Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The economics of zoning

This dissertation consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 examines the identification power of assumptions that formalize the notion of complementarity in the context of a nonparametric bounds analysis of treatment response. I extend the literature on partial identification via shape restrictions by exploiting cross--dimensional restrictions on treatment response when treatments are multidimensional; the assumption of supermodularity can strengthen bounds on average treatment effects in studies of policy complementarity. I combine this restriction with a statistical independence assumption to derive improved bounds on treatment effect distributions, aiding in the evaluation of complex randomized controlled trials. I show how complementarities arising from treatment effect heterogeneity among subpopulations can be incorporated through supermodular instrumental variables to strengthen identification of treatment effects in studies with one or multiple treatments. I use these results to examine the long--run effects of zoning on the evolution of land use patterns. Chapter 2 considers the determinants of land use regulation. Zoning has been cited as a discriminatory policy tool by critics, who argue that ordinances are used to deter the entry of minority residents into majority neighborhoods through density restrictions (exclusionary zoning) and locate manufacturing activity in minority neighborhoods (environmental racism). However, identifying discrimination in these regulations is complicated by the fact that land use and zoning have been co-evolving for nearly a century. We employ a novel approach to overcome this challenge, studying the introduction of comprehensive zoning in Chicago. We find evidence of a pre-cursor to exclusionary zoning as well as inequitable treatment in industrial use zoning. Chapter 3 examines the impact of residential density and mixed land use on crime using a unique high-resolution dataset from Chicago over the period 2008-2013. I employ a novel instrumental variable strategy based on the city's 1923 zoning code. I find that commercial uses lead to more street crime in their immediate vicinity, with relatively weak spillovers. However, this effect is strongly offset by density; dense mixed use areas are actually safer than typical residential areas. Additionally, much of the commercial effect is driven by liquor stores and late-hour bars. I discuss the implications for zoning policy.
Challenges in Manufacturing of Hemp Fiber-Reinforced Organo Sheets with a Recycled PLA Matrix

This study investigates the influence of a hot press process on the properties of hemp fiber-reinforced organo sheets. Plain-woven fabric made from hemp staple fiber yarns is used as textile reinforcement, together with a recycled poly-lactic acid (PLA) matrix. Process pressure and temperature are considered with three factor levels for each parameter. The parameter influence is examined based on the B-factor model, which considers the temperature-dependent viscosity of the polymer, as well as the process pressure for the calculation of a dimensionless value. Increasing these parameters theoretically promotes improvements in impregnation. This study found that the considered recycled polymer only allows a narrow corridor to achieve adequate impregnation quality alongside optimal bending properties. Temperatures below 170 °C impede impregnation due to the high melt viscosity, while temperature increases to 185 °C show the first signs of thermal degradation, with reduced bending modulus and strength. A comparison with hemp fiber-reinforced virgin polypropylene, manufactured with identical process parameters, showed that this reduction can be mainly attributed to polymer degradation rather than reduction in fiber properties. The process pressure should be at least 1.5 MPa to allow for sufficient compaction of the textile stack, thus reducing theoretical pore volume content to a minimum.
Weakness of the Indian Lower Crust Beneath the Himalaya Inferred From Postseismic Deformation of the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha Earthquake

The 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha (Nepal) earthquake induced prolonged postseismic deformation extending northward beyond the Yarlung Zangbo Suture, which provides unique opportunities to better understand the lithospheric rheology in Himalaya and southern Tibet. Here, we used the first 5‐year Global Positioning System observations to study the main postseismic processes following this event, including viscoelastic relaxation and afterslip, based on a three‐dimensional finite element model. We considered a realistic geometry of the underthrusting Indian plate according to various geophysical images. We found that the models with a uniform elastic Indian lower crust fail to fit the vertical displacements. A heterogeneous Indian lower crust with the transition from elastic (high‐viscosity) to low‐viscosity approximately under the Main Central Thrust is required to reproduce the observed postseismic uplift between China‐Nepal border and Peiku Lake, indicating the weakness of the Indian lower crust from the Lesser to High Himalaya. The afterslip simulated using a weak shear zone takes place in the adjacent area downdip of the rupture zone. The preferred model suggested that viscosities of the Tibetan lower crust, weakened Indian lower crust, and shear zone are 3 × 1018, 1019, and 4 × 1018 Pa s, respectively. The viscosity of the underthrusting Indian upper mantle was roughly estimated to be greater than 1021 Pa s. The model results imply that the near‐field deformation is dominated by both afterslip and viscoelastic relaxation of the weakened Indian lower crust, not only afterslip as suggested by previous studies.
Ethno-botanical wealth of Bhadra wild life sanctuary in Karnataka

Ethno-botanical surveys were conducted during 1998 and 99 in villages of Bhadra Wild Life Sanctuary area, situated in the Western Ghats region of Karnataka. Results of the study indicated that 60 plant species belonging to 50 genera and 35 families were used for preparing at least 78 herbal drugs by the medicine men. Among the plant species, the utilization of leaves of Centella asiatica, roots of Ichnocarpus frutescens and decoction of leaves of Bambusa arundinacea in the treatment of jaundice, diabetes and for expulsion of placenta in human’s and animals, respectively, are note worthy. Apart from the above, a few drugs formulated by the local people are not known to literature. According to a CAMP survey, Tylophora indica and Artocarpus hirsutus are vulnerable while, Dipterocarpus indicus and Rauwolfia serpentina are endangered and Spondias pinnata is a lower risk category plant. The information collected from these ‘local specialists’ enriches the countrywide database on the availability of biodiversity resources and gives full credit to the origin of information at different levels.
Enhanced Adsorption of Rose Bengal Dye from Aqueous Solution Using NaOH Activated Hydrochar Derived from Corncob Waste

A potential approach to the preparation of affordable activated hydrochar is the hydrothermal carbonization of biomass wastes. In this study, hydrochar was made by hydrothermally carbonizing corncob wastes and then activating them with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). According to the findings, the adsorption capabilities of hydrochar generated at prolonged retention durations, lesser liquid-to-solid ratios, and elevated temperatures were considerably greater. The hydrochars were then analyzed utilizing a variety of characterization methods, and batch tests involving the sorption of rose bengal dye were carried out under a variety of conditions. According to the findings, activated hydrochar has a specific surface area of 12.794 m2/g. In order to better understand and characterize the process of rose bengal dye adsorption, sorption kinetics, and sorption equilibrium onto the produced hydrochars, sorption kinetics and isotherms were further examined through experimental data fitting. The NaOH-activated hydrochar’s adsorption capacity was 799.9 mg/g, respectively. The objective of this research was to assess the viability of using NaOH-activated hydrochar derived from corncobs as an economical and efficient sorbent for eliminating anionic dyes like rose bengal from aqueous solutions. Additionally, the study sought to investigate how various factors influence its sorption capabilities and to provide insights into the adsorption process through kinetic and isotherm analyses.
GA Optimized PI-PDN Robust Control of a 1-DOF Maglev Precision Position System

This paper investigates 2 difficult problems encountered in magnetic levitation systems: robust control design and disturbance rejection. A PI-PDN robust control strategy is developed to control the position of a 1-degree-of-freedom (DOF) magnetic levitated rigid beam system or MLS for precision positioning applications under parametric variations, uncertainties, and external disturbances. The proposed PI-PDN gains are optimized by employing a Genetic Algorithm (GA), Marine Predator Algorithm (MPA), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). GA-tuned gains lead to manifold improvement in key time and frequency domain performance specifications of rise time, settling time, overshoot, tracking error, bandwidth, classical gain, and phase margins. Additionally, the metrics of disk margins (DM) are employed for assessing the robustness of a closed-loop system subjected to simultaneous variation in gain and phase. To demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed GA-PI-PDN topology, numerical simulation results are compared with corresponding results of the benchmark PIDN with that of PI-PDN and GA-PI-PDN. The developed control algorithms were deployed on a dedicated embedded system utilizing Simulink automatic C++ code generation capabilities. The development of different control strategies was aided by building high fidelity mathematical model of electromagnets and experimental determination of important model parameters.
Animal Behavior for Chicken Identification and Monitoring the Health Condition Using Computer Vision: A Systematic Review

Poultry farming needs to be productive and profitable if it is to help with food security issues like cost. To make money, economic management and the use of productivity standards like the Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) calculation are essential. So, the best way to improve the performance of chickens is to use best management practices while they are growing. The paper also gives a broad overview of the vital ways in which recognized digital technologies are used to control the well-being of chickens. This review article gives a thorough look at the research, with a focus on sensor-based AI applications for analyzing chicken behavior and keeping track of their health. This study focused on the welfare of poultry because there are currently gaps in the literature regarding the development of universally accepted criteria for assessing poultry well-being and developing trustworthy monitoring strategies, most notably for the health of broiler chickens and the prevention of disease outbreaks. This paper is focused on the current condition of the smart farming and how to improve the smart farming sector using computer vision with IoT. The current and future operations for poultry management provide a huge opportunity for intelligent automation, which, if implemented, would make it possible to produce chicken that is both high-quality and affordable. As a result, this research provides a thorough analysis of the most cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) systems with Artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities as well as their most recent developments in the creation of intelligent systems in this field. The paper also explores the benefits and problems that AI and IoT provide for chicken farming.
The Implementation of Songs in Teaching Listening in Online Learning Environment

Language acquisition in early childhood is crucial for a child's overall cognitive and emotional development. This paper investigates the implementation of songs in English teaching for kindergarten students in an online learning environment. With the increasing prevalence of remote learning, educators face the challenge of engaging young learners in an effective and enjoyable manner. This study aims to explore how the integration of songs can enhance the listening abilities of kindergarten students during online English lessons. The research methodology involves conducting a literature review on the benefits of incorporating songs in language education and an empirical study consisting of online lessons with a group of kindergarten students. The findings indicate that the implementation of songs positively impacts students' listening comprehension, motivation, and overall engagement in the online learning environment. The results also highlight the importance of carefully selecting age-appropriate songs that align with the learning objectives and student interests. Based on the outcomes, this paper offers recommendations for educators on effectively utilizing songs in online English teaching for kindergarten students. The integration of songs in online English teaching for kindergarten students is an effective and enjoyable method to enhance their listening skills, vocabulary acquisition, cultural awareness, and overall engagement in the learning process.
Use of Passive Acoustics to Map Grouper Spawning Aggregations, with Emphasis on Red Hind, Epinephelus guttatus, Off Western Puerto Rico

Most large groupers form spawning aggregations at predictable locations and times, resulting in their susceptibility to overfishing and other ecological threats. Research, management, and enforcement of such aggregations could be enhanced if their exact locations were known. Traditional detection methods of diver and catch surveys are time consuming, especially when considering multiple species and sites. Many groupers such as red hind, Epinephelus guttatus, are soniferous and increase sound production at specific locations during periods of courtship and spawning, permitting the use of passive acoustics to locate and map these aggregations more efficiently. During January and February 2010 on days and hours known to have high call rates, passive acoustics were used to map a spawning aggregation of red hind off western Puerto Rico. A hydrophone attached to a mobile digital audio recorder was lowered from a boat as the vessel drifted over a suspected spawning aggregation area, while the global positioning system (GPS) coordinates were simultaneously recorded. After listening to the audio recordings, occurrences and intensities of red hind calls were charted with their GPS locations in GIS. The eastern and western boundaries of the aggregation were successfully mapped. The southern and northern boundaries were not defined due to aberrant drift patterns and the end of the spawning period, which resulted in the cessation of red hind calls. Divers confirmed the presence of reproductively active red hind. These time-saving methods and technologies can be expanded to other soniferous groupers, and potentially can be automated so that results can be determined in near-real time.
Wetland buffers: numerical modeling of wave dissipation by vegetation

The resiliency of coastal communities is imperative because these areas experience risk of damage from coastal storms as well as increasing population pressures and development. The severity of this hazard is compounded by sea level rise and a potential increase in storm intensities due to climate change. The ability of coastal communities to plan for, resist, and quickly and completely recover from severe coastal storm events and flooding is of critical importance. There is a growing interest in applying complementary and redundant approaches to reduce the flood risk of these vulnerable communities, such as incorporating natural and nature‐based features into the project planning process. However, accounting for the benefits of these nature‐based features in coastal design is still challenging. One of the natural features generally acknowledged to offer coastal protection benefits is wetlands. Using laboratory experiments of artificial vegetation as a foundation, the bounds of wave dissipation by vegetation are explored analytically and the effectiveness of wave dissipation by vegetation over large scales is investigated using the spectral wave model STWAVE. Wave heights modeled using a vegetation dissipation formulation are compared to those modeled with the current practice of representing vegetation using bottom friction, particularly the Manning formulation. The vegetation dissipation formulation reduced more wave energy than the Manning bottom friction formulation for submerged wetlands. Because the Manning formulation does not integrate vegetation properties, to achieve consistent results would require varying the Manning n coefficient to account for the spatial and temporal variation in form drag induced by the plants due to changes in plant density, diameter, and degree of plant submergence. Thus, a re‐evaluation of existing methods for assessing wave dissipation by vegetation is recommended for wider application of vegetation dissipation formulations in numerical models. Such models are critical for evaluating coastal resiliency of communities protected by wetland features. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Effect of wind waves on distribution of muddy bottom sediments in Baltimore Harbor, USA

Muddy bottom sediments in industrialized coastal areas are often quite enriched in contaminants and organic matter. It is important to study the processes that control fine sediment accumulation in these areas. In order to examine the relationship between hydrodynamic forcing and sediment characteristics in Baltimore Harbor, MD, USA, estimated wave-induced bottom shear stresses were compared with sediment mud content distributions. Wave fields in the harbor were simulated with a numerical wave hindcasting model, HISWA. Spatial distributions of expected wave-induced bottom shear stresses in four wind speed ranges were obtained by directionally averaging wave-induced bottom shear stress predictions, weighting each direction by its probability of occurrence based on wind statistics from a long term data set collected near the harbor. A negative relationship between mud content and wave-induced shear stress was clear only for the stronger wind cases that occurred less than 5% of the time. The results suggest that the distribution of muddy bottom sediments in the mainstem of Baltimore Harbor is controlled largely by high wind wave events that occur infrequently. INTRODUCTION Contaminated bottom sediments in coastal areas present one of the most serious problems to be solved for restoration of healthy coastal and estuarinc environments. It is quite important to study processes that control fine sediment accumulation patterns in the coastal zone because contaminant concentrations are highly correlated with mud content in the sediments. Thus, the movement of contaminants can be understood only by understanding the movement of fine particles (Dyer, 1989). Spatial patterns of fine particle accumulation in coastal areas may depend on several factors including proximity to sources of fine sediment as well as hydrodynamic conditions such as tidal currents, wave forcing, and so on. 1 Port and Harbor Research Institute, Ministry of Transport, 3-1-1 Nagase, Yokosuka 239-0826, Japan, ; y_nakagawa@ipc.phd. go.jp e University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Horn Point Laboratory 3 Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Maryland Geological Survey
End-to-end decentralized formation control using a graph neural network-based learning method

Multi-robot cooperative control has been extensively studied using model-based distributed control methods. However, such control methods rely on sensing and perception modules in a sequential pipeline design, and the separation of perception and controls may cause processing latencies and compounding errors that affect control performance. End-to-end learning overcomes this limitation by implementing direct learning from onboard sensing data, with control commands output to the robots. Challenges exist in end-to-end learning for multi-robot cooperative control, and previous results are not scalable. We propose in this article a novel decentralized cooperative control method for multi-robot formations using deep neural networks, in which inter-robot communication is modeled by a graph neural network (GNN). Our method takes LiDAR sensor data as input, and the control policy is learned from demonstrations that are provided by an expert controller for decentralized formation control. Although it is trained with a fixed number of robots, the learned control policy is scalable. Evaluation in a robot simulator demonstrates the triangular formation behavior of multi-robot teams of different sizes under the learned control policy.
The Devonian-Carboniferous Boundary in South Africa and the age of the earliest episode of the Dwyka Glaciation : new palynological result.

assign a Lower Carboniferous age to the Waaipoort Formation (Witteberg Group), thus supporting the suggestion that the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary in South-Africa lies at the level of the conspicuous lithological reversal represented by the Witpoort/Kweekvlei contact. All the evidence displayed indicates overriding of the Dwyka glaciers relatively shortly after deposition of the uppermost Witteberg sediments.
BENTHIC PHOSPHORUS FLUXES IN THE LOWER GREAT MIAMI RIVER, SOUTHWEST OHIO

We evaluated riverbed sediment as either a potential source or sink of phosphorus in the Lower Great Miami River. Excessive amounts of phosphorus in water of the Lower Great Miami River during low river flows in summer and early fall degrade aquatic ecosystems and prevent the Lower Great Miami River from being a high-quality warmwater stream. Regulators concluded that point-source discharges of nitrogen and phosphorus from municipal wastewater treatment plants are the principal cause of impairment year-round, and particularly during low river flow. However, previous studies have not examined riverbed sediment as a potential source and sink of phosphorus during low-flow conditions. Failure to examine this potential source of phosphorus could lead to incorrect conclusions about the cause of river impairment and investment in expensive nutrient-removal technologies that fail to achieve desired improvements in aquatic ecosystem health. The purpose of this research was to evaluate riverbed sediment as either a potential source or sink of phosphorus in the water column of the Great Miami River. This was accomplished by measuring geochemical conditions and phosphorus flux from riverbed sediment at 11 locations in the Lower Great Miami River.