Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating the effects of immigrant integration policies in Western Europe using a difference-in-differences approach

ABSTRACT In recent years, several European countries have adopted mandatory language and civic education requirements for immigrants with the hope that they will lead to improved integration outcomes. This study evaluates whether these integration requirements have been successful at achieving their intended goals. Analysing immigrants’ responses to the European Social Survey (2002–2015) in 15 EU member states via a difference-in-differences approach, I find that mandatory integration requirements have a strong and positive effect on immigrants’ level of economic integration, but no impact on their degree of social and political integration. Supplementary evidence, which includes 23 original interviews as well as analyses of country-level data, indicates that the positive effect of mandatory integration requirements on economic integration is due to a true treatment effect rather than a selection effect. Therefore, this study suggests a differential impact of integration policy across different dimensions of immigrant integration, but overall makes a case for the adoption of robust language and civic education requirements for immigrants.
A turbulent flame speed closure model for LES of industrial burner flows

A combustion model based on a turbulent flame speed closure (TFC) model is proposed for large-eddy simulations (LES) of lean premixed combustion in industrial gas turbine burners. This model has been originally proposed in a RANS context; the extension to LES is found to be fairly straight-forward, i.e. the turbulent quantities that determine the turbulent flame speed are obtained at the level of the grid cut-off. The model has been applied to a simple premixed jet flame in a backward-facing step combustor to investigate the combustor response to forced excitations.
Diagnostic Value of Serum Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) Level for Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Background: Diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is not always easy, thus employing methods with a short duration and acceptable sensitivity and specificity is necessary to diagnose TB. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of serum adenosine deaminase (ADA) level for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Patients and Methods: A total of 160 sex and age-matched subjects were included in this study, and were divided to four groups; forty patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) diagnosed based on the national TB program (NTP), forty patients with non-tuberculosis bacterial pneumonia, forty patients with lung cancer and forty people who were healthy in every respect. Serum adenosine deaminase activity in patients of each group was measured by the Giusti and Galanti calorimetry method using a commercial kit (Diazyme, USA). The ANOVA analysis was used to compare groups for quantitative variables. Results: Mean serum ADA level in the PTB group was clearly higher than the mean serum ADA in the other three groups. Mean serum ADA was 26 IU/L in PTB patients, 19.48 IU/L in patients with pneumonia, 15.8 IU/L in patients with lung cancer, and 10.7 IU/L in the control group (P < 0.05). In regard to the cut off value of 26 IU/L for ADA in patients with PTB sensitivity and specificity was defined as 35% and 91%, respectively. Conclusions: Serum ADA activity with high specificity percentage may be a useful alternative test in restricted resource areas to rule out diagnosis of PTB. However, serum ADA activity is not a useful tool for TB diagnosis.
Convergence analysis of the constant modulus algorithm

We study the global convergence of the stochastic gradient constant modulus algorithm (CMA) in the absence of channel noise as well as in the presence of channel noise. The case of fractionally spaced equalizer and/or multiple antenna at the receiver is considered. For the noiseless case, we show that with proper initialization, and with small step size, the algorithm converges to a zero-forcing filter with probability close to one. In the presence of channel noise such as additive Gaussian noise, we prove that the algorithm diverges almost surely on the infinite-time horizon. However, under suitable conditions, the algorithm visits a small neighborhood of the Wiener filters a large number of times before ultimately diverging.
[2+2+2] Cycloaddition Reactions of Macrocyclic Systems Catalyzed by Transition Metals. A Review

Polyalkyne and enediyne azamacrocycles are prepared from arenesulfonamides and various alkyne and alkene derivatives either under basic or neutral conditions. The new family of macrocyclic substrates is tested in the [2+2+2] cycloaddition reaction. Several catalysts are used for the cycloisomerization reaction, and their enantioinduction is evaluated as appropriate. The effect of the structural features of the macrocycles, namely the ring size, substituents in precise positions and the number and type of unsaturations, on the [2+2+2] cycloaddition reaction has also been studied.
Immunochromatographic Test for Simultaneous Serodiagnosis of Babesia caballi and B. equi Infections in Horses

ABSTRACT An immunochromatographic test for the simultaneous detection of Babesia caballi- and B. equi-specific antibodies (BceICT) was developed using a recombinant B. caballi 48-kDa rhoptry protein (rBc48) and a recombinant truncated B. equi merozoite antigen 2 (rEMA-2t). An evaluation of the ability of the BceICT to detect antibodies in sera from uninfected horses and experimentally infected horses showed high sensitivities and specificities of 83.3% (10/12 sera) and 92.9% (52/56 sera), respectively, for the anti-B. caballi antibody and 94.1% (16/17 sera) and 88.2% (45/51 sera), respectively, for the anti-B. equi antibody. Results from the detection of antibodies in field-collected sera indicated that the BceICT results corresponded with those of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), showing 91.8% correspondence (67/73 sera) for B. caballi and 95.9% correspondence (70/73 sera) for B. equi, and that the BceICT results also corresponded with the ICT for B. caballi and for B. equi, both of which were 98.2% (55/56 sera). The comparable results of the ICT and ELISA and the simplicity and rapidity of the performance of the ICT suggest that the BceICT would be a feasible test for the simultaneous serodiagnosis of both agents of equine babesiosis in the field.
Explicit Solutions of Optimization Models and Differential Games with Nonsmooth (Asymmetric) Reference-Price Effects

Models in marketing with asymmetric reference effects lead to nonsmooth optimization problems and differential games which cannot be solved using standard methods. In this study, we introduce a new method for calculating explicitly optimal strategies, open-loop equilibria, and closed-loop equilibria of such nonsmooth problems. Application of this method to the case of asymmetric reference-price effects with loss-aversive consumers leads to the following conclusions: (1) When the planning horizon is infinite, after an introductory stage the optimal price stabilizes at a steady-state price, which is slightly below the optimal price in the absence of reference-price effects. (2) The optimal strategy is the same as in the symmetric case, but with the loss parameter determined by the initial reference-price. (3) Competition does not change the qualitative behavior of the optimal strategy. (4) Adopting an appropriate constant-price strategy results in a minute decline in profits.
THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE : A SIMULATION

Shipping from Yokohama to New York and St. Johns, Newfoundland is simulated by VSLAM for two routes: the Panama Canal, using fast and slow bluewater ships, and the Northwest Passage, using identically sized fast and slow Canadian Arctic Class (CAC) 3 ships. Each route is broken into a series of logical legs, and environmental conditions and wait times are assigned. Ice conditions are modeled from historical records. Average speed through the Northwest Passage shows little seasonal variation. Round trips per year are higher through the Northwest Passage for all cases in this study. The required freight rate (RFR) to recover all costs including capital recovery, is calculated for fast ships. RFR is lower for fast ships from St. Johns to Yokohama using the Northwest Passage, and higher for fast ships from New York to Yokohama. Possible future thinning of Arctic ice may improve the economics of the Northwest Passage.
CasGP: building cascaded hierarchical models using niching

A cascaded model is introduced for mining large datasets using genetic programming without recourse to specialist hardware. Such an algorithm satisfies the seeming conflicting requirements of scalability and accuracy on large datasets by incrementally building GP classifiers through the use of a hierarchical dynamic subset selection algorithm. Models are built incrementally with each layer of the cascade receiving as input the original feature vector, plus the output from the previous layer(s). In order to encourage each layer to explicitly solve new aspects of the problem a combination of sum square error and niching is utilized. Thus, previous layers of the model are considered a niche, and the cost function is a shared error metric.
Racial boundaries, stigma, and the re-emergence of “always being foreigners”: Iranians and the refugee crisis in Germany

ABSTRACT The 2015 refugee crisis is at the center of public and political discourse across Europe, especially among nations that have accepted refugees. Utilizing ethnographic fieldwork and 48 in-depth interviews conducted in 2011 and 2016 with Iranians in Hamburg, Germany, this paper considers how the refugee crisis impacts the racial boundaries between Germans and immigrant communities. It details how the crisis has made ethnic nationalism, Islamophobia, anti-foreigner prejudice and racism more pronounced and salient throughout Germany. The interviews demonstrate that this climate affects Iranians in several ways: they cite feeling more threat and stigma, as well as experiences of marginality, perpetual foreignness, and discrimination. This research contributes to sociological scholarship on migration and race by examining how critical international events influence and shape processes of racialization, identity and belonging, and social boundaries and hierarchies.
Novel Biobjective Clustering (BiGC) Based on Cooperative Game Theory

We propose a new approach to clustering. Our idea is to map cluster formation to coalition formation in cooperative games, and to use the Shapley value of the patterns to identify clusters and cluster representatives. We show that the underlying game is convex and this leads to an efficient biobjective clustering algorithm that we call BiGC. The algorithm yields high-quality clustering with respect to average point-to-center distance (potential) as well as average intracluster point-to-point distance (scatter). We demonstrate the superiority of BiGC over state-of-the-art clustering algorithms (including the center based and the multiobjective techniques) through a detailed experimentation using standard cluster validity criteria on several benchmark data sets. We also show that BiGC satisfies key clustering properties such as order independence, scale invariance, and richness.
Following the path of lexical access in bilinguals (Spanish-English) through eye-tracking

Lexical access has been suggested by Huettig and McQueen [4] to show cascade processing when auditory and visual information are presented to native speakers. The aim of this study was to determine whether cascade processing in Spanish-English bilinguals in a Mexican university is similar to that observed in native speakers. Two groups of participants were formed according to their level of English: high and low proficiency. No differences were found between groups. Although visual preference for three competitors was different in four time windows, supporting the existence of lexical processing in cascade, a significant preference for the semantic competitor was found, in contrast to the route found in native speakers [4]. These results support the notion of lexical processing in cascade, revealing a different retrieval of lexical information when auditory and visual input is presented in a second language.
Prognosis of Japanese patients with previously untreated metastatic renal cell carcinoma in the era of molecular-targeted therapy

A multicenter cooperative study was conducted to clarify the prognosis of Japanese patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma in the era of molecular‐targeted therapy and the clinical usefulness of the Japanese metastatic renal cancer (JMRC) prognostic classification. Of 389 consecutive patients for whom treatment was started between 2008 and 2010 at 23 hospitals in Japan, 357 patients who received vascular endothelial growth factor receptor‐tyrosine kinase inhibitor (VEGFR‐TKI) or cytokine as initial systemic therapy were the subject of the present study. Patients were classified into three prognostic groups according to the JMRC prognostic classification. The endpoints were progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) after the start of the initial treatment. The median PFS and OS for the entire cohort of 357 patients were 9.1 and 27.2 months, respectively. VEGFR‐TKI were selected for patients with multiple organ metastases, those with liver metastasis, and those with bone metastasis. The median PFS and OS were 11.0 and 23.2 months and 5.4 and 38.2 months in the VEGFR‐TKI group and the cytokines group, respectively. The JMRC prognostic classification was useful as a prognostic model for PFS and OS (c‐indexes: 0.613 and 0.630 in patients who initially received VEGFR‐TKI and 0.647 and 0.642 in patients who received cytokines, respectively). The present study showed for the first time the prognosis of Japanese patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma in the era of molecular‐targeted therapy. The JMRC prognostic classification may be clinically useful as a prognostic model.
Clinical Outcome of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Tongue in Young Patients: A Stage-Matched Comparative Analysis

Objectives The reported incidence of tongue cancer in young patients has recently increased. The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical characteristics of tongue cancer in a young group of patients, and to compare them with those of an older group of tongue cancer patients. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the records of 85 patients who were diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. They were divided into two age groups: over 45 years of age and under 45 years. To compare the prognosis of similarly staged patients in the group, each age group was divided into the early (stage I, II) and advanced stage groups (stage III, IV), and then they were compared. The young group consisted of 23 patients and the older group had 62 patients. Results At the early stage, the clinical prognosis of the patients in both age groups was good, and no significant difference was observed. However, at the advanced stage, the overall and regional recurrence rates were significantly higher in the younger age group as compared to that in the old age group (P=0.007, P=0.001, respectively). The disease-specific survival rate of the patients in the young group was significantly lower than that in the old age group (P=0.025). Conclusion Tongue cancer in young subjects has significantly different clinical outcomes according to the stage. The clinical outcome of the advanced-stage tongue cancer in young subjects was poorer than that in the older subjects. Regional recurrence seemed to be the main cause of the poor prognosis.
Parametrically Dissociating Speech and Nonspeech Perception in the Brain Using fMRI

Candidate brain regions constituting a neural network for preattentive phonetic perception were identified with fMRI and multivariate multiple regression of imaging data. Stimuli contrasted along speech/nonspeech, acoustic, or phonetic complexity (three levels each) and natural/synthetic dimensions. Seven distributed brain regions' activity correlated with speech and speech complexity dimensions, including five left-sided foci [posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG), angular gyrus, ventral occipitotemporal cortex, inferior/posterior supramarginal gyrus, and middle frontal gyrus (MFG)] and two right-sided foci (posterior STG and anterior insula). Only the left MFG discriminated natural and synthetic speech. The data also supported a parallel rather than serial model of auditory speech and nonspeech perception.
Who Gains from Trade? Evidence from Taiwan

In the presence of information and trading costs, informed investors should profit from uninformed investors. We test this proposition by analyzing the performance of institutional and individual investors using trades data for all market participants in the Taiwan stock market during the five years ending in 1999. Before considering trading costs (commissions and transaction taxes), on the average day, institutions realize trading profits of $NT 178 million, while individual investors lose the same amount. In general, the gains to institutions are not offset by their trading costs, while trading costs exacerbate the losses of individuals. After costs, we estimate that the trading of institutional investors adds one percentage point annually to their portfolio performance, while the trading of individuals subtracts over three percentage points annually from their performance. All major institutional categories (corporations, dealers, foreigners, and mutual funds) earn profits before costs. Only corporations fail to do so after costs. We also map trades to orders, which we classify as aggressive (demanding liquidity) or passive (providing liquidity) based on order prices. Virtually all trading losses incurred by individuals can be traced to their aggressive orders. In contrast, institutions profit from both their passive and aggressive trades. Most of the institutional profits from passive trades, which provide liquidity to market participants, are accrued within a few days of the trade. In contrast, most of the institutional profits from their aggressive trades accrue at horizons up to six months. All of the gains from trade are exhausted within six months.
Fibered cusp versus $d$- index theory

We prove that the indices of fibered-cusp and $d$-Dirac operators on a spin manifold with fibered boundary coincide if the associated family of Dirac operators on the fibers of the boundary is invertible. This answers a question raised by Piazza. Under this invertibility assumption, our method yields an index formula for the Dirac operator of horn-cone and of fibered horn metrics.
Upper-Limb Prosthetics: Critical Factors in Device Abandonment

Biddiss E, Chau T: Upper-limb prosthetics: critical factors in device abandonment. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2007;86:977–987. Objective:To investigate the roles of predisposing characteristics, established need, and enabling resources in upper-limb prosthesis use and abandonment. Design:A self-administered, anonymous survey was designed to explore these factors. The questionnaire was available online and in paper format and was distributed through healthcare providers, community support groups, and one prosthesis manufacturer. Two hundred forty-two participants of all ages and levels of upper-limb absence completed the survey. Results:Of participants, 20% had abandoned prosthesis use. Predisposing factors, namely, origin of limb absence, gender, bilateral limb absence, and, most importantly, level of limb absence, proved influential in the decision not to wear prostheses. Enabling resources such as the availability of health care, cost, and quality of training did not weigh heavily on prosthesis rejection, with the exception of the fitting time frame and the involvement of clients in the prosthesis selection. Conversely, the state of available technology was a highly censured factor in abandonment, specifically in the areas of comfort and function. Perceived need emerged as a predominant factor in prosthesis use. Conclusions:Future research should focus on continued development of more comfortable and functional prostheses, particularly for individuals with high-level or bilateral limb absence. Improved follow-up, repair, and information services, together with active involvement of clients in the selection of prostheses meeting their specific goals and needs, is recommended.
The Internet as a Normative Corpus : Grammar Checking with a Search Engine

In this paper some methods using the Internet as a normative corpus for error checking purposes is presented. These include error detection and removing false alarms from existing grammar checkers. We evaluate these methods on Swedish texts. While not performing as well as state of the art traditional methods, results indicate that these methods are still useful, especially as a complement to other methods. Errors not detected by traditional methods can be detected by very simple means, and increasing the precision of other grammar checkers by removing false alarms also works quite well.
Long term out-of-pile thermocouple tests in conditions representative for nuclear gas-cooled high temperature reactors

During irradiation tests at high temperature, failure of commercial Inconel 600 sheathed thermocouples is commonly encountered. To understand and remediate this problem, out-of-pile tests were performed with thermocouples in carburizing atmospheres which can be assumed to be at least locally representative for High Temperature Reactors. The objective was to screen those thermocouples which would consecutively be used under irradiation. Two such screening tests have been performed with a set of thermocouples embedded in graphite (mainly conventional Type N thermocouples and thermocouples with innovative sheaths) in a dedicated furnace with helium flushing. Performance indicators such as thermal drift, insulation and loop resistance were monitored and compared to those from conventional Type N thermocouples. Several parameters were investigated: niobium sleeves, bending, thickness, sheath composition, temperature as well as the chemical environment. After the tests, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) examinations were performed to analyze possible local damage in wires and in the sheath. The present paper describes the two experiments, summarizes results and outlines further work, in particular to further analyze the findings and to select suitable thermocouples for qualification under irradiation