Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Variability of depolarization of aerosol particles in Beijing mega city:
implication in interaction between anthropogenic pollutants and
mineral dust particles

Abstract. East Asia is suffering from a severe air pollution problem due to intensive emissions of anthropogenic pollutants and mineral dust aerosols. During transport, both Asian dust and pollutants undergo complex mixing processes, which result in great impacts on regional air quality, human health and climate. To characterize these mixing processes, we conducted long-term observations using an optical particle counter equipped with a polarization detection module (POPC) in the megacity of Beijing. Mass concentrations of PM2.5 (aerodynamic diameters of less than 2.5 μm) and PM10 derived from POPC compared well with ground-based measurements. Based on size-resolved polarization measurements, anthropogenic pollutants, mineral dust and mixed-type mineral dust (dust particle with pollutant coatings) were well distinguished. We found that the depolarization ratio (DR, termed as the ratio of the intensity of the s-polarized signal to the intensity of the backward scattering signal [s/(s + p)]) for aerosol particles with optical diameters of
Fundamentals of Wireless Communication Link Design for Networked Robotics

This chapter aims to present the fundamentals of the design of wireless communication links for networked robotics applications. First, we provide an overview of networked robotics applications, motivating the importance of the wireless communication link as an enabler of these applications. Next, we review the wireless communication technologies available today, discussing the existent tradeoffs between range, power, and data rate, and introducing the main concepts regarding the design of wireless communication links. Finally, we present a design example of a wireless communication link and the results obtained. We conclude the chapter with a discussion of the results and the challenges faced in the design of wireless communication links for networked robotics.
Comparative Study on Concept Construction for Violence, Intelligence and Religion in Early Adolescence in the Parisian Suburbs

Based on association tasks, we focused our research on the process of concept construction and on the nature of the semantic structure network of three important concepts in the lives of young adolescents in the Parisian suburbs: violence, religion and intelligence. In this exploratory study, we were interested in identifying similarities and differences in the organization of these social concepts between adolescents with French parents and adolescents with immigrant parents. Despite the fact that these children share common “eco-cultural” experiences, we supposed that the different cultural guidelines in the family settings might influence the construction and the semantic organization of the concepts. Subjects were all born in France (N=228), and they share the same social environment and low socioeconomic status. Analyses of representational fields and of semantic networks were conducted and evidence for some similarities as well as for major differences between the two groups in concept construction and in semantic organization was present. Our findings showed a more homogeneous organization in children with immigrant parents; meanwhile French children’s structures of concepts are more heterogeneous. Major differences can also be observed at the semantic level. The findings are discussed in respect to the concept formation literature and the eco-cultural approach of human development.
Broadband Instability of Electromagnetic Waves in Nonlinear Media

Wave propagation in nonlinear media is usually accompanied by variation of their spacetime spectra (V.I. Bespalov & Talanov, 1966; Lighthill, 1965; Litvak & Talanov, 1967; Benjamin & Feir, 1967; Zakharov & Ostrovsky, 2009; Bejot et al., 2011). The character of this variation is frequently explained in terms of modulation instability which occurs, in particular, for electromagnetic waves in cubic media, where polarization is approximately equal to the cube of electric field intensity. Modulation instability manifests itself in partitioning of the originally uniform packet into separate beams and pulses. It has been studied in ample detail for the perturbations whose frequencies and propagation directions slightly differ from those of intense waves (pump waves), i.e., temporal and spatial spectra of the waves participating in the process are rather narrow (paraxial approximation) (V.I. Bespalov & Talanov, 1966; Litvak & Talanov, 1967; Agraval, 1995; Talanov & Vlasov, 1997). In this case, modulation instability is described by the nonlinear parabolic equation for a wave train envelope. The instability is quite different, if the nonlinearity is higher than the third order of magnitude. It was shown in (Talanov & Vlasov, 1994; Koposova & Vlasov, 2007) that the wave propagating in such a medium may be unstable relative to collinear perturbations at frequencies so high that not only wave packet envelope but the structure of each wave in the packet may change too. The parabolic equation does not hold for description of such phenomena; hence, the methods for solution of wave equations in a wide frequency band developed in (Talanov & Vlasov, 1995; Brabec & Krausz, 1997; V.G. Bespalov et al., 1999; Kolesic & Moloney, 2004; Ferrando et al., 2005; Koposova et al., 2006) are employed. One of such methods, namely, the technique of pseudodifferential operators (Koposova et al., 2006) is used in the current paper. The first part of the paper that is an extension of (Talanov & Vlasov, 1994) is concerned with the instability of perturbation waves at combination frequencies noncollinear to pump for the case of nonlinear polarization represented as a polynomial of arbitrary but finite degree. Further, application of the theory to air, for which dielectric permittivity may be represented in the form of a polynomial, is addressed (Loriot et al., 2009). Finally, methods of finding amplitude and phase distribution of electric field in an ultrashort wave packet by analyzing signals from intensity autocorrelator traditionally used for measuring duration of ultrashort laser pulses are considered.
A continuous-time sigma delta ADC with increased immunity to wide-band interferers

Receivers are being digitized in a quest for flexibility. Analog filters and programmable gain stages are being exchanged for digital processing at the price of a very challenging ADC. This paper presents an alternative solution where the filter and programmable gain functionality is integrated into a S? ADC. The novel filtering ADC is realized by adding a high-pass feedback path to a conventional S? ADC while a compensating low-pass filter in the forward path maintains stability. As such, the ADC becomes highly immune to interferers even if they exceed the maximum allowable input level for the wanted channel. As a consequence, the ADC input range can be programmed dynamically to the level of the wanted signal only. This results in an input-referred dynamic range of 89 dB in 1-MHz bandwidth and an intentionally moderate output signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio of 46-59 dB (depending on the programmed gain). The merged functionality enables a better overall power/performance balance for the receiver baseband. The design consumes less than 2 mW and active area is 0.14 mm2 in a 0.18-µm digital CMOS technology.
GENERATING TRAIN SIDE VIEWS FROM VIDEO SEQUENCES FOR MICROPHONE ARRAY PASS-BY MEASUREMENTS

A significant field of application for microphone arrays is the pass-by measurement of moving objects, mainly trains. In a former article, a special time-domain beamforming algorithm has been introduced which is able to evaluate whole pass-by measurements with respect to computational performance and memory. The evaluation results in a sound pressure level mapping of the train passing. But this mapping only shows the sound sources and their positions represented by coordinate values resulting in interpretation difficulties. A possible solution is the overlay of the sound pressure level mapping with a sketch or a picture of the whole train side view. Since this kind of picture is only available in very few cases or only for single parts of the train, an approach was developed which allows the picture generation of a train side view independently from its composition. In addition to the array measurements, the train’s passing is recorded with a video camera simultaneously. By analyzing the video frames with the SIFT algorithm and combining them based on the gained information, a side view picture of the whole train can be created. The approach presented, including its advantages and requirements, is described in detail. Additionally, further developments are exposed and the capabilities of this approach are demonstrated with an example taken from a variety of measurements completed so far.
Towards a Method for Quantitative LA‐ICP‐MS Imaging of Multi‐Phase Assemblages: Mineral Identification and Analysis Correction Procedures

Here, we present an approach to laser ablation ICP‐MS mapping of multi‐phase assemblages that permits the use of different internal standard elements, concentration values and reference materials for each mineral. In this way, we obtain not only broad pictures of elemental distributions within samples but can also extract high accuracy concentration data for any user‐selected region. This is accomplished by assigning regions of an image to corresponding mineral phases on a pixel‐by‐pixel basis. In this way, accurate trace element concentrations can be determined for each mineral phase, despite potential variations in their ablation characteristics. We present an example where elemental maps are constructed from ablation of a gabbroic sample that includes the phases apatite, amphibole and plagioclase. This work represents an important first step towards development of a method to produce highly accurate LA‐ICP‐MS elemental maps of multi‐phase samples.
Roadmap for the Application of Risk Management Process in Software Projects in Accordance with ISO 31000:2009

In an increasingly competitive global market, software development companies, under the pressure for conquering new market shares, subject themselves to business demands where the risks inherent to these operations are diversified and of exposure not always calculated. Given that a minority of such companies adopt risk management into their business processes, such exposure may affect the participation and success of these projects. To assure the quality of the software risk analyses and risk assessments are required. Among the uncertainties of software design, some risk factors should be treated: timeline, estimated costs and compliance to business requirements, among others, can be mentioned. Through a bibliographical review it was possible to produce a risk roadmap to provide to the professional in the field the treatment of risks in a friendly way. To contribute to these software projects, this work presents how the application of a risk management process, in order to insert the culture and capacity of professionals who work in such projects, can objectively target to the mitigation of the risks to which such projects are exposed. In addition, the adopted approach is in accordance to ISO 31000 standard.
A general free cash flow theory of capital structure

This paper provides general framework for handling time-varying cost of capital, leverage, tax rates, and capital values in a dynamic free cash flow theory of capital structure. That enables efficient analysis of the recent competing theories of capital structure. After including the costs of financial distress and risk premium of debt in the cash flow model, this paper provides a new look at cost of tax shield from the point of view of risk-return relationship. Cost of tax shield is not constant, but depends on leverage and is mostly between cost of assets and cost of debt. Moreover the simulation of firm value and capital structure in presence of taxes, risk, and growth shows that unique optimal leverages exist for each combination of the above factors. The risk-enhanced cash flow theory can explain both the observations, which support pecking order theory, free cash flow theory and tradeoff theory of capital structure. Moreover it fits some evidence, which resists these theories: highly leveraged low growth companies and moderately leveraged large profitable companies.
X Numerical Modeling of the I-V Characteristics of Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistors

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were first discovered in 1991 by Sumio Iijima (Iijima, 1991), and they have been a rapid and successful target of development by many researchers (Baughman et al., 2002). Especially with the end of Moore’s law in sight (Wind et al., 2002), CNTs are being considered as possible candidates substituting silicon in the fabrication and design of analog and digital integrated circuits (ICs) (Guo et al., 2002; Wong, 2002). Carbon nanotubes are basically two dimensional graphene sheets rolled into a one dimensional tubular structure (Martel et al., 1998). Their properties are determined by the chiral vector represented by the indices (n,m) (Tanaka et al., 1999; Wallace, 1947; Wildoer et al., 1998). Depending on the number of layers rolled, carbon nanotubes can be either single walled (one layer), or multi walled (two or more layers) (Dresselhaus et al., 2001). Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are used in the fabrication of carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNT-FETs), the first CNT-FETs were implemented in 1998 (Martel et al., 1998; Tans et al., 1998). The structure of a CNT-FET is similar to the structure of a typical MOSFET where the CNT forms the channel between two electrodes that work as the source and the drain of the transistor. The structure is build on top of an insulating layer and a substrate wafer that works as the back gate, (Nihey et al., 2003) (Wind et al., 2002). The basic structure of a CNT-FET based on a SWNT is shown in Fig. 1. Among the CNT-FETs reported (Martel et al., 1998; Wind et al., 2002), a 40 nm gate length transistor (Lin et al., 2005), a multistage complementary logic (Javey et al., 2002), oscillators (Chen et al., 2006), and an 80 GHz operating field effect transistor (Nougaret et al., 2009) have been achieved. In addition, carbon nanotubes are one-dimensional conductors (1D), which confines the electrons to only back-scattering effects. This property provides a large electron mean free path in metallic carbon nanotubes of usually a few micrometers (White & Todorov, 1998). Carbon nanotubes also exhibit large current capabilities of ~10-9 A/cm2, (Wei et al., 2001; Yao et al., 2000) and it has also been reported that doping can be avoided in the CNT fabrication process, yet still achieving complementary CNT-FETs (Zhang et al., 2007). With carbon nanotubes interconnects being also a major target of research (Koo et al., 2007; Xu et al., 2008) and a completely carbon nanotube based integrated circuit (IC) already reported 11
Assessing the Employee Value of IT Staff via Employee Value Equation Variables from the Value Profit Chain Framework

Nowadays, company competencies are significantly improving as a result of Information Technology (IT), which also acts as a support and main player in businesses. IT employees are accredited as a crucial resource but they are not given as much care as other IT assets. The minimal attention given in retaining professional and worthy employees may result in their leaving their profession. This may impact business performance, as company performance and quality that employees deliver to the customers are also affected. This research was conducted to explore the tools for measuring IT employee value within a company. From a review of past studies, the Value Profit Chain (VPC) framework was found to propose a method to estimate the value of an employee in a model known as the Employee Value Equation. Although this is a good method for measuring employee value, only the theoretical aspect of employee value is defined, so further investigation is required to support this equation.
Electronic transport calculations for self-assembled monolayers of 1,4-phenylene diisocyanide on Au(111) contacts

We report on electronic transport calculations for self-assembled monolayers of 1,4-phenylene diisocyanide on Au(111) contacts. Experimentally one observes more structure (i.e., peaks) within the measured conductance curve for this molecule with two isocyanide groups, compared to measurements with molecules having thiol groups. The calculations are performed on the semiempiric extended Huckel level using elastic scattering quantum chemistry, and we investigate three possible explanations for the experimental findings. Comparing the experimental and theoretical data, we are able to rule out all hut one of the scenarios. The observed additional peaks are found to be only reproduced by a monolayer with additional molecules perturbing the periodicity. It is conjectured that the weaker coupling to Au of isocyanide groups compared to thiol groups might be responsible for such perturbations.
An Efficient and Comapct Design of Coupled-Line Unequal Wilkinson Power Divider

In this paper, 3:1 and 10:1 unequal Wilkinson power dividers are designed and investigated. Unequal power dividers are an integral part of the feeding network for antenna array where their performance affects a group of elements rather than an individual element. Thus, there is a need for an accurate design for such dividers. A coupled-line section with two grounding via has been used to attain the high characteristic impedance line. This is done in order to outplay the microstrip fabrication constraints of printing very thin/fine conductor lines. Further to reduce the size of the structure, meandering of the transmission line has been done which procreates three designs, namely: 0 0 Serpentine Flexure, 180 0 Serpentine Flexure and Compact Meandered Flexure. Verification of the design methodology has been done by creating a 10:1 Unequal WPD. The structures are implemented on a high-resistive silicon substrate (HRS) for a centre frequency of 1.575 GHz. Further, their EM analysis is done in terms of S-parameters such as return loss and insertion loss using commercially available FEM solver. Satisfactory RF performance, with return loss better than -10 dB and required power split for all the structures, has been achieved.
On Estimating Non-standard Discrete Distributions Using Adaptive MCMC Methods

In this paper, we compare empirically the performance of some adaptive MCMC methods, that is, Adaptive Metropolis (AM) algorithm, Single Component Adaptive Metropolis (SCAM) algorithm and Delayed Rejection Adaptive Metropolis (DRAM) algorithm. The context is the simulation of non-standard discrete distributions. The performance criterion used is the precision of the frequency estimator. An application to a Bayesian hypothesis testing problem shows the superiority of the DRAM algorithm over the other considered sampling schemes.
SVM-PGSL coupled approach for statistical downscaling to predict rainfall from GCM output

[1] Hydrological impacts of climate change are assessed by downscaling the General Circulation Model (GCM) outputs of predictor variables to local or regional scale hydrologic variables (predictand). Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a machine learning technique which is capable of capturing highly nonlinear relationship between predictor and predictand and thus performs better than conventional linear regression in transfer function-based downscaling modeling. SVM has certain parameters the values of which need to be fixed appropriately for controlling undertraining and overtraining. In this study, an optimization model is proposed to estimate the values of these parameters. As the optimization model, for selection of parameters, contains SVM as one of its constraints, analytical solution techniques are difficult to use in solving it. Probabilistic Global Search Algorithm (PGSL), a probabilistic search technique, is used to compute the optimum parameters of SVM. With these optimum parameters, training of SVM is performed for statistical downscaling. The obtained relationship between large-scale atmospheric variables and local-scale hydrologic variables (e.g., rainfall) is used to compute the hydrologic scenarios for multiple GCMs. The uncertainty resulting from the use of multiple GCMs is further modeled with a modified reliability ensemble averaging method. The proposed methodology is demonstrated with the prediction of monsoon rainfall of Assam and Meghalaya meteorological subdivision of northeastern India. The results obtained from the proposed model are compared with earlier developed SVM-based downscaling models, and improved performance is observed.
Thin current sheets as part of the substorm process

This paper reviews properties of thin current sheets and their association with a variety of magnetospheric activations. It is demonstrated that thin current sheets ar e a major part of substorm growth phases as well as of sawtooth events and steady convection intervals. Observations, empirical models, and MHD simulations suggest that thin current sheets have thickness of the order of ion gyroradius, cross- tail width about 15-25 RE and along-tail dimension of about 20 RE. The current sheet inner edge is typically at or slightly tai lward of geostationary orbit; during storms it can extend around the Earth in the duskward direction. As global simulations suggest that the magnetotail flow is diverted around the thin current sheet to the flanks in the inner part of the tai l, the temporal scale associated with the current sheet intensification and thinning may play a role in determining t he type of activity developing in the magnetotail.
The Impact of Pork Advertising on US Meat Demand in the Presence of Competing Beef Advertising and Food Safety Events

We examine the effects of domestic advertising and promotion expenditures on meat demand, extending previous efforts in several areas, including the use of more recent data, employing a complete demand system and simultaneously measuring the impacts of generic pork and beef advertising and food safety information on the demand for beef, pork, and poultry. Using the Generalized Almost Ideal Demand System (GAIDS), own- and cross- beef and pork advertising and own- and cross- beef, pork, and poultry food safety effects are measured jointly and consistently. To allow for a more complex dynamic response of advertising and food safety effects, the flexible distributed lag technique of Mitchell and Speaker (1986) is employed. The coefficients on pork advertising in the pork and poultry equations are highly significant. The coefficients on beef advertising are only statistically significantly different from zero in the poultry equation indicating the primary impact from these efforts is a cross-commodity effect. To investigate the economic significance of these effects, elasticities for price, expenditure, food safety and advertising are calculated and compared. Consistent with previous work we find the impacts of advertising and food safety effects to be economically small compared with price and expenditure effects.