Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Everyday politics of care and exclusion: Conceptualising agency in rural south India

Confronting social exclusion is considered critical for grappling with poverty, livelihoods, inequality and participation in rural India. Studies highlight how exclusion is produced through hierarchical relations of caste, gender, class, religion, disability and ethnicity, while documenting people's agency to confront exclusions. However, the making of such agency through people's relations with ecologies and technologies is currently neglected. To address this neglect, we focus on different sociomaterial ways of relating – care and exclusion – which constitute people's agency. We argue that giving close attention to multiple ways of relating that coexist and interweave with each other, may be crucial for supporting grassroots transformations for justice and sustainability. To illustrate this ways-of-relating approach to agency, we rely on oral history narratives with three elderly people from rural Tamil Nadu, while building on insights from feminist scholars as well as science and technology studies. Central to the people's histories narrated in this article are uncertainties that yield non-linearities and loose ends. They foreground plural and flexible dimensions of each of our core concepts, from care and exclusion to intersections and relational agency. This open-ended plurality of dimensions, we conclude, may be crucial for concepts to find relevance in widely different settings.
Data-driven discovery of the governing equation of granular flow in the homogeneous cooling state using sparse regression

With the arrival of the era of big data and the rapid development of high-precision discrete simulations, a wealth of high-quality data is readily available, but discovering physical laws from these data remains a great challenge. In this study, an attempt is made to discover the governing equation of granular flow for the homogeneous cooling state from discrete element method (DEM) data through sparse regression. It is shown that not only the governing equation but also the energy dissipation rate can be obtained accurately from DEM data for systems having different physical properties of particles and operating conditions. The present work provides the evidence that the macroscopic governing equation and the constitutive relation of granular flow can be discovered from microscopic data using a purely data-driven method.
Multivariate generalizations of cumulative sum quality-control schemes

This article presents the design procedures and average run lengths for two mulativariater cumulative sum (CUSUM) quality-control procedures. The first CUSUM procedure reduces each multivariate observation to a scalar and then forms a CUSUM of the scalars. The second CUSUM procedure forms a CUSUM vector directly from the observations. These two procedures are compared with each other and with the multivariate Shewhart chart. Other multivariate quality-control procedures are mentioned. Robustness, the fast initial response feature for CUSUM schemes, and combined Shewhart-CUSUM schemes are discussed.
A Multivariate Unit Root Test Based on the Modified Weighted Symmetric Estimator for VAR(p)

Multivariate unit root tests for the VAR model have been commonly used in time series analysis. Several unit root tests were developed. Most of the estimators of coefficient matrices developed in the VAR model are obtained using ordinary least squares estimators. In this paper, we suggest a multivariate unit root test based on a modified weighted symmetric estimator. Using a limited Monte Carlo simulation, we compare the powers of the new test statistic and the test statistic suggested in Fuller (1996).
Thermohydraulics of Laminar Flow Through Rectangular and Square Ducts With Axial Corrugation Roughness and Twisted Tapes With Oblique Teeth

The heat transfer and the pressure drop characteristics of laminar flow of viscous oil (175 <Pr <538) through rectangular and square ducts with combined internal axial corrugations on all the surfaces of the ducts and with twisted-tape inserts with and without oblique teeth have been studied experimentally. The axial corrugations in combination with both twisted tapes with and without oblique teeth have been found to perform better than either axial corrugations or twisted-tape inserts acting alone. The heat transfer and the pressure drop measurements have been taken in separate test sections. Heat transfer tests were carried out in electrically heated stainless steel ducts incorporating uniform wall heat flux boundary conditions. Pressure drop tests were carried out in acrylic ducts. The flow friction and thermal characteristics are governed by duct aspect ratio, corrugation angle, corrugation pitch, twist ratio, space ratio, length, tooth horizontal length and tooth angle of the twisted tapes, Reynolds number, and Prandtl number. Correlations developed for friction factor and Nusselt number have predicted the experimental data satisfactorily. The performance of the geometry under investigation has been evaluated. It has been found that based on constant pumping power, up to 45% heat duty increase occurs for the combined axial corrugation and twisted-tape insert case compared with the individual axial corrugation and twisted-tape insert cases in the measured experimental parameters space. On the constant heat duty basis, the pumping power has been reduced up to 30% for the combined enhancement geometry than the individual enhancement geometries.
Le benchmark MEDIA revisité : données, outils et évaluation dans un contexte d’apprentissage profond

The Spoken Language Understanding MEDIA Benchmark Dataset in the Era of Deep Learning : data updates, training and evaluation tools With the emergence of neural end-to-end approaches for spoken language understanding, a growing number of studies on speech intent detection have been presented during these last three years and new benchmark datasets have been produced. In this paper, we focus on the French benchmark dataset MEDIA, created in 2005 and distributed freely for academic research by ELRA since 2020. This dataset has been shown as being the most challenging one in its domain but is unfortunately not much used beyond the French research community. To facilitate its use, a complete recipe has been integrated to SpeechBrain, a toolkit based on PyTorch. Corrections were brought to the initial manual annotations. The new version of MEDIA will be distributed by ELRA. We used a significant amount of data collected during the construction of MEDIA and never used until now to create a new corpus called test2. Last, we discuss evaluation issues. MOTS-CLÉS : Compréhension de la parole, Corpus MEDIA, Modèles neuronaux de bout-en-bout .
Transient Downslope Winds under the Influence of Stationary Lee Waves from the Zao Mountain Range

Severe downslope winds accompanying turbulence, which are of great concern to aviation safety, often occur on the lee side of Zao mountain range in winter. Special Doppler lidar observations and numerical simulations with a grid spacing of 100 m were carried out focusing on the downslope winds around the Sendai airport on 14 February 2008. The model reproduced stationary lee waves with an approximate 20-km wavelength, consistent with the observed horizontal scale in water vapor images from the Japanese geostationary multifunctional transport satellite (MTSAT-1R). The simulated lee waves are accompanied by strong vertical shear, which leads to the separation of a vortex sheet from the surface, where small-scale vortices are generated successively. The vortex sheet is under favorable conditions for Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and may account for the generation of small-scale vortices. The simulated vortices, which are advected downstream, are accompanied by weak low-level wind patches. The Doppler lidar observation also captured the weak low-level wind patches with a horizontal scale of 1000-m moving downstream near the surface. An observed temporal variability in line-of-site wind speed decreased with increasing altitude from the surface. This feature was reproduced by the model in a qualitative sense, although the model tended to overestimate (underestimate) the variability below (above) a height of approximately 800 m.
Anticipated suicidal and death ideation in response to an imagined dementia diagnosis: A qualitative study

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are prevalent, highly impactful, and feared diagnoses. A mixed methods study using semi-structured interviews was conducted to clarify causes of dementia-related anxiety. Fifty community-dwelling adults aged 58 to 89 (M = 70.92, SD = 6.08) were recruited from a university participant registry and Memory Clinic; none had dementia diagnoses. Analyses revealed that 42% (n = 21) of participants anticipated suicidal or death ideation if diagnosed with dementia. Among participants endorsing anticipated suicidal or death ideation, responses ranged from active, specific plans, including interest in physician-assisted suicide, to more passive wishes to hasten death rather than continue to live with dementia. Within reports of both anticipated suicidal and death ideation, three subthemes emerged. Participants reported concerns about becoming a burden to others, the devaluation of life/loss of self with dementia, and the desire for (and anticipated thwarting of) personal control as factors contributing to their anticipated responses to a dementia diagnosis. Statements of anticipated suicidal and death ideation were contingent on a dementia diagnosis and may reflect errors in affective forecasting. Nevertheless, given the prevalence of dementias and older adults’ elevated rates of suicide, the intersection of these two public health issues warrants greater attention.
Genome-wide association study for the free amino acid and nucleotide components of breast meat in an F2 crossbred chicken population

Abstract Flavor is an important sensory trait of chicken meat. The free amino acid (FAA) and nucleotide (NT) components of meat are major factors affecting meat flavor during the cooking process. As a genetic approach to improve meat flavor, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify the potential candidate genes related to the FAA and NT components of chicken breast meat. Measurements of FAA and NT components were recorded at the age of 10 weeks from 764 and 767 birds, respectively, using a White leghorn and Yeonsan ogye crossbred F2 chicken population. For genotyping, we used 60K Illumina single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chips. We found a total of nine significant SNPs for five FAA traits (arginine, glycine, lysine, threonine content, and the essential FAAs and one NT trait (inosine content), and six significant genomic regions were identified, including three regions shared among the essential FAAs, arginine, and inosine content traits. A list of potential candidate genes in significant genomic regions was detected, including the KCNRG, KCNIP4, HOXA3, THSD7B, and MMUT genes. The essential FAAs had significant gene regions the same as arginine. The genes related to arginine content were involved in nitric oxide metabolism, while the inosine content was possibly affected by insulin activity. Moreover, the threonine content could be related to methylmalonyl-CoA mutase. The genes and SNPs identified in this study might be useful markers in chicken selection and breeding for chicken meat flavor.
Improved genetic algorithm for design optimization of truss structures with sizing, shape and topology variables

This paper presents an improved genetic algorithm (GA) to minimize weight of truss with sizing, shape and topology variables. Because of the nature of discrete and continuous variables, mixed coding schemes are proposed, including binary and float coding, integer and float coding. Surrogate function is applied to unify the constraints into single one; moreover surrogate reproduction is developed to select good individuals to mating pool on the basis of constraint and fitness values, which completely considers the character of constrained optimization. This paper proposes a new strategy of creating next population by competing between parent and offspring population based on constraint and fitness values; so that lifetime of excellent gene is prolonged. Because the initial population is created randomly and three operators of GA are also indeterminable, it is necessary to check whether the structural topology is desirable. An improved restart operator is proposed to introduce new gene and explore new space, so that the reliability of GA is enhanced. Selected examples are solved; the improved numerical results demonstrate that the enhanced GA scheme is feasible and effective. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Decapitation and Recapitation, a Study of Voice Quality

The familiar model of the speech spectrum as a product of the source spectrum times the vocal‐tract transfer function suggests making an actual separation of the two for two different talkers followed by a recombining of the vocal tract of one talker with the source of the other. The calculations to effect such an interchange were made on a pitch‐synchronous basis. Fourier coefficients were obtained for each period, the harmonic‐amplitude spectrum was matched to obtain locations of the vocal tract poles, and these poles were divided from the spectrum. The pole data for an utterance by one talker could thus be recombined with the source spectral data for an utterance by another talker and the speech wave regenerated by Fourier synthesis. Source data for several talkers were tried, each with the same vocal tract and also a single source was applied to several “heads. ” Listening tests were made of the resulting combinations in an attempt to determine the effect of glottal source versus vocal tract on speech quality and talker identification.
Self-induced conversion in dense neutrino gases : Pendulum in flavor space

Neutrino-neutrino interactions can lead to collective flavor conversion effects in supernovae and in the early universe. We demonstrate that the case of bipolar oscillations, where a dense gas of neutrinos and antineutrinos in equal numbers completely converts from one flavor to another even if the mixing angle is small, is equivalent to a pendulum in flavor space. Bipolar flavor conversion corresponds to the swinging of the pendulum, which begins in an unstable upright position (the initial flavor), and passes through momentarily the vertically downward position (the other flavor) in the course of its motion. The time scale to complete one cycle of oscillation depends logarithmically on the vacuum mixing angle. Likewise, the presence of an ordinary medium can be shown analytically to contribute to a logarithmic increase in the bipolar conversion period. We further find that a more complex (and realistic) system of unequal numbers of neutrinos and antineutrinos is analogous to a spinning top subject to a torque. This analogy easily explains how such a system can oscillate in both the bipolar and the synchronized mode, depending on the neutrino density and the size of the neutrino-antineutrino asymmetry. Our simple model applies strictly only to isotropic neutrino gasses. Inmore » more general cases, and especially for neutrinos streaming from a supernova core, different modes couple to each other with unequal strength, an effect that can lead to kinematical decoherence in flavor space rather than collective oscillations. The exact circumstances under which collective oscillations occur in nonisotropic media remain to be understood. « less
Genetic counseling students' use of patient‐centered communication skills predicts standardized patient satisfaction during virtual simulated sessions

Communication is essential to effective genetic counseling, but few studies have systematically evaluated methods of assessing communication skills among genetic counseling trainees. The study's objective is to compare the strength of associations between standardized patient (SP) satisfaction with simulated genetic counseling sessions and student skill use during the sessions, as reported by SPs and students. We hypothesized that (1) Both SP‐ and student‐reported skill use will be significantly associated with SP satisfaction ratings during the baseline simulation and (2): SP ratings of student skill use will show a stronger relationship to SP satisfaction than student self‐rating of skill use. Sixty genetic counseling students and recent graduates (referred to as “students”) from accredited U.S. and Canadian programs participated in the study and completed a baseline virtual‐simulated genetic counseling session. Both students and SPs completed post‐session questionnaires about communication skill use (a 22‐item checklist) and SPs completed a satisfaction questionnaire based on the session (a 14‐item Likert scale). Multilevel regression models assessed associations between SP satisfaction during the baseline session and SP‐ or student‐reported skill use. SP satisfaction was significantly associated with skill use reported by both SPs and students, but the model based on SP report explained a higher proportion of the variance in SP satisfaction than student‐reported skill use (SP model fixed effects R2 = 27%, adjusted R2 = 21%; vs. student model R2 = 7%, adjusted R2 = −2%). For both the SP and student models, use of more skills from the LISTEN domain (which focused on eliciting the patient's perspective) was associated with higher SP satisfaction, while other skill category domains were not. These findings support the SP satisfaction measure as sensitive to variation in student performance of key communication skills, especially those eliciting the patient's perspective. Moreover, SP assessment of session satisfaction can be a useful assessment of student communication performance and a meaningful proxy for actual patient satisfaction.
Experimental and Computational Approaches to Sulfonated Poly(arylene ether sulfone) Synthesis Using Different Halogen Atoms at the Reactive Site

Highlights The effect of differences in the halogen atoms at the ends of the biphenyl sulfone monomers on polymerization spontaneity was investigated through computer simulations and experiments. The polymerization process of SPAES was predicted using the first-principle calculation method. The simulation feasibility of polymer synthesis was verified experimentally. This approach based on quantum mechanics can even be effective in underlying polymer synthesis. Abstract Engineering thermoplastics, such as poly(arylene ether sulfone), are more often synthesized using F-containing monomers rather than Cl-containing monomers because the F atom is considered more electronegative than Cl, leading to a better condensation polymerization reaction. In this study, the reaction’s spontaneity improved when Cl atoms were used compared to the case using F atoms. Specifically, sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) was synthesized by reacting 4,4′-dihydroxybiphenyl with two types of biphenyl sulfone monomers containing Cl and F atoms. No significant difference was observed in the structural, elemental, and chemical properties of the two copolymers based on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. However, the solution viscosity and mechanical strength of the copolymer synthesized with the Cl-terminal monomers were slightly higher than those of the copolymer synthesized with the F-terminal monomers due to higher reaction spontaneity. The first-principle study was employed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of these reactions.
Monitoring surface dryness using geostationary thermal observations

This study introduces an operational land dryness index (DI) developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) to assist mainly in wildfire risk assessment and forecasting. The index is developed based on observations of daytime rise of surface radiative temperature from the geostationary operational environmental satellites (GOES). Thermal measurements of heating rates are normalized using solar radiation, also from GOES, to account for spatial changes in solar time. Maps of the DI are developed systematically over the continental US on a daily basis from cloud-free pixels. In addition, anomalies of the DI are evaluated with respect to a 5-year mean to further classify the extent of dryness. The DI is assessed using (1) the microwave-based soil moisture product from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), (2) estimates of soil moisture from the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS), that is based on the North American land surface model and (3) vegetation cover estimated from the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). An overall agreement is found between the DI and microwave-based estimates of soil moisture. The peak absolute correlation, which reached around 0.6, is found in late summer over scrubland. The correlation between the products also shows a seasonal pattern that needs to be corroborated with further observations. The consistency of the developed product with other independent measures implies its reliability and its potential in wildfire forecasting.
Measurement of the roughness of nano-scale surfaces, both unannealed and with limited anneal, by atomic force microscopy

The roughness and bias measured for surfaces scanned by a parabolic atomic-force microscope tip are analyzed computationally for surfaces exhibiting a random, Gaussian population of heights, uncorrelated from pixel to pixel. The fraction of the surface with which the probe is in contact is then analyzed in detail to show the area fraction of the surface that is, in practice, contacted within a defined tolerance. This shows that it is very difficult to measure much of these surfaces for any significant roughness even though the roughness value may sometimes be approximately correct. The surface is then allowed a limited anneal, and the improvement in the validity of the measurement is determined. Annealing removes the very short-range structure and permits more meaningful roughnesses to be determined with a greater fraction of the surface contacted by the probe. This limited anneal may simulate the behaviour of hot atoms that are incident or impacted by energetic ions and that rapidly cool at the surface. Asymmetric, non-Gaussian height distributions are also analyzed, and these generate a significantly different measurement bias that can be more sensitive to the tip radius. The height distribution shapes alter with the tip radius, so accurate estimation of the originating height distribution is not possible. Simple equations are provided to describe the effects.
Bandwidth Choice for Nonparametric Regression

This paper is concerned with the problem of choosing a bandwidth parameter for nonparametric regression. We analyze a tapered Fourier series estimate and discuss the relationship of this estimate to a kernel estimate. We first consider a method based on an unbiased estimate of mean square error, and show that the bandwidth thus chosen is asymptotically optimal. Other methods are examined as well and are shown to be asymptotically equivalent. A small simulation shows, however, that for small or moderate sample size, the methods perform quite differently.