Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spin pumping, dissipation, and direct and alternating inverse spin Hall effects in magnetic-insulator/normal-metal bilayers

We theoretically consider the spin-wave mode- and wavelength-dependent enhancement of the Gilbert damping in magnetic insulator--normal metal bilayers due to spin pumping as well as the enhancement's relation to direct and alternating inverse spin Hall voltages in the normal metal. In the long-wavelength limit, including long-range dipole interactions, the ratio of the enhancement for transverse volume modes to that of the macrospin mode is equal to two. With an out-of-plane magnetization, this ratio decreases with both an increasing surface anisotropic energy and mode number. If the surface anisotropy induces a surface state, the enhancement can be an order of magnitude larger than for to the macrospin. With an in-plane magnetization, the induced dissipation enhancement can be understood by mapping the anisotropy parameter to the out-of-plane case with anisotropy. For shorter wavelengths, we compute the enhancement numerically and find good agreement with the analytical results in the applicable limits. We also compute the induced direct- and alternating-current inverse spin Hall voltages and relate these to the magnetic energy stored in the ferromagnet. Because the magnitude of the direct spin Hall voltage is a measure of spin dissipation, it is directly proportional to the enhancement of Gilbert damping. The alternating spin Hall voltage exhibits a similar in-plane wave-number dependence, and we demonstrate that it is greatest for surface-localized modes.
Recalcitrance, Inefficiency, and Support for European Integration: Why Member States Do (Not) Comply with European Law. CES Working Paper, no. 151, 2007

This paper seeks to explain inter-state variation in non-compliance with European law. While non-compliance has not significantly increased over time, some member states violate European law more frequently than others. In order to account for the variance observed, we draw on three prominent approaches in the compliance literature – enforcement, management, and legitimacy. In the first place, we develop a set of hypotheses for each of the three theories. We then discuss how they can be combined in theoretically consistent ways and develop three integrated models. Finally, we empirically test these models drawing on a unique and comprehensive dataset, which comprises more than 6,300 instances of member-state non-compliance with European law between 1978 and 1999. The empirical findings show that the combined model of the enforcement and the management approach turns out to have the highest explanatory power. Politically powerful member states are most likely to violate European law while the best compliers are small countries with highly efficient bureaucracies. Yet, administrative capacity also matters for powerful member states. The UK and Germany are much more compliant than France and Italy, which command similar political power but whose administrations are ridden by bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption.
Enhancing Multiple Thinking through the Engineering Design Process

The impact of the quality of engineering students’ education on the industry of a country cannot be underestimated. While there are numerous studies on the types of qualities that graduate engineers should have, the extent to which undergraduate engineering students choose to acquire these qualities or skills depends greatly on the type of epistemic beliefs that they have. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the epistemic beliefs of first year engineering students. It is the first part of a study aiming to establish both the general epistemic beliefs [1] of engineering students, as well as if and how these beliefs relate to students’ Engineering Habits of Mind [2]. The primary instrument used in this first phase of the study was Schraw, Dunkle, and Bendixen’s (2002) Epistemic Belief Inventory (EBI) [3]. The instrument is in the form of a questionnaire and it was administered to 39 female students in their freshman and sophomore years in an engineering college in the Arabian Gulf. The results showed that there was very little variation between the two levels of students, indicating that the issue of developing students’ epistemic beliefs needs to be addressed more thoroughly. This could be done possibly in the introductory engineering courses or as curriculum infused in other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses.
Bird and plant companion species predict breeding and migrant habitats of the genus Oenanthe

Analysing companion species from unrelated taxa concentrated so far mainly on identifying biosurrogacy in terms of conservation biology. No study has investigated companion bird and plant species to predict breeding and migrant habitats of a bird genus. In this study we recorded and analysed companion bird and plant species of the breeding bird Cyprus Wheatear Oenanthe cypriaca and four migranting Oenanthe species on Cyprus. We found characteristic companion species in Cyprus Wheatear’s, Wheatear migrant’s and in control habitats where no Wheatears were present. We show that plant and bird companion species can be used as discriminating factors to predict breeding and migrant habitats of the genus Oenanthe on Cyprus. Furthermore, habitat preferences of Cyprus Wheatear’s companion species indicate bushy and vegetation rich habitats avoiding woodland on the one hand and managed farmland on the other hand. In comparison, migrant Wheatear and control habitats were characterised by companion species pointing to a high openness. These results support former habitat descriptions of Cyprus Wheatear and migrant Wheatears. In more general, this study shows that companion species from unrelated taxa can be used to predict breeding and migrant habitats of a bird genus.
Feature dimension reduction algorithm based prediction method for protein- protein interaction

Protein-protein interaction is essential to cellular functions. Knowing the protein-protein interaction often provides useful clues for finding its biological function and interaction process with other molecules in a biological system. In this paper, we describe a simple, novel approach to improve the accuracy of predicting protein-protein interaction. Here, dimensionality reduction algorithm is introduced to predict the proteinprotein interaction.Our jackknife test results indicate that it is very promising to use the dimensionality reduction approaches to cope with complicated problems in biological systems, such as predicting the protein-protein interaction.
Multi drug resistance patterns of Shiga toxin – producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and non – STEC isolates from meats, RTE meat foods, drinking water and human diarrhoeic samples of Punjab, India

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed on a total of 253 [203 shiga toxinproducing Escherichia coli (STEC) and 50 non-STEC] Escherichia coli isolates from different raw meats, RTE meat foods, drinking water and human diarrhoeic samples in Punjab,India. Among the 20 antimicrobial agents tested, resistance was most frequent for penicillin (253/253, 100%) followed by linezolid (249/253, 98.4%), erythromycin(245/253, 96.8%), streptomycin (232/253, 91.7%), tetracycline (223/253, 88.1%), ampicillin 123/253,48.2%), cephotaxime (106/253,41.9%), trimethoprim (93/253, 36.8%)), co-trimoxazole (85/253, 33.6%), cefaclor (84/253, 33.2%), amoxycillin (79/253, 31.3%), ciprofloxacin (78/253, 30.8%), kanamycin (76/253, 30.0%), norfloxacin (62/253, 24.5%),ofloxacin (60/253, 23.7%), chloramphenicol (35/253, 13.8%), Polymyxin-B (27/253, 10.6%), colistin (25/253,9.9%), amikacin (22/253, 8.7%) and gentamycin (17/253, 6.7%). Out of 203 STEC isolates 73 (35.9%) showed resistance to more than 50% of the antibiotics tested. Only one isolate from pork showed resistance to 90% of the antibiotics tested. Cluster analysis also revealed that human isolates were different from other E. coli isolated from meat and meat products sources. The distribution of resistance determinants for tetracycline and streptomycin was assessed by PCR in resistant isolates.The most common resistance determinants were tetA (60%) and tetB (27%). Forty seven per cent of the isolates contained both strA and strB genes, 33% and 10% isolates carried strA and strB genes, respectively and 10% of isolates did carry neitherstrA nor strB. Cloning and sequencing of tetA and tetB genes of O69 shiga toxin-producing E. coli isolate from buffalo meat showed 99-100% homology with published sequences of related isolates in GenBank. Antibiotic susceptibility studies revealedthat meat, RTE meat products, drinking water and human diarrhoeic samples from Punjab, India contains multiple drug resistant strains of E. coli which may serve as areservoir for antibiotic resistance genes in the food environment and may transmit to humans through food chain.
Local governments opting for PPPs in the schools sector

The Portuguese government recently launched a new program to refurbish the secondary schools all over the country. Along with this process more responsibilities are being transferred to local governments concerning pre and elementary schools. This is seen as the main motivation for the settlement of new local public private partnerships (PPP) within this sector. This paper discusses the public private partnerships (PPP) contracts in the Portuguese schools sector. Four national cases and a foreign experience are analysed. In this study, some of the sound practices presented in the literature are highlighted; we argue that some of these practices are not being applied in this sector in Portugal. A risk analysis for the schools sector was developed, hoping to contribute towards an increasing number of partnerships reaching the best possible value for money (VfM). Furthermore, we suggest several contract management guidelines and draw up some improvement proposals. We conclude that there is a need to enhance the transparency of the procurement phase, to normalise the contractual documents, and to assure a better risk allocation as well as an improved monitoring of the contract.
Toward aerosol/cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) closure during CRYSTAL‐FACE

concentrations were 233 cm 3 (at S = 0.2%) and 371 cm 3 (at S = 0.85%). Three flights during the experiment differed from this general trend; the aerosol sampled during the two flights on 18 July was more continental in character, and the observations on 28 July indicate high spatial variability and periods of very high aerosol concentrations. This study also includes a simplified aerosol/CCN closure analysis. Aerosol size distributions were measured simultaneously with the CCN observations, and these data are used to
Towards a Service Dominant Value Proposition : A Comparative Analysis between and Goods and Service Logics offerings

For organizations it is highly important to set up an proper value proposition in order to sell their product or service. A value proposition can be defined as a representation of the way how value can be created through products and services a company offers to their various customer segments. There are two different logics in value creation, the goods dominant logic, which emphasizes the features of products and services, and service dominant logic which stresses the serviceability of goods or services in use. In order to understand value propositions both logics do differ fundamentally. Despite the growing interest in the SDL, literature barely describes the practical appliance of the value propositions according to the both logics. Therefore this research gives insight in the core features of value propositions from a goods centered and service centered perspective. This core features are the vital steps in order to create service dominant value propositions. These features are the perception of value creation, the role of the goods, the role of the customer and the firm within value propositions, the perception of price, the communication, collaboration and relationship-building with customers. Within this research the value proposition of different companies is analyzed based on these core features to underpin the theory with practical examples. This thesis starts with a small section introducing the value proposition and the relation to the GD and SD logic. The literature review explains these logics and elaborates the core features. In the method section is explained what kind of research design this thesis makes use of. After that the results are analyzed in order to underpin the practical implications of the features. These will be discussed in the conclusion/discussion part and finally this thesis will end with giving recommendations.
Integrated Modeling for Source Characterization of Pathogenic Contamination in Watersheds

The US EPA’s regulatory framework for recreational waters has protected public health for decades. Pathogenic contamination of these waters, however, remains a frequent cause of impairment. Integrated modeling is being leveraged to advance the agency’s understanding of pathogen fate and transport processes in watersheds and improve its ability to predict the consequences of exposure. This paper describes integrated modeling research focusing on source characterization techniques for pathogen transport scenarios in watersheds. Source characterization is a hidden requirement of Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment, a method for estimating infection risks being evaluated across several programs within the EPA. A hybrid source characterization approach is described and demonstrated that utilizes integrated and inverse modeling methodologies to determine pathogen source allocations.
Distributed Visualization with OpenGL Vizserver

The increasing demand for distributed solutions in computing technology does not stop when it comes to visualization techniques. However, the capabilities of todays applications to perform remote rendering are limited by historical designs legacys. Especially the popular X11 protocol, that has been proven to be extremely flexible and useful for remote 2D graphics applications, collapses in case of remotely rendering complex 3D scenes. In this paper, we give a short overview of generic remote rendering technologies available today, and we compare their performances and usabilities to the recently released OpenGL Vizserver by Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI): a network extension to the SGI OpenGL rendering engines. In this report we limit ourselves to remote techniques compatible to the OpenGL standard.
Enhancement of Security and Privacy in Biometric Passport Inspection System Using Face, Fingerprint, and Iris Recognition

The biometric passports are to prevent the illegal entry of traveler into a specific country and limit the use of counterfeit documents by more accurate identification of an individual. Biometric Passports have been introduced in many countries to improve the security in Inspection Systems and enhance procedures and systems that prevent identity and passport fraud. The deployment of biometric technologies, countries need to test and evaluate its systems since the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) provides the guidelines, but the implementation is up to each issuing country. The paper also provides a cryptographic security analysis of the e-passport using face fingerprint, and iris biometric that are intended to provide improved security in protecting biometric information of the e-passport bearer.
Perf ormance of multi-segment nanolens for a near-field transport in the visible domain

We analyze capabilities and functionalities of a multi-segment superlens recently suggested by S. Kawata et al. [Nature Photonics 2, 438 (2008)] for long-distance transport of color images with subwavelength resolution. We study the performance of three-segment nanolens structures by analyzing numerically both transmission and reflection coefficients and by employing the full-wave simulations for a particular source arrangement. We observe that such a stacked structure offers limited subwavelength imaging performance due to operation with coherent sources only within narrow frequency band, typically 3-5% wide.
Analysis of Equilibrium at the Euro Area Level from a New Model Perspective

This paper aims to address issues related to equilibrium at the Euro Area. Research methodology implies a wide range of methods and techniques that are used to analyze macroeconomic phenomena and processes at the Euro Area. Following the empirical analyses, namely exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling procedure, we propose a model of equilibrium in the Euro zone, an area characterized by the existence of market with turbulence and search frictions. Using this econometric modeling technique, we test and estimate causal relationships that combines a series of empirical data and quantitative causal hypotheses.
Role of Land-Atmosphere Interaction on Asian Monsoon Climate(125th Anniversary Issue of the Meteorological Society of Japan)

This paper has discussed the land-atmosphere interaction associated with the Asian monsoon climate and its variability. The snow cover and soil moisture are internal factors of the climate system particularly in the seasonal to interannual time scales, but are suggested to play some important roles in changing large-scale surface energy and water balance, which in turn affect the monsoon circulation and precipitation. From the modeling as well as observational studies it has been suggested that the snow cover is most likely to influence atmosphere essentially through the albedo effect particularly in lower latitudes and on the Tibetan Plateau. The GCM experiments have strongly suggested that soil moisture anomalies efficiently affect the atmosphere under dry or semi-arid condition. Vegetation has also been noted as an important variable for the formation of moist monsoon flow over the continent, in addition to the dynamical and thermo-dynamical effect of the Tibetan Plateau. Through the GCM and RCM experiments the anthropogenically-induced change of land cover/use including the deforestation has proved to be a great impact on regional precipitation and water cycle of the monsoon region by changing characteristics of vegetation control in energy and water cycle, which in turn affect atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and cloud/precipitation processes in regional-scale. The discussion has also been made on how the land surface changes could induce change of precipitation through feedback processes of moisture convergence and in-situ evapo-transpiration processes. The critical role of moisture amount near surface and in the ABL is emphasized, to induce positive feedback to change of precipitation over land in the monsoon region.
Implementation of TPA and Data Integrity in Cloud Computing using RSA Algorithm

— Cloud infrastructure has been envisioned as the next-generation construction of IT Initiative. It passages the application software and databases to the integrated large data hubs, where the administration of the data and services may not be fully trustworthy. This exceptional prototype brings about many new security challenges, which have not been well unwritten. This work studies the problem of ensuring the integrity of data storage in Cloud Computing. In certain, we consider the task of allowing a trusted third party (TPA), on behalf of the cloud client, to verify the data integrity of the data stored in the cloud server. By using TPA we eliminate the involvement of the cloud client through the auditing of whether his data integrity 0f stored data in the cloud server is to be sure integral. The support for data changing aspects via the most general forms of data operation, such as text modification, insertion and deletion, is also a significant step toward practicality, since services in Cloud Computing are not limited to archive or backup data only. While previous works on ensuring remote data integrity often lacks the support of either public auditability or dynamic data operations, but our work can be succeeds in both steps both. In this we first identify the difficulties and possible security problems of direct extensions with fully dynamic data updates from previous works and then show how to construct a smart verification scheme for the unified integration of these two outstanding features in our design. In particular, to achieve effective data dynamics, we improve the current proof of storage models by manipulating block tag authentication. To support efficient handling of multiple auditing tasks, we further explore the technique of signature to extend our main result into a multi-user setting, where TPA can perform multiple auditing tasks simultaneously. Extensive security and performance analysis show that the proposed schemes are highly efficient and provably secure.
Controlling the Heat Flux Distribution by Changing the Thickness of Heated Wall

In this paper the effect of the thickness of a trapezoidal wall placed between a heat source and a cold fluid upon the hot spot temperature of the system (fluid, sources, and the wall) was considered. It was shown that as the wall thickness increases, the axial conduction overweighs the increase in the thermal resistance and therefore, the hot spot temperature decreases. But, when the thickness exceeds a certain value, the increase in the thermal resistance overweighs the axial conduction and this makes the hot spot temperature increase. Obviously, there should be an optimal value for the wall thickness which will be extracted. Numerical simulation is performed for a heat transfer problem via ANSYS FLUENT 12.0. 1 environment to optimize the thickness of a plate where the lower surface is heated with uniform heat flux. At the other surface of the plate there is a laminar boundary layer flow. It can be shown that by using a trapezoidal wall, the hot spot temperature of the wall reduces up to25.06%.
ICP DETERMINATION OF Pb , Mn , Cu

The aim of this study was to perform ICP analysis of the content of Pb, Mn, Cu, Zn, Fe, K, Na, P, Mg and Ca in wild edible mushrooms Cantharellus cibarius. The samples were collected from the Batak mountain, Bulgaria. The preparation of samples was done by microwave mineralisation. All mineral concentrations were determined on a dry weight basis (d.w.). The average content of studied elements: Pb, Mn, Cu, Zn, Fe, K, Na, P, Mg and Ca in Cantharellus cibarius samples was: 0.272 mg kg -1 , 18.319 mg kg -1 , 27.568 mg kg -1 , 78.829 mg kg -1 , 82.295 mg kg -1 , 31308.130 mg kg -1 , 139.431 mg kg -1 , 2713.615 mg kg -1 , 626.292 mg kg -1 and 459.594 mg kg -1 .