Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An analysis of three pricing strategies for digital music products

Abstract Digital music albums can be sold either as singles or as a full album, which is not an option for selling physical music products. This paper investigates three pricing strategies for selling digital music albums. The first (strategy S) sets a unified unit price and all songs are sold at this price. The second (strategy F) determines a bundling price for selling the whole album. The third (strategy M) mixes strategies S and F. It offers two prices: one is for a unit song and the other for the whole album. We develop mathematical models for this problem and design enumeration-based iteration algorithms to solve these models for optimality. Through a database consisting of 243 groups of numerical results, we establish a decision tree model, a popular data mining technique, to explain which strategy should be employed under various conditions.
Lost-wax or laser sintering? Findings on marginal and internal adaptation of metallic copings

Marginal and internal adaptation are parameters of crucial importance to the success of prosthetic crowns. Automatized process creates an expectative of superior or equivalent results compared to restorations manufactured ​​by conventional lost-wax technique. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the marginal adaptation and internal adaptation (cement space) of metal-ceramic crown copings produced by lost-wax (LW) and direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) techniques. An artificial lower first molar was prepared for a full crown, duplicated in plaster and scanned. Twenty metal-ceramic crown copings were fabricated in cobalt-chromium by the two techniques (n=10). The copings were filled with low viscosity silicone and seated on the prepared tooth, resulting in a replica of the internal space. The pellicle formed was embedded in heavy body silicone, sectioned and captured by means of a stereomicroscope at 50x magnification, according to replica technique (RT). Shapiro-Wilk test followed by Holm-Sidak test were used for statistical analysis (α=.05). Marginal adaptation presented no difference between LW (101.5 ± 41.6) and DMLS (86.3 ± 39.9) groups (p=0.24). Conventional LW technique showed significantly lower occlusal (p<0.008) and axial spaces (p<0.03). Measurements of all regions showed numerically larger adaptation values than that defined during design​​ for DMLS group. Both the LW technique and the DMLS technique are within the clinically acceptable.
Automated Approach to Negotiations of BOT Contracts with the Consideration of Project Risk

The terms of concession including tariff and concession period are often discussed intensively during negotiations of build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts. Based on prior studies on negotiation terms and risk of BOT contracts, this paper incorporates risk attributes of the BOT project into the formulation of a contractual-negotiation model. The proposed model allows the government and the sponsor to reach a consensus on the terms should the financial return as well as the risk of the project be determined. The pro forma cash flow of a BOT project is developed and used to generate the probability distribution of net present values (NPV) from the owner's viewpoint by using Monte Carlo simulation. High- and low-risk scenarios are obtained to determine whether the contractual-negotiation models vary in accordance with risk levels. Results show that, given the expected NPV, the sponsor should be offered more favorable concessional terms for projects with high risk than that with low risk. The authors suggest that the government and industry practitioners embody the risk attributes of the project in the automated contractual-negotiation model.
A survey on human behavior towards energy efficiency for office worker in malaysia

Green environment has become an important topic around the world. This campaign can be realized if everybody understands and shares similar objectives on managing energy in an efficient way. This paper will present and analyse the survey on energy usage by office workers in Malaysia. The survey will focus on the workers in government sector. In social science surveys, it is important to support the tested data for a project. For issues related to human behaviour we must compare with real situations to verify the tested data and the results in energy monitoring system. The energy monitoring system will improve energy usage efficiency for the basic human activities in different situations and environments.
Pseudo-chronological simulation for composite reliability analysis with time varying loads

This paper presents a new methodology to evaluate loss of load indices, with particular emphasis on LOLC (loss of load cost) assessment, for composite generation and transmission systems considering time varying loads for different areas or buses. The proposed approach, named pseudo-chronological simulation, retains the computational efficiency of nonsequential Monte Carlo simulation and the ability to model chronological load curves in sequential simulation. It considers the actual blocks of unsupplied energy per consumer class, per bus, and the respective duration, to accurately characterize the interruption process. Case studies on the IEEE-MRTS (Modified Reliability Test System) and the BSS (Brazilian South-Southeastern System) are presented and discussed.
‘But Math is my subject’ - A study of motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning as a predictor of goal orientation in secondary school students

The relations between three goal orientations and students’ motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning were examined in a study of 210 students of grade 7-9. Data collected were self-reported questionnaires from several different schools for two major academic subject areas: English, and Math. SEM analyses revealed that generally positive pattern of motivational beliefs including adaptive levels of task value, as well as cognition including higher levels of cognitive strategy use, selfregulation, and academic performance and negative patterns of test anxiety resulted in learning goal orientation. Higher levels of self-efficacy and cognitive strategy use also leads to relative ability goal orientation while higher level of test anxiety and relatively lower intrinsic value led to performance approach goal orientation. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for goal theory.
Explaining the State of Seismic Consideration of Architectural Non-structural Components in Design Process Case Study: Bam Earthquake

Effects of architectural nonstructural components on the building system behavior are considered as secondary effects, although interaction between these components and structure cause economical losses or human injuries over the years. This article reviews the damages of architectural nonstructural components in Bam earthquake in 5 Dey 1382's/26 December 2003 to offer some strategies for reducing the risk of earthquake impact on them. Qualitative ualitative research methods with inductive approach is used.
Indirect Discrimination in Construction Organizations and the Impact on Women’s Careers

Over the last 20 years, equality legislation and positive action on diversity has increased awareness of the detrimental impact of sex discrimination and has begun to address harassment and inequality in many large organizations. While this may yield positive benefits for underrepresented groups working within the construction industry, it remains to be seen whether this legislative drive has overcome indirect forms of discrimination brought about by the ingrained culture and working practices of the sector. This paper explores the impact of indirect discrimination by systematically combining the results of two research projects which explored perspectives on women's careers in the industry. The first examined the ways in which women's careers were affected by the nature of working practices within the U.K. construction industry, while the second explored gendered perspectives on work-life balance within the context of the Australian construction sector. Taken in combination, the findings provide prima facie evidence of how construction companies disadvantage women's careers through their work practices and cultures. Based on this evidence, this paper develops a grounded proposition that the ingrained structures and work cultures of the sector, combined with women's restricted occupational choices, stymie attempts to create an equitable workplace environment. Suggestions are made as to how construction companies can encourage the structural and cultural shift necessary to overcome the corrosive effect of indirect discrimination on women's careers in the future.
Mechatronics and Control Solutions for Increasing the Imaging Speed in Atomic Force Microscopy

This research is focused on improving the mechatronic design and control strategies of Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) in order to increase the imaging speed of these instruments, while maintaining the resolution and accuracy of AFM. Different techniques are developed which have led to a faster lateral scanning speed, higher bandwidth control of the tip sample force, and improved accuracy of the topography estimate. An Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is a mechanical microscope in which the sample is probed by a very sharp tip. AFM allows measuring the sample topography with (sub-) nanometer resolution. As in AFM the sample is probed point by point, AFM imaging is a relatively slow process, which limits the applicability of AFM in fields where high throughput is important. In AFM de sample is scanned in the lateral plane by use of a piezoelectric scanning stage. The lateral scanning speed is limited by the weakly damped resonances of the scanning stage, which may cause strong oscillations when excited. In this research a cost efficient method is developed to dampen the resonances of the scanning stage, resulting in a 30 times faster lateral scanning motion. During scanning the force between the tip and the sample is measured and controlled in a feedback loop to prevent damage of the tip and the sample. Moreover, this feedbackloop provides an estimate of the sample topography via a topography estimator. In this research an approach is presented for integrated design of the feedback controller and topography estimator. This approach explicitly addresses the uncertainty in the dynamical behavior of the instrument. It is shown that due to the uncertainty in the dynamical behavior of the instrument, a design trade-off has to be made between the speed and the accuracy of AFM instruments. In order to further improve the imaging speed of AFM, a dual actuated control approach is investigates to control the force between the tip and the sample via a combination of a long-stroke and a short-stroke actuator. This dual actuated control approach has shown to allow 20 times faster imaging as compared to the optimally controlled single actuated AFM, without compromising the effective positioning range.
Trade-offs are not exogenous

Trade-offs between competitive priorities are often seen as exogenous – managers accept them as a given downside while simultaneously addressing multiple competitive priorities. However, some companies seem to face fewer trade-offs than others. The question is how companies reduce their trade-offs to successfully compete on multiple competitive priorities simultaneously. We address this question by theorising that bundles of action programmes are needed to reduce trade-offs between competitive priorities. We examine four Swiss manufacturing plants and show how the selection of action programmes influences the simultaneous competition on multiple competitive priorities. We show that successful competition on multiple competitive priorities does not happen by accident but is achieved by aligning competitive priorities, action programmes, infrastructural/structural changes and contextual factors.
Aromatase in the Human Brain

The aromatase cytochrome P450 (P450arom) enzyme, or estrogen synthase, which is coded by the CYP19A1 gene, is widely expressed in a subpopulation of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, astrocytes, and other cell types in the human brain. Experimental studies in laboratory animals indicate a prominent role of brain aromatization of androgens to estrogens in regulating different brain functions. However, the consequences of aromatase expression in the human brain remain poorly understood. Here, we summarize the current knowledge about aromatase expression in the human brain, abundant in the thalamus, amygdala, hypothalamus, cortex, and hippocampus and discuss its role in the regulation of sensory integration, body homeostasis, social behavior, cognition, language, and integrative functions. Since brain aromatase is affected by neurodegenerative conditions and may participate in sex-specific manifestations of autism spectrum disorders, major depressive disorder, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and Alzheimer's disease, we discuss future avenues for research and potential clinical and therapeutic implications of the expression of aromatase in the human brain.
Full-service restaurant leaders’ preparedness for managing employee mental health issues post COVID-19

Abstract Anecdotal evidence suggests that restaurant leaders are not prepared to deal with the mental health issues of their employees. A total of 20 leaders of restaurants were interviewed to address the implications of this question: “Is there a gap between mental health support needed for restaurant workers and the preparedness of their leaders and organizations? ” Findings suggest restaurant leaders believe dealing with employee mental health issues is an increasingly significant part of their job, especially with the onset of the COVID-19. While there is a varying range of leader preparedness to deal with these issues, restaurants as organizations seem unprepared.
Extracting Dynamical Understanding From Neural-Mass Models of Mouse Cortex

New brain atlases with high spatial resolution and whole-brain coverage have rapidly advanced our knowledge of the brain’s neural architecture, including the systematic variation of excitatory and inhibitory cell densities across the mammalian cortex. But understanding how the brain’s microscale physiology shapes brain dynamics at the macroscale has remained a challenge. While physiologically based mathematical models of brain dynamics are well placed to bridge this explanatory gap, their complexity can form a barrier to providing clear mechanistic interpretation of the dynamics they generate. In this work we develop a neural-mass model of the mouse cortex and show how bifurcation diagrams, which capture local dynamical responses to inputs and their variation across brain regions, can be used to understand the resulting whole-brain dynamics. We show that strong fits to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data can be found in surprisingly simple dynamical regimes—including where all brain regions are confined to a stable fixed point—in which regions are able to respond strongly to variations in their inputs, consistent with direct structural connections providing a strong constraint on functional connectivity in the anesthetized mouse. We also use bifurcation diagrams to show how perturbations to local excitatory and inhibitory coupling strengths across the cortex, constrained by cell-density data, provide spatially dependent constraints on resulting cortical activity, and support a greater diversity of coincident dynamical regimes. Our work illustrates methods for visualizing and interpreting model performance in terms of underlying dynamical mechanisms, an approach that is crucial for building explanatory and physiologically grounded models of the dynamical principles that underpin large-scale brain activity.
NERITIDAE (GASTROPODA, NERITIMORPHA) FROM THE MALACOLOGICAL COLLECTION PROF. HENRY RAMOS MATTHEWS OF THE UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO CEARÁ, BRAZIL

The basic information obtained from scientific collections help us to understanding of Earth’s diverse biota and its biological processes. The Malacological Collection Prof. Henry Ramos Matthews (CMPHRM) of the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), Brazil, is a reference about the biodiversity, mainly marine, of northeastern Brazil. In this collection, the gastropod molluscs of the family Neritidae were among the most representative in number of lots. Since an accurate geographical distribution knowledge is one of the fundamental factors to the study of biodiversity, the present study aimed to describe the composition and spatially analyse the neritids deposited in the CMPHRM/UFC. There is a total of 314 lots of the Neritidae deposited at CMPHRM, belonging to eight species (Nerita chamaeleon, Nerita chlorostoma, Nerita fulgurans, Nerita tessellata, Neritina virginea, Neritina meleagris, Neritina zebra, and Smaragdia viridis). The Malacological Collection Prof. Henry Ramos Matthews of the Universidade Federal do Ceará has representatives of all species of Neritidae recorded in the Brazilian Province, which are important for confirming previous records or establishing new occurrence records. Keywords: Neritina, Nerita, Smaragdia, Brazilian Province
The LDPC Challenge in Software-Based 5G New Radio Physical Layer Processing

While the realization of 5G has already began, we are also experiencing a paradigm shift towards Open Radio Access Network (RAN) environments. This new paradigm promotes open and flexible RAN architectures, which can benefit by the physical layer processing being executed on open-source software and general purpose processors. However, meeting the real-time latency requirements for the computationally intensive process of Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) Decoding, as defined in the 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR), poses a challenge for such software based systems. Based on that, we report the design and implementation our novel FPGA LDPC offloading prototype which we integrate and evaluate with the OpenAirInterface (OAI) codebase, the fastest growing open-source project towards supporting 5G NR. For the first time, we present a detailed quantitative analysis of the capabilities of LDPC offloading into an FPGA in the context of a 3GPP compliant system, with up to 5 times faster execution times for the decoding. Our contribution includes the finding that offloading to specialized hardware does not necessarily improve processing latency in all LDPC configurations, due to overheads related to data transfers.
Estimating directivity and gain of antennas

Gain is the most important performance parameter of an antenna. However, in many practical situations it is not possible to measure or calculate the gain of an antenna. Also, the interest in wireless applications has increased the need of system engineers to accurately estimate antenna gain. Many simple formulas are available for estimating gain. But, each formula has a range of applicability, and inappropriate use of these formulas will result in inaccurate gain values. This paper explains the process of gain evaluation, and gives several simple gain-estimation formulas, together with recommendations for their use.
Soluble ST2 and All-Cause Mortality in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease—A 10-Year Cohort Study

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory condition with constantly increasing mortality rates. Interleukin (IL)-33 and its decoy receptor, soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2), play a central role in the inflammatory response during infection. sST2 was suggested as a factor in the pathogenesis of COPD and emerged as a predictor of mortality in other non-communicable diseases. The role of sST2 as a predictor of mortality remains unclear in COPD yet. In this cohort study, we measured circulating concentrations of IL-33 and sST2 in the serum of patients with stable COPD (n = 59), patients with acute exacerbation of COPD (n = 29) and smoking (n = 20) and non-smoking controls (n = 20), using commercially available ELISAs, and investigated the prognostic role of sST2 in stable COPD. sST2 levels were significantly higher in COPD patients and smokers compared with non-smoking controls. We identified systolic blood pressure, forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1% predicted), neutrophil count, lactate dehydrogenase and pack-years index as independent predictors of sST2 levels. During a median follow-up time of 10.6 years, 28 patients (47.5%) died. sST2 was an independent predictor of all-cause mortality in patients with COPD with a hazard ratio of 2.9 (95% CI 1.1–8.4, p = 0.035) per one standard deviation after adjustment for age, sex, pack-years, FEV1% predicted and C-reactive protein (CRP). sST2 concentrations are associated with severity of disease and long-term outcome in patients with COPD.
Incidence, Risk Factors and Outcomes of Postoperative Headache After Stanford Type a Acute Aortic Dissection Surgery

Background: Postoperative headache (POH) is common in clinical practice, however, no studies about POH after Stanford type A acute aortic dissection surgery (AADS) exist. This study aims to describe the incidence, risk factors and outcomes of POH after AADS, and to construct two prediction models. Methods: Adults who underwent AADS from 2016 to 2020 in four tertiary hospitals were enrolled. Training and validation sets were randomly assigned according to a 7:3 ratio. Risk factors were identified by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Nomograms were constructed and validated on the basis of independent predictors. Results: POH developed in 380 of the 1,476 included patients (25.7%). Poorer outcomes were observed in patients with POH. Eight independent predictors for POH after AADS were identified when both preoperative and intraoperative variables were analyzed, including younger age, female sex, smoking history, chronic headache history, cerebrovascular disease, use of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest, more blood transfusion, and longer cardiopulmonary bypass time. White blood cell and platelet count were also identified as significant predictors when intraoperative variables were excluded from the multivariate analysis. A full nomogram and a preoperative nomogram were constructed based on these independent predictors, both demonstrating good discrimination, calibration, clinical usefulness, and were well validated. Risk stratification was performed and three risk intervals were defined based on the full nomogram and clinical practice. Conclusions: POH was common after AADS, portending poorer outcomes. Two nomograms predicting POH were developed and validated, which may have clinical utility in risk evaluation, early prevention, and doctor-patient communication.
A high figure of merit vibrational energy harvester for low frequency applications

Small-scale vibration energy harvesters that respond efficiently at low frequencies are challenging to realize. This paper describes the design and implementation of one such harvester, which achieves a high volumetric Figure of Merit (FoMv = 2.6% at 11.50 Hz) at the scale of a C-type battery and outperforms other state-of-the-art devices in the sub 20 Hz frequency range. The device employs a 2 Degree-of-Freedom velocity-amplified approach and electromagnetic transduction. The harvester comprises two masses oscillating one inside the other, between four sets of magnetic springs. Collisions between the two masses transfer momentum from the heavier to the lighter mass, exploiting velocity amplification. The paper first presents guidelines for designing and optimizing the transduction mechanism, before a nonlinear numerical model for the system dynamics is developed. Experimental characterisation of the harvester design is then presented to validate both the transducer optimization and the dynamics model. Th.