Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance Analysis for Uniform Linear Arrays Exploiting Two Coprime Frequencies

Sparse arrays can achieve a higher number of degrees of freedom (DOFs) compared with uniform linear array (ULA) counterparts. To further reduce the number of physical sensors while keeping a high number of DOFs, a direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithm by exploiting coprime frequencies base on a sparse ULA is recently proposed. However, the performance of such approach is not properly analyzed. In this letter, we analyze the Cramér–Rao bound (CRB) as the lower bound of the DOA estimation performance. The difference between the results presented in this letter and the recent CRB results on sparse arrays lies primarily in the additional phases occurred when utilizing different frequencies. It is shown in this letter that the phases affect the covariance matrix of the received data vector and, as a result, change the number of resolvable sources and alter the achieved CRB. We first demonstrate the effect of the additional phases with an example of two closely spaced sources, and the CRB for a sparse ULA exploiting two coprime frequencies is then derived. Numerical simulations are provided to validate the analyses.
Climate, Water, and Agriculture

This study explores the interaction between climate, water, and agriculture. We test whether surface water withdrawal can help explain the variation of farm values across the United States and whether adding these variables to the standard Ricardian model changes the measured climate sensitivity of agriculture. The paper finds that the value of irrigated cropland is not sensitive to precipitation and increases in value with temperature. Finally, the paper finds that sprinkler systems are used primarily in wet cool sites, whereas gravity and especially drip systems help compensate for higher temperatures. These results indicate that irrigation can help agriculture adapt to global warming. (JEL Q2, Q15)
International study of sex ratio and twinning of neural tube defects.

The goal of this study, based on information collected from eight congenital malformation registry programs around the world, was to analyze sex and twinning of affected infants and fetuses, according to type of neural tube defect (NTD) and other variables. The type of defect and its location, whether it occurred in isolated form or was associated with other malformations, population from which data were retrieved, vital status of the infant, and gestational age of the fetus/infant were considered. The material included 3,416 infants and 168 selectively aborted fetuses with anencephaly, 4,830 infants and 76 fetuses with spina bifida, and 1,022 infants and 19 fetuses with encephalocele. Less than 20% of infants with anencephaly or spina bifida and more than one-third of infants with encephalocele had associated malformations. A female excess was found among all infants with NTD but a male excess in fetuses delivered spontaneously before week 20, indicating selective male late fetal deaths. Sex ratio varied by type of NTD, vital status at birth, presence of associated malformations, and year of birth, with an increasing sex ratio for anencephaly during the 1960s and 1970s. Twinning was positively associated with NTD but the extent of this association varied with NTD type and program, while the distribution by sex type of pair of twin appeared to be similar to that of all births. Twins concordant for anencephaly or encephalocele were mainly found when the defect occurred as part of a syndrome, and only in like-sexed pairs. Twins concordant for spina bifida had the isolated form of the defect and 5 of 6 pairs were like-sexed. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Technical Complications during Long-term Subarachnoid or Epidural Administration of Morphine in Terminally Ill Cancer Patients: A Review of 140 Cases

The type and incidence of technical complications (e.g., obstruction and dislocation of the catheter and infection) in long-term (ten to 366 days) spinal morphine administration in terminally ill cancer patients by means of an epidural or subarachnoid catheter are presented. Total treatment time was 8650 days, of which patients spent 6175 at home. Portable external mini infusion pumps were used with satisfactory results in 15 patients of the epidural group ( n = 110) and in all patients receiving subarachnoid morphine ( n = 30). In the other 95 patients of the epidural group, intermittent bolus injections were used. During the first 20 days of treatment, a significant difference (chi-square test, p = 0.02) in the incidence of complications was observed between the epidural group (8%) and the subarachnoid group (25%). During the remainder of the treatment period the complication rate rose to 55% in patients receiving epidural morphine and declined to 5% in the subarachnoid group, a significant difference (chisquare test, p = 0.001). The most frequent complication in the epidural group was obstruction and dislocation of the catheter, probably due to the development of epidural fibrosis. This problem became apparent in 50% of patients during the treatment period from Day 20 to 366. In patients receiving subarachnoid morphine, the prevalent complication was CSF leakage, which was observed only during the first two weeks of treatment. The subarachnoid route is preferred for patients expected to live longer than one month. For patients with a shorter life expectancy, epidural administration can yield acceptable results.
Plant factors controlling seed set in maize : the influence of silk, pollen, and ear-leaf water status and tassel heat treatment at pollination.

In maize (Zea mays L.) large decreases in kernel number result when low water potentials (Psi(w)) and high temperatures occur during pollination. To gain insight into the basis for the decreased seed set, silk, pollen, and ear-leaf Psi(w), the capability for silk osmotic adjustment, and pollen appearance were measured to determine their relationship to seed set. A multiple-eared or prolific (high carbohydrate availability to the pistillate inflorescence) hybrid (B73 x FR25), a heat sensitive hybrid (WF9 x A632), and a commercial hybrid (B73 x Mo17) were studied. A cross-pollination experiment, with pollination limited by pollen amount, was conducted to determine the impact on seed set of water and heat stressing the tassel and water stressing the ear. At low Psi(w), silk Psi(w) and seed set were decreased whereas pollen Psi(w), appearance, and viability were unaffected. High temperature resulted in a 2 megapascal decrease in pollen Psi(w), visually damaged pollen being shed, decreased pollen viability, and, in two of the hybrids, substantially decreased pollen shed. Prolificacy did not result in increased silk solute accumulation but did result in superior seed production by the pistillate inflorescence at low Psi(w). The magnitude of the decrease in silk solute potential was small (0.2 megapascal) and similar for all genotypes. One hybrid maintained a relatively high silk turgor but this hybrid also decreased the most in seed production when the pistillate inflorescence was water deficient. These results indicated an adverse effect of high temperature on pollen development, a positive relationship between seed production and silk water status, and no advantage to high silk turgor after silk emergence in maintaining seed production. Additionally, there was no evidence of variation in silk solute regulation capability among hybrids which varied in prolificacy, a trait important in drought tolerance, but the seed production of the pistillate inflorescence of the prolific hybrid was least affected by water deficit.
Consistent quality control in ECG compression by means of direct metrics

The aim of electrocardiogram (ECG) compression is to reduce the amount of data as much as possible while preserving the significant information for diagnosis. Objective metrics that are derived directly from the signal are suitable for controlling the quality of the compressed ECGs in practical applications. Many approaches have employed figures of merit based on the percentage root mean square difference (PRD) for this purpose. The benefits and drawbacks of the PRD measures, along with other metrics for quality assessment in ECG compression, are analysed in this work. We propose the use of the root mean square error (RMSE) for quality control because it provides a clearer and more stable idea about how much the retrieved ECG waveform, which is the reference signal for establishing diagnosis, separates from the original. For this reason, the RMSE is applied here as the target metric in a thresholding algorithm that relies on the retained energy. A state of the art compressor based on this approach, and its PRD-based counterpart, are implemented to test the actual capabilities of the proposed technique. Both compression schemes are employed in several experiments with the whole MIT–BIH Arrhythmia Database to assess both global and local signal distortion. The results show that, using the RMSE for quality control, the distortion of the reconstructed signal is better controlled without reducing the compression ratio.
Similarity neighbourhoods of words in young children's lexicons

ABSTRACT Similarity neighbourhoods for words in young children's lexicons were investigated using three computerized databases. These databases were representative of three groups of native English speakers: 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds, and adults. Computations relating to the similarity neighbourhoods of words in the children's and adult's lexicon revealed that words in the 5- and 7-year-olds' lexicons have many fewer similar neighbours than the same words analyzed in the adult lexicon. Thus, young children may employ more global recognition strategies because words are more discriminable in memory. The neighbourhood analyses provide a number of insights into the processes of auditory word recognition in children and the possible structural organization of words in the young child's mental lexicon.
Product attributes, consumer benefits and public approval of genetically modified foods

The use of biotechnology in food production has generated considerable debate involving the benefits and risks associated with its use. Consumer acceptance of genetically modified foods is a critical factor that will affect the future of this technology. Using data from a national survey, this study examines how public acceptance of food biotechnology is related to consumers’ socioeconomic and value attributes as well as the benefits associated with the use of this technology. Empirical results suggest that consumer acceptance of food biotechnology increases considerably when the use of this technology brings tangible benefits for the public. Consumers with different socioeconomic and demographic attributes have diverging views of food biotechnology only when its use brings specific benefits to them. When the use of genetic technology confers no additional benefit, public attitudes towards genetically modified foods are driven primarily by their scientific knowledge, views of scientists and corporations associated with biotechnology as well as public trust and confidence in government.
Climate Trends and Global Crop Production Since 1980

Climate change has decreased global maize and wheat production, while soybean and rice production have remained stable. Efforts to anticipate how climate change will affect future food availability can benefit from understanding the impacts of changes to date. We found that in the cropping regions and growing seasons of most countries, with the important exception of the United States, temperature trends from 1980 to 2008 exceeded one standard deviation of historic year-to-year variability. Models that link yields of the four largest commodity crops to weather indicate that global maize and wheat production declined by 3.8 and 5.5%, respectively, relative to a counterfactual without climate trends. For soybeans and rice, winners and losers largely balanced out. Climate trends were large enough in some countries to offset a significant portion of the increases in average yields that arose from technology, carbon dioxide fertilization, and other factors.
Inhibition of melanogenesis as a radiation sensitizer for melanoma therapy

Melanin pigment displays strong photo‐ and radioprotective properties, suggesting that inhibition melanogenesis could increase sensitivity of melanoma to ionizing radiation. We tested this concept in human melanoma cells cultured in either Ham's F10 medium to maintain amelanotic phenotype or DMEM to induce/stimulate melanin production, respectively; N‐phenylthiourea (PTU) and D‐penicillamine were used as an inhibitor of melanogenesis. Melanogenic activity was evaluated by visual inspection (color of cell pellets) or by measurement of tyrosinase (dopa oxidase) activity assay. Amelanotic cells or cells with various melanin content were exposed to gamma radiation and tested for viability and colony forming capability. Gamma radiation at doses of 2–15 Gy inhibited cell viability and colony forming efficiency in dose‐ and time‐dependent manner, but pigmented melanoma cells were significantly more resistant to gamma radiation than nonpigmented cells (p < 0.05–0.001). Both PTU and D‐penicillamine inhibited strongly tyrosinase activity and melanin production in melanoma cells (p < 0.05–0.001). Furthermore, inhibition of melanogenesis by PTU or D‐penicillamine resulted in enhancement of melanoma cells sensitivity to killing by gamma rays. In conclusion, the results of these cell culture experiments give support to a clinical trial of pharmacologically induced decrease in melanin synthesis to enhance the efficacy of radiotherapy in advanced melanomas. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Reconstruction Thresholds on Regular Trees

We consider the model of broadcasting on a tree, with binary state space, on the infinite rooted tree T k in which each node has k children. The root of the tree takes a random value 0 or 1, and then each node passes a value independently to each of its children according to a 2x2 transition matrix P . We say that reconstruction is possible if the values at the d th level of the tree contain non-vanishing information about the value at the root as d→∞ . Extending a method of Brightwell and Winkler, we obtain new conditions under which reconstruction is impossible, both in the general case and in the special case p 11 =0 . The latter case is closely related to the hard-core model from statistical physics; a corollary of our results is that, for the hard-core model on the (k+1) -regular tree with activity λ=1 , the unique simple invariant Gibbs measure is extremal in the set of Gibbs measures, for any k ≥ 2 .
Schooling and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Bangladesh

Education and human capital accumulation are essential components of economic development. The present paper attempts to identify some of the individual and household level characteristics that affect the demand for schooling in Bangladesh. I examine the current enrolment status of children aged 6-12 and the highest grade attained for children aged 13-24. The first is estimated using a standard probit model and the second using a censored ordered probit model. Estimation results show that there is no gender differential in current enrolment status but grade attainment is higher for girls, relative to boys. An increase in the permanent income of the household is always associated with an increase in educational attainment. Parental education has a positive and statistically significant effect on the educational attainment of children, and mother's education has a stronger effect on both school enrolment and grade attainment of children compared with father's education.
A Note on Price Risks in Swiss Crop Production – Empirical Results and Comparisons with other Countries

The liberalization of Swiss agricultural markets will not only decrease crop price levels but is also expected to increase the volatility of prices. Even though these potential increases in price volatilities for Swiss producers are acknowledged as an important fact, no empirical estimates are available yet. To fill this gap, we estimate absolute and relative crop price volatilities of wheat, barley, maize, triticale, potato, rapeseed, and sugar beet applying autoregressive models using annual price data for the period 1991 – 2009. The results for Switzerland are compared with estimates for the USA, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Relative price volatilities, expressed by the coefficient of variation, are found to be lower in Switzerland by a factor of 2 – 3 compared to the other considered countries. For some crops such as potatoes the differences are even higher. An increase in price volatilities of this magnitude due to market liberalization may become a threat to Swiss farmers. Thus, anticipatory actions of policy makers and producers with regard to the development of price risk management strategies might worth to be considered.
The cost-effectiveness of transcatheter aortic valve implantation versus surgical aortic valve replacement in patients with severe aortic stenosis at high operative risk

Objective To determine the cost-effectiveness of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) compared with surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) in a high-risk aortic stenosis (AS) population. Design A cost-utility analysis employing the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) reference case design for technology appraisals. Setting The perspective of the UK National Health Service. Patients Utility data from a UK high-risk AS population. TAVI and SAVR effectiveness was taken from the PARTNER A randomised controlled trial. Main outcome measures Costs modelled over a 10 year horizon using a Markov model. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios and cost-effectiveness acceptability curve were calculated with reference to the NICE willingness to pay per quality adjusted life year (QALY) gain threshold. Deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses performed. Results Despite greater procedural costs (£16 500 vs £9,256), TAVI was cost-effective compared with SAVR over the 10 year model horizon (costs £52 593 vs £53 943 and QALYs 2.81 vs 2.75), indicating that TAVI dominated SAVR. This appeared to be due to greater postsurgical costs, related to the length and cost of hospital stay. The results appeared robust to a number of deterministic sensitivity and probabilistic analyses. The cost-effectiveness acceptability curve indicated that at the NICE £20 000 willingness to pay threshold per QALY gained, TAVI had a 64.6% likelihood of being cost-effective, compared with 35.4% for SAVR. Conclusions TAVI is likely to be a cost-effective treatment for high-risk patients with AS compared with the reference standard of SAVR. However, uncertainty surrounding the long-term outcomes for TAVI patients remains; this could have a substantive impact on estimates of cost-effectiveness.
CONSUMERS AND GREEN ELECTRICITY: PROFILING POTENTIAL PURCHASERS

Globally, consumers are beginning to be able to choose their electricity supplier. Increasing concerns about the environment are prompting some of them to consider ‘green’ electricity—that is, electricity that has been generated by more environmentally sustainable means (for example, solar power or wind power). This article profiles the potential purchaser of green electricity. Drawing upon the literature on green product purchasers more generally, three sets of hypotheses are presented—more specifically, it is proposed that those who would pay increasingly higher premiums for green electricity are more likely to possess particular demographic characteristics, attitudinal characteristics and socialization characteristics. Responses from a survey distributed in a major Canadian metropolitan area are then examined. Attitudinal characteristics—specifically ecological concern, liberalism and altruism—best identify the potential purchasers of green electricity. Suggestions for managers and marketers are made following these findings. Directions for future research are also presented. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.
Dynamic Aspects of Earning Mobility

This paper proposes an econometric methodology to deal with life cycle earnings and mobility among discrete earnings classes. First, we use panel data on male log earnings to estimate an earnings function with permanent and serially correlated transitory components due to both measured and unmeasured variables. Assuming that the error components are normally distributed, we develop statements for the probability that an individual's earnings will fall into a particular but arbitrary time sequence of poverty states. Using these statements, we illustrate the implications of our earnings model for poverty dynamics and compare our approach to Markov chain models of income mobility. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
Age and Gender Effects on Auto Liability Insurance Payouts

We examine the relationship between claimant demographic characteristics (specifically, gender, age, and marital status) and the relative size of automobile third-party settlements. We present three possible theories to explain differences in payouts associated with gender and age: variations in risk attitudes, variations in negotiating costs, and discrimination. Results of empirical testing are consistent with differences in settlement amounts, particularly with respect to gender. These differences are examined and discussed along with suggestions for future research.
The Influence of Family Ownership on Corporate Social Responsibility: An International Analysis of Publicly Listed Companies

Manuscript Type Empirical Research Question/Issue We investigate the impact of family equity holdings on three indicators of corporate social responsibility: environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rankings. We further evaluate how firm governance mediates the effect of family ownership on environmental and social improvements and how national governance systems influence the response of family holdings to ESG. Research Findings/Insights Based on a sample of 23,902 firm-year observations drawn from 2002 to 2012 covering 46 countries and 3,893 firms, our findings show that both closely held equity and family ownership are negatively associated with ESG performance. When we control for governance, closely held equity is no longer associated with environmental and social rankings, but family ownership retains a significant negative association. These results are strong and consistent across liberal market economies (LME), whereas coordinated market economies (CME) exhibit generally weaker results and considerable diversity. Japan stands out as different from the other countries examined in depth. Theoretical/Academic Implications Our results are consistent with agency relationships driving decisions concerning ESG commitment in LMEs. They also emphasize the role of institutional differences given the weak and variable association between ownership and ESG in CMEs. We show that families may be able to influence decisions, possibly through participation in management, despite normally effective governance constraints. As the impact of ownership and governance varies across economies and ownership type, this implies that both agency and governance should be evaluated in the context of the economic environment. Practitioner/Policy Implications Our results offer insights to regulators and policy makers who intend to improve ESG performance. The results suggest that encouraging diversified ownership is particularly important in LMEs, that improvements in governance may benefit social and environmental performance where equity is closely held by institutions, but that governance may be less effective in the presence of family ownership.