Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Type of Chromatin Organization in Lampbrush Chromosomes of Pleurodeles waltlii : Visualization of Clusters of Tandemly Repeated , Very Short Transcriptional Units

A novel chromatin configuration is described in lampbrush chromosomes of Pleurodeles waltlii oocytes which is different from transcriptionally inactive chromatin as weil as from the various forms of transcribed chromatin hitherto described. This novel type of chromatin is not arranged in Christmas tree-Iike configurations of densely packed lateral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) fibriIs but is characterized by a periodic alternating pattern of thick and thin regions which occur in clusters 01 some 10,000 repeats. Each thickened unit with an average length of 45 nm contains two c10sely spaced particles, the putative RNA polymerases, and each thickened unit is separated from the next one by a beaded chromatin spacer with a length of about 80 nm. This chromatin spacer contains on average two particles of approximately 14 nm in diameter, assumed to be nucleosomes. The thickened regions are interpreted to represent short transcriptional units containing approximately 130 base pairs of DNA which are separated from each other by nontranscribed spacers of 240-400 base pairs of DNA. The possibility is discussed that these transcriptional units represent 5S rRNA or tRNA genes.
Tsunami landfalls in the Maltese archipelago: reconciling the historical record with geomorphological evidence

Abstract The Maltese Islands lie in the middle of the tsunamigenic Mediterranean domain, around whose margins and islands evidence of historical tsunami landfall has been increasingly recognized in recent years. Critical review of historical evidence of events in 1693 and 1908 indicates extremely modest tsunami impacts. In marked contrast, though, recently discovered geomorphological evidence summarized herein suggests that Malta's coastlines have been overwashed up to elevations of >20 m above sea level by an exceptional event. A new perspective is provided by a review of the central Mediterranean context within which the Maltese evidence is located. Recent advances in understanding the Holocene sequence forming the floor of the Mediterranean Sea present a new stratigraphic and temporal framework within which to elucidate tsunami history. Within 100 km of Malta, terrestrial stratigraphy on Sicily also provides supporting evidence of tsunami impact. Review of these advances suggests that the exceptional event required to emplace the most extreme sedimentary and geomorphological signatures on and around Malta is likely to have had a far-field origin. The currently available circumstantial evidence points strongly towards a probability that the AD 365 earthquake and tsunami were responsible. This, in turn, enables critical reassessment of the exposure of Malta to tsunami hazard.
Optimizing Price of Credit Default Swaps for Dynamic Project System of Public-Private Partnership

Most project operations management belongs to the type of public-private partnership (PPP), which is usually dynamic. This paper aims to propose a method for optimizing the price of credit default swaps (CDS) for the dynamic PPP system. This study investigates the credit risk measurement of PPP project financing and the pricing of risk mitigation instruments which are widely used in the case of immature markets in the early stage of China’s PPP development. Based on the credit risk measurement theory of the corporate and debt ratings, this paper considers the differences in various credit enhancement methods in the equity-like debt agreement and determines the credit rating of the equity-like debt in PPP projects. Some optimization methods are also proposed to derive the probability of default, so as to determine the price of the credit risk mitigation instrument of CDS which is based on the equity-like debt.
Voter Behavior and Seniority Advantage in Pork Barrel Politics

This paper uses experiments to explore electoral accountability in a legislative system that favors seniority. Voters face a trade-off between pork barrel transfers and policy representation. Term limits are tested as a mechanism to reduce the cost of searching for a legislator who better represents voters on policy, as well as reducing the resulting asymmetric distribution of income. Subjects’ preferences on abortion are used in an innovative means of capturing incumbents’ policy choices where subject legislators vote to determine whether a donation is allocated to either a pro-choice or pro-life foundation.
Study on Attitude Control Method for Zero-Doppler Steering in Space Borne SAR System

For the spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system, in order to alleviate the complexity of the imaging algorithm and to improve the accuracy of the applications of SAR images, attitude steering is required to reduce the Doppler centroid to 0 Hz. In published literature, twodimensional attitude steering, including yaw and pitch steering, is employed for elliptic orbiting SAR systems. This paper proposes a new steering approach involving only yaw steering to suppress the Doppler centroid of the mid-range to theoretically 0 Hz with a low residual Doppler centroid at the edge of the range extent. This may reduce the complexity of the attitude control system. The comparison of the performances of the current applied methods and the proposed approach is carried out with a simulation, and the effectiveness of the new approach is validated by the results.
A Theoretical Model to Link Uniqueness and Min-Entropy for PUF Evaluations

Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are security primitives that enable the extraction of digital identifiers from electronic devices, based on the inherent silicon process variations between devices which occur during the manufacturing process. Due to the intrinsic and lightweight nature of a PUF, they have been proposed to provide security at a low cost for many applications, in particular for the internet of things (IoT). Many metrics have been proposed to evaluate the security and performance of PUF architectures, two of which are uniqueness and min-entropy. The uniqueness of a PUF response evaluates its ability to differentiate between different physical devices, while the min-entropy estimation is a measure of how much uncertainty the PUF response contains. The min-entropy is a lower-bound of real entropy. When the uniqueness of a PUF design is close to the optimal, it is unclear if this also implies that the design has a significantly high entropy; hence it would be useful to ascertain the minimum uniqueness required to achieve a given entropy. To date, a thorough investigation of the relationship between uniqueness and entropy for PUF designs has not been conducted. In this paper, this relationship between the uniqueness and entropy is explored, and for the first time, to the authors’ knowledge, the relationship between them is modeled. To verify this model, both simulated and hardware-based experimental results are performed, with a test-bed containing 184 Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA based Basys3 boards providing a large data set for granular results. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model accurately estimates the relationship between uniqueness and min-entropy, with both the theoretical analysis and software simulations closely matching the experimental results.
Optical-microphysical properties of Saharan dust aerosols and composition relationship using a multi-wavelength Raman lidar, in situ sensors and modelling: a case study analysis

Abstract. A strong Saharan dust event that occurred over the city of Athens, Greece (37.9° N, 23.6° E) between 27 March and 3 April 2009 was followed by a synergy of three instruments: a 6-wavelength Raman lidar, a CIMEL sun-sky radiometer and the MODIS sensor. The BSC-DREAM model was used to forecast the dust event and to simulate the vertical profiles of the aerosol concentration. Due to mixture of dust particles with low clouds during most of the reported period, the dust event could be followed by the lidar only during the cloud-free day of 2 April 2009. The lidar data obtained were used to retrieve the vertical profile of the optical (extinction and backscatter coefficients) properties of aerosols in the troposphere. The aerosol optical depth (AOD) values derived from the CIMEL ranged from 0.33–0.91 (355 nm) to 0.18–0.60 (532 nm), while the lidar ratio (LR) values retrieved from the Raman lidar ranged within 75–100 sr (355 nm) and 45–75 sr (532 nm). Inside a selected dust layer region, between 1.8 and 3.5 km height, mean LR values were 83 ± 7 and 54 ± 7 sr, at 355 and 532 nm, respectively, while the Angstrom-backscatter-related (ABR355/532) and Angstrom-extinction-related (AER355/532) were found larger than 1 (1.17 ± 0.08 and 1.11 ± 0.02, respectively), indicating mixing of dust with other particles. Additionally, a retrieval technique representing dust as a mixture of spheres and spheroids was used to derive the mean aerosol microphysical properties (mean and effective radius, number, surface and volume density, and mean refractive index) inside the selected atmospheric layers. Thus, the mean value of the retrieved refractive index was found to be 1.49( ± 0.10) + 0.007( ± 0.007)i, and that of the effective radiuses was 0.30 ± 0.18 μm. The final data set of the aerosol optical and microphysical properties along with the water vapor profiles obtained by Raman lidar were incorporated into the ISORROPIA II model to provide a possible aerosol composition consistent with the retrieved refractive index values. Thus, the inferred chemical properties showed 12–40% of dust content, sulfate composition of 16–60%, and organic carbon content of 15–64%, indicating a possible mixing of dust with haze and smoke. PM10 concentrations levels, PM10 composition results and SEM-EDX (Scanning Electron Microscope-Energy Dispersive X-ray) analysis results on sizes and mineralogy of particles from samples during the Saharan dust transport event were used to evaluate the retrieval.
De vraag als antwoord? Normatieve risico’s van vraagsturing en de implicaties voor de rol van professionals

Mr. dr. Hans Bosselaar is zelfstandig gevestigd onderzoeker met bureau MECCANO kennis voor beleid. Bosselaar doet voornamelijk onderzoek op het terrein van sociale zekerheid, arbeidsmarkt en disability management in ondernemingen voor opdrachtgevers als het ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid, UWV, RWI en diverse (overheids)commissies en sociale partners. Bosselaar promoveerde in 2005 op het proefschrift De vraag als antwoord. Vraagsturing en sociaal beleid:voorwaarden en risico’s.
A Multiagent Evolutionary Algorithm for the Resource-Constrained Project Portfolio Selection and Scheduling Problem

A multiagent evolutionary algorithm is proposed to solve the resource-constrained project portfolio selection and scheduling problem. The proposed algorithm has a dual level structure. In the upper level a set of agents make decisions to select appropriate project portfolios. Each agent selects its project portfolio independently. The neighborhood competition operator and self-learning operator are designed to improve the agent’s energy, that is, the portfolio profit. In the lower level the selected projects are scheduled simultaneously and completion times are computed to estimate the expected portfolio profit. A priority rule-based heuristic is used by each agent to solve the multiproject scheduling problem. A set of instances were generated systematically from the widely used Patterson set. Computational experiments confirmed that the proposed evolutionary algorithm is effective for the resource-constrained project portfolio selection and scheduling problem.
Analysis and Design of a dc-dc Converter Using Visual Aid

Designing a switched-mode power supply includes the calculation of the loss in all of the different components: inductor, transformer, switches and capacitors. By combining all of the loss calculations, and providing a graphical user interface to the designer, the designer is able to get an understanding of the loss distribution and thereby the influence of each component on the complete design.
Certifying Code Generation with Coq

Guaranteeing correctness of compilation is a major precondition for correct software. Code generation can be one of the most error-prone tasks in a compiler. One way to achieve trusted compilation is certifying compilation. A certifying compiler generates for each run a proof that it has performed the compilation run correctly. The proof is checked in a separate theorem prover. If the theorem prover is content with the proof, one can be sure that the compiler produced correct code. This paper presents a certifying code generation phase for a compiler translating an intermediate language into assembler code. The time spent for checking the proofs is the bottleneck of certifying compilation. We exhibit an improved framework for certifying compilation and present considerable advances to overcome this bottleneck. Our framework comprises a checker ‐ an executable program that is formalized within a theorem prover to increase the speed of distinct sub tasks of certificate checking. We prove our checker correct and thus are able to use it instead of traditional proving techniques within our theorem prover environment. We compare our implementation featuring the Coq theorem prover to an older implementation. Our current implementation is feasible for medium to large sized programs.
Study on Reproductive Performance of Terapon jarbua (Forsskal, 1775) in Tam Giang-Cau Hai Lagoon Systems, Thua Thien Hue Province

Terapon jarbua was collected from Tam Giang-Cau Hai lagoon systems and then their reproductive performances were investigated. Total 342 species were caught by otter trawlers and different fishing gears in marine and Tam Giang-Cau Hai lagoon systems on certain days of each month during period from September 2015 to August 2016 at fishing port. The determination of age was based on composition of the fish: ear, scaly, spine, gill cover and spine and the ovarian histology template. The gonads after being fixed with Bouins solution were cleansed, cut, dyed and put on the observation microscope. Results showed that the sex of Terapon jarbua was nearly clarified at the approximately 1+ age group and participated in reproduction process in the first time at the 1+ age group. The batch and relative fecundity of Terapon jarbua were high. The batch fecundity of Terapon jarbua varied from 239,029 to 420,400 eggs. The relative fecundity capacity fluctuated from 945 to 1,013 of eggs per gram of fish and the mean value by 981 eggs per gram of fish. The spawning season of fish occurred from March to May annually.
The Smell of Success?—The Impact of Perfume-Gender Congruency on Ratings of Attraction and the Halo Effect

Research into the concept of attraction has indicated the existence of olfactory influences that go beyond pheromonal level. Synthetic fragrances have been found to affect not only perception of attraction, but also attribution of beauty-unrelated intrinsic characteristics. The present study aimed to examine the impact of perfume-gender congruency on ratings of attractiveness and any perfume-generated halo effect. Male faces categorized as low, medium and high attractiveness were rated by 36 heterosexual female students across six domains: attractive, reliable, outgoing, intelligent, wealthy and socially competent. Ratings were made in the presence of a female perfume (incongruent condition), male perfume (congruent condition) or a no perfume control condition, with participants randomly allocated to produce three groups of equal size. The results indicated that 1) attractiveness generated a significant halo effect; 2) the male perfume did not significantly enhance perception of attractiveness compared to the female perfume; and 3) the gender-congruent fragrance heightened attribution of “halo” characteristics. These results indicate that gender congruent perfume can impact positively on first impressions beyond attractiveness, and are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms and implications.
The working for water programme : evolution of a payments for ecosystem services mechanism that addresses both poverty and ecosystem service delivery in South Africa

A B S T R A C T A payments for ecosystem services (PES) system came about in South Africa with the establishment of the government-funded Working for Water (WfW) programme that clears mountain catchments and riparian zones of invasive alien plants to restore natural fire regimes, the productive potential of land, biodiversity, and hydrological functioning. The success of the programme is largely attributed to it being mainly funded as a poverty-relief initiative, although water users also contribute through their water fees. Nevertheless, as the hydrological benefits have become apparent, water utilities and municipalities have begun to contract WfW to restore catchments that affect their water supplies. This emerging PES system differs from others in that the service providers are previously unemployed individuals that tender for contracts to restore public or private lands, rather than the landowners themselves. The model has since expanded into other types of ecosystem restoration and these have the potential to merge into a general programme of ecosystem service provision within a broader public works programme. There is a strong case for concentrating on the most valuable services provided by ecosystems, such as water supply, carbon sequestration, and fire protection, and using these as 'umbrella services' to achieve a range of conservation goals. The future prospects for expansion of PES for hydrological services are further strengthened by the legal requirement that Catchment Management Agencies be established. These authorities will have an incentive to purchase hydrological services through organisations such as WfW so as to be able to supply more water to their users.
KINEMATIC EVOLUTION OF SIMULATED STAR-FORMING GALAXIES

Recent observations have shown that star-forming galaxies like our own Milky Way evolve kinematically into ordered thin disks over the last ∼8 billion years since z = 1.2, undergoing a process of “disk settling. ” For the first time, we study the kinematic evolution of a suite of four state of the art “zoom in” hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation and evolution in a fully cosmological context and compare with these observations. Until now, robust measurements of the internal kinematics of simulated galaxies were lacking because the simulations suffered from low resolution, overproduction of stars, and overly massive bulges. The current generation of simulations has made great progress in overcoming these difficulties and is ready for a kinematic analysis. We show that simulated galaxies follow the same kinematic trends as real galaxies: they progressively decrease in disordered motions (σg) and increase in ordered rotation (Vrot) with time. The slopes of the relations between both σg and Vrot with redshift are consistent between the simulations and the observations. In addition, the morphologies of the simulated galaxies become less disturbed with time, also consistent with observations. This match between the simulated and observed trends is a significant success for the current generation of simulations, and a first step in determining the physical processes behind disk settling.
Bipartite Stochastic Block Models with Tiny Clusters

We study the problem of finding clusters in random bipartite graphs. We present a simple two-step algorithm which provably finds even tiny clusters of size $O(n^\epsilon)$, where $n$ is the number of vertices in the graph and $\epsilon > 0$. Previous algorithms were only able to identify clusters of size $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$. We evaluate the algorithm on synthetic and on real-world data; the experiments show that the algorithm can find extremely small clusters even in presence of high destructive noise.
Searching for a T heory that fi t s the D ata : A P ersonal

This survey paper discusses the Cointegrated VAR methodology and how it has evolved over the last 30 years. The first section is a description of major steps in the econometric development of the CVAR model that facilitated serious real world applications. The next three sections are primarily methodological and discuss (i) diffi culties and puzzles when confronting theory with the data, (ii) the formulation of a viable link between theory and the data, a so called theory-consistent CVAR scenario, and (iii) how all this was inspired by Trygve Haavelmo and his Nobel prize winning monograph "The Probability Approach to Economics". The next two sections discuss early applications of the Cointegrated VAR model to monetary transmission mechanisms, international transmission mechanisms and wage, price and unemployment dynamics. They report puzzling evidence, discuss the need for new theory, and propose a method for combining partial CVAR analyses into a larger macroeconomic model. The following sections propose a new, empirically-based, approach to macroeconomics in which imperfect knowledge based expectations replace so called rational expectations and in which the financial sector plays a key role for understanding the long persistent movements in the data. The last section argues that the CVAR can act as a "design of experiment for passive observations" and illustrates with several applications including unemployment dynamics under crises periods and aid effectiveness in South Saharan African countries.
To Fish or Not to Fish: Factors at Multiple Scales Affecting Artisanal Fishers' Readiness to Exit a Declining Fishery

Globally, fisheries are challenged by the combined impacts of overfishing, degradation of ecosystems and impacts of climate change, while fisheries livelihoods are further pressured by conservation policy imperatives. Fishers' adaptive responses to these pressures, such as exiting from a fishery to pursue alternative livelihoods, determine their own vulnerability, as well as the potential for reducing fishing effort and sustaining fisheries. The willingness and ability to make particular adaptations in response to change, such as exiting from a declining fishery, is influenced by economic, cultural and institutional factors operating at scales from individual fishers to national economies. Previous studies of exit from fisheries at single or few sites, offer limited insight into the relative importance of individual and larger-scale social and economic factors. We asked 599 fishers how they would respond to hypothetical scenarios of catch declines in 28 sites in five western Indian Ocean countries. We investigated how socioeconomic variables at the individual-, household- and site-scale affected whether they would exit fisheries. Site-level factors had the greatest influence on readiness to exit, but these relationships were contrary to common predictions. Specifically, higher levels of infrastructure development and economic vitality - expected to promote exit from fisheries - were associated with less readiness to exit. This may be due to site level histories of exit from fisheries, greater specialisation of fishing households, or higher rewards from fishing in more economically developed sites due to technology, market access, catch value and government subsidies. At the individual and household scale, fishers from households with more livelihood activities, and fishers with lower catch value were more willing to exit. These results demonstrate empirically how adaptive responses to change are influenced by factors at multiple scales, and highlight the importance of understanding natural resource-based livelihoods in the context of the wider economy and society.