Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Annals of Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW

An attempt to use „Tetra Pak” waste material in particleboard technology. The study investigates the effect of addition Tetra Pak waste material in the core layer on physical and mechanical properties of chipboard. Three-layer chipboards with a thickness of 16 mm and a density of 650 kg / m were manufactured. The share of Tetra Pak waste material in the boards was varied: 0%, 5%, 10% and 25%. The density profile was measured to determine the impact of Tetra Pak share on the density distribution. In addition, the manufactured boards were tested for strength (MOR, MOE, IB), thickness swelling and water absorption after immersion in water for 2 and 24 hours. The tests revealed that Tetra Pak share does not affect significantly the value of static bending strength and modulus of elasticity of the chipboard, but it significantly decreases IB. Also, it has been found that Tetra Pak insignificantly decreases the value of swelling and water absorption of the chipboards.
Estimating transmission losses along the Limpopo River: an overview of alternative methods

This paper gives a summary of methods that were considered to investigate transmission losses along the Limpopo River. Four criteria (information, practicality, solution-type, and time and spatial scale) were set to evaluate possible approaches. These include: statistical methods; methods using a storage loss concept; methods using a streamflow aquifer interaction equation based on the head difference between surface and groundwater; and finally methods coupling unsteady surface flow equations with groundwater flow equations. Each method is described and evaluated against the specific conditions of the Limpopo River. This paper provides a basis for further investigation of transmission losses along the Limpopo River and recommends an approach with a moderate level of complexity given the limited information available and the benefits associated with each method for the Limpopo River.
Why Are Older Women Missing in India? The Age Profile of Bargaining Power and Poverty

The ratio of women to men is particularly low in India relative to developed countries. It has recently been argued that close to half of these missing women are of post-reproductive ages (45 and above), but what drives this phenomenon remains unclear. I provide an explanation for this puzzle that is based on intra-household bargaining and resource allocation. I employ both reduced-form and structural modeling to establish the relevant connections between women’s bargaining position within the household, their health, and their age. First, using amendments to the Indian inheritance law as a natural experiment, I demonstrate that improvements in women’s bargaining position within the household lead to better health outcomes. Next, with a collective model of Indian households, I show that women’s bargaining power and their ability to access household resources deteriorate at post-reproductive ages. Thus, at older ages poverty rates are significantly higher among women than men. I argue that gender inequality within the household and the consequent gender asymmetry in poverty account for a considerable fraction of missing women of post-reproductive ages and that policies promoting intra-household equality can have a large impact on female poverty and mortality.
FPGA-Based Control System of an Ultrasonic Phased Array

*Corr. Author’s Address: University of Coimbra’s Mechanical Engineering Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computers, University of Coimbra, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal, marioj@deec.uc. pt 135 FPGA-Based Control System of an Ultrasonic Phased Array Santos, M.J.S.F. Santos, J.B. Mário João Simões Ferreira dos Santos* Jaime Batista dos Santos University of Coimbra’s Mechanical Engineering Research Center, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computers, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Pre-Scheduled Resources for Retransmissions in Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications

The fifth generation (5G) cellular network demands new solutions to meet, in an efficient way, the stringent targets for ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC), such as 1-1e-5 reliability within 1 ms. In a wireless system, the control signaling of the scheduling process is also a source of errors and delays. Semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) is an option to reduce the signaling, leading to lower latency and improved transmission reliability. However, conventional SPS still applies grant signaling to schedule the retransmission. In this work it is proposed an alternative scheme in which a group of users shares a pre-scheduled resource for retransmission. The benefit is that it provides a retransmission opportunity without needing a scheduling control information. Besides that, if the pre-scheduled resource can not be reallocated, the sharing mechanism avoids excessive capacity loss. It is demonstrated through a simple analytical model that, for right grouping sizes and initial transmission error rates, the target error probability e.g. 1e-5 can be achieved. It is also shown that the suggested scheme can provide improved resource efficiency compared to a single conservative transmission which also avoids re- scheduling.
Applications of recycled paper mills effluents to wood substitutive products (RESPRO): executive summary

Resumen Este articulo es una sintesis del informe tecnico final del proyecto “Empleo de efluentes reciclados de papeleras en productos sustitutivos de la madera –RESPRO-“que fue financiado por la Comision Europea dentro de programa Brite/Euram. El proyecto aumento las alternativas de gestion de los lodos primarios de depuradora generados en empresas de pasta y papel. En particular, incremento aquellas alternativas no destructivas relacionadas con el reciclado de estos residuos en el sector maderero y con la reutilizacion de lodos en la propia industria de la pasta y el papel. El principal objetivo del proyecto fue estudiar la viabilidad tecnica de estas alternativas a un nivel precompetitivo. Palabras clave: Reciclado, Reutilizacion, Lodo primario, Pasta y papel.
Sound Foundations

By starting with a foundation of sound before sight, we can help our students learn notation organically in a way that honors the natural process. This article describes five organic approaches to learning notation in beginning band: (1) iconic notation, (2) point and play, (3) student lead-sheet, (4) modeling, and (5) kid dictation. While time-consuming, these approaches can lead to better ear-to-hand coordination, heightened musical sensitivity, and stronger fundamental playing skills.
Presència de "Parotodus benedeni" (Le Hon, 1871) (Pisces: Chondrichthyes: Otodontidae) al Neogen de Mallorca i Menorca (Illes Balears, Mediterrània occidental): consideraciones taxonòmiques i paleoambientals

catalaEs dona compte de la presencia de Parotodus benedeni (Le Hon, 1871) al Neogen de les Illes de Mallorca i Menorca, com una especie d'afinitats pelagiques diferenciada del genere Isurus (Fam. Lamnidae) en el que havia estat anteriorment incIos. EnglishThe presence of Parotodus benedeni (Le Hon, 1871) in the Neogen of the Mallorca and Menorca islands is reported, as a species of pelagic habits differenciated from the genus Isurus (Fam. Lamnidae) in which it had been formerly incIuded.
Escherichia coli nissle 1917 bacterial ghosts retain crucial surface properties and express chlamydial antigen: an imaging study of a delivery system for the ocular surface

: To target chronic inflammatory ocular surface diseases, a drug delivery platform is needed that is safe, possesses immunomodulatory properties, and can be used either for drug delivery, or as a foreign antigen carrier. A new therapeutic approach that we have previously proposed uses nonliving bacterial ghosts (BGs) as a carrier-delivery system which can be engineered to carry foreign antigens and/or be loaded with therapeutic drugs. The parent strain chosen for development of our BG delivery system is the probiotic Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917 (EcN), whose intrinsic properties trigger the innate immune system with the flagella and fimbriae used to attach and stimulate epithelial cells. In previous studies, we have shown that EcN BGs are safe for the ocular surface route, but evidence that EcN BGs retain flagella and fimbriae after transformation, has never been visually confirmed. In this study, we used different visualization techniques to determine whether flagella and fimbriae are retained on EcN BGs engineered either for drug delivery or as a foreign antigen carrier. We have also shown by immunoelectron microscopy that EcN retains two foreign antigens after processing to become EcN BGs. Furthermore, we demonstrated that BGs derived from EcN and expressing a foreign antigen attachment to conjunctival epithelial cells in vitro without causing reduced cell viability. These results are an important step in constructing a delivery system based on a nonliving probiotic that is suitable for use in ocular surface diseases pairing immunomodulation and targeted delivery.
Etude de l"impact du forçage orbital sur la dynamique et la chimie stratosphériques avec le modèle climat-chimie IGCM-FASTOC

Summary Climate is affected by orbital forcing through induced changes in the distribution of incoming solar radiation. The impact of the precession of the equinox on stratospheric dynamics and chemistry is investigated in this study. Simulations with the current value of precession (when Earth is at perihelion in January) and the value 11000 ago (when Earth was at perihelion in July) have been performed with the climate-chemistry model IGCM-FASTOC. The reduction of insolation during boreal winter decreases zonal-mean and surface temperatures at all latitudes and decreases the wave-forcing of the Brewer-Dobson circulation in the Northern Hemisphere. A warm anomaly appears in the troposphere and the lower stratosphere at middle and high latitudes during boreal winter and is consistent with the deceleration of the polar vortex. The increased insolation during austral winter gives an opposite response in the Southern Hemisphere, with higher temperatures and an increased wave-forcing. During austral winter, a cold anomaly appears in the troposphere and lower stratosphere at the South Pole, and the polar vortex is strengthened. Changes in surface temperature affect the monsoon circulation, enhancing its strength. Changes in ozone follow changes in the Brewer-Dobson circulation in the lower stratosphere and are controlled by the temperature-dependent catalytic destruction by NOx species in the upper stratosphere. The contribution of the stratospheric chemistry to the observed changes is minor and the chemistry model is not essential if we are not specifically interested in analyzing the changes in ozone.
Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Ghana

Major governance indicators show that Ghana has achieved significant progress over the last few years in terms of government effectiveness, transparency of the regulatory framework and control of corruption. However, although it not perceived as extensive as in most other African countries, corruption remains a significant problem in the country. Petty corruption is persistent and there is evidence of forms of political corruption including looting of state assets. Sectors most affected by corruption include the police, political parties, and public financial management in particular with regard to public procurement, tax and customs administration. With the recent discovery of offshore oil fields, the country’s past record in managing its mineral wealth has raised concerns over its ability to manage oil revenues in a transparent manner and avoid a “resource curse”.
Regional variability of grassland CO2 fluxes in Tyrol/Austria

The FLUXNET project [1] aims at quantifying the magnitude and controls on the CO2, H2O and energy exchange of terrestrial ecosystems. Ideally, the various biomes of the Earth would be sampled in proportion to their spatial extent in reality, however, study site selection is usually based on other (more practical) criteria so that a bias exists towards certain biomes and ecosystem types. This may be problematic because FLUXNET data are used to calibrate/parameterize models at various scales – if certain ecosystems are poorly replicated this may bias model predictions. Here we present data from a project in Tyrol/Austria where we have been investigating the CO2, H2O and energy exchange of five grassland sites during 2005-2007. The five permanent grassland sites were exposed to similar climate, but differed slightly in management. In a FLUXNET style approach, any of these sites might have been selected for making long-term flux measurements – the aim of this project was to examine the representativeness of these sites and, if evident, elucidate the causes for and controls on differences between sites. To this end we conducted continuous eddy covariance flux measurements at one (anchor) site [2, 3], and episodic, month long flux measurements at the four additional sites using a roving eddy covariance tower. These data were complemented by measurements of environmental drivers, the amount of above ground phytomass and basic data on vegetation and soil type, as well as management. Data are subject to a rigorous statistical analysis in order to quantify significant differences in the CO2, H2O and energy exchange between the sites and to identify the factors which are responsible for these differences. In the present contribution we report results on CO2 fluxes. Our major findings are that (i) site-identity of the surveyed grassland ecosystems was a significant factor for the net ecosystem CO2 exchange (NEE), somewhat less for gross primary production (GPP) and not for ecosystem respiration (RECO), (ii) GPP depended mainly on the amount of incident photosynthetically active radiation and the amount of green plant matter, the scale of influence of these two factors varying fourfold between the sites, and not so much on the available water, (iii) RECO was mainly affected by the soil temperature, but some evidence for priming effects was also found, (iv) the NEE was mainly influenced by GPP and to a lower extent by RECO. Taken together our results indicate that even within the same ecosystem type exposed to similar climate and land use, site selection may strongly affect the resulting NEE estimates.
A simple proof of Kaijser’s unique ergodicity result for hidden Markov α-chains

According to a 1975 result of T. Kaijser, if some nonvanishing product of hidden Markov model (HMM) stepping matrices is subrectangular, and the underlying chain is aperiodic, the corresponding $\alpha$-chain has a unique invariant limiting measure $\lambda$. Here the $\alpha$-chain $\{\alpha_n\}=\{(\alpha_{ni})\}$ is given by \[\alpha_{ni}=P(X_n=i| Y_n,Y_{n-1},.),\] where $\{(X_n,Y_n)\}$ is a finite state HMM with unobserved Markov chain component $\{X_n\}$ and observed output component $\{Y_n\}$. This defines $\{\alpha_n\}$ as a stochastic process taking values in the probability simplex. It is not hard to see that $\{\alpha_n\}$ is itself a Markov chain. The stepping matrices $M(y)=(M(y)_{ij})$ give the probability that $(X_n,Y_n)=(j,y)$, conditional on $X_{n-1}=i$. A matrix is said to be subrectangular if the locations of its nonzero entries forms a cartesian product of a set of row indices and a set of column indices. Kaijser's result is based on an application of the Furstenberg--Kesten theory to the random matrix products $M(Y_1)M(Y_2). M(Y_n)$. In this paper we prove a slightly stronger form of Kaijser's theorem with a simpler argument, exploiting the theory of e chains.
Product-form stationary distributions for deficiency zero networks with non-mass action kinetics : Errata in Example 1

Post-publication a small error was found in Example 1, a typo which also lead to comparing the QSSA and constrained approximations to the wrong distribution. Below we represent this material with the amendments highlighted in red, along with a corrected Figure 1. This didn’t overly affect the presentation of the example, but did underplay the accuracy of the constrained approach for this example.
A Mass Media Experiment to Reduce Violence Against Women in Rural Uganda

Governments and organizations around the world employ media messaging to eﬀect behavioral and attitudinal change. In Uganda, Innovations for Poverty Action worked with researchers to evaluate whether videos encouraging communities to speak out about and counter violence against women (VAW) in the household could change behavior, attitudes and norms related to VAW. In surveys conducted eight months after the intervention, the proportion of women who reported any VAW in their household over the preceding six months was substantially lower in villages where the videos were screened than in villages randomly assigned to the comparison group. The impact appears to be driven by a reduction in the perception that those who speak out against violence will face social sanctions. The results suggest education-entertainment has the potential to markedly reduce the incidence of VAW in an enduring and scalable manner.
A Mass Media Experiment to Reduce Violence Against Women in Rural Uganda

Governments and organizations around the world employ media messaging to effect behavioral and attitudinal change. In Uganda, Innovations for Poverty Action worked with researchers to evaluate whether videos encouraging communities to speak out about and counter violence against women (VAW) in the household could change behavior, attitudes and norms related to VAW. In surveys conducted eight months after the intervention, the proportion of women who reported any VAW in their household over the preceding six months was substantially lower in villages where the videos were screened than in villages randomly assigned to the comparison group. The impact appears to be driven by a reduction in the perception that those who speak out against violence will face social sanctions. The results suggest education-entertainment has the potential to markedly reduce the incidence of VAW in an enduring and scalable manner.
Optimization of two opposing neutron beams parameters in dynamical (B/Gd) neutron cancer therapy

We demonstrate how the therapeutic utility index and the ballistic index for dynamical neutron cancer therapy (NCT) with two opposing neutron beams form a nonlinear optimization problem. In this problem, the modulation frequencies ω and ϖ of the beams and the relative time advance ε are the control variables. A Pareto optimal control vector ω* = (ω*, ϖ*, ε*) for this problem is identified and reported for the first time. The utility index is shown to be remarkably periodically discontinuous in ε, even in the neighborhood of ε*.
Ley 37/2007, de 16 de noviembre, sobre reutilización de la información del sector público

La información generada desde las instancias públicas, con la potencialidad que le otorga el desarrollo de la sociedad de la información, posee un gran interés para las empresas a la hora de operar en sus ámbitos de actuación, contribuir al crecimiento económico y la creación de empleo, y para los ciudadanos como elemento de transparencia y guía para la participación democrática. Recogiendo ambas aspiraciones la Directiva 2003/98/CE, de 17 de noviembre de 2003, del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, relativa a la reutilización de la información del sector público, se adoptó con la finalidad de explotar el potencial de información del sector público y superar las barreras de un mercado europeo fragmentado estableciendo unos criterios homogéneos, asentados en condiciones equitativas, proporcionadas y no discriminatorias para el tratamiento de la información susceptible de ser reutilizada por personas físicas o jurídicas. Las diferentes Administraciones y organismos del sector público recogen, producen, reproducen y difunden documentos para llevar a cabo la misión de servicio público que tienen encomendada. Como expresa la Directiva 2003/98/CE, la utilización de dichos documentos por otros motivos, ya sea con fines comerciales o no comerciales, constituye una reutilización. Por una parte, se persigue armonizar la explotación de la información en el sector público, en especial la información en soporte digital recopilada por sus distintos organismos relativa a numerosos ámbitos de interés como la información social, económica, jurídica, geográfica, meteorológica, turística, sobre empresas, patentes y educación, etc., al objeto de facilitar la creación de productos y servicios de información basados en documentos del sector público, y reforzar la eficacia del uso transfronterizo de estos documentos por parte de los ciudadanos y de las empresas privadas para que ofrezcan productos y servicios de información de valor añadido. Por otra parte, la publicidad de todos los documentos de libre disposición que obran en poder del sector público referentes no sólo LEGISLACIÓN CONSOLIDADA
Patient and Adherence electronically monitored medication adherence predicts hospitalization in heart failure patients

Background: Hospitalization contributes enormously to health care costs associated with heart failure. Many investigators have attempted to predict hospitalization in these patients. None of these models has been highly effective in prediction, suggesting that important risk factors remain unidentified. Purpose: To assess prospectively collected medication adherence, objectively measured by the Medication Event Monitoring System, as a predictor of hospitalization in heart failure patients. Materials and methods: We used recently developed adaptive modeling methods to describe patterns of medication adherence in a sample of heart failure patients, and tested the hypothesis that poor medication adherence as determined by adaptive methods was a significant predictor of hospitalization within 6 months. Results: Medication adherence was the best predictor of hospitalization. Besides two dimensions of poor adherence (adherence pattern type and low percentage of prescribed doses taken), four other single factors predicted hospitalization: low hemoglobin, depressed ejection fraction, New York Heart Association class IV, and 12 or more medications taken daily. Seven interactions increased the predictive capability of the model: 1) pattern of poor adherence type and lower score on the Letter–Number Sequencing test, a measure of short-term memory; 2) higher number of comorbid conditions and higher number of daily medications; 3) higher blood urea nitrogen and lower percentage of prescribed doses taken; 4) lower hemoglobin and much worse perceived health compared to last year; 5) older age and lower score on the Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status; 6) higher body mass index and lower hemoglobin; and 7) lower ejection fraction and higher fatigue. Patients with none of these seven interactions had a hospitalization rate of 9.7%. For those with five of these interaction risk factors, 100% were hospitalized. The C -index (the area under the receiver-operating characteristics [ROC] curve) for the model based on the seven interactions was 0.83, indicating excellent discrimination. Conclusion: Medication adherence adds important new information to the list of variables previously shown to predict hospitalization in adults with heart failure.