Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Improving accuracy of feature matching in visual SLAM using spatial consistency of point features

Many RGB-D SLAM systems employ the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) with RANSAC as standard algorithm to align point features. However, when the noise in data increases or the offsets between frames are large, the results of RANSAC could be unreliable. In order to improve accuracy of trajectory estimation in such scenes, a novel approach is proposed for feature matching using spatial consistency of point features in RGB-D SLAM. By taking advantage of spatial structure information of point features, our approach can extract correspondences between frames more reliably than feature matching approaches with RANSAC. Hence, the accuracy of feature matching increases. Results on open dataset show that this approach can improve accuracy and robustness of visual SLAM.
Victim or Victimizer: Firm Responses to Government Corruption

What is the relationship between government corruption and firm performance? To address this question, I conduct a review of articles published in the leading management journals on government‐business interactions pertaining to rent‐seeking activities and integrate findings from the fields of international business, social issues in management, public organization, institutional change, and corporate political activity. I find that while much empirical work corroborates the earlier findings suggesting a corrosive impact of government corruption on firm performance in general, management research also points to the heterogeneous impact of government corruption on individual firm performance, driven by the strategic activities conducted by firms in response to corruption. I propose an integrative model of firm strategy vis‐a‐vis corruption that predicts the activity choice of the firm as predicated by its organizational structure, political resources, industry regulation, and surrounding political and social institutions.
Tax Competition with Formula Apportionment: The Interaction between Tax Base and Sharing Mechanism

The EU Commission is advocating a common consolidated tax base for the corporate income tax, accompanied by a revenue sharing mechanism based on formula apportionment. We analyse tax competition in such a regime, focussing on the interaction between the definition of the tax base and the apportionment method. Tax competition leads to suboptimally low tax rates if and only if the investment elasticity of the tax base is lower than the investment elasticity of the apportionment factor. For any apportionment method a change in the definition of the tax base can turn a race-to-the-bottom in tax competition into a race-over-the-top.
Comparison of the Relaxing Effects of Cicletanine and Cromakalim on Vascular Smooth Muscle

Summary: Cicletanine inhibited the spontaneous activity of portal vein preparations (rat, guinea pig, and rabbit) and that produced by norepinephrine or an increase in external K+ concentration to 20 mmol/L in seven types of vascular smooth muscle preparation (portal vein of rat, guinea pig, and rabbit; aorta of rat and guinea pig; and iliac artery and ear artery of rabbit). The cicletanine ECJ0 was approximately 10-4 mol/L. Contractions produced by K+ =80 mmol/L were also inhibited by cicletanine in most preparations. Only in aortic strips of rat and guinea pig and in rabbit iliac artery were the concentration-response relationships for cicletanine shifted to the right, yielding ECS0 values of approximately 3 x 10-4 mol/L. In contrast, the inhibitory effects of the potassium channel opener cromakalim (BRL 34915) were completely abolished during K+ = 80 mmol/L treatment in all preparations. The inhibitory effect of cromakalim under the other test conditions (above) was completely antagonized by application of glibenclamide, 10-5 mol/L, whereas this treatment had only negligible effects on cicletanine inhibition in most preparations. The results indicate that a potassium channel opening effect does not contribute significantly to the inhibitory effect of cicletanine on vascular smooth muscle.
Undeclared formaldehyde levels in patient consumer products: formaldehyde test kit utility

Abstract Purpose: Formaldehyde allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) may be due to products with free formaldehyde or formaldehyde-releasing agents; however, assessment of formaldehyde levels in such products is infrequently conducted. The present study quantifies total releasable formaldehyde from “in-use” products associated with formaldehyde ACD and tests the utility of commercially available formaldehyde spot test kits. Materials and Methods: Personal care products from 2 patients with ACD to formaldehyde were initially screened at the clinic for formaldehyde using a formaldehyde spot test kit. Formaldehyde positive products were sent to the laboratory for confirmation by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In addition, 4 formaldehyde spot test kits were evaluated for potential utility in a clinical setting. Results: Nine of the 10 formaldehyde spot test kit positive products obtained from formaldehyde allergic patients had formaldehyde with total releasable formaldehyde levels ranging from 5.4 to 269.4 µg/g. Of these, only two shampoos tested listed a formaldehyde-releasing agent in the ingredients or product literature. Subsequently, commercially available formaldehyde spot test kits were evaluated in the laboratory for ability to identify formaldehyde in personal care products. Conclusions: Chemical based formaldehyde spot test were more reliable than the enzymatic based test in identifying product releasable formaldehyde content. It is concluded that product labeled ingredient lists and available information are often inadequate to confirm the potential for formaldehyde exposure and chemical based spot test kits may have utility for identification of potential formaldehyde exposure from personal care products.
Small-Firm Entry in U.S. Manufacturing

A cross-section empirical analysis examining the entry behavior of small firms is provided in this paper. While the authors find that certain traditional market structure characteristics and entry barriers have a strong impact on small-firm entry behavior, the reliance upon innovative strategy by small firms also explains a significant amount of the variation in the pattern of entry by small firms. They conclude that small-firm entry is at least partially determined by entry barriers, industry-specific characteristics facilitating retaliatory conduct by incumbent firms, and the reliance upon innovative strategy by small firms. Copyright 1989 by The London School of Economics and Political Science.
The Effect of Trading Volume on Analysts' Forecast Bias

ABSTRACT: This study models the interaction between a sell-side analyst and risk-averse investors. It derives an analyst’s optimal earnings forecast and investors’ optimal trading decisions in a setting where the analyst’s payoff depends on the trading volume the forecast generates as well as on the forecast error. In the fully separating equilibrium, we find that the analyst biases the forecast upward (downward) if his private signal reveals relatively good (bad) news. The model predicts that: (1) the analyst biases the forecast upward more often than downward and the forecast is on average optimistic; (2) the magnitude of the analyst’s bias is increasing in the per-share benefit from trading volume he receives; and (3) the analyst’s expected squared forecast error may increase in the precision of his private information. Finally, we characterize the circumstances under which the (rational) analyst acts as if he overweights or underweights his private information.
Processing of the precursors of the human thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor in various eukaryotic cells (human thyrocytes, transfected L cells and baculovirus-infected insect cells).

The complementary DNA for human thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) receptor encodes a single protein with a deduced molecular mass of 84.5 kDa. This protein is cleaved during its maturation in the human thyroid since the receptor protein has been shown to be composed of two subunits (alpha subunit of approximately 53 kDa and beta subunit of approximately 38 kDa) held together by disulfide bridges [Loosfelt, H. , Pichon, C. , Jolivet, A. , Misrahi, M. , Caillou, B. , Jamous, M. , Vannier, B. & Miligrom, E. (1992) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 89, 3765-3769]. A similar processing occurs in an L cell line permanently expressing the human TSH receptor. The processing is however incomplete, resulting in a permanent accumulation of a 95-kDa high-mannose precursor which is present only in trace amounts in the thyroid. Pulse-chase experiments show the successive appearance in the L cells of two precursors: initially the approximately 95-kDa high-mannose glycoprotein followed by a approximately 120-kDa species containing mature oligosaccharides. This latter precursor is then processed into the alpha and beta subunits. In primary cultures of human thyrocytes precursors of similar size are detected. Spodoptera frugiperda insect cells (Sf9 and Sf21) infected with a recombinant baculovirus encoding the human TSH receptor synthesize a monomeric protein of about 90 kDa soluble only in denaturing conditions. Comparison with the product of in vitro transcription-translation experiments (approximately 80 kDa), suggests that it may be incompletely or improperly glycosylated. The TSH receptor expressed in these cells is unable to bind the hormone. Immunoelectron microscopy studies show that in human thyrocytes most of the receptor is present on the cell surface; in L cells the receptor is detected on the cell surface, as well as in the endoplasmic reticulum and in the Golgi apparatus (this intracellular pool of receptor molecules probably corresponding to the high-mannose precursor); in insect cells nearly all the receptor molecules are trapped in the endoplasmic reticulum. These differences in receptor distribution are concordant with the differences observed for receptor processing.
Impact of Industry Type and Firm Characteristics on Firm-level Financial Performance— Evidence from Indian Industry

Though the importance of considering industry type as a major determinant of firm level performance is well recognised, there is a dearth of evidence relating to the Indian situation. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap. The analysis pertains to the decade of the 1980s and covers 171 firms in twenty-one industry groups. The authors have developed two composite measures that reflect the growth and profitability dimensions. The results indicate that both industry effects and firm characteristics have significant influence on the above two dimensions.
Chainlets: A New Descriptor for Detection and Recognition

Detecting and recognizing objects in images is one of the most challenging tasks in computer vision, as it seeks to detect subtle objects while ignoring massive numbers of negatives. While deep networks have led to advances in many problems, new representations and approaches are needed for applications without millions of training samples or where explanations are required. This paper focuses on a new representation that can be used for detection/recognition in many applications of computer vision, and demonstrates it on two very different applications: pedestrian detection and ear recognition. This paper proposes the use of Chainlets, ordered oriented data computed from deep contourbased edge detection, as a novel object descriptor. Chainlets address the problem with Histograms of Oriented Gradients, in that HOG does not model edge connectedness. We extend HOG using Histograms of Chain Codes, which improve object descriptiveness and can even provide orientation invariance. These descriptors significantly outperform existing feature sets, including both existing hand-crafted and deep features for human ear recognition, and are near state of the art on pedestrian detection. Results from our Chainlets algorithm underwent independent testing as part of the new Unconstrained Ear Recognition Challenge dataset, where the competition's evaluation showed Chainlets yielded a significant improvement over other state of the art approaches. To show further generality, we performed an evaluation on the INRIA person detection dataset with results that are near state-of-the-art deep network and boosted classifier results. Overall, the experimental results show that the novel Chainlets representation is competitive with, or better than, state-of-the-art algorithms on both pedestrian detection and ear recognition applications.
A Theory of Smart Cities

We entered the 21st century with a strong, global trend to increasing concentration of the population in relatively few, large cities. Large, dense cities can be highly productive, innovative, and per capita very green and hence desirable for our future. However the rapid influx of new citizens presents overwhelming challenges to their governments. Along with the positive benefits that accumulate from dense, diverse cities come in equal measure the negative aspects such as informal development, traffic congestion, waste management, and access to resources and crime. The demand for services is immediate, but the tax revenues to fund them come later. At the same time, globalization has connected cities on opposite sides of the planet in forms of competition previously unknown – for capital, for resources, and for the Creative Class. These challenges lead to experiments with new approaches to the planning, design, finance, construction, governance, and operation of urban infrastructure and services that are broadly called Smart Cities. Some of these approaches are related to emerging roles of information technology. A new professional community – the Urban Systems Collaborative – has formed to foster mutual learning among members of the architecture, planning, engineering, transportation, utilities, information technology, operations research, social sciences, geography and environmental science, public finance and policy, and communications profession. One of its hypotheses is a new theory of cities that makes use of new, rich sources of information about what is going on in the city. Among other things, it seeks to understand the impact that information technology can have on the urban fabric and norms of behaviour. Systems Science, in particular work on systems of systems and scaling laws, has provided new observations of urban systems at a macro-level. The Smart City provides new instrumentation that enables observation of urban systems at a micro-level. This paper describes steps towards a model that can unify the perspectives of the professions in the Urban Systems Collaborative. It begins with examples of Smart Cities and why this movement is so active. It describes how information technology plays roles in shaping new norms of behaviour intended to facilitate the continuing growth of dense populations. It then explains a key hypothesis of the Urban Systems Collaborative that the increasing accessibility of information will enable us to develop Urban Systems models that are capable of helping citizens, entrepreneurs, civic organizations, and governments to see more deeply into how their cities work, how people use the city, how they feel about it, where the city faces problems, and what kinds of remediation can be applied.
Posterior simulators in econometrics

Economics is the discipline of using data to revise beliefs about economic issues. In Bayesian econometrics, the revision is conducted in accordance with the laws of probability, conditional on what has been observed. The normative appeal of Bayesian econometrics is the same as that of expected utility maximization and Bayesian learning, the dominant paradigms in economic theory. The questions that econometrics ultimately addresses are similar to those faced by economic agents in models, as well. Given the observed data, what decisions should be made? After bringing data to bear on two alternative models, how is their relative plausibility changed? Any survey of the introductory and concluding sections of papers in the academic literature should provide more examples and illustrate the process of formally or informally updating beliefs. Until quite recently, applied Bayesian econometrics was undertaken largely by those primarily concerned with contributing to the theory, and the proportion of applied work that was formally Bayesian was rather small. There are several reasons for this. First, Bayesian econometrics demands both a likelihood function and a prior distribution, whereas non-Bayesian methods do not. Second, the subjective prior distribution has to be defended, and if the reader (or worse, the editor) does not agree, then the work may be ignored. Third, most posterior moments can't be obtained anyway because the requisite integrals can't be evaluated. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
Managing Risk and Turbulence in Internationalization of Foreign Companies to South Africa: Lessons from Seven Finnish Business-to-Business Firms

In this article the authors examine how seven Finnish business-to-business firms have managed risk and turbulence in their internationalization to South Africa. Thirty interviews with managers and other relevant informants were conducted. The study finds that the levels of perceived risk and turbulence were high in the market and the firms have used networks, alliances, gradual involvement, and a combination of entry modes to deal with the situation. The study contributes to the literature on business in Africa by providing implications for why and how firms develop their involvement in African markets and how they deal with challenges and opportunities.
Implications of global demographic convergence for fertility theory

Introduction Concern with below-replacement fertility first emerged in Europe in the 1930s. At the end of a steep decline in marital fertility that had begun in most of western and central Europe in the last third of the 19th century, total fertility fell below two in several countries, and in many urban areas, even in countries whose national fertility remained above replacement level. This was a cause of great alarm to governments wherever it occurred, raising the spectre of absolute declines in population size in the near future (Teitelbaum and Winter 1985). Dire economic and political consequences were predicted for countries whose populations failed to replace themselves (Reddaway 1939). The postwar baby boom of the 1950s and early 1960s generally erased such fears, but they have returned, albeit in somewhat less strident form, over the last two decades. Ever since the 1930s the concern with low fertility has been strongest within developed countries and especially in Europe. The theoretical frameworks used to explain such low fertility have been, therefore, almost exclusively oriented towards conditions in the rich world.
Equilibrium time on the market (ETOM) for commercial real estate in the UK

Time on the market (TOM) has been widely tested in the US real estate literature using listing and selling data of houses captured in the multiple listing services (MLSs). Unfortunately in the UK there are no MLSs so it is not possible to undertake similar analyses. The approach adopted in this paper differs from traditional TOM analyses in that it focuses on the speed or time the market takes to correct for information differences between open market valuations and traded prices. In this context the paper introduces the concept of equilibrium time on the market (ETOM). The study therefore adopts a different approach to estimating TOM and in addition also examines the phenomenon within the UK commercial real estate sector. Based on a simple present value model, the time taken for the difference between an appraiser's estimate of open market value and known selling prices define our time on the market under equilibrium market conditions. Using the annualised UK Investment Property Databank all‐property total return index for a sample period of 17 years between 1983 and 1999, the average ETOM was estimated to be 8.4 months. This figure, however, varied and depended on market conditions.
Physical models enhance molecular three‐dimensional literacy in an introductory biochemistry course *

This article reports the results of a recent study to evaluate the usefulness of physical models of molecular structures as a new tool with which to teach concepts of molecular structure and function. Of seven different learning tools used by students in this introductory biochemistry class, the use of the physical models in a laboratory was rated as most useful. These results suggest that physical models can play an important role in capturing the interest of students in the subject of molecular structure and function. These physical models often stimulate more sophisticated questions in the minds of students, which can then be more appropriately explored using computer visualization tools.
Efficient Wage Bargaining in a Dynamic Macroeconomic Model

This paper analyzes the implications of bilateral bargaining over wages and employment between a producer and a union representing a finite number of identical workers in a monetary macroeconomic model of the AS AD type with government activity. Wages and aggregate employment levels are set according to an efficient (Nash) bargaining agreement while the commodity market is cleared in a competitive way. It is shown that, for each level of union power, measured by the share it obtains of the total production surplus, efficient bargaining implies no efficiency loss in production. However, due to the price feedback from the commodity market and to income-induced demand effects, all temporary equilibria with a positive labor share are not Nash bargaining-efficient with respect to the set of feasible temporary equilibrium allocations. The dynamic evolution of money balances, prices, and wages is analyzed being driven primarily by government budget deficits and expectations by consumers. It is shown that for each fixed level of union power, the features of the dynamics under perfect foresight are structurally identical to those of the same economy under competitive wage and price setting, i.e. for small levels of government demand, there exist two balanced paths generically, one of which with high employment and production is always unstable while the other one may be stable or unstable.
ABDOMINO-THORACIC TRANSMISSION DURING ACS: FACTS AND FIGURES

Abstract Elevated intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) exerts effects not only on intra-abdominal organs, but also on organs distant to the abdominal compartment. Abdomino-thoracic interaction during intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) or abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) interferes with pulmonary, cardiovascular and cerebral function. In accordance with recent guidelines, IAH is defined as IAP above 12 mmHg and ACS as IAP more than 20 mmHg with one or more new organ failures. In this review we will first discuss the effects of elevated IAP on pulmonary dynamics and the relevance for interpreting airway pressures and adjusting ventilator settings. We will then discuss the interaction between abdomino-thoracic pressure transmission and global haemodynamics, the knowledge of which is necessary for correct assessment of cardiac preload and to optimize fluid therapy in the setting of IAH/ACS. A discussion on the relationship between increased IAP, increased intracranial pressure (ICP) and decreased cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) will follow. Finally, we will review ventilator-induced thoracic pressure swings and their transmission to the abdominal compartment.