Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Methods for assessing the space and time variability of groundwater data

Groundwater contaminant concentration data are routinely collected by environmental agencies. Data collection sites are typically scattered non-uniformly over the study areas. The sampling frequency at these sites typically varies, and concurrent samples across all sites are usually not available. A primary purpose of such data collection efforts is to develop maps showing groundwater conditions at specific times. Another purpose is to develop estimates of groundwater levels and contaminant concentrations at specific locations and times that can be used to calibrate models of groundwater flow and contaminant transport. In both cases an interpolation of the data in both space and time is needed. The utility of using existing geostatistical methods such as kriging for this purpose is questioned, and the use of nonparametric regression techniques as an alternate is explored. Nonparametric regression techniques are weighted local averages, that differ from each other and from kriging in the manner that the weights are chosen. The theoretical properties of kriging, kernel methods, locally weighted regression, multivariate adaptive regression splines, and thin plate smoothing splines are reviewed.
Cost structure of bio-based plastics: A Monte-Carlo-Analysis for PLA

This paper conducts a meta-analysis of the estimated costs of producing Polylactic Acid (PLA). Cost c ontributions of specific inputs and process stages are identified through a production chain perspective. By applying the Monte Carlo technique, uncertainties in current estimates are reflected, both regarding technological input requirements and the development of input prices. Moreover, r esults are compared between two scenarios differing in feedstock choice: production from corn grain and from corn stover. The re-sults stress the specific importance of capital costs, energy, and the biological feedstocks as cost components. Nevertheless, the Monte Carlo simulations point out that the current state of knowledge is still subject to a high degree of uncertainty.
THE LEARNING ORGANISATION : VALIDATING A MEASURING INSTRUMENT

The EFMD reports in their Survey Summary Service (2006) that "The Learning Organization" topic ranked as the second most enduring idea about strategy and business, out of 10 ideas most likely to last at least another 10 years. Management literature contains a considerable number of references to the learning organization and its characteristics. An instrument developed by Pedler, et. al. (1991) to measure eleven characteristics of the learning organization was used to measure the degree to which respondents considered their own organizations to conform to the eleven characteristics ascribed to the learning organization. The aim of this paper is to report on the research and analyses being done to better understand the factor structure and content of the construct, as well as the predictive and discriminate validity of the same instrument. Item Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were used for this purpose. The predictive/discriminatory validity of the instrument, which has been proved to be uni-dimensional, was investigated by means of One-way Analysis of Variance, Stepwise Discrimination Analysis and Discrimination Analysis. The results indicate that the instrument can adequately distinguish respondents from different economic sectors and organizations as well as differentiate respondents in terms of some other variables. The study should be regarded as entirely applicable to the South African cultural and organizational environments.
EFFECT OF Telenomus remus NIXON (HYMENOPTERA: SCELIONIDAE) DENSITY ON CONTROL OF Spodoptera frugiperda (SMITH) (LEPIDOPTERA: NOCTUIDAE) EGG MASSES UPON RELEASE IN A MAIZE FIELD

The impact of releasing different densities (0, 6, 9 and 12 adult females m-2) of the egg parasitoid Telenomus remus Nixon on maize plants artificially infested with Spodoptera frugiperda (Smith) egg masses (one m-2) was evaluated. Egg masses were pinned in the midrib of the plant 36 days after planting. One egg mass contained approximately 65 eggs. The experimental design was in a randomized complete block design with five replications (16 m2 plots). There was a significant effect on percentage of parasitism egg masses. The highest parasitism values were verified in plots where 9 or 12 females of T. remus m-2 were released, respectively, 74 and 88.3 %. The relationship between percentage of parasitized egg masses and parasitoid densities was quadratic (Y = 16.8 + 9.98 X – 0.35 X2, r2 = 0.99). The natural occurrence of Trichogramma spp. was relatively constant over the egg masses fixed on maize plants (52.5%). However, the average T. remus parasitism on the eggs of a mass was much higher, representing 80.4% while the parasitism was only 21.3% in the case of Trichogramma. The presence of both parasitoids was responsible for up to 97.5% of parasitism, obtained from plots with a released density of 12 T. remus female m-2.
The Carbon Cycle as the Main Determinant of Glacial-Interglacial Periods

AbstractAn intriguing problem in climate science is the existence of Earth’s glacial cycle. We show that it is possible to generatethese periodic changes in climate by means of the Earth’s carbon cycle as the main source factor. The carbon exchangebetween the Ocean, the Continent and the Atmosphere is modeled by means of a Lotka-Volterra three species systemand the resulting atmospheric carbon cycle is used as the unique radiative forcing mechanism. It is shown that thecarbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and temperature paths that are thus obtained have the same qualitative structure as the 100kyr glacial-interglacial cycles depicted by the Vostok ice core data, reproducing the asymmetries of rapid heating{slowcooling, and short interglacial{long glacial ages.Keywords: glacial cycles, carbon cycle, Lotka-Volterra1. Introduction.For the last 3 million years the Earth - and thus itsclimate- has cycled from having a large volume of ice cov-ered surface, or glacial periods, to intervals with smallerice volumes and milder temperatures, or interglacial ages.Adhemar and Croll, both in the XIX century, suggestedthat Earth’s orbital changes could be responsible for theglacial cycles
A compact four elements UWB MIMO antenna with on‐demand WLAN rejection

This article presents a four elements frequency reconfigurable ultrawideband (UWB) multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) design, capable of rejecting on‐demand WLAN band ranging from 4.8 to 6.2 GHz. The proposed design consists of two U‐shaped monopole UWB radiators and two circular slotted‐monopole radiators. These monopole radiators are placed orthogonally with respect to each other to exploit polarization diversity, whereas the PIN diodes are used to connect the band‐stop design with the ground plane to introduce the on‐demand band rejection feature. An isolation of better than 17 dB between the four UWB‐MIMO elements is achieved in the 2.7–12 GHz frequency range for the both PIN diodes biased and unbiased states. The simulations and measurements results showed good agreement over the band of interest. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:270–276, 2016
Epidemiology of atrial fibrillation in Turkey: preliminary results of the multicenter AFTER ∗ study Türkiye'de atriyum fibrilasyonu epidemiyolojisi; çok merkezli AFTER ∗ çalişmasinin ön sonuçlari

1. The efficacy and safety of warfarin anticoagulation in patients with AF are dependent on the intensity of anticoagulation measured as the international normalized ratio (INR). The risk of ischemic stroke increases with INR levels <1.8, and the risk of intracranial hemorrhage increases at INR levels >3.5. [2] These findings support the standard “therapeutic” INR range for AF of 2.0-3.0. A commonly used summary of the quality of warfarin anticoagulation is the linearly interpolated percent time in the therapeutic range (TTR). TTR must be >65% for a better anticoagulation. [3] According to the report from the ACTIVE W trial, if the TTR was below 65%, the benefit of warfarin therapy over aspirin was lost. [4] Three different methods were identified for the measurement of TTR:
Aluminum Auxetic Structures Produced Using Combined Stereolithography and Investment Casting

ALUMINUM AUXETIC STRUCTURES PRODUCED USING COMBINED STEREOLITHOGRAPHY AND INVESTMENT CASTING Nicholas Alfano University of Guelph, 2022 Advisor(s): Dr. Abdallah Elsayed Dr. Hari Simha Investment casting produces structurally complex metal parts with good surface finish, and attractive mechanical properties. Metal additive manufacturing using either powder bed fusion or direct energy deposition technology allows wide design freedom; but is capital intensive. This study combines polymer additive manufacturing through the utilization of stereolithography 3D printing and metal investment casting to produce complex geometry, lightweight structures for energy absorption in transportation applications. Investment cast 319 aluminum alloy with different investment-mold temperatures, melt-pouring temperatures, and vacuum levels was used to produce open celled auxetic structures. The aluminum auxetic castings produced using higher vacuum levels and higher investment mold temperatures had fewer filling defects and were best able to replicate the stereolithography model. Typical casting defects included the presence of shrinkage pores and misruns at areas far away from the casting sprue. It is expected that optimization of the casting parameters can help eliminate these casting defects. The resulting aluminum auxetic structures and their production route offer an accessible method to produce high integrity, geometrically complex castings for transportation applications.
Exploiting tightly-coupled cores

As we move steadily through the multicore era, and the number of processing cores on each chip continues to rise, parallel computation becomes increasingly important. However, parallelising an application is often difficult because of dependencies between different regions of code which require cores to communicate. Communication is usually slow compared to computation, and so restricts the opportunities for profitable parallelisation. In this work, I explore the opportunities provided when communication between cores has a very low latency and low energy cost. I observe that there are many different ways in which multiple cores can be used to execute a program, allowing more parallelism to be exploited in more situations, and also providing energy savings in some cases. Individual cores can be made very simple and efficient because they do not need to exploit parallelism internally. The communication patterns between cores can be updated frequently to reflect the parallelism available at the time, allowing better utilisation than specialised hardware which is used infrequently. In this dissertation I introduce Loki: a homogeneous, tiled architecture made up of many simple, tightly-coupled cores. I demonstrate the benefits in both performance and energy consumption which can be achieved with this arrangement and observe that it is also likely to have lower design and validation costs and be easier to optimise. I then determine exactly where the performance bottlenecks of the design are, and where the energy is consumed, and look into some more-advanced optimisations which can make parallelism even more profitable.
The Influence of Corporate Governance on Environmental Disclosure of Listed Non-Financial Firms in Nigeria

The study investigates the influence of corporate governance on environmental disclosure of non-financial firms listed in Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), anchoring on “trinity theory” (agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories). 86 firm-year observations across 86 companies listed in Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) using content analysis, cross-sectional data, OLS regression techniques were used to analyze the influence of board characteristics on the extent of overall environmental disclosure (OED). The results show that board independence, board meeting and the environmental committee were statistically significant while audit committee independence and board size were insignificant. Among the three company attributes used to mitigate spurious result only Firm size significantly influence the quantity of overall environmental disclosure of the sample companies. Auditor type “big 4” (Ernest Young, Deloitte, KPMG and PWC) and industry membership show insignificant relation to environmental disclosure. The findings indicate that the level of environmental disclosure of nonfinancial companies in Nigeria is quite insufficient at an average of 10.5 %. It is not surprising that environmentally sensitive industry and auditor type had no significant influence on the extent of environmental disclosure. This buttress the point that the environment the companies operate is institutionally and legally weak. Hence it calls for improvement on environmental law and implementation as well as harmonized environmental reporting infrastructure and standard to aid comparison.
Migration ecology of Sabine's gulls (Xena sabini) from the Canadian high arctic

Sabine’s gulls are the only Arctic gulls that undertake trans-equatorial migrations between their breeding grounds and offshore wintering areas. I used light-based archival geolocation devices (n = 36) to track Sabine’s gulls from one of their northernmost breeding colonies, on Nasaruvaalik Island in the Canadian High Arctic, to their wintering sites in the Southern Hemisphere. I discovered that birds from Nasaruvaalik Island migrate to both the Pacific and Atlantic wintering areas this species is known to use, with the majority of birds migrating to a restricted area in the Humboldt Current off the coast of Peru and a small portion of the birds migrating to an area in the Benguela Current off the coast of South Africa. I characterized the routes, timing, and distance of Pacific wintering Sabine's gulls. Analysis of the movements of these individuals revealed that Sabine’s gulls exploit highly localized areas of elevated marine productivity along a migration route of more than 28,000 km. I identified the Juan de Fuca Eddy off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia as a critically important foraging area during both north and southbound migration. I also describe the non-stop overland crossing by some birds between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans during northbound migration.
A Flexible Strain Sensor Design based on Ny-6 Yarn Coated with Ag Nanoparticles for Real Time Strain Monitoring Application

-Composites show better performance than traditional materials however, they are inclined to damage formation, delamination, or fracture. So, it is necessary to detect damage or crack formation with in time in these materials to avoid any catastrophic incident. Therefore, numerous researchers have been developing in-situ sensors and monitoring systems for composite structures. The objective of this study is to create a micro scale, flexible strain sensor wire for real-time sensing applications. This strain sensor wire was developed by depositing conductive silver (Ag) nanoparticles on the surface of Ny-6 untwisted yarn using electroless plating process to achieve uniform conductive coating over each filament of the Ny-6 polymer. The electro-mechanical behavior of this Ny/Ag sensor wire was verified experimentally and gauge factor was found to be in range of 62-69. This flexible Ny/Ag sensor wire was then integrated with in a composite sample to validate the monitoring of deformation and detection of damage initiation. Experimental procedure was performed where the mechanical behavior of the composite sample was tested in a standard tensometer machine, while the electrical signal of the Ny/Ag sensor wire was recorded. The results showed that the electrical response of the sensor was correlated perfectly with the mechanical behavior of the specimen. This indicated that Ny/Ag strain sensor wire can be used for real-time
Technology transfer as a part of the business – inter-organizational transfer strategies based on experiences of aircraft production

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is through a literature study and a study of the Saab offset cases to identify strategies to increase inter-organizational transfer capability.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a literature study and a study of three of Saab’s offset cases and Saab’s process for technology transfer.FindingsThis study has identified inter-organizational transfer strategies based on the importance of the hierarchy of decision-making and the change from capacity transfers to capability transfers in offset business. The type of performance goals set in the business agreement decides how to realize the transfer. The hierarchy of decision-making creates a need to align the understanding of the performance goals between the different parts of the organization, which affect the plans for how to transfer knowledge between the organizational as well as the individual levels. To reach the performance goals of the technology transfer, there needs to be a balance between the disseminative capability of the sender and the absorptive capability of the receiver.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on a single case within a relatively unique industry with an offset perspective and production transfers. Therefore, there is also a need for future studies to confirm the identified relationships within outsourcing/offset within other industries and other types of transfers.Originality/valueA change from capacity transfers to capability transfers in both outsourcing/offshoring and offset business indicates that more research should be placed on the disseminative capacity of the sender. The literature review revealed that the disseminative capacity of the sender has been the subject of less research than the absorptive capacity of the receiver.
Modelisation conceptuelle du transport solide en reseau d'assainissement unitaire

Un modele conceptuel de la production et du transfert des particules solides en reseau d'assainissement unitaire est propose. Il a ete etabli pour des bassins versants urbains de moins de 100 ha, avec une description globale simplifiee du bassin versant et du reseau. On a cherche a obtenir un niveau de complexite homogene pour l'ensemble des etapes du calcul. Le modele comporte deux parties independantes: une partie temps sec, qui represente les flux journaliers et horaires de solides en suspension et l'augmentation des depots dans les collecteurs durant la periode seche consecutive a un evenement pluvieux; une partie temps de pluie, qui represente l'ensemble des etapes du transfert des solides (accumulation sur les surfaces du bassin versant, arrachement par la pluie et entrainement vers le reseau par le ruissellement, transit dans le reseau, sedimentation et erosion des depots). Deux classes de particules sont utilisees pour distinguer les particules fines (d=40 micrometres) transportees en suspension et les particules plus grosses (d=400 micrometres) representatives des depots dans les collecteurs, et transportees par charriage ou suspension selon les conditions hydrauliques. La transformation pluie-debit est l'exutoire est simulee par une cascade de deux reservoirs lineaires, couplee a une fonction de pertes avant ruissellement. La partie temps sec a ete calee sur le reseau d'entzheim. La partie temps de pluie a ete calee et verifiee sur deux bassins versants aux caracteristiques tres differentes: mantes-la-ville et entzheim. Les premiers resultats obtenus sont satisfaisants, notamment pour les pollutogrammes des solides en suspension. Des verifications ulterieures, en lien etroit avec des campagnes de mesures experimentales, devraient permettre d'affiner les resultats concernant le charriage et les depots
Post-Glacial Sedimentation in Ossipee Lake , New Hampshire : Author :

Land cover and climate changes, attributed to natural and anthropogenic forcings, cause deviations in geomorphic processes that act to deliver sediment from watersheds to lakes. In New England, contradictory evidence exists as to the influence of deforestation associated with EuroAmerican settlement and major flood events on watershed erosion rates over the past ~250 years. Through combining sediment core analysis from Ossipee Lake, New Hampshire with geomorphic analysis of the Ossipee Lake watershed, this study quantifies Holocene through Anthropocene watershed erosion rates, and assesses variations in rates in relation to short-term historic events such as major storm events or deforestation, and long-term variations related to natural climate variability and postglacial landscape evolution. An 8.63 m core was collected and spans the entire period from deglaciation to present. Bulk composition and age-depth modeling, utilizing both short-lived radioisotopes and radiocarbon dating, are used to quantify changes in deposition and inferred erosion rates over time. Additional insight on sedimentary processes is provided by measurements of magnetic susceptibility and bulk geochemistry. Lake-sediment data suggests clastic sediment mass accumulation rates vary between 0.0032 to 0.5870 g/cm/yr, with deposits of increased terrestrially derived sediment focused between ~8500 to 7800, ~6500 to 2500, and 1600 cal yr BP to present. Geomorphic analysis is used to identify regions within the watershed that act to deliver sediment to Ossipee Lake. Potential sources of sediment supply include loose, unconsolidated proglacial deposits near Ossipee Lake that transition to primarily till in upland areas. Calculated bed shear stress along rivers highlights areas in the watershed capable of transporting sediment and areas that can serve as traps thus limiting sediment delivery to Ossipee Lake.
Journal of Stochastic Analysis Journal of Stochastic Analysis

In this paper, we formulate R´enyi-type entropy depending on α ∈ [0 , ∞ ) \{ 1 } and reference systems S on C ∗ -algebras, and prove that the introduced entropy corresponds to the quantum R´enyi entropy deﬁned by Petz and S -mixing entropy given by Ohya under certain conditions. More-over, using our entropy, we show that the complexities of the KMS state takes di ﬀ erent values by choosing di ﬀ erent reference systems S for any α # = 1.
Multi-scale Predictability with a New Coupled Non-hydrostatic Global Model over the Arctic Annual Report

Abstract : The primary objective is to test a new atmospheric nonhydrostatic dynamical core from the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS), embedded within the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) of the Community Earth System Model (CESM), on medium to long range weather prediction (week months) focusing on the Arctic region. In applying our primary objective to a relevant science application over the Arctic, we are also seeking to gain a better understanding of Arctic processes with potential implications of improving predictability of the Arctic system.
Wastewater spray transport in land application

The objective of this study of wastewater spray transport from land treatment was to generate a model to predict aerosolized viable particle dispersion from a spray system, taking into account the effects of particle size, microorganism viability and meteorological parameters such as solar radiation, relative humidity, temperature, wind speed and wind direction. These data combined with monitored meteorological data were analyzed for development of an appropriate atmospheric dispersion model. Viability of the airborne E. coli was determined from comparisons of the bacteria to dye ratios in the spray and in the samplers. An evaluation of typical wastewater disposal operations with the empirical model was made in the report.