Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nominal stability of real-time iteration scheme for nonlinear model predictive control

A Newton-type method is investigated for online optimisation in nonlinear model predictive control, the so-called real-time iteration scheme. Only one Newton-type iteration is performed per sampling instant in this scheme, and control of the system and the solution of the optimal control problem are performed in parallel. In the resulting combined dynamics of system and optimiser, the actual feedback control in each step is based on the current solution estimate, and the solution estimates are at each sampling instant refined and transferred to the next optimisation problem by a specially designed transition. This approach yields an efficient online optimisation algorithm that has already been successfully tested in several applications. Due to the close dovetailing of system and optimiser dynamics, however, stability of the closed-loop system is not implied by standard nonlinear model predictive control results. A proof of nominal stability of the scheme is given which builds on concepts from both NMPC stability theory and convergence analysis of Newton-type methods. The principal result is that, under some reasonable assumptions, the combined system-optimiser dynamics can be guaranteed to converge towards the origin from significantly disturbed system-optimiser states.
Is earnings management opportunistic or beneficial in Taiwan

This paper analyzes whether discretionary accruals affects firm value under the corporate governance mechanism via a panel of 277 Taiwanese listed companies from 1997 to 2007. Our results show that when managerial ownership is less than 9.67%, managers may engage in opportunistic earnings management. However, while managerial ownership higher than 9.67%, managers may tilt toward efficient earnings management. Only efficient earnings management is found in either board size less than 9 members or more than 12 members and institutional ownership less than 43.8%. Also, small board has greater impact on efficient earnings management than larger board. When the proportion of outside directors is below 38.73%, they can effectively supervise managers to engage in efficient earnings management.
Do Students Eventually Get to Publish their Research Findings? The Case of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Research in Cameroon

Background Scientific publication is commonly used to communicate research findings and in most academic/research settings, to evaluate the potential of a researcher and for recruitment and promotion. It has also been said that researchers have the duty to make public, the findings of their research. As a result, researchers are encouraged to share their research findings with the scientific world through peer review publications. In this study, we looked at the characteristics and publication rate of theses that documented studies on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in Cameroon. Materials and Methods: To check if a thesis resulted in a publication, we searched: A database of publications on HIV in Cameroon, African Journals Online, PubMed and Google scholar. For each publication we recorded if the student was an author, the position of the student in the author listing, the journal and where the journal was indexed. We also looked at the impact factor of the journals. Results: One hundred and thirty theses/dissertations were included in the study, 74.6% (97/130) were written as part of a medical degree (MD), 23.8% (31/130) a postgraduate (PG) degree and 1.5% (2/130) for a Doctorate/PhD. On a whole, 13.9% (18/130) of the theses resulted in at least one publication in a scientific journal with a total of 22 journal articles, giving a mean publication rate of 0.17 article/thesis, 86.4% (11/22) were indexed on PubMed, 9.1% (2/22) on African Journals Online and 4.6% (1/22) on Google scholar. One PG thesis led to two book chapters. The student was the first author in 22.7% (5/22) of the articles and not an author in 9.1% (2/22) of the articles. Student supervisor was an author in all the articles. Conclusion: This study reveals that most students in Cameroon failed to transform their theses/dissertations to scientific publications. This indicates an urgent need to sensitize students on the importance of presenting their research findings in scientific meetings and peer reviewed journals. There is also a great necessity to build capacity in scientific writing among university students in Cameroon.
Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics of the zero-range process and application to networks

Statistical mechanics is concerned with the study of systems with a large number of interacting constituents. Equilibrium statistical mechanics, originally introduced as a theoretical approach for thermodynamics, is well understood and a general theoretical framework exists. Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics is less well understood and no general theoretical framework currently exists. The study of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics often consists of analysing the behaviour of simple models which can exhibit interesting phenomena not expected from equilibrium systems of such simplicity. Recently, statistical mechanics is finding application in areas that are not often strongly associated with physics, such as biology and the social sciences. These fields contain systems with many interacting constituents, but for which the concepts of equilibrium statistical mechanics are often not intuitive or applicable. Thus the study of such systems through simple nonequilibrium models is commonplace. Many such models have been proposed to represent complex networks, such as the Internet, metabolic pathway networks and social acquaintance networks. Networks represent the connections between the components of a system; the structure of these connections is often crucial to the function of the system. The recent analysis of large data sets taken from real networks has revealed high levels of organisation. The study of simple models is being used as a first step to gain insight into how and why this organisation comes about. In this thesis a simple, stochastic, interacting particle system the zero-range process (ZRP) is studied with various analytical and numerical methods. In particular, the application of the ZRP and some of is generalisations to complex networks is focussed upon. The ZRP is a hopping particle model where particles hop between sites of a lattice under certain rules that depend only on the properties of the site from which the particles hop hence the name zero-range. Through its simplicity the steady state of the ZRP can be solved, even for nonequilibrium dynamics, and yet despite its simplicity it can exhibit interesting phenomena such as condensation transitions, where a finite fraction of the total particles in the system will condense onto a single site of the lattice. Firstly, interesting finite-size effects surrounding the condensation transition in a one-dimensional, driven version of the ZRP are studied. These take the form of discrepancies in the current-density diagram between finite and infinite systems, with
Carbon nanotube biocompatibility with cardiac muscle cells

Purified carbon nanotubes are new carbon allotropes, sharing similarities with graphite, that have recently been proposed for their potential use with biological systems as probes for in vitro research and for diagnostic and clinical purposes. However the biocompatibility of carbon nanotubes with cells represents an important problem that, so far, remains largely uninvestigated. The objective of this in vitro study is to explore the cytocompatibility properties of purified carbon nanofibres with cardiomyocytes. Cardiac muscle cells from a rat heart cell line H9c2 (2-1) have been used. Highly purified single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) were suspended at the concentration of 0.2 mg ml−1 by ultrasound in complete Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium, and administered to cells to evaluate cell proliferation and shape changes by light microscopy, cell viability by trypan blue exclusion, and apoptosis, determined flow cytometrically by annexin/PI staining. Microscopic observation evidenced that carbon nanotubes bind to the cell membrane, causing a slight modification in cell shape and in cell count only after three days of treatment. Cell viability was not affected by carbon nanotubes in the first three days of culture, while after this time, cell death was slightly higher in nanotube-treated cells (p = ns). Accordingly, nanotube treatment induced little and non-significant change in the apoptotic cell number at day 1 and 3. The effect of nanotubes bound to cells was tested by reseeding treated cardiomyocytes. Cells from a trypsinized nanotube-treated sample showed a limited ability to proliferate, and a definite difference in shape, with a high degree of cell death: compared to reseeded untreated ones, in SWNT-treated samples the annexin-positive/PI-negative cells increased from 2.9% to 9.3% in SWNT (p<0.05, where p<0.05 defines a statistically significant difference with a probability above 95%), and the annexin-positive/PI-positive cells increased from 5.2% to 18.7% (p<0.05). However, overtime cells from a trypsinized nanotube-treated sample continued to grow, and partially recovered the original shape. In conclusion our results demonstrate that highly purified carbon nanotubes possess no evident short-term toxicity and can be considered biocompatible with cardiomyocytes in culture, while the long-term negative effects, that are evidenced after reseeding, are probably due to physical rather than chemical interactions.
Asymptotic Analysis on Content Placement and Retrieval in MANETs

Recently, performance analysis for large-scale content-centric mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) has received intense attention. In content-centric MANETs, content delivery consists of two operations, i.e., content placement and content retrieval, which may involve different network costs. However, the existing performance studies in content-centric MANETs mainly focus on content retrieval, and hence may not reflect the impact of content placement. In this paper, we investigate the asymptotic throughput and delay performance by considering the two operations of possibly different network costs. In particular, we introduce a general weighted sum delay cost of content placement and content retrieval as the delay performance metric. We consider an arbitrary content popularity distribution and study two mobility models in different time scales, i.e., fast and slow mobility. For each mobility model, we characterize the impacts of the network parameters on the network performance. By optimizing the content placement and retrieval for contents of different popularities, we design a general near-optimal scheme, the parameters of which reflect the delay weights of the two phases. We show that the network performance improves as the number of cached replicas increases until the number reaches a threshold. Finally, we show that our results are general and can incorporate some existing results as special cases.
Measuring the fidelity of implementation of a mental health program model.

A fidelity index of program implementation for assertive community treatment (ACT) was developed. In Study 1, 20 experts rated the importance of 73 elements proposed as critical ACT ingredients, also indicating ideal model specifications for elements. Agreement among experts on ratings of importance was high (intraclass r = .98). In Study 2, a 17-item subset of the expert-identified critical ingredients was used to construct a fidelity index with three subscales: Staffing, Organization, and Service. Internal consistencies ranged from . 50 to . 72, with a . 81 reliability for the total scale. Fidelity was linearly related to program "generations," suggesting "program drift. " In 18 ACT programs, fidelity also was associated with measures of reduction in days in psychiatric hospitals. The correlation was significant for the total scale and for the Organization and Staffing subscales but not for the Service subscale.
MANETs: Perfrormance Analysis and Management

In this work, we model and analyze the performance of optimized link state routing (OLSR), a proactive routing protocol, in wireless mobile ad-hoc networks. More specifically, we identify key OLSR parameters that have significant impact on the amount of overhead produced and the network route convergence time. Observe that while reduction in protocol-related overheads is crucial in bandwidth sensitive wireless MANETs, it is also critical that route convergence times are minimized in order to ensure rapidity of information dissemination. However, bandwidth reduction and convergence times place opposing constraints on the key OLSR parameters. In this paper, we use detailed modeling, simulations and analyses (MSA), to analyze the effect of varying the key OLSR parameters and the trades they produce in terms of overheads and convergence times. In particular, our contribution is two-fold. Via MSA, we provide detailed insights on how the topology control and hello interval timers can be used to reduce overheads without adversely affecting MANET route convergence times. Next, we describe an approach that combines the rapidly emerging policy-based network management paradigm with MSA to result in an adaptive network management system (ANMS). Such an ANMS has the capability of providing powerful information to MANET designers in terms of provisioning the network as well as understanding how quickly the network can be deployed in order to support mission critical services
Election Campaigning on Social Media: Politicians, Audiences, and the Mediation of Political Communication on Facebook and Twitter

Although considerable research has concentrated on online campaigning, it is still unclear how politicians use different social media platforms in political communication. Focusing on the German federal election campaign 2013, this article investigates whether election candidates address the topics most important to the mass audience and to which extent their communication is shaped by the characteristics of Facebook and Twitter. Based on open-ended responses from a representative survey conducted during the election campaign, we train a human-interpretable Bayesian language model to identify political topics. Applying the model to social media messages of candidates and their direct audiences, we find that both prioritize different topics than the mass audience. The analysis also shows that politicians use Facebook and Twitter for different purposes. We relate the various findings to the mediation of political communication on social media induced by the particular characteristics of audiences and sociotechnical environments.
Incidence of Metabolic Syndrome and Its Risk Factors among Type 2 Diabetes Clinic Attenders in Isfahan, Iran

Aim. At present, little data exist about incidence and the risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The objectives of present study were to assess the incidence and risk factors of MetS in people with T2DM. Methods. During the mean (SD) follow-up period of 11.7 (4.8) years, 3,047 patients with T2DM and free of MetS at baseline have been examined to determine incidence and predictors of progression to MetS. A modified the National Cholesterol Education Program—Adult Treatment Panel III definition with body mass index (BMI) instead of waist circumference was used for the MetS. Results. The prevalence of MetS was 63.2% (95% CI: 62.3, 64.1). The incidence of MetS was 28.5 (95% CI: 26.8, 30.2) (25.9 men and 30.9 women) per 1,000 patient-years based on 35,677 patient-years of follow-up. Multivariate analysis revealed that higher BMI and education, lower HbA1c and treatment with oral agent or insulin were associated with MetS. Conclusion. These are the first estimate of incidence and risk factors of MetS in patients with T2DM in Iran. These findings showed that the natural course of MetS is dynamic. The clinical management of patients with T2DM will contribute significantly to MetS prevention.
Psychologic and physiologic reactivity to stressors in eating disordered individuals.

&NA; The present study explored a potential mechanism for the relationship between stressors and binge eating: specifically, whether subjects with behaviors and attitudes reflecting disordered eating show distinctive psychologic or physiologic reactivity to stressors. Female undergraduates participated in a laboratory study involving four psychologically stressful tasks. Blood pressure and pulse rate were monitored, and several psychologic questionnaires were administered. Analyses revealed that the tasks provoked significant cardiovascular and affective responses in both high‐ and low‐disordered eaters. There were no differences between groups in cardiovascular responsivity or mood state in response to diverse stressors. However, those with more disordered eating reported an increased desire to binge in response to the stressors, along with more global stress, lower self‐esteem, and lower mastery than the comparison group. The results suggest that the increased desire to binge in response to stressors reported by subjects higher in disordered eating cannot be accounted for by differences in cardiovascular reactivity or negative hedonic state, relative to what subjects low in disordered eating showed in response to the same stressors.
Does socioeconomic status fully mediate the effect of ethnicity on the health of Roma people in Hungary?

Background: Several models have been proposed to explain the association between ethnicity and health. It was investigated whether the association between Roma ethnicity and health is fully mediated by socioeconomic status in Hungary. Methods: Comparative health interview surveys were performed in 2003–04 on representative samples of the Hungarian population and inhabitants of Roma settlements. Logistic regression models were applied to study whether the relationship between Roma ethnicity and health is fully mediated by socioeconomic status, and whether Roma ethnicity modifies the association between socioeconomic status and health. Results: The health status of people living in Roma settlements was poorer than that of the general population (odds ratio of severe functional limitation after adjustment for age and gender 1.8 (95% confidence interval 1.4 to 2.3)). The difference in self-reported health and in functionality was fully explained by the socioeconomic status. The less healthy behaviours of people living in Roma settlements was also related very strongly to their socioeconomic status, but remained significantly different from the general population when differences in the socioeconomic status were taken into account, (eg odds ratio of daily smoking 1.6 (95% confidence interval 1.3 to 2.0) after adjustment for age, gender, education, income and employment). Conclusion: Socioeconomic status is a strong determinant of health of people living in Roma settlements in Hungary. It fully explains their worse health status but only partially determines their less healthy behaviours. Efforts to improve the health of Roma people should include a focus on socioeconomic status, but it is important to note that cultural differences must be taken into account in developing public health interventions.
Self perceived health and mental health among women flight attendants

Aims: The authors investigated associations of work related risk factors with self perceived health as less than “good” and psychological distress among Italian women flight attendants. Methods: The authors conducted a cross sectional survey on health and mental health among 1955 former and current flight attendants, using a postal questionnaire. Results: More current than former flight attendants reported self perceived health as fair to poor and psychological distress measured as a GHQ-12 score of six or more. Among current flight attendants, reporting health as fair to poor was associated with low job satisfaction (OR 1.89) and recent experiences of sexual harassment by passengers (OR 2.83). Psychological distress was associated with low job satisfaction (OR 2.38) and frequent tension with partner over childcare (OR 1.79). Conclusions: Perceived health as fair to poor and psychological distress were greater among current flight attendants and were related to job characteristics and family difficulties. Perceived poor health has been shown in the literature to be related to mortality, high job strain, and early retirement, and psychological distress is associated with work absence. The effect of sexual harassment by passengers on perceived health of flight attendants may be relevant to other working women dealing with the public. The health effects of family/work conflicts, low job satisfaction, and sexual harassment should be explored more in depth, using qualitative as well as quantitative methods among working women in various occupations.
Mutation frequencies of X‐linked mental retardation genes in families from the EuroMRX consortium

The EuroMRX family cohort consists of about 400 families with non‐syndromic and 200 families with syndromic X‐linked mental retardation (XLMR). After exclusion of Fragile X (Fra X) syndrome, probands from these families were tested for mutations in the coding sequence of 90 known and candidate XLMR genes. In total, 73 causative mutations were identified in 21 genes. For 42% of the families with obligate female carriers, the mental retardation phenotype could be explained by a mutation. There was no difference between families with (lod score >2) or without (lod score <2) significant linkage to the X chromosome. For families with two to five affected brothers (brother pair=BP families) only 17% of the MR could be explained. This is significantly lower (P=0.0067) than in families with obligate carrier females and indicates that the MR in about 40% (17/42) of the BP families is due to a single genetic defect on the X chromosome. The mutation frequency of XLMR genes in BP families is lower than can be expected on basis of the male to female ratio of patients with MR or observed recurrence risks. This might be explained by genetic risk factors on the X chromosome, resulting in a more complex etiology in a substantial portion of XLMR patients. The EuroMRX effort is the first attempt to unravel the molecular basis of cognitive dysfunction by large‐scale approaches in a large patient cohort. Our results show that it is now possible to identify 42% of the genetic defects in non‐syndromic and syndromic XLMR families with obligate female carriers. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Linear-time Kernelization for Feedback Vertex Set

In this paper, we propose an algorithm that, given an undirected graph $G$ of $m$ edges and an integer $k$, computes a graph $G'$ and an integer $k'$ in $O(k^4 m)$ time such that (1) the size of the graph $G'$ is $O(k^2)$, (2) $k'\leq k$, and (3) $G$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $k$ if and only if $G'$ has a feedback vertex set of size at most $k'$. This is the first linear-time polynomial-size kernel for Feedback Vertex Set. The size of our kernel is $2k^2+k$ vertices and $4k^2$ edges, which is smaller than the previous best of $4k^2$ vertices and $8k^2$ edges. Thus, we improve the size and the running time simultaneously. We note that under the assumption of $\mathrm{NP}\not\subseteq\mathrm{coNP}/\mathrm{poly}$, Feedback Vertex Set does not admit an $O(k^{2-\epsilon})$-size kernel for any $\epsilon>0$. Our kernel exploits $k$-submodular relaxation, which is a recently developed technique for obtaining efficient FPT algorithms for various problems. The dual of $k$-submodular relaxation of Feedback Vertex Set can be seen as a half-integral variant of $A$-path packing, and to obtain the linear-time complexity, we propose an efficient augmenting-path algorithm for this problem. We believe that this combinatorial algorithm is of independent interest. A solver based on the proposed method won first place in the 1st Parameterized Algorithms and Computational Experiments (PACE) challenge.