Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contractual Design and Functions - Evidence from Service Contracts in the European Air Transport Industry

Contracts within governance classes, e.g., alliances or supply chain contracts, display a great degree of variation in contractual design. In this paper, we explore (i) the alignment between provisions in functional classes and the underlying transaction attributes, and (ii) the impact of learning on transaction costs (via standardization of contract provisions). Drawing on a sample of 42 service contracts in the European air transport industry, we show that asset specificity has a dominant impact on the observed variation in all the provisions/attachments analyzed. The results do not support the proposition that individual transaction attributes drive the design of provisions in distinct functional dimensions (safeguarding, coordination, and contingency adaptability function). However, they demonstrate that the provision’s function determines whether standardization occurs in ‘learning arrangements’ at the industry level or at the firm level.
Spatio-Temporal Distribution Characteristics and Trajectory Similarity Analysis of Tuberculosis in Beijing, China

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease with one of the highest reported incidences in China. The detection of the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of TB is indicative of its prevention and control conditions. Trajectory similarity analysis detects variations and loopholes in prevention and provides urban public health officials and related decision makers more information for the allocation of public health resources and the formulation of prioritized health-related policies. This study analysed the spatio-temporal distribution characteristics of TB from 2009 to 2014 by utilizing spatial statistics, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and space-time scan statistics. Spatial statistics measured the TB incidence rate (TB patients per 100,000 residents) at the district level to determine its spatio-temporal distribution and to identify characteristics of change. Spatial autocorrelation analysis was used to detect global and local spatial autocorrelations across the study area. Purely spatial, purely temporal and space-time scan statistics were used to identify purely spatial, purely temporal and spatio-temporal clusters of TB at the district level. The other objective of this study was to compare the trajectory similarities between the incidence rates of TB and new smear-positive (NSP) TB patients in the resident population (NSPRP)/new smear-positive TB patients in the TB patient population (NSPTBP)/retreated smear-positive (RSP) TB patients in the resident population (RSPRP)/retreated smear-positive TB patients in the TB patient population (RSPTBP) to detect variations and loopholes in TB prevention and control among the districts in Beijing. The incidence rates in Beijing exhibited a gradual decrease from 2009 to 2014. Although global spatial autocorrelation was not detected overall across all of the districts of Beijing, individual districts did show evidence of local spatial autocorrelation: Chaoyang and Daxing were Low-Low districts over the six-year period. The purely spatial scan statistics analysis showed significant spatial clusters of high and low incidence rates; the purely temporal scan statistics showed the temporal cluster with a three-year period from 2009 to 2011 characterized by a high incidence rate; and the space-time scan statistics analysis showed significant spatio-temporal clusters. The distribution of the mean centres (MCs) showed that the general distributions of the NSPRP MCs and NSPTBP MCs were to the east of the incidence rate MCs. Conversely, the general distributions of the RSPRP MCs and the RSPTBP MCs were to the south of the incidence rate MCs. Based on the combined analysis of MC distribution characteristics and trajectory similarities, the NSP trajectory was most similar to the incidence rate trajectory. Thus, more attention should be focused on the discovery of NSP patients in the western part of Beijing, whereas the northern part of Beijing needs intensive treatment for RSP patients.
IGR J08408–4503: A New Recurrent Supergiant Fast X-Ray Transient

The supergiant fast X-ray transient IGR J08408-4503 was discovered by INTEGRAL on 2006 May 15 during a bright flare. The source shows sporadic recurrent short bright flares, reaching a peak luminosity of 1036 ergs s-1 within less than 1 hr. The companion star is HD 74194, an Ob5Ib(f) supergiant star located at 3 kpc in the Vela region. We report the light curves and broadband spectra (0.1-200 keV) of all the three flares of IGR J08408-4503 detected up to now, based on INTEGRAL and Swift data. The flare spectra are well described by a power-law model with a high-energy cutoff at ~15 keV. The absorption column density during the flares was found to be ~1021 cm-2, indicating a very low matter density around the compact object. Using the supergiant donor star parameters, the wind accretion conditions imply an orbital period of the order of 1 yr, a spin period of the order of hours, and a magnetic field of the order of 1013 G.
Modeling Dehalococcoides sp. Augmented Bioremediation in a Single Fracture System

A numerical reactive transport model was developed to simulate the bioremediation processes in a perchloroethene (PCE) contaminated single fracture system augmented with Dehalococcoides sp. (DHC). The model describes multispecies bioreactive transport processes that include bacterial growth and detachment dynamics, biodegradation of chlorinated species, competitive inhibition of various reactive species, and the loss of daughter products because of back‐partitioning effects. Two sets of experimental data, available in the study by Schaefer et al. (2010b) , were used to calibrate and test the model. The model was able to simulate both datasets. The simulation results indicated that the yield coefficient and the DHC maximum utilization rate coefficient were the two important process parameters. A detailed sensitivity study was completed to quantify the sensitivity of the model to variations in these two parameter values. The results show that an increase in yield coefficient increases bacterial growth and thus expedites the dechlorination process, whereas an increase in maximum utilization rate coefficient greatly increased dechlorination rates. The proposed model provides a mathematical framework for simulating remediation systems that employ DHC bioaugmentation for restoring chlorinated‐solvent contaminated groundwater aquifers.
DCR : Replay Debugging for the Datacenter Gautam Altekar

Debugging is hard, but debugging production datacenter applications such as Cassandra, Hadoop, and Hypertable is downright daunting. The key obstacle is non-deterministic failures–hard-to-reproduce program misbehaviors that are immune to traditional cyclicdebugging techniques. Datacenter applications are rife with such failures because they operate in highly nondeterministic environments: a typical setup employs thousands of nodes, spread across multiple datacenters, to process terabytes of data per day. In these environments, existing methods for debugging non-deterministic failures are of limited use. They either incur excessive production overheads or don’t scale to multi-node, terabyte-scale processing. To help remedy the situation, we have built a new replay debugging tool. Our tool, called DCR, enables the reproduction and debugging of non-deterministic failures in production datacenter runs. The key observation behind DCR is that debugging does not always require a precise replica of the original datacenter run. Instead, it often suffices to produce some run that exhibits the original behaviors of the control-plane–the most errorprone component of datacenter applications. DCR leverages this observation to relax the determinism guarantees offered by the system, and consequently, to address all key requirements of production datacenter applications: lightweight recording of long-running programs, causally consistent replay of large scale systems, and out of the box operation on real-world applications.
The Endocannabinoid System as Pharmacological Target Derived from Its CNS Role in Energy Homeostasis and Reward. Applications in Eating Disorders and Addiction

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) has been implicated in many physiological functions, including the regulation of appetite, food intake and energy balance, a crucial involvement in brain reward systems and a role in psychophysiological homeostasis (anxiety and stress responses). We first introduce this important regulatory system and chronicle what is known concerning the signal transduction pathways activated upon the binding of endogenous cannabinoid ligands to the Gi/0-coupled CB1 cannabinoid receptor, as well as its interactions with other hormones and neuromodulators which can modify endocannabinoid signaling in the brain. Anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) are severe and disabling psychiatric disorders, characterized by profound eating and weight alterations and body image disturbances. Since endocannabinoids modulate eating behavior, it is plausible that endocannabinoid genes may contribute to the biological vulnerability to these diseases. We present and discuss data suggesting an impaired endocannabinoid signaling in these eating disorders, including association of endocannabinoid components gene polymorphisms and altered CB1-receptor expression in AN and BN. Then we discuss recent findings that may provide new avenues for the identification of therapeutic strategies based on the endocannabinod system. In relation with its implications as a reward-related system, the endocannabinoid system is not only a target for cannabis but it also shows interactions with other drugs of abuse. On the other hand, there may be also a possibility to point to the ECS as a potential target for treatment of drug-abuse and addiction. Within this framework we will focus on enzymatic machinery involved in endocannabinoid inactivation (notably fatty acid amide hydrolase or FAAH) as a particularly interesting potential target. Since a deregulated endocannabinoid system may be also related to depression, anxiety and pain symptomatology accompanying drug-withdrawal states, this is an area of relevance to also explore adjuvant treatments for improving these adverse emotional reactions.
Correlation of activation sizes between lateral geniculate nucleus and primary visual cortex in humans

It is well established that the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and the primary visual cortex (V1) are retinotopically organized. This similarity is expected to reflect a correlation of activation sizes between V1 and LGN during visual stimulation. However, it is a challenge to determine this functional correlation experimentally in the human brain using most neuroimaging techniques due to their low sensitivity for detecting small LGN activation in the thalamus. The purpose of this study was to examine the functional correlation of activation sizes between LGN and V1 during fullfield and hemifield visual stimulation using a large visual field and high‐resolution fMRI technique at 4 Tesla. The correlation was determined by comparing the V1 and LGN activation size ratios between the left and right hemispheres of the same subjects. The results reveal 1) a linear correlation of functional activation size ratio between LGN and V1 with a correlation coefficient of 0.96, and 2) the capability of fMRI for quantifying spatial correlation between cortical and subcortical activation. Magn Reson Med 45:202–205, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Altered GABAA receptor density and unaltered blood–brain barrier [11C]flumazenil transport in drug-resistant epilepsy patients with mesial temporal sclerosis

Studies in rodents suggest that flumazenil is a P-glycoprotein substrate at the blood–brain barrier. This study aimed to assess whether [11C]flumazenil is a P-glycoprotein substrate in humans and to what extent increased P-glycoprotein function in epilepsy may confound interpretation of clinical [11C]flumazenil studies used to assess gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptors. Nine drug-resistant patients with epilepsy and mesial temporal sclerosis were scanned twice using [11C]flumazenil before and after partial P-glycoprotein blockade with tariquidar. Volume of distribution, nondisplaceable binding potential, and the ratio of rate constants of [11C]flumazenil transport across the blood–brain barrier (K1/k2) were derived for whole brain and several regions. All parameters were compared between pre- and post-tariquidar scans. Regional results were compared between mesial temporal sclerosis and contralateral sides. Tariquidar significantly increased global K1/k2 (+23%) and volume of distribution (+10%), but not nondisplaceable binding potential. At the mesial temporal sclerosis side volume of distribution and nondisplaceable binding potential were lower in hippocampus (both ∼−19%) and amygdala (both ∼−16%), but K1/k2 did not differ, suggesting that only regional gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptor density is altered in epilepsy. In conclusion, although [11C]flumazenil appears to be a (weak) P-glycoprotein substrate in humans, this does not seem to affect its role as a tracer for assessing gamma-aminobutyric acid A receptor density.
Gender and Changes in Trauma Narrative Following CBT for PTSD

ABSTRACT Our study explored whether the characteristics of pretreatment trauma narratives could be used as indicators of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity before treatment. We also studied whether pretreatment characteristics could predict treatment efficacy. Although several studies suggest that fragmentation, proportion of internal events, and length in trauma narratives are associated with PTSD symptomatology, there are contradictions in the findings. Given the differences in trauma response between men and women, we considered the potential influence of gender. Before beginning a cognitive-behavioral therapy treatment, 66 participants verbally recounted their traumatic event during a diagnostic interview. After treatment, 48 participants once again provided a trauma narrative. PTSD symptom severity was assessed using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale. Linear regression analyses revealed that none of the pretreatment characteristics predicted treatment efficacy. Furthermore, the length of the trauma narrative was the only pretreatment characteristic that correlated with pretreatment PTSD symptomatology. This suggests that more severe symptomatology is associated with shorter narratives. We only found a significant gender difference in narrative length, which was longer in women than in men. Our findings not only highlight the need for additional research on the link between trauma narratives and PTSD symptomatology, but also stress the necessity of considering gender in this field of research. This could allow for enhanced treatments to target gender-specific needs, thus leading to more individualized care for PTSD patients.
The effect of heavy element opacity on pre-main sequence Li depletion

INFN, Sezione di Pisa, L.go B. Pontecorvo 2, I-56127 Pisa, ItalyReceived Date: Accepted DateABSTRACTContext.Recent 3-D analysis of the solar spectrum data suggests a signiﬁcant change of the solar chemical composition. This may a ﬀect thetemporal evolution of the surface abundance of light elements since the extension of the convective envelope is largely aﬀected by the internalopacity value.Aims. We analyse the inﬂuence of the adopted solar mixture on the op acity in the convective envelope of pre-main sequence (PMS)stars andthus on PMS lithium depletion. The surface Li abundance depends on the relative eﬃciency of several processes, some of them still not knownwith the required precision; this paper thus analyses one of the aspects of this “puzzle”. Methods.Focusing on PMS evolution, where the largest amount of Li burning occurs, we computed stellar models for three selected masses(0.8, 1.0 and 1.2 M⊙, with Z = 0.013, Y=0.27, α=1.9) by varying the chemical mixture, that is the internal element distribution in Z. Weanalysed the contribution of the single elements to the opacity at the temperatures and densities of interest for Li depletion. Several mixtureswere obtained by varying the abundance of the most important elements one at a time; we then calculated the corresponding PMS Li abundanceevolution.Results. We found that a mixture variation does change the Li abundance: at ﬁxed total metallicity, the Li depletion increases whe n increasingthe fraction of elements heavier than O.Key words. Stars: abundances – Li – Stars: Evolution
Investigation of the relationship between personality traits, self-efficacy and Internal locus of control with test anxiety the high school student

Introduction: Test anxiety is an unpleasant experience of anxiety for the individual that occur in exam or assessment situation. The present study is designed to investigate the relationship between personality characteristics, self-efficacy, locus of control and test anxiety. Methods and material: Statistical community included high school students of Abdanan city and 147 students were selected through random sampling method. In order to obtain the required data, four questionnaires were utilized: short form of NEO Personality Characteristics Inventory (Costa & McCrae: 1992), General Self-Efficacy Scale (Sherer et al: 1982) , Locus of Control scale(Rotters: 1966) and Test Anxiety scale( Sarason: 1975). For analysis of data, Pearson correlation coefficient, multivariant regression analysis and the Cronbach's alpha method for calculating reliability coefficient were used. Results: The results showed there was a significant positive correlation between test anxiety and neuroticism (p<0.001) and were significant negative relationship between extroversion (p<0.025), agreeableness (p<0.835), conscientiousness (p<0.0001) and test anxiety among students. Also there was a significant negative correlation between self-efficacy (p<0.001) and internal locus of control (p<0.017) and test anxiety. Conclusion: Therefor according to the findings, it seems that students who are more neurotic, experience high test anxiety while students who are more extrovert, more agreeable and more conscientious experience low test anxiety. In addition level of self-efficacy and beliefs of internal locus of control among students can predict the level of test anxiety.
Current-fed switched inverter for PV applications

In this paper, analysis and simulation of a high-boost dc-ac inverter with maximum power point tracking for photovoltaic applications is done. High step-up, step-down features and immunity towards shoot-through are the main coveted features of an inverter for a reliable, efficient, and low-distorted dc-ac inversion. Z-source inverter (ZSI) carries these characters. However, higher number of passive components is the main disadvantage during the realization of ZSI. A switched boost inverter (SBI) possesses similar properties as that of ZSI, and it has less number of passive components as compared to ZSI, but its gain is less than ZSI. Current fed switched inverter (CFSI) is a modified Z-source inverter with high gain which is same as that of ZSI and same number of passive elements as that of SBI. It is a single stage inverter with high gain. A modified pulse width modulation (PWM) control strategy is used for CFSI Here, input current drawn from the dc source is continuous and hence it is suitable for PV applications. MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) algorithm is incorporated with PV array for better performance of the circuit. MATLAB/simulink is used for simulating the results.
A Fully Decentralized Multi-Sensor System For Tracking and Surveillance

In many tracking and surveillance systems, multisensor config urations are used to provide a greater breadth of measurement information and also to increase the capability of the system to survive individual sensor failure. Most architectures currently used in such systems rely on having either a central processor where global data fusion takes place or a central communi cations medium through which all messages between sensors must pass. Such centralized architectures give rise to problems with communication and computational bottlenecks and are susceptible to total system failure should the central facility fail. In this article we describe a multisensor surveillance system that achieves a high degree of survivability by employing a decentralized sensing architecture (Durrant-Whyte, Rao, and Hu 1990). Using CCD cameras and optical barriers the system is able to track (in real time) people and robots as they move around a factory room. The decentralized sensing architecture takes the form of a network of Transputer-based sensor nodes, each with its own processing facility, that together do not re quire any central processor, any central communication facility, or any common clock. In this architecture, computation is per formed locally, and communication occurs between any two nodes as and when required. The starting point for the surveillance system is an algo rithm that allows complete decentralization of the multisensor Kalman filter equations among a number of sensing nodes. We develop the algorithm to ensure that internodal commu nication is minimized and can take place without any prior synchronization between nodes. By designing a suitable track management scheme, we are able to extend the system to cope with multitarget tracking. Finally, the specific sensors used in the implementation are interfaced to the algorithm, and the results of the working system are given.
Scheduling Issues on Thermally-Constrained Processors

The relentless increase of power density has rendered temperature a primary design constraint for microprocessors. Although a power density increase does not necessarily lead to a higher time-average temperature, we show in this study that it increases the amplitude of temperature oscillations. As a consequence, thermal throttling may be engaged more often and degrade performance. We establish that a possible way to decrease the amplitude of temperature oscillations is to increase their frequency. In a multiprogrammed environment, executing multiple threads/processes alternately can result in temperature oscillations if different threads generate different power densities. We therefore suggest that, as power density increases and processors get faster, the time slice can and should be decreased. Using a short time slice also enables the operating system to take advantage of activity migration without special architectural support. Indeed, on a thermally constrained multi-core (TCMC), activity migration can be leveraged to decrease temperature by better distributing heat over the different cores. Furthermore, we show that fair scheduling with different thread priorities can be achieved but requires sometimes to run simultaneously fewer threads than cores when fewer threads are sufficient to maintain the TCMC at thermal saturation. We propose a scheduling method that implements activity migration while taking into consideration different thread priorities. We show that, under a temperature constraint, this scheduling method provides a fair partitioning of the overall computing power of a TCMC while delivering a global execution throughput close to the maximum throughput.