Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inflation by alignment

Pseudo-Goldstone bosons (pGBs) can provide technically natural inflatons, as has been comparatively well-explored in the simplest axion examples. Although inflationary success requires trans-Planckian decay constants, f ≳ Mp, several mechanisms have been proposed to obtain this, relying on (mis-)alignments between potential and kinetic energies in multiple-field models. We extend these mechanisms to a broader class of inflationary models, including in particular the exponential potentials that arise for pGB potentials based on noncompact groups (and so which might apply to moduli in an extra-dimensional setting). The resulting potentials provide natural large-field inflationary models and can predict a larger primordial tensor signal than is true for simpler single-field versions of these models. In so doing we provide a unified treatment of several alignment mechanisms, showing how each emerges as a limit of the more general setup.
Overview of the clay-mineralogy studies presented at the ‘Clays in natural and engineered barriers for radioactive waste confinement’ meeting, Brussels, March 2015

This special issue of Clay Minerals contains 13 full papers presented at the 6th conference on ‘Clays in natural and engineered barriers for radioactive waste confinement’ held in Brussels during 2015. The conference was organized by the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials (ONDRAF/NIRAS) together with partner organizations ANDRA (France), COVRA (The Netherlands), NAGRA (Switzerland), NWMO (Canada), POSIVA (Finland) and SKB (Sweden) and a broad international scientific committee. Since 2002, this conference has developed into the most important event for scientists from the world over, dealing with the disposal of highly and long-lived radioactive waste. After each of these conferences, a special issue of a journal was published which focused on clay radioactive waste (radwaste), research which has contributed in a significant way to the outstanding scientific level of the research in this field ( e.g . Landais & Aranyossy, 2011; Landais et al ., 2013; Norris et al ., 2014). Therefore, Clay Minerals - Journal of Fine Particle Science , is happy to be able to provide the present compilation of recent HLW-disposal research in clay mineralogy in an open access issue. Most of the 13 papers published in this special 2016 issue were taken from the session on alteration processes. Papers from this conference which focus on large-scale geological characterization, general strategies for clay-based disposal systems, geomechanics, or mass and gas transfer will be published in a ‘Special Publication’ of the Geological Society of London. Many countries have chosen to dispose of all or some of their radioactive waste in facilities constructed in stable geological formations. Geological disposal as a safe solution for the long-term management of radioactive waste is in line with international recommendations and practices. The development of a geological disposal facility at a specific site requires a systematic and integrated approach taking …
Hegemony and its discontents : a critical analysis of organizational knowledge transfer

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the phenomenon of knowledge transfer within multinational corporations (MNCs), and how the imperatives of thought and action that constitute new knowledge are received in the terrain that constitutes the MNC subsidiary.Design/methodology/approach – This study employs an ethnographic approach, and juxtaposes primary data collection with a variety of secondary data sources.Findings – The data are analyzed in light of the theoretical construct of hegemony, and three themes theorized that underlie the process of knowledge transfer. These include knowledge loss at the local level, the coercive practices that ensure knowledge transfer, and the invocation of imperial subjectivities by the headquarters of the MNC when dealing with subsidiaries from poorer nations.Originality/value – This paper goes beyond the mainstream approaches into organizational knowledge transfer, by analyzing these issues in light of political economy, and the changing landscape of industri.
Enabling Business Model Change: Evidence from High-Technology Firms

Companies today face volatile environments, short product life cycles, and changing customer requirements, which is especially the case in high-technology fields. In such environments, concentrating only on technological and product innovations is not sufficient to gain competitive advantages. Instead, companies need innovative business models in order to stand out from their competitors. To successfully change business models, companies require appropriate competencies. Thus, the objective of this research is to identify how companies can prepare their business model(s) to counteract environmental changes flexibly. With the aid of the chosen exploratory, qualitative research design, we investigate companies operating in high-technology branches. In total, 20 companies participated in our study. The interviews were conducted with CEOs, vice-presidents, product managers or other managers responsible for business model developments. The research revealed that companies can prepare the business model and its elements ex ante through developing capabilities in order to raise the flexibility of the business model. These capabilities have to be developed with regard to several internal and external issues driving these changes.
Taxonomic implications of molecular studies on Northern Brazilian Teredinidae (Mollusca: Bivalvia) specimens

The current taxonomy of the Teredinidae (shipworms) is wholly based on morphology and up to now no molecular studies of the phylogeny of this group have been published. In the present study the relationships between four genera of the subfamilies Teredininae and Bankiinae were established and the efficiency of the 16S rRNA gene in characterizing four Teredinidae species was tested. Phylogenetic trees support the grouping of Bankia fimbriatula with Nausitora fusticula and of Neoteredo reynei with Psiloteredo healdi, but the genetic distances do not justify the classification of these species into two distinct subfamilies. The results show that B. fimbriatula, N. reynei and P. healdi specimens from the coast of the Brazilian state of Para have five distinct 16S rRNA haplotypes, with one N. reynei haplotype differing from the other haplotypes in respect to at least seven sequences sites, indicating the existence of two very distinct sympatric lineages.
Relationship of calling intensity to micrometeorology in pond breeding frogs from central eastern New South Wales

Micrometeorological factors can strongly influence calling activity in frogs, but relatively little empirical evidence has examined possible relationships in Australian species. Such information is important when using surveys to detect species for management and research. We recorded the calling activity of frogs breeding at 93 ponds through coastal northern New South Wales and used linear mixed effects models to compare the number of calling males with temperature, humidity and cumulative rainfall at 24 hours and 72 hours prior to calling surveys. We obtained sufficient data to analyze the relationships for nine species, obtaining a positive response to 72-hour rainfall in eight of the nine species. Twenty-four hour rainfall provided a positive response for six species and a negative response for two species. Similarly, temperature and humidity provided positive responses for three and five species and negative effects for three and three species respectively. Calling of all species was related to multiple micrometeorological factors and these varied between species.
BLENDING CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH-SPEED ROTARY IMPELLERS

This paper presents a comparison of the blending efficiency of eight high-speed rotary impellers in a fully baffled cylindrical vessel under the turbulent flow regime of agitated charge. Results of carried out experiments (blending time and impeller power input) confirm that the down pumping axial flow impellers exhibit better blending efficiency than the high-speed rotary impellers with prevailing radial discharge flow. It follows from presented results that, especially for large scale industrial realisations, the axial flow impellers with profiled blades bring maximum energy savings in comparison with the standard impellers with inclined flat blades (pitched blade impellers).
Purification, composition analysis and antioxidant activity of different polysaccharides from the fruiting bodies of Pholiota adiposa

Three water-soluble polysaccharide fractions (PAP1-1, PAP1-2 and PAP2-1) were isolated and purified from the fruiting bodies of Pholiota adiposa by diethylaminoethanol (DEAE) Sepharose fast flow column and superdex TM 200 column chromatography on an AKTA Purifier system. Results of high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) indicated that the average molecular weights of PAP1-1, PAP1-2 and PAP2-1 were 2.3 x 10 6 Da, 8.8 x 10 3 Da and 2.1 x 10 6 Da, respectively. Monosaccharide compositions analysis revealed that PAP1-1 and PAP2-1 were both mainly composed of glucose, and PAP1-2 was composed of rhamnose and glucose with a mole ratio of 1:3.61. The evaluation of antioxidant activity suggested that PAP1-1 with β-configuration glycosidic bond exhibited stronger scavenging activity of superoxide radical and hydroxyl radical than PAP1-2 and PAP2-1 contained both α- and β-configuration glycosidic bond, and should be explored as a novel potential antioxidant. Available data obtained with in vitro models suggested that antioxidant activity of polysaccharide may be related to the configuration of glycosidic bond. Key words : Pholiota adipose , polysaccharide, purification, antioxidant activity.
Diet and Inflammation: Effects of Macronutrients and Dietary Patterns

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has already been demonstrated to be related to a chronic and complex inflammatory process, in which the loss of endothelial protective properties - the so-called endothelial dysfunction - plays a central role. A number of different approaches, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological, have been tested with inconclusive results so far. One field of special interest is the impact of the different macronutrients and dietary patterns in the inflammatory response that, ultimately, leads to endothelial dysfunction and increased cardio-metabolic risk. Although apparently simple, interventions regarding dietary habits have complex implications and involve a number of covariates that may interfere in the final results. To date, results about the protective effects of diet - in general - regarding cardio-metabolic risk remain to be fully proven.
Experiments with latent semantic analysis for word tagging

In this paper I show the possible use of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) as an aid for word tagging and ambiguity resolution for words in test sentences. The idea is to use large corpora of training sentences, previously tagged by a human expert; for building an LSA "engine" that is used to aid in tagging future test sentences. Various training and testing phases were done. The results show that LSA seems to do somewhat fair; compared to other statistical word tagging and ambiguity resolution methods. However, there is one main drawback for this approach; the accuracy of word tagging depends on the training corpus.
Detection of Lactococcus garvieae and Vibrio cholerae in some aquatic fishes of Persian Gulf using polymerase chain reaction

Lactococcus garvieae (L. garvieae) and Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae) causes emerging zoonotic disease in all over the world. In this research, we describe the lactococcosis and Vibrio cholerae in some aquatic fishes of Persian Gulf using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method during November and December 2013 in Iran. L. garvieae infections were detected in 0.00%, 0.00%, 10%, 10%,10%, 10%, 20% and 20% of the sampled Stromateidae (n=20), Pleuronectiformes (n=20), Scomberomorus commerson (n=20), Oyster (Pinctada Pearl) (n=20), Shrimp (n=30), Sawfishes (Pristis zijsron) (n=20), and Crab (Brachyura) (n=20) respectively. Also, V. cholerae infections were detected in 0.00%, 0.00%, 0.00%, 10%,13%, 0.00% and 30% of the sampled Stromateidae (n=20), Pleuronectiformes (n=20), Scomberomorus commerson (n=20), Oyster (Pinctada Pearl) (n=20), Shrimp (n=30), Sawfishes (Pristis zijsron) (n=20), and Crab (Brachyura) (n=20) respectively. In the present study, we succeeded in detecting and identifying two major species of lactococcosis and vibriosis disease by PCR technique in some aquatic fishes of Persian Gulf of Iran. Further attempts for molecular identification of these strains and introduction of new species are however needed.
Chapter 6 Anchoring Transition and Influence of Director Fluctuations in Liquid Crystal Droplets 6

Polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLC) [1] are a relatively new class of materials that hold promise for many applications ranging from switchable windows to projection displays. These materials, which are simply provide useful boundary condition for nice spherical LC droplets, are the focus of extensive research in the display industry. PDLCs consist of liquid crystal droplets that are dispersed in a solid polymer matrix. The resulting material is a sort of ”swiss cheese” (Figure 6.1) polymer with liquid crystal droplets filling in the holes. These tiny droplets (a few microns across for practical applications) are responsible for the unique behavior of the material. By changing the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules with an electric field, it is possible to vary the intensity of transmitted light. These system are of great interest in technology for display [2]. These systems have been subjected of considerable research, especially from the point of view of understanding the physics of the different structures that can be formed.
Detection of sub-MeV dark matter with three-dimensional Dirac materials

We propose the use of three-dimensional Dirac materials as targets for direct detection of sub-MeV dark matter. Dirac materials are characterized by a linear dispersion for low-energy electronic excitations, with a small band gap of O(meV) if lattice symmetries are broken. Dark matter at the keV scale carrying kinetic energy as small as a few meV can scatter and excite an electron across the gap. Alternatively, bosonic dark matter as light as a few meV can be absorbed by the electrons in the target. We develop the formalism for dark matter scattering and absorption in Dirac materials and calculate the experimental reach of these target materials. We find that Dirac materials can play a crucial role in detecting dark matter in the keV to MeV mass range that scatters with electrons via a kinetically mixed dark photon, as the dark photon does not develop an in-medium effective mass. The same target materials provide excellent sensitivity to absorption of light bosonic dark matter in the meV to hundreds of meV mass range, superior to all other existing proposals when the dark matter is a kinetically mixed dark photon.
On the saturation number of graphs

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a simple connected graph. A matching $M$ in a graph $G$ is a collection of edges of $G$ such that no two edges from $M$ share a vertex. A matching $M$ is maximal if it cannot be extended to a larger matching in $G$. The cardinality of any smallest maximal matching in $G$ is the saturation number of $G$ and is denoted by $s(G)$. In this paper we study the saturation number of the corona product of two specific graphs. We also consider some graphs with certain constructions that are of importance in chemistry and study their saturation number.
A Semisupervised Framework for Automatic Image Annotation Based on Graph Embedding and Multiview Nonnegative Matrix Factorization

Automatic image annotation is for more accurate image retrieval and classification by assigning labels to images. This paper proposes a semisupervised framework based on graph embedding and multiview nonnegative matrix factorization (GENMF) for automatic image annotation with multilabel images. First, we construct a graph embedding term in the multiview NMF based on the association diagrams between labels for semantic constraints. Then, the multiview features are fused and dimensions are reduced based on multiview NMF algorithm. Finally, image annotation is achieved by using the new features through a KNN-based approach. Experiments validate that the proposed algorithm has achieved competitive performance in terms of accuracy and efficiency.
Two-Dimensional Parameters Estimation

A parametric approach algorithm based on maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method is proposed which can be exploited for high-resolution parameter estimation in the domain of signal processing applications. The array signal model turns out to be a superposition of two-dimensional sinusoids with the first component of each frequency doublet corresponding to the direction of the target and second component to the velocity. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the validity of the proposed algorithm and its various aspects. Also, the presented algorithm is compared with a subspace based technique, multiple signal classification (MUSIC) to highlight the key differences in performance under different circumstances. It is observed that the developed algorithm has satisfactory performance and is able to determine the direction of arrival (DOA) as well as the velocity of multiple moving targets and at the same time it performs better than MUSIC under correlated noise. Index Terms—Direction of arrival, high resolution, two-dimensional, velocity estimation.
First report of Groundnut bud necrosis virus infecting wild species of Vigna, based on NP gene sequence characteristics

Symptoms such as chlorotic and necrotic spots on leaves, necrosis of the stems and petioles, broadly resembling those induced by Groundnut bud necrosis virus (GBNV) in cultivated species of Vigna were observed in twelve accessions of wild species/sub-species of Vigna ( V. umbellata, V. glabrescens, V. hainiana, V. mungo var. mungo, V. radiata var. radiata and V. radiata var. sublobata ) grown at the Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur, India during August-November 2011. Disease incidence ranged between 7.13- 40.3%. The identity of the virus was confirmed on the basis of symptoms on diagnostic host (cowpea cv. Pusa Komal) and nucleocapsid protein ( NP ) gene sequence characteristics. Analysis of NP gene of intra-field isolates of GBNV revealed 1-4% diversity in nucleotide and 0-4% in amino acids. However, diversity among intra-field isolates and isolates from cultivated Vigna ranged 2-7% at nucleotide level and 0-6 at amino acids level. This paper reports for the first time GBNV infection in these wild species/sub-species of Vigna and analyze the intra-field diversity in the NP gene of 12 GBNV isolates.
Design & Implementation of Sign Language Using Wearable Gloves

: A gesture is used to classify and recognize a signal that enables communication among the disabled person. It is a technique that has been in use to make people feel comfortable just like the normal people behave. Deaf and Dumb people always have difficulty in communicating with normal people. This technology helps dumb people in communicating with others. This technology use hand gestures as a main source of communication. In this article, the communication toolkit consists of a gesture recognition kit that further consist of an audio device, and hand Gloves with sensors. The sensor captures the gesture passes it to the display panel where the audio device recognizes and speaks up the gesture making proper two way communication between persons. As it is very easy to communicate through the different set of images stored in database and then speak out using the device. In built mechanism is more inficent & it is depleted through action.
Collaborative Filtering for Implicit Feedback: Investigating how to improve NRK TV's recommender system by including context

Collaborative filtering for implicit feedback has become an important tool for helping users navigate the web. One of the services that utilize its power is NRK TV who base their recommendations on the weighted regularized matrix factorization (WRMF) model. This thesis reviews two traditional latent factor models with matrix factorization, one of them being the WRMF and the other is based on a Bayesian criterion. Both models are then applied to data from NRK TV, where WRMF performs better. NRK TV has much more information available than what is used in WRMF, and the main goal of this thesis has been to improve recommendations by utilizing more of the available information. The author shows how we can use higher order arrays to model contextual information via tensor decomposition. Collaborative filtering with tensor decomposition is considered to be state of the art, and the author shows how one can use CP and Tucker decomposition to give recommendations that are tailored to the situation. The model involving Tucker decomposition is, to the authors knowledge, not detailed in the literature. The applications of these methods on the NRK TV data were however, limited. By including information about time of event, the author proposes a somewhat improved version of WRMF that is easily implemented. This modification allows for users taste to drift with time. It can for example be used to recommend users newer content that fit their taste profiles, or, with small modifications, give users seasonal recommendations, for example for Christmas time.
Low voltage operation of IGZO thin film transistors enabled by ultrathin Al2O3 gate dielectric

An ultrathin, 5 nm, Al2O3 film grown by atomic-layer deposition was used as a gate dielectric for amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). The Al2O3 layer showed a low surface roughness of 0.15 nm, a low leakage current, and a high breakdown voltage of 6 V. In particular, a very high gate capacitance of 720 nF/cm2 was achieved, making it possible for the a-IGZO TFTs to not only operate at a low voltage of 1 V but also exhibit desirable properties including a low threshold voltage of 0.3 V, a small subthreshold swing of 100 mV/decade, and a high on/off current ratio of 1.2 × 107. Furthermore, even under an ultralow operation voltage of 0.6 V, well-behaved transistor characteristics were still observed with an on/off ratio as high as 3 × 106. The electron transport through the Al2O3 layer has also been analyzed, indicating the Fowler–Nordheim tunneling mechanism.
Food safety, reputation and trade

I develop a simple dynamic model of reputation-based transactions between a buyer in one country and a supplier in another. I use the model to study the impact of a more stringent regulation on the buyer optimal purchase volume within an existing buyer-seller partnership. A more stringent standard affects the volume of trade in two intuitive ways: directly, a stricter standard affects the supply of quality goods and indirectly through reputation. I refer to the former effect as the regulation effect, and to the latter as the reputation effect. I show that, whereas most of the empirical literature has so far assumed that more stringent standards would be likely to reduce trade, the net effect is in fact non-monotone, even without taking into account endogenous technological upgrading in the supplier country. It varies with the belief the buyer holds about his seller at the time the change in regulation takes place. For both very low and very high seller's reputation, the reputation effect is negligible vis-a-vis the regulation effect. For intermediate levels of the supplier's reputation, reputation has the power to significantly mitigate the direct negative effect of a more stringent sanitary standard on trade. This result has significant implications for developing countries, for which access to developed countries markets is by and large, said to be disproportionately constrained by stricter standards.