Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Torrefied wood pellets as an alternative fuel to coal: Climate benefits and social desirability of production and use

The objective of this thesis is to study the climate impacts and the social returns and social desirability of torrefied wood pellet production and use as an alternative fuel to coal. The raw material of torrefied pellets is forest chips and production and use are assumed to take place in Finland. Climate impacts are assessed with focus on the full fuel chain, or the torrefied pellet life cycle. A brief review of other environmental impacts of the fuel chain is also provided. A socio-economic model is then developed for analyzing how desirable torrefied pellet production and use would be from society’s viewpoint when both private profits and climate benefits are taken into account. The model is applied to a hypothetical case where torrefied pellets are produced in Northern Finland and co-fired with coal at Helsingin Energia’s cogeneration plant. The purpose of this study is thus to analyze whether co-firing torrefied pellets with coal in combined heat and power production generates social surplus and is socially desirable when both net climate benefits and the private revenue and costs of torrefied pellet production and use are taken into account. Results show that co-firing torrefied pellets and coal in combined heat and power production leads to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to a coal-only situation when the life cycle of both fuels is taken into account. In the case studied, torrefied pellet production and use also generates positive social returns. The energy producer’s private profits proved to have the greatest impact on net social benefits.
Magnetic double gradient mechanism for flapping oscillations of a current sheet

A new kind of magnetohydrodynamic waves are analyzed for a current sheet in a presence of a small normal magnetic field component varying along the sheet. As a background, two simplified models of a current sheet are considered with a uniform and nonuniform current distributions in the current sheet. On a basis of these two models, the flapping‐type waves are obtained which are related to a coexistence of two gradients of the tangential and normal magnetic field components along the normal and tangential directions with respect to the current sheet. A stable situation for the current sheet is associated with a positive result of the multiplication of the two magnetic gradients, and unstable (wave growth) condition corresponds to a negative result of the product. In the stable region, the “kink”‐like wave mode is interpreted as so called flapping waves observed in the Earth's magnetotail current sheet.
MULTIPLE MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS OF THE ANTICODON LOOP OF TRNAASP IN AQUEOUS SOLUTION WITH COUNTERIONS

In a systematic search for a stable protocol with which to extend our dynamical investigations, a nanosecond of molecular dynamics simulations of the solvated anticodon loop of tRNAASp consisting of ten unique trajectories was obtained by slight modifications to the starting conditions. These changes produced divergent trajectories which varied widely in structural and dynamical characteristics. However, the properties of these trajectories could not be directly correlated to the slight modifications introduced in the system, and thus, questions were raised regarding the probity of the standard protocol we utilized. Instead of a detailed analysis of the results, the multiple molecular dynamics (MD) approach was used as a diagnostic for estimating the reliability of the set of trajectories generated and the extent of relevant biochemical information which can be extracted from it. We address here issues concerning critical evaluation of molecular dynamics methodology and detection of protocol instabilities. We infer that an ensemble of initial uncorrelated trajectories should be generated in order to investigate the constancy of structural and dynamical properties of the system under study.
Safety of Combination Laser or Intense Pulsed Light Therapies and Doxycycline for the Treatment of Rosacea.

BACKGROUND Current treatment options for rosacea include topical agents, oral therapies, phototherapy using lasers, or intense pulsed light (IPL). Combination therapy for rosacea often yields better results than monotherapy. The safety of laser/light treatments in combination with systemic doxycycline has been questioned because of the theoretical risk of photosensitivity. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess the incidence of phototoxicity or photosensitivity in rosacea patients receiving concomitant laser or light treatments and systemic doxycycline. METHODS Treatment records of 36 patients receiving laser/light treatments while also being treated with standard dose or anti-inflammatory dose of doxycycline were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS No adverse reactions related to doxycycline combined with laser/light therapy were reported. Specifically, no photosensitivity or sensitivity to wavelengths in the pulsed dye laser (PDL), or IPL range was observed in this cohort. All patients achieved some degree of clearance. CONCLUSION The results of this retrospective study demonstrate that doxycycline used in conjunction with laser or nonlaser light therapy is a valid combination therapy for improving signs and symptoms of rosacea. No photosensitivity reactions were observed to commonly used IPL or PDL devices.
Numerical Simulation Approaches for Phased Array Design ( Invited Paper )

This paper reviews the two well-known numerical simulation techniques that are widely used in antenna modeling; the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) and the Method of Moments (MoM). The packages FDANT (prepared in Fortran language by using FDTD) and NEC2 (public domain code for the MoM) are used to model various types of antenna arrays, their advantages/disadvantages are discussed on characteristic design examples, and they are calibrated one against the other. Also, a simple Matlab package (ANTEN_GUI) for the visualization of radiation patterns, beam forming and beam steering capabilities of user-designed planar arrays of isotropic radiators (which can be used to test the above mentioned packages and as an educational tool, in e.g., antennas and propagation lectures) is introduced.
Parasitic infections and risk factors associated with Amoebiasis among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in primary health care centres in Lagos Mainland, Lagos, Nigeria

The prevalence of amoebiasis was investigated among pregnant women using a gold standard microscopy method. Stool samples were collected from pregnant women, from two primary health care centers (Iwaya and Ebute-metta). The study involved 203 pregnant women during their visits to the antenatal clinic in Primary health centres at Lagos Mainland from June – October, 2016. Each participant was interviewed using questionnaires to relate prevalence and risk factors to their socio-demographic characteristics. Among these pregnant women, 120 respondents provided their stool samples and this was parasitologically screened with 0.8% prevalence of Entamoeba histolytica infection, 7.5% with Entamoeba Coli, 0.5% with Ascaris lumbricoides, and 0.8% infection with Hookworm. A prevalence of 0.8% for the mixed infection of Ascaris lumbricoides with Entamoeba histolytica, and a prevalence of 1.7% for the mixed infection of Entamoeba coli and Entamoeba histolytica was recorded. Significant association (p<0.05), was established between infection and diarrhoea, and the residence of the pregnantwomen.Socio - demographic factors like age, sex, socio-economic status, type of toilet, source of drinking water (p>0.05) showed no significant association with amoebiasis prevalence. In conclusion, E. histolytica infection is generally low in Lagos state owing to good environmental sanitation within Lagos metropolis. Efforts should therefore be geared towards its elimination by provision of water for Lagos residents.
Threshold effects of fiscal policy on economic growth in developing countries

We examine the relation between fiscal policy and economic growth for a panel of 40 developing countries over the period of 1990 to 2012 using eight macroeconomic variables: real GDP, budget deficit, current government spending, national saving, inflation rate, total investment, public debt, and current account balance. The study documents a double threshold effect of the fiscal balance. The first one is at a level of the deficit around 4.8% of GDP; the second one is at the fiscal surplus level of 3.2% of GDP meaning that economic growth would be negatively affected when exceeding these two different levels. The result also show that the sign of the relation between budget deficit and economic growth is conditioned by the level of total investment i.e. only for total investment higher than 23%, there exists a positive relation. However, it becomes negative, when investment falls below this threshold.
Virtual Machine Scheduling Strategy for Reliable Service Resource Supply in Cloud Environment

Nowadays, most researchers carry out such unilateral research on virtual machine scheduling strategy, energy consumption. And there are few jobs which less concern about the impact of multiple factors. Due to heterogeneous cloud environment is made up of thousands of resource nodes. The resource utilization, virtual machine scheduling and other indicators must be related with uncertainties arising from node failure events. The paper studies the virtual machine scheduling strategy under the supply of reliable resources. And a dynamic-reliable resource supply FR strategy is proposed. In this paper, the Cloud Sim simulation cloud platform was used to simulate the experiment and compare with classical IQR/LR scheduling algorithm during
ES‐Plag: Efficient and sensitive source code plagiarism detection tool for academic environment

Source code plagiarism detection using Running‐Karp‐Rabin Greedy‐String‐Tiling (RKRGST) is a common practice in academic environment. However, such approach is time‐inefficient (due to RKRGST's cubic time complexity) and insensitive (toward token subsequence rearrangement). This paper proposes ES‐Plag, a plagiarism detection tool featured with cosine‐based filtering and penalty mechanism to handle aforementioned issues. Cosine‐based filtering mitigates time‐inefficiency by excluding non‐potential pairs from RKRGST comparison; while penalty mechanism mitigates insensitivity by reducing the number of matched tokens with the number of matched subsequences prior similarity normalization. In addition to issue‐solving features, ES‐Plag is also featured with project‐based input, colorized adjacency similarity matrix, matched token highlighting, and various similarity algorithms (e.g., Cosine Similarity and Local Alignment). Three findings can be deducted from our evaluation. First, cosine‐based filtering boosts up time efficiency with a trade‐off in effectiveness. Second, penalty mechanism enhances sensitivity even though its improvement in terms of effectiveness is quite limited. Third, ES‐Plag's features are beneficial for examiners.
Hamiltonian Decompositions of Regular Topology Networks with Convergence Routing

This paper introduces new methods to construct multiple virtual rings for loss-free routing of non-reserved bursty data in high-speed environments such as ATM LANs. The routing algorithm on multiple virtual rings is convergence routing which combines the actual routing decision with the internal flow control state. Multiple virtual rings are obtained on the hypercube and the circulant networks such that each virtual ring is hamiltonian, and are mutually edge-disjoint. It is shown that multiple virtual rings improve (i) the bound on the length of routing, and (ii) the fault tolerance. On the circulant graphs, necessary and sufficient conditions for hamiltonian decomposition is established. On the hypercube, three algorithms are designed for an N-node hypercube with even dimension: (i) an O(N) time algorithm to find two edge-disjoint hamiltonian circuits, (ii) an O(N log N) time algorithm to find I01N hamiltonian circuits with only E ~ 0.1 common edges, and (iii) a recursive algorithm for the hamiltonian decomposition of the hypercube with dimension power of two. It is shown analytically, and verified by simulations on the circulants that with the d virtual ring embeddings, a bound of O( N / d) is established on the maximum length of routing. *College of Computer Science Northeastern University, Boston MA, yener@ccs.neu. edu tDepartment of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY, yener@cs.columbia. edu tLehigh University Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Bethlehem, PA, tboult@eecs.Lehigh. edu. §IBM T.J . Watson Research Center, P.O. Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, ofek@watson.ibm. com
THIS IS A VERSION OF A PAPER THAT HAS BEEN ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION IN RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

Introduction: Whereas instruments for the assessment of intellectual and social abilities are widely available, instruments for the evaluation of emotional development of persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) are rare. The Scheme of Appraisal of Emotional Development (SAED), an internationally used tool developed by Dosen ( 2005a,b), is one of the latter and is based on interviews with caregivers. The present study aims to investigate the internal consistency and interrater-reliability by changing the interview procedure into a direct observation and evaluation approach by a whole team instead of by one expert. Method: The level of emotional development of 175 patients admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit specialized in the treatment of adults with ID was evaluated with the SAED by the treatment team after an observation period of up to two weeks. The interand intra-raterreliability was assessed by direct observation of the behaviour of an additional 50 patients by two pairs of raters. Results: The internal consistency of the SAED dimensions, once rated by team approach, is excellent, and the reliability measures show also good statistical results. Conclusion and implications: The evaluation of the level of emotional development using the SAED by a group-led and/or direct observational procedure show to be a reliable and useful approach. The group-based procedure yields equal results compared with the usual interview guidelines and might lead to an additional training effect within the respective teams. The rater-reliability measures align with those reported in other studies.
Hashing to G2 on BLS pairing-friendly curves

When a pairing <i>e</i> : G<sub>1</sub> x G<sub>2</sub> → G<sub>T</sub>, on an elliptic curve <i>E</i> defined over F<sub>q</sub>, is exploited in a cryptographic protocol, there is often the need to hash binary strings into G<sub>1</sub> and G<sub>2</sub>. Traditionally, if <i>E</i> admits a twist Ẽ of order <i>d,</i> then G<sub>1</sub> = <i>E</i>(F<sub><i>q</i></sub>)⋂<i>E</i>[<i>r</i>], where <i>r</i> is a prime integer, and G<sub>2</sub> = Ẽ(F<i><sub>q</sub><sup>k/d</sup></i>)⋂<i>Ẽ</i>[<i>r</i>], where <i>k</i> is the embedding degree of <i>E</i> w.r. t. r. The standard approach for hashing a binary string into G<sub>1</sub> and G<sub>2</sub> is to map it to general points <i>P∈E</i>(<i>F<sub>q</sub></i>) and <i>P′ ∈ Ẽ</i>(F<i><sub>q</sub><sup>k/d</sup></i>), and then multiply them by the cofactors <i>c</i> = <i>#E</i>(F<i><sub>q</sub></i>)/<i>r</i> and <i>c</i>′ = <i>#Ẽ</i>(F<i><sub>q</sub><sup>k/d</sup></i>)/<i>r</i> respectively. Usually, the multiplication by c′ is computationally expensive. In order to speed up such a computation, two different methods (by Scott <i>et al.</i> and by Fuentes <i>et al.</i>) have been proposed. In this poster we consider these two methods for BLS pairing-friendly curves having <i>k</i> ∈ {12, 24, 30, 42,48}, providing efficiency comparisons. When <i>k</i> = 42,48, the Fuentes <i>et al.</i> method requires an expensive one-off pre-computation which was infeasible for the computational power at our disposal. In these cases, we theoretically obtain hashing maps that follow Fuentes <i>et al.</i> idea.
Governance of a public sector joint venture: the control challenges of dominated owners

ABSTRACT Local governments increasingly choose to provide a wide range of services through cooperation with other local governments. Providing complex services through intergovernmental units creates collaboration risks and collective action dilemmas that need to be mitigated. Based on a longitudinal case study, an investigation is made into the dynamic processes in the governance of a public sector joint venture (JV) and the control challenges of dominated owners. The findings illustrate that the approach to mitigating collective action dilemmas is far less rational than that prescribed by the normative literature, resulting in control challenges at later stages in the relationship. Limitations in the assessment of collaboration risks are explained by drawing on resource dependence theory (RDT) arguments. Dynamic processes in the JV relationship create the need to adjust the governance system. However, adaptability is constrained by power asymmetry and control complexity.
Persistence and division of labor in grammaticalization: The case of out of and from in English

Rhee, Seongha. 2012. Persistence and division of labor in grammaticalization: The case of out of and from in English. Linguistic Research 29(3), 461-484. English preposition from and the secondary preposition out-of are essentially identical in terms of their functions of marking the point of departure, i.e. ablative. Despite the shared commonalities, however, the two prepositions exhibit a range of differences. Of intriguing relationship among polysemies of out-of is one of antonymy noted in Rhee (1996, 2000), where out-of can mark ‘association’ as well as ‘privation’ or ‘dissociation’. Unlike out-of, from does not exhibit such semantic versatility, and the usage closest to ‘dissociation’ of from is designating an object that needs to be separated for the sake of protection or prevention. This research is an endeavor to look into the factors that enable and limit the range of functions of these near-synonymous prepositions. The limiting factors are largely due to the fact that out-of developed from a periphrasis with the compositional meaning from the motional/directional adverbial out and directional preposition of, whereas the original adjectival/adverbial ‘forward’ meaning of from engendered ‘onward’, ‘on the way’, ‘away’, etc., and underwent categorial shift into a preposition. The fact that source constructions of grammatical markers not only affect the change but also determine the path and the result strongly supports the source determination hypothesis. A comparison of the two forms reveals interesting aspects with respect to principles and mechanisms in grammaticalization, including (i) semantic persistence, (ii) functional specialization, (iii) perspective shifts, (iv) subjectification, (v) categorial and semantic divergence, among others. (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies)
Inequality Aversion and Stochastic Decision-making: Experimental Evidence from Zimbabwean Villages after Land Reform

Inequality considerations are a motive for making positive offers in the Ultimatum Game and rejecting small ones, but decision error could have the same effect. I find evidence for both of these considerations and a different relative importance amongst Zimbabwean villagers, of whom some resettled after a government organized land reform during the 1980s. Resettled villagers have higher inequality aversion and lower decision error than those who live in traditional villages but, after accounting for different levels of inequality aversion, the difference in decision error between both groups of villagers is no longer significant. There are no gender differences in preferences. The model estimated was first used by De Bruyn and Bolton (2004) on a large set of bargaining data but the best fit of 64 percent overall coincidence of observed and predicted behavior is achieved for a different `symmetric` specification of inequality aversion in the model. As the use of field data is a recent development in experimental economics, I reestimate the model applied to the Zimbabwean data on the laboratory Ultimatum Game data of Roth et al. (1991) and further field data from Henrich et al. (2005). Estimates are compared comprehensively.
Sex Differences in the Prevalence and Severity of Exercise‐Induced Bronchoconstriction in Kindergarteners in Japan

Exercise‐induced bronchoconstriction (EIB), a strong positive predictor of asthma, becomes progressively less frequent with age. Although asthma tends to become less common only in boys during adolescence, sex differences in EIB, especially in preschoolers, remain unclear. To find EIB for early diagnosis and intervention asthma, mass‐screening tests considering sex differences in preschoolers are needed. In this study, we investigated whether sex differences influence the prevalence and severity of EIB in prepubertal children aged 5–6 years.
Authentication and quality evaluation of an important Ayurvedic drug - Ashoka bark

This paper presents authentication and quality evaluation of stem bark ofSaraca asoca (Roxb.) Wilde, officially considered as 'Ashoka', in comparison with stem barks of S. declinata Linn and Polyalthia longifolia Benth, which are also known as 'Ashoka'. S. asoka is an important indigenous drugs for treatment of various female disorders. HPTLC profile shows characteristic band under UV 366 nm as follows: S. asoca, Rf 0.53; S. declinata, Rf 0.18; and P. longifolia, Rf 0.13 0.21, 0.27, 0.38, 0.49. Presence of stigmasterol in S. asoca and S. declinata and its β-sitosterol in stem bark of P. longifolia was observed.
COMPRESSIBLE FLOW OVER A ROTATING DISK

In this work the basic flow field is investigated for the compressible boundary layer flow over a rotating disk. Making use of self-consistent assumptions within boundary layer theory, the governing basic equations of motion are derived leading to a generalized steady compressible Von Karman flow. A Runge-Kutta integration method accurate to the fourth order is then employed for the solution of the resulting equations. Finally the velocity and temperature distributions corresponding to the various parameters are calculated numerically and presented.
An Extension of the IAU Framework for Reference Systems

IAU 2000 resolutions on the reference frames set up a solid theoretical foundation for implementing general relativity in astronomical data processing algorithms and for unambiguous interpretation of measured relativistic effects. We discuss possible directions for further theoretical development of the IAU resolutions aimed to take into account the decadal progress in observational techniques and computerbased technologies. We address the following subjects: 1) space-time transformations and the structure of the metric tensor; -2) PPN parameters and gauge invariance of equations of motion; -3) astronomical reference frames for cosmological applications.