Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Open Research Online Intersectionality on Screen. A coloniality perspective to understanding popular culture representations of intersecting oppressions at work

The article examines popular culture representations of Global South migrants' work through combining a coloniality perspective with an intersectional analysis. In doing so, we analyze two award winning films depicting the experiences of women migrant workers ( Fatima and Bread and Roses ) in France and the United States of America. The analysis reveals that representations of the effects of intersecting power structures should be understood as a dynamic phenomenon, embedded in different coloniality regimes. Furthermore, it shows how popular culture representations of oppression are multifaceted and reflect stereotyping but also the victims' responses to oppressive conditions. These are represented as opportunities for change, but can, sometimes, contribute to reproduce oppression. The article theo-rizes the social and discursive (re)production of intersecting oppressions in popular culture by embedding these within coloniality regimes. It discusses how this coloniality perspective can bring to the fore the complexity of intersecting oppressions and the limited, but significant, forms of agency exercised by colonial subjects.
Assessing long‐term postseismic deformation following the M7.2 4 April 2010, El Mayor‐Cucapah earthquake with implications for lithospheric rheology in the Salton Trough

The 4 April 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor‐Cucapah (EMC) earthquake provides the best opportunity to date to study the lithospheric response to a large (>M6) magnitude earthquake in the Salton Trough region through analysis of Global Positioning System (GPS) data. In conjunction with the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO), we installed six new continuous GPS stations in the months following the EMC earthquake to increase station coverage in the epicentral region of northern Baja California, Mexico. We modeled the pre‐EMC deformation field using available campaign and continuous GPS data for southern California and northern Baja California and inferred a pre‐EMC secular rate at each new station location. Through direct comparison of the pre‐ and post‐EMC secular rates, we calculate long‐term changes associated with viscoelastic relaxation in the Salton Trough region. We fit these velocity changes using numerical models employing an elastic upper crustal layer underlain by a viscoelastic lower crustal layer and a mantle half‐space. Forward models that produce the smallest weighted sum of squared residuals have an upper mantle viscosity in the range 4–6 × 1018 Pa s and a less well‐resolved lower crustal viscosity in the range 2 × 1019 to 1 × 1022 Pa s. A high‐viscosity lower crust, despite high heat flow in the Salton Trough region, is inconsistent with felsic composition and might suggest accretion of mafic lower crust associated with crustal spreading obscured by thick sedimentary cover.
The Proteins of Hevea brasiliensis Latex

3. It is insoluble in distilled water. Determinations of solubility were made over the pH range 4-1-5-9, in sodium acetate buffers of ionic strength 0-04, with a freshly prepared solution of the protein which had been exhaustively dialysed against 0-01 M sodium acetate solution. All measurements were carried out at 00. Between pH 4-3 and 5-4, the solubility of the protein was extremely small (approx. 0-03 g./l.); very similar results were obtained at ionic strength 0-1, except that the solubility was slightly greater. On each side of these pH limits, the solubility increased very rapidly. From these, solubility character-istics, the protein can be classified as a globulin with an isoelectric point in the region of 4-8.
A 6 year record of baroclinic transport variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current at 140°E derived from expendable bathythermograph and altimeter measurements

[1] Repeat hydrographic sections across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current are used to derive an empirical relationship between upper ocean temperature and the baroclinic transport stream function. Cross validation shows this relationship can be used to infer baroclinic transport (above and relative to 2500 dbar) from temperature measurements with an error of a few per cent. The mean transport distribution derived from 31 austral summer expendable bathythermograph (XBT) sections over a 6 year period consists of westward flow immediately south of Tasmania, a broad band of strong eastward flow between 50° and 55°S, and three cores of eastward flow south of 55°S. By defining a second empirical relationship between surface dynamic height and cumulative transport a continuous time series of baroclinic transport is derived from altimeter measurements of sea surface height. Transports derived from altimetry in this way agree well with simultaneous in situ estimates (root mean square error in net transport is 4 × 106 m3 s−1), suggesting sea level anomalies largely reflect baroclinic changes above 2500 dbar. The 10 day sampling of the altimeter transport time series shows the irregular XBT sampling aliases variability at unresolved timescales. The standard deviation of net transport above and relative to 2500 m is 4.3 × 106 m3 s−1. The variability in net transport is largest (2.7 × 106 m3 s−1) in the quasi-annual band (periods of 4 months to 1.5 years), slightly smaller (2.3 × 106 m3 s−1) in the mesoscale band ( 1.5 years, 1.5 × 106 m3 s−1). Changes in transport are correlated with local changes in both wind stress and wind stress curl in the quasi-annual and interannual bands, but the transport time series is too short to draw significant conclusions.
Effect of Mica on Particle-Size Analyses Using the Laser Diffraction Technique: RESEARCH METHODS PAPERS

ABSTRACT New sizing technologies commonly make particle-size analyses more routine, simpler, and less time consuming. The proliferation of new technologies led Syvitski et al. (1991) to recommend that "new particle size instruments should no longer have their results compared with those of the classical methods of sieving and pipetting. " However, care is required to ensure that results are broadly comparable to those obtained using established methodologies, especially where sediment classification and environmental processes are being interpreted using traditional schemes. The progressive development of new classification schemes based on modern particle-size analysis techniques will eventually mitigate this problem. Laser particle-size analyses of Upper Neogene micaceous terrigenous deposits from New Zealand have yielded some significantly different grain-size distributions compared to traditional sieving methods. These differences typically escalated with increasing sand content. A series of test samples spiked with increasing amounts of mica demonstrate that very small amounts of mica (< 2 wt%) have the potential to significantly alter the grain-size characteristics obtained using a laser particle sizer compared to sieve analyses. This is probably due to the mica particles having (a) a higher light-scattering property, and (b) large numbers of particles per unit volume, resulting in mica being overestimated.
AI in Co-Creation: The usability and impact of AI tools for co-creation in participatory design to generate innovative and user-centric design solutions

The current study focuses on applying generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in participatory design processes, specifically scrutinising the interactive dynamics between AI and human actors during the creative endeavour. Practice-oriented workshops and including a real, complex application example constituted the methodological framework. The analysis sought to investigate Artificial Intelligence's impact on the produced design outcomes and the dynamics of group interactions within participatory design environments. Obstacles and potential benefits in dealing with AI were thoroughly analysed, with the investigation targeting the potential for significant time savings and efficiency increases due to AI deployment. Simultaneously, a comprehensive evaluation occurred, assessing the quality of co-creative human-AI design solutions. The study identified important capabilities that influence the quality of generative AI solutions. The author termed them the "Effectiveness Trilogy", consisting of Expertise, Experience and Usability . The findings suggest that current generative AI systems must still be sufficiently equipped for handling complex tasks. The resultant solutions frequently exhibited superficiality and needed more efficacy to generate substantial time savings, as observed in our analysis.
Transient Ischemic Attack

From the Departments of Neurology and Epidemiology–Biostatistics, University of California–San Francisco, San Francisco. Address reprint requests to Dr. Johnston at the Department of Neurology, Box 0114, University of California–San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Ave., M-798, San Francisco, CA 94143-0114, or at clay.johnston@ucsfmedctr.org. A 72-year-old woman telephones her physician immediately after recovering from a 30-minute episode of difficulty speaking and weakness of the right side of the face and right arm. Her medical history is unremarkable. How should she be treated?
Low complexity transmit antenna selection with power balancing in OFDM systems

In this paper, we consider multi-carrier systems with multiple transmit antennas under a power balancing constraint. Applying transmit antenna selection and fixed-power variablerate transmission per subcarrier as a function of channel variations, we propose an implementation-friendly antenna selection method which offers a reduced complexity in comparison with the optimal antenna selection scheme, which uses numerical optimization. More specifically, in order to solve the subcarrier imbalance across the antennas, we operate a two-step reallocation procedure in order to minimize loss of spectral efficiency. We also provide an analytic lower bound on the spectral efficiency for the proposed scheme. Although this scheme is suboptimal, we show based on some selected numerical examples that our proposed scheme offers almost the same spectral efficiency as the optimal scheme.
Well Preserved Late Precambrian Paleosols from Northwest Scotland

ABSTRACT Two paleosol profiles were developed side by side on gneiss (Sheigra clay paleosol) and amphibolite (Staca clay paleosol) along the same unconformable contact of Lewisian metamorphic rocks (2.7-1.7 Ga) overlain by Torridonian sandstones (0.8 Ga) in northwestern Scotland. Although altered during burial by compaction and illitization, these profiles are well preserved compared with most other Precambrian paleosols that are metamorphosed to at least greenschist facies. In addition, deformation of pegmatite veins in a manner similar to soil creep can be taken as an indication that upper horizons of these paleosols have been preserved. Soil development in both profiles was characterized by the oxidation of iron in biotite and magnetite, and by hydrolysis of plagioclase, orthoclase, and hornblende. Clay skins, soil-like microfabrics, and pedogenic smectite have been preserved in the profiles. Alteration of silicate grains other than quartz, microcline, and biotite has been intense, but chemical analyses failed to show dramatic removal of alkalis and alkaline earths from the profiles. Microscopic concretions similar to pedogenic carbonate were found in subsurface horizons of the Staca clay. Rare-earth elements are more abundant within the paleosols than in their parent materials. These paleosols developed on a well drained landscape that was buried by Torridonian alluvial fans. Atmospheric oxidation was greater than revealed by studies of Archean paleosols, but probably still short of modern levels. Paleoclimate was subhumid and probably seasonal. Organic carbon and its light isotopic composition in the paleosol is evidence for photosynthetic microbial crusts. Paleosols of such great antiquity do not fit comfortably within modern soil taxonomies, and are for the moment assigned to the informal category of "Green Clays".
AH 2004 : 3rd international conference on adaptive hypermedia and adaptive web-based systems : workshop proceedings part 1

In this work the problem of selecting and composing learning resources in the Semantic Web is considered. The starting point is the SCORM framework, used for the representation of learning objects. A proposal is done for describing a learning resource at the knowledge level, in terms of prerequisites and knowledge supplied, in order to enable the use of automated reasoning techniques (like planning) thus achieving forms of adaptation taken from the field of adaptive educational hypermedia. The description of learning strategies at the knowledge level opens the way to Semantic Web scenarios where learning resources are distributed over the network and reasoning systems can automatically select and compose them on-the-f1y according to the user's needs. The advantages are an increase of reuse of the resources and a greater openness.
Design and implementation of general purpose reinforcement learning agents by

Intelligent agents are becoming increasingly important in our society. We currently have house cleaning robots, computer-controlled opponents in video games, unmanned aerial combat vehicles, entertainment robots, and autonomous explorers in outer space. But there are many problems with the current generation of intelligent agents. Most of these problems stem from the fact that they are designed for very specific problems. Each intelligent agent has limited adaptability to new tasks; if conditions change slightly, the agent may quickly become confused. Additionally, a huge engineering effort is required to design an agent for each new task. Ideally, we would have a reusable general purpose agent design. Such a general purpose agent would be able to adapt to changing environments and would be easy to train to handle new tasks. To implement this agent design, we can use ideas from the field of reinforcement learning, an approach with strong mathematical foundations and intriguing biological implications. The available reinforcement learning algorithms are powerful because of their generality: agents simply receive a scalar reward value representing success or failure. Additionally, these algorithms can be combined with other powerful ideas (e.g. planning from a learned internal model). This thesis provides a step towards the goal of general purpose agents. It discusses a detailed agent design and provides a concrete software implementation of these ideas. It covers the components necessary for such a general purpose agent, starting with a minimal design and proceeding to develop a more powerful learning architecture. The final design uses temporal difference learning, radial basis functions, planning, uncertainty estimations, and curiosity. The main contributions of this thesis are: a novel combination of temporal difference learning with planning, uncertainty, and curiosity; a discussion of correlations between theoretical reinforcement learning and reward processing in biological brains; a practical Open Source implementation of general purpose reinforcement learning agents; and experimental results showing learning performance on several tasks, including two physical control problems.
The dynamic rupture process of the 1993 Kushiro-oki earthquake

We have constructed a dynamic rapture model of the 1993 Kushiro-oki earthquake (Mw = 7.6) that is consistent with the observed seismograms. This earthquake occurred beneath the city of Kushiro, Japan, at a depth of about 100 km, and the aftershocks are limited to a horizontal plane between a double seismic zone in the subducting slab. Excellent near-field strong-motion records are available. In our analysis, a kinematic inversion is followed by a dynamic crack calculation, and this pair of operations is repeated until convergence to the data is obtained. Two different conditions concerning the dynamic stress drop were considered in the dynamic calculation, and a dynamic model was constructed for each condition. The difference in these conditions has little effect on the results. The final dynamic model shows that this earthquake occurred with a localized high stress drop of about 40 MPa in the subducting slab, which indicates that the region between the double seismic zone is strong enough to sustain such a high stress. One of the two high strength regions in the final model lies near the upper plane of the double seismic zone and represents a barrier due to a substantial change of stress state in the slab. In the region where the initial breaks occurred 5 s before the main rupture, both the strength and the stress drop are smaller than in the adjacent region. This implies that before the main rupture the accumulated stress had already been released in the area of the initial breaks. The aftershocks tend to occur near the high strength area; in some of them, the P wave first-motions are opposite to those of the main shock.
Understanding the effects of a protected area on livelihoods of a neighbouring local community : a case study of Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Botswana.

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . iv TABLE OF CONTENTS . v LIST OF TABLES . ix LIST OF FIGURES . x LIST OF APPENDICES . xi LIST OF ACRONYMS . xii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 Background of the study . 1 Justification for and significance of the study . 4 Problem statement . 5 Aim of the study . 5 Research questions . 6 Scope of the study . 6 Methodology. 7 Assumptions made in the study . 7 Limitations of the study and how they were addressed . 8 Summary of the chapter. 9 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW . 11 2.1 Protected areas in Africa . 11 2.2 Protected areas in Botswana . 16 2.3 Conservation discourse relevant to protected areas . 18 2.3. 1 Fortress conservation . 19 2.3. 2 Community conservation . 20 2.3. 2.1 Protected area outreach. 21
The Shrinking Middle Class in Japan

This study identifies changes in the size of the middle class in Japan’s population using microdata from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions and examines the factors behind them. It also examines policies that could help increase the proportion of the middle class based on this analysis. Between 1985 and 2018, the proportion of Japan’s middle class within the national population declined. The decline was particularly large from 1985 to 2000 and stabilized from 2003 to 2018. It is confirmed that, when the range considered to be “middle class” is fixed with a particular year as a benchmark, cases in which larger declines in the proportion of the middle class can occur. An international comparison shows that the proportion of Japan’s middle class is lower than the OECD average based on figures calculated from the abovementioned survey. Moreover, the declining middle class is more pronounced compared to the OECD average. However, when the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’s National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure are used, the proportion becomes higher than the OECD average. Thus, it must be noted that the trend changes depending on the statistics used for international comparison. Behind the change in the proportion of the middle class is the fact that the proportion of households classified as the middle class is higher for households with a working member than for those without. The decrease in the share of non-retired households and the increase in the share of retired households are the main reasons for the decline in the share of the middle class in the population. Redistribution through taxes and social security has the effect of boosting the proportion of the middle class. This boosting effect is mainly evident among retired households. For non-retired households, the effect is relatively small and was smaller in 2018 compared to 1985.
Accuracy of UAV mapping of Natura 2000 forest, wetland and grassland habitats: Do we need more seasons or more spectral bands?

ABSTRACT Mapping and monitoring of Natura 2000 habitats (Habitat Directive 92/43/EEC) is one of the key activities to ensure the protection of natural habitats in Europe. Remote sensing can help to acquire high-quality maps of the distribution and conservation status of Natura 2000 habitats, for example through classifying multispectral data. However, due to the high number of habitats (classes) distinguished in the Habitat Directive, achievable classification accuracies for individual habitats in the context of a given landscape remain unknown. Moreover, although many recent studies have brought encouraging results in the classification of very-high-resolution satellite data such as Sentinel-2 or Rapid-Eye, spatial resolution in the order of several decimetres achievable with UAVs can be needed for distinguishing individual habitat patches in fine-grain landscape mosaics. In this study, we investigated the potential of UAVs for distinguishing eleven Natura 2000 forests, wetlands and grasslands. The study area (~ 20 km 2 ) is situated in the heart of the Czech Republic, Central Europe. We aimed to assess the producer, user and overall accuracy of Random Forest classification, considering the importance of different phenological seasons (spring, summer), spectral resolutions of the camera (multispectral and RGB), predictor types (spectral, textural and object) and classification scheme (detailed habitats vs their aggregations). The highest achieved overall classification accuracy (Cohen ’ s Kappa) ranged from 0.71 to 0
A comparative study of different PLL techniques for synchronization of grid-connected converters under unbalanced and distorted grid conditions

The Synchronous Reference Frame Phase-Locked Loop (SRF-PLL) is a commonly used technique for synchronizing grid-tied converters. However, its performance suffers under unbalanced and distorted grid conditions. This paper presents experimental results comparing two alternative techniques to SRF-PLL. Results indicate remarkable improvement of over 77% in the accuracy of the estimation.
A 300 GHz Resonant Cavity Antenna using a Frequency Selective Surface on a Quartz Substrate

This paper presents a resonant cavity antenna based on a patch antenna and a frequency selective surface operating at 300 GHz. A microstrip patch antenna on a quartz substrate is fabricated using the integrated passive device technology. To further enhance the antenna gain, a metamaterial layer is introduced on the backside of the substrate as a frequency selective surface and a resonator is thus formed. Gain enhancement due to the resonator is about 6 dB.
Modeling spatiotemporal dynamics in ecology

Foreword by Robert M. May, University of Oxford, U.K.- Emergent Phenomena in Spatially Extended Model Ecosystems. - Diversity, Stability, and Metadynamics: Remarks from Coupled Map Studies. - Spatial Dynamics of Populations. - Deterministic and Stochastic Host-Parasitoid Dynamics in Spatially Extended Systems. - Metapopulation Collapse: The Consequences of Limited Gene-Flow in Spatially Structured Populations. - On Wolf Territoriality and Deer Survival. - Models of Habitat Fragmentation. - Making Sense of Spatial Models in Ecology. - The Incidence Function Approach to Modeling of Metapopulation Dynamics. - Transients in Spatial Ecological Models. - Spatial Pattern Formation in Ecological Systems: Bridging Theoretical and Empirical Approaches. - The Challenge of Applying Spatially Explicit Models to a World of Sparse and Messy Data. - Index.