pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Wild cards in transport

The analysis of Wild Cards, potential low-likelihood but high-impact events, in foresight studies is important in order to counter the tendency of decision makers to deny major surprises. This paper presents the results of an empirical analysis of 14 technological, geopolitical and societal Wild Cards in the transport field, carried out within the EU FP7 project RACE2050. The Wild Cards were elicited through interviews and in brainstorming sessions, and then assessed in an online expert survey. For each Wild Card, experts assessed likelihood in different time-frames, the impact on and vulnerability of different industry segments, the breadth of the effect, and the importance for decision makers to prepare. Some weak signals that may hint at a growing likelihood of certain Wild Cards were also suggested. Results show that the likelihood rises with time. Several Wild Cards reach high likelihood in 2040 or beyond, while the time by which full impact is reached varies. Based on these findings challenges and threats for transport have been identified, pointing to the fact that further research should focus on complex scenario building based on interlinks between ongoing trends and Wild Cards
Triple-junction solar cell performance under Fresnel-based concentrators taking into account chromatic aberration and off-axis operation

Concentration photovoltaic (CPV) systems might produce quite uneven irradiance distributions (both on their level and on their spectral distribution) on the solar cell. This effect can be even more evident when the CPV system is slightly off-axis, since they are often designed to assure good uniformity only at normal incidence. The non-uniformities both in absolute irradiance and spectral content produced by the CPV systems, can originate electrical losses in multi-junction solar cells (MJSC). This works is focused on the integration of ray-tracing methods for simulating the irradiance and spectrum maps produced by different optic systems throughout the solar cell surface, with a 3D fully distributed circuit model which simulates the electrical behavior of a state-of-the-art triple-junction solar cell under the different light distributions obtained with ray-tracing. In this study four different CPV system (SILO, XTP, RTP, and FK) comprising Fresnel lenses concentrating sunlight onto the same solar cell are modeled when working on-axis and 0.6 degrees off-axis. In this study the impact of non-uniformities on a CPV system behavior is revealed. The FK outperforms other Fresnel-based CPV systems in both on-axis and off-axis conditions
Effect of substrate-target distance and sputtering pressure in the synthesis of AlN thin films

In this work, we analyze the influence of the processing pressure and the substrate–target distance on the synthesis by reactive sputtering of c-axis oriented polycrystalline aluminum nitride thin films deposited on Si(100) wafers. The crystalline quality of AlN has been characterized by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD). The films exhibited a very high degree of c-axis orientation especially when a low process pressure was used. After growth, residual stress measurements obtained indirectly from radius of curvature measurements of the wafer prior and after deposition are also provided. Two different techniques are used to determine the curvature—an optically levered laser beam and a method based on X-ray diffraction. There is a transition from compressive to tensile stress at a processing pressure around 2 mTorr. The transition occurs at different pressures for thin films of different thickness. The degree of c-axis orientation was not affected by the target–substrate distance as it was varied in between 30 and 70 mm
Fighting store brands through the strategic timing of pricing and advertising decisions

Producción CientíficaThis paper investigates whether manufacturers can use the timing (sequence) of their pricing and ad- vertising decisions to benefit from or to deter store brand (SB) introductions. We develop and solve six sequential game-theoretic models for a bilateral channel where different timing of these decisions are considered before and after the retailer introduces a store brand. Comparisons of equilibrium solutions across games show that the sequence of pricing and advertising decisions in the channel significantly im- pacts the profitability of a store brand entry by the retailer. Such impact depends on: (1) whether each channel member decides on pricing and advertising simultaneously or sequentially prior to the SB entry, (2) whether the timing chosen for these decisions changes following the SB introduction , and (3) the intensity of competition between the store and national brands (NB). In particular, the SB entry leads to losses for the manufacturer when the sequence of advertising and pricing decisions is kept unchanged after the SB entry even when it is much differentiated from the NB. These results offer new perspectives on the effects of store brand entry in distribution channels, and suggest that for low levels of competition intensity between the NB and the SB, the manufacturer can either prevent or benefit from the retailer’s brand given an adjustment in the sequence of the manufacturer’s decisions.MEC under projects ECO2014-52343-P and ECO2017-82227-P, co- financed by FEDER fundsJunta de Castilla y León under projects VA024P17 and VA105G18 co-financed by FEDER fund
Anatomy of a serial killer: Differential diagnosis of tuberculosis based on rib lesions of adult individuals from the Coimbra identified skeletal collection, Portugal

The role of new bone formation on visceral surfaces of ribs in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in past human populations has been explored by many researchers, using both skeletal remains with known causes of death and archaeological samples. This study focuses, firstly, on adult skeletons from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection in Portugal and investigates the skeletal manifestations of individuals known to have died from TB; secondly, this study focuses on the role of rib lesions in the diagnostic criteria for TB. One hundred and fifty-seven males and 106 females aged between 22-87 years were examined; causes of death were assigned as pulmonary TB, extrapulmonary TB, and pulmonary non-TB; a control group, extrapulmonary non-TB, was selected from the remaining individuals. Of individuals with rib lesions, 85.7% (69/81) had pulmonary or extrapulmonary TB as an assigned cause of death, while 17.8% (16/90) of individuals with rib lesions had a non-TB cause of death. Rib lesions were significantly more common in individuals who had died from TB, although the lesions cannot be considered pathognomonic for TB. In individuals dying from pulmonary TB, ribs in the central part of the rib cage were most affected, at their vertebral ends. The lower part of the rib cage may be a marker for peritoneal TB, and ldquocoral-likerdquo new bone formation on ribs may be an indicator of neoplastic disease. Further work on rib involvement in TB in clinical contexts, and the study of further documented skeletal collections, are recommended. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2006. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.2016
Mass Calibration of the Coulter Counter Model ZM

The calibration of electrical sensing zone instruments is normally achieved by using spherical particles with a certified size. An alternative and more fundamental procedure, known as mass or self-calibration, is to use particles of the material under test.This work concerns the mass calibration technique, in particular the equations used to calculate the mass calibration constant. It is demonstrated that some of the published expressions are inconsistent. An expression particularly suitable for the Coulter Counter Model ZM has been derived and validated. Some experiments were also performed using irregular particles, in order to compare both calibration methods.http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppsc.1991008015
Oxidation of Δ4- and Δ5-Steroids with Hydrogen Peroxide Catalyzed by Porphyrin Complexes of MnIIIand FeIII

In this paper we describe a new environmentally friendly method to promote the stereoselective epoxidation of Delta4- and Delta5-steroids. Metalloporphyrins efficiently catalyze the epoxidation reactions of 17beta-acetoxy-4-androstene (1), 4-cholestene (2) and 3beta-acetoxy-5-cholestene (3) in the presence of H2O2 as oxygen donor. Modeling the molecular structure of the porphyrin as well as the central metal allows the control of the preferential formation of alpha- or beta-epoxides. Porphyrins with bulky, electron-withdrawing groups in the ortho positions of the meso phenyls and with MnIII as the central metal ion, such as [Mn(TDCPP)Cl], gave preferentially the beta-epoxide of Delta4- and Delta5-steroids. [Fe(TPFPP)Cl] catalyzes preferentially the alpha-epoxidation of Delta4-steroids and also increases the stereoselectivity for the alpha-epoxide in Delta5-steroids, similar to the results obtained with m-CPBA (m-chloroperbenzoic acid) as oxidant. The substrate structure strongly influences the chemoselectivity of the reactions. The X-ray structures of two main products were determined, and two-dimensional NMR techniques allowed the full assignment of 1H and 13C NMR resonances as well as the stereochemistry of these products. A mechanistic proposal involving oxo species for the beta-approach and peroxy species for the alpha-approach is proposed. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2004)http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejoc.20040046
Occupational exposure to cold thermal environments: a field study in Portugal

Abstract  The present work is essentially dedicated to the study of cold thermal environments. The analysis includes 32 industrial units from 6 activity sectors and the measurements were carried out in 101 workplaces. Different environmental conditions were identified and a clear relationship with the different types of workplaces was established. The work environments were thus allocated to three typical exposure categories corresponding to freezing and refrigerating cold stores and free-running or controlled air temperature manufacturing workplaces. In order to characterize the level of cold exposure, the method proposed by ISO/TR 11079, Technical Report, 1st edn, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva (1993) was adopted. The results for each activity sector demonstrate that a significant percentage of workers are repeatedly exposed to extreme conditions with insufficient clothing insulation. A value between 20 and 40% corresponds to the most critical situation, where the selected clothing ensemble does not provide adequate insulation (I clr &lt; IREQ min). The ideal scenario, represented by I clr values between IREQ min and IREQ neutral, shows the lowest percentages with an overall result of only 10%. When all the sectors are considered together, from a total of 3,667 workers, about one-third (1,151) are exposed to the cold. Among the workplaces under analysis, 14 are characterized by a continuous exposure greater than the DLE neutral. Those who work under such conditions, on average, have a time shift 60 min longer than the calculated DLE value.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00421-007-0630-
Ascendency as Ecological Indicator for Environmental Quality Assessment at the Ecosystem Level: A Case Study

Previous studies have shown that when an ecosystem consists of many interacting components it becomes impossible to understand how it functions by focussing only on individual relationships. Alternatively, one can attempt to quantify system behaviour as a whole by developing ecological indicators that combine numerous environmental factors into a single value. One such holistic measure, called the system ‘ascendency’, arises from the analysis of networks of trophic exchanges. It deals with the joint quantification of overall system activity with the organisation of the component processes and can be used specifically to identify the occurrence of eutrophication. System ascendency analyses were applied to data over a gradient of eutrophication in a well documented small temperate intertidal estuary. Three areas were compared along the gradient, respectively, non eutrophic, intermediate eutrophic, and strongly eutrophic. Values of other measures related to the ascendency, such as the total system throughput, development capacity, and average mutual information, as well as the ascendency itself, were clearly higher in the non-eutrophic area. When the whole-system properties of the three areas were compared, however, the values associated with the intermediate eutrophic area turned out to be the lowest, which possibly could be attributed to the unstable nature of this area. The current study provided an example of how the measures arising out of?network analysis might lead to an improved understanding of the system functioning and of the eutrophication process itself.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10750-005-1102-
Infants' object location and identity processing in spatial scenes: an ERP study

Contains fulltext :
                  122473.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Background
Fast detection and identification of objects in an environment is important for using objects as landmarks during navigation. While adults rapidly process objects within an environment and use landmarks during navigation, infants do not routinely use distal landmarks below the age of 18 months. In the current event-related potential (ERP) study we adopted an oddball paradigm to examine whether infants are capable of processing objects in environments, which is a prerequisite for using objects as landmarks.
Methods
We measured the electrophysiological correlates and time courses related to the processing of changes in object location, object identity, and a switch of two objects.
Results
Twelve-month-old infants showed an Nc (negative central) effect reflecting increased attention likely caused by initial change detection within 300 msec for all three manipulations. In addition, they showed conscious processing of an object change and a location change as evidenced by a positive slow wave (PSW).
Conclusion
This study is the first to show that infants are capable of rapidly detecting changes in single objects when these are presented in an environment, but lack conscious detection of a switch. These results indicate that 12-month-old infants as yet lack the ability to rapidly bind the identity and location of multiple objects within an environment
T-cell co-stimulatory blockade in kidney transplantation: back to the bench

It is believed that blocking positive T-cell co-stimulatory pathways should lead to long-term graft acceptance. Despite the exciting initial achievements in experimental animal models, targeting co-stimulatory pathways has shown to be much more complex in the clinic. In addition to multiple binding partners, some co-stimulatory interactions have been found to be inhibitory in nature, whereas others were demonstrated to be important in the development of regulatory T cells. Moreover, memory T cells have been shown to be resistant to co-stimulation blockade. Herein we focus on the B7:CD28 pathway and describe the evolution of targeting this pathway with cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4-Ig from bench to clinic. We also attempt to address possible causes for the unexpected high rejection rate observed in the phase III clinical trials with belatacept, using experimental data obtained from basic science research
Measurement of $CP$ asymmetries and polarisation fractions in $B_s^0
  \rightarrow K^{*0}\bar{K}{}^{*0}$ decays

An angular analysis of the decay $B_s^0 \rightarrow K^{*0}\bar{K}{}^{*0}$ is
performed using $pp$ collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of
$1.0$ ${fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy
$\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. A combined angular and mass analysis separates six helicity
amplitudes and allows the measurement of the longitudinal polarisation fraction
$f_L = 0.201 \pm 0.057 {(stat.)} \pm 0.040{(syst.)}$ for the $B_s^0 \rightarrow
K^*(892)^0 \bar{K}{}^*(892)^0$ decay. A large scalar contribution from the
$K^{*}_{0}(1430)$ and $K^{*}_{0}(800)$ resonances is found, allowing the
determination of additional $CP$ asymmetries. Triple product and direct $CP$
asymmetries are determined to be compatible with the Standard Model
expectations. The branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(B_s^0 \rightarrow K^*(892)^0
\bar{K}{}^*(892)^0)$ is measured to be $(10.8 \pm 2.1 {\ \rm (stat.)} \pm 1.4
{\ \rm (syst.)} \pm 0.6 \ (f_d/f_s) ) \times 10^{-6}$
Enhancement of aircraft wake vortex decay in ground proximity\ud
Experiment versus Simulation

Aircraft wake vortex evolution in ground\ud
proximity is investigated experimentally in a water towing\ud
tank, as well as numerically with wall-resolved large eddy\ud
simulation (LES). With these complementary instruments\ud
the enhancement of wake vortex decay by obstacles,\ud
introduced at the ground surface, is analyzed. The experimental\ud
methods include time-resolved stereo particle\ud
image velocimetry and vortex core visualization. For\ud
comparison with the experiment, the LES considers the\ud
turbulent wake of the strut, holding the towed aircraft\ud
model. Wake vortex trajectories and circulation decay are\ud
compared at different distances from the obstacle. Tracers\ud
are employed to visualize the obstacle’s effects on the\ud
vortex core, in LES and experiment. The experimentally\ud
obtained trajectories and decay characteristics are reproduced\ud
qualitatively by simulations, whereas the agreement\ud
is degraded at later times
A semantic-based approach to attain reproducibility of computational environments in scientific workflows: a case study

Reproducible research in scientific workflows is often addressed by tracking the provenance of the produced results. While this approach allows inspecting intermediate and final results, improves understanding, and permits replaying a workflow execution, it does not ensure that the computational environment is available for subsequent executions to reproduce the experiment. In this work, we propose describing the resources involved in the execution of an experiment using a set of semantic vocabularies, so as to conserve the computational environment. We define a process for documenting the workflow application, management system, and their dependencies based on 4 domain ontologies. We then conduct an experimental evaluation using a real workflow application on an academic and a public Cloud platform. Results show that our approach can reproduce an equivalent execution environment of a predefined virtual machine image on both computing platforms
Flat space compressible fluid as holographic dual of black hole with curved horizon

We consider the fluid dual of ( d + 2)-dimensional vacuum Einstein equation either with or without a cosmological constant. The background solutions admit black hole event horizons and the spatial sections of the horizons are conformally flat. Therefore, a d -dimensional flat Euclidean space E d $$ {\mathbb{E}}^d $$ is contained in the conformal class of the spatial section of the black hole horizon. A compressible, forced, stationary and viscous fluid system can be constructed on the product (Newtonian) spacetime ℝ × E d $$ \mathbb{R}\times {\mathbb{E}}^d $$ as the lowest order fluctuation modes around such black hole background. This construction provides the first example of holographic duality which is beyond the class of bulk/boundary correspondence
Some aspects of holographic W-gravity

We use the Chern-Simons formulation of higher spin theories in three dimensions to study aspects of holographic W-gravity. Concepts which were useful in studies of pure bulk gravity theories, such as the Fefferman-Graham gauge and the residual gauge transformations, which induce Weyl transformations in the boundary theory and their higher spin generalizations, are reformulated in the Chern-Simons language. Flat connections that correspond to conformal and lightcone gauges in the boundary theory are considered
The high temperature region of the Viana-Bray diluted spin glass model

In this paper, we study the high temperature or low connectivity phase of the
Viana-Bray model. This is a diluted version of the well known
Sherrington-Kirkpatrick mean field spin glass. In the whole replica symmetric
region, we obtain a complete control of the system, proving annealing for the
infinite volume free energy, and a central limit theorem for the suitably
rescaled fluctuations of the multi-overlaps. Moreover, we show that free energy
fluctuations, on the scale 1/N, converge in the infinite volume limit to a
non-Gaussian random variable, whose variance diverges at the boundary of the
replica-symmetric region. The connection with the fully connected
Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model is discussed
Some effects of transaction taxes under different microstructures

We show that the effectiveness of transaction taxes depends on the market microstructure. Within our model, heterogeneous traders use a blend of technical and fundamental trading strategies to determine their orders. In addition, they may become inactive if the profitability of trading decreases. We find that in a continuous double auction market the imposition of a transaction tax is not likely to stabilize financial markets since a reduction in market liquidity amplifies the average price impact of a given order. In a dealership market, however, abundant liquidity is provided by specialists, and thus a transaction tax may reduce volatility by crowding out speculative orders
Primary and substance-induced psychotic disorders in methamphetamine users

This study investigates the rates of primary psychotic disorders (PPD) and substance-induced psychotic disorders (SIPDs) in methamphetamine (MA) users accessing needle and syringe programs (NSPs). The aim was to determine if there are systematic differences in the characteristics of MA users with PPDs and SIPDs compared to those with no psychotic disorder. Participants were 198 MA users reporting use in the previous month. Diagnosis was determined using the Psychiatric Research Interview for DSM-IV Substance and Mental Disorders (PRISM-IV). Current psychiatric symptoms and substance use were also measured. Just over half (n=101) of participants met DSM-IV criteria for a lifetime psychotic disorder, including 81 (80%) with a SIPD and 20 (20%) with a PPD. Those with a younger age of onset of weekly MA use were at increased risk of a lifetime SIPD. A current psychotic disorder was found in 62 (39%), comprising 49 SIPDs (79%) and 13 PPDs (21%). MA users with a current PPD were more likely to have received psychiatric treatment in the past month than those with a current SIPD, despite a similar level of psychotic symptom severity. A high proportion of MA users accessing NSPs have psychotic disorders, the majority of which are substance-induced
Fluctuations of CMBR in accelerating universe

The influence of the observed relict vacuum energy on the fluctuations of CMBR going through cosmological matter condensations is studied in the framework of the Einstein-Strauss-de Sitter vakuola model. It is shown that refraction of light at the matching surface of the vakuola and the expanding Friedman universe can be very important during accelerated expansion of the universe, when the velocity of the matching surface relative to static Schwarzchildian observers becomes relativistic. Relevance of the refraction effect for the temperature fluctuations of CMBR is given in terms of the redshift and the angular extension of the fluctuating region
Multi-particle correlation function to study short-lived nuclei

8 figures, accepted for publication in Nuclear Physics AUnstable 10C nuclei are produced as quasi-projectiles in 12C+24Mg collisions at E/A = 53 and 95 MeV. The decay of their short-lived states is studied with the INDRA multidetector array via multi-particle correlation functions. The obtained results show that heavy-ion collisions can be used as a tool to access spectroscopic information of unbound states in exotic nuclei, such as their energies and the relative importance of different sequential decay widths