Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Archaeological investigations with TLS and GPR surveys and geomatics techniques

This study is part of an interdisciplinary project aimed to define a religious path charac- terized by identification and definition of places of artistic, religious and cultural history. We con- ducted some archaeological surveys with the help of the GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) tech- niques and TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanner). Both these techniques are increasingly used, over the years, in the field of archaeological applications, with the ability to provide non-invasive, however, characterizing the objects or places of interest both spatially (with the TLS) providing information on the morphology of the ground, both in their internal structure, investigating in the material (with the GPR). However, with the GPR, to obtain highly accurate information from raw images (B-Scan) and easier to use and understanding in the field of archaeology, it is often necessary to improve their quality. Typically, this is possible with the aid of appropriate treatment of the raw image called focusing techniques. We tested various approaches of these techniques; starting from the raw data acquired through equipment georadar, were carried out numerical processing times of application of algorithms pre-processing of the image, for its improvement, and focusing devel- oped. For the TLS were carried elaborations in post processing algorithms and tested best-fitting for the shape recognition. All the surveys are made with GPS measurements that carry out all the tracks. Laser scanner and GPR allow to make three-dimensional surveys of archaeological features and then everything is canalized in a WebGIS that allows the user to view the results.
Modelling thermal flow in the transition regime using a lattice Boltzmann approach

Lattice Boltzmann models are already able to capture important rarefied flow phenomena, such as velocity-slip and temperature jump, provided the effects of the Knudsen layer are minimal. However, both conventional hydrodynamics, as exemplified by the Navier-Stokes-Fourier equations, and the lattice Boltzmann method fail to predict the nonlinear velocity and temperature variations in the Knudsen layer that have been observed in kinetic theory. In the present paper, we propose an extension to the lattice Boltzmann method that will enable the simulation of thermal flows in the transition regime where Knudsen layer effects are significant. A correction function is introduced that accounts for the reduction in the mean free path near a wall. This new approach is compared with direct simulation Monte Carlo data for Fourier flow and good qualitative agreement is obtained for Knudsen numbers up to 1.58.
Enhanced broadband near-IR luminescence and gain spectra of bismuth/erbium co-doped fiber by 830 and 980 nm dual pumping

A dual 830 and 980 nm pumping scheme is proposed aiming at broadening and flattening the spectral performance of bismuth/erbium codoped multicomponent fiber (BEDF). The spectral properties of distinct Bi active centers (BACs) associated with germanium (BAC-Ge), aluminium (BAC-Al), phosphorus (BAC-P) and silicon (BAC-Si) are characterized under single pumping of 830 and 980 nm, respectively. Based on the emission slope efficiencies of BAC-Al (∼1100 nm) and BAC-Si (∼1430 nm) under single pumping of 830 and 980 nm, the dual pumping scheme with the optimal pump power ratio of 25 (980 nm VS 830 nm) is determined to achieve flat, ultrabroadband luminescence spectra covering the wavelength range 950-1600 nm. The dual pumping scheme is further demonstrated on the on-off gain performance of BEDF. It is found under the pump power ratio of ∼8 (980 VS 830 nm), The gain spectrum has been flattened and broadened over 300 nm (1300-1600 nm) with an average gain coefficient of ∼1.5 dBm-1. The spectral coverage is approxim.
Analysis of reactive power strategies in HVDC-connected wind power plant clusters

Offshore wind power plants (WPPs) built near each other but far from shore usually connect to the main grid by a common high-voltage DC (HVDC) transmission system. In the resulting decoupled offshore grid, the wind turbine converters and the high-voltage DC voltage-source converter share the ability to inject or absorb reactive power. The overall reactive power control dispatch influences the power flows in the grid and hence the associated power losses. This paper evaluates the respective power losses in HVDC-connected WPP clusters when applying 5 different reactive power control strategies. The case study is made for a 1.2-GW–rated cluster comprising 3 WPP and is implemented in a combined load flow and converter loss model. A large set of feasible operating points for the system is analyzed for each strategy. The results show that a selection of simulations with equal wind speeds is sufficient for the annual energy production comparison. It is found that the continuous operation of the WPPs with unity power factor has a superior performance with low communication requirements compared with the other conventional strategies. The optimization-based strategy, which is developed in this article, allows a further reduction of losses mainly because of the higher offshore grid voltage level imposed by the high-voltage DC voltage-source converter. Reactive power control in HVDC-connected WPP clusters change significantly the overall power losses of the system, which depend rather on the total sum of the injected active power than on the variance of wind speeds inside the cluster.
Do Economic and Financial Development Increase Carbon Emission in Pakistan: Empirical Analysis through ARDL Cointegration and VECM Causality

This empirical study is an effort to establish cointegration and causality between carbon emissions, economic growth, energy consumption, financial development and trade openness in Pakistan. Lack of environmental protection laws, energy crises and resulting lower economic growth make Pakistan a unique setting to study the country specific reactions among the variables. The annual data after the separation of Bangladesh from 1973 to 2011 is used for the empirical work. The stationarity of the variables with structural breaks is analyzed. The Auto-regressive Bound Testing (ARDL) approach to cointegration is used to determine the cointegration relation. Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic OLS (DLOS) cointegration equations are applied to estimate long run co-efficients. Short run relationship is determined through Vector Error Correction (VEC) based Granger causality, Variance Decomposition Analysis (VDA) and Impulse Response Function (IRF). After confirmation of cointegration between the variables, long term estimations confirm that economic growth and energy consumption increase the carbon emissions. Economic growth, energy consumption and trade openness Granger cause carbon emission in short run. There is unidirectional causality running from financial development and energy consumption to economic growth. Financial development is caused by carbon emissions and trade openness. Trade openness also Granger causes energy consumption. There is a bi-directional causality between financial development and energy consumption in Pakistan. Hence, the efforts to overcome energy crises and foster the economic growth require considerable attention to the carbon emissions; the best policy is to improve the situation through alternate energy resources i.e. Coal, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). There is a need to introduce conservation policies so that wastage and spillovers of energy resources can be minimize. Efficient use of scarce energy resources will not only reduce the environment degradation but will also help to foster the economic growth. The environmental protection laws require proper enforcement.
TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF RESETTLEMENT FARMERS OF ZIMBABWE by Abbyssinia Mushunje

This paper examines the technical efficiency of the resettlement sector of the agricultural system in Zimbabwe. The land reform programme aims to redistribute land from large-scale commercial farmers to the small-scale peasantry sector so as to reduce rural poverty. Since such an agrarian reform could result in higher output, higher labour absorption, and a more equitable distribution of income, it is important to assess the level of efficiency of the beneficiaries of this programme. The stochastic frontier function model of the Cobb-Douglas type was used to determine the technical efficiency of a group of 44 cotton farmers from Mutanda resettlement scheme of Manicaland province. Technical inefficiency effects are estimated and are assumed to be a function of other observable variables related to the farming operations. The results reveal some technical efficiency levels of the sample farmers that are varied widely, ranging from 22 per cent to 99 percent, with a mean value of about 71%. The technical inefficiency effects are found to be significant at the 25 per cent level. Technical inefficiency of cotton production decreased with increased family size and age of the head of household, but increased with farm size and education level of head of household. 1 Land Bank Researcher, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700 2 Professor of Agricultural Economics, University of the North, Private Bag X1106, Sovenga, 0727 3 Land Bank Chair and Professor of Agricultural Economics, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700
The design of a myoelectrically controlled hand with multiple actuators for five-year old children

Myoelectric prosthetics are complex functional devices that can improve significantly a person’s quality of life. This paper describes the development of a myoelectrically controlled prosthetic hand for a five-year old child. A key consideration in the design of upper-body prostheses is to use information from studies highlighting the main causes of rejection. These studies emphasize that in order to reduce rejection, it is necessary to include the opinions of the users in the design process. Additional constraints are introduced due to the small size and mass of a five-year old child’s hand compared to that of an adult. The main points of the final design are detailed, including the areas where these constraints were overcome. Modularity was used throughout the design; it allows the hand to be configured for the individual user, and also helps to reduce the potential cost of the hand. The final design has three actuators controlled individually through the use of a master-slave microchip combination. This design has a final mass of 105.8g and produces a pinching force of 4.35 N.
ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL PLATE STRUCTURES

The civil engineering practice is increasingly faced by the problem of the exact complex analysis of spatial structures. While earlier these problems have been reduced (both in numerical and in analytical handling) to plane problems (separately examining structural members), actually, the development of numerical methods and computers permits an integer analysis. The most frequent problem is the analysis of structures consisting of plane members (e.g. panel buildings, s,vimming pools, reservoirs, some bridge types, etc.), advisably made by the finite element method. Recent achievements in this scope at the Department of Civil Engineering Mechanics, Technical University, Budapest, will be described below. To our best knowledge, there have been published few programs on the spatial analysis, and none on the spatial plastic analysis at all. Fundamentals of the finite element method will here be assumed to be known, hence needless to repeat. In particular, forces and reactions in the superstructure have been analyzed, omitting supports. Otherwise the structure may be either rigidly or elastically supported, in this latter case any bedding model may be applied.
Study on Genetic Diversity of Terminal Fragment Sequence of Isolated Persian Tobacco Mosaic Virus

Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) is one of the devastating plant viruses in the world that infects more than 200 plant species. Movement protein plays a supportive role in the movement of other plant viruses, and viral coat protein is highly expressed in infected plants and affects replication and movements of TMV. In order to investigate genetic variation in the terminal fragment sequence in Iranian TMV isolate, viral RNA was extracted from the infected tobacco leaves and cDNA was constructed using a specific antisense primer, PSh60-R1. The coding sequence of movement protein and coat protein was amplified and bi-directionally sequenced using PSH63-F/R primers. The results from sequencing were analyzed by Vector NTi software, and the nucleotide sequence was aligned with other TMV isolates of Iran using MEGA 5 and CLC Main Workbenches. Based on the results, the comparison between sequences of movement protein from TMV-ir and movement protein sequence of TMV-U1 reveals six mutations. Also, nucleotide comparison reveals that there are two mutations between coat protein sequence of TMV-ir and TMV-U1. Based on sequencing results, there is the minimum nucleotide distance between TMV-ir and TMV-U1 and maximum distance between isolates of Iran (Br50, TO79, TO32, TA, PU1, TM, G42, TV). Based on the results, we report a new isolate of TMV from Iran that genetically distinct with other Iranian isolates. These results provide good knowledge that could be valuable in designing detection kits and plant breeding programs.
Fast D-bar reconstructions of ventilation and perfusion on a pairwise current injection system

A fast implementation of the D-bar method for reconstructing conductivity changes on a 2-D chest-shaped domain is described. Cross-sectional difference images of ventilation and perfusion in a healthy human subject are presented. The images constitute the first D-bar images from EIT data on a human subject collected on a pairwise current injection system.
Integration of Gap Junction Coupling in Adenosine Signalling of Endothelial Cells

2 1 General introduction 3 1.1 Gap junctions . 3 1.1.1 Connexins and gap junction structure . 3 1.1.2 Gap junctions in the vascular system . 5 1.1.3 Gap junctions in blood-brain barrier endothelial cells . 6 1.2 Adenosine as extracellular signalling molecule . 8 1.2. 1 Adenosine receptor signalling in the vascular system . 9 1.2. 2 Aim of the first study . 10 1.3 Analysis of gap junction coupling . 11 1.3. 1 Scrape loading/dye transfer . 11 1.3. 2 Gold nanoparticle-mediated laser perforation . 13 1.3. 3 Aim of the second study . 13 2 Cyclic nucleotide-gated channels link adenosine receptors and gap junctions in cerebral endothelial cells 14 3 Gold nanoparticle-mediated laser perforation is a new method for gap junction coupling analysis in a semi-automatic high-throughput approach 36 4 General discussion and further perspectives 46 4.1 Role of the A2B adenosine receptor subtype . 46 4.2 Mechanisms regulating the gap junction coupling . 50 4.3 Comparison of endothelial cells of different vascular beds . 56
Dynamics of Ternary Polymer Solutions

Hydrodynamic interaction is included in the description of ternary polymer solutions (two polymers or a block copolymer mixed with a solvent). The effect of hydrodynamic interaction on the two decay rates (of the so called "slow" and "fast" modes) is assessed for dilute and semidilute solutions where Rouse dynamics are not appropriate. The Kubo formula was used to express the generalized mobilities in terms of the Oseen tensor and the static structure factors (convolution integral). The random phase approximation was used to express the interacting system static structure factors. A concentration blob concept allows the incorporation of hydrodynamic interaction inside each blob. Specific cases are discussed.
Accounting for farmers’ risk preferences in investigating land allocation decisions in marginal environments: a test of various elicitation measures in an application from Vietnam

Smallholder farmers’ land allocation decisions in marginal areas of developing countries typically involve a substantial element of risk, especially when they concern input intensive cash crops. Hence, apart from farmers’ resource endowment, their individual level of risk aversion is a potentially important determinant of such decisions. However, in microeconometric models a measure of individuals’ risk preferences is usually lacking. We address this shortcoming by testing the explanatory power of a wide range of risk preference measures based on hypothetical and non-hypothetical elicitation methods in a model explaining land allocation to commercial hybrid maize production in a fragile upland area of Vietnam. Based on data collected in a random sample of 300 households, we find that the poorest farmers are particularly specialized in commercial maize production, but they are highly dependent on relatively disadvantageous input supply and marketing arrangements offered by maize traders, making this specialization particularly risky. Our study confirms the relevance of decision-makers’ risk preferences in addition to their asset endowment in the land allocation decision. The inclusion of risk preference measures as explanatory variables is found to not cause any significant endogeneity bias. However, only risk preference measures that are based on hypothetical maize related scenarios have explanatory power. We conclude that (1) risk preferences are to a certain extent decision domain specific and (2) hypothetical scenarios that are closely related to farmers’ real-life decisions may produce more reliable results than unfamiliar, non-agricultural scenarios or lottery-based methods, which may be difficult to grasp for respondents with limited formal education.
Effects of Moderate Intensity Interval Training on Cognitive Function

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if exercise in the form of moderate intensity interval training affected memory by comparing the performance of number of words recalled after the implementation of an exercise condition and a control condition. Methods: The investigators tested a total of 20 participants. All participants completed an informed consent document prior to testing. Participants had three minutes to memorize a list of 15 words. This was followed by either 15 minutes of interval training or 15 minutes of sitting in a controlled environment. All participants participated in both the control and experimental conditions. A paired samples t-test was used to determine statistical significance. Results: The participants were able to recall an average of 11±3 words in the control condition and an average of 9±4 words in the exercise condition. The results showed no statistical significance between control and exercise performance (p=0.10), nor was there any statistically significance difference in the performance between genders. Conclusion: The study results show there was no effect on cognitive function performance (specifically short term memory) from moderate intensity interval training. This study failed to confirm that moderate intensity interval training evokes cognitive function benefits equivalent to those demonstrated in previous studies on continuous moderate intensity aerobic exercise and high intensity interval training. Future studies should consider the effect of varying duration and intensity of the interval training to find a possible correlation.
Health Aid and Health Improvement in Sub Saharan Africa

Using a sample of 28 sub-Saharan African countries during the period of 2000-2010, this paper examines the effect of health aid on health outcomes. After taking into account the endogeneity and using the instrumental variable approach, the results reveal that health aid improves health outcomes in sub-Saharan African countries. More specifically, for each additional unit of health aid, life expectancy increases by 0.14, prevalence of HIV decreases by 0.05 and infant mortality decrease by 0.17. This effect operates mainly through the improvement of primary completion rate of female. However, the magnitude of the effects is too small if African countries would like to achieve MDGs through additional health aid. Furthermore, the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition indicates that differences in terms of the amount of health aid received do not explain the health outcomes gap between post conflict countries and stable countries. The relevant variables are governance and the female primary completion rate. The policy implications of the paper are further discussed.
A semiempirical model of the normalized radar cross section of the sea surface, 2. Radar modulation transfer function

[1] Multiscale composite models based on the Bragg theory are widely used to study the normalized radar cross section (NRCS) over the sea surface. However, these models are not able to correctly reproduce the NRCS in all configurations. In particular, even if they may provide consistent results for vertical transmit and receive (VV) polarization, they fail in horizontal transmit and receive (HH) polarization. In addition, there are still important discrepancies between model and observations of the radar modulation transfer function (MTF), which relates the modulations of the NRCS to the long waves. In this context, we have developed a physical model that takes into account not only the Bragg mechanism but also the non-Bragg scattering associated with radio wave scattering from breaking waves. The same model was built to explain both the background NRCS and its modulation by long surface wave (wave radar MTF problem). In part 1, the background NRCS model was presented and assessed through comparisons with observations. In this part 2, we extend the model to include a third underlying scale associated with longer waves (wavelength ∼10–300 m) to explain the modulation of the NRCS. Two contributions are distinguished in the model, corresponding to the so-called tilt and hydrodynamic MTF. Results are compared to observations (already published in the literature or derived from the FETCH experiment). As found, taking into account modulation of wave breaking (responsible for the non-Bragg mechanism) helps to bring the model predictions in closer agreement with observations. In particular, the large MTF amplitudes for HH polarization (much larger than for VV polarization) and MTF phases are better interpreted using the present model.
INTEGRATED MICROFLUIDIC PLATFORM FOR DIRECTED EVOLUTION OF BIOCATALYSTS FOR BIOFUEL CELL APPLICATIONS

Biofuel cells (BFC) are promissing systems as small devices capable to operate over long period of time using renewable source of energy. Our model system uses ethanol as a fuel and the oxygen as an oxidant. One of the critical points is that biocatalysts are naturally not efficient in working conditions of BFC. Directed evolution is a promising approach to improve them. An efficient screening system is the key to success. This paper describes the development of a droplet-based microfluidic system for high-throughput in vivo screening of biocatalysts.
Multinational Channel Strategy and Customer Value in an Emerging Economy

This paper examines the impact of multinational channel strategy on customer value by assessing customer demand side issues. It assess the relationship between order cycle time, stock availability and sales to describe the impact of distribution strategy on customer value. The study was carried in locations comprised of Equator Bottlers Limited franchise territory within five districts in Western Kenya. A cross-section survey using a structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was prepared for analysis by editing, coding, categorizing and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Majority of distributors were found to be located within the major urban areas of Kisumu and Kericho as a result of proximity to the plant and high rates of consumption. In order to increase the value offered to customers, there is need to reduce order cycle times to the bare minimum of one day for stock replenishment.