Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A 350-GHz high-resolution high-sensitivity passive video imaging system

We are developing a 350 GHz cryogenic passive video imaging system. This demonstration system uses 800 photon-noise-limited superconducting transition edge sensor bolometers. It will image a 1 m x 1 m area at a standoff distance of 16 m to a resolution of approximately 1 cm at video frame rates (20 frames per second). High spatial resolution is achieved by the use of an f/2.0 Cassegrain optical system with 1.3 m primary mirror. Preliminary testing of prototype detectors indicates that we can achieve a noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) of 70 mK for the fully sampled 1 m × 1 m image at 20 frames per second.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF YOUTH ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT FUND ON YOUTH EMPOWERMENT IN KANGUNDO CONSTITUENCY, MACHAKOS COUNTY

The youth today face an increasingly pressurized and complicated world where youth unemployment and its direct consequences such as poverty, crime, prostitution, drug abuse among others, remain as some of their critical development challenges. The need of empowering the youth to participate in their own development initiatives is important. It was on this basis that the Government of Kenya introduced YEDF in 2006 to foster positive youth development. The purpose of YEDF was to empower the youth by providing them with financial resources and training to ensure that they are engaged in meaningful business activities and also increase their economic opportunities and participation in nation building. This study sought to examine the contribution of Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) on empowerment of the youth aged between 18 to 35 years in Kangundo Constituency. The study assessed this by considering the activities that the youth were engaged in before and after receiving the YEDF loans. The study argued that provision of the loans to the youth and training has improved their economic and social status through the income generating activities the youths engaged in. The research was conducted in Kangundo Constituency where there were 58 youth groups funded by YEDF between the years 2007 and 2012. The study used descriptive research design and random sampling to select 100 youth from 29 sampled youth groups. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect data from the respondents. Data was analyzed using SPSS and presented in form of tables. The study presented its findings by discussing specific activities and trends of improvement among the youth. This study also discussed the extent to which loans provided by Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) have empowered the youth in Kangundo Constituency. It argued that empowerment took place in two main forms; group and individual empowerment. This empowerment is what the YEDF loans set out to achieve initially through the seed money product. The study concluded that the provision of YEDF loans led to empowerment of the youth and that training given to the youth further enhanced the chances of youth empowerment after receiving the loans. The study recommended an increase in the amount of money given to the youth, subsequent loans and training given to them. Key Words: Youth Enterprise Development Fund, Empowerment
Ambient Air Pollution and Reproductive Health

Adverse health effects of ambient air pollution on mortality and morbidity in adults and children have been extensively studied across the world (Barnett et al. 2006; Bell et al. 2004; Dominici et al. 2003; Gold et al. 1999; Jerrett et al. 2005; Middleton et al. 2008; Pope 1999; Pope et al. 1991; Pope and Kanner 1993; Samoli et al. 2007; Wietlisbach et al. 1996). Considerable consistency across studies has been observed for many health endpoints including total mortality, cardiopulmonary mortality and morbidity. Moreover, air pollution studies suggest that the opposite ends of the age spectrum are more susceptible than the general population (Dockery and Pope 1994; Saldiva et al. 1995; Schwartz et al. 1994). Therefore, fetuses are thought to be a vulnerable subgroup of the population who could be most endangered by the effects of air pollution (Pope 2000). Early studies had shown that maternal active and passive smoking could impair reproductive outcomes. Thus, there is a strong belief that prenatal exposure to air contaminants, which is similar to the effects of maternal smoking, can also lead to some adverse pregnancy outcomes. The number of studies linking air pollution with adverse pregnancy outcomes has recently grown steadily since the late 1990s. The adverse effects of air pollutants including particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3) on measures of fetal size, gestational duration and other reproductive outcomes have been studied. Adverse reproductive outcomes including low birth weight (LBW: birth weight <2,500g) or preterm delivery (PTD: birth at <37 weeks of gestation) have arisen fairly consistently in recent years. During 1990-2006, the rates have risen 21% for PTD and 19% for LBW in the United States, respectively (Martin et al. 2008). Studies have suggested that LBW or PTD has been associated with not only childhood mortality and morbidity but also the risk of diseases in adulthood such as heart diseases and diabetes (Clapp Iii and Lopez 2007; Osmond and Barker 2000; Rinaudo and Lamb 2008; Thompson 2007). The prevention of adverse pregnancy outcomes is a renewed national and international priority in maternal and child health (Damus 2008). There is an emerging need to identify the etiological factors of adverse birth outcomes such as environmental exposures, which could be modifiable in order to help reverse the increasing rates.
Duopoly Output Game with Bounded Rationality and Limiter Control

Based on the bounded rationality strategy, a duopoly output game model is constructed in this paper. The local stability conditions of Nash equilibrium point of the model are also analyzed by employing the well-known Jury’s criteria. The results show that the model has three boundary fixed points and a local stable Nash equilibrium point. When the combination values of the two firms’ adjustment speed are out of the local stability region, some more complex dynamic phenomena will be caused such as bifurcation and chaos. In order to eliminate chaos and improve the profit level, a limiter control scheme is designed. Numerical simulations further verify that the designed limiter control scheme is feasible and effective to eliminate chaos and improve profit level. Key words: Duopoly game; Bounded rationality; Limiter control; Chaos
Climate, Companies and Context; the Prospects for Policy to Inspire Sustainable Business Strategies

Sustainable development rests on, among other things, the ability of policy to stimulate corporate actors to improve their environmental performance. Yet policy design and implementation is a challenging task in this area. This paper investigates this issue by examining the ability of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme to foster corporate sustainability from two perspectives: (a) its institutional framework and (b) the rationale for firm participation. The conceptual point of departure relates to ecological modernisation (EM) theory, and the argument issues from the assumption that firms will, if given the appropriate incentives, engage in schemes that lead to more sustainable practices. The paper explores the extent to which the trading scheme provides an institutional framework for firms to adopt corporate sustainability strategies, focusing on its nature and function in comparison to the dominant principles of EM. Motives for firms’ participation in the scheme are also considered in relation to profit-maximisation, stakeholder and institutional theories. The paper argues that the UK Emissions Trading Scheme was successful in so far as it was voluntary in nature and offered substantial financial incentives for participation. The scheme did however establish a ‘pay-the-polluter’ principle and thus may arguably be said to have violated the spirit of Kyoto and the general rule established in other schemes such as the EU ETS which are based on a ‘polluter pays’ principle. While firms listed diverse reasons for participation the foremost was the prospect of collecting incentive monies, suggesting primarily economistic motivations for selecting environmental strategies. (Less)
Hierarchical Shrinkage Priors for Regression Models

In some linear models, such as those with interactions, it is natural to include the relationship between the regression coefficients in the analysis. In this paper, we consider how robust hierarchical continuous prior distributions can be used to express dependence between the size but not the sign of the regression coefficients. For example, to include ideas of heredity in the analysis of linear models with interactions. We develop a simple method for controlling the shrinkage of regression effects to zero at different levels of the hierarchy by considering the behaviour of the continuous prior at zero. Applications to linear models with interactions and generalized additive models are used as illustrations.
Privacy Preservation Simulation and 3D Space Location Monitoring System Objects for Wireless Sensor Networks

Monitoring private locations with a potentially insecure server poses security threats to the monitored individuals. To this end, we propose a privacy-preserving location monitoring system for wireless sensor networks in 3D Space. In our system, we are using two in- network location anonymization algorithms, namely, resource and quality-aware algorithms, which aim to enable the system to provide high-quality and secure location monitoring services for users, while preserving privacy. Algorithms rely on the well established k-anonymity privacy concept, that is, a person is indistinguishable among k persons, to enable trusted sensor nodes to provide the aggregate location information of monitored persons for our system. Each aggregate location is in a form of a monitored area A along with the number of monitored persons residing in A, where A contains at least k persons. We will evaluate our system through simulated experiments.
Performance analysis of ternary composites with lignin, eucalyptus fiber, and polyvinyl chloride

To investigate the feasibility of replacing eucalyptus fiber with lignin, ternary composites (Lignin/Eucalyptus fiber/Polyvinyl chloride) were prepared by extrusion molding, and the effect of the lignin content on the wood-plastic composites was studied. The microstructure, functional groups, creep behavior, and thermal behavior of the ternary composites were analyzed. The results showed that the tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength decreased with an increasing lignin content, whereas, the water absorption, creep resistance, hardness, and heat resistance of the ternary composites improved.
LIGHT CURVES AND SPECTRA FROM A THERMONUCLEAR EXPLOSION OF A WHITE DWARF MERGER

Double-degenerate (DD) mergers of carbon–oxygen white dwarfs have recently emerged as a leading candidate for normal Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). However, many outstanding questions surround DD mergers, including the characteristics of their light curves and spectra. We have recently identified a spiral instability in the post-merger phase of DD mergers and demonstrated that this instability self-consistently leads to detonation in some cases. We call this the spiral merger SN Ia model. Here, we utilize the SuperNu radiative transfer software to calculate three-dimensional synthetic light curves and spectra of the spiral merger simulation with a system mass of 2.1 from Kashyap et al. Because of their large system masses, both violent and spiral merger light curves are slowly declining. The spiral merger resembles very slowly declining SNe Ia, including SN 2001ay, and provides a more natural explanation for its observed properties than other SN Ia explosion models. Previous synthetic light curves and spectra of violent DD mergers demonstrate a strong dependence on viewing angle, which is in conflict with observations. Here, we demonstrate that the light curves and spectra of the spiral merger are less sensitive to the viewing angle than violent mergers, in closer agreement with observation. We find that the spatial distribution of 56Ni and IMEs follows a characteristic hourglass shape. We discuss the implications of the asymmetric distribution of 56Ni for the early-time gamma-ray observations of 56Ni from SN 2014J. We suggest that DD mergers that agree with the light curves and spectra of normal SNe Ia will likely require a lower system mass.
GENETIC VARIABILITY AMONG LANDRACES OF SESAME IN ETHIOPIA

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an ancient oil crop that has been referred to as the ‘Queen of oilseeds’ by virtue of its high quality oil. Ten Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) markers were used to study patterns of genetic variation within and among 50 sesame populations representing the existing Ethiopian collections. The number of alleles ranged from 6 to 17, with an average of 12.1 per locus. The Polymorphism Information Contents (PICs) of the markers ranged from 0.393 to 0.820. The observed heterozygosity (Ho) for landraces and cultivars ranged from 0.060 to 0.440 and 0.120 to 0.260, with a mean of 0.234 and 0.193, respectively, indicating the existence of higher heterozygosity within the landraces than cultivars. Landraces (He=0.377) showed higher Nei’s average genetic diversity than the cultivars (He=0.305). The fixation index (Fst) values for the landraces and cultivars were 0.427 and 0.26, respectively, indicating that genetic divergence between populations was smaller than genetic divergence within. High outcrossing of 45 and 46.4% for landraces and cultivars, respectively, indicates that both landraces and cultivars are line mixtures and segregants of past outcrossing results. A Neighbour-Joining dendrogram based on Modified Rogers’ Distances (MRD) and a principal coordinate analysis based on a simple dissimilarity matrix, points towards some grouping based on geographical origin. The established SSR markers will be very useful for further diversity analyses among a large landrace collection of Ethiopian sesame and in the establishment of a core collection. Moreover, existence of great genetic variability between the landraces is a good starting point of sesame crop improvement programs in Ethiopia.
The choice of atypical employment by Chinese enterprises: status and determination

Labor employment has been changing with the reform of the economic system. As a flexible and elastic mode of employment, atypical employment has been widely used all over the world. Based on the data from the World Bank surveying 12,400 Chinese enterprises in 2005, we find that atypical employees have a big gap with typical employees in wages and benefits but higher mobility. By exploring the causes of enterprises hiring atypical employees, we find that labor cost, overtime, labor supply, and the form of corporate ownership all have an influence on the option of corporate employment.
Creating public value in global wicked problems

ABSTRACT This essay seeks to explore in which way Public Value Theory (PVT) would be useful in guiding analysis and action with respect to global wicked issues like forced migration. We found that (1) PVT enables envisioning global, collective, public value as well as value for individuals, communities and states by including voices of ‘all affected interests’ even when discourses prove to be extremely conflicting; (2) PVT enables acknowledging collaborative innovation as a possible means of facilitating cross-sectoral and local – global (transnational) connections which might help reframing wicked global issues and delivering results; (3) When PVT is applied to global wicked issues it offers an opportunity to explore which kind of institutional innovation is required to convene an appropriate authorizing structure in the ‘institutional void’ at the transnational level. Requisite adjustments to PVT are identified.
Global ionospheric response observed by COSMIC satellites during the January 2009 stratospheric sudden warming event

[1] This paper investigates the global ionospheric response during the January 2009 stratospheric sudden warming (SSW) event by using electron density profiles derived from GPS radio occultation measurements of the COSMIC satellites. The peak density (NmF2), peak height (hmF2), and ionospheric total electron content (ITEC) increase in the morning hours and decrease in the afternoon globally for 75% of the cases, in which electron density profiles during SSW and non-SSW days are available around the same location and local time bins. NmF2, hmF2, and ITEC during SSW days, on average, increase 19%, 12 km, and 17% in the morning and decrease 23%, 19 km, and 25% in the afternoon, respectively, in comparison with those during non-SSW days from global COSMIC observations. These results agree well with previous results from total electron content observations in low-latitude and equatorial regions. Interestingly, the unique COSMIC observations also revealed that during this SSW event the ionosphere responds globally, not only in the equatorial regions but also at the high and middle latitudes. The high-latitude ionosphere shows increased NmF2 and ITEC and decreased hmF2 in either the morning or afternoon sector. Thus, these results indicate that the ionospheric response in low-middle latitude and equatorial regions during SSW can be explained by either the modulated vertical drift resulting from the interaction between the planetary waves and tides through E region dynamo or the possible direct propagation of tides from the lower atmosphere, whereas the ionospheric variations at the middle and high latitude during the SSW might be attributed to the neutral background changes due to the direct propagation of tides from the lower atmosphere to the ionospheric F2 region. The competitive effects of different physical processes, such as the electric field, neutral wind, and composition, might cause the complex features of ionospheric variations during this SSW event.
Speaking in English Scares Me: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Native and Non-native Language Use on Communication Orientations in Micronesia.

By the year 2010, it projected that in the United States no single ethnic group will hold the majority. Even though a variety of other languages will be represented, English will probably remain as the "common" communication tool between and among ethnic and racial groups. An investigation focused on the impact of language and cultural diversity on communication in college classrooms. More specifically, students (n=131) from the CommLnity College of Micronesia, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia), a culturally mixed population which speaks English as its second (third or fourth) language, were asked to indicate their apprehensions about communicating, their willingness to initiate conversations, their level of extroversion/introversion or talkativeness, and how competent they perceived themselves to be while communicating in English and in their native language. The ages of respondents ranged from 16 to 48 with a mean age of 23.21. Comparisons indicated significant differences between orientations of students in the two zultures and within the Micronesian culture itself, as well as between the sexes. Perhaps the study's most significant contribution is its support of the conclusion that when individuals are asked to communicate with one another, their communication orientations may be influenced directly by the language they choose or are required to use. That is, when individuals are forced to use a non-native language to communicate, their overall orientation to communication may change. In this case experience increased apprehension, decreased willingness to initiate commu ication, and decreased perceptions of communication competence. (Contains 29 references and 5 tables of data.) (TB) *******k*************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***********************************************************************
Modelling a Biochemical Reaction with Computational Fluid Dynamics

Earlier investigations (Cartland Glover et al., 2004) into the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for the modelling of gas-liquid and gas-liquid-solid flow allowed a simple biochemical reaction model to be implemented. A single plane mesh was used to represent the transport and reaction of molasses, the mould Aspergillus niger and citric acid in a bubble column with a height to diameter aspect ratio of 20:1. Two specific growth rates were used to examine the impact that biomass growth had on the local solids concentration and the effect this had on the local hydrodynamics of the bubble column.
Factors related to perception of parental efficacy

The present study determined the relationships between selected factors within the family social context i.e. family background: education, family income, and number of children; and parenting factors: quality of parenting received as a child, satisfaction with the parent-child relationship, and parenting knowledge) and perception of parental efficacy. Respondents were 118 parents with Standard Five children from 2 primary schools in Subang Jaya, and were selected using the stratified-random sampling procedure. Data were gathered using a self-administered questionnaire. Perceived parental efficacy was measured using Luster's perception of parental efficacy scale. Quality of parenting received as a child was measured using a modified version of Simons et al.'s supportive parenting scale. Satisfaction with the parent-child relationship was assessed using 5 items adapted from Simons et al. 's relationship satisfaction scale and Umberson's parent-child rational quality scale. Parenting knowledge was measured using 5 items adapted from Simons et al. 's parental influence scale and Rozumah's parenting knowledge scale. Results from the study show that at the bivariate level, family income, parent-child relationship satisfaction, and parenting knowledge are significantly related to perception of parental efficacy. When all of the family social context variables were statistically controlled, only parenting knowledge showed significant contribution to perception of parental efficacy. The study concludes that several factors within the social context of the family may influence parents perception of their efficacy. Findings from the study indicate the importance of considering the context in which the parent and child interact when working with parents. In addition, parents should be made aware of the importance of quality parent-child interaction and the impact of parenting knowledge on parental efficacy and child development.
Properties of the magnetotelluric frequency-normalised impedance over a layered medium

The frequency-normalised impedance (FNI) function is introduced to give a physical significance to the magnetotelluric data. The FNI function is separated into its real and imaginary parts that have the same denominator to estimate their values in the high- and low-frequency limits. The behaviour of the apparent resistivity definitions and the phase is explained theoretically by considering the real and the imaginary parts of the FNI function. The oscillations on the apparent resistivity curves are explained by using ascending and descending types two-layer curves of the FNI function. The concept of the reciprocal geoelectric section is developed by using the properties of the FNI function. It has been shown that the apparent resistivity curves of a geoelectric section and those of corresponding to the reciprocal geoelectric section are symmetric. The axis of symmetry is the horizontal axis that intersects the vertical axis at unity. The FNI function assists the interpreter by giving a clear idea about the number of layers, the resistivity ratio between consecutive layers and it serves a good approximation of the true resistivity values of the subsurface layers.