Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design manufacture and test of Ka-band reflectarray antenna for trasmitting and receiving in orthogonal polarization

This contribution describes the design, manufacturing and test of a printed reflectarray for a Ka-band terminal antenna. The reflectarray has been designed to produce a focused beam at 30 GHz (uplink) in V polarization and also at 20 GHz (downlink) in H polarization. Two separate feeds are used to illuminate the reflectarray for H (20 GHz) and V polarization (30GHz). The reflectarray element is made of two stacked varying-sized patches, being one dimension adjusted to focus the beam at 20 GHz in H polarization, and the other to focus the 30 GHz beam in V-polarization. A breadboard has been manufactured and tested. The measured radiation patterns show very good agreement with those obtained from the simulations. A 10% bandwidth has been obtained in both frequency bands, with an antenna efficiency of 62% at 30 GHz and 70% at 20 GHz
Does Accounting Conservatism Pay?

We investigate whether or not there is a link between conservative accounting practices and the sensitivity of executive pay to accounting performance. Using several accrual-based measures of accounting conservatism as well as alternative measures of accounting performance, we estimate an econometric model of CEO compensation that incorporates the interaction of accounting conservatism and accounting performance. Consistent with optimal contracting theory, we find that the sensitivity of executive pay to accounting performance is higher for firms that report conservative accounting earnings. These results support the hypothesis that accounting conservatism, by limiting earnings management opportunities and improving the reliability of accounting performance measures, allows firms to formulate contracts that tie executive compensation more closely to accounting performance.
Fixing for Your Life

The Asian crisis took place against a background of exchange rate regimes that were characterized as soft pegs. This has led many analysts to conclude that the peg did it' and that emerging markets (EMs) should just say no' to pegged exchange rates. We present evidence that EMs are very different from developed economies in key dimensions that play a key role when it comes to the choice of exchange rate regime--floating for EMs is no panacea. In EMs currency crashes are contractionary, the adjustments in the current account are far more acute. Credibility and market access, as captured in the behavior of credit ratings and interest rates, is adversely affected by devaluations or depreciations. Exchange rate volatility is more damaging to trade and the passthrough from exchange rate swings to inflation is far higher in EMs. These differences between emerging and developed economies may explain EMs reluctance to tolerate large exchange rate movements. In a simple framework we illustrate why large exchange rate swings are feared when access to international credit may be lost.
Keratinocyte p38δ loss inhibits Ras‐induced tumor formation, while systemic p38δ loss enhances skin inflammation in the early phase of chemical carcinogenesis in mouse skin

p38δ expression and/or activity are increased in human cutaneous malignancies, including invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and head and neck SCC, but the role of p38δ in cutaneous carcinogenesis has not been well‐defined. We have reported that mice with germline loss of p38δ exhibited a reduced susceptibility to skin tumor development compared with wild‐type mice in the two‐stage 7,12‐dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)/12‐O‐tetradecanoylphorbol‐13‐acetate (TPA) chemical skin carcinogenesis model. Here, we report that p38δ gene ablation inhibited the growth of tumors generated from v‐rasHa‐transformed keratinocytes in skin orthografts to nude mice, indicating that keratinocyte‐intrinsic p38δ is required for Ras‐induced tumorigenesis. Gene expression profiling of v‐rasHa‐transformed p38δ‐null keratinocytes revealed transcriptional changes associated with cellular responses linked to tumor suppression, such as reduced proliferation and increased differentiation, cell adhesion, and cell communications. Notably, a short‐term DMBA/TPA challenge, modeling the initial stages of chemical skin carcinogenesis treatment, elicited an enhanced inflammation in p38δ‐null skin compared with skin of wild‐type mice, as assessed by measuring the expression of pro‐inflammatory cytokines, including IL‐1β, IL‐6, IL‐17, and TNFα. Additionally, p38δ‐null skin and p38δ‐null keratinocytes exhibited increased p38α activation and signaling in response to acute inflammatory challenges, suggesting a role for p38α in stimulating the elevated inflammatory response in p38δ‐null skin during the initial phases of the DMBA/TPA treatment compared with similarly treated p38δ+/+ skin. Altogether, our results indicate that p38δ signaling regulates skin carcinogenesis not only by keratinocyte cell‐autonomous mechanisms, but also by influencing the interaction between between the epithelial compartment of the developing skin tumor and its stromal microenvironment. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Variational Decompression of Image Data From DjVu Encoded Files

The DjVu file format and image compression techniques are widely used in the archival of digital documents. Its key ingredients are the separation of the document into fore- and background layers and a binary switching mask, followed by a lossy, transform-based compression of the former and a dictionary-based compression of the latter. The lossy compression of the layers is based on a wavelet decomposition and bit truncation, which leads, in particular at higher compression rates, to severe compression artifacts in the standard decompression of the layers. The aim of this paper is to break ground for the variational decompression of DjVu files. To this aim, we provide an in-depth analysis and discussion of the compression standard with a particular focus on modeling data constraints for decompression. This allows to carry out DjVu decompression as regularized inversion of the compression procedure. As particular example, we evaluate the performance of such a framework using total variation and total generalized variation regularization. Furthermore, we provide routines for obtaining the necessary data constraints from a compressed DjVu file and for the forward and adjoint transformation operator involved in DjVu compression.
Financial reports and decentralization in municipal governments

Some reforms implemented in the Spanish municipal sector have led to an increasing managerial decentralization. This decentralization has made municipal financial statements lose relevance, since devolved entities are not disclosed in these statements. Accordingly, we have made an empirical analysis of 54 big Spanish municipalities in order to evaluate the impact of decentralization on the municipal financial statements. The survey shows a great concern among practitioners about the importance of global reports. Furthermore, devolved entities should be included in the global reports if the municipality has the authority to approve their budget. This feature shows a legal/budgetary bias of municipal officials, who focus on legal and budgetary constraints more than on managerial indicators. We think this bureaucratic approach should evolve to another one with a higher degree of private sector management techniques.
Corporate Governance and Accruals Earnings Management

This study examines the association between corporate governance and accruals earnings management using a Corporate Governance Index (CGI) consisting of 55 individual corporate governance measures. Prior literature has focused primarily on certain individual corporate governance measures, overlooking the multidimensional character of corporate governance. Based on a sample of firms listed on the Athens, Milan and Madrid Stock Exchanges, we find an inverse relationship between corporate governance and earnings management. Corporate governance provisions seem to constrain the tendency of management to manage earnings leading to higher credibility for financial statements. Additional tests suggest that the negative relationship holds for large and middle capitalization firms, but not for the small capitalization sample. In addition, corporate governance provisions limit upwards but not downwards earnings management. This study emphasizes the multilevel character of corporate governance and suggests the usage of comprehensive measures of corporate governance in the academic research. This study also stresses the importance of introducing corporate governance mechanisms in order to ensure the integrity of the financial reporting process. Practitioners are expected to evaluate the corporate governance provisions that each firm has put in place while policy makers are expected to mandate the application of a wide range of corporate governance mechanisms.
The effect of noise propagation on phase noise in ring oscillators

The assumption that the white noise sources independently affect the phase noise and jitter in ring oscillators is revisited. Propagation of jitter originating from a noise source around the ring oscillator loop and its effect on phase noise are quantified. It is shown how, contrary to the commonly-held assumptions, the resulting jitter can in fact depend on the number of stages.
The relationship between personal values and tourism behaviour: a segmentation approach

The objective of this study was to segment a general population based on their personal values, and then compare the resulting value-based segments in terms of their tourism behaviour. Subsequently, a representative sample (N = 1000) of the Norwegian population was first, through a cluster analysis, divided into four distinct segments by personal values. These segments were labelled as traditional idealists, modern idealists, traditional materialists, and modern materialists. The four segments were then, through a MANOVA, compared based on tourism behaviour (i.e. a set of push and pull travel motives, and a set of travel activity preferences). The results indicated that the segments statistically differed. For instance, the idealists (both traditional and modern) considered hedonistic travel motives more important than the materialists (both traditional and modern). Theoretical and practical implications are also provided.
Avaliação de insolvência em cooperativas de crédito: uma aplicação do sistema Pearls

O presente estudo objetivou estimar as probabilidades de insolvencia das cooperativas de credito do Estado de Minas Gerais, condicionadas aos indicadores contabeis financeiros do sistema Pearls, o qual e recomendado pelo Conselho Mundial do Cooperativismo de Poupanca e Credito. Esse sistema tem como principal objetivo possibilitar o monitoramento do desempenho de cooperativas de credito singulares, auxiliando os seus administradores a encontrar solucoes para deficiencias dessas instituicoes. No presente estudo, classificou-se como insolvente a cooperativa que deixou de enviar balancos para o Banco Central do Brasil, possuia patrimonio liquido negativo ou patrimonio liquido ajustado negativo, ou ainda que se encontrasse classificada nas seguintes situacoes com o Banco Central do Brasil: paralisada, em liquidacao extrajudicial, cancelada/encerrada e em liquidacao ordinaria. A partir de uma base de dados de 9.456 observacoes coletadas de uma amostra de 112 cooperativas filiadas ao Sicoob-Crediminas, no periodo entre janeiro de 1995 e maio de 2008, modelos da classe Logit foram estimados. Os resultados obtidos com o melhor ajuste permitem inferir que os indicadores "operacoes de credito vencidas/carteira classificada total", "capital institucional/ ativo total", "ativos nao direcionados com a atividade-fim da cooperativa/ativo total" e "rendas de prestacao de servicos/despesas administrativas" foram os mais relevantes na determinacao da probabilidade de insolvencia das cooperativas na amostra. Tais resultados corroboram a hipotese de que o monitoramento de indices contabeis financeiros do sistema Pearls, os quais nao tem sido o foco da analise tradicional de balancos, e importante para a determinacao da probabilidade de insolvencia de cooperativas de credito, ao auxiliar seus administradores na identificacao dos fatores de risco, bem como na criacao de um referencial para comparacao do desempenho das cooperativas, facilitando o processo de supervisao por parte dos orgaos reguladores. No entanto, a ampliacao dos resultados aqui obtidos para periodos posteriores e outras cooperativas de credito brasileiras deve ser feita com cuidado, de tal modo que especificacoes alternativas devem ser avaliadas para captar mudancas na conjuntura economica e na estrutura administrativa das cooperativas, as quais podem influenciar nos indicadores contabeis e financeiros destas.
Innovative engineering education in the cooperative VR environment

In the scope of the article, there is the presentation of the cyber-higher educational environment feasible by the technical innovations appearing rapidly and the investigation of the methods which can be applied successfully in the educational scene of the future. My goal was to create an educational scene suiting to the digital life of the CE generation students-called Z generation and alpha generation in the traditional generation theories, but clearly called CE and the CCE generation in the CogInfoCom theory - presently studying in the higher education of engineering and meeting the students requirements set against the learning environment. The educational method presented in the article and the research aiming at defining the strategy suit to the science of CogInfoCom supplementing it with an additional pedagogical aspect. The study shows an example for presenting the realization of how we can teach the future technologies to the the future engineers with the help of the present and modern technologies by applying innovative educational methods so that the the human and the ICT merges during work in the coopertative VR scene suiting mostly to the CE genetations digital life while the development of the future technologies is happenning. The cooperative VR learning environment presented in the article ensures an efficient educational scene for the higher education of engineering due to its project-based educational opportunity and at the same time it allows the education of the disruptive technologies appearing more and more extensively, even immediately after the appearance of the technology.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002—Restoring Investor Confidence

To the many Americans who lost their livelihoods and pensions when Enron, WorldCom, and other buccaneer corporations collapsed under the weight of their malfeasance and corruption earlier this decade, there is little to be said that can console them or ease their suffering. History will no doubt pass a harsh verdict on these companies and their leaders. But if there is a silver lining in these scandals, it is that we learned an important lesson about transparency in corporate governance, and because of that we instituted essential reforms aimed at restoring confidence in the system and preventing such disasters from happening again. These corporate crimes cost our economy thousands of jobs, countless life savings and some eight trillion dollars in market capitalization. Thankfully, those responsible are being held accountable for their fraud and corruption. But in a larger sense the problems that riddled Enron and WorldCom reflected a more fundamental breakdown of our system of corporate governance. It was a system that depended solely on market discipline, the threat of civil liability and a system of penalties—criminal penalties in some cases—to deter financial dishonesty. We assumed that the gatekeepers of information—the lawyers, analysts, accountants, directors, and executives—would do their jobs to maintain financial transparency. Clearly that wasn’t enough. We often think of money as the currency of a free market system, but in truth the system rises and falls on the confidence of its investors. Those who invest capital do so based on an understanding and knowledge of the risks and potential rewards involved. Enron and WorldCom thus became both examples and symbols of a broken system. Investors turned skittish because they no longer had full and complete trust in all the financial information they were being given. We needed reform, and that was the genesis of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Sarbanes-Oxley has been able to restore investor confidence because it rebuilt and strengthened the two most vital pillars of corporate governance: transparency and accountability. In hindsight, the lack of transparency under the old system seems apparent. I remember studying in law school the reasons why “piercing the corporate veil” was so difficult, and it was largely because the legal standard essentially gave deference to corporations and anyone seeking to pierce that veil had to demonstrate extraordinary circumstances in a court of law. That was pretty much the standard that prevailed through the Enron and WorldCom scandals. Corporations may have used the word “transparency” in their disclosure statements, but in truth transparency requirements did not take into account a number of activities undertaken by
REDUCING THE GENDER GAP IN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AND ADVISORY SERVICES How to Find the Best Fit for Men and Women Farmers

Agriculture is a fundamental driver of economic growth and poverty reduction for many developing countries. Past efforts at revitalizing the agriculture sector have failed in part because they overlooked the role of women and the negative effects of gender inequalities on productivity. According to The State of Food and Agriculture (FAO, 2011), “Women comprise, on average, 43% of the agricultural labor force in developing countries, ranging from 20% in Latin America to 50% in Eastern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa”. Reducing gender inequalities in access to productive resources and services could increase yields on women’s farms by 20–30%, which could raise agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5– 4% (FAO, 2011).
Treatment of gestational diabetes mellitus with myo-inositol: analyzing the cutting edge starting from a peculiar case.

OBJECTIVE The robust data about myo-inositol (Myo-Ins) safety profile and effectiveness opened a new scenario for the treatment and prevention of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). We report our experience about a case of GDM successfully treated with Myo-Ins. PATIENTS AND METHODS An overweight 29-year-old Caucasian pregnant woman, nulliparous, affected by GDM, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline. After diagnosis, the patient underwent regular glycemia checks: mean fasting blood glucose value was 103.63 ± 1.46 mg/dl, whereas 1-hour and 2-hours after-meal values were 122.74 ± 11.14 mg/dl and 110.74 ± 10.70 mg/dl, respectively. We decided to prescribe a low-calorie diet and oral treatment with 4 g of Myo-Ins, 3 times per day for 3 weeks. RESULTS After the treatment, mean fasting value was 90.74 ± 5.30 mg/dl, whereas 1-hour after and 2-hours after-meal values were 108.11 ± 6.05 mg/dl and 101.21 ± 4.78 mg/dl, respectively. DISCUSSION We reported a significant decrease of glycemia in a faster and steady way at fasting, 1-hour and 2-hours after-meal post oral treatment with 4 g of Myo-Ins 3 times per day, in a patient affected by GDM. CONCLUSIONS On the one hand, we could confirm the safety profile of the molecule also at this high dosage, free from any side effects; on the other hand, our experience highlighted the faster glucose-lowering effect due to a higher dose of Myo-Ins. This outcome may open a new scenario in the treatment of GDM.
Non-conformable, partial and conformable transposition: A competing risk analysis of the transposition process of directives in the EU15

Although member states are obliged to transpose directives into domestic law in a conformable manner and receive considerable time for their transposition activities, we identify three levels of transposition outcomes for EU directives: conformable, partially conformable and non-conformable. Compared with existing transposition models, which do not distinguish between different transposition outcomes, we examine the factors influencing each transposition process by means of a competing risk analysis. We find that preference-related factors, in particular the disagreement of a member state and the Commission regarding a directive’s outcome, play a much more strategic role than has to date acknowledged in the transposition literature. Whereas disagreement of a member state delays conformable transposition, it speeds up non-conformable transposition. Disagreement of the Commission only prolongs the transposition process. We therefore conclude that a stronger focus on an effective sanctioning mechanism is warranted for safeguarding compliance with directives.
Neoclassical Versus Frontier Production Models? Testing for the Skewness of Regression Residuals

The empirical literature on production and cost functions is divided into two strands. The neoclassical approach concentrates on model parameters, while the frontier approach decomposes the disturbance term to a symmetric noise term and a positively skewed inefficiency term. We propose a theoretical justification for the skewness of the inefficiency term, arguing that this skewness is the key testable hypothesis of the frontier approach. We propose to test the regression residuals for skewness in order to distinguish the two competing approaches. Our test builds directly upon the asymmetry of regression residuals and does not require any prior distributional assumptions.
Women entrepreneurs in Nepal: what prevents them from leading the sector?

Entrepreneurship for women is often seen as a journey out of poverty and a march towards equality. Studies have proven that entrepreneurship, in the form of small and medium sized enterprises, can indeed empower women and through time, fundamentally transform power relations within a society, making it a place where women can lead. However, in the past, women's entrepreneurship in much of the developing world has gone little beyond informal business ventures which ensure daily survival for women and their families. In Nepal, embedded structural and socio-cultural constraints challenge women entrepreneurs and make it hard for them to realise their potential as leaders in business. This article suggests policy measures, business and management training, and the promotion of entrepreneurial networking systems, as potential ways to empower women entrepreneurs and create leadership opportunities, in the hopes of bringing women into the mainstream business sector in Nepal.