Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal Design of a Planar-Type Antenna with a Reduced Number of Design Parameters Using Taguchi Method and Adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents a method to optimize the design of a planar-type antenna and reduce the number of design parameters for rapid computation. The electromagnetic characteristics of the structure are analyzed, and Taguchi method is used to identify critical design parameters. Adaptive particle swarm optimization, which has a faster convergence rate than particle swarm optimization, is used to achieve the design goal effectively. A compact dual-band USB dongle antenna is tested to verify the advantage of the proposed method. In this case, we can use only five selected geometrical parameters instead of eighteen to accelerate the optimization of the antenna design. The 10 dB bandwidth for return loss ranges from 2.3 GHz to 2.7 GHz and from 5.1 GHz to 5.9 GHz, covering all the WiBro, Bluetooth, WiMAX, and 802.11 b/g/n WLAN bands in both simulation and measurement. The optimization process enables the antenna design to achieve the required performance with fewer design parameters.
Persistence of an exclusionary model: Inequality and segmentation in Mexican society

Beginning in the 1980s, Mexico's social and labour policies took a neo- liberal turn which exacerbated inequalities, poverty and social exclusion. The change of policy course that has occurred over the past decade has so far failed to bring about a critical review of the country's economic model and its social consequences. The role of the State has been systematically cut back; social services have been out- sourced to the market; and informal family-based social protection has gained ground. Mexico's social model has thus been reduced to a system that is almost exclu- sively concerned with protection for those living in extreme poverty. his article analyses the changes that Mexico's social model has undergone T over recent decades. In order to understand current trends, one must indeed appreciate that high levels of inequality (in income, employment, educa- tion, health, etc.), a high incidence of poverty and selective access to social ser- vices have been enduring features of Mexican history.1 In the early 1980s, there emerged a new model of economic development featuring low wages and labour "peace" as its main competitive advantages. In this context, the dynamic state of the labour market and the neo-liberal turn taken by labour and social policies tended to exacerbate the old problems of social exclusion, increasing the numbers outside the scope of social protection and bringing precarious employment and low wages to greater segments of the working population.
Al-induced root cell wall chemical components differences of wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) differing in Al tolerance

Root growth is different in plants with different levels of Al-tolerance under Al stress. Cell wall chemical components of root tip cell are related to root growth. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between root growth difference and cell wall chemical components. For this purpose, the cell wall chemical components of root tip cell in two near-isogenic lines (NIL) wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.), ET8 (Al-tolerant) and ES8 (Al-sensitive) were investigated. In ET8 and ES8, after treatments with Al (50 μM), relative root elongation (RRE) and relative cell length (RCL) decreased with time increase (6, 12 and 24 h), but was more significant in ES8. There was a good correlation between RRE and RCL (R 2 = 0.866). Activities of the metabolism enzyme of cell wall chemical components varied, for example, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL, EC 4.3.1.5), cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD, EC 1.1.1.195) and peroxidase (POD, EC 1.11.1) increased; and activities of callase (EC 3.2.1.39), cellulase (EC 3.2.1.4) decreased. Cell wall chemical contents of lignin, H 2 O 2 and callose increased and contents of cellulose decreased. Changes of enzyme activities and cell wall chemical components were significant in both lines, but were more prominent in the ES8 line. The analysis indicated that under Al stress, differences in cell wall chemical components of root tip cell between wheat lines with different Al tolerances induce the root tip elongation differences, thereby causing different root growth. Key words: Aluminum toxicity, callose, cellulose, hydrogen peroxide, lignin, wheat.
Outsiders

What is the future of civil rights? Like a living thing, discrimination evolves, adapting to its time. As discrimination becomes more individualized, as difference becomes more pronounced, we need a civil rights that is attuned to the way identity is performed today. Outsiders: Why Difference Is the Future of Civil Rights is filled with stories that demand attention, stories of people whose search for identity has cast them to the margins. Their stories reveal that we need to refresh our vision of civil rights. Instead of dealing in protected traits, civil rights law should take its cue from religious discrimination law. What we need is a right to personality. The critical question driving equality law should be whether there is space to accommodate a person’s identity. Outsiders: Why Difference Is the Future of Civil Rights seeks to change the way we think about identity, equality, and discrimination. It argues that difference, not sameness, should be the cornerstone of civil rights. Mixing doctrine and theory, art, and personal narrative, Outsiders: Why Difference Is the Future of Civil Rights argues for a civil rights for everyone. Being different is universal. We are all outsiders.
ournal Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment Stationarization via surrogates

The surrogate data method, classically used for non-linearity tests, amounts to the use of some constrained noise providing a reference for statistical testing. It is revisited here as a method for stationarization and this feature is put forward in the context of non-stationarity testing. The stationarization property of surrogates is ﬁrst explored in a time–frequency perspective and used for devising a test of stationarity relative to an observation time. Then, more general forms of surrogates are developed, directly in time–frequency or mixed domains of representation (ambiguity and time-lag domains included), and it is shown how they allow for other tests of non-stationary features: detection of the existence of a transient in some noise; assessment of non-stationary cross-correlations.
Strategic Bargaining Behavior, Self-Serving Biases, and the Role of Expert Agents: An Empirical Study of Final-Offer Arbitration

In this paper we study the complete evolution of a final-offer arbitration system used in New Jersey with data we have systematically collected over the 18-year life of the program. Covering the wages of police officers and firefighters, this system provides virtually a laboratory setting for the study of the evolution of strategic interaction. Our empirical analysis provides convincing evidence that, left alone, the parties do not construct and present their offers as successfully as when they retain expert agents to assist them. In principle, expert agents may be helpful to the parties for two different reasons: (a) they may move the arbitrator to favor their position independently of the facts, or (b) they may help eliminate inefficiencies in the conduct of strategic behavior. In this paper we construct a model where the agent may influence outcomes independent of the facts, but where the agent may also improve the outcomes of the process by moderating any self-serving biases or over-confidence that may have led to impasse in the first instance. Our data indicate that expert agents may well have had an important role in moderating self-serving biases early in the history of the system, but that the parties have slowly evolved to a non-cooperative equilibrium where the use of third-party agents has become nearly universal and where agents are used primarily to move the fact finder's decisions.
Clonal diversity, population structure, and dispersal in the parthenogenetic moth Ectoedemia argyropeza

Populations of the parthenogenetic moth Ectoedemia argyropeza (Lepidoptera, Nepticulidae) were studied for their clonal composition. Clones were characterized by 6 polymorphic enzyme loci. In a geographic survey 32 clones were observed among 812 individuals. Two clones were predominant, together they explained over 75% of the total variation. Relationships among clones hinted at a monophyletic origin of the species. Analysis of the life cycle and population structure indicated that E. argyropeza is a very sedentary species, with bottlenecks, drift, and passive migration as important population genetical factors moulding the variation.
Effects of divergent selection for hind leg muscle volume on its lipid peroxide and glutathione redox status, and fatty acid composition in growing rabbits.

Pannon White bucks were selected divergently using CT method by the volume of the hind leg muscle. Animals showed the highest and lowest muscle volumes were selected as minus and plus-selected variants. The male progenies of the minus and plus-selected parents were slaughtered as first generation which was selected again by CT method and the male progenies of the parents were slaughtered. Results in the first and second generation suggest that selection, as a genetic effect did not affect the rate of lipid peroxidation, as was measured by malondialdehyde content and glutathione redox status, as was measured by the reduced glutathione content and glutathione peroxidase activity of the hind leg muscle. However, there were some differences in the fatty acid composition. Significant (P<0.05) difference was found in palmitoleic acid content which was higher in the minus as compared to the plus variants in the second generation, in eicosadienoic acid which was higher in the fi rst as compared to the second generation of minus variants, and total monounsaturated fatty acids which was higher in the minus as compared to the plus variants in the second generation. It means that selection for higher hind leg volume would not causes marked in changes in the rabbit meat quality as measured by lipid peroxide and glutathione status as well as fatty acid composition.
How Source Credibility Contextualises Self-Directed Learning: The Study of Selected Malaysian Women with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among Malaysian women. Learning and understanding the disease is important for the women in order to deal with this crisis situation. Findings from this qualitative study of ten women with breast cancer showed that the credibility of the source of their information was the key to their self-directed learning. Credibility was important with regard to: (a) verification of newly acquired information, (b) credibility of learning sources, and (c) concern about reliability of information. The findings underscore the role for women with breast cancer, doctors and policymakers to promote learning materials of credible sources.
Tree-ring analysis of Juniperus excelsa from the northern Oman mountains

U. Sass-Klaassen, H.H. Leuschner, A. Buerkert & G. Helle 4 1 Forest Ecology and Forest Management (FEM), Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands 2 Laboratory for Dendroecology, Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, Albrecht-von-Haller Institute of Plant Science, University of Goettingen, Wilhelm-Weber-Str. 2a, 37073 Goettingen, Germany 3 Organic Plant Production and Agroecosystems Research in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Kassel, 37213 Witzenhausen, Germany 4 Forschungszentrum Julich GmbH, ICG-5, 52425 Julich, Germany Email: Ute.SassKlaassen@wur.nl
Influence of Ultrasonic Treatment in Sewage Sludge

Physical methods like ultrasound, ultraviolet and nanoparticles are very useful in wastewater purification and recycling. The ultrasound irradiation in a liquid leads to the acoustic cavitation phenomenon, which can affect a number of mechanical, acoustic, chemical and biological changes in waste analysis. In present study, ultrasonic irradiation treatment technique was used to treat the sewage sludge effluent, which was collected from Delhi and another sample of pure E-coli strain was processed. Samples were treated in ultrasonic bath at 35 and 130 kHz of irradiation for different time periods of 5 min, 10 min, 20 min and 30 min including control (untreated). Treated samples were tested for different parameters, viz. bacterial cell count, chemical oxygen demand (COD), degree of disintegration COD (DDCOD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), optimum density (OD) of cells and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Result shows significant disintegration in ultrasonic treated sewage sludge and E-coli samples as compared with untreated (control). We observed an increased level of ROS and decreased bacterial population in treated samples with 35 kHz and 130 kHz of frequency. Result suggests that the ultrasonic treatment was more effective by increasing time and frequency. Study concludes that low-frequency ultrasonic bath at 130 kHz is more effective as compared to 35 kHz.
Cyclosporine A Inhibits the mRNA Expressions of IL-2, IL-4 and IFN-γ, but not TNF-α, in Canine Mononuclear Cells

The effects of the calcineurin inhibitors cyclosporine A (CsA) and FK506 on the mRNA expressions of various cytokines were evaluated in dogs to determine whether the effects of CsA and FK506 in dogs were similar to those in humans. The mRNA expression levels of the cytokines IL-2, IL-4, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha were measured in PHA-stimulated canine PBMC using real-time RT-PCR after incubation with CsA or FK506 for 5 hr. Both reagents inhibited IL-2, IL-4 and IFN-gamma mRNA expressions in a dose-dependent manner. However, CsA hardly inhibited the mRNA expression of TNF-alpha. These findings are important for assessing the indications of CsA treatment in dogs.
Pedunculate or common oak (Quercus robur L.) silviculture in natural stands of Galicia (NW Spain): environmental restrictions

The silviculture applied in the Quercus robur L. forests is well developed in countries where the species has economic importance. The situation in NW Spain is different, as there is little knowledge about the silviculture to apply. Coppice forest predominates and requires continual management otherwise the stands will age and stagnate. Many of these forests have been intensively exploited, and in many cases inappropriate treatments have been used. Recently, as a result of rural depopulation, there has been a change from overexploitation to a lack of intervention. Their management must now be carried out in accordance with silvicultural criteria and environmental restrictions. Our hypothesis is that the environmental conditions do not preclude the application of an alternative silviculture to obtain more gainful outputs rather than with the traditional. To obtain the mosaics which Q. robur is present the Forest Map of Spain was asked, and the sampling zones were selected. Representative oak stands were chosen to dispose the resulted 39 plots. Once were replanted, a floristic inventory was carried out and abiotic-biotic data were recorded. The results show that with lower values of the altitude, slope and distance to the sea, the density is greater, and the best sites for Q. robur correspond to thalweg or intermediate slope with an oceanic influence. In these zones, the climatic characteristics combine optimally higher minimum temperature, lower thermal amplitude and higher precipitation. Alternative treatments must be proposed, which will range from a conversion to high forest to recovery of the stands by reforestation.
The immersion freezing behavior of ash particles from wood and brown coal burning

Abstract. It is generally known that ash particles from coal combustion can trigger ice nucleation when they interact with water vapor and/or supercooled droplets. However, data on the ice nucleation of ash particles from different sources, including both anthropogenic and natural combustion processes, are still scarce. As fossil energy sources still fuel the largest proportion of electric power production worldwide, and biomass burning contributes significantly to the global aerosol loading, further data are needed to better assess the ice nucleating efficiency of ash particles. In the framework of this study, we found that ash particles from brown coal (i.e., lignite) burning are up to 2 orders of magnitude more ice active in the immersion mode below −32 °C than those from wood burning. Fly ash from a coal-fired power plant was shown to be the most efficient at nucleating ice. Furthermore, the influence of various particle generation methods on the freezing behavior was studied. For instance, particles were generated either by dispersion of dry sample material, or by atomization of ash–water suspensions, and then led into the Leipzig Aerosol Cloud Interaction Simulator (LACIS) where the immersion freezing behavior was examined. Whereas the immersion freezing behavior of ashes from wood burning was not affected by the particle generation method, it depended on the type of particle generation for ash from brown coal. It was also found that the common practice of treating prepared suspensions in an ultrasonic bath to avoid aggregation of particles led to an enhanced ice nucleation activity. The findings of this study suggest (a) that ash from brown coal burning may influence immersion freezing in clouds close to the source and (b) that the freezing behavior of ash particles may be altered by a change in sample preparation and/or particle generation.
EFFECTIVE REENTRY PROGRAMS

This essay appeared as an Editorial Introduction to an article in Criminology and Public Policy (Vol. 5, No. 2, May 2006) that presented the findings of a rigorous evaluation of an evidence-based reentry program, Project Greenlight in New York State. The article and two reaction essays are available through the publisher, Blackwell Publishing, http://www.blackwellpublishing. com/. In recent years, policymakers and practitioners have become aware of the importance of research in determining ‘what works’ in correctional programming. They have begun to use information regarding ‘evidence-based’ practices to make decisions about the programs that they should implement. Thus, the likelihood that research may actually be the basis for criminal justice practice has never been greater. This attention to developing correctional programs based on sound principles and rigorous evaluation is long overdue. It has been more than 30 years since Martinson’s famous article (Martinson, 1974) and 27 years since the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) Panel on Research on Rehabilitative Techniques called for “research on criminal rehabilitation [with] rigorous [attention to] experimental design, theoretical rationale, and monitoring of integrity and strength of treatment” (Sechrest et al., 1979:10). Over a decade ago, the discussion focused on identifying the principles of effective correctional treatment programs that are critical to successful outcomes (Andrews, 1995; Andrews et al., 1990; see also Petersilia, 2004). More recently, the criminal justice field has been captivated by the call for “evidence-based programs” that federal policy makers are increasingly attentive to (Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, 2006).
Genetic Algorithm for Artificial Neural Network Training for the Purpose of Automated Part Recognition

Object or part recognition is of major interest in industrial environments. Current methods implement expensive camera based solutions. There is a need for a cost effective alternative to be developed. One of the proposed methods is to overcome the hardware, camera, problem by implementing a software solution. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is to be used as the underlying intelligent software as they have high tolerance for noise and have the ability to generalize. As an initial concept basic ANN software has been implemented within an industrial programmable logic control (PLC) system. This is not practical for industrial use in a production environment where there are a large quantity of different parts to be identified that change relatively regularly. The ability to easily and accurately train more parts is required. Difficulties associated with traditional mathematically guided training methods are highlighted, which leads to the development of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based evolutionary training method that overcomes these difficulties and makes accurate part recognition possible. An ANN hybridised with GA training is introduced and a general solution encoding scheme which is used to encode the required ANN connection weights. Experimental tests were performed in order to determine the ideal GA performance and control parameters as studies have indicated that different GA control parameters can lead to large differences in training efficiency and accuracy. After performing these tests, the training accuracy was analyzed by investigation into GA performance as well as hardware based part recognition performance. This analysis identified the ideal GA control parameters when training an ANN for the purpose of part recognition and showed that the ANN generally trained well and could generalize well on data not presented to it during training.
The Role of Foaming Agent in Structure and Mechanical Performance of Al Based Foams

The effect of the novel foaming agent, calcium carbonate in comparison with the conventional titanium hydride on structure and energy absorbing ability of the aluminium based foams was studied. Mechanical testing Alporas foams of Al and wrought alloy Al-5.5Zn-3Mg-0.6Cu0. 5Mn (similar to alloy 7075) doped by small amount (<0:6 mass%) of Sc and Zr was undertaken under compression with static strain rate of 1:5 � 10 � 3 s � 1 . The influence of Ca additive on the cell wall structure and deformation behaviour of two kinds of the foams was recognised. Significant advantages in mechanical performance of the aluminium foams processed with CaCO3 were found and attributed to fine cellular structure and favourable microstructure of the cell wall material. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.47. 2131]
Possible Mechanism of Glucose Uptake Enhanced by Cold Atmospheric Plasma: Atomic Scale Simulations

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has shown its potential in biomedical applications, such as wound healing, cancer treatment and bacterial disinfection. Recent experiments have provided evidence that CAP can also enhance the intracellular uptake of glucose molecules which is important in diabetes therapy. In this respect, it is essential to understand the underlying mechanisms of intracellular glucose uptake induced by CAP, which is still unclear. Hence, in this study we try to elucidate the possible mechanism of glucose uptake by cells by performing computer simulations. Specifically, we study the transport of glucose molecules through native and oxidized membranes. Our simulation results show that the free energy barrier for the permeation of glucose molecules across the membrane decreases upon increasing the degree of oxidized lipids in the membrane. This indicates that the glucose permeation rate into cells increases when the CAP oxidation level in the cell membrane is increased.
Uma Aplicação de Sumarização Textual Automática para Dispositivos Móveis

Este artigo descreve o desenvolvimento de uma aplicação para sumarização de conteúdos para dispositivos móveis, objetivando auxiliar a sociedade na busca, compreensão e interpretação de textos cujo seu núcleo não esteja suficientemente claro. A geração de sumários é uma atividade que cria uma pequena porção de um determinado texto, sendo pequeno, mas suficiente para cobrir as partes mais importantes do texto. Dentre as aplicações, enumeram-se estudos de língua portuguesa, além de auxiliar no processo de aprendizagem de uma segunda língua estrangeira, demonstrando o núcleo textual em diferentes idiomas.