Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Survey of Adaptive Fuzzy Controllers: Nonlinearities and Classifications

Adaptive fuzzy controllers (AFCs), i.e., fuzzy controllers using heuristic expert knowledge and equipped with adaption ability, are widely used in the industry in the present days as they are capable of dealing with ill-formulated nonlinear systems (where exact mathematical formulas are not known) or partially described nonlinear systems. AFCs have been widely deployed to control many nonlinear systems with different types of critical nonlinearities. Over the last two decades, many different approaches toward adaptive fuzzy control have been reported. In this paper, we recapitulate the latest research works related to AFCs and provide an up-to-date survey on the latest development made in adaptive fuzzy control theory and applications based on different types of fuzzy systems considered and nonlinearities associated with the nonlinear system to be controlled. We categorize the different approaches based on different types of nonlinearities and consider basic nonlinear systems, nonlinear systems with external disturbances, nonlinear systems with some special type of nonlinearities, nonaffine nonlinear systems, and strict-feedback nonlinear systems. It turns out that many existing methods are subject to various limitations, and none of them is capable of controlling a general nonlinear systems. Hence, it is still an open problem to design and develop a universal AFC for a general class of nonlinear systems.
Extreme Returns and Value at Risk in International Securitized Real Estate Markets

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the extreme behavior of securitized real estate and stock market returns as well as their value-at-risk (VaR) dynamics in international investing. Extreme value theory using the block maxima method is applied to ten securitized real estate and equity market indices representing Asian, European and North American markets. Design/methodology/approach - The paper models the maxima and minima of all return series within the extreme value theory (EVT) framework and derive the VaR estimates. It then compares the VaR estimates derived from the EVT and the normal distribution and investigates the impact of clustered returns on the VaR estimates. Finally, both the conventional standard deviation measure and VaR method are conducted to evaluate and compare the impact of the Asian financial turmoil on the real estate and stock market risk profiles. Findings - Evidence shows that Asian real estate and equity maxima and minima return series are characterized by a fat-tailed Frechet distribution. The frequency and severity of extreme Asian real estate returns are greater than their European and North American counterparts. Securitized real estate markets are riskier than the broader stock markets before and during the Asian financial turmoil. In contrast, many stock markets become riskier after the financial crisis with their VaRs higher than the equivalent VaR estimates for the real estate series. Research limitations/implications - Knowledge about real estate market returns exhibit extreme behavior can help investors and fund managers understand the distribution of real estate market returns better and obtain potentially more accurate real estate return forecasts. Practical implications - International real estate portfolio risk management should include both extreme risks and standard deviations. Accordingly, global investors should be even more cautious in formulating their diversification strategies since gains from diversification can be reduced significantly by the severity of extreme return levels. Originality/value - The paper characterizes the distribution of extreme returns for a broad spectrum of international securitized real estate markets from three continents. The extreme value investigation is also conducted for broader stock markets corresponding to the individual real estate markets. The July 1997 turmoil that occurred in Asian financial markets provides interesting exploratory opportunities within which this paper estimates and compares the extreme market risk with the conventional standard deviation measure.
Learning to manage risks in international R&D joint ventures through ownership decisions

– This paper aims to examine the interaction between risk, learning and ownership decisions in international R&D joint ventures. , – The study focuses on international strategic R&D joint ventures of US firms. The sample is made up of 266 firms. Regression models are used in the testing of the hypotheses. , – The authors show a clear difference between the effects of performance versus relational risks on ownership decisions in international joint ventures (IJVs). In response to performance risk, firms are less likely to pursue a majority ownership, whereas with relational risk the effect is opposite. , – A key contribution of this paper is that it shows the effects of performance versus relational risks on ownership decisions in IJVs. Another contribution is the finding that IJV experience moderates the effects of relational risk factors on firms' ownership decisions in joint ventures. With greater joint venture experience, firms are more likely to take a non‐dominant position in response to diverse partners as they develop routines and capabilities that allow them to better manage IJV partners and minimize the risk of partner opportunism without the need for majority ownership.
Monolithic bulk shear-wave acousto-optic tunable filter

We demonstrate a monolithic bulk shear-wave acousto-optic tunable filter combining a piezoelectric transducer array and the acoustic interaction medium in a single crystal. An X-propagating acoustic longitudinal wave is excited in the "crossed-field" scheme by an RF-E/sub y/-field in a chirped acoustic superlattice formed by domain-inversion in lithium niobate (LiNbO/sub 3/). The acoustic longitudinal wave is efficiently (97.5%) converted at a mechanically free boundary into a Y-propagating acoustic slow-shear wave that couples collinearly propagating e- and o-polarized optical waves. A relative conversion efficiency of 80%/W was measured at 980 nm.
Cointegration between carbon spot and futures prices : from linear to nonlinear modeling

This paper develops two nonlinear cointegration models - a VECM with structural shift and a threshold cointegration model - applied to carbon spot and futures prices. The results extend the previous findings by Chevallier (2010), who studied this topic with a linear VECM. First, in the VECM with structural shift, we observe that the returns of carbon spot and futures prices correct the deviations to the long-term equilibrium, with the futures price being the leader in the price discovery. Besides, we identify a breakpoint in July 2008, which may be related to the financial crisis and its effects on the carbon market. Second, we use Hansen and Seo's (2002) methodology, which points out the need to consider threshold cointegration models. We find strong error-correction effects for the carbon futures price. Asymmetry is implied in the sense that the carbon futures price governs most of the adjustment from the short-run to the long-run equilibrium of the model above or below the estimated threshold.
Respect, Responsibility, and Development

We develop a theory that explains how two core values – Respect for others and Responsibility – affect productivity, the accumulation of capital, and output per worker. Using data from the World Values Survey, we empirically test the model using a panel dataset that includes 82 countries over six distinct years. We find that these two core values are important to production and that their impact is substantial. We also show that Respect and Responsibility reduce the influence of trust and mitigate the negative macroeconomic effects associated with fractionalized societies. Our results are robust to various treatments for endogeneity and under alternative samples.
Hospitality Research: Educators' Perceptions

A study was undertaken of 505 hospitality educators to determine the perceived benefits and utilization of hospitality research by hospitality educators and the extent to which the educators and industry professionals utilize this research in their organizations. The study was also designed to uncover some effective ways of disseminating hospitality research and ways to improve communication between hospitality faculty and industry professionals.
Diplopia: A Complication of Dural Puncture

Case reports of extraocular muscle paralysis (EOMP) were compiled from a computerized search of the medical literature in English, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese from 1966 through December 20, 2002 using PubMed and the OVID search engine. Forty-four related articles were identified, and 41 reports were obtained. Four reports were excluded from the review because of either insufficient descriptions of the cases or confounding factors, such as medicine or underlying disease that could have independently contributed to the EOMP. An additional 12 reports were obtained after hand-searching reference lists of retrieved reports and review articles. A total of 94 reported cases and one of the authors’ own were analyzed for this review article. The reported incidence of EOMP after dural puncture varies from 1 in 400 to 1 in 8000. These incidence reports were either from retrospective reviews of spinal anesthesia in 1947 and 1961 or diagnostic lumbar punctures in which larger spinal needles were often used. Spinal anesthesia was found to be the most frequently reported procedure involved (47%), followed by myelography (18%), diagnostic lumbar puncture (12%), epidural anesthesia/injection (11%), continuous spinal anesthesia (4%), and other dural puncture procedures.
Financial Development and Economic Growth: Evidence from China

Using data from 286 Chinese cities over the period 2001–2006, this paper investigates the relationship between financial development and economic growth at the city level in China. Our results from both traditional cross-sectional regressions and first-differenced and system GMM estimators for dynamic panel data suggest that most traditional indicators of financial development are positively associated with economic growth. This result runs contrary to the existing conclusion that a state-ruled banking sector, such as that in China, hinders economic growth because of the distorting nature of the government. Since we focus on the years after China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 while the existing studies mainly covered the years before 2001, our finding suggests that the financial reforms that have taken place after China’s accession to the WTO are in the right direction. To examine the sensitivity of our results, different conditioning information sets are experimented with. Our results are shown to be robust.
A review of the clinical and toxicological aspects of ‘traditional’ (herbal) medicines adulterated with heavy metals

The popularity of traditional remedies has greatly increased in westernised countries over recent years. Although many of these remedies are used safely, there have recently been an increasing number of case reports being published of heavy metal poisoning after the use of traditional remedies, in particular, Indian Ayurvedic remedies. This study reviews the data on published cases, along with the history of Ayurvedic medicine in an attempt to provide an insight into why heavy metals, in particular lead, mercury and arsenic are added in such large concentrations to these remedies.
China's Regional Grain Self-Sufficiency Policy and Its Effect on Land Productivity

Abstract In attempting to explain the dramatic decline and stagnation of agricultural productivity observed in the collective period and the rapid growth after the reforms, two hypotheses have been advanced. One attributes the changes in productivity to the changes in incentive mechanisms under different institutions. The second hypothesis attributes the changes to the policy of regional self-sufficiency in grain. Using provincial data and a counterfactual method based on 1952 as a benchmark, we find that the introduction of the regional grain self-sufficiency policy resulted in land productivity gains rather than losses. The implication of this empirical finding disconfirms the second hypothesis.
Comparative advertising: disclosing horizontal match information

Improved consumer information about horizontal aspects of products of similar quality leads to better consumer matching but also to higher prices, so consumer surplus can go up or down, while profits rise. With enough quality asymmetry, though, the higher-quality (and hence larger) firm's price falls with more information, so both effects benefit consumers. This occurs when comparative advertising is used against a large firm by a small one. Comparative advertising, as it imparts more information, therefore helps consumers. Although it also improves the profitability of the small firm, overall welfare goes down because of the large loss to the attacked firm.
Networks, weak signals and technological innovations among SMEs in the land-based transportation equipment sector

On apprend plus par la conversation des Doctes, que par la lecture de leurs livres Les épistres de Seneque Translation by François de Malherbe, Paris, Anthoine de Sommaville, 1639, p. 21 Small and medium-sized enterprises, because of their limited resources, use a variety of sources and are linked to different networks to obtain the information they need to develop their strategy and then to gradually organize their environment. Among other things, networks keep them up-to-date with changes in the economy and allow them to take advantage of opportunities to innovate, thus remaining ahead of their competitors. The networks – personal or business – with which these firms interact the most are usually geographically or sociologically close by, embedded in the environment, and are known as strong tie networks. They generally supply signals in a familiar language, based on habit as well a good reciprocal knowledge, which are easy to understand. In addition to this, however, the most dynamic firms also have contacts with weak tie networks, which are further removed from the usual behaviours of entrepreneurs and provide weak signals that, while difficult to grasp and decode, nevertheless offer new, pre-competitive information that can support major innovations. Very little empirical research has been done so far to test the probability of this theory. This paper reports on the results of a survey involving 147 SMEs, all in the land-based transportation equipment sector. It confirms the importance of weak tie networks as opposed to other types of networks, recognizing their complementary contribution to technological innovation. The organization's absorptive capacity is also found to be a significant intermediary factor in taking advantage of weak tie networks.
Paid Parking in Cities : Regulating Parking Demand and Consequences for the Retail Sector

In this paper we analyse the effectiveness and consequences of introducing parking fees. It is argued that pricing measures are effective for combating inefficiencies in parking behaviour caused by distortions such as information problems and costs of parking congestion. However, given the structure of the marginal external costs involved, pricing measures are not attractive for addressing other negative externalities such as the negative effect of parked cars on the attractiveness of areas such as historical centres and residential areas. Therefore, a mixture of pricing and quantity regulation is needed. Furthermore, it is often stated that paid parking has negative effects on retailing. This issue was addressed by estimating two models of cross-sectional data from Dutch cities and panel data at the city-district level in Amsterdam, respectively. The first analysis suggests that aggregate parking capacity at the city level has a limited impact on the success of central shopping areas. In the second model we find that an introduction or increase of parking fees appears to have no negative consequences on the urban retail sector.
What Do We Know About Real Exchange Rate Non-Linearities?

This research points to the serious problem of potentially misspecified alternative hypotheses when testing for unit roots in real exchange rates. We apply a popular unit root test against nonlinear ESTAR and develop a Markov Switching unit root test. The empirical power of these tests against correctly and misspecified non-linear alternatives is analyzed by means of a Monte Carlo study. The chosen parametrization is obtained by real-life exchange rates. The test against ESTAR has low power against all alternatives whereas the proposed unit root test against a Markov Switching autoregressive model performs clearly better. An empirical application of these tests suggests that real exchange rates may indeed be explained by Markov-Switching dynamics.
The impact of federal government welfare expenditures on state government expenditures and philanthropic giving to human service organizations (HSOs): 2005-2006

Sung-Ju Kim The Impact of Federal Government Welfare Expenditures on State Government Expenditures and Philanthropic Giving to Human Service Organizations: 2005-2006 A sizeable body of research has attempted to examine the interaction between government spending and private giving known as the crowd-out effect. Most researchers reported that increases of government spending cause decreases of philanthropic giving to different types of nonprofits. However, few studies have attempted to indicate the interaction between government welfare expenditures and private giving to human service organizations even though human service organizations are the most sensitive to the changes of government spending. Additionally, the estimated crowd-out effects with a simple crowd-out model have been criticized for potential endogeneity bias. This paper investigates the total effect of federal government welfare spending on state government expenditures and philanthropic giving to human service organizations (known as joint crowd-out). I used the 2005 wave of the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS) to estimate the effect of federal human service grants on state government spending on, and donations to human services. From these reduced-form estimates I infer the levels of simple and joint crowd-out. I found that indicate federal spending on public welfare crowds out private giving to human service organizations while holding control variables constant in the donations equation. However, federal government spending on public welfare crowds in state government spending on public welfare. Robert Vernon, PhD. , Chair
How to Identify the Best Target in the M&A Banking Operations? Case of Cross-Border Strategies in Europe by Line of Activity

During the last decades, the European banking system has known some deep changes. They have led to mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The available studies show that the failure rate of theses M&As is relatively high. Cross-border operations are more exposed to this risk. The high failure rate is due to the cultural and contextual differences between the M&A participants, differences which make the process of integration particularly difficult. Thus, the success of M&As depends on the choice of adequate M&A targets. This choice constitutes the main challenge for company leadership. The aim of this paper is therefore to determine the factors which permit to identify the M&A targets. Our contribution compared to that of previous research is that we study M&As and the identification of targets by line of bank activities. On the basis of a sample made up of 1071 European banks, between 2000 and 2006, we use a Logit Multinomial Model. Our main results show that the target banks tend to be specialized in investment and market activities while the acquiring banks tend to approach themselves to the universal bank model.
Correction to “Sound velocities of ferropericlase in the Earth's lower mantle”

[1] In the paper ‘‘Sound velocities of ferropericlase in the Earth’s lower mantle’’ by Jung-Fu Lin, Steven D. Jacobsen, Wolfgang Sturhahn, Jennifer M. Jackson, Jiyong Zhao, and Choong-Shik Yoo (Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L22304, doi:10.1029/2006GL028099, 2006), we regret that a factor of (1/2) was mistakenly unaccounted for in converting the Debye sound velocities to km/s unit. The correct figures of the derived Vp, Vs, and G are presented here. The derived Vp, Vs, and G at ambient conditions are now lower than that of ultrasonic measurements. The difference may arise from the choice of the energy range for deriving the Debye sound velocities, in combination with the energy resolution of the partial phonon density of states in our study. Further analyses to resolve the difference are forthcoming and will be presented elsewhere. Other parts of the original article, including the discussion, remain unchanged. Figure 2.
Effects of Contract Announcements on the Value of Construction Firms

AbstractWinning a new contract has an important implication for the sustainable growth and survival of construction firms in competitive market environments. Considering this and the limited literature on market analysis, this paper aimed to explore the effects of contract announcements on the market value of firms in the context of construction industry. Through a rigorous sample-screening process, this paper selects and analyzes a total of 377 contracts awarded to Korean contractors between 2000 and 2010. Using the standard event study methodology, cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) are estimated to evaluate the overall level of project success and to compare groups categorized according to project characteristics. The results indicate that the stock market generally responds positively to contract announcements. In addition, contracts awarded during economic upturns are more likely to be favorably evaluated than those awarded during economic downturns.
Circulating human papillomavirus type 16 specific T‐cells are associated with HLA Class I expression on tumor cells, but not related to the amount of viral oncogene transcripts

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a necessary factor in the pathogenesis of cervical cancer. Circulating HPV‐specific T‐cells responding to the E6 and E7 HPV proteins can be detected only in half of cervical cancer patients. Potential explanations for the absence of this response are lack of sufficient amounts of antigen to activate the immune response or local immune escape mechanisms. We studied the relationship between HPV 16 E6/E7 oncogene mRNA expression, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) expression on tumor cells and the presence of circulating E6‐ and E7‐specific T‐cell responses in cervical cancer patients. The amount of antigen was assessed by HPV E6/E7 mRNA expression levels measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. HLA Class I and Class II expression on tumor cells was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. A proliferative HPV‐specific T‐cell response was detected in 15/29 patients. The amount of HPV E6/E7 mRNA was not related to the presence of immune response. HLA Class I expression was downregulated in 19 patients and completely lost in 7 patients. HLA Class II expression was upregulated in 18 patients. HLA Class I expression on tumor cells showed a strong correlation with immunity (p = 0.001). Explicitly, all patients with complete HLA loss lacked HPV specific T‐cell responses. The presence of circulating HPV‐specific T‐cells might reflect ongoing antitumor response that is sustained by CD8+ T‐cells killing HLA Class I positive cancer cells. We hypothesize that HLA Class I expression status on tumor cells might as well influence the response to HPV E6/E7 directed immunotherapy. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.