Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sexual beginners: accounting for first sexual intercourse in Italian young people's heterosexual biographies

Based on survey data of 1000 young people aged 18–29 and semi-structured interviews with 51 young people aged 18–34 living in a north-western Italian region, the article explores how they account for their first heterosexual intercourse. Young people describe and make sense of their experiences by referring to sexual scripts; narrative sequences that represent the legitimate rules and moves of the heterosexual game. The article shows the complex intertwining of compliance with, adaptation and negotiation of, and challenge to gendered sexual scripts. On the one hand, at the beginning of their sexual careers young people follow gendered scripts strongly shaped by a double standard: young men more often place their first sexual intercourse within a context of emotional and relational detachment, while young women tend to interpret their sexual debut as a romantic experience. On the other hand, the research findings point to processes of negotiation and re-definition of scripts based on three different cultural logics: the denaturalization of sexual scripts; the reversal or inversion of gendered scripts; and the convergence with or the construction of a common ‘degendering’ script.
Optimal membranes for biogas upgrade by removing CO2: High permeance or high selectivity?

ABSTRACT Biogas can be upgraded to biomethane through CO2 removal as a sustainable replacement of natural gas. Membrane systems that are based on a two-step design have emerged as an attractive approach for the CO2 removal. The objective of this work is to determine optimal membranes for this application by performing process simulation and techno-economic analysis. Practical membranes with the trade-off of CO2 permeance and CO2/CH4 selectivity on the Robeson’s upper bound are considered, and the membranes in the two steps are varied independently. Optimal membranes should have high CO2 permeance with sufficient CO2/CH4 selectivity (10–25) to achieve the lowest operating cost for the CO2 removal.
Dynamics of the Morse Oscillator: Analytical Expressions for Trajectories, Action-Angle Variables, and Chaotic Dynamics

We consider the one degree-of-freedom Hamiltonian system defined by the Morse potential energy function (the “Morse oscillator”). We use the geometry of the level sets to construct explicit expressions for the trajectories as a function of time, their period for the bounded trajectories, and action-angle variables. We use these trajectories to prove sufficient conditions for chaotic dynamics, in the sense of Smale horseshoes, for the time-periodically perturbed Morse oscillator using a Melnikov type approach.
Of shoes-and ships-and sealing-wax: A dynamic systems approach to language curriculum orientation 1

Abstract The conversation topics raised in Lewis Carroll's poem ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’ serve as a metaphor for (among others) the nature of current language curricula. The article traces the background and implementation of language learning theories using the generic First Additional Language curriculum as a case in point. With reference to sociolinguistic language acquisition theories and complexity theory, an attempt is made to show how the curriculum fails and how steps can be taken to revolutionise language curriculum design.
RetroFlow: Maintaining Control Resiliency and Flow Programmability for Software-Defined WANs

Providing resilient network control is a critical concern for deploying Software-Defined Networking (SDN) into Wide-Area Networks (WANs). For performance reasons, a Software-Defined WAN is divided into multiple domains controlled by multiple controllers with a logically centralized view. Under controller failures, we need to remap the control of offline switches from failed controllers to other active controllers. Existing solutions could either overload active controllers to interrupt their normal operations or degrade network performance because of increasing the controller-switch communication overhead. In this paper, we propose RetroFlow to achieve low communication overhead without interrupting the normal processing of active controllers during controller failures. By intelligently configuring a set of selected offline switches working under the legacy routing mode, RetroFlow relieves the active controllers from controlling the selected offline switches while maintaining the flow programmability (e.g., the ability to change paths of flows) of SDN. RetroFlow also smartly transfers the control of offline switches with the SDN routing mode to active controllers to minimize the communication overhead from these offline switches to the active controllers. Simulation results show that compared with the baseline algorithm, RetroFlow can reduce the communication overhead up to 52.6% during a moderate controller failure by recovering 100% flows from offline switches and can reduce the communication overhead up to 61.2% during a serious controller failure by setting to recover 90% of flows from offline switches.
The Effect Of Dielectric Loss On Impulse Response Of Microstrip Structures

A three-dimensional FDTD algorithm is applied to the analysis of microstrip structures comprising lossless and lossy dielectric substrates. A well-posed perfect matching layer (WP-PML) designed for general media is employed here to truncate the domains under study. Microstrip circuits are studied in both time and frequency domains yielding an analysis of the influence of using lossy materials in their impulse response.
Protein-Polymer Complex Coacervates as Synthetic Membrane-less Organelles

In solution, oppositely-charged macromolecules undergo charge-mediated liquid-liquid phase separation into a complex coacervate phase – a dense, macromolecule-rich liquid. In nature, the basis for intracellular compartmentalization in the formation of membrane-less organelles has been shown to follow similar complexation principles, where charged proteins represent the ionic species. We seek to capture the spatiotemporal tunability properties of such organelles for enzymatic reactions in vitro. However, the in vitro formation and deformation of protein-based coacervate microenvironments as a nanoreactor is a limiting factor. Here, we prescribe high-precision turbidimetry coupled with optical microscopy, to characterize the phase behavior of binary protein-polymer complexes between the weak anionic enzyme Glucose Oxidase (GOx) and four different synthetic polycations as functions of composition and ionic strength. Establishment of conditions ideal for coacervate formation in each protein-polymer system informed pH titration experiments on characterizing self-assembly regulation. The results from this study will help inform the design of novel coacervate microenvironments for industrial enzyme cascades and elucidate the role of associative phase separation in cellular evolution.
How Human is Machine Translationese? Comparing Human and Machine Translations of Text and Speech

Translationese is a phenomenon present in human translations, simultaneous interpreting, and even machine translations. Some translationese features tend to appear in simultaneous interpreting with higher frequency than in human text translation, but the reasons for this are unclear. This study analyzes translationese patterns in translation, interpreting, and machine translation outputs in order to explore possible reasons. In our analysis we – (i) detail two non-invasive ways of detecting translationese and (ii) compare translationese across human and machine translations from text and speech. We find that machine translation shows traces of translationese, but does not reproduce the patterns found in human translation, offering support to the hypothesis that such patterns are due to the model (human vs machine) rather than to the data (written vs spoken).
Correction of Self-Absorption Distortion in XANES

In solution, oppositely-charged macromolecules undergo charge-mediated liquid-liquid phase separation into a complex coacervate phase – a dense, macromolecule-rich liquid. In nature, the basis for intracellular compartmentalization in the formation of membrane-less organelles has been shown to follow similar complexation principles, where charged proteins represent the ionic species. We seek to capture the spatiotemporal tunability properties of such organelles for enzymatic reactions in vitro. However, the in vitro formation and deformation of protein-based coacervate microenvironments as a nanoreactor is a limiting factor. Here, we prescribe high-precision turbidimetry coupled with optical microscopy, to characterize the phase behavior of binary protein-polymer complexes between the weak anionic enzyme Glucose Oxidase (GOx) and four different synthetic polycations as functions of composition and ionic strength. Establishment of conditions ideal for coacervate formation in each protein-polymer system informed pH titration experiments on characterizing self-assembly regulation. The results from this study will help inform the design of novel coacervate microenvironments for industrial enzyme cascades and elucidate the role of associative phase separation in cellular evolution.
taurenmd: A command-line interface for analysis of Molecular Dynamics simulations

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of biological molecules have evolved drastically since its application was first demonstrated four decades ago (McCammon, Gelin, & Karplus, 1977) and, nowadays, simulation of systems comprising millions of atoms is possible due to the latest advances in computation and data storage capacity – and the scientific community’s interest is growing (Hospital, Battistini, Soliva, Gelpí, & Orozco, 2019). Academic groups develop most of the MD methods and software for MD data handling and analysis. The MD analysis libraries developed solely for the latter scope nicely address the needs of manipulating raw data and calculating structural parameters, such as: MDAnalysis (Gowers et al., 2016; MichaudAgrawal, Denning, Woolf, & Beckstein, 2011); MDTraj (McGibbon et al., 2015); LOOS (Romo, Leioatts, & Grossfield, 2014); and PyTraj (Hai Nguyen, 2016; Roe & Cheatham, 2013), each with its advantages and drawbacks inherent to their implementation strategies. This diversity enriches the field with a panoply of strategies that the community can utilize.
Climate policies under collective risk: A laboratory investigation on the provision of local irrigation systems

Motivated by the need for governments to partner with local farmers so that modern irrigation channels can be constructed to avoid losses from drought, we model the irrigation system provision problem as a threshold public goods game of loss avoidance and focus on testing whether government subsidies, as a type of price-based intervention, increase rate of successful provision. We design an experiment with scenarios involving either high or low risk of loss, while the local government provides either no subsidy, a one-to-one matching subsidy or a lump-sum subsidy. Results show that with no subsidy, the rate of provision of the public good is below the social optimum, and this is especially the case under high risk. Subsidies substantially increase the likelihood the irrigation project is undertaken, though groups remain under-insured in relation to the social optimum. A one-to-one matching subsidy appears to be at least as effective as lump-sum grants under same budget, although the improvement in average group investment and success rates is not significant.
On the general evaluation of the maximum allowable drift at the top of shear walls (constant and variable stiffness)

Abstract The latest research on determining maximum allowable displacements at the top of a shear wall (or maximum Drift) has contributed considerably to the improvement of concrete structures. Aiming at limiting maximum displacement, various investigators and seismic codes use values ranging from H/50 to H/2000, (H=building height). Difference shows considerable uncertainty in these limits. This article evaluates maximum allowable drift and provides general formulae for constant and variable stiffness shear walls by using FEM along with structural dynamics and reinforced concrete design considering cracked shear wall sections suggested by UBC and ACI. A comparison is made with various codes.
Joint pricing and inventory decisions in competitive retail

In this paper, we evaluate the joint pricing and inventory decisions for retailers in a competitive market. Specifically we develop a demand models for the optimization of retail sales of perishable products as a differential game, solving the joint inventory and pricing problem over a finite horizon. We examine general pricing policies over the sales horizon for both symmetric and asymmetric firms within the market and discuss the implications of both. We examine specific strategies for the smaller firm, such as service differentiation, when competing with a much larger competitor in an asymmetric duopoly, as well as the role of price leadership as a strategy for the larger firm when the market is highly competitive.
Layered Concept Lattice Model and Its Application to Build Rapidly Concept Lattice

When some attributes of a formal context can be decomposed into some subattributes a model of layered concept lattice to improve the efficiency of building concept lattice with complex structure attribute data is studied, the relationship between concept lattice and layered concept is discussed. Two algorithms are proposed: one is the roll-up building algorithm in which the upper concepts are built by the lower concept and the other is the drill-down algorithm in which the lower concepts are built by the upper concept. The examples and experiments show that the layered concept lattice model can be used to model complex structure attribute data, and the roll-up building algorithm and the drill-down algorithm are effective. The layered concept lattice model expands the scope of the research and application of concept lattice, the roll-up building algorithm, and drill-down algorithm of layered concept lattice to improve the efficiency for building concept lattice.
THE MONGE-KANTOROVICH METRIC ON MULTIMEASURES AND SELF-SIMILAR MULTIMEASURES

For a metric space (X, d) the classical Monge-Kantorovich metric dM gives a distance between two probability measures on X which is tied to the underlying distance d on X in an essential way. In this paper, we extend the Monge-Kantorovich metric to signed measures and set-valued measures (multimeasures) and, in each case, prove completeness of a suitable space of these measures. Using this extension as a framework, we construct self-similar multimeasures by using an IFS-type Markov operator.
reSHAPe: A Framework for Interactive Explanations in XAI Based on SHAP

The interdisciplinary field of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) aims to foster human understanding of black-box machine learning models through explanation-generating methods. In this paper, we describe the need for interactive explanation facilities for end-users in XAI. We believe that interactive explanation facilities that provide multiple layers of customizable explanations offer promising directions for empowering humans to practically understand model behavior and limitations. We outline a web-based UI framework for developing interactive explanations based on SHAP.
Can we do better than co-citations? Bringing Citation Proximity Analysis from idea to practice in research

In this paper, we build on the idea of Citation Proximity Analysis (CPA), originally introduced in [1], by developing a step by step scalable approach for building CPA-based recommender systems. As part of this approach, we introduce three new proximity functions, extending the basic assumption of co-citation analysis (stating that the more often two articles are co-cited in a document, the more likely they are related) to take the distance between the co-cited documents into account. Asking the question of whether CPA can outperform co-citation analysis in recommender systems, we have built a CPA based recommender system from a corpus of 368,385 full-texts articles and conducted a user survey to perform an initial evaluation. Two of our three proximity functions used within CPA outperform co-citations on our evaluation dataset.
Decentralized Data-Driven Tuning of Droop Frequency Controllers

Power oscillation damping is an important task for maintaining electric grid stability and reliability. It is realized via several control mechanisms that are traditionally tuned manually at installation time, often with the help of dynamic simulations of the full grid. With the increasing number of Decentralized Energy Resources (DER) and variable renewable energies, both the grid structure as well as generators’ parameters are subject to frequent changes, turning manually tuned controllers suboptimal and existing dynamic models invalid. We therefore develop an automated controller tuning approach for the core mechanism of droop frequency control. It runs decentrally on each generator or in each control area without using an a priori dynamic model of the grid. Instead, we use data-based system identification to estimate a dynamic model of the remaining grid and combine it with local parameters to optimally adapt the local droop value. In simulation experiments, the algorithm is compared against an optimization approach, which has complete knowledge of the full grid configuration, and a heuristic that simulates manual tuning. In the considered setup, our approach reduces frequency oscillations by 15% compared to simulated manual tuning and comes within 8% of the all-knowing central approach.
Factor Structure of the Differential Ability Scales–Second Edition Core Subtests: Standardization Sample Confirmatory Factor Analyses

The present study examined the factor structure of the Differential Ability Scales–Second Edition (DAS-II) core subtests from the standardization sample via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using methods (bifactor modeling and variance partitioning) and procedures (robust model estimation due to nonnormal subtest score distributions) recommended but not included in the DAS-II Introductory and Technical Handbook. CFAs were conducted with the three DAS-II standardization sample age groups (lower early years [age = 2:6–3:5 years], upper early years [age = 3:6–6:11 years], school age [7:0–17:11 years]) using standardization sample raw data provided by NCS Pearson, Inc. Although most DAS-II core subtests were properly associated with the theoretically proposed group factors, both the higher order and bifactor models indicated that the g factor accounted for large portions of total and common variance, whereas the group factors (Verbal, Nonverbal, Spatial) accounted for small portions of total and common variance. The DAS-II core battery provides strong measurement of general intelligence, and clinical interpretation should be primarily, if not exclusively, at that level.
Project Us: A Wearable for Enhancing Empathy

Enhancing the empathy of our human interactions has been the object of intensive psychological studies for decades. The emergence of affective computing has opened the door towards technologically-enabled solutions. Yet, existing techniques struggle to attain their desired impact, often being difficult and expensive to deliver, and disconnected from daily life. Project Us' goal is to help overcome these challenges through a pair of wearable devices (in this case wristbands) that aim to trigger an empathy-enhancing effect, when being worn by two people during day-to-day conversations. The small-sized, wireless devices sense each person's electrodermal activity, associated with their level of emotional arousal, and share it to the other partner (when a threshold is exceeded) through a discreet, haptic nudge, creating a real-time feedback loop. The user study performed with 18 participants (nine romantically engaged couples) revealed that most of them found the wristbands to increase their level of awareness of the partner's emotional experience. Their interaction was analyzed based on interviews (qualitatively), and natural language processing techniques (quantitatively).
Blood pressure response to successive divided attention tests when performed with instrumental background music, comparing between different ethnic groups – a randomised controlled trial

Introduction: The entrainment effect of soothing music is well established. But studies on its effect in different ethnic groups in relation to task performance are sparse. Objectives: To compare the effect of classical instrumental music on successive divided attention test and related blood pressure changes in Indian and Malaysian first year medical students. Method: 60-Indian and 60-Malaysian 1yr medical students were randomised into equal numbers in music and control group, creating 4-subgroups. Three different forms of SDMT were tested as pre test, during music/control session and post test using total, correct and error score, for assessing divided attention. Simultaneously, multiple BP recordings were taken as pre test, during 1,5,15,25 minutes during music/control (+SDMT) and post test. (Statistically significant p value<0.05). Results: Music group showed significant results for correct (p=0.02) and total (p=0.029) scores during post test while errors reduced (p=0.002). Malaysian music group performed the best. Indian music group showed decline in post test error scores (p=0.002). BP showed a drop in recording at 5minutes (p<0.001), a steep rise in values till 15minutes (p<0.001) (corresponds to SDMT) in music group. In the control group, BP changes were not significant. On comparing the subgroups, paired-t test values in the Malaysian music group were significant. Conclusion: Classical instrumental music is beneficial to medical students and can alleviate instantaneous stress within a span of 5minutes. When used in the background, during task performance, can increase arousal which helps the students perform better. Performance improves with music irrespective of nationality, preference and with short duration of music. Implications: Music can be used between lectures for a short time to relax the students and help them concentrate better for the subsequent classes, especially for last sessions.
A New Approach to Heart Sounds Biometric Recognition Based on Gram-PNN

— In this paper we introduce a new approach to heart sounds biometric recognition based on Gram polynomials and probabilistic neural networks (PNN). The usage of heart sounds as physiological biometric traits was first introduced in [1], in which the authors proposed and started exploring this idea. Heart sound recognition is based on the analysis of PCG (PhonoCardioGram) sequences. The proposed system presents good performance obtaining an error rate of 13.70 % over a database of 50 people, containing multiple heart sequences per person, each lasting from 20 to 70 seconds.