-studying at school especially after sunset.
Appendices for “ Risk Management for Monetary Policy Near the Zero Lower Bound ” ∗

Our previous analysis assumed that the unknown shock that might trigger a binding ZLB at time 1 is the natural real rate. We now consider the case where it is the cost-push inflation shock u1 : i.e. ρ n t = ρ for t ≥ 1, and ut = 0 for all t ≥ 2, but u1 is distributed according to the probability density function fu(.). We assume E(u1) = 0. To find optimal policy, we again solve the model backward. As before, optimal policy after time 2 is simply xt = πt = 0, which is obtained by setting it = ρ > 0. At time 1, the ZLB may bind if the cost-push shock is negative enough. Specifically, after seeing u1, we solve
NaTech Risk in Production Plants in Regions Subjected to High Seismicity, Tornado or Flooding Hazard

Seismic phenomena and tornadoes are among the most relevant causes of damage on the built environment and their effect on industrial plants might not be limited to a mere structural damage. Under particular conditions, such as the presence of inflammable substances, e.g., hydrocarbons or other chemical products, earthquakes, flooding and tornadoes can trigger fires and the damages on the plant can cause the release of hazardous materials. Such scenarios are named as NaTech because of the combination of natural/technological hazard. Due to the technological aspects involved in such risk, the related costs are high in terms of damages to the environment and remediation activities on the damaged items. Chemical plants usually consist in tall industrial items (reactors, distillation columns,.) or large tanks, i.e., structures that are largely affected by seismic effects (in terms of large displacement and sloshing). For this reason, NaTech hazards have been already considered in the industrial risk analyses for those production plants settled in the developed countries, say in US and Europe (Italy, Greece), where the seismic or meteorological hazard is high. Despite the strict regulations in term of seismic safety, fire prevention and restrictions for hazardous substances, many criticalities have been already highlighted. Considering NaTech hazard in a Disaster Risk Reduction framework is fundamental, in particular in fast-developing areas such as Iran, China, Brazil and African countries where specific regulations in term of industrial safety are not detailed, say absent, and no seismic-resisting rules are considered in the design of the plants. To tackle NaTech hazard, a two stages risk analysis is proposed: a risk assessment based on the technological hazards is first performed in order to identify the critical items, then the seismic vulnerability is computed through quick-assessment procedures. The outcomes of the research can be useful for helping the countries in which NaTech risk cannot be avoided.
A Multimodal Database for Mental Workload, Stress, and Fatigue Assessment of Ambulant First Responders

Ambulant first responders, such as police officers and paramedics, are deployed in various situations with high uncertainty and, sometimes, high risk. Assessing ambulant first responders physical and mental state can help support coordination of units and can help provide real-time support to those in need. In the last years, researchers have proposed models to detect mental states of individuals based on their physiological response [1], [2]. However, these models might not be able to detect differences between some combinations of states, such as mental workload, stress, or fatigue [3]. This limitation implies that we cannot differentiate someone focusing efficiently on his/her task (mental workload) from someone potentially needing assistance (stress) or fatigued. Furthermore, these models are often trained to detect mental states when the user is stationary, which is not representative of the work environment of first responders [1]. To ensure models are able to detect multiple combinations of different mental states and to assure they are robust to physical activity, new databases must be introduced to the scientific community. In this project, we present a multimodal physiological database intended to modulate multiple state detection models in ambulatory settings.
Model-Driven Code Generation for Information Flow Secure Systems with IFlow

As personal information moves from home computers to mobile devices, protection against information leaks and data theft becomes an increasingly important and current issue. We develop a model-driven approach called IFlow which allows a developer to model mobile applications with complex information flow properties using UML. Using model-tomodel and model-to-code transformations we generate code skeletons for those applications and verify noninterference properties using a languagebased approach. Further, we will use those properties as lemmas for a formal verification of an automatically generated formal representation of the modeled application. In this report, we focus on automatic code generation, evaluation of language-based information flow control solutions and deployment of generated code to target platforms.
The Pennsylvania State University

Two-dimensional (2D) layered transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are an emerging, fascinating class of nanomaterial with a wide range of potential applications including catalysis, electronics, photonics, energy storage, and sensing. Although, highly crystalline TMDs are considered challenging to functionalize, owing to their inert nature. This work demonstrates that mono-layered or few-layered chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown Tungsten Disulfide (H phaseWS2) can be functionalized via aerosolized thiolated ligands such as 2-Aminoethanethiol (NH2CH2CH2SH). The TMD materials were characterized before and after exposure to these ligands using Optical Microscopy, Fluorescence Microscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Xray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Adsorption of the sulfur bearing molecules on the surface of the 2HWS2, with some selectivity relative to defective regions, was noted. However, it was determined that the thiol functional group was reduced on the surface to form a disulfide. This method of surface functionalization of 2D WS2 may provide an ideal platform in which the interaction between ligands and the 2D-TMDs may be used as selective anchoring sites that could result in the synthesis of novel functional materials.
Development of an Iris Feature Extraction system by using Wavelet

Biometric system is used for Identification as well as verification purpose. This paper presents the comparative of feature extraction of Iris. Iris Biometric system has image Acquisition, Image preprocessing, Feature extraction and matching. The features are extracted from the pre-processed images of iris images by using Gaussian filter as well as by using Gabor wavelet. The quality measures of the images are calculated. The Gabor wavelet improves the performance of the system.
Educational Data Mining : Student Performance Prediction in Academic

At present data mining techniques become very popular among the data analyst. It became an effective tool for finding the uncovered information from a big database. Due to this feature data mining are adopted by many areas like education, telecommunication, retail management etc to resolve their business problems. In this paper, for building classification models for ‘student performance’ dataset consisting of 649 different instances with 33 different attributes implement algorithms like NaiveBayes, Decision Tree (J48), RandomForest, RandomTree, REPTree, JRip, OneR, SimpleLogistic and ZeroR. After implementing these algorithms on student performance dataset, we evaluate and compare the implementation result for better accuracy of prediction. The result of this study is extremely significant and hence provides a greater insight for evaluating the student performance and underlines the significance of data mining in education. It also shows that how students attributes affect the student performance.
Valuing Victoria's Heritage

This document outlines the proposed methodology for the project ‘Valuing Victoria’s Heritage – the value and benefits of Victoria’s historic heritage assets’, commissioned by the Victorian State Government Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). Two attached documents complement this methodology: a) Value of Heritage Literature Review conducted by SGS and SurveyEngine and b)the Heritage Attribute Matrix which defines the proposed classes, attributes and their levels for use in the Discrete Choice Experiment. The scope of this document is limited to valuing assets currently on the Victorian Heritage Register or likely to be included in the future. Valuation of pre-settlement Aboriginal heritage is explicitly not included. The methodology proposed is of an academic grade. The analysis and interpretation of the final results are expected to also be of the same level. Efforts have been made to describe the method to be comprehensible by a lay-person. However, it is acknowledged that there is a practical limit to a full understanding by the intended audience of this research. To overcome this limit and provide confidence in the research, it is recommended that this methodology and results undergo an academic peer review process for publication in leading international scientific journals with relevant acknowledgement of the contributors. A successful publication would increase the gravity of the Heritage valuations and citation value for policy makers, planners and other users of the research.
Selection into Employment and the Gender Wage Gap across the Distribution and over Time

Using quantile regression methods, this paper analyses the gender wage gap across the wage distribution and over time (1990-2014), while controlling for changing sample selection into full-time employment. Our findings show that the selection-corrected gender wage gap is much larger than the one observed in the data, which is mainly due to large positive selection of women into full-time employment. However, we show that selection-corrected wages of male and female workers at the lower half of the distribution have moderately converged over time. The reason for this development have been changes in the composition of the male full-time employment force over time, which in spite of the rather constant male full-time employment rate, have given place to a small but rising selection bias in male observed wages. In the upper half of the wage distribution, however, neither the observed nor the selection-corrected gender wage gap has narrowed over time.
Do growth rate and survival differ between undisturbed and disturbed environments for Sceloporus spinosus Wiegmann, 1828 (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae) from Oaxaca, Mexico?

—Demography is intimately related to the evolution of the life history of a species, since it describes the patterns of variation in the growth, maturation, reproduction, and survival of an organism through populations, species, and environments. In this study the growth, survivorship, and population structure were evaluated for an oviparous lizard, Sceloporus spinosus from two sites, a relatively undisturbed area (UA) and a disturbed area (DA; zone of land-use change) within the Natural Protected Area Yagul of southern Oaxaca, Mexico. The results showed different relative densities between seasons (higher during the wet season than the dry season), but not between populations. Males and females from the UA and DA showed similar growth rate patterns, and both sexes reached sexual maturity at a similar body size. The highest survival rates and recapture probabilities were found in the UA; however, males from both populations showed higher survival rates than females. Overall, this study suggests that land-use changes do not seem to cause wide variation in the analyzed demographic characteristics of this species. This work describes and quantifies demographic effects on some life history characteristics of a species endemic to Mexico. We argue for the need to analyze and compare many capture-recapture data for a species between locations in order to obtain a better assessment of the variation in the life history characteristics analyzed.
DISCO: Sidestepping RPKI's Deployment Barriers

BGP is a gaping security hole in today’s Internet, as evidenced by numerous Internet outages and blackouts, repeated traffic hijacking, and surveillance incidents. To protect against prefix hijacking, the Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) has been standardized. Yet, despite Herculean efforts, ubiquitous deployment of the RPKI remains distant, due to RPKI’s manual and error-prone certification process. We argue that deploying origin authentication at scale requires substituting the standard requirement of certifying legal ownership of IP address blocks with the goal of certifying de facto ownership. We show that settling for de facto ownership is sufficient for protecting against hazardous prefix hijacking and can be accomplished without requiring any changes to today’s routing infrastructure. We present DISCO, a readily deployable system that automatically certifies de facto ownership and generates the appropriate BGPpath-filtering rules at routers. We evaluate DISCO’s security and deployability via live experiments on the Internet using a prototype implementation of DISCO and through simulations on empirically-derived datasets. To facilitate the reproducibility of our results, we open source our prototype, simulator, and measurement analysis code [30].
The Climate Change Strategy-the Company’s Performance: Examining the Mediating Role of The Disclosure of Climate Change in Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to prove the influence of climate change strategy on the company’s performance with the disclosure of climate change as a mediator. Research using explanatory approach from secondary data of carbon emitter company that is companies in the manufacturing, mining, utility, plantation and transportation sectors which is listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Data is taken from annual reports, sustainability reports, and corporate website in 2010 up to 2016 of 259 firm years. The results analysis shows that the climate change strategy either proactive and reactive give positive influence to the company’s performance, the climate change strategy gives positive influence to the disclosure of climate change, the disclosure of climate change gives positive influence to the company’s performance, the disclosure of climate change has been able to mediated the positive influence of the climate change strategy to the company’s performance.
HIGH THROUGHPUT JPEG 2000: NEW ALGORITHMS AND OPPORTUNITIES

This paper describes a drop-in replacement for the JPEG 2000 (J2K) block coder that offers exceptionally high throughput, with a small reduction in coding efficiency, while retaining all features of J2K except for quality scalability. Throughputs on the order of 10x or more are achievable relative to J2K. We coin the term FBCOT (Fast Block Coding with Optimized Truncation) for the overall proposed algorithm. Truly reversible transcoding between J2K and FBCOT bit-streams is supported on a blockby-block basis, enabling systems in which the efficiency and scalability of J2K can be combined with the high throughput benefits of FBCOT. Based on the outstanding performance of FBCOT, a new standardization activity has been launched within the ISO/IEC working group known as JPEG.
An Investigation of the Influences of the Voltage Sag on the Doubly Fed Induction Generator using Tuned PI Controllers

The paper presents dynamic and transient behavior of the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) in the wind farms in the normal and faulted grid respectively. When Voltage sag or any fault occurs in the network, the variables in the Doubly Fed Induction Generators are varying severely. If a voltage sag occurs, active and reactive power generated by the DFIG start to oscillate. The DC-link voltage will be bigger and will have fluctuation, and the rotor current will increase. In this paper, proportional integral (PI) controllers are used to control the DFIG in the wind farms for driving of the electronic devices including Rotor Side Converter (RSC) and Grid Side Converter (GSC) and controlling the active and reactive power of DFIG. PI parameters are tuned by particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO). Whereas the model of DFIGs and electronic device in the paper are nonlinear so PI controllers cannot protect and control the DFIG as well. Hence, effect of PI parameters is investigated on the DFIG with simulating in MATLAB software. Also, low voltage ride through (LVRT) feature for DFIG is explored in presence of PI controllers. The results of the simulation present DClink over voltage and rotor and stator over current in the DFIG. In addition, it will explore the effect of proportional integral controllers when three-phase short circuit fault occurs.
Design of Microstrip Bandpass Filter with stub loaded resonators for WLAN Applications

This paper presents the design of a compact planar Dual band bandpass filter for WLAN application. This filter is developed with two stepped impedance resonators. Two ends of both resonators are mutually coupled. In addition, thedesign equations are also provided. In SIR’s the fundamental frequency and higher order harmonics can be easily tuned. The full wave electromagnetic simulation indicate that the filter shows a very good performance with insertion loss and return loss
Characterization of a new isolate of Lactobacillus brevis WD19 from Algerian goat milk with proteolytic activity

W. Dib, V. Biscola, Y. Choiset, J-M. Chobert, T. Haertlé, A. Chekroun, D. Saidi, O. Kheroua Laboratory of Physiology of Nutrition and Food Safety, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science of Nature and Life, University of Oran 31000, Algeria. Department of Food and Experimental Nutrition, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of São Paulo. São Paulo, SP Brazil. UR 1268, Biopolymères Interactions Assemblages, INRA, F-44300 Nantes, France.
Global vs. Local Banking: Firm Financing in a Globalized Financial System∗

This paper provides a new theory of firm financing in financial systems with both global and local banks, and tests it using loan-level data across 24 countries. I point out that the traditional theory in corporate finance and banking of firm-bank sorting based on hard versus soft information does not explain the sorting patterns between firms and banks in globalized financial systems. Instead, I argue that global banks have a comparative advantage in extracting global information, and local banks have a comparative advantage in extracting local information. I formalize this view in a model in which firms have returns dependent on global and local risk factors, and each bank type can observe only one component of the firms’ returns. This double information asymmetry creates a segmented credit market with a double adverse selection problem: in equilibrium, each bank lends to the worst type of firms in terms of the unobserved risk factors. Moreover, when one of the bank types faces a funding shock (e.g., a monetary policy shock), the double adverse selection affects credit allocation across firms at both the quantity and price margins, generating spillover and amplification effects. I test the theory using detailed firm-bank micro data and empirical strategies that tightly map to the model set-up. I find firm-bank sorting patterns, and effects of US and Euro area monetary policy shocks on firm financing, that support the model predictions. This evidence reveals a novel adverse selection channel of international transmission. ∗This paper was previously circulated under the title “Global vs. Local Banking: A Double Adverse Selection Problem”. I thank my dissertation committee, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Ulrike Malmendier, Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen for invaluable advice and guidance throughout this project. This work has benefited particularly from the comments of Carlos Avenancio, Satoshi Fukuda, Rebecca Hellerstein, Christian Jauregui, Sebnem Kalemli-Özcan, Ross Levine, Robert Marquez, Jonathan Ragan-Kelley, Nick Sander, Ganesh Viswanath Natraj, Michael Weber, James Wilcox. Michael Nguyen-mason, Yingjie Wu, Lisa Zhang, and Qin Zhang provided excellent research assistance. This work is supported by research funding from the Clausen Center. The views in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or any other person associated with the Federal Reserve System. †Shen: Federal Reserve Board, 20th and C Streets NW, Washington, D.C. 20551 (email: lshengshen@gmail.com).