Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantifying the Importance of Nationality in Determining International Protection Outcomes in Ireland

We examine 40,434 International Protection (IP) determinations for non-EEA nationals covering a 16-year period in Ireland. We quantify the weight of importance of nationality versus process factors (e.g. length of time awaiting a decision) and applicant (e.g. gender) related characteristics in determining the IP outcome and show that nationality accounts for over twothirds of the explained variation in outcomes. We also show that a grant of protection of depends on just seven statistically significant applicant characteristics or process factors suggesting the determining officer’s assessment of the credibility of an asylum claim is nuanced. Taken with the fact that the UNHCR provides oversight of the IP determination procedure we take the view that the procedure is reasonably fair. Nonetheless, our analysis also shows that a stiffer determination regime has been in place in Ireland from 2007 to 2013. Our findings have important policy implications for IP in Ireland and elsewhere.
A Comparative Study of OpenACC Implementations

GPUs and other accelerators are available on many different devices, while GPGPU has been massively adopted by the HPC research community. Although a plethora of libraries and applications providing GPU support are available, the need of implementing new algorithms from scratch, or adapting sequential programs to accelerators, will always exist. Writing CUDA or OpenCL codes, although an easier task than using their predecessors, is not trivial. Obtaining performance is even harder, as it requires deep understanding of the underlying architecture. Some efforts have been directed toward the automatic code generation for GPU devices, with different results. In this work, we present a comparison between three directive-based programming models: hiCUDA, PGI Accelerator and OpenACC, using for the last our novel accULL implementation. Key words— OpenACC, Accelerators, GPGPU, CUDA, OpenCL, OpenMP, compiler, productivity
Fault Geometry at the Rupture Termination of the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake

The source geometry and slip distribution at rupture termination of the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake were investigated using waveform inversion on the assumption of fault branching in the northeastern part of the rupture model. Possible branching of the Okamoto fault is suggested both by the static-displacement distribution and damage extension east of Kobe (Nishinomiya area). To exclude data contaminated by the basin-edge-diffracted wave in the waveform-inversion process, we examined the spatio-temporal variation of its influence and from a comparison with a flat model, we determined windows appropriate for the data. Three subevents were identified, as was reported in previous works. The largest was in the shallow part on the Awaji side, whereas the smaller two occurred at great depths (7km) on the Kobe side. We found a smaller subevent in the deep part of the branch. Total variance reduction was larger, and the ABIC value was smaller when we assumed the branch than when we did not, which shows the superiority of the branching fault model. Resolution checks showed that the slips on proposed branched portions are physical and not caused by random-data noise or systematic errors in Green's func- tions that arise from misestimation of velocity structures. Calculation of the relative static displacement between two leveling observation stations near the branching fault also showed the greater utility of the branching fault model. The effect of slip on the branched fault has been shown in near-source ground-motion simulation using the 3D finite-difference method (Iwata et al., 1999). The characteristic distribution of ground motion in the near-source region indicated by the damage distribution is well reproduced by the modeling of both the source process and wave propagation in the realistic 3D velocity structure. Slip on the branched fault affected the ground motion in eastern Kobe (Nada and Higashi-Nada wards), Ashiya, and Nishinomiya cities, but its contribution is not dominant even in those regions; about 30 to 50% maximum velocity in the frequency range of 0.1 to 1.0 Hz. We conclude that branching rupture of the Okamoto fault during the Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake is the preferable interpretation on the source process of this earth- quake. This supports the idea of a geometrical barrier suggested by geological ob- servations.
New MAX Phase Superconductor Ti 2GeC: A First-principles Study

This is the first DFT-based first-principles predic tion of the detailed optical and thermodynamic properties, including Vickers hardness and Fermi surface of 211 MAX phase Ti 2GeC for which superconductivity ( Tc~ 9.5 K) was reported very recently. The calculated structural properties are in excellent a greement with experiments. Our results on elastic parameters indicate a slight elastic anisot ropy and brittleness of the compound. The chemical bonding is seen to be a combination of cov alent, ionic and metallic nature. The rather stronger covalent bonding is responsible for its high Vickers hardness of 11.6 GPa. The investigated Fermi surface is formed mainly by the low-dispersive bands, which should be responsible for the presence of superconductivit y in Ti 2GeC. All the optical properties are evaluated and analyzed for two different polari zation directions of incident photon. The temperature and pressure dependence of primitive ce ll volume, thermal expansion coefficient, specific heats, bulk modulus, and Deby e temperature of Ti 2GeC are derived from the quasi-harmonic Debye model with phononic effect and the various implications are discussed in details.
Effects of Targeted Professional Development on Teachers’ Specific Praise Rates

Classroom management continues to be a concern for educators, administrators, and policymakers. Although evidence-based classroom management practices exist, teachers often receive insufficient training and support to implement these practices successfully. Schools need reliable and efficient ways to support teachers’ classroom management. This study employed a multiple baseline design across elementary teachers to investigate the effect of targeted professional development (TPD), an efficient approach that incorporated self-management and email prompts, on teachers’ rates of specific praise. We replicated this study at a second elementary school to provide additional evidence of the efficacy of TPD. Across teachers in both schools, data support a functional relation between TPD and an increase in teachers’ use of specific praise.
Consumption Commitments and Habit Formation

We analyze the implications of household-level adjustment costs for the dynamics of aggregate consumption. We show that an economy in which agents have “consumption commitments” is approximately equivalent to a habit formation model in which the habit stock is a weighted average of past consumption if idiosyncratic risk is large relative to aggregate risk. Consumption commitments can thus explain the empirical regularity that consumption is excessively sensitive and excessively smooth, findings that are typically attributed to habit formation. Unlike habit formation and other theories, but consistent with empirical evidence, the consumption commitments model also predicts that excess sensitivity and smoothness vanish for large shocks. These results suggest that behavior previously attributed to habit formation may be better explained by adjustment costs. We develop additional testable predictions to further distinguish the commitment and habit models and show that the two models have different welfare implications.
Augmented Reality in Turkey with Researchers' Comments for Educational Use: Problems, Solutions and Suggestions

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology to supplement existing reality with additional information, descriptions and helpful images with the help of technology and therefore ensure the reality to be perceived more qualified and well-rounded. In this study, views and comments about problems, solutions and suggestions on using AR were gathered from researchers who accomplished an applied study on AR. The phenomenological design, in qualitative framework, was used in the study. The purpose of the study is to investigate direct experiencers views on AR technologies. We tried to find out answer the following questions about augmented reality applications: “On which target group could it be used more effectively? ”, “On which learning domain (cognitive, affective, psychomotor) could it be more influential? ”, “Which teaching and learning methods could it be used with? ”, “What are the problems encountered during design, development and application process? ”, “What are the subject fields that need to be considered for using it more effectively in educational sciences field? ”, “In which situations could it be used for education? ”, and “How should it be designed? ”. According to the results, suggestions are presented about technical concerns, learning materials and instructional methods for developers, educators, and feature researchers for using AR effectively in education.
Tropospheric sulfur simulation and sulfate direct radiative forcing in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies general circulation model

Global simulations of tropospheric sulfur are performed in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) general circulation model (GCM) and used to calculate anthropogenic sulfate direct radiative forcing. Prognostic species are in-cloud oxidant H2O2, dimethylsulfide (DMS), methanesulfonic acid (MSA), SO2 and sulfate. Compared with most previous models (except others with prognostic H2O2), this model has relatively high anthropogenic SO2 and sulfate burden. We show that this is due partly to the depletion of the prognostic H2O2 and that moist convection delivers significant levels of SO2 to the free troposphere in polluted regions. Model agreement with surface observations is not remarkably different from previous studies. Following some previous studies, we propose that an additional in-cloud or heterogeneous oxidant is likely to improve the simulation near the surface. Our DMS source is lower than sources in previous studies, and sulfur values in remote regions are generally lower than those observed. Because of the high flux of SO2 to the free troposphere and the relatively low natural source, our model indicates a larger global anthropogenic contribution to the sulfate burden (77%) than was estimated by previous global models. Additional high-altitude observations of the sulfur species are needed for model validation and resolution of this issue. Direct radiative forcing calculations give an annual average anthropogenic sulfate forcing of −0.67 W/m2. We compare the radiative forcings due to online (hourly varying) versus offline (monthly average) sulfate and find little difference on a global average, but we do find differences as great as 10% in some regions. Thus, for example, over some polluted continental regions the forcing due to offline sulfate exceeds that of online sulfate, while over some oceanic regions the online sulfate forcing is larger. We show that these patterns are probably related to the correlation between clouds and sulfate, with positive correlations occuring over some polluted continental regions and negative correlations over high-latitude oceanic regions.
Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles: Interactions between ocean and sea ice intrinsic to the Nordic seas

Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) cycles are the most dramatic, frequent, and wide-reaching abrupt climate changes in the geologic record. On Greenland, D-O cycles are characterized by an abrupt warming of 10 ± 5°C from a cold stadial to a warm interstadial phase, followed by gradual cooling before a rapid return to stadial conditions. The mechanisms responsible for these millennial cycles are not fully understood but are widely thought to involve abrupt changes in Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation due to freshwater perturbations. Here we present a new, high-resolution multiproxy marine sediment core monitoring changes in the warm Atlantic inflow to the Nordic seas as well as in local sea ice cover and influx of ice-rafted debris. In contrast to previous studies, the freshwater input is found to be coincident with warm interstadials on Greenland and has a Fennoscandian rather than Laurentide source. Furthermore, the data suggest a different thermohaline structure for the Nordic seas during cold stadials in which relatively warm Atlantic water circulates beneath a fresh surface layer and the presence of sea ice is inferred from benthic oxygen isotopes. This implies a delicate balance between the warm subsurface Atlantic water and fresh surface layer, with the possibility of abrupt changes in sea ice cover, and suggests a novel mechanism for the abrupt D-O events observed in Greenland ice cores.
Modeling the intronic regulation of Alternative Splicing using Deep Convolutional Neural Nets

This paper investigates the use of deep Convolutional Neural Networks for modeling the intronic regulation of Alternative Splicing on the basis of DNA sequence. By training the CNN on massively parallel synthetic DNA libraries of Alternative 5'-splicing and Alternatively Skipped exon events, the model is capable of predicting the relative abundance of alternatively spliced mRNA isoforms on held-out library data to a very high accuracy (R2 = 0.77 for Alt. 5'-splicing). Furthermore, the CNN is shown to generalize alternative splicing across cell lines efficiently. The Convolutional Neural Net is tested against a Logistic regression model and the results show that while prediction accuracy on the synthetic library is notably higher compared to the LR model, the CNN is worse at generalizing to new intronic contexts. Tests on non-synthetic human SNP genes suggest the CNN is dependent on the relative position of the intronic region it was trained for, a problem which is alleviated with LR.The increased library prediction accuracy of the CNN compared to Logistic regression is concluded to come from the non-linearity introduced by the deep layer architecture. It adds the capacity to model complex regulatory interactions and combinatorial RBP effects which studies have shown largely affect alternative splicing. However, the architecture makes interpreting the CNN hard, as the regulatory interactions are encoded deep within the layers. Nevertheless, high-performance modeling of alternative splicing using CNNs may still prove useful in numerous Synthetic biology applications, for example to model differentially spliced genes as is done in this paper.
Marathi Speech Recognition System Using Hidden Markov Model Toolkit

Speech recognition is the process of converting an acoustic waveform into the text similar to the information being conveyed by the speaker. In the present era, mainly Hidden Markov Model based speech recognizers are used. This paper aims to build a speech recognition system for Marathi language. Hidden Markov Model Toolkit is used to develop the system. It recognizes the isolated words using acoustic word model. The system is trained for 30 Marathi words. Training data has been collected from ten speakers. The experimental results show that the overall accuracy of the presented system is 89%.
Multiobjective Memetic Algorithms applied to University Timetabling Problems

The present document describes the Ph.D. thesis proposal of Nuno Leite, doctoral candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Technical University of Lisbon (IST/TU-Lisbon). The thesis is titled “Multiobjective Memetic Algorithms applied to University Timetabling Problems” and is supervised by Drs. Agostinho Rosa (IST/TU-Lisbon) and Fernando Melı́cio (ISEL/Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon). The research work is developed in the LaSEEB (Evolutionary Systems and Biomedical Engineering Lab) at the IST/TU-Lisbon. The five year doctoral program enrolled by Nuno Leite started in December 2010 and ends in December 2015. The curricular part of the doctoral program include the realization of four Ph.D. courses.
The Classic Marine Isotope Substage 5e

Since its identification nearly fifty years ago, Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5) has been placed onto absolute time scales on the basis of three independent approaches. Cesare Emiliani, who set up the isotope stages (Emiliani, 1955), depended on uranium-series dating of the sediments, a method that today is regarded as not generally capable of yielding useful precision or accuracy. Broecker and van Donk (1970) pioneered the approach of correlating to radiometrically dated marine coral terraces; this has been much aided in recent years by improvements in the precision and accuracy of these age determinations that have flowed from the development of thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) for uranium-series dating (Edwards et al., 1986). The third approach is to use the astronomical record as a guide to the time scale. Martinson et al. (1987) generated a detailed time scale for MIS 5 using this approach. These authors suggested that the overall average error was of the order ±5000 yr, although the error would be smaller during interglacial periods with high precession-related variability, such as MIS5. At that time, the suggested confidence limits were smaller than typical values quoted for the radiometric dating of corals (typically ±6000 yr). Today the accuracy of the time scale of Martinson et al. (1987) is challenged by high-precision TIMS dates with quoted uncertainties of the order ±1000 yr or better. From the point of view of achieving a better understanding of the last interglacial period, the more serious disadvantage of the Martinson et al. (1987) time scale is the underlying hypothesis that all the proxy palaeoclimate records represent smoothly varying responses to changes in insolation; hence, there is no basis for estimating the duration of an extended interval with northern ice sheet volumes static at a size no greater than at present. From this point of view, the model of Gallée et al. (1993) is more promising, but that model is not at present sufficiently realistic to provide a reliable independent time scale. We have therefore chosen to depict the oxygen isotope record of core MD95-2042 (37°48′N, 10°10′W, water depth of 3146 m) on a time scale (Shackleton et al., 2001) that is based only on making use of selected radiometric dates obtained from fossil corals to calibrate the isotope record.
Guzhangian ( mid Cambrian ) trilobites from siliceous concretions of the Valtorres Formation , Iberian Chains , NE Spain

In the carbonate-siliciclastic strata of West Gondwana (e.g. in the Montagne Noire, France), the aftermath of the mid Languedocian (mid Cambrian) regression is characterized by a late Languedocian major turnover of trilobite families and a Furongian–early Tremadocian radiation related to the stepwise immigration of trilobite invaders from East Gondwana under persistent transgressive conditions. The scarcity of upper Languedocian fossil accumulations in clayey substrates has inspired the sampling of the palaeogeographically most distal parts of the Iberian Chains (Spain), where diagenetic dissolution of ubiquitous hexactinellid sponge spicules has favoured the formation of siliceous concretions. These have yielded the trilobites Peronopsis cf. insignis, Oidalagnostus trispinifer, Proampyx difformis (= Proampyx aculeatus), Bailiaspis? glabrata (= Holocephalina agrauloides, by ontogeny), Holasaphus cf. centropyge and a paradoxidid gen. et sp. indet. Despite preservation and sampling biases, the identification of this taphonomic window in offshore clayey substrates of West Gondwana allows the recognition of a strong biogeographical link with Baltica, and the correlation of the global Guzhangian Stage and the Solenopleura? brachymetopa Zone of Scandinavia with part of the Mediterranean upper Languedocian Substage.
How many vascular plant species are there in a local hotspot of biodiversity in Southeastern Brazil

Scientific information about the distribution of species richness and diversity is necessary for full comprehension of our evolutionary heritage forming a powerful tool for the development of nature conservation strategies. The aim of this article was to estimate the vascular plant species richness of the campos rupestres from the Itacolomi State Park (ISP) in order to verify the park´s classification as a local hotspot of biodiversity and to outline the status quo of knowledge about biodiversity in the region. For that, the species richness of two phytosociological surveys of 0.15 ha each were extrapolated using (a) the species-area relationship fitted by the power and the logarithmic model as well as (b) the taxon ratio model. The taxon ratio model estimates total vascular plant species richness to 1109 species using seven different taxa. Extrapolations of different fittings of the species-area relationships calculate the complete park’s richness to values between 241 and 386 (logarithmic model), and 3346 to 10421 (power model). These extrapolations are far beyond realistic: the logarithmic model underestimates the park´s species richness, because more than 520 vascular plant species have already been registered in the park. On the other hand, it is not plausible that one-fourth or more of all species registered so far in the Atlantic Tropical Forest Biome occur in the ISP as indicated by the extrapolation with the power model. The most realistic estimation was achieved by the taxon ratio model. Although confidence intervals are large, the species richness estimated by this method legitimates the classification of the ISP as a local hotspot of biodiversity, but this value also outlines the lack of knowledge about biodiversity in this region and the urgent need for more taxonomical and ecological research. Key words: campos rupestres , species-area relationship, taxon ratios, Espinhaco Mountain Range.
Physiological and quality attributes associated with different centrifugation times of baby carrots

Centrifugation is one of the most important steps in the freshcut industry. Inadequate centrifugation can lead to increased white blush in baby carrots. The present work was carried out aiming at evaluating the effects of different centrifugation times in baby carrots physiological and quality attributes. Carrot roots cv. Alvorada were harvested and minimally processed as baby carrots. After processing, samples were placed in nylon bags and centrifuged (378 rad. s -1 ) for 0; 30; 60; 90, and 120 seconds. Temperature of baby carrots centrifuged for 120 seconds was 63% higher than the temperature at the beginning of the experiment. Respiratory activity increased 49% when centrifugation time increased from 30 to 120 seconds. Ethylene evolution remained around 1.7 µL kg -1 h -1 until 60 seconds, increasing to 3.5 µL kg -1 h -1 at 120 seconds of centrifugation. Whiteness index increased 34% and 68% when centrifugation time shifted from 30 s to 60 s and from 30 s to 120 s, respectively. No significant changes in total carotenoids content were observed for the different tested centrifugation intervals. Baby carrots should be centrifuged for 30 seconds in order to maintain the quality and to avoid the development of white blush.