Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Slavery Debate in Antebellum America: Cognitive Style, Value Conflict, and the Limits of Compromise

This article explores the relations among value conflict, cognitive style, and policy preferences in pre-Civil War America. Drawing on major historical works, prominent political figures were classified into 1 of 4 political positions: abolitionists, free-soil Republicans who would tolerate slavery in the South but prevent further spread, Buchanan Democrats who would permit slavery in new territories, and advocates of slavery. Results revealed (a) greatest integrative complexity among free-soil Republicans and Buchanan Democrats, with declines in complexity moving either leftward toward abolitionists or rightward toward slavery supporters; (b) integrative complexity was a positive function of endorsing values widely regarded as in conflict in that historical period (property rights, states' rights, and domestic peace vs. the threat of "Southern slave power" to free labor and democracy). The results are consistent with the value pluralism model and raise warnings against the tendency to view integratively simple reasoning as both cognitively and morally inferior to complex reasoning.
The Pressure Dependence of Self Diffusion in Supercooled Light and Heavy Water

Measurements of self-diffusion coefficients D in H2O and D2O at pressures up to 400 MPa and temperatures down to 200 K are reported. Upon cooling molecular motions are strongly retarded leading to a pronounced non-Arrhenius temperature dependence of D. In contrast, initial compression of cold water facilitates translational and rotational motions. Unexpectedly, the rates of translational diffusion increase less dramatically than those of rotational diffusion. These results are discussed in relation to the peculiar structure of the hydrogen bond network of cold water. Further all dynamic isotope effects can be removed by shifting all temperature scales by ∼ 7 K in going from H2O to D2O.
The Credibility of Cabo Verde's Currency Peg

This paper studies the credibility of the currency peg of Cape Verde (CV) by assessing the impact of economic fundamentals, our explanatory variables, on the stochastic properties of Exchange Market Pressure (EMP), the dependent variable, using EGARCH-M models. Our EMP descriptive analysis finds a substantial reduction in the number of crisis episodes and of (unconditional) volatility after the peg’s adoption. Moreover, our estimation results suggest that mean EMP is driven by fundamentals and that conditional variability is more sensitive to negative shocks. We also find evidence that the expected return from holding CV’s assets is lower under the currency peg for the same increase in monthly volatility. The reason is that the return’s composition is “more virtuous”, as it results from the strengthening of CV’s foreign reserve position and is not due to either a larger risk premium or favourable exchange rate movements. We take this to be a sign of the credibility of the peg, which apparently reflects the intertemporal credibility of CV’s economic policy and so has successfully withstood international markets’ scrutiny.
Synthesis and Spectral Characterization of a New Series of N-4-Chlorobenzamide-5- phenylthiazolidin-3-one

ABSTRACT A new series of 4-thiazolidinones (4a-j) has been synthesized by cyclocondensation of various acid hydrazones with thioglycolic acid. The intermediate hydrazones (3a-j) were synthesized by the condensation of various substituted benzaldehydes with 4-chlorobenzohydrazide (2). The starting compound 4-chlorobenzohydrazide was prepared from the reaction of ethyl 4-chlorobenzoate and hydrazine hydrate. The structures of the new synthesized compounds had been confirmed by spectral data (FTIR, PPH-NMR, C-NMR, and C-NMR –DEPT and ESIMS). Some of the synthesized compounds (4a-j) were evaluated for their antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria staphylococcus aureus and Gram – negative psedomonas aeruginosa
Lüders bands at the beginning of the plastic flow of materials

Intensive research into inhomogeneous deformations at the beginning of the plastic flow on different metal materials has been carried out during the last few years. Luders bands are detected using methods of static tensile testing, thermography and visioplasticity with digital image correlation. This paper is a review of insights into the mechanism of formation and parameters influencing the occurrence and propagation of Luders bands. Current knowledge indicates that there is not a full explanation of the cause of the Luders bands formation. There are also certain differences in the way some parameters influence the occurrence of Luders bands, primarily in different materials. Therefore, modern methods are used to explain the formation of Luders bands.
Interface of an Automatic Recognition System for Dysarthric Speech

This paper addresses the realization of a Human/Machine (H/M) interface including a system for automatic recognition of the Continuous Pathological Speech (ARSCPS) and several communication tools in order to help frail people with speech problems (Dysarthric speech) to access services providing by new technologies of information and communication (TIC) while making it easier for the doctors to achieve a first diagnosis on the patient’s disease. In addition, an ARSCPS has been improved and developed for normal and pathology voice while establishing a link with our graphic interface which is based on the box tools Hidden Markov Model Toolkit (HTK), in addition to the Hidden Models of Markov (HMM). In our work we used different techniques of feature extraction for the speech recognition system in order to improve the dysarthric speech intelligibility while developing an ARSCPS which can perform well for pathological and normal speakers. These techniques are based on the coefficients of ETSI standard Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient Front End (ETSI MFCC FE V2.0); Perceptual Linear Prediction coefficients (PLP); Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and the recently proposed Power Normalized Cepstral Coefficients (PNCC) have been used as a basis for comparison. In this context we used the Nemours database which contains 11 speakers that represents dysarthric speech and 11 speakers that represents normal speech.
Joint Color Quantization and Dithering Techniques

Color quantization process is considered in two stages: the selection of an optimal color palette and the mapping of each pixel of the image to a color from the color palette. Since the color palette is limited, some disturbing degradations such as false contours are visible on delivered color quantized images. A common way to overcome this problem is the use of dithering techniques. In this paper, two methods for color quantization are proposed for the use with color dithering techniques in a way that better results will be obtained after dithering. The results show that the proposed methods, when used with dithering techniques, significantly improve the visual quality of the resulting color quantized images compared to the traditional color quantization algorithms.
Sessile Drop Evaporation and Leidenfrost Phenomenon

Problem statement: Quenching and cooling are important process in manufacturing industry for controlling the mechanical properties of materials, where evaporation is a vital mode of heat transfer. Approach: This study experimentally investigated the evaporation of sessile drop for four different heated surfaces of Aluminum, Brass, Copper and Mild steel with a combination of four different liquids as Methanol, Ethanol, Water and NaCl solution. The time of evaporation for the droplet on the hot metallic surface was measured and compared with a proposed correlation as well. With the time temperature plot of these experimental data, the Leidenfrost phenomena had been elucidated. In the pool boiling curve for liquid, just after the transition boiling region and before the film boiling region, the heat transfer approaches its minimum value. The corresponding temperature of this minimum value was termed as the Leidenfrost temperature and the phenomenon is known as Leidenfrost phenomena. According to the experimental data, the Leidenfrost temperature was within a range of 150-200°C for all the experimental conditions. Results: This revealed that Leidenfrost temperature was independent of thermo-physical properties of solid and liquid. Sessile drop evaporation time was the maximum for water, then decreases gradually for Nacl solution, methanol and was the minimum for ethanol for a particular solid material. On the other hand, this time was the highest for copper and the lowest for mild steel for a specific liquid. Conclusion: The experimental data for the evaporation time fairly agree with the proposed correlation within a certain range. The collected time and temperature data may be used as a good data bank for the researchers.
Exploratory study in ethnophonetics: Comparison of cross-cultural perceptions of Japanese cake seller voices among Japanese, Chinese and American English listeners

This study examines how ethnophonetic sounds are perceived in three different language/cultural groups. Specifically, Japanese, Chinese and American listeners were asked to listen to samples of voices of Japanese cake-selling street voices, and to rate which voice was the “best”. The results indicate Japanese listeners are quite sensitive to what voice is best as a seller of fashionable Western cakes, and that this voice is different from sellers in less fashionable stores. The non-Japanese listeners rated the experienced Japanese cake-street seller voice considerably lower than did the Japanese listeners; moreover, Chinese and American listeners’ differed on which street-seller voice they preferred. Tentative analysis suggests that Chinese listeners preferred a street selling voice with a higher F0, one that sounds like the moe anime voice, while American listeners preferred the voice with a more dynamic range of F0. Japanese listeners, on the other hand, preferred the voice that sounded “more elegant”—one with a touch of twang and some breathiness, a voice quality that is often perceived as being nasal ( hana ni kakatta koe ). An interesting question to be explored in the future is why the same voice is interpreted differently in different cultures.
Phase Composition in NiTi Near-Surface Layers after Electron Beam Treatment and its Variation Depending on Beam Energy Density

In the work, we study the mechanisms of structural phase state formation in NiTi surface layers after low-energy pulsed electron beam irradiation depending on the electron beam energy density. It is revealed that after electron beam treatment of the NiTi specimens at energy densities E1 = 15 J/cm2, E2 = 20 J/cm2, and E3 = 30 J/cm2, a series of effects is observed: the absence of the Ti2Ni phase and the presence of new peaks correspond to the B19′ martensite phase with monoclinic structure. Estimation of the relative volume content of the B2 and B19′ phases from the total intensity of their peaks shows that the percentage of the martensite phase increases from ∼5 vol.% in the NiTi specimen irradiated at E1 = 15 J/cm2 to ∼80 vol.% in the NiTi specimen irradiated at E3 = 30 J/cm2. It is found that in the NiTi specimens irradiated at E ≤ 20 J/cm2, the layer that contains a martensite phase resides not on the surface but at some depth from it.
14.382 Spring 2017 Lecture 1: Least Squares, Adaptive Partialling Out, Simultaneous Inference

Here we overview the least squares from several interesting angles. We discuss Frisch-Waugh-Lovell partialling out and point out its adaptivity property in establishing approximate normality of the regression estimators of a set of target regression coefficients. We then discuss construction of simultaneous confidences sets for this set. We make use of the methods to analyze the gender wage gap and the impact of reemployment incentives on the duration of unemployment.
Segmentation of Low-Level Motion Features to Infer Occlusion Boundaries and Local Depth Ordering

Motion in videos is a powerful cue to aid in scene understanding, by identifying the boundaries and the depth ordering of occluding objects. It can help to separate objects using their intrinsic motion, or parallax-induced motion at different depths. Most existing work rely on the computation of the optical flow, grouped into similar regions according to a parametric (e.g. affine) motion model. Two limitations ensue from this approach. First, the computation of the optical flow, despite recent advances, remains computationally expensive and relies on assumptions (e.g. brightness constancy or rigidly moving objects) that may not hold true. Secondly, parametric motions may similarly be limited to simple scenes with translating objects. More complex cases include deformable objects, repetitive motions, etc. In this work, we consider the use of motion energies, directly obtained from convolutions of the video with spatiotemporal filters, as an alternative image feature to optical flow for motion segmentation. We represent the motion of a region of the video with distributions of such motion energies, thereby alleviating the limitations of parametric motion models. The combination of motion and appearance cues to improve boundary detection has mostly been addressed through supervised training [4]. This has some disadvantages related to the availability of suitable training data and to possible annotation bias in what actually constitutes relevant boundaries. Instead, we are interested in establishing a learning-free baseline, and we rather hypothesize that a segmentation framework is a suitable paradigm for grouping motions, similarly as it is for grouping static color and textures cues. Most work on video segmentation extends image segmentation techniques, and the joint grouping of appearance and motion features in complex scenes is still an open problem. [3], for example, briefly mentions the use of histograms of optical flow, though the improvement in performance was not rigorously evaluated. Our contributions consist in (i) the integration of lowlevel, filter-based motion features into an existing seg-
Roll Call Voting in the NCAA

Economists typically view the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a joint marketing organization designed to advance the economic interests of member schools. Yet many journalists and much of the public reject this unidimensional view of the NCAA as an organization. In fact, the NCAA's wide authority over all aspects of the athletic side of major colleges and universities has not been limited to issues that are solely related to the financial returns of its members. In this paper we use data on NCAA convention roll call votes between 1986 and 1994 to investigate the intraorganizational decision making process. A spatial model of voting decisions, which is similar to models used previously to analyze voting in Congress, is used to analyze the votes. We can explain variation in decisions of schools on restructuring issues quite well. This is consistent with an economic view of NCAA voting, since restructuring of the NCAA rank and file can be thought of as an exercise in raising entry barriers. However, the same estimation procedure is only moderately successful for other issues. It thus seems unlikely that decisions on academic reform are motivated solely by economic considerations.
Thirty years of in situ stratospheric aerosol size distribution measurements from Laramie, Wyoming (41°N), using balloon‐borne instruments

[1] Vertical profiles of size-resolved aerosol concentrations above Laramie, Wyoming (41°N), have been measured for the past thirty years, 1971-2001. During this period, two somewhat different optical particle counters have been used to measure particles with radii ≥0.15 μm, whereas the instrument to measure condensation nuclei (CN) has not changed significantly since the late 1970s. The two optical particle counters measure aerosols ≥0.15, 0.25 μm and aerosols ≥0.15–2.0 μm in twelve size classes. These measurements have concentration (N) uncertainties ∝ ±N−0.5, but with a minimum of ±10%. Sizing uncertainties are about ±10%. The impact of these uncertainties on size distribution fitting parameters and aerosol moments are approximately ±30% and ±40%. The long-term record from these measurements indicates that volcanoes have controlled stratospheric aerosol abundance for 20 of the past 30 years. The present period, beginning in 1997, represents the longest volcanically quiescent period in the record. These and other measurements clearly show that stratospheric aerosol are now in a background state, a state rarely occurring in recent times, and that this background state is not significantly different than observations in 1979. Aerosol volumes and surface areas, inferred from size distributions fit to the measurements, are compared with SAGE II satellite estimates of surface area and volume. For volume the measurements are in agreement within measurement error throughout the record. For surface area there is good agreement for a volcanic aerosol laden stratosphere, but for background aerosol conditions the SAGE II estimates are about 40% less than the in situ measurements. Present aerosol surface areas are ∼1.0 (0.6) μm2 cm−3 in the 15–20 (20–25) km layer based on in situ measurements. The Laramie size distribution record is now available to the community over the internet.
Characterisation of Temperate Urban Lacustrine Surface-Sediments for Minerals and Metals in Comparison with Geochemical Indices and Sediment Quality Criteria

The present surface sediment assessment in two temperate lacustrine ecosystems in the region of anthro-urban intensification in less than a century of progressive human history identifies ecosystem responses through space-time monitoring of variable spectrum and their gradients. Sediments have almost no outliers in box-plots across the select sites that suggest their tranquil nature. But temporal fluctuations in pH, bicarbonates, conductivity, OC, OM, TN and C/N can be visualised during Ca-Si dominance. The estimated percentage elemental composition of surface sediments on dry weight basis revealed the order Si > Ca > Mg > K > Na > P > S > Cl. Besides, the micro and trace element quantification represent the descending series of Fe > Al > Zn > Mn > Cu > Cr > Ni > Co > As > Sn > Pb > Cd while Hg and Se remained below detection level (BDL). Sediment pH remained on the basic side but slight acidic nature is noticed during late summer. Significant correlation occurs for conductivity with organic C and organic matter (p geo) scale labels “Unpolluted” to “Highly Polluted” element groups in sediments. The construal of Contamination Factor differentiates between “Contaminated” and “Uncontaminated” score of elements. Integrated Pollution Index (IPI) and Pollution Load Index (PLI) also categorize the sites and lakes. Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQG’s) when compared to observed mean values for various elements point to pollution status and associated ecological risks involved.
Microfluidic Devices for the Synthesis of Nanoparticles and Biomaterials

This paper reviews the latest developments in microfluidic devices for synthesizing nanoparticles and biomaterials. Miniaturized reactor platforms provide more controlled fluid transport, rapid chemical reactions, and cost-saving advantages over conventional methods for chemical, biological, and medical applications. During the past five years microfluidic devices have been developed to synthesize particles with diameters of nanometers to micrometers and materials ranging from semiconductors, metals, to polymers. As many researchers have shown, nanoparticles have unique properties based on their sizes, shapes, and morphology. Therefore controlled synthesis processing methods and devices are highly desirable to achieve homogeneous nanoparticle sizes, shapes, and hence their properties. In this review paper nanoparticle synthesis in microfluidic systems was either carried out by continuous laminar flow or in multi-phase droplet reactors. Microfluidic devices offer various manipulation mechanisms and device fabrication materials. Reported nanoparticles obtained from microfluidic devices demonstrated less particle size distributions compared to those produced by conventional methods. Core-shell structures, colloidals, and bioconjugated nanoparticle syntheses have all been reported in microfluidic synthesis platforms.
Investigating the Role of Bptf in Immunoediting in Breast Cancer and Melanoma

INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF BPTF IN IMMUNOEDITING IN BREAST CANCER AND MELANOMA by Kristen Nichole Peterson, B.S A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015 Major Director: Joseph W. Landry Assistant Professor, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics In this study, we explore the effects of NURF depletion on the growth of tumors in immunecompetent mice. NURF depletion in tumors results in reduced tumor growth in immunecompetent mice, suggesting enhanced anti-tumor immunity. Analysis of the tumor microenvironment by flow cytometry revealed a significantly elevated CD8 and progressively elevated activated CD8 phenotype in Bptf KD tumors, possibly contributing to the increase in cell death and decrease in tumor weight observed. Examination of antigen presentation was evaluated using the OT-1 and Pmel-17 models, though no significant difference in cytotoxicity was observed as measured by LDH and/or IFNγ assays. This indicates possible novel antigen presentation mechanisms in tumor cells, and not increased presentation of existing antigens, contributes to the decreased tumor weight observed in Bptf KD tumors.
Towards Evaluating the Security of Real-World Deployed Image CAPTCHAs

Nowadays, image captchas are being widely used across the Internet to defend against abusive programs. However, the ever-advancing capabilities of computer vision techniques are gradually diminishing the security of image captchas; yet, little is known thus far about the vulnerability of image captchas deployed in real-world settings. In this paper, we conduct the first systematic study on the security of image captchas in the wild. We classify the currently popular image captchas into three categories: selection-, slide- and click-based captchas. We propose three effective and generic attacks, each against one of these categories. We evaluate our attacks against 10 real-world popular image captchas, including those from tencent.com, google.com, and 12306.cn. Furthermore, we compare our attacks with 9 online image recognition services and human labors from 8 underground captcha-solving services. Our studies show that: (1) all of those popular image captchas are vulnerable to our attacks; (2) our attacks significantly outperform the state-of-the-arts in almost all the scenarios; and (3) our attacks achieve effectiveness comparable to human labors but with much higher efficiency. Based on our evaluation, we identify the design flaws of those popular schemes, the best practices, and the design principles towards more secure captchas.