LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
An Estimation of U.S. Gasoline Demand: A Smooth Time-Varying Cointegration Approach

In this paper the U.S. gasoline demand from 1976 to 2008 is estimated using a timevarying cointegrating regression. We find that price elasticity increased rapidly during the late 1970s and then decreased until 1987. After a relatively small-scaled “increasedecrease” cycle from 1987 to 2000, the price elasticity rose again after 2000. The time-varying change of the elasticities may be explained by the proportion of gasoline consumption to income and fluctuation of the degree of necessity. The result of the error correction model shows that a deviation from a long-run equilibrium is corrected quickly, and the welfare analysis illustrates there may be a gain by shifting the tax scheme from income tax to gasoline tax.
An open-label, sequential, dose-finding study of peginesatide for the maintenance treatment of anemia in chronic hemodialysis patients

BACKGROUND
Peginesatide is a peptide-based erythropoiesis-stimulating agent that was designed and engineered to stimulate specifically the erythropoietin receptor dimer that governs erythropoiesis. The primary objective of this phase 2 dose-finding study was to determine the once-monthly peginesatide dosing strategy that would maintain hemoglobin within ±1.0 g/dL of baseline values after conversion from epoetin alfa; the safety of peginesatide was evaluated concurrently.


METHODS
Chronic hemodialysis patients on stable regimens of epoetin alfa were sequentially assigned to cohorts that differed on (1) how the peginesatide starting dose was determined (using a single epoetin alfa-to-peginesatide dose conversion ratio or a tiered, weight-based or absolute-dose conversion table) and on (2) whether or not a 1-week erythropoiesis-stimulating agent-free interval was used. Peginesatide doses were titrated to maintain hemoglobin levels within ±1.0 g/dL from baseline.


RESULTS
A total of 164 patients were enrolled and received intravenous peginesatide every 4 weeks for up to 6 doses; the duration of the study including follow-up was ≤29 weeks. Overall, the proportion of patients with hemoglobin levels within ±1.0 g/dL of baseline increased over the course of the study from 39% (Weeks 2-13) to 54% (Weeks 18-25). Cohorts that used tiered dose conversion tables trended towards having more stable peginesatide doses than did those cohorts that used a single dose conversion ratio. Moreover, cohorts that used an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent-free interval did not have the substantial initial increase in hemoglobin levels that was seen in those cohorts that did not use such an interval. In this study, the safety profile of peginesatide was consistent with those of marketed erythropoiesis-stimulating agents.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study were used to guide the dosing regimens used subsequently in phase 3 studies. Once-monthly peginesatide is feasible in hemodialysis patients.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT00228449.
Electrostatic charges inv×Bfields: with or without special relativity?

In relation to Bringuier's paper (2003 Eur. J. Phys. 24 21), it is pointed out that one cannot always neglect relativistic effects at low velocities. Also, some flaws are identified in his analysis of fields and charges in the case of a circular loop rotating in a constant magnetic field.
A non-reference image fusion metric based on mutual information of image features

The widespread usage of image fusion causes an increase in the importance of assessing the performance of different fusion algorithms. The problem of introducing a suitable quality measure for image fusion lies in the difficulty of defining an ideal fused image. In this paper, we propose a non-reference objective image fusion metric based on mutual information which calculates the amount of information conducted from the source images to the fused image. The considered information is represented by image features like gradients or edges, which are often in the form of two-dimensional signals. In this paper, a method of estimating the joint probability distribution from marginal distributions is also presented which is employed in calculation of mutual information. The proposed method is compared with the most popular existing algorithms. Various experiments, performed on several databases, certify the efficiency of our proposed method which is more consistent with the subjective criteria. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
OSINT Analysis using Adaptive Resonance Theory for Conterterrorism Warnings

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is an extremely valuable source of data for intelligence analysts in identifying and analyzing potential terrorism warnings and indicators [1]. A key problem is making sense of this large amount of data in time to prevent a catastrophic situation like what occurred on September 11, 2001. These events might been mitigated had U.S. intelligence agencies had better information technology tools for analyzing the situation according to the report of Congress’s Joint Inquiry into the events leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks [2]. Improvements to Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are necessary to provide the Homeland Security with the proper support for their missions [3]. Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have been around for over half a century and their biologically-inspired capability allows functionality similar to the human brain via simulated neurons that can make near-human choices. ANNs are in their genesis with future applications include finance, marketing, medicine and security in data mining [4]. Data mining enables a large amount of data to be sifted and provide avenues to learn or generalize information about that data using feature extraction [5]. Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) may provide another tool for this analysis.
Momentum crashes

Despite their strong positive average returns across numerous asset classes, momentum strategies can experience infrequent and persistent strings of negative returns. These momentum crashes are partly forecastable. They occur in panic states, following market declines and when market volatility is high, and are contemporaneous with market rebounds. The low ex ante expected returns in panic states are consistent with a conditionally high premium attached to the option like payoffs of past losers. An implementable dynamic momentum strategy based on forecasts of momentum’s mean and variance approximately doubles the alpha and Sharpe ratio of a static momentum strategy and is not explained by other factors. These results are robust across multiple time periods, international equity markets, and other asset classes. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).
Asymmetric Coil Sets for Wireless Stationary EV Chargers With Large Lateral Tolerance by Dominant Field Analysis

Asymmetric coil sets for wireless stationary electric vehicle (EV) chargers, which has significantly larger lateral tolerance than previous ones, is proposed. The pick-up coil set is much smaller than the power supply coil set, thereby allowing large lateral and longitudinal displacements as well as robustness to air-gap displacement. Electromagnetic field (EMF) is reasonably reduced by arranging magnetic poles along the EV's moving direction so that alternating magnetic flux through adjacent poles cancels each other. A dominant field analysis useful for complex vector magnetic flux simulation is newly proposed, which is applicable to any resonating coils of an inductive power transfer system (IPTS). Furthermore, a hysteresis loss model is suggested, which appropriately reflects the partial core saturation on a system analysis. A prototype IPTS including the proposed coil sets were designed and successfully verified by experiments. In the quick charging mode, maximum output power of 15 kW, large lateral displacement of 40 cm, longitudinal displacement of 20 cm, air gap of 15 cm were achieved, and low EMF of 6.1 μT at 20 kHz was achieved in the normal charging mode of 5 kW.
Business Process Change: A Study of Methodologies, Techniques, and Tools

A total of eight appendices (Appendix 1 through Appendix 8) and an associated reference for these appendices have been placed here. In addition, there is currently a search engine located at to assist users in identifying BPR techniques and tools.
PRIE: a system for generating rulelists to maximize ROC performance

Rules are commonly used for classification because they are modular, intelligible and easy to learn. Existing work in classification rule learning assumes the goal is to produce categorical classifications to maximize classification accuracy. Recent work in machine learning has pointed out the limitations of classification accuracy: when class distributions are skewed, or error costs are unequal, an accuracy maximizing classifier can perform poorly. This paper presents a method for learning rules directly from ROC space when the goal is to maximize the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Basic principles from rule learning and computational geometry are used to focus the search for promising rule combinations. The result is a system that can learn intelligible rulelists with good ROC performance.
Nonlinear analysis of RC beams based on moment–curvature relation

Material nonlinear analyses of reinforced concrete (RC) beams considering the tension softening branch and bond slip have been conducted. Instead of adopting the sophisticated layer approach which has some limitations in application to large structures with many degrees of freedom, we have used the moment–curvature relationships of RC sections previously constructed through section analysis. To reduce numerical instability according to the finite element mesh size used, a relation simulating the tension softening branch has been taken into consideration. For the purpose of removing the imprecision in calculation of ultimate resisting capacity, we have included the plastic hinge length in finite element modeling. In addition, governing equations describing the bond-slip behavior in beams have been derived. Unlike the conventional bond elements using double nodes, the proposed model has used beam elements representing the structural response by two nodes at both ends, and has simplified the finite elements modeling and analytical process, besides effectively describing the bond-slip behavior. Moreover, the developed algorithm has been reflected in the moment–curvature relationship of RC section. Finally, correlation studies between analytical and experimental results have been conducted with the objective to establish the validity of the proposed algorithms. 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Ownership Concentration , Corporate Governance and Firm Performance : Evidence from Pakistan

The study investigates the determinants of ownership concentration, the effect of ownership concentration on the firm’s performance with the sample of fifty representative firms from different manufacturing sectors of the Pakistan’s economy during 2003 to 2008. The effect of ownership identity and block holding on ownership is examined after controlling for the endoginity of the ownership concentration through the use of firm level characteristics. The results reveal that in Pakistan corporations has more concentration of ownership which is the response of weak legal environment. The concentration of ownership seems to have positive effect on firms’ profitability and performance measures. There is negative association between corporate governance practices and disclosures and transparency with concentration of ownership. The identity of ownership matters more than the concentration of ownership. The family, foreign and director ownership has positive affect on firm performance. The results indicate that firm specific factors affect in concentration of ownership, that is more investment opportunities provides greater incentives for ownership concentration, however, size has opposite effect and leads to delusion of ownership. It results in diverse ownership to get wider access to funds and share ownership. The broad implication that emerges from this study is that ownership concentration is an endogenous response of poor legal protection of the investors and seems to have significant effect on firm performance. It requires implementation of corporate governance reforms at most at par with real sector and financial sector reforms. JEL Classification: G3 F3
Assessment of myocardial perfusion by harmonic power Doppler imaging at rest and during adenosine stress: comparison with (99m)Tc-sestamibi SPECT imaging.

BACKGROUND
Harmonic power Doppler imaging (HPDI) is a novel technique for assessing myocardial perfusion by contrast echocardiography in humans. The purpose of this study was to compare myocardial perfusion by HPDI with that obtained by (99m)Tc-sestamibi single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) during rest and pharmacological stress.


METHODS AND RESULTS
HPDI was performed on 123 patients who were referred for SPECT imaging for known or suspected coronary artery disease. Images were obtained at baseline and during adenosine infusion (0.14 mg. kg(-)(1). min(-)(1)x6 minutes) in 3 apical views. Myocardial perfusion by HPDI was graded for each coronary territory as absent, patchy, or full. The persistence of absent or patchy myocardial perfusion by HPDI between rest and adenosine was interpreted as a fixed defect, whereas any decrease in perfusion grade was interpreted as a reversible defect. Overall concordance between HPDI and SPECT was 83 (81%) of 103 for normal versus abnormal perfusion. Agreement between the 2 methods for each of the 3 coronary territories was 81% (kappa=0.57) for the left anterior descending artery, 76% (kappa=0.52) for the right coronary artery, and 72% (kappa=0.40) for the left circumflex artery. Discrepancies between the 2 techniques were most notable in the circumflex territory, where fixed defects were observed in 33% by HPDI but in only 14% by SPECT (chi(2)=15.8, P=0.0001).


CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates that HPDI can reliably detect myocardial perfusion during pharmacological stress, although there was a significantly higher number of falsely abnormal results in the circumflex territory.
The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS): normative data and latent structure in a large non-clinical sample.

OBJECTIVES
To provide UK normative data for the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) and test its convergent, discriminant and construct validity.


DESIGN
Cross-sectional, correlational and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).


METHODS
The DASS was administered to a non-clinical sample, broadly representative of the general adult UK population (N = 1,771) in terms of demographic variables. Competing models of the latent structure of the DASS were derived from theoretical and empirical sources and evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. Correlational analysis was used to determine the influence of demographic variables on DASS scores. The convergent and discriminant validity of the measure was examined through correlating the measure with two other measures of depression and anxiety (the HADS and the sAD), and a measure of positive and negative affectivity (the PANAS).


RESULTS
The best fitting model (CFI =.93) of the latent structure of the DASS consisted of three correlated factors corresponding to the depression, anxiety and stress scales with correlated error permitted between items comprising the DASS subscales. Demographic variables had only very modest influences on DASS scores. The reliability of the DASS was excellent, and the measure possessed adequate convergent and discriminant validity Conclusions: The DASS is a reliable and valid measure of the constructs it was intended to assess. The utility of this measure for UK clinicians is enhanced by the provision of large sample normative data.
Vacuum-assisted closure therapy as a pretreatment for split thickness skin grafts.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) therapy on wound management by measuring the graft take, wound healing time, need for any re-grafting and duration of hospitalization.


STUDY DESIGN
Single blinded randomized controlled trial.


PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY
This study was carried out in the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad, from October 2007 to December 2009.


METHODOLOGY
A total of 100 adult patients of either gender with acute traumatic wounds were included. Patients who needed flap coverage as the primary intervention, and those with Diabetes, malignancy, bleeding diathesis were excluded. Half of the patients were randomly assigned to the intervention group and the rest to the control group with lottery method. All wounds were initially subjected to thorough excision. Wound bed preparation for STSG (split thickness skin graft) was achieved using 10 days pre-treatment with VAC dressings in the intervention group while employing normal saline gauzes in the control group. All patients were subsequently treated with STSG. The primary outcome measure was graft take while the secondary outcome measures included wound healing time, need for any re-grafting and duration of hospital stay. Results were compared in both groups using chi-square test.


RESULTS
Marked differences were found in favour of the VAC therapy group with respect to the various wound management outcome measures studied. i.e. graft take (greater than 95% graft take in 90% of VAC therapy group vs. 18% of controls), wound healing time (2 weeks postgrafting in 90% of VAC therapy group vs. 18% of controls), need for regrafting (none among VAC therapy group vs. 8% of controls) and duration of hospital stay (less than 3 weeks in 90% of VAC therapy group vs. 18% of controls).


CONCLUSION
VAC therapy should be employed in the pre-treatment of wounds planned to be reconstructed with STSG, since it has marked advantages in the wound bed preparation compared with the traditional normal saline gauze dressings.
Intelligent Home Automation System using BitVoicer

Home Automation Systems (HAS) have gained world-wide popularity these days. It guarantees security, surveillance and solace to the user and make their life more comfortable. In developed countries, many households have smart home automation systems which detect their surroundings and act on the data to trigger home appliances such as fan, air conditioners etc. But these systems are not very popular in developing nations as compared to developed nations because of their pricing. Also, almost all of these systems are hard coded so they just make some decisions based on iterative conditions. The system has neither user defined nor conditional control. There comes the need of Voice Controlled Home Automation Systems (VCHAS). The proposed ZigBee based home automation system and Wi-Fi network are unified through a mutual home gateway. The combinatory offers network interoperability, a simple and supple user interface, and distant access to the system.
Mammalian sexual differentiation: lessons from the spotted hyena

Female spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are the only female mammals that lack an external vaginal opening. Mating and birth take place through a urogenital canal that exits at the tip of a hypertrophied clitoris. This 'masculine' phenotype spurred a search for an alternate source of fetal androgens. Although androstenedione from the maternal ovary is readily metabolized to testosterone by the hyena placenta, formation of the penile clitoris and scrotum appear to be largely androgen independent. However, secretions from the fetal testes underlie sex differences in the genitalia and central nervous system that are essential for male reproduction. Naturally circulating androgens, acting prenatally, reduce reproductive success in adult female spotted hyenas. Effects on aggression and dominance might offset these reproductive 'costs' of female androgenization in utero.
Acetylation status does not affect levosimendan's hemodynamic effects in heart failure patients.

OBJECTIVE
Levosimendan is indicated for acute heart failure. The formation of levosimendan's active metabolite OR-1896 is dependent on the acetylator status. We evaluated whether acetylator status affects the hemodynamic responses after levosimendan infusion.


METHODS
Forty-one NYHA III to IV heart failure patients were divided into rapid and slow acetylators by population kinetic modeling. Invasive hemodynamics and plasma concentrations of levosimendan and its metabolites were followed serially.


RESULTS
Fifty-six percent of the patients were rapid and 44% slow acetylators. Levosimendan induced increases in heart rate and cardiac output, and decreases in pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) and blood pressure, which were sustained at 24 hours after stopping the infusion. At this time, levosimendan levels were undetectable, and OR-1896 levels were about two-fold higher in rapid acetylators. However, hemodynamic effects were similar; mean(SEM) change from baseline in cardiac output was +2.0(0.3) vs. +1.6(0.3) l/min (p = 0.309), and in PCWP -8(2) vs. -7(1) mmHg (p = 0.536), in rapid and slow acetylators, respectively.


CONCLUSION
The sustained hemodynamic effects of levosimendan are similar irrespective of acetylator status.
Apache Flink: Stream Analytics at Scale

Summary form only given. Apache Flink is an open source system for expressive, declarative, fast, and efficient data analysis on both historical (batch) and real-time (streaming) data. Flink combines the scalability and programming flexibility of distributed MapReduce-like platforms with the efficiency, out-of-core execution, and query optimization capabilities found in parallel databases. At its core, Flink builds on a distributed dataflow runtime that unifies batch and incremental computations over a true-streaming pipelined execution. Its programming model allows for stateful, fault tolerant computations, flexible user-defined windowing semantics for streaming and unique support for iterations. Flink is converging into a use-case complete system for parallel data processing with a wide range of top level libraries ranging from machine learning through to graph processing. Apache Flink originates from the Stratosphere project led by TU Berlin and has led to various scientific papers (e.g., in VLDBJ, SIGMOD, (P)VLDB, ICDE, and HPDC). In this half-day tutorial we will introduce Apache Flink, and give a tutorial on its streaming capabilities using concrete examples of application scenarios, focusing on concepts such as stream windowing, and stateful operators.
I need my smartphone : A hierarchical model of personality and cell-phone addiction

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.01.049 0191-8869/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 254 710 4952; fax: +1 254 71