Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Three-dimensional forward and backward numerical modeling of mantle plume evolution: Effects of thermal diffusion

We investigate the effects of thermal diffusion on the evolution of mantle plumes by means of three-dimensional numerical modeling forward and backward in time. Mantle plumes are fed by a hot, low-viscous material from the thermal boundary layer. The material of the plumes is mainly advected toward the Earth's surface with some effects of thermal diffusion. However, the feeding can become weaker with time, and then thermal diffusion can take over and control the evolution of the plumes. Numerical experiments forward in time show that a week feeding of mantle plumes by the hot material from the boundary layer results in the diffusive disappearance of plume tails first and plume heads later. This is the most likely explanation for the seismically detected low-velocity mantle structures (mantle plumes) with prominent heads and almost invisible tails at midmantle depths. We develop restoration models (backward in time) to recover strong features of mantle plumes in the geological past after they have dissipated due to thermal diffusion and analyze effects of thermal diffusion and temperature-dependent viscosity on the reconstruction of the mantle plumes. We investigate the impact of thermal diffusion on the performance of our restoration (variational data assimilation) algorithm. For a given range of Rayleigh number Ra and two values of the viscosity ratio r (between the upper and lower boundaries of the model domain) we show that (1) the residuals between the temperature predicted by the forward model and that reconstructed by the backward modeling become larger and (2) the restoration process becomes poorer as Ra decreases and r increases. We assimilate temperature obtained from high-resolution seismic tomography data for the southeastern Carpathians and show that present diffused mantle structures can be restored to their prominent state in the Miocene times. We discuss the problems of smoothness of model input and output data, errors associated with the modeling, and some other challenges in the data assimilation for thermoconvective flow in the mantle.
A MATLAB Package for Markov Chain Monte Carlo with a Multi-Unidimensional IRT Model

Unidimensional item response theory (IRT) models are useful when each item is designed to measure some facet of a unified latent trait. In practical applications, items are not necessarily measuring the same underlying trait, and hence the more general multi-unidimensional model should be considered. This paper provides the requisite information and description of software that implements the Gibbs sampler for such models with two item parameters and a normal ogive form. The software developed is written in the MATLAB package IRTmu2no. The package is flexible enough to allow a user the choice to simulate binary response data with multiple dimensions, set the number of total or burn-in iterations, specify starting values or prior distributions for model parameters, check convergence of the Markov chain, as well as obtain Bayesian fit statistics. Illustrative examples are provided to demonstrate and validate the use of the software package.
Technologies for delivery of proton and ion beams for radiotherapy

Recent developments for the delivery of proton and ion beam therapy have been significant, and a number of technological solutions now exist for the creation and utilisation of these particles for the treatment of cancer. In this paper we review the historical development of particle accelerators used for external beam radiotherapy and discuss the more recent progress towards more capable and cost-effective sources of particles.
Constrained Procedural Modeling of Real Buildings from Single Facade Layout

ISSN: 2186-1390 (Online) http://cennser.org/IJCVSP Abstract We present a novel modeling framework to generate real-world 3D buildings from a single facade layout that adapt to the real footprint data automatically. Facade components are extracted from the facade layout and organized as a repetitive shape tree. Building facade layout encodes expected architectural constraints and is able to derive complex instances using shape grammars. We extend the previous approaches of procedural building models to a constraint-based framework for the recovery of the hidden parts of the building. We then provide an interactive editing process for updating of the structural topology given a different view of the building. We demonstrate our framework on several real-world buildings with varying amount of complexity in appearance and footprint shape and we show that our approach can generate similar buildings to the original that are used to populate a virtual city depicting implicit culture and style of different ages, while opening new perspectives for image understanding and 3D modeling.
The measurement of risk and performance in public organizations

The basic idea of this article is to measure the risk and performance of public organizations, making use of a multi-factor model. Specifically, the purpose of this thesis theoretically and practically refers to the evaluation of the efficiency of the selected model in relation to the potential risks that public organizations are called upon to take, and also regarding the evaluation of their performance today and in the future. The model was measured at the level of efficiency as to whether it can be used in state organizations for the assessment of economic, operational (current and future) risks and the generic satisfaction of the administration, the generalized self-efficacy of the administration and the performance of the organization. The findings that emerged through the research field showed that the selected tool was implemented through six (6) scales: the economic risk, consisting of 15 elements, the operational risk measurement scale, the generic satisfaction of the administration which consisted from ten items, the generalized self-efficacy of the administration which consisted from six items and the performance of the organization which consisted from six items. The research carried out was quantitative for the final sample of 60 individuals, while the final analysis was performed with the SPSS program. The results showed the relationship of the selected model with the management of the risk on the administrative and financial level, as well as the improvement of the performance of the public organizations.
Slack and Cyclically Sensitive Inflation

We investigate the flattening Phillips relation by making two departures from standard specifications. First, we measure slack using real activity variables that are bandpass filtered or year‐over‐year changes in activity (these are similar), instead of gaps. Second, we study the components of inflation instead of the standard aggregates. We find that some inflation components have strong and stable correlations with the cyclical component of real activity; these components tend to be relatively well‐measured and domestically determined. Other components, typically prices that are poorly measured or internationally determined, have weak and/or unstable correlations with cyclical activity. We construct a new inflation index, cyclically sensitive inflation, that weights the components by their joint cyclical covariation with real activity. The index has strong and stable correlations with cyclical activity and provides a real‐time measure of cyclical movements in inflation.
Chemical modification of kraft cellulose fibres: Influence of pretreatment on paper properties

Chemical modifications of cellulose fibres (kraft pulp) in NaOH/H2O and NaCl/H2O systems were investigated. Handsheets were prepared that contained 25% of the modified fibres. Changes in the modified samples were examined by measuring their mechanical and optical properties and comparing them to those made with unmodified fibres. The observed differences were explained and supported by structural analyses, by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was found that the NaOH/H2O pretreatment led to a significant deterioration of optical and strength properties of the handsheets. These modifications affected both the inner part of the crystalline cellulose (change from cellulose I to cellulose II) and the morphology of the fibers. Conversely, these properties slightly improved after propargylation, due to the propargyl functional groups. For the NaCl/H2O system, a significant enhancement of the mechanical properties of the handsheets was noted, such as an increase of up to 108% of the tear index. The propargylation further increased the tear index (by 157%). These enhancements were not accompanied by significant changes at both the micrometric and nanometric scales, except for the increase of the crystallinity index after propargylation
Production of Kefiran in Kefir Grains and its Effects on the RheologicalProperties Low Protein Wheat Dough and Quality of France Bulky Bread

Kefiran is an exogenous microbial metabolite which is produced principally by lactic acid bacteria and fungi and molds throughout growth. Exo polysaccharide of kefiran was extracted from kefir grains and in status of gel was added at 1, 2, 3% concentrations (w/w flour basis) to wheat flour to evaluate its effects on rheological properties of weak wheat dough. The rheological measurements of the dough were investigated using Farinograph and Extensograph instruments. Results of Farinograph evaluation of dough showed that adding of kefiran and increase in its levels leads to increase in the water absorption capacity, dough development time and departure time, while the dough degree of softening after 20 min and mixing tolerance index were decreased in comparison with the control sample. The study on Extensograph behavior of the dough containing kefiran showed that resistance to extension at 45 and 90 min resting times was increased by increasing the percentage of the added kefiran. Longer fermentation time for each level of kefiran led to decrease of resistance to extension. Significant difference was observed in the resistance to extension of the dough containing different levels of kefiran and the control sample. Addition of kefiran to the dough after 45, 90 and 135 min resting times significantly decreased the extensibility, also with an increase in resting time from 45 to 135 min, the extensibility decreased for both the control and kefiran samples. Generally, addition kefiran at 45, 90 and 135 min resting times led to a significantly increase in resistance to extension ratio. Energy input increased at 45 and 90 min resting times, whereas chaotic effect was shown at time of 135 min restig time. Therefore, kefiran can be used to playing an important role in improving of rheological properties of weak dough and its processing conditions.
Representation of Word Meaning in the Intermediate Projection Layer of a Neural Language Model

Performance in language modelling has been significantly improved by training recurrent neural networks on large corpora. This progress has come at the cost of interpretability and an understanding of how these architectures function, making principled development of better language models more difficult. We look inside a state-of-the-art neural language model to analyse how this model represents high-level lexico-semantic information. In particular, we investigate how the model represents words by extracting activation patterns where they occur in the text, and compare these representations directly to human semantic knowledge.
Modeling the size and shape of Saturn's magnetopause with variable dynamic pressure

[1] The location and shape of a planetary magnetopause is principally determined by the dynamic pressure, Dp, of the solar wind, the orientation of the planet's magnetic dipole with respect to the solar wind flow, and by the distribution of stresses inside the magnetosphere. The magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter have strong internal plasma sources compared to the solar wind source and also rotate rapidly, causing an equatorial inflation of the magnetosphere and consequently the magnetopause. Empirical studies using Voyager and Pioneer data concluded that the kronian magnetopause was Earth-like in terms of its dynamics (Slavin et al., 1985) as revealed by how the position of the magnetopause varies with dynamic pressure. In this paper we present a new pressure-dependent model of Saturn's magnetopause, using the functional form proposed by Shue et al. (1997). To establish the pressure-dependence, we also use a new technique for fitting a pressure-dependent model in the absence of simultaneous upstream pressure measurements. Using a Newtonian form of the pressure balance across the magnetopause boundary and using model rather than minimum variance normals, we estimate the solar wind dynamic pressure at each crossing. By iteratively fitting our model to magnetopause crossings observed by the Cassini and Voyager spacecraft, in parallel with the pressure balance, we obtain a model which is self-consistent with the dynamic pressure estimates obtained. We find a model whose size varies as ∼Dp−1/4.3 and whose flaring decreases with increasing dynamic pressure. This is interpreted in terms of a different distribution of fields and particles stresses which has more in common with the jovian magnetosphere compared with the terrestrial situation. We compare our model with the existing models of the magnetopause and highlight the very different geometries. We find our results are consistent with recent MHD modeling of Saturn's magnetosphere (Hansen et al., 2005).
Competitiveness Evaluation of West Africa Coastal Countries Ports: Structure Conduct Performance Approch

Short Retraction Notice The paper does not meet the standards of "Open Journal of Applied Sciences". This article has been retracted to straighten the academic record. In making this decision the Editorial Board follows COPE's Retraction Guidelines. The aim is to promote the circulation of scientific research by offering an ideal research publication platform with due consideration of internationally accepted standards on publication ethics. The Editorial Board would like to extend its sincere apologies for any inconvenience this retraction may have caused. Editor guiding this retraction: Prof. A. C. Matin and Prof. Harry E. Ruda (EiC of OJAppS). The full retraction notice in PDF is preceding the original paper, which is marked "RETRACTED".
Protecting Workers Abroad and Industries at Home: Rights-based Conditionality in Trade Preference Programs

A growing number of developed country governments link good governance, including human rights, to developing countries’ access to aid, trade, and investment. We consider whether governments enforce these conditions sincerely, in response to rights violations, or whether such conditions might instead be used as a veil for protectionist policies, motivated by domestic concerns about import competition. We do so via an examination of the world’s most important unilateral trade preference program, the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which includes worker rights as one criterion for program access. We argue that the two-tiered structure of the GSP privileges some domestic interests at one level, while disadvantaging them at the other. Using a new data set on all US GSP beneficiary countries and sanctioning measures from 1986 to 2013, we demonstrate that labor rights outcomes play a role in the maintenance of country-level trade benefits and that import competition does not condition the application of rights-based criteria at this level. At the same, however, the US government does not consider worker rights in the elements (at the country-product level) of the program that have the greatest material impact. The result is a situation in which the US government talks somewhat sincerely at the country level in its rights-based conditionality, but its behavior at the country-product level cheapens this talk.
Irradiated accretion discs in post novae

We derive approximations for the $\dot M-\Sigma$ relation (the so-called S-curves) of irradiated accretion discs from detailed vertical structure calculations. Using these approximations, we simulate the time-dependent behaviour of irradiated accretion discs in dwarf novae and post novae. Our calculations show, in agreement with Hameury et al. ([CITE]), that irradiation of the accretion disc should cause small "echo" outbursts immediately following normal outbursts -which contrasts with the observed dwarf nova light curves. In addition, we calculate light curves of post nova systems where the accretion disc is strongly irradiated by the hot white dwarf. We find that the visual brightness of post novae gradually decreases after the nova explosion as a result of the decreasing disc irradiation from the continuously cooling white dwarf. The rate of decline that we derive is in good agreement with the observations. While we cannot exclude that additional effects may contribute to the observed fading of post novae, e.g., a slow decrease of the accretion rate, our calculations show that irradiation from the cooling white dwarf plays an important role in the post nova evolution.
A Janus-paper PDMS platform for air–liquid interface cell culture applications

A commercially available Janus paper with one hydrophobic (polyethylene-coated) face and a hygroscopic/hydrophilic one is irreversibly bonded to a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate incorporating microfluidic channels via corona discharge surface treatment. The bond strength between the polymer-coated side and PDMS is characterized as a function of corona treatment time and annealing temperature/time. A maximum strength of 392 kPa is obtained with a 2 min corona treatment followed by 60 min of annealing at 120 °C. The water contact angle of the corona-treated polymer side decreases with increased discharge duration from 98° to 22°. The hygroscopic/hydrophilic side is seeded with human lung fibroblast cells encapsulated in a methacrylated gelatin (GelMA) hydrogel to show the potential of this technology for nutrient and chemical delivery in an air–liquid interface cell culture.
Post-periapsis pancakes: sustenance for self-gravity in tidal disruption events

A tidal disruption event, which occurs when a star is destroyed by the gravitational field of a supermassive black hole, produces a stream of debris, the evolution of which ultimately determines the observational properties of the event. Here, we show that a post-periapsis caustic – a location where the locus of gas parcels comprising the stream would collapse into a two-dimensional surface if they evolved solely in the gravitational field of the hole – occurs when the pericentre distance of the star is of the order of the tidal radius of the hole. It is demonstrated that this ‘pancake’ induces significant density perturbations in the debris stream, and, for stiffer equations of state (adiabatic index γ 5/3), these fluctuations are sufficient to gravitationally destabilize the stream, resulting in its fragmentation into bound clumps. The results of our findings are discussed in the context of the observational properties of tidal disruption events.
The Role of Problem Specification in Crowdsourcing Contests for Design Problems: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

Problem definition : This paper studies the role of seekers’ problem specification in crowdsourcing contests for design problems. Academic/practical relevance : Platforms hosting design contests offer detailed guidance for seekers to specify their problems when launching a contest. Yet problem specification in such crowdsourcing contests is something the theoretical and empirical literature has largely overlooked. We aim to fill this gap by offering an empirically validated model to generate insights for the provision of information at contest launch. Methodology : We develop a game-theoretic model featuring different types of information (categorized as “conceptual objectives” or “execution guidelines”) in problem specifications and assess their impact on design processes and submission qualities. Real-world data are used to empirically test hypotheses and policy recommendations generated from the model, and a quasi-natural experiment provides further empirical validation. Results : We show theoretically and verify empirically that with more conceptual objectives disclosed in the problem specification, the number of participants in a contest eventually decreases; with more execution guidelines in the problem specification, the trial effort provision by each participant increases; and the best solution quality always increases with more execution guidelines but eventually decreases with more conceptual objectives. Managerial implications : To maximize the best solution quality in crowdsourced design problems, seekers should always provide more execution guidelines and only a moderate number of conceptual objectives. History: This paper has been accepted for the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Special Issue on Sharing Economy and Innovative Marketplaces.
Inflation and Output Dynamics with Firm-Owned Capital

We model firm-owned capital in a stochastic dynamic New-Keynesian general equilibrium model a la Calvo. We find that this structure implies equilibrium dynamics which are quantitatively different from the ones associated with a benchmark case where households accumulate capital and rent it to firms. Our findings therefore stress the importance of modeling an investment decision at the firm level - in addition to a meaningful price setting decision. Along the way we argue that the problem of modeling firm-owned capital with Calvo price-setting has not been solved in a correct way in the previous literature.
Hybrid Strategy, Ambidexterity And Environment: Toward An Integrated Typology

Hybrid strategy, which emerged as a contingency option to Porter's generic strategies framework [1], defends that in a dynamic environment the simultaneous pursuit of "Low Cost" and "Differentiation" approaches is fundamental for the short-term performance and long-term survival of the firm. A vast amount of literature supports the benefits of adopting a mixed approach of strategy: several empirical studies have proved that a hybrid strategy establishes a firm's performance superiority over the pure strategy choice. The hybrid literature has concentrated on the performance linkage and on the debate countering the pure strategy approach, however very little attention has been paid to the challenges presented by the mixed strategy implementation. In fact, despite the rich empirical literature, it is still not clear how firms that adopt a hybrid strategy may successfully integrate the inherent contradiction of the "Low Cost" and "Differentiation" approaches, escaping from the "Stuck in The Middle" outcome. Consequently, after a careful consultation of the relevant literature, we conclude that several types of hybrid strategy implementation, which should correspond to different business environmental situations, exist. In order to study the characteristics of these different types of hybrid strategies implementations, we propose a typology comprising four types of hybrid strategy implementation, defined by two antecedents of the firm and two antecedents of the environment. As a contribution of this article, the proposed typology has the purpose to fill a methodological gap regarding the adoption of Hybrid strategies and we expect that it could be used as a framework for further studies, aiming to suggest managerial implications and further unveil characteristics of the hybrid implementation. Additionally, we align and contrast the hybrid and ambidextrous approaches, which share many similarities. Despite the fact that they have been confounded in empirical studies, we concluded that hybridity and ambidexterity are distinct and complementary concepts: while hybrid strategy defines the value proposition of the firm (a composition of "Low Cost" and "Differentiation"), ambidexterity focus on how to deliver this value with efficiency (Exploitation) and how to renew it effectively (Exploration).