Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discovery of a Highly Polarized Optical Microflare in the Blazar S 5 0716 + 714 During 2014 WEBT ∗ Campaign

The occurrence of low-amplitude flux variations in blazars on hourly timescales, commonly known as microvariability, is still a widely debated subject in high-energy astrophysics. Several competing scenarios have been proposed to explain such occurrences, including various jet plasma instabilities leading to the formation of shocks, magnetic reconnection sites, and turbulence. In this letter we present the results of our detailed investigation of a prominent, five-hour-long optical microflare detected during recent WEBT campaign in 2014, March 2-6 targeting the blazar 0716+714. After separating the flaring component from the underlying base emission continuum of the blazar, we find that the microflare is highly polarized, with the polarization degree ∼ (40−60)%±(2−10)%, and the electric vector position angle ∼ (10−20) deg±(1−8) deg slightly misaligned with respect to the position angle of the radio jet. The microflare evolution in the (Q, U) Stokes parameter space exhibits a looping behavior with a counter-clockwise rotation, meaning polarization degree decreasing with the flux (but higher in the flux decaying phase), and approximately stable polarization angle. The overall very high polarization degree of the flare, its symmetric flux rise and decay profiles, and also its structured evolution in the Q − U plane, all imply that the observed flux variation corresponds to a single emission region characterized by a highly ordered magnetic field. As discussed in the paper, a small-scale but strong shock propagating within the outflow, and compressing a disordered magnetic field component, provides a natural, though not unique, interpretation of our findings. Subject headings: acceleration of particles — polarization — radiation mechanisms: non-thermal — galaxies: active — BL Lacertae objects: individual (S5 0716+714) — galaxies: jets 1Astronomical Observatory of Jagiellonian University, ul. Orla 171, 30-244 Krakow, Poland 2Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan 3Main (Pulkovo) Astronomical Observatory of RAS, Pulkovskoye shosse, 60, 196140 St. Petersburg, Russia 4Institute of Astronomy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 72, Tsarigradsko Shosse Blvd., 1784 Sofia Bulgaria 5Instituto de Astronomı́a, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico DF, Mexico 6Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, P/O Nauchny, Crimea, 298409, Russia 7EPT Observatories, Tijarafe, La Palma, Spain 8INAF, TNG Fundacion Galileo Galilei, La Palma, Spain 9Private address, 105 Glen Pine Trail, Dawnsonville, GA 30534, USA 10Astronomical Observatory, Volgina 7, 11060 Belgrade, 1 ar X iv :1 50 7. 08 42 4v 2 [ as tr oph . H E ] 3 1 Ju l 2 01 5
The history of molded fiber packaging: a 20th century pulp story

Molded fiber packaging, which is also referred to as molded pulp packaging, has been around for a little over a hundred years now. From the first patent, dating from 1903, until approximately 25 years ago molded fiber packaging was a niche product used mainly for packing eggs. However, in the last two decades scientific understanding of the material properties and technology development improved the possibilities of application. Combined with an increased demand, due to a call for environmentally sound packaging materials, molded fiber has finally found a wider field of application.
The legacy of Finnish-Estonian air ion and aerosol workshops

Atmospheric air ions, clusters and aerosol particles participate in a variety of atmospheric processes and considerably affect e.g. global climate and human health. When measured, air ions as well as atmospheric clusters and particles have been observed to be present practically always and everywhere. In this overview, we present a brief summary of the main achievements and legacy of the series of workshops organized mainly by the University of Helsinki and the University of Tartu. The legacy covers the development and standardization of new instruments, such as ion spectrometers, mass spectrometers and aerosol particle counters, as well as work toward theoretical understanding of new-particle formation and evolution of atmospheric clusters. One important legacy is the establishment of the SMEAR-Estonia station at Järvselja.
Antioxidant peptides from freshwater clam extract using enzymatic hydrolysis

The objective of this research was to evaluate the effects of different amounts (0, 1, 2.5 and 5%) of inulin on the physical, chemical and rheological properties of pasta dough. The results show that increasing the percentage of inulin, caused decrease in dough development time, dough stability, farinograph quality number, energy, resistance to extension as well as dough elasticity, while water absorption increased. The swelling index and the length of alveograph increased upon increasing the percentage of inulin. Increasing inulin addition to 5% caused the reduction in amount of proteins and ashes of samples, but this changes were not statistically significant (>0.05). 1 and 2.5% were generally selected as a superior treatment because they have fewer effects on dough rheological characteristics. While pasta dough containing 1% inulin was not optimum due to not having functional effects, 2.5% was accepted as a best level of inulin added to pasta dough. Key words: Pasta, dough, inulin, rheological characteristics.
Average Price Portfolio Insurance as Optimal Implementation of Life-Cycle Investment Strategies

We design average price portfolio insurance (APPI) strategies with an investment floor and a buffer that is a power of a generalised geometric average of the underlying asset price. We prove that APPI strategies are optimal for investors with hyperbolic absolute risk aversion who become progressively more risk averse over time. During the averaging period, APPI strategies reduce the proportion of wealth allocated to the risky asset, which is the traditional life cycle investment recommendation. We compare the sensitivities of the fair price of equivalent payoffs generated by average and constant proportion portfolio insurance strategies and illustrate the performance of APPI strategies.
Towards a generalised e-learning business process model

Modelling learning scenarios is central for e-learning domain. This has been manifested in the proliferation of the different Educational Modelling Languages, as well as in developed e-learning models. However, the existing modelled scenarios are deficient as they lack flexibility and the agility to respond to the dynamic nature of an e-learning process that is suitable to answer learners’ needs. This paper proposes a novel approach to develop a generalised business process model from a set of related business processes sharing the same goals and associated objectives. The proposed approach has been applied in the e-learning domain, which demonstrated its ability to develop a generalised e-learning business process model that is derived from the existing pedagogical models and technology-enhanced learning artefacts. Moreover, the proposed approach has been evaluated to test its effectiveness in generalising a set of business processes, which paves the ground to apply it in different contexts. The generalised e-learning business process model has been modelled using the industrial standard Business Process Modelling Notations (BPMN 2.0) so that processes can be dynamically enacted in service-oriented environments and, at the same time, adapting to answering e-learners’ learning requirements.
Comparative Analysis of Threshold Based, K-means and Level Set Segmentation Algorithms

Image segmentation algorithms provide a mean to segment the images of different formats. The beauty of an algorithm lies within the quality of segmentation it performs. The large number of segmentation algorithms are available, analysis of algorithms is emerging as an interesting field. A number of algorithms are available for segmenting an image but there is not a single algorithm which performs better for all applications. In this paper, the comparative analysis of level set, K-means and Thresholding based algorithms has been presented for standard Lena and Cameraman image. The performance of the algorithms measured in form of white pixel ratio and processing time. Over the last few years image processing has been playing an important role in the analysis of various types of images acquired both in visible band of Electromagnetic (EM) spectrum and remaining of the EM spectrum band. Finding out the exact position of the object in the image requires segmentation. Numerous segmentation and algorithms have been proposed for this purpose. Consequently there was a need for the comparison of different segmentation algorithms based on some parameter instead of taking into account the perceptual quality of the segmented image, which would take into account some other attribute of the segmentation algorithm. The algorithms taken for comparative study are Level set algorithm, K-means algorithm and Thresholding based algorithm. For the judgment of quality of a segmented image several parameters have been propounded by different scholars. These methods evaluate the performance of the segmented image and provide a way for the selection of an optimal technique for image segmentation. Now a day, there are cutting edge algorithms available which provide a very good segmentation of the images. So some parameter, different from the perceptual quality of the segmented image, has to be taken into account to evaluate segmentation algorithms. The task of evaluation becomes difficult when the performance matches to a great extent. So some parameter which compares the performance of the segmentation algorithms in terms of processing time is an interesting idea. Everything in this universe is bounded by time and space. In the context of segmentation algorithms, time may be considered as an important parameter to be taken into account. Here time may be regarded as a parameter in the sense that different algorithms take different time to segment the same image. We may call this parameter as processing time. Apart from processing time, another parameter taken into account for the comparative analysis of different algorithms is White Pixel Ratio (WPR). This ratio indicates the proportion of white pixels within a segmented image. The paper is organized as follows. Section II, describes level set, K-means and Thresholding based algorithms. Section III, deals with segmentation evaluation parameters. Section IV, discusses the related work. Experimental results are discussed in Section V, while Section VI, expounds conclusion. II. Different Algorithms Taken for Comparison
A Study on Just-inTime Implementation in Portugal : Some Empirical Evidence

The objective of this paper is to find how far the Just-in-Time system is being implemented by Portuguese manufacturing firms, as well as assessing its perception and its potential benefits by managers. First, several studies about the implementation of the Just-in-Time system in various countries over the past 25 years are reviewed, and then the descriptive survey research is reported. Data were collected from a mail questionnaire sent to a few hundred firms in Portugal. The findings show that the surveyed firms view the Just-in-Time system as a way to reduce inventories, to increase quality, and to eliminate waste. Despite this good perception, less than 6% of the surveyed firms have the necessary conditions to successfully implement a Just-in-Time system. A significant practical implication of this study is that Portuguese firms should use Just-in-Time as a philosophy rather than as a solution for operations-related problems. Another contribution is to point out the most common difficulties for its implementation, so that Portuguese firms that want to do it can be prepared to overcome those difficulties.
Effects of environmental regulations on South Asian food and agricultural exports : a gravity analysis

Regardless of the occasional dissenting voices, free trade is now being embraced by many of the nations of the world. South Asian countries joined the global consensus for frictionless trade by forming regional trade blocs under the banner of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). However, intra- and interregional trade in SAARC has not yet reached the desired stage, and a range of empirical studies have therefore been carried out with the objective of determining the causes. This current study is also motivated by the poor performance of the South Asian countries in world trade and it investigates the effects of environmental regulation on the food and agricultural trade of four South Asian nations, i.e., Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. For this study, the Gravity Model for international trade analysis was used with country- and time-specific fixed effects followed by Heckman sample selection model to avoid possible biases that are widely cited in the gravity literature. Trade data were retrieved from Trade Map while data for other gravity variables were retrieved from relevant recognized data sources. The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) was utilized as a proxy measure for the environmental regulation of the four SAARC nations and their trade partners to denote environmental regulation of reporting and partner countries. The results of the coefficient estimates revealed that even though there appears to be a relationship between stringent regulations and foreign trade without these specific effects, its significance fades as soon as both the importing and exporting country-specific effects are taken into consideration
Practical Considerations for Implementing ICP Registration Algorithms in a 360◦ 3D Point Cloud Stitching System

The last two decades have witnessed how threedimensional (3D) point cloud scanning and registration algorithms have become increasingly popular in areas as diverse as cinematography, robotics, and medicine, among others. Despite their broad application range, such algorithms remain to be computationally demanding and difficult to implement. In particular, the task of choosing and implementing suitable registration-pipeline processes for specific applications continues to be challenging in most practical cases. This paper presents the implementation of a point cloud stitching system to produce 360° 3D images from individual, partial views of a solid model. Performance analyses and evaluations supporting the decisionmaking process allow for identifying factors leading to the best accuracy and computational speed of the iterative closest point (ICP) registration algorithms considered for the task at hand. The outcomes of our analysis lead to interesting findings related to two well-known ICP variants, while also providing useful implementation guidelines for developing a practical 360° 3D scanning system. Keywords– 3D point cloud, stitching system, ICP registration
INVESTIGATION THE BEHAVIOR OF MODIS OCEAN COLOR PRODUCTS UNDER THE 2008 RED TIDE IN THE EASTERN PERSIAN GULF

Abstract. Biophysical properties of water undergo serious variations under red tide (RT) outbreak. During RT conditions, algal blooms spread out in the estuarine, marine and fresh waters due to different triggering factors such as nutrient loading, marine currents, and monsoonal winds. The Persian Gulf (PG) was a talent region subjected to different RTs in recent decade. A massive RT started from the Strait of Hormuz in October 2008 and extended towards the northern parts of the PG covering more than 1200 km of coastlines. The bloom of microorganism C. Polykrikoides was the main specie that generated large fish mortalities, and hampered marine industries, and water desalination appliances. Ocean color satellite data have many advantages to monitor and alarm RT occurrences, such as wide and continuous extent, short time of imagery, high accessibility, and appropriate estimation of ocean color parameters. Since 1999, MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite sensor has estimated satellite derived chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), normalized fluorescence line height (nFLH), and diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490nm (kd490). It provides a capability to study the behavior of these parameters during RT and normal conditions. This study monitors variations in satellite derived Chl-a, nFLH, and kd490 under both RT and normal conditions of the PG between 2002 and 2008. Up to now, daily and monthly variations in these products were no synchronously investigated under RT conditions in the PG. In doing so, the MODIS L1B products were provided from NASA data archive. They were corrected for Rayleigh scattering and gaseous absorption, and atmospheric interference in turbid coastal waters, and then converted to level 2 data. In addition, Enhanced Red Green Blue (ERGB) image was used to illustrate better water variations. ERGB image was built with three normalized leaving water radiance between 443 to 560nm. All the above data processes were applied by SeaDAS 7 software package. The Strait of Hormuz was selected as the study area in the eastern part of the PG. Images including high cloud coverage (>50%) over the study area were filtered out. The classification maps of the above products were shown during RT and normal periods. Monthly variations of mentioned products were calculated for the dates before, during, and after RT appearance. The results were demonstrated as time-series diagrams. All the above calculations and presentations were performed in Matlab 7 software package. The results show that MODIS Chl-a, nFLH, and kd490 increased during the 2008 RT. Based on the feedback of these parameters under RT conditions, hybrid ocean color index (HOCI) is defined. HOCI is able to display better water variations during RT outbreak. High values of HOCI show RT affected areas.
Application of Area to Point Kriging to Buruli Ulcer Incidence in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana

Application of Area to Point Kriging to Buruli Ulcer Incidence in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana Buruli ulcer (BU) is the third most common mycobacterium disease after tuberculosis and leprosy. The disease eats through the skin, muscle and bone, leaving victims with disfiguring and debilitating craters. Ghana is the second most endemic country globally, after Cote d’Ivoire with over 1,048 cases with the most endemic regions being the Ashanti, Greater Accra, Central and the Brong Ahafo. The goal of the paper is to use Area to Point Kriging (ATP) method to model the spatial distribution of Buruli ulcer incidence in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana.
Dual-wavelength single-longitudinal-mode fiber laser with switchable wavelength spacing based on a graphene saturable absorber

We propose and demonstrate a dual-wavelength single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) fiber laser with switchable wavelength spacing based on a graphene saturable absorber (GSA) and a WaveShaper. By virtue of the excellent saturable absorption ability of graphene, the linewidths of the lasing wavelengths can be effectively reduced and eventually SLM operation can be obtained. The linewidths of both wavelengths are measured to be narrower than 7.3 kHz. The obtained results suggest that the graphene would be a good candidate nonlinear optical material for applications in related photonic fields, such as SLM oscillation generation for microwave generation and optical sensing.
THE IMPACT PROJECT POLISH GROUND-TRUTH TEXTS

The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, to describe the already implemented idea of DjVu corpora, i.e. corpora which consist of both scanned images and a transcription of the texts with the words associated with their occurrences in the scans. Secondly, to present a case study of a corpus consisting of almost 5 000 pages of Polish historical texts dating from 1570 to 1756 (it is practically the very first corpus of historical Polish). The tools described have universal character and are freely available under the GNU GPL license, hence they can be used also for other purposes.
Alteration processes of geomaterials used on the pentagonal tower of Serravalle Castle (central-west Sardinia, Italy)

The pentagonal tower belong to medieval Serravalle castle area (81 m. above sea level), near the mouth of the Temo River. The castle is important medieval fortifications of Sardinia and was built in various stages. The oldest part was constructed by Marchesi Malaspina of Villafranca which arrived in Sardinia at the 12th century (1112-1121). The earliest fortification was the four corner towers about 10 m tall, linked by a thick wall. The pentagonal tower, located in the western corner of the boundary dates about 1330, probably was consisted of two storeys with wooden beams, now missing, and one stone one with a longitudinal arch. In the structure was used local volcanic rocks (i.e., pyroclastites) belonging to the Oligo-Miocenic volcanic cycle of Sardinia (32-11 Ma). According to De La Roche classification (1980), the pyroclastic rocks have a composition varying from dacite to rhyolite and show a porphyritic structure (I.P. from 10 to 20%) for phenocrystals of opaque (ilmenite, magnetite and/or titanomagnetite), plagioclase, ± biotite, and rare hornblend and quartz. Two main type of volcanics are present with different physical properties (porosity, density, etc.) and petro-volcanological characteristics (e.g., welding degree): cineritic pyroclastites, little welded, with average values of open porosity and bulk density of 36.3±2.6% and 1.50±0.07 g/cm3, respectively; lava-like ignimbrites, from medium to high welded, and average values of open porosity and bulk density of 22.5±5.9% and 1.99±0.15 g/cm3, respectively. As function of these different features and extremely heterogeneous, due to variable incidence of pumice, lithic- and crystal-clasts, the alteration is present mainly on volcanics with low welding and exposed to the sea-winds. Due to marine aerosol, salt efflorescences are present. These latter, together thermal and hydric cyclic dilatation, lead to various macroscopic physical alterations (decohesion, chromatic alteration, pitting, exfoliation, flaking, alveolation, differential degradation between the lithic-clasts and the vitreous matrix). DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.4995/FORTMED2015.2015. 1757
Pedagogical and conceptual design of an E-learning environment for HIV/AIDS Education

In this paper, we present the pedagogical and conceptual design of an e-learning environment, NetAIDS, for HIV/AIDS education in Uganda. We also identify the first concrete design solutions for the NetAIDS environment, which will be later implemented and evaluated. Our focus is to analyse the first steps towards the design of the NetAIDS environment following a development research methodology. Four important design aspects for the NetAIDS environment are identified. First, the design of the environment should be based on sound pedagogical principles. In our case, we suggest a constructivist approach. Second, the design and development of technological solutions is based on the development research method for generation of a prototypical e-learning environment, which uses scaffolds and new web technologies (e.g. web .0.) to support Ugandan youth to learn about HIV/AIDS. Thirdly, we present a framework for designing NetAIDS environment in the context of Ugandan schools. Finally, a formative evaluation scheme is presented to provide early feedback from the users so that the designed NetAIDS environment can be modified to suit better suit the needs and requirements of the users. The conceptual and pedagogical design principles for HIV/AIDS e-learning environment can also be applied in other contexts.