Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of rGO nanoparticles on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of CaCO3 nanocomposite

Abstract Nanocomposites offer enhanced mechanical properties, increased functionalities, and improved manufacturing processes by incorporating nanoscale fillers into a matrix material. Therefore, nanocomposites outperform constituent materials in mechanical, electrical, optical, and chemical properties and help to develop advanced lightweight and intelligent materials. The authors used a novel method to develop nano-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) doped nanocomposite, which is simple, fast, chemical free, and non-hazardous. Nanocomposite is synthesised using an in-house developed portable ball mill (6–9 V DC supply, 100 rpm) by varying the weight percentage (1–5%) of rGO in CaCO3. Characterisations such as Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), X-ray Diffraction, UV–Vis Spectroscopy (UV), and Raman analysis are performed to examine the morphological, optical, and chemical bonding, respectively. FESEM confirms the homogeneous mixing of two different nanoparticles. Furthermore, UV spectroscopy shows that adding rGO increases absorbance while decreasing the optical band gap from 2.04 eV to 1.83 eV. The effect of rGO doping on CaCO3 electron excitation is significant.
Aberrations analysis of a Focused Plenoptic Camera

A Focused Plenoptic Camera in Galilean configuration is studied and its aberrations behavior is interpreted with the Nodal Aberration Theory (NAT). Sequential ray tracing is applied to individual optical channels constituted by the camera objective and individual decentered microlenses. The wavefront aberration field is retrieved at the exit pupil of the optical channels and is analyzed through the Zernike Fringe decomposition technique. Decentered optical channels show nodes in the field-dependence of different Zernike coefficients approximating the wavefront aberration field. The nodal behavior is a consequence of the loss of rotational symmetry in a decentered optical channel due to the displacement of a microlens with respect to the mechanical axis of the camera.
Fear of Happiness Predicts Concurrent but not Prospective Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents

Background It is increasingly recognised that the study of responses to positive emotions significantly contributes to our understanding of psychopathology. Notably, positive emotions are not necessarily experienced as pleasurable. Instead, some believe that experiencing happiness may have negative consequences, referred to as fear of happiness (FOH), or they experience a fear of losing control over positive emotions (FOLC). According to reward devaluation theory, such an association of positivity with negative outcomes will result in positive stimuli being devalued over time, contributing to or maintaining depressive symptoms. The prospective relationship between fears of positivity and depressive symptoms is yet to be examined in adolescents. The present longitudinal study investigated whether FOH and FOLC prospectively predict depressive symptoms. Method 128 adolescents between 16-18 years of age (M = 16.87, SD = 0.80) recruited from two secondary schools in Flanders, Belgium, completed measures of depressive symptoms (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales) including consummatory anhedonia, FOH (Fear of Happiness Scale), and FOLC (Affective Control Scale) in their classroom at baseline and 2-months follow-up. Regression analyses were performed to test the association between FOH, FOLC, and depressive symptoms. Results FOH concurrently, but not prospectively, predicted depressive symptoms. There was no significant association between FOH and consummatory anhedonia. FOLC was not a significant predictor of depressive symptoms or consummatory anhedonia. Conclusion These findings suggest that FOH may only be concurrently related to depressive symptoms. Considering prior findings in adults, future research should investigate the association of FOH with anticipatory anhedonia in adolescents.
Horizontal flow below solar filaments

Context. Observations of the internal fine structures of solar filaments indicate that the threads of filaments follow magnetic field lines. The magnetic field inside the filament has a strong axial component. Some models of magnetic fields suggest that the field structure in filaments could be caused by the horizontal plasma velocity field near both sides below the filament, where observable shearing effects from the axial component are expected. Aims. The horizontal velocity field in the vicinity of polarity inversion lines is measured in order to determine, if it exhibits a systematic movement that induces shear along the filament axis and convergence perpendicular to the axis. Methods. The horizontal velocity was obtained from the displacement of supergranules, which were derived from Doppler measurements in the solar photosphere. Dopplergrams corrected for rigid rotation and p-mode oscillations were further analyzed by local correlation tracking. Results. Vector fields of the horizontal velocities were measured in 16 areas during 8 time intervals in the years 2000–2002 on both solar hemispheres, each for a few consecutive days. For 64 selected filaments the nearby horizontal velocity vectors were split up into a component along the filament axis and a perpendicular component. Conclusions. Differences between the axial velocities on both sides of the filaments were calculated. In almost all cases the velocity gradient corresponds to the inclination of the threads observed in Hα images. The average transverse velocity does not show any preferred tendency towards a divergence or convergence to the filament axis. Testing the horizontal velocity for the creation of the differential rotation profile in the photosphere reveals a strong dependence of the averaging process on the scale of our velocities.
A Suite of Exercises for Verifying Dynamic Earthquake Rupture Codes

We describe a set of benchmark exercises that are designed to test if computer codes that simulate dynamic earthquake rupture are working as intended. These types of computer codes are often used to understand how earthquakes operate, and they produce simulation results that include earthquake size, amounts of fault slip, and the patterns of ground shaking and crustal deformation. The benchmark exercises examine a range of features that scientists incorporate in their dynamic earthquake rupture simulations. These include implementations of simple or complex fault geometry, off‐fault rock response to an earthquake, stress conditions, and a variety of formulations for fault friction. Many of the benchmarks were designed to investigate scientific problems at the forefronts of earthquake physics and strong ground motions research. The exercises are freely available on our website for use by the scientific community.
Valoracion comparativa opciones en acciones call europeas: aproximaciones de black-scholes, expansion de edgeworth, brenner –subrahmanyam y binomial COX- ROX -rubisntein

En la valoración de opciones en acciones sin dividendos, se encuentran diversos métodos que emergieron a partir de la estructura presentada por Black-Scholes, con dos importantes condiciones; Volatilidad medida por la desviación estándar y el rendimiento promedio de las acciones, dicha teoría se basa en supuestos de normalidad de la evolución de la cotización del activo subyacente, mismas que dieron apertura a otras investigaciones como la expansión de edgeworth que incluyen estadísticos de orden superior como asimetría y curtosis, explicando la presencia de una tendencia anormal de datos históricos, en este mismo análisis existe una simplicidad de los cálculos cuya fórmula está relacionada con la profundidad o alcance del dinero (At The Money) y el valor de la opción está determinado casi en su totalidad por el impacto de la volatilidad, proporcional al precio del activo subyacente. En los procesos estocásticos más específicamente en los movimientos Brownianos y Geométricos Brownianos, se sientan las bases de referencia de aproximaciones de tipo binomial y hasta trinomial, que sustentan acertados cambios en la proyección, herramienta para entender cambios ascendentes y descendentes, que refuerzan las variaciones del precio del activo hasta la fecha de vencimiento. Por lo anterior se propone una metodología comparada de aproximación de cuatro modelos que refuerzan la decisión de inversión en acciones sin dividendos con opción call de tipo europeo, basados en cálculos estadísticos y matemáticos.
A flexible convex relaxation for phase retrieval

: We propose a ﬂexible convex relaxation for the phase retrieval problem that operates in the natural domain of the signal. Therefore, we avoid the prohibitive computational cost associated with “lifting” and semideﬁnite programming (SDP) in methods such as PhaseLift and com-pete with recently developed non-convex techniques for phase retrieval. We relax the quadratic equations for phaseless measurements to inequality constraints each of which representing a symmetric “slab”. Through a simple convex program, our proposed estimator ﬁnds an extreme point of the intersection of these slabs that is best aligned with a given anchor vector . We characterize geometric conditions that certify success of the proposed estimator. Furthermore, using classic results in statistical learning theory, we show that for random measurements the geometric certiﬁcates hold with high probability at an optimal sample complexity. We demonstrate the ef- fectiveness of the proposed method through numerical simulations using both independent random measurements and coded diﬀraction patterns. We also extend this formulation to include sparsity constraints on the target vector. With this additional constraint, we show that, considering “nested” measurements, the number of phaseless measurements needed to recover the sparse vector is essentially the same (to within a logarithmic fac- tor) as the number of linear measurements needed by standard compressive sensing techniques.
A new modified scaled conjugate gradient method for large-scale unconstrained optimization with non-convex objective function

In this paper, according to the fifth-order Taylor expansion of the objective function and the modified secant equation suggested by Li and Fukushima, a new modified secant equation is presented. Also, a new modification of the scaled memoryless BFGS preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm is suggested which is the idea to compute the scaling parameter based on a two-point approximation of our new modified secant equation. A remarkable feature of the proposed method is that it possesses a globally convergent even without convexity assumption on the objective function. Numerical results show that the proposed new modification of scaled conjugate gradient is efficient.
Flots géodésiques et théorie des modèles des corps différentiels

Le travail de cette these a pour objet les interactions entre deux approches d'etude des equations differentielles: la theorie des modeles des corps differentiellement clos d'une part et l'etude dynamique des equations differentielles reelles d'autre part. Dans le premier chapitre, on presente un formalisme d'algebre differentielle, en termes de D-schemas a la Buium au-dessus du corps des nombres reels (muni de la derivation triviale), qui permet de rendre compte de ces deux approches d'etude en meme temps. Le resultat principal est un critere d'orthogonalite aux constantes pour le type generique d'une D-varietes reelle absolument irreductible, base sur la dynamique topologique de son flot reel analytique associe. Le deuxieme chapitre est consacre aux equations differentielles algebriques decrivant le flot geodesique de varietes algebriques reelles munies de 2-formes symetriques non-degenerees. A l'aide du critere precedent, on demontre un theoreme d'orthogonalite aux constantes "en courbure strictement negative'', s'appuyant sur les resultats d'Anosov et de ses successeurs concernant la dynamique topologique - la propriete de melange topologique faible - du flot geodesique d'une variete riemannienne compacte a courbure strictement negative. En dimension 2, on conjecture en fait une description plus precise - son type generique est minimal de pregeometrie triviale - de la structure associee aux equations differentielles geodesiques unitaires. On presente, dans le troisieme chapitre, des motivations et des resultats partiels concernant cette conjecture.
Non-parametric optimal service pricing: a simulation study

Abstract In this paper, we study a price discovery algorithm for searching the optimal price for a service with price-sensitive demand. The customer’s response to price is unknown and the customer arrival process follows an arbitrary point process. This algorithm is suitable for new services with no prior knowledge or historical data available. Furthermore, there is no information about objective function as well. We take on a simulation study and discuss the sensitivity and robustness of this procedure with respect to different arrival processes and customer response functions and also provide the comparative statics with simple price learning algorithm. We prove that price discovery algorithm is a better convergent as it reduces stochastic error at each step. The main focus of this research is to provide some guidance for the selection of sample sizes based on the test significance and the measure of its power when actual mean and variance for revenue are unknown.
pFedEff: An Efficient and Personalized Federated Cognitive Learning Framework in Multiagent Systems

With the increase in data volume and environment complexity, real-world problems require more advanced algorithms to acquire useful information for further analysis or decision making. Cognitive learning (CL) effectively handles incomplete information, and multiagent systems can provide enough data for analysis. Inspired by distributed machine learning, federated learning (FL) has become an efficient framework for implementing CL algorithms in multiagent systems while preserving user privacy. However, traditional communication optimizations on the FL framework suffer from either large communication volumes or large accuracy loss. In this article, we propose pFedEff, a personalized FL framework with efficient communication that can reduce communication volume and preserve training accuracy. pFedEff uses two magnitude masks, two importance masks, and a personalized aggregation method to reduce the model and update size while maintaining the training accuracy. Specifically, we use a pretraining magnitude mask for approximated regularization to reduce the magnitude of ineffective parameters during training. We also use a post-training magnitude mask to eliminate the low-magnitude parameters after training. Furthermore, we use uploading and downloading importance masks to reduce the communication volume in both upload and download streams. Our experimental results show that pFedEff reduces up to 94% communication volume with only a 1% accuracy loss over other state-of-the-art FL algorithms. In addition, we conduct multiple ablation studies to evaluate the influence of hyperparameters in pFedEff, which shows the flexibility of pFedEff and its applicability in different scenarios.
Haplotype Disequilibrium in the TLR Genes of Czech Red Pied Cattle

Hybrid resequencing of the antibacterial innate immune genes coding for toll-like receptors, namely TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, TLR5, and TLR6, using HiSeq and PacBio technologies of pooled population samples of Czech Simmental (Czech Red) cattle allowed us to determine haplotypes formed by the polymorphisms present. Directly determined haplotypes within the range of the large proximal amplicon in TLR2 formed two clusters in the network tree graph. The distribution of the statistically reconstructed haplotypes based on individual genotyping of the present SNPs was consistent. Similarly, the statistically reconstructed haplotypes in TLR5 and TLR6 formed two clusters. The trend of bimodal distribution was also observed in TLR4, while the limited diversity of TLR1 did not allow for any conclusion. The observed bimodal distribution is consistent with earlier reports for cattle populations worldwide. The stability of this phenomenon cannot be ascribed to historical origin but rather to a long-term effect of balancing selection. The equilibrium might be based on two different essential functions performed by the TLR genes or their products. The formation of two kinds of heterodimers by the TLR2 product, namely, TLR2/TLR1 and TLR2/TLR6 with different ligand specificities, is considered to be a particular case. On the other hand, the better expression of the bimodal groups in the 5′-proximal SNPs supports the localization of the selection targets in the upstream regulatory regions or the functional interactions in the proximal part of the transcripts.
ANALISIS PENINGKATAN KECEPATAN IC FLIP-FLOP R-S HCMOS MENGGUNAKAN METODE PENAMBAHAN KASKADE INVERTER

Teknologi HCMOS merupakan teknologi CMOS dalam rangkaian terpadu dengan penambahan kaskade inverter. IC flip-flop R-S HCMOS merupakan IC flip-flop R-S CMOS dengan penambahan dua kaskade inverter pada sisi outputnya. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah meningkatkan kecepatan propagation delay IC flip-flop R-S HCMOS mengunakan metode penambahan kaskade inverter. Dengan menambahkan dua kaskade, empat kaskade, dan enam kaskade pada flip-flop R-S HCMOS serta mengatur perbandingan W dan L diharapkan dapat diketahui perubahan kecepatan yang dihasilkan dari flip-flop R-S tersebut. Simulasi yang dilakukan dengan program PSPICE pada suhu 117 0C¬, CL= 15 pF, dan f= 2 MHz menunjukkan bahwa flip-flop R-S HCMOS enam kaskade menghasilkan tPD= 9 kali lebih cepat dan PDP= 9 kali lebih kecil dari flip-flop R-S HCMOS empat kaskade. Sedangkan flip-flop R-S HCMOS empat kaskade menghasilkan tPD = 9 kali lebih cepat dan PDP= 9 kali lebih kecil dari tPD flip-flop R-S HCMOS dua kaskade. Penggambaran layout IC flip-flop R-S HCMOS enam kaskade dengan pada i/o yang dilakukan dengan program Microwind memiliki luasan 2,8 mm x 1,5 mm.
Pausing as a prosodic correlate of speech units in St’át’imcets (Lillooet Salish)

The reliability of pausing as a correlate to prosodic, syntactic and discourse units has been debated in commonly-studied languages. The question explored in this study is what role (syntactic, prosodic, narrative) does pausing play in one St’at’imcets narrative. Results suggest that pausing is a correlate to discourse and prosodic units rather than syntactic ones.
Latent Heat Nudging in the Canadian Regional Deterministic Prediction System

This study reports on the progress toward operational weather radar data assimilation in Canada. As a first step, the latent heat nudging (LHN) technique has been tested for a period of 1 month. It is the first time that LHN is used across the North American continent, a domain significantly larger than that of other LHN studies. Other novel aspects of this study include the use of a quality index associated with individual reflectivity measurements and a discussion on matching the effective resolution of the modeled precipitation for a reduction of the representation errors. Various verification scores indicate that LHN has a positive influence on instantaneous precipitation rates for lead times up to 3 h. In comparison, the nowcasting of precipitation rates by a simple Lagrangian extrapolation method yields improvements that last up to approximately 4 h. Verifications against aircraft measurements indicate small but statistically significant improvements throughout the troposphere for lead times up to 24 h.
Composted Azolla as a peat alternative in bedding of Begonia rex

Abstract Azolla has caused environmental problems due to its rapid growth and high biomass production in wetlands of Guilan province. This study was conducted to investigate the possibility of using composted Azolla instead of peat in Begonia rex production. The plant was grown for 5 months under greenhouse in a peat + perlite (2: 1 v/v) (P: PE) and composts (25, 50, 75 and 100%) instead of peat in P: PE. Begonia is generally purchased and enjoyed by people for its spectacular foliage. The results showed that compost increased all nutrients in the growth medium, but in the leaves of the plant only potassium increased. By increasing the amounts of compost between 25 and 100%, the bulk density of the growing medium decreased (0.12-0.07 g/cm3) compared to the control (0.21 g/cm3). The amount of potassium in the growth media containing 25% and 75% Azolla compost increased significantly compared to the control. Substitution of 25% compost instead of peat compared to the control, caused a significant increase (p = 0.05) in leaf number (13.91), leaf fresh weight (50.08 g), leaf dry weight (2.01 g), root wet weight (2.23 g) and root length (33.66 cm). Substitution of 25-100% compost increased pH and Electrical conductivity of growth media. With regard to the high relative price of peat with respect to compost, 25% compost is economically preferred. According to the results, compost is a good alternative to peat, but this does not mean the application of high levels of compost in the growth media.
Improvements in phase unwrapping algorithms for interferometric SAR

L'interferometrie SAR est maintenant une technique eprouvee pour l'obtention d'informations topographiques tres haute resolution a partir d'avions ou de satellites. Un probleme majeur dans le traitement des donnees SAR interferometrique reside dans la mise en relation non ambigue de la phase interferometrique avec la hauteur topographique (ou deroulage de phase). Ce papier debute par la revue de quelques applications des SAR interferometriques, puis decrit quelques approches pour la resolution du probleme de deroulage de phase et compare leurs performances en utilisant un ensemble de programmes de simulation. Un nouvel algorithme est propose qui resout quelques problemes des approches actuelles
Jenseits des Mooreschen Gesetzes

Das Gehirn funktioniert fundamental anders als digitale Computer. Einen Computer mit vergleichbarem Verhältnis von Leistungsfähigkeit, Platzbedarf und Gewicht zu bauen, erfordert einen ganz neuen Ansatz. Ein Schlüssel hierzu könnten thermodynamische Bits sein. Sie bestehen aus zwei in Serie geschalteten Memristoren und lassen sich als künstliche Synapsen mit Befehlssätzen steuern.