Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of radio propagation models in vehicular ad hoc networks simulations

Vehicular ad hoc networks use new protocols to enable security, services and other inventive applications to be run onboard many types of vehicles. In their design phase, those protocols and applications need to be extensively simulated but most of the work in the simulator field concentrates on the medium access and higher layer protocols. In this paper, through real world experimentations we first characterize the behavior of the channel regarding losses, we deduce a set of properties needed for lightweight models still producing relevant results. Then we implement them in a model we called shadowing-pattern which we finally use in a VANET distinctive scenario where it considerably modifies the results of a data propagation application.
On Solving the Maximum $k$-club Problem

Given a simple undirected graph $G$, the maximum $k$-club problem is to find a maximum-cardinality subset of nodes inducing a subgraph of diameter at most $k$ in $G$. This NP-hard generalization of clique, originally introduced to model low diameter clusters in social networks, is of interest in network-based data mining and clustering applications. We give two MAX-SAT formulations of the problem and show that two exact methods resulting from our encodings outperform significantly the state-of-the-art exact methods when evaluated both on sparse and dense random graphs as well as on diverse real-life graphs from the literature.
On Translation of LD, IL and SFC Given According to IEC-61131 for Hardware Synthesis of Reconfigurable Logic Controller

Abstract The paper presents developed synthesis methodology of a hardware implemented reconfigurable logic controller from multiple languages incorporating ladder diagrams, instruction list and sequential functional chart according to IEC61131-3. It is focused on the originally developed a high performance computation model based on properly defined variable access. The method address synthesis process of logic and arithmetic operations. Presented approach is able to synthesize not only basic constructs of languages but also complex modules like timers and counters. The paper acquaint with the compilation of considered languages and complex modules into intermediate form suitable for logic synthesis process according to developed analysis, translation and mapping methods. The data flow graph has been chosen for intermediate representation of a program. An original enhancement of the DFG with attributed edges and specific nodes has been described. It allows for efficient representation and processing of logic and arithmetic formulas. The set of compilation algorithms that preserve effects of serial execution order and offer obtaining massively parallel processing unit are presented.
Reactive Adjustment or Proactive Embedding? Multistudy, Multiwave Evidence for Dual Pathways to Expatriate Retention

The dominant perspective on expatriation characterizes the process as a continuing adaptation to existing job demands on an international assignment. Another, less studied perspective, emphasizes that expatriates can initiate tactics to acquire task, interpersonal, and affective resources for shaping their assignment experiences. Adopting a positive organizational scholarship lens and drawing on the job demands�resources model, we simultaneously examine both of these reactive demand-based and proactive resource-based pathways to expatriate retention. We propose that cross-cultural uncertainty demands and expatriate-initiated resource acquisition tactics both influence adjustment and embeddedness. Thus embeddedness works alongside adjustment to drive expatriates� plans to remain in the international position, which in turn leads to actual retention. Using evidence from 2 separate panel studies (one with 2 waves and the other with 4 waves of data), we demonstrate the importance of the resource-based pathway for expatriate assignments.
Self-adjoint, globally defined Hamiltonian operators for systems with boundaries

For a general self-adjoint Hamiltonian operator $H_0$ on the Hilbert space $L^2(\RE^d)$, we determine the set of all self-adjoint Hamiltonians $H$ on $L^2(\RE^d)$ that dynamically confine the system to an open set $\Omega \subset \RE^d$ while reproducing the action of $ H_0$ on an appropriate operator domain. In the case $H_0=-\Delta +V$ we construct these Hamiltonians explicitly showing that they can be written in the form $H=H_0+ B$, where $B$ is a singular boundary potential and $H$ is self-adjoint on its maximal domain. An application to the deformation quantization of one-dimensional systems with boundaries is also presented.
The Race to 270: The Electoral College and the Campaign Strategies of 2000 and 2004

The Electoral College has played an important role in presidential politics since our nation's founding, but surprisingly little information exists about precisely how it affects campaign strategy. Daron R. Shaw, a scholar who also worked as a strategist in both Bush-Cheney campaigns, has written the first book to go inside the past two presidential elections and reveal how the race to 270 was won-and lost. Shaw's nonpartisan study lays out how both the Democrats and the Republicans developed strategies to win decisive electoral votes by targeting specific states and media markets. Drawing on his own experience with Republican battle plans, candidate schedules, and advertising purchases-plus key contacts in the Gore and Kerry camps-Shaw goes on to show that both sides used information on weekly shifts in candidate support to reallocate media buys and schedule appearances. Most importantly, he uses strikingly original research to prove that these carefully constructed plans significantly affected voters' preferences and opinions-not in huge numbers, but enough to shift critical votes in key battlegrounds. Bridging the gap between those who study campaigns and those who conduct them, "The Race to 270" will provide political scientists and practitioners alike with fresh insights about the new strategies that stem from one of our oldest institutions.
Private Equity - Spice for European Economies

Private equity has become a substantial force in the European financial system. This paper describes some of the recent developments and looks at the structural relationship between private equity investments and economic growth. The econometric analysis of a set of panel data from 20 European countries for the period between 1994 and 2004 fails to reject the hypothesis that private equity investments are associated with economic growth. According to this analysis, an ncrease in private equity investments of 0.1% of GDP is associated with an increase in real economic growth of between 0.2 pp (buyouts)and 0.8 pp (early-stage investments) — other things being equal.
Towards smart phone based monitoring of bipolar disorder

We describe a real life study of the use of smart phone based sensors for state monitoring of bipolar disorder (manic-depressive disorder). The study was conducted with 10 patients in a rural area of Austria under the supervision of a local psychiatric hospital. It shows initial evidence that relatively simple features derived from location, motion and phone call patterns are a good indication of state transitions.
Investor Rationality: An Analysis of Ncreif Commercial Property Data

The concept of a peak in value or a "100% location" is so well established in real estate that there is no reference to the term in recent real estate principles and appraisal texts. However, the land value section in appraisals of a regional shopping center did not apply the concept when adjusting comparables for location, which resulted in a substantial underestimation of site value. A regression model that included a distance variable to control for location produced a value estimate that was more than double the values in the appraisals. The empirical results illustrate that the subject site represented a distinct peak in land value as well as reemphasizing the importance of making careful location adjustments in situations where there is a distinct peak in land value.
Framework for a Selection of Custom Instructions for Ht-MPSoC in Area-performance Aware Manner

Using application-specific instructions for heterogeneous multiprocessor system-on-chip (Ht-MPSoC) allows to find a good performance/energy trade-off. For MPSoC architecture executing different multimedia applications, we expect a large number of potential custom instructions. In order to explore the potential of all these instructions, we propose to identify the similar critical computations to be executed on hardware accelerators (HWA) shared between processors. Depending on the running applications in one side and their needs in performance and area usage on the other side, private and shared hardware accelerators are attached to the different cores. This leads to a large architectural space exploration. In this letter we propose an FPGA-based framework capable of identifying the configuration of HWA targeted to an MPSoC architecture. Our framework incorporates a hardware accelerators sharing methodology to optimize area/performance tradeoff. The comparison of framework-estimated results and real measurements proves the efficiency of our framework.
The New Way of the World: On Neo-Liberal Society

Exploring the genesis of neoliberalism, and the political and economic circumstances of its deployment, Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval dispel numerous common misconceptions. Neoliberalism is neither a return to classical liberalism nor the restoration of "pure" capitalism. To misinterpret neoliberalism is to fail to understand what is new about it: far from viewing the market as a natural given that limits state action, neoliberalism seeks to construct the market and make the firm a model for governments. Only once this is grasped will its opponents be able to meet the unprecedented political and intellectual challenge it poses.
Phosphorylation of Ku70 subunit by cell cycle kinases modulates the replication related function of Ku heterodimer

The Ku protein, a heterodimer of Ku70 and Ku80, binds to chromosomal replication origins maximally at G1-phase and plays an essential role in assembly of origin recognition complex. However, the mechanism regulating such a critical periodic activity of Ku remained unknown. Here, we establish human Ku70 as a novel target of cyclin B1-Cdk1, which phosphorylates it in a Cy-motif dependent manner. Interestingly, cyclin E1- and A2-Cdk2 also phosphorylate Ku70, and as a result, the protein remains in a phosphorylated state during S-M phases of cell cycle. Intriguingly, the phosphorylation of Ku70 by cyclin-Cdks abolishes the interaction of Ku protein with replication origin due to disruption of the dimer. Furthermore, Ku70 is dephosphorylated in G1-phase, when Ku interacts with replication origin maximally. Strikingly, the over-expression of Ku70 with non-phosphorylable Cdk targets enhances the episomal replication of Ors8 origin and induces rereplication in HeLa cells, substantiating a preventive role of Ku phosphorylation in premature and untimely licensing of replication origin. Therefore, periodic phosphorylation of Ku70 by cyclin-Cdks prevents the interaction of Ku with replication origin after initiation events in S-phase and the dephosphorylation at the end of mitosis facilitates its participation in pre-replication complex formation.
The Evolving Relation between Earnings, Dividends, and Stock Repurchases

This paper examines how the relation between earnings and payout policy has evolved over the last three decades. Three principal groups of payers have emerged: firms that pay dividends and make regular repurchases, firms that make regular repurchases, and firms that make occasional repurchases. Firms that only pay dividends are largely extinct. Repurchases are increasingly used in place of dividends, even for firms that continue to pay dividends. While other factors help explain the timing of repurchases, the overall level of repurchases is fundamentally determined by earnings. The results suggest that repurchases are now the dominant form of payout.
X-ray activity and rotation of the young stars in IC 348

Context. The physical origin of the strong magnetic activity in T Tauri stars and its relation to stellar rotation is not yet wellunderstood. Aims. We investigate the relation between the X-ray activity, rotation, and Rossby number for a sample of young stars in the ≈ 3M yr old cluster IC 348. Methods. We use the data of four Chandra observations of IC 348 to derive the X-ray luminosities of the young stars. Basic stellar parameters and rotation rates are collected from the literature. This results in a sample of 82 X-ray detected stars with known rotation periods. We determine the Rossby numbers (i.e. the ratio of rotation period to convective turnover time) of 76 of these stars from stellar structure- and evolution-models for pre-main sequence stars. Results. The young stars in IC 348 show no correlation between X-ray activity and rotation period. For the Rossby numbers, nearly all IC 348 stars are in the saturated regime of the activity–rotation relation defined by main-sequence stars. Searching for possible super-saturation effects, we find a marginal (but statistically in-significant) trend that the stars with the smallest Rossby numbers have slightly lower X-ray activity levels. There are no significant differences in the X-ray activity level for stars of different spectral types and no relation between spectral type and Rossby number is seen. In addition, for stars belonging to different IR-classes, no significant differences are present for the X-ray activity level as well as for their Rossby numbers. We compare the dispersion in the fractional X-ray luminosities of the stars in the saturated rotation regime in IC 348 to that seen in younger and older stellar populations. The scatter seen in the ≈3 Myr old IC 348 [σ log (LX/Lbol) = 0.43] is considerably smaller than for the ≈1 Myr old Orion nebula cluster [σ log(LX/Lbol) = 0.63], but, at the same time, considerably larger than the dispersion seen in the ≈30 Myr old cluster NGC 2547 [σ log(LX/Lbol) = 0.24] and in main-sequence stars. Conclusions. The results of our X-ray analysis of IC 348 show that neither the rotation rates nor the presence/absence of circumstellar disks are of fundamental importance for determining the level of X-ray activity in TTS. Our results suggest that the scatter in the X-ray activity levels for the rapidly rotating members of young clusters decreases with the age of the stellar population. We interpret this as a signature of the changing interior structure of pre-main sequence stars and the consequent changes in the dynamo mechanisms that are responsible for the magnetic field generation.
Characterization of Newcastle Disease Viruses Isolated from Cormorant and Gull Species in the United States in 2010

SUMMARY. Newcastle disease virus (NDV), a member of the genus Avulavirus of the family Paramyxoviridae, is the causative agent of Newcastle disease (ND), a highly contagious disease that affects many species of birds and which frequently causes significant economic losses to the poultry industry worldwide. Virulent NDV (vNDV) is exotic in poultry in the United States; however, the virus has been frequently associated with outbreaks of ND in cormorants, which poses a significant threat to poultry species. Here, we present the characterization of 13 NDV isolates obtained from outbreaks of ND affecting cormorants and gulls in the states of Minnesota, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Maryland in 2010. All 2010 isolates are closely related to the viruses that caused the ND outbreaks in Minnesota in 2008, following the new evolutionary trend observed in cormorant NDV isolates since 2005. Similar to the results obtained with the 2008 isolates, the standard United States Department of Agriculture F-gene real-time reverse-transcription PCR (RRT-PCR) assay failed to detect the 2010 cormorant viruses, whereas all viruses were detected by a cormorant-specific F-gene RRT-PCR assay. Notably, NDV-positive gulls were captured on the eastern shore of Maryland, which represents a significant geographic expansion of the virus since its emergence in North America. This is the first report of vNDV originating from cormorants isolated from wild birds in Maryland and, notably, the first time that genotype V vNDV has been isolated from multiple wild bird species in the United States. These findings highlight the need for constant epidemiologic surveillance for NDV in wild bird populations and for consistent biosecurity measures to prevent the introduction of the agent into domestic poultry flocks.
Characterization of the microbial communities along the gastrointestinal tract of sheep by 454 pyrosequencing analysis

Objective The gastrointestinal tract of sheep contain complex microbial communities that influence numerous aspects of the sheep’s health and development. The objective of this study was to analyze the composition and diversity of the microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract sections (rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum, colon, and rectum) of sheep. Methods This analysis was performed by 454 pyrosequencing using the V3-V6 region of the 16S rRNA genes. Samples were collected from five healthy, small tailed Han sheep aged 10 months, obtained at market. The bacterial composition of sheep gastrointestinal microbiota was investigated at the phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species levels. Results The dominant bacterial phyla in the entire gastrointestinal sections were Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria. In the stomach, the three most dominant genera in the sheep were Prevotella, unclassified Lachnospiraceae, and Butyrivibrio. In the small intestine, the three most dominant genera in the sheep were Escherichia, unclassified Lachnospiraceae, and Ruminococcus. In the large intestine, the three most dominant genera in the sheep were Ruminococcus, unclassified Ruminococcaceae, and Prevotella. R. flavefaciens, B. fibrisolvens, and S. ruminantium were three most dominant species in the sheep gastrointestinal tract. Principal Coordinates Analysis showed that the microbial communities from each gastrointestinal section could be separated into three groups according to similarity of community composition: stomach (rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum), small intestine (duodenum, jejunum, and ileum), and large intestine (cecum, colon, and rectum). Conclusion This is the first study to characterize the entire gastrointestinal microbiota in sheep by use of 16S rRNA gene amplicon pyrosequencing, expanding our knowledge of the gastrointestinal bacterial community of sheep.
Does external knowledge sourcing matter for innovation? Evidence from the Spanish manufacturing industry

This article presents empirical evidence on the effects of external knowledge-sourcing strategies on the development of both product and process innovations, and assesses the degree to which such effects are influenced by the firm's internal technological capacities. In our analysis, we consider two strategies for acquiring external knowledge (buying and cooperating) and two types of external sources (industrial agents and scientific agents). The analysis is based on a sample of 1329 manufacturing firms active in innovation activities taken from the Spanish Survey of Technological Innovation 2004. We find that the effects of the knowledge-sourcing strategies differ significantly across innovation types (product or process innovation). In addition, our results indicate that although internal R&D activities are associated with a greater use of external scientific knowledge sources (through cooperation), they do not seem to promote their exploitation for innovation development, that is, to say, they do not have synergistic effects. Copyright 2009 The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved. , Oxford University Press.
Nascent secretory chain binding and translocation are distinct processes: differentiation by chemical alkylation

We have investigated the effects of chemical alkylation of microsomal membranes on nascent chain binding and translocation. Assays were conducted using either full-length or truncated preprolactin transcripts in combination with a reconstituted membrane system consisting of proteolyzed rough microsomes and the cytoplasmic domain of the signal recognition particle receptor. Treatment of rough microsomes with N-ethylmaleimide was observed to inhibit preprolactin processing at a site other than the signal recognition particle or the signal recognition particle receptor. As formation of a translocation competent junction between the ribosome/nascent chain complex and the membrane has recently been demonstrated to require GTP (Connolly, T., and R. Gilmore. J. Cell Biol. 1986. 103:2253-2261), the effects of membrane alkylation on this parameter were assessed. N-ethylmaleimide treatment did not inhibit nascent chain targeting or GTP-dependent signal sequence insertion. Translocation of the targeted and inserted nascent chain was, however, blocked. These data indicate (a) that the process of nascent chain translocation is distinct from targeting and signal sequence insertion, and (b) translocation of the peptide chain across the membrane is mediated by an N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive membrane protein component(s). To further substantiate the observation that nascent chain targeting and signal sequence insertion can be distinguished from translocation, the temperature dependencies of the two phenomena were compared. Signal sequence insertion occurred at low temperatures (4 degrees C) and was maximal between 10 and 15 degrees C. Translocation was only observed at higher temperatures and was maximal between 25 and 30 degrees C.
Motivating Information Acquisition Under Delegation

We study a model in which a principal delegates a choice between different actions to an expert. The return from each action is unknown but the expert can invest in acquiring (noisy) information before making her choice. The principal would like the expert to invest in information but this investment is unobservable and only the chosen action and its resulting payoff is contractible. We solve for the optimal contract and show that it induces a contrarian bias. As the main application, we explore a setting where an analyst in a brokerage house issues financial recommendations, and argue that our findings are supported by empirical evidence on the behavior of financial analysts.
Sources of IRA Saving

To address the question of whether IRA5 contribute to capital formation, we use the IRS/University of Michigan taxpayer sample for income tax returns during 1980-84. By matching families across a five-year period, we can estimate the dynamic interactions of IRA purchases and other types of saving, correct for individual differences, and test whether IRA purchases are in part offset by other (net) asset sales. The "reshuffling" hypothesis implies that taxpayers who enroll in IRAs should, over time, experience a drop in net taxable interest and dividend income as their taxable assets (or new loans) are used to purchase IRAs. Conversely, the "new saving" view of IRAs implies that taxable interest and dividend income should be unaffected by IRA purchases. We find little or no evidence which favors the view that IRAs are funded by cashing out existing taxable assets. In fact, individuals who purchased IRAs in each year between 1982-84 increased their asset holdings by more than those who did not purchase IRAs. In one sense, our results strongly confirm the studies by Venti and Wise and Hubbard that IRA saving represents new saving. But shuffling could still occur, albeit on a secondary level: families who are accumulating both taxable assets and IRAs might have accumulated even more taxable assets had IRA5 not been available