Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preparation of ultrathin free-standing targets for (e,2e) spectroscopy

We describe in detail the procedures used for the preparation of ultrathin (∼10 nm) free-standing membranes for (e,2e) spectroscopy. Such a thin target is needed to minimize electron multiple scattering before and after an (e,2e) event. The development of a rf plasma source which allows in situ thinning and thickness monitoring is of key importance to the success of the target preparation. Materials (C, Si, Ni, Cu, Al2O3, SiO2, CuO) with different properties and structures are usually prepared in different ways. For insulating targets it is important to have a conducting sublayer to avoid the charging problem. A well prepared target usually has a thin area larger than the (e,2e) beam size (∼0.2 mm in diameter) and yields high quality (e,2e) data from which the electron energy-momentum density in a chosen direction is determined. Efforts demonstrated in this article indicate that the preparation of ultrathin free-standing films is a challenging area where significant technical development is needed.
Choice Set Formation in Residential Location Choice Modelling: Empirical Comparison of Alternative Approaches

The discrete choice analysis of residential location choice forms an important part of land use-transport modelling systems but gives rise to a number of significant modelling challenges, one of which is the choice set formation problem. A number of alternative approaches exist to address the choice set formation problem, but to the best of the authors' knowledge, there have been no efforts to empirically compare the performance of alternative choice set formation techniques within the context of modelling residential location. In this paper, the authors propose to address this gap by examining the performance of several choice set formation methods within the context of residential location choice in London. In particular, the authors compare the simple random sampling of alternatives against a recently developed hazard-based housing screening model (Rashidi and Mohammadian, 2010). The hazard-based screening model is implemented in two different ways: (a) deterministic constraints approach, and (b) importance sampling approach. The structure of the hazard-based screening model enables us to model systematic and random inter-individual heterogeneity in choice set formation. The paper presents a brief review of the relevant theoretical and empirical literature on the treatment of the choice set formation problem in the context of spatial choice and sets out the characteristics of the specific modelling approaches implemented in the empirical research. The empirical research uses a specially constructed dataset on residential location choice, developed by the authors for the Greater London area, which draws on information from a number of separate data sources (including revealed preference data from the London Area Travel Survey). The alternative choice set formation approaches are assessed in terms of their prediction performance on a hold-out validation sub-sample and also in terms of estimated model parameters.
The Impact of Environmental and Health Motivations on the Organic Share of Produce Purchases

As demand and supply of organic produce has increased, it has become possible to distinguish between the many individuals that express a preference for organic and the share of their purchases that is organically produced. This study examines the share of a consumer's produce purchases that are organic, and how that is influenced by economic factors, environmental and health motivations, and demographic characteristics. Results from a model of organic preference are compared to those from a model of organic buying proportions. Buying proportion models are also estimated separately for those that preferred organic and those that preferred conventional produce. A limitation in this study is that it evaluates stated buying proportions rather than actual purchases.
Physical Activity Measurement Methods for Young Children: A Comparative Study

Many behavior patterns that impact on physical activity experiences are established in early childhood, therefore it is important that valid, reliable, and feasible measures are constructed to identify children who are not developing appropriate and healthy activity habits. In this study, measures of physical activity derived by accelerometry and pedometry are compared with direct observation of 5- and 6-year-old children (N = 24). The children were monitored for 30 min over 5 consecutive days during a free play session in their preprimary setting. The results for all measures were significantly correlated. When compared to direct observation, the coefficient of determination indicated that the pedometer (R2 = .81) was able to more accurately predict all levels of physical activity compared to the accelerometer (R2 = .59). When the children were grouped into low, moderate, wand high activity levels using observation, the pedometer data were better able to separate the groups than the accelerometer data. These findings indicate that the pedometer is a better measure of free play physical activity in 5- and 6-year-old children compared to the accelerometer.
Additional Slag Doors for Increased EAF Efficiency: A Conceptual Study

In this paper a conceptual study on modification of the electric arc furnace (EAF) slag doors, in order to allow removal of the excess slag (ES) from the EAF, is performed. The idea of additional slag doors is to allow deslagging of the EAF in certain unfavorable conditions when the slag height is too great and extends over the arcs. Whether the slag exceeds its optimal height, i.e. being greater than the length of the arcs, unnecessary refractory corrosion and additional energy losses appear. Slag doors are a part of an EAF and are used to sample the bath and to deslag the furnace. In normal operation, an EAF equipped with a standard slag doors is tilted for 15 to 20° in order to deslag the bath at tapping1) or for 3° to remove the excess slag during the operation. The movement of the EAF causes mechanical stress on the furnace structure and increases tap-to-tap time. Moreover, openings around the door allow air infiltration into the furnace or gas emissions from the furnace, depending whether the EAF pressure is negative or positive. Furthermore, furnace operators have no control over slag discharge from the door. Innovations related to slag doors as well as concepts to remove an optimum amount of excess slag are seldom reported. Most innovations focus on sealing the openings around the slag door due to its negative effects. Wunsche2) invented a door closure element that seals the openings air-tight. Miani3) invented a slag door including at least one Additional Slag Doors for Increased EAF Efficiency: A Conceptual Study
High Performance Approximate Sort Algorithm Using GPUs

Sorting is a fundamental problem in computer science, and the strict sorting usually means a strict order with ascending or descending. However, some applications in reality don’t require the strict ascending or descending order and the approximate ascending or descending order just meets the requirement. Graphics processing units (GPUs) have become accelerators for parallel computing. In this paper, based on the popular CUDA parallel computing architecture, we propose high performance approximate sort algorithm running on multicore GPUs. The algorithm divides the distribution interval of input data into multiple small intervals, and then uses the processing cores of GPUs to map the data into the different intervals in parallel. Finally by combining the small intervals, we can make the data between the different intervals in order state and the data in the same interval is disorder state. Thus we can get the approximate sorting result and the result is characterized by a general order but local disorder. By utilize the massive core of GPUs to parallel sort data, the algorithm can greatly shorten the execution time. Radix sort is the fastest GPUs-based sorting and the experimental results show that our approximate sort algorithm is two times as fast as the radix sort and far exceeds all the GPUs-based sorting. Keywords—sorting, parallel computing, high performance, GPUs, CUDA
On limitations of the Bruggeman formalism for inverse homogenization

The Bruggeman formalism provides an estimate eBrhcm of the relative permittivity of a homogenized composite material (HCM), arising from two component materials with relative permittivities ea and eb. It can be inverted to provide an estimate of ea, from a knowledge of eBrhcm and eb. Numerical studies show that the inverse Bruggeman estimate ea can be physically implausible when (i) Re{eBrhcm}/Re {eb} > 0 and the degree of HCM dissipation is moderate or greater; or (ii) Re{eBrhcm}/Re {eb} < 0 regardless of the degree of HCM dissipation. Furthermore, even when the inverse Bruggeman estimate is not obviously implausible, huge discrepancies can exist between this estimate and the corresponding estimate provided by the inverse Maxwell Garnett formalism.
Development and Evaluation of a Control System for Regional Traffic Management

Traffic congestion is a worsening problem in metropolitan areas which will require integrated regional traffic control systems to improve traffic conditions. This paper presents a regional traffic control system which can detect incident conditions and provide integrated traffic management during nonrecurrent congestion events. The system combines advanced artificial intelligence techniques with a traffic performance model based on HCM equations. Preliminary evaluation of the control system using traffic microsimulation demonstrates that it has the potential to improve system conditions during traffic incidents. In addition, several enhancements were identified which will make the system more robust in a real traffic control setting. An assessment of the control system elements indicates that there are no substantial technical barriers in implementing this system in a large traffic network.
The Effects Of Ecotourism On Polar Bear Behavior

Polar bears spend the majority of their lives on the sea ice, where they gain access to seals and mates. In western Hudson Bay, the sea ice melts for three to four months in the summer, and polar bears there are forced onto land. These bears live on their fat reserves for the duration of the iceless period, until temperatures get colder in the fall and freeze up begins. The aggregation of polar bears near Churchill, Manitoba during the ice free period has led to a thriving tourist industry, with a large influx of tourists visiting Churchill in the fall in a six to eight week period, yet little is known about the impacts of this industry on the biology of the bears. This study investigated the effect of tourist vehicles and human presence on the behavior of polar bears over the fall of 2003 and 2004. Overall time budgets were estimated for bears, and the behavior of males and females was compared. Females spent significantly less time lying and more time in locomotion than males. Time budgets were also estimated for bears in the presence and absence of tourist vehicles. Bears spent less time lying and more time in a sit/stand position in the presence of vehicles. Air temperature had no significant effect on the time budgets of polar bears. Tundra vehicle approaches were manipulated to determine effects on polar bear behavior, and to investigate any variables that significantly affected response, including habituation. A response was defined as any sudden whole body movement or change in position or behavior at the time of approach. A total of 25% of all bears responded to the experimental vehicle approach. For bears that responded to approach, the average distance at response was 43 m. The average speed of the vehicle was 0.66 ± 0.02 m/s (range 0.23 to 1.15 m/s). Approach variables that significantly influenced the likelihood of response of a bear to an approaching vehicle included angle of approach and vehicle speed. Direct approaches, in which the bear was in the
Status of direct neutrino mass measurements

The absolute neutrino mass scale is one of the big open questions in particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. Cosmological observations and neutrinoless double beta decay experiments provide an indirect access to the absolute neutrino mass scale, but are model-dependent. A model independent, direct approach to determine the neutrino mass is the precise investigation of weak decays. The KATRIN experiment, which is currently under construction, will improve the neutrino mass sensitivity to 200 meV/c2 via the precise measurement of the tritium β -decay spectrum close to the endpoint energy with a high-resolution electrostatic spectrometer. Experiments using alternative approaches such as spectroscopy via coherent cyclotron radiation or calorimetric measurements of 163Ho electron capture are being developed. This article briefly reviews the current status of different direct neutrino mass measurement experiments.
Genome Editing with ZFN, TALEN and CRISPR/Cas Systems:The Applications and Future Prospects

With the rapid development of zinc finger nucleases (ZFN), transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) and Cluster regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas systems, manipulating genome becomes relatively easy and efficient. There are two major purposes for genome manipulation: one is for understanding novel genes function and their regulation roles in cells.Recent genomic and genetic approaches for disease genes have identified many novel loci underlie the disease phenotypes. More than 2,000 robust associations have been found in more than 300 complex diseases and traitsin recent years by genome wide association studies (GWASs) [1]. Understudying the function roles of genetic loci, particular novel genes will bring new insight of the diseases mechanisms. The second major application for manipulating genome is providing a new therapeutic means for many genetic disorders.A disease causing mutation could be replaced with normal allele in several Mendelian monogenic diseases.
Optimised scat collection protocols for dietary DNA metabarcoding in vertebrates

DNA metabarcoding of food in animal scats provides a non‐invasive dietary analysis method for vertebrates. A variety of molecular approaches can be used to recover dietary DNA from scats; however, many of these also recover non‐food DNA. Blocking primers can be used to inhibit amplification of some non‐target DNA, but this may not always be feasible, especially when multiple distinct non‐target groups are present. We have developed scat collection protocols to optimise the detection of food DNA in vertebrate scat samples. Using shy albatross Thalassarche cauta as a case study, we investigated how DNA amplification success and the proportion of food DNA detected are influenced by both environmental and physiological parameters. We show that both the amount and type of non‐target DNA vary with sample freshness, the collection substrate, fasting period and developmental stage of the consumer. Fresh scat samples yielded the highest proportion of food sequences. Collecting scats from dirt substrates reduced the proportion of food DNA and increased the proportion of contaminating DNA. Food DNA detection rates changed throughout the albatross breeding season and related to the time since feeding and the developmental stage of the animal. Fasting albatross produced scats dominated by parasite amplicons in universal PCR analysis, with little food DNA recovered. Samples from very young animals also produced reduced food DNA proportions. Based on our observations, we recommend the following procedures for field scat collections to ensure high‐quality samples for dietary DNA metabarcoding studies. Ideally, (i) collect fresh scats; (ii) from surfaces with minimal contamination (e.g. rock or ice); (iii) collect scats from animals with minimum time since feeding and avoid fasting animals; (iv) avoid young animals that are not feeding directly (e.g. not weaned or fledged) or target larger/older individuals. The optimised field sampling protocols that we describe will improve the quality of dietary data from vertebrates by focusing on samples most likely to contain food DNA. They will also help minimise contamination issues from non‐target DNA and provide standardised field methods in this rapidly expanding area of research.
High Performance Monte Carlo and Time-Stepping Dynamics for the Classical Spin Heisenberg Model on GPUs

The Heisenberg model of classical spins makes use of both Monte Carlo stochastic dynamics as well as time-integration of its equation of motion. These two schemes have different parallelisation strategies and tradeoffs. We implement both algorithms using a data-parallel approach for Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) and we discuss the resulting performance on various combinations of single and multiple GPU. In addition to studying Monte Carlo dynamical update schemes, we use our fast simulation code to explore the scaling and time correlations of a largescale Heisenberg model system using a high-order numerical integration algorithm, which enables study of accurate spin wave phenomena and time-correlation functions. We also discuss various graphical rendering models to appropriately visualise the spin vectors inside an interactive Heisenberg spin simulation.
Ensemble probability distribution for novelty detection

This paper explores a new ensemble approach called Ensemble Probability Distribution Novelty Detection (EPDND) for novelty detection. The proposed ensemble approach provides a metric to characterize different classes. Experimental results on 4 real-world datasets show that EPDND exhibits competitive overall performance to the other two common novelty detection approaches – Support Vector Domain Description and Gaussian Mixed Models in terms of accuracy, recall and F1 scores in many cases.
Transcriptional profiling of milk epithelial cells in Jersey and local Kashmiri cattle using RNA Sequencing

This study characterized the bovine milk transcriptome of Jersey and Local Kashmiri nondescriptive cattle at three different stages of lactation (early, mid and late lactation) and in order to explore the comparative milk transcriptome of Jersey and local Kashmiri cattle. This investigation was directed to reveal if certain unique traits are associated with the local germplasm. To this end, transcriptional profiling was conducted by Illumina RNA sequencing. Subsequently GO and pathway analysis was performed through R-package (2.34.0). It was found that casein and whey protein genes were highly expressed across three different lactation stages. In Local cattle largest differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were reported between early and mid-lactation with 1805 genes whereas, in Jersey largest DEGs were reported between early and late lactation with 3392 genes. Through GO analysis the DEGs were mainly associated with development process, cellular matrix, collagen, basement membrane, insulin stimulus and immune system process. Insulin stimulus and growth factor stimulus were significantly enriched during early lactation. In Local cattle the upregulated genes were mainly associated with immune response and immune system process. With KEGG pathway analysis it was found that P13K-AKT, JAK-STAT and MAPK pathways were significantly enriched between Kashmiri and Jersey cattle. The study provides some possible unique physico-chemical and immune properties in milk from local cattle and need to be further explored. This could lead to development of certain niche products and thereby help in conserving this unique germplasm which has been diluted through extensive cross breeding programmes.
Building the ‘Truthmeter’: Training algorithms to help journalists assess the credibility of social media sources

Social media is now used as an information source in many different contexts. For professional journalists, the use of social media for news production creates new challenges for the verification process. This article describes the development and evaluation of the ‘Truthmeter’ – a tool that automatically scores the journalistic credibility of social media contributors in order to inform overall credibility assessments. The Truthmeter was evaluated using a three-stage process that used both qualitative and quantitative methods, consisting of (1) obtaining a ground truth, (2) building a description of existing practices and (3) calibration, modification and testing. As a result of the evaluation process, which could be generalized and applied in other contexts, the Truthmeter produced credibility scores that were closely aligned with those of trainee journalists. Substantively, the evaluation also highlighted the importance of ‘relational’ credibility assessments, where credibility may be attributed based on networked connections to other credible contributors.
Adaptive Enterprise Resilience Management

Resilience is the ability of an enterprise to absorb, recover and adapt from a disruption. Being resilient is a complex undertaking for enterprises operating in a highly dynamic environment and striving for continuous efficiency and innovation. The challenge for enterprises is to offer and run a customer-centric and interdependent large portfolio of resilient services. The fundamental research question is: how to enable service resilience in the practical enterprise resilience context? This paper addresses this important research question, and reports findings from on-going (2014-2016) research on adaptive enterprise resilience management in an Australian financial services organization (FSO). This research is being conducted using the adaptive action-design research (ADR) method to iteratively research, develop and deliver the desired resilience framework in short increments. This paper presents the overall evolved adaptive enterprise resilience management framework and its “service resilience” element details as one of the key outcomes from the second adaptive ADR increment. Keywords— adaptability; architecture; operations; service; resilience; model-driven.
Palliative treatment of cancer in resource poor settings: Traditional medicine perspective

This study aimed to determine the suitability of ethnomedicinal plants as a suitable option for palliative care of cancer in Namibia. To achieve this, key informant interviews were conducted in central and northern parts of Namibia on the use of ethnomedicinal plant products for palliation of cancer. Information from surveys on the medicinal use of plants in Oshikoto and Zambezi regions of Namibia for ailments such as tumors were used to select plants for phytochemical analysis. Plants were collected and extracts were prepared for analysis for phytochemical detection using thin layer chromatography, anti-protease, antioxidant and phytochemical quantification of Colophospermum mopane and Shinziophyton rautanenii plants. Findings from key informant interviews revealed pain management for cancer patients was the primary form of disease management at health care facilities in contrast to an established holistic palliative care system. As a result, patients looked towards alternative treatment from ethnomedicinal plant sources in their bid to palliate cancer and seek hope. Phytochemical analysis of indigenous plants collected, revealed the presence of class compounds such as flavonoids, alkaloids, triterpenes, coumarins and anthraquinones as well as biological activities such as anti-protease, antioxidant properties. In conclusion, phytochemical properties of the six plants were consistent with their ethnomedicinal use, making them a suitable option for treatment of cancer in resource poor settings such as Namibia. Further studies are required to evaluate safety and mode of action. Key words: Palliative care, Namibia, medicinal plants, anti-cancer.