Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is the \distance puzzle" so puzzling? Evidence from the disaggregated gravity model x

This study suggests another explanation of the "missing globalization puzzle" typically observed in the empirical gravity models. In contrast to the previous research that focused on the aggregated trade ∞ows, we employ the trade ∞ows broken down by 25 three-digit ISIC Rev.2 industries. For this purpose we use the data for 22 OECD countries span the time period from 1970 till 2000. We observe substantial decline in the value of the distance elasticity in most industries.
Wealth and happiness

Does wealth accumulation impact subjective well-being? Within a country, household wealth has been shown to improve individual well-being by providing a safety net of protection against negative income shocks, by allowing current and expected consumption flows, and by its potential use as a collateral. At the aggregate level, direct evidence about the relationship between national wealth and happiness is almost non-existent, owing to data limitations and statistical identification problems. However, aggregate wealth impacts well-being indirectly, via positive channels, such as institutional quality and improvement in health, life expectancy, and education. Wealth also brings about negative environmental degradations and other damages. The stock of accumulated wealth is also likely to affect happiness indirectly, via its influence on the rate of GDP growth, because both the level of income flows and the rate of income growth have been shown to be factors of higher well-being.
GLOBALIZATION, LIBERALIZATION AND INCOME INEQUALITY: THE CASE OF CHINA

This paper studies the mutual effects of globalization, liberalization and income inequality using a case study of China. Comparing the trends of economic growth and income distribution, we found that the economic reform and opening-up policy promoted China's rapid growth while inducing an expansion in income disparity. We also found that the income gap had been a force driving China's high growth in its earlier transition period but began to be an obstacle as the Chinese economy became more globalized and liberalized. To enhance future economic development, China must reduce this inequality.
Surgical management of macroglossia: discussion of 7 cases.

OBJECTIVE We present an overview of international literature concerning macroglossia-related etiology, clinical and instrumental diagnoses, surgical treatments, complications, and recurrences. Moreover, we present a series of cases of patients affected by macroglossia who have been treated surgically at the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery of the University of Rome "La Sapienza". METHODS Between 1990 and 1999, only after attempts to solve this pathologic condition with medical and orthodontic treatment, we treated surgically a total of 7 patients (4 male and 3 female). The surgical techniques used were Köle glossectomy and Dingman and Grabb glossectomy. We analyzed the clinical and instrumental study and the surgical treatment, including possible complications and recurrences. RESULTS After follow-up of a period from 2 to 9 years, macroglossia recurrences were absent, showing that the Köle and the Dingman and Grabb glossectomies are viable surgical options for treatment of macroglossia. CONCLUSION The best therapy for each case macroglossia must be carefully evaluated, with the right medical therapy and orthodontic therapy attempted first and surgical treatment performed only when the first and second therapy fail. Moreover, surgical techniques must be chosen in accordance with the functional results that one wants to achieve and must be the most conservative technique to preserve the vascular-nerve bundle.
Comparative analysis of several vehicle detection methods in urban traffic scenes

Several vehicle detection methods in urban traffic scenes, such as vehicle detection method based on symmetrical features, vehicle detection method based on license plate, vehicle detection method based on Gabor features and Support Vector Machines (SVM), and vehicle detection method based on Haar-like features and AdaBoost classifier, are comparatively used in this paper. The theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the vehicle detection method based on symmetrical characteristics is superior to other three methods, and the detection accuracy is up to 91.2%.
Downregulation of the microtubule associated protein Tau impairs process outgrowth and myelin basic protein mRNA transport in oligodendrocytes

Oligodendrocytes, the myelin forming cells of the CNS, are characterized by their numerous membranous extensions, which enwrap neuronal axons and form myelin sheaths. During differentiation oligodendrocytes pass different morphological stages, downregulate the expression of the proteoglycan NG2, and acquire major myelin specific proteins, such as myelin basic proteins (MBP) and proteolipid protein. MBP mRNA is transported in RNA granules along the microtubules (MTs) to the periphery and translated locally. MTs participate in the elaboration and stabilization of the myelin forming extensions and are essential for cellular sorting processes. Their dynamic properties are regulated by microtubule associated proteins (MAPs). The MAP tau is present in oligodendrocytes and involved in the regulation and stabilization of the MT network. To further elucidate the functional significance of tau in oligodendrocytes, we have downregulated tau by siRNA technology and studied the effects on cell differentiation and neuron‐glia contact formation. The data show that tau knockdown impairs process outgrowth and leads to a decrease in MBP expression. Furthermore, MBP mRNA transport to distant cellular extensions is impaired and cells remain in the NG2 stage. In myelinating cocultures with dorsal root ganglion neurons, oligodendrocyte precursor cells after tau miR RNA lentiviral knockdown develop into NG2 positive cells with very long and thin processes, contacting axons loosely, but fail to form internodes. This demonstrates that tau is important for MBP mRNA transport and involved in process formation. The disturbance of the balance of tau leads to abnormalities in oligodendrocyte differentiation, neuron‐glia contact formation and the early myelination process. GLIA 2015;63:1621–1635
Monetary Policy Coordination Revisited in a Two-Bloc DSGE Model

We reassess the gains from monetary policy coordination within the confines of the canonical NOEM in the light of three issues. First, the literature uses a number of cooperative and non-cooperative equilibrium concepts that do not always clearly distinguish commitment and discretionary outcomes, and in some cases adopts inappropriate concepts. Second, our analysis is welfare based. Moreover, as with much of this literature, we adopt a linear-quadratic approximation of the actual non-linear non-quadratic stochastic optimization problem facing the monetary policymakers. Our second objective then is to re-assess welfare gains using an accurate approximation for such a problem, a feature that for the most part is lacking in previous studies. Finally, we examine the issue where the monetary authority is restricted to rules that are operational in two senses: first, the zero lower bound constraint is imposed on the optimal rule and second, we study simple Taylor-type commitment rules that unlike fully optimal rules are easily monitored by the public.
Inverse-feedforward and robust-feedback control for high-speed operation on piezo-stages

This article demonstrates an approach to compensate for tracking errors resulting from hysteresis and vibration when operating piezo-stages and to achieve precision motion control on them. In order to achieve this goal, inverse-feedforward control and H ∞-feedback control were utilised to augment each other. Experimental results showed that pure feedforward control would suffer from modelling uncertainty and pure feedback control would be limited on its bandwidth; therefore, both of these could compensate for partial tracking errors. In contrast, the proposed approach integrated the merits of feedforward and feedback controls to improve the tracking performance when operating piezo-stages in long-stroke and high-speed.
Finger Blood Flow Monitoring Using Smart Phones

The use of smart phones in healthcare applications is growing steadily. The inbuilt sensors are used to estimate the value of physiological data from human body. With progressive innovation, smart phone based medical applications will continue to be developed at an exponential rate. In this paper, we show that a smart phone can be used to monitor the blood flow in finger, based on the pulse height obtained from the fingertips. This is achieved by using the camera lens and the flash light of the smart phone. The height of the pulse rises along with the surrounding temperature indicating that the blood flow increases when the temperature becomes warmer. This study shows that there is a potential to monitor regulation of body temperature using smart phone.
Numerical simulation of impedance discontinuities resulting from degradation of interconnections on printed circuit boards

A 3-D model was developed for numerically simulating the effect of solder joint cracking on impedance. Some initial reflectometry results are reported of a microstrip transmission line as a crack propagates through a solder joint. Observations are made on the information obtained when using low-pass vs. band-pass modes for reconstructing reflectometry data from frequency domain results. A qualitative comparison is made with experimental results on samples with a design which is similar to the model. On the basis of these observations, approaches for improving the model and future applications are discussed.
Contributions to tracking control for mechanical systems on SE(2)

Compared to rich achievements for fully-actuated systems, intrinsic tracking control of underactuated systems is certainly a big challenge. In this paper, the problem is formulated by considering the natural configuration space for planar rigid bodies, the Special Euclidean group SE(2). First, we formulate the problem and implement a trajectory tracking control, which is well developed for fully-actuated systems on Lie groups based on navigation or error functions. Our new contribution is to propose error functions in some new variables compatible with the underactuation properties of the system and to design position tracking control according to the gradient vector field of these functions. To accomplish this task the gradient vector field is also weighted with some adaptable gains. We present some stability analyses and simulation results to support the approach.
Enhancement of Validity Through Qualitative Approaches

Validity of research in a medical environment is enhanced through incorporating the patient's perspective by using qualitative approaches. Our efforts to improve the validity of measures led us to examine the research process more broadly through mechanisms ofpatientparticipation: a protocol adviser, a participantadvisory panel, and focus groups. In our research program of biopsychosocial HIVstudies in the military population, feedback from patient participants provided the research staff with information important for refining standard measures, improving the research process, and interpreting the quantitative data analyses.
How consumers value transactions that entail using windfall money to offset missed price discounts

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine if consumers, after missing a price discount on a desired product, prefer to buy the latter at a smaller discount or prefer to pay full price but offset some of it with windfall money. Design/methodology/approach – In four experiments, participants imagine that they have missed an opportunity to buy a box of chocolates at $50 off and are offered a second chance to buy them at a less attractive discount ($25) or pay full price, but partially offset the full price with various windfall lotteries ($25, $50, $75) and gift cards ($50). Findings – Participants are more likely to buy the chocolates at the less attractive (second) discount rather than pay full price using windfall money. In doing so, they show that they are willing to be more, rather than less, poor from an overall wealth perspective to acquire the chocolates. This anomaly surfaces irrespective of the windfall amounts or preference elicitation methods (joint versus separate evaluation). The negati.
Clustering of PubMed abstracts using nearer terms of the domain

Literature search is a process in which external developers provide alternative representations for efficient data mining of biomedical literature such as ranking search results, displaying summarized knowledge of semantics and clustering results into topics. In clustering search results, prominent vocabularies, such as GO (Gene Ontology), MeSH(Medical Subject Headings) and frequent terms extracted from retrieved PubMed abstracts have been used as topics for grouping. In this study, we have proposed FNeTD (Frequent Nearer Terms of the Domain) method for PubMed abstracts clustering. This is achieved through a two-step process viz; i) identifying frequent words or phrases in the abstracts through the frequent multi-word extraction algorithm and ii) identifying nearer terms of the domain from the extracted frequent phrases using the nearest neighbors search. The efficiency of the clustering of PubMed abstracts using nearer terms of the domain was measured using F-score. The present study suggests that nearer terms of the domain can be used for clustering the search results.
New polymorphic microsatellite loci for the Greek smooth newt, Lissotriton vulgaris graecus, and their utility in the nominotypical subspecies

Eight polymorphic microsatellites were isolated from the Greek smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris graecus) using a microsatellite enrichment protocol and selective hybridization with a biotinylated (AC)11 probe. The loci showed different variation patterns in a single breeding population (32 individuals) with mean number of alleles at 5.0 and mean observed heterozygosity at 0.520. The amplification success also in the nominotypical subspecies favours the use of these microsatellite loci in population genetic analyses as well as in the study of contact zones between smooth newt subspecies.
Interrelationships among measures of premature ejaculation: the central role of perceived control.

INTRODUCTION Domains of premature ejaculation (PE) include short intravaginal ejaculatory latency time (IELT), poor perceived control over ejaculation, decreased satisfaction with sexual intercourse, and personal distress and interpersonal difficulty related to ejaculation. How these measures interrelate is unknown. AIM Here, we evaluated the interrelationships between these PE-specific variables, applying cross-sectional data from a large U.S. observational study of men with PE. METHODS We analyzed data from men with PE identified in a previously reported observational study. PE was diagnosed by experienced clinicians using the criteria specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Subjects reported their stopwatch-measured IELT, perceived control over ejaculation, satisfaction with sexual intercourse, personal distress related to ejaculation, and interpersonal difficulty related to ejaculation. Relationships between variables were assessed using bivariate correlations, and the strength and significance of direct or indirect effects between variables were evaluated using a form of regression analysis known as path analysis. RESULTS Bivariate Pearson correlation coefficients for all relationships were significant at the P <or= 0.05 level, with the exception of IELT and interpersonal difficulty related to ejaculation. When all variables were included in the model, IELT showed a significant direct effect on perceived control over ejaculation but did not show a significant direct effect on ejaculation-related personal distress or satisfaction with sexual intercourse. Perceived control over ejaculation showed a significant direct effect on both ejaculation-related personal distress and satisfaction with sexual intercourse, which each showed direct effects on interpersonal difficulty related to ejaculation. CONCLUSIONS The patient's perception of control over ejaculation is central to understanding how PE is associated with satisfaction with sexual intercourse and ejaculation-related distress. In contrast, the association of IELT with satisfaction with sexual intercourse and distress related to ejaculation is mediated by perceived control over ejaculation.
Lamotrigine treatment of pathologic skin picking: an open-label study.

BACKGROUND Although pathologic skin picking is a relatively common behavior, treatment data are limited. We hypothesized that lamotrigine would reduce the symptoms of pathologic skin picking. METHOD 24 subjects (19 women [79.2%]; mean +/-SD age = 34.1 +/- 12.2 years) with pathologic skin picking (based on DSM-IV criteria for other impulse control disorders) were treated in a 12-week open-label trial of lamotrigine as mono-therapy. Lamotrigine dosing ranged from 25 mg every other day to 300 mg/day. The primary outcome measure was time per day spent picking. Subjects were also assessed with measures examining the symptoms of pathologic skin picking and psychosocial functioning. Data were collected from January 15, 2006, to September 18, 2006. RESULTS Mean (SD) time per day spent picking decreased from 118.1 (130.0) to 59.9 (115.2) minutes (p < .001). Sixteen subjects (66.7%) were considered either "very much improved" or "much improved" in terms of skin picking symptoms. Seven subjects (29.2%) reported no picking at study endpoint. Significant improvement was seen on scales assessing the symptoms of pathologic skin picking (p = .001) and social functioning (p = .002). Mean time to response (i.e., when the subject was much or very much improved) was 8 weeks, which corresponded to a lamotrigine dose of 200 mg/day. CONCLUSIONS Lamotrigine was associated with improvements in two thirds of subjects with pathologic skin picking. Placebo-controlled, double-blind studies are needed to evaluate further the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of lamotrigine in the treatment of this problematic behavior. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT00269594 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov).
Towards a dynamic aggregate shopping model and its application to retail trading hour and market area analysis

Abstract. The supermarket equation is a differential equation peculiar to spatial science. The complex form of this equation is presented here and is used to study aggregate consumer shopping patterns. The focus is the relationship between trips to, and shopping within, planned shopping centres relative to retail trading hour boundaries. In this context, five malls in Sydney are studied in the period prior to the introduction of deregulated shopping hours in 1992. The space-time convergence of aggregate consumer behaviour at these retail nodes show that the gravity coefficient can be treated in a temporal context. Estimates of mean trading hours can be made from the general solution and these are compared to alternative estimates from Fourier analysis. Time corrections to the gravity coefficient allow for a dynamic market area analysis, where the primary trade area can be determined relative to the trading hours of the shopping centre. A Sydney example shows how this methodology can be applied with population census data.
AN ADAPTIVE MORPHOLOGICAL MEAN FILTER FOR VERY HIGH-RESOLUTION REMOTE SENSING IMAGE PROCESSING

Abstract. Very high resolution (VHR) remote sensing imagery can reveal the ground object in greater detail, depicting their color, shape, size and structure. However, VHR also leads much original noise in spectra, and this original noise may reduce the reliability of the classification’s result. This paper presents an Adaptive Morphological Mean Filter (AMMF) for smoothing the original noise of VHR imagery and improving the classification’s performance. AMMF is a shape-adaptive filter which is constructed by detecting gradually the spectral similarity between a kernel-anchored pixel and its contextual pixels through an extension-detector with 8-neighbouring pixels, and the spectral value of the kernel-anchored pixel is instead by the mean of group pixels within the adaptive region. The classification maps based on the AMMF are compared with the classification of VHR images based on the homologous filter processing, such as Mean Filter (MF) and Median Filter(MedF). The experimental results suggest the following: 1) VHR image processed using AMMF can not only preserve the detail information among inter-classes but also smooth the noise within intra-class; 2) The proposed AMMF processing can improve the classification’s performance of VHR image, and it obtains a better visual performance and accuracy while comparing with MF and MedF.
Comparison of Campylobacter Populations in Wild Geese with Those in Starlings and Free-Range Poultry on the Same Farm

ABSTRACT Wild geese are a potential source of Campylobacter infection for humans and farm animals and have been implicated in at least two large waterborne disease outbreaks. There have been few investigations into the population biology of Campylobacter in geese, carriage rates are reported to vary (0 to 100%), and no genetic characterization of isolates has been performed. Fecal samples collected from wild geese in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, were culture positive for C. jejuni (50.2%) and C. coli (0.3%). The C. jejuni (n = 166) isolates were characterized by using multilocus sequence typing and were compared with isolates collected from free-range broiler chickens and wild starlings sampled at the same location. A total of 38 STs, six clonal complexes, and 23 flaA SVR nucleotide STs were identified. The ST-21 and ST-45 complexes (5.4% of isolates) were the only complexes to be identified among isolates from the geese and the other bird species sampled in the same location. These clonal complexes were also identified among human disease isolates collected in the same health care region. The results indicate that large numbers of wild geese carry Campylobacter; however, there was limited mixing of Campylobacter populations among the different sources examined, and the host source could be predicted with high probability from the allelic profile of a C. jejuni isolate. In conclusion, genotypes of C. jejuni isolated from geese are highly host specific, and a comparison with isolates from Oxfordshire cases of human disease revealed that while geese cannot be excluded as a source of infection for humans and farm animals, their contribution is likely to be minor.
Using Analytic Network Process to Construct Evaluation Indicators of Knowledge Sharing Effectiveness in Taiwan’s High‐tech Industries

High‐tech industry has been the principal economic source for Taiwan in recent years. The characteristics of high‐tech industries in Taiwan are changeable product markets, short product life cycles and high company attrition rate. In the globalization trend, the high‐tech industry has gradually increased corporate competitiveness and reached the goal of sustainable operations through knowledge management, knowledge sharing and new product research and development. Firms have aggressively strengthened and integrated their internal and external resources and enhanced knowledge sharing to increase industry operational performance. Effectively strengthening the knowledge management operation and performance evaluation of knowledge sharing in Taiwan’s high‐tech industry has become a critical issue. In the selection of knowledge sharing Key Performance Indicators (KPI), this research divided the knowledge sharing indicators into representative strategic indicators such as organizational knowledge learning, orga.