Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On Performance of Adaptive Modulation in MIMO Systems Using Orthogonal Space–Time Block Codes

We provide a systematic study of adaptive modulation schemes in multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) systems. Closed-form expressions of system performance, such as average spectral efficiency, bit error ratio (BER), and outage probability, are obtained and confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. Provided the closed-form expressions, the optimal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) thresholds that yield the maximal average spectral efficiency can be solved. To reduce complexity of the optimal algorithm, an original method that can achieve approximately the same performance as the optimal method is proposed. Furthermore, we apply these methods in a more practical situation, where channel estimation is imperfect, and examine how the performance is affected due to channel estimation errors.
Constraint-induced movement therapy in the treatment of the upper limb in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy: a Cochrane systematic review

Background: Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is emerging as a treatment approach for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. It aims to increase spontaneous use of the affected upper limb and limit the effects of learned non-use. This review evaluates the effectiveness of CIMT, modified CIMT or Forced use in the treatment of children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Design and methods: Systematic Cochrane Review. The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2006, Issue 3), MEDLINE (1966 to August Week 4 2006), CINAHL (1982 to July Week 3 2006), EMBASE (1980 to August 2006), PsychInfo (1985 to August Week 4 2006) and reference lists of all relevant articles were searched. Relevant randomized and controlled clinical trials were systematically reviewed. Results: Three studies met the inclusion criteria. One randomized controlled trial (RCT) showed a trend for positive treatment effect favouring CIMT using the Dissociated Movement subscale of the Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test. A clinically controlled trial demonstrated a significant treatment effect favouring modified CIMT using the Assisting Hand Assessment at two and six months. Another inconsistently reported trial showed a significant treatment effect at six weeks on the self-care component of the WeeFIM using Forced use. Reviewers' conclusions: Given the limited evidence, the use of CIMT, modified CIMT and Forced use should be considered experimental in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Further research using adequately powered RCTs, rigorous methodology and valid, reliable outcome measures is essential to provide higher level support of the effectiveness of CIMT for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.
Baldrige Theory into Practice: A Working Model.

Malcolm Baldrige Awards has established a framework of operations in order to encourage accountability, transparent decision making, and optimal use of available resources. In 2001 the University of Wisconsin at Stout was the first higher educational institute to receive this award. Their operation has been prioritized into the factors of: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; information and analysis; human resource focus; process management; and, business results. This article traces the progress of UW‐Stout's implementation of the above factors in their day‐to‐day operations on their students' learning. The implications of this article are that this Wisconsin university has revamped their curriculum using Malcolm Baldrige framework, and that their successes can be used as a model of operations for colleges and universities.
Genetic Epidemiology and Heritability of Vitiligo

1.1 Prevalence & incidence The population prevalence of vitiligo ranges from 0.1% to 2% and shows a wide variability among ethnic groups (Bolognia et al., 1998; Hann and Nordlund, 2000). Whereas the estimated population prevalence of vitiligo is approximately 0.38% for Caucasians in the United States and Northern Europe (Howitz et al., 1977), vitiligo affects 0.19% of the population in China (Xu et al., 2002). Other international studies show that the incidence of vitiligo ranges from 0.1 to over 8.8% (Srivastava, 1994; Schwartz and Janniger, 1997; Hann et al., 1997; Kovacs, 1998; Agarwal, 1998; Handa and Kaur, 1999; Alkhateeb et al., 2003). The highest incidence of the condition has been recorded in Indians from the Indian subcontinent, followed by Mexico and Japan (Table 1). The difference in its incidence may be due to higher reporting of vitiligo in a population, where an apparent color contrast and stigma attached to the condition may force patients to seek early consultation (Panja, 1947; Levai, 1958; Punshi and Thakre, 1969; Behl and Bhatia, 1971; Sehgal, 1974; Koranne and Sachdeva, 1988; El Mofty, 1968; Grunnet et al., 1970; Dawber, 1968; Perrot, 1973; Fornara, 1941; Canizares, 1960; Ruiz Maldonnado et al., 1977; Fitzpatrick, 1974; Arakawa, 1941; Khoo, 1962). Vitiligo is reported more frequently in females than males, which may be the result of increased reporting rates in females due to greater social consequences in females affected by vitiligo (Kovacs, 1998; Lee Poole and Boissy, 1997; Hann and Lee, 1996; Zaima and Koga, 2002; Jeninger, 1993; Halder, 1997; Cho et al., 2000; Handa and Dogra, 2003). Adults and children of both sexes are equally affected; however, the majority of the vitiligo cases are reported during stages of active development. About 50% of patients present before the age of 20 and nearly 70-80% present before 30 years of age. Although no age is immune to vitiligo, the disease is very rarely observed at birth (Behl et al., 2003; Jaigirdar et al., 2002; Engel, 2001; Lerner, 1999; Gauthier et al., 2003; Westerhof et al., 1996). The proportion of patients with a positive family history varies from one part of the world to another, with particularly wide ranges reported in India (6.25-18%), with reports of up to 40% elsewhere in the world (Behl et al., 2003).
Packet loss probability for real-time wireless communications

A novel Markov model is constructed to calculate the packet loss probability and the delay distribution of real-time wireless packets. These packets are transmitted through an erroneous channel modeled by a two-state Markov chain. If a packet transmission is not successful, the packet is retransmitted until a delay limit is exceeded. At that time, the packet is discarded and the transmission of the next packet begins. This packet-dropping process has a significant impact on packet loss probability but is seldom considered in other Markov models. Closed-form solutions are obtained, and simplified expressions assuming highly correlated errors and small error probability are derived. Under these conditions, it is found that the packet loss probability is significantly affected by the delay limit and the transition probability of the channel's remaining in the failure state. On the other hand, the probability is almost independent of the arrival rate provided the rate is not close to one.
Stakeholder Salience in Public and Private Firms: Results from Tanzania

It has become evident that Western concepts of business and management must be evaluated within their realms of application. The objective of this research was to analyze the effects of stakeholder attributes of power, legitimacy, and urgency on the stakeholder salience of shareholders, employees, customers, and community in state-owned and privatized firms in Tanzania. In general, the framework developed and used in Western studies proved useful in characterizing Tanzanian management perceptions toward stakeholders. That is, when using a common questionnaire, results were obtained that linked stakeholder saliency with underlying attributes. Nevertheless, the saliency profile for stakeholders was different in the Tanzanian culture from previous studies in the United States and Spain. In a Tanzanian context, employees, customers, and community attained inferior status compared to the results obtained in developed countries for which the theory had been developed. Profiles were also different in comparing state-owned and privatized firms in Tanzania. Results indicated that the effects on salience are similar for shareholders but different for the remaining stakeholder groups in the two categories of firms. Some policy recommendations are made as a consequence of observations, and the need for further work is acknowledged.
WTO Subsidies Discipline During and after the Crisis

This article reviews the successes of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (the strengthened discipline on export subsidies), and the failures (the lack of discipline on domestic subsidies) from the birth of the WTO in 1995 to the onset of the financial crisis in 2007--09. During the crisis, governments poured money into economically necessary or politically deserving industries. The prohibition on export subsidies held up fairly well during the crisis, but the prohibition on import-substitution subsidies was likely flouted by understandings that bail-outs of industrial companies would lead to use of local supply chains. Trillions of dollars were poured into service sectors, notably financial services and real estate, and there are no WTO rules for services subsidies, notwithstanding commitments to negotiate them in the General Agreement on Trade in Services. Most likely, if there had been any rules disciplining subsidies in the financial services sectors, they would have been ignored, as the disciplines on domestic subsidies for goods were often ignored during the crisis, and before it. The crisis threw into clearer relief the question of why governments agreed to rules in 1994 which they found too uncomfortable to obey, or to enforce against other governments. The Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures sets up rules which are not strict enough to eliminate the use of countervailing duties as protectionism, and disciplines on subsidies that are too loose to prevent politicians from over-subsidizing. The authors conclude with some thoughts on the future of subsidies disciplines within the WTO. Oxford University Press 2010, all rights reserved, Oxford University Press.
Revenue-Sharing in Movie Exhibition and the Arrival of Sound

During the silent film era, film companies rented the vast majority of their films to exhibitors for flat per-day fees. A technology "shock" in the form of the coming of sound led to the widespread replacement of flat fees by revenue sharing. This article seeks to determine why. It finds that sound technology altered the structure of incentives in movie exhibition, significantly reducing the scope for exhibitor shirking, reducing the cost of dividing attendance revenue ex post (necessary for revenue sharing), and, initially at least, raising the difficulty of negotiating lump-sum rental fees. As a result, percent-of-gross pricing became the norm. These findings allow additional light to be shed on the reasons for share contracts in general--most previous studies have been limited to an examination a cross-section of contracts. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.
An Empirical Note on the Inflation Impact of the Price of Imported Crude Oil: The Case of Germany

This study empirically investigates whether the assumption of the monetary authority in pre-2000 Germany that rising prices of imported crude oil would lead to domestic inflation in Germany had validity. In a model where unemployment rate changes, money stock growth, and wage growth are all allowed for, OLS estimation reveals that although the inflation rate in Germany typically is not sensitive to increasing prices on imported crude oil, crude oil price "shocks" of 50 percent or more during any calendar year have in the past led to significant domestic inflation for the German economy.
Activating KRAS mutations are characteristic of oncocytic sinonasal papilloma and associated sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma

Oncocytic sinonasal papillomas (OSPs) are benign tumours of the sinonasal tract, a subset of which are associated with synchronous or metachronous sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma (SNSCC). Activating EGFR mutations were recently identified in nearly 90% of inverted sinonasal papillomas (ISPs) – a related tumour with distinct morphology. EGFR mutations were, however, not found in OSP, suggesting that different molecular alterations drive the oncogenesis of these tumours. In this study, tissue from 51 cases of OSP and five cases of OSP‐associated SNSCC was obtained retrospectively from six institutions. Tissue was also obtained from 50 cases of ISP, 22 cases of ISP‐associated SNSCC, ten cases of exophytic sinonasal papilloma (ESP), and 19 cases of SNSCC with no known papilloma association. Using targeted next‐generation and conventional Sanger sequencing, we identified KRAS mutations in 51/51 (100%) OSPs and 5/5 (100%) OSP‐associated SNSCCs. The somatic nature of KRAS mutations was confirmed in a subset of cases with matched germline DNA, and four matched pairs of OSP and concurrent associated SNSCC had concordant KRAS genotypes. In contrast, KRAS mutations were present in only one (5%) SNSCC with no known papilloma association and none of the ISPs, ISP‐associated SNSCCs, or ESPs. This is the first report of somatic KRAS mutations in OSP and OSP‐associated SNSCC. The presence of identical mutations in OSP and concurrent associated SNSCC supports the putative role of OSP as a precursor to SNSCC, and the high frequency and specificity of KRAS mutations suggest that OSP and OSP‐associated SNSCC are biologically distinct from other similar sinonasal tumours. The identification of KRAS mutations in all studied OSP cases represents an important development in our understanding of the pathogenesis of this disease and may have implications for diagnosis and therapy. Copyright © 2016 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Role of Local Strategies on a Globalizing Market

Taking its stance in social embeddedness theory, this article questions the assumption that companies' adoption of the Internet implies a linear move from local embeddedness to placeless globalization. The aim of the article is to explore the role of local strategies in a multichannel service production context. In substantiating the argument, 20 in-depth interviews with managers representing the travel and banking industries are used. The article identifies six key roles of local strategies: developing a local market feel, exploiting employees' local explicit knowledge, exploiting employees' local implicit knowledge, developing relationships, using a local branding strategy, and applying a local branch design. This illustrates the way in which, in this context, the Internet has led to places being redefined and used for new strategic purposes, a process that, in the words of Lévy (1998), is referred to as a movement of reterritorialization.
Fame Is Not Always a Positive Asset for Heritage Equity! Some Clues from Buying Intentions of National Tourists

This article presents an analysis of the impact of fame on tourist intentions to pay for visiting heritage sites. Thanks to a comparison of intentions to buy a visit when the heritage site is famous (heritage brand name awareness) versus not famous (no heritage brand name awareness), the objective is to verify if strong brand awareness could have a negative impact on tourist buyer behaviors. Results show that, regarding national tourists, brand awareness is not always a guarantee of commercial success for heritage places. In fact, fame is a poor asset for well known national heritage sites: It drives site‐seeing (coming to the heritage place), but not site‐visiting (consuming cultural products: i.e., the entrance fees, the guided tours, etc.). Since fame and strong brand awareness are not always synonymous with good reputation and favorable brand equity, some implications for heritage site branding are proposed. This research was supported by a grant from GIS M@rsouin (Môle Armoricain de Recherche sur la SOciété de l'information et des Usages d'Internet, www.marsouin.org), a research federation, supported by the Breton Council, built on Social Science and Humanities Research Centre workforces dealing with the uses of ICT.
The Anatomy and Histology of the Rotator Interval Capsule of the Shoulder

Forty-seven rotator interval regions from fetuses and 10 fresh-frozen rotator interval regions from adult cadavers were evaluated by gross dissection and light microscopy. Specimens from adults also were evaluated with ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. An analysis of 37 fetal specimens (> 14 weeks gestation) revealed two rotator interval types: Type I (9 of 37) was defined by a contiguous bridge of capsule consisting of poorly organized collagen fibers. A Type II rotator interval (28 of 37) had a complete defect covered by only a thin layer of synovium. Similar to the Type II rotator interval in the fetus, a rotator interval defect was present in six of eight specimens from adults. Histologically, the capsular tissue within the rotator interval consisted of poorly organized collagen fibers in specimens from the fetus and adult. Maximal opening of the rotator interval was seen by ultrasound with internal rotation and downward traction of the hyperextended arm in the coronal, oblique, and sagittal planes. Magnetic resonance imaging of the rotator interval region permitted anatomic evaluation. The complete absence of tissue in 28 of 37 fetuses suggests that the rotator interval defect is congenital. The authors recommend that surgeons carefully evaluate the integrity of the tissue within the rotator interval. When rotator interval closure is desired such as in patients with a persistent sulcus sign after arthroscopic stabilization, suturing the edges of more substantial tissue immediately adjacent to the boundaries of the rotator interval region would seem prudent.
Clearing Restarting Automata

Restarting automata were introduced as a model for analysis by reduction, which is a linguistically motivated method for checking correctness of a sentence. We propose a new restricted version of restarting automata called clearing restarting automata with a very simple definition but simultaneously with interesting properties with respect to their possible applications. The new model can be learned very efficiently from positive examples and its stronger version can be used to learn effectively a large class of languages. We relate the class of languages recognized by clearing restarting automata to the Chomsky hierarchy.
Time Out of Work and Skill Depreciation

This paper investigates the role of skill depreciation in the relationship between work interruptions and subsequent wages. Using Swedish data from two waves (1994 and 1998) of the International Adult Literacy Survey, which included results of tests gauging respondents' ability to read and make practical use of printed information, the authors are able to analyze changes in individuals' skills as a function of time out of work. They find statistically strong evidence of a negative relationship between work interruptions and skills. The analysis suggests that depreciation of general skills was economically important. A full year of non-employment, for example, was associated with a 5-percentile move down the skill distribution.
Does Corporate Leadership Matter? Evidence from Nigeria

This study examines the impact of top management changes on stock returns in Nigeria from 1997 to 2005. The study also reflects on the impact of board composition and politics on shareholders’ wealth. The test of shareholder wealth effects around the time of top management changes is structured as an event study. Data were obtained principally from the Lagos and Ibadan branches of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The study concludes that change in top management, including the composition of the board of directors, matters because announcements of board changes contribute to shareholder wealth, while corporate leaders affect the performance of the organization. In Nigeria, the announcement of the appointment of politically connected top managers produces positive information content and positive investor reaction, while the announcement of top management changes without political connections results in negative shareholder wealth. The findings are consistent with hypothesized benefits from internal mechanisms of corporate control in management change.
Marital Dissolution in Japan

Very little is known about recent trends in divorce in Japan. In this paper, we use Japanese vital statistics and census data to describe trends in the experience of marital dissolution across the life course, and to examine change over time in educational differentials in divorce. Cumulative probabilities of marital dissolution have increased rapidly across successive marriage cohorts over the past twenty years, and synthetic period estimates suggest that roughly one-third of Japanese marriages are now likely to end in divorce. Estimates of educational differentials also indicate a rapid increase in the extent to which divorce is concentrated at lower levels of education. While educational differentials were negligible in 1980, by 2000, women who had not gone beyond high school were far more likely to be divorced than those with more education.
Pricing Mortgage‐Backed Securities: Integrating Optimal Call and Empirical Models of Prepayment

Residential mortgage borrowers frequently appear to behave suboptimally with respect to their mortgage prepayment options. Many borrowers fail to exercise even well-into-the-money options while others prepay when the call option is out-of-the-money. To account for these apparently suboptimal prepayments, the recent trend in mortgage-backed securities research has been away from optimal call valuation models, in which the decision to exercise is determined endoge-nously, in favor of models in which prepayment behavior is exogenously specified based on empirical estimation. This paper develops a rational model of mortgage prepayment which incorporates both types of "non-optimal" prepayment and retains endogenous call. This enables the model to disentangle and compare the separate effects of the interest rate call, impeded by transaction costs, and of non-interest-rate driven prepayment. In addition, by recognizing heterogenous borrower transaction costs, the model presents a way to account more precisely for the varying prepayment lags associated with well-into-the-money call options and to account for the phenomenon of "burnout" within a mortgage pool. The paper includes an empirical test of the unbiasedness of the integrated pricing model by comparing simulated prices from our theoretical model to observed prices on traded Fannie Mae and GNMA securities. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.
Entrepreneurial intentions in post-Soviet economies

In the present paper, we apply the theory of planned behaviour and personal initiative taking literature to explore the entrepreneurial intentions of 266 female and 161 male respondents in Russia and Ukraine. Our findings show that the intensity of entrepreneurial intentions reported by Ukrainian students is higher than those reported by their Russian counterparts. We also find that men have higher entrepreneurial intentions then women in these countries. At the same time, gender moderates the relationship between perceived behavioural control and intentions, but not between attitude or subjective norms and intentions. We also find that personal initiative taking does not add to the explanation of entrepreneurial intentions above the variables in the theory of planned behaviour model. We discuss the possible reasons for these findings and their implications for future research.