Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geoinformation technologies in the reconstruction of the social space of Siberian cities at the turn of the 19-20th centuries (case study of the city of Tobolsk)

This article presents the experience of creating the historical geographic information system “Siberian Cities at the Turn of the 19–20th Centuries” (Case Study of the City of Tobolsk) focused on presenting online results. The structure of the article corresponds to the main stages of GIS creation. At the first stage, the main attention was paid to the methods of preparation and input of cartographic material, due to the lack of a mathematical framework for historical maps. The affine transformation algorithm has been chosen as the main algorithm for working with the map of the city of Tobolsk, which allows to place the map sheet in a modern coordinate system (WGS84), with a limited number of fiducial points, correctly. The second stage was aimed at determining both the sources of demographic, social, economic, and spatial data, which will become the basis of the basic vector-raster layers. The source was a set of census forms of the First General Population Census of 1897 for 8 cities in the Tobolsk Province. The third stage is devoted to the Web-GIS creation. A pilot version of the project with the reconstruction of the urban space of Tobolsk at the turn of the 19–20th centuries was created on the platform NextGISWeb. It is concluded that geoinformation technologies application is aimed not only at visualization and presentation of data from different sources, but also at creating a tool for spatial analysis of demographic, social and economic factors, studying the features of the various social groups resettlement and reconstruction of the social space of the city as a whole.
Situational and individual factors engendering willingness to speak English in foreign language classrooms

Abstract The present study is an attempt to investigate Iranian EFL learners’ willingness to speak English in language classrooms, and the situational and individual factors that influence their willingness to speak. The study adopts a primarily quantitative approach, followed by qualitative data aimed at expanding and elaborating on the quantitative data. One hundred and fifty six EFL learners took part in the study. A researcher-made Willingness to Speak questionnaire was used to measure willingness to speak. To shed more light on learners’ willingness to speak, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants in order to arrive at richer findings. Several factors were identified as having an influence on learners’ willingness to speak, including topic of discussion, effect of interlocutor, shyness, self-confidence, teacher, and classroom atmosphere. Results can bring about pedagogical implications for language educators and curriculum developers.
A Time to Plan, A Time to Remember: An EEG Double Dissociation of Cognitive Control Instantiation Due to Temporal Delay

Cognitive control is critical in adaptively guiding cognition, shaping an optimal balance between acting efficiently with existing rules, and remaining flexible enough to respond to new information. Proactive cognitive control utilizes context information to bias processing (in a top-down manner) and prepare for an upcoming event, presumably through dynamic use of highly related executive processes, including working memory maintenance, attention, and goal switching. Counter to the frequent investigation of proactive control as a unitary construct, we hypothesize that proactive control varies with the temporal delay over which goals need to be held in mind, and can be at least partly dissociated into separable neural processes. In the present experiment, we contrasted processing of cue context rules during short and long anticipated cue-probe delays. We hypothesize that rapid cue-probe delays would rely more on task-switching (rapid goal updating) processes, whereas longer cue-probe delays would rely more on active working
On Line Detection of Partial Discharge in High Voltage Equipment Using Acoustic Emission Technique

Throughout the decade, generation of the high voltage (HV) electrical power gradually increases due to increase of demand in industrial growth as well as to meet the demand for modern civilization. Extensive electrical power networks installations have been built in industrialized countries and are being constructed in developing countries at a rapid increasing rate. The major function of such power systems is to generate, transport and distribute electrical energy over large geographical areas in an economical manner while ensuring a high degree of reliability and quality of supply. Apart from these, high voltages are also widely used in many industrial as well as engineering applications. In all such applications, the high cost and comparatively long life span of HV power equipments are need to be take care of continuously from its degradation. The degradation of insulation is responsible mainly for internal discharge i.e., Partial discharge (PD). High voltage insulation condition monitoring is one of the major important diagnostic tools for servicing the better quality of power. Therefore, on-line detection of PD in high voltage power equipment is getting more importance in the field of insulation diagnosis for early detection of incipient fault. In this work, detection of PD in the oil-paper insulation model has been carried out in high voltage laboratory using Acoustic Emission Technique. The observed PD signal is also analysis with the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Short Time Fourier Transform (SFFT) algorithm which is having the potential to find out the frequency component of PD signal with respect to time. This study intends to process the UHF signals obtained from indigenous developed experimental setup. The technique is having great potential to detect the PD activity inside the high voltage power equipment at any time without any power failure.
Potency and immunogenicity of bacillus calmette guerin (BCG) vaccines used in routine immunization programme in South-East, Nigeria

Department of Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Agulu, Anambra State, Nigeria. Biopharmaceutics and Drug Delivery Laboratory, College of Pharmacy, 5968 College Street, PO Box 15000, Dalhousie University, B3H 4R2, Halifax, NS, Canada. Department of Chemical Pathology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria. Bichan Pharmaceutical Ltd, # 208 Ziks Avenue, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.
New insights on the morphology of a digenean parasite (Digenea: Brachylaimidae, Brachylaima mazzantii (Travassos, 1927)) using confocal laser scanning microscopy

ABSTRACT Brachylaima mazzantii (Travassos, 1927) is known only from its original description. Until now, no attempt has been made to address the morphology of this species by means of modern microscopy techniques. In the present study, the information generated on the anatomy of B. mazzantii allowed the re-examination of the morphology of this species. The most significant new data is related to the terminal genitalia. The detailed analysis of the reproductive system of this species evidenced the presence of a seminal vesicle external to the cirrus pouch which contains a short unarmed cirrus, and also the presence of a well developed metraterm and gland cells in the genital atrium. The results also revealed some traits concerning other systems, previously unnoticed, including the shape and relative position of the excretory vesicle and the tegument ornamentation. The main advantage of using confocal microscopy to study the morphology of digeneans is the fact that with only one technique it is possible to examine the gross anatomy, cell morphology and surface topography. Confocal tomographies show much more detail than light microscopy images, and allow getting information on cell morphology, usually achieved only by histological techniques, along with some information on tegument ornamentation, usually obtained through scanning electron microscopy. The accumulation of information on the morphology of different digenean species through confocal microscopy will allow future comparative studies, which may ultimately contribute to the better resolution of the systematics of this group.
Uncertain Land Availability and Perceived Biases in Investment Decisions: The Case of Dutch Dairy Farms

Uncertainty about the possibility of acquiring land can be rather large in the EU for sectors like dairy farming. Farm-level investment decisions are commonly made ex-ante when the farmer is not certain about the possibility of purchasing land. This possibility is realized only in a future period. In this paper, we have developed and applied a simple two-period model in which a profit-maximizing farmer, facing uncertainty about the possibility of acquiring land, had to choose the optimal mix of capital (buildings) investment and land endowment. We have shown that commonly "observed" biases towards non-optimal investment decisions are not necessarily justified. Rather, these perceived biases may be the result of evaluating investment decisions without reference to the uncertainty associated with the possibility of acquiring land.
HOW DOES INFORMATION QUALITY AFFECT OPTION RETURNS? by Matthew Robert Lyle A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

How Does Information Quality Affect Option Returns? Matthew Robert Lyle Doctor of Philosophy Joseph L. Rotman School of Management University of Toronto 2013 This study analyzes the impact of information quality on option returns. I find that firms with low-quality information have call option returns that are significantly lower than firms with high information quality. The findings hold inand out-of-sample, over different time periods, and are robust to a battery of asset pricing tests. The results suggest that the risk caused by poor information quality has a powerful and non-diversifiable impact on the expected returns of option contracts. Further analysis shows that these results are important when examining the cross-sectional link between stock returns and information quality. Firms with low information quality and equity that is “option-like” have significantly lower future stock returns than firms with high information quality. If this option-like effect is not controlled for in empirical tests, the association between information quality and the cross-section of stock returns is often flat. This is especially true for accounting-based proxies of information quality.
Muddying or Clarifying the Waters? The Impact of Environmental Disclosure on Financial Markets and Society

Relying on a conceptual framework that integrates information economics and legitimacy theory, we explore the impact of environmental disclosure as a legitimation tool and on analysts’ forecast properties. Our empirical approach uses a direct measure of environmental legitimacy. Results show that a firm’s environmental disclosure enhances the information available to financial markets to forecast its future growth. Moreover, financial markets’ participants seem to be able to decipher environmental information, discounting discourses which are inconsistent with a firm’s environmental performance. Moreover, we observe that a firm’s environmental disclosure serves another purpose as it influences how its other stakeholders (beyond financial ones) perceive its legitimacy and its place within society. Our results also suggest that prior work’s dichotomization of environmental disclosure as being “hard” or “soft” may misrepresent their actual informational properties.
Contemporary Financial Profile and Its Implications on the Level of Corporate Cash Holdings for Korean Chaebol Firms

Abstract This study examined one of the contemporary issues on debate to identify any significant financial determinants on the cash holdings of the cheabol firms in the Korean domestic capital markets. Several important findings on the financial characteristics affecting the cash holdings were evidenced by utilizing various methodologiesfor statistical estimations. Financial or managerial implications with discussion were provided for the pronounced factors such as CASHFLOW, MVBV, REINVEST, and AGENCY. Assuming that the chaebol firms were overall subject to the financial constrains, they may increase or stockpile cash reserves as internal capital for future investmentopportunities or repayment of existing debt, rather than external financing burdened by a high cost of capital. Giventhe on-going controversy on the optimal level of corporate cash holdings coupled with any foreseeable capital transferamong the associated nations through the investment vehicles such the FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) or TPP (Trans-Pacific Pacts), any empirical findings of the study may shed new light on identifying financial determinantswhich may significantly affect the level of cash holdings for the business conglomerates, the ‘chaebol’ firms, in the Korean capital markets. 요 약
Matrix computations on graphics processors and clusters of gpus

Las arquitecturas destinadas a computacion de altas prestaciones (HPC) basadas en aceleradores graficos (GPUs) se han convertido en los ultimos anos en una alternativa extendida que combina altas prestaciones y un bajo coste de adquisicion. Pese a que la facilidad de programacion de este tipo de arquitecturas ha mejorado en las ultimas generaciones, todavia necesitan grandes esfuerzos si es necesario optimizar las rutinas a implementar. Por otra parte, las rutinas de algebra lineal aparecen en un amplio abanico de aplicaciones cientifico tecnicas. Su optimizacion resulta clave a la hora de obtener elevadas prestaciones en aplicaciones reales existentes en diversos ambitos. El objetivo de la presente tesis es disenar, implementar y evaluar estrategias de programacion que permitan elevar las prestaciones de rutinas de algebra lineal comunes sobre arquitecturas basadas en un procesador grafico, multiples procesadores graficos y clusters de GPUs, adoptando un enfoque de alto nivel que facilita el desarrollo de las mismas. Los resultados experimentales obtenidos demuestran la viabilidad de este enfoque, consiguiendo destacables aceleraciones sobre los tres tipos de arquitecturas seleccionadas.
Analysis of Flow Cytometry DNA Damage Response Protein Activation Kinetics Following X-rays and High Energy Iron Nuclei Exposure

We developed a mathematical method to analyze flow cytometry data to describe the kinetics of {gamma}H2AX and pATF2 phosphorylations ensuing various qualities of low dose radiation in normal human fibroblast cells. Previously reported flow cytometry kinetic results for these DSB repair phospho-proteins revealed that distributions of intensity were highly skewed, severely limiting the detection of differences in the very low dose range. Distributional analysis reveals significant differences between control and low dose samples when distributions are compared using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Radiation quality differences are found in the distribution shapes and when a nonlinear model is used to relate dose and time to the decay of the mean ratio of phosphoprotein intensities of irradiated samples to controls. We analyzed cell cycle phase and radiation quality dependent characteristic repair times and residual phospho-protein levels with these methods. Characteristic repair times for {gamma}H2AX were higher following Fe nuclei as compared to X-rays in G1 cells (4.5 {+-} 0.46 h vs 3.26 {+-} 0.76 h, respectively), and in S/G2 cells (5.51 {+-} 2.94 h vs 2.87 {+-} 0.45 h, respectively). The RBE in G1 cells for Fe nuclei relative to X-rays for {gamma}H2AX was 2.05 {+-} 0.61 and 5.02 {+-} 3.47, at 2more » h and 24-h postirradiation, respectively. For pATF2, a saturation effect is observed with reduced expression at high doses, especially for Fe nuclei, with much slower characteristic repair times (>7 h) compared to X-rays. RBEs for pATF2 were 0.66 {+-} 0.13 and 1.66 {+-} 0.46 at 2 h and 24 h, respectively. Significant differences in {gamma}H2AX and pATF2 levels comparing irradiated samples to control were noted even at the lowest dose analyzed (0.05 Gy) using these methods of analysis. These results reveal that mathematical models can be applied to flow cytometry data to uncover important and subtle differences following exposure to various qualities of low dose radiation. « less
University of Birmingham The Goldilocks Question: What Size is 'Just Right' for Social Care Providers?

Here, we apply the ‘Goldilocks’ question to social care: what size of care provider is ‘just right’? Empirical research to date has struggled to find evidence for an optimal size for public service providers, although policymakers remain keen to suggest that size is a key aspect of organisational performance. The article makes an innovative contribution to this literature, drawing on empirical research with care providers and people who use their services in England. Findings from 143 interviews with people using different-sized care services suggest that micro-organisations (employing five staff or fewer) achieve better outcomes for their cost base than larger organisations, although our study is necessarily exploratory rather than statistically definitive. The salience of size in a social care setting provides a basis for hypothesising that organisational size may be more significant in relation to care than it has been found to be in broader public management literature, though research with larger and more robust samples is needed.
Predictive Simulation of Rowing Exercise

Long term exposure to microgravity environment in spaceflight causes some health issues such as space motion sickness, shift in body fluids, muscle atrophy and bone demineralization. Studies have shown that aerobics, and resistive exercise could help astronauts to deal with the issues. Rowing exercise can provide both resistive and aerobic exercise. A rowing exercise machine has mechanical parameters which affect the user’s movement and the loads on the user’s tissues. If these effects can be predicted, exercise results can be improved. However, human testing is only possible on Earth during the development, and also the absence of gravity may affect the task execution in the space. Therefore, computational modeling is necessary. In this thesis, a computational model of an arm based on human musculoskeletal simulation and optimal control was used to investigate the effects of mechanical properties of the exercise machine on predicted human performance. Moreover, the other goal was to study the effects of the exercise on arm motion and tissue loads during the exercise. To explore this concept, we have modeled a scaled down rowing exercise machine and a biceps muscle. A system identification has been done on the Concept2 rowing machine to determine baseline machine parameters. In order to solve the problem, different methods in trajectory optimization were evaluated to choose the reliable one. Then, a linear muscle force generator was coupled to the rowing machine to examine how it performs the task. The design parameters were changed to investigate their effects on the movement. Finally, the simple muscle force generator was replaced by a brachii muscle model to study how it executes the exercise. Effects of the design elements were also studied.
A Small Open Economy New Keynesian DSGE Model for a Foreign Exchange Constrained Economy

Firms in many low income countries depend entirely on imported capital and intermediate inputs. As a result, in these countries economic activity is considerably influenced by the capacity of the economy to import these inputs which, in turn, depends on the availability and cost of foreign exchange. In this study we introduce foreign exchange availability as an additional constraint faced by firms into an otherwise standard small open economy New Keynesian DSGE model. The model is then calibrated for a typical Sub Saharan African economy and the behaviour of the model in response to both domestic and external shocks is compared with the standard model. The impulse response functions of the two models are the same qualitatively for most of the variables though the model with foreign exchange constraint generates more variability in most of the variables than the standard model. This behaviour of the model with foreign exchange constraint is consistent with the stylized facts of low income countries. Furthermore, for variables for which the two models have different impulse response functions, the model with foreign exchange constraint is both theoretically consistent and matches the stylized facts.
Multi-step Forecasting in Unstable Economies: Robustness Issues in the Presence of Location Shifts

To forecast at several, say h, periods into the future, a modeller faces two techniques: iterating one-step ahead forecasts (the IMS technique) or directly modelling the relation between observations separated by an h-period interval and using it for forecasting (DMS forecasting). It is known that unit-root non-stationarity and residual autocorrelation benefit DMS accuracy in finite samples. We analyze here the effect of structural breaks as observed in unstable economies, and show that the benefits of DMS stem from its better appraisal of the dynamic relationships of interest for forecasting. It thus acts in between congruent modelling and intercept correction. We apply our results to forecasting the South African GDP over the last thirty years as this economy exhibits significant unstability. We analyze the forecasting properties of 31 competing models. We find that the GDP of South Africa is best forecast, 4 quarters ahead, using direct multi-step techniques, as with our theoretical results.
Structural Response of Offshore Monopile Foundations to Ocean Waves

Offshore monopile foundations are one of the most commonly used foundation concepts in offshore renewable energy, especially in areas with relatively shallow water. They are characterised by relatively large geometric dimensions compared with other offshore pile foundations and are distinguished from onshore piles by suffering from harsh ocean environments during their lifetime. One of the most significant aspects is associated with the wave effect on the behaviour of monopile foundations. To date, research has been conducted in the development of numerical models, which are capable of providing sophisticated and flexible representations of the monopile foundations. In this study, a three-dimensional scaled boundary finite element model (SBFEM) is proposed to investigate the structural response of the monopile foundations when exposed to ocean waves. Unlike other numerical techniques, SBFEM provides an analytical solution in the radial direction with numerical approximation along the circumferential and top faces of the monopile foundation, which considerably reduces the computational effort. The SBFEM model is validated by an equivalent finite element model, by which favourable computational efficiency and reliable accuracy are demonstrated. Subsequently, a parametric study is carried out in terms of various wave properties to gain an insight into the monopile behaviour. The purpose of this study is to make recommendations for improving the design of offshore monopile foundations, when wave load is a dominant factor.