SIRIS-Lab/unlabelled-sti-corpus huggingface dataset:
New results on the Stackelberg–Nash exact control of linear parabolic equations

Abstract This paper is concerned with Stackelberg–Nashstrategies to control parabolic equations. We have one control, the leader, that is responsible for a null controllability property; additionally, we have a couple of controls, called the followers, that provides a Nash equilibrium for two cost functionals. This is a classical situation in many fields of science and, in mathematics, leads to a lot of interesting questions and open problems and possesses many applications. In the main result, we prove the existence of a leader such that the corresponding controlled system is driven to zero. This way, we improve some questions that were left open in previous works.
Uncharted: understanding, capturing and fostering the societal value of culture

In recent decades, with the growing emphasis on the creative economy, culture has tended to be increasingly seen in political circles under the exclusive lens of the economy and its contribution to it. To counteract this tendency, it is necessary to define the social values associated with culture on a different basis from the traditional one. The work focuses on the valuation practices of the actors involved in cultural life. In this respect, three areas and three types of fundamental actors in the value dynamics of culture are distinguished: the field of cultural participation, in which citizenship is the protagonist; the field of cultural production and heritage, where the professionals of creation and preservation are the ones who take the initiative; and the field of cultural administration, in which it is the experts and politicians who decide. The project takes these three areas and this basic typology of actors as a starting point to structure the study of the different aspects involved in this evaluative dynamic: the emergence of values, the configuration of a value order and the political impulse of values.
Experimental comparison between internally and externally cooled air-solution contactors

Air-conditioning demand, especially in hot and humid climates, causes most of the energy consumption in buildings. In these applications, the latent load often constitutes a significant part of the total load. Conventional air-conditioning systems deal with the required dehumidification by cooling the moist air below its dew point and reheat it later to increase its temperature to comfortable supply conditions. By using solid/liquid desiccant systems, which absorb humidity from the air, it becomes unnecessary to reach the dew point to dehumidify, thereby reducing energy consumption. In liquid desiccant systems, dehumidification occurs in the absorber, where the humidity of the air is absorbed by direct contact with a desiccant. Most of the previous liquid desiccant system studies have used adiabatic absorbers, where the solution must be cooled externally before being delivered into the air-solution contactor. However, based on experience with closed-cycle absorption systems, internally cooled absorbers ar...
Numerical Synthesis of Six-Bar Linkages for Mechanical Computation

This paper presents a design procedure for six-bar linkages that use eight accuracy points to approximate a specified input–output function. In the kinematic synthesis of linkages, this is known as the synthesis of a function generator to perform mechanical computation. Our formulation uses isotropic coordinates to define the loop equations of the Watt II, Stephenson II, and Stephenson III six-bar linkages. The result is 22 polynomial equations in 22 unknowns that are solved using the polynomial homotopy software Bertini. The bilinear structure of the system yields a polynomial degree of 705,432. Our first run of Bertini generated 92,736 nonsingular solutions, which were used as the basis of a parameter homotopy solution. The algorithm was tested on the design of the Watt II logarithmic function generator patented by Svoboda in 1944. Our algorithm yielded his linkage and 64 others in 129 min of parallel computation on a Mac Pro with 12 × 2.93 GHz processors. Three additional examples are provided as well.
Methods for managing audiovisual data: combining  automatic efficiency with human accuracy

Audiovisual media content created and used in films and videos is key for people to communicate and entertain. It has also become an essential resource of modern history, since a large portion of memories and records of the 20th and 21st centuries are audiovisual. To fully benefit from this asset, fast and effective methods are needed to cope with the rapidly growing audiovisual big data that are collected in digital repositories and used internationally. MeMAD will provide novel methods for an efficient re-use and re-purpose of multilingual audiovisual content which revolutionize video management and digital storytelling in broadcasting and media production. We go far beyond the state-of-the-art automatic video description methods by making the machine learn from the human. The resulting description is thus not only a time-aligned semantic extraction of objects but makes use of the audio and recognizes action sequences. While current methods work mainly for English, MeMAD will handle multilingual source material and produce multilingual descriptions and thus enhance the user experience. Our method interactively integrates the latest research achievements in deep neural network techniques in computer vision with knowledge bases, human and machine translation in a continuously improving machine learning framework. This results in detailed, rich descriptions of the moving images, speech, and audio, which enable people working in the Creative Industries to access and use audiovisual information in more effective ways. Moreover,the intermodal translation from images and sounds into words will attract millions of new users to audiovisual media, including the visually and hearing impaired. Anyone using audiovisual content will also benefit from these verbalisations as they are non-invasive surrogates for visual and auditory information, which can be processed without the need of actually watching or listening, matching the new usage of video consumption on mobile devices.
A bottom-up approach for delineating urban areas minimizing the connection cost of built clusters: Comparison with top-down-based densely inhabited districts

The main purpose of my research is to propose a consistent and bottom-up-based approach for delineating present and future urban areas on the foundation of investigating the relationship between delineating urban areas and the connection cost of built clusters. In my approach, optimal urban built clusters are defined as the delineation of urban areas by grouping buildings that satisfy the following rules based on the head/tail division rule: (1) the nearest neighbour distance from a building centroid is shorter than the criterion that can minimize the average total cost to provide public infrastructure (road networks); and (2) the size of grouped buildings (called an urban built cluster) is equal to or more than the mean of urban built cluster sizes. In the literature, the difference between optimal urban built clusters and densely inhabited districts (DIDs), a top-down-based approach, has not been analysed in detail. In replacing a top-down approach (DIDs) with a bottom-up one (e.g., the method proposed in this article), this difference needs to be evaluated. Therefore, the difference between DIDs and optimal urban built clusters was investigated. For the empirical study, I have selected Chiba prefecture, in the east of the Tokyo metropolitan region. Results show that (1) the overlapping relations of urban built clusters and DIDs can be distinguished based on their hierarchical levels; and (2) 55% of DIDs are optimal urban built clusters. However, the size of optimal urban built clusters that are not intersected by DIDs is the same as that of those intersected by DIDs. This poses to urban planners the important question of how to deal with two types of zones: zones overlapping not DIDs but optimal urban built clusters, and zones overlapping not optimal urban built clusters but DIDs. • Buildings are more appropriate for delineating urban areas than census units (densely inhabited districts (DIDs)). • A bottom-up approach for delineating optimal urban built clusters that minimizes their connection cost is proposed. • The difference between DIDs and optimal urban built clusters based on their hierarchical levels is investigated. • The size of optimal urban built clusters not being intersected by DIDs is the same as that of those intersected by DIDs.
Coccidia (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) Infecting Gerbils from Mongolia with Descriptions of Four New Species ofEimeria

ABSTRACT: From 2009 to 2012 collaborators of the Mongolian Vertebrate Parasite Project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation mounted 4 major expeditions into south and southwestern Mongolia covering low- and high-altitude habitats consisting of desert, desert-steppe, and montane biomes. Both ecto- and endo-parasites were obtained from all of the approximately 4,000 mammals collected during this work. The present report contains a summary of the coccidian parasites of gerbils (Meriones Illiger 1811) collected during the warm-weather months in the Gobi and Altai regions of Mongolia. A total of 171 gerbils of 3 species from 22 separate localities were examined for coccidia. Coccidian oocysts were identified from 21 gerbils, but those found in one of those gerbils were probably pseudoparasites of the host from which they were recovered. From the remaining 20 gerbils, 7 morphotypes of Eimeria and 1 morphotype of Isospora Schneider 1881 were identified. Four of the 7 morphotypes of Eimeria were attribu...
Haemolytic disease in sheep attributed to a <i>Babesia lengau</i> -like organism

BABESIOSIS is a haemoparasitosis of domestic and wild animals that can cause severe economic losses in the tropical and subtropical areas (Mohamed and Yagoub 1990, Yeruham and others 1995, Theodoropoulos and others 2006). In addition, this haemoparasitosis is considered important for public health, because some species can infect human beings (Duh and others 2001, Kim and others 2007).

In sheep, the disease can present as an acute haemolytic crisis or as chronic wasting (Rashid and others 2010). Babesia ovis , Babesia motasi and Babesia crassa are considered the possible causes of ovine babesiosis (Ferrer and others 1998). In Greece, the most common isolates of Babesia species are B ovis , though only few studies have been conducted in this field (Papadopoulos and others 1996, Theodoropoulos and others 2006). Babesia lengau species nov. has been recently isolated from asymptomatic cheetahs in Africa and has not been proven to cause disease in any animal species or human beings. In the present study, the detection of a B lengau -like organism in sheep with haemolytic disease is described.

In two sheep flocks located in a village of Northern Greece and reared under the semi-intensive feeding system, mortality was observed in adult sheep that according to their owners ‘were anorectic and urinated blood’. At the first visit of the veterinarian, five sheep had died from the one flock and three from the other. The postmortem examination conducted by a local veterinarian showed lesions typical of haemolytic crisis with jaundice, gun-metal coloured kidneys and discoloured liver. A liver sample from one dead sheep from each flock was examined for copper concentration; results were within normal limits (250 ppm dm and …
Pd/AIPO4 CATALYSED SELECTIVE LIQUID-PHASE HYDROGENATION OF β-IONONE INTO CIS-DIHYDROIONONE

The liquid-phase hydrogenation of β-ionone 1 was carried out at 302 K with 0.205 MPa of initial hydrogen pressure in methanol on Pd/AIPO4 catalyst (2-3 %). The cis-dihydroionone 2. was obtained with a 83 % selectivity which is independent of the degree of conversion. The reaction rate depends on the chloride concentration in the catalyst and the reaction selectivity is a function of the support of the Pd. According to the Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic models and the Horiuti-Polanyi type mechanism, the reaction order with respect to β-ionone concentration is negative and of one half order with respect to the hydrogen pressure. The comparison with results obtained over Pd/C catalyst and those obtained in the catalytic hydrogenation of α-ionone suggests that the catalytic hydrogenation of β-ionone could take place on two different active sites of the Pd.
2.45 GHz perfluator heating module for industrial infiltration processes

A microwave (MW) perfluator heating module is a device for industrial resin infiltration processes. This MW system consists of a waveguide section, cylindrical holder of a Teflon hose for fluid injection, a MW source at 2.45 GHz and a control unit. It has been designed using full electromagnetic 3D numerical software tool CST Microwave Studio to provide an efficient energy transfer from the MW source to the liquid and to support an appropriate electromagnetic field structure for supperoior infiltration. This system has been optimized by experimental investigations for industrial production. In measurements with a vector network analyzer the system geometry has been adjusted to ensure the lowest reflections. Several prototypes have been successfully verified in standard as well as in sophisticated flow processes under industrial conditions. These high power tests have shown that the MW perfluator module is a flexible stand-alone unit that can be connected to existing product lines.
Developer-Centric knowledge mining from large open-source software repositories

Recent reports state that the adoption of open-source software (OSS) helps, resulting in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers. However, the use of OSS also comes at enormous cost: choosing among OSS projects and maintaining dependence on continuously changing software requires a large investment. Deciding if an OSS project meets the required standards for adoption is hard, and keeping up-to-date with an evolving project is even harder. It involves analysing code, documentation, online discussions, and issue trackers. There is too much information to process manually and it is common that uninformed decisions have to be made with detrimental effects.

CROSSMINER remedies this by automatically extracting the required knowledge and injecting it into the IDE of the developers, at the time they need it to make their design decisions. This allows them to reduce their effort in knowledge acquisition and to increase the quality of their code. CROSSMINER uniquely combines advanced software project analyses with online monitoring in the IDE. The developer will be monitored to infer which information is timely, based on readily available knowledge stored earlier by a set of advanced offline deep analyses of related OSS projects. 

To achieve this timely and ambitious goal, CROSSMINER combines six end-user partners (in the domains of IoT, multi-sector IT services, API co-evolution, software analytics, software quality assurance, and OSS forges), along with R&D partners that have a long track-record in conducting cutting-edge research on large-scale software analytics, natural language processing, reverse engineering of software components, model-driven engineering, and delivering results in the form of widely-used, sustainable and industrial-strength OSS. The development of the CROSSMINER platform is guided by an advisory board of world-class experts and the dissemination of the project will be led by The Open Group.
Improved pressboard and process for its preparation.

High temperature resistant pressboard comprised of 20-95% by weight aromatic polyamide fibrids and 80-5% by weight high temperature resistant floc, having a desirable combination of compression set values and oil absorption is prepared by a process whereby a low density pressboard is first prepared by forming a wet lap of multiple layers of a waterleaf containing 50-95% by weight water and pressing the wet lap at 100-200 DEG C under a pressure of 10-60 kg/cm<2>, drying, ultimately at 270-320 DEG C until substantially no further moisture is evolved and finally pressing at 270-320 DEG C under a pressure of 8-350 kg/cm<2> and optionally cooling under restraint.
Combination of elements to construct a threshold ramp construction, ramp construction, and method to construct a threshold ramp construction

A combination of elements to construct a threshold ramp construction includes tile elements each having a horizontal upper surface and ramp elements each having an upper surface including a sloped surface part and a horizontal surface part. The horizontal surface part adjoins the higher side of the sloped surface part. The tile elements and the ramp elements are configured to be arranged in superimposed layers to form the ramp construction, in which the superimposed layers include a lower layer and an upper layer, the upper layer supporting on the lower layer. In the ramp construction, the tile and/or ramp elements of the upper layer are arranged in a staggered position with respect to the tile and/or ramp elements of the lower layer.
Rethinking Economic Growth and Development: A Pathway for Nigerian Economy

Economic growth and development is about improving people’s lives through economic, social, political and technological changes. But unfortunately this objective is hardly met in Nigeria because the economy is constrained with so many problems such as high level of unemployment, poverty and inequality, infrastructural decay, corruptions, institutional failure among others. The paper adopted a theoretical approach in examining the issues raised there in. It is argued that the problems mentioned above constitute impediments and if they are not properly addressed then economic growth and development shall continue to remain a mirage. To overcome these constraints, therefore, the paper advocated for a paradigm shift from the orthodox theories to new approaches such as creation of knowledge economy, South – South Cooperation (SSC), building effective institutions, elimination of corruptions in public places. It is recommended that, in addition to adoption of the paradigm shifts, the Nigeria existing institutions should be more strengthened to curtail the dehydrated problem of corruption that permeates the social fabrics of the Nigeria society. Keywords : Paradigm Shift, Institutions, South – South Cooperation, Open Development.
Limestone nanoparticles as nanopore templates in polymer membranes: narrow pore size distribution and use as self-wetting dialysis membranes

Limestone nanoparticles can be used as nanopore templates to prepare porous polymeric films. Their application as membranes is so far strongly limited by the fact that these films are highly hydrophobic. In this study, a simple method is reported to directly produce self-wetting membranes by the template removal method. Triethyl citrate modified polyethersulfone and cellulose acetate membranes were produced using dissolvable limestone nanoparticles as pore templates. The nanoporous polymer films were used as dialysis membranes and characterized by means of buffer exchange rate, molecular weight cut-off, protein adsorption, pore size distribution and water contact angle. The herein prepared membranes were further benchmarked against commercially available dialysis membranes with comparable average pore size. They showed narrow pore size distributions, fast dialysis rates at low protein adsorption and molecular weight cut-off of around 12 kDa. Interestingly, the triethyl citrate modified polyethersulfone membranes displayed only moderate change in pore size distribution as a result of the plasticizer additive compared to pure polyethersulfone membranes. This is a matter of substantial interest considering the fact that additive modifications of membranes produced by the predominant phase inversion process typically show alterations in morphology that lead to undesired changes in membrane performance. Furthermore, dextran recovery analysis proved to meet the specific requirements for dialysis membrane characterization and benchmarking.
Defective dna damage responses in dominant neurodegenerative diseases

DNA single-strand breaks (SSBs) are the most frequent DNA lesions arising in cells and are a major threat to cell survival and genome integrity, as indicated by the elevated genetic deletion, embryonic lethality, or neurological disease observed if single-strand break repair (SSBR) is attenuated. In particular, SSBR defects are associated with hereditary neurodegeneration in humans, as illustrated by the genetic diseases ataxia oculomotor apraxia-1 (AOA1), spinocerebellar ataxia with axonal neuropathy-1 (SCAN1), and microcephaly with early onset seizures (MCSZ). However, two major questions remain: what are the mechanisms by which SSBs trigger neurodegeneration, and to what extent do SSBs contribute to other genetic and/or sporadic neurodegenerative disease? Based on exciting new data we now propose that the impact of SSBs on neurodegeneration extends beyond rare SSBR-defective diseases to include more common motor neurone diseases (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and the genetically dominant spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs). Ultimately, we suggest that SSBs might also be an etiological factor in normal human ageing. Finally, again based on new data, we propose that SSBs induce neurodegeneration by triggering over-activation of the SSB sensor protein, PARP1; thereby identifying inhibitors of this protein (currently licensed for cancer treatment) as a possible therapy for neurodegeneration. We will now address these hypotheses using a range of cutting edge molecular/cellular techniques. In particular we will (a), systematically examine all relevant amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neurone disease (ALS/MND) and spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) proteins for involvement in the DNA damage response, (b) Identify the mechanism/s by which ALS and SCA proteins engage in the DNA damage response, (c) Identify the role of ALS and SCA proteins in the DNA damage response, and (d) Explore PARP1 as a possible therapeutic target for treatment of neurodegenerative disease.
The making of monoculture: a global history

Monocultures are one of the great projects of industrial modernity. From the corn fields of Iowa to date palms in the Sahara, from banana plantations in the Americas to eucalyptus trees in India – wherever we look, we find large production regimes that focus on a single commodity. They supply the lion’s share of the world’s food and create a plethora of economic, social, political and environmental problems. However, there is a great paradox behind the global hegemony of monocultures: they thrive in the absence of a clear paradigm. There is no biological theory of monoculture – and plenty of evidence for the benefits of biological diversity.

The project brings historical research to bear in a field that is traditionally the province of agronomists and activists. In the best tradition of global history, it reveals what isolated case studies have failed to see: problems, solutions and actors were surprisingly similar in otherwise different monocultures around the world. Based on carefully selected case studies and intensive communication with experts from forestry and the agricultural sciences, the project identifies the common patterns in the trajectories that monocultures followed around the world and uses that for a new interpretation of the growth and resilience of monocultures that only a historian can provide: a global narrative of recurring crises, of externalizing costs, and of an ever-growing path dependency. Monocultures are stumbling on in spite of the costs because the price of reverting course seems even greater. 

Outputs include five monographs, culminating in a path-breaking synthesis. The project seeks to challenge existing boundaries between historical subdisciplines and explore the common ground between agricultural history, forest history, environmental history, economic history, and the history of science and technology. It also aims to make history relevant in a 21st-century world where organic production will face unprecedented challenges.