SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
Mine expansion decisions under uncertainty

Most mining projects are multi-phase investments and possess options for expanding mine life beyond the initially estimated one. Such strategic expansion options can have a significant influence on the economic viability of the mining project. However, the decision to go ahead with a mine expansion proposal can represent a challenge to decision-makers who must fully take into account uncertainty and risk. In this respect, the expand/not-to-expand recommendation based on a static conventional financial analysis can be misleading as it ignores real life complexities imposed by uncertain future outcomes. The now-or-never principle of the popular static merit measures might be not well suited to support such strategic expansion decisions given the dynamic nature of their value drivers. This article investigates how to deal with uncertainty when analysing mine expansion decisions. The proposed procedure is based on a simulation-based real options valuation model that can handle the complexities of mine product...
Robustness analysis of organic technology adoption: evidence from Northern Vietnamese tea production

Increasing consumer awareness on sustainable and healthy food choices has given rise to a growing demand for organic tea in past decades. Most of this demand is met by imports from developing countries. This article examines the main factors affecting the choice of farm households to adopt organic tea production in Northern Vietnam. We apply a logit model to survey data from 241 Vietnamese tea farming households. We assess the robustness of the results by addressing three important statistical issues: (i) regressor endogeneity, (ii) unobserved heterogeneity at farm level and (iii) missing values. The main results are chiefly robust and largely in line with the theory. We find that farm households with higher revenues, located in rich natural and physical environments, are significantly more inclined to adopt organic tea production. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that farm households who are consulted by extension agents and belong to a tea association increase the odds for the adoption of organic tea cultivation.
Antibody-functionalized nanoparticles for imaging cancer: influence of conjugation to gold nanoparticles on the biodistribution of89Zr-labeled cetuximab in mice

Antibody-labeled gold nanoparticles represent a promising novel tool regarding cancer imaging and therapy. Nevertheless, the characterization of biodistribution of such immunonanocarriers has been poorly documented. In this study, the biodistribution of (89)Zr-labeled cetuximab before and after the coupling reaction to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was compared and the quantitative imaging performance of (89)Zr immuno-PET was evaluated. Cetuximab was functionalized with the desferal moiety and labeled with (89)Zr ((89)Zr-Df-Bz-NCS-cetuximab). AuNPs with a mean diameter of 5 nm were synthesized according a new method developed in the laboratory, and conjugated to (89)Zr-Df-Bz-NCS-cetuximab using carbodiimide chemistry (AuNPs-PPAA-cetuximab-(89)Zr). The two tracers were injected in A431 xenograft-bearing mice. Tumor and liver uptakes were assessed at different times after injection using quantitative PET imaging. The in vivo specificity of the binding was investigated using a saturating dose of unlabeled cetuximab. Radiolabeled cetuximab was conjugated to AuNPs with a coupling reaction yield >75%. All conjugates were stable in vitro and to a lesser extent in plasma. In vivo distribution studies revealed no significant difference in tumor uptake for cetuximab conjugated to nanoparticles up to 72 h after injection, compared with unconjugated cetuximab. Immuno-PET studies showed that AuNPs-PPAA-cetuximab-(89)Zr provided high tumor-to-background ratio. The liver uptake of AuNPs-PPAA-cetuximab-(89)Zr was higher, compared with (89)Zr-Df-Bz-NCS-cetuximab. In vivo blocking experiments demonstrated selective tumor targeting after coupling reaction. This study showed that the conjugation of AuNPs to cetuximab did not affect its tumor accumulation and that the efficacy of EGFR-targeted nanoparticles was unaltered. The (89)Zr-labeled cetuximab-targeted gold nanoparticles could be a valuable tool for theranostic purposes.
Commercialization of a full carbon wheel manufactured with an automated high-volume process for the automotive market

The aim of CARIM is the final development, homologation and commercialization of a full carbon automotive wheel manufactured in an automated, high-volume production process. Within the 2-year project the TRL level, currently 6+, will be raised to 8+ or 9.
 
Developments in automated CFRP production technology will generate a wheel that is 30-50% lighter than state-of-the-art Al-wheels, with the extra advantage of excellent mechanical performance. The manufacture of the wheels in an automated preforming and HP-RTM process will ensure short cycle times (max. 10 min/component) and lower costs (1634€/wheel in first year of production and 1164€ in 2020) that will enable scale-up to series production and make the CARIM wheels competitive against current casted and forged Al-wheels and other emerging plastic wheel concepts. A testing and validation phase for the demonstrators covers a comprehensive product homologation to meet TUV regulations and the requirements of OEMs and material suppliers.

The market entry of the product is clearly detailed in the proposal’s business plan which predicts a commercially-available product within one year after the project ends. The strategy for implementing the carbon wheel on the market is a top-down approach starting with a low production volume for high class cars and a steady rise in carbon wheel production. The five-year goal is a production capability - only at RiBa - of 52.000 wheels per year by 2020. The technology also has the potential for transfer into higher-volume car segments in luxury/medium-class vehicles, as well as to helicopter and aviation applications.

The industry-driven consortium is supported by strong partners integrated in an Industrial Exploitation Board (Bentley, Huntsman) providing technical and economic consulting and know-how. The project results will be systematically disseminated and exploited to maximize visibility, industrial take-up and the transfer of the developments to new markets.
Motivating the study of international trade: A classroom activity

ABSTRACTIn this article, the author describes a classroom activity for use in introductory economics courses to motivate the study of international trade. The learning activity highlights the importance of international trade in students' everyday lives by having students inventory their on-hand belongings and identify where the items were manufactured. Students find that even among the relatively few possessions they have with them in the classroom, dozens of countries are represented. Further, the activity can be used to prompt discussions on the benefits of trade, trade patterns, comparative advantage, specialization, and trade regulations, as well as welfare effects of those regulations.
FLUID DISPLACEMENT APPARATUS AND METHOD

A well production apparatus includes a down-hole gear pump and a transport assembly to which the gear pump is attached. The transport assembly is formed from a string of modular pipe assemblies having one or more passages for carrying production fluid from the bottom of the well to the surface. The passages can be arranged in a side-by-side configuration, and include pressure and return lines for driving the gear pump. The gear pump includes a hydraulically driven motor that is ganged with a positive displacement gear set. Both the motor and the pumping section have ceramic wear surfaces, the ceramic being chosen to have coefficients of thermal expansion corresponding to the coefficients of thermal expansion of the gear sets. The pumps and rotors have ceramic bushings rather than ball or journal bearings, and are operable under abrasive conditions.
Projection system

An image projector that modifies projected images. An imaging device preferably senses information about a projection screen upon which an image is projected. Based on the sensed information about the projection screen, the projector modifies the image in a desired manner, such as rescaling, or correcting distortion in, the projected image.
New phenolics from the root of Scutellariaprostrata JACQ. ex BENTH.

Scutellaria prostrata (Lamiaceae), a perennial herb growing as a lonely species in Kashmir, Himalayas, was subjected to repetitive column and flash chromatographic isolation for its chemical documentation-cum-bioevaluation. The methanolic extract of S.prostrata afforded the isolation of ten compounds (1-10), including two new compounds - scutellapbiflavanone (1) and scutellaprostin M (2). The known compounds were found to be scutellarin (3), hispidulin-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (4), baicalin (5), wogonoside (6), scutellaprostin C (7), acetoside (8), martynoside (9) and scutellaric acid-3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside (10). Isolation of biflavonoids, phenolics and phenylethanoid compounds from S. prostrata seals a deal of chemotaxonomic importance of this particular species. The characterisation of the compounds was achieved by (1)H, (13)C, (1)H-(1)H DFQ COSY, HMBC, HSQC, HMQC and ROESY NMR experiments. All the compounds were tested for antioxidant, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities.
Impact of radiolysis and radiolytic corrosion on the release of 13C and 37Cl implanted into nuclear graphite: Consequences for the behaviour of 14C and 36Cl in gas cooled graphite moderated reactors

Abstract Graphite finds widespread use in many areas of nuclear technology based on its excellent moderator and reflector qualities as well as its strength and high temperature stability. Thus, it has been used as moderator or reflector in CO2 cooled nuclear reactors such as UNGG, MAGNOX, and AGR. However, neutron irradiation of graphite results in the production of 14C (dose determining radionuclide) and 36Cl (long lived radionuclide), these radionuclides being a key issue regarding the management of the irradiated waste. Whatever the management option (purification, storage, and geological disposal), a previous assessment of the radioactive inventory and the radionuclide's location and speciation has to be made. During reactor operation, the effects of radiolysis are likely to promote the radionuclide release especially at the gas/graphite interface. Radiolysis of the coolant is mainly initiated through γ irradiation as well as through Compton electrons in the graphite pores. Radiolysis can be simulated in laboratory using γ irradiation or ion irradiation. In this paper, 13C, 37Cl and 14N are implanted into virgin nuclear graphite in order to simulate respectively the presence of 14C, 36Cl and nitrogen, a 14C precursor. Different irradiation experiments were carried out using different irradiation devices on implanted graphite brought into contact with a gas simulating the coolant. The aim was to assess the effects of gas radiolysis and radiolytic corrosion induced by γ or He2+ irradiation at the gas/graphite interface in order to evaluate their role on the radionuclide release. Our results allow inferring that radiolytic corrosion has clearly promoted the release of 14C, 36Cl and 14N located at the graphite brick/gas interfaces and open pores.
Lameness and Welfare of Dairy Cattle

A prominent veterinary researcher from Cornell University estimates that the most costly diseases of dairy cattle are displacement of the abomasum and lameness resulting in the $489 and $478 per case, respectively. However, when economic losses are computed on a herd basis, none rival lameness as the most costly disease of dairy cattle. Reasons for this are largely related to its insidious nature and the relatively high incidence of this disease compared to abomasal displacement, mastitis and other common health disorders. Although variable, it is not uncommon to find herds with annual incidence rates of 30% or higher. Lameness disorders are often neglected because early symptoms are subtle causing a failure of owners to observe or recognize them in timely manner. Detection is also complicated by the cow’s natural instinct to disguise her discomfort which results in only mild alterations of gait and posture. Ultimately, this leads to treatment delays and the development of more serious conditions that increase animal suffering and reduce welfare. Despite its impact on performance, profit and animal well-being, attention to this health problem by the dairy industry is lacking. For example, dairy record-keeping systems are designed to capture multiple bits of information on most health disorders in dairy cattle with exception of lameness events. Data that is recorded is usually provided by trimmers, but much of it cannot be conveniently transferred to the farm’s record-keeping system. Furthermore, terms used by trimmers and data captured is not consistent or easily interpreted since there is no standard nomenclature used amongst trimmers. As a consequence, there is little or no data available for regular evaluation of foot care information on farms by veterinarians or others. Another issue of growing concern for the Iowa dairy industry is that promulgated by activist organizations charging that the welfare of animals in production agriculture is compromised for the benefit of profit. These organizations are well organized and support their arguments with video footage taken by persons working undercover in packing plants, livestock markets and on farms. For the most radical of these organizations the primary objective is to end animal agriculture. Unless the dairy industry can develop an effective pro-active approach to assuring consumers of its commitment to humane care of its animals, it faces a greater likelihood of increased regulation by outside agencies.
SEALING METHOD AND APPARATUS

A method and apparatus for forming a plug in a passageway. The apparatus comprises a carrier which in use is lowered into the passageway, the carrier comprising an elongate body (3) of a material resistant to creep which supports at least two spaced apart portions (5) that are a sliding fit in the well (1) such that a gap is formed between each of the potions and the passageway. A body of material (15, 16, 17) the :melting point of which is higher than the temperature within the passageway and which expands as it solidifies is supported on the carrier. A heating device is provided for melting the body of material such that the melted material fills a space defined between the first and second portions. The carrier is cooled preferentially to ensure that the molten material solidifies rapidly adjacent the two spaced apart portions, thereby resisting flow of the material as it solidifies past the spaced apart portions. Means (21) are provided to obstruct the gaps formed between the portions arid the passageway; the obstructing means being displaced into the gaps as a result of melting of the body of material or as a result of any creep of material after it has been melted and solidified.
Shared-Reading Volume in Early Childhood Special Education Classrooms

This study describes book reading practices occurring in early childhood special education (ECSE) classrooms in comparison to early childhood education (ECE) classrooms. Reading logs submitted by 19 ECSE teachers and 13 ECE teachers over one academic year included all books read in whole class settings; these logs were analyzed to assess the volume of book reading taking place and the types of books read. On average, ECSE teachers report reading less than one book per day and for less than seven minutes per day and ECSE teachers utilize far more narrative books than any other genre. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Note on otolith growth in elvers, Anguilla anguilla (L.), and the relative otolith size during somatic growth

Newly pigmented glass-eels were kept in a cold water quarantine, before being exposed to increased water temperature and weaned with cod roe and commercial dry feed. The otoliths started to grow before fish growth was observed. As a consequence, the relative otolith size increased. This increase was higher at higher temperature. During the first period with significant eel growth, no further change in the otolith/fish size ratio was observed. Initially, the otolith size was not correlated to fish size, but a positive correlation occurred in growing elvers. The results are discussed with reference to variation in relative otolith size of larger eels. As otoliths have frequently been used in back-calculation of previous eel size, further studies on factors determining otolith growth are suggested.
γ-ray Radiation Induced Synthesis and Characterization of α-Cobalt Hydroxide Nanoparticles

A novel synthetic route has been developed to prepare α-cobalt hydroxide with intercalated nitrate anions. It was success-fully synthesized by γ-ray irradiation under simple conditions, i.e., air atmosphere, without base. Under γ-ray irradiation, it leads to the formation of layered cobalt hydroxynitrate compounds which have small crystalline size and have the role of a generator of hydroxyl anion. Structural and morphological characterizations were performed by using power X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). The component and thermal stability of the sample were respectively measured by Fourier trans-form infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and thermal analyses, including thermogravimetry (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA).
No beds for young people – also in Scotland

I read Myers et al’s correspondence1 with great interest. I am a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist working in the forensic child and adolescent mental health services and I am simply dumbfounded by the difficulties that frequently present when trying to coordinate in-patient admissions for young people in Scotland for those who have mental health problems and concurrent risk to others.

Like the authors of the letter, I see the deterioration and the stigma that young people face when admissions are being coordinated. At present, there are no secure mental health beds in Scotland who accept under-18-year-olds. Our only option is to beg for intensive psychiatric care unit beds from colleagues in adult services. I also echo concerns that there is no joined-up bed management system within the service I work for, which means that should I wish to admit a young person, it is up to me to call each unit individually.

Often my only option is to send young people to England, where there are private-sector adolescent medium secure beds. This comes with significant cost, both financial and emotional. I have seen how hard it is for families to agree to send their loved ones so far away, knowing they will struggle to visit or sometimes even telephone. In addition, if a young person is on remand or pre-trial, they cannot be sent across the border.

I thank the authors for making me realise that I am not isolated in this demoralising and stigmatising situation. But this is a bittersweet pill as it only serves to highlight that services need to be made more available for young people across the country.
Reducing CPU and network overhead for small I/O requests in network storage protocols over raw Ethernet

Small I/O requests are important for a large number of modern workloads in the data center. Traditionally, storage systems have been able to achieve low I/O rates for small I/O operations because of hard disk drive (HDD) limitations that are capable of about 100–150 IOPS (I/O operations per second) per spindle. Therefore, the host CPU processing capacity and network link throughput have been relatively abundant for providing these low rates. With new storage device technologies, such as NAND Flash Solid State Drives (SSDs) and non-volatile memory (NVM), it is becoming common to design storage systems that are able to support millions of small IOPS. At these rates, however, both server CPU and network protocol are emerging as the main bottlenecks for achieving large rates for small I/O requests. Most storage systems in datacenters deliver I/O operations over some network protocol. Although there has been extensive work in low-latency and high-throughput networks, such as Infiniband, Ethernet has dominated the datacenter. In this work we examine how networked storage protocols over raw Ethernet can achieve low, host CPU overhead and increase network link efficiency for small I/O requests. We first analyze in detail the latency and overhead of a networked storage protocol directly over Ethernet and we point out the main inefficiencies. Then, we examine how storage protocols can take advantage of context switch elimination and adaptive batching to reduce CPU and network overhead. Our results show that raw Ethernet is appropriate for supporting fast storage systems. For 4kB requests we reduce server CPU overhead by up to 45%, we improve link utilization by up to 56%, achieving more than 88% of the theoretical link throughput. Effectively, our techniques serve 56% more I/O operations over a 10Gbits/s link than a baseline protocol that does not include our optimizations at the same CPU utilization. Overall, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to present a system that is able to achieve 14μs host CPU overhead on both initiator and target for small networked I/Os over raw Ethernet without hardware support. In addition, our approach is able to achieve 287K 4kB IOPS out of the 315K IOPS that are theoretically possible over a 1.2GBytes/s link.
Proof of concept study for erc nipd discovered biomarkers

Scientific and medical evidence indicate that non-invasive prenatal testing, known as non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), is a safer alternative to invasive tests that might put the pregnancy at risk. Modern NIPT examine traces of fetal DNA in the maternal bloodstream to determine whether the fetus is at risk of chromosomal abnormalities such as, but not limited to, Down syndrome (trisomy 21), Patau syndrome (trisomy 13) and Edward’s syndrome (trisomy 18). In this ERC Proof of Concept Grant (mR-NIPD), we anticipate to correlate already discovered DNA biomarkers of the ERC NIPD (funded ERC) with biomarkers in mRNA transcripts. The method, directly related to the currently funded ERC, will use m6A-specific methylated mRNA immunoprecipitation combined with Next Generation Sequencing (MeRIP-Seq) on fetal and maternal mRNA samples. As a result, we aim to increase the number of fetal specific biomarkers and provide a novel, cost-effective non-invasive prenatal test that will be accessible to all pregnant women independent from social and economic status
L’évolution des dialectes arabes : étude sociolinguistique et quantitative (le cas de l’Algérie)

Cette étude a pour but d’analyser l’arabe algérien, qui, malgré sa constante évolution comparée à la langue arabe standard et la langue française, n’est toujours pas reconnu comme langue officielle, mais plutôt comme langue maternelle. De ce fait, il est essentiel de réaliser une étude descriptive-quantitative, afin de comprendre cette réalité linguistique. Ce travail de recherche vise, donc, à contextualiser la sociolinguistique d’une part mais aussi à réaliser une étude d’analyse à travers un questionnaire de recueil des préférences linguistiques des algériens. Les résultats obtenus nous permettent d’identifier les domaines dans lesquels l’arabe algérien est le plus utilisé et à proposer des recommandations pour la planification de la politique linguistique en Algérie.