Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Iterative detection and decoding algorithms for block-fading channels using LDPC codes

We propose an Iterative Detection and Decoding (IDD) scheme with Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems in block-fading receivers and fast fading Rayleigh channels. An IDD receiver with soft information processing that exploits the code structure and the behaviour of the log likelihood ratios (LLR)'s is developed. Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) receivers with Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) and with Parallel Interference Cancellation (PIC) schemes are considered. The soft a posteriori output of the decoder in a block-fading channel with Root-Check LDPC codes has allowed us to create a new strategy to improve the Bit Error Rate (BER) of a MIMO IDD scheme. The proposed strategy has resulted in up to 3dB of gain in terms of BER for block-fading channels and up to 1dB in fast fading channels.
Discretionary Disclosures Over Time

We examine a dynamic experimentation problem in which managers make a binary choice that influences the information available to investors. We model a manager's multi-period problem of discretionary disclosures of the persistent component of earnings, when disclosure of current earnings is mandatory. We establish that there exists a partial disclosure equilibrium characterized by a disclosure threshold, such that disclosures arise if and only if the information is above the threshold. This disclosure threshold is increasing in the mean and decreasing in the variance of earnings. Further, the threshold can either increase or decrease over time.
Software model refactoring based on performance analysis: better working on software or performance side?

Several approaches have been introduced in the last few years to tackle the problem of interpreting model-based performance analysis results and translating them into architectural feedback. Typically the interpretation can take place by browsing either the software model or the performance model. In this paper, we compare two approaches that we have recently introduced for this goal: one based on the detection and solution of performance antipatterns, and another one based on bidirectional model transformations between software and performance models. We apply both approaches to the same example in order to illustrate the differences in the obtained performance results. Thereafter, we raise the level of abstraction and we discuss the pros and cons of working on the software side and on the performance side.
The development of hepatic stellate cells in normal and abnormal human fetuses – an immunohistochemical study

The precise embryological origin and development of hepatic stellate cells is not established. Animal studies and observations on human fetuses suggest that they derive from posterior mesodermal cells that migrate via the septum transversum and developing diaphragm to form submesothelial cells beneath the liver capsule, which give rise to mesenchymal cells including hepatic stellate cells. However, it is unclear if these are similar to hepatic stellate cells in adults or if this is the only source of stellate cells. We have studied hepatic stellate cells by immunohistochemistry, in developing human liver from autopsies of fetuses with and without malformations and growth restriction, using cellular Retinol Binding Protein‐1 (cRBP‐1), Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP), and α‐Smooth Muscle Actin (αSMA) antibodies, to identify factors that influence their development. We found that hepatic stellate cells expressing cRBP‐1 are present from the end of the first trimester of gestation and reduce in density throughout gestation. They appear abnormally formed and variably reduced in number in fetuses with abnormal mesothelial Wilms Tumor 1 (WT1) function, diaphragmatic hernia and in ectopic liver nodules without mesothelium. Stellate cells showed similarities to intravascular cells and their presence in a fetus with diaphragm agenesis suggests they may be derived from circulating stem cells. Our observations suggest circulating stem cells as well as mesothelium can give rise to hepatic stellate cells, and that they require normal mesothelial function for their development.
Test Response of a Turbocharger Supported on Floating Ring Bearings: Part I — Assessment of Subsynchronous Motions

Measurements of casing acceleration on an automotive turbocharger running to a top speed of 115 krpm and driven by ambient temperature pressurized air are reported. Waterfall acceleration spectra versus rotor speed show the effects of increasing lubricant inlet pressure and temperature on the turbocharger rotordynamic response. A comprehensive analysis of the test data forwards regimes of speed operation with two subsynchronous whirl motions (rotordynamic instabilities). Increasing the lubricant feed pressure delays the onset speed of instability for the most severe subsynchronous motion. However, increasing the lubricant feed pressure also produces larger synchronous displacements. The effect of lubricant feed temperature is minimal on the onset and end speeds of rotordynamic instability. Nevertheless, operation with a cold lubricant exhibits lower amplitudes of motion, synchronous and subsynchronous. The experimental results show the subsynchronous frequencies of motion do not lock (whip) at system natural frequencies but continuously track the rotor speed. No instabilities (subsynchronous whirl) remain for operating speeds above 90 krpm. Bearings greatly influence turbocharger (TC) rotordynamic performance.Copyright © 2003 by ASME
Evaluation of impact severity measures for AIS 1 neck injuries in frontal impacts using crash recorder data

Crash pulses were studied of frontal impacts involving 226 adult occupants in Volvo cars equipped with the onboard crash pulse recorder: Digital Accident Research Recorder (DARR). Maximum deltaV as well as mean deceleration and maximum polynomial approximation deceleration (Polmax) were found to be possible impact severity measures for AIS 1 neck injuries. Occupants with AIS 1 neck injuries were found at deltaVmax below 10 km/h, at maximum deceleration below 100 m/s 2 , and at mean deceleration below 20 m/s 2 . This indicates that not only the different impact severity measures influence the injury incidence, but other parameters are influential as well (such as parameters related to occupant characteristics and posture).
Income Taxation and Household Size: Would French Family Splitting Make German Families Better Off?

In this paper, we address the question whether family support via the income tax system is more generous in France than in Germany, as it is often claimed in the public debate. We use two micro-data sets and a micro-simulation model to compare effective average tax rates for different household types in France and Germany. Our analysis shows that the popular belief that French high income families with children face lower average tax rates than their German counterparts is true, however not due to the French Family splitting but rather to the different definitions of taxable incomes in both countries. Actually, low income families with less than three children even fare better in terms of tax relief in Germany than in France. The French system leads to lower average tax rates than the German one (over a large range of the income distribution) only for families with three children.
Protecting against school-based victimisation: the role of children's friendship

Given the detrimental short- and long-term effects of peer-victimisation (Hawker & Boulton, 2000), it is not surprising that bullying has become a central topic for multiple parties; including stake-holders, the media, educators, and researchers. In addition to examining the effect that peer-victimisation can have on a child, researchers have also focused on associated risk and protective factors (e.g., Ttofi & Farrington, 2012) that exacerbate or ameliorate the effects of peer-victimisation respectively. Over the last few decades a wide-range of risk and protective factors have been identified, including poor academic achievement (Spriggs, Iannotti, Nansel, & Haynie, 2007), mental health issues (Sourander, Helstela, Helenius, & Piha, 2000; Yang, Kim, Kim, Shin, & Yoon, 2006), exposure to child abuse and domestic violence (Bowes et al., 2009) and lack of parental involvement (Shields & Cicchetti, 2001). The following chapter will focus on one protective factor that has received increasing attention: friendship. This chapter will begin by briefly presenting an overview as to the function of friendship in childhood before discussing evidence that suggests for some children, friendship can serve to protect against the experience of victimisation, and alleviate symptoms associated with peer-victimisation. In particular, the chapter will focus upon the different facets of friendship including: (1) the number of friends a child has, (2) the quality of these friendships, and (3) the individual characteristics of friends. The extent to which each of these three facets of friendship serve as a protective factor against peer-victimisation will be explored in turn. Paradoxically, friendship does not always function as a protective factor, but rather a child can be bullied by their friends. The 'darker' side of friendship will also be discussed, including why some children choose to stay friends with their perpetrator. Finally, this chapter will debate the effectiveness of peer support programs in schools and highlight areas that require further empirical focus.
Cerebellar-Dependent Learning in Larval Zebrafish

Understanding how neuronal network activity contributes to memory formation is challenged by the complexity of most brain circuits and the restricted ability to monitor the activity of neuronal populations in vivo. The developing zebrafish (Danio rerio) is an animal model that circumvents these problems, because zebrafish larvae possess a rich behavioral repertoire and an accessible brain. Here, we developed a classical conditioning paradigm in which 6- to 8-d-old larvae develop an enhanced motor response to a visual stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) when it is paired with touch (unconditioned stimulus, US). Using in vivo calcium imaging we demonstrate that CS and US activate different subsets of neurons in the cerebellum; their activity, modulated by learning two-photon laser ablation, revealed that the cerebellum is involved in acquisition and extinction, but not the retention, of this memory.
A New High-Throughput Approach to Genotype Ancient Human Gastrointestinal Parasites

Human gastrointestinal parasites are good indicators for hygienic conditions and health status of past and present individuals and communities. While microscopic analysis of eggs in sediments of archeological sites often allows their taxonomic identification, this method is rarely effective at the species level, and requires both the survival of intact eggs and their proper identification. Genotyping via PCR-based approaches has the potential to achieve a precise species-level taxonomic determination. However, so far it has mostly been applied to individual eggs isolated from archeological samples. To increase the throughput and taxonomic accuracy, as well as reduce costs of genotyping methods, we adapted a PCR-based approach coupled with next-generation sequencing to perform precise taxonomic identification of parasitic helminths directly from archeological sediments. Our study of twenty-five 100 to 7,200 year-old archeological samples proved this to be a powerful, reliable and efficient approach for species determination even in the absence of preserved eggs, either as a stand-alone method or as a complement to microscopic studies.
“ Lending by Example ” : Direct and Indirect Effects of Foreign Bank Presence in Emerging Markets

Using a novel dataset that allows us to trace the primary bank relationships of a sample of mostly unlisted firms, we explore to what extent foreign banks can improve the allocation of credit in emerging markets. Our results suggest that the limits of financial integration are less tight than what the previous literature based on a static picture of bank loan portfolios suggested. Foreign banks appear to allocate credit more efficiently than domestic banks do. Most importantly, using a propensity score methodology, we show that only in countries where foreign bank presence is limited, firms that (directly) borrow from a foreign bank obtain more financial loans than comparable firms and thus invest more and have higher increases in profitability. In other words, firms seem to benefit from foreign bank presence only if they maintain a direct relationship. In countries where foreign bank presence is large, on the contrary, firms appear to have the same access to financial loans and ability to invest whether they borrow from a foreign bank or not. Thus it appears that foreign banks presence affects domestic banks lending policies and improves access to credit for all firms.
Base-Rate Respect by Intuition: Approximating Rational Choices in Base-Rate Tasks with Multiple Cues

Although intuitive-automatic processes sometimes lead to systematic biases in judgment and choice, in many situations especially this kind of processes enables people to approximate rational choices. In complex base-rate tasks with repeated outcome feedback we observed choices which were in line with the Bayes’ solution in 86% of the cases and which were made within a relatively short time (i.e., 2.2 seconds). The results indicate reliance on extremely well-calibrated intuition. This view is supported by the findings that choice proportions are almost perfectly predicted by posterior probabilities (r = .93), and that error rates, response times and confidence ratings are highly correlated with inconsistency in the provided information. Our results support the hypothesis that parallel constraint satisfaction models may account for the processes underlying intuition and make the application of simple heuristics and deliberate strategies very unlikely. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, implications for economic and psychological modeling are outlined.
The effect of executive control ability on the comprehension of second language metaphor

Aims: The present study examined the effect of language-related executive control ability on second language (L2) metaphor comprehension in L2 learners. Design: All participants were Chinese–English bilinguals. The Stroop task was used to measure language-related executive control ability. Three types of sentences were used as stimulus materials, including familiar metaphoric sentences, unfamiliar metaphoric sentences and literal sentences. Participants were asked to determine whether the sentence presented was metaphoric or not. Data and analysis: Both response latencies and accuracy scores were obtained. Linear mixed effect model was used for statistical analysis. Findings: The effect of executive control ability on L2 metaphor comprehension is modulated by the familiarity of the metaphor. Specifically, for familiar metaphor sentences, the response time of participants with higher executive control ability was significantly faster than those with lower executive control ability. However, for the unfamiliar metaphor sentences and literal sentences, the effect of executive control ability was not significant. Originality: This study directly explored the impact of language-related executive control on metaphor comprehension in L2 learners. Significance/Implications: Our results found that the Predication Model is also applicable to L2 learners.
Assessing the behavioral aspects of executive functioning across the lifespan: review of rating scales and psychometric derivation of a screener for young adults

Supervisory Committee Mauricio A. Garcia-Barrera, Department of Psychology Supervisor Ulrich Müller, Department of Psychology Departmental Member Executive functioning skills are paramount to our ability to purposefully and successfully mediate our actions within our day-to-day environment. Dysfunction of the executive system can result in a multitude of behavioral manifestations in all stages of life. Increasing evidence supports the use of rating scales to obtain a more comprehensive and ecologically valid understanding of an individual’s executive functioning. The current thesis involves two articles examining the use of behavioral rating scales in the assessment of executive functions. Study 1: In response to a recent proliferation of executive functions rating scales, this article reviews and discusses currently available scales for the assessment of executive functions across the lifespan. Study 2: This study derived an executive functions screener from the Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC-2-SRP-COL) for use in young adults and evaluated it against a wellknown executive function rating scale (the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult Version).
Morphological and biomechanical studies on the common calcaneal tendon in dogs

Summary Spontanous rupture at the distal part of the gastrocnemius tendon (GT) is the second most common non-traumatic tendon injury in dogs, whereas the other strands of the common calcaneal tendon do not seem to have a predisposition to rupture. In order to discover why we investigated the common calcaneal tendons of 63 dogs microscopically and biomechanically. Both the gastrocnemius and superficial digital flexor tendon (SFT) had multiple low vascularized fibrocartilaginous areas within their distal course as opposed to regular parallel fibered areas in the proximal tendon areas. Biomechanical testing revealed that the distal sections in both tendons show a 50% and 70% lower tensile strength (Fmax/kg BW) than the proximal sections (p<0.01), respectively. On the contrary, tensile load (Fmax/mm2) only differed minimally between proximal and distal sections in both tendons (8% and 9%, respectively), whereas the tensile load of the distal gastrocnemius tendon is 35% lower than of the distal superficial flexor tendon (p<0.01). To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to experimentally show that there are different biomechanical properties within the same tendon. The maximum load to failure is lower in the GT compared to the SFT within the same dog which explains its higher incidence of rupture in the field. The avascular fibrocartilaginous structure in the distal gastrocnemius tendon seems to play a further role in the pathogenesis of spontaneous rupture.
Daily within-person effects of job autonomy and work engagement on innovative behaviour: The cross-level moderating role of creative self-efficacy

ABSTRACT Adopting a dynamic within-person perspective on employee innovation, the present study investigates the role of situational job autonomy and momentary work engagement as day-level correlates of innovative behaviour. Anticipating individual differences in the strength of these intraindividual associations, we propose dispositional creative self-efficacy (CSE) to serve as a cross-level moderating influence amplifying the day-specific predictive power of autonomy and work engagement for innovative behaviour. Hierarchical linear modelling analyses of the nested data from 123 employees surveyed over 5 consecutive work days suggest that both autonomy and work engagement positively predict self-reported innovative behaviour on a daily basis. Whereas the engagement–innovation link emerges as homogenous across persons, results indicate that the daily within-person effect of autonomy on innovative behaviour varies significantly as a function of CSE such that it is greater for individuals who hold higher rather than lower CSE beliefs. Implications for future research, limitations, and practical implications are discussed.
Review of prevalence data in, and evaluation of methods for cross cultural adaptation of, UK surveys on tobacco and alcohol in ethnic minority groups

Abstract Objective To assess the adequacy of cross cultural adaptations of survey questions on self reported tobacco and alcohol consumption in the United Kingdom. Design Assessment of consistency of data between studies identified through literature review. Studies evaluated with 12 guidelines developed from the research literature on achieving cross cultural comparability. Results The literature review identified 18 key studies, five of them on national samples. Survey instruments were obtained for 15 of these. The comparison of prevalence data in national surveys showed some important discrepancies, greater for tobacco than for alcohol. For example, prevalence of cigarette smoking in Bangladeshi women was 6% in a national survey in 1994 and 1% in a national survey in 1999; in Chinese men it was 31% in a survey in 1993-4 and 17% in one in 1999; in African-Caribbean men it was 29% in a 1992 survey and 42% in one in 1993-4. The most guidelines met by any study was three, although one study partly met a fourth. Two studies met no guidelines. Only four studies consulted with ethnic minority communities in developing the questionnaire, none checked each language version with all others, and two stated the questionnaire had not been validated. Conclusions Surveys have not followed best practice in relation to measurement of risk factors in cross cultural settings. There is inconsistency in the prevalence data on smoking provided by different major national UK studies. Users of such data should be aware of their limitations. Research is needed to help achieve linguistic equivalence of survey questions in cross cultural research.
Entrepreneurship and Occupational Choice in the Global Economy

This paper studies the effects of trade costs and foreign competition on entrepreneurship. We begin by pointing out a previously unknown fact: the higher the trade costs, the smaller the fraction of entrepreneurs. This fact holds across countries and across industries within the United States. We develop a model where heterogeneous agents select themselves into being either employees or self-employed entrepreneurs in the spirit of \citet{lucas:78}. This, in turn, translates into intra-industry firm heterogeneity as in \citet{melitz:03}. Self-employed agents (firms) can also decide to enter into the export markets, subject to fixed and variable trade costs. The model delivers three basic predictions: (i) domestic self-employment increases with the trade costs of exporting from a foreign country to the home country, (ii) domestic self-employment increases with the trade costs of exporting to the foreign country, (iii) higher levels of self-employment are associated with a lower fraction of exporting firms. Our empirical work on inter-industry data for the United States corroborates these predictions of the model.
Coupling the dynamics and the molecular chemistry in the galactic center

The physical conditions of the Galactic center (GC) clouds moving with non-circular velocities are not well-known. We have studied the physical conditions of these clouds with the aim of better understanding the origin of the outstanding physical conditions of the GC molecular gas and the possible effect of the large scale dynamics on these physical conditions.Using published CO(1-0) data, we have selected a set of clouds belonging to all the kinematical components seen in the longitude-velocity diagram of the GC. We have done a survey of dense gas in all the components using the J=2-1 lines of CS and SiO as tracers of high density gas and shock chemistry. We have detected CS and SiO emission in all the kinematical components. The gas density and the SiO abundance of the clouds in non-circular orbits are similar those in the nuclear ring (GCR). Therefore, in all the kinematical components there are dense clouds that can withstand the tidal shear. However, there is no evidence of star formation outside the GCR. The high relative velocity and shear expected in the dust-lanes along the bar major axis could inhibit the star formation process, as observed in other galaxies. The high SiO abundances derived in the non-circular velocity clouds are likely due to the large-scale shocks that created the dust lanes