Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Integrated Design Task Management Approach for Product Development Lifecycle

Product design is the most critical activity for innovation and value-adding in a product development lifecycle. Product design task management is an important feature of design frameworks. A proper design task management solution can definitely increase the design process efficiency. This paper presents an integrated approach for managing design tasks, designer capacities, task execution and monitoring in product development lifecycles. In the proposed approach, design tasks are associated directly with product design data. Each designer's capacity is synchronized and updated automatically during design task creation and assignment. Design tasks are routed to assigned designers, and task execution, progress and effort spent by designers can be automatically monitored, controlled and tracked. The proposed design task management approach can be seamlessly integrated with the upstream and downstream activities of a product lifecycle in terms of its processes and information needs, leveraging on workflow/lifecycle technology. Developed as part of an enterprise system and implemented in the design department of a local mould making company, it has shown that the proposed approach can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of design task management, and thereby facilitating the design process in the company.
The Role of the Family in Determining Youth Employment

Many youths aged twelve to sixteen are working part-time while attending full-time schooling as required by law for youths younger than sixteen. These youths balance schoolwork with employment, family responsibilities, and leisure time. Their early employment decisions may have implications for their human capital acquisition and subsequently future earnings (Michael and Tuma 1984). However, work allows youths to increase their current personal consumption and gain work experience. Parents provide for much of their children's consumption and many also provide cash transfers (allowances) so their children can choose some of their own consumption. Youth employment depends upon parents' willingness and ability to provide consumption goods and allowances, the youth's desire for personal freedom, and the youth's desire for work experience. Furthermore, parents may attempt to encourage/discourage work effort given their children's desire to work by decreasing/increasing allowances. In this paper, I examine whether youth work intensity, measured alternatively by hours worked per year and earned income, and parental allowances are jointly determined. Results suggest that parental allowances negatively affect youth work intensity by either measure but I do not find evidence that parents adjust allowances in response to youths' decisions regarding work intensity. Interestingly, I find that black and Hispanic youths work fewer hours and earn less per year than white youths while receiving greater parental allowances. I also report on a number of other family and individual determinants of youth work intensity and parental allowances.
Admixture between native and invasive populations may increase invasiveness of Mimulus guttatus

Self-fertilization and admixture of genotypes from different populations can have major fitness consequences in native species. However, few studies have addressed their potential roles in invasive species. Here, we used plants of Mimulus guttatus from seven native North American, three invasive Scottish and four invasive New Zealand populations to address this. We created seeds from self-fertilization, within-population outcrossing, between-population outcrossing within the same range, and outcrossing between the native and invasive ranges. A greenhouse experiment showed that native and invasive plants of M. guttatus suffered to similar degrees from inbreeding depression, in terms of asexual reproduction and biomass production. After outcrossing with plants from other populations, M. guttatus benefited from heterosis, in terms of asexual and sexual reproduction, and biomass production, particularly when plants from native and invasive populations were crossed. This suggests that, when novel genotypes of M. guttatus from the native North American range will be introduced to the invasive ranges, subsequent outcrossing with M. guttatus plants that are already there might further boost invasiveness of this species.
Recent developments in exchange-traded fund literature: Pricing efficiency, tracking ability, and effects on underlying securities

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief review of three strands of the literature on exchange-traded funds. Design/methodology/approach - The paper starts with a review of the history of the growth of exchange-traded funds and their characteristics. The paper then examines the key factors and findings of the existing studies on, respectively, the pricing efficiency, the tracking ability/performance, and the impact on underlying securities of exchange-traded funds. Findings - Although there has been a substantial amount of research conducted to advance our knowledge on the trading, management, and effect of exchange-traded funds, the findings are still far from conclusive in addressing a number of research questions. Practical implications - Investors and other market participants will find this review informative in enhancing the understanding of exchange-traded funds. Originality/value - By highlighting the general theme of the related research findings, the paper provides a systematic review of the existing literature that future researchers can utilize in developing their research agenda.
Time-Varying Betas and Asymmetric Effect of News: Empirical Analysis of Blue Chip Stocks

We investigate whether or not a beta increases with bad news and decreases with good news, just as does volatility. Using daily returns for nine stocks in a double beta model with EGARCH specifications, we show that news asymmetrically affects the betas of individual stocks. We find that betas depend on two source of news: market shocks and idiosyncratic shocks. Some stock betas depend on both while others depend on one. We categorize each stock return as belonging to one of three beta process models, a joint, an idiosyncratic, and a market model based on the role of market shocks and idiosyncratic shocks. Our conclusions differ from those of Brown, Nelson, and Sunnier (1995) who worked with monthly aggregated data in a bivariate EGARCH model. We believe that stock price aggregation in this previous research resulted in a loss of cross sectional variation and consequently lead to weak results. If the asymmetric effect is more readily apparent in daily data, then this may again explain previous researchers' inability to detect asymmetric effects. Our findings shed light on the controversy as to whether abnormalities in stock returns result from overreaction to information or from changes in expected returns in an efficient market. Finding an asymmetric effect in betas leads us to conclude that abnormalities can, at least partially, be explained by changes in expected returns through a change in beta.
Properties of multi-particle Green's and vertex functions within Keldysh formalism

The increasing interest in nonequilibrium effects in condensed matter theory motivates the adaption of diverse equilibrium techniques to Keldysh formalism. For methods based on multi-particle Green's or vertex functions, this involves a detailed knowledge of the real-time properties of those functions. In this review, we derive general properties of fermionic and bosonic multi-particle Green's and vertex functions for a stationary state described within Keldysh formalism. Special emphasis is put on the analytic properties associated with causality and on a detailed discussion of the Kubo–Martin–Schwinger conditions which characterize thermal equilibrium. Finally we describe how diagrammatic approximations and approximations within the functional renormalization group approach respect these properties.
Human Anti-Aβ IgGs Target Conformational Epitopes on Synthetic Dimer Assemblies and the AD Brain-Derived Peptide

Soluble non-fibrillar assemblies of amyloid-beta (Aβ) and aggregated tau protein are the proximate synaptotoxic species associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Anti-Aβ immunotherapy is a promising and advanced therapeutic strategy, but the precise Aβ species to target is not yet known. Previously, we and others have shown that natural human IgGs (NAbs) target diverse Aβ conformers and have therapeutic potential. We now demonstrate that these antibodies bound with nM avidity to conformational epitopes on plate-immobilized synthetic Aβ dimer assemblies, including synaptotoxic protofibrils, and targeted these conformers in solution. Importantly, NAbs also recognized Aβ extracted from the water-soluble phase of human AD brain, including species that migrated on denaturing PAGE as SDS-stable dimers. The critical reliance on Aβ’s conformational state for NAb binding, and not a linear sequence epitope, was confirmed by the antibody’s nM reactivity with plate-immobilized protofibrills, and weak uM binding to synthetic Aβ monomers and peptide fragments. The antibody’s lack of reactivity against a linear sequence epitope was confirmed by our ability to isolate anti-Aβ NAbs from intravenous immunoglobulin using affinity matrices, immunoglobulin light chain fibrils and Cibacron blue, which had no sequence similarity with the peptide. These findings suggest that further investigations on the molecular basis and the therapeutic/diagnostic potential of anti-Aβ NAbs are warranted.
Investing in technical & vocational education and training : does it yield large economic returns in Brazil ?

Technical education and training has been dramatically expanding in Brazil recently. However, there remains no evidence on the cost effectiveness of this alternative track to a more general education. This paper quantifies the wage returns of completing technical and vocational education and training compared with the returns of completing the general education track, for individuals with similar observable characteristics. Exploring data from the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey, the paper profiles the students taking up this track and quantifies the impact of different types of technical and vocational education and training courses on individuals’ hourly wages. After controlling for selection on observables with propensity score matching, the analysis shows positive and statistically significant wage premiums for students completing technical school at the upper secondary level (on average 9.7 percent ) and for those completing short-term training courses (2.2 percent on average). The paper also documents significant heterogeneity of impacts depending on the courses and the profile of students. For realistic unitary costs of providing technical and vocational education and training, the evidence suggests technical education is a cost-effective modality. The courses offered by the publically financed and privately managed “Sistema S,” together with courses in the manufacturing area have the highest positive impacts.
Age-Dependent Decrease in Serum Transforming Growth Factor (TGF)-Beta 1 in Healthy Japanese Individuals; Population Study of Serum TGF-Beta 1 Level in Japanese

Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-β1), a multi-functional cytokine, is involved in regulating a variety of cellular activities and the serum/plasma TGF-β1 level is altered with various diseases. However, most published reports have described adult patients, and so we investigated the clinical significance of serum TGF-β1 level in pediatric patients. The diagnostic application of the measurement of serum TGF-β1 level depends critically on the control value, however, there is no information on the control value of serum TGF-β1 for children. In the present study, we determined the serum TGF-β1 level of healthy Japanese children as a control value with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The serum TGF-β1 level of children (0–14 years old) was significantly higher than that of adults (over 15 years old) (p < 0.01). Thus, it is recommended that when the serum TGF-β1 levels of patients are evaluated, they should be compared with those of age-matched controls.
How Do Expenditure Rules Affect Fiscal Behaviour?

This paper investigates the role of self-enforced national expenditure rules in limiting the expenditure bias and procyclical expenditure increases/decreases due to revenue windfalls/shortfalls. A simple model predicts that expenditure rules can have the intended effects, but only if the political and institutional costs of non compliance are sufficiently large. Empirical estimations provide some support that expenditure rules affect expenditure outcomes in the hypothesised manner, especially when there are revenue shortfalls. We cannot disentangle, however, whether our results reflect a causal effect of expenditure rules on expenditure outcomes, or whether they are driven by a third variable of political preferences for addressing high expenditure to GDP ratios.
Using Landsat TM data to estimate carbon release from burned biomass in an Alaskan spruce forest complex

Fire disturbance in boreal forests can release carbon to the atmosphere stored in both the aboveground vegetation and the organic soil layer. Estimating pyrogenic emissions of carbon released during biomass burning in these forests is useful for understanding and estimating global carbon budgets. In this work, we have developed a method to estimate carbon efflux for the burned black spruce in an Alaskan forest by combining information derived from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data and field measurements. We have used the spatial and spectral information of TM data to identify and measure two important factors: pre-burn black spruce density and burn severity. Field measurements provided estimates of aboveground and ground layer carbon per unit area for the pre-burn Landsat spectral classes, and percentage of carbon consumed for the post-burn Landsat spectral classes. Carbon release estimates for the burned black spruce were computed using field data and the co-occurrence of the pre-burn and post-burn spectral classes. The estimated carbon released was 39.9tha-1, which is 57% greater than an estimate computed using AVHRR data and estimates of pre-burn biomass and carbon fractions consumed that were not site specific or spatially varying. We conclude that the spectral bands and spatial resolution of Landsat TM data provide the potential for improved estimates of pyrogenic carbon efflux relative to the coarser spectral and spatial resolution of other multispectral sensors.
Translation of the rat LINE bicistronic RNAs in vitro involves ribosomal reinitiation instead of frameshifting

The genomic structure of the rat LINE (L1Rn) DNA element contains two overlapping open reading frames (ORFs) and apparently has a potential to code for a DNA/RNA-binding protein (in ORF1) and a reverse transcriptase (in ORF2). We have characterized a 1,630-bp L1Rn cDNA clone encompassing the overlapping ORFs and a 600-bp genomic fragment derived from a full-length L1Rn member and containing the beginning of ORF1. These DNAs were used to restore in part the ORF1-ORF2 organization of L1Rn after being cloned into the pSP65 vector under the control of SP6 polymerase promoter. To test whether L1Rn ORF1 and ORF2 are expressed as a fusion protein, a series of capped RNAs with progressive truncations containing one or both ORFs were prepared and translated in the rabbit reticulocyte lysate. Our analysis indicates that the expression of a putative reverse transcriptase-encoded L1Rn ORF2 in vitro is regulated by reinitiation or internal initiation of translation but not by ribosomal frameshifting.
Efficient Geometric Pruning Strategies for Continuous Skyline Queries

The skyline query processing problem has been well studied for many years. The literature on skyline algorithms so far mainly considers static query points on static attributes. With the popular usage of mobile devices along with the increasing number of mobile applications and users, continuous skyline query processing on both static and dynamic attributes has become more pressing. Existing efforts on supporting moving query points assume that the query point moves with only one direction and constant speed. In this paper, we propose continuous skyline computation over an incremental motion model. The query point moves incrementally in discrete time steps with no restrictions and predictability. Geometric properties over incremental motion denoted by a kinetic data structure are utilized to prune the portion of data points not included in final skyline query results. Various geometric strategies are asymptotically proposed to prune the querying dataset, and event-driven mechanisms are adopted to process continuous skyline queries. Extensive experiments under different data sets and parameters demonstrate that the proposed method is robust and more efficient than multiple snapshots of I/O optimal branch-and-bound skyline (BBS) skyline queries.
FakeMi: a fake mirror system for avatar embodiment studies

This paper introduces a fake mirror system as a research tool to study the effect of avatar embodiment with non-visually immersive virtual environments. The system combines marker-less face and body tracking to animate the individual avatars seen in a stereoscopic display with a correct perspective projection. The display dimensions match typical dimensions of a real physical mirror and the animated avatars are rendered based on a geometrically correct reflection as expected from a real mirror including correct body and face animations. The first evaluation of the system reveals the high acceptance of the setup as well as a convincing illusion of a real mirror with different types of avatars.
Dialogue Management in the Mercury Flight Reservation System

This paper describes the dialogue module of the Mercury system, which has been under development over the past year or two. Mercury provides telephone access to an on-line flight database, and allows users to plan and price itineraries between major airports worldwide. The main focus of this paper is the dialogue control strategy, which is based on a set of ordered rules as a mechanism to manage complex dialogue interactions. The paper also describes the interactions between the dialogue component and the other servers of the system, mediated via a central hub. We evaluated the system on 49 dialogues from users booking real flights, and report on a number of quantitative measures of the dialogue interaction.
Dynamic Pricing Scheme: Towards Cloud Revenue Maximization

Cloud computing providers in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) layer provide their utility computing and IT services as virtual machines to customers, who then pay for resources based on time usage. One of the most subtle challenges is pricing stagnant resources dynamically, which combines the static pricing strategy of active resources to maximize cloud computing profits. This paper investigates cloud dynamic pricing and proposes an efficient model that manages virtual machines in regards to revenue management, formulating the maximum expected reward under discrete finite horizon Markovian decisions, characterizing model properties under optimum controlling conditions, approximating optimal dynamic programming policy using a linear programming approach, developing a new algorithm based on this approximation, and finally presenting evaluation results. Our results provide fundamental insights into cloud computing revenue.
Handbook of Research on Transnational Higher Education

The integration of new technology and global collaboration has undoubtedly transformed learning in higher education from the traditional classroom setting into a domain of support services, academic programmes, and educational products which are made available to learners. The Handbook of Research on Transnational Higher Education is a unique compilation of the most recent research done by higher education professionals in the areas of policy, governance, technology, marketing, and leadership development. This publication succeeds in highlighting the most important strategies and policies for professionals, policymakers, administrators, and researchers interested in higher education management.
Exchange Market Pressure And Optimal Foreign Exchange Regime In Jamaica

The paper employs the exchange market pressure (EMP) model to identify an appropriate foreign exchange regime for Jamaica, a small open economy. The empirical findings suggest that expansion in world prices, income and domestic credit result in the appreciation of the Jamaican dollar, and an outflow of international reserves. The estimates of the EMP indicate that the monetary authorities absorb EMP by either allowing the exchange rate to depreciate or through the loss of international reserves. However, simi lar estimates obtained by using international reserves decomposed from the EMP as a regressand strongly suggest that a fixed exchange rate is optimal. Sterilization bias tests also indicate that the Bank of Jamaica's monetary policy is dependent on global monetary environment. Thus, the current managed float regime which leans toward the fixed exchange rate end of the exchange rate band is optimal.
The acute effect of smoking a single cigarette on vascular status, SpO2, and stress level

Background Tobacco use is a major cause of cardiovascular and respiratory disease and cancer. It is controversial whether smoking helps relieve stress. This study investigated the acute effect of smoking a single cigarette on vascular status, SpO2, and stress level. Material/Methods 38 non-smokers and 29 smokers were selected as subjects to measure BVOP (Blood Vessel Output Power), BVT (Blood Vessel Tension), RBV (Remained Blood Volume), BVAL (Blood Vessel Aging Level), SpO2, resistance to stress, and stress score. Pre- and post-experiment changes were recorded during a 20-min interval, with smokers being recorded 5 min after smoking for the post-experiment. Results The smoker group showed a significant decrease in vascular status (BVOP, RBV, BVAL) compared with the non-smoker group. SpO2 showed no difference between the smoker group and the non-smoker group. Smoking showed no effect on stress reduction compared to non-smoking. Conclusions The results of the study indicate that smoking causes a negative effect on vascular status and is not beneficial to stress reduction. Therefore, quitting smoking is encouraged for better physical and mental health.
Motion Perception in Autism: A Complex Issue

We present the first assessment of motion sensitivity for persons with autism and normal intelligence using motion patterns that require neural processing mechanisms of varying complexity. Compared to matched controls, our results demonstrate that the motion sensitivity of observers with autism is similar to that of nonautistic observers for different types of first-order (luminance-defined) motion stimuli, but significantly decreased for the same types of second-order (texture-defined) stimuli. The latter class of motion stimuli has been demonstrated to require additional neural computation to be processed adequately. This finding may reflect less efficient integrative functioning of the neural mechanisms that mediate visuoperceptual processing in autism. The contribution of this finding with regards to abnormal perceptual integration in autism, its effect on cognitive operations, and possible behavioral implications are discussed.