Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploration of Chemical Analysis Techniques for Nanoscale Systems

As the critical dimensions of many devices, especially electronics, continue to become smaller, the ability to accurately analyze the properties at ever smaller scales becomes necessary. Optical techniques, such as confocal microscopy and various spectroscopies, have produced a wealth of information on larger length scales, above the diffraction limit. Scanning probe techniques, such as scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy, provide information with an extremely fine resolution, often on the order of nanometers or angstroms. In this document, plasmon coupling is used to generate large signal increases, with clear future applications toward scanning probe optical spectroscopies. A variation on scanning tunneling microscopy is also used to study the surface structure of environmentally interesting nanoparticles. Traditional Raman spectroscopy is used to examine doped graphene, which is becoming a hot material for future electronic applications.
Basin-Scale Assessment of Operational Base Flow Separation Methods

AbstractBase flow recession analysis is required to estimate the long-term, reliable component of the hydrograph and water cycle, and for drought management, inflow design and analysis, and contaminant and nutrient transport. Operationally, recursive digital filtering (RDF) techniques are commonly applied; however, questions have been raised about the reliability and parameterization of these methods. A comparison of three base flow separation methods, including two popular RDFs and one hydrologic model, is performed in two base flow-dominant subbasins of the Grand River Basin in southern Ontario, Canada. The Eramosa River and Whiteman’s Creek subbasins are similar in size (236 and 383 km2, respectively) and have similar annual runoff distributions yet significantly different physiography governing runoff generation. Subbasin physiographic characteristics are found to result in significant differences in annual base flow distributions, which are well captured by the hydrologic model but not by the RDFs.
The Effect of Feeding Dried Tomato Pomace and Concentrate Feed on Body Weight Change, Carcass Parameter and Economic Feasibility on Hararghe Highland Sheep, Eastern Ethiopia

The study was conducted using 24 yearling intact Hararghe highland male sheep with mean initial body weight (BW) of 16.73 ± 2.47 kg (Mean ± SD), with the objectives to evaluate the effect of supplementation of dried tomato pomace, and concentrate feed on live weight gain, carcass characteristics and economic feasibility of the feeding regime of sheep fed a basal diet of natural pasture hay. The experiment consisted 90 days feeding and followed by evaluation of carcass parameters at the end. The animals were fed concentrate at a rate of 300 gm per day on dry matter basis. The experimental sheep were blocked into 6 blocks of 4 animals based on their initial BW and randomly assigned to one of the four treatments within a block. Four dietary treatments used in the experiment were ad libitum feeding of hay alone (T1), ad libitum feeding of hay supplemented with 359.61 g dried tomato pomace (DTP) (T2), ad libitum feeding of hay supplemented with 300 g concentrate mix (CM=33% Noug seed cake (NSC) + 67% Wheat Bran (WB); T3), and ad libitum feeding of hay with 1:1 ratio mixture of DTP and concentrate mix (CM=33% Noug seed cake (NSC) + 67% Wheat Bran (WB);T4). Average daily gain (ADG) was lowest for T1 (30 g/day), and among the supplemented treatments values for T4 (65 g/day) was numerically higher than that for T3 (58 g/day) and T2 (57 g/day). Feed conversion efficiency showed a similar trend to Average daily gain (ADG). Hot carcass weight was 6.5, 8.5, 8.5 and 8.5 kg for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively and was lower for T1 than the other three treatments. Rib eye muscle area (REA) was 6.1, 7.3, 8.1 and 8.2 cm2 (SEM=0.446)) for T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively was significantly lower (p < 0.05) in T1. There was a negative net return for T1. The net return from the supplemented treatments was 62.3, 5.8, and 45.2 ETB, and the corresponding marginal rate of return was 2.49, 0.54, and 1.44 % for T2, T3 and T4, respectively. Integrating this feed resource into the feeding system of sheep in areas of availability will not only solve the existing critical feed shortage, but also avoid the problem of environmental pollution. In this study, supplementation of dried tomato pomace and concentrate feed positively affected the measured growth and carcass characteristics. Therefore, the results of this study suggested that dried tomato pomace can totally replace concentrate mixture used in the present study as a supplement to sheep fed a basal diet of natural pasture hay with better economic return.
Farmland and peri-urban livelihoods in Hanoi, Vietnam: evidence from household survey data

Using data from our own household survey (n=477) in Hanoi's peri-urban areas, this paper attempts to answer (i) what livelihood strategies are pursued by peri-urban households, (ii) which strategies are lucrative and which are not, and (iii) whether access to farmland is the potential barrier to enter remunerative strategies. The paper uses cluster analysis techniques, based on identification of household income shares by source, to provide the first classification of five livelihood strategies pursued by households in Hanoi's peri-urban areas. Income sources and total income are compared across livelihood strategies using Bonferroni pairwise tests and first-order stochastic dominant analysis. The findings of the study show that non-farm income sources mainly contribute to total household income, strategies based on formal wage work and non-farm household businesses are the most remunerative ones and strategies based on farming and informal wage work are the most inferior ones. Factors associated with households' livelihood strategy choice are examined using a multinomial logit model. The findings reveal that farmland is negatively associated with the choice of both high and low return non-farm-based strategies. This suggests that access to farmland is not a potential barrier to enter lucrative strategies. In addition, education of working members has a positive impact on the pursuit of remunerative strategies, implying that better education might shift households away from farming activities. Age of household working members has a negative effect on the choice of wage work-based strategies, suggesting that emerging non-farm opportunities make young workers less interested in farm work. Finally, this paper proposes some policy implications that may help households obtain better livelihood outcomes.
A Unique Indigenous Justice Delivery System of Tribes of Eastern Himalayan Region of India

Almost all the tribes across the world have their own indigenous concept of rules, regulation and grievance redress system developed with the evolution of the community to maintain peace, justice and harmony. The indigenous people takes law as a way of life and understand it through experience and interactions. The objective of the current research was to study one unique justice delivery system to address non-criminal cases that cannot be dealt with normal procedure due to lack of evidence, witness and formal proof. The system is prevailing among the tribes of eastern Himalayan region of India. The phenomenological approach was used to study the system as it is in situ . The justice is delivered on the basis of unique system of decision making between two alternatives based on the shape of chicken liver. Involvement of spirituality and spirit make the system acceptable to both the complainant and defendant. The unique characteristic of the system is that it does not penalize the loser, instead the court pray for them and bless them for abiding the decision of the court in presence of the spirit. The justice delivery system aims to maintain harmony in the society as well as save the face of both the loser and winner. In the present system, the justice delivered may be not the just decision, but the loser accepts the decision considering it as the command of the god and spirit without keeping any grudges against the winner. The system demands participation of whole village irrespective of gender and ages, with fundamental aim of preserving the custom and hand down to the next generation.
Denitrification Potential and Denitrifier Abundance in Downstream of Dams in Temperate Streams

Various studies have been conducted to investigate effects of dams on river ecosystems, but less information is available regarding damming impacts on downstream denitrification. We measured denitrification enzyme activity (potential denitrification rate) and denitrifier abundances (using nirS, nirK, and nosZ as markers) in dammed headstreams of the Nakdong River in South Korea. Sediments in Phragmites-dominated riparian areas and in-stream areas across streams (dammed vs. reference) with different streambed materials (gravel and sand) were sample d occasionally. We hypothesized that (i) the higher available N and C contents in sediments downstream of dams foster larger denitrifier communities than in the reference system and (ii) differences in potential denitrification rates across the systems correspond with denitrifier abundances. Despite 30 years of different hydrological management with dams and greater inorganic N and DOC contents in sediments downstream of dams, compared to the references, abundances of denitrifier communities and potential denitrification rates within the whole sediment were not significantly different across the systems. However, nirS and nosZ denitrifier abundances and potential denitrification rates were considerably increased in specific sediments downstream of dams (gravelly riparian and sandy in-stream) with regard to flooding events and seasonal temperature variation. nirK was not amplified in all sediments. Canonical correspondence analyses (CCA) revealed that the relationship between abundances of denitrifier communities and nutrient availabilities and potential denitrification rates was a weak one.
Flocking Control of Multiple Mobile Agents with the Rules of Avoiding Collision

This paper investigates the flocking and the coordinative control problems of multiple mobile agents with the rules of avoiding collision. We propose a set of control laws using hysteresis in adding new links and applying new potential function to guarantee that the fragmentation of the network can be avoided, under which all agents approach a common velocity vector, and asymptotically converge to a fixed value of interagent distances and collisions between agents can be avoided throughout the motion. Furthermore, we extend the flocking algorithm to solve the flocking situation of the group with a virtual leader agent. The laws can make all agents asymptotically approach the virtual leader and collisions can be avoided between agents in the motion evolution. Finally, some numerical simulations are showed to illustrate the theoretical results.
Strategy-as-Practice: Taking Social Practices Seriously

This article reviews research in Strategy-as-Practice (SAP) and suggests directions for its development. The power of this perspective lies in its ability to explain how strategy-making is enabled and constrained by prevailing organizational and societal practices. Our review shows how SAP research has helped to advance social theories in strategic management, offered alternatives to performance-dominated analyzes, broadened the scope in terms of organizations studied and promoted new methodologies. In particular, it has provided important insights into the tools and methods of strategy-making (practices), how strategy work takes place (praxis), and the role and identity of the actors involved (practitioners). However, we argue that there is a need to go further in the analysis of social practices to unleash the full potential of this perspective. Hence, we outline five directions for the further development of the practice perspective: placing agency in a web of practices, recognizing the macro-institutional nature of practices, focusing attention on emergence in strategy-making, exploring how the material matters, and promoting critical analysis.
Article in press-uncorrected proof Palisada flagellifera ( Ceramiales , Rhodophyta ) from the Canary Islands , Spain : a new record for the eastern Atlantic Ocean based on morphological and molecular evidence

Palisada flagellifera (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) is recorded for the first time in the eastern Atlantic Ocean off Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain. The specimens were collected in 2006–2009 growing from the lower intertidal to subtidal zones to 2 m depth at sites exposed to wave action. The species possesses a palisade-like arrangement of cortical cells in cross section, lacks secondary pit connections between them, and has tetrasporangia produced by three fertile pericentral cells (the third and the fourth additional and the second that becomes fertile), and a right-angled arrangement of tetrasporangia. Gametangia were not observed. The phylogenetic relationships were inferred by analyses of the chloroplast-encoded rbcL gene sequences from 46 taxa. The Canarian and Brazilian P. flagellifera specimens formed a highly supported clade with a low level of genetic variation in the rbcL sequences (0.02–0.04%), confirming that they are the same taxonomic entity. This study expands the geographical distribution of P. flagellifera to the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
energy and memory efficient clone detection in wireless sensor networks

ABSTRACT Intrusion detection plays an important role in the area of security in WSN. Detection of any type of intruder is essential in case of WSN. WSN consumes a lot of energy to detect an intruder. Therefore we derive an algorithm for energy efficient external and internal intrusion detection. We also analyse the probability of detecting the intruder for heterogeneous WSN. This paper considers single sensing and multi sensing intruder detection models. It is found that our experimental results validate the theoretical results.
Don't Worry, be Flexible? - Job Satisfaction among Flexible Workers

This paper investigates whether workers in flexible employment relationships show lower job satisfaction than workers with permanent job contracts. Our results indicate that looking only at formal job security provided by the contract type may lead to misleading conclusions about job satisfaction. Using longitudinal data for Germany, we find that it is not the formal job security provided by the contractual agreement but rather the perceived job security that matters for job satisfaction. Moreover, there is evidence that workers value job characteristics in similar ways across fundamentally different types of job contracts.
Multiobjective sensitivity analysis of sediment and nitrogen processes with a watershed model

This paper presents a computational analysis for evaluating critical non‐point‐source sediment and nutrient (specifically nitrogen) processes and management actions at the watershed scale. In the analysis, model parameters that bear key uncertainties were presumed to reflect the importance of natural processes and/or management actions that they represent. The multiobjective generalized sensitivity analysis and the tree‐structured density estimation procedures were used in combination to investigate correlation structure in the parameter space while accounting for multiple objectives. Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, this framework was applied to the Dreisbach watershed in Indiana in the Midwestern portion of the United States. Results showed that incorporation of parameter interactions and multiple objectives is essential to obtaining conclusive information about critical system processes and management actions. Interactions between surface runoff volume and within‐channel processes were critical to describe transport of sediments in the study watershed. Key management actions for total nitrogen control were found to be nitrogen fertilizer application and upland farming practices. The sensitivity analysis reported herein could be used to derive a list of key non‐point‐source best management practices for development of watershed management plans. Implications of the analysis that are relevant to calibration of complex watershed models are discussed.
Fundamental Investigations of Supercritical Water Flows for Hydrothermal Spallation Drilling

Our society has a growing demand for electricity and heat that has to be satisfied by different sources of energy. The geothermal energy stored in the deep underground can be part of this energy mix. For operation, a geothermal power plant needs at least two wells of several kilometers depth (2–10 km) in order to reach the required temperatures clearly above 100 ◦C for electricity generation. At the bottom of the wells, a system of fractures is generated to connect both wells with each other. These fractures act as a heat exchanger to transfer heat from the hot rock to the circulating working fluid. Deep geothermal wells have to be drilled with conventional rotary drilling methods in abrasive and hard rock environments. Wear of the drilling head under these conditions and therefore the required replacement results in expensive trip times during drilling. The costs associated with drilling represent the major part of the costs (up to 70%) for the construction of a geothermal power plant. In order to make deep geothermal energy competitive with respect to other sources of energy, the drilling costs need to be significantly reduced. “Thermal spallation drilling” is known as a promising technology for drilling shallow wells in hard rock formations. This drilling approach is based on the characteristics of certain rock types to disintegrate continuously into small flakes when exposed to the high thermal loads of an impinging flame jet. Enhanced drilling velocities and less wear of the drilling head are expected as major advantages that finally could help to reduce the drilling costs. Nevertheless, for drilling wells of several kilometers depth, a water-based drilling fluid is essentially required for fulfilling several important tasks in the drilling process, e.g. removal of rock cuttings. In water filled boreholes at certain depth, the pressure exceeds the critical pressure of water (220.64 bar) and therefore, supercritical water jets are of particular interest to provide the required heat for thermal rock fragmentation. This spallation
Attenuation of Conducted EMI for Three-Level Inverters Through PWM

This paper presents two typical modulations to reduce conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) for three-level voltage-source inverters. The first modulation called variable switching frequency pulse-width modulation (VSFPWM) based on real-time current ripple prediction is used to reduce differential-mode (DM) EMI noise. This technique can make conducted EMI between kHz and MHz achieve great attenuation. The other method named zero common-mode (CM) PWM is used to decrease CM voltage and current. A comprehensive analysis and comparison between normal SVPWM and zero-CM PWM state that zero-CM PWM pays the prices of higher Total Harmowic Distortion (THD), serious neutral voltage unbalance, more switching loss and lower modulation index to achieve theoretical elimination of CM voltage. Then, combination of VSFPWM and zero-CM modulation is designed to avoid the disadvantages such as large switching loss produced by zero-CM PWM, and the new method has obvious predominance of reducing conducted EMI noise. Relevant experimental results validate the advantages of these modulations.
Magnetic topology and surface differential rotation on the K 1 subgiant of the RS CVn system

We present here spectropolarimetric observations of the RS CVn system HR 1099 (V711 Tau) secured from 1998 February to 2002 January with the spectropolarimeter MuSiCoS at the Télescope Bernard Lyot (Observatoire du Pic du Midi, France). We apply Zeeman–Doppler imaging and reconstruct surface brightness and magnetic topologies of the K1 primary subgiant of the system, at five different epochs. We confirm the presence of large, axisymmetric regions where the magnetic field is mainly azimuthal, providing further support to the hypothesis that dynamo processes may be distributed throughout the whole convective zone in this star. We study the short-term evolution of surface structures from a comparison of our images with observations secured at close-by epochs by Donati et al. at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. We conclude that the small-scale brightness and magnetic patterns undergo major changes within a time-scale of 4–6 weeks, while the largest structures remain stable over several years. We report the detection of a weak surface differential rotation (both from brightness and magnetic tracers) indicating that the equator rotates faster than the pole with a difference in rotation rate between the pole and the equator about four times smaller than that of the Sun. This result suggests that tidal forces also affect the global dynamic equilibrium of convective zones in cool active stars.
Impact of an invasive alien plant on litter decomposition along a latitudinal gradient

Invasive alien plant effects on ecosystem functions are often difficult to predict across environmental gradients due to the context-dependent interactions between the invader and the recipient communities. Adopting a functional trait-based framework could provide more mechanistic predictions for invasive species' impacts. In this study, we contrast litter decomposition rates among communities with and without the invasive plant Impatiens glandulifera in five regions along a 1600 km long latitudinal gradient in Europe. Across this gradient, four functional traits, namely leaf dry matter content (LDMC), specific leaf area (SLA), stem-specific density (SSD), and plant height, are correlated to rates of litter decomposition of standardized rooibos (labile), green tea (recalcitrant), and I. glandulifera litter. Our results show that both invaded and non-invaded plant communities had a higher expression of acquisitive traits (low LDMC and SSD, high SLA) with increasing temperature along the latitudinal gradient, partly explaining the variation in decomposition rates along the gradient. At the same time, invasion shifted community trait composition toward more acquisitive traits across the latitudinal gradient. These trait changes partly explained the increased litter decomposition rates of the labile litter fraction of rooibos and I. glandulifera litter in invaded communities, a shift that was most evident in the warmer study regions. Plant available nitrogen was lower in invaded communities, likely due to high nutrient uptake by I. glandulifera. Meanwhile, the coldest study region was characterized by a reversed effect of invasion on decomposition rates. Here, community traits related to low litter quality and potential allelopathic effects of the invader resulted in reduced litter decomposition rates, suggesting a threshold temperature at which invader effects on litter decomposition turn positive. This study therefore illustrates how functional trait changes toward acquisitive traits can help explain invader-induced changes in ecosystem functions such as increased litter decomposition.