Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison Between Different Criteria for Evaluating Reverberation Chamber Functioning Using a 3-D FDTD Algorithm

This paper is devoted to the comparison between different criteria used to evaluate the functioning of a mechanically stirred reverberation chamber. Usual criteria based on power or electric fields are considered, and we also propose a criterion based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, called in this paper ldquosuccess ratio to Kolmogorov-Smirnov testrdquo (SRKS). The SRKS represents the acceptation ratio of this test applied at several points of the working volume, when considering a field component and its associated theoretical distribution. After a presentation of the criteria and of the studied chamber, data issued from 3-D finite-difference time-domain simulations and measurements are used to analyze the chamber functioning by the use of these criteria. This study is performed on a large frequency band, in the lossless case as well as with a lossy chamber, and for several stirrer shapes, to emphasize the influence of these parameters. The comparison of the usual criteria with the SRKS shows the SKRS is an accurate test to estimate the lowest usable frequency of a given reverberation chamber.
Validity of the Turkish version of the medication adherence self-efficacy scale-short form in hypertensive patients.

OBJECTIVE Study purpose was to examine the validity of a 13-item short form of the Medication Adherence Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (MASES-SF) in an independent sample of 150 hypertensive Turkish patients. METHODS This is a methodological study and 150 adult patients, who are receiving medication for hypertension in the last one year, were included as the study sample. The sample of the study was chosen with the method of simple random sampling. The study was conducted between October 25, 2010 and December 31, 2010 at Family Health Center (FHC). In this study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used for psychometric evaluation. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to evaluate the reliability of the scale. RESULTS Confirmatory factor analysis showed that all goodness indexes were at acceptable quality: χ(2)=61.72, df=65, p>0.05, GFI=0.99, CFI=1.00, RMSA=0.00. Reliability coefficient of the Turkish adaptation of MASES-SF was found as 0.94 and item-total correlations ranged between 0.63 - 0.80. [corrected]. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension had lower self-efficacy scores compared to those with normal blood pressure. CONCLUSION This result indicated that the preliminary criterion validity is adequate. Psychometric testing demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and validity of the instrument for patients in the study group. It can be used confidently in determining and testing interventions to improve medication adherence self-efficacy perceptions and behaviors in hypertensive Turkish patients. The MASES-SF is brief, quick to administer, and capture useful data on medication adherence self-efficacy in hypertensive patients.
A soft robot that navigates its environment through growth

A class of soft robot can substantially and rapidly increase length from its tip and steer to navigate its environment. Across kingdoms and length scales, certain cells and organisms navigate their environments not through locomotion but through growth. This pattern of movement is found in fungal hyphae, developing neurons, and trailing plants, and is characterized by extension from the tip of the body, length change of hundreds of percent, and active control of growth direction. This results in the abilities to move through tightly constrained environments and form useful three-dimensional structures from the body. We report a class of soft pneumatic robot that is capable of a basic form of this behavior, growing substantially in length from the tip while actively controlling direction using onboard sensing of environmental stimuli; further, the peak rate of lengthening is comparable to rates of animal and robot locomotion. This is enabled by two principles: Pressurization of an inverted thin-walled vessel allows rapid and substantial lengthening of the tip of the robot body, and controlled asymmetric lengthening of the tip allows directional control. Further, we demonstrate the abilities to lengthen through constrained environments by exploiting passive deformations and form three-dimensional structures by lengthening the body of the robot along a path. Our study helps lay the foundation for engineered systems that grow to navigate the environment.
An Extended System Frequency Response Model Considering Wind Power Participation in Frequency Regulation

With increasing penetration of wind power into the power system, wind power participation in frequency regulation is regarded as a beneficial strategy to improve the dynamic frequency response characteristics of power systems. The traditional power system frequency response (SFR) model, which only includes synchronous generators, is no longer suitable for power systems with high penetrated wind power. An extended SFR model, based on the reduced-order model of wind turbine generator (WTG) and the traditional SFR model, is presented in this paper. In the extended SFR model, the reduced-order model of WTG with combined frequency control is deduced by employing small signal analysis theory. Afterwards, the stability analysis of a closed-loop control system for the extended SFR model is carried out. Time-domain simulations using a test system are performed to validate the effectiveness of the extended SFR model; this model can provide a simpler, clearer and faster way to analyze the dynamic frequency response characteristic for a high-wind integrated power systems. The impact of additional frequency control parameters and wind speed disturbances on the system dynamic frequency response characteristics are investigated.
Digital Portfolio Theory: Portfolio Size, versus Alpha, Beta, and Horizon Risk

Digital Portfolio Theory (DPT) permits investors to control their risk exposure with respect to multiple investment time horizons. DPT is a theoretical enhancement for estimating efficient portfolios that drops the normal distribution and zero autocorrelation assumptions of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and allows effects of unconditional mean reversion risk at multiple horizons. The time horizon composition of single period risk creates hedging demands based on investor holding period and expectations without regard to changes in expected returns, changes in risk, or changes in state variables. DPT is a mean-variance-autocovariance portfolio optimization paradigm that allows investors to strategically control the risk that patterns occur but includes no information about what patterns other than their length. DPT incorporate more of the structure of the risk process contained in historical information compared to MPT, or CAPM representations. Academic financial research provides little specific portfolio recommendations suitable for long-term horizons. The MPT model assumes investors make decisions myopically in a single period framework. The Merton continuous-time model assumes investors make decisions dynamically based on intertemporal hedging over multiple periods. The DPT model assumes investor's make dynamic decisions based on longer holding periods in a static single period model. DPT analysis provides precise quantitative advice for short, intermediate, and long holding periods.Quadratic MPT does not permit users to specify the size in solution portfolios. An integer constraint added to linear DPT is useful to meet portfolio size requirements. This paper extends DPT to control portfolio size and empirically examines feasible size regions and in-sample optimal allocations for alternative levels of systematic, unsystematic and horizon length risk. The empirical test examines long only DPT solutions from a universe of 73 industries for a 16-year period that includes the October 1987 stock market crash. Optimal portfolios and feasible sizes are examined for three strategies; low versus high total risk, active versus passive, and short versus long horizon risk. Low-risk optimal portfolios and active optimal portfolios are smaller with fewer feasible size possibilities. Optimal industry allocations change with holding period and expectations. Long-term investors should hold smaller portfolios. The majority of allocations are not myopic; however a buy-and-hold strategy is appropriate for some sectors. Gold, oil, gas, and tobacco are included in solutions over multiple holding periods. This study contributes to the theory and practice of portfolio selection and optimization as well as to the question of holding period and horizon risk.
Option Prices Leading Equity Prices: Do Option Traders Have an Information Advantage?

Recent evidence shows that option volatility skews and volatility spreads between call and put options predict equity returns. This study investigates whether such predictive ability is driven by option traders’ information advantage. We examine the predictive ability of volatility skews and volatility spreads around significant information events including earnings announcements, other firm-specific information events, and events that trigger significant market reactions. Consistent with option traders having an information advantage relative to equity traders before information events, we find that the option measures immediately before these events have higher predictive ability for short-term event returns than they do in a more dated window or before a randomly selected pseudo-event. We also find that option measures have predictive ability after information events. However, this predictive ability holds only for unscheduled corporate announcements, which suggests that, relative to equity traders, option traders have superior ability to process less anticipated information.
Detecting Expressions of Blame or Praise in Text

The growth of social networking platforms has drawn a lot of attentions to the need for social computing. Social computing utilises human insights for computational tasks as well as design of systems that support social behaviours and interactions. One of the key aspects of social computing is the ability to attribute responsibility such as blame or praise to social events. This ability helps an intelligent entity account and understand other intelligent entities’ social behaviours, and enriches both the social functionalities and cognitive aspects of intelligent agents. In this paper, we present an approach with a model for blame and praise detection in text. We build our model based on various theories of blame and include in our model features used by humans determining judgment such as moral agent causality, foreknowledge, intentionality and coercion. An annotated corpus has been created for the task of blame and praise detection from text. The experimental results show that while our model gives similar results compared to supervised classifiers on classifying text as blame, praise or others, it outperforms supervised classifiers on more finer-grained classification of determining the direction of blame and praise, i.e., self-blame, blame-others, self-praise or praise-others, despite not using labelled training data.
COMPETITIVE VERSUS NEGOTIATED UNDERWRITING COSTS FOR REGULATED INDUSTRIES

The competitive bid versus negotiated underwriting controversy was dormant for a period of time. Instability in the money and capital markets in recent years created a renewed interest in the use of the negotiated bid. Substantial concern centers on the extent to which this increased emphasis is economically justifiable. As a consequence, this study focuses on a comparative analysis of underwriter compensation in stable and unstable market conditions.
The Predictability of Punitive Damages

Using one year of jury trial outcomes from 45 of the nation's most populous counties, this article shows a strong and statistically significant correlation between compensatory and punitive damages. These findings are replicated in 25 years of punitive damages awards from Cook County, Illinois, and California. In addition, we find no evidence that punitive damages awards are more likely when individuals sue businesses than when individuals sue individuals. With respect to award frequency, juries rarely award punitive damages and appear to be especially reluctant to do so in the areas of law that have captured the most attention, products liability and medical malpractice. Punitive damages are most frequently awarded in business/contract cases and intentional tort cases. The frequency‐of‐award findings are consistent with all major studies of punitive damages.
Study on the dielectric response characteristic of XLPE cables

As a key factor of insulation deterioration of XLPE cables, water tree can lead to the decrease of insulation property. But the dielectric loss caused by water tree is obvious at a very low frequency due to the long-time polarization of internal space charge. In this paper, focused on the dielectric response of cables, the dielectric loss spectrum of cable samples is also calculated by employing the extended Debye approach. Then the results are compared to measurements of dissipation factor (tan δ) at different frequencies by IDAX206, which shows that the aged cable has higher values of dielectric loss than a new one. The paper studies how the dielectric loss data can be effectively used to determine ageing state of the cables' insulation.
Expanded Newborn Screening: Outcome in Screened and Unscreened Patients at Age 6 Years

OBJECTIVE: Tandem mass spectrometry is widely applied to routine newborn screening but there are no long-term studies of outcome. We studied the clinical outcome at six years of age in Australia. METHODS: In a cohort study, we analyzed the outcome at 6 years for patients detected by screening or by clinical diagnosis among >2 million infants born from 1994 to 1998 (1 017 800, all unscreened) and 1998 to 2002 (461 500 screened, 533 400 unscreened) recording intellectual and physical condition, school placement, other medical problems, growth, treatment, diet, and hospital admissions. Results were analyzed separately for medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MCADD) and other disorders, and grouped patients as those who presented clinically or died in the first 5 days of life; patients presented later or diagnosed by screening, and those with substantially benign disorders. RESULTS: Inborn errors, excluding phenylketonuria, were diagnosed in 116 of 1 551 200 unscreened infants (7.5/100 000 births) and 70 of 461 500 screened infants (15.2/100 000 births). Excluding MCADD, 21 unscreened patients with metabolic disorders diagnosed after 5 days of life died or had a significant intellectual or physical handicap (1.35/100 000 population) compared with 2 of the screened cohort (0.43/100 000; odds ratio: 3.1 [95% CI: 0.73–13.32]). Considering the likely morbidity or mortality among the expected number of never-diagnosed unscreened patients, there would be a significant difference. Growth distribution was normal in all cohorts. CONCLUSION: Screening by tandem mass spectrometry provides a better outcome for patients at 6 years of age, with fewer deaths and fewer clinically significant disabilities.
Gamma knife surgery for arteriovenous malformations involving the corpus callosum.

OBJECT The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of gamma knife surgery (GKS) for the treatment of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) involving the corpus callosum. METHODS Thirty-two patients aged from 7 to 65 years (median 25 years) with AVMs of the corpus callosum underwent GKS between 1990 and 2002. The maximum AVM diameter was more than 3 cm in 11 patients (34%). The AVM volume ranged from 0.1 to 19.1 cm3 (median 1.6 cm3). The median dose to the AVM margin was 20 Gy (range 17-28 Gy). Patients were followed for 1 to 12 years (median 9 years). The angiographically confirmed actuarial obliteration rate was 64% and 74% at 4 and 6 years, respectively. Younger patient age (p < 0.05) and lower radiosurgery-based grading score (calculated from the patient age and AVM volume; p < 0.01) were the significant factors affecting successful AVM obliteration. No patient suffered a hemorrhage after GKS, although 28 patients (88%) had a history of hemorrhage from their AVMs. Radiation-induced neurological deficit was observed only in one patient (3%) who had undergone previous radiotherapy (50 Gy). No patient experienced complications of occlusion or stenosis of the normal vascular structures adjacent to the AVM. CONCLUSIONS Gamma knife surgery is a safe and effective treatment for selected patients with AVMs involving the corpus callosum, and it carries a low risk of damaging adjacent critical vascular structures. Even ruptured AVMs with relatively large diameter can be successfully treated, especially in younger patients, with minimal morbidity and a low risk of repeated hemorrhage.
Effect of an HIV counseling and testing program on AIDS-related knowledge and practices in tuberculosis clinics in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

SETTING Two out-patient tuberculosis treatment centers, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) counseling and testing program on acquired immune-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) related knowledge and behaviors among persons with newly diagnosed tuberculosis. DESIGN Since 1994, patients with newly diagnosed tuberculosis have received individual or group HIV pretest counseling, informed consent, free HIV testing for those who consent, and post test counseling. From January 1995 through August 1996 in Abidjan's two largest tuberculosis clinics, knowledge and beliefs about HIV/AIDS were assessed before and immediately after the group pretest sessions, and again 4 months later. RESULTS Prior to pretest counseling, 68.9% and 68.0% of the 559 enrolled subjects could correctly identify five modes of HIV transmission and five modes of HIV prevention. These proportions increased significantly immediately after pretest counseling (90.0%, 86.6%, respectively), and remained higher 4 months later (83.7%, 87.7%) (all P < 0.01). Among men, consistent condom use during the preceding 4 months with a partner who was not a commercial sex worker increased from 9.9% at enrollment to 23.6% at the 4-month visit (P = 0.001), but not for women (6.3% vs. 9.5%, P = 0.40). CONCLUSIONS An HIV pretest counseling program conducted in an out-patient tuberculosis clinic was well accepted, and significantly increased the level of HIV/AIDS knowledge and, among men, self-reported condom use.
Personnel development for dissolving jobs: towards a competency-based approach?

The traditional HRM system has been job-based and has reflected a bureaucratic model of organizing work. Such job-based personnel management systems have shown a tendency to break down when jobs are dissolving under more flexible work organization. Many writers have called for a competency approach to replace the traditional job-based approach under these new conditions, and we have seen a growing literature on competency modelling. The study reported here suggests that jobs are structured along two independent lines: formal control and complexity of work tasks. Each combination of formalization and complexity (high and low) gives rise to a different approach to align work and competencies. The job-based approach and the competency approach are only two of these, and an occupational and a professional approach are also identified. While formal company-internal training is related to job approach and competency approach, training for skilled tradesmen and professionals is a combination of company-external professional training prior to the work career and informal on-the-job and self-managed training.
Endurance-Aware Flash-Cache Management for Storage Servers

As flash memory emerges as a high-performance and energy-efficient alternative for storage devices, how to accommodate disk-based storage servers with a flash-memory cache might provide a promising solution to resolve the energy-efficiency concerns of storage servers and their data centers. In this work, we propose a cache design method over flash memory without any additional hardware support for storage servers. In particular, a scalable set-associative flash-cache management design is proposed to significantly improve the flash endurance with excellent caching response time and hit rates. The capability of the proposed scheme was evaluated by extensive experiments over Microsoft's server traces, in which significant improvement on endurance was achieved, compared to existing work.
Saturn, Uddevalla and the Japanese lean systems: paradoxical prototypes for the twenty-first century

Developments in human resource management practices in the automobile industry have been a seedbed for more general movements which have emerged world-wide. Key examples have included Saturn in the USA, Uddevalla in Sweden and the Japanese lean production systems. These are examined in this paper and the conclusion is reached that new forces for change can be expected to continue to accelerate in this decade and beyond, forging a great need for creative, new, flexible organizations and management systems. As a consequence further radical initiatives are likely in the years ahead, with mass production and the traditional assembly line no longer featuring as a prominent part of the work systems of the automobile industry of the future.
Functional Role of Arginine 373 in Substrate Translocation by the Reduced Folate Carrier*

The reduced folate carrier (RFC) plays a critical role in the cellular uptake of folates. However, little is known regarding the mechanism used to transport substrates or the tertiary structure of the protein. Through the analysis of a Chinese hamster ovary cell line deficient in folate uptake, we have identified a single residue in TM10 (Arg-373) of RFC that appears to play a critical role in the translocation of substrate. Replacement of this position with various amino acids (KHQNA) diminished the rate of translocation by 16–50-fold, although substrate binding, protein stability, and localization were unaffected. Furthermore, the translocation capabilities of an R373C mutant in a cysteine-less form of the reduced folate carrier were enhanced 2.5-fold by the positively charged methanethiosulfonate reagent, confirming the essential role of a positive charge at this position. When considering the membrane-impermeable nature of this reagent, the data further suggest that the Arg-373 residue is located within the substrate translocation pathway of the RFC protein. Moreover, cross-linking analysis of the Arg-373 residue demonstrates that it is within 6 Å of residue Glu-394 (TM11), providing the first definitive tertiary structural information for this protein.
Has the Stability and Growth Pact Changed the Likelihood of Excessive Deficits in the European Union

This paper presents an empirical analysis of excessive deficit spells in the European Union using transition data methods. Probabilities of transition between excessive and nonexcessive deficit states are estimated with time-varying macroeconomic covariates as explanatory variables. The quantitative effects of discretionary fiscal and monetary policies and cyclical factors on transition probabilities are disentangled so that we can account for what factors and by how much they contributed to certain member countries' breaching of the Pact. Another finding is that the Stability and Growth Pact seems to have reinforced fiscal discipline in most of the member countries.