Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Making Sense of the Complexity of Decentralised Governance

The article by Rotulo and colleagues suggests that health sector fiscal decentralisation has been bad for Italy. But given the complexity of fiscal decentralisation, this interpretation is not necessarily so. Their analysis was based on assumptions about causality that are better suited for simple interventions. Assumptions of simplicity show up as misleading artefacts in the conclusion of evaluations of complex interventions. Complex interventions work by triggering mechanisms – eg, reasoning and learning processes – that manifest differently across the units of a decentralised system, contingent on context, evolving over time. Evaluation findings can only be partial and provisional; neither summarily good nor bad. The goal of evaluating a complex intervention – such as decentralised governance – should be to understand how, under what circumstances and for whom they are good or bad – at a point in time.
Propagation Dynamics on Complex Networks: Models, Methods and Stability Analysis

Getting the books Propagation Dynamics On Complex Networks Models Methods And Stability Analysis now is not type of inspiring means. You could not single-handedly going taking into consideration book amassing or library or borrowing from your associates to entry them. This is an extremely easy means to specifically acquire lead by on-line. This online pronouncement Propagation Dynamics On Complex Networks Models Methods And Stability Analysis can be one of the options to accompany you later than having supplementary time.
Emotional expression in vocal skill from the perspective of multiculturalism

The research is devoted to study the influence of emotional singing on the listeners' perception of vocal mastery in the process of intercultural musical dialogue. In the context of studying the influence of emotional singing on the quality of perception by listeners, an experiment was conducted; it involved 11 student vocalists from China, Russia, Italy, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Greece, India, Canada, Korea, Nigeria, 5 independent listeners, and 5 music experts. The analytical experiment created an opportunity to reveal the impact of the vocalist's emotional expression when performing a national folk song on the listener perception. The percentage of coherence between emotional production and listener perception ranged from 62.8% to 76.2%. Vocal skills of a singer can reveal the emotional aspects of a piece of music to the public, which are of great value in contemporary art; they determine the popularity of a performer on the world stage.
Adaptive and energy efficient SMA-based handling systems

Shape Memory Alloys (SMA’s) are known as actuators with very high energy density. This fact allows for the construction of very light weight and energy-efficient systems. In the field of material handling and automated assembly process, the avoidance of big moments of inertia in robots and kinematic units is essential. High inertial forces require bigger and stronger robot actuators and thus higher energy consumption and costs. For material handling in assembly processes, many different individual grippers for various work piece geometries are used. If one robot has to handle different work pieces, the gripper has to be exchanged and the assembly process is interrupted, which results in higher costs. In this paper, the advantages of using high energy density Shape Memory Alloy actuators in applications of material-handling and gripping-technology are explored. In particular, light-weight SMA actuated prototypes of an adaptive end-effector and a vacuum-gripper are constructed via rapid-prototyping and evaluated. The adaptive end-effector can change its configuration according to the work piece geometry and allows the handling of multiple different shaped objects without exchanging gripper tooling. SMA wires are used to move four independent arms, each arm adds one degree of freedom to the kinematic unit. At the tips of these end-effector arms, SMA-activated suction cups can be installed. The suction cup prototypes are developed separately. The flexible membranes of these suction cups are pulled up by SMA wires and thus a vacuum is created between the membrane and the work piece surface. The self-sensing ability of the SMA wires are used in both prototypes for monitoring their actuation.
3C 129 close-up

High-resolution VlA observations of the head-tail radio galaxy 3C 129 have shown thin, faint streams connecting the nucleus to the larger tails. The multiple bends and wiggles in the source are easily described in terms of precessing beams, as shown in a companion Letter by Icke. As in NGC 1265, the jets can be mildly supersonic or mildly relativistic. We point out the major features of these curved streams and their importance for general models of extragalactic jets.
TAM battery: Development and pilot testing of a Tamil computer-assisted cognitive test battery for older adults

Abstract Objective: To develop and pilot test a computer-assisted test battery with standardized administration and scoring for assessing cognition in Tamil-speaking older adults. Methods: There were two phases: Phase 1 included identifying tests and developing new tests, the software application, and the test manual. Phase 2 included pilot testing the battery in the target population. TAM Battery: The TAM Battery has sixteen tests, of which nine are newly developed. The tests can be administered using the TAM Battery v1 app. It takes 2 hours and 30 minutes to administer. Phase 2: The TAM Battery was administered to one hundred cognitively normal participants, a test–retest sub-group of thirty-three people at T2 (6 months after the first administration), and twenty-four participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Results: The TAM Battery shows initial evidence of satisfactory clinical and concurrent validity. The tests, except the Figural Memory Test, show initial evidence of test–retest reliability. Conclusions: The TAM Battery, the software application to be used for computer assisted administration of the battery and the Test Administration and Scoring Manual were developed. The pilot testing shows that the test battery has the potential to be a comprehensive cognitive assessment tool for Tamil speaking older adults. Its potential application in assessing a wider age group and use in tele-evaluation can be explored. Normative data needs to be developed for the target population and its psychometric properties need to be established in future studies.
No-reference image-quality metric based on blur radius and visual blockiness

We propose new blur and blocking metrics and then present a no-reference image-quality assessment method using these blur and blocking metrics. To compute the blur metric, we first estimated a blur radius from a given image and its reblurred version by using edge differences and edge amplitudes. Because blurring in edge regions is generally more sensitive to human perception, the blur metric was estimated from the edge blocks. We also used kurtosis and structural similarity to better estimate the blur metric. To compute the blocking metric, the blocking artifact was modeled as a 2-D step function and the blockiness visibility was estimated by the brightness difference between adjacent blocks. After the blocky position was determined, the blocking metric was computed from the six differences between four adjacent blocks. Experimental results show that the objective quality scores correlated highly with the subjective quality scores.
On the correctness of a phenomenological model of equilibrium phase transitions in a deformable elastic medium

In this paper we investigate the mathematical model of the equilibrium of a finite volume in ℝn (n = 1,2, 3) of a two-phase continuous medium, under the assumption that each pure phase is an isotropic elastic solid. The main results in this paper are: (i) the existence and uniqueness of a solution of this mathematical model; (ii) a discussion of the stress-strain law associated with the free energy of this two-phase continuous medium, which is multiple-valued due to the non-smoothness of the Gibbs potential (complementary energy); (iii) a description of the structure of solutions in plane strain.
Effects of jet flow on jet noise via an extension to the Lighthill model

The Lighthill formalism for jet noise prediction is extended to accommodate wave transport by the mean jet flow. The extended theory combines the simplicity of the Lighthill approach with the generality of the more complex Lilley approach. There is full allowance for ‘flow-acoustic’ effects: shielding, as well as the refractive ‘cone of (relative) silence’. A source term expansion yielda a convected wave equation that retains the basic Lighthill source term. This leads to a general formula for power spectral density emitted from unit volume as the Lighthill-based value multiplied by a squared ‘normalized’ Green's function. The Green's function, referred to a stationary point source, delineates the refraction dominated ‘cone of silence’. The convective motion of the sources, with its powerful amplifying effect, also directional, is accounted for in the Lighthill factor. Source convection and wave convection are thereby decoupled, in contrast with the Lilley approach: this makes the physics more transparent. Moreover, the normalized Green's function appears to be near unity outside the ‘cone of silence’. This greatly reduces the labour of calculation: the relatively simple Lighthill-based prediction may be used beyond the cone, with extension inside via the Green's function. The function is obtained either experimentally (injected ‘point’ source) or numerically (computational aeroacoustics). Approximation by unity seems adequate except near the cone and except when there are coaxial or shrouding jets: in that case the difference from unity will quantify the shielding effect. Further extension yields dipole and monopole source terms (cf. Morfey, Mani, and others) when the mean flow possesses density gradients (e.g. hot jets).
AKT1 phosphorylates RBM17 to promote Sox2 transcription by modulating alternative splicing of FOXM1 to enhance cancer stem cell properties in colorectal cancer cells

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer‐related death worldwide. The existence of cancer stem cells (CSC) causes tumor relapses, metastasis, and resistance to conventional therapy. Alternative splicing has been shown to affect physiological and pathological processes. Accumulating evidence has confirmed that targeting alternative splicing could be an effective strategy to treat CRC. Currently, the role of alternative splicing in the regulation of CSC properties in CRC has not been elucidated. Here, we show that RBM17 displays oncogenic roles in CRC cells. RBM17 enhances cell proliferation and reduces chemotherapeutic‐induced apoptosis in CRC cells. Besides, RBM17 increases CD133 positive and ALDEFLUOR positive populations and promotes sphere formation in CRC cells. In mechanism studies, we found that FOXM1 is critical for RBM17 enhanced CSC properties. Moreover, FOXM1 alternative splicing is essential for RBM17 enhanced CSC properties in CRC cells. Additionally, RBM17 enhances CSC characteristics by controlling FOXM1 expression to promote Sox2 expression. Furthermore, AKT1 works as an upstream kinase to control RBM17‐mediated FOXM1 alternative splicing and enhancement of CSC properties in CRC cells. Our study reveals that AKT1‐RBM17‐FOXM1‐Sox2 axis could be a potential target for modulating alternative splicing to reduce CSC properties in CRC cells.
Fast Neutron Irradiation Induced Resistivity in Metals

The residual resistivity increase rate as a function of induced resistivity for fast neutron irradiated Al, Cu, Ag, Au, Pt, Fe, Ni, Co and Mo has been studied. Except for Fe the resistivity increase rate as a function of irradiation induced resistivity is non-linear. The data is best explained with the expression of Balarin and Hauser. Saturation values of the resistivity and defect concentrations plus static and dynamic recombination volumes have been calculated; they differ from those obtained by irradiation in a reactor spectrum. Recombination volumes are very small for the b.c.c. metals Fe and Mo. Die Anstiegsrate des Restwiderstands als Funktion des induzierten Widerstands wurde an mit schnellen Neutronen bestrahltem Al, Cu, Ag, Au, Pt, Fe, Ni, Co und untersucht. Ausber fur Fe ist die Anstiegsrate des Widerstands als Funktion des strahlungsinduzierten Widerstands nichtlinear. Die Werte am besten mit dem Ausdruck von Balarin und Hauser beschrieben. Sattigungswerte des Widerstands und der Defektkonzentration, wie statische und dynamische Rekombinationsvolumina, wurden berechnet; sie unterscheiden sich von denen, die durch Bestrahlung im Reaktor erhalten wurden. Die Rekombinationsvolumina sind fur die k.r. z. Metalle Fe und Mo sehr klein.
Theoretical investigation of the effect of graphite interlayer spacing on hydrogen absorption

This study investigates the absorption of hydrogen molecules between graphite layers using both first principles calculations and classical grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations. While a recent theoretical study showed that graphite layers have high storage capacity at room temperature, previous simulation results on hydrogen-graphite systems showed otherwise. Our first-principles calculations suggest that it is possible to store hydrogen molecules between the graphene layers if the energetically unfavorable initial absorption stage could be overcome. The barrier to the initial absorption originates from the large lattice strain required for H2 absorption: small amounts of initial absorption cause an interlayer expansion of more than 60%. To determine if significant storage is indeed possible at finite temperature (and pressure), we performed grand canonical Monte Carlo H2-absorption simulations with variable graphite interlayer spacing. Using two different potentials for the H2-C interaction, we found low H2 mass uptake at room temperature and moderate pressures (e.g., close to 2 wt-% at 298 K and 5 2 MPa.). Our results suggest that a graphite pore width or interlayer spacing around 6 has the optimum absorption capacity. PACS numbers: 68.43. -h, 81.05. Uw, 82.20. Wt, 83.10. -y
Factors Influencing Consumption Behaviour towards Aquatic Food among Asian Consumers: A Systematic Scoping Review

Asia accounts for over 70% of total global aquatic food consumption, but aquatic food consumption behaviours and attitudes among Asian consumers are poorly documented and understood. This paper synthesises literature on factors influencing aquatic food consumption behaviour in Asia and the potential to support transitions toward more sustainable food consumption patterns. We identified 113 studies for inclusion in a scoping review, and identified five clusters of publications: (1) product attributes, availability, and accessibility (24% of publications); (2) willingness to pay for aquatic foods (25%); (3) psychosocial factors (e.g., attitudes and subjective norms) (17%); (4) sociodemographic and lifestyle factors (21%); and (5) miscellaneous factors, including food safety and social status (13%). This study indicates that multiple interacting factors influence aquatic food consumption behaviours among Asian consumers, among which price is central. Knowledge of, and attitudes toward, the perceived quality and safety of aquatic foods were identified as important but were mediated by household characteristics. Sustainable production practices, country of origin, and ecolabels were found to be less influential on consumption behaviour. We found that improving consumers’ knowledge and attitudes about the quality and safety of aquatic foods might positively influence aquatic food consumption behaviour. Future multidisciplinary research is required to better understand interactions among the multiple factors that influence Asian consumers’ aquatic food consumption behaviour.
Adaptive and robust techniques (ART) for thermoacoustic and photoacoustic tomography

In this paper, we present new Adaptive and Robust Techniques (ART) for microwave-based thermoacoustic tomography (TAT) and laser-based photo-acoustic tomography (PAT), and study their performances for breast cancer detection. TAT and PAT are emerging medical imaging techniques that combine the merits of high contrast due to electromagnetic or laser stimulation and high resolution offered by thermal acoustic imaging. The current image reconstruction methods used for TAT and PAT, such as the widely used Delay-and-Sum (DAS) approach, are data-independent and suffer from low resolution, high sidelobe levels, and poor interference rejection capabilities. The data-adaptive ART can have much better resolution and much better interference rejection capabilities than their data-independent counterparts. By allowing certain uncertainties, ART can be used to mitigate the amplitude and phase distortion problems encountered in TAT and PAT. Specifically, in the first step of ART, RCB is used for waveform estimation by treating the amplitude distortion with an uncertainty parameter. In the second step of ART, a simple yet effective peak searching method is used for phase distortion correction. Compared with other energy or amplitude based response intensity estimation methods, peak searching can be used to improve image quality with little additional computational costs. Moreover, since the acoustic pulse is usually bipolar: a positive peak, corresponding to the compression pulse, and a negative peak, corresponding to the rarefaction pulse, we can further enhance the image contrast in TAT or PAT by using the peak-to-peak difference as the response intensity for a focal point. The excellent performance of ART is demonstrated using both simulated and experimentally measured data.
Algorithmic Impact Assessment for an Ethical Use of AI in SMEs

With the ever increasing reliance on artificial systems to automate the decision process of smart systems that have the potential to affect our daily lives, the question of how to attribute liability is becoming more and more relevant, especially when human control over technical systems is increasingly reduced. This study aims to provide an overview on algorithmic impact assessment for socio-technical systems, with a focus on the challenges for its adoption by small and medium enterprises
Broadband and flat parametric amplifiers with a multisection dispersion-tailored nonlinear fiber arrangement

We describe a simple scheme to allow for the achievement of flat gain over ultrabroad bands with a single-pump fiber-optic parametric amplifier operating in the zero-dispersion wavelength region. The proposed method, based on a multisection dispersion-tailored in-line nonlinear fiber arrangement, is demonstrated by both modulational instability theory and numerical simulations of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. The results show that the design can be adjusted to generate gain bands that exceed either 100 nm with a ripple of less than 0.2 dB and for a pump power of only 500 mW, or even 200 nm when a pump power of 5 W is used. In addition, the robustness of this gain-flattening technique has been numerically checked against random fluctuations of the zero-dispersion wavelength in each of the fiber sections.
Precessional spin-transfer switching in a magnetic tunnel junction with a synthetic antiferromagnetic perpendicular polarizer

This paper reports sub-nanosecond precessional spin-transfer switching in elliptical magnetic tunnel junction nanopillars. This result is obtained in samples integrating a synthetic antiferromagnetic perpendicular polarizer and a tunnel junction with in-plane magnetized electrodes. The out-of-plane precession of the free layer magnetization results in oscillations of the switching probability as a function of the pulse width. At 9.25 MA/cm2 current density, these oscillations have a period of 1 ns with a high degree of coherence.
A mini-TGA protein modulates gene expression through heterogeneous association with transcription factors

Abstract TGA (TGACG-binding) transcription factors, which bind their target DNA through a conserved basic region leucine zipper (bZIP) domain, are vital regulators of gene expression in salicylic acid (SA)-mediated plant immunity. Here, we investigated the role of StTGA2.1, a potato (Solanum tuberosum) TGA lacking the full bZIP, which we named a mini-TGA. Such truncated proteins have been widely assigned as loss-of-function mutants. We, however, confirmed that StTGA2.1 overexpression compensates for SA-deficiency, indicating a distinct mechanism of action compared with model plant species. To understand the underlying mechanisms, we showed that StTGA2.1 can physically interact with StTGA2.2 and StTGA2.3, while its interaction with DNA was not detected. We investigated the changes in transcriptional regulation due to StTGA2.1 overexpression, identifying direct and indirect target genes. Using in planta transactivation assays, we confirmed that StTGA2.1 interacts with StTGA2.3 to activate StPRX07, a member of class III peroxidases (StPRX), which are known to play role in immune response. Finally, via structural modeling and molecular dynamics simulations, we hypothesized that the compact molecular architecture of StTGA2.1 distorts DNA conformation upon heterodimer binding to enable transcriptional activation. This study demonstrates how protein truncation can lead to distinct functions and that such events should be studied carefully in other protein families.
Resistive MHD simulation of edge-localized-modes for double-null discharges in the MAST device

Recent development of the nonlinear magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) code JOREK has enabled the alignment of its two-dimensional finite-element grid along poloidal flux surfaces for double-null Grad–Shafranov equilibria. In previous works with the JOREK code, only single X-point plasmas were studied. The fast-camera diagnostic on MAST, which gives a global view of the pedestal filamentation during an ELM crash, clearly shows filaments travelling far into the scrape-off layer, as far as the first wall. Simulation of such a filament dynamics in MAST double-null plasmas is presented here and compared with experimental observations. In addition to direct comparison with the fast-camera images, general aspects of filaments are studied, such as their radial speed and composition. A qualitative validation of simulations is carried out against other diagnostics, such as the Thomson-scattering profiles or the infra-red camera images. Simulations are found to reproduce experimental edge localized modes in a reasonable manner, with similar energy losses and divertor heat-flux profiles. However, the MHD model used for those simulations is a reduced MHD model, which is likely approaching the limit of its applicability for the MAST device. Also, the absence of diamagnetic drift terms in the present MHD model results in nonlinear simulations being dominated by the highest mode number, and thus coupling with lower mode numbers is not observed.