Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Experimental Study of Innovative Methods Regarding the Removal of Sm(III)

The modern development of the construction materials sector determines the use of rare earth metals (REM) for various purposes. In particular, REM are added as basic alloying elements into magnesium alloys to increase alloy durability and strength. The complex systematic study of structural components and REM interaction are the basis for the phase state monitoring of multicomponent oxide polyfunctional materials. In addition, on the preparatory stage, layers with specified construction material coatings are formed. The paper presents experimental and theoretical results of studies of adsorptive bubble methods in the systems containing Samarium cations and surfactants, namely sodium dodecyl sulphate (NaDS). To identify the process mechanisms and prediction of optimal conditions of metal cations’ removal and separation by extraction, flotation, and ion flotation methods, one should know the pH of metal hydroxo-complexes and pH of the hydrate formation. The possibility of lanthanide ions’ removal (by the example of Samarium ions) by the solvent sublation method with NaDS as a collector and isooctyl alcohol as an extractant was studied. From the obtained experimental data, it was clear that the Sm3+ removal in acidic mediums is practically non-existent. The results obtained in this paper are topical in the production of electrode coating components, welding fluxes, sorbents for nuclear wastewater burial, wastewater treatment, highly porous heat-insulating and fire-resistant materials, cement, and concrete with improved frost resistance.
Active Multiple Access Secure Communication Enabled by Graphene-Based Time-Modulated Metasurfaces

This article presents a technique for establishing active secure communication links over single and multiple orthogonal frequency channels via a reflective graphene-based time-modulated metasurface operating in the low terahertz frequency regime. For this purpose, the Fermi energy level of unit cells is modulated via pseudorandom radio frequency biasing signals whose dc offsets are set to steer the reflected beam toward the desired direction by imposing a spatial phase gradient profile across the surface, while their waveforms are engineered to spread the incident wave spectrum into a noise-like spectrum with a near-zero power spectral density via random modulation of the reflection phase of each element between 0 and $\pi $ with respect to its offset phase. This allows for addressing a legitimate user in real-time who can retrieve the signal via synchronous demodulation with the pseudorandom key of the metasurface while camouflaging the signal from the adversary by lowering the probability of detection. The approach is extended to enable multichannel secure communication by dividing the metasurface into interleaved subarrays modulated with orthogonal pseudorandom keys, which provides simultaneous and independent control over multiple beams with nonoverlapping spread spectra which can be retrieved by independent legitimate users while rejecting unwarranted access by eavesdroppers.
A Stackelberg game‐inspired model of
 real‐time
 economic dispatch with demand response

Traditional electric power systems have several challenges in maintaining their reliability and being able to meet the demand of the consumers at peak hours. Additionally, environmental concerns may arise from several physical limitations in the network that would increase gas emission besides adding extra generation costs. With the advancements in the field of communications amalgamating in the power network, smart grids enable electric consumers to take part in changing the load profile through demand response (DR) programs to help overcome such challenges. In some DR programs where the network’s operators inform the consumers about the updated prices, predicting the change of the consumption pattern that will occur becomes arduous. Especially with the variety of electrical loads and their applications like the residential and industrial consumers and their different sensitivity to prices. For optimal scheduling of generation units, this thesis presents a novel method for the operator to predict market prices and electrical loads under real-time pricing (RTP) DR program in a microgrid. Inspired by the Stackelberg game, the proposed model represents the interaction between the operator and the consumers. The model establishes simulated trading between the network’s operator (leader) optimizing the generation cost and offering market prices to the customers (followers) who optimize their behavior. The interaction is formulated as a one-leader, N-follower iterative game where the optimization problems are solved using deterministic global optimization techniques. The proposed model considers a detailed representation of the industrial and residential loads. Simulations are performed on several microgrid systems where results show a significant improvement in the projected retail prices and electrical loads. Finally, this thesis also examines the impact of energy storage systems (ESS) on the operation of an industrial facility in real-time demand response programs. A model is developed to optimally manage the energy storage and operation of the industrial load. Additionally, an approach to the sizing of the ESS is proposed. Stochastic modeling of electricity prices based on historical data is used to this end. The optimization models were tested on a generic industrial unit. Results show the benefits of ESS in increasing profit and highlight the impact of its installation cost on its feasibility.
Proposta de um Novo Agente Institucional de Armazenamento de Energia

Este trabalho objetiva apresentar uma proposta metodológica para realizar uma análise econômico-regulatória da inserção de um novo agente institucional no setor elétrico brasileiro (SEB), o agente de armazenamento de energia. Com novos paradigmas tecnológicos e arranjos econômico-regulatório futuros com sistemas de armazenamento de energia (SAEs) no SEB, os agentes de geração, transmissão e distribuição de energia elétrica serão modelados para as simulações de modelagem baseada em agentes (ABM), com variáveis técnico-operacionais e econômico-regulatórias, em: a) cenário futuro 1, com gestão individualizada sobre os resultados com SAEs segmentados; b) cenário futuro 2, com a inserção de um novo agente de armazenamento de energia elétrica para a prestação de serviços com SAEs, com gestão centralizada, em nova relação contratual com os demais agentes do SEB.
Does insider selling affect audit fees?

ABSTRACT Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2006 to 2016, this paper examines the impact of insider selling on audit fees. The results show that auditors of clients with higher insider selling tend to charge higher fees. Mechanism tests show that the presence of insider selling is associated with a higher level of audit risk, which in turn increases audit fees. Further tests show that, the positive relation between insider selling and audit fees is stronger for non-SOEs and BIG4 audited firms; auditors only charge higher audit fees for share selling of large shareholders and directors. These results indicate that auditors can identify the risk of insider selling and charge higher audit fees, and provide new insight into the economic consequence of insider selling and a new determinant of audit fees.
Spectrum of Clinical Manifestations in Turkish Patients with Williams-Beuren Syndrome: A Monocentric Study

Aim: Williams-Beuren syndrome, which is characterized by dysmorphic facial features, cardiovascular findings, intellectual disability, endocrine abnormalities and a typical cognitive proﬁle, is caused by a microdeletion in the 7q11.23 region. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the dysmorphic and clinical manifestations of patients with Williams-Beuren syndrome. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively collected data from 27 Turkish patients who had clinically and genetically confirmed Williams-Beuren syndrome. Their multisystemic manifestations, demographic data and dysmorphic facial features were recorded. Results: All patients had the characteristic facial phenotype. The most frequent dysmorphic facial features were periorbital fullness, short nose, broad nasal tip and wide mouth. Aortic stenosis (59.2%) and pulmonary stenosis (37%) were the most common cardiac findings. Short stature (25.9%), idiopathic central precocious puberty (7.4%), hypothyroidism (congenital, non-congenital or subclinical) (40.7%) and hypercalcemia (3.7%) were the major endocrine manifestations in the patients. Genitourinary abnormalities were detected in 6 patients. All patients had some degree of intellectual disability; most of the patients (62.9%) had mild intellectual disability. Additionally, behavioral problems were frequently detected and the most common abnormality was overfriendliness (77.7%). Renal abnormalities (double collecting system, bladder diverticula and renal calculi) were also detected. Conclusion: Dysmorphic facial features, which have a crucial role in the diagnosis of Williams-Beuren syndrome, should be assessed in suspected patients with supravalvular aortic stenosis and concomitant intellectual disability in order to make an early diagnosis. It should be kept in mind that endocrine abnormalities, musculoskeletal, neurologic and psychiatric manifestations are also common in patients with Williams-Beuren syndrome, necessitating a multidisciplinary approach.
Facies‐based full‐waveform inversion for anisotropic media: a North Sea case study

Elastic full‐waveform inversion can increase the resolution of reservoir characterization using seismic data. However, full‐waveform inversion for realistic anisotropic media suffers from the trade‐offs between the medium parameters and strongly relies on the accuracy of the initial model. Here, we employ a regularization methodology that utilizes geologically consistent information to reduce the inversion non‐linearity and crosstalk between the parameters. The geologic constraints are obtained from well logs and interpolated along major horizons in the migrated image. The algorithm, designed for transversely isotropic media with a tilted symmetry axis, is applied to ocean‐bottom data acquired at Volve field in the North Sea. The facies‐based constraints help build high‐resolution velocity fields and accurately image the reservoir region. In particular, the developed algorithm increases the resolution of the P‐ and S‐wave symmetry‐direction velocities and other parameters at the reservoir level. The facies‐based inversion also provides robust estimates of density, which is inverted simultaneously with the velocity fields. Overall, even relatively sparse prior information proves to be sufficient for the proposed methodology to achieve a much higher spatial resolution than the unconstrained full‐waveform inversion.
Differentially Oblivious Data Analysis With Intel SGX: Design, Optimization, and Evaluation

A privacy-preserving data analytics system enables a cloud user to perform the distributed job in a secure manner such that the data privacy can be guaranteed during the cloud-outsourced computation. However, many SGX-based solutions are vulnerable to some side-channel attacks, including the access pattern leakage from both network and memory. Several data-oblivious algorithms with full obliviousness have been proposed in the literature, but they are impractical to be used in the cloud due to the expensive computational overhead. In this article, we propose a DPSpark system with the security defined in a notion of <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(\epsilon,\delta)$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mi>ε</mml:mi><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mi>δ</mml:mi><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="ning-ieq1-3106317.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-differentially private obliviousness (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(\epsilon,\delta)$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mo>(</mml:mo><mml:mi>ε</mml:mi><mml:mo>,</mml:mo><mml:mi>δ</mml:mi><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="ning-ieq2-3106317.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>-DPO), which relaxes full obliviousness to enable an efficiency improvement. Based on this definition, we present a perturbation-shuffle-analysis (PSA) computing architecture and design several typical differentially oblivious operators. In further, we optimize the system efficiency by reducing the number of oblivious shuffles and choosing an appropriate privacy budget. Finally, we benchmark the system in different parameters. The experimental results show that DPSpark significantly outperforms two state-of-the-art solutions, only with 10.1-85.4 percent additional overhead performing an SGX-based data analysis application.
The Multiple Dimensions of Networks in Cancer: A Perspective

This perspective article gathers the latest developments in mathematical and computational oncology tools that exploit network approaches for the mathematical modelling, analysis, and simulation of cancer development and therapy design. It instigates the community to explore new paths and synergies under the umbrella of the Special Issue “Networks in Cancer: From Symmetry Breaking to Targeted Therapy”. The focus of the perspective is to demonstrate how networks can model the physics, analyse the interactions, and predict the evolution of the multiple processes behind tumour-host encounters across multiple scales. From agent-based modelling and mechano-biology to machine learning and predictive modelling, the perspective motivates a methodology well suited to mathematical and computational oncology and suggests approaches that mark a viable path towards adoption in the clinic.
An Ultra-Cheap Light Field Microscope for Volumetric Cellular Imaging

We present a novel light field microscope (LFM) hardware design which benefits from scaled productions of cameras and other optical components. Our design has dramatically lower cost (< GBP 2000) yet only slightly compromised performance. This novel LFM design enables transient volumetric imaging at a cellular resolution at a much lower cost.
Influence of circulating energetic ions on MHD instabilities in negative magnetic shear plasma

The influence of circulating energetic ions (CEIs) on double tearing mode (DTM) is investigated by a global kinetic-MHD hybrid simulation. It is shown that the co-CEIs with a small orbit width have a destabilizing effect on the DTM. As the orbit width increases, this destabilizing effect is reduced. If the orbit width is large enough, the DTM is transformed to single tearing modes due to the co-CEIs, so the mode becomes more stable than the DTM without CEIs. The effect of the counter-CEIs with small orbit width is similar to that of the co-CEIs. For a large orbit width, the counter-CEIs also have a stabilizing effect. If the energetic ion beta is larger than a threshold, an energetic particle driven mode (EPM) is excited due to the resonance between counter-CEIs and the bulk plasma. The effects of energetic ion beta, orbit width and resistivity on this EPM are studied systematically. The onset threshold of EPM depends on the orbit width and resistivity. It decreases with orbit width increasing, while it increases with resistivity increasing. The mode transition from DTM to EPM with energetic ion beta increasing is also found for large orbit width.
High‐Frequency Fluctuations in Antarctic Bottom Water Transport Driven by Southern Ocean Winds

Northward flow of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) across the Southern Ocean comprises a key component of the global overturning circulation. Yet AABW transport remains poorly constrained by observations and state estimates, and there is presently no means of directly monitoring any component of the Southern Ocean overturning. However, AABW flow is dynamically linked to Southern Ocean surface circulation via the zonal momentum balance, offering potential routes to indirect monitoring of the transport. Exploiting this dynamical link, this study shows that wind stress (WS) fluctuations drive large AABW transport fluctuations on time scales shorter than ∼ 2 years, which comprise almost all of the transport variance. This connection occurs due to differing time scales on which topographic and interfacial form stresses respond to wind variability, likely associated with differences in barotropic versus baroclinic Rossby wave propagation. These findings imply that AABW transport variability can largely be reconstructed from the surface WS alone.
Why Developmental Research on Social Categorization Needs Intersectionality

Children develop rich concepts of social categories based on gender, race, and other social dimensions throughout early and middle childhood. However, less is known about the development of representations at the intersection of multiple categories. This is a critical issue because overlooking how children integrate information about multiple category identities causes a major gap in our understanding of the development of social cognition. To address this issue, we suggest researchers adopt an intersectional framework. By intersectional framework, we mean consideration of both how power structures contribute to systems of inequality as well as variability in how group-based bias is expressed towards people with one vs. multiple minoritized identities. Using research on children’s use of race and gender, we describe how our current understanding of social categorization is incomplete, and how an intersectional framework can advance both equity and theory.
Internal controls, labour processes and work at the Isthmus Lockstation, Rideau Canal, 1832–1854: Discipline and governmentality at a distance

The emergence of an internal control system to guide operations along the Rideau Canal beginning in 1832 is examined through analysis of a book of directives (the Order Book) maintained by the lockmaster at the Isthmus lockstation. The Orders guided the work of the lockmaster and established general controls and control activities. Orders for adequate documents and records, physical control over assets and records, and proper authorization of activities were common. Orders are seen as efforts by British Royal Engineers, who were geographically removed from the oversight of the Rideau Canal Office, to discipline civilian lockmasters and to encourage lockmasters to govern themselves. Comparing the Order Book to Orders and Regulations in place in 1831 for the Royal Engineers also highlights similarities between expectations of Royal Engineers and those established for the civilian workforce under their direction, indicating a transfer of accounting technologies from the Royal Engineers to the civilian workforce.
The effect of change readiness of economies on international M&A flows

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how a country’s change readiness impacts international mergers and acquisitions (M&A) capital flows on a national level toward host countries. The authors unpack the construct of change readiness and identify how its different dimensions impact international M&As (IMA). The authors provide a theoretical framework based on the resource-based view to facilitate an understanding of this concept. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a fixed-effect analysis to study a sample of 2,970 IMAs announced by publicly traded US companies during 2013–2017. Findings The authors propose that higher levels of change readiness would help foreign firms to cope with risks and uncertainties generated by the changes and shocks in the environment of a host country. The authors find support for their hypotheses showing that higher levels of change readiness increase the number of IMAs that a country receives every year. This characteristic of the host country shows a significant influence, especially in technology-intensive IMA flows. Practical implications This study provides implications for business executives and policymakers both in terms of risk mitigation strategies and investment attraction. Understanding the fact that when it comes to foreign investment in the form of IMAs business executives are aware of the importance of change readiness in host countries might lead to motivate the governments and host country officials to provide better infrastructure to boost the change readiness in their economy. Originality/value Overall, this study improves our knowledge about mechanisms through which change readiness of host countries might impact firms' strategies for international expansion. As we are indeed living in the era of global disruptions and strong shocks caused by political turmoil, climate change and the spread of new diseases, this study contributes to the literature on risk mitigation in international business and is one of the first to look closely at the role of host countries' change readiness and the effect it might have on attracting international M&As.
Fuel-feed-livestock price linkages under structural changes

ABSTRACT The large-scale diversion of crops into mandates-driven biofuels since early 2000s, has raised concerns about impacts of biofuel policies on food prices. This study examines crude oil-corn-livestock dynamic linkages from January 1987 until December 2019 in Ontario, Canada. A significant structural break is identified in March 2011 as biofuel policy impacts become fully implemented and splits the three-decade period into pre- and post-break sub-periods. A nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) approach is employed since it allows prices to be tied by asymmetric relationships both in the short- and long-run. The NARDL model bounds test results indicate that crude oil and corn prices have a long-run connection with livestock prices in both sub-periods. In the post-break period, corn price has an asymmetric effect on cattle price in the long-run, with negative shocks in the corn price leading to a greater intensity on the cattle price than positive shocks. The presence of short-run asymmetry is evident in the impacts of crude oil price on both cattle and hog prices. However, the above asymmetric effect is insignificant in the pre-break period.
Application of Resistive Random Access Memory in Hardware Security: A Review

Nowadays, advancements in the design of trusted system environments are relying on security provided by hardware‐based primitives, while replacing resource‐hungry software security measures. Emerging nonvolatile memory devices are promising candidates to provide the required hardware security functionalities at very low area‐energy‐runtime budget. Resistive random access memory (RRAM) offers high‐density integration with outstanding performance among the state‐of‐the‐art nonvolatile memory devices. The RRAM device technology is currently getting significant attention from both academia and industry for constructing beyond Von Neumann architectures. This technology's strength is its scalable two‐terminal structure, the availability of wide range of functional materials, and multi‐bit storage capability. The fluctuations in switching resistances, random telegraph noise, and sneak path current are detrimental characteristics of RRAM integrations for storage and in‐memory computing applications, and more research focuses on alleviating these effects. Interestingly, these characteristics make them suitable for designing security hardware. In recent times, there has been significant progress in the design and analysis of RRAM‐based security primitives such as, Physical Unclonable Function, true random number generator, and hash function. This review discusses the detailed developments in RRAM security and presents the demanded security requirement and available opportunities to be explored.