Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Empirical Characteristic Function Estimation and Its Applications Empirical Characteristic Function Estimation and Its Applications

This paper reviews the method of model- ﬁ tting via the empirical characteristic function. The advantage of using this procedure is that one can avoid di ﬃ culties inherent in calculating or maximizing the likelihood function. Thus it is a desirable estimation method when the maximum likelihood approach encounters di ﬃ culties but the characteristic function has a tractable expression. The basic idea of the empirical characteristic function method is to match the characteristic function derived from the model and the empirical characteristic function obtained from data. Ideas are illustrated by using the methodology to estimate a di ﬀ usion model that includes a self-exciting jump component. A Monte Carlo study shows that the ﬁ nite sample performance of the proposed procedure o ﬀ ers an improvement over a GMM procedure. An application using over 72 years of DJIA daily returns reveals evidence of jump clustering.
Workforce Aging and Firm Performance: The Moderating Effects of HRM and Organizational Culture

Workforce Aging and Firm Performance: The Moderating Effects of HRM and Organizational Culture Eun Hee Kim Department of Business Administration The Graduate School Seoul National University Little is known about the effects of company-wide workforce aging on different firm performances, although the relationship between individual aging and job performance and between top management demography and organizational outcome is relatively well verified. Employing theories regarding abilities, motivations, and opportunities of employee, I theorized that workforce aging is positive for firm sales performance, but insignificant for firm profit performance. I also suggested that the relationship between workforce aging and firm
Spatio-Temporal Characteristics and its determinants of Hand, Food and Mouth 1 Diseases in Shaanxi province, China: a county level analysis

26 Background: Hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) is one of the common intestinal infectious 27 diseases worldwide, which caused a huge economic and disease burden in many counties. In China, 28 the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention included the HFMD into the Class C reported 29 infectious diseases. The average annual growth rate of HFMD is 16.43%. Shaanxi is a special region 30 which across three temperature zones. Hence, in this study, the spatial-temporal analysis of Shaanxi 31 would reveal the characteristics of distribution of HFMD and explore the related determinants of 32 HFMD. 33 Methods: The county-level and municipal data of Shaanxi province from 2009 to 2018 were applied 34 to research the spatio-temporal characteristics of HFMD and its meteorological determinants. Time 35 series analysis and spatial autocorrelation analysis were applied to analyze the spatial-temporal 36 characteristics of HFMD. This study used spatial econometric panel models to explore the 37 relationship between HFMD and meteorological factors. 38 Results: The incidence rate of HFMD displayed no long-term changing pattern from temporal 39 perspective. The high incidence rate of HFMD were observed from June to September, which is the 40 season with a climate characterized by heavy rain, high temperature, and high humidity. The high 41 spot is mainly located in central region in Shaanxi. The Low-low clusters were mainly found in 42 Northern Shaanxi. As for the meteorological factors analyzed in this study, the waterfall, 43 temperature and humidity in one specific and surrounding region is positive association with 44 incidence rate of HFMD in specific region. 45 Conclusion: The results could be applied by government and general public to take effective 46 measures to prevent diseases. The region-targeted policies could be enacted and implemented in the future. The local government needs take responsible for the health management of immigration and 48 mobile population. The citizen should cultivate good living habits such as hand-washing habit and 49 the eating habit. 50
Circular polarization in atmospheric aerosols

Abstract. Recent technological advances have demonstrated the feasibility of deploying spaceborne optical detectors with full polarimetric capabilities. The measurement of all four Stokes coefficients opens significant new opportunities for atmospheric aerosol studies and applications. While considerable amounts of attention have been dedicated to sensors with sensitivity to the total intensity and linear polarization (represented by Stokes coefficients I, U, Q), there has been less attention to the additional information brought by measuring circular polarization (coefficient V). This report fills this gap in knowledge by providing an overview of aerosol sources of circular polarization in the atmosphere and discusses possible remote sensing signatures. In this paper, circularly polarized radiation that results from the interaction of incident unpolarized radiation is considered in three physical settings: optical activity originating in biogenic aerosols, alignment of non-spherical particles in the presence of electrical fields (such as dust, smoke, and volcanic ash), and aerosol multiple scattering effects. Observational and theoretical evidence of, and the settings and conditions for, non-zero aerosol circular polarization generated from incident unpolarized radiation are here gathered and discussed. In addition, novel radiative transfer simulations are shown to illustrate notable spectral and other features where circular polarization may provide additional information that is possibly independent from total intensity and linear polarization-only observations. Current techniques for the detection of aerosol composition (also referred as aerosol type) from space provide limited information. Remote identification of aerosols such as smoke, volcanic ash, and dust particles can only be accomplished with some degree of confidence for moderate to high concentrations. When the same aerosols are found at lower concentrations (but still high enough to be of importance for air quality and cloud formation), these methods often produce ambiguous results. The circular polarization of aerosols is rarely utilized, and we explore its value for improved determination aerosol composition. This study is presented as an overview with a goal to provide a new perspective on an overlooked optical property and to trigger interest in further exploration of this subject.
STABILITY ANALYSIS FOR SOME WHEAT GENOTYPES AND GENOTYPE X ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION

Three field experiments at a randomized complete block design with three replications in two successive seasons of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 at the Agricultural Research and Experimental Station of the Fac. of Agric. , Moshtohor, Benha Univeristy. The first was nitrogen fertilization at rate of 25 Kg N/fed. , the second was at 50 Kg N/fed and the third experiment was at 75 Kg N/fed with ten genotypes five lines produced by using pedigree method (Line No. 1, 5, 7, 8 and 10) and three lines produced by Single Seed Descent SSD (Line No. 2, 4 and 9) and one produced by Bulk method (line No. 6) as well as cultivar Giza 168 were evaluated. Ten genotypes, environments and their interaction were evaluated on grain yield (ard/fed), number of spikes/m 2 , number of grains/spike and 1000-kernel weight. The aim of this study also, to estimate of phenotypic and genotypic stability parameters. The studied traits were number of spikes/m 2 , number of grains/spike and 1000-kernel weight and grain yield (ard/fed). The obtained results could be summarized as follows: ) the all genotypes had insignificant from regression. These results suggests that the genotypes No. 10, 3, 5 and 4 was stable for No. of kernel spike -1 .
BLCTT_A_223894 7..20

*These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Although adults with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) achieve high complete remission (CR) rates following treatment with intensive multi-agent chemotherapy regimens, up to two-thirds of these patients eventually relapse. Unfortunately, adults with relapsed or refractory (R/R) B-ALL have a poor prognosis, with variable responses to salvage chemotherapy regimens and allogeneic stem cell transplant. As such, the need to develop effective and well-tolerated treatments for this patient population has been of paramount importance over the past decade. In this regard, treatment options for R/R B-ALL patients have expanded considerably over a relatively short period of time, with the approvals of blinatumomab, inotuzumab ozogamicin and tisagenlecleucel occurring within only the past six years. Blinatumomab, a CD19 x CD3 bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE) was the first of these immune therapies to receive approval, and for many patients, is used as first-line salvage therapy. A number of large clinical trials have demonstrated improved progression-free survival and overall survival for R/R B-ALL patients receiving blinatumomab as compared to those receiving conventional salvage chemotherapy. In addition to being approved for both Philadelphia chromosome-negative and Philadelphia chromosome-positive R/R B-ALL, blinatumomab is also the only ALL therapy that carries approval for the treatment of measurable residual disease (MRD). Although blinatumomab has changed the therapeutic landscape for adults with R/R B-ALL, a number of important clinical considerations and questions remain, including the potential role of blinatumomab in the frontline setting, mechanisms of resistance, optimal goal MRD level, the role of transplant following MRD clearance, the optimal place for blinatumomab in the context of other recently approved immune-mediated therapies, and real world outcomes for patients treated outside the context of clinical trials. These issues are the focus of ongoing studies, which will hopefully inform future clinical practice regarding the utility of blinatumomab in the treatment of B-ALL patients.
Systematic review: second-generation vs. conventional corticosteroids for induction of remission in ulcerative colitis

Results Of the 240 studies identified, 21 were eligible for inclusion. Few trials directly compared oral systemic and second-generation corticosteroids (n = 4). Some second-generation corticosteroids had questionable efficacy vs. placebo or mesalazine (mesalamine), but beclomethasone dipropionate and budesonide MMX demonstrated a comparative benefit. Only beclomethasone dipropionate was similar to conventional corticosteroids for induction of remission and other clinical endpoints. Direct comparative trials for budesonide MMX were unavailable. Second-generation corticosteroids had an overall favourable safety profile, with minimal adverse effects on cardiovascular and metabolic parameters and a low incidence of adverse events.
Pakistan of Phytopathology FIELD EVALUATION OF NEW FUNGICIDES AGAINST RICE ( ORYZA SATIVA ) DISEASES

Rice crop is attacked by various pathogens in the field which are responsible for low yield. In order to control the diseases new chemicals were tested in the field against rice blast, bacterial leaf blight of rice and brown leaf spot in rice. All chemicals were found effective for reducing diseases incidence and improved paddy yield as compared to control with varying degree. Susceptible variety Basmati C-622 was planted in puddled field. Heavy dose of NPK @ 150:85:00 (Kg/ha)was applied to encourage disease to increase blast incidence. Gem Star Super 325 SC & TC @ 296.4 mL/ha was the most effective treatment against Paddy Blast while in case of bacterial leaf blight of rice basmati 2000 was test variety. Nativo75 WG @160.55gm/ha was highly effective against bacterial blight whereas Score 250EC@ 308.5mL/ha outclassed all the tested fungicides against brown leaf spot of rice on basmati super variety.
Application of Kansei engineering in Thai government hospitals

Nowadays, Thai health care sector is a highly competitive. All health care services focus on improving the levels of service quality in different ways. Hospital is one part of the health care sector. Most hospitals have to increase competitiveness by enhancing both service quality and customer emotions. Customer emotion is one of the key factors to improve service quality. Kansei Engineering or Affective Engineering can translate customer emotions into products and service designs. This method determines the relationships between customer feelings and design attributes. This study applied KE which can account to customer needs in service design. More specifically, the author applied KE with SERVQUAL model in order to classify health care service attributes. SERVQUAL is an instrument for measuring service quality and obtaining a higher predictive of customer satisfaction. Thai government hospitals were selected as the domain of a study. One hundred participants who have previous experience with government hospitals took part in the questionnaire survey. The reliability of a pilot test was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha. The relationships between customer emotions and service attributes were analyzed using multiple linear regressions. The result of this study shows that “friendly” was the most significant of customer emotions. The modern equipment and the patients feeling safe in transactions of hospital should be focused by health care executives for service attribute improvement.
Global Risk Score to Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Egypt

Background: Subjects with diabetes have increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk compared to those without diabetes. Addressing CVD risk in diabetes remains important due to increasing diabetes prevalence worldwide and in Egypt in particular. Aim: Assessment of major risk factors, and mean global risk score to CVD in type 2 diabetic patients. Material and methods: This is a case control study carried on type 2 diabetic patients in Suez Canal University Hospital, Ismailia, Egypt. Two-hundred and sixty-four patients with type II diabetes, and a matched group of 268 non-diabetic subjects took part in the study. Clinical examination and biochemical analysis were collected. To assess the mean global cardiovascular risk scoring in type 2 diabetic patients a Framingham heart study was used. Results: The mean total risk among type 2 diabetic patients was significantly higher than the matched control group. Moreover, the mean total risk among females in the diabetic patients was higher than that among male patients. Whereas in control group, the total mean risk in males was significantly higher than in females. The major risk factors in diabetic patients including body mass index, blood pressure, postprandial blood sugar and hemoglobin, total cholesterol and triglyceride were significantly higher than in the control group. Conclusion: The study highlighted the cardiovascular risk in type 2 diabetic patients in Egypt. These data emphasize the importance of treating cardiovascular risk factors in diabetic patients more aggressively in order to prevent CVD events. Furthermore, health care providers must increase the awareness in diabetic patients to adopt better life style.
A Survey of Changepoint Techniques for Time Series Data

Changepoint analysis has played an important role in modern time series study. Detection of changepoints helps modelling and prediction of time series and is found in applications of many fields. This dissertation focuses on the detection of mean structure changes in correlated time series. It consists of the results of three research projects on changepoint problems: (1) the comparison of changepoint techniques; (2) autocovariance estimation of an AR(p) time series with changepoints; and (3) `1-regularization in changepoint analysis. In chapter 2 the single changepoint techniques, or At-Most-One-Changepoint (AMOC) are reviewed. A new AMOC test, Sum of Squared CUSUMz is developed and is shown to be the most powerful AMOC test through simulation studies on the time series with various ARMA(p, q) structures. Multiple changepoint techniques that are applicable to correlated time series are discussed in chapter 3, which includes an in-depth discussion on the wild binary segmentation. A new distance metric is also proposed in this chapter for comparing the multiple changepoint techniques. Next in the chapter 4 a Yule-Walk moment estimator based on the first order difference is proposed for autocovariance estimation of an AR(p) time series with a small number of changepoints. The last chapter simply reviews the `1 regularization and its application to changepoint analysis.
Inhibitory effect of milk thistle seed extract on cadmium chloride induced DNA damage in liver cells

: Cadmium (Cd) is a biologically non-essential but economically valuable metal. Its increase in the environment has been linked to various diseases such as diabetes, organs failure, bone damage, endocrine hormone imbalance and cancer in humans and animals. Cd mainly accumulates in the liver and lead to its malfunction. In the present paper, we investigated the inhibitory effect of milk thistle ( Silybum marianum ) seed (MTS) extract on cell death and Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage induced by cadmium chloride (CdCl 2 ) in rat liver cells. The alkaline and neutral comet assays were used to evaluate double and single breaks in DNA. The treatment of the cells with CdCl 2 alone resulted in dose dependent decrease in cell viability compared to control cells; while cells co-treated with MTS extract resulted in increased cell viability. Furthermore, treatment of the cells with CdCl 2 alone caused increase in DNA damage as shown by the % DNA in the tail and olive tail moment in both alkaline and neutral comet assays. Co-treatment with MTS extract inhibited the Cd-induced DNA damage as shown by the decreased % DNA in the tail and olive tail moment. Our results clearly showed the inhibitory effect of MTS extract on Cd-induced DNA damage in rat liver cells.
Epidemiology of Chronic Kidney Disease and Associated Metabolic Risk Factors in an Old Chinese Population

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a worldwide health problem among aging populations. However, epidemiological information on Chinese elderly people with CKD is still lacking. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological features and associated risk factors of CKD in aging population in China. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 37,533 individuals aged ≥65 years were enrolled in Binhai from January to December 2018. The crude and standardized prevalence of CKD were calculated. Associations of metabolism-related indicators with CKD were examined using univariate and multivariate analysis. The overall prevalence of CKD was 17.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 17.3%-18.1%) in this Chinese elderly population. The prevalence was 17.5% among men (95% CI, 17.0%-18.1%) and 17.8% among women (95% CI, 17.3 -18.4%). The mean eGFR was 84.22 (SD ± 12.87) mL/min/1.73 m2, with the median value higher for women than for men. Aging, pre-HTN, HTN, elevated triglyceride and FBG were found to be independent risk factors for CKD. Our study shows a high prevalence of CKD among Chinese elderly population. Aging, pre-HTN, HTN, elevated triglyceride and FBG were all independent risk factors associated with CKD. More attention should be paid to metabolic diseases to prevent CKD in the elderly.
A graph theoretic approach to modeling the Loon network problem

—Project Loon 1 started as an idea in a Google Research Lab but has since achieved promise, as evidenced by a ﬁeld trial in New Zealand. The key premise is to deliver free or low cost access to the Internet to neighborhoods that currently lack adequate infrastructure to provide Internet connectivity. The basic idea of the project is to equip houses with special antennas that could wirelessly transmit to a set of one or more balloons deployed in the stratosphere. The balloons would further communicate wirelessly among themselves, effectively forming an ad hoc network, with at least one or more balloons having wireless access to Internet Transit Access Points (ITAPs). Moreover, balloons would be equipped with GPS units and radios that could link to a central authority via satellite. The balloons would thus be maneuverable . Although Project Loon is a novel idea with potentially global consequences, it faces several technical challenges that have thus far gone unaddressed. Speciﬁcally, a challenging problem is to determine both the placement and minimum number of balloons to deploy so that the trafﬁc demands of houses are collectively met. Another challenge is exploiting the maneuverability of the balloons to keep pace with periodic shifts in trafﬁc demands. In this paper, we model the problem and provide viable solutions to the challenges above. For the balloon placement problem, we adapt algorithms formerly used to optimize placement in mesh networks. Our problem is slightly different in that we are not given the mesh network a priori but have to build a minimal ad hoc network. For workload variation, we model the problem so that an optimal Hungarian assignment algorithm can be applied. The solutions are validated by graph theoretic analysis and simulation.
An Environment for Implementing and Testing Routing Protocols in CARMNET Architecture

—The paper proposes a new development environment for implementing and testing multi-criteria routing protocols in wireless mesh networks considered under the CARrier-grade delay-aware resource management for wireless multi-hop/Mesh NETworks (CARMNET) project. The paper presents the justiﬁcation for choosing Optimized Link-State Routing (OLSR) protocol as the reference CARMNET routing protocol for further extension from a single-criterion to the multi-criteria protocol. The existing software router architectures (Quagga, eXtensible Open Router Platform – XORP, and BIRD) are evaluated. A software and hardware architecture of a single wireless node as well as a network testbed are described. The particular phases of the proposed implementation of the modiﬁed multi-criteria OLSR protocol in the nodes of testbed environment are presented. Two types of nodes that differ in processor architecture and energy efﬁciency are proposed for the testbed. The high performance nodes will be used during the development of the routing protocol, while the low performance nodes (energy efﬁcient nodes) will be used during testing the effectiveness of the protocol elaborated. The developed architecture of the testbed network provides the ability to separate the resources exploited by control functions (routing) and data plane functions (forwarding).
Sports Media In The Republic Of Iraq, Reality And Hope (Analytical Study)

The purpose of this paper is to identify the reality of the Iraqi sports media and try to develop a vision for the aspiration to be achieved to improve the Iraqi sports media. Sports fans and the total sample number was (390) subjects divided into (45) for the exploratory study and (349) for the basic study. The researcher used the questionnaire (prepared by the researcher) as a tool for data collection, the results of the study concluded that there are shortcomings in the reality of the goals of sports media in Iraq, there are obstacles in the reality of the capabilities of sports media in Iraq, there are shortcomings in the reality of the responsibilities and duties of sports media in Iraq, there are shortcomings in the reality of following up and evaluating sports media in Iraq, then the researcher Through the conclusions of the research, we hope to improve the goals, capabilities, responsibilities and duties, and evaluate and follow up the Iraqi sports media.