Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Switching fuzzy control of the air system of a turbocharged gasoline engine

For gasoline engines, the technique called downsizing consisting in reducing engine displacement while preserving its performances has now become unavoidable to improve the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions in the automotive industry. In this context, many studies have focused on the control of the air system in recent years. This paper presents briefly a model of this complex system and proposes a control strategy based on switching fuzzy model. In comparison with existing approaches, the proposed strategy can handle more easily the nonlinearities and facilitates considerably the global stability analysis of the system. In addition, this generic approach can be easily generalized for others complex turbocharging systems with small adaptations.
Nucleophosmin (B23) Targets ARF to Nucleoli and Inhibits Its Function

ABSTRACT The ARF tumor suppressor is a nucleolar protein that activates p53-dependent checkpoints by binding Mdm2, a p53 antagonist. Despite persuasive evidence that ARF can bind and inactivate Mdm2 in the nucleoplasm, the prevailing view is that ARF exerts its growth-inhibitory activities from within the nucleolus. We suggest ARF primarily functions outside the nucleolus and provide evidence that it is sequestered and held inactive in that compartment by a nucleolar phosphoprotein, nucleophosmin (NPM). Most cellular ARF is bound to NPM regardless of whether cells are proliferating or growth arrested, indicating that ARF-NPM association does not correlate with growth suppression. Notably, ARF binds NPM through the same domains that mediate nucleolar localization and Mdm2 binding, suggesting that NPM could control ARF localization and compete with Mdm2 for ARF association. Indeed, NPM knockdown markedly enhanced ARF-Mdm2 association and diminished ARF nucleolar localization. Those events correlated with greater ARF-mediated growth suppression and p53 activation. Conversely, NPM overexpression antagonized ARF function while increasing its nucleolar localization. These data suggest that NPM inhibits ARF's p53-dependent activity by targeting it to nucleoli and impairing ARF-Mdm2 association.
Escalation of Commitment: The Effects of Magnitude of Loss, Monitoring and the Presence of an Alternative Investment. Can a Project 90% Complete be Stopped?

Previous studies have shown the continuation of a failing project, also known as escalation of commitment, occurs in many aspects of business and government. This study incorporates several established theories to explain the effects of an alternative investment, magnitude of loss and monitoring on the likelihood of continuing a project. The combination of the presence of an alternative investment, “high” magnitude of loss and “low” monitoring was enough to cause decision makers to stop the project suggesting for the first time that decision makers may be willing to stop a project even though it is 90% complete.
Impact of Deterrent Tax Policies on Tax Compliance: The Nigerian Experience

This paper examines the effects of deterrent tax policies on tax compliance in Nigeria. Following the introduction, we reviewed the existing tax policies and reforms in Nigeria. This is followed by a discussion of the various compliance strategies prescribed in the literature from where we developed our hypotheses. The method of data analysis used in the study is the ordinary least square (OLS) regression technique. This method was adopted because of its properties of consistency, unbiasedness and efficiency. The OLS regression technique was estimated using a computer software (Microfit 4.1). It was observed that the existing deterrent tax policies in Nigeria are inadequate and have not helped to promote tax compliance in the country. It was also discovered that fostering voluntary compliance and enhancing taxpayer’s morale will enhance tax compliance. We recommend that the Nigerian revenue authorities should strive to adopt the approach that will encourage voluntary compliance and prescribe appropriate sanctions for defaulters.
Underlying Inflation in Australia: Are the Existing Measures Satisfactory?

A number of measures of the underlying rate of inflation are reported for Australia. We formulate criteria that an acceptable underlying rate must satisfy and then test to see whether any of the current measures satisfy these criteria. We find that for the period since inflation targeting began, none of the underlying series satisfy all criteria. We then examine the results of an 'Unobserved Components' decomposition and show that it not only provides useful information on underlying inflation in Australia, but also provides support for the decision, in 1998, of the Reserve Bank of Australia to switch the target from an underlying series to the headline rate itself. Copyright © 2004 Economic Society of Australia.
Adapting Natural Resource Enterprises under Global Warming in South America: A Mixed Logit Analysis

This paper develops an integrated model of adapting natural resource intensive enterprises in Latin America to future climate changes. Based on about 2,000 rural household surveys, we model six specialized and diversified resource enterprises across seventeen land covers. We estimate random coefficients of climatic parameters with a mixed logit model. By 2020, under a hotter and drier CCC scenario, crops-only and cropforests enterprises are predicted to fall by 6.2%, and 0.6% respectively. Offsetting these losses, livestock-only enterprise increases by 5.5% and crops-livestock-forests enterprise increases by 0.7%. These changes magnify over time through 2060 by which time the crops-livestock enterprise increases by more than 5%. Adaptation measures should be designed in a manner that captures the unique characteristics of Latin American ecosystems.
The Valuation of Security Analysis

Active portfolio management is commonly partitioned into two types ofactivities: market timing, which requires forecasts of broad-based marketmovements, and security analysis, which requires the selection of individualstocks that are perceived to be underpriced by the market. Merton (1981) hasprovided an inciteful and easily-implemented means to place a value on markettiming skills. In contrast, while a normative theory of stock selection wasoutlined long ago in Treynor and Black's (1973) work, no convenient means ofvaluing potential selection ability has yet been devised.We present a framework in which the value of a security analyst can becomputed. We also treat market timing ability in this framework, andtherefore can compare the relative values of each type of investmentanalysts. We find that stock selection is potentially extremely valuable, butthat its value depends critically on the forecast interval, on the correlationstructure of residual stock returns, and on the ability to engage in shortsales. Finally, we show how to modify the value of selection for theimportant case in which analysts' forecasts of stocks' alphas are subject toerror.
Boards of Directors in Family Firms: An Exploratory Study of Structure and Group Process

Offering an integrated approach, this study examines the relationship between board composition and board processes in Italian family businesses. The potential beneficial effects of outside board members on board processes such as effort norms, cohesiveness, and use of knowledge and skills are highlighted. Using a sample of 90 family business directors, it was found that boards with outside directors are perceived as more committed to the board’s tasks (i.e., higher effort norms) and more cohesive. Boards of older companies with outside directors are percevied as more capable of using knowledge and skills.
Does Recognition versus Disclosure Affect Value Relevance? Evidence from Pension Accounting

ABSTRACT: This study examines whether institutional ownership and analyst following affect the value relevance of disclosed versus recognized pension liabilities. Using a sample of firms with pension liabilities that were disclosed under SFAS No. 87 and subsequently recognized under SFAS No. 158 from 1999 to 2007, I find that off-balance-sheet pension liabilities are more value relevant for firms with a higher level of institutional ownership or analyst following in the pre-158 period. More importantly, I find that SFAS No. 158 increases the value relevance of previously disclosed off-balance-sheet pension liabilities for firms with a low level of institutional ownership or analyst following, and that the increase in the value relevance becomes less pronounced for firms with a higher level of institutional ownership or analyst following. Overall, the results are consistent with the view that institutional ownership and analyst following affect the value relevance of disclosed information as well as the va.
Do doctors know best? Comments on a failed trial

A randomised controlled trial was planned to compare two different treatment strategies — structured problem solving and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medication — for patients with mild to moderate major depression. The trial was to be conducted in the primary care setting with all treatment given by general practitioners, When no patients had been recruited into the study after six months, we performed an audit of all patients with depressive symptoms attending the doctors' practices over three weeks. Exclusion criteria were changed to ease entry into the trial, but still no patients were recruited over the following six months. What went wrong?
Reward Practices and Organizational Performance

Many current reward practices have not been studied to determine whether their rewards are related to organizational performance. This article describes a study undertaken to explore the relationship between reward practices and organizational performance. The findings suggest that a small group of reward practices is linked to greater perceived organizational performance. Suggestions for managers as well as recommendations for further research are provided.
Algorithms for Inference with Sign and Zero Restrictions VERY PRELIMINARY

We extend the sign restriction methodology developed by Rubio-Ram´irez et al. (2010) to allow for zero restrictions in order to assess the relevance of optimism shocks in macroeconomic dynamics. We find no evidence of a long-lasting positive boom in consumption and hours worked in response to optimism shocks an innovation that a↵ects the stock prices positively on impact and is orthogonal to the current level of productivity. Imposing a positive response of consumption or the real interest rate on impact, as an additional constraint to identify optimism shocks, generates a long-lasting boom in consumption and hours. Nevertheless, these shocks have a moderate contribution to the forecast error of key macroeconomic variables. Increasing the number of variables in the structural vector autoregression does not change the
Three‐dimensional adaptive meshing by subdivision and edge‐collapse in finite‐deformation dynamic–plasticity problems with application to adiabatic shear banding

This paper is concerned with the development of a general framework for adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening in three‐dimensional finite‐deformation dynamic–plasticity problems. Mesh adaption is driven by a posteriori global error bounds derived on the basis of a variational formulation of the incremental problem. The particular mesh‐refinement strategy adopted is based on Rivara's longest‐edge propagation path (LEPP) bisection algorithm. Our strategy for mesh coarsening, or unrefinement, is based on the elimination of elements by edge‐collapse. The convergence characteristics of the method in the presence of strong elastic singularities are tested numerically. An application to the three‐dimensional simulation of adiabatic shear bands in dynamically loaded tantalum is also presented which demonstrates the robustness and versatility of the method. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The impact of size on small and medium-sized enterprise public sector tendering

This article examines the relationship between firm size and public sector tendering. The findings show that size, measured by employee number, significantly influences small and medium sized enterprises’ (SMEs) tendering resources, behaviour and success; as such, micro-enterprises are resource-disadvantaged, tender less often and have lower success rates compared to small and medium-sized firms. These findings indicate that SMEs are heterogeneous tenderers, and point to the need for more focused research on how SME characteristics influence ability and willingness to tender.
Labor Earnings Mobility and Inequality in the United States and Germany During the Growth Years of the 1980s

Recent years have witnessed increased interest in issues of inequality and mobility in the labor market. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the German Socio-Economic Panel, we compare the labor earnings mobility of prime age men and women in the United States and Germany during the growth years of the 1980s. Despite major differences in labor market institutions we find very similar patterns in the two countries. Our formal models of labor earnings dynamics suggest a great deal of persistence in both countries. In the United States this may derive from permanent individual-specific differences among men, while in Germany random shocks are found to persist longer for men. Women in Germany and the United States have similar earnings dynamics.
Introducing the Regional Varieties of Asian Capitalism Approach to Lao PDR

This research note proposes the entry of the emerging body of knowledge on Varieties of Asian Capitalism into Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam. While geographers and economists have begun to study capitalist diversity in several Southeast Asian countries, former "Indo Chine" has so far been neglected. This seems to be an omission as economic reform in these three countries provides much scope for varieties of capitalism research. After an update on the latest theoretical insights this note introduces a research agenda focusing on capitalist institutions and its evolution in Lao PDR. Here, Savannakhet province in the southern part of the country is presented as a potential suitable research site, but it is hoped that both academics and policy-makers take up this agenda in order to increase our comparative knowledge of capitalist institutions and its potential to achieve poverty reduction in peripheral regions of Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Study on Dynamic Fuzzy Classification of Design Proposal Based on Design Style

Based on the common background of product prototype form, Under the support of the shape split library and product design libraries and library, this paper proposes the product customization parameters, and the refinement method of design between designers and clients, builds the shape split libaray based on eigenvalue of Mathematical model of shape prototype, discussed the dynamic fuzzy classification method based on graphic-based design to determine the shape innovative design process. It will give a basis for the development of CAID system combining the parameterization form design with personalization.
Formation of the Venous Pole of the Heart From an Nkx2–5–Negative Precursor Population Requires Tbx18

The venous pole of the mammalian heart is a structurally and electrically complex region, yet the lineage and molecular mechanisms underlying its formation have remained largely unexplored. In contrast to classical studies that attribute the origin of the myocardial sinus horns to the embryonic venous pole, we find that the sinus horns form only after heart looping by differentiation of mesenchymal cells of the septum transversum region into myocardium. The myocardial sinus horns and their mesenchymal precursor cells never express Nkx2–5, a transcription factor critical for heart development. In addition, lineage studies show that the sinus horns do not derive from cells previously positive for Nkx2–5. In contrast, the sinus horns express the T-box transcription factor gene Tbx18. Mice deficient for Tbx18 fail to form sinus horns from the pericardial mesenchyme and have defective caval veins, whereas the pulmonary vein and atrial structures are unaffected. Our studies define a novel heart precursor population that contributes exclusively to the myocardium surrounding the sinus horns or systemic venous tributaries of the developing heart, which are a source of congenital malformation and cardiac arrhythmias.
The Incidence and Wage Effects of Overeducation Using the Worker's Self-Assessment of Skill Utilization

This paper proposes an improved concept of educational mismatch that combines a statistical measure of over- and undereducation with the worker’s self-assessment of skill utilization. In that way, we account for worker heterogeneity in skills whose omission may generate biased estimates of the incidence and wage effects of over- and undereducation. Using cross-sectional data from the Swiss Household Panel survey, the empirical analyses provide the following results: (a) at least two third of the statistically defined overeducated workers perceive their skills as adequate for the job they hold and are then apparently overeducated; (b) among the overeducated with a given schooling level, the wage return to education is lower for those who are mismatched in skills than for those who are not; (c) apparently overeducated workers have similar wage returns compared to others with the same schooling level but who are statistically matched. These findings confirm that most of those overeducated according to the statistical measure have unobserved skills that allow them to work in a job for which they are well-matched.
Business Intelligence - in the Context of Global Business Environment

Globalization, technological innovation, and competition that cross national borders are forcing companies to become knowledge organizations. With outsourcing of products and services to other countries, every organization must learn to collaborate and share information on designs, products, services, and even cost with its supply chain partners. Outsourcing of services to other countries reduces the fixed cost of operations. But, it also inhibits the ability to collect important data and information that are collected and retained by trading partners located in other countries. Some of these data and information are essential to make competition and strategy related decisions and if they are not available on a timely basis, it undermines competitive abilities and long term survival. Therefore, in the global environment, collaboration over data and information sharing among trading partners is very important. Only when such collaborative arrangements exist to convert data and information into "business intelligence", organizations would be able to make strategically valuables business decisions. Business
A Multi-Factor Cross-Currency LIBOR Market Model

The authors develop a rigorous two-currency pricing framework that can be constructed under either a domestic or a foreign currency numeraire. While plain vanilla interest rate derivative prices are recovered by design, exotic cross-currency interest rate products can be priced by determining no-arbitrage drifts for both the domestic and the foreign LIBORs under a uniform probability measure and by specifying the dynamics of the domestic and foreign currency leg of the exotic product. In a single-currency world, no-arbitrage drifts can always be found by specifying the evolution of the terminal LIBOR as a function of bond price volatilities, first, and solving for the drifts of all remaining LIBORs by backward induction. After introducing a second currency, we show that traditional backward induction for the second currency must fail due to interdependence between the respective bond price volatilities and LIBOR dynamics. In order to resolve any such interdependence, we propose calibrating the volatility function of the spot exchange rate to the terminal maturity spectrum of FX options and specifying a functional form for all dates prior to the terminal one. By choosing a multi-factor model setup, rather than relying on terminal decorrelation within a single-factor model, we allow for model calibration to an exogenous market correlation mix. Extending the model, we outline modifications to account for volatility skews by introducing displaced-diffusion to the LIBOR and FX rate dynamics.
The changing nature of operations flexibility

Purpose – This short paper seeks to explain why the original paper “The flexibility of manufacturing systems” was written (1987), and attempts to examine at least some of the flexibility literature that has followed.Design/methodology/approach – The approach is a review and observations about the 1987 work.Findings – The original paper treated flexibility in an exclusively manufacturing context. Even in the mid‐1980s one could argue that this was a mistake. If flexibility is an important concept in operations management, it should be explored in all types of operation, not just in manufacturing. Now, more than 80 per cent of economic activity and employment occurs in non‐manufacturing enterprises. Flexibility is no different from most other topics in operations in that it is unreasonably skewed towards the manufacturing sector, it would nevertheless benefit from more empirical and conceptual work in the context of service operations.Originality/value – Provides a useful update on an author's findings from.
Biosorption of Binary Mixtures of Copper and Cobalt by Penicillium brevicompactum

Abstract This work reports on a study of the biosorption of copper and cobalt, both singly and in combination (in equimolar concentrations), by the resting cells of Penicillium brevicompactum. Equilibrium batch sorption studies were carried out at 30 °C and pH 5.0 for a contact time of 1 hour to guarantee that equilibrium was reached. The equilibrium data were analyzed using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The adsorption of binary mixtures of heavy metal solutions on the fungal biomass was found to be of competitive type where the adsorption capacity for any single metal decreased in the presence of the other. The cobalt ions showed a higher affinity for Penicillium brevicompactum than the copper ions.
ADULT ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: A COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVE

Environmental education (EE) research has identified factors affecting people's environmental understanding and personal behaviours. However, it has been criticized for its largely individualistic, apolitical focus on school children. The present research used an action research (AR) approach to develop and test a model of community adult EE drawn from empowerment theory and practice, and health promotion in particular. Participants in two locations in Melbourne, Australia, engaged in skills training in peer leadership, grassroots group development, advocacy, and AR. Using adult education methods of guided discussion and peer interaction, participants were encouraged to establish and lead a group around an issue of personal and local concern, with the researcher acting as consultant. Empowerment-oriented activities and outcomes were documented. The research identified that the adult EE program, and the AR methodology used, was instrumental in fostering personal and collective environmental advocacy and empowerment. The research also highlighted the important sponsoring role in promoting environmental advocacy played by empowering community organizations with members of high local standing. Thirdly, the effort to protect urban heritage and amenity was recognized as a direct environmental issue. An EE incorporating environmental psychology principles could enhance residents' understanding about the meaning and sense of community they derive from their relationship with their urban environment, and inform their advocacy efforts.