Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cutting and Pasting Irregularly Shaped Patches for Texture Synthesis

This paper proposes a patch‐based texture synthesis approach that cuts and stitches irregularly shaped texture patches to generate new texture images with minimized visual discontinuity. It works well on a wide range of textures. A semiautomatic algorithm is developed to obtain the irregularly shaped patches. To synthesize strictly structured textures, a regular pasting method is proposed to identify the texture structures and subsequently position the irregularly shaped patches according to the identified structures. The results and comparisons with related work are given.
Lansoprazole 15 mg Once Daily for 14 Days Is Effective for Treatment of Frequent Heartburn: Results of 2 Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Studies

Abstract Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of a 14-day treatment period with lansoprazole 15 mg for frequent heartburn in patients who are likely to select a nonprescription medication before consulting a prescriber. Methods: Adults with untreated frequent heartburn ≥ 2 days a week over the past month were recruited for 2 identical multicenter, double-blind studies conducted with a 1-week screening and heartburn medication washout, a 1-week placebo run-in, a 2-week placebo-controlled treatment, and a 1-week placebo follow-up. After the washout and placebo run-in, subjects were randomly assigned to receive lansoprazole 15 mg or placebo once daily for 14 days in a double-blind fashion. Antacid tablets were permitted as rescue medication. Endpoints included percentage of 24-hour days without heartburn (primary), percentage of night-times without heartburn, and percentage of subjects without heartburn during day 1 of treatment (secondary endpoints). Data were collected daily via an interactive voice response system. Results: In studies 1 and 2, 282 and 288 subjects, respectively, were randomly assigned to lansoprazole, and 282 in each study received placebo. The mean percentage of days without heartburn was greater among lansoprazole recipients compared with placebo recipients (P < 0.0001). Significantly more subjects treated with lansoprazole also reported no night-time heartburn and no heartburn during day 1 of the 14-day treatment. Adverse events were infrequent and were similar for lansoprazole and placebo groups. Conclusion: During the 14-day treatment period in a population with frequent heartburn who were likely to select a medication without consulting a prescriber, lansoprazole 15 mg once daily showed rapid and sustained effectiveness throughout a 24-hour period and was well tolerated.
The Effects of Human Interest Framing in Television News Coverage of Medical Advances

The last few decades have witnessed the increasing dissemination of information on medical advances such as new medical treatments and prevention/diagnosis technologies through television news. To engage lay audiences with complex information, medical journalists often personalize news stories about medical advances by exemplifying individual patients and their personal experiences. This study investigates the effects of this journalistic technique, which is referred to as human interest framing, on audiences. The results of an experiment provide empirical evidence that the human interest framing of medical news stories can increase audiences' involvement in those stories and facilitate their positive perception of medical advances.
Egg and milk allergy in adults: comparison between fresh foods and commercial allergen extracts in skin prick test and histamine release from basophils

The ability of skin prick test (SPT) and histamine release from basophils (HR) to diagnose clinical type I allergy to egg and milk was investigated as compared with double‐blind, placebo‐controlled food challenge (DBPCFC) in 17 adults suspected of type I egg and/or milk allergy. In both SPT and HR, commercial allergen extracts commonly used for SPT were compared with fresh, standardized foods. With commercial extracts the overall sensitivities of SPT and HR were 0.75 and 0.56 respectively, and none of the tests showed concordance with DBPCFC. With fresh, standardized foods the overall sensitivities of SPT and HR were 1.00 and 0.89 respectively, and both tests now showed a significant concordance with DBPCFC (P<0.05). Specificity was only slightly improved in SPT, and unchanged in HR. Thus, the use of fresh, standardized foods significantly improved the outcome of both tests, as regards to sensitivity and concordance with DBPCFC. The diagnostic ability of SPT and HR appear to be strongly influenced by the allergen quality.
Automatic modulation classification using polynomial classifiers

In this paper, a new automatic modulation classification system using a polynomial classifier is proposed. The feature set used in the proposed system is comprised of second, fourth and sixth higher order cumulants of the received signal. The polynomial classifier expands the feature vector into a higher dimensional space in which the different modulation types are linearly separable. The performance of the proposed system is tested against BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK, 16-QAM and 64-QAM constellations. Results showed a relatively higher classification rate for all types of modulations compared to previously published results using fourth and sixth order cumulants with other classification schemes. Moreover, the proposed classification scheme has low computational complexity and is more suited for real time applications.
The Impact of Broker Market Structure on Stock Liquidity

We investigate the extent to which the liquidity of listed stocks is affected by the market structure under which stockbrokers provide a combination of stock trading, research, and investment banking services. Six market structures of differing degrees of competitiveness are identified for brokers operating in the Australian equity market. We find that less competitive structures tend to associate with lower stock liquidity; and that shifts in broker market structure align with changes in liquidity over time. Further, broker market structures appear to interact with the provision of services by brokers, such that additional services improve liquidity to a greater extent under less competitive structures. Our research shows that the market structure for brokerage services acts as an additional determinant of the market liquidity of stocks.
Modality effects in short-term memory: storage or retrieval?

2 experiments were conducted to determine whether the superiority of auditory to visual presentation was due to differences in storage or in retrieval from short-term memory (STM). The 1st experiment compared recognition and recall with serial lists, under the presumption that retrieval difficulties would be minimized or eliminated with a recognition procedure. The 2nd experiment utilized a confidence-rating procedure (test for knowledge of list membership) which eliminated the need for sequential dependencies. The superiority of auditory presentation was manifest in both experiments, and the conclusion was suggested that modality effects represent differences in storage. In two prior studies (Murdock, 1966b; 1967) it was shown that, with a probe technique in short-term memory (STM), retention of both serial and paired-associate material was better with auditory than with visual presentation. Even though informationally speaking the material was exactly the same (common English words) and the conditions were equated as carefully as possible, still the differences were large and striking. This paper reports two further experiments which attempt to determine whether the locus of the effect is in storage or retrieval. It is generally accepted that retrieval
Structural Transformation and the Rural-Urban Divide

Development of an economy typically goes hand-in-hand with a declining importance of agriculture in output and employment. Given the primarily rural population in developing countries and their concentration in agrarian activities, this has potentially large implications for inequality along the development path. We examine the Indian experience between 1983 and 2010, a period when India has been undergoing such a transformation. We …nd a signi…cant decline in
The Risk of Brand Equity Erosion in the Social Media: The Efficacy and Limitations of Legal Instruments

The growth of the social media offers companies new ways of understanding better how brand equity is created and of contributing to its development. But the social media may also lead to the erosion of brand equity if they convey negative opinions and comments on the part of consumers. The law provides a number of instruments - variously legislative (or regulatory), judicial and contractual - that can protect brand equity. However, although these instruments have been clearly identified by the academic literature and legal practitioners, their real effectiveness for preserving brand equity in the social media has yet to be observed and measured. On the basis of three empirical studies, namely analysis of contractual clauses (in this case pertaining to the Terms of Use of a sample of ten social media) and of paralegal and legal actions taken by companies owning trademarks, we show that recourse to these legal instruments must be undertaken with the greatest discernment so as to avoid the possible intensification of negative word-of-mouth regarding the brand and consequently further erosion of its brand equity. Our findings provide initial empirical evidence as to the limited effectiveness of legal methods for avoiding damage to brand equity in the social media, and suggest that criteria need to be established for determining how to choose between legal instruments and marketing instruments. We also argue that the use of these two kinds of instrument should be conceived within a logic of complementarity.
Emission Characteristics of Surface Microdischarge in Atmospheric-Pressure He/N2 Mixture

The surface microdischarge in atmosphericpressure He/N2 mixture is studied with an emphasis on its emission characteristics. It is found that the emission intensity and the pattern shape are strongly dependent on the N2 concentration. The UV emission intensity increases by a factor of nine with the N2 concentration up to 5%, after that it decreases moderately. Meanwhile, the luminous pattern expands and then shrinks from grounded mesh edge to the mesh center in the positive half-cycle, while it gradually brightens and then darkens in the central region of a mesh for the negative half-cycle, which is mainly attributed to the distribution of surface charge. In the case of [N2] = 2%-5%, the UV-Vis emission intensity is stronger and the emission pattern is comparable to spatial homogenous, thus benefiting the light emission applications.
Failing to prepare, preparing to fail?: Home country alliance experience as an antecedent to international expansion

This thesis consists of three empirical chapters on the effect of domestic collaborations with foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) on the internationalization of emerging market firms. The first chapter studies the effect of domestic joint venture experience with foreign MNEs on the international expansion of Chinese firms. Using behavioral arguments, this study demonstrates that domestic experience can influence international expansion decisions but that this relationship is contingent on the recency of the experience. The second chapter explores the role of domestic joint venture experience and firms’ technological capabilities on the location choices in foreign direct investment. The study shows that the effect of domestic joint venture experience on the preference for more technologically advanced host countries is contingent on the firm’s technological capabilities, alluding to the presence of substitution effects. The third chapter investigates the role of domestic joint venture experience with foreign MNEs on the survival of foreign subsidiaries. The analyses demonstrate that domestic joint venture experience can positively influence foreign subsidiary survival, and as such help firms prepare for international expansion, but that this relationship is highly contingent on entry characteristics.
Bangla web page reader - An approach to Bangla text-to-speech conversion

This paper deals with the development of a Bangla text-to-speech conversion engine that reads and converts Bangla webpage to speech. The algorithm followed is letter-to-sound rules. The content of a webpage to be converted to speech has to be filtered out since it has html tags along with other text. Text Normalization is implemented though not to the fullest extent. The speech output is monotonous. Java has been used for the development of the program. The program will be beneficial to the users of Bangla websites especially those who are visually-impaired. The software program will also be helpful for reading Bangla e-books, newsletters, online newspapers etc.
Use‐dependent control of presynaptic calcium signalling at central synapses

Voltage‐gated Ca2+ channels activated by action potentials evoke Ca2+ entry into presynaptic terminals thus briefly distorting the resting Ca2+ concentration. When this happens, a number of processes are initiated to re‐establish the Ca2+ equilibrium. During the post‐spike period, the increased Ca2+ concentration could enhance the presynaptic Ca2+ signalling. Some of the mechanisms contributing to presynaptic Ca2+ dynamics involve endogenous Ca2+ buffers, Ca2+ stores, mitochondria, the sodium–calcium exchanger, extraterminal Ca2+ depletion and presynaptic receptors. Additionally, subthreshold presynaptic depolarization has been proposed to have an effect on release of neurotransmitters through a mechanism involving changes in resting Ca2+. Direct evidence for the role of any of these participants in shaping the presynaptic Ca2+ dynamics comes from direct recordings of giant presynaptic terminals and from fluorescent Ca2+ imaging of axonal boutons. Here, some of this evidence is presented and discussed.
Worst-Case and Best-Case Timing Analysis for Real-Time Embedded Systems with Limited Parallelism

Manufacturing advances throughout the last decade have led to a steady increase in the capacity of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs). This development has in turn triggered the proliferation of mixed hardware/software implementations in the domain of embedded real-time systems. In such systems, part of the functionality of a process is implemented as software (running on a general-purpose processor core) and part of it is implemented by specialised co-processors, formed out of reconfigurable hardware logic. Such mixed systems are often the product of hardware/software codesign. Functions implemented in hardware nowadays are often complex and take up many clock cycles to execute. In that case, idling the processor while awaiting for the results of hardware computation would be inefficient. Instead, the processor is made available to other processes competing for it. Multiple processes may thus be executing simultaneously on a given instant – at most one on the processor, the rest in hardware. We term this behavior limited parallelism. For real-time systems, it is imperative that process deadlines be met even in the worst-case. Static timing analysis establishes upper bounds for worstcase process response times; a comparison of those bounds with the respective deadlines is a sufficient (but not necessary) test for schedulability. However, established timing analysis techniques (when applicable at all) are far from accurate when applied to limited parallel systems. Within this thesis, we formulate static analysis targeted at this class of systems which accurately characterises their timing behavior. Although this analysis stands out on its own merit, we note that is also suitable for use within a hardware/software codesign flow. This matters because mixed hardware/software systems are often developed via codesign.
Simulation and Hardware Implementation of New Maximum Power Point Tracking Technique for Partially Shaded PV System Using Hybrid DEPSO Method

In photovoltaic (PV) power generation, partial shading is an unavoidable complication that significantly reduces the efficiency of the overall system. Under this condition, the PV system produces a multiple-peak function in its output power characteristic. Thus, a reliable technique is required to track the global maximum power point (GMPP) within an appropriate time. This study aims to employ a hybrid evolutionary algorithm called the DEPSO technique, a combination of the differential evolutionary (DE) algorithm and particle swarm optimization (PSO), to detect the maximum power point under partial shading conditions. The paper starts with a brief description about the behavior of PV systems under partial shading conditions. Then, the DEPSO technique along with its implementation in maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is explained in detail. Finally, Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the performance of the proposed technique under different partial shading conditions. Results prove the advantages of the proposed method, such as its reliability, system-independence, and accuracy in tracking the GMPP under partial shading conditions.
[Relationship experiences and therapeutic outcome in inpatient psychotherapy].

OBJECTIVES Inpatient psychotherapy includes the patient's manifold contacts with different therapists, nurses and fellow patients. The present study investigated the association between these multiple relationships and therapy outcome. METHODS Pre-post measures of symptom load (Brief Symptom Inventory), interpersonal problems (IIP) and self-efficacy (SEB) were used to define three groups with positive (N=129), unchanged (N=44) or negative (N=40) outcome. These groups were compared 1) by their alliance with an individual therapist, their relationship to the therapeutic team, their experience of cohesion and climate concerning fellow patients in the ward (measured weekly by the "Stationserfahrungsbogen" SEB), and 2) by their differences in mean correlations between the courses of relationship experiences and symptom load. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Cohesion and relationship to the therapeutic team were not associated with therapy outcome. Therapeutic alliance with the individual therapist and climate among fellow patients turned out to be moderate indicators of the therapeutic outcome. It is recommended to include these process parameters systematically into the process diagnostics of inpatient psychotherapy.
OLD AND INTERMEDIATE-AGE STELLAR POPULATIONS IN THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS

▪ Abstract The Magellanic Clouds have galactocentric distances of 50 and 63 kiloparsecs, making it possible to probe the older populations of clusters and stars in some detail. Although it is clear that both galaxies contain an old population, it is not yet certain whether this population is coeval with the date of formation of the oldest globulars in the Milky Way. The kinematics of this old population in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) are surprising; no component of this old population is currently measured to be part of a hot halo supported by velocity dispersion. Spectroscopy of field stars is beginning to show the existence of a small population of stars with abundances [Fe/H] less than −1.4. These stars will help to unravel the star-formation history when the next generation of telescopes are commissioned. Asymptotic giant branch stars, long-period variables, planetary nebulae, and horizontal-branch clump stars can be used to trace the extent and kinematics of the intermediate-age population. Deep.
Influence of Social Media over the Stock Market

This research analyzes investors’ activity through social media and these media's influence over the Chicago Board Options Exchange Market Volatility Index (VIX) using a logit model and a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The logit results show that social media sentiment influences stock markets. Meanwhile, the fsQCA results show that the investors’ profile is important for explaining how social media influence the stock market. Particularly, holding period combined with experience in technical investors contributes to avoiding a raise in market risk, whereas for nontechnical investors message sentiment and experience form the combination that contributes to avoid a raise in market risk.
Vaccinia Virus‐Induced Microtubule‐Dependent Cellular Rearrangements

Although infection with vaccinia virus (VV) is known to affect the cytoskeleton, it is not known how this affects the cellular architecture or whether the attenuated modified VV ankara (MVA) behaves similar to wild‐type VV (wtVV). In the present study, we therefore compared effects of wtVV and MVA infection on the cellular architecture. WtVV‐infection induces cell rounding early in infection, which coincides with the retraction of microtubules (MTs) and intermediate filaments from the cellular periphery, whereas mitochondria and late endosomes cluster around the nucleus. Nocodazole treatment demonstrates that cell rounding and organelle clustering require intact MTs. At the onset of virus assembly late in infection, cells reflatten, a process that coincides with the regrowth of MTs into the cellular periphery. We find that the actin network undergoes several rearrangements that occur sequentially in time and that closely follow the cell‐shape changes. Unexpectedly, these actin changes are blocked or reversed upon nocodazole treatment, indicating that intact MTs are also responsible for the wtVV‐induced actin rearrangements. Finally, MVA infection does not induce any of these cellular changes. Because this virus lacks a substantial number of VV genes, MVA opens up a system to search for the molecules involved in wtVV‐induced cellular changes; in particular, those that may regulate actin/MT interactions.
Offshoring and Volatility of Demand

In this paper we explore the role that demand uncertainty plays for the offshoring decision, and the role that offshoring plays for domestic volatility of employment. Offshoring is modeled as in Antras & Helpman (2004), but we assume complete contracts. Firms are heterogeneous as in Melitz (2003). Uncertainty arises through recurring firm-specific shocks to demand. The presence of a cost of firing or hiring as in Bagliano & Bertola (2004) generates an intertemporal element to a firm’s employment decision in its domestic and offshore production. In this environment, offshoring is driven by differential labor market exibility as well as by wage differences. Our most important results are: 1) If the foreign labor market features a high exibility, measured relative to its wage rate, compared to the domestic labor market, then higher uncertainty has a pro-offshoring effect. And 2), under this same condition, offshoring increases volatility in domestic employment of offshoring firms and the volatility of offshore employment of these same firms is larger than volatility of domestic employment.
Effect of nitrate on acetylene reduction and the activities of some enzymes of nitrogen and carbon metabolism, involved in nitrogen fixation in the root nodules of soybean.

(.) L'objet des recherches decrites dans le present article est d'etudier les effets des nitrates comparativement sur la nitrogenase (mesuree par l'activite de reduction de l'acetylene ou ARA) et sur 2 enzymes qui lui sont associees dans les premieres etapes de l'assimilation de l'azote, la phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (EC 4.1.1.31) et la glutamine synthetase (EC 6.3.1.2), toutes 2 localisees dans le cytosol du tissu vegetal des nodosites. Les activites de la nitrate reductase des bacteroides et de la nitrate reductase (EC 1.6.6.1) du tissu vegetal des nodosites sont egalement mesurees (.)