Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nanofluid-based direct absorption solar collector

Solar energy is one of the best sources of renewable energy with minimal environmental impact. Direct absorption solar collectors have been proposed for a variety of applications such as water heating; however the efficiency of these collectors is limited by the absorption properties of the working fluid, which is very poor for typical fluids used in solar collectors. It has been shown that mixing nanoparticles in a liquid (nanofluid) has a dramatic effect on the liquid thermophysical properties such as thermal conductivity. Nanoparticles also offer the potential of improving the radiative properties of liquids, leading to an increase in the efficiency of direct absorption solar collectors. Here we report on the experimental results on solar collectors based on nanofluids made from a variety of nanoparticles (carbon nanotubes, graphite, and silver). We demonstrate efficiency improvements of up to 5% in solar thermal collectors by utilizing nanofluids as the absorption mechanism. In addition the experiment.
The financial management initiative in the u.k. public sector: the symbolic role of performance reporting

The emerging principles of performance reporting are explored in the context of urban policy and inner city regeneration programmes in the UK, upon which a great deal of evaluative research has been carried out in the last decade. The paper questions the extent that performance management principles as embodied by the FMI are necessary for public accountability. It illustrates that implementation of performance reporting in the urban regeneration programme has had a symbolic role in generating myths and images about practice which imply that the “rational model” of decision making is in operation. The imposition of performance reporting cannot per se guarantee improvements, in the sense of learning, in the organising approaches adopted by public sector organisations.
A low-power 190–255 GHz frequency quadrupler in SiGe BiCMOS technology for on-chip spectroscopic applications

This paper presents the design of a wide-band frequency quadrupler in the 240 GHz frequency regime fabricated in a 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS process. Frequency multiplication is performed in two stages: in the first stage, two push-push doublers with quadrature input double the input frequency and in the second stage, a bootstrapped Gilbert-cell doubler delivers quadrupled signal at the output. A Marchand balun and a polyphase filter (PPF) transform the single-ended input into a differential quadrature signal. The differential output has been converted into a single-ended signal using a rat-race coupler. The quadrupler shows a 3-dB bandwidth of 29.2 % (190–255 GHz) and the maximum output power is −16.4 dBm. The chip is 0.45 mm2 and consumes 48 mW power. As a wide-band quadrupler, this chip is a useful building block for on-chip low-power dielectric spectroscopy.
THE TRANSMUTATION IN ADVERTISING APPEALS: A THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE WITH INDIA-CENTRIC CASES

Appeal in Oxford Dictionary means to make a serious, urgent, or heartfelt request or try to persuade someone to do something by calling on (a particular principle or quality) or to be attractive or interesting. Appeals have managed to become an integral part of the Indian advertising in the recent past. The effect has been further accentuated by the influx of technology in young minds and the growing literacy amongst individuals, both males and females. The expansion of the working class in the typical "Indian middle class" and the net increase in the disposable income somewhere have helped advertising to grow in the country with one of the best creative minds at work. Ads need to be appealing to assure one of its root meanings. The current study is a small attempt at identifying how the 'appeal' saga has influenced us in the recent past. The study actually tries to explore the intricacies of the psychology persisting behind applying the advertising appeals to communicate about products and services and how these appeals have transmuted over time-scale. To exemplify and illustrate the same, few Indian cases have been taken whose appeals have changed over a certain time-frame. This change represents the changing Indian society, its environment, its economic scenario and the way they look at the world.
Disclosure When The Market Is Unsure Of Information Endowment Of Managers

Whether insiders (e.g., managers, sellers) fully disclose their private information has been a research interest in accounting as well as in finance and economics. Grossman and Hart [1980] and Grossman [1981] support full disclosure of private information based on an adverse selection argument. That is, when insiders are known to withhold information, outsiders (e.g., investors, consumers) discount the quality of goods insiders deal with to the lowest possible value consistent with their discretionary disclosure. This in turn drives insiders to make full disclosure. On the other hand, Dye [1985] has recently demonstrated the possibility of partial disclosure based on a scenario in which investors are not sure whether managers are endowed with private information.1 In his scenario, given no information disclosure by managers, investors are uncertain whether the nondisclosure is due to nonexistence of information or due to its adverse content. This uncertainty on the part of investors deters the adverse selection and leads to partial disclosure
Market frictions and stock return dynamics: Evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange

Purpose - This paper seeks to test the hypothesis that stock returns in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) adjust asymmetrically to past information due to differential adjustment costs. Design/methodology/approach - The methodological approach is based on the asymmetric price adjustment model suggested by Koutmos. The model is estimated using daily sector stock return data for the ASE over the period 2 January 1992-1 March 1999. Findings - The empirical evidence suggests that prices respond asymmetrically to past information. Specifically, positive past returns are more persistent than negative past returns of an equal magnitude. This behavior is consistent with an asymmetric partial adjustment price model where news suggesting overpricing (negative returns) are incorporated faster into current market prices than news suggesting underpricing (positive returns). Research limitations/implications - This paper does not investigate the possibility that the asymmetric price adjustment is related to conditional heteroscedasticity in stock return. Further research in this area should prove very useful. Practical implications - The findings in this paper have important theoretical and practical implications. On the theoretical level the findings suggest that violations of the efficient markets hypothesis could be due to market frictions and costly adjustments. On the practical level, the asymmetric adjustment process could improve trading profits, especially those based on momentum strategies. Originality/value - This paper presents new findings on the stock price dynamics of the ASE. These findings should be of interest to researchers, regulators and market participants.
Content distribution in wireless ad hoc networks with network coding

Wireless content distribution is an important application of Peer-to-peer (P2P) techniques. With powerful tools like network coding on hand, it is possible to improve the performance of such content distributions. In this paper, we have proposed a cross-layer solution that seamlessly fuses routing information and P2P strategies. Basing peer-selection algorithms on a routing metric, we can select the best performing peers. Using routing layer's feedback to adjust offered load, the coding benefits can be maximized as well. The synergy between wireless P2P and network coding techniques is evaluated, justifying our cross-layer protocol stack.
An Informational Rationale for Political Parties

preferences are not sufficiently close to the party's platform. We find that when party labels are very informa? tive, the parties' platforms converge. When party labels are less informa? tive, however, platforms diverge, because taking an extreme position allows a party to reduce the variance of its members' preferences. As par? ties become less able to impose costs on their members, or less able to screen out certain types of candi? dates, their platforms move further apart.
Human Intelligence in Search and Retrieval

Crowdsourcing has developed to become a magic bullet for the data and annotation needs of modern day IR researchers. The number of academic studies as well as industrial applications that employ the crowd for creating, curating, annotating or aggregating documents is growing steadily. Aside from the multitude of scientific papers relying on crowd labour for system evaluation, there has been a strong interdisciplinary line of work dedicated to finding effective and efficient forms of using this emerging labour market. Central research questions include (1) Estimating and optimizing the reliability and accuracy of often untrained workers in comparison with highly trained professionals [1]; (2) How to identify or prevent noise and spam in the submissions [4]; and (3) How to most costefficiently distribute tasks and remunerations across workers [2]. The vast majority of studies understands crowdsourcing as the act of making micro payments to individuals in return for compartmentalized units of creative or intelligent labour. Gamification proposes an alternative incentive model in which entertainment replaces money as the motivating force drawing the workers [3]. Under this alternative paradigm, tasks are embedded in game environments in order to increase the attractiveness and immersion of the work interface. While gamification rightfully points out that paid crowdsourcing is not the only viable option for harnessing crowd labour, it is still merely another concrete instantiation of the community’s actual need: A formal worker incentive model for crowdsourcing. Only by understanding individual motivations can we deliver truly adequate reward schemes that ensure faithful contributions and long-term worker engagement. It is unreasonable to assume that the binary money vs. entertainment de-
COST-EFFECTIVENESS OF THE SECOND-GENERATION EVEROLIMUS-ELUTING STENT COMPARED TO THE FIRST-GENEREATION PACLITAXEL-ELUTING STENT IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING PERCUTANEOUS CORONARY INTERVENTION IN DAILY PRACTICE

Objectives: To examine the cost-effectiveness of the second-generation everolimus-eluting stent (EES) compared to the first-generation paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES) in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in daily practice. Methods: The cost-effectiveness analysis was based on data from the TAXUS Stent Evaluated at Rotterdam Cardiology Hospital (T-SEARCH) and XIENCE Stent Evaluated at Rotterdam Cardiology Hospital (X-SEARCH) registries. The primary effectiveness measure was major adverse cardiac events (MACE)-free survival, in which the composite of MACE consisted of death, myocardial infarction (MI), repeat PCI and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The costs were assessed in 2012 Euros (€) and limited to direct medical costs. A bootstrap simulation was used to estimate the uncertainty on the results of MACE-free survival and direct medical costs. An additional analysis was performed to evaluate the impact of patient characteristics on the study results. Results: At the end of the two year follow-up period, the use of EES was associated with an increased MACE-free survival of 0.076 years and cost savings of €498.34. The probability that EES maintained dominant over PES was confirmed in 76.0% of the bootstrap simulations. The study results were affected by patient characteristics. Conclusion: EES has proven to be dominant over PES by improving the clinical and economic benefits of PCI in daily practice, even though EES seemed to be worse off based on the patient characteristics.
Control of Na diffusion from soda-lime glass and NaF film into Cu(In,Ga)Se2 for thin-film solar cells

We report on the effect of Na incorporation into Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) for thin-film solar cells. Na ions were supplied by NaF films with different thicknesses, while those from the soda-lime glass substrate were controlled by a presence or an absence of a SiOx barrier. Gradually increasing a Na content in CIGS was found in the structures of CIGS/Mo/SiOx/SLG, CIGS/Mo/SLG, CIGS/5 nm-NaF/Mo/SiOx/SLG, CIGS/5 nm-NaF/Mo/SLG, CIGS/15 nm-NaF/Mo/SiOx/SLG, and CIGS/15 nm-NaF/Mo/SLG. With increasing the Na content, the CIGS (112) preferential orientation growth became dominant, while the (220/204) one was nearly constant. The grain size decreased with increasing the Na content. The cell efficiency (η) increased for relatively low Na content however the thick NaF led to a degradation of η because of poor adhesion between the CIGS and the Mo. The sample with the CIGS/5 nm-NaF/Mo/SiOx/SLG structure achieved the comparable (112)/(220/204) peak ratios, grain sizes, as well as the cell performances to a CIGS/Mo/SLG structure that contains the same Na content in the CIGS.
An elevated bronchodilator response predicts large airway inflammation in mild asthma

Exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) is elevated in asthmatics and is a purported marker of airway inflammation. The bronchodilator response (BDR) has also been shown to correlate with markers of airway inflammation, including eNO at 50 ml/sec (FENO,50) which is comprised of NO from both the proximal and distal airways. Using eNO at multiple flows and a two‐compartment model of NO exchange, the eNO signal can be partitioned into its proximal [J'awNO (nl/sec)] and distal contributions [CANO (ppb)]. We hypothesized that the BDR reflects the inflammatory status of the larger airways with smooth muscle, and thus would correlate with J'awNO. In 179 predominantly (95%) Hispanic children with mild asthma (69 steroid naïve), and 21 non‐asthmatic non‐atopic controls, spirometry and eNO at multiple flows were measured prior and 10 min following inhalation of albuterol. A trumpet‐shaped axial diffusion model of NO exchange was used to characterize J'awNO and CANO. The BDR correlated moderately (r = 0.44) with proximal airway NO (J'awNO), but weakly (r = 0.26) with distal airway/alveolar NO (CANO), and only in inhaled corticosteroid naïve asthmatics. A BDR cut point as low as ≥8% had a positive predictive value of 83% for predicting an elevated J'awNO or FENO,50. We conclude that the BDR reflects inflammation in the large airways, and may be an effective clinical tool to predict elevated large airway inflammation. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2010; 45:174–181. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Designing technologies for unproductive citizens

This is a project to design digital technologies to promote uses of public spaces challenging the social religion of productivism + consumerism. Instead I celebrate participative leisure, free time, political involvement and social relationships. Digital artefacts for what I'm calling the "unproductive city". The goal is to incorporate a different set of values where the “paid work” is not as relevant in our life as it is today. The project is focused on life in cities and works with the integration of computing technologies into everyday urban settings and lifestyles. What it is called “urban informatics”. Participative processes as well as user center design have guided the design. It comprehends different services and activities: A collaborative urban jukebox, exercises with locative media, participative design as a leisure activity, technological infrastructures for meetings and game design for public spaces These activities are examples and explorations to find future challenges and different ways to design technologies for the unproductive city.
Individual interests and collective action : selected essays

Acknowledgements Introduction Part I. Collective Decisions: 1. Collective decisions 2. Beyond Pareto optimality 3. The possibility of a social welfare function 4. Social action systems 5. Why so much stability? Recontracting, trustworthiness and the stability of vote exchanges 6. Collective decisions in a social system Part II. Power: 7. Political money 8. Control of collectivities and the power of a collectivity to act 9. Constitutional power in experimental health service and delivery systems 10. Legitimate and illegitimate use of power 11. Processes of concentration and dispersal of power in social systems 12. The corporate structure of the economy and its effects on income Part III. Constitutions: 13. Individual interests and collective action 14. Inequality, sociology and moral philosophy 15. Individual rights and the state 16. Rawls, Nozick and educational equality Bibliography Index.
Ecotourism – model of sustainable tourist development

In the last years, the tendency in the tourism industry was that of return towards nature and towards the authentic cultural values. Among all the forms of tourism, ecotourism distinguishes itself through the strongest connection with the natural and cultural environment, representing the most valuable form of manifestation of sustainable tourism, with the fastest growth rhythm worldwide. Integrated in the sustainable development, ecotourism involves activities that directly contribute to the nature protection and to keeping the old human creations unaltered.
Software development with real-time collaborative editing

This thesis presents Collabode, a web-based integrated development environment for Java. With real-time collaborative editing, multiple programmers can use Collabode to edit the same source code at the same time. Collabode introduces error-mediated integration , where multiple editors see the text of one another's changes while being isolated from errors and in-progress work, and error-free changes are integrated automatically. Three models of collaborative programming are presented and evaluated using Collabode. Classroom programming brings zero-setup web-based programming to computer science students working in a classroom or lab. Test-driven pair programming combines two existing software development strategies to create a model with clear roles and explicit tool support. And micro-outsourcing enables one programmer to easily request and integrate very small contributions from many distributed assistants, demonstrating how a system for highly-collaborative programming enables a development model infeasible with current tools. To show that highly-collaborative programming, using real-time collaborative editing of source code, is practical, useful, and enables new models of software development, this thesis presents a series of user studies. A study with pairs of both student and professional programmers shows that error-mediated integration allows them to work productively in parallel. In a semester-long deployment of Collabode, students in an MIT software engineering course used the system for classroom programming. In a lab study of a Collabode prototype, professional programmers used test-driven pair programming. Finally, a study involving both in-lab participants and contractors hired online demonstrated how micro-outsourcing allowed participants to approach programming in a new way, one enabled by collaborative editing, automatic error-mediated integration, and a web-based environment requiring no local setup. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, libraries.mit.edu/docs - [email protected])
The Impact of 9/11 on the Noncitizen Welfare Caseload: A Time-Series Analysis

ABSTRACT The tragedy of 9/11 had more far-reaching social and economic consequences for the nation than those found for many individuals on that day. Between October 2001 and May 2002, Nevada witnessed a 25% increase in the total number of households on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, commonly referred to as welfare. During the same time, households headed by a noncitizen increased their participation in the TANF program by 40%. This study examines the differential impact of 9/11, as well as of the economy and other external developments, on noncitizen and citizen welfare caseloads in a single state. Two monthly time series models are specified that explain and compare trends in the noncitizen and citizen welfare caseloads from April 1998 to June 2002. The findings suggest that, all else constant, 9/11 had a differential impact on the noncitizen and the citizen caseloads. All else constant, 9/11 events increased the noncitizen welfare caseload whereas a similar impact for the citizen caseload was not found. The findings also strongly suggest that the business cycle shapes noncitizens' participation in public assistance programs more closely than citizens' participation. Future research should investigate the extent to which 9/11 affected the behaviors of families on welfare over the long run.
Using local and global object's information to track vehicles in urban scenes

In intelligent transportation systems (ITS's) vehicle tracking is necessary to permit high-level analysis, such as vehicle counting or classification. Nowadays, the need for a precise vehicle behavior analysis is growing mainly in urban intersections. Typical urban traffic scenes contain high-cluttered areas where static and dynamic occlusions take place and objects are missed. Tracking systems relying on monocular cameras are widespread. However, often they are misled by the complicated object interactions occurring in those areas, thus yielding errors in the higher level modules. The real-time tracking system we have conceived relies on an algorithm exploiting local and global information from corner points and whole object's features that allows us to keep track of many different objects in challenging urban scenarios. We assess our results through extensive on-field testing by manually extracting the ground truth from different sequences taken by real world traffic monitoring systems.
Sexually dimorphic distribution of neurotensin/neuromedin N mRNA in the rat preoptic area

Neurotensin release from estrogen‐responsive neurons in the rostral preoptic area of the female rat may play an important role in triggering preovulatory secretion of gonadotropin‐releasing hormone on proestrus. We investigated the possibility of sexually differentiated biosynthesis of neurotensin in the rostral preoptic area, using in situ hybridization histochemistry to detect neurotensin/neuromedin N (NT/N) mRNA in adult male rats and adult female rats at proestrus and the first day of diestrus. In sections through the anteroventral periventricular nucleus (AVPv), the number of labeled cells in proestrous females was four times that in males. Diestrous females exhibited half the number of labeled cells present at proestrus, and there was evidence for a significant correlation between circulating estradiol level and number of labeled cells in the AVPv. In the rostral portion of the medial preoptic nucleus (MPN), two contiguous groups of labeled cells were especially prominent. One group, in the medial half of the MPN, was located closer to the midline in females than in males and displayed greater labeling in males than in females. Furthermore, labeling in the rostral MPN was greater at proestrus than at diestrus. These results indicate that biosynthesis of neurotensin and neuromedin N in the rostral preoptic area may be sexually differentiated and, in the female, may vary across the estrous cycle in parallel with circulating estradiol levels, consistent with the view that neurotensin neurons in this area are involved in the regulation of preovulatory secretion of gonadotropin‐releasing hormone. The sex‐ and region‐specific expression of NT/N mRNA in the rostral preoptic area suggests functional heterogeneity of neurotensin neuronal populations in this area and implies complex regulation of NT/N gene expression in the rat brain.