Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Informality Bad? Evidence from Brazil, Mexico and South Africa

The informal sector plays an important role in the functioning of labor markets in emerging economies. To characterize better this highly heterogeneous sector, we conduct a distributional analysis of the earnings gap between informal and formal employment in Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, distinguishing between dependent and independent workers. For each country, we use rich panel data to estimate fixed effects quantile regressions to control for (time-invariant) unobserved heterogeneity. The dual nature of the informal sector emerges from our results. In the high-tier segment, self-employed workers receive a significant earnings premium that may compensate the benefits obtained in formal jobs. In the lower end of the earnings distribution, both informal wage earners and independent (own account) workers face significant earnings penalties vis-a-vis the formal sector. Yet the dual structure is not balanced in the same way in all three countries. Most of the self-employment carries a premium in Mexico. In contrast, the upper-tier segment is marginal in South Africa, and informal workers, both dependent and independent, form a largely penalized group. More consistent with the competitive view, earnings differentials are small at all levels in Brazil.
Structure-Mapping: A Theoretical Framework for Analogy

A theory of analogy must describe how the meaning of on analogy is derived from the meonings of its parts. In the structure-mapplng theory, the interpretation rules ore characterized OS implicit rules for mapping knowledge about a base domain into a torget domain. Two important features of the theory are (a) the rules depend only on syntactic properties of the knowledge representation, and not on the specific content of the domoins; ond (b) the theoretical fromework allows analogies to be distinguished o ond (b) The particular relations mapped ore determined by systemaficity. OS defined by the existence of higher-order relations.
In vivo optical properties of cortical tubers in children with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC): a preliminary investigation

Purpose: Medically refractory epilepsy caused by cortical tubers resulting from tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) often requires surgical intervention. The locations of cortical tubers generally are determined by preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this pilot study, we explored the feasibility of using the optical characteristics of cortical tubers as a potential means to guide their resection intraoperatively.
Excess winter mortality in Europe: a cross country analysis identifying key risk factors

Objective: Much debate remains regarding why certain countries experience dramatically higher winter mortality. Potential causative factors other than cold exposure have rarely been analysed. Comparatively less research exists on excess winter deaths in southern Europe. Multiple time series data on a variety of risk factors are analysed against seasonal-mortality patterns in 14 European countries to identify key relations Subjects and setting: Excess winter deaths (all causes), 1988–97, EU-14. Design: Coefficients of seasonal variation in mortality are calculated for EU-14 using monthly mortality data. Comparable, longitudinal datasets on risk factors pertaining to climate, macroeconomy, health care, lifestyle, socioeconomics, and housing were also obtained. Poisson regression identifies seasonality relations over time. Results: Portugal suffers from the highest rates of excess winter mortality (28%, CI=25% to 31%) followed jointly by Spain (21%, CI=19% to 23%), and Ireland (21%, CI=18% to 24%). Cross country variations in mean winter environmental temperature (regression coefficient (β)=0.27), mean winter relative humidity (β=0.54), parity adjusted per capita national income (β=1.08), per capita health expenditure (β=−1.19), rates of income poverty (β=−0.47), inequality (β=0.97), deprivation (β=0.11), and fuel poverty (β=0.44), and several indicators of residential thermal standards are found to be significantly related to variations in relative excess winter mortality at the 5% level. The strong, positive relation with environmental temperature and strong negative relation with thermal efficiency indicate that housing standards in southern and western Europe play strong parts in such seasonality. Conclusions: High seasonal mortality in southern and western Europe could be reduced through improved protection from the cold indoors, increased public spending on health care, and improved socioeconomic circumstances resulting in more equitable income distribution.
Association between a high-risk autism locus on 5p14 and social communication spectrum phenotypes in the general population.

OBJECTIVE Recent genome-wide analysis identified a genetic variant on 5p14.1 (rs4307059), which is associated with risk for autism spectrum disorder. This study investigated whether rs4307059 also operates as a quantitative trait locus underlying a broader autism phenotype in the general population, focusing specifically on the social communication aspect of the spectrum. METHOD Study participants were 7,313 children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Single-trait and joint-trait genotype associations were investigated for 29 measures related to language and communication, verbal intelligence, social interaction, and behavioral adjustment, assessed between ages 3 and 12 years. Analyses were performed in one-sided or directed mode and adjusted for multiple testing, trait interrelatedness, and random genotype dropout. RESULTS Single phenotype analyses showed that an increased load of rs4307059 risk allele is associated with stereotyped conversation and lower pragmatic communication skills, as measured by the Children's Communication Checklist (at a mean age of 9.7 years). In addition a trend toward a higher frequency of identification of special educational needs (at a mean age of 11.8 years) was observed. Variation at rs4307059 was also associated with the phenotypic profile of studied traits. This joint signal was fully explained neither by single-trait associations nor by overall behavioral adjustment problems but suggested a combined effect, which manifested through multiple sub-threshold social, communicative, and cognitive impairments. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that common variation at 5p14.1 is associated with social communication spectrum phenotypes in the general population and support the role of rs4307059 as a quantitative trait locus for autism spectrum disorder.
Comparison of thresholds estimation in adults with conductive hearing loss and normal hearing adults using auditory steady state response evoked by narrow band CE-chirps

Abstract Background: Narrowband CE Chirps (NB CE-chirps) were used to provide the characteristics of compensation for the cochlear traveling wave delay and frequency specificity. Aim: The aim was to compare the objective frequency-specific hearing thresholds estimation by the use of NB CE-chirps ASSR and behavioural thresholds in normal hearing subjects and patients with the conductive hearing loss. Subjects and methods: The cases group comprised 35 ears of 25 patients with the conductive hearing loss with varying degree from mild to severe in severity and their age ranging from 15 to 60 years. They were compared with 20 ears of 10 adult control subjects with normal hearing thresholds, whose age ranged from 19 to 42 years. All cases and controls were subjected to pure-tone audiometry (PTA), tympanometry and auditory steady-state response (ASSR), using 4 NB CE-chirp for air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC) threshold estimation. Results: AC-ASSR estimated thresholds were statistically significantly higher than AC PTA thresholds at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz in both the cases and the control groups. BC ASSR estimated thresholds were statistically significantly lower than BC PTA thresholds only at 500 Hz in the cases and statistically significantly higher than BC PTA thresholds only at 2000 Hz in the controls. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between AC-ASSR and AC PTA, and between ABG-ASSR and ABG PTA in the cases group. Conclusions: Auditory steady-state responses with NB CE-chirps is suitable tool for objective frequency-specific hearing threshold detection, that can be used for estimation of behavioural bone conduction thresholds in adults with conductive hearing loss, with more accuracy in the mid frequencies, and can estimate behavioural air conduction thresholds and air-bone gap more accurately in the higher frequencies 2000, 4000 Hz more than at 500 and 1000 Hz.
Delay analysis of integrated voice and data service for GPRS

The quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of typical mobile packet data applications are very diverse. QoS profiles of the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) are defined using the parameters service precedence, reliability, delay, and throughput. A one-dimensional decomposing Markov chain is used as the queueing model to analyze the GPRS performance in terms of the mean delay and 95% delay. In addition, the impact of buffer assignment and guard channels on the GPRS traffic is also investigated. The analytical results are verified by simulation and the comparison shows that they are very close.
Performance Evaluation of RANSAC Family

RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus) has been popular in regression problem with samples contaminated with outliers. It has been a milestone of many researches on robust estimators, but there are a few survey and performance analysis on them. This paper categorizes them on their objectives: being accurate, being fast, and being robust. Performance evaluation performed on line fitting with various data distribution. Planar homography estimation was utilized to present performance in real data.
Density-Dependent Energy Use Contributes to the Self-Thinning Relationship of Cohorts

In resource-limited populations, an increase in average body size can occur only with a decline in abundance. This is known as self-thinning, and the decline in abundance in food-limited populations is considered proportional to the scaling of metabolism with body mass. This popular hypothesis may be inaccurate, because self-thinning populations can also experience density-dependent competition, which could alter their energy use beyond the predictions of metabolic scaling. This study tested whether density-dependent competition has an energetic role in self-thinning, by manipulating the abundance of the fish Macquaria novemaculeata and tank size to partition the effects of competition from metabolic scaling. We found that self-thinning can be density dependent and that changes in intraspecific competition may be more influential than metabolic scaling on self-thinning relationships. The energetic mechanism we propose is that density-dependent competition causes variation in the allocation of energy to growth, which alters the energetic efficiency of self-thinning cohorts. The implication is that food-limited cohorts and populations with competitive strategies that encourage fast-growing individuals will have less body mass at equilibrium and higher mortality rates. This finding sheds light on the processes structuring populations and can be used to explain inconsistencies in the mass-abundance scaling of assemblages and communities (the energetic-equivalence rule).
Chemotaxonomic Significance of the Terpene Composition in Natural Populations of Pinus nigra J.F.Arnold from Serbia

The essential‐oil variability in seven native populations belonging to different infraspecific taxa of Pinus nigra (ssp. nigra, var. gocensis, ssp. pallasiana, and var. banatica) growing wild in Serbia was analyzed. In the needles of 195 trees from seven populations, 58 essential‐oil components were identified. The major components were α‐pinene (43.6%) and germacrene D (29.8%), comprising together 73.4% of the total oil composition. Based on the average chemical profile of the main terpene components (with contents >5%), the studied populations were found to be the most similar to populations from central Italy and Greece (ssp. nigra). Cluster analysis showed the division of the populations into three principal groups: the first group consisted of Populations I, II, III, IV, and V (considered as ssp. nigra group), the second of Population VI (ssp. pallasiana group), and the third of Population VII, which had the most distinct oil composition (ssp. banatica group). The taxonomic implications of the essential‐oil profiles of the investigated taxa of this very complex species are discussed.
Effect of spironolactone and vitamin E on serum metabolic parameters and insulin resistance in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Aim: The renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system has been implicated in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The beneficial effect of spironolactone in a mouse model with diabetes and NAFLD has recently been reported. The main aim was assessment of the effect of spironolactone on serum metabolic parameters and insulin resistance in patients with NAFLD. Methods: This study includes preliminary results of a single-centre randomised controlled trial of treatment with vitamin E (group 1, 10 patients) versus spironolactone plus vitamin E (group 2, 10 patients) in biopsy-proven NAFLD. Serum transaminases, lipids, potassium, sodium, glucose and insulin were measured, and homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI) were calculated before and 8 weeks after baseline assessment. Results: Insulin was decreased within group 2 (15.3 ± 2.7 at baseline vs. 10.3 ± 5.0 at week 8, p = 0.013). Although no difference in glucose was observed, HOMA-IR significantly decreased (4.4 ± 0.9 vs. 2.8 ± 0.5, respectively, p = 0.047). QUICKI was increased, but not statistically significantly. Conclusions: Spironolactone and vitamin E combined therapy seems to exhibit a favourable effect on serum insulin and HOMA-IR in patients with NAFLD. If validated in a large-scale clinical trial, it may prove an inexpensive therapeutic approach for the management of NAFLD patients.
Patients Treated for Hematologic Malignancies: Affected Sexuality and Health-Related Quality of Life

Background: Sexuality in relation to health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is studied mostly with younger patients as participants who have undergone bone marrow transplantation and concerns fertility and/or sexual function. However, patients with hematologic malignancies such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or acute myeloid leukemia most often are above their fifties and are treated with chemotherapy or chemoimmunotherapy. Objective: The aim was to examine how sexuality and HRQoL were affected in patients with hematologic malignancies at baseline compared with 1 month after chemotherapy or chemoimmunotherapy. Methods: Data were collected twice with a longitudinal design using the Sexual Adjustment Questionnaire and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life questionnaire. Results: Thirty-two patients responded. The importance of sexuality, sexual desire, and sexual ability decreased 1 month after treatment and distressing symptoms such as feelings of tiredness occurred more frequently compared with baseline. At the same time, improvement in global health status/quality of life as well as affected functions in HRQoL was reported. Conclusion: The findings are of significance for nurses in cancer care as these highlight that sexuality and HRQoL need to be considered also in older patients with hematologic malignancies when fertility issues are of less importance. Implication for Practice: To meet these patients’ needs regarding sexuality and HRQoL, the care must provide greater consistency and continuity. One way is to organize the care in a patient-centered way where patients continuously meet a nurse guided by the idea of holistic individual nursing care throughout the care trajectory.
Robust $H_{\infty}$ Fuzzy Control for a Class of Uncertain Discrete Fuzzy Bilinear Systems

The main theme of this paper is to present robust fuzzy controllers for a class of discrete fuzzy bilinear systems. First, the parallel distributed compensation method is utilized to design a fuzzy controller, which ensures the robust asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system and guarantees an Hinfin norm-bound constraint on disturbance attenuation for all admissible uncertainties. Second, based on the Schur complement and some variable transformations, the stability conditions of the overall fuzzy control system are formulated by linear matrix inequalities. Finally, the validity and applicability of the proposed schemes are demonstrated by a numerical simulation and the Van de Vusse example.
Survey of discomfort glare from the headlamps of cars widely used in Iran

ABSTRACT Objective: On 2-lane roads, discomfort glare can cause annoyance, discomfort, inconvenience, stress, and fatigue to drivers, posing a risk of accidents. The aim of this study is to evaluate discomfort glare from the headlamps of cars widely used in Iran. Methods: The discomfort glare of new vehicles including Pride Saba model GTX, Pride Model 131SL, Samand Soren, Peugeot 405, Megane, and Peugeot Pars was examined at distances of 5 to 100 m at a background luminance of 50 cd/m2 (late twilight/early dawn lighting) and 1 cd/m2 (nighttime) using Schmidt-Clausen and Bindels model and de Boer's subjective scale. Results: According to the de Boer scale, at a background luminance of 50 cd/m2, the discomfort glare for all studied vehicles was between 1.98 and 4.05 in high-beam mode and between 3.5 and 5.4 in low-beam mode. At a background luminance of 1 cd/m2, discomfort glare was between 0.41 and 2.48 in high-beam mode and between 1.93 and 3.84 in low-beam mode. In high-beam mode, the average levels of discomfort glare of these vehicles gradually increased when the distance between cars was reduced by up to about 20 m. In low-beam mode, there was no discomfort glare up to a vehicle distance of 40 m. In addition, at an angle of 1.15°–5.73° between the line of sight and light of vehicles in high-beam mode, the level of discomfort glare was increased, but at an angle of 5.73°–22.9° the level of discomfort glare was reduced. In low-beam mode at an angle of 2.86°–22.9°, the level of discomfort glare was almost identical. The results show that in high-beam mode and with a 100-m distance between vehicles as well as in low-beam mode at intervals of less than 40 m between cars, discomfort glare is created. Conclusion: It can be concluded that by providing solutions such as installing road lighting system, an increase in luminance of roads, separating or widening road lanes, increasing the lateral distance between vehicles, and increasing the angle between lighted vehicles and drivers can noticeably reduce discomfort glare.
Computerized training of non-verbal reasoning and working memory in children with intellectual disability

Children with intellectual disabilities show deficits in both reasoning ability and working memory (WM) that impact everyday functioning and academic achievement. In this study we investigated the feasibility of cognitive training for improving WM and non-verbal reasoning (NVR) ability in children with intellectual disability. Participants were randomized to a 5-week adaptive training program (intervention group) or non-adaptive version of the program (active control group). Cognitive assessments were conducted prior to and directly after training and 1 year later to examine effects of the training. Improvements during training varied largely and amount of progress during training predicted transfer to WM and comprehension of instructions, with higher training progress being associated with greater transfer improvements. The strongest predictors for training progress were found to be gender, co-morbidity, and baseline capacity on verbal WM. In particular, females without an additional diagnosis and with higher baseline performance showed greater progress. No significant effects of training were observed at the 1-year follow-up, suggesting that training should be more intense or repeated in order for effects to persist in children with intellectual disabilities. A major finding of this study is that cognitive training is feasible in this clinical sample and can help improve their cognitive performance. However, a minimum cognitive capacity or training ability seems necessary for the training to be beneficial, with some individuals showing little improvement in performance. Future studies of cognitive training should take into consideration how inter-individual differences in training progress influence transfer effects and further investigate how baseline capacities predict training outcome.
Humanoid robotics in health care: An exploration of children’s and parents’ emotional reactions

A new non-pharmacological method of distraction was tested with 57 children during their annual flu vaccination. Given children’s growing enthusiasm for technological devices, a humanoid robot was programmed to interact with them while a nurse administered the vaccination. Children smiled more often with the robot, as compared to the control condition, but they did not cry less. Parents indicated that their children held stronger memories for the robot than for the needle, wanted the robot in the future, and felt empowered to cope. We conclude that children and their parents respond positively to a humanoid robot at the bedside.
Increasing motivation changes subjective reports of listening effort and choice of coping strategy

Abstract Objective: The purpose of this project was to examine the effect of changing motivation on subjective ratings of listening effort and on the likelihood that a listener chooses either a controlling or an avoidance coping strategy. Design: Two experiments were conducted, one with auditory-only (AO) and one with auditory-visual (AV) stimuli, both using the same speech recognition in noise materials. Four signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) were used, two in each experiment. The two SNRs targeted 80% and 50% correct performance. Motivation was manipulated by either having participants listen carefully to the speech (low motivation), or listen carefully to the speech and then answer quiz questions about the speech (high motivation). Study sample: Sixteen participants with normal hearing participated in each experiment. Eight randomly selected participants participated in both. Results: Using AO and AV stimuli, motivation generally increased subjective ratings of listening effort and tiredness. In addition, using auditory-visual stimuli, motivation generally increased listeners’ willingness to do something to improve the situation, and decreased their willingness to avoid the situation. Conclusions: These results suggest a listener's mental state may influence listening effort and choice of coping strategy.