Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimal control of energy storage under random operation permissions

ABSTRACT This article studies the optimal control of energy storage when operations are permitted only at random times. At the arrival of a permission, the storage operator has the option, but not the obligation, to transact. A nonlinear pricing structure incentivizes small transactions spread out among arrivals, instead of a single unscheduled massive transaction, which could stress the energy delivery system. The problem of optimizing storage operations to maximize the expected cumulated revenue over a finite horizon is modeled as a piecewise deterministic Markov decision process. Various properties of the value function and the optimal storage operation policy are established, first when permission times follow a Poisson process and then for permissions arriving as a self-exciting point process. The sensitivity of the value function and optimal policy to the permission arrival process parameters is studied as well. A numerical scheme to compute the optimal policy is developed and employed to illustrate the theoretical results. Current distribution systems cannot support simultaneous and identical actions of a large number of agents reacting to an identical signal. That motivates transactive market frameworks when their access to transactions is restricted. Therefore, the optimal policy of an agent under this restriction is important to study. Being able to act at random arrival of permissions and to act under a nonlinear pricing structure are salient characteristics differentiating this study from existing work on energy storage optimization.
High performance EEG feature extraction for fast epileptic seizure detection

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects around 70 million people worldwide. Early detection of epileptic seizures has the potential to help patients in improving their quality of life. Electroencephalogram (EEG) has been used to record the brain's electrical activities associated with seizures. This paper presents a fast method for selecting EEG features that are relevant to early detection of epileptic seizures. The feature extraction model is based on LASSO regression and is applied to the EEG spectrum to recognize the EEG spectral features pertinent to seizures. These features are then selected and fed into a random forest (RF) classifier for epileptic seizure recognition. Compared to the state-of-the-art methods, the proposed scheme achieves the highest detection performance of 100% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 100% classification accuracy, and 1.18 Sec detection delay. Furthermore, our model has proven to be robust in noisy and abnormal conditions.
Cooperative power allocation for broadcast/multicast services in cellular OFDM systems

In this paper, we investigate the transmission power allocation for the support of broadcast/multicast services (BMSs) in multi-cell OFDM systems.We consider a cooperative architecture for distribution of the BMS data where the copies of the same data are transmitted by multiple base stations (BSs) in a synchronized manner and then aggregated at the receiving users. Under this architecture, we develop a power allocation scheme that optimizes the transmission power of the multiple BSs on each sub-channel to maximize the total data rate. The optimal power allocation turns out to take the form of iterative water-filling, particularly when heterogeneous modulation and coding schemes are allowed in each sub-channel. In addition, we study the two special cases where the BMS system has extended or limited capabilities: First, we consider the BMS system that supports a more sophisticated video coding technique, fine granularity scalability (FGS) video coding, which encodes the BMS data into base layer and enhancement layer. Taking the layered structure into account, we propose a power allocation scheme that maximizes the data rate of the enhancement layer while guaranteeing the minimum data rate requirement of the base layer. Second, we consider the BMS system that only allows average channel state information of users to be available at the resource manager. In this case, as it is not possible to guarantee successful transmission of every data due to instant deep fading, we propose a power allocation scheme that minimizes the probability of transmission failure. Simulation results reveal that the cooperative distribution system performs far better than the non-cooperative distribution system and the proposed power allocation schemes outperform the equal power allocation scheme significantly.
Somatosensory pain does not affect total cerebral blood volume

The effect of somatosensory pain on the total cerebral blood volume was investigated in anesthetized rats. Our results show for the first time that total cerebral blood volume remains unaltered in both brain hemispheres during 2.5 min noxious stimulation of the sensory C-fibres of the sciatic nerve. Regional cerebral blood flow was increased by 97% in the thalamus and by 47% in the hypothalamus at the same time. Blockade of the L-arginine–nitric oxide system reduced significantly the steady-state control level of total cerebral blood volume (i.l.: from 5.7±1.3 to 4.58±1.6 vol%, c.l.: from 5.0±0.6 to 4.24±0.9 vol%). Nitric oxide synthase blockade, however, did not affect either the stimulation induced increase of regional cerebral blood flow or the steadiness of total cerebral blood volume during the stimulation.
Divide and Conquer: A Self-Adaptive Approach for High-Resolution Image Matting

This paper proposes an efficient patch-based image matting approach to reduce memory consumption in processing high-resolution images. Most existing image matting techniques employ a global optimization over the whole set of image pixels, incurring a prohibitively high memory consumption. Inspired by 'divide and conquer', the image is divided into small patches self-adaptively according to the distribution of pixels, then the matting algorithm is applied in patch level. The memory consumption is related to the size of patch. Relationships between patches are also considered by locally linear embedding to maintain consistency through the whole image. Experimental results show that our method significantly reduces memory consumption while maintaining high-fidelity matting results on the benchmark dataset.
Does Implementation of Big Data Analytics Improve Firms’ Market Value? Investors’ Reaction in Stock Market

Recently, due to the development of social media, multimedia, and the Internet of Things (IoT), various types of data have increased. As the existing data analytics tools cannot cover this huge volume of data, big data analytics becomes one of the emerging technologies for business today. Considering that big data analytics is an up-to-date term, in the present study, we investigated the impact of implementing big data analytics in the short-term perspective. We used an event study methodology to investigate the changes in stock price caused by announcements on big data analytics solution investment. A total of 54 investment announcements of firms publicly traded in NASDAQ and NYSE from 2010 to 2015 were collected. Our results empirically demonstrate that announcement of firms’ investment on big data solution leads to positive stock market reactions. In addition, we also found that investments on small vendors’ solution with industry-oriented functions tend to result in higher abnormal returns than those on big vendors’ solution with general functions. Finally, our results also suggest that stock market investors highly evaluate big data analytics investments of big firms as compared to those of small firms.
Discipline differences in role and use of ICT to support group-based learning

Small-group teaching and learning is traditionally central to UK Higher Education. This paper explores how disciplines differ in their use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to support small-group activities. A framework for considering discipline differences and evidence from surveys and case studies conducted by the ASTER Project are presented. While many uses of ICT are common across the disciplines studied (drawn from the Humanities, Physical Sciences and Psychology), there are also some striking differences, in particular the infrequent use of ICT to facilitate discussion in the Physical Sciences compared to the pattern of use in the other disciplines studied. It is vital that such differences are considered when advising on the take-up of innovative teaching and learning methods.
Contribution of Tanzania Southern Highlands Forest Diversity to Household Income and Food Supplements: The Case of Mufindi District in Tanzania

Aims: Understanding the role played by forest diversity to supply non-timber forest products for income and food supplements of households is important in forest management and human life. This study was conducted to investigate the role played by non-timber forest products and their implications on income and food supplements in Mufindi District in Tanzania. Methodology: A cross section field survey research methodology was used in this study. Six representative villages in three wards; Rugemba, Igowole and Sadan located within 30 Km to forest Original Research Article Msola et al.; JGEESI, 9(4): 1-12, 2017; Article no.JGEESI. 32300 2 reserves were selected. Interviews were conducted to 180 respondents from the three wards. One focus group from each village was conducted while District agricultural officers and village leaders formed a key informant’s category. Quantitative data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science Software and Microsoft excel while memos were produced from qualitative data and used to narrate discussion. Taxonomic plants classification was carried out at Sokoine University of Agriculture botanic laboratory. Results: It was found that non-timber forest products are mostly consumed directly by the people who collect them as a useful dietary supplement, especially when food is scarce. To a lesser extent, they are also sold for cash, but the market for them is badly organized in terms of poor transport and lack of storage facilities, so they are not an important source of income except for people who live near important roads. It was discovered that deforestation and climate change are reducing the potential supply of these products. Conclusions: Given the importance of the sustainable exploitation of non-timber forest products as an incentive for forest conservation, the market for non-timber forest products should be rationalized and expanded. Improvement of the use and role of wild foods should be planned and implemented within a larger scheme of sustainable forest management.
Molecular-targeted therapies in the treatment of squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck

Purpose of review The present study reviews recent developments of molecular-targeted therapies in the treatment of recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. It also highlights ongoing research regarding predictive markers of sensitivity or resistance to anti-epidermal growth factor receptor agents and discusses some promising novel targets in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, as well as clinical trial design challenges. Recent findings Phase III randomized studies have brought the proof that cetuximab, an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor agent, is able to improve survival, either in combination with radiation therapy or in first-line treatment for recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. In addition, promising results have been obtained with antiangiogenic therapies in phase II trials. Some clinical and molecular markers of resistance to anti-epidermal growth factor receptor agents have been identified, but they have not yet been validated for clinical practice. Other interesting targets, such as insulin-like growth factor 1R or the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway, have been shown in vitro to play key roles in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and their inhibition warrants further evaluations. Summary Proof of the concept that molecular-targeted therapy is a valid therapeutic approach for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma has emerged with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor agents. Nevertheless, identification of predictive biomarkers of resistance or sensitivity to these therapies remains the main challenge in the optimal selection of patients most likely to benefit from them.
Family firms, risk-taking and financial distress

The authors investigate the question of which qualitative characteristics are likely to explain the survival of family firms in case of financial distress and whether these vari- ables improve the explanatory power of quantitative variables in clarifying the different probability of distress between family and non-family firms. They focus their atten-tion on the impact of the controlling owner and, using the Socioemotional Wealth theory (SEW), study the role of the family involvement in mitigating or accentuating the likelihood of distress. Using a dataset of 1,137 Italian family and non-family firms during 2004–2013, the authors found that family firms are significantly less likely to incur distress than non-family firms. The board dimension and the number of family members on board affect the probability of distress even controlling for some firm risk characteristics such as beta and ROA volatility, and there is also evidence of a gender mitigating effect in case of a female CEO.
Recognizing Increased Risk of Depressive Comorbidity after Myocardial Infarction: Looking for 4 Symptoms of Anxiety-Depression

Background: Screening for depression in myocardial infarction (MI) patients must be improved: (1) depression often goes unrecognized and (2) anxiety has been largely overlooked as an essential feature of depression in these patients. We therefore examined the co-occurrence of anxiety and depression after MI, and the validity of a brief mixed anxiety-depression index as a simple way to identify post-MI patients at increased risk of comorbid depression. Methods: One month after MI, 176 patients underwent a psychiatric interview and completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Symptoms of Anxiety-Depression index (SAD4) containing four symptoms of anxiety (tension, restlessness) and depression (feeling blue, hopelessness). Results: Thirty-one MI patients (18%) had comorbid depression and 37 (21%) depressive or anxiety disorder. High factor loadings and item-total correlations (SAD4, α = 0.86) confirmed that symptoms of anxiety and depression co-occurred after MI. Mixed anxiety-depression (SAD4≧3) was present in 90% of depressed MI patients and in 100% of severely depressed patients. After adjustment for standard depression symptoms (BDI; OR = 4.4, 95% CI 1.6–12.1, p = 0.004), left ventricular ejection fraction, age and sex, mixed anxiety-depression symptomatology was associated with an increased risk of depressive comorbidity (OR = 11.2, 95% CI 3.0–42.5, p < 0.0001). Mixed anxiety-depression was also independently associated with depressive or anxiety disorder (OR = 9.2, 95% CI 3.0–27.6, p < 0.0001). Conclusions: Anxiety is underrecognized in post-MI patients; however, the present findings suggest that anxiety symptomatology should not be overlooked in these patients. Depressive comorbidity after MI is characterized by symptoms of mixed anxiety-depression, after controlling for standard depression symptoms. The SAD4 represents an easy way to recognize the increased risk of post-MI depression.
Dietary Acrylamide Intake and Prostate Cancer Risk in a Prospective Cohort of Swedish Men

Background: Acrylamide is a probable human carcinogen that can be formed in foods prepared at high temperatures. Whereas evidence indicates that acrylamide causes cancer in laboratory animals, epidemiologic data on dietary acrylamide intake in relation to cancer risk are limited and mainly null. We examined the association between dietary acrylamide intake and risk of prostate cancer in a cohort of men. Methods: The Cohort of Swedish Men is a population-based prospective study of 45,306 men who were cancer-free and completed a food frequency questionnaire at enrollment in 1997. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate relative risks adjusted for potential confounders. Results: During a mean follow-up of 9.1 years, we ascertained 2,696 incident cases of prostate cancer. We observed no association between acrylamide intake and risk of prostate cancer. Compared with the lowest quintile of acrylamide intake (mean, 23.7 μg/d), the multivariable relative risks (95% confidence interval) for the highest quintile (mean, 49.8 μg/d) were 0.88 (0.70-1.09) for total prostate cancer, 1.07 (0.87-1.32) for localized prostate cancer (n = 1,088), and 0.98 (0.78-1.22) for advanced prostate cancer (n = 951). Conclusions: Results from this prospective study provide no evidence that dietary acrylamide in amounts typically consumed by Swedish men is associated with risk of prostate cancer. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(6):1939–41)
Cohort profile: design and first results of the Dutch IBD Biobank: a prospective, nationwide biobank of patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Purpose The Dutch IBD Biobank aims to facilitate the discovery of predictors for individual disease course and treatment response in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this paper, we aim to describe the establishment of the Dutch IBD Biobank, including the facilitators and barriers to establishment. Moreover, we aim to provide a complete overview of the content of the Dutch IBD Biobank. Participants Since 2007, every patient with IBD treated in one of the eight Dutch university medical centres is asked to participate in the Dutch IBD Biobank in which 225 standardised IBD-related data items and biomaterials, such as serum, DNA, biopsies and a stool sample, are collected. Findings to date As of June 2014, the Dutch IBD Biobank had enrolled 3388 patients with IBD: 2118 Crohn’s disease (62.5%), 1190 ulcerative colitis (35.1%), 74 IBD-unclassified (2.2%) and 6 IBD-indeterminate (0.2%). The inclusion of patients with IBD is ongoing. The quality of the biomaterials is good and serum, DNA and biopsies have been used in newly published studies. Future plans The genotyping (750 000 genetic variants) of all participants of the Dutch IBD Biobank is currently ongoing, enabling more genetic research. In addition, all participants will start reporting disease activity and outcome measures using an online platform and mobile app.
Macroeconomic Variables, Stock Market Bubble, Meltdown and Recovery: Evidence from Nigeria

The study attempts to empirically examine the macroeconomic variables that contributed to the Nigeria stock market bubble, its consequent melt down and its gradual recovery during the period under review and particularly between 2007 to 2013. Relying on the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression technique, the study examined the joint impact of gross domestic product (GDP), money supply (M2), exchange rate (EXR), capacity utilization (CAU), and inflation (INF) on All Share Index (ASI). The result shows that the coefficients of gross domestic product and money supply were statistically significant while the remaining three: exchange rate, capacity utilization and inflation were not significant. The paper observes that the post melt down macroeconomic policies including banking sector reforms contributed to the gradual recovery of the stock market. The paper therefore recommends the need for policies that could further strengthen and stabilize the banking sector, ensure low but steady interest rates, favourable exchange rate, low inflation and consistent policy environment that could boost a steady growth in the real sector.
Pediatric Supracondylar Fractures: Variation in Fracture Patterns and the Biomechanical Effects of Pin Configuration

Background: Transverse pediatric supracondylar fractures through the midolecranon fossa are frequently encountered and modeled in biomechanical studies. Our objective is to investigate the optimal pin configurations for low, sagittal oblique, and high fracture varieties that have not been previously investigated. Methods: A total of 100 synthetic composite pediatric humeri were tested. Three groups of 30 were used to simulate 1 of 3 fracture variations. Subgroups of 10 were stabilized with 2 lateral pins (2LP), 3 lateral pins (3LP), or cross K-wires (XP). The 90 fracture and 10 intact models were tested for anterior posterior (AP), medial lateral (ML), and rotational stiffness. Results: In low fractures, AP, ML, and rotational stiffness of 2LP and 3LP were similar to intact. ML stiffness was less using XP. AP and ML stiffness of 2LP and 3LP were significantly greater than XP. In oblique fractures, AP, ML, and rotational stiffness of 2LP was similar to intact but 3LP was significantly less. AP and ML stiffness of XP was significantly less. 2LP demonstrated greater AP, ML, and rotational stiffness than 3LP and XP. In high fractures, all configurations demonstrated significantly less rotational stiffness than intact and AP stiffness similar to intact. Rotational stiffness of 3LP was greater than 2LP and XP. AP and ML stiffness were not different among configurations. Conclusions: 2LP are stiffer than 3LP and XP for sagittal oblique fractures. 2LP and 3LP stiffness were similar in low transverse fractures, and both constructs demonstrated greater stiffness than XP configuration. 3LP is preferable for high transverse fractures. XP were never stiffer than the lateral only constructs in any of the patterns tested. Clinical Relevance: All-lateral pin constructs may provide adequate stiffness to maintain reduction of low transverse, sagittal oblique, and high transverse patterns of pediatric supracondylar humerus fractures without risk of injury to the ulnar nerve.
Phase‐shifts of 24‐h rhythms of hormonal release and body temperature following early evening administration of the melatonin agonist agomelatine in healthy older men

Objective Older adults are less responsive to the phase‐shifting effects of light than younger subjects and may have difficulties adapting to abrupt time shifts. This study aims to determine whether the potent melatonin agonist agomelatine (S‐20098) is capable of phase‐shifting overt circadian rhythms in older adults.