Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Enhanced Optimisation Techniques for Off-line Programming of Laser Cutting Robots

Recent advances in laser technology, and especially essential increase of the cutting speed, motivate amendment of the existing robot path methods, which do not allow complete utilisation of the actuator capabilities and also neglect some particularities in the mechanical design of the manipulator arm wrist. This research addresses the optimisation of the 6-axes robot motions for the continuous contour tracking taking into account the redundancy caused by the tool axial symmetry. The particular contribution of the paper is in the area of multi-objective path planning using the graph-based search space representation. The developed path planning algorithm is based on the dynamic programming, which incorporates the constraint checking for each segment of a candidate solution and the penalty assignment for the constraint violation. To generate the smooth motion, each joint trajectory is evaluated by a set of performance indices such as the coordinate deviation, maximum increment, and total displacement of the axes. During the optimisation, the vector objective is converted into the scalar one using the weighted sum or minimax criterion, while the distance between the successive tool locations is evaluated using three types of the distance metrics. In contrast to the previous works, the developed optimisation technique explicitly incorporates verification of the velocity/acceleration constrains, allowing the designer interactively define their importance with respect to the path-smoothness objectives. In addition, it takes into account the capacity of some manipulator wrist axes for unlimited rotation in order to produce more economical motions. The efficiency of the developed algorithms has been carefully investigated via computer simulation. The presented results are implemented in a commercial software package and verified for real-life applications in automotive industry.
Cooperation and Governance in International Trade: The Strategic Organizational Approach

International trade liberalization historically has taken many organizational forms - unilateral, bilateral, minilateral, and multilateral. Given the proliferation of normative views about which of these should be pursued, economists and political scientists have devoted surprisingly little attention to the reasons for the observed variation in the chosen forms. This book is the first to develop a single theoretical framework to account for past liberalization practices and also to anticipate ongoing changes in the international organization of trade policy. Growing out of a multidisciplinary effort combining economics, politics, organization and law, the book's strategic organizational approach will interest students of trade, international relations, or institutional arrangements. Central to the strategic organizational approach is the view that organizational variety reflects alternate governance structures used to facilitate and enforce agreements. Among the successes of the approach are explanations of unilateral liberalization by 19th century Britain, U.S. governance of multilateral liberalization under the early postwar GATT, growing use of bilateral governance to limit nontariff trade barriers, and anticipatio of major moves toward minilateral governance, such as Europe/1992 and the Canada-U. S. Free-Trade Agreement.
Econometric Modelling of Price Response by Alcohol Types to Inform Alcohol Tax Policies

The paper presents estimates of price elasticities of demand for twelve disaggregated alcohol beverages in Australia: premium beer, full strength beer, low alcohol beer, and mid strength beer; red bottled wine, white bottled wine, sparkling wine, cask wine, and dark and light ready-to-drink (RTD); and dark and light spirits. These disaggregated categories correspond closely to the commodities of interest to public policymakers with respect to taxation and health policies. The system of demand equations is estimated with Nielsen data from Australia using the semiflexible AIDS model in order to impose negative semidefiniteness on the demand parameters. Results indicate elastic own-price elasticities for virtually all commodities. Morishma elasticities of substitution indicate premium beer, mid strength beer, and cask wine exhibit the largest elasticities of substitution. Low alcohol beer, light RTD, and light spirits show the lowest substitution. The elasticity estimates are used to illustrate the effect of a change in the current tax system toward taxation equalisation based on alcohol content. The policy simulation highlights the importance of having a complete system of demand elasticities because the mix of consumption of alcohol beverages changes in response to the type of alcohol policy.
Best Practices in Adolescent and Young Adult Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Focus on Asparaginase

The inclusion of asparaginase in chemotherapy regimens to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has had a positive impact on survival in pediatric patients. Historically, asparaginase has been excluded from most treatment protocols for adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients because of perceived toxicity in this population, and this is believed to have contributed to poorer outcomes in these patients. However, retrospective analyses over the past 12 years have shown that 2-, 5-, and 7-year overall survival of AYA patients is significantly improved with pediatric versus adult protocols. The addition of asparaginase to adult protocols yielded high rates of first remission and improved survival. However, long-term survival remains lower compared with what has been seen in pediatrics. The notion that asparaginase is poorly tolerated by AYA patients has been challenged in multiple studies. In some, but not all, studies, the incidences of hepatic and pancreatic toxicities were higher in AYA patients, whereas the rates of hypersensitivity reactions did not appear to differ with age. There is an increased risk of venous thromboembolic events, and management with anti-coagulation therapy is recommended. Overall, the risk of therapy-related mortality is low. Together, this suggests that high-intensity pediatric protocols offer an effective and tolerable approach to treating ALL in the AYA population.
Shared Mental Models on the Performance of e-Learning Content Development Teams

The primary purpose of the study was to investigate team-based e-Learning content development projects from the perspective of the shared mental model (SMM) theory. The researcher conducted a study of 79 e-Learning content development teams in Korea to examine the relationship between taskwork and teamwork SMMs and the performance of the teams. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the parameter estimations. As hypothesized, the results indicated that interaction among e-Learning ID team members led to higher SMMs (Ed- this acronym has already been defined above) which in turn improved the team performance. Meanwhile, the interaction decreased with the progression of ID projects and with the role differentiation. The implications of the findings and directions for instructional design (ID) practices are discussed.
Killer Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor Profiles Are not Associated with Risk of Amoxicillin-Clavulanate–Induced Liver Injury in Spanish Patients

Natural killer cells are an integral part of the immune system and represent a large proportion of the lymphocyte population in the liver. The activity of these cells is regulated by various cell surface receptors, such as killer Ig-like receptors (KIR) that bind to human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I ligands on the target cell. The composition of KIR receptors has been suggested to influence the development of specific diseases, in particularly autoimmune diseases, cancer and reproductive diseases. The role played in idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is currently unknown. In this study, we examined KIR gene profiles and HLA class I polymorphisms in amoxicillin-clavulanate (AC) DILI patients in search for potential risk associations. One hundred and two AC DILI patients and 226 controls were genotyped for the presence or absence of 16 KIR loci, including the two pseudogenes 2DP1 and 3DP1. No significant differences were found in the distribution of individual KIRs between patients and controls, which were comparable to previously reported KIR data from ethnically similar cohorts. The 21.6 and 21.2% of the patients and controls, respectively, were homozygous haplotype A carriers, while 78.4 and 78.8%, respectively, contained at least one B haplotype (Bx). The genotypes translated into 27 (AC DILI) and 46 (controls) different gene profiles, with 19 being present in both groups. The most frequent Bx gene profile containing KIRs 2DS2, 2DL2, 2DL3, 2DP1, 2DL1, 3DL1, 2DS4, 3DL2, 3DL3, 2DL4, and 3PD1 was present in 16% of the DILI patients and 14% of the controls. The distribution of HLA class I epitopes did not differ significantly between AC DILI patients and controls. The most frequent receptor-ligand combinations in the DILI patients were 2DL3 + epitope C1 (67%) and 3DL1 + Bw4 motif (67%), while 2DL1 + epitope C2 (69%) and 3DL1 + Bw4 motif (69%) predominated in the controls. This is to our knowledge the first analysis of KIR receptor-HLA ligand associations in DILI, although our findings do not support evidence of these genetic variations playing a major role in AC DILI development.
Archaea prevalence in inflamed pulp tissues

Archaea have been detected in several ecological niches of the human body such as the large intestine, skin, vagina as well as the oral cavity. At present, archaea are recognized as nonpathogenic microorganisms. However, some data indicate that they may be involved in the etiopathogenesis of several diseases, including intestinal diseases as well as oral diseases: periodontitis, peri-implantitis and endodontitis. In this study, on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, we examined whether archaea might be present in inflamed pulp tissues and contribute to the development of endodontic infection. In comparison, we also determined selected bacterial species associated with endodontitis. We detected archaea in 85% of infected endodontic samples. In addition, Prevotella intermedia, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia and Treponema denticola were present in inflamed pulp tissue samples and Treponema denticola occurred with the highest frequency (70%). Further analysis revealed the presence of methanogenic archaea in analyzed samples. Direct sequencing of archaeal 16S rRNA gene PCR products indicated the occurrence of methanogenic archaea in inflamed pulp tissues; phylogenetically most similar were Methanobrevibacter oralis and Methanobrevibacter smithii. Therefore, our results show that methanogenic archaea are present in inflamed pulp tissues and may participate in the development of endodontic infection.
Shocks and frictions under right-to-manage wage bargaining: a transatlantic perspective

This paper introduces staggered right-to-manage wage bargaining into a New Keynesian business cycle model. Our key result is that the model is able to generate persistent responses in output, inflation, and total labor input to both neutral technology and monetary policy shocks. Furthermore, we compare the model’s dynamic behavior when calibrated to the US and to an European economy. We find that the degree of price rigidity explains most of the differences in response to a monetary policy shock. When the economy is hit by a neutral technology shock, both price and wage rigidities turn out to be important.
Evidence of Young Humpback Chub Overwintering in the Mainstem Colorado River, Marble Canyon, Arizona, USA

Global climate change models predict that the southwestern United States will become warmer and drier, re- sulting in decreased reservoir volumes, increased water temperatures, and changes in fish distributions. Such conditions may also result from drought and water extraction. Our observations of humpback chub Gila cypha allowed us to test pre- dicted impacts of increased water temperatures released from Glen Canyon Dam on this federally listed endangered cyp- rinid endemic to the Colorado River Basin. We modeled the potential that the young humpback chub we captured in 2006 and 2007 were hatched and reared up to 50 km upstream from the Little Colorado River, the natal origin of the majority of the humpback chub population below Glen Canyon Dam. Larval and adult humpback chub have been observed by others in our study reach in the post-dam era. Humpback chub assumed to be juveniles have been observed in our study area, but their ages were not confirmed. Our observations of humpback chub were coincident with not only increased water tem- peratures as a result of regional drought, but also decreasing rainbow trout population numbers and some constraints on dam release fluctuations. One or all of these factors could have contributed to increased survivorship of young humpback chub. The most parsimonious explanation for our observations was that the largest young humpback chub captured at our study site took advantage of warmer water temperatures to grow to one and two years of age. Continued favorable habitat conditions in this reach would likely support recruitment to adulthood and reproduction. Managers wish to increase the likelihood that a self-sustaining mainstem Colorado River population of humpback chub is established, distinct from the larger Little Colorado River population. Our results indicate that a separate population may be successfully established.
Policing Non-Citizens

1. Policing internal borders, 2. Researching migration policing networks, 3. Immigration officers as migration police, 4. Police as immigration officers, 5. Negotiating the criminal-administrative nexus, 6. Creating a ubiquitous border, 7. A nodal cartography of migration policing networks, 8. Patrolling the boundaries of entitlement and belonging.
Multistep Relaxations in a Spin-Crossover Lattice with Defect: A Spatiotemporal Study of the Domain Propagation

We study the spatio-temporal formation and spreading of the low-spin state (LS) during the thermal spin transition and the cooperative relaxation of the photo-induced metastable high spin (HS) state at low temperature, in the presence of a structural defect. The model is made of a two-dimensional rectangular-shaped lattice with discrete spins coupled by springs. The investigations are performed for a perfect lattice and a lattice with a hole (simulating the defect) with a fixed size. We found that the presence of the defect affects the thermal equilibrium by reducing the size of the thermal hysteresis at the transition, although the transition temperature remains unchanged. The study of the low-temperature relaxation of the defect-free lattice from HS to LS state indicated the existence of three different regimes of the growth process: (i) a first regime of growth from one corner of the rectangle along the width, then followed by (ii) a second regime of longitudinal propagation at almost constant velocity, and (iii) a third rapid regime when the system feels the surface or the border of the crystal. When a hole is injected inside the lattice, it results in (i) the deformation of the HS/LS interface’s shape when it approaches the defect position; and (ii) the slowing down of its propagation velocity. These results, which are in good agreement with available experimental data, are discussed in terms of elastic energy stored in the system during the relaxation process.
Bargaining, Sorting, and the Gender Wage Gap: Quantifying the Impact of Firms on the Relative Pay of Women

There is growing evidence that firm-specific pay premiums are an important source of wage inequality. These premiums will contribute to the gender wage gap if women are less likely to work at high-paying firms or if women negotiate (or are offered) worse wage bargains with their employers than men. Using longitudinal data on the hourly wages of Portuguese workers matched with income statement information for firms, we show that the wages of both men and women contain firm-specific premiums that are strongly correlated with simple measures of the potential bargaining surplus at each firm. We then show how the impact of these firm-specific pay differentials on the gender wage gap can be decomposed into a combination of sorting and bargaining effects. We find that women are less likely to work at firms that pay higher premiums to either gender, with sorting effects being most important for low- and middle-skilled workers. We also find that women receive only 90% of the firm-specific pay premiums earned by men. Importantly, we find the same gender gap in the responses of wages to changes in potential surplus over time. Taken together, the combination of sorting and bargaining effects explain about one-fifth of the cross-sectional gender wage gap in Portugal. JEL Codes: J16, J31, J71.
Demographic Variables and Job Performance: Any Link? (A Case of Insurance Salesmen)

This paper examines the relationship between socio-economic backgrounds of insurance salesmen on the job performance. The demographic factors studied include age, marital status, educational qualification, job tenure and gender. Using a descriptive design, a total of one hundred and thirteen respondents were studied. Using primary data generated through 1questionnaire, the result of the study analyzed by both regression and correlation indicated a moderate positive relationship between the variable studied and job performance. Jointly, they account for 13% of factors explaining the performance of job of the respondents. However marital status and job tenure were found to be mostly predictive of job performance of insurance salesmen. The paper discussed the implications for the practice of management and human resource management.
Surface expression of eastern Mediterranean slab dynamics: Neogene topographic and structural evolution of the southwest margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau, Turkey

The southwest margin of the Central Anatolian Plateau has experienced multiple phases of topographic growth, including the formation of localized highs prior to the Late Miocene that were later affected by wholesale uplift of the plateau margin. Our new biostratigraphic data limit the age of uplifted marine sediments at the southwest plateau margin at 1.5 km elevation to <7.17 Ma, and regional lithostratigraphic correlations imply that the age is <6.7 Ma. Single‐grain CA‐TIMS U‐Pb zircon analyses from a reworked ash within the marine sediments yield dates as young as 10.6 Ma, indicating a maximum age that is consistent with the biostratigraphy. Our structural measurements within the uplifted region and fault inversion modeling agree with previous findings in surrounding regions, with early contraction followed by strike‐slip and extensional deformation during uplift. Focal mechanisms from shallow earthquakes show that the extensional phase has continued to the present. Broad similarities in the change in the tectonic stress regime (after 8 Ma) and the onset of surface uplift (after 7 Ma) imply that deep‐seated process(es) caused post‐7 Ma uplift. The geometry of lithospheric slabs beneath the plateau margin, Pliocene to recent alkaline volcanism, and the uplift pattern with accompanying normal faulting point toward slab tearing and localized heating at the base of the lithosphere as a probable mechanism for post‐7 Ma uplift of the southwest margin. Considering previous work in the region, there appears to be an important link between slab dynamics and surface uplift throughout the Anatolian Plateau's southern margin.
In Vitro Scanning Electron Microscopic Study on the Effect of Doxycycline and Vancomycin on Enterococcal Induced Biofilm

INTRODUCTION Enterococcus (E) faecalis bacteria adhere to dentine of teeth root canals to form the biofilm. E. faecalis has been shown to be resistant to antibiotics. This in vitro study aimed to investigate the efficacy of vancomycin and doxycycline in inhibiting E. faecalis biofilm formation. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 60 extracted human teeth were incubated with E. faecalis (ATCC 35550 strain) for 45 days to allow biofilm formation. The teeth were equally divided into six groups (n=10): 1) positive control, 2) negative control, 3) doxycycline alone 4) doxycycline with filing, 5) vancomycin alone, 6) vancomycin with filing. The relevant canals were irrigated with 4µg/mL of either vancomycin or doxycycline antibiotic. Teeth were processed for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Areas of biofilm remaining in the canals after antibiotic treatment were measured with Scion image analysis software using the SEM images. RESULTS Vancomycin is more effective in reducing the overall biofilm area compared with doxycycline; moreover filing after antibiotic administration increased this effect. CONCLUSION We can conclude that vancomycin had greater efficacy than doxycycline for inhibiting and reducing E. faecalis biofilms growth in root canals. However, it failed to completely eliminate biofilm formation.
Differentiation and development of human female germ cells during prenatal gonadogenesis: an immunohistochemical study.

BACKGROUND In the development of the human ovary, the second trimester includes the transition from oogonial replication to primordial follicle formation. The present study was carried out to assess differentiation and proliferation of germ cells in a series of female gonads from 19 fetuses from the second and third trimester, and two neonates. METHODS Using immunohistochemistry, the following markers were studied: placental/germ-like cell alkaline phosphatases (PLAP), the marker of pluripotency OCT3/4, the proliferation marker Ki-67, beta-catenin and E-cadherin, the stem cell factor receptor c-KIT, and VASA, a protein specific for the germ cell lineage. RESULTS PLAP and OCT3/4 were seen during oogenesis, but not in germ cells engaged in folliculogenesis. A similar pattern was observed for Ki-67. Loss of pluripotency occurs once oocytes engage in follicle formation, suggesting a role of cell-cell interactions in the process of germ cell maturation. VASA, c-KIT, beta-catenin and E-cadherin were found in germ cells at all developmental stages of oogenesis and folliculogenesis. CONCLUSIONS Immunohistochemically, two groups of germ cells can be distinguished. Germ cells that are predominantly found in the cortical region of the ovary before weeks 22-24 of gestation, showing an immature phenotype, are mitotically active, and express OCT3/4, a marker of pluripotency. On the other hand, germ cells undergoing folliculogenesis have lost their pluripotent potential and no longer proliferate.
Studies in rural capitalism in West Africa

Originally published in 1970, this is a collection of studies of indigenous economies in Ghana and Nigeria by an author with an unusual interdisciplinary approach. In the opening section it is contended that most economists interested in underdeveloped countries have neglected the detailed study of economic organization and mechanism in the field, especially in rural areas, and that, as a result, there has been little testing of many conventional implicit assumptions that happen to be invalid. The subsequent chapters of the book are both a vigorous corrective to socio-economic generalisations based on too little data and a demonstration of the possibilities of a research method that owes more to the example of social anthropologists than to that of economists. The sophistication of the picture of certain sectors of rural life that emerges from the whole book will surprise many readers.