Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Linearized Recursive Least Squares Methods for Real-Time Identification of Tire–Road Friction Coefficient

The tire-road friction coefficient is critical information for conventional vehicle safety control systems. Most previous studies on tire-road friction estimation have only considered either longitudinal or lateral vehicle dynamics, which tends to cause significant underestimation of the actual tire-road friction coefficient. In this paper, the parameters, including the tire-road friction coefficient, of the combined longitudinal and lateral brushed tire model are identified by linearized recursive least squares (LRLS) methods, which efficiently utilize measurements related to both vehicle lateral and longitudinal dynamics in real time. The simulation study indicates that by using the estimated vehicle states and the tire forces of the four wheels, the suggested algorithm not only quickly identifies the tire-road friction coefficient with great accuracy and robustness before tires reach their frictional limits but successfully estimates the two different tire-road friction coefficients of the two sides of a vehicle on a split- μ surface as well. The developed algorithm was verified through vehicle dynamics software Carsim and MATLAB/Simulink.
Language and non-verbal cognition in aphasia: insights from an eye-tracking paradigm

The relation between language and thought is a far from resolved question in both linguistics and cognitive science. A language disorder like aphasia can shed light on this question by using it as a model to explore cognition with impaired access to language. In this study, our research question was whether people with aphasia would succeed in a task that requires generalizing across a series of 32 reversible transitive events that exhibit visual differences, while still falling under the same general event concept (e.g. dog pushes car where the cars and dogs change). We explored this question with an eye-tracking paradigm. This study reports findings from an initial pilot with five people with post-stroke aphasia and 5 matched neurotypical controls. Results showed that the aphasia group was able to make the event generalization, but differed in the time course of processing, with initial insights not maintained longitudinally. We speculate that this may be due to problems with working memory. These preliminary findings suggest that while language impairment does not necessarily interfere with event generalization, may play a crucial role in information management with respect to what we perceive.
Different corticospinal control between discrete and rhythmic movement of the ankle

We investigated differences in corticospinal and spinal control between discrete and rhythmic ankle movements. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in the tibialis anterior and soleus muscles and soleus H-reflex were elicited in the middle of the plantar flexion phase during discrete ankle movement or in the initial or later cycles of rhythmic ankle movement. The H-reflex was evoked at an intensity eliciting a small M-wave and MEPs were elicited at an intensity of 1.2 times the motor threshold of the soleus MEPs. Only trials in which background EMG level, ankle angle, and ankle velocity were similar among the movement conditions were included for data analysis. In addition, only trials with a similar M-wave were included for data analysis in the experiment evoking H-reflexes. Results showed that H reflex and MEP amplitudes in the soleus muscle during discrete movement were not significantly different from those during rhythmic movement. MEP amplitude in the tibialis anterior muscle during the later cycles of rhythmic movement was significantly larger than that during the initial cycle of the rhythmic movement or during discrete movement. Higher corticospinal excitability in the tibialis anterior muscle during the later cycles of rhythmic movement may reflect changes in corticospinal control from the initial cycle to the later cycles of rhythmic movement.
An Econometric Model of Capital Flight from Developing Countries

This paper analyzes capital flight from a group of seventeen developing nations over the period 1978 to 1993. The paper briefly discusses several empirical definitions of capital flight and presents estimates of capital flight for the sample based on some of these measures. In general, the data reveal periodic episodes of dramatic flight through the late 1980s, at which point many nations began to experience strong capital inflows. Anecdotal evidence for the nations in our sample underpins our hypothesis that capital flight is driven by a heightened, pervasive risk which reflects the degree of domestic macroeconomic imbalance which is domestically undiversifiable. Our econometric model of the determinants of capital flight extends previous empirical studies of flight by expanding both the cross section of nations and time horizon of analysis. Given the panel data set, we consider a country specific error component to account for the possibility of unobserved country heterogeneity and employ fixed- effects and random-effects estimation. We instrument for potentially endogenous explanatory variables and in doing so consider a fixed-effects system. The results, based on several different measures of flight, highlight the importance of modelling flight with a country specific error component. While other proxies of the risk associated with macroeconomic imbalance are not significant, the central government surplus is negatively, statistically significantly related to flight. This highlights the motivation of investors to move capital both to escape future taxation directly and indirectly via monetization of deficits. Therefore, even when taking into account other measures of risk, the higher taxation risk, both directly and indirectly through expectations of future inflation, dominates the regressions.
Modulation of Intestinal Muscle Contraction by Interleukin-9 (IL-9) or IL-9 Neutralization: Correlation with Worm Expulsion in Murine Nematode Infections

ABSTRACT Immune responses associated with intestinal nematode infections are characterized by the activation of T-helper 2 (Th2) cells. Previous studies demonstrated that during Trichinella spiralis infection, Th2 cells contribute to the development of intestinal muscle hypercontractility and to worm eviction from the gut, in part through signal transducer and activator of transcription factor 6 (Stat6). Interleukin-9 (IL-9), a Th2-cell-derived cytokine, has pleiotropic activities on various cells that are not mediated through Stat6. In this study, we investigated the role of IL-9 in the generation of enteric muscle hypercontractility in mice infected with the intestinal parasite T. spiralis and the cecal parasite Trichuris muris. Treatment of mice with IL-9 enhanced infection-induced jejunal muscle hypercontractility and accelerated worm expulsion in T. spiralis infection. These effects were associated with an up-regulation of IL-4 and IL-13 production from in vitro-stimulated spleen cells. In addition, increases in the level of intestinal goblet cells and in the level of mouse mucosal mast cell protease 1 (MMCP-1) in serum were observed in infected mice following IL-9 administration. However, the neutralization of IL-9 by anti-IL-9 vaccination or by anti-IL-9 antibody had no significant effect on worm expulsion or muscle contraction in T. spiralis-infected mice. In contrast, the neutralization of IL-9 significantly attenuated T. muris infection-induced colonic muscle hypercontractility and inhibited worm expulsion. The attenuated expulsion of the parasite by IL-9 neutralization was not accompanied by changes in goblet cell hyperplasia or the MMCP-1 level. These findings suggest that IL-9 contributes to intestinal muscle function and to host protective immunity and that its importance and contribution may differ depending on the type of nematode infection.
Towards an Automatic Path from Java Bytecodes to Hardware Through High-Level Synthesis 1

1 This work has been partially supported by the Ph.D. program of the Prodep 5.2 action and the program Praxis XXI under the scope of Project PRAXIS/2/2.1/TIT/1643/95. Abstract This article describes a new approach to synthesise dedicated hardware from a system specification using the Java language. The new compiler named GALADRIEL starts from Java classfiles produced from the initial Java specification and processes the system information in order to exploit the concurrency implicit in each method, so that it can be efficiently implemented by multiple hardware and/or software components. The paper gives emphasis to the compiler techniques used to exploit the implicit concurrency and to the use of high-level synthesis to generate the hardware models from the Java bytecodes information.
Testing Near-Real Time Detection of Contaminated Pixels in AVHRR Composites

RESUMEPour pouvoir utiliser les images optiques composites dans le contexte des etudes sur le milieu terrestre, on doit disposer d'une methode precise et sensible pour detecter les pixels contamines par les effets atmospheriques et de surface non desires. Dans ce texte, nous avons examine la faisabilite de l'utilisation d'un algorithme developpe au depart pour l'analyse post-saison mais en mode ‘avance‘, c'est-a-dire pour l'identification des pixels contamines dans les donnees de la saison en cours. L'algorithme CECANT (Cloud Elimination from Composites using Albedo and NDVI Trend; Cihlar, 1996) utilise la reflectance du canal 1 d'AVHRR pour detecter les pixels fortement contamines (nuages brillants, neige) et l'indice NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) pour identifier les pixels partiellement contamines au-dessus de la surface du sol. Toutefois, cette approche necessite une trajectoire saisonniere NDVI complete pour deriver les seuils adaptatifs. Comme certaines applications courantes supposen.
Concepts of neural nitric oxide-mediated transmission

As a chemical transmitter in the mammalian central nervous system, nitric oxide (NO) is still thought a bit of an oddity, yet this role extends back to the beginnings of the evolution of the nervous system, predating many of the more familiar neurotransmitters. During the 20 years since it became known, evidence has accumulated for NO subserving an increasing number of functions in the mammalian central nervous system, as anticipated from the wide distribution of its synthetic and signal transduction machinery within it. This review attempts to probe beneath those functions and consider the cellular and molecular mechanisms through which NO evokes short‐ and long‐term modifications in neural performance. With any transmitter, understanding its receptors is vital for decoding the language of communication. The receptor proteins specialised to detect NO are coupled to cGMP formation and provide an astonishing degree of amplification of even brief, low amplitude NO signals. Emphasis is given to the diverse ways in which NO receptor activation initiates changes in neuronal excitability and synaptic strength by acting at pre‐ and/or postsynaptic locations. Signalling to non‐neuronal cells and an unexpected line of communication between endothelial cells and brain cells are also covered. Viewed from a mechanistic perspective, NO conforms to many of the rules governing more conventional neurotransmission, particularly of the metabotropic type, but stands out as being more economical and versatile, attributes that presumably account for its spectacular evolutionary success.
Future Learning: Distance Education in Community Colleges. ERIC Digest.

Future Learning: Distance Education in Community Colleges. ERIC Digest.1 TECHNOLOGIES INVOLVED IN DISTANCE EDUCATION. 2 DISTANCE EDUCATION STUDENTS. 3 COSTS. 3 IMPACT ON STUDENT LEARNING AND ACCESS. 4 FACULTY RESISTANCE. 4 CONCLUSION. 5 REFERENCES. 5
The Banking Sector and Recovery in the EU Economy

Banks within Europe have become larger and more international as Europe has moved towards a unified financial services market, but this trend has been reversed since the crisis. In order to establish the effect of these structural changes on output in Europe, we use a micro data set to investigate the impact of size (as measured by asset size) on banks' net interest margins. We show that larger banks offer lower borrowing costs for firms, which raises sustainable output. We then use NiGEM to look at the impact of banks becoming smaller and moving back into their home territory. We investigate the impacts on output according to country size, showing that the effects are generally larger in small countries, and also larger in economies that are more dependent on bank finance for their business investment decisions.
Corruption and Transparency in a Growth Model

We develop a Ramsey type model of economic growth in which the “Engine of Growth” is public capital accumulation. Public capital is a public good, and is financed by taxes on private output. The government may either use the taxes gathered to fund public capital accumulation or consume the resourses itself; that is engage in corruption. There is an irreducable level of endogenously determined corruption which constitutes rents for which potential governments compete. This competition takes the form of choosing a time path for public capital invesment, which implies time paths for output and household consumption.We study both the model’s steady state, and dynamical behavior along the saddle path. The predictions of our theory accord well with the existent empirical evidence on the relationships between the level and growth rate of output, corruption, public investment and fiscal transparency. Our analysis also provides a perspective on the transition experiences of several Eastern European economies.
Internet Financial Communication: Evidence from Unregulated Markets of Brussels and Paris

This paper examines the internet financial disclosure of 34 companies listed on un-regulated markets in Brussels and 34 twin firms quoted in Paris. The purpose of this research is twofold. First, we study the level of internet financial disclosure and we compare the levels of French and Belgian un-regulated markets. Next we identify factors determine this level. We applied an analytical grid, based on prescriptions in the literature concerning Internet financial disclosure to analyze 68 websites. A communication score was thus obtained for each firm. We identify if differences in communication scores are significant. This score was then regressed according to our hypotheses. The findings show Belgian firms have a higher level of internet financial communication and that a firmâ€™ size, age, membership of the IT sector and market place have an impact on the internet financial disclosure of un-regulated market listed companies.
Red giant collisions in the Galactic Centre

We simulate collisions involving red giant stars in the centre of our Galaxy. Such encounters may explain the observed paucity of highly luminous red giants within ∼0.2 pc of Sgr A*. The masses of the missing stars are likely to be in the range ∼2–8 M⊙. Recent models of the density distribution and velocity dispersion of the Galactic Centre cluster are used to calculate two-body collision rates. In particular, we use stellar-evolution models to calculate the number of collisions a star will have during different evolutionary phases. We find that the number of two-body collisions per star is ≲1 in the central 0.1–0.2 pc, depending strongly on the Galactocentric radius, with some uncertainty from the assumed cluster models and stellar-evolution models. Using a 3D numerical hydrodynamics code (SPH), we simulate encounters involving cluster stars of various masses with a 2-M⊙ red giant and an 8-M⊙ red giant. The instantaneous mass loss in such collisions is rarely enough to destroy either giant. A fraction of the collisions do, however, lead to the formation of common-envelope systems where the impactor and core of the giant are enshrouded by the envelope of the giant. Such systems may evolve to expel the envelope, leaving a tight binary; the original giant is destroyed. The fraction of collisions that produce common-envelope systems is sensitive to the local velocity dispersion and hence Galactocentric radius. Whereas most of our collisions lead to common-envelope formation at a few parsecs from Sgr A*, very few collisions do so within the central 0.2 pc. Using our collision-rate calculations, we then compute the time-scales for a giant star to suffer such a collision within the Galactic Centre. These time-scales are ≳109–10 yr, and so are longer than the lifetimes of stars more massive than ∼2 M⊙. Thus the observed paucity of luminous giants is unlikely to be caused by the formation of common-envelope systems as a result of two-body encounters involving giant stars.
Technical barriers to trade and SPS measures and export dynamics

Traditional trade policy tools like tariffs and quotas are being actively replaced with non-tariff policy tools (NTB) by governments throughout the world. In this paper we investigate how introduction of two types of non-tariff measures, technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, affects exporters in different countries. According to the heterogeneous firms trade theory commenced with Melitz model any additional cost of exporting will force some of the firms to stop exporting, thus reducing the number of exporting firms and products exported. We test this prediction using two primary data sources: WTO data on trade concerns related to TBT and SPS measures and World Bank Exporter Dynamics Database controlling for other factors influencing export dynamics. Contrary to the previous studies our results seem to suggest no casual effect of the introduction of NTBs on export concentration and firms’ exit/entry rates. Published by Norwegian Institute of International Affairs * This paper is written with financial support by “Non-tariff barriers, food safety and international food trade” joint project of Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), University of Life Sciences and Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) funded by the Research Council of Norway (Contract no. 216742/O10).
Dietary patterns and risk of oral cancer: a case-control study in São Paulo, Brazil.

OBJECTIVE To analyze the association between dietary patterns and oral cancer. METHODS The study, part of a Latin American multicenter hospital-based case-control study, was conducted in São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil, between November 1998 and March 2002 and included 366 incident cases of oral cancer and 469 controls, frequency-matched with cases by sex and age. Dietary data were collected using a food frequency questionnaire. The risk associated with the intake of food groups defined a posteriori, through factor analysis (called factors), was assessed. The first factor, labeled "prudent," was characterized by the intake of vegetables, fruit, cheese, and poultry. The second factor, "traditional," consisted of the intake of rice, pasta, pulses, and meat. The third factor, "snacks," was characterized as the intake of bread, butter, salami, cheese, cakes, and desserts. The fourth, "monotonous," was inversely associated with the intake of fruit, vegetables and most other food items. Factor scores for each component retained were calculated for cases and controls. After categorization of factor scores into tertiles according to the distribution of controls, odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using unconditional multiple logistic regression. RESULTS "Traditional" factor showed an inverse association with cancer (OR=0.51; 95% CI: 0.32; 0.81, p-value for trend 0.14), whereas "monotonous" was positively associated with the outcome (OR=1.78; 95% CI: 1.78; 2.85, p-value for trend <0.001). CONCLUSIONS The study data suggest that the traditional Brazilian diet, consisting of rice and beans plus moderate amounts of meat, may confer protection against oral cancer, independently of any other risk factors such as alcohol intake and smoking.
Innate Recognition of Bacteria in Human Milk Is Mediated by a Milk-Derived Highly Expressed Pattern Recognition Receptor, Soluble Cd14

Little is known about innate immunity to bacteria after birth in the hitherto sterile fetal intestine. Breast-feeding has long been associated with a lower incidence of gastrointestinal infections and inflammatory and allergic diseases. We found in human breast milk a 48-kD polypeptide, which we confirmed by mass spectrometry and sequencing to be a soluble form of the bacterial pattern recognition receptor CD14 (sCD14). Milk sCD14 (m-sCD14) concentrations were up to 20-fold higher than serum sCD14 from nonpregnant, pregnant, or lactating women. In contrast, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding protein was at very low levels. Mammary epithelial cells produced 48-kD sCD14. m-sCD14 mediated activation by LPS and whole bacteria of CD14 negative cells, including intestinal epithelial cells, resulting in release of innate immune response molecules. m-sCD14 was undetectable in the infant formulas and commercial (cows') milk tested, although it was present in bovine colostrum. These findings indicate a sentinel role for sCD14 in human milk during bacterial colonization of the gut, and suggest that m-sCD14 may be involved in modulating local innate and adaptive immune responses, thus controlling homeostasis in the neonatal intestine.
Association of schizophrenia with the rs821633 polymorphism in the DISC1 gene among Han Chinese

Background Previous studies report that various single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the Disrupted-in Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) gene are closely associated with schizophrenia, but there are no studies that assess the relationship of age of onset of schizophrenia with these SNPs. Objective Investigate the relationship between the rs821633 SNP in the DISC1 gene and the occurrence and age of onset of schizophrenia in Han Chinese. Methods We used the TaqMan genotyping technology to examine the rs821633 SNP in the DISC1 gene among 315 individuals who developed schizophrenia prior to 19 years of age (‘early-onset’), 407 individuals who developed schizophrenia when 19 years of age or older (‘late-onset’), and 482 healthy controls. We used survival analyses to investigate the relationship between the rs821633(C) risk allele and the age of onset of schizophrenia. Results Compared to the prevalence in healthy controls, the prevalence of the C/C genotype of rs821633 and of the C allele in rs821633 were significantly greater in individuals with early-onset schizophrenia (X2=7.17, df=1, p=0.007; X2=7.20, df=2, p=0.032) and significantly greater in individuals with late-onset schizophrenia (X2=5.36, df=1, p=0.022; X2=6.58, df=2, p=0.041). However, there were no significant differences in the prevalence of the C/C genotype or the C allele between individuals with early-onset and late-onset schizophrenia. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses found no significant association between the rs821633(C) risk allele and age of onset in schizophrenia. Conclusion We confirm the association of polymorphism in the rs821633 SNP in the DISC1 gene with schizophrenia among Han Chinese, but we found no association between the rs821633(C) risk allele and the age of onset in individuals with schizophrenia.
Were the Good Old Days that Good? Changes in Managerial Stock Ownership Since the Great Depression

We document that ownership by officers and directors of publicly-traded firms is on average higher today than earlier in the century. Managerial ownership rises from 13 percent for the universe of exchange-listed corporations in 1935, the earliest year for which such data exist, to 21 percent in 1995. We examine in detail the robustness of the increase and explore hypotheses to explain it. Higher managerial ownership has not substituted for alternative corporate governance mechanisms. Lower volatility and greater hedging opportunities associated with the development of financial markets appear to be important factors explaining the increase in managerial ownership.