Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adjustment Difficulties and Debt Overhangs in the Eurozone Periphery

This paper describes four key drivers behind the adjustment difficulties in the periphery of the eurozone: • The adjustment will be particularly difficult for Greece and Portugal, as two relatively closed economies with low savings rates. Both of these countries combine high external debt levels with low growth rates, which suggest they are facing a solvency problem. In both countries fiscal adjustment is a necessary condition for overall sustainability, but it not sufficient by itself. A sharp cut in domestic consumption (or an unrealistically large jump in exports) is required to quickly establish external sustainability. An internal devaluation (a cut in nominal wages in the private sector) is unavoidable in the longer run. Without such this adjustment in the private sector, even continuing large-scale provision of official funding will not stave off default. • Ireland’s problems are different. They stem from the exceptionally large losses in the Irish banks, which were taken on by the national government, leading to an explosion of government debt. However, the Irish sovereign should be solvent because the country has little net foreign debt. • Spain faces a similar problem as Ireland, although its foreign debt is somewhat higher but its construction bubble has been less extreme. The government should thus also be solvent, although further losses in the banking system seem unavoidable. • Italy seems to have a better starting position on almost on all accounts. But its domestic savings rate has deteriorated substantially over the last decade.
Petrophysics and rock physics modeling of diagenetically altered sandstone

We worked to establish relationships among porosity, permeability, resistivity, and elastic wave velocity of diagenetically altered sandstone. Many such relationships are documented in the literature; however, they do not consider diagenetic effects. Combining theoretical models with laboratory measured data, we derived mathematical relationships for porosity permeability, porosity velocity, porosity resistivity, permeability velocity, velocity resistivity, and resistivity permeability in diagenetically altered sandstone. The effects of clay and cementation were evaluated using introduced coefficients in these relationships. We found that clean sandstone could be modeled with Kozeny’s relation; however, this relationship broke down for clay-bearing and diagenetically altered sandstone. Porosity is the first-order parameter that affects permeability, electrical, and elastic properties; clay and cement cause secondary effects on these properties. Rock physics modeling results revealed that cementation had a greater effect on elastic properties than electrical properties and clay had a larger effect on electrical properties than elastic properties. The relationships we provided can greatly help to determine permeability, resistivity, and velocity from porosity and to estimate permeability from resistivity and velocity as well as to determine resistivity from velocity measurements.
Magnetically Driven Silver‐Coated Nanocoils for Efficient Bacterial Contact Killing

The increasing threat of multidrug‐resistant bacterial strains against conventional antibiotic therapies represents a significant worldwide health risk and intensifies the need for novel antibacterial treatments. In this work, an effective strategy to target and kill bacteria using silver‐coated magnetic nanocoils is reported. The coil palladium (Pd) nanostructures are obtained by electrodeposition and selective dealloying, and subsequently coated with nickel (Ni) and silver (Ag) for magnetic manipulation and antibacterial properties, respectively. The efficiency of the nanocoils is tested in the treatment of Gram‐negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Gram‐positive methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), both of which represent the leading multidrug‐resistant bacterial pathogens. The nanocoils show highly effective bacterial killing activity at low concentrations and in relatively short durations of treatment time. Three different investigation techniques, LIVE/DEAD assay, colony‐forming unit counting, and scanning electron microscope, reveal that the antibacterial activity is a result of bacterial membrane damage caused by direct contact with the nanocoil. The low cytotoxicity toward fibroblast cells along with the capability of precise magnetic locomotion makes the proposed nanocoil an ideal candidate to combat multidrug‐resistant bacteria in the field of biomedical and environmental applications.
On Gallager-type bounds for the mismatched decoding regime with applications to turbo codes

The generalized Duman & Salehi (see IEEE Trans. on Communications, vol.46, no.6, p.717-23, 1998) bound is used in the realm of mismatch decoding metric for random and deterministic codes. In the random coding case with a proper restriction of the random ensemble, the technique reconstructs the Csizar-Korner-Hui lower bound. For deterministic codes, the bound is given in terms of the distance spectrum of the code and the results are demonstrated for fading channels with an estimate of the fading channel state information.
Overview Of Antioxidants : Emphasis On Raisins S Bell

Antioxidants are components of foods and found in some supplements. They function to detoxify excessive free radical build-up, which results from normal metabolism and environmental stresses like air pollution. Most studies of dietary antioxidants showed beneficial effects in reducing the risk of chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease. In contrast, intervention studies using antioxidants from dietary supplements did not typically show these positive results; sometimes dietary supplement use increased disease risk. Herein is reviewed the definition of antioxidants, physiological actions, and selected studies of foods and supplements containing them. In addition, summarized are new studies on the antioxidative effects of raisins and cardiovascular disease risk reduction.
Time-Dependent Radiative Cooling of a Hot Low-Density Cosmic Gas

Detailed calculations are presented for the radiative cooling of a hot (104 o K ::::; T::::; 106 o K) interstellar gas. Below 106 o K such a gas is not in ionization equilibrium because it is cooling faster than it is recombining. The gas is more ionized at a particular temperature and emits harder radiation than a gas in equilibrium at the same temperature. Optical forbidden lines, particularly the [0 n], [0 III] lines, are much stronger than the hydrogen Balmer lines. Hydrogen lines, if observable, would show a Balmer decrement not very different from that of a radiatively excited nebula. Results are presented in three cases: the first two have initial conditions determined when a 40or 100-eV photon burst suddenly ionizes the gas, corresponding to a "fossil Stromgren sphere" suddenly formed by an ultraviolet or soft X-ray supernova burst. In the third case the gas is cooling from steady-state ionic abundances at 106 o K (e.g., a supernova shell that has reached the late radiative-cooling stage). Subject headings: interstellar mattersupernovae
Soil moisture and its consequences under different management in a six year old hedged agroforestry demonstration plot in semi-arid Kenya, for two successive contrasting seasons

Hedged agroforestry (AF) demonstration plots with maize/bean intercrops were studied at Matanya in Laikipia district, Kenya, between 1991 and 1995 inclusive, to understand crop yield behaviour due to selected soil moisture conservation methods applicable in semi-arid areas. The treatments were: Grevillea robusta trees root pruned, compared to unpruned, both in combination with (1) minimum tillage and mulching with 3t/ha maize stalks harvested from the plots with additional stalks collected from the nearby farms, and (2) the locally applied method of deep tillage practiced by the immigrants from wetter regions, acting as the control. Results showed that: (i) plots with root pruned Grevillea robusta trees that were mulched and minimum tilled had most soil moisture available in the shallower layers, during the wettest and the driest season on which this paper is based; (ii) the variation of soil moisture with distance from the Grevillea robusta trees showed patterns that were quite similar for plots with root pruned trees in the dry and the wet season; (iii) beans had greater seed yields and maize had more (stover) biomass and (only in the wettest season) grain in plots with pruned trees, minimum tilled and mulched, than in other AF plots. In the wettest season this resulted in identical maize yields but lower bean seed yields compared to those in the mulched and sometimes also the local control plots without trees. In the driest season bean yields remained the same but maize biomass yields improved above the control yields for the most successful agroforestry intervention applied; (iv) competition between the six year old Grevillea robusta trees and the crops was indirectly confirmed to be stronger than in earlier experiments in the same plots. This way the agroforestry demonstration plots were very successful in showing the consequences of the ageing agroforestry system, where the soil moisture conservation measures of pruning and mulching kept their effects. Statistical analysis only weakly confirmed the positive effect of root pruning on reducing competition for soil moisture between crops and trees that were very clearly shown to exist by the physical error analysis.
2017-1001 Considering Manufacturing in the Design of Thick-Panel Origami Mechanisms

Considering Manufacturing in the Design of Thick-Panel Origami Mechanisms Erica Brunson Crampton Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Master of Science Origami has been investigated and demonstrated for engineering applications in recent years. Many techniques for accommodating the thickness of most engineering materials have been developed. In this work, tables comparing performance and manufacturing characteristics are presented. These tables can serve as useful design tools for engineers when selecting an appropriate thickness-accommodation technique for their application. The use of bent sheet metal for panels in thick-origami mechanisms shows promise as a panel design approach that mitigates several trade-offs between performance and manufacturing characteristics. A process is described and demonstrated that can be employed to use sheet metal in designs of origami-adapted mechanisms that utilize specific thickness-accommodation techniques. Data structures based on origami can be useful in the automation of thick-origami mechanism design. The use of such data structures is explained and shown in the context of a program that will automatically create the 3D CAD models and assembly of a thick-origami mechanism using the tapered panels technique based on the input origami crease pattern. Manufacturability in the design of origami-adapted mechanisms is discussed through presenting and examining three examples of origami-adapted mechanisms. As the manufacturability of origami-adapted products is addressed and improved, their robustness will also improve, thereby enabling greater use of origami-adapted design.
Calibrated zero-norm regularized LS estimator for high-dimensional error-in-variables regression

This paper is concerned with high-dimensional error-in-variables regression that aims at identifying a small number of important interpretable factors for corrupted data from many applications where measurement errors or missing data can not be ignored. Motivated by CoCoLasso due to Datta and Zou \cite{Datta16} and the advantage of the zero-norm regularized LS estimator over Lasso for clean data, we propose a calibrated zero-norm regularized LS (CaZnRLS) estimator by constructing a calibrated least squares loss with a positive definite projection of an unbiased surrogate for the covariance matrix of covariates, and use the multi-stage convex relaxation approach to compute the CaZnRLS estimator. Under a restricted eigenvalue condition on the true matrix of covariates, we derive the $\ell_2$-error bound of every iterate and establish the decreasing of the error bound sequence, and the sign consistency of the iterates after finite steps. The statistical guarantees are also provided for the CaZnRLS estimator under two types of measurement errors. Numerical comparisons with CoCoLasso and NCL (the nonconvex Lasso proposed by Poh and Wainwright \cite{Loh11}) demonstrate that CaZnRLS not only has the comparable or even better relative RSME but also has the least number of incorrect predictors identified.
1 PRODUCTION STRUCTURE AND CAPACITY UTILISATION IN MULTI PRODUCT INDUSTRIES : AN APPLICATION TO THE BASQUE TRAWL

To empirically study production structure and the capacity level at which vessels are harvesting, a shortrun translog cost function is estimated. From the estimated parameters, two capacity utilisation measures are calculated (returns to scale and a dual capacity utilisation measure). Empirical results show that there is no excess capacity in the Basque trawlers fleet. The current regulations therefore seem to be consistent with optimal capacity utilisation.
The Quantum Potential: The Missing Interaction in the Density Maximum of He4 at the Lambda Point

The lambda point in liquid He4 is a well established phenomenon acknowledged as an example of Bose-Einstain condensation. This is generally accepted, but there are serious discrepancies between the theory and experimental results, namely the lower value of the transition temperature T and the negative value of dT /dP. These discrepancies can be explained in term of the quantum stochastic hydrodynamic analogy (SQHA). The SQHA shows that at the He4IHe4II superfluid transition the quantum coherence length c becomes of order of the distance up to which the wave function of a couple of He4 atoms extends itself. In this case, the He42 state is quantum and the quantum pseudo-potential brings a repulsive interaction that leads to the negative dT /dP behavior. This fact overcomes the difficulty to explain the phenomenon by introducing a Hamiltonian inter-atomic repulsive potential that would obstacle the gas-liquid transition.
A distributed environment for effective Internet search using intelligent personal agent and distributed knowledge base

With the rapid increase in the available information over the Internet, it is important to develop an efficient search and retrieval mechanism. In particular, the use of distributed search will be beneficial to many users. This paper presents two proposals to implement such an approach. The first one is based on an intelligent personal agent to assist in finding pages relevant to the behavior and characteristics of the user. Secondly, a distributed knowledge base situated across the network will lighten the query-processing loads. Distributed knowledge bases on separate issues located at different servers can be treated as integrated domain knowledge. The integrated knowledge is then used in an inference process at the main server. In this paper, the technical issues on the above model are addressed.
Velhas questões, novos métodos: posições, agenda, ideologia e dinheiro na política brasileira

This dissertation consists of four distinct chapters. In the first chapter we develop a Bayesian procedure to estimate policy positions from text data. Instead of using word frequencies to model policy positions, our approach is based on sentiment analysis classifications. We demonstrate our procedure by estimating the position of Brazilian political parties between 1995 and 2014 using the speeches of senators. The results suggest that, instead of an ideological cleavage, parties are organized in a government-opposition dimension. In the second chapter we examine how policy ideas are built over time. Empirically, we examine how the content of a bill appears in a similar way in other bills. We also examine what is the impact of preference’s inclusion on the probability of a bill be passed. In order to do that, we use all bills proposed during the 54th term in Câmara dos Deputados and we employ quantitative text analysis. The results suggest that bills that have been influenced by other bills have more chances to be passed. This result is stronger for bills written by the executive branch. We suggest that the inclusion of preferences is the key factor for a bill to be passed. In the third chapter we examine the main assumption of the spatial theory of voting. According to this assumption, voters will cast their votes for the candidate whose policy position is the closest to their own views. The goal of this chapter is twofold: the first one is to test this assumption for the Brazilian presidential elections between 2002 and 2014. In order to do that we use data from the Brazilian Electoral Study and scaling methods. The results suggest that the probability of a voter cast his vote for the candidate whose policy position is the closest to their own is pretty high. The second goal of this paper is to assess if this result holds despite of voters’ political sophistication. In other words, we test if ill-informed voters make their electoral decisions based on nonspatial candidate characteristics. The results contradict this wisdom. Politically illinformed voters also choose the candidates who are closer to themselves. In the last chapter we examine the monetary returns to incumbency in Brazilian mayoral elections. In other words, we estimate the causal effect of winning a close election on the wealth declared by Brazilian mayoral candidates in the subsequent election. In order to do that we employ a regression discontinuity design of close elections focused on pairs of repeated candidates. The results suggest no causal effects of winning a close election on the wealth of the candidates. The results are robust to incumbent partisanship, region, political experience and holds if the definition of wealth is extended to relatives and long term wealth.
Using clustering algorithms to assist short-term seismic hazard analysis in deep South African mines

Short-term seismic hazard based on the stability analysis methods of the 1990s is part of the deep mine culture of South African mines. Temporal precursory patterns have shown some level of success not only in deep gold mines but also in shallower mines in Australia. In complex geological and mining environments precursory patterns in temporal trends can be lost due to multiple processes mixing and diluting these trends. It is not always possible to separate these mixed processes by refining the traditional spatial filters, making analysis of these regions difficult. This paper proposes the use of an unsupervised learning algorithm to categorise seismic data with the intention of separating different seismogenic processes. This algorithm should not only take spatial and temporal parameters into consideration but should include parameters related to seismic sources, e.g. energy index, ES /EP ratio, etc. In this investigation, an implementation of the DBSCAN clustering algorithm to categorise seismic data was used. This density based algorithm requires only two parameters: the maximum search distance, ρ , and the minimum number of neighbours required to form a cluster, . The advantages of DBSCAN include its ability to create any number of clusters to suit the data set as well as its ability to identify noise and outliers. DBSCAN can struggle to cluster data sets where there are large differences in densities, since there may not be an appropriate choice of and for all clusters. We investigate a few cases where multi-dimensional clustering indicates precursory trends. More specifically examples of density clustering of spatial-and-temporal and spatial-and-source clustering are discussed.
The Sociology of Educational Supervision and Evaluation

Comprehensive federal initiatives require revisions of teacher evaluation systems. Using tenets of the sociological lens, specifically symbolic interactionism, researchers have examined the personal interactions among school leaders and teachers. According to researchers, the use of symbolic interactionism leads to an objective, unbiased view classroom performance. Moreover, effective personal interactions among administrators and teachers support reflective inquiry; self-reflection remains paramount to establishing antecedents and outcomes in the teaching-learning process. Contemporary research also suggests teacher quality has a major impact on student achievement. Thus, principals who use key aspects of sociological communication positively impact student performance and improve achievement. From a micro-sociological perspective, symbolic interactionism is at the heart of the exchanges between administrators and staff when it comes to developing faculty capacity through an evaluation system that seeks to truly change instructional practices.
Sobolev regularity for theMonge – Ampère equation in theWiener space

Given the standard Gaussian measure γ on the countable product of lines R∞ and a probability measure g ·γ absolutely continuous with respect to γ, we consider the optimal transportation T (x) = x + ∇φ(x) of g · γ to γ. Assume that the function |∇g|2/g is γ-integrable.We prove that the functionφ is regular in a certain Sobolev-type sense and satisfies the classical change of variables formula g = det2(I+Dφ) exp(Lφ− 1 2 |∇φ|2). We also establish sufficient conditions for the existence of third-order derivatives of φ.
Testing and Evaluation of Collaborative SLAM THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By

ii Acknowledgments. iii Vita . iv List of Acronyms . vii List of Tables . ix List of Figures . xii Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1 Background and Motivations . 1 1.2 Research Objectives . 3 1.3 Methodology . 4 1.4 Outline . 5 Chapter 2: Visual-Inertial SLAM . 7 2.1 IMU and Camera . 7 2.1.1 IMU and INS . 7 2.1.2 Camera and SfM . 9
A nonlinear integral model of electron devices for HB circuit analysis

A technology-independent large-signal model of electron devices, the nonlinear integral model (NIM), is proposed. It is rigorously derived from the Volterra series under basic assumptions valid for most types of electron devices and is suitable for harmonic-balance circuit analysis. Unlike other Volterra-based approaches, the validity of the NIM is not limited to weakly nonlinear operation. In particular, the proposed model allows the large-signal dynamic response of an electron device to be directly computed on the basis of data obtained either by conventional measurements or by physics-based numerical simulations. In this perspective, it provides a valuable tool for linking accurate device simulations based on carrier transport physics and harmonic-balance circuit analysis algorithms. Simulations and experimental results, which confirm the validity of the NIM, are also presented. >
Analytical Model of Fluid Flow through Closed Structures for Vacuum Tube Systems

An analytical model is developed to evaluate airtightness, which is one of the most important requirements of vacuum tube transportation systems. The main objective of the model is to anticipate the pressure inside a closed structure, which initially decreases and then rises with time owing to the inflow of the air outside. The model is formulated by using Darcy’s law and by solving the differential equations that consider the air permeability of the material and physical configuration of the tube. Equations are derived for a tube section in two cases: one with constant thickness and another with variable thickness. Although the developed model must be verified experimentally, results simulated by using the model with several assumed sections were consistent with the findings of a previous study. The mathematical model developed here to predict the behavior of the pressure inside a vacuum tube structure could be effectively used to evaluate the airtightness of vacuum tube transportation systems. Such data could provide background technical information for the practical design of the system.