Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Cylindrically Conformal Microstrip Structures Using an Iterative Method

An efficient iterative method is presented for the fast analysis of cylindrically conformal microstrip structures. Based on the transmission line modeling (TLM) method and the fast modal transform (FMT) theory, this technique accelerates the process of the calculation by introducing the concept of the transverse electromagnetic waves instead of the transverse fields considered in the traditional algorithm. Within cylindrically stratified media, the transverse electromagnetic waves are represented by the hybrid modal basis functions. Ultimately, the specific form of the modal admittance and the spectral reflection matrix are deduced. Furthermore, the surface electric fields and electric currents of the cylindrically conformal microstrip antenna fed by means of a microstripline are calculated via the iterative process. On this basis, the input impedance of the antenna can also be obtained. And the results gained by utilizing iterative approach are compared with those from the published references to demonstrate the accuracy or efficiency of this method.
Acoustic imaging of thick biological tissue

Up to now, biomedical imaging with ultrasound for observing a cellular tissue structure has been limited to very thinly sliced tissue at very high ultrasonic frequencies, i.e., 1 GHz. In this paper, we present the results of a systematic study to use a 150 to 200 MHz frequency range for thickly sliced biological tissue. A mechanical scanning reflection acoustic microscope (SAM) was used for obtaining horizontal cross-sectional images (C-scans) showing cellular structures. In the study, sectioned specimens of human breast cancer and tissues from the small intestine were prepared and examined. Some accessories for biomedical application were integrated into our SAM (Sonix HS-1000 and Olympus UH-3), which operated in pulse-wave and tone-burst wave modes, respectively. We found that the frequency 100 to 200 MHz provides optimal balance between resolution and penetration depth for examining the thickly sliced specimens. The images obtained with the lens focused at different depths revealed cellular structures whose morphology was very similar to that seen in the thinly sectioned specimens with optical and scanning acoustic microscopy. The SAM operation in the pulse-echo mode permits the imaging of tissue structure at the surface, and it also opens up the potential for attenuation imaging representing reflection from the substrate behind the thick specimen. We present such images of breast cancer proving the method's applicability to overall tumor detection. SAM with a high-frequency tone-burst ultrasonic wave reveals details of tissue structure, and both methods may serve as additional diagnostic tools in a hospital environment.
Treatment Considerations in Vulvovaginal Candidiasis

In 1990, more than 13 million American women received prescriptions for treating vaginitis-the most common reason for visiting the gynecologist. (1) Vaginitis caused by yeast species accounts for approximately 40% of these cases, second only to bacterial vaginosis (45%). (2,3) The incidence of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) has increased dramatically in the past decade. In the United Kingdom, the incidence rose from 118 to 200 per 100,000 between 1975 and 1984, (4) and in the United States the number of prescriptions written to treat this condition doubled between 1980 and 1990. Up to 75% of women experience vaginal candidiasis in their lifetime (5)-approximately 40% to 50% of whom have a recurrence. (6) Fewer than 5% of women have chronic recurrences, however. (7) Topical azoles remain the first line of VVC treatment, achieving mycologic and clinical cures with minimal systemic effects in 85% to 90% of episodic infections. Oral agents may be more convenient, but confer some risk of side effects and drug interactions. In addition, the proportion of nonalbican Candida infections caused by resistant strains may be on the rise.
Predictors of Relationship Quality and Relationship Outcomes in Luxury Restaurants

This study examines the relationships among elements of relationship management activities (predictors), relationship quality (a mediating construct), and relationship outcomes (commitment, loyalty, and word of mouth). Despite much research focusing on relationship quality, some central questions concerning the relationship among the three constructs have not been fully explored. A conceptual model was developed and tested to examine the mediating effect of relationship quality on the relationship between the seven relationship management activities and the three relationship outcomes. Structural equation analyses on the data collected from a survey of 887 dinner patrons at 21 luxury restaurants show that relationship quality is the primary mediating construct between relationship management activities and relationship outcomes. The effective use of a relationship management strategy may increase customer commitment, spread positive word of mouth, and generate loyalty. The findings of this study provide restaurant managers with a guideline for developing and implementing an enhanced relationship management strategy.
Mutagenesis of the palmitoylation site in vaccinia virus envelope glycoprotein B 5 Marı́a

The outer envelope of vaccinia virus extracellular virions is derived from intracellular membranes that, at late times in infection, are enriched in several virus-encoded proteins. Although palmitoylation is common in vaccinia virus envelope proteins, little is known about the role of palmitoylation in the biogenesis of the enveloped virus. We have studied the palmitoylation of B5, a 42 kDa type I transmembrane glycoprotein comprising a large ectodomain and a short (17 aa) cytoplasmic tail. Mutation of two cysteine residues located in the cytoplasmic tail in close proximity to the transmembrane domain abrogated palmitoylation of the protein. Virus mutants expressing non-palmitoylated versions of B5 and/or lacking most of the cytoplasmic tail were isolated and characterized. Cell-to-cell virus transmission and extracellular virus formation were only slightly affected by those mutations. Notably, B5 versions lacking palmitate showed decreased interactions with proteins A33 and F13, but were still incorporated into the virus envelope. Expression of mutated B5 by transfection into uninfected cells showed that both the cytoplasmic tail and palmitate have a role in the intracellular transport of B5. These results indicate that the C-terminal portion of protein B5, while involved in protein transport and in protein–protein interactions, is broadly dispensable for the formation and egress of infectious extracellular virus and for virus transmission.
Fertility and Employment in Italy, France, and the UK

According to the agenda for employment set by the European Union in 2000 for the following 10 years, the target for female employment was set at 60 per cent for the year 2010. Although Northern and most Continental countries have achieved this quantitative target, the Mediterranean countries are lagging behind. Labor market policies should be aimed to encourage women's participation and reduce the cost of working. However, the persistence of a negative relationship between participation and fertility in these countries implies that it is important to take fertility into account. We analyse a model of labor supply and fertility, using data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) for the period 1994-2000, merged with regional data describing the available labor market opportunities in the households' environment.
Board Network Characteristics and Firm Performance in Korea

This paper examines the effects of board of directors' network characteristics on firm performance using a sample of 199 large, publicly traded Korean companies from 1990 through 1999. Two board network characteristics are discussed, namely: board network density and board external social capital. Board network density is defined as the extensiveness or the cohesiveness of contact among the members of board of directors, and board external social capital refers to the degree to which board members have outside contacts in the external environment. The test results suggest that a moderate level of board network density enhances firm value, while too cohesive a board network destroys it. It is also found that board members' elite school networks were positively associated with firm performance. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005.
Associative Domain Adaptation

We propose associative domain adaptation, a novel technique for end-to-end domain adaptation with neural networks, the task of inferring class labels for an unlabeled target domain based on the statistical properties of a labeled source domain. Our training scheme follows the paradigm that in order to effectively derive class labels for the target domain, a network should produce statistically domain invariant embeddings, while minimizing the classification error on the labeled source domain. We accomplish this by reinforcing associations between source and target data directly in embedding space. Our method can easily be added to any existing classification network with no structural and almost no computational overhead. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on various benchmarks and achieve state-of-the-art results across the board with a generic convolutional neural network architecture not specifically tuned to the respective tasks. Finally, we show that the proposed association loss produces embeddings that are more effective for domain adaptation compared to methods employing maximum mean discrepancy as a similarity measure in embedding space.
Re-Writing HDL Descriptions for Line-Aware Synthesis of Reversible Circuits

Reversible computing is a promising research field due to its applications in several emerging technologies. Accordingly, several approaches for the design of reversible circuits have been introduced - including solutions realizing functionality provided in terms of hardware description languages. Their main drawback is, however, that they require a substantial amount of additional circuit lines. While some solutions addressing this problem have been proposed in the past, the contribution of the respectively given HDL code to this drawback has hardly been considered yet. In this work, we are considering this problem from this angle: Observations have been conducted which, eventually, led to a set of re-writing rules for a line-aware synthesis of reversible circuits from HDL descriptions. Case studies show the benefits of these rules - in total, substantial reductions in the number of circuit lines have been observed.
SMEs development and failure avoidance in developing countries through public private partnership

This study examines the current developments of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan and the effectiveness of public-private partnership for SME development. Some important facts are presented. A comprehensive international literature study was undertaken. A questionnaire was developed for small and medium sized enterprises owners and top managers to access the status of their enterprises and also to examine SMEs developmental strategies adopted by them. Linear regression was employed for analysis of the data. The study found that SMEs are of overwhelming importance to developing countries because they account for more than 90% of all firms outside the agricultural sector. The study also found that main constraints faced by small entrepreneurs are lack of finance, low human resource capabilities, and technological capabilities. Finally, the government has been the most important supporting agency for SMEs in Pakistan. However, evidence of the effectiveness of government and private programs to support SME development is mixed and not so encouraging. After analyzing the current SMEs’ developmental strategies (adopted by both public and private sectors) the study suggested public private partnership (PPP) as future strategy for SMEs’ development in developing countries. Key words: Small and medium enterprises, public private partnership, developing countries, Pakistan, entrepreneurship.
The Evolutionary Pattern of Global Imbalance: Evidence from Cross Country Data from 1970 to 2010

Abstract In this article, we emphasize that net foreign asset (NFA) is an important indicator that can nicely reflect global imbalance and has not received enough attention. We use a representative data-set to examine how the NFA varies with the development stages of different countries. We also investigate the determinants of NFA and the composition of external asset and liability. We have obtained some important findings. First, the change of NFA follows an inverse U-shaped curve with the increase of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. This means that the most-watched global imbalance may decrease with economic development in the future. Second, industrial structure, openness to international market, inflation, development of domestic financial market and public debt are important factors that affect the ratio of NFA/GDP and compositions of external asset and liability. Third, the NFA/GDP ratio in China is currently at the early stage of the inverse U-shaped curve and is expected to decrease in the future. As for the compositions of external asset and liability, China is holding too much asset in the form of foreign exchange reserves (FER) and too much liability in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI). In contrast to some existing views, we believe that the restrictions on capital mobility, rather than NFA, affect the composition of external asset and liability. This study sheds some light on the imbalance issue and the corresponding policy-making.
Testing the Expectancy Disconfirmation Model of Citizen Satisfaction with Local Government

It is important for public administration researchers and practitioners to understand how citizens form satisfaction judgments regarding local government services. A prior study by Van Ryzin (2004) found strong support for an expectancy disconfirmation model of citizen satisfaction, which focuses on the gap between performance and expectations. This model has been tested for decades in studies of private sector customer satisfaction, yet it is little known and applied in the field of public administration. The present study seeks to replicate the Van Ryzin (2004) results, which were based on a telephone survey in New York City, using a nationwide sample and a much different survey methodology, namely, an online, self-administered survey of a national panel. In addition, this study tests the sensitivity of the results to two alternative measures of disconfirmation (or the gap between performance and expectations). Results using subtractive disconfirmation confirm the basic expectancy disconfirmation model, but results using perceived disconfirmation do not, calling into question the policy and management implications of the prior study.
Strategic Alliances and Mergers of Financial Exchanges: The Case of the SADC

Over the last three years there has been increased speculation in Europe and elsewhere as to the relative merits of merging a number of national and international financial exchanges. In some respects, the development of financial markets is an important aspect of economic development, and several countries in the Southern Africa Development Community region have a financial exchange. However, the vast majority of these exchanges have a small number of listed securities and low levels of capitalisation and liquidity. The design, size, scope, institutional and regulatory framework of a financial exchange determines its relative costs and benefits. Seen in this light, without the appropriate scale, liquidity, social and technological infrastructure, it is unlikely that a financial exchange will be able to meet its strategic objectives efficiently. This article discusses the economic case for establishing a regional financial exchange for the Southern African Development Community. It suggests that the most economically efficient and least costly way of accomplishing this is for the national exchanges in the SADC region to merge. The article concludes by suggesting a number of enabling policy proposals.
Heuristic Model Selection for Leading Indicators in Russia and Germany

Business tendency survey indicators are widely recognised as a key instrument for business cycle forecasting. Their leading indicator property is assessed with regard to forecasting industrial production in Russia and Germany. For this purpose, vector autoregressive (VAR) models are specified and estimated to construct forecasts. As the potential number of lags included is large, we compare full-specified VAR models with subset models obtained using a Genetic Algorithm enabling “holes” in multivariate lag structures. The problem is complicated by the fact that a structural break and seasonal variation of indicators have to be taken into account. The models allow for a comparison of the dynamic adjustment and the forecasting performance of the leading indicators for both countries revealing marked differences between Russia and Germany. JEL classification: C52, C61, E37 Keywords: Leading indicators, business cycle forecasts, VAR, model selection, genetic algorithms
Impacts of Recent Shocks to Alaska Fisheries: A Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model Analysis

Abstract We use a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to investigate impacts of three exogenous shocks to Alaska fisheries: i) a 31% reduction in the walleye pollock allowable catch; ii) a 125% increase in fuel price; and iii) both shocks simultaneously. The latter scenario reflects actual industry trends between 2004 and 2008. Impacts on endogenous output, employment, factor income, and household income are assessed. We also estimate changes in a measure of household welfare and compare model results against actual change in pollock and seafood prices. Few examples of CGE studies addressing fisheries issues appear in the literature. This study is unique in that it includes more disaggregated industry sectors and examines supply-side shocks that are difficult to address using fixed-price models. This study also overcomes a serious deficiency in models that use unadjusted seafood sector data in IMPLAN (IMpact analysis for PLANning) by developing the fish harvesting and processing sectors independently from available data, supplemented by interviews with key informants to ground-truth industry cost estimates. JEL Classification Codes: Q22, R13
The Reputation Effects of Earnings Management in the Internal Labor Market

Abstract: The current study is designed to propose and test a model about the ethical reputation of a target manager who must decide whether to engage in earnings management. We employ an experimental approach to examine the potential negative reputation effects within the internal labor market of a firm that occur as a consequence of earnings management. We examine participants’ responses to a hypothetical (target) manager when both the target’s behavior and the corporate incentives were manipulated. Participants assessed how ethical they believed a target manager to be, based on the target’s decision regarding earnings management and the nature of the corporate incentives. Participants also assessed the target’s managerial ability. Participants’ judgments regarding the target’s morality were significantly affected by the target’s behavior, but were not affected by the incentive structure. Ability judgments were significantly and positively related with morality assessments. Further analysis indicates that morality assessments mediate the relationships between the target’s behavior and the participants’ willingness to extend work-related opportunities to the target. Implications of these results for management control systems design and for future research are discussed.
Managing Underpricing? The Case of Pre-Ipo Discretionary Accruals in China

Previous studies have found that companies use income-increasing positive discretionary accruals (DAC) prior to initial public offerings (IPOs) to inflate earnings as a signal to anticipate future income and future dividends. This study, directly explores the role of DAC in prospectus information of 691 A-shares IPOs in China during the period 1995-2002 and its relationship with market-adjusted returns. The results suggest that in China, pre-IPO non-discretionary accruals (NDAC) as well as DAC have informative value in explaining first-day returns as well as first-year adjusted returns. However, in yearly cross-sectional models, I find that firms use income-decreasing accruals (conservative accounting) in prospectus financial statements. This downward manipulation or income "understatement" creates a regulatory setting that could explain initial underpricing and abnormally high IPO returns for A-shares. In addition, the results show that as state ownership (SO) increases, cash flow also increases, exacerbating agency costs and adverse selection problems. These findings may suggest that managers might be using more conservative accounting in Prospectus financial data to offset the agency costs related to high cash flow, and high SO, by "banking income" and possibly therefore "smoothing" the effects of possible future suboptimal earnings.
Action recognition based on spatial-temporal pyramid sparse coding

This paper introduces a novel video presentation term spatial-temporal pyramid sparse coding (STPSC) which characterizes both the spatial and temporal aspects of the video. Specifically, the co-occurrences of visual words are computed with respect to the spatial layout and the sequencing of the features in the video. The representation captures both the spatial arrangement and the temporal relationship of the words. Our representation is motivated by the technology spatial pyramid matching (SPM) which is used to recognize scenes in the image. We extend SPM to video analysis combining with sparse coding. Firstly, dense feature points are extracted and represented by displacement information from a dense optical flow field. Then sparse coding is used to quantize the feature descriptors, and the spatial-temporal pyramid is introduced to represent an action. Finally, we use SVM to classify the videos. Experimental results showed improvements over the state-of-the-art techniques on the public action dataset.
Is Activity-Based Costing Up to the Challenge When it Comes to Privatization of Local Government Services?

After its initial success in the private sector, activity-based costing (ABC) has been embraced by the public sector as an analytical tool that can be used to improve the efficiency of government operations, especially in the area of the privatization of operations. Despite claims that ABC can greatly enhance the evaluation of how to most efficiently deliver services, there are significant obstacles that must be overcome before ABC can be effectively implemented. In order to underscore the challenges facing successful ABC execution in the public sector, the use of activity-based cost accounting by the City of Indianapolis for its privatization initiatives is discussed. Generally ABC is not up to challenge of providing local governments with tool necessary to comprehensively evaluate direct services and determine which are candidates for contracting out or privatization.