SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
Attempts at a determination of the fine-structure constant from first principles: a brief historical overview

It has been a notably elusive task to find a remotely sensical ansatz for a calculation of Sommerfeld's electrodynamic fine-structure constant alpha_QED ~ 1/137.036 based on first principles. However, this has not prevented a number of researchers to invest considerable effort into the problem, despite the formidable challenges, and a number of attempts have been recorded in the literature. Here, we review a possible approach based on the quantum electrodynamic (QED) beta function, and on algebraic identities relating alpha_QED to invariant properties of "internal" symmetry groups, as well as attempts to relate the strength of the electromagnetic interaction to the natural cut-off scale for other gauge theories. Conjectures based on both classical as well as quantum-field theoretical considerations are discussed. We point out apparent strengths and weaknesses of the most prominent attempts that were recorded in the literature. This includes possible connections to scaling properties of the Einstein-Maxwell Lagrangian which describes gravitational and electromagnetic interactions on curved space-times. Alternative approaches inspired by string theory are also discussed. A conceivable variation of the fine-structure constant with time would suggest a connection of alpha_QED to global structures of the Universe, which in turn are largely determined by gravitational interactions.
The initialGaiasource list

Aims. We describe the production of the Initial Gaia Source List (IGSL) used both as the starting point for observation-matching in the Gaia data processing and as a comparison catalog to trigger early science alerts. Methods. The IGSL was compiled from large scale public catalogs and a few specific catalogs provided by the Gaia Consortium. For all entries, a Gaia G magnitude is estimated and all objects with a G < 21.0 were included. Results. The catalog has 1222598530 entries with the J2000 ICRF positions, proper motions, classification (star/non-star), and estimates of the Gaia G, Gaia Grvs, Guide Star Catalog red (RF) and blue (BJ) magnitudes. It is available from the Centre de Donnees astronomiques de Strasbourg.
Uncertainty quantification and design tools for robust organic rankine cycles

The objective of the present proposal is to advance the state of the art of Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC) to assist Europe achieve its goal for energy sustainability. Current ORC design methods rely on numerical models that use inaccurate assumptions and neglect variable operating conditions.  Hence, the specific goal, of this proposal, is to develop advance engineering tools to characterize and minimize the impact of aleatory and epistemic uncertainties during the design phase of ORC based machines. The first part of the project targets the integration of uncertainty quantification techniques with: 1) thermodynamic model of an ORC cycle and; 2) aerodynamic model of the turbine. The objective is to provide performance predictions with confidence margins that facilitate reliable design decisions. The numerical results will be validated with data from a new ORC facility at TU Delft. Additionally, innovative Bayesian inference techniques will use experimental data to infer the confidence margins of the parameters used in the model. The second phase aims to quantify the impact of a variable heat sources in the performance of the cycle and its consequent effect on the aerodynamic efficiency of the turbine. With an accurate prediction of the probabilistic density function of the turbine’s boundary conditions, robust optimization method will be developed to maximize the turbine’s performance over the complete operational range. All the tools will be developed in open access to foster academic collaboration and motivate engineers to consider and minimize uncertainties in the early design phase of energy systems.
Promotion of the Elektra brand through participation in the industry program of promotion of machinery and equipment.

SA 42799(2015/X) The object of the project is to support the company SŁAWOMIR Lenik PHU ELEKTRA in the field of brand promotion in foreign markets through the participation of the Applicant in the programme of promotion of machinery and equipment. As part of the project, the applicant will participate as an exhibitor at the fair: 1.TRAKO 2019 2. InnoTrans 2020 3. Ugol Rossii & Mining 2020 4. ENERGETAB 2020 It is also planned to organise individual missions to Serbia, Greece, Russia, Australia, Latvia and the Czech Republic. Forward markets where promotional activities will take place: Serbia, Russia. Research conducted by Pentor shows that fair events are one of the most effective marketing tools. Trade fairs, exhibitions and exhibitions are among the most popular industry events. Despite the progress of technology and the development of means of communication, in particular information technology, the fair remains a key and most effective form of attracting foreign counterparties and developing business, due to the possibility of establishing direct contacts with foreign current and potential customers and checking foreign competition, as well as conducting a direct review of the current offer, which cannot be replaced by virtual contacts. Thanks to the implementation of the project, Elektra will promote its brand on foreign markets and acquire new contractors, which will result in an increase in the export activity and export value of the Applicant. Participation in fair events will also make it possible to establish direct relations with existing and potential contractors, which will allow us to gain knowledge about their needs and expectations. The acquired knowledge will allow to adapt the commercial offer to the requirements of foreign customers, and thus to further internationalise the Company’s business. The implementation of the project will be financed from own resources.
NOVEL OLIGOSACCHARIDES FOR USE IN PREBIOTIC APPLICATIONS

Mare's milk plays a major role in the health of neonatal foals and may be used for human or other mammalian health. Oligosaccharides (OS) possess various bioactivities in many mammalian milks, and Mare's milk may be a source of novel oligosaccharides. The invention relates to the identification of novel structures in mare's milk that may be synthesized or otherwise purified for use in a variety of animal and human applications related to the gut microbiome and mammalian health.
Photonics in flatland: band structure engineering of 2d excitons in fluorescent colloidal nanomaterials

In PHOCONA we aim to develop a new class of highly fluorescent 2D and quasi-2D colloidal nanomaterials for solution-processed coherent light sources and ultrafast single-photon emitters. The 2D excitons are created in suspended semiconductor nanoplates with a thickness below 5 nm, and transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers. Prepared by colloidal chemistry and liquid-phase exfoliation, respectively, they take advantage of both quantum confinement through their nanoscale dimensions, as well as dielectric confinement via the dielectric mismatch between nanomaterials and surrounding matrix. Via smart nanocrystal design, more specifically by exploiting novel synthesis methods that include asymmetric in-plane confinement potentials, anisotropic crystal structures, and lattice strain-induced band structure modifications in core/shell heterostructures,  the nanomaterials will be shaped toward efficient multiexciton and stimulated emission, as well as stable, blinking-free single-photon emission. The intrinsic 2D exciton properties will be further modified toward ultrafast exciton recombination by coupling the nanomaterials to small mode-volume plasmonic nanocavities, hereby placing them in a local photon density-of-states that will lead to a strong Purcell enhancement. The realization of cost-effective, energy-efficient and highly flexible light emitters, which can be synthesized and processed via methods that are scalable to large areas and volumes, forms an important milestone in the ongoing development of optical and quantum communications technology, as well as new lighting and display applications.
Co-Creating misinformation-resilient societies

Misinformation generates misperceptions, which have affected policies in many domains, including economy, health, environment, and foreign policy. Co-Inform is about empowering citizens, journalists, and policymakers with co-created socio-technical solutions, to increase resilience to misinformation, and to generate more informed behaviors and policies. The aim of Co-Inform is to co-create these solutions, with citizens, journalists, and policymakers, for (a) detecting and combating a variety of misinforming posts and articles on social media, (b) supporting, persuading, and nourishing misinformation-resilient behavior, (c) bridging between the public on social media, external fact checking journalists, and policymakers, (d) understanding and predicting which misinforming news and content are likely to spread across which parts of the network and demographic sectors, (e) infiltrating echo-chambers on social media, to expose confirmation-biased networks to different perceptions and corrective information, and (f) providing policymakers with advanced misinformation analysis to support their policy making process and validation. 

To achieve these goals, Co-Inform will bring together a multidisciplinary team of scientists and practitioners, to foster co-creational methodologies and practices for engaging stakeholders in combating misinformation posts and news articles, combined with advanced intelligent methods for misinformation detection, misinformation flow prediction, and real-time processing and measurement of crowds' acceptance or refusal of misinformation. Co-Inform tools and platform will be made freely available and open sourced to maximize benefit and reuse. Three main stakeholder groups will be directly engaged throughout this process; citizens, journalists, and policymakers.
Aggregation Rate of Charged Colloidal Particles in a Shear Flow: Trajectory Analysis Using Non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann Solution

Shear-induced aggregation, which coincides with the velocity gradient of fluid, extensively occurs in environmental and industrial processes. Thus, understanding of shear-induced aggregation is still important in many fields. However, although the aggregation kinetic theory in a shear flow provides fundamental aspects in practical situations, the verifications of the theory are not sufficient due to the lack of quantitative comparisons with experimental data. In particular, the experimental aggregation rates in the presence of electrostatic repulsion, which diminishes the rates, have not been compared with theoretical calculations, since the previous calculation can not be applied to the experimental data because of using the expression for electrostatic repulsion which assumes the linearized Poisson-Boltzmann(PB) equation that is only valid in the low surface potential case. Therefore, we examined the comparison between theoretical calculations and experimental data by Sato et al. for the aggregation rates in a Couette flow as a function of KCl concentration at different shear rates. To calculate the theoretical rates, we employed the trajectory analysis with the repulsion calculated using the non-linear PB solution. We plotted the capture efficiencies, which are defined as the ratio of the rate with and without particle interactions, for the polystyrene latex particles with a diameter of 2R = 1.96 μm against KCl concentration at different shear rates G in Fig. 1. Symbols are experimental values at G = 23(△), 46(○), 92(▽ ) s−1, respectively. Lines indicate the theoretical values based on trajectory analysis with Non-linear PB solution, assuming σ = −60 mC/m, and Hamaker constant AH = 2.0×10−21 J which characterizes the magnitude of van der Waals attraction. We can see that the capture efficiencies decrease with decreasing KCl concentration and increasing electrostatic repulsion, and the present calculation can qualitatively describe the experimental data as shown in Fig. 1. However, we observed the quantitative discrepancies between the experimental and theoretical values. These discrepancies might be caused by Non-DLVO forces which are not included in the present trajectory analysis. Fig. 1 Capture efficiency vs. KCl concentration for 2R = 1.96 μm: Symbols and lines are experimental values taken from Sato et al . and theoretical ones based on trajectory analysis. References [1] D. Sato et al., Colloids Surf. A 266 (2005) 150-154. [2] T. G. M. Van de Ven, S. G. Mason, Colloid Polymer Sci. 255 (1977) 468-479. [3] S. H. Behrens et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 103 (1999) 2918-2928.
Industrial design easy assembly kit

China is the main worldwide manufacturer of packaging machinery with around the 23% of the market share and almost a complete control of the affordable machinery sector. Its competitiveness is based on low prices supported by its inherent minor labour costs. This situation has pushed the reduction of the European market share from around 45% by 2007 to the current 20% nowadays with a total loss of the low-end segment. In order to recover this lost of competitiveness, Mac Due has been developing a new business model for the packaging machinery sector which pivots on the sales of equipment as assembling kits. This manner, the assembling cost are transfered to the regional dealers and automatically adjusted to the destiny country, circumventing the labour cost issue while it keeps the manufacturer margin profit. Besides, the dealers' role is upgraded to become the providers of post-sale services and maintenance, generating new revenues streams for them. This impact is finally translated to the end-user which can obtain savings of up 35% thanks to the previous cuts. With this project, Mac Due aims to offer a reliable alternative to the European packaging machinery sector whose success will open new opportunities to the whole machinery industry.
Self-optimization of single femto-cell coverage using handover events in LTE systems

In LTE systems, low-power required small-coverage-cell is additionally deployed on a macro-cell to enhance the system performance in the respects of coverage and capacity improvement. In this paper, we propose a self-optimization algorithm for a single femto-cell coverage. The objective function to be minimized for optimal coverage adjustment is the sum of camp on (CO) and unnecessary hand over (UHO) areas that is defined shortly. CO problem results in inefficient usage of base station with low received signal strength, and consequently, causes the low data rate. UHO incurs the wasteful usage of limited resources and overhead increase due to HO processes. We verify the validity of the proposed algorithm by comparing the performance with the result of theoretical analysis. Furthermore, we develop the proposed algorithm to increase the system throughput.
Dramatic Fluorescence Enhancement of Bare Carbon Dots through Facile Reduction Chemistry

Reduction of bare carbon dots (CDs) in aqueous NaBH(4) solution is a facile and effective approach to enhance their fluorescence without any surface coverage. CDs are treated with dilute aqueous NaBH(4) solutions, enhancing their quantum yields (QYs) successfully from 1.6 % to 16 % which is comparable to semiconductive QDs in aqueous environments. If pristine CDs are treated hydrothermally prior to reduction by NaBH(4), QYs reach 40.5 %. This value is among the highest QYs reported for bare CDs in the literature. The approach to enhance fluorescence through chemical reduction is generally applicable to other kinds of CDs synthesized by various methods. Alteration of the chemical structure of the CDs by NaBH(4)-reduction is analyzed by (13) C NMR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy, which demonstrate that the carbonyl group content is decreased after NaBH(4)-reduction, whereas the number of sp(3)-type carbon defects is increased. The valence-band maxima (VBM) near the surface related to the surface energy bands of the CDs are estimated by XPS. VBM data show a semiconducting layer on the surface of the CDs, and the VBM of the CDs decrease with increasing NaBH(4)-reduction time. The layered graphite structures in the cores of the CDs are clearly observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). CDs could perhaps be regarded as semiconductive surface defect layers formed by chemical erosion over conductive graphite cores. Chemical reduction by NaBH(4) changes the surface-energy bands of the CDs, thus, enhances their fluorescence. The fluorescence properties of aqueous NaBH(4)-reduced CDs are also studied for possible biological applications.
Influence of temperature on neuronal excitability in cochlear nucleus

The influence of temperature on neuronal excitability is studied by numerical simulations on the spiking threshold characteristics of bushy cells in cochlear nucleus periodically stimulated by synaptic currents. The results reveal that there is a cut-off frequency for the spiking of bushy cell in a specific temperature environment, corresponding to the existence of a critical temperature for the neuron to respond with real spikes to the synaptic stimulus of a given frequency, due to the finiteness of spike width. An optimal temperature range for neuronal spiking is also found for a specific stimulus frequency, and the temperature range span decreases with increasing stimulus frequency. These findings imply that there is a physiological temperature range which is beneficial for the information processing in auditory system.
Trends in bird diversity over 12years in response to large-scale eucalypt plantation establishment: Implications for extensive carbon plantings

Abstract Large-scale plantations established for timber production or for carbon sequestration can dramatically transform landscapes, however little is known about the response of biodiversity. We report on trends in bird diversity during a 12 year longitudinal study on three large-scale plantations of locally indigenous eucalypts in northern New South Wales, Australia. The study began in a farmland mosaic and has continued to follow bird occupancy rates after the establishment of eucalypt plantations within the paddock areas. Bird surveys were undertaken at focal trees located in different classes of remnant vegetation, which became embedded within the plantations as well as in the plantation matrix itself. Reference sites were also located in adjacent blocks of forest. We found that species richness increased over time in the plantation matrix, as well as remnant vegetation embedded within the plantation (isolated trees, tree patches and remnants, but not riparian locations). When birds were classified as forest-dependent, forest-associated or mosaic generalist, the species richness of forest-associated birds increased and mosaic generalists decreased over time at selected remnant categories. Richness of forest-dependent birds did not change over time. After plantation establishment, bird composition at remnant locations gradually shifted towards that of forest, although all locations remained distinct from forest even after 11 years of plantation growth. The response of 36 individual species was assessed with 47% percent of species increasing over the 11 years and 31% of species declining. Notably the noisy miner, a hyper-aggressive species, decreased over time. We suggest a reduction in the occurrence of this species could be an important contributor to the increase in the diversity of smaller bird species. These include species of regional concern, such as the eastern yellow robin and the rufous whistler, which increased over the study period. Our results suggest that large-scale plantations of locally indigenous species contribute to ecological restoration of cleared landscapes. However, the plantation matrix after 11 years provided less suitable habitat than nearby forest as it supported fewer species, especially for birds that are characteristic of forest. Retention of remnant vegetation at the time of plantation establishment, including large isolated paddock trees, contributed considerably to the biodiversity present in the plantations and is likely to provide key refuge areas during any subsequent harvesting. Continued collection of longitudinal data are needed to describe changes through the full plantation rotation and harvest, while the extent to which other taxa respond to eucalypt plantation establishment also requires documentation.
On the Influence Propagation of Web Videos

We propose a novel approach to analyze how a popular video is propagated in the cyberspace, to identify if it originated from a certain sharing-site, and to identify how it reached the current popularity in its propagation. In addition, we also estimate their influences across different websites outside the major hosting website. Existing study regarding the flow of influence is lacking. In this article we introduce a novel framework to identify the propagation of popular videos from its major hosting site's perspective, and to estimate its influence. We define a Unified Virtual Community Space (UVCS) to model the propagation and influence of a video, and devise a novel learning method called Noise-reductive Local-and-Global Learning (NLGL) to effectively estimate a video's origin and influence. Without losing generality, we conduct experiments on annotated dataset collected from a major video sharing site to evaluate the effectiveness of the framework. Surrounding the collected videos and their ranks, some interesting discussions regarding the propagation and influence of videos as well as user behavior are also presented.
Do option open-interest changes foreshadow future equity returns?

Recent work considers whether information is simultaneously reflected in both option and equity markets. We provide new evidence supporting Black’s (Financ. Anal. J. 31:36–72, 1975) conjecture that information is first revealed in option markets. Specifically, changes in call and put open-interest levels have predictive power for future equity returns. Large increases in call open interest are followed by significantly increased equity returns. Put open-interest increases precede weaker future returns, but the relationship is considerably less pronounced in the presence of certain controls. The recent change in the call-to-put open-interest ratio has predictive power as to equity returns over the following week, even after controlling for numerous factors.
Daily rainfall interpolation models obtained by means of genetic programming

The evolutionary computing algorithm of genetic programming was applied to obtain mathematical daily rainfall interpolation models in one climatologic station, using the measured data in nearby stations in Cutzamala River basin in Mexico. The obtained models take into account both the geographical coordinates of the climatologic station and also its elevation; the answer of these models was compared against those obtained by means of multiple linear regression and a nonlinear model with parameters obtained with genetic algorithms; genetic programming models gave the best performance. Isohyets maps were then obtained to compare the spatial shapes between measured and calculated rainfall data in Cutzamala River Basin, for a maximum historic storm recorded in 2006 year, showing an adequate agreement of the results in case of rainfalls greater than 23 mm. Genetic programming represent a useful practical tool for approaching mathematical models of variables applied in engineering problems and new models could be obtained in several basins by applying these algorithms.