Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reverse Logistics: An Imperative Area of Research for Fashion Supply Chain

The objective of this paper is to research on the current strategies and importance of Reverse Logistic(RL) operations and their impact. This review also establishes the role of the returns policy in the fashion supply chain. It also covers the different strategies adopted in the reverse supply chain across various supply chains and how it can be interconnected in the fashion supply chain. Retrogistics has always been considered as one of the least explored cost-oriented research areas. Beyond the handling of recycling and reuse, there is a tremendous scope for analysis of the returns in the RL process for identifying the causative factors. An analysis of causative factors may help in taking remedial measures for reduction in number of returns. Hence, several retail organizations have started giving importance in developing a best strategy and process for returns on the management program. Again, it is imperative for evolving strategy specific to the fashion industry/business to their specific needs and nature of operations. This review paper discusses different elements/strategies of operations involving RL in the fashion supply chain, different applications highlighting advantages and profit improvement/cost savings.
Management and treatment outcomes of patients enrolled in MDR-TB treatment in Viet Nam.

SETTING The programmatic management of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in Viet Nam has been rapidly scaled up since 2009. OBJECTIVES To document the annual numbers of patients enrolled for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment during 2010-2014 and to determine characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients initiating treatment during 2010-2012. DESIGN A retrospective cohort study using national reports and data from the national electronic data system for drug-resistant TB. RESULTS The number of patients enrolled annually for MDR-TB treatment increased from 97 in 2010 to 1522 in 2014. The majority of patients were middle-aged men who had pulmonary disease and had failed a retreatment regimen; 77% had received ⩾2 courses of TB treatment. Favourable outcomes (cured and treatment completed) were attained in 73% of patients. Unfavourable outcomes included loss to follow-up (12.5%), death (8%) and failure (6.3%). Having had ⩾2 previous treatment courses and being human immunodeficiency virus-positive were associated with unfavourable outcomes. CONCLUSION Increasing numbers of patients are being treated for MDR-TB each year with good treatment outcomes under national programme management in Viet Nam. However, there is a need to increase case detection-currently at 30% of the estimated 5100 MDR-TB cases per year, reduce adverse outcomes and improve monitoring and evaluation.
Sustainability of Commercial Banks: Role of Brand Image over Brand Equity

Sustainability has become a major concern for any business. A large number of studies have linked a positive relationship between sustainability and brand equity. We have used seven factors model viz.; perceived quality, brand awareness, brand association, brand image, brand name, brand loyalty and overall brand equity to measure brand equity. Since, Brand Image and Brand Loyalty have loaded in Factor analysis of the study; we aimed at exploring the influence of brand image over brand equity of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL). Both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were run to investigate the causal relationship and model fit analysis of the model respectively. Primary data was collected from 330 respondents after interviewing with structured questionnaire within Dhaka city. Interview period was December 2012. SEM resulted in four factors loading; where brand image and brand loyalty were found to have strong influence over brand equity. CFA signified the model fit and explained strongest influence of brand image. Keywords: Brand equity, Brand image, Factor Analysis
Experimental method for low-temperature sintering of nano-Ag inks using electrical excitation

Conductive inks market for printable electronic grows rapidly last years. The main disadvantage of using inks filled with nano-Ag particles is sintering process, which often requires relatively high temperatures (over 180°C). This forces the use of expensive, high temperature substrates, for example polyimide foils. In some applications it is unacceptable to subject substrate to high temperature, which prevents or hinders the use of common silver inks. An experimental method for low-temperature sintering was investigated and presented in this paper. Electric field was applied to the sample and current flow induced to initiate the sintering process instead of commonly used high-temperature heating or light pulses.
Numerical and Experimental Evaluation of the Microsecond Pulsed Heating Curve Technique Dedicated to Die Interconnection Characterization

This paper describes and qualifies a partial thermal impedance measurement technique to evaluate the thermal behavior of the physical layers close to the die in power electronic assemblies. The measurement approach is derived from the pulsed heating curve method; nonetheless, the experimental setup proposed here is fitted for a higher sensitivity analysis of die interconnections due to the extraction of the transient thermal impedance at very high current levels and short heating times. Another advantage of this method is that the cooling efficiency of the system has no impact on the sensitivity of the measurements, which makes it particularly suitable for aging monitoring or in-line manufacturing process control. The method is then implemented with power diodes in order to compare the thermal impedance of two power modules with different solder void repartitions. Experimental results and finite-element simulations show that this method has a very good sensitivity and can, therefore, be used to compare the quality of different die attaches without requiring an efficient power module cooling system.
Variation in the Quality of Life within Punjab: Evidence from MICS, 2007-08

The aim of the paper is to explore the variation in the quality of life by using thirty-five indicators relating to the quality of persons and the quality of conditions to rank districts and tehsils (sub-districts) of the Punjab. The study demonstrates the importance of access to middle and secondary education, access to health facilities and household utilities, etc. The quality of life ranking indicates that districts which have big cities are categorised as ‘good’ quality of life regions. It is important to note that the majority of the districts and tehsils from northern and central Punjab are doing better in terms of quality of life. However, regions with ‘poor’ quality of life are identified as the target for special resource allocations.
The New Immigration Contestation: Social Movements and Local Immigration Policy Making in the United States, 2000–20111

Analyzing oppositional social movements in the context of municipal immigration ordinances, the authors examine whether the explanatory power of resource mobilization, political process, and strain theories of social movements’ impact on policy outcomes differs when considering proactive as opposed to reactive movements. The adoption of pro-immigrant (proactive) ordinances was facilitated by the presence of immigrant community organizations and of sympathetic local political allies. The adoption of anti-immigrant (reactive) ordinances was influenced by structural social changes, such as rapid increases in the local Latino population, that were framed as threats. The study also finds that pro-immigrant protest events can influence policy in two ways, contributing both to the passage of pro-immigrant ordinances in the locality where protests occur and also inhibiting the passage of anti-immigrant ordinances in neighboring cities.
Attenuated plasticity in neurons and astrocytes in the mouse model of Sanfilippo syndrome type B

Sanfilippo syndrome type B (MPS III B) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by profound mental retardation and early death. It is caused by deficiency of a lysosomal enzyme involved in heparan sulfate (HS) degradation. Because HS accumulation can be a major feature of this disease, we have examined crucial molecular systems associated with HS function. Using a knockout mouse with disruption of the gene responsible for HS degradation, we evaluated the effects of possible HS accumulation on neuroplasticity that are within the spectrum of action of fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) and their receptor (FGFR). We found that levels of mRNA for the FGFR‐1 were attenuated in the mutant mice by the age of 6 months, whereas the mRNAs for FGF‐1 and FGF‐2 were reduced or unchanged in the brain regions tested. Neurogenesis, in which FGF‐2 is involved, was inhibited in the MPS III B mouse brain at both young and adult ages. We also examined the expression of the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) gene and GFAP‐positive cell density in both normal and injured conditions to study the functional response of astrocytes to insult. We found that, although the mutation alone caused drastic induction of reactive astrocytes, acute injury to the mutant brains failed to induce additional reactive astrocytes. Our results showed important alterations in the expression of several genes involved in the maintenance of neuroplasticity in the MPS III B. This in turn may result in reduction of neuronal health and brain function. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Exploiting Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces for Interference Channels with SWIPT

This paper considers intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-aided simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) in a multi-user multiple-input single-output (MISO) interference channel (IFC), where multiple transmitters (Txs) serve their corresponding receivers (Rxs) in a shared spectrum with the aid of IRSs. Our goal is to maximize the sum rate of the Rxs by jointly optimizing the transmit covariance matrices at the Txs, the phase shifts at the IRSs, and the resource allocation subject to the individual energy harvesting (EH) constraints at the Rxs. Towards this goal and based on the well-known power splitting (PS) and time switching (TS) receiver structures, we consider three practical transmission schemes, namely the IRS-aided hybrid TS-PS scheme, the IRS-aided time-division multiple access (TDMA) scheme, and the IRS-aided TDMA-D scheme. The latter two schemes differ in whether the Txs employ deterministic energy signals known to all the Rxs. Despite the non-convexity of the three optimization problems corresponding to the three transmission schemes, we develop computationally efficient algorithms to address them suboptimally, respectively, by capitalizing on the techniques of alternating optimization (AO) and successive convex approximation (SCA). Moreover, we conceive feasibility checking methods for these problems, based on which the initial points for the proposed algorithms are constructed. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed IRS-aided schemes significantly outperform their counterparts without IRSs in terms of sum rate and maximum EH requirements that can be satisfied under various setups. In addition, the IRS-aided hybrid TS-PS scheme generally achieves the best sum rate performance among the three proposed IRS-aided schemes, and if not, increasing the number of IRS elements can always accomplish it.
Medium voltage dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) based on DFCM converter for power quality improvement

In the present electric power grids, power quality issues are recognized as a crucial concerns and a frequently occurring problem possessing significant costly consequence such as sensitive load tripping and production loss. Consequently, demand for high power quality and voltage stability becomes a pressing issue. Dynamic voltage restorer (DVR), as a custom power device, is one of the most effective solutions for “restoring” the quality of voltage at its load-side terminals when the quality of voltage at its source-side terminals is disturbed. In this paper, a new DVR topology based on double flying capacitor multicell (DFCM) converter for medium-voltage application has been proposed. The advantage of the proposed DVR is that it does not need any line-frequency step-up isolation transformer, which is bulky and costly, to be connected to medium-voltage power grid. The proposed DVR topology obtains the required active power from the energy storage feeding the dc link of the DFCM converter. The pre-sag compensation method, which is explained in detail, is used to restore amplitude and angle of the sensitive load voltage. Moreover, an approach based on d-q synchronous reference frame to determine DVR reference voltages is utilized. The proposed DVR topology is simulated and results to illustrate its performance under various conditions of voltage sag compensation are provided.
Spontaneous dyskinesia in first-degree relatives of chronically ill, never-treated people with schizophrenia

Background We have suggested recently that there may be a subgroup of schizophrenia, namely schizophrenia with dyskinesia and striatal pathology Might movement disorders be more common in relatives of those with schizophrenia and dyskinesia than in relatives of those without dyskinesia? Aims To determine the prevalence of abnormal movements in first-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia who themselves do or do not have abnormal movements. Method Chronically ill, never-treated people with schizophrenia in south India (n=70) and their first-degree relatives (n=181) were examined for dyskinesia using the Abnormal Involuntary Movements Scale (AIMS) and for parkinsonism by the Simpson and Angus scale. Results Of all relatives, 25 (14%) had dyskinetic movements in at least one body area and 6 (3%) had parkinsonism. Siblings of people with schizophrenia and dyskinesia, compared with siblings of people without dyskinesia, had a higher total AIMS score and more had mild dyskinetic movements in at least one area (5/15 v. 3/34, P=0.04). There were no between-group differences in parkinsonism. Conclusions Dyskinesia but not parkinsonism is more common in siblings of people with schizophrenia who have the corresponding movement disorder.
Project Based Learning Curriculum in Microelectronics Engineering

In this paper, the student-centered pedagogical program used in the School of Electrical Engineering with a case study illustrating and describing the project-based curriculum in microelectronics is described. A case study project also described in the paper shows that the project-based learning method engages students in a deeper learning where not only emphasis is given to the final product, but also the process to get there.
Differences in the spectra of anomalous cosmic ray helium nuclei in two solar magnetic polarity cycles

We compare the spectra of anomalous He nuclei measured in the heliosphere by the IMP, Voyager, and Pioneer spacecraft at heliospheric distances ranging from 1 to over 80 AU in the time period from 1977 to 2003. Striking differences in the energy spectra of these nuclei are found between positive and negative solar magnetic polarity cycles. These differences are such that the spectra observed in negative polarity cycles appear to be greatly deficient in particles with energies of less than ∼15 MeV but have an excess intensity above >25 MeV, relative to the spectra observed in positive cycles. These spectral differences are complex and may be related to both solar modulation effects inside of the heliospheric termination shock as well as differences occurring at or near the termination shock itself. At the modulation minimum in 1998 when V2 was at a distance of 56 AU and V1 at 71 AU, a high intensity of low-energy anomalous He particles was observed with a peak in the spectrum at ∼5 MeV/nuc. In late 2001 after the solar magnetic polarity had changed from positive to negative and the 11-year solar modulation had increased, the previous high intensities of the anomalous He nuclei seen in 1998 were greatly reduced at both V1 and V2, and the energy of the peak intensity had moved up to ∼20–25 MeV/nuc. However, in both polarity periods the highest-energy part of this spectrum above ∼30 MeV/nuc is similar with a slope of −2.8 ± 0.2. The details of these complex spectral changes are described in this paper.
On Sliced Inverse Regression With High-Dimensional Covariates

Sliced inverse regression is a promising method for the estimation of the central dimension-reduction subspace (CDR space) in semiparametric regression models. It is particularly useful in tackling cases with high-dimensional covariates. In this article we study the asymptotic behavior of the estimate of the CDR space with high-dimensional covariates, that is, when the dimension of the covariates goes to infinity as the sample size goes to infinity. Strong and weak convergence are obtained. We also suggest an estimation procedure of the Bayes information criterion type to ascertain the dimension of the CDR space and derive the consistency. A simulation study is conducted.
Foreign Direct Investment and Technology Transfers to Local Suppliers: Identifying the effects of type of ownership and the technology gap

In this paper, I present novel empirical evidence in support of the idea that FDI firms can act as an important driver of regional growth, by acting as a source of new knowledge and technologies to local suppliers in a host economy. For the analysis, I use unique firm level data that I obtained from applying several purpose built surveys among FDI and domestic producer firms as well as local suppliers in the regional economy of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. With this data, I assess the scale and nature of technology transfers between FDI firms and local suppliers and I identify statistically factors that influence the spillover impact that arises from these transfers. The main findings are threeÂ ]fold. Firsts, I find clear and robust evidence that FDI firms are significantly more involved than domestic producer firms in various knowledge transfer activities, activities with a direct positive impact on production processes of the local suppliers. As a result, suppliers of FDI firms are more likely to experience large positive technological improvements. Second, the analysis shows that a large technology gap between FDI and local suppliers fosters rather than hinders this positive impact among local suppliers of material inputs. This effect persists even when I control for both the level and nature of support that FDI firms provide, suggesting that in particular local suppliers that have a large potential to improve can benefit from their business dealings with FDI firms. Third, I also find that several indicators of the level of absorptive capacity of local suppliers are positively associated with the technology impact that FDI firms create, indicating that there is scope for local policymaking to enhance the positive impact that foreignÂ ]owned firms generate in their local host economy. Key Words: FDI, Local Suppliers, Regional Growth, Technology Transfers, Technology Gap, Absorptive Capacity JEL Classification: C21, F23, O18, O33
Visual speech in technology-enhanced learning

This thesis investigates the use of synthetic talking heads, with lip, tongue and face movements synchronized with synthesized or natural speech, in technology-enhanced learning. This work applies talking heads in a speech tutoring application for teaching English as a second language. Previous studies have shown that speech perception is aided by visual information, but more research is needed to determine the effectiveness of visualization of articulators in pronunciation training. This thesis explores whether or not visual speech technology can give an improvement in learning pronunciation. This thesis investigates techniques for audiovisual speech synthesis, using both viseme-based and data-driven approaches to implement multiple talking heads. Intelligibility studies found the audiovisual heads to be more intelligible than audio alone, and the data-driven head was found to be more intelligible than the viseme-driven implementation. The talking heads are applied in a pronunciation-training application, which is evaluated by second-language learners to investigate the benefit of visual speech in technology-enhanced learning. User trials explored the efficacy of the software in demonstrating the /b/–/p/ contrast in English. The results indicate that learners showed an improvement in listening and pronunciation after using the software, while the benefit of visualization compared to auditory training alone varied between individuals. User evaluations found that the talking heads were perceived to be helpful in learning pronunciation, and the positive feedback on the tutoring system suggests that the use of talking heads in technology-enhanced learning could be useful in addition to traditional methods.
Optimizing partitioned global address space programs for cluster architectures

Unified Parallel C (UPC) is an example of a partitioned global address space language for high performance parallel computing. This programming model enables application to be written in a shared memory style, but still allows the programmer to control data layout and the assignment of work to processors. An open question is whether programs written in simple style, with fine-grained accesses and blocking communication, can achieve performance approaching that of hand-optimized code, especially for cluster environments with high network latencies. This dissertation proposes an optimization framework for UPC that automates the transformations currently performed manually by programmers. The goals of the optimizations are twofold: not only do we seek to aggregate fine-grained remote accesses to reduce the number and volume of message traffic, but we also want to overlap communication with computation to hide network latency. The framework first applies communication vectorization and strip-mining to optimize regular array accesses in loops. For irregular fine-grained accesses, we apply a partial redundancy elimination framework that also generates split-phase communication. The last phase targets the blocking bulk transfers in the program by utilizing runtime support to automatically schedule them and achieve overlap. Message aggregation is performed as part of the scheduling to further reduce the communication overhead. Finally, we present several techniques for optimizing the serial performance of a UPC program, in order to reduce both the overhead of UPC-specific constructs and our source-to-source translation. The optimization framework has been implemented in the Berkeley UPC compiler, and has been tested on a number of supercomputer clusters. The optimizations are validated on a variety of benchmarks exhibiting different communication patterns, from bulk synchronous benchmarks to dynamic shared data structure code. Experimental results reveal that our framework offers comparable performance to aggressive manual optimization, and can achieve significant speedup compared to the fine-grained and blocking communication code that programmers find much easier to implement. Our framework is completely transparent to the user, and therefore improves productivity by freeing programmers from the details of communication management.