Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Air-pollution and economics: diesel bus versus electric bus

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) took an initiative to check the overall benefits of introducing electric buses as a suitable replacement for the diesel buses to tackle the burgeoning pollution in the city of Bengaluru, India. For a trial run of three months, an electric bus was procured from a Chinese company `Build Your Dreams' (BYD). Data were collected by BMTC on the operation and maintenance of the bus. This new initiative, if rightly guided, could have a direct impact on the lives of those in the city. An economic analysis of the running as well as maintenance of the electric buses within the city limits was performed. For comparison, the same analysis was performed for the data from the existing diesel bus operating on the same route. On the basis of the study, it can be concluded that the introduction of electric buses as a means of public transport in the city would be beneficial both economically as well as environmentally. The electric bus also makes much less noise, thereby helping reduce noise pollution and makes less vibration when compared to the diesel bus. This results in a more comfortable journey for the passengers.
Implementation of A High-Frequency Link Five and Eleven level Cascaded Converter with PWM Controller

Power Electronic converters, especially DC/AC Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation inverters have been extending their range of use in industry because of their numerous advantage . Recent advances in solid-state semiconductors have led to the development of medium-voltage power converters which could obviate the need for the step-up transformers of renewable power generation systems. The modular multilevel cascaded converters have been deemed as strong contenders for the development of medium-voltage converters, but the converters require multiple isolated and balanced dc supplies. This paper proposes the high-frequency link multilevel cascaded medium-voltage converter. The common high-frequency link generates multiple isolated and balanced dc supplies for the converter, which inherently minimizes the voltage imbalance and common mode issues. A multilevel phase shifted carrier based sinusoidal PWM switching scheme is utilized to reduce the complexity in control design. Therefore an identical H-bridge module is used to improve manufacturability and modularity. When comparing the five and eleven level inverter the voltage levels are increasing the THD value is decreases. The experimental results are analyzed and discussed. It is expected that the proposed new technology will have great potential for future renewable generation systems and smart grid applications.
International Trade with Special Emphasis to FDI Issues in Africa

International trade results in an increase in efficiency and also allow countries to participate in a global economy, encouraging the opportunity of foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI plays an important role in bringing growth opportunities such as technology transfer, export development, job and skill creation in host countries. There are a number of factors come into play to determine the growth and development effect of FDI. In Africa FDI flow has grown dramatically as a major form of international capital transfer over the past three decades. However, there is a big difference among sub- regions of Africa on the pace of growth and investment share. Due to these, this study was necessary to assess some of the reputed practices of selected African countries FDI policies and their strategies. The study focused on members of Common Market for Eastern and South Africa (COMESA) Countries were selected. From which Ethiopia from Horn of Africa, Egypt from North Africa, Madagascar from Indian Ocean, Uganda from African Great Lakes, Zambia from Southern Africa and South Sudan from Central Africa were selected for discussion due to their high share in FDI inflow. Secondary data had been employed. The study found that Northern and Western sub-region of Africa exhibited the highest FDI inflow against the rest of African sub-regions. Majority of successful African countries in FDI inflow is mainly because, their focus is targeted on addressing on the major constraints of their county and providing priority and incentives to foreign investors to come up with solution to the existing economic, technological and managerial scenario. Accordingly, in order to exhibit substantial improvement in the share of FDI flow to Africa, recommendations and policy implications have been drown.
Consumer willingness to pay for farm animal welfare - transportation of farm animals to slaughter versus the use of mobile abattoirs

This study employed a choice experiment (CE) to ascertain consumer preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for non-market food product quality attributes. Data were obtained from a large mail survey and estimated with a random parameter logit model. The results indicate that Swedish consumers place greater monetary worth on the use of mobile abattoirs for cattle than for pigs, and even place a negative monetary value for mobile abattoirs in broiler production. We show how CE data can be used to estimate individual WTP, using a random parameter logit model. We find that there is a substantial difference in heterogeneity between consumers WTP for mobile abattoirs for the types of livestock included. Based on estimated distributions of WTP and available cost estimates, the market share for mobile abattoirs is predicted. The approach taken is vital to agribusinesses intending to serve specialized niche markets. Our results are useful for forming product differentiation strategies within the food industry as well as for the formation of food policy.
Laboratory-scale photomineralization of n-alkanes in gaseous phase by photocatalytic membranes immobilizing titanium dioxide

Kinetics of photocatalytic oxidation of methane, ethane, and n-heptane, to yield intermediates, and photomineralization of intermediates, to yield carbon dioxide and water, was studied in the gaseous phase, at 308±2 K, by a laboratory-scale photoreactor and photocatalytic membranes immobilizing 30±3 wt. % of TiO2, in the presence of aerosolized stoichiometric hydrogen peroxide as oxygen donor, and at a relative humidity close to 100%. The whole volume of irradiated solution was 4.000±0.005 L, the ratio between this volume and the geometrical apparent surface of the irradiated side of the photocatalytic membrane was 3.8±0.1 cm, and the absorbed power was 0.30 W/cm (cylindrical geometry). The pinetic parameters of the present work substantially coincide with those of the same molecules previously studied in aqueous solution, within the limits of experimental uncertainty. Photocatalytic processes thus appear to be controlled by interface phenomena, which are ruled kinetically, and apparently also thermodynamically, by concentration gradients, independently on diffusion and other processes in the aqueous or gaseous bulk, if turbulence in these phases is adequately assured.
A new characterization of a value of the generalized game

A new characterization of a solution concept for the generalized game, a cooperative defined on the set system is proposed. This solution corresponds to the Shapley value for classical cooperative game. We give a new understandable axiomatization of a value of the generalized game in the sense that is related closely to the one of the original Shapley value.
Automotive Radar and Lidar Systems for Next Generation Driver Assistance Functions

Abstract. Automotive radar and lidar sensors represent key components for next generation driver assistance functions (Jones, 2001). Today, their use is limited to comfort applications in premium segment vehicles although an evolution process towards more safety-oriented functions is taking place. Radar sensors available on the market today suffer from low angular resolution and poor target detection in medium ranges (30 to 60m) over azimuth angles larger than ±30°. In contrast, Lidar sensors show large sensitivity towards environmental influences (e.g. snow, fog, dirt). Both sensor technologies today have a rather high cost level, forbidding their wide-spread usage on mass markets. A common approach to overcome individual sensor drawbacks is the employment of data fusion techniques (Bar-Shalom, 2001). Raw data fusion requires a common, standardized data interface to easily integrate a variety of asynchronous sensor data into a fusion network. Moreover, next generation sensors should be able to dynamically adopt to new situations and should have the ability to work in cooperative sensor environments. As vehicular function development today is being shifted more and more towards virtual prototyping, mathematical sensor models should be available. These models should take into account the sensor's functional principle as well as all typical measurement errors generated by the sensor.
A comparison of the relationship management methodology and the extended business rules diagram method

This research is a comparative study of the Relationship Management Methodology and the extended Business Rules Diagram method, when applied to the development of a Web-based hypermedia system. The RMM method focuses almost exclusively on the design phase of Web-based hypermedia systems with insufficient emphasis placed on the requiremen's analysis phase. The extended BRD method has been proposed to address this issue and attempts to cover more fully the development life cycle of Webbased hypennedia systems. A comparison of the main concepts, the phases of steps, as well as the modelling teclmique, notation and graphical representation is made between the two methods.
1 Relative Verbal Intelligence and Happiness

Even though higher intelligence (IQ) is often associated with many positive outcomes in life, it has become a stylized fact in the happiness literature that smarter people are not happier than their less intelligent counterparts. In this paper, we examine how relative verbal intelligence correlates with happiness and present two main findings. First, our estimations from the General Social Survey for a large representative sample of Americans suggest a small, but positive and significant correlation between verbal intelligence and happiness. Second, we find that verbal intelligence has a strong positional effect on happiness, i.e., people who have greater verbal proficiency relative to their peers in their reference group are more likely to report higher levels of happiness. The positional effect of happiness holds even when we control for a large set of socio-economic characteristics as well as relative income.
Improved texture of breast meat after a short finishing feeding period of broilers in an organic free-range system

In order to develop an organic broiler product with high ethical value, high meat quality and based on locally produced feed, we tested if a long period without high quality protein feed followed by a finishing period with a high quality protein ration would affect the meat quality. Two genotypes were included in the experiment (The Hubbard breed ‘JA757’ and the Sasso breed ‘T851’), and only female broilers were included. The chickens were raised in groups in a free range system with more than 10 square meters per chicken covered with grass and herbs. The chickens were offered free access to either an optimized organic concentrate ration (HP) or an organic ration based on locally produced ingredients (peas, rapeseed, lupine, wheat and oat) (LP). The broilers were slaughtered at 90 days (HP) or 118 days (LP). At 90 days the LP broilers were allocated to the high quality protein ration (HP) for either four weeks (LP4) or two weeks (LP2) before slaughter. At slaughter the JA757 HP broilers were the heaviest (2827 g), and the JA757 LP broilers were not able to catch up after either 2 or 4 weeks finishing feeding with the HP ration (2248 g and 2292 g, respectively). This was different for the T851 genotype where there was no difference in slaughter weight between the T851 HP and LP2 and LP4 (average 1592 g). A sensory panel evaluated the sensory quality of the breast meat and found less firmness and fibrousness, lower chewing time and more tenderness in both genotypes offered high quality protein feed in the finishing feeding for 2 weeks in comparison with the 4 weeks finishing feeding, with the HP in between. This pattern is reflected in the daily gains the last two weeks before slaughter and suggests a positive linkage between daily gain before slaughter and tenderness post mortem.
Adaptive admission control in real-time systems

In real-time service provisioning platforms the existence of an efficient and flexible admission control mechanism is essential for providing quality of service in a reliable and stable way, avoiding congestion scenarios caused by indiscriminate and uncontrolled service request admission. The capability of modeling and regulating the rate of call acceptance, and provide service differentiation allow indirect control of the load submitted to the platform. This paper presents a service differentiated admission control solution that allows to limit and modulate the rate by which service requests are submitted into a service provisioning platform. The solution is focused on providing a fair level of bandwidth sharing among service classes, in a configurable and dynamic way so that it can adapt the distribution by which service requests are served. To sustain the design decisions of our solution, major scheduling disciplines and rate control mechanisms, some of them proposed recently, are studied and compared. The solution was submitted to unit and charge tests, whose results show its effectiveness and robustness. Index Terms — Admission Control, Quality of Service, Scheduling, Service Differentiation.
How to include organ interactions in models of the root system architecture? The concept of endogenous environment.

Les premiers modeles decrivant le developpement de l'architecture des systemes racinaires ne prenaient pas en compte explicitement la repartition des ressources. Ces modeles avaient pour but de reproduire un programme morphogenetique, en traduisant les processus de developpement par un jeu de regles formelles de production. La force principale de ces modeles est leur capacite a simuler les caracteristiques topologiques majeures des systemes racinaires. Cependant, le developpement racinaire est connu pour etre tres sensible aux restrictions de fourniture en carbone. Ces effets apparaissent premierement au niveau du systeme racinaire entier, dont la taille peut etre largement affectee par la quantite de glucides disponible durant son developpement. De plus, la competition pour les glucides au sein du systeme racinaire rend compte de multiples variations architecturales qui apparaissent en sol heterogene. Ces phenomenes peuvent etre decrits en couplant des « modeles source - puits » avec des « modeles de regles morphogenetiques ». Le modele fonde sur des regles morphogenetiques simule la topologie du systeme (branchements entre racines), tandis que le modele source - puits simule la taille des differents organes, et permet la definition d'un « environnement endogene », qui evolue au cours du temps. Dans ces modeles, la definition d'une force de puits est un point central, qui a ete peu etudie sur les racines. Comme alternative a l'utilisation de courbes de croissance potentielles, fixees a l'avance, nous suggerons d'utiliser une force de puits instantanee pour chaque meristeme, liee a sa taille. Cet indicateur peut lui-meme varier au cours du temps, de maniere tamponnee, en fonction de la disponibilite en glucides. Le modele tres simple qui est ainsi propose permet de generer des patrons de croissance varies, et donne ainsi une plasticite interessante aux systemes racinaires simules.
An examination of the cognitive, affective, and physiological aspects of alexithymia

The present study investigates the cognitive, affective, and physiological aspects of alexithymia. Verbal fluency measures (phonemic, semantic, Emotion Word Fluency Test; EWFT) were administered to 103 undergraduate students. Heart rate and skin conductance were measured during two baseline periods and during the administration of the performance measures. In a subset of participants (N = 53), additional measures of heart rate variability (HRV) and blood pressure were taken. Physiological arousal during a recovery period that followed the verbal fluency tasks was also measured in this subset. Degree of alexithymic traits in these participants was measured using the TAS-20. Due to the high comorbitidy between alexithymia and depression, the BDI-II was administered and used as a covariate in the analyses. The hypothesis was that alexithymia would be associated with the verbal fluency measures and the physiological measures. The association with verbal fluency measures was expected to be negative, with a particularly strong negative relationship between alexithymia and the EWFT. Analyses failed to find any significant associations between alexithymia and any of the performance measures or physiological measures. Further exploratory analyses revealed significant differences in heart rate and skin conductance, but not blood pressure, across the baseline periods and performance measures. These changes did not interact significantly with high or low alexithymic group membership. The implications of these findings are discussed.
SOCIAL CAPITAL AND POVERTY REDUCTION: TOWARD A MATURE PARADIGM

Introduction The purposes of this paper are: (1) to introduce the social capital paradigm; (2) to present evidence that social capital has an important role in poverty reduction; and (3) to suggest several policy prescriptions for building and using social capital to reduce poverty. The social capital paradigm includes social capital, networks, socio-emotional goods, attachment values, institutions, and power. Social capital is a person or group's sympathy for others. Social capital resides in sympathetic relationships that can be described using networks. One reason to value social capital is because it can produce economic benefits and if neglected, economic disadvantages. Another reason to value social capital is because it can be used to produce socio-emotional goods. Sometimes socio-emotional goods become embedded in objects. When this occurs, the meaning and value of the object change. The change in the value of an object produced by embedded socio-emotional goods is the object's attachment value. Individuals exchange both physical and socio-emotional goods. Institutions are the rules that order and give meaning to exchanges. Institutions with high attachment values are more likely to be observed than those whose compliance depends on economic incentives or threats. Finally, power, the ability to influence others, depends on one's resources, including one's social capital. In most personalized transactions, persons exchange both socio-emotional goods and physical goods and services. Moreover, the relative amounts of socio-emotional goods and physical goods and services exchanged will alter the levels and terms of trade when measured in physical units. Since one's ability to include socio-emotional goods in exchanges for physical goods and services depends on one's social capital, the terms and levels of exchange of physical goods and services will be influenced by the transacting party's social capital. Those with high levels of social capital will have advantages over those who lack social capital because they can exchange both socio-emotional goods and physical goods and services. Furthermore, since social capital alters the terms and levels of trade and the terms and levels of trade influence the distribution of incomes derived from trades, then social capital also has an important influence on the distribution of household income and poverty. Some evidence suggests that the distribution of social capital in networks and the distribution of household incomes are connected.
Weak measurements limit entanglement to area law (with possible log corrections)

Starting from a state of low quantum entanglement, local unitary time evolution increases the entanglement of a quantum many-body system. In contrast, local projective measurements disentangle degrees of freedom and decrease entanglement. We study the interplay of these competing tendencies by considering time evolution combining both unitary and projective dynamics. We begin by providing a rigorous argument excluding the possibility of volume law Von Neumann entropy at any non-zero measurement rate in generic circuits. We argue for an extension of this analysis which also excludes powers intermediate between area and volume, leaving as the only possibility an area law, with possible logarithmic corrections. We explore these conclusions quantitatively by studying unitary-projective time evolution in various one-dimensional models with analytically tractable dynamics, starting with a toy model of Bell pair dynamics which captures the key features of the problem. Its steady state is dominated by small Bell pairs for any non-zero rate of measurement, leading to an area law for entanglement entropy. We also study entanglement dynamics and the approach to the asymptotic state, and find an ‘overshoot’ phenomenon whereby at intermediate times entanglement entropy exceeds its long time steady state value. Next we study Clifford evolution in qubit systems, as well as Floquet random circuits in the limit of large local Hilbert space dimension. All cases lead to area law saturation. We interpret recent numerical results in terms of a phase transition between area law phases with and without logarithmic corrections.
Female morphology and male mating success in the calanoid copepod, Eudiaptomus graciloides

the phenotypic value of traits of either sex that are important for precopulatory behaviors. To explore this prediction, we investigated the relationship between female morphology and male mating success using mate choice experiments in the diaptomid copepod, Eudiaptomus graciloides (Lilljeborg), where intersexual conflict seems to cause an accumulation of spermatophores among small, easily accessible females. Three randomly selected receptive females were combined with an adult male in small glass vessels containing filtered lake water. After an introduction period of 24 h, copepods were preserved for subsequent morphometric analyses. We examined whether measurements of the different body parts of the males, and the mated and the unmated females correlated with the female mating status/male mating success. The results suggest that mated females had relatively longer furca than unmated females, confirming observations from earlier field studies. Moreover, mated females had a smaller body size and a longer genital double somite compared with unmated females. The results of the experiment, that smaller easily captured females are those first mated, are consistent with predications generated by a model of a sexual conflict. Based on the behavioral sequence and the mechanics of copulation in this system, we discuss the influence of such traits on the observed outcome of mating interactions.
A New Pro-Natalist Tool: Parenthood as a Form of Public Employment

Low fertility rates currently represent a serious problem across Europe and East Asia. A possible solution to this crisis is the radical increase of fertility rates. I suggest that we distinguish between classical (3-child) pro-natalist and radical (5-child) pro-natalist policies, because their logic is different. Classical pronatalism tries to harmonize childbearing and employment for the mother, while radical natalism considers bearing 5-6 children as work, as a kind of public employment. In this chapter, I elaborate on a possible radical pro-natalist institution: parenthood as a form of public employment. This institution, complete with classical pro-natalist measures, could best secure the fertility rate of 2.1 by 2030.