Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discovery of very high energy γ-ray emission from the BL Lacertae object H 2356-309 with the HESS Cherenkov telescopes

The extreme synchrotron BL Lac object H 2356−309, located at a redshift of z = 0.165, was observed from June to December 2004 with a total exposure of ≈40 h live-time with the HESS (High Energy Stereoscopic System) array of atmospheric-Cherenkov telescopes (ACTs). Analysis of this data set yields, for the first time, a strong excess of 453 γ-rays (10 standard deviations above background) from H 2356−309, corresponding to an observed integral flux above 200 GeV of I(>200 GeV) = (4.1 ± 0.5) × 10 −12 cm −2 s −1 (statistical error only). The differential energy spectrum of the source between 200 GeV and 1.3 TeV is well-described by a power law with a normalisation (at 1 TeV) of N0 = (3.00 ± 0.80stat ± 0.31sys) × 10 −13 cm −2 s −1 TeV −1 and a photon index of Γ= 3.09 ± 0.24stat ± 0.10sys. H 2356−309 is one of the most distant BL Lac objects detected at very-high-energy γ-rays so far. Results from simultaneous observations from ROTSE-III (optical), RXTE (X-rays) and NRT (radio) are also included and used together with the HESS data to constrain a single-zone homogeneous synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. This model provides an adequate fit to the HESS data when using a reasonable set of model parameters.
Tracing jet emission at the base of a high-mass YSO. First AMBER/VLTI observations of the Br\gamma emission in IRAS 13481-6124

To probe the circumstellar environment of IRAS 13481-6124, a 20 M_sun high-mass young stellar object (HMYSO) with a parsec-scale jet and accretion disc, we investigate the origin of its Br\gamma-emission line through NIR interferometry. We present the first AMBER/VLTI observations of the Br\gamma-emitting region in an HMYSO at R~1500. Our AMBER/VLTI observations reveal a spatially and spectrally resolved Br\gamma-line in emission with a strong P Cygni profile, indicating outflowing matter with a terminal velocity of ~500 km/s. Visibilities, differential phases, and closure phases are detected in our observations within the spectral line and in the adjacent continuum. Both total visibilities (continuum plus line emitting region) and pure-line visibilities indicate that the Br\gamma-emitting region is more compact (2-4 mas in diameter or ~6-13 au at 3.2 kpc) than the continuum-emitting region (~5.4 mas or ~17 au). The absorption feature is also spatially resolved at the longest baselines (81 and 85 m) and has a visibility that is slightly smaller than the continuum-emitting region. The differential phases at the four longest baselines display an \u2018S\u2019-shaped structure across the line, peaking in the blue- and red-shifted high-velocity components. The calibrated photocentre shifts are aligned with the known jet axis, i.e they are probably tracing an ionised jet. The high-velocity components (v_r~100-500 km/s) are located far from the source, whereas the low-velocity components (0-100 km/s) are observed to be closer, indicating a strong acceleration of the gas flow in the inner 10 au. Finally, a non-zero closure phase along the continuum is detected. By comparing our observations with the synthetic images of the continuum around 2.16 um, we confirm that this feature originates from the asymmetric brightness distribution of the continuum owing to the inclination of the inner disc.
Unravelling X-Inactivation through Time: Implications of X-Linked Disorders in Humans

X-Inactivation occurs early in embryogenesis, when one of the two chromosomes in each cell is subjected to specific modifications which lead to the formation of the transcriptional inactive heterochromatin known as Barr body. This mechanism was described 50 years ago by Mary Lyon. Scientists have been researching the phenomenon of X- inactivation ever since and multiple factors have been implicated in this multistep procedure. In our review we try to present how some of the mysteries of X- linked disorders in humans have been unraveled through time.
I-Scal: Multidimensional scaling of interval dissimilarities

Multidimensional scaling aims at reconstructing dissimilarities between pairs of objects by distances in a low-dimensional space. However, in some cases the dissimilarity itself is unknown, but the range of the dissimilarity is given. Such fuzzy data give rise to a data matrix in which each dissimilarity is an interval of values. These interval dissimilarities are modelled by the ranges of the distances defined as the minimum and maximum distance between two rectangles representing the objects. Previously, two approaches for such data have been proposed and one of them is investigated. A new algorithm called I-Scal is developed. Because I-Scal is based on iterative majorization it has the advantage that each iteration is guaranteed to improve the solution until no improvement is possible. In addition, a rational start configuration is proposed that is helpful in locating a good quality local minima. In a simulation study, the quality of this algorithm is investigated and I-Scal is compared with one previously proposed algorithm. Finally, I-Scal is applied on an empirical example of dissimilarity intervals of sounds. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Effect of Pressure and Discharge Voltage on Plasma Parameters in Air seeded Arc-plasma

Plasma parameters like electron temperature (Te), electron density (ne), Debye length (D) and plasma frequency (fp) were measured using Langmuir probes in air seeded arc-plasma at low pressure range of 0.10 mbar to 0.16 mbar. Double slope method, Dote method and Interception method were used to calculate the electron temperature (Te) and mean value of electron temperatures obtained from these three methods was used to calculate the electron density, Debye length and plasma frequency. To investigate the effect of pressure and discharge voltage on the plasma parameters at low voltage and low pressure is the main objective of the study. It was observed that Te, ne and fp gradually increased respectively but D decreased on increasing the voltage from 500 V to 600 V. It was also observed that on increasing the pressure there was decrease in Te and D but increase in ne and fe.
Improvement of GaN-based light-emitting diodes using p-type AlGaN/GaN superlattices with a graded Al composition

We investigated the effect of graded Al composition in the p-type AlGaN/GaN superlattices (SLs) of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to improve their performance. The light output power and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of LEDs with Al composition grading was increased compared with those of LEDs without Al grading, indicating that the efficiency droop was reduced. The improved output power and EQE of LEDs with a graded Al composition was attributed to the increased hole injection by the reduced AlGaN barrier height and the suppression of potential spikes between the graded AlGaN and GaN layers in SLs.
MOVING TOWARDS A COMMON ALARM SERVICE FOR THE LHC ERA

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is one of the greatest technological challenges ever faced by accelerator builders. It is due for commissioning in 4 years and will have a lifetime well in excess of 10. The LHC will contain a completely heterogeneous mixture of industrial controls, both hardware and software, as well as dedicated, specialised, ‘home’ built systems. As part of the control infrastructure of such a complex machine, a number of ‘services’ will be essential as aids during operation, such as: logging / archiving, post-mortem, sequences, alarm system, etc. This paper describes the approach to be taken in order to define and provide the alarm service necessary for LHC. Details will be given of: the graceful transition from the current LEP alarm system; accommodating the SPS, PS and CERN’s technical services; the technologies to be used; the approach of parallel investigations of industrial and ‘home’ built systems to ensure the best possible solution; and an indication of time scales to provide an operational system.
Modeling Asset Prices

As an asset is traded, its varying prices trace out an interesting time series. The price, at least in a general way, reflects some underlying value of the asset. For most basic assets, realistic models of value must involve many variables relating not only to the individual asset, but also to the asset class, the industrial sector(s) of the asset, and both the local economy and the general global economic conditions. Rather than attempting to model the value, we will confine our interest to modeling the price. The underlying assumption is that the price at which an asset trades is a “fair market price” that reflects the actual value of the asset.
Pricing Sovereign Credit Risk of an Emerging Market

We analyze the market assessment of sovereign credit risk in an emerging market using a reduced-form model to price the credit default swap (CDS) spreads thus enabling us to derive values for the probability of default (PD) and loss given default (LGD) from the quotes of sovereign CDS contracts. We compare different specifications of the models allowing for both fixed and time varying LGD, and we use these values to analyze the sovereign credit risk of Polish debt throughout the period of a global financial crisis. Our results suggest the presence of a low LGD and a relatively high PD for Poland during a recent financial crisis. The highest PD is in the months following collapse of Lehman Brothers. The derived measures of sovereign risk are strongly linked with the level of public debt and with another measure of PD from a structural model. Correlations between our PD values and the CDS spreads heavily depend on the maturity of the sovereign CDS.
Dehydrogenative Polymerization of 3,5-Disubstituted p-Coumaryl Alcohols

-3, 5-Disubstituted p-coumaryl alcohols (3-methoxy-5-iodo-, 3, 5-diiodo-, 3-methoxy-5-nitro-, 3, 5-dinitro-, 3, 5-dimethoxyand 3, 5-dimethyl-p-coumaryl alcohols) were synthesized and dehydrogenated to their dimeric compounds with ferric chloride in dioxane (nonpolar solvent) and acetone-water (polar solvent), respectively. Yields of the ,B-ethers were, for example, 85 % (sinapyl alcohol) and 86 % (3,5-diiodo-p-coumaryl alcohol) in dioxane, and 27 % (the former) and 80 % (the latter) in acetone-water, respectively. These results suggest that the most effective factor in the radical coupling of these alcohols is the electronic effects of the substituent groups, but not the steric hindrance. Syringylglycerol,B-sinapyl ether was obtained in a high yield from sinapyl alcohol when dioxane was used as a solvent.
Paralytic Peptide Binding Protein (PP-BP) Gene Expression During Egg Diapause and Its Multi-Gene Organization in the Silkworm Bombyx mori.

Paralytic peptide binding proteins (PP-BP) are 30KP proteins that show similarity to ENF binding proteins. The ENF-BP act as active regulators of ENF peptides. ENF peptides are multifunctional insect cytokines. The comparison of gene expression in diapause induced and non-diapause eggs at different time intervals after oviposition showed an upregulation of PP at 18h as well as PP-BP at 12 and 18h after oviposition along with few other genes. The current study has been taken up to investigate the role of PP as well as PP-BP in diapause induction in polyvoltine silkworms and to study the multigene organization of PP-BP in the Bombyx mori genome. The tissue specific expression analysis revealed that, PP-BP is highly expressed in fat body followed by egg and brain while no expression was observed in midgut. The expression levels of PP and PP-BP in diapause and non-diapause eggs from 0h to 48h after oviposition, validated through realtime PCR revealed that PP is highly expressed at 18 and 24h while PP-BP expression is higher at 12 and 18h time intervals suggesting their possible role in diapause induction. The whole genome survey of the PP-BP paralogous sequences revealed a total of 46 B. mori PP-BP homologs that are classified into 3 categories viz., ENF-BP, Typical 30KPs and serine/threonine rich 30KPs. These paralogous sequences are distributed on chromosomes 7, 20, 22 and 24, all 30KP and S/T rich 30KP proteins are present in the same locus of chromosome 20.
Scientific Guidelines for Conducting Integrative Research Reviews

The inferences made in integrative research reviews are as central to the validity of behavioral science knowledge as those made in primary research. Therefore, research reviewers must pay the same attention to rigorous methodology that is required of primary researchers. This article conceptualizes the research review as a scientific inquiry involving five stages that parallel those of primary research. The functions, sources of variance, and potential threats to validity associated with each stage are described.
How far to the east was the migration of white oaks from the Iberian refugium

The goal of this study was to investigate the postglacial recolonization pathways of the white oaks Quercus robur and Quercus petrea in Poland, and especially to evaluate the impact of Iberian refugium in this part of Europe. Chloroplast DNA polymorphism of 310 individuals older than 200 years was analyzed. Six haplotypes in total were found to differentiate three maternal lineages: the Balkan (haplotypes 4, 5, and 7), the Apennine (haplotypes 1 and 2), and the Iberian (haplotype 12). The most abundant were members of the Balkan (71.5% of all samples) and the Apennine lineage (23.1%), and only 5.4% of individuals were of Iberian origin. The geographic distribution of the three lineages is clearly structured. The northernmost territories of Poland are occupied by Apennine (haplotype 1) and Iberian (haplotype 12) lineages, whereas samples in central and southern Poland represents the Balkan lineage. The population structure might be the result of competitive colonization among lineages after migration from different refugia. It is likely that colonization of northernmost parts of Poland by the Balkan lineage was halted or at least hampered due to the arrival of the Apennine populations. The most significant result of this study concerns the presence and status of the Iberian lineage in Poland, which is most likely of natural origin.
A guide for using functional diversity indices to reveal changes in assembly processes along ecological gradients

Question Which functional diversity indices have the power to reveal changes in community assembly processes along abiotic stress gradients? Is their power affected by stochastic processes and variations in species richness along stress gradients? Methods We used a simple community assembly model to explore the power of functional diversity indices across a wide range of ecological contexts. The model assumes that with declining stress the influence of niche complementarity on species fitness increases while that of environmental filtering decreases. We separately incorporated two trait-independent stochastic processes – mass and priority effects – in simulating species occurrences and abundances along a hypothetical stress gradient. We ran simulations where species richness was constant along the gradient, or increased, decreased or varied randomly with declining stress. We compared observed values for two indices of functional richness – total functional dendrogram length (FD) and convex hull volume (FRic) – with a matrix-swap null model (yielding indices SESFD and SESFRic) to remove any trivial effects of species richness. We also compared two indices that measure both functional richness and functional divergence – Rao quadratic entropy (Rao) and functional dispersion (FDis) – with a null model that randomizes abundances across species but within communities. This converts them to pure measures of functional divergence (SESRao and SESFDis). Results When mass effects operated, only SESRao and SESFDis gave reasonable power, irrespective of how species richness varied along the stress gradient. FD, FRic, Rao and FDis had low power when species richness was constant, and variation in species richness greatly influenced their power. SESFRic and SESFD were unaffected by variation in species richness. When priority effects operated, FRic, SESFRic, Rao and FDis had good power and were unaffected by variation in species richness. Variation in species richness greatly affected FD and SESFD. SESRao and SESFDis had low power in the priority effects model but were unaffected by variation in species richness. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that a reliable test for changes in assembly processes along stress gradients requires functional diversity indices measuring either functional richness or functional divergence. We recommend using SESFRic as a measure of functional richness and either SESRao or SESFDis (which are very closely related mathematically) as a measure of functional divergence. Used together, these indices of functional richness and functional divergence provide good power to test for increasing niche complementarity with declining stress across a broad range of ecological contexts.
Do intestinal parasites enhance food allergy and atopic dermatitis?: A study in Warao Amerindian children

Background: We evaluated the influence of intestinal parasitic infection on food sensitization associated to the severity of Atopic Dermatitis (AD) in a group of Warao Amerindian pre- school children. Methods: Feces examinations were performed in fresh stool specimens. Diagnosis of AD was done according to Hannifin and Rajka criteria and SCORAD index. Skin prick tests (SPT) were performed using extracts of cow’s milk (CM), hen’s egg (HE), Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and Dermatophagoides farinae . Serum CM and HE-IgE levels (ELISA) were measured. Quantikine (R&D systems) assays were used for the determination of IL-13, TNF-a IL-6, and sCD23 in supernatants of CM- and HE- whole blood stimulated samples. Results: Atopic Dermatitis was reported in 23% of the children. It was significantly (p < 0.0001) associated toward both CM and HE- SPT positivity (p < 0.001). Giardia duodenalis infection (37%) was associated to the presence of AD (p = 0.005) and to a significant increase in the levels of CM stimulated TNF-a (p ¼ 0:006), IL-13 (p = 0.01), sCD23 (p = 0.001), CM-IgE (p = 0.012) and CM-SPT (p < 0.0001). Similarly, G. duodenalis infection was particularly associated with the increase on the levels of HE-stimulated TNF-a (p = 0.001), sCD23 (p = 0.001), HE-IgE levels (p = 0.002) and HE-SPT (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Gut inflammation caused by G. duodenalis may enhance food allergic reactivity contributing to the manifestation of AD in these children. However, other environmental factors (not considered in this work) as well as an atopic background among the Warao population would also contribute to the presence of AD.
Optimizing the Oslo-Bergen Tagger

In this paper we discuss and evaluate machine learning-based optimization of a Constraint Grammar for Norwegian Bokmal (OBT). The original linguistwritten rules are reiteratively re-ordered, re-sectioned and systematically modified based on their performance on a handannotated training corpus. We discuss the interplay of various parameters and propose a new method, continuous sectionizing. For the best evaluated parameter constellation, part-of-speech F-score improvement was 0.31 percentage points for the first pass in a 5fold cross evaluation, and over 1 percentage point in highly iterated runs with continuous resectioning.
The Impact of Advertising on the Profitability of Public &Private Sector Commercial Banks

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of advertising on the profitability of commercial banks over the period of 2008- 2012, in the presence of control variables: Credit risk, Operating Efficiency, total advances to total deposits, total loans to total assets and Size(total assets) ratio. Bank’s profitability is measured in terms of return on equity (ROE) . The data has been obtained from the publications of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and commercial banks. The regression results confirm the positive and significant effects of advertising expenditure on ROE for private sector banks than public sector banks. Keywords: ROE, ROA, Advertising, Credit Risk, Operating Efficiency, Bank Deposits & Advances JEL- Classification : G-21
Classification based on a permanental process with cyclic approximation

We introduce a doubly stochastic marked point process model for supervised classification problems. Regardless of the number of classes or the dimension of the feature space, the model requires only 2--3 parameters for the covariance function. The classification criterion involves a permanental ratio for which an approximation using a polynomial-time cyclic expansion is proposed. The approximation is effective even if the feature region occupied by one class is a patchwork interlaced with regions occupied by other classes. An application to DNA microarray analysis indicates that the cyclic approximation is effective even for high-dimensional data. It can employ feature variables in an efficient way to reduce the prediction error significantly. This is critical when the true classification relies on nonreducible high-dimensional features. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.
Handshakes between Spirit of the Craftsman and Scientist's Spirit for Vocational Education

The history of rise and fall of ancient Chinese craftsmen is briefly reviewed, and it is point out that craftsmanship can’t be developed isolated from the skill cultivate of craftsman. Based on an idea that applies artificial intelligence scientific technology to craftsmen skill modeling, steps and movements for vocational education are presented. To increase the efficiency of vocational skill cultivating we recommend that not only top craftsmen are engaged as guidance teachers, but also modern artificial intelligence engineers are involved in the understanding and representation of craftsman skills which can only be sensed and not explained historically. As a result, the process of high level vocational skill cultivating becomes more and more achievable. Keywords—Spirit of the Craftsman; Scientific technology; Artifical Inteligence; Professional skills modelling; Vocational Education
Effect of Mergers and Acquisitions on the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya

The study focuses on the effects of merger and acquisition on the financial performance of financial institutions in Kenya. The study adopts a descriptive study design using event study model to analyse the relationship existing between the accounting ratios (EPS, ROA and ROE) as measures of financial performance. The study finds that that merger and acquisition events results into either increase or decrease in the financial performance. The significance test finds that the p-value for EPS, ROA and ROE and were 0.587, 0.069 and 0.597 respectively, all greater than 0.05 signifying that the financial performance deviated significantly from the means recorded before the merger. The cumulative abnormal mean performance of EPS, ROA and ROE to 0.167, 5.274 and -1.823 respectively, hence the study concludes that merger and acquisition positively affect financial performance of commercial banks. The negative ROE is attributed to the single extreme negative performance recorded by ECB. The study recommends that managers to consider taking the corporate action to take advantage of the benefits of mergers and acquisitions. Keywords: Mergers and Acquisition, Financial performance, Commercial Banks