Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Suzaku broadband X-ray spectrum of the dwarf Seyfert galaxy NGC 4395

We present a Suzaku observation of the dwarf Seyfert galaxy NGC 4395 with an estimated black hole mass of ~10 5 M ⊙ . Rapid and strong X-ray variability with an rms amplitude of ~60 per cent is observed in the 0.4-10 keV band with the XIS cameras. The shape of the light curve appears to depend on energies. The hard X-ray emission is detected up to 35 keV with the HXD-PIN detector at a similar flux level as observed with the INTEGRAL IBIS. The X-ray spectrum below 10 keV is strongly absorbed by partially ionized (ξ ~ 35 erg s cm -1 ) gas with a mean equivalent hydrogen column density of ~2 × 10 22 cm -2 , when a simple absorption model is applied. The spectral shape is also strongly variable but not a simple function of the source brightness. The spectral variability appears to be accounted for mainly by continuum slope changes, but variability in the ionized absorber may also play some part. The apparently flat spectral slope of Γ≃ = 1.4 below 10 keV, obtained after correcting for absorption, is marginally inconsistent with the Γ ~ 2 inferred from the 14-35 keV PIN spectrum. If the true spectral slope had been as steep as that measured in the hard X-ray band, there would have been an extra absorption component, which we are unable to detect. Combined with the INTEGRAL measurements, the hard X-ray emission above 10 keV exceeds the optical emission in terms of luminosity and dominates the broadband energy output, unless a large excess of UV disk emission is yet to be detected in the unobservable band. A weak Fe K line is seen at 6.4 keV with the average equivalent width of 110 eV, which does not show significant flux changes over the 3-day observation.
Smoothed Efficient Algorithms and Reductions for Network Coordination Games

Worst-case hardness results for most equilibrium computation problems have raised the need for beyond-worst-case analysis. To this end, we study the smoothed complexity of finding pure Nash equilibria in Network Coordination Games, a PLS-complete problem in the worst case. This is a potential game where the sequential-better-response algorithm is known to converge to a pure NE, albeit in exponential time. First, we prove polynomial (resp. quasi-polynomial) smoothed complexity when the underlying game graph is a complete (resp. arbitrary) graph, and every player has constantly many strategies. We note that the complete graph case is reminiscent of perturbing all parameters, a common assumption in most known smoothed analysis results. Second, we define a notion of smoothness-preserving reduction among search problems, and obtain reductions from $2$-strategy network coordination games to local-max-cut, and from $k$-strategy games (with arbitrary $k$) to local-max-cut up to two flips. The former together with the recent result of [BCC18] gives an alternate $O(n^8)$-time smoothed algorithm for the $2$-strategy case. This notion of reduction allows for the extension of smoothed efficient algorithms from one problem to another. For the first set of results, we develop techniques to bound the probability that an (adversarial) better-response sequence makes slow improvements on the potential. Our approach combines and generalizes the local-max-cut approaches of [ER14,ABPW17] to handle the multi-strategy case: it requires a careful definition of the matrix which captures the increase in potential, a tighter union bound on adversarial sequences, and balancing it with good enough rank bounds. We believe that the approach and notions developed herein could be of interest in addressing the smoothed complexity of other potential and/or congestion games.
Recent Research on Gravitational Waves

Joseph Weber began, in 1958, to examine the possibility of detecting the gravitational waves predicted by Einstein in 1916 in his theory of gene­ ral relativity. Although the calculations showed that, in Einstein's words, the gravitational irradiated power " in all thinkable cases must have a practi­ cally vanishing value" it seemed to Weber that with modern techniques it should be feasible to detect gravita­ t ional waves such as those arising from catastrophic cosmic events (i.e. supernovae explosions or, more ge­ nerally, gravitational collapse proc­ esses).
Sources and Sinks of Available Potential Energy in a Moist Atmosphere

Abstract Available potential energy (APE) is defined as the difference between the total static energy of the atmosphere and that of a reference state that minimizes the total static energy after a sequence of reversible adiabatic transformations. Determining the rate at which APE is generated in the atmosphere allows one to estimate the amount of kinetic energy that can be generated by atmosphere flows. Previous expressions for the sources and sinks of APE rely on a dry framework and are limited by the fact that they require prior knowledge of the distribution of latent heat release by atmospheric motion. In contrast, this paper uses a moist APE framework to derive a general formula for the sources and sinks of APE that can be equally applied to dry and moist circulations. Two key problems are addressed here. First, it is shown that any reorganization of the reference state due to diabatic heating or addition of water does not change its total static energy. This property makes it possible to determine t.
Evaluation of Sampling Methods and Species Richness Estimators for Ants in Upland Ecosystems in Florida

Abstract The growing emphasis on including invertebrates in global biodiversity conservation efforts has prompted an increase in the study of invertebrate assemblages. Invertebrate sampling designs and the bias of individual methods, nevertheless, remain poorly understood for a variety of habitats. We used a structured inventory approach to sampling ants in five upland ecosystems in Florida. We evaluated the efficiency of quantitative and nonquantitative methods for sampling ants. We also evaluated the performance of four species richness estimators. A total of 3,774 species occurrences were distributed among 1,732 samples that contained 94 species from 31 genera. Twenty unique species and 10 duplicate species were collected. Compared with a comprehensive species list for Florida, sampling captured ≈66% of the regional fauna and ≈70–90% of species within the ecosystems studied. Combinations of sampling methods were much more effective for assessing species richness. Individual methods were complementary and sampled only part of the entire assemblage. Nonparametric estimators (an incidence-based coverage estimator [ICE] and a jackknife estimator [Jack2]) performed better than lognormal fitting, and Michaelis-Menten curve extrapolation. However, none of the estimators was stable, and their estimates should be viewed with skepticism. The results of this study provide support for the use of the Ants of the Leaf Litter (ALL) protocol for thoroughly sampling ant assemblages in temperate and subtropical ecosystems. Furthermore, our results indicate that even in relatively species-poor (compared with the tropics) temperate and subtropical regions, a large sampling effort that includes multiple sampling methods is the most effective manner of thoroughly sampling an ant assemblage. Therefore, we suggest that structured inventory should be adopted for a wider variety of terrestrial invertebrate studies.
Analysing the preferred characteristics of frontline employees dealing with customer complaints: A cross‐national Kano study

Purpose – This paper seeks to use the Kano model to gain a deeper understanding of attributes of effective frontline employees dealing with customer complainants in personal interactions. Previous research revealed that excitement factors deteriorate to basic factors over time. This research aims to investigate whether the same phenomenon holds true for attributes of service employees.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using Kano questionnaires from 272 respondents with complaining experience in the UK and Saudi Arabia, these being two countries at different stages of service sector development.Findings – The analysis of the Kano questionnaires for the UK reveals that complaining customers take the contact employee's ability to listen carefully for granted. The Kano results for Saudi Arabia clearly indicate that complaining customers are (still) easier to delight than their UK counterparts.Research limitations/implications – Even though the study has a sample size similar to several existin.
Heavy water stratification in a low-mass protostar

Context. Despite the low elemental deuterium abundance in the Galaxy, enhanced molecular deuterium fractionation has been found in the environments of low-mass star-forming regions and, in particular, the Class 0 protostar IRAS 16293-2422. Aims: The key program Chemical HErschel Surveys of Star forming regions (CHESS) aims at studying the molecular complexity of the interstellar medium. The high sensitivity and spectral resolution of the Herschel/HIFI (Heterodyne Instrument for Far-Infrared) instrument provide a unique opportunity to observe the fundamental 11,1-00,0 transition of ortho-D2O at 607 GHz and the higher energy 21,2-10,1 transition of para-D2O at 898 GHz, both of which are inaccessible from the ground. Methods: The ortho-D2O transition at 607 GHz was previously detected. We present in this paper the first tentative detection for the para-D2O transition at 898 GHz. The spherical Monte Carlo radiative transfer code RATRAN was used to reproduce the observed line profiles of D2O with the same method that was used to reproduce the HDO and H218O line profiles in IRAS 16293-2422. Results: As for HDO, the absorption component seen on the D2O lines can only be reproduced by adding an external absorbing layer, possibly created by the photodesorption of the ices at the edges of the molecular cloud. The D2O column density is found to be about 2.5 × 1012 cm-2 in this added layer, leading to a D2O/H2O ratio of about 0.5%. At a 3σ uncertainty, upper limits of 0.03% and 0.2% are obtained for this ratio in the hot corino and the colder envelope of IRAS 16293-2422, respectively. Conclusions: The deuterium fractionation derived in our study suggests that the ices present in IRAS 16293-2422 formed on warm dust grains (~15-20 K) in dense (~104-5 × 104 cm-3) translucent clouds. These results allow us to address the earliest phases of star formation and the conditions in which ices form. Based on Herschel/HIFI observations. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with scientific instruments provided by European-led principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.
DEVELOPMENT OF BALLAST WATER TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY BY MECHANOCHEMICAL CAVITATION

In order to solve environmental problems caused by ballast water, which is a serious problem worldwide, ballas t water purification using cavitation was investigated. Pre viously, only the collapse pressure of cavitation was used for th e treatment of planktons. In this study, however, processing by ca vitation containing a chemical and the mechanical processing of cavitation were applied. A Venturi nozzle and an ej ector nozzle were used to inject sodium hypochlorite. It was fou nd that the ejector nozzle had higher processing performance th an the Venturi nozzle, and was effective for high flow rat es of ballast water. It was clarified that high plankton extincti on ratios could be obtained using mechanochemical cavitation provided by ejector nozzles.
Burn Severity Assessment in the Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest Using NASA Satellite Missions

Fire severity is an increasingly critical issue for forest managers. A long history of fire suppression has led to millions of acres of dry western forests and a buildup of fuels. Satellite imagery offers a cost-effective and feasible tool for fire severity assessment and can provide near real-time data for mitigation measures. This study focused on the Tripod Complex Fire that burned more than 175,000 acres of the Okanogan-Wenatchee Forest in Washington in 2006. Field data were collected in order to calculate the Composite Burn Index (CBI), a ground-based measurement of burn severity which can directly correlate with satellite measurements. These in-situ data were used to calibrate the satellite data from the Landsat TM5 and the MODIS sensor on board the NASA Terra satellite. The satellite data were used to calculate the differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) and the Relative dNBR (RdNBR). These algorithms use the relationship between the near infrared and the shortwave infrared to quantify burn severity. After comparing these two algorithms, it was determined that there was no significant difference between dNBR and RdNBR. Using the burn severity map created with the dNBR data, an analysis was performed to examine the relationship between burn severity and variables such as slope, aspect, and vegetation type. The relationships between several measures of burn severity are discussed.
Static and dynamic TSEPs of SiC and GaN transistors

This paper investigates the static and dynamic temperature sensitive electrical parameters (TSEPs) for both SiC and GaN transistors. It is shown that both the qualitative and quantitative temperature characteristics of these parameters are various when different type of transistors are concerned. This finding can be used to select the most appropriate temperature sensitive parameter for the device under specific situation. In this paper, two types of transistors, SiC SCT2080KE MOSFET and GaN PGA26E19BA HEMT are evaluated and compared in terms of six TSEPs, including source-drain reverse bias voltage (VSD), static on-resistance (RDS,ON), gate threshold voltage (VGS(TH)), transconductance (gm), dIDS/dt switching transients and gate current (IG). Then, these TSEPs are compared using four criteria: temperature sensitivity, linearity, material and the capability of on-line temperature monitoring
Motivation for Making Job Interesting

Employees are regarded as a most valuable resource and the main driver for organizational success. In order to be successful, an organization needs to consistently motivate employees so that they can act toward the goals of the organization and have a strong desire to remain in the organization. This study attempted to draw influences of different motivational factors such as salary adequacy, future security, social dignity/status, career ambition, training and development, comfortable physical environment,
Fluctuating Asymmetry as an Early Warning System in the Critically Endangered Taita Thrush

Abstract: Environmental and genetic factors increasingly stress natural populations, and conservationists need simple tools to measure the effect of these stresses before populations become irreversibly affected. The inability of an organism to withstand random perturbations during its development—so‐called developmental instability—has been proposed as a potential early indicator of stress. To act as a true early warning system, however, stress‐mediated changes in developmental instability should be manifest in the phenotype before major changes occur in more direct components of fitness. We tested this hypothesis by estimating the survival probabilities of 260 Taita Thrushes ( Turdus helleri) inhabiting three differentially disturbed forest fragments ( little, moderately, and highly deteriorated) and relating these to individual estimates of tarsus asymmetry (a measure of developmental instability), two other putative indices of expected fitness (size and body condition), and a coefficient of inbreeding. Tarsus symmetry, but not survival, was lower in the moderately disturbed population than in the least disturbed one, whereas both symmetry and survival were lower in the most disturbed population. Thus, higher levels of habitat disturbance were reflected by increased population levels of asymmetry before a decrease in survival became apparent. In contrast, none of the other variables showed a significant response to habitat disturbance. At the individual level, asymmetric thrushes showed lower probabilities of survival than more symmetric ones, and the magnitude of the relationship increased with habitat disturbance. Birds in better condition (i.e., higher residual body mass) survived better, irrespective of the quality of the habitat. The key finding that stress‐mediated increase in fluctuating asymmetry may precede decrease in survival suggests that single‐trait asymmetry can serve as an early warning system in conservation.
Vaginal Yeasts and the Antifungal Action of Red Propolis Extract

Introduction: Vulvovaginitis is an inflammatory process that affects the vulva, vagina and cervix, most of the times of infectious cause. Vulvovaginal candidiasis is the second most frequent cause in Brazil, in Europe ranks first. Candida spp can be found in the vagina up to 20% of asymptomatic women. Objective: Understanding the occurrence of vaginal yeasts and evaluating the antifungal action of a red propolis extract. Method: This is a clinical study in vitro with vaginal secretion samples collected from 197 patients treated at the Health Center Frei Damiao in Patos-PB, Brazil. The species were identified using a chromogenic medium CHROMagar Candida ®. At the end, the antifungal activity of the red propolis extract in four different concentrations was observed: 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, by test disc Agar diffusion. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Campina Grande, CAAE 35203614.8. 0000.5575. Results: Of the samples analyzed other species identified by the medium used were the most prevalent corresponding to 59.8%, followed by C. albicans , with 21.7%. The antifungal activity was observed in 81.25% of the tested samples. According to the average and standard deviation of the inhibition zone of the four concentrations, the one that presented the smallest variation was the concentration at 50%, followed by concentration to 75%. Conclusions: The results of this research showed that there was antifungal action of red propolis extract, since occurred inhibition in 81.25% of the analyzed samples. However did not show clearance regarding this action, since positivity tendency was not growing by increasing or decreasing the concentration of propolis extract.
On the role of enemies in divergence and diversification of prey: a review and synthesis

Understanding the contribution of ecological interactions to the origin and maintenance of diversity is a fun- damental challenge for ecologists and evolutionary biologists, and one that is currently receiving a great deal of atten- tion. Natural enemies (e.g., predators, parasites, and herbivores) are ubiquitous in food webs and are predicted to have significant impacts on phenotypic diversity and on speciation, and extinction rates of their prey. Spurred by the devel- opment of a theoretical framework beginning in the late 1970s, there is now a growing body of literature that addresses the effects of enemy-prey interactions on the evolution of prey. A number of theoretical models predict that enemies can produce phenotypic divergence between closely related species, even in the absence of interspecific competition for resources. Effects on diversification of prey are more variable, and enemies may either enhance or depress speciation and extinction rates of their prey. Empirical evidences from a number of study systems, notably those involving preda- tors and prey in aquatic environments and interactions between insects and flowering plants, confirm both predictions. There is now considerable evidence for the role of enemies, especially those that are size-selective or use visual cues when identifying suitable prey, on phenotypic divergence of sympatric and allopatric taxa. Enemies may spur diversifi- cation rates in certain groups under some circumstances, and hinder diversification rates in other cases. I suggest that further research should focus on the role of enemies in diversification of prey, with significant insights likely to be the product of applying traditional experimental approaches and emerging comparative phylogenetic methods.
Phytochemical screening, free radical scavenging, antioxidant activity and phenolic content of Dodonaea viscosa

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant potential of Dodonaea viscosa Jacq. A methanolic extract of the plant was dissolved in distilled water and sequentially partitioned with n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol. Phytochemical screening showed the presence of phe- nolics, flavonoids and cardiac glycosides in large amounts in the chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol fraction. The antioxidant potential of all these fractions and remaining aqueous fraction was evaluated by four methods: 1,1- -diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity, total antioxidant activity, the Ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay and ferric thiocyanate assay along with the determination of their total phenolics. The results revealed that the ethyl acetate soluble fraction exhibited the highest percent inhibition of the DPPH radical as compared to the other fractions. It showed 81.14±1.38 % inhibition of the DPPH radical at a concentration of 60 µg ml -1 . The concentration of this fraction leading to 50 % inhibition of the DPPH radical (IC50) was found to be 33.95±0.58 µg ml -1 , relative to butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), having an IC50 of 12.54±0.89 µg mL -1 . It also showed the highest FRAP value (380.53±0.74 µM of trolox equivalents) as well as the highest total phenolic contents (208.58±1.83 gallic acid equivalent (GAE) μg g -1 ) and highest value of inhibition of lipid peroxidation (58.11±1.49 % at a con- centration of 500 µg ml -1 ) as compared to the other studied fractions. The chlo- roform fraction showed the highest total antioxidant activity, i.e., 1.078±0.59 (eq. to BHT).
Basso: A low point in the study of musical meaning and metaphor

Recent literature encourages an exploration of musical meaning through metaphor, as the affective character of music is allusive, evocative and seldom literal. But while in theory metaphor can explain aspects of musical meaning, in practice the definitions of metaphor are as vague and various as the abstract sounds that they would elucidate. Scholars have not handled the awkward historical slipperiness of metaphors which, like language, change over time. Using the example of low notes, this article historicizes the metaphorical motif of deep sounds, showing how ‘high’ and ‘low’ follow a suggestive vein of poetic intuition. Historically, ‘high’ and ‘low’ carry persistent social and moral connotations. Examining the philology behind conceptions of lowness from antiquity to the baroque, this article proposes that low notes—and low instruments and their parts—have different meanings to their higher-frequency counterparts; in particular, it inquires into how much the prevailing associations of evil and inferiority are induced upon low registers and under what conditions this ‘baseness’ may be redeemed. Proposing patterns for the simultaneous terror and benign authority of lowness from fields beyond music, the article argues that the backdrop of evil in bass and base (basso) is a necessary semantic element in the aesthetic development of European multi-voiced music. The moral or psychological metaphor is thus integral to the aesthetic content of music. Peer-Reviewed Paper JMM: The Journal of Music and Meaning, vol. 13, 2014/2015 93